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.

Southern Iowa Turkey Hunt

I also went turkey hunting this weekend on my Grandpa Ferguson’s farm, in the same woods that I always do near Barnes City, Iowa. I got to hunt two days this weekend there for the second turkey hunting season. The first day, Saturday morning, I set up on the same spot from which I had seen that big gobbler last year at about the same time, which I have spoken about in my previous posts. I heard three turkey toms in the set of woods that belong to my uncle Bob and one turkey that was in the set of much bigger woods from which I don’t hunt. The turkeys however came out on the other side of the creek that runs through the property and I could see them strutting away in the open pasture, which if they don’t pass the spot where I was set up that they go to, and that’s exactly what they did. I had seen them go out into this open pasture to strut dozens of times and without a doubt I should have set up there, but I was after this big tom and I have never seen him out there. I thought to cross the creek, but I also had tried this many times and failed every time, but one to get a good shoot off at these turkeys. I wasn’t desperate yet to get a turkey as I would get to come out tomorrow, so I decided to leave them be for the day without spooking them and I retired back to my truck. I went fishing that day after hunting and helping my grandpa and had some great success and caught eight or ten bass. The next morning I set up on the north side of the creek where they more often then not come out and strut in the open. As the morning sun started shedding it’s light on the world the turkeys warmed up with some gobbles and I gave out some yelps and clucks to let them know where I was. There was only one turkey that morning in my uncle’s timber and I heard two others a great distance from me. I called for an hour and I concluded that none were coming for whatever reason. But just as soon as that hopeless thought crossed my mind I heard a hen purring not ten feet from me. I had my back against a tree and this hen had come from behind, seemingly out of a huge pasture with nothing in it. Then hen got on my decoy and I was so surprised by this turkey that I pulled up my gun, I identified at that point and I heard some movement also behind me so I slowly turned back and saw I really nice tom, but at that point I had spooked that tom and he took off in flight, and the hen soon followed. Not my best moment, but it sure was exciting for a while.

Cedar River Hunt Continued

More update on the Cedar River turkey hunt to you all, I was talking to the owner of the land that I hunted on Tuesday as he had some inquiry as to where I had heard the turkeys. His brother and he are going hunting this Friday and he simply asked for some advice as to where he should set up. Hunters are a different breed of people and we love to help each other out and was glad that I could point them to the right direction. Evidently, I discovered that there is an island in this section of the river and it became clear to me as to why the turkeys sounded so near, even though I had believed they were completely on the other side of the Cedar River, which is usually 250 yards across generally. This island is much nearer to the side of the river that he hunted on and so it is possible to wade across this section of the river with chest waders, and that is the plan that he told me that he and is brother are going to do. They are going to wade across get on the island and set up for some gobbler action, I wish I had thought of this before my hunt. The turkeys on the island is an excellent location for them during the spring as the hens can have protection for their eggs and hopefully hatched chicks from predators and it provides quite a bit of protection and concealment for them as well. He spoke to me as well and said that he would call me back after their hunt and say if they had any luck with the hunt (this seems a very unusual hunt as you have to wade across a river and the fact that you are hunting on an island makes this all the more unique). He also spoke on the phone with me that he would like for me to come out again when I’m eligible for my fourth season license and come and hunt. I would really enjoy coming out there and hunting on an island that I would have to wade to and I think that I would have a good chance at these turkeys as well if I got onto this island.

Cedar River Turkey Hunt

I went turkey hunting this morning before school (April 21, 2009) and I’ll tell you right now that there is about no better way of waking up on a school day and going hunting before class. The night before I got permission from a family friend and neighbor whose house is on the river if it would be alright if I hunted on their acreage, and of course they said that would be fine. So, I set my alarm clock for four thirty am and went to bed early to get some rest before the hunt and another laborious day of school and track. Barely closing my eyes I promptly was waken up again by the sound of my alarm clock. I put on the camo clothes, that I also had set out the night before, and grabbed my twelve gauge along with a handful of shells which I thought I would hopefully get to use. I got to my truck and I was headed off just two or three miles from my house onto the river bottoms of the Cedar. It wasn’t before long that I was set up in my blind with a hen decoy lazily turning in the wind just a dozen or so steps from me. I waited a few minutes for my noisy approach to be forgotten before I started calling. As the sound of the first song birds started calling all around me I let out a few yelps and clucks with my mouth call. Not a half minute later the tom turkeys woke up, and responded with the gobbles recognizing their presence and attentiveness to the call. I continued calling, making sure I never called to much, which many times can make the toms get “cold”. I heard three or four turkeys, and three of them were slowly approaching my position. However, they almost all together stopped at the same time, and I couldn’t figure out why they had. Being unfamiliar with ever hunting in this spot it took my a few minutes to realize what was delaying their progress. The River. I knew my chances of getting a tom this morning went from good to poor if they didn’t cross the river, but if by some chance I could call them across the Cedar I was confident enough that I could bring them in the last couple hundred yards to my spot. This never happened though I spent the next hour pleading with the call for them to come over and if they did that they would find a hen, but they never did cross. Therefore, the hunt turned out unsuccessful, but it was still the best way I know how to wake up in the morning (especially before school).

Harley Sportster

I finally got the old man out of the house to go look at some bikes and we decided to go to the Hawkeye Harley Davidson in Coralville (Iowa). He really started to catch the thrill of owning a bike again as he and I first walked into the dealership. I started walking around looking at bikes by myself, but my dad soon got tangled up with a salesman whom after listening to my dad determined that we would be best off with a Harley Sportster. I came over and we started looking at the used Sportsters, but after some notable differences largely including carburetion versus fuel injected (the new bikes had this) the choice became clear. At first I have some objections at the Sportster and it’s really the only bike that I don’t 100% love its more like a 90%. The reasons in response to this include the exhaust pipes and the small size of the gas tank; to me it just looks like a smaller bike even though it does have a huge engine (1202 cc). It looks like the Yamaha V-star 250 in almost every aspect except of course that the engine is over 5 times the strength and that only one has the legendary logo of Harley-Davidson’s prestige and legend on the side. Besides that it is my only objection, and the tail pipes can even be fixed by putting on some screaming eagles pipes, which I certainly think I would insist on getting. Also a little bit on the wish list or possibly in the hand would include adding a sissy bar and a chrome guard on the front of the bike (if you have ever seen highway pegs on a bike these are what they are mounted in) which make the bike look bigger, adds more chrome, and helps prevent damage to the engine if the bike is rolled ever, which I pray it never will. I’m definitely warming up to the idea of the Sportster and my dad and I have got it narrowed down we think to a limited edition “root beer” colored bike or a blue one. My dad is going to call on Monday or sometime this weekend to finalize the deal and thus I hope I will be riding the bike to school next week in the earliest scenario, which is very exciting to me as I don’t know any 17 year old boys who get to own a brand 2009 Harley Davidson XL 1200C Custom.

Getting the Two Wheels

With the weather turning nicer every day and with the grass starting to turn green and the woods starting to echo with the early morning gobbles of big toms and hopeful jakes my mind begins to turn back to getting my motorcycle, which my dad said I could get after April 15th (which is the mark of the end of tax season for him). I’ve been working extremely hard to keep my grades up, keep out of trouble with the law and my parents, and to do really well in sports (football particularly, but also track). I have upheld my end of the bargain and now is the time for me to be allowed to buy a two- wheeled vehicle of my choice. The search for the bike really begins now as I have been given the go ahead in getting a bike. I have narrowed it down to either the brands of Yamaha or Harley Davidson (my dad insists I get this brand). Both brands make some really nice bikes, but the difference mainly between them is buying the name of Harley Davidson as these bikes are much more expensive. I’m not sure exactly what type I’m getting as of yet but I want to obviously get a cruiser type bike with around a one thousand cc engine. Not only is the bigger motor obviously better, bigger, and safe, but it is also somewhat of a safety feature as the noise the engine this makes allows other motorists to know where I’m at because of the noise. I’m mostly just going to ride this bike around town and to practice, work, and school, but the gas that I’ll save will be a phenomenal amount compared to my Silverado truck, which is great for hunting and trapping but I bit hard on the wallet for gas money around town.

I have also noticed (side note) that there has been a bit of a motorcycle revolution in Cedar Rapids, as more bikes it seems are sharing the roads than ever.

Disappointment and Hopes in Track

This has been such a hard year for me and track and I’m really starting off the season in the hole. It is quite evident that something has taking a turn for the worse with throwing the shot put for me. Last year I was throwing forty two feet at track meets, which is a decent mark and would be a mark that would put me in a decent ranking this year as it seems all of the big bombers (those that could hit fifty feet on average at a meet) left last year and were all seniors or lost interest in the sport.
This year I’m throwing thirty nine and forty feet on average and that is a huge change and very negative change in regards to shot put throwing. This entire season so far has been to figure out why, why I’m not throwing forty fives and winning meets and getting points for my track team. My coach after sending an email to a big-time shot put coach in Illinois came to the conclusion that because I have grown and got bigger this year that my feet are not used to moving the same amount in the ring. This seems to any of you reading that haven’t thrown shot put competitively such a small and insignificant detail that it shouldn’t matter. You may wonder what kind of foot work and practice you would need in throwing a twelve pound shot, which essentially is a cannonball, but yet I’m thoroughly convinced that shot put throwing requires more technique than almost any other sport in the world with only a few exceptions.
One day I think I had the glimpse of the future of which I wish for and that is the day that I was throwing all forty twos and a near forty five feet throw also which became my new personal record (PR).

Trapping Thoughts and Spots Bewteen the Seasons

As the transition of the seasons continues and we experience yet again another snowfall and this time in April, my mind tries to switch from the mindset of trapping and ice fishing to turkey hunting and fishing the spawn. However, it seems more than ever right now that I’m thinking about trapping. When my mind is exhausted at night after a full day of school, track, and chores my mind races to the thoughts of pocket sets and game trails in which I could put a snare in front of them. I rarely dream but when I do it is typically of a fantastic day on the trap line. Maybe I’m focusing my thought son this more as I fear that this will be my last opportunity to trap and hunt like I have for years ever since I was in first grade (or was it kindergarten?). Either way trapping and hunting always been a huge part of my life and has always been a topic on my school work and even this very blog that I have created in which you are reading.
This year more than ever I REALLY want to catch a fox in trap as its something I have always spent time doing but have had no rewards from the work I have put into it. I think some what of a pitfall for me at this aspect is that it takes a while for the scent of a human to come off of a “dirt hole” set. However, this doesn’t mean that I haven’t ever had any action on any dirt hole sets that I have put out in hopes of catching one of these red coated critters. At least once a year I have one of my land sets that I have laid out set off and the set near destroyed. On those days I find myself extremely disappointed with the result, but I do get some hope knowing that I had put the trap in the right area for a catch and that there are still some foxes (coyotes I think more likely) around). One new trick that I’m going to try this year is to while I’m setting my traps to spray some of the deer hunting scent eliminator on my gloves and clothes and this will hopefully take a large majority of any scent that I have away.
Recently in the last week I have come upon a new trapping spot that is very local to home and is a hot bed of muskrat activity. I know next year and during the school week that I will find myself trapping this marsh, which name I do not want to give up to other trappers reading this just yet. Anyways though, along with next year being my last school year of trapping I want to have a higher catch number then ever and I think this hot spot of muskrats will help me do that.

Motivation and Education

At times, at almost all times in my life I find it really difficult to intrinsically motivate myself to do things I’d rather not do. These types of things include doing homework, raking the same leaves over and over, or being in a sport which I continually get frustrated with. (I don’t want this blog post to seem like me whining and if at any point it is STOP reading.) It is just when I’m thinking about doing these things that I find there is no motivation for me to perform this action. I lose face in school when my teachers act like asses and I don’t want to be in their class. Why should students have to bear poor teachers because they shouldn’t? I’m very fortunate this year to have some absolutely great teachers, but in the past I have had some bad ones. There is no excuse for a student if they are being behaved that they should have to hear a teacher going in a rant. I hope I haven’t led this off topic too much, but I brought this up because I’m usually not motivated in school and the only thing that gets me through the day is the idea that this one day closer to summer and that now I can relax. Luckily, I have had some unusually great motivation this term to get things done as I will get to have a motorcycle in the next couple of weeks if I stay out of trouble and keep my grades up. Noticeably my grade point shot up in the last two terms when the motorcycle was promised to me (4.1 during fall and 4.4 during the winter trimester). I think another thing I struggle with in motivation is that of the long old statement of students saying that they should be paid to go to school, this is an incredibly ignorant statement to say. Yet there is some truth in this bold statement, why should we waste our time in learning skills that we have no use for in the real world. I’m not going to be a biologist and only a very minute minority are going to be yet I have spent two years already in my high school studying it for the entire year. I think this is a reason America is behind in education as we are not tailoring it to teach students specialized skills in job career options of their choice. This I think has been signaled by American jobs and industry going over seas, and in the current economic situation that we are in.

Late March Snow- Old 'Coon

How ironic it is to have the last day of SPRING break have snowfall, and not just a flurry but an accumulation of near three inches. Spencer, my friend, and I were going to go fishing for those walleyes on this last night as we at least knew that there was a large front coming in (yet we hadn’t heard the reports of snow). About an hour before we were going to go the snow really started falling so we ended up calling off that fishing venture. The snow lasted the night and the next day largely, but a lot melted off that day and the rest disappeared the next day after a rain. I think this weather with all of these fronts is really upsetting the walleye spawn and I know that it will be difficult to go fishing at a good time (when I might have a chance at catching some). This was quite the end to spring break I thought.
Prior to this eventful snowfall I had went down to the Ferguson farm for two days to help out my grandpa and say hello to my hound dogs and see how they were faring in the off- season. As I helped my grandpa tear out a very large stretch of fence and to care after the calving Angus in the pasture. At one of these particular pastures which to the west side of Barnes City, which is the farthest away from my grandpa’s house we were driving back into the pasture after we feed the cows to scout out some turkeys. Although we found a number of deer we didn’t spot any of the elusive turkeys (turkey season is less than two weeks away!!) and we also saw a dead ‘coon. As my ‘coon hunting blood starting getting stirred around within me I found myself unconsciously going over to investigate this ringtail as it was so unusual to see it like that in the water I thought. The dead ‘coon was in the flow of a small ditch which was about ten feet away from the tile that went under the road that we took to get back home. As I came over to the spot I noticed that he had one paw that was being forced under water and immediately I had suspicions about what this “crime scene” was. The ‘coon had died (and pretty recently at that from what I saw) from a trap from which the trapper (poacher) just left when the season closed. This is the kind of actions that give trappers a bad name and jeopardize the loss of our rights to harvest fur. I took the responsible action and let loose the ‘coon carcass from the trap and hid the trap so that this didn’t further the argument to outlaw trapping if this scene was observed by some kind of activist.

Turkey Season This Weekend!

The time is near and I’m ready! Turkey season opens with the first season this weekend and I’m more than prepared to head out into the timbers to chase some gobblers. I have my shotgun sparkly clean, shells for it, my camouflage gear laid out, and my hands retuned to the use of my slate and box calls for the turkey. I have my blind and a total of a half dozen turkey decoys, which my cousin and I have used throughout the years and past seasons. There is nothing left, but to get out in the woods and reclaim that monster tom that I missed on the last day in the past season.

I just don’t think there is any type of hunting that is so alluring as turkey hunting. Waking up in the near dead of night it seems and putting bulky camouflage on from head to our toes, driving over to the spot and finding a spot to hide the truck. After that from memory finding the spot to set up your position and decoys in complete darkness and then waiting for the right time to start calling in the tom as the songbirds around you start to add such a noise it seems that you can barely hear the tom as he approaches (if your lucky). There is just nothing quite like it in the world.

But back to this big tom… I have heard him and seen him on several hunts, but I have never had enough luck or skill to ever get him to come in like the smaller toms and jakes so easily do. However this time was different I had be studying this turkey for two years and I had somehow predicted where he would come out, which is almost the same travel path he follows daily it seems. I felt ambitious and I set up on that spot to see if I could get a chance at bringing him under the bead of my twelve gauge. He nearly followed the path exactly as I had hoped and set up for and he was also escorting another nice tom alongside him. I had my cousin with me and he also had his shotgun, so what a great opportunity this was turning out to be. We both were licking our chops as these turkeys were quickly closing in on our positions, but they both stopped and walked away from us about 5 to 8 yards from the outer most reach of my comfortable shotgun range. I didn’t dare a shot and I let this legend of a turkey go as I might be able to get him another day (of course when he is even bigger! Ha). I will keep you posted on the hunt and hopefully success this weekend, good luck to you as well this turkey season and remember to keep your stick on the ice.

Spawn

The annual walleye opener has come again this year, with last year myself marking the catch of the biggest walleye I’ve ever caught before. The female walleye laden with its spawn eggs was over eight pounds. It was also the first day that I caught some saugeyes, which I have never really had any opportunities of catching because I don’t live near any huge amounts of water like the Mississippi, which was what I was fishing on last year for the 2008 walleye opener. The ice has almost completely melted off and the water is beginning to warm up once again, and this means one thing for fisherman all across America… the spawn! And the precursor to the much warmer spawn cycles of largemouth bass, crappies and catfish is the spawn of the walleye. This spawn is so hard to pinpoint as the spring weather unpredictability has such a major impact on the walleye’s at this time. Only the elite walleye fisherman is able to pattern these highly sought after fish with consistent success, and humbly I must say I’m not among that number.

This year over spring break, which is next week for me (!), I know I will be trying my luck at some pre- spawning walleyes on the dam of Pleasant Creek lake north of Palo and I will also get the boat out for some hopefully good walleye action on some rocky points, hidden brush piles, and on the causeway of Ponderosa lake near Montezuma. It doesn’t take too long to know if whether the spawn is occurring or if it is still too early. But I do know that the walleye do spawn awfully early and in some very frigidly, cold water in Iowa and I hope that I can catch a couple of walleyes. Besides for the catfish feeding frenzy right after ice- out not many other species will bite at this time, except sometimes for some absolutely lunker largemouth bass, which I was fortunate of catching one time either two or three years ago right after the ice melted off of a very small southern Iowa pond if I do recall correctly.

However now I really want to be able to get at least a couple of these walleyes for the frying pan, as long as they are not an egg- laden female. Of course, I will not object to catching and battling one of these huge walleyes and taking a few pictures of it to put onto the blog for you all to see. In the meantime good luck, good fishing, and I’ll see you out on the lake.

My New Groundhog

The last two weeks or so the weather has been absolutely phenomenal. The days have been marked with sunshine, clear blue skies and clearly the best of all warm. The weather has remained relatively constant and the days have been ranging from fifty degrees to a near record high yesterday of seventy degrees on Saint Patrick’s Day. It feels so great to be outside and actually feel the warmth of the sun with a shirt and shorts on. The signs of spring are all emerging from the grass becoming greener to track, soccer, and tennis teams playing outside. Another one of these signs of spring however has emerged quite noticeably in my own back yard.

And that is my groundhog. I first saw him last fall, but only occasionally (once in September and the other time in early November if I remember correctly). At that time this groundhog was huge it looked like a brown dog when I first glanced at him, nearly forty pounds of brown- furred groundhog meat. The outdoorsmen I am, the day after watching him for a few minutes, I decided to follow the path that I thought he had followed. After getting to the spot where I first saw him I tracked where I thought he had went the other day and lo and behold after a quick walk I found a mound of fresh dirt and a hole leading into the ground on the side of this mound. It didn’t take much to conclude that this was the entrance to groundhog’s home. However, that was the last I saw of my groundhog for the winter.

But with these last two weeks I have seen this same groundhog everyday after I get home from track practice. After a quick observation I noticed that my neighbor, the groundhog, had lost some serious weight and that every time I saw him he was looking for a source of green plant growth, which is almost completely absent in my yard at that time. So for the last couple of days I’ve been saving the potato skins and lettuce scraps from my family’s meals and have been putting it out near the groundhog’s hole for him to eat. The next day after the first time I put these vegetable scraps out for him I noticed him gorging himself on some lettuce leaves.

Who knows, maybe he will become like a dog in a backyard and I will have one popular pet when Groundhog’s Day 2010 comes around I hope (as long as I keep feeding him the lettuce that he likes so much anyways).

Track Begins

Track started three weeks ago and is now in full swing. The Kennedy Cougars had their first meet this last Monday (March 9) at the Wartburg College indoor track arena and by the results I think we are going to be an overall a mid- rate team. We sent two throwers to the competition and the top throw was thirty-five feet, I think the throwers are going to have a very long year. I was unable to go after I scratched three times in the “throw- off” to determine who would be going to the Wartburg meet. I think it is evident that we lack our top throwers this year because we have almost no senior class of shot- put and discus throwers. We have two seniors, but they have no past experience at varsity meets and nearly all of the junior and sophomore field team members can throw farther than them. Last year, at the last JV meet which was at Iowa City High I was placed very high after I tossed the shot- put forty- two feet and nine inches. I hope to be throwing this again at the next throw-off, as I’m the only field team member that has ever thrown forty feet or farther at an actual competition. By the end of the season I hope to be reaching forty- six feet on average for throw, which would be at the low end of being able to really compete and place at varsity competitions. To advance to the Drake Relays or to state many a time my coach has told us that we have to be throwing fifty feet at a minimum. Next year, returning as a senior I really hope that I can go to these prestigious competitions and even be able to place and get some “clinkers” (medals) at the Drake Relays and/ or state.

I need to focus much harder on my short-term goals though. These include not scratching and getting to the last two of the indoor track meets and also returning to forty- two feet on average per throw and improving to forty- six feet per throw as the track season progresses.

K9 Deputy?

Dogs are God’s creatures given to man as a tool, a friend, and as a teacher. Dogs are the only creature I can think of that actually, truly love to work. They work for many reasons, which makes dogs such a unique being. Canines work for the benefit of their masters and also they do it because that’s what they were born to do and that’s why they love it. They are satisfying not only their master and their instincts, but also a desire to perform work.

I love to hunt with hound dogs because they are so motivated to work and hunt hard. They run themselves to the extremes to please their owner and the fact that they absolutely love what they are doing. It’s a perfect combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation that dogs have.

There is also a unique bond between a man and his dog. Both partners are willing to do almost anything for their counterpart; this can include sacrificing their safety and life. Dog and man work for each other and it is a perfect relationship. Luckily, I have five dogs and I feel that bond and love that I have described for each one of them. There are few things that I love doing more than going hunting with my five hounds out in the wounds or across a picked corn field in pursuit of a raccoon or coyote.


I’m really struggling to decide what career I would like to pursue when I enter the work force. I want an action packed job that is reliable and that I won’t have to fear losing due to a poor economy. I’m somewhat shading away from serving in the military as an officer, which is what I have had my mindset on for a couple of years now. Now I want to be an officer, but for the police. I think the jobs will be very similar. Also being a cop I will be able to stay “home” and enjoy hunting, fishing, and trapping in my free time off of work. I am telling you this now as I want to clarify what kind of officer I want to be in the police force and that is a canine deputy. I think I will serve the public very well as a canine deputy because of my past history with dogs. I think I will be able to maintain the battle against crime very effectively with a dog because of the deep bond and appreciation that I have for them. I think this career choice will be perfect for me as I will be able to maintain an adventurous job and combine the love of dogs that I have.

Blogging

I blog as it is necessary and requested of me and also because it helps me keep a regular record of my thoughts and actions throughout the school year. It serves the purpose of a journal as I get to write about what matters to me and what I’m concerned about. My blog as a journal serves as an outlet for me to construct my thoughts and share them with others that have similar beliefs and views. Blogging is a great way for me to come to a common ground with others that can share their experiences and knowledge with me, and can help me grow as an avid outdoorsmen, athlete and Christian.

Blogging for me is also a requirement that I must fulfill for my A.P. Language and Composition class. At a minimum I must have three blogs a week with a total of twelve hundred words and the posts can be about anything, but it is encouraged if a central idea or topic is maintained throughout the blog. For those that haven’t yet explored the this site the foundation of this blog is the outdoors, and what I find myself doing when I’m out in the woods. As a quick note though of blogging, don’t fall behind with your posts as the entirety of this blog, of any blog, is to post often. Blogs are not like a book or magazine, as a blogger is the writer, editor and publisher all at once. Blogs share your insights and thoughts instantly with the all the host’s of the internet (and this is the world).

The blog also serves as my public journal. Everyone is able to criticize and comment on my blog and it is really humbling to be able to get this feedback. As most work that’s performed for school is just presented to a teacher, and with the blog I find myself able to learn from others. The blog is just another symbol of globalization and the spread of ideas from nation to nation to rather individuals from nation to nation or within their own nation.

Although blogging is a hassle I have found it a great tool to connect with others, and to learn from others. It seems easy and not fake posting on my blog as I have freedom to choose my topics and I’m in no way restricted by anything yet the need to satisfy the length and number of posts. Blogging is a tool that I think in the future will be a huge part of classroom learning and worldwide learning.

Fronts of the Past and Future

In the last week Iowa has experienced a massive warm front that moved through the entire state practically. Temperatures “soared” (well they at least went up) to sixty degrees as the high, I’m almost positive that we made some record highs in the past week. It seemed everywhere I went people were with the higher temperatures in higher spirits as well. It was a huge relief for me also, it seemed like forever that I didn’t have to go out to my frost bitten car and scrape off the frost. This was a great foretaste of spring I think for everyone that was growing so weary of the cold winter months. I was able to pull out some shorts for one of my school days as the weather felt so warm and great. I saw several motorcycles that were being ridden out and about, and this was only a sign of the two-wheel terror that I will soon be able to get and call my own.

The warm up I feared would melt all of the ice ending my ice- fishing ventures for this year. However, the fears were unnecessary as the ice remained and the Bass Masters tournament, which was about right in the middle of this warm front was still able to take place. The majority of the massive amount of snow that we’ve already this winter has for the most part melted off. I had forgotten how beautiful the land is without the “monotonous” look of white snow covering every foot of it. This early snow melt I hope will also help lessen the floods that might occur in the spring or early summer due to the vast amount of snow melt- off. However, there is still snow in the shadows of trees or in the spots where huge piles of snow found refuge in the parking lots of commercial buildings.

This morning was the first in about a week in which a found frost on my windshield. As Charlie Brown would say, “OHHH drag,” I know there is more winter to come and the frost on the windshield this morning was the sign of its return. That is along with the weather forecast of a snow storm aimed for Cedar Rapids for Friday and lasting to Saturday morning. This is Iowa weather and if you don’t like it today wait three days and it will be different.

Finnish Raccoon Hunting, Go Figure...

Watch this, whoever knew Europeans had raccoons and that the hounds to hunt them. This is really interesting to watch if you have ever gone raccoon hunting and to watch the similarities and differences of Finnish raccoon hunting and hunting in the woods of Iowa. If it wasn't for the youtube title I don't think I would ever know that they were hunting out of the United States except somewhat because of the accents.

Furs Sold in Rowley, New Report on Fur Prices

I had another set of furs that I sold this past Saturday and it was very interesting to see what the prices of fur have done. The fur market has correctly fallen in result of lower oil prices and the mild winter in Russia, which are the two driving factors that primarily determine the fur market’s strength or weakness. Both of these factors this year had a negative effect on the prices, or at least the market wasn’t as high as expected. In September and October reports were coming in the newspaper, magazines, word of mouth, and on the internet that there was going to be a boom in the fur market. Raccoon pelts were expected to be about twenty five dollars a pelt, compared to the last decade of prices being about ten or twelve dollars a pelt.

As I was driving up to Rowley, Iowa the dealer where I typically sell my cousin and my furs I was nervous enough that our pelts would fetch low dollar prices. Side note: I sell the furs in Rowley like I’ve previously stated, at the Northeast Iowa Fur Exchange on Main Street. I’ve read reports in the last couple of weeks that raccoon pelts were now fetching six to eight dollars and that coyote pelts (which my grandpa had shot one and had me sell) were worthless, and shouldn’t even bother being brought in to the exchange. This is almost the most depressing news that a trapper or hunter can get, as all his hard work may not even reimburse for the gas that was used when he was hunting or trapping.

I talked to the furdealer while he was grading my furs and had talked about how the fur prices had recovered some as there was still strong demand for furs in China and Italy and that as oil prices stabilized and gas prices went up slightly had helped bring the fur market back to the norms of which I had been used to in the last decade. I sold the furs at still low prices, but I received fifteen dollars for XXXL size raccoons and nine dollars for XXL size pelts. For the unskinned coyote my cousin got five dollars, which is by far better than nothing, and the couple of muskrats that m cousin had he got an average of two dollars or so. There is some rejoicing to be had in this news I thought, but yet this market falling out for a period of time still gives me fear that one day the pelts will be worthless and that will definitely be a sad day for trappers and hunters.

BassMasters Tournament

This last Sunday the Bass Masters club of Cedar Rapids held their annual ice fishing tournament on Pleasant Creek lake. Although the event was not noted in the outdoor section on Friday of the Gazette it was evident that enough hard- water anglers had heard of the tournament as it seemed that the entire lake surface was covered with ice shelters, four wheelers, ice machines, and men on buckets. It was amazing to see that many anglers on the lake as there is usually only a handful of fisherman (two or three ice fishing huts) on the lake normally. However, today was an exception and the fishermen were probably more abundant than the fish population underneath the ice.

I was obligated with a volunteer job at church when the tournament was occurring and so I was unable to go fishing for any length of time. A side note though, a really hope to be able to participate in this ice fishing tournament next year; the only requirement is a donation of one dollar.

After the church duty I was at least able to head out to the lake and observe some of the goings on. I found out soon enough that there was prizes for catches of each species of fish and for the heaviest specimen obviously. I also took key note to where all the “hot spots” were on the lake, as they were somewhat easily identifiable with ten to fifteen ice huts in a small region of the lake. It’s easy to understand that these would be the hot spots, but I knew there was others that the best fisherman were on, and no one else knew about. I got some really great ideas as to where to try fishing next time I head out (I hope soon) and try Palo lake once again, because its so close to my house. Good luck and good fishing to all.

MOTORCYCLE!!!

It won’t be very long now until the snow and ice melts off and some green growth returns to the environment that surrounds my eastern Iowa home. When this happens it will alert me to the fact that motorcycle season has returned to Iowa, and this year I get to purchase my first motorcycle. I can’t wait to ride this bike and be able to have some reasonable speed and acceleration power, and leave my beloved Chevy truck parked in the garage (which has a zero to sixty of like 20 seconds). I’ll also be the only student at my school that will have a motorcycle and there is a spot near the building to park them, which will seem a blessing from marking at a minimum half a mile away from the school.

Beyond the obvious other reasons I’ve stated I will become a part of the two- wheel revolution that is starting to spring up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa it seems ever since the oil prices sky rocketed in the last summer or two. However, I’ll be the minority of this group with a cruiser bike and not the speed bikes that so many Cedar Rapidians have.

In the next month or two when I finally get this bike I think I’ll have no chance of ever getting off of it. I’ve tasted the freedom and power of a cruiser underneath me and it’s such a great feeling. Right now I’m making my decisions on which brand that I want to purchase from. Harleys Davidson’s although the most classical American bike is also the most expensive and I’m not really looking for the Harley hog. Honda’s are on the opposite spectrum and they aren’t not renown for quality motorcycles. Largely, that leaves me with either a Suzuki or a Yamaha motorcycle to choose from. Both of these brands have several motorcycle options to choose from in the price range that I’ll be in. I’m looking specicifically for a six- fifty or a seven- fifty motor, any color really, saddle bags, and a sissy bar, most of the motorcycle options of these two brands have these requirements. I’m just going to need to continue doing some research and asking around to see what would be the best bike for me (if you have any advice please leave me a comment, and I’ll really appreciate the help).

Early Symptoms of Turkey Fever

Turkey hunting… it seems hard to bring this subject up now in the dead of winter, but I’m going to anyway because I love to hunt the bearded gobbler so much. It’s such a fun challenge to be able to chase after this game bird in the woods, or rather have them chase you down in response to some imitated clucks of a hen. Although at times it seems hard to wake up at four or five o’clock in the morning its wholeheartedly worth it, there’s nothing quite like being in the middle of the woods when the sun wakes up all of the song birds and the sun’s light leaks through the greening canopy of oak trees. It seems a tradition very much unchanged since hundreds of years ago that mankind first hunted the turkey with a gun.

I watch in earnest as I’m able to cross off the days of the calendar until the opening day of turkey hunting season comes, which happens to fall on April 13th this year. I’ll be returning to my same hunting ground this year which is a large three- hundred acre piece of timber with a pond in the middle and to the south edge of the timber lays some grain fields. The timber is owned by my uncle and is in between New Sharon and Barnes City, Iowa. There is a large population of turkeys in the vicinity of these woods and I have seen on several occasions the biggest turkey I’ve ever seen on t.v., in magazines, or anywhere, but of course he is the wariest of the male turkeys in this wood and without a doubt that is why he is still alive and so big. However, this year I hope that I can get him, as I’ve watched him for two or three years now and I believe I know his pattern of movement. Undoubtedly I will keep you all posted on this tom and of course the others that I pray will cross my path in search of his lady friend the hen.

A night or two ago I really caught the itching to go turkey hunting and I soon found myself cleaning my twelve gauge and dusting off the turkey decoys. I won’t be surprised if in the next week or two I’ll be in Wal-Mart buying some turkey loads for the shotgun and some new turkey calls. This is the year to get that big tom, and I’m already preparing myself to do so. I hope you all haven’t caught the turkey fever like I have, at least not THIS early, well anyways see you in the woods or on the lake, and good luck.

Bewteen Another Set of Seasons

As I’ve previously posted I’m in the off-seasons of football and track and that I’m now strength and speed training. However, I’m also between another set of seasons and that is spring spawn fishing and turkey hunting and I’m training (in a sense) by keeping myself in the outdoors ice fishing and coyote hunting.

Wolf hunting and ice fishing to catch some hard chased bluegills and crappies I can only endure so much, as the cold on a day when things are slow sucks the heat of my optimism and patience away from my numb fingers. One can only use his fingers to deice his line and grasp the cold barrel of his .243 so many times before he wishes he was some place warm watching Bill Dance catching a big largemouth bass. Or at least in the warm comfort of his home getting ready for the spring seasons of turkey hunting and open water fishing.

So… that is what I find myself more often doing as the spring approaches in the next six weeks, and as glimpses of warm days to come are caught by a two or three day stretch of 40 degree weather (typically this winter it is then followed by some below ten or twenty degree temperatures). I’ve been cleaning my 12 gauge shotgun every time that I clean my .243 high- power after ‘yote hunting in preparation for aiming the sights towards a long bearded gobbler. I’ve also been cleaning my reels and respooling some six pound line and some 20 pound (for the spring thaw out on the larger lakes when the dead shad bunch up and the catfish gorge themselves).

It seems impossible to think of the spring coming, and I long (and I believe all of Iowa does too) for the return of some “mild” temperatures. As long as it stays cold though I’ll keep pursuing after some fish under some twenty- two inches of ice and I’ll keep tracking and letting my hounds loose at some “vagabond dogs”. In the meantime I’m going to keep going home to warm up watching some old rerun fishing shows and getting ready for those doomed (I hop) tom turkeys and aggressive spawning walleyes and bass. Good luck and good hunting to all you fellow sportsmen.

Late Furbearer Season

The end of the year doesn’t signal the end of the fur harvesting season at least not for another month. The 2008 trapping and hunting season officially ends January 31, 2009. However, coyote hunting continues as a year round season with minimal regulations and beaver trapping continues until spring April 1, 2009.

It seems irrational to think of those still trapping and coon hunting at this time of the year as it both it drives man and furbearers into their home dens. Furbearers have extremely minimal movement this time of the year and it is difficult to find them le alone trap them. One has to be smart enough to find the dens of where they are “hibernating” throughout the winter. Many times trappers and hunters target the many barns that are throughout rural Iowa as these are hotspots for ‘coons and other predators to hole up for the winter and for warmer weather. Box traps or conibears guarding modified five gallon buckets are very effective at these locations and to hunt raccoons in these barns smaller type hunting dogs are required. These hounds are typically either beagles or some breed of rat terrier and then these dogs trail after a ‘coon in the noticeable entrances of the ‘coon’s dens in the mounds of hay.

However, barns are in limited supply and after a couple nights of hunting the barns can be cleaned out around where you live. I have never really pursued to heavily after this kind of hunting or trapping. It seems unusual that the season doesn’t end until the end of the month of January. I can’t imagine to many hunters or trappers are out this winter in the unusually below average and below zero temperatures trying to hunt and trap when the fur prices are falling out and into chaos.

I’m looking forward to trapping beaver in the spring when the streams unthaw, but for now I’m leaving the ‘coons alone until next fall and staying in my den or trying to catch a fish through two feet of ice.

Track Next Month, Football in 200= 2009 Season

The groundhog has come and gone and now is the transition period between the long winter months of football weightlifting and track season in the fall. This week will be our second presentation of the “gun show” here at Kennedy High School, and is now approaching the two hundred day mark until the Kennedy Cougars have the kickoff at the Linn- Mar game. It is also about a months time until the first indoor track meet (at the UNI dome (also the place where NFL player of the year Kurt Warner played)).

With all of these events upcoming on the calendar know is the time for me to be training and strengthening for these altheltic competitions. Every game, every time I step on or off the field next fall it will determine whether I’ll get a scholarship or an opportunity to play on a college football team. I really want to play in college and I’m striving to play at a Division two or possibly Division one school, it really depends how hard I work in the off -season and how hard I play on the field.

Track is not so much a big deal as this will still only be my junior year, however the recruiting process will still keep an eye on juniors as they may have a difficult time recruiting in the spring, as man althetes may already be “picked over”. Also, as of last year I was the top shot put hurler of the underclassman, a couple of seniors went to state and districts but there was a small and not very talented junior class last year.

This year is very important and will determine if I’ll be a student- althete in college. Now is the time to improving my strength, endurance, and speed for the 2009 season. Go Cougars.

Iowan Vs. Wild

Ever since the show Man vs. Wild and Survivorman started showing I knew that I would want to try this out on my own. From that point when I made the decision I have been training myself with things ranging from reading military field manuals, website information, and other survival books that I could get my hands on. I wanted to make my own southern Iowa edition of these ever popular t.v. shows.

I know that I want to do this my senior year of summer (the summer before I head off to college) and I’m going to do this with my younger cousin. We may or may not tape this as I don’t want to end up being another of the millions of never found, but yet good youtube videos. I’m leaning away from this as it will be just a hassle, and a reason to ruin an expensive camera.

Our version will consist of us residing along the banks of the North Skunk river, and the whole point of this “experience” is to see how long we can survive out in the woods without any outside help or assistance of any kind or form. I’m hoping that we can sustain ourselves with both a shelter, food, and water and that we will have no need to give up, but will rather turn in because we are bored of being out in the woods. Also, my cousin and I are hoping if things turn “south” and we do struggle in maintaining a supply of food and water or if the weather is horrible that we will at a minimum be able to stay out in the woods for one week.

The conditions (what we are going to bring with us) include two knifes, one hatchet, 200 yd. of braided survival line, and a set of hooks. Due to the fact that we are going to be on a river we are going to be fishing a lot, and it is going to be a huge aspect of what we are going to need to do to “survive”. There are several nice locations on the river that would be great spots to make our camp shelter.

I think our days will consist mostly of fishing and tending the fire, but also foraging, preparing the meals, and improving and making the shelter. (Kind of sounds like Lord of the Flies, doesn’t it?) Anyways this is what I’m going to do next year and this year I’m going to try a “test” trial to see if I’m capable of sustaining myself for at least a couple of days.

Man Vs. Wild (Iowa Style)

After a couple of hours on the lake and not being able to find any fish after my hopeful crappie spot was invaded by some fellow fisherman Spencer and I went to our “backup” pond. This pond is on the north side of Pleasant Creek lake, and is near the old cemetery. Luckily, there is only a few that know where this pond is, as it requires nearly a mile hike through some eighteen inches of snow and the trail back to it is unmarked, and looks like nothing more than a deer trail.

Spencer and I decided we would try our luck fishing on this pond, and that we would bring the hatchet and matches that I almost have with me in my truck. However this soon became far more than just a casual fishing trip we decided to do our own spin on the Discovery Channel shows Man Vs. wild and Survivorman in this small Iowa woods. This show usually involves several “steps” first he gets lost, he finds shelter and food, makes a fire, and then he gets rescued. We were obviously going to ignore the first and last steps as our truck somewhere to the south of where we were.

We found the pond quickly enough and I soon had put a couple of holes in the ice near the deepest parts of the pond where I had hoped the fish we were lying. Spencer searched for a spot near the pond that we could make into a shelter. He soon found a spot on the north bank of the pond to where we could build a shelter. There were three trees and we used those as the supports to hold up the roof. We used extremely small green saplings to tie some larger willow saplings to these support trees and from this we layered several more willow roof saplings to make the main skeleton of the shelter’s roof. We then cut some pine tree branches to cover the willow trees. At this point we had made an impressive shelter, I thought, and was similar looking to several of the shelters we had seen on these shows. Spencer then made a fire from some dry kindling that I had gathered while he was completing laying down the pine branches. He focused on starting the fire and I focused on catching us some fresh fish. However the fishing was also horrible on this lake and I only caught one little bluegill. Spencer and I wanting to be like the heroes of our favorite television show figured that we should try cooking our fish over the fire. We did so and the fish tasted quite interesting to say the least after some more fishing without luck we made our way back to the truck and headed home both agreeing that we would leave the winter surviving to the experts.

Midwinter Icefishing Slump

I went fishing last weekend on both Saturday and Sunday afternoon.  The ice is near 2 feet thick, so it quickly becomes important to make sure that this is where you want the hole dug.  Saturday I ended up getting into some nice crappies on a brushpile in the north creek channel of Pleasant Creek lake. I was using a mid-sized Swedish pimple tipped with some wax worms that I had found in the grain solo of my grandpa’s farm (this is a great way to get hundreds of worms in a matter of minutes, just ask a farmer if he has any spilled grain anywhere on the farm and that’s where the wax worms will be).  However, I was limited with time as the last twilight of the sun’s light soon left the lake and the bitter cold started biting through my boots and gloves. I was surprised with the decent luck because of midwinter’s ability to shut down the fishing.

I decided that I would try this spot the next day.  On Sunday afternoon Spencer and I went to the north end of the lake to go back to the same brush pile and hopefully if I had patterned these fish correctly they would be there again.  However, I found some other fisherman there when we pulled up to the snow covered lot where I had parked before.  Doing the sportsman like thing I had decided that we would fish somewhere else and not crowd the fisherman that had got up early to get the worm (and the fish).  We spent near two hours unsuccessfully looking for a similar “setup” of both structure, depth (similar position as the creek channel, and of course time of day was already similar. 

The midwinter hunt for fish is just so difficult and countless articles have been written about it.  I have noticed this year that bass and crappies migrate non-stop during this time of the hard-water season on lakes and something I have never observed before but the fish migrate on ponds only about a half acre large.  This is making even pond fishing difficult, which is usually my backup to when the large lakes are too difficult to pattern. We tried the “backup” pond on the north end of the Pleasant Creek park and again couldn’t even find the fish on the half-acre pond. 

I’ll be heading out quicker next weekend to the brush pile to claim the spot and maybe the crappies will be there again. Anyways…good luck, and good fishing.

College Football

As I progress through my junior year at “Cougar” school my college search is beginning. After I come home from weightlifting I always find several letters from colleges wanted me to come visit their campus, ultimately these poor attempts of recruiting me are thrown in the trash. It seems these colleges don’t provide would-be students with the information that we desire to hear.

I know that I would like to be involved with the military or in a government intelligence agency, and then retire as a farmer back in my home state of corn- covered Iowa. I also really want to play college football at a Division 1 or 2 school.

With these lists of demands I begin my college search, but I have to do several steps to accomplish getting into the college that I want. I’ve recently talked to my counselor and to my football coach about playing ball in college. Luckily, I have the “required” height, the basic speed, and the talent to be a recruitable student athlete. The next steps that I need to continue with in becoming recruited and being offered a scholarship is to go to college camps this summer at the schools that I would like to go to. I also need to compile a highlight film either of this year’s play or more desirably of next year’s season play.

I need to continue working hard during the off-season and to lead my teammates who are not involved right now with a winter sport to work hard. Also, I need to continue to lead my team next season and summer. I’ve also been told by my coach to work twice as hard, as he told me I’d being play both ways next year, on offense and defense. I know this opportunity of more playing time will show to scouts my abilities, but I need to work now to be able to do this.

Cougar Team Coming Together

After winter break our weightlifting numbers have swollen, to include up to 50- 60 guys, which is tremendous. As we have nearly the same number in winter sports, next season we will surely continue the tradition of having a large football team on the field and on our sideline. This not only gives a better chance of having all around more talent, but also an intimidation factor to other teams. This is a truth as every time an opposing team steps out of the tunnel each of us instinctively sizes them up, both at the size of their physical bearing and the size of the team (before games I always hear murmurs of the sizes of the opponent’s team and I’m also guilty of doing some sizing up of my own).

Now that I’ve lead you to the shadow of my topic, I just wanted to mention how pleased I am to see the team coming together this early. Anyways from this I would easily guarantee that at least 90% of the team is involved in some form of rigorous exercises on a daily basis, which is again outstanding.

We continue to weight lift every day but Wednesdays, and we have further implemented more lifts into our “regular” routine, which we so fondly call “supersets” or “killers”. These supersets not only include just our basic lifts, but auxiliary lifts for the few dozen seconds we aren’t lifting, thus insuring no rest time besides when we spot our weightlifting partners. This is strength and endurance to its fundamentals, exactly what our minds and bodies will require on the field this season.

The team (weightlifters largely) also can feel this vibe that our team is coming together and that we have successfully got the mass of the team practicing for next year’s season. The team knows that this is the year of the Cougars, the year we will head to the dome and be a better team than any other in the state. We have large amounts of talent, the mindset of hard work (weightlifting faithfully everyday), large amounts of players, and experienced coaches, the recipe for a winning season and for a run to the dome. Go Cougs! 231 days to kickoff at Linn-Mar.

Crappies!

My cousin and I were right when we had predicted that those crappies would be still large in number and heavier in size in our grandpa’s pond (this was described more in depth in the post “Tracks in the Snow”). It didn’t take long at all for us to know we were on them as soon as I dropped the vexilar I saw several bleeps near the bottom and also suspended at about 7 feet of water. As soon as I dropped the waxworm loaded shrimpo down through the hole several more bleeps showed up and not a second later I was pulling up a healthy crappie out of its watery home.

After about an hour my cousin and I had nearly 50 of these crappies caught, we deemed it sportsmanlike though to keep only a half dozen of these crappies that we had caught, the smallest being 9 inches or so. It seems funny to think now that we got tired of catching all those crappies, and after that blitzkrieg like hour we soon went to another one of my grandpa’s pasture ponds to pursue some bluegills and some bass.

There is a huge number of crappies in this pond and because of the pond’s small size (approximately half an acre) I want to create a good population of good sized crappies. I think this will be a hard task for me to accomplish as to keep the fish relatively large I need to drastically cut the population, but by doing this I would be cutting the chances for success when I go fishing. As crappie fishing in ponds in southern Iowa is notoriously hard, unless the barometer is right or a front is coming through, maybe one day out of the week the crappies will bite, but when they do it is a feeding frenzy. There is one exception to this crappie rule though and that is if the population of crappies is overpopulated, or at the least very high. That’s why it will be difficult for my cousin and me to maintain a good population and yet keep that population at a large size. I’ll try to fish this pond again before ice-out and then see what happens to the crappies in the spring.

Coyote Hunt

Over Christmas break, to say the least, conditions were not ideal for furbearing ventures. Most of the snow melted off and thus rendering coyote hunting extremely difficult. However the weather did produce approximately half an inch of snow on the Saturday after the Christmas holiday. It was not ideal but yet it was sufficient enough to give the hounds enough powder to trail a track.

We loaded up the dogs and our hunting party of about 20 guys and were able to hit a track northeast of New Sharon. With more than a dozen dogs in pursuit they were able to catch a coyote twice on the ground and one other was led into the sights of a hunter. We ended up near Montezuma, but the dogs and hunters were unable to catch the last coyote as both the dogs and hunters tired and the little snow there was soon was disappearing yet again.

Beyond that day’s catch of three coyotes, we didn’t really have any success any other day hunting. However, I was able to finally sight in my new rifle, which is a Mossberg .243 with a 9 power scope. I had several shots at a coyote, but I missed them all or at least it had little effect to the coyote’s movement. I hope for another good snow and that I might be able to get a kill with my new rifle as I’m used to it now after the practice I had with it.