And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." Gen.1:20 NIV

"PHEASANT HUNTING IN KANSAS"

I can not remember who it was that took me pheasant hunting for the first time. I was seven or eight I know I had a 400-10 shot gun that took the small 2 1/2 inch shell. My dad never went pheasant hunting that I can remember but he hunted coyotes and rabbits. We hunted in sunflower fields, draws in fields, stubble fields, pastures and hay meadows. Sunflower fields were the best. Farmers used to leave some fields with wheat stubble. Over the summer sunflowers would be plentiful and the pheasants liked the seed. After soil conservation was started things changed. Now we have water ways, CRP grass, milo and bean fields. Most of the farm land is leased so it is harder to find a place to hunt. There is a program that is called "walk-in hunting". It is funded by the soil conservation district so city people can hunt. If you are travelling on the highway the night before the first weekend of the season you will notice a solid line of head lights coming from the big cities so they can start hunting early the next morning.

Some things I remember about pheasants and pheasant hunting. One Saturday our neighbors, the Casey boys, came over to hunt rabbits. We were walking along the road about a 1/2 mile from home looking for rabbits and flushed out a cock pheasant. Don Casey had a 22 special rifle and he just automatically shot at it while it was flying. It dropped out of the sky like a rock. We all stood there shocked. We went over and picked it up. He had hit it in the head. Unbelievable! I don't know what the odds would be.

Some neighbors from up north came down to go hunting. There were 4 or 5 of them. We decided to go over east a couple of miles to hunt. So we all piled in one car like sardines (three of us and all of them) and headed east of home. The road is just a trail and it is pretty rough. We hit a hole in the road. Someone's gun went off and made a hole in the roof of the car. He had his gun loaded and didn't have the safety on. It was just a miracle someone didn't get shot.

My brother and his brother-in-law would come down and go pheasant hunting. Pete had two bird dogs. It was entertaining just to go hunting with him. Vicki, our daughter, was in grade school and she always wanted to go because his dogs weren't well trained. They would run way out in front of them and scare the birds up too soon. He would call them all kind of names, some good and some bad. He would threaten them that he was going to shoot them if they wouldn't come back, but he never did. He is a frenchman and it would keep you laughing just to hear him talk to his dogs

Two couples, friends of ours, decided to go out to western Kansas and hunt. Their wives decided to go with them and make a trip out of it. They got up in the middle of the night so they would be there at sunrise. After they got there they had a hard time finding a place to hunt but finally they shot one pheasant and threw it in the trunk. After hunting all day and not doing any good they decided not to stay and hunt on Sunday so they headed home with their one bird in the trunk. They got back about 1:00 a.m. in the morning and when they opened the trunk to get the bird it flew off into the night.

Probably the high light of pheasant hunting is an 80 acre field that we own. It has more pheasants on it than any place I have seen, and several deer and quail. It is planted to grass under the CRP program. It has a creek along the west side, a small ravine on the south, and grain fields on the east and north. There have been many years that hunters have taken over 100 cocks from this field.

For more than 30 years a group of men and some of their children have been coming and staying with us for the first weekend of hunting season. Most of them are from a church in Paola, Kansas. They just make theirselves at home and we just stay out of their way. They bring their groceries and fix their own meals. The older ones get the beds until they run out. They don't even mess up the beds, they just throw their sleeping bag on top and crawl in. The rest use the sofas, cots, or sleeping bags on the floor. We have made some good friends and each year there is someone new. Some of the kids that came in the beginning are bringing their kids now. It's always fun on Saturday evening. One of the men is an avid sportsman. He brings fish, wild turkey and all kinds of wild game. He has a deep fat fryer and cooks us up a feast. After supper we do some singing and sharing which is always good. I save all of our hunting ground for them. They get the first chance at the birds.

One time they brought a new man with them. I thought he looked familiar and he told the other men that he knew me from some where. We found out later that we had met 10 years earlier. I was driving a truck hauling hominy from Atchison, Kansas to a feed yard in Pratt, Kansas. It was about 2:30 in the morning and I had finished unloading so I went over to a building that had a small break room for employees. There was a young man in there and I could tell he was in trouble. He had been drinking and was talking about suicide because his wife had just taken off with another man and she wanted a divorce. I prayed for him and shared Jesus with him and he accepted the Lord in his life. He told me that he had not had a drink from that day. He got re-married, has a family and attends church regularly. It always amazes me what the Lord Jesus can do, like bring a man to your house 10 years later that is still walking with the Lord. All He asks us to do is share His love and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

THIS IS MY COMMAND; LOVE EACH OTHER. John.15:17 NIV