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Summer Scene Newsletter from Quail Hunting Paradise
Do you know the difference between a northern fairy tale and a southern fairy tale? A northern fairy tale begins with, “Once upon a time” while a southern fairy tale begins with, “Y’all probably ain’t gonna believe this.” Now y’all probably ain’t gonna believe this, but I caught a bass in the Flint River on Saturday, and the fish was wearing a dust mask. It’s that dry right now! For those of you who are concerned, the Georgia wildfires that made the national news recently are located in southeast Georgia while Riverview is in deep southwest Georgia, about 150 miles from the nearest fires. We are dry, but those poor folks are really parched.
As I sat down to write this edition of Summer Scene, the fact that this is the summer of 2007 jumped out at me. We will celebrate our 50th season in the hunting business this fall and winter! I started rambling through some old memorabilia and came across Pop’s first advertisement in the 1960 edition of “Sports Afield.” Evidently, we didn’t make enough money in the first three years of operations to purchase an ad. The advertisement read. “Help keep our preserve green – bring money. We exchange the best quail hunting in the world for greenbacks.” Well, the prose has improved a bit over the years, but the message is actually the same in 2007 as it was in 1957. Pop may be a bit “over the hill” now, but he says that’s much better than being under it.
Rather than recap our normal spring and summer activities such as controlled woods burning, feed patching, etc., let’s just say that we are moving along with all of our routine plantation work at the speed of light. Have you ever wondered what the speed of dark is?
What I plan to do with this Summer Scene is to talk about the “Big” changes taking place this summer, and the biggest of them all is the construction of the new main lodge.
Let me hasten to say that this has been entirely Cader IV’s project except for the kitchen part. Discretion being the better part of valor, he showed the wisdom of punting this part of the construction to his mother. This was a wise move since she was going to have it her way eventually anyway.
This project is almost on schedule and well over budget. To quote a great friend of mine, “it has been slow but expensive.” Cader has learned so much about dealing with architects, contractors, sub-contractors, and inspectors. He told me the other day that some of these folks are alive only because it’s illegal to kill them. I told him that I learned years ago that the sole purpose in life for some people was to simply serve as a warning to others.
But, we will be in the new lodge by our October opening, and it is an absolute sight to behold! I can’t wait for y’all to see it.
Since relocation of our main lodge will completely change our traffic patterns here, we have determined that each cottage will now have a golf cart for guests to travel back and forth to the main lodge. We have leased all new golf carts that can be completely enclosed in case of inclement weather. We are now building golf cart houses adjacent to the cottages. Rather than hiring this work out, our very talented Jerry Cooper is supervising and building our golf cart buildings. He has formed the “That’s close enough - nail it” construction crew consisting of Blake, Kevin, Jarvis, and D.J. I guarantee you that this may be our only construction crew to bring in a project on time and under budget.
Once we are finished with this project, Jerry will move his crew on to relocating our trap range. Jerry mentioned to me yesterday that everything was now coming his way. I told him that this could simply mean that he was in the wrong lane.
While most of our emphasis has been on the major upheaval on the lodge grounds, we do have a renewed emphasis on a couple of other projects. Andy has taken over our trapping program, and has enjoyed great success during this prolonged drought cycle. He has removed over 200 mammalian predators that were unwilling to pay our extra bird fee for killing quail.
R.J., Ronnie and Spencer are working on food plots while trying to hide from Greg who splits his time between this crew and his agricultural group.
Jerry is continuing with our very successful Garlon spraying to eliminate briars and undesirable hardwoods while continuing to reintroduce our native grasses into our ecosystem. We can all see very positive results from this program which is in its fourth year.
Moss and Carmon continue to buy and train bird dogs. For the past several years, we have committed more capital spending to our kennels, and the guides all say it is making their jobs much easier. Moss says that, if it weren’t for bacteria, dog salesmen would have no culture at all. It’s an interesting profession. In my early years, I bought dogs for the company, and I absolutely know what he’s talking about. No one has ever had a bad dog for sale, but there are a lot of less than perfect bird dogs out there.
Greg has some beautiful sweet corn about ready for harvest. Bo, Clyde, Marvin and J.D. have done a terrific job with the crops, and we all thank the genius who invented center irrigation. Otherwise we would be growing cactus this year. Cader IV has nicknamed our new sweet corn varieties “sex corn” because our best tasting varieties this year are called Devotion, Passion, and Obsession. That’s no tale. That really is the name of these super sweet brands we are growing for your hometown grocery stores.
Once we have harvested the sweet corn, we will double crop milo and field corn on the same tracts of land. The milo will be harvested and stored on Riverview for the fall and winter supplemental feeding of our quail. We will sell our field corn if the market stays anywhere near as strong as it is now.
I probably should mention that we will continue our very popular holiday family promotion rates. We will discount our base rate by 35% during the following dates:
November 21 – 24
December 19 – 20
December 27 – January 3
As has been my habit since writing our first summer newsletter in 1974, let me close with a few random thoughts. Martha and I continue to be blessed with good health and three wonderful grown children, Holly, Cadie and Cader IV. Our precious triplet grandchildren, Eva, Nate and Keaton, are approaching their second birthdays. They are healthy, and active. God has been so merciful in blessing us with these three munchkins.
I would be very remiss if I failed to tell you how much we appreciate your loyalty and support of our business. Fifty years is a long time, and we would not be here without the best guests and friends in the world!
I will leave you with just these few thoughts that I have gleaned from others: Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.
Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift. Come enjoy some of it this fall and winter with your friends at Rivervew.
Sincerely,
Cader B. Cox, III
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