Yellow Storm Rising

Spring officially announced its arrival with the pollen storm to end all pollen storms.  I noticed the outflowing of yellow snow on Tuesday.  I had parked my car outside and within less than an hour, it was covered with a layer of pollen.  Combine that with the wind and dry conditions here lately and you have a full blown pollen storm.

The Bradford pears always bloom here at the end of February or early March, but the pine trees, dogwoods and the majority of hardwood trees REALLY work hard to show up one another come late March.  Grown Dawg and I noticed how the pine trees were loaded down with the small blue/purple pollen cones over the weekend.  And today they had all turned yellow.

The parking lots have a dull green / yellow coating on them and everyone is starting to complain of their allergies.  The drug companies must love this time of year.  Sort of like Black Friday for every other company in the world.

I am just waiting for the non-existent Spring showers right now.

At least it is starting to get closer to fishing season!

Thank Heavens for Warm Weather and other Stuff

This past week's weather has been a wonderful peek at Spring.  But in the southeast, we really don't have a true spring.  Just early summer in my opinion.  Winter has been long enough and cold enough for me.  Fortunately, we have already had some days in the eighties.  A nice chance to open the house up and have some fresh air moving through.  We even have had to turn the air conditioner on for a few hours on Monday.  It is funny how excited you get about using the air conditioner.  I am sure that mid-August, I will be missing days like that.

Other wonderful 'spring things' that have gone on include daffodils and Bradford pears blooming.  The early pollen haze is already here.  Day lillies are sprouting, but flowers will not be here for a bit.  The brown yard is starting to get green patches of weeds as well as some of the grass is sprouting back.

I LOVE THE SOUTH!

Other random life stuff:

Mama Dawg had her knee replaced the end of January and has done fabulous and has actually been discharged from therapy as of Friday. 

Our granddaughter, 'H Dawg' turned 6 months old. 

One of our real dogs had some surgery and had to wear a cone on his head for 10 days.  It came off today - THANK HEAVENS!

Water temperature at Apache Pier is up to 55 degrees, so there will be some good fishing sooner rather than later.

Grown Dawg has been spending time on the boat under the watchful eye of David Perry of Marine Service Center in Murrell's Inlet and has been pulling a good friend's flatbed trailer in anticipation of boat hauling. 

Hopefully, fishing news will be in the next post.

Higher Education

Grown Dawg went to a Fishing Seminar today.  Yeah, this is the third one in 2 months, but we are trying to be better at fishing.  This one was at Oak Island Recreation Center and was put on by Capt. Jimmy Price and Capt. Jerry Dilsaver.  One of the best things that he learned was about cast nets and the best way to throw them.  Apparently it is like swinging a golf club.  It is not power, but technique that gets it done.

The best part is that he scored a FREE fishing rod.  It is a 7 foot Star Rod which is made by Sea Striker.

Guess he will be wanting a new reel now. 

Wonderful..................

Saltwater Sportsman Seminar

Me, Grown Dawg and a friend, Cur Dawg attended the Saltwater Sportsman Seminar on Saturday.  It was in Bolivia, NC which meant an early rise for us to get there in time.  The panel of presenters included Mike Marsh, Capt. Rob Ferris, Capt. Jimmy Price, Capt. David Kesler, Capt. Darrin Callahan, Capt. Ray Massengill, Dennis Barbour, Harry Vernon, III, and George Poveromo.  Topics that were covered included Offshore Trolling Tactics, Flounder fishing, Vertical Jigging, Trout Fishing, Red Drum, King Mackerel, Bottom Fishing, and Daytime Swordfish. 

The seminar format was very well done!  For most of the topics, there were four panelists who had a discussion regarding the best techniques for targeting the species that was being discussed.  Each topic was between 30 and 45 minutes, so you didn't get overloaded on the information that was presented.

It was also great that there were tons of door prizes handed out.  And it was really nice stuff.  Items like Costa Del Mar sunglasses, free Sperry shoes and every form of fishing tackle that you could imagine.  They also gave away a trip for 2 to Bimini Sands.  We did not win anything, but that was okay.  We do have a chance to win a Mako boat, but that drawing if from ALL of the registrants for all of the different locations that the seminar series held.

As part of the registration, we got a free year subscription to Saltwater Sportsman magazine, a 1/4 pound spool of Suffix fishing line, OrPine boat was, a book written by George Poveromo and some other goodies.

Hopefully the weather will warm up quickly so that we can put some new found knowledge to use.

Second Christmas

Last week we were able to enjoy our second Christmas.  The few days before and Christmas day, Growndawg's youngest son Preacher Dawg, his wife, and their daughter (our granddaughter) came for a visit.  On Christmas day, my parents, Old Dawg and Mama Dawg as well as one of my cousins came and had lunch with us.

Here is Old Dawg and Mama Dawg with the granddaughter.

Then last week, Growndawg's oldest son, Scrappy Dawg and his wife, Sh'naynay Dawg came for a visit.  It was was great to see them.

We are very blessed to have been able to spend time with family over the holidays and actually got an extended holiday season! 

We both got gift cards to Bass Pro Shops as part of Christmas so we can outfit for fishing season!  Yeah for more fishing supplies.