stache's blog

Barney Ford Hunt 2009

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:07:00 +0000

We had another great hunt this year for the group that generously contributed to the Barney Ford diversity scholarship at the Leeds School. Thanks to Donal Culver, Matt Grassman, and John Gable of Boulder Valley Farm for making this hunt possible two years in a row.

Everything went smoothly besides Matt and I getting stuck in the mud when we were scouting the day before. Everybody shot straight and we killed 8 different species of ducks.

Bling Bling

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:51:00 +0000

Second week in a row with a banded bird. This bird was banded in Saskatchewan in 2004 and the one from last week was banded somewhere in Colorado in 2008. The certificates will not show up for a couple weeks.

This was definitely the coolest duck hunt I have had in Colorado thus far. Sarah and I scouted this spot the night before we hunted and we barely saw any ducks. We picked a spot on an island that had plenty of cover and some slack water and decided to book it because it was getting dark and a big front was rolling in from the north. To make a long story short the wind picked up by about 15 mph and the temp dropped from about 50 to about 25 in less than an hour. I also proceeded to get us lost in the dark and soaking wet. Fortunately Sarah has not called off the wedding yet.

Over the course of the night about 2 inches of snow fell and temperatures dropped down to 17 degrees. As we walked in we hoped that the cold front would bring a bunch of new ducks down and we were not disappointed. After a pretty major decoy adjustment at about 8:00 mallards just started dumping into our spread. We had a big group commit and dropped 3 green brains right in front of us and then I got one that sailed into the woods and thick brush on the opposite side of the river. We sent Dex on the 3 birds in the current before they were swept out of reach. The next 30 minutes were ridiculous because every time we were about to get settled and send Dex after the bird in the brush new ducks were showing up and dumping into our spread. 4 more greenheads died before I got a chance to send Dex over to the other bank. I was worried that we might have lost the bird because the cover was really thick and the duck looked like it might have had a little life in it when it went down. Dex made me sweat it out for about 5 minutes as he charged around with no results but then he came trotting out of the woods with a big ole bull chuckle head jewelry and all.

Opening Day O9

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:16:00 +0000

Dex standing proud. He made a couple really long retrieves on cripples.

Banded Gadwall. What a way to start the season. Will post info when it comes in.

Blue bird day until around 10:30 and the wind showed up finally.

Part of our spread. We had 11 dozen dekes and 3 robos rockin.

I can't remember a hunt with such a diverse bag. We killed 2 drake red heads, 2 drake mallards, 5 widgeon, 2 greenwing teal, 1 bluewing teal, 1 pintail, and 9 gadwall. We hunted till 2:30 in the afternoon so it was by no means hot and heavy but a solid day. A lot less work was involved this year thanks to Chris McReynolds and his drift boat. In my experience opening day is always a comedy of errors but this year things went pretty smooth. There was some minor hiccups with the motor on friday, the snail inspection by DOW, and the fact that Winchester and I both forgot our calls. Fortunately for the ducks we remembered our calls on Sunday and scared everything away before it could get in shooting distance.

Bucket Face and Fat Daddy part deux

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:02:00 +0000

Another Thug from the Colorado River

Average Fish At the driving club

gotta love top water action

Diddy needs to learn how to show off a fish

Both of these places are aquariums.

Worst Blogger Ever

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:48:00 +0000

I am officially the worst blogger ever and to top it off I shaved my mustache which crushes the credibility of this blog. My main excuse is that I have been working non-stop on CW.com and as a result I have not been doing as much cool stuff to talk about. (this is kind of BS) So in my attempt to record a personal journal I am going to dump as much info here about the last 4 months before I forget it all.

Music

Ryan Bingham - Sarah, Sheats, and I all went and saw him play in Denver at this little hole in the wall bar and it was incredible. I highly recommend his new album Road House Sun.

Chatauqua - Sarah and I saw Neko Case and Lucinda Williams here and both shows were solid, but I would have to give Neko the upper hand. Lucinda is getting old but still rocks

Telluride Bluegrass Festival - I hope to make this a tradition. I could write all day about how cool this was. Ran into a bunch of old friends and some long lost cousins plus we saw Emmy Lou Harris in a shop downtown which made Sarah's year

Fishing

Had a great couple of days up on the Northe Platte in Wyoming pre-run off. All deep nymph rigs but all nice fish. The wind up there is the worst I have ever experienced.

Go to go back to the Lazy 7 with Morgan, Blair and Crabtree and this time we brought the ladies and go to stay in the new ranch house which was awesome. Maybe a little too awesome as we were all so comfortable we did not fish quite as hard. Still caught a ton of nice fish on streamers despite the fact that the water was a little off. I caught another super thug but Blair is a slacker and has not sent me the pics/video yet. Here are some pics of a pig blair caught and Sarah caught a bunch of nice fish too.

Couple weeks later Chris and Travis and I lowered Travis's boat over a cliff into the Blue River Canyon and had an epic day of catching really nice fish almost exclusively on dry flies. We did not catch any monsters but a bunch of nice fish. Actually got to the point where I was sick of catching fish

Travis and his friend Ben make unbelievable fishing movies. Check them out at http://feltsoulmedia.com/main.html

Just recently we slayed some nice king salmon up in Leland with our buddy captain Bill Crandell of http://cworthy.wordpress.com/

I am sure I left something out time to get back to work!!!!!!

CollegeWeekends.com In The Press

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:47:00 +0000

It has been a great week for media coverage and as a result getting new listings and booking them up fast. We now have 19 listings in Oxford and they get booked for all the home SEC games as fast as we put them up on this site. We got some great coverage in Boulder which has resulted in 7 spectacular listing and a huge boost in traffic. Here are the 3 new articles that came out this week.
COVER- Survival of the fittest: Adapting, evolving, thriving in a rough housing market
The Hook, Charlottesville, VA

At home on the road
The Examiner, Denver, Co Web site lets owners turn homes into hotels
The Daily Camera, Boulder, CO

Cohoke

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Fri, 15 May 2009 02:52:00 +0000

This is my Dad with a lunker he caught on top water at my uncle's bass club in Virginia. Nice work Pops

1% For The Planet

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:11:00 +0000

CollegeWeekends.com is proud to announce that we are official members of 1% For The Planet

http://www.onepercentfortheplanet.org/en/

Here is a quick blurb from their website on what they are about.

To be perfectly honest, it’s not about us. It’s about businesses recognizing that industry and ecology are inherently connected. It’s about realizing the positive effects of connecting businesses, consumers and nonprofits through philanthropy. And it’s about understanding that the true cost of doing business can be mitigated by a simple pledge to the planet.

Since 2002, 1% For The Planet has inspired members of the business community to contribute 1% of sales to environmental groups around the world. In return, this growing alliance of companies is given the opportunity not only to see their self-worth rise, but their net worth climb as well.

Not long ago I read Yvon Chouinard's(founder of Patagonia) book "Let My People Go Surfing", and that is how I learned about 1% For The Planet. The book had a profound impact on me in that it helped me realize that I really can make a difference, and I strongly recommend the book to anybody in the business world. I think if we all read the book and adopted Chouinard's tenets of envirionmental and social responsibility, the world would be a better place.

Home Owner Testimonial

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:27:00 +0000

Home Owner Testimonials from CollegeWeekends.com on Vimeo.

This is our new home owner video testimonial. Thanks Steve and Michelle for helping us spread the word!

Barney Ford Auction

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 03:36:00 +0000

Last year my buddy Matt Grassman and I donated a duck hunt to raise money for the Barney Ford Diversity scholarship at Leeds. Grassman is my buddy that lives on Boulder Valley Farm, and as I have mentioned previously he, John(farm manager), and Mr. Culver(owner) have all been very gracious in letting other folks enjoy the property. This year their generosity continues and they let us auction off another hunt.

We were pretty excited about this years auction because we had a great hunt last year, and we thought that the news had probably spread around plus we had some new tricks up our sleave. First of all we decided to bring Dex down to the auction because we figured he would help drive up the bidding, and I also got my friend JC from http://www.risetogethercustomcalls.com/ to donate a custom call to go along with the hunt. Our tactics paid off and this year we raised $650 which is $250 more than last year. We were also really excited that our friends Scott Kohla and Trest Gustafson were the winning bidders again.

Below are some pictures from last years hunt and one from the auction.

Dex looking pretty whipped. Still out of shape

Scott and Trent with their birds

Scott, Trent and Dex hard at work

Snow Geese

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 01:57:00 +0000

This winter I hunted a lot with 2 buddies that went to college in North Dakota. Because the hunting in Colorado left a lot to be desired we basically just sat around and talked about the good old days. I was usually blabbing about how good the duck hunting was in Idaho, and they described North Dakota as a waterfowler's paradise. In particular Derek was telling me about epic snow goose hunts that he and his buddies would have in the spring. These guys are the real deal and they put out thousands of decoys and put a lot of work into these hunts. Anyway Derek just sent me a bunch of his pics and promised he would send some more. A couple of the guys in these photos are part of the death row team who hooked me up with some "broke in guts" for the call JC made me and it is the goosiest call I have ever heard. They know what they are doing over there. Check them out at http://www.deathrowcalls.com/

2 blues in one shot

This is what you call a rainout

That is my friend Derek holding up the banded and collared bird

My buddy mase sent me this video it is a different group all together. Notice the bird that lands on the layout blind.

CollegeWeekends.com launches beta version of new site!!

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 23:20:00 +0000

After several sleepless nights and almost a years worth of work we have finally launched our new website. It is a beta version and undoubtedly has a few kinks left to work out, but we believe it is a major improvement over the old site. I have posted a screen shot tutorial that shows how to search the site to find the perfect vacation rental property for your visit to Charlottesville. Please don't hesitate to comment on this blog or to e-mail us directly if you have any thoughts, problems, or praise for the new site. Also don't hestiate to let us know if you would like to see CW.com in your collegetown.

Property Search Tutorial 4/10 from Gordon Sutton on Vimeo.

Mexico es Sucio

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 00:42:00 +0000

bus ride in sarah almost puked but pretty entertaining experience. We were only gringos on the bus both ways

wipe out. of course no pics of me getting up

little waves but still lots of angry locals that don't like gringos that suck at surfing

fishing was pretty mediocre but caught some small jacks

road next to our house

Sarah and I at a mexican rock show. They tried to sing sweet child of mine for me but it was a total train wreck

view from our porch blocked by my enormous head

Sarah enjoying a Sol on our porch

We had a great trip. Sayulitas is a pretty small and remote town so we felt like we were being pretty adventurous travelers. The bus ride to get there cost us 2 bucks and was sketchy to say the least but entertaining. There were plenty of tourists around but no resorts or annoying spring breakers.

I would have to say the food was the highlight. We had some spectacular meals with really fresh seafood and vegetables without ever paying more than about 15 bucks. One night we had dinner in this ladies kitchen with all her children running around and screaming. I wish we got a picture of the outhouse because it was just a 3 sided cinder block structure that left you exposed to all the women and children in the kitchen while you used it. Despite the atmoshphere the food was authentic and delicious. Sarah got the chicken poloze and I had fried shrimp tacos.

The surfing, fishing, and beaches were all pretty disappointing, but we still had a lot of fun. Parts of the town and beach were pretty trashy and smelly. There were lots of stray dogs around that were either begging for food or using the beach as their toilet which got pretty annoying. Like I said we had fun but think we have checked Sayulitas off the list for awhile.

Rise Together Custom Calls

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 02:58:00 +0000

Polyester Resin Duck Call

Acrylic Short Reed Goose Call

I met my friend JC from the goose club this season. JC is a master craftsmen, and has started making custom calls in his shop. Check out his site @ http://www.risetogethercustomcalls.com/DuckCalls.html

Sarah got me one of his goose calls for my birthday and JC and I have been working on it together for about the last month. JC has been very generous with me by trying multiple shapes, barrel lengths, gutserts, soundboards, reeds, etc.. until we finally perfected it this afternoon.

JC gave me the above duck call in return for tuning a bunch of double reed calls for him. This picture does not really do it justice but JC has really stumbled upon something unique with these resin calls. The material is very dense which makes for a great sound and the appearance of these calls is amazing.

I have learned a ton about making calls and am fired up to start making my own. Thanks JC!

God Damn Salmon

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 03:21:00 +0000

the bridge on our way out

Chris slaying trout with a bunch of geese just upstream

Dex is going to kill me when he sees this

That is one happy stache!!

Hate to put this fish on the ice but was all by myself and had to document it. This is the toad from the video. Hard to appreciate the girth on this bad boy in this pic. I guessing 19-20 in but had to way every bit of 4 pounds. He was pissed too

First fish of the trip for me

scottie and hatch rippin em on the creek

Morgan spotted a monster under the bridge and I could not leave him alone. Got him to come look on first cast then got him to eat on the second cast but farmed him. Never tried to set a hook from a bridge before. Pretty rad to watch him open his big white mouth and go for it. I'll get him next time.

Sweet Jesus that fish is huge. Nice work Morgan(be sure to click this picture)

celebratory stoagie on the bridge accompanied by some delicious brownwater

Everybody made fun of me for this video but had to post it anyway, and it is the inspiration for the title. This fish was pretty well spent by the time I pulled the camera out but he was holding in fast water on the seam behind a big rock and he went bonkers when I first hooked him.

We had an amazing 2 days of fishing. Morgan thanks again for getting us out there.

8 geese

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:03:00 +0000

check out how good those freshly flocked heads look

Hunted everyday this weekend and ended up killing 8 geese which unfortunately is pretty good as compared to the rest of the season in CO. These late season lessers are unbelivably wary.

Here are some pics of a field I drove by on the way home. The farmer would not give me permission. :(

http://www.collegeweekends.com/browse_listings.php

Flocking Goose Decoys/My Sweet Woman

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 05:15:00 +0000

the shed
dinner of champions! notice the mules coozie huggin the pbr
http://www.wrinkleneckmules.com/

end result

they don't stand a chance

hard work

fix your lip dex

the start

what a mess

she is going to kill me for posting this b/c she does not know I was filming her, but how lucky am I to be engaged to a beautiful woman who will flock decoys, drink beer, and dance to cheesy country music

could not get permission on that farm from the scouting report but got permission on a farm right around the corner. Hoping for some ducky weather so I can get these late season birds to work.

http://www.collegeweekends.com

Scouting Mission . . . . . Details to follow

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 01:33:00 +0000

be sure to click on all the pictures especially this one :)

BVF Swat

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:26:00 +0000

sexy spread
dex had to break ice for all morning

hard at work

dont know what happened to the sound on this video?

Had a great hunt despite the bluebird weather out my friend Grassman's place on Sunday. 4 of us killed 23 ducks so just one shy of a limit. Pretty diverse bag consisting of Gadwall, Scaup, and yes a couple spoonies. The ducks worked well because we were on one of the only open chunks of water in the area but for whatever reason the geese were not picking up what we were putting down and skirted us all morning. Dex spent most of the morning breaking ice and is good and tired as a result. Thanks for having me out to farm Matt and John!

The Stache is back in Colorado

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 00:54:00 +0000

Why did we leave Idaho Dad?

I am bored

our spread

the pit

lip warmer

Well back in Colorado now and missing Idaho in a big way. Hunted twice this week both with lackluster results. Here are some pics from a hunt at the goose club and we barely even saw any geese and none came close enough to work. Hunted yesterday with some buddies at my friends farm east of town and we killed a few birds but nothing too exciting. It was almost 60 degrees which certainly in not helping anything. We need some weather in a big way.

Duckin/ Jackson - Victor trip part 2

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 22:02:00 +0000

7 drake wigeon
parking lot shot of last day

Dex at work. "You don't want to pet that dog"

marsh ninja

shootin time's over

my weak ass hunting partner

Like I said we had a great trip but had to work a lot harder this year. I think we missed the big push of birds by about 3 weeks and they were pretty smart by the time we got there. On the way home I dropped the boat off with poot and he showed me how to clean birds with this pretty slick wax contraption he used when he was guiding down in louisiana. So now I have a bunch of picked birds to cook up which I am fired up about since we almost always breast them out.

Duckin/Jackson - Victor Trip part 1

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 20:54:00 +0000

Notice Pooty Tang in his undies!!

Sam showing Drake who is boss

Where is Sam?

Silly Women

on the way

Sarah and I drove up to Jackson Hole to celebrate our recent engagement :), visit some friends and family, and pick up the duck boat. The first night we stayed with Poot in Jackson and Artie, Erin, and Andy came over and showed us how to cook shrimp etoufee. We all had a great time and the next day Sarah and I got burritos at Down on Glen and then headed to Victor to spend the new year's eve with Hil, Los, and Sam. It took us close to 2 hours to dig out the duck boat and Sarah was a big help.

In Victor we celebrated with a bunch of Los and Hil's friends at one of their houses. The next day we all slept in and watched college football. Shortly after we got up Carlos got a call to rescue one of his buddies who got stuck in snow drift. Later in the day when we left for a beer/emporium run we discovered that we were snowed in which ended up being pretty entertaining. The plows finally came around and we had an awesome dinner at the Knotty Pine. Los and I were out ordered by the ladies. Hil got Peking Duck and Sarah got lamb ribs while Los and stuck with the delicious but boring hamburger steak.

The next morning Sarah and I hit the road towards duck country battling terrible wind, rain, and snow the whole way. We made it around 4 just in time to put the boat in the water and make sure everything was in order.

Day 4

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:18:00 +0000

Slow morning hunt but we had an awesome afternoon hunt where we killed 12 green heads and ragsdale killed his first mallard band. Dex made some great long retrieves

Day 3 Sucked

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:14:00 +0000

We hunted hard all day and only killed 2 ducks. I was a full on blizzard in the morning and the decoys kept were covered in snow despite our best efforts to keep them clean. One of those days the weather is too nasty even for the ducks.

Day 2

gordo@collegeweekends.com (Gordon) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:02:00 +0000

These pics kind of stink but we had another good day. It was 7 degrees when we woke up today and the birds did not want to fly early. We had a slow morning hunt and then moved to a different section of the river and ended up killing a limit of wigeon and a couple green heads. Definitely one of the coldest days I can remember. Dex's paws were freezing to the boat.