Grenson Ranch April 26, 1980 Dennis, Woody, Dean, as I gathered for the annual spring ceremony of securing the duck blinds. We had good team work as finished the job before lunch. This included baiting every barrel (Dennis did it) with several inches of sticky mud in the bottom. He moved a few clumps of Reed Canary grass to consolidate the islands and give better coverage of the barrels. During the morning we saw a few pairs of mallards; presumably the hens have nests by now. Pheasant cocks crowing now as then as the hens must be nesting too. After lunch we mounted a wood duck box that had been rescued last fall. Put it about 20 ft. up on a big cottonwood on the main slough near where Barb killed a cock pheasant a couple of years back. Then went after asparagus and found a good amount along the main slough border. Each of us took home a double batch. Peak time would have been a week or so earlier. Dennis is burning the corn stalks as other trash that accumulated on the home levee during the flood. Now he is threatening to rip-rap the levee with rocks — another loss of pheasant cover.