A happily married man and father of three daughters, living in west-central Missouri. A passionate hunter of whitetail, turkey and upland until the early nineties when on Christmas break I discovered duck and goose hunting. Starting to hunt waterfowl in the lean years of 30 day seasons and restricted bag limits taught me and the guys I learned with to appreciate the sport for what it is. Duck and goose hunting is not always about the limit for me. Duck hunting is about the fellowship, the enjoyment of sunrises, sunsets, laughter, colors of nature, the sounds of wings cutting wind, all the little things only a duck hunter understands and that God provides us. With daughter number two crawling around on the floor and daughter number three on the way I realized that my 50 plus days a season in the field was going to be cut tremendously.

For some odd reason I chose to carve decoys to fill the void of days missing afield. You must understand the last art class I had was in Eighth Grade and I barely passed that class. Taking a square block of wood and rounding every edge and then painting it to resemble the specie I was wanting has been a struggle since day one in 2005.  With the guidance of many carvers and especially from a professional decoy maker (Mark Schupp) I have eased into developing a decoy I am happy to hunt over. I attempt to incorporate classic decoys lines with contemporary carving, all painted in oil paint and ready to hunt.

Nothing pleases me more than having birds work into the decoys I have carved and set out. I plan on continuing with my carving, raising my kids, teaching them to hunt, fish and carve if they want. Most of all I plan on seeing a large amount of those cool morning sunrises with new and old friends, laughing and enjoying the awesome beauty of nature.