Future for the Hunter

As my career choice seems to fit me more and more as being a K9 deputy I can’t help but start considering what I need to do next. Anytime I turn on the television I immediately turn it on to the Court Channel, which almost around the clock plays episodes of Cops and World’s Scariest Police Chases. I don’t know why a sensible guy like me wants to watch these things as the outcome can almost always be guessed accurately and there is really nothing “new” or unprecedented between one criminal running away and another. There tricks all seem the same from driving on the interstate and getting off an exit at the last second to driving on the wrong side of the road and the California U- turns that the lead officer reliably utilizes always leave the criminal with a wrong way vehicle in the ditch or surrounded by other officers. Yet… I absolutely love to watch these shows as I can’t help envisioning myself one day along with my K9 partner bringing a high- speed chase to a safe close and bringing a drug or alcohol enraged criminal to justice. I really think that this is a good solution for me instead of being in the military full- time as I will be able to stay home and keep hunting, trapping, and all the other fun things associated with civilian life, but yet I can still help end some of the evil in the world.

I think I have a plan formulating in my mind about the things that I would like to come to pass in the near future. Obviously, that this would all start with a fantastic year in football (I really hope) and then graduating with flying colors from Kennedy High School. I would then like to attend Central College, ISU, or Iowa University and get enrolled in some criminal justice, government, and pre- law classes. In addition, this is when I would prefer to also get enrolled in some ROTC courses or into the National Guard. Upon completion of college, I wouldn’t mind going into active duty and serving in the military I just don’t want to make this a career for me. After finishing my tour(s) I would then like to return to civilian life to become a K9 officer like I have previously said. I’m still unsure if being a police officer is something I want to retire as being, but I would like to keep being a government official when I’m older an option.

Spring Fishing

I love fishing in the spring and there is nothing quite as fun as getting over that winter sickness of wanting to open water fish then to get after some large, aggressive spawning fish. However, this spring I haven’t had very many opportunities to get out on the ponds and lakes that I wish I could have. I went three weeks ago on McLeod Run right here in Cedar Rapids (which is advertised as being as Iowa’s only Urban Trout Stream). I fished for an hour or two on the largest pool of this stream that I have at present discovered and I caught a REALLY nice brown trout, which happened to be the first of the species that I have ever caught. Now if you don’t know anything about McLeod it is extremely difficult to fish, as this stream is not a natural habitat for trout in urban Cedar Rapids. This is really just some project that the DNR really wants to do and has poured thousands of dollars and trout fingerlings into. The rest of the fish outing was uneventful as I caught no more fish after this brown trout.

My last outing was two weekends ago when I was finished with my pursuit of turkeys for the day (this was second season) I went fishing. I fished both Saturday and that Sunday and I caught a nice number of bass and crappies both of these days on some of those plastic minnows that they advertise on TV (the Banjo Minnow). I kept a couple of these bass and brought them back home to my grandparent’s house. I cleaned them and cooked them up for m grandpa and I and they tasted great to me, as they were a delicacy that I haven’t had in a while. I hope to return to my grandparent’s house on the fourth season of turkey hunting and bag that huge gobbler that has ever evaded me for three years now (ha, some turkey hunter I am). I hope at this time that the bass will be spawning and I can catch some of those huge largemouth bass lunkers that I know are hiding out there in those small ponds.

End of Junior Year: Summer 2009

I have a lot of things going on for me right now as I finish up my junior of high school and look forward to summer and my senior year. This summer I will be tied down by football, but I’m not too worried with this as I’m really looking forward to football next fall. As I think Kennedy will have a great team and has some potential as being 4A state champions. This summer I’m completely ready to devote myself wholeheartedly to the last leg of our off-season training and workouts as this will determine how well I will play and have the ability to pick up a scholarship.

However more at present on my mind rest my GPA, fishing, hunting, my Harley, and the small two week window of mushroom hunting. I love to hunt mushrooms and the rewards for doing so are great. As they both taste delicious and are worth a great deal of money when they are sold to those city dwellers that don’t know how to find their own or more likely don’t care to. My friends Matt and Spencer take an annual trip each year to Wickiup Hill Nature Center to go in chase of the sometimes elusive morel mushroom. There aren’t many elm trees there, but if you know where to look and have a couple of extra hours to waste it is easy enough to find a super worth of mushrooms. As we have in the past always ended up with a grocery bagful of fresh morels. Otherwise, during the fourth season when I have concluded another hunt by spooking the turkeys or concluded in mind that there are now in Iowa I find myself in a set of woods that are chuck- full of morel mushrooms and I soon run out of room to carry them all in. I think without a doubt that Southern Iowa is one of the major hotspots in America for finding wild morels.

My average summer day will consist of football in the morning, work in the day, and then in my free time trying to relax and have my body recover before tomorrow or hanging with my friends. I again have the same summer job that I have had for the last two, going on three years, and this is a great job for me. As my employers are super flexible with hours, I get great pay for a 17 year old, and there is a wide variety of work for me to do. Which ranges from cutting hay, mowing there near two acre lawn, or taking calls for their business, if I’m ever bored with a particular job as soon as I get it down I get to do something different.

The Oppression of School and Time

I always find this a very difficult time of the year for me to stay on task, especially in school. The warm spring breeze unknowingly is killing me as I have to sit in my classes and learn about things and subjects which I will have little to no use of using in the real world and in my future career. Yet this is one of the most important times of the year as well for school. I have both the AP tests for biology and English language and composition next week, I have “regular” tests in my class every week, and my teachers don’t let up in the least bit on the homework load. But the worst task that the teachers have put over my head and my classmates’ are the end of the year projects. These are time consuming and require all of my effort, without a doubt, for me to get the grade I want in return.

After school or before school I have weightlifting and I don’t have any choice in this matter if I want to get my starting spots that I want next fall for football. This also keeps me fit and I enjoy exercising with my friends so this is something I enjoy doing. Upon getting home I have to do chores outside (lawn mowing seems the most frequent assignment as well as the longest) and by that point I just want to relax. Yet then I muster enough energy on most days to try and do something that I enjoy doing during the spring months. At this point in my life these include fishing, turkey hunting, mushroom hunting, simply walking in the woods somewhere, or taking my Harley for a cruise. Unfortunately, these hobbies of mine take at least an hour or two of my time, of course which I’m more than glad to surrender to do. Yet by the time I get home I’m exhausted. I have no will, energy, or motivation to get my homework done after I shower and have supper. It’s always late at this point, usually 8 or 9, and I usually end up going to bed to read for a little bit and then fall asleep and then repeat the whole process again the next day.

If I force myself to my homework or the deadline for a project or something is fast approaching then I have to cut out my one or two hours of doing something I want to do. I’m a very strong believer in that a person should always have a portion of the day no matter how small to do something they want or enjoy doing. Otherwise what could possibly be the point of waking up in the morning?

Mushrooms... and the Sportster

My friend Spencer and I went mushroom hunting yesterday at the Wickiup Hill Nature Center. I met him there as I really wanted to ride my Sportster there, which now has the detachable backrest and Rush pipes attached to it. The pipe have truly made the difference in the bike and have seemingly changed it from some random cruiser motorcycle and has made it into the Harley Davidson with the very distinctive loud, rumble of its twelve- hundred cc motor. Almost needless to say… I absolutely love my bike.

As a side note, to completely get away from my topic for a brief moment I went up to Minneapolis, Minnesota this weekend to visit my dad’s best friend there. His best friend happens to be a director and has made commercials for Plato’s closet and some air lines as well. He had an old Harley- Davidson jacket and he gave it to me, and the leather jacket is legit. It looks like the kind the outlaw motorcyclists used to wear in the 50s to 70s. If any of you ever see a guy on a Harley Sportster riding around Cedar Rapids in a black, leather jacket it might very well be me.

But back to the main point of this blog. We got out there and soon took the necessary one and a half mile hike to where the elm tress. (To those who don’t know anything about mushroom hunting, they grow under recently deceased elm trees and they need plenty of water, warm temperatures, and sun.) As we got out to the first spot we quickly spotted three yellow mushrooms, and that was it at this spot that I had thought would hold a large number of morel mushrooms. We at least found some and by that point I had thought maybe we were a bit early to be hunting for the large quantity of mushrooms that I like all others enjoy finding. Spencer and I continued searching the woods and we had a pretty productive spot along the creek bed there, where we found half a grocery sack or so worth of morels all amongst a set of five or six dead elm trees. We planned on coming back here in a couple of days and striking it, hopefully, better as we would allow more time for the big, yellow mushrooms to come up.

Rush Pipes on the Harley

I’m so lucky to have gotten the great bike that I did, and I can’t believe it is a Harley Davidson either. I don’t regret for one minute haven’t spent the money that I have worked hard for consisting of: three summers of about 45 hour weeks, many trapping and hunting seasons’ worth of raccoon and muskrat hides and pelts, and various other tasks that I have completed throughout the years. That bike is made from the muscle and sweat off my back, and I’m so happy to have done so. I bought the Sportster last Friday, if you remember me saying in my previous post, and since then I have put on over 250 miles on it. That’s a lot of riding for less than a week’s time, and not to mention that it has rained almost all of these days too. I took my motorcycle into the shop yesterday after track practice, to get the rush pipes and detachable backrest on it. I’m super excited about these pipes, as they are crazy loud and I think that is a trait all American guys want in their All- American Harley Davidson motorcycles. I’m going to pick up my bike this afternoon after school, and I really hope it is not raining then. It’s supposed to be sunny and warm all this weekend, of course when I’m out of town, and then the rain and thunder storms are going to return on Monday and a couple other days that week.

I’m really looking forward to riding my bike tonight and I just checked the weather on KCRG.com and there is supposed to be scattered sprinkles most of the day and then that is going to clear up to be a beautiful weekend. Next week everyday has a chance for rain, except Monday. I rode my bike last weekend all day in sprinkles, which makes riding not as fun, but I’m sure it will not stop me from taking the bike home after a couple of leisure laps around Cedar Rapids, if you see me (black 1200 Sportster, I’ll be wearing a brown jacket and full- faced black helmet) give me a honk.

Just another note about the bike, I don’t know how well you know about motorcycles, but riders always give the wave to other passing by motorcyclists. And I’ve already noticed that those on Harleys have a bond between those with other Harleys and its really cool to be apart of this, as I’ve talked to a couple of these guys at stop lights, and I rode with another guy for a while that also had a brand new Sportster. So…the motorcycle gang of outlaws begins ha.

Got it the... Sportster

I FINALLY got it after months of talking and blogging about it and years of hard work to get enough money for it I finally got my motorcycle. And not just some foreign Japanese wanna- be cruiser bike, but one of the legendary Harley- Davidson’s. Last Friday my dad and I went to the Metro Harley Davidson dealership and finalized the deal on the Sportster that I had been looking at for a while now. We bought some headgear for safety, some accessories (which I will mention in a minute) and the bike itself. The Sportster that we decided on getting was a brand new 2009 Sportster XL Custom 1200 and the color was black with a silver piece of chrome riding on top of the gas tank. Needless to say I’ve been riding that bike every spare moment that I can get on it. Besides the bike I decided it necessary that we spruce the Sportster up with some customizing of our own, which included some after- market exhausts (Rush pipes) and a detachable backrest. I’ve heard the Rush pipes on the same bike that I have and there is only one word that can define them… LOUD! This also turns as a safety feature as well though as others on the road are more likely to hear you if they can’t see you and so I hopefully won’t be crushed by some oblivious driver in a car or truck. I’m not sure on my feelings about the backrest, something that my dad insisted we get, but I think it will make it look more like a motorcycle. Besides, it is detachable if I ever come to not liking it on the Sportster, and I think it will make the ride much more comfortable for any passengers. I’m putting all these things on this Friday, and will hopefully have the bike back after my dad and I take our trip to Omaha, Nebraska for the Berkshire Hathaway Meeting.