Year 30 & Happy New Year

I'm 30 years old now. Kind of surreal, but brings an excitement that I can't really describe. Some people get pessimistic about another year gone by, but I just get really nostalgic of the good times it held. I think back to all of the belly laughs, shaken legs, heart bounds, and beads of sweat sweated. I wish to have them back, but another birthday to me just makes me think about the next time I get to experience it all over again and in new and different ways. That excites me greatly. 

Happy New Year, folks. 2025 was a blessing in so many ways. Taking a bird in Missouri for the first time since I was 16, tagging it on opening day having never taken a bird on any opening day of a season, tagging out in Kansas with the best of friends and guiding one of them to their first Rio, revisited a magical place in Nebraska, and hanging out with the funnest friends to chase birds in the red sand of Oklahoma at one of the most fairy-tale properties we've ever seen are all things that I could have only said a far-reaching prayer to God for. And yet, He brought all of those things to me. I arrowed my first deer and by consequence my first archery buck this fall in the prime of the Missouri Rut, an experience that I had never seen before having deer running all around me and seeing bucks chase. That was utterly wild to see that time of year in the flesh. I felt as if I was truly allowed to experience so many of these experiences "in the now", and for that I'm also grateful. 

We're officially in the same year as Spring Turkey Season '26. Holy crap.....it draws nearer and nearer, like watching the winter wheat turn green. Little flickers of sunlight and warmth grow that green color faster, but this season's cold slows the feeling of progress every once in a while too. I so look forward to adventures yet to come. Greatest of all the new experiences that my Mom and I will get to share with each other this coming spring. She's never experienced a spring season like I and her father had shared, and we'll finally get to. Maybe some Missouri hard-gobbling easterns, Oklahoma Rio's, and as the grand finale a trip to Sonora Mexico. Mom surprised me over the holiday that for this 30th year of mine, she booked both of us a trip with our friends to chase Gould's Turkeys in the desert mountains. I couldn't hardly believe it. It will be the best of times. A small part of 2026 that I've got so much anticipation for. 

I'm thankful for all of you and I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and had a fulfilling New Year.

MoGobbles