Another South GA dove opener in the book. Although I'm retired, I still serve on the board of a mutual Savings and Loan here in my hometown. A number of year's ago we figured out that it would be much less expensive over all to quit entertaining customers with preserve quail hunts and to just have one big dove shoot to open the season every year and invite a lot of people at once. We had about 90 folks yesterday, many with kids shooting with their dads. For the first time in many years I had all three of my grown sons in the field with me.

We dedicate the shoot to a local charity, "The James Eunice Foundation" and although the shoot is on us, we have raffles and a small auction to benefit the charity. The charity raised about nine grand yesterday.

Those who've been around here a while might remember me posting about a terrible duck hunting accident which occurred here a few years ago. Eighteen year old James Eunice was hunting with a nephew of mine at a private lake south of town. Somehow he fell out of the boat in waders in the middle of the sizable body of water, and drowned. My nephew was in the water on the decoys while James was relocating in the boat to another spot. He did not see what happened, but he did after a while notice the boat running in circles out in the middle of the pond. It took a tremendous search and recovery effort a month to find the body.

Before his death, James was due to be an honor graduate and attend the University Of Ga the next Fall to play football. After the tragedy, the parents organized the foundation to honor their son's life and dedicate the proceeds of the foundation to providing scholarships for deserving students from the South GA area.

The shoot yesterday was another success with most shooters, including two out of three of my boys limiting out. Personally I was a little under the weather but still managed to hold down my stand for a nice bag. Luckily, my friend '67 galaxie' sat nearby and was kind enough to retrieve my birds since I was a little unsteady on my feet.

Best wishes to all my friends here and I hope your coming hunting season is the best ever...Geo