Welcome Back, Luke

Posted on December 20, 2004 by Shannon Nardi 

As the season winds down for me a lot of things run through my mind on Waterdog. All the wonderful places Ive got to go and see, Maine, Delaware, Louisiana ( one of my personal favs ) South Dakota ( the place I have seen the most ducks in one time ever and the place where I can breathe) and my own hometown in a new light, Arkansas.

All the wonderful people I have met and learned so much from, first and foremost my talent and my Co- Producer, Justin Tackett. He for one has taught me so much it is unbelievable. He has inspired me to create more than he knows. Clay Hiett, Bobby Warren, The Salyer refuge boys, Lee Kjos, Tom Dokken, all my friends in Delaware Al, Kenny and Pete. My favorite Santa, Jack. Chris Atkinson and just many, many others. They have all made each show remarkable with their knowledge, the laughs, and their tears. I cannot thank them enough.

The others that have been so important to me are the WaterDoggies on the Web. Without all of them giving us feedback through the tough days last year when we thought we were done. (Even before we really even got started), I would have thrown in the towel. All the kind words, the petition, just everything. Your response on the Christmas show was over whelming, over whelming to the point of tears. I have put a lot of time into Waterdog and I know that when I am here late at night in a render on these shows I can just role over to my computer pull up the site and know you all are there. I am glad you have found this site and I am glad you all participate and enjoy each other. Thank you, thank you.

These last two shows I have done this year have really put me to the challenge.

The Guide Show. The boys at Firewater are wonderful. I really wish I could have given you more of them in the show but just not enough time. I always have a blast there and hope that we will shoot from there again one day.

The Luke Show. This was a huge challenge. We had gone on a shoot to tell this story hoping to get Luke some ducks and there were no ducks to be seen. I was so upset. I had already edited this show in my head and to my amazement with no ducks the challenge was on. What in the hell was I going to do for 22 minutes and 26 seconds. Well I did my best and not really excited as I could have been but we made a show. It is more of a short story with a lot of teaching afterwards. I hope we all can learn something from it. I know I did. Luke is doing well and working with Chris was wonderful. We had a lot of fun shooting this show, we just did not shoot any ducks. The area was incredible that we stood in and hopefully one day we can go back and bring the ducks there with us.

I hope all of you have wonderful holidays.

See ya next year.
Shannon