Memorial Day Weekend: Saturday

Saturday took me to Charles City for a wedding. Rachel's former roommate and her husband were finally getting hitched. We have been friends with them since coming to Iowa State and this was a big deal for both Rachel and myself. Rachel was a bridesmaid and I was an usher. It was a beautiful ceremony and the only glitch was Megan forgot her bouquet going up the aisle. Anyway, Rachel and I finally were able to get a nice picture together with our fancy duds on.

The reception was like most but Ben's family is one hell of a rowdy bunch. It was fun and YES, I even danced with Rachel. I maintain, real dancing.

Nick also seems to catch the real pictures best. This was as we were sitting outside the hall.

Stay Tuned

Memorial Day Weekend: Friday

Started the weekend on Friday by going out to do some  more work on Coleman's. This time Nick was able to go with me and throw a chainsaw around. We were able to get a lot of work done on the maple section and it was a lot of fun just dropping trees. After the work there we decided it would be in our best interest to go to Big Marsh to catch or shoot some carp. The fishing was sort of a bust from the start but the carp were thick above the dam. Nick struck first with a nice fat buffalo.

Nick decided to give me a chance and went down below to fish. He shot another one at the shoot before I took to bow for good to take my opportunity. I managed to get my first two carp in over two years.

We headed to the upper bridge and Nick was able to whack a lard of a carp just before we left.

Stay Tuned

Saturday Break with Fish and Chips

I took the afternoon to do what I wanted to do. Again, I went back to the fishing spot I did yesterday at the Des Moines River. I got there with not another soul in the area. Within minutes there were two guys fishing on my right. Another half-hour later A really haggered couple started fishing on my right. Every other word was as usual an F-Bomb. To put the icing on the cake the guy started casting over my line. I just did the opposite of what I wanted to do an let it go. I then proceeded for the next two hours to show both parties what it looked like to catch fish. The guy in the left caught one carp and that was in the entire time I was there. At some point I was lucky enough to catch a nice eater walleye. I used the strap to my pack as a stringer. I eventually packed up and left with my walleye in hand. I got back to the apartment and cleaned up my prize.

I normally don't keep fish but Rachel is gone to Cedar Rapids for a bachelorette party so this is my opportunity to have fish. At the time it worked great so this is what I called a college-boy's cutting board.

I then wanted to try something I saw on one of those damn cooking shows. I tried the breaded cheese bit.

When all was said and done it didn't go as perfect as planned but still wasn't too bad. The fish fried up really nice and I decided to have a classic fish and chips. I finished it of with a mug of beer. Classic.

 

Stay tuned

Between the storms

Woke up this morning to heavy rain and lightning. Eventually it let up and the forecast showed a gap. I headed out to the Des Moines River outside of Boone. Fishing was slow but I ended up with a few small catfish and sheephead. I also caught the weirdest looking minnow. Half shiner, half sucker. Thunder and lightning sent me back to the apartment. Nice outing anyway.


Stay Tuned

Coleman's Project

Went out to the property of my to be father-in-law where I have been given permission to do whatever I want in terms of management. This was a tree planting day. I planted two cottonwoods, and two or three shrub plugs that I had transplanted. I also took the time to go back to the corner where I had cut out hawthorns before and this time planted 10 spruce that dad had given me. I am trying to create a sanctuary area  in the southeast corner. I have much more work to do but nevertheless I have to start somewhere.
 Here is the beginning stage of cut and clear:

 This is just after I planted the spruce.

 

After planting the trees I thought I would see if I could catch a few carp or catfish on the creek. I took the pack rod Uncle Rick gave me and sat for a couple of hours. I ended up with a few suckers and a bunch of creek chubs. I took most home for catfish bait later. 

I checked out the progress of my work from earlier this year as well:

Most of the ash i girdled were stone dead and the hawthorns reacted better than I ever could have thought. The hinge-cut trees are started to sucker back and the ones I stump cut are stump sprouting. Again, not what I expected but happy with the results. The maples acted as if I never touched them but I expect them to still die back within the year. There is a ton of work to be done there yet, I just need to fine the time.

Stay Tuned

Last Day of Turkey Season

May 15th closed the 2011 turkey season. I had every intention of waking up early to hunt. I woke up to 25mph wind and rain, so I slept in. Dad, Austin Freeseman, Michael Parker, and myself decided with the improved weather in the afternoon we would do a kayak float. We were kayaking the stretch that put us at the magic backwater at the public where I usually turkey hunt. I took all of the necessary equipment to turkey hunt that last evening. Turned out that I would never leave the boats. The first backwater only Austin and I heading into with the kayaks. I started catching snot-rockets.

I caught two before I decided that I needed to get Austin one. These was not going to be an easy feat...I gave him my juice lure (with Barracuda wire leader tied directly on it) and told him where to cast. He missed four or five fish before I decided to take a cast of my own. Snot-rocket out of a brush pile. At this point we were both frustrated. He was finally able to reef on one and bring it to the boat.

 At this point Dad and Michael were waiting at a sandbar for Austin and I and it had been almost two hours at this point. We all made it to the magic backwater where I was supposed to forge off after a turkey. I set a line and had a nice catfish within seconds.

After this fish the boys wanted out of the boats and on the honey hole. We caught a bunch of suckers and carp. We rotated the juice rods between the three of us.

Dad got back into a boat to go after a gator. First cast he wacks a nice one right at the boat. It was too close when it hit so he lost it. He didn't care; it made to trip for him. As we are pleading for one last fish Michael's rod tries to dive into the river. A nice catfish was the way to end the day. It was his first catfish and unlike his first snot-rocket, we got pictures this time.

My season ended with me not really caring that I had shot a bird myself. I was able to help get both of these boys a bird this year and that was enough hunt to satisfy anyone. Until next year...




Stay Tuned

Damn Dog

Working at the parents house today. Finished up the day by doing some mowing. Riding mower battery was stone dead so I used the push mower. I felt the need to let out Mocha as she has been stuck in the kennel all day. She no more than got out and dropped a grenade on the lawn. No big deal that's what they do. Here is where it gets interesting...I mow the lawn and run over the shit she just took. Mower stops. Somewhere along the line the damn dog ate a section of rope which is now wrapped around the axle of the of the blade. Damn.


Stay tuned

Family Controlled Chaos

This was a crazy weekend to say the least. Saturday morning I get a call from Rachel that whatever I am wearing is not good enough and I need to change. It was the girls college graduation and I guess I a button-up with a tie was necessary. We watched from the top balcony as the commencment droned on. Sorry Rachel, but Ryker was more interesting at the time. Rachel's nephew was a collected child until the very end before becoming ornry. We had lunch at the girls' apartment with Rachel's family and the Yeske's. It was a little crowded but we managed. Once festivities had died down Rachel and I headed for Iowa City. Mike and Lisa Rossi were visiting from D.C. and I hadn't seen Mike in three years. This was also the first time I was going to meet my nephew Gabriel. Josh and Sara also had a new one, Stella. It was going to be the weekend of babies. I did my best to get there before they put Gabe down for the night. By devine intervention we made it. I opened the door to see Lisa bouncing around with him. I was informed that they had indeed tried to put him down but it didn't work the first time. I finally got to meet Gabe!

Because my older siblings are in the beginning stages of starting their families it was different to see them in their new element. Lisa could be easily compared to a mama bear. You mess with her cub, you DIE. Josh and Sara were both exausted with a toddler and a 2 week old. Despite all of that, they all seemed content. The party usually gets started after the young ones are off to bed. In this case, everyone was down and out by 9:30, some were a perturbed by not being to bed earlier.

The next morning, I was woken up somewhere in the 6ish time frame to Josh standing over me with Abram. It was play-with-Uncle-Jon-so-dad-can-get-sleep-time! We eventually got some breakfast and played until the house was back to the active state. Nick and Lisa showed up somewhere around ten and Mike and Lisa came back from there brunch to bring full chos back into swing. Kids sleeping, or kids screaming. Rachel and Lisa got a kick out of the little flirt that Abram was.

After playing with the girls Abram felt the need to hold his new baby sister. The aunts-to-be would of course assist.

She started to become upset so he kept saying "it's okay, it's okay." He is going to be a great older brother.

Later in the afternoon Lisa said I was going to assist her in feeding Gabe. He is trying to get into the swing of solid food so he wears most of it but we tried nevertheless.

It turned out to be a spectacular weekend but by the end I made sure Rachel knew; I could wait a few more years before kids. I will just play with the nieces and nephews for now. We somehow managed to get one opportunity for a group photo with a few missing but it was difficult to be picky:

Stay Tuned

Study Break

Ned Parker, a friend of mine said it was needed to take a break from some studying and maybe do a little fishing. Him and one of his friends, Jon Jones were headed for the Skunk and I was invited along. We parked at Ada Hayden Lake, and then I got to finally meet Jon Jones. Genuine guy who I hopefully will get to hang out with more in the future. We crossed the road and found a car hit buck with a little chunk of antler sitting next to him; in the pack it went. We got to the little dam and Ned somehow found a little smallmouth bass.

The dam was small and not that fishable so we headed to another spot I knew of out by the Peterson Pits just outside of Ames. We set up on the sand bar and chilled out there until dark. I managed to catch two medium sized chubs and Jon wanted them for catfish bait for later. Then of course Ned does his thing and catches a small carp. Shortly before we left he also pulled in a sizable sucker which Jon wanted for bait as well. Ned proceeds to drop it into the water and at this time Jon starts screaming "NOOOO! Grab it, don't let it get away, NOOOOO!" Ned damn near goes for a swim to retrieve the fish. He throws it on the bank and we commence laughing until our lungs burn.

It really was a great break from studying and we will be doing that again in the future.


Stay Tuned

House warming

First evening hanging out at Nick and Lisa's house in Boone. Rachel and I shot bow with the last bit of light we had left while Nick, and friends Ethan Shetler and Aaron Anderson grilled some MEAT! After shooting I went to check out that meat they were cooking. It really wasn't going well so they moved the grill through the house...still cooking.

The guys then stood on the deck enjoying a beer, cigar, and some fine stories. Ethan shared his tale of the giant gobbler he shot with Aaron last weekend in which all order of beard and tail feathers were shot off of the bird (In actuality it was a jake but nevertheless). That damn grill wouldn't heat up so we had to SLOOOOOWWW cook our backstraps. When we got back in we decided to toast the house with a little BV out of measuring cups.

We then stood around the light fixture and eat our meal together.

Ethan of course wanted of shot of the men with some sort of grilled meat.

After thoroughly stuffing ourselves we sat around the fireplace...

Stay Tuned

Morning hunt Sunday May 1st

Went back into the timber where I had heard shock gobbles the evening previous. I slowly made my way to where I thought the birds were but was not careful enough. I busted five birds out of there two of which were longbeards. I crawled along the creek to sneak up on them as now they were out in the open, but one of the other guys was calling them, or so I thought. I found out later that it wasn't him calling the bird but rather another hen. oh well. I headed back to the dead fall tree at the pasture but it was really windy and nothing was moving. I went back down to the cabin, packed camp and we headed out. Austin felt in necessary to get a picture of the pants he was wearing when he was carrying his bird yesterday.

This really turned out to a great weekend.


Stay Tuned

Evening Hunt Saturday April 30th

After hunting with Austin and finding success it was now my turn and the pressure was on even more-so now. We spent the afternoon shooting .22 off the deck and just sort of hanging out. I still have tags burning holes in my pocket so I went out for an evening hunt. I got to the top of a ridge and walked down the lane placing my decoy somewhere random. I hunker up to a double stemmed white oak and made myself comfortable. This was right up there with one of the most relaxing hunts I have ever been on. I counted twenty different birds, fifteen different plant species, and that's not including the ones I don't know. I of course in short fashion fell right asleep. There were no dogs barking, no four-wheelers, just the woods.At dark I went back down to the cabin and the guys were gone to the bath house and wouldn't be back for a bit. I sat out by the pond and listened to the woods. An owl hooted thus helping me pinpoint the shock gobbles for tomorrow morning. There was a whip-poor-will in the woods behind me and that was the first one I have heard. When I turned around there was a deer standing right in front of the Buick not 15 yards away. What a day.


Stay Tuned

Brother in law's first turkey

A few weeks ago I was invited down to a turkey camp in southern Iowa by Ross Lage whom I have gotten to know through church with Rachel. This was the weekend we had decided upon and I asked them if my brother-in-law-to-be was invited as well and he surely was. Austin has just started hunting and this was his first ever hunt. We got down to the cabin late Friday night which included forging a creek and copious amounts of mud; with the Buick. It was a primitive camp with outdoor plumbing, no running water, and only a generator for electricity. I knew right then this was my kind of camp! We attempted a few short hours of sleep before heading out in the morning. Austin and I headed out at 5:30am knowing little to nothing about where we were. We got to the top of a hill and set out our decoys. There was nothing going on up on this hill and we could hear gobblers behinds on an opposite ridge. We made our way down the hill and got on a hot bird. We crossed a creek and it just never panned out. We headed back to the cabin to recollect ourselves and lose some layers as it was much warmer than expected. We headed back to the top of the hill where we set up originally and laid out in front of a big downed tree. I grabbed the box call and tried to make the most non-turkey sounding calls possible as I have heard that works when all else fails. Austin asks me for the water bottle, takes a swig and puts the cap on. We then hear someone coming up the trail behind us so I swivel around to see who it was. I turn my head to see three jakes at about 8 yards. I slowly turn back to Austin and whisper that he needs to grab his gun there are turkeys right behind us. He turns a little to his left and couldn't see them. I told him to shoulder his gun, swing, and shoot. This was about as vague as I could possibly be for the new hunter. I laid my gun down and as we are sitting right next to each other, I crouch down basically in his lap and he swings his gun over my left shoulder. I watch as he finally sees the bird and even his eyes told me he couldn't believe how close they were. It was then a complete daja vu moment. "Shoot him" "I can't there's a branch in the way" "SHOOT ANYWAY" "I still can't BOOM!" I turn around and see a turkey flopping. I run over and pick it up and it is Austin's first turkey. He just sat at the stump and didn't say much. I asked him what he thought of the whole thing and all I got was "Well, that was...wow." It was unanimous though that he could do that again in the future. We took some pictures and in the process noticed the two gobblers that were on the opposite hillside. We sat for another half hour but that didn't pan out either. We headed back to the cabin for breakfast.

Specs were classic jake: Nubs for spurs, 4 inch beard 14 pounds 3 ounces. 

After breakfast the guys were working on their shed and Austin and I cleaned his bird when we heard gobbles up on the ridge where we just were. I high tailed it up there to see what I could do. I got to the corner and there was a big gobbler in the field across the cattle fence. I  didn't know that I could indeed shoot across the fence so I held back. I crawled into our spot from earlier and waited for awhile to see if that was indeed the bird i had heard earlier. Then there was a thunderous gobble to my left and I knew he was right there. Instead of doing what smart people would do, I decided to go after him. I got about ten step and I could see him strutting in the lane at about 70 yards. I tried literally crawling closer but only closed about 15 more yards before I was busted by one of the other four gobblers with him. I took one shot, and nothing happened. I took another shot and the bird stumbled but was unscathed. I took another absolute hail-mary shot to no avail. At this point I knew I was screwed so I headed back to camp for a nap.

Stay tuned