And btw the fed who decided to open duck season on Nov 1 should be flogged with a dead racoon. There are NO birds to speak of at the coast.

Did the guys that started the fires get caught?

Not yet. The islanders are trying to find out who they are and have a polite educational conversation with them.

This is awesome! What island is the duck shack on?

It’s called the Matagorda Peninsula but technically it’s an island. It is 100% surrounded by water. You can’t drive to it. Thank you for looking and the nice compliment. I have an idea at the rate I am going the interior and quite possibly the exterior will be done by spring.

I used to fly over that island regularly and always thought it was a cool looking place. The number of cattle on the island was a wonder to me.

For over 100 years the ranchers have a big cattle drive, driving all the cows 22 miles east and force them to swim the Colorado river. They then drive them north up Hwy60 through Matagorda City and to high ground of the mainland so as to avoid losing cows to hurricanes. Pretty kewl site to see for sure.

Well what starts off as a crisis will always cease to be a crisis. I thought I found a welder but instead he turned out to be a dirt dauber. $400.00 and I am back on the high seas again. Well maybe, we need to test the lower unit to see if there was more damage than what met the eyeball. He welded up all the holes and welded in two new drain plug couplings. The final thing he welded was the lower unit casing. I can't gripe too much as I assure you had it been left to me, I'd of blown holes through that thin dirt inclused aluminum in a minute. Plus welding cast aluminum is nothing short of a beach!!!

When building this duck hunting cabin I have had to watch the pocket book outgo. I keep all my used motor oil, mix it with diesel and spray the machinery out on the island to hinder the rust. I priced enough wood stain protector to do the porch and all the pilings ay $200.00. So i did a tester. This 1x4 poplar board is coated with that Diesel and motor oil. Looks like stain. Smelled like Diesel but a week later it actually has a wood smell instead of diesel. It beads water off very well. The two dark spots on it are where I took a torch lighter to it trying to ignite it. Its all a go so instead of $200, I'll spend less than $20 in Diesel fuel. It worked so well I put it on the pontoon duck killing marsh barge. Incidentally I am about to attach two cattle panels to the sides of the pontoon duck killing marsh barge and load the panels with brush. One on each side of the boat and a 1/4 inch nylon rope to pull the tops together and we hunting.

Lots to report! I bought a decent little Jeep Liberty 4WD dear lease type of vehicle so I could maybe flip it and make some cash. No bites o the thought was to take it to the island and run it. I like it! The problem is my truck has been in the shop for 6 weeks with its second motor in 10 months. Don't even get me started on that one. Chev 2019 and that's all about that. So I didn't have a truck to trailer this jeep with no registration, title, inspection, bill of sale and a host of equipment violations. So a decision was made. I loaded it down with cargo and lets just say it went down the highway. I will not incriminate myself so I have no recollection of the trip. I heard the Jeep went by 7 troopers without incident. When the Jeep got there it was loaded onto a barge and to the island it went. It was 8 miles from the drop off point to the house. Some idiot is still lighting fires on the island so I drove through one of the fires on the way. I got there in time for dinner, sausage and a can of ranch style beans. I worked until midnight unpacking the jeep and getting my new kitchen lined out. I put on all the cabinet doors. I shut down and slept for 5 hours and on to breakfast and you guessed it, get to work. At noon my crew arrived and we had a killer weekend. I was not at all confident we were going to thwack the ducks but was very surprised at the opener. We got into them pretty good. The next morning was not so hot. Lots of firsts happened. First pot of chicken and dumplings. First time my two bothers and i hunted together in a years. Saw a couple bucks running a doe for an hour. It was a great weekend. The boys stayed through Monday and got on the reds pretty good.

Looks like a fantastic weekend….i hope the place lives up to everything you dreamed it would be….

It already has!

My dad did the diesel/used oil on fence post before we sunk them. Still look like new two years later.

What great thread. Looks like a bunch of great times - past, present and future.

You got that kitchen looking really nice.

Thank you Guy. My intentions are to build a bar for seating on two or three sides of the Blackstone Griddle to save room. In stead of an island and a table we can combine the two. That way one cook at the stove has fridge sink and stove access, the blackstone cook has the same access but we are 5 feet from each other. That way we don't step on each other as we cook.