EP 518. Deep-Rooted Double Bayou Duck Hunting Traditions

Ramsey Russell: Welcome back to MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast. I just got done with a great teal hunt with today’s guest. I’m in the Double Bayou community down here in southeast Texas, amazing hunt, amazing marsh, amazing story. Blake, how the heck are you?

Blake Moulton: I’m doing good. How are you?

Ramsey Russell: Man, I’m good, I’m glad to finally have hunted with you and had a good time, I’m going to start off this way because how we met was about this exact time last year, maybe 11 months ago, I was coming through Houston airport, I was in a daze, I’d gone home to take care of some tough business and I was at the wrong gate and somebody shouted my name and I met you.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: We sat there and talked for 30 minutes and it was a very timely conversation, it snapped me into a good mood and got to meet you and we talked about coming down here and you told me a little bit about your story and I’m glad to finally be here.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir, glad to have you. That time right there was a little bit hectic for me as well.

Ramsey Russell: Where were you going?

Blake Moulton: I was headed out to Realtree in Georgia to do a photo shoot with Academy Sports and Outdoors out there.

Ramsey Russell: How did that go?

Blake Moulton: Oh, it was amazing.

Ramsey Russell: Are you like a model? Is that what this is, you like a model?

Blake Moulton: I wouldn’t go there for, I don’t get the looks for a model, but it was something like that, partnered with Magellan and the guys from Buck Benchers out there.

Ramsey Russell: How did something like that come about?

Blake Moulton: The power of social media, that’s something, it was amazing. They sent me an email one day asking if I would be interested in, so the first shoot that I did was out in Monroe, Louisiana.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Blake Moulton: With Justin Martin.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Blake Moulton: And I met Justin and Clay all out there and it was an amazing experience. So, I mean, just strictly through that email, they emailed me if I would be interested and I’m like, I’ve shopped at Academy all my life, why wouldn’t I be interested?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Who doesn’t shop at Academy? They used to have, 10 years ago, one of my favorite pair of waders, especially for the price was up at Academy.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: I’ve got more favorite waders since then because they changed the format on it, but I used to wear Academy waders.

Blake Moulton: Oh, Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Especially traveling, I mean, for 150 bucks, shoot man.

Blake Moulton: Absolutely, can’t beat it.

Ramsey Russell: You can’t beat it at all. Were those Academy waders you were wearing this morning?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. Those were the –

Ramsey Russell: Were they plenty warm? It was 90⁰ something degrees this morning, you wearing 5 mil neoprene, they didn’t get cold, did you?

Blake Moulton: No, those biscuits were done in there.

Ramsey Russell: Well, Nick is the one that surprised me this morning because they climb in the truck wearing shorts, she was wearing jeans, he was wearing shorts and I just seemed they throwing the waders in the back and he just kicked off his shoes and off he flies into the marsh barefoot, wearing shorts and needle into it and off she goes wearing crocs and blue jeans, I really tell you what, I was wearing those waders this morning and I guarantee you I was every bit as wet from sweat when I come out in waders as they were.

Blake Moulton: Me too.

Ramsey Russell: They were probably one heck of a lot more cooler than I was.

Blake Moulton: Oh, absolutely. Nick, I remember seeing Nick as a year old kid throwing the cast net by itself barefooted, he was out there throwing the cast net and just somebody who loves the outdoors as much as he do I found a friend and Nick and so –

Ramsey Russell: Well, he was telling me while we were plucking ducks that his family was commercial fishermen.

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: So, when you say you see him out there casting nets, was that an association while his folks were doing something related to commercial fishing?

Blake Moulton: Not at that time, I mean it was just him on his own, he want – Nick would not stay in the house, Nick would have to be outside.

Ramsey Russell: I understood that barefoot little boy.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. And so, he’s running, anytime Nick had some free time, he was out by the water with the fishing pole or with the cast net, just trying his luck and so Nick’s grandfather, my mom’s dad, actually worked with Nick’s grandfather on some of those commercial boats, fishing and shrimping and oysters and just things like that, so I’ve known Nick’s family for a little while and my grandfather’s real good friends with Nick’s grandfather. So it’s amazing to see it coming back around, now the grandchildren are coming together and we’re starting on a hunting journey together traveling and things like that. So it’s really been amazing.

Ramsey Russell: Well, we’re sitting under a – you grew up, I guess in this community, we’re sitting under a live oak tree, not just north of Anahuac refuge that you told me the other day that 5 generations of your family have been right here, I know your granddaddy’s house right here was to replace the old family 5 generation home, that’s incredible.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. So this tree, my great grandmother, she would climb this tree whenever she was a little girl and my grandfather was born here in the original homestead, he was born right here at this house.

Ramsey Russell: Wow.

Blake Moulton: And so just this tree has been in the family for a long time and it means a lot. There’s been talks of cutting it down from hurricanes possibly falling on the houses and my grandfather’s not –

Ramsey Russell: Can’t do it.

Blake Moulton: He can’t do it.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I tell you what, if this tree could tell stories.

Blake Moulton: Oh, I know it has –

Ramsey Russell: The people and the barbecues and the family gatherings and the storms and just the nature and Lord knows what I mean, I wouldn’t dare guess how old this tree is, 100s of years old.

Blake Moulton: Oh, easily. My great grandmother who used to climb it as a child, she’s 108 now. But yeah, she climbed this tree as a little girl, so it was a full grown tree back then, so –

Ramsey Russell: Ain’t that something?

Blake Moulton: I could only imagine.

Ramsey Russell: Talk about this morning’s hunt, it was a really good hunt. I love kicking off the tour, coming to this part of Texas, southwest Louisiana, hop across the river into Texas, it’s same habitat, it’s always a lot of blue wings down in this part of the world, marsh, where we were hunting this morning, went to the edge of the road and cranked up your ranger drove in just a little bit and as it got daylight, I wondered how close we were to Galveston Bay and you pointed, said that some trees out there, I guess what a half mile maybe that far and somewhere between a quarter and a half mile, he said that’s it and it was amazing, it was a really good hunt, it was a different teal hunt.

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: Because I’m so used, especially this time of year I’m so used to blue wings coming in before you can shoot, splash on the water sometimes they so close and you had gone and parked a buggy and come back and we hadn’t seen a duck and they started moving a little bit and started moving a little bit more and they were trading that hard line down on that Galveston Bay and he said, well they’ll come up his cut and look and they did, the birds that came in come right up that cut, whooped around, come over to decoys and we had a great time. But I just remember about 08:00 you saying we’ve had a great hunt but we’re not done with a limit, why don’t we wait, give a 09:00 o’clock flight time? And boy, when you see flight kind of coming from behind you or in front of you or left or right, that’s when those birds, that’s when they were playing.

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: And it just flipped.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: It flipped, we went from not quite half a limit to by the limit, I mean, just like that and our shooting improved.

Blake Moulton: Yes, that helped too, that was a little rush, dude.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, my shooting improved, you all were shooting just fine and that made a heap of a difference, but how have you always teal hunted? Is that like something you grew up doing? Is that a part of duck hunting down here?

Blake Moulton: Yes, absolutely. Teal hunting is like the Mecca down here, it’s something growing up in that marsh. I’ve actually grew up in that marsh that we hunted this morning, so actually being able to go out there, study these birds, watch what these birds do year in, year out, it changes some, but throughout history and time, from what I’ve seen, those birds typically do that same thing, that same pattern, they’ll kind of buzz us early on that line that we were talking about on that bay and they’ll go sit down somewhere, but they’re definitely coming right back to – they’ve seen us.

Ramsey Russell: They’ve seen us.

Blake Moulton: They seen us and they know what they wanted, so they’re going out and they’re going to rest somewhere, they’re going to get down a little bit, but I know they’re going to come back and come right up.

Ramsey Russell: Is that a pretty typical setup, just go hide in the cane?

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: Take a knee.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. So anytime that I hunt, I like to keep it natural, just from hunting mallards all the way up in Arkansas and Montana and things like that, those mallards will pick you out soon as they make that 1^st pass.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, yeah.

Blake Moulton: And so from what I’ve seen and what I’ve learned from my grandfather, my dad and things like that, it, natural cover is the best way that you could do it, making everything look natural, those ducks are comfortable with coming in there, those ducks are – They’re not able to pick you out like that. And so that’s why I really enjoy using the natural cover around the area there to attract those birds and things like that.

Ramsey Russell: Teal hunting can be as simple as you want it to be.

Blake Moulton: Oh, absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: Especially teal, not the big duck so much, but especially teal that, what amazes me so much about this blue winged teal migration is, I’ve already heard reports south of Mazatlán, Mexico that the blue wing showed up about 3 weeks ago and I heard reports yesterday that there’s still blue wings up in Saskatchewan.

Blake Moulton: That’s amazing.

Ramsey Russell: So the teal we saw today, you remember those high flocks?

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: They may have been here, they may not have even stopped here, but they weren’t landing nowhere near us, they were gone.

Blake Moulton: They were out.

Ramsey Russell: And the teal that came in today may be gone tomorrow and may be replaced by some more teal coming in.

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: It’s such a pulse and a flow of teal that you can keep it simple, they’re really not pressured.

Blake Moulton: Not at all. So you might shoot at this group today and like you said, they’re gone tomorrow, you got a whole new crop coming in and so with the past 4 to 5 years that I’ve actually been traveling from north up in Montana and coming back down to see the species of birds that are still holding up and that we still have from shooting pintails in middle to late December, early January up in Montana and still having a ton of pintail down here on the coast, it makes you kind of question, where are these birds coming from? Where are these birds going? I have a lot of questions that I really want to dive into and studying these birds a little bit more.

Ramsey Russell: Yes. What was it like growing up here in Double Bayou as a youngster? I just say, like, what were you into, besides duck hunting? I mean, anything, what was it like growing up here? I got there this morning and you were pulling a big old coil of barbed wire out of the back of your truck, I’m like, we don’t need that this morning, do we?

Blake Moulton: No, if my grandfather was with us and we’re going out we need that with us because we were cattle farmers, my family cattle farmed for over 41 years out here.

Ramsey Russell: Wow.

Blake Moulton: And it was –

Ramsey Russell: You all still raised beef?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. And so my grandfather, whenever he had this idea of raising cattle, it started back then, he took in one cow, just got another bull, bred him and just continued to grow his herd throughout, switching out the bull and everything and now he’s running close to 200 to 300 head of cattle right now and so growing up here, that was our summers, we’re in the hay field or we’re out fixing fence or whatever, there’s always something new with the cow.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Blake Moulton: So he would essentially put us to work –

Ramsey Russell: Told you out there to the past.

Blake Moulton: And so, we didn’t argue, he’s a –

Ramsey Russell: He didn’t want to dust your pants?

Blake Moulton: Oh, no sir. That pants dusting is –

Ramsey Russell: He told me that story this morning, it was hilarious.

Blake Moulton: Yes. I never knew what that meant until it almost came time to it. I was, I was being hard headed and he’s like, listen here, I’m going to dust those pants and I never thought about it until I got older and I’m like, what does he mean by dusting pants? He would hit you so hard on your behind that it’ll knock the dust off your pants.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I asked you daddy Chris this morning he would describe him to granddaddy, who we’ll talk about in a minute and I said it’s just that generation, man, that generation is world’s greatest generation of American. I mean, it really wasn’t, but I asked your dad as he was telling those stories about your granddad, I said, did he spare the rod? He goes, no, but I was a quick learner.

Blake Moulton: It was the same thing for him.

Ramsey Russell: He said there weren’t no days off, your granddad just believed in work and that’s how he was raised.

Blake Moulton: Oh, absolutely. Fun was not really a thing in his vocabulary, it was more so, I’m raising young men and I know what the world has to offer for young men out there and I don’t want you to be a part of that.

Ramsey Russell: He ain’t scared to work.

Blake Moulton: Yes, and so regardless of whatever type of job we have, if it’s using the shovel or flipping a burger or whatever he taught us to work hard and so he said, you can – He also taught us to never quit and if you’re going to do something, always be the best at it, so we never had that opportunity to just say we’re going to go halfway into something.

Ramsey Russell: That was a great life lesson, aren’t they?

Blake Moulton: Absolutely and I’m so thankful for him.

Ramsey Russell: How did you get into duck hunting?

Blake Moulton: So that story is, duck hunting has been a family tradition for me, it’s been passed down from great grandfather to grandfather.

Ramsey Russell: All right here.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. All right here in Double Bayou.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Blake Moulton: And my grandfather actually took it to that next level of becoming a guide.

Ramsey Russell: He did?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. Right out here at the Jackson ranch. He would take out a couple of different executives for these different chemical plants around this area and he just really had a passion for it and it his grandfather kind of taught him about the hunting and everything like that, but he took it to that next level and really enjoyed what he did, one of the things that he tell me every morning before he would get up and go to work, he would walk around the roads here and he’ll have his little 22 and he would go shoot rabbits and he sold rabbit meat and skins to help pay for his first car.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. Right out here and so back then, he also guided, but he also took the time to teach my dad and my uncle how to hunt and the importance of conservation and things like that around this area.

Ramsey Russell: Wow. How did you get started? I mean, your great granddaddy kind of – for 5 generations, you all been right here in double bow cattle and other interest, somebody you were telling me about was a forester, a logger.

Blake Moulton: Yes. So that’s –

Ramsey Russell: And I mean, so you all have always been close to land and I get that and your great granddaddy taught your granddaddy, who taught your daddy. How were you brought into it?

Blake Moulton: So my dad took me on my 1^st deer hunt at 3 years old, so –

Ramsey Russell: 3 years old.

Blake Moulton: He packed me to the blind and I didn’t go on my first duck hunt till I was 5, so that was around 2002 and I remember him packing me to the blind and carrying me out there, right out in that area where we were hunting at today and so that’s why that marsh is so important to me, because my dad grew up hunting there –

Ramsey Russell: Right when we hunted today?

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: That same bottom.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir, right there and so he would pack me out there and now that I put on a little bit of weight, I pack him out.

Ramsey Russell: You pack him out there, I see that, do you remember your first duck?

Blake Moulton: My first duck was a gadwall, I remember it like it was yesterday about that.

Ramsey Russell: Tell me about that.

Blake Moulton: So the actual, it was another 12 gauge, it was my dad’s 12 gauge and I think he was kind of mean for putting me on that 12 gauge at 5 years old, but I was sitting on a bucket and a gadwall lighted right in the decoys.

Ramsey Russell: Just like we did this morning.

Blake Moulton: Just like we did this morning.

Ramsey Russell: Sitting right there in the tule’s.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: On a bucket.

Blake Moulton: On a bucket.

Ramsey Russell: With some decoys out front and a little opening.

Blake Moulton: yes, sir. And so that gadwall lighted right in the decoys, he got me lined up, kind of sat, kind of off to the side, I think he knew what he was doing, so whenever I pulled the trigger, I fell flat on my back right off the bucket –

Ramsey Russell: Into the water.

Blake Moulton: Into the water, didn’t know if I shot the duck or not, I look up and the duck was dead on the water. But he was laughing, I was laughing, I was kind of scared because the gun kicked pretty hard. But, by the time I stood up and came to, I was like, oh, I did shoot my first duck.

Ramsey Russell: Was that first time you’d ever pull the trigger on that shotgun?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: First time I ever pulled a trigger with a Model 12, I just remembered this story, my daddy, we going out to a barbecue south of Greenville and the man was just out here shooting clay targets and I wanted to shoot the gun, so he did the same thing, he put the gun up, held it to me, he said, pull the trigger, I pulled the trigger, I didn’t ask no more, not about the same, just shooting up in the air versus seeing a duck, that’s totally different.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Totally different.

Blake Moulton: Real different, I think he knew what he was doing in that time. He knew that was a little bit too much gun for me, I mean, what was maybe I £50 or so? And so, it was absolutely amazing that from that day forward, I knew that I was going to be a duck hunter.

Ramsey Russell: When did, like okay, you were 5 years old, you go out, you shoot a gadwall, did you continue going with him habitually at that point or did you get older and start going when did you kind of become a duck hunter? Now you weren’t shooting dad’s gun, now you’re shooting your gun.

Blake Moulton: Yes. So at 5 years old, I shot that duck and just after that, every trip that he would take, I wanted to be right there next beside him, duck hunting and it was an amazing bonding time for me and my father, with him and his father and brother and then my brother, he was 3 years younger than me and then once he got older, he started to join us in the hunts and things like that. But from that day, I knew that’s what I was going to do, I was going to duck hunt.

Ramsey Russell: You all didn’t take rangers out there to the marsh, did you?

Blake Moulton: Oh no, sir.

Ramsey Russell: You all just park, just walk out there?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. Just walk.

Ramsey Russell: It didn’t bother you a bit?

Blake Moulton: Well, I was getting carried.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Blake Moulton: I was riding on his back. So whenever I started getting old enough to pack my own self and he was still packing the decoys and then as I got older and older, I started to notice, I started getting more responsibilities of carrying decoys, guns, shells, and –

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, that’s how it goes, it’s just, you grow into it a little bit.

Blake Moulton: Yes. And just coming from – where I came from we never really had that money to buy the expensive wader, so some mornings I get up first thing in the morning and I’m tying grocery bags around my feet to put in my waders to keep my feets dry.

Ramsey Russell: Been there, done that.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. And so it really taught me the love of the outdoors right there, regardless of what it was, I was going to make sure that I was going to get out there and do some hunting.

Ramsey Russell: What’s your favorite story, hunting with your daddy?

Blake Moulton: I know of one story that it couldn’t have been no better, my brother had persuaded my grandfather to come with us.

Ramsey Russell: Okay. I was going to ask you, had you ever hunted with your granddaddy?

Blake Moulton: Yes. So, my brother actually persuaded my grandfather in a bet, he told my grandfather if he didn’t come hunting with him this season, that he was going to get his wingmaster from him and my grandfather was like, okay. And at the time he would say I’m going to go ahead and give you the gun, but he ended up coming out with us and so, I mean, this day, it was just like any other day, but for some reason, those ducks wanted to be right there where we were, we threw out 2 decoys.

Ramsey Russell: Was it a teal hunt or big duck hunt?

Blake Moulton: Big duck.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Blake Moulton: And my dad, he threw out 2 decoys, we got set, it was me and my brother and my grandfather and I mean, soon as daylight hit, I mean, soon as shooting time hit, we, me and my dad and my grandfather, I mean, we probably had 6 ducks on the water before my dad got the 3^rd decoy out and so he came back into the blind and I mean, 2 decoys and we hit our limit within 10 minutes and so that was actually one of my last hunts with my grandfather.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: And he was hunting?

Blake Moulton: Yes, he was shooting.

Ramsey Russell: He still had that killer instinct.

Blake Moulton: Yeah, he still had that –

Ramsey Russell: That brought him out of retirement, he wasn’t going to just watch.

Blake Moulton: I seen him. He was shooting doubles and triples and I’m like, man at his age, he still had it.

Ramsey Russell: Wow.

Blake Moulton: And just after that hunt, he stayed to his word and even though he came hunting with us, he still gave my brother that wingmaster right there.

Ramsey Russell: What wingmaster were you shooting this morning?

Blake Moulton: So that wingmaster was another one that he had that he would guide with.

Ramsey Russell: He was a Remington Wingmaster?

Blake Moulton: Oh, yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: That was his thing, he liked those pumps.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. And so it’s the gun that I use, it’s the gun that I love and so I’ve shot semis before duck hunting, but it’s something I have more of a connection with that pump right there and I just can’t give it up.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I mean, it’s crazy how something as inanimate as a shotgun like a hammer, we become attached to that kind of stuff because of this story, because that relationship.

Blake Moulton: Absolutely. He, that gun, I know has been with me everywhere on every single trip, wherever I go, I make sure that that gun is with me and it’s something that I keep near and dear to me.

Ramsey Russell: Do you shoot it just on special occasions or is that just your go to shotgun?

Blake Moulton: Oh, that’s just my go to shotgun. I make sure that I keep it clean after today after this hunt this morning, being in that saltwater marsh is kind of rough on those guns but I come in and clean it up, break it down every single hunt and make sure that I stay on top of keeping that gun clean.

Ramsey Russell: Ain’t that something?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: You grew up right there around, not far from your granddad, he lives here, you live just down the road there and I tell you what, I’m glad I wasn’t you growing up your high school principal live right next door. Man, I’d have stayed in trouble.

Blake Moulton: My dad would always tell me Steph will make it to this house before 2 shakes of a lamb –

Ramsey Russell: You won’t be off bush, we don’t know about it.

Blake Moulton: Yeah. So we and I’m thankful for that, as it says it takes a village to raise a child and so Double Bayou you being the type of community it is everybody kept me in check, kept me in line.

Ramsey Russell: It takes a community to raise a child.

Blake Moulton: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: There ain’t enough village.

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: In the world day to raise children.

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: But you all got it right here in this community.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir and the thing was here, I used to think it was people were mean here. But it didn’t matter if it was mama or daddy, it could be a cousin up the street or somebody down the road, if you were acting up, they had the right to whip you right then and there, yeah. So I made sure –

Ramsey Russell: How quick a learner were you?

Double Bayou Memories: A Place to Practice Manners.

If we were coming down here to the swimming pool or going down to get a snow cone at right here in Double Bayou I made sure that I had my manners, yes ma’am, no ma’am, Yes, sir, no sir.

Blake Moulton: Just as quick as my dad, it was one of those things, so if we were coming down here to the swimming pool or going down to get a snow cone at right here in Double Bayou I made sure that I had my manners, yes ma’am, no ma’am, Yes, sir, no sir. Because I knew at any moment anybody could have the right to give me a spanking and whenever I got home, I was going to get a spanking there, so I made sure that I was respectful, well-mannered and things like that because I’m a reflection of my parents and grandparents as well.

Ramsey Russell: Why ain’t that the truth?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: That is absolutely the truth. Your daddy told a story, your daddy, Chris, because he was talking about, you were telling me you had to get up early, you went to work, your dad grew up the same way under – your granddaddy was his daddy and he was a hard man, he said he was a hard worker, that’s all he knew was hard work.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: And he told the most amazing story, your granddad was 8 years old when his father died.

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: And he became the man of the house.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: And it didn’t break him, it built him.

Blake Moulton: It built him, Yes, sir. It really did, so my great grandmother, his mother would work 2 to 3 jobs, sometimes I remember him telling me stories about her working some of these hunt parties here to where she would go and clean ducks for people, it might have been like 50 cents or 75 cents a duck, something like that, but she would go out and clean ducks, she did whatever she had to do to provide for him and his brothers and sisters as well and so he did what he had to do to help take care of the house and raise his siblings as well because he was the oldest there at the time.

Ramsey Russell: You told stories about him walking around shooting rabbits and skinning rabbits to make money, what are some of the other stories about him growing up he shared with you?

Blake Moulton: I know that he started learning how to shoot with the BB gun, he got in trouble for learning how to shoot, he started shooting the glass bottles around the yard and stuff and he got in big trouble for that, breaking the glass with the BB guns and things. But I’m trying to think, he’s told me so many stories over the years.

Ramsey Russell: How about you start like this, how did he end up becoming a duck guide for a bunch of old executives?

Blake Moulton: He lives next door to the Jacksons and so –

Ramsey Russell: Which are who?

Blake Moulton: Which are one of the Jacksons pretty much own what they call JHK Ranch back in the day.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Blake Moulton: And so some of the property where Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge is right now, they donated some of that property.

Ramsey Russell: Really? That must have been a massive estate.

Blake Moulton: Oh yes, sir. And so, the Jacksons were the family to be around back then, they had multiple different industries and jobs that they could provide to people around the Double Bayou area and so as a young –

Ramsey Russell: I guess they were one of the largest landowners.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir, around this area and so as a young kid in school, if you wanted to make some money go to the Jacksons, there’s anything that you could do, you could be a duck guide, you could go work cattle, you could do anything you wanted over there and so he wanted to become a duck guide and –

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: If I could, because his daddy had taught him about duck hunting or he was just good at it or it sure beats hanging barbed wire, I mean, I guess it does, after walking around helping char dog pick up ducks, I don’t know how much I like that walking to part of world.

Blake Moulton: And he’s told me about some of these marshes out here, how relentless they are with that bog and things like that, but he said if he had the chance to do it again, he would definitely do it again to guide and just having that passion for chasing those birds and so whenever he was young, he started, he wanted to become a guide and I want to say back in the 50s and things like that.

Ramsey Russell: Is that when he was guiding?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: The 50s and 60s?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. Back in late 50s or 60s –

Ramsey Russell: Late 50s would have been a whole lot of pasture and a whole lot of rice.

Blake Moulton: Yes, this area has completely changed from then.

Ramsey Russell: Rice capital of Texas back in the day.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. From all that area, from where we hunted back up north to 562, all the way down in Anahuac was and even parts of Mont Belvieu was all of this area was rice through here, all the way from Mont Belvieu to Winnie and everything like that. So as we’re, where I10 is, I10 did not exist back then, it was always Highway 90 and so down here, the rice fields were spanned from Mont Belvieu all the way down to Winnie out there and even parts of Beaumont and Fannett and things like that, so you had one of the major food sources for birds to come down here.

Ramsey Russell: And plus you had the marsh, I mean, just all right there, the whole habitat complex, man.

Blake Moulton: Exactly.

Ramsey Russell: Did he ever tell, like, maybe around the time you and your brother and daddy and he would have gone out, he was knocking those birds down at an older age, did he share any stories about then versus way back when all that ross was around? Did he share stories about the number of birds and the geese or did anything change or anything?

Blake Moulton: Absolutely, so he would tell us back in those times, whenever he hunted the amount of mallards that were down in the state –

Ramsey Russell: Mallard?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir, big mallards. He would always tell us to scare the teal out the hole because whenever we go out and hunt, we’re shooting teal, we’ll shoot a few spoonies here and there and mainly gadwall and wigeon and –

Ramsey Russell: More gadwall and wigeon and pintail.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Blake Moulton: And he would tell us, let some of those little teal get out and you get your big ducks and I’m like, man, I’m just trying to get a duck, but he would tell me how the mallards were real plentiful down and that was mainly the duck that you –

Ramsey Russell: That was what they were after mallards back in the 50s and 60s, that is amazing.

Blake Moulton: And he would tell us the snow geese down here, I remember as a child coming up, I remember it was a real foggy morning and it was a little bit more rice thin and I remember people used to hit snow geese on the roads with their vehicles, they would light on the road, the street lights would kind of like –

Ramsey Russell: Make it look like water.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. And so they’ll come through and hit them with their car and I haven’t seen that here in a long time.

Ramsey Russell: Since you were a child?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. And even before in his time, he said it was a lot more geese thin and I mean, last season I may be seen 3 or 4 snows come through, like where we were hunting at, but just compared to the stories that he tell me of seeing the geese, the mallards and even speckle bellies down here like that, you just don’t see that no more.

Ramsey Russell: Just the ducks.

Blake Moulton: Just the ducks.

Ramsey Russell: Did he tell stories back in the 60s, 70s or did your dad, I mean, did they hunt teal in September from the get go or did that just something they casually did? Has it been a big part of you all’s family culture to go out during the teal season or just the big duck season or the goose season?

Blake Moulton: Mainly just the big duck season, he really didn’t go after – he really didn’t tell me too much about the teal season. But during big duck season that was the main thing and every November, the day of Thanksgiving, our family tradition is going out to the blind the whole family, so now it’s me, my dad, my brother, my uncles and things like that, we would go out to the blind and back then we would typically get a goose that Thanksgiving day for some reason, I don’t know why, but we would always get a goose on Thanksgiving day.

Ramsey Russell: A tradition?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: A snow goose.

Blake Moulton: Yes. And it was part of our Thanksgiving dinner we’ll bring it here and my grandmother, she would stew it up and that was one of my favorite memories right there with the outdoors.

Ramsey Russell: Ain’t that something? That’s a good memory, thank you for sharing that. You showed me one of your granddaddy’s goose guns, I’ve seen hell guns like that before, it is, I believe, a Marlin Goose Gun, Bolt Action with a magazine and a 30, some odd, 36?

Blake Moulton: 36, yes.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, a yardstick line barrel and did he ever tell you stories about wing shooting with that? Did he use that gun back in the heyday?

Black-Bellied Whistling Duck: An Unexpected Visitor.

I got off of work and I was messing around, I went and put the Mojo out in the yard right off the front porch and a black bellied whistling duck landed right in the yard.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. He said, he would tell me how he would bring that gun out there and whenever he would pull that gun up to shoot at something, he said it didn’t matter how high it was with that gun, he was going to get it down  and so for us to actually have it and just last year we had a heavy rain during the season and I think it was either a Monday or Tuesday, I got off of work and I was messing around, I went and put the Mojo out in the yard right off the front porch and a black bellied whistling duck landed right in the yard and I grabbed the first gun that I saw, which was the goose gun, it ain’t hard to miss that gun and so I put one shell in it and shot and killed a duck with that goose gun.

Ramsey Russell: How far was it?

Blake Moulton: Oh yeah, I give them a good 55, 60 yards.

Ramsey Russell: I would, if I were you, I’d have to take that gun out where we hunted this morning and I’d have to shoot a limited duck with it.

Blake Moulton: Oh yes, I want to take it out there to Montana with me and take it on the Canada goose hunt out there.

Ramsey Russell: I absolutely would do that, of course, with the modern loads they got today, of course, that gun was made back in the lead days, I bet he was shooting lead for us, I bet he was, 2 and 3 quarter inch.

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: And modern ammo, modern waterfowl cartridges evolved so much, boy, I tell you what, some of them number 4 Boss, Warchiefs, 2 and 3 quarter inch would put a whooping.

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: I want to see the pictures, I’m trying to say and you brought out 3 duck calls that were his and it didn’t surprise me one bit that they were Faulks, right here, right in your backyard, basically like Charter right over here and there were a cane call and 2 other wooden calls and that was his calls.

Blake Moulton: Yes. And you know what’s interesting, those calls still work to this day –

Ramsey Russell: Of course, it do.

Blake Moulton: And that was, his go to call was Faulks and it’s crazy to see the type of calling that we do now with the feed calls and just the different runs and things like that that we’ll do, hail calls and everything and he would always get mad at me and he’s like, look you don’t need all that to kill ducks, all you need is just a simple quack and you’ll get those ducks right in.

Ramsey Russell: Did he call when you went hunting with him at time?

Blake Moulton: No sir, he let me do the calling. He let me, my dad and my brother do the calling. But –

Ramsey Russell: And quit all that high pollution stuff.

Blake Moulton: Oh yeah, he doesn’t like that, that gets him upset. He’s like, oh, you’re just showing off now, keep it simple, ducks are something simple and just give it some simple quacks and maybe a chuckle here and there, but that’s all you really need to kill those ducks and so now you take it into times of today of what we do and how much it has evolved into what it is today with the calling, it’s to a science now.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, it’s unbelievable. Well, it depends on who’s calling, I mean, sometimes it’s a musical competition the repertoire that doesn’t sound anything like a duck, but you want to hit them notes and hit them peaks and hit them valleys and master the call and more than you want to sound like a duck.

Blake Moulton: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: Sometimes and I did go to a meat calling contest at – Lord have mercy, I didn’t want to do it, I’m like, who am I to be judging these folks, buddy? I tell you what they were doing some duck calling, goose calling up on stage up in eastern Maryland, live duck calling and you’re sitting in a little booth and when those 2 boys would walk out on stage, it sounded like a flock of mallards had just pitched in, it was amazing, I wondered if, did you, should I ask your daddy this? Because we talk about how your granddad was, became the man of the house at 8 years old and it defined his life, he was a hard worker and still is, I suppose, but I just wonder, be one thing taking some old executives out on a guide to that duck hunt, be something else use his little boy.

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, he had to approach duck hunting the same going through that godless marsh that ain’t got a bottom in play, he had to have approach the same way he did every other thing in his life, I wonder if your daddy ever said what it was like to be around granddaddy when he was young and taking the kids out hunting on a mission to kill ducks and geese. I bet he approached it full on. Hard core.

Blake Moulton: Oh yes, he would tell me it was no time for play place, it is straight business when it comes to ducking hunting.

Ramsey Russell: It wasn’t a social call.

Blake Moulton: It’s like, hey, we’re coming in, we got a job to do and we’re going to perform to the best of our abilities to get this done and so even though you would have your fun, he’s in that era of, the way we breast our ducks now, oh, I’ve got so many fussings from him with how I breast my ducks now.

Ramsey Russell: How did he do it?

Blake Moulton: He just strictly plucking.

Ramsey Russell: Plucking. My granddaddy was the same way.

Blake Moulton: And so he would tell me you’re wasting so much meat with the legs and –

Ramsey Russell: So much good meat.

Blake Moulton: Yeah, good meat and I’ll get my feed sack anytime, because after we finished the hunt, whenever he stopped hunting, we would have to come here because he just wanted to see what we got for the day, what we harvested and so we would always keep him involved even though he couldn’t go anymore, we’ll come here and we’ll show him the birds that we harvested for the day and he’s just as excited as if he went on the hunt.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Blake Moulton: And so, he would say man –

Ramsey Russell: If he had been around, he’d enjoyed coming up and seeing us come in with those ducks.

Blake Moulton: Oh, absolutely, I would have brought him here first, this would have been my first check in earlier. Yes, sir, I would have made sure that I brought him by to see what we got in and he’ll kind of give us some advice of what he’s thinking or what we should do better.

Ramsey Russell: What we could have done better.

Blake Moulton: Yes. And he’ll hand us our feed sack and we’ll start plucking our ducks right here in the garage.

Ramsey Russell: Your daddy got up and went to church this morning, sinners went off to the duck hole and he said, but I did say a prayer for you, I said, well, thank you very much, it worked.

Blake Moulton: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: I know exactly when you said it. We started seeing ducks, they started cooperating.

Blake Moulton: Oh, yes. They finally started to do what they were supposed to do.

Ramsey Russell: When he said a prayer before we left because as we were leaving, that’s what got me, is you talked about that 09:00 flight, Blake, but as we were leaving at 09:45, man, they really started flying.

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: I don’t know if everybody was late, but man, there was a lot of flock, I mean, we were picking up decoy, we had 4 or 5 of them buzzers.

Blake Moulton: And directly in front of where we’re hunting right there, there’s a spot called Moody’s Lake and –

Ramsey Russell: Is it public?

Blake Moulton: It’s private, it’s deemed like a sanctuary out there.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, okay.

Blake Moulton: And so there’s been multiple stories that I’ve heard about this lake out here from my grandfather and just other people around the community of Double Bayou and Anahuac, the story goes that there were so many canvasbacks sitting on this lake that whenever they jumped up, it created a rainbow in the sky, that it was that many canvasback there and so now it’s crazy that that story is being told, but now we don’t see the canvasback like that either. We’ll get them every now and then, but we’re not seeing just huge numbers of canvasback.

Ramsey Russell: Because Rob Sawyer’s been on here several times, 100 years of Texas waterfowling, he’s told a story about the canvasback wars around Port Arthur, I mean, just that was a big freaking deal back in the day, they were getting top dollar and the sports fighting with the market hunters over just rafts and he wrote a book about the Tarpon Club and that was just unbelievable, the rafts of divers and ducks, they saw it in that area back then, back in the late 1800, early 1900s, it was incredible.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. And that’s one big thing my grandfather stays on us about is identifying those birds while they’re flying, because whenever he was hunting, it was on the point system, so you had to identify your birds in the air while they were flying and coming in, because you can shoot a pintail that’s X amount of points and you could probably only shoot one more bird and be done for the day.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Blake Moulton: And so, he would always tell me the importance of identifying your birds before you squeeze that trigger.

Ramsey Russell: It happens, but I’m sure somewhere it happens, but it’s kind of hard to tell difference in blue wing teal and the mottled duck.

Blake Moulton: It is.

Ramsey Russell: But this morning we saw blue wings killed a green wing, there were pintail, there were mottled ducks, there were whistling ducks, I mean, it is, I’ve heard about some of these splash limits and I’m all about getting more people into duck hunting period into discussion, but at the same time, it’s like to me, identifying ducks and foggy and low light, whatever they’re doing on the water, flying, whatever, that’s just almost like one of the foundations of duck hunting. And it comes with experience, it comes with trying, it comes with restraint, you get to figure all that stuff out.

Blake Moulton: Yes. My dad, he actually carried that same ideology on as well make sure you’re identifying these birds, so whenever we were hunting with them and as a kid, we’ll see these cormorants flying through and I’m like, dad, look, that’s a duck there and he’s like, know your birds and so that was one of the things that me and my brother actually would take the time to go sit out in the marsh, season or not, just identifying these birds as they’re coming in, we’ll throw some decoys out just to watch the birds come in and we’ll call a little bit and just listening to how they talk on the water, listen to the calls that they make and different things like that, just actually studying those birds, so whenever it comes to calling and different things, how do these birds interact naturally? And so, we kind of implement that into our hunting style now is trying to keep it natural, try to keep it, what they would actually do.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Who was your great granddaddy? You told me that story and I want to tell the story because I think it’s such an amazing story, this would have been your granddaddy’s granddaddy.

Blake Moulton: Great granddaddy.

Ramsey Russell: Great granddaddy.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: We’re going way back, it’d be your granddaddy’s great granddaddy.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: And that’s kind of how your family got started here in Double Bayou. Who was he?

Blake Moulton: So his name was Monty Humphrey, he was born into slavery back in 1862 –

Ramsey Russell: Here in Texas?

Blake Moulton: So he was born, there’s different reports saying that he was born in Tennessee, there’s different reports saying –

Ramsey Russell: Pull a little closer, a bit, go ahead, yeah, right there.

Blake Moulton: There were different reports saying that he was born in Tennessee, there’s different reports saying he was born out in Louisiana and just a bunch of different stories and the most recent one that we had is that he was born here in Texas.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Blake Moulton: So I don’t know the exact location. I cant –

Ramsey Russell: This real good record, apparently.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. And so, I kind of question if he was born here, right here, where the whole family has been throughout and I’m pretty sure there’s different stories saying that he was born right here, but we have, he was one of the first black ranch ramrods so far on record in the state of Texas.

Ramsey Russell: You showed me a story one time and that was the Jackson Ranch back in the old days, what ranch would that have been?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir, the Jackson Ranch, so it was called JHK Ranch back then.

Ramsey Russell: Turn in to, whatever the era, he was a black cowhand –

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Predominantly white, I’m guessing.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: And the way that story went is the head boss came in, the owner came in one day and announced to the cowhands, you all got a new foreman and if you don’t like it, leave.

Blake Moulton: Leave, yes.

Ramsey Russell: And he introduce your granddaddy.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. And so just from then he always had a – from what the stories are told is that he truly loved the ranch and his job of what he was doing, of being a foreman out there working cattle.

Ramsey Russell: How big would that ranch have been? How many people would he have been? I mean, how many head of cattle? How many people? Well, we’re not talking 500 acres.

Blake Moulton: No.

Ramsey Russell: We’re talking tens of thousands.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Massive.

Blake Moulton: We’re talking 1000s of head of cattle as well.

Ramsey Russell: 1000s of heads.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. So there’s a story of when Frozen Point down there at the refuge, anytime you go to the refuge, you could either take a left and go all the way to the end and that’s called Frozen Point down there and so the story is said that they were trying to push the cattle up and they were trying to get them out there because cold weather or bad weather was coming in, so they got them out there to the bay right there on Frozen Point and it supposedly froze the entire bay or parts of that bay froze up right there and killed a lot of their cattle out there. And that’s where that name, Frozen Point comes from out there.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I am back in the good old days.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: I bet the mallards were down here then.

Blake Moulton: I bet.

Ramsey Russell: So what was their family stories? Did he hunt? I bet not.

Blake Moulton: And so that’s something that we’re trying to dive into more to actually see if he did hunt because some of the area that he managed for the ranch is still some of the area that we hunt today and so I just know that this area has always held ducks, so I’m pretty sure back then, the weather conditions and things like that, I’m pretty sure he would have hunted at some point in time.

Ramsey Russell: You sent me an article one time about him, he was, he must have had a backbone, like a piece of drill film.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: He was a tough character.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. So they always talked about his curse words –

Ramsey Russell: He was tough, profane.

Blake Moulton: Yes, he was a real tough.

Ramsey Russell: Except in the presence of ladies.

Blake Moulton: Exactly. Yes, sir. And –

Ramsey Russell: I guess you had to be back in that day to do this job. I mean, like you were talking just today, you all have cows get bogged down this marsh, you have to go pull out or they die.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: And he was responsible for thousands of heads of cattle, a lot of men that may have resented him being their boss, I think you had to be tough to do that kind of stuff.

Blake Moulton: Absolutely. And I can draw that correlation from the stories that are told about him to my grandfather today because when we had to work those cattle he meant business and being a little kid working cattle all day, if you let a cow slip by you, my grandfather was going to let you know that you messed up and then he’ll holler at you and things like that like get in front of that cow, but those stories correlate to Monty.

Ramsey Russell: My just got handed down generation.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir, and so they would tell us these stories about Monty and you –

Ramsey Russell: What are some of the other stories you’ve heard?

Blake Moulton: Some of the other stories, so the way that I found out, one of the stories about how he passed away was that he was actually riding the horse and got drugged to death by that horse.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: Did he fall off or –

Blake Moulton: That’s what they said, his foot got hung up in the stirrup and the horse took off and drug him to death.

Ramsey Russell: When did they find him? How old would he have been?

Blake Moulton: Let me, that I’m not too sure of, but I know they said he was probably like around 77.

Ramsey Russell: Golly, still out there cowboying.

Blake Moulton: Still out there cowboying, Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Getting up on a horse.

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, I mean it takes a little mobility, a little practice, but 77 years old, he was still mounting up.

Blake Moulton: He was still mounting up on the horse –

Ramsey Russell: He was probably out there checking fences.

Blake Moulton: Oh, I’m pretty sure and from what they were saying, he was getting ready for a normal day. And that horse ended up, I don’t know what actually happened, but I know that they said his foot got hung up in the stirrup and that’s what eventually ended up happening.

Ramsey Russell: You were telling me a story this morning, we were driving out and you were waving your arms kind of saying at the shadows are going by on both sides of headlights out in this dark road, you’re saying this ranch here, was this here – would that have been the ranch he worked on?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir, that would have been parts of it.

Ramsey Russell: Yes, sir, that would have been part of it.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: And who owned that ranch back then? Who was the landowner back in those days because you tell them I’m leading into another story, but that’s still the Jackson?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. That’s still the Jacksons and so they still are managing a couple of 1000 acres and running cattle, leasing out property for people to run their cattle out there as well.

Ramsey Russell: So when in relation of Monty being the cowboy, Monty the cowboy, the great granddaddy, in what relation to that timeline did the story take place this morning where you were showing me, on one side of road, they deeded a lot of land to recent freedmen and who would had that ranch and where in relation of a timeline, did that take place with respect to Monty, the former slave cowboy?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. It would have been right around that time and so –

Ramsey Russell: Now listen folks here’s where things get interesting.

Blake Moulton: Anytime you get into that family lineage it kind of, but at that point in time, the freedmen would take in all of that land so their father was essentially who owned them at the time before, so their father messed with the slaves, had the 2^nd set of Jacksons and then you had the white set of Jacksons, so you had a black set of Jacks.

Ramsey Russell: So there were white Jacksons that cohabitated or had relations.

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: With slaves or freed slaves that then adopted the name Jackson because that was the father of the child.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Okay, now make a sense.

Blake Moulton: And so just as time went on, he deeded some of that property to his family down here and he would give that to the freedmen and that was all considered the marshaling.

Ramsey Russell: Just worthless cow grass, marsh ducks, mosquitoes.

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Blake Moulton: And so he would pretty much deeded that out to them and the upland and things like that was real that you could farm cattle grazing, he had gave that to his other family.

Ramsey Russell: It’s crazy that he transferred the mental rights to, but he did. They were family, he had obligations, must have been an upstanding kind of guy, I mean, but he deeded not just a little land, we ain’t talking about an acre or 2 or 48, we talking about 1000s of acres.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: He deeded to these black Jackson as you call them and then what happens? One day, a knock on the door –

Blake Moulton: Yes. So then they get that knock, that this property down here is holding natural gas and oil and minerals and things like that out here.

Ramsey Russell: I’m kind of hearing the fiddles playing like Beverly Hills, here we go, I mean, then what happened?

Blake Moulton: Yes. And so pretty much this, the Jackson family became one of the wealthiest black families in the state of Texas and they were –

Ramsey Russell: Which says a lot to be anywhere near the top of wealthy in Texas.

Blake Moulton: And so there’s an article written up in Ebony magazine about him, at that time, his name was OSI Jackson, who was running everything –

Ramsey Russell: What was his relation to Monty?

Blake Moulton: Not that I know of, but OSI Jackson pretty much was one of the ones, OSI was born in 1904 and so OSI is one of my grandfather’s best friends and that’s how my grandfather gets involved into the guiding industry and so one of those things right there, he really enjoyed that. And so OSI Jackson started to take things to the next level to really –

Ramsey Russell: I’m just trying to make sense now, because a white Jackson, black Jackson and the Jackson that had all the land, that was a place to go knock on the door and get a job, that was the black Jackson.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. And so essentially what had happened was they had made all of their money from oil and gas.

Ramsey Russell: Heck yeah.

Blake Moulton: And they are still pumping oil and gas today, but during that time, they were able to have race horses and malls and just things like that.

Ramsey Russell: A lot of investment.

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: Anything they wanted.

Blake Moulton: Yes. And my dad, he would tell me stories about some of the Dallas Cowboys coming down here and staying with them, staying with the Jacksons out here and Dionne Warwick coming down here as well, just they were on that type of status of wealth for around this area.

Ramsey Russell: What gets me about it is, who lived in this house, right behind his other tree, there’s a homestead and he said that, who lived there?

Blake Moulton: That was OSI Jackson.

Ramsey Russell: And here’s what I’m saying is for one of the wealthiest men in the state of Texas, that’s a very, I’m thinking it may have been a lot like your granddaddy’s house right here, it is very modest home, just a home, but it was his home.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. That was the ranch house right there.

Ramsey Russell: And they might have had shopping malls and they might have had investments and they might have all royalties coming in, but they lived like they’d always lived, it says a lot about the character of somebody.

Blake Moulton: Absolutely, Osi was –

Ramsey Russell: So was it that Door that people would knock on when they needed a job, I want to be a duck guide, I want to be a cowhand, I’m trying to save up for college, that’s who they went, they knock on that door right there.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir, right there and they really helped out the community of Double Bayou, just offering those jobs and things like that, it was amazing to see at this point in time, this community thriving the way it was and based off of one family and so my grandfather and cousins and uncles and everything like that, they worked for the Jacksons.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. And that’s how they made their living and that’s how they got by.

Ramsey Russell: Did your dad ever work for the Jacksons?

Blake Moulton: So my dad never worked for him, as time went on just the operations weren’t as big as it was like that, but they really enjoyed, my grandfather, he was the one who really got to experience it in that golden era and just later on my dad took a different route and he started going to college at Sam Houston and my uncle went and ran track at Arkansas State, so they kind of took it a different route and they, my grandfather, he’s the one with the stories about the Jacksons and everything like that.

Ramsey Russell: We stopped on the drive over from your house to your grandparents house to sit up under this tree right now and record and we stopped at a blues house down the road here and it’s, man, it’s just a metal roof sitting on the ground, now, you set up standing about 3 years ago and there’s a historical sign right there that alludes to the Jacksons and the upbringing and the development of this community and that all spawned from this deeding of land and this one family.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. And so that building there was the Double Bayou Dance Hall, one of the things that they consider it is one of the oldest blues bars in Texas. So one of the prominent blues players there was, goes by the name of Pete Mayes.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Blake Moulton: And so, Pete Mayes, he played, he had his start right there at Double Bayou’s dance hall and later on that was the place to be for everybody down here and so pretty much Double Bayou had their store right across, like right down the road, they had their school there, they had the swimming pool there as well. So it was a nice community with those things. And I learned –

Ramsey Russell: I mean, was this still thriving, like a gravel lot going at it when you were growing up, you’re a young man, 26, 27, so it was still going as recently as that?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir, and the young woman who was running it at that time she ended up passing away from a car accident and just after that, that’s when everything –

Ramsey Russell: Door shut, fell in.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Joe Briscoe took me by there last year because he’s a blues fan, I am too and I love Texas blues and he showed me that last year, he said it was a real big deal back in what they called the Chitlins tour.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: And he said, man, this was, he said if they were on that tour, they’d come by this place, he said, we’re out in the middle of nowhere, it looks like, but this was the place to be.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. That a lot of other different artists, blues artists would come in and different things like that, even up here, we would have the rodeos here, we would have rodeos and Double Bayou and things like that, which I wasn’t around for those rodeos, but my dad and uncle would tell me about sitting up under this tree right here as a little kid, listening to the announcer at those rodeos down there as well.

Ramsey Russell: Right here?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: And right now, you all got the Gatorfest going on. I missed it this time, but apparently, it’s a pretty big deal.

Blake Moulton: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: Nick come rolling in from the Gatorfest and went right back to it after the ducks were plugged.

Blake Moulton: Yeah, the Gatorfest has. It’s –

Ramsey Russell: What the heck is Gatorfest?

Blake Moulton: It’s nothing like it, this –

Ramsey Russell: You say that about a lot of things.

Gator Roundup: Competing for the Biggest Catch.

Gatorfest is a great experience, they have the gator roundup, so throughout when it starts, gator season kicks off the same time Gatorfest is going on, so you could come in and bring in your biggest gator from your catch.

Blake Moulton: Yes, there’s nothing like the Gatorfest, the Gatorfest is a great experience, they have the gator roundup, so throughout when it starts, gator season kicks off the same time Gatorfest is going on, so you could come in and bring in your biggest gator from your catch and try to rack up points and go by weights of gators and things like that to get 1^st prize and things like that, I don’t know what 1^st prize is, but –

Ramsey Russell: It’s kind of a rodeo. I mean, they are rounding up alligators.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. So they’re hunting these gators they’re bringing in, so right now, I think the biggest gator that they have, that’s leading the board is 13’1

Ramsey Russell: This year?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir, this year. It was brought in yesterday.

Ramsey Russell: I wonder where? I mean, hope they didn’t catch it right there where we were duck hunting this morning.

Blake Moulton: We’ll have some big ones come up in there, but the Gatorfest, they’ll have the carnival rides, some of the best food, you have FontKnow’s out there and they’ll have all different type of etouffee and different things like that, but it’s a real good time. You have your live music and performers out there, Cody Johnson was there one year and so it’s a real good time out there, you go throughout, earlier in the day you had the petting zoo for the kids and things like that and that’s –

Ramsey Russell: That gator that’s held where from here?

Blake Moulton: Right there at Fort Anahuac Park.

Ramsey Russell: Okay, right there at Anahuac?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: That’s just right up a road.

Blake Moulton: Yeah. So you can bring your kids out there first thing throughout the day and they’ll get the pet alligators and see big alligators coming in, take pictures with and it’s just an amazing experience, whenever I went off to college and started telling people the 1^st question was, where are you from? And I would say, Double Bayou and then, where is that? Well, it’s next to Anahuac. Well, where is Anahuac? And so it just kept on going on and then I just got to the point of telling people between Houston and Beaumont and I would start to tell them about Gatorfest and people would look at me crazy, there’s no such thing as gators in Texas and so –

Ramsey Russell: Boy, you all got them.

Blake Moulton: Yeah. So this is the – Anahuac is the alligator capital of Texas, so gators out here outnumber people 8 to 1 out here.

Ramsey Russell: I think, I believe you.

Blake Moulton: And I mean that’s not saying much, we don’t have really a big population of people down here, but we do have some gators out here.

Ramsey Russell: You all do have some alligators?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: 13 foot is a beast.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir and I think –

Ramsey Russell: You don’t gator hunt, do you?

Blake Moulton: I’m looking to get into it, I really, it’s something that I’m interested in, those guys from swamp people are out there doing it, Troy and them and so I’ve been real interested in trying it, we have it right here in our backyard, so it’s something I’m looking to get into.

Ramsey Russell: What do you do down here besides duck hunt? What? I mean, for example, you introduced me to your girlfriend, and we were telling, Nick was telling the story on the way back that she said she didn’t like frog leg till she ate them, now she loves.

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, so obviously, you go out in that marsh and catch frogs.

Blake Moulton: Oh, Yes, sir. We’ll do anything outdoors, we enjoy God’s creations out here, we deer hunt, hog hunt, work cattle of course and squirrel hunt, rabbit hunt, my brother, he is a avid trapper. He traps coons, coyotes, bobcats and everything like that. He’ll run foothold traps, he’ll run snares, he’ll run just anything and so he’s tanning these hides and getting them out to a buyer out there.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, we’re out here, it feels like we’re in the middle of nowhere, Blake, it just, its very rural, very country, but you don’t go too much further west, I’d guesstimate 15 miles and you hit this big wall, welcome to Houston metropolitan urban sprawl. I mean, 20 miles, maybe 30, it ain’t far and it’s a lot of contrast, it’s hard to believe that with all that Houston, just a sprawl going up around Houston like we were telling the story, my 1^st waterfowl hunt ever away from home was going down to around Katy, Texas and hunting snow geese, that’s gone, I’ve been gone, that’s parking lots now I’m saying and shopping centers and everything else, but here it’s just really relatively unchanged.

Blake Moulton: And I’m thankful for the marshland kind of between us and you can’t really develop that marshland to where you can put homes like that and so we’ve seen a little bit of growth here in Anahuac, they put a couple of subdivisions out there, but it’s one thing, I would love this to stay the way it is so I could raise my kids in the community like this.

Ramsey Russell: You want to be raised like you were raised?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Wouldn’t change a thing.

Blake Moulton: I wouldn’t. I definitely wouldn’t, like I said, that community and just people willing to watch out and have your best interests in mind happens right here.

Ramsey Russell: Well, we were talking just a little bit while we were plucking ducks and about folks driving by and honking and your dad said he warned somebody at work, I’m just warning you I’m going to say hello every time I pass by.

Blake Moulton: Oh, absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, it’s just a different way of life. I mean like, I’ve been to big cities and if you talk to strangers, they think you’re a lunatic.

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: Something’s wrong with you if you say hello or make eye contact, because you ain’t supposed to do that and I don’t understand it.

Blake Moulton: That’s one of the things I don’t get, whenever I took a trip out to Montana, I had a delay right there in Minnesota and I was getting my plane ticket changed out and things like that and there was a young lady there, she was asking for my plane ticket, she was like, oh, is this your plane ticket? I said, yes ma’am and she looked at me and was like, do not call me ma’am, it was almost like I disrespected her, like calling her old or something like that and I said, well ma’am, I said it again, I was like, excuse me, I’m from southeast Texas, where yes ma’am and no ma’am is something that we do down there out of respect.

Ramsey Russell: Or you get your head thumped or your bridges dusty.

Blake Moulton: Exactly. And so it’s just a habit for me, that’s something that my parents and grandparents instilled and to me is to always have manners and respect that next person.

Ramsey Russell: We were talking about that this morning and we had a similar instance up in Boston and my son had said ma’am to a lady one too many times and she got, I mean, she was our dinner host and she got indignant.

Blake Moulton: Wow.

Ramsey Russell: And I said, Ms. Barbara, it ain’t a fun, this ain’t about age, it’s a Southern thing. She goes, why, you don’t have to call me ma’am. I said, yes, we do. Because we raise our children to show respect for others.

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: Because if they can’t show respect for others, they can never earn their own self respect.

Blake Moulton: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: And about that time that bubblegum smack and waitress come up and Duncan said, ma’am, she goes, I ain’t no ma’am and Barbara said, yes, you are, I think the whole world needs more yes ma’am, no ma’am, opening the door, whoever behind you.

Blake Moulton: Absolutely, I had a –

Ramsey Russell: We’re so gaslit in today’s society that everybody defended for something and all it is a show of respect.

Blake Moulton: Absolutely. I held the door open for an elderly gentleman and me and him had a 10 minute conversation just from me holding the door open and it made his day that I want to say he was roughly around 79, 80 years old and he was like you don’t see that today, we don’t have respect for the next person and we need more of that, we need more of loving our neighbors and –

Ramsey Russell: It’s too easy to be courteous to the person behind you, the person across from you, yes ma’am, no ma’am, thank you, please, open the door, how you doing and I don’t understand getting into a world that I’m a lunatic, going to say how you doing? I don’t understand.

Blake Moulton: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: And somebody be offended, yes ma’am.

Blake Moulton: Yeah, people ask me about a family reunion out here and I’m like, man, every day I walk outside my door, I have a family reunion out here because it’s all family around here and if you’re not family and you move in, we’re going to treat you like family out here. So it’s just something about growing up here to have respect for others and treating others like they always say, treat others how you want to be treated.

Ramsey Russell: Yes. Nick told me a story this morning, we were home with Nick and his girlfriend Alexis and this is terribly embarrassing, but I’m getting to a point, he turned in a high school paper and the teacher asked him who the heck was Ramsey Russell, but before that he told me that while we were back drinking cold drinks and cleaning up after the hunt, visiting, but during the hunt this morning he talked about he needs 2 species and he’s a young man, I think he told me, he was 23, 24, very young man, grew up commercial fishing, just lived a regular hard working life like everybody else, but he needs to kill a barrow’s golden eye and a harlequin duck, where would I suggest going? We talk about places around the United States, go shoot a bear and those are the last 2 species he needs for the North American slam.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: And I just as humbled and embarrassed and undeserving as I think me having a term paper written about me is and I embarrassed him and I said, I want to see it and I want to read it, it does make me feel good that maybe that inspired him to go out and see some of that world and do that kind of stuff, he is an absolute, eat up, great duck hunter.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Give Char Dog a run for money, finding those duck and tall grass out in that bars.

Blake Moulton: I told you, I believe in Nick, that’s one of the best retrievers you will ever see right there, Nick is an avid outdoorsman, avid duck hunter, he’s going to make sure he finds those birds.

Ramsey Russell: He is. What about you? Have you – you were telling me when we met in the airport last year that you’re looking at, you had gotten into business and you’d gone and met with a business professional, a business counselor and looking at your – I thought this was so smart, I told my wife about it when I was still walking to my gate at the airport about this guy I met and what he did is he went to, like, a business professional and you talked to her and you met with her and told her what your aptitude was and what you did and what you were thinking about doing and you all wrote a business plan for getting into professional outfitting business.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: And you’re looking at some different states, I won’t say them, but how did your wanderlust besides, I mean, how did your wanderlust go from here at Double Bayou to elsewhere out west or something? I mean, where did your world stop and end? In the world of duck hunting?

Blake Moulton: I really enjoyed, it’s one of those things and it kind of goes hand in hand with Nick was talking about we grew up watching you and you really inspired me as well to get out and it’s always Duck Season Somewhere, it’s always, you could –

Ramsey Russell: Chase your dreams.

Blake Moulton: Yes, and so I really was inspired by you to go out and my brother’s probably if he’s not a bigger fan than Nick, it’s neck and neck because whenever I told my brother you were coming out, I was like, guess who’s coming out here? And he said, who? I said, Mr. Ramsey Russell and he finished it off with getducks.com.

Ramsey Russell: And like I told your daddy, I am so glad we had this conversation after we hunted, but I might not have even showed up.

Blake Moulton: Yeah, but also going back to it, you really inspired me and it just made me want to travel as well and get to experience and share my story with other people and also hear their stories as well as we’re the camaraderie involved with duck hunting and things like that, so I did some pretty good traveling around the US and got to meet some really great people and –

Ramsey Russell: Through duck hunting, that’s what wild about it. We talked earlier about the Double Bayou community, the village that raised a child, but duck hunting worldwide, but let alone throughout the United States really is a extended community, it can be an extended family.

Blake Moulton: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: You don’t have to be a gazillionaire and book hunts all over the world. I mean, throughout the United States anyway, you can network and make friends with birds of a feather flock together, like minded friends and find your way all over the United States.

Blake Moulton: Absolutely, pretty much all these different areas that I went and traveled to and hunted from Arkansas to Missouri, different things like that, all I had to take care for was where I stayed at that night and so I got to meet some really amazing people and just the excitement of going to a new location, hearing the news story, hearing just different things like that about waterfowl hunting, so I want to get to experience it a lot more, I really want to hit these 50 states, I want to see just the different styles of duck hunting because I’m used to hunting a saltwater marsh or anything like that, but going to Arkansas, seeing the timber, hunting in the timber or going up north, hunting in the dry field or just different things and how people, I love waterfowl and the entirety of it, I love the community of the waterfowl industry and so –

Ramsey Russell: The world’s a whole lot bigger than our backyard.

Blake Moulton: It is, it really is and so I grew up hunting here for almost 20 years and so now getting, being able to branch out, my dad, he just strictly hunted here and now I’m starting to get him involved in some of these trips that we go on and getting to see his smile on his face like a little kid again, it’s amazing, so it really makes me feel good that I’m able to get my dad out there and he’s getting some of the species that he never shot before and so just sharing that passion and almost like I said just that bonding time with my dad and family and remembering my grandfather with the things that he did out here.

Ramsey Russell: And your grandfather’s 78?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir, 78.

Ramsey Russell: And your dad come out and visited with us and he had to leave, go check on your granddaddy.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Your granddad’s in the hospital having a bout with dialysis?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Some different. Your grandmother, his wife, how long were they married?

Blake Moulton: They were married 57 years.

Ramsey Russell: 57 years?

Blake Moulton: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: She passed recently?

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. Maybe a week or 2 ago and it’s going to be definitely a tough duck season this year because that 20 plus years of coming in to check in with them and –

Ramsey Russell: Her roasting that Thanksgiving goose –

Blake Moulton: Oh, absolutely, that’s one of the biggest –

Ramsey Russell: Did you know the recipe, can you roast?

Blake Moulton: Now she shared that recipe with my brother, so he’s getting pretty good at it, he’s still not like grandma, though. But she has her cornbread dressing that she would put those blue winged teal in and man.

Ramsey Russell: I heard you telling Nick about it.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Duck dressing.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. So you take that cornbread dressing and you take the gizzards out those blue wings and you could chunk up some of that breast meat in there and you talking about some good –

Ramsey Russell: Do you have that recipe?

Blake Moulton: My brother as well.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Blake Moulton: So he’s going to be the chef but it’s definitely going to be a rough season without her

Ramsey Russell: It’s going to be different.

Blake Moulton: Yeah, it’s definitely going to be different, just praying that my grandfather, he keeps on fighting and so we can continue this tradition of bringing these ducks into him, checking on him, I’m even thinking about if we got to take him to the hospital, if he’s still there, I definitely will, just to keep him involved and see the smile on his face.

Ramsey Russell: Well, hopefully he’ll be out and doing good by the time he gets here.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Hopefully he’ll be, he gave you some real important advice, you grew up you played football in high school, Texas football, it’s a religion.

Blake Moulton: It is.

Ramsey Russell: And you were looking at going to college, play college ball and do some stuff and your granddaddy gave you some real good advice, what was that advice he gave you?

Blake Moulton: So he’s not going to, that era, he’s not going to cut any corners.

Ramsey Russell: He don’t miss words.

Blake Moulton: No, he’s going to, he’s a man of few words, but when he tells you something, he’s getting to the point and so he told me, he was like, look, you got a good head on your shoulders you’re a smart student –

Ramsey Russell: 3.9.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir, 3.9.

Ramsey Russell: A lot smarter than you look, I’m being facetious.

Blake Moulton: Yes. And he just told me he was just like, do you see yourself making it pro?

Ramsey Russell: And were you thinking maybe, would you love to play pro ball? Who wouldn’t?

Blake Moulton: Absolutely. I was like, man as a 18 year old that that that testosterone is flowing I’m the baddest man walking on the planet, but what he told me that day was like, you have a good head on your shoulders if you’re not going to make it pro, there’s no sense of you beating your body up like that for people who don’t care about you, he said, because at the end of the day, if you get injured, there’s somebody else to take your place. And so he said just really consider going just strictly to school and so I went that route, I took that advice I graduated with my bachelor’s degree from Sam Houston State University and it’s been amazing and I’m real thankful for that advice and sometimes I need that and as a young man, football season being good Saturday mornings we’ll have film, but he kept me grounded, he kept me humbled because right after film session it wasn’t – it’s time to work, it’s time to get up in that hay field or get in that, get out, fix some fence or anything like that, whatever the case may be he had something for us to do right after and I’m like, man I just had 17, 18 tackles last night, my arm hurt, I might have pulled my hamstring or something. He didn’t care and so he really kept me grounded to who I was and kept me true to my roots of being a man of integrity and holding myself to that high standard.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, I’ve sure enjoyed the day, I’m sure enjoyed the stories and I’m very thankful to you and Nick for bringing me into you all’s corner of the world. I always say my favorite hunt on earth and it sounds like just a one liner thing this is the next hunt, especially when I get to hunt with new folks, see a new Place and hear new stories, Joe Briscoe and I, we hunt right down the road here with Oyster Bayou and we swung through and being blues fans and I know he’s listening to this man, he told me to hold a lot of part he knew about this blues house, but it ain’t the same as getting the extended tour that you’ve given me in the last 24 hours right here at Double Bayou.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: And I just loved every minute of it and have a great time.

Blake Moulton: Absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: And I hope I tell you this, I’ll say this and I bet everybody listening agrees, next time I’m here, I do hope to meet your granddad.

Blake Moulton: Oh, absolutely, he gets kind of camera shy, but I really think he would love to tell those stories.

Ramsey Russell: We’ll sit right here on the live oak, just tell duck hunt stories. If nothing else, we ain’t got to record, I’d just love to meet the man, sound like an amazing guy. In this day and age especially, I’m not near the man that my daddy and granddaddy and future generations were, but to hear about somebody that became the man of the house at 8 years old, there’s a lot of sad stories of men that broke –

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: And then there’s people like your granddaddy. It built him into a better person and he just sounded like an enviable guy.

Blake Moulton: Absolutely. And he was able to let that build and carry on to my father and on to the grandkids and so we are the people we are today because of who he is. So it’s real touching, it gets me choked up every time thinking about it. But he –

Ramsey Russell: But you keep the faith.

Blake Moulton: Absolutely. So I’m really thankful for everything he has done for us and that knowledge he has shared with us.

Ramsey Russell: How is it, last question, can we talk about this? How is it that you all know so much of your family history? You told me, how far back do you know your family story?

Blake Moulton: 5 generations all the way back to the early 1800s.

Ramsey Russell: How was that story transferred just along your family?

Blake Moulton: For some reason that us knowing our history was big for our family and they wanted to keep a real good track of making sure we knew our history and knew where we came from.

Ramsey Russell: Sitting around the dinner table.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. So –

Ramsey Russell: The older generation would tell the younger generation, everybody gathered around and you hear this story and you keep hearing these stories and you know who you are and where you came from.

Blake Moulton: Absolutely and so one of these visits I just took with my grandfather at the hospital, he was like we don’t know the next time nor the hour how long I’m going to be here, he said, so you need to come over and if you got questions about your family history or any more questions, the time is now, ask those questions and he’s an open book to really tell me what I need to know or any questions that I have and so I’m thankful for that I still have time with him now and really can talk to them and things like that.

Ramsey Russell: Was the spirituality conveyed in the same way that the family history was?

Blake Moulton: Oh, absolutely, Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: That foundation for as far back as you can remember, that was extended –

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. From generations to –

Ramsey Russell: All the way through the generations.

Blake Moulton: Yes, sir. So what kept us going and kept us strong today was our faith, our trust in the Lord and things like that, it kept us moving and we know that God’s plan is good and so whatever happens, happens. We know it’s in his plan and we don’t understand his ways and so I truly believe and I’m thankful for that faith instilled in me from just the family of generation to generation and so I might have a bad one, I wouldn’t even say a bad day, maybe 30 seconds of a bad part. But I know that I’ll pray and I’m back on track and I’m real thankful for that.

Ramsey Russell: Thank you, Blake.

Blake Moulton: Thank you.

Ramsey Russell: I’ve enjoyed it. Folks, thank you all for listening this episode of MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere sitting under live oak tree, 5 or longer generations into it down here in Double Bayou, Texas. See you next time.

[End of Audio]

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