20 yrs ago I got interested in carving a duck. A friend of mine and our wives went to Branson Mo. and walked into a store he knew of, that had lots of wood carvings. Some of them were decoy carvings of ducks that were so real they took your breath away. I thought I’d like to do that, I’m pretty good at art, at least some people thought so, so we bought a few knives and chisels and off we went. My first one was recognizable as a duck but what kind was hard to tell. So I bought some books on “how to” and some more books on duck pictures from an artistic view, then anatomy, then more tools and soon it was apparent this was going to take some time. The tools and the wood were expensive so I made a deal to trade the decoys I had made for wood. 15 yrs later and thousands of dollars worth of tools and research not to mention going to the world championships and getting reminded of how far I had come and how much farther I had to go I decided to keep trying. I placed honorable mention at the world and won a few ribbons at local shows. And I learned a lot about birds in general and ducks in particular and had a lot of fun. So now if you ask me “what kind of bird is that” I can usually tell you. Now i have a new hobby, it’s writing these blogs, and guess what!! I’m becoming a better typist and a better speller…. feller…….. I just hope it don’t take as long as the other one did…