Deer Hunting, 2020 Back at Rich's

 

3 of the 4 deer bagged on Opening day

Well despite it getting more difficult to deer hunt each year, I decided to go again this year.  Hunting with my good friend Jack and his son Ben, a number of years we started hunting by his cabin on Platte Lake, west of Mille Lacs.  Soon we befriended a man named Rich Allen, who owned 160 acres about 3 miles southwest of Jack's cabin.  The land is mostly a peat swamp with some high ground east across the swamp as well as an wooded island that is slightly higher but not by much.  In the later years the water level had risen so high that it was almost impossible to get back to our hunting spots on the island.   Rich had passed away a number of years ago however his nephew Brett now has the land and he has always welcomed us to hunt.  Unfortunately we have chosen an easier path of hunting, another friend of Jack's, Loren has land about 15 miles from his cabin but for the most part it's dry and easy to walk.  This year Brett with the help of his son Trent and Jack's son Ben, they started clearing out all the overgrown brush that basically was holding back the water in the swamp.  After many weekends of work they were able to clear out the old drainage ditch enough to lower the water in the swamp by at least 6 inches.  Many years ago Jack had some solid aluminum catwalk pieces and gave them to rich to put across the ditch as a bridge.  Prior to clearing the ditch the water was about 2 inches above the deck.  When we walked over it on Friday to check out the stands the water was at least 6 inches under the bridge, however it was still pretty wet in the swamp as I soon found out that leaving my knee boots at home wasn't such a great idea!  Luckily Jack had some to use, I would have been wet without them.  One thing that Brett also did was allow me to use one of his plastic roto molded deer stands that he put up in strategic locations.  Admittedly it was very nice, a swivel chair, propane heater, nice windows, sitting up 10 feet off the ground supported by a number of treated 4 x 4's and a concrete anchor, it was very nice.  It was also nice of Brett to allow myself this luxury, maybe because I am getting old, never the less it was appreciated.  Either way it was nice to walk out to the stands on Friday to get familiar with the area again as it's been maybe 4 years or so since we hunted the swamp.  Friday night was our traditional Steak a la Kienitz night as appreciation to allowing us to hunt the land, we provide Friday night steak, baked potatoes, and fixing's.  It was always appreciated by Rich so we have kept the tradition going.  The first year we hunted with Rich, we brought a Flip Flop grill from Eleva.  Rich was so impressed he asked me to pick him up one, which after my mother got one for me, we had the next year.  Brett still has the grill as it does the steaks perfectly (although they were originally for chicken).

Plastic shelter on stilts!

We got up early, 5:00 AM on opening morning.  Being retired this isn't my normal routine however I did survive!  After a quick bite to eat we were headed to Brett's place to walk out to the stands.  It was quite dark yet the path was easy to follow.  Ben went south to a stand about 100 yards from Jack. Jack took the first stand on the edge of the wooded island, near where I would set up my old stand years ago.  Funny all those good trees were blown down and the feel of the area had changed quite a bit.  After wishing Jack good luck, my path took me about 150 yards north to the northeast point of the woods overlooking the edge of the swamp as well as the point.  It was unusually warm for this time of year with the high temperature predicted in the high 60's.  No need for heavy clothes so I removed my coat and sat down and got comfortable.  It was great!  With a nice south wind, it was just perfect as I stayed there till dark.  About 10:00 there were 2 shots very close.  Soon a call from Jack, Ben had a spike buck down and he went to get the special ATV to drag it back.  They were visible from my stand but it was just too comfortable to get my jacket and boots on to trudge my way over to see the deer, it would be there upon my return.  His buck is the one on the right in the first picture.  It was interesting as to the left of the stand was a pile of corn and 6 Mountain Dew bottles.  Legally one cannot hunt over a bait pile yet this was left over from bear hunting, in which it is legal to hunt.  Apparently the deer hadn't found the corn pile as it was still pretty intact.  Asking Brett what the Mountain Dew bottles were doing, he stated that bear love Mountain Dew and will rip open the tops and drink the entire half gallon, and there were 6 of them.  I didn't see any bear as the season closed a number of weeks ago and Brett had not cleaned it up.  Oh well, it was interesting about the Mountain Dew.  Because of my scheduled angiogram for next Monday which includes having a Covid Test on Thursday, I will be quarantined either way, if I am negative they don't want me to risk catching it between Thursday and the procedure on Monday, or if I am positive, it still means quarantine for 2 weeks........a lose lose deal so no more deer hunting this year!  The reason for all of this is my heart valve is slowly deteriorating.  This isn't an issue as I am schedule to have a TVAR type valve replacement which no longer requires open heart surgery. Previous test show not much change to the valve but one of my symptoms is getting out of breath easy.  A CT with Contrast showed some narrowing of the coronary arteries but not abnormal however a better test is the angiogram.   I think my issue is simply retirement and I am definitely out of shape.  After Monday we'll know more as my friend Mark Applen just had the same thing done and they put in 2 stents, which they might do to me.  Oh well.  Winter is coming and there's still a lot to do! 

Deer Hunting, Ready or Not

Ben's newest addition to his Trophy Room!

Well, like everything these days it's amazing that deer hunting is already here.  What started out in the early 1980's hunting with my friends Mark and Jack Taylor, their brother-in-law Tim Guzek and myself has been reduced to simply Jack and I for the last 15 years or so.   Our first adventures deer hunting was in Roseau, Minnesota which is 10 miles from the Canadian border.  Staying at the Evergreen Motel, $20 a night for 1 room with 2 full sized beds, 4 of us slept very comfortably as the goal was to go on the cheap!  We hunted in Roseau because a guy at my work, Dale Larsen was from there and invited us up.  These were the great deer hunting times, 6 hour ride up north in Mark's dad Earl's Blue Chevy van, couch in the back with room for our gear and in those days, beer for the road! After a couple of years we started making a little more money and decided to get 2 adjoining rooms, we each had our own bed.  Eventually we ended up hunting just south of Roseau, staying in some cabins at the Skime Store.  Simple rooms built on a slab, the flies would come to life once you turned on the heat.  Hunting was good around there but eventually that faded as Tim moved away and the hunting land we were on had been bought by a country celebrity called Shotgun Red and his wife Miss Daisy from the old television show He Haw.  We had asked Shotgun to hunt his land and he had no problem however a conflict occurred between us and Red's old hunting camp, the Olsen's.  Red was in the wrong but wasn't going to put us in front of the Olsen's even though he knew that us being on the land would help stop them from assuming they could have free reign of his newly aquired land.  Busting into our cabin and being warned about getting shot ended our days in Skime.  Next we hunted around Pequot Lakes, where Tim's cabin was, those were also good times but eventually Tim sold the cabin and we started hunting the area we are today.  Things continue to change as Rich is been gone over 5 years ago, Mark no longer hunts, and this year Jack's son Ben is joining us. Speaking of Ben, my friend Ben Aiona from Eleva texted me a picture of the beautiful buck he shot while bow hunting in the area.  Trempealeau and Buffalo Counties in Wisconsin are home to some of the largest whitetail deer in the country and this 13 pointer just validates that.  Next to Ben is his son Jared, who I am told actually helped track the deer and found it (wink).  As I say every year, only in my dreams!

Well, Ben wasn't the only one sending me pictures of their successful hunt, another friend Dwight Jordan sent me a picture of the nice elk he shot last week in Colorado.  A nice 5 x 5, maybe not a massive trophy but definitely worth bragging about.  Dwight goes out west every year to hunt and for the most part he does pretty well.  I hunted a few times with Dwight up near Thief River Falls when my cousin hunted a few years back and we have stayed in contact ever since.  I know he's a few years older than me but I'd tell you that he is still someone I wouldn't want to mess with and I'm afraid if I ever did hunt with him I know I couldn't even keep up with him.  He lives just south of Hudson, Wisconsin and I have featured his family in past posts on the Blog.  He's a really great guy and often wish that I could see him more often than I do.  So with that I have bought 12 pounds of boneless ribeyes for the steak feed on Friday night, my stand is ready although we are still debating where we are hunting, in the swamp or on the edge of the field 10 miles down the road.  I can tell you the field sounds like a better option but I think there is more deer in the swamp.  It will be good to see everyone again as we toast to our glasses to Rich Allen, a very nice man who really embraced Jack and myself.  It's suppose to rain on Friday and turn cold on Sunday which is OK with me.  We might as well start getting the lakes froze over as I'm getting anxious for ice fishing.

Deer Hunting

Sunday Morning's View From My Stand.

 Early November means one thing in Minnesota, Deer Hunting season.  Admittedly each year that passes it gets a little harder to trudge out to through the swamp yet it's something that once you stop you might never start again.  After moving from Eleva, Wisconsin to Osseo, Minnesota it took a few years of adjustment to get into the swing of things.  It was easy the first year to head back home and hunt however after meeting my first friend, Mark Taylor I started my Minnesota Deer Hunting tradition with Mark, his brother Jack, his brother-in-law Tim Guzek, and lead by Dale Larsen.  Dale was a co-worker of mine who grew up in Roseau, MN.  Dale was going back  home to hunt so we talked him into "guiding" us what started as our own Minnesota Deer Hunting tradition.  Those first days were pretty interesting.  We hunted in the Beltrami State Forest, 30 miles SE of Roseau, one of Dale's traditional places he went with his father.  Our first trip found us staying at the Evergreen Motel in Roseau, $22.50/night for a room with 2 full size beds.  With 4 of us staying in that room it cost us about $17.25 for each of us for the 3 nights.  Our mode of transportation was "Ol'Blue" a late 1960's vintage powder blue Chevrolet panel van, complete with a couch, carpeting, and all the comforts (and refreshments) for the 6 hour drive to Roseau.  Leaving in the morning, we'd get there about 1:00 in the afternoon, enough time to check out our hunting area, get back to Roseau for a few drinks before getting up at 4:30 to drive back out to the woods.  We always planned one meal at Dale Larsen's mother's house, something she really enjoyed as it was just like those hunting days of years ago when Dale's father and all the relatives came around for the hunt.  Saturday night was always celebrated at the Roseau VFW, the town's best restaurant.  Hunting till Monday morning, we'd drive back to the Twin Cities that afternoon.  I really like those days of hunting as we had almost unlimited areas to hunt, there seemed to be a lot of deer around, and half the fun was the 12 hours we spent on the road.  Eventually our income allowed us to move up as we rented 2 separate rooms so each one of us could have our own bed.  Luckily the 2 corner rooms were connected making it seem as one big place.  Eventually Dale stopped hunting so we teamed up with our friends Mark Mayerich and the Ullom boys who were hunting just southwest of Beltrami Forest near the small town of Skime, Minnesota.  Nothing more than a country store with a couple of gas pumps and some rental cabins, we hunted that area until a gentlemen bought a significant amount of the acreage we hunted and along with the locals basically ran us off.  Things were changing anyway as Tim Guzek had bought a cabin on Pelican Lake near Pequot Lakes, MN and we decided to hunt a little bit further south.  Although the hunting areas had much more hunters, there were still deer to be had.  I have tons of deer hunting stories, so much and so little time.  I have yet to miss one season since that first trip 35 years ago however today it's only Jack and I left.  We still have fun but it's nothing like the those first years of hunting, the best of times for sure.

Trenton in his stand.

As we have for the last 10 years, this year was back at our dear friend Rich Allen's place soon the be Brett's place.  It's still fairly wet yet passible as I returned to my traditional stand location on the small peninsula of large poplar trees that extend into the swamp.  Hunting with me was Trenton, Brett's son who was sitting in the stand right at the point.  A nice 8 pointer was shot off that stand last year so it has some great potential. Trenton is a great kid and proved to be a trooper as he stayed on stand all day, both Saturday and Sunday.  Although I couldn't see him from my stand, it was good to have someone nearby in case I needed help.  Saturday was opening day as we were greeted with 20 mph winds, low overcast clouds, with a touch of snow falling off and on all day.  The air temperature wasn't too bad but the wind pretty much put any damper on deer movement for the day.  Sunday was quite a bit better as around 4:00 in the morning the wind died, the clouds disappeared and the temperature was still reasonable.  I do enjoy sitting in  my stand most of the day, maybe getting down for a simple stretch, a little walk to get the blood circulating again.  I had dragged my large tub sled out to the stand as I typically use hip boots for walking then carry out my bibs and cold weather boots, changing before I climb 18 feet up into my stand.  The tube comes in handy if I do happen to get a deer, I have something to drag it out through the swamp.  About 11:00 on Sunday morning I had exhausted all of my remaining food stashes, was somewhat bored with the wait so I brought my HDS 12 Touch Manual with me, a great place to get familiar with it while I waited.  Hearing something I looked down and a small doe had walked within 30 feet of the stand.  Deciding this might be my only chance I grab the rifle as the manual dropped out of my lap and hit the bottom of the stand.  Damn, that wasn't good!  Well the deer was dumber than I was and ended up hanging from the garage.  I'm one of those guys that the averages tie into the success rate in Minnesota for deer hunting, about 34%.  I seem to bag a deer every 3rd year and this year marked 2 years since I had bagged one.  The deer wasn't very big but it did remind me of the time Mark Mayerich had shot a very small deer in Roseau.  After registering it he asked the guy what to do with it (referring to the tag) to which the guy responded....buy a loaf of bread and make a sandwich!  That was still pretty funny.  Helping my neighbor Pete, he has allowed me to bring my deer over to his heated garage for a comfortable place to butcher it.  With 10 degrees on Tuesday morning, it was a lot better than doing it in my shed.  I did take a picture of the deer hanging in his garage, I'm not telling which one was mine but I'm sure you can guess!

Vension to be cut up.

With lows of 10 degrees, the ice is not far behind.  The Champlin pond has skimmed over and the ground is starting to freeze.  The weekend is supposed to warm backup into the 50's, maybe a reprieve allowing enough time to finish the last of the yard work before it gets to late.  I got a feeling Saturday is going to be crazy.  The mower deck needs to come off the lawn tractor and the snow blower needs to be mounted.  The boat has to be moved back for the winter and the snowmobiles brought forward.  I have a Strikemaster Laser Power Auger in a 9 inch model and was beginning to start hard, even after I put a new gas tank on last year.  I decided to bring it into D-Rock in New Brighton, an authorized Strikemaster service center.  While driving up hunting they called me to let me know it was ready and the bill was $66.  I asked if they did anything as nobody does work for that kind of money these days.  Sure enough, I picked it up on Monday as they installed a new carburetor kit, new spark plug, cleaned it thoroughly, and reassemble like new all for $66.  If I knew it was going to be that cheap I wouldn't have waited so long.  Dropping off my 30 year old Jiffy auger, we'll see how they do with that.   My plan is to go back up for a day to hunt with Jack, maybe on Sunday, trying to help him get a deer. 

Knocking at the Door

Waking up to snow!

Well, I wook up this morning to a fresh layer of snow, the first accumulations of the year.  As I stated last week, in 1991 we had 31 inches by the time it ended on November 1st, so this morning's 2 inches on the ground is pretty uneventful in the grand scheme of things.  It does represent the progression of winter and early snow hopefully means early ice, as I am anxious to get out.  One thing that is different this year is that even after a week, the leaves are stubbornly still on the trees.  I did get out on Saturday to put my tree stand up for this weekend.  We are still hunting on Rich Allen's place near my friend Jack's cabin, west of Onamia, MN.  Rich passed away a number of years ago and we sure do miss him.  Our tradition is to serve a steak dinner at his place on Friday night, a time now dedicated to reflect on our friend, his generosity, and how he enjoyed life.  You can be sure there will be a few toasts to Rich, a few stories, some deer hunting strategies discussed, and the general camaraderie I enjoy so much.  I'm not sure we'll solve anything but it is certain to be a good time.  Hopefully that big buck will walk by my stand, if it doesn't well, no big deal!

 

Record of jig fishing off 7 mile Flat

Digging around the office I ran across an old section of graph paper from my Lowrance X15B.  A state of the art fishing tool, it had a stylet on a belt that would pass across thermally sensitive paper and burn the image of what was under the boat via the transducer.  A precursor to today's super sharp color LCD/LED screens, it still provided images in detail that is still not available today, although admittedly they are pretty good!  The problem was that the thermal paper cost between $4 and $6 per roll, and if you ran it at the right speed, could last for over 6 hours.  Compared to what a dozen shiners cost, it really wasn't that much and gave a nice printed record of the days fishing.  I used to buy paper at a dozen rolls at a time and would probably go through 12 - 15 rolls a year as I never ran it while traveling from on spot to another.  The first picture is a shot of a jig I was working on the bottom off the edge of 7 Mile Flat in the middle of Mille Lacs Lake.  Graphs were super sensitive and you can see the jig fall almost from the surface to the bottom, watch it bounce off the bottom, and observe the fish come up and look at the jig as it rises off the bottom.  In the middle is a suspended fish, all of these were more than likely tulibee's as they inhabit the deep areas of the lake, just off the flats and throughout the deeper basin.  As a side note, I have never caught one during the summer yet if the water temperature gets over 75 one starts seeing them floating on the surface, a victim of the warmer water as Mille Lacs is about a south as their range goes.  On the other hand ice fishing can be very good because they are a cold water fish and seem to be quite active under the ice.

 

The day the wind came up.

The next picture is taken a few hours later as the wind abruptly came up and blew exceptionally hard.  Although I can never be sure, I believe this segment of the recorded events shows a wave that is 5 feet from peak to trough, the largest wave that I have ever experienced at Mille Lacs.  Granted, one night while fishing with my friends Eric Hayes and John Delestry, those waves were insane, yet nothing records better than the old paper graphs and the paper doesn't lie.  Another significance to this picture was my passengers for the day, Tom Emmons and Tom McAtee.  Although Mr. Emmons is no longer with us, I can still remember after riding this rather large wave I stopped the boat to put on my life vest.  Of course back then we were all invincible yet this one did shake me a bit.  Tom never forgot and through the years used this event to make fun of my vulnerabilities.  I wish he was still here to give me some crap!   Today I wear my inflatable vest 100% of the time as I've gotten quite a bit smarter than I was 20 years ago.  Funny, I still have the graph and if paper was available, I'd love to hook it up and make some recordings of the bottom readings.  The reality is the new HDS 12 has and extra SD card slot and one can simple insert any SD card and record the events of the day from the HDS's perspective.  Still unrolling the exposed graph paper kind of made one feel you just got back from a secret mission and were reviewing the findings.  Times have changed for sure.

 

Lory and I just finished up our last cider making day exceeding more than 40 gallons pressed this year.  I still have about 13 boxes of apples but with the cold weather, we are done.  Making wine, giving it to the neighbors who stopped by to help, freezing a bunch, we are all set for the rest of the year.  It looks like the garden tilling will have to wait till spring, I nailed my 6th pocket gopher this week, and the next week will be a push to get everything set for the winter, no small task.

Deer Hunting Time

Left X = new spot, Right X = old spot

Saturday marks the beginning of the Minnesota Whitetail Deer hunting season.  It's always a struggle when you do not belong to an organized group as the guys I hunted with have long since scattered with the exception of my good friend Jack Taylor.  He and I have persevered for the last 10 years when we finally found a home on Rich Allen's 160 acres, south of Jack's cabin on Platte Lake, MN.  Platte Lake is about 10 miles west of Lake Mille Lacs and with his cabin, it offers a great place to base our hunting from.   Our good friend Rich died a couple of years ago leaving our hunting paradise in jeopardy.   We last hunted his place in 2010, I did shoot a nice tender yearling buck, yet 2011 brought uncertainty as we found another area that had promise.  Although Rich's land did not sell, in honor of our good friend I did host our deer hunting steak feed at Rich's house.  Our conflict on where to hunt didn't help anything as last year's hunt was less than successful but at least we got out.  Well this year Rich's land is still available and his nephew Brett has insisted we come back.  With the dry summer to our surprise the swamp is quite manageable, why not!  Brett had invited a few others so this year I decided to move west a bit as Brett has the area east of me covered pretty well.  As the picture shows, my previous stand was in an island of large Poplar trees surrounded by swamp, the X on the right.   There is a nice trail that runs through the small strip of swamp grass and into a grove of large tamarack trees.  Deciding that my old stand is somewhat cutoff I moved it west into the tamaracks where several trails intersect.  It puts me at least 300 yards away from anyone, well hidden, maybe that giant buck will finally walk by.  Having never shot any buck over 6 points and 12 inches, I would like to get a nice one before I leave this world, this could be the year.  Our steak feed will continue in Rich's memory and with a little luck I will have a great report for you next week.

Matt's Colorado 5 x 6 bull elk

People continue to send in their hunting pictures or should I say "trophies" to me, most worthy of the associated bragging rights!  Today I am in Colorado visiting customers while traveling with one of my coworkers, Brett Jelkin.  Brett is a great hunter yet after 17 years of living near Ft. Collins, he has yet to figure out where to bag a trophy elk.  It can take a lifetime of learning along with just the right conditions to get that 6 x 6 everyone is looking for.  Of course you can do what my friend Big Dave Pedersen did, pay someone a good chunk of money, yet that seems so wrong when you live right here in elk country.  Driving up from Pueblo this afternoon one of our associates, Matt e-mailed us a picture of his 5 x 6 elk he had shot earlier this month.   Hunting in the southwestern area of Colorado known for their big elk Matt scored big with a nice bull.   I haven't got the full story on the hunt however I am looking forward to hearing the details for sure.  When did you shoot it, did you call it in, how far back were you, are you having the head mounted, is it your first big bull?  I'd love to put one of these on my bucket list, maybe sooner than later for sure.  Whatever the story it's a great picture and maybe I can hustle some meat out of him!



HDS10 Gen 2

For me this is transition time.  We actually had pretty good weather up to a week ago but as things go it has turned much cooler.  It seems like it only takes a week to go from 60 degree days to 40 degree days.  With night time temperatures in the mid 20's the small swamps and ponds often have a skim of ice on them in the morning.  Safe ice cannot be too far behind as the forecast shows no significant warm up in the next couple of weeks.  It was still nice enough to get the oil and lower unit grease changed in my 115 Suzuki this week.  I was very surprised how clean both oil and lower unit gear lube looked.   In my lower unit I have started using Amsoil 100% synthetic Marine Gear Lube and after 3 years it still looked like new yet it was time to replace.  At the same time I traded my 2 year old Lowrance HDS10 for a slightly used HDS10 Gen 2 unit.  Lowrance's new technology using faster microprocessor is supposed to make it significantly faster, something I have already concurred, what a difference and I can't wait to try it out in the water.  Along with changing oil, I trapped a couple of pocket gophers trying to make my yard their winter hibernation home.  My neighbor Otto has a really smart one as it's alluded my traps for almost a week know.  I still think he's coaching these little pests! 

Opening Day Success

Wow, the time seems like it is in hypermode these days.  Besides being behind with almost everything, deer hunting was upon us last weekend, November 6 and 7th.  As everything lately, it seems as though last year was just yesterday.   Once again I had the pleasure of hunting with the same group as in the last 6 years.  Hunting my remembered friend Rich Allen's land, it was Jack, Brett and Trenton, Kevin and Austin, Eugene, and our host Ken.  Arriving Friday, it was exactly as predicted, WET!!!  Receiving record rainfall in September and 3 - 5 inches 2 weeks ago, the lakes, creeks, rivers, and swamps were filled to the brim.  I hunt the back part of Rich's land and the real only way to get back there is trudging through the swamp.  In year's past Jack and I would take our ATV's and crawl through the peat and alders.  The problem this year is the fear of getting stuck, as well, we are not as adventurous as we once were.  This means donning on the hip waders and making your way through the tangle of clumps, brush, and holes that challenge the boot height.   Arriving on Friday the first order of business was to check out how bad it really was and make a decision if we would even expend the energy.  Walking back to the stand, it was about as I expected.  I had left half of my stand in the woods last year, meaning to come and get it once the swamp had frozen.  Great idea but like a lot of great ideas, sometimes you just don't get to them.  There it was, just were I had left it a year ago!  Luckily I had removed the pads and armrests as the 25 foot nylon ropes attached to the stand were missing all but about 6 inches.  I guess the mice must have found it great bedding material.  Faded but functional, I decided to endure the walk and hunt in the tree I have gotten to know over the years.  My ladder stand is nice but a pain to set up, even with 2 guys.  With the ropes gone, Jack and I used our collective heads and got it in position.  Standing almost 18 feet high, it's a balancing act to put that top strap around the tree to secure.   I had brought the straps but had grabbed the wrong ones, dang it.  It's too high up to take any chances so I headed back to my truck to retrieve the right ones.  That second trip out there had me thinking if the right decision had been made!   Everything set, we headed back to Rich's for my famous marinated steaks.  This has always been a tradition we started and it may well be the last time we will do this at Rich's as Mary has the place for sale.

With Daylight Savings Time still in effect for Saturday morning, I took my time wading to my stand.  Wearing hip boots, I have to carry my warm boots in a plastic bag stuff my bibs, gloves, a change of socks, and extra pair of pants in case I trip on the way out, as well as a book, a MRE (thanks Tony), hand warmers, knife, camera, and water into a backpack.  It took about 20 minutes to walk 1/4 mile, I got to dry ground, changed, and climbed the stand.   In the stand for about 45 minutes something caught my eye, a nice spike buck was walking right in front of me.  I am not on trophy ground and was looking to refill the freezer with some fresh venison, down he went on the first shot!  I guess the trouble I had sighting in my new scope was all forgotten.  Of course now the work begins!  Not wanting to drag the deer out through the swamp, I waited till sunset when Brett volunteered to come by and help.  Although it wasn't the worst thing I had done, it took all we had to pull that deer through the swamp.  Luckily I have a medium size plastic sled that makes it much easier.  The top picture is my little spike buck, small but nice and tender!  As stated, this is probably our last year hunting Rich's forcing Jack and I to check out a couple of areas for next year to see if any hunters were around.  Skipping the morning hunt, we discovered a couple of nice spots where it appeared as though no one was hunting the area.  Deciding to see how the other guys were doing, we headed back to Rich's to discover Brett had a small doe down.  A number of us were available to help him so I dragged the sled back out and we pulled her through the swamp.  Here is Trenton, Brett's son posed with the deer.  Neither were trophy's but satisfying never the less. 

A couple of parting shots.  One of the things you commonly see in the rural areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and I am sure many states as well, all the road signs seem to have at least one bullet hole in it!  From shotguns to rifles to pistols bullets holes, one thing's for sure, there is no closed season on signs.  Here is a good example of this as we stopped to check it out.   I guess I remember participating in that sport 40 year ago as well.  I am writing this at 38,000 feet over Nevada.  Flying to San Jose, California for a Medical Trade Show the plane has WiFi on board.  $12.95 for the flight, about 3 hours worth, is pretty reasonable.  I can check my e-mails, finish a much past due post, and generally keep myself entertained.  Amazing world we live in today.  My stand is still in the woods, waiting for the freeze and hopefully I get this done soon.  The loss of 35 pounds really made a difference this year.  Carrying around that big bag of potatoes inside my body really dragged me down and I felt great all season.  I am sure at last years weight, I probably would have not gotten this deer.  This is sort of a transition time of year, hopefully ice fishing is not to far away.

My Friend's Successes

The unfortunate passing of my friend Earl as well our dear friend Rich Allen has changed our deer hunting plans for this year. My friend Jack has a cabin 10 miles west of Onamia, MN. We have spent the last 6 years hunting Rich's land while staying at his cabin. Earl's funeral was last Thursday and that became our priority for the week. Jack and I have decided to make our deer opener this weekend, hoping the big buck is still walking around. In the meantime I have received a number stories proclaiming successful hunts from my friends and members of our hunting party.

This first picture is of Jack's brother-in-law and my friend as well Chris (Boris) Swanson. Boris actually works about a block from me and is an accomplished tool and die maker. Boris bagged this nice buck on opening day in northern Minnesota. It was a pretty warm day as you can by the way Boris is dressed. His e-mail confirmed the buck weighed 220 pounds dressed out. Nice trophy Boris, that's a beautiful deer.

The next picture is another beautiful buck shot by my good friend Leon Lambert of Pueblo Colorado. I met Leon while he was an employee of The Trane Company, at the Pueblo factory. I had been talking to Leon over the phone for approximately 6 months when he informed me he was visiting headquarters in La Crosse, WI. Having some time available on his last day, we decided to meet in Red Wing and continue to Alma for an afternoon on the river. It was a beautiful day that April 5th and it started our close friendship that continues today. We have shared trophy fishing on Mille Lacs, ice fishing on DeWeese Reservoir for trout, and river fishing on the famous Arkansas River Canyon, west of Canyon City, CO. Leon's house is like walking into a natural history museum. A huge bull elk anchors his family room, at the time the second largest elk ever taken in Colorado with a bow. He has the proof of the first mountain goat taken in Colorado with a bow. Several pronghorn trophies adorn his walls intermixed with a mounts of mule deer racks, a 8+ pound walleye from the Pueblo Reservoir, and a stunning rainbow trout mount. Leon has since retired and has purchased a place in his home state of Oklahoma which should provide him with hunting paradise for years. I would have to say that Leon is the best whitetail hunter I know. Sometime I swear when looking at him I see antlers growing out of his head! This nice buck was shot this weekend in Kansas with his bow. Not bad for a retired guy. I hope to meet up with Leon some time in the future for a nice reunion. Maybe pig hunting or fishing stripers on Lake Texahoma, how about it Leon! Congratulations on another hunting success, although I have come to expect nothing less from Leon.

This last picture comes from my own hunting party. Joining us again this year is Bobby Allen, Rich's little brother from Seattle Washington. Talking on the phone, he sounds exactly like Rich and it's kind of nice to hear that voice again. Along with Bobby there is Eugene, Kevin, Austin, Rich's son Scott, Freight Train (Jack's brother-in-law) and Brett. Brett and Bobby are staying at Rich's all week. Well I get a call from Mary to give Bobby a call immediately. Brett had shot an albino deer. Doing as Mary asked, I called Bobby and sure enough, Brett had bagged a spike albino buck at around 140 pounds. Mille Lacs area has a good number of both albino deer as well as "piebald" deer, which are not true albinos but have white coats. Albino deer are legal game in Minnesota during the deer hunting season so it was perfectly legal. Although it does upset some people, biologist claim it is better for the herd to remove this defective gene from the pool. Admittedly I may have not taken this deer, however I am happy for Brett who now has a different kind of trophy. Of course the proverbial "Call Cabela's and see what they will offer" came up. Busy with the excitement, I told Brett I would call and find out if this was an option to sell the hide to them. A quick phone call confirmed, "Yes we buy unusual specimens however we only buy items that have already been mounted". I guess they don't want to deal with the mess! According to Bobby their immediate plan was to register the deer then stick it into the freezer and decide later. Whether you agree or not, you have to admit that it is a once in a lifetime trophy. I hope my friends luck rubs off on me this weekend.

PS. Make sure you listen to my theme song!