It is past the normal time of year for FFA Alumni Camp.  However, some of the state staff worked hard to come up with a streamlined, covid free, version of camp for 2020.  Early Sunday morning, Tammy and I loaded up 11 Shattuck FFA members and trekked to the eastern part of the state.  We got everybody’s temps checked, health forms checked and then dropped kids off at camp.  The 2020 version of camp started at 12 noon and ended at 5 pm the following day.  Normally, it would be 4 days/3 nights.

All of our kids were pleased with camp.  The seniors-to-be that have been numerous times said that it was good.  The first -timers said, “If it was this good during covid, they can’t wait to go back next year.”  Good job.

And since we were in the area, we then drove north to look through some goats.  It wasn’t that hot but oh, the humidity.  We grabbed a room in Tulsa on Sunday night and then went to Skiatook Lake on Monday morning.   We hired a guide to take us fishing.  We caught a lot of hybrid stripers and a mess of blue cats.  We hadn’t caught many hybrids before.  Man, a five pound hybrid has a lot of fight in them.  They are fun to catch.  We didn’t catch any monsters but we consistently caught fish and had fun.

I have been asked before, why do you hire guides?  Why don’t you own a boat?

Here’s a couple of reasons why I hire a guide?

1–I don’t have to own a boat.

2–I don’t have to fix a boat.

3–I don’t have to put gas in a boat.

4–I don’t have to store a boat.

5–I don’t have to pay insurance on a boat.

6–I don’t have to winterize a boat.

7–I don’t have to clean up a boat and get it ready in the spring.

8–I don’t have to load a boat on and off of a trailer.

9–With a guide, I don’t have to catch bait.

10–I don’t have to keep poles ready for all people on the boat.

11–I don’t have to clean fish.

12–I don’t have to waste time trying to find fish.

13–I have fun going fishing without owning a boat and without having to work to catch fish.

And when we left Camp Tulakogee, it was raining hard and the rain was stretched all across the state.  Parents were sending their kids videos of a 2″ downpour in Gage (7 miles from my house).  I drove in rain on and off all the way home.  And then we got back here to paradise.  Yep, we got rain–.25.  A quarter inch.  We’ll take it but….dude?!?!