We are into the month of September and Labor Day is as far into the month as it can get. We will have a week before the holiday comes around.

Most folks consider this holiday the end of the summer, though it is not. Two more weeks must pass by before the fall season actually begins and then the hot weather will still hang around or at least it does most years.

This year may be a little different. We had some nice cool nights and mornings visiting us during the summer this year, and I’m sure that very few of you were expecting to see the upper 50s and lower 60s during July or August.

I wasn’t expecting it but surely did enjoy it. It was great to see that two thirds of the month of August had passed and we were having temperatures in the 60s while most nights during August should have been in the mid to upper 70s. Even the hotter nights during August were in the lower to mid 70s, which was a cool time compared to what an August night usually will be. So even though we did have a respite, next year or the next we most surely will have to give that back.

With the weather we take what we are given and are thankful for another day. We don’t control it and would most probably do a terrible job if we did. We may not have had a cold day in July or August, but we did have a few cool ones. If you think about it, you have to get cool nights before you can get cold nights. It is a temperature regression.

I can almost say that I have enjoyed the summer so far this year. We did have some hot times, but this is the summer in the south, and we are supposed to have some hot days and nights. I don’t think we had as many hot days as we normally do during an average south Georgia summer. I am sure that the rainfall that kept up much of the summer had something to do with keeping the daytime temperatures down somewhat, but we have just had an average amount of rainfall for the year so far. It is much more rainfall than we have had at this time during the last few years, but still an average amount.

The fall season is usually a dry one unless we get a hurricane and that brings a lot of water at one time and leads to runoff. Runoff helps the lakes and streams but not so much for the ground water like a common rain. We need water for the lakes and rivers also, so it can be good news.

You know as most folks consider the summer coming to a close with the going back to work the day after Labor Day, most outdoorsmen turn to hunting as soon as Labor Day is over if not before.

We have discussed the beginning seasons and dove and archery season will be here during this month of September. Getting started with these and the squirrel season will eventually lead to the other hunting season coming in during the remainder of the fall season. Notice I have not mentioned fishing season going out and that is because here in south Georgia, it doesn’t go out for the most part.

Netting season only lasts for three months and stripper season lasts for only half the year, but the general fishing season never goes out. You can go fishing everyday of the year and as long as you obey the creel limits, the game warden will just give a wave when he sees you.

That is why a lot of folks will quit fishing for a while when the hunting seasons come in. It is the limited amount of time they have to hunt that sends them to the fields and woods. They can always go fishing when hunting season goes out.