Lady Luck and a fistful of 'eyes

We made the most of an uneventful week and headed to the "Fort" on Friday for a little shore fishing for walleyes. We even got to spend a little time visiting with Brandon our in-house Ranger during and after business hours. Fishing was pretty good, but my wife, the pregnant one, took the prize for most fish caught. As you can see in the picture she even bagged two fish at a time, twice. Everybody got in on the action, but Grandpa finally had to retire Kellen's Pirates of the Carribean pole because he couldn't keep up any more. Unfortunately, most of the fish we caught, probably close to 50, were too small to meet the minimum length limit-- 15 inches. We did come home with 5 keepers though and they made a heck of a meal with the other filets, beef that is. I did test the waters too, after my line snagged just feet from shore with a walleye on the end of the line. It was quite chilly and the fish managed to spit the hook just prior to me grabbing it. Isn't that how it always works?

This week involves more concrete work, and if the weather cooperates spraying and finishing planting food plots, which I'm on my way to do right now. Jamie finished mowing trees yesterday, so mark another chore off the list. Have a good one.

bluegills, bass, and perch... oh my !

I know it's been a while since my last post, but we have got a lot accomplished. Not only a couple hundred yards of concrete poured, but we finally got some bass in the bluegill pond. In addition, we planted several big trees and lilacs around the west side of the pond, and also threw in some old dead trees for habitat. Cordie created a "beach", so the pond is really shaping up to be a nice getaway. We were expecting a family of geese to call it home, but shortly after hatching out, they moved to a different location and are nowhere to be found. Soon baby pheasants should be making their way to the pond to get a drink and snack on the bugs that hang out there. A line was also dug to the perch pond from the well to maintain the water level.

Kellen also managed to celebrate his 3rd birthday on May 23rd. A good time was had by all-- especially Kellen. He enjoys spending countless hours in his new sandbox built by grandpa and the personal touches added by grandma.

It's currently raining, and it's starting to add up, which isn't all bad. We've gotten about two inches since Saturday, which was needed in preparation for planting food plots. Some of the food plots have been planted and are up, while others are in the ground, but the majority have yet to be planted.

Jamie managed to school Cordie and Marlys one afternoon on the golf course, but for the most part we're probably behind on the team tour. I'm sure there are more face-offs in the future, I'll try to keep you posted. Until next time...

A little run and gun with "bullsnake"

After another rain day on Friday, we made the most of Saturday, with several events for the whole family. We spent the morning stocking the ponds on the Preserve with bluegill and perch. The plan is to add some largemouth bass in the future, if the weather and work schedule cooperate. One way or another they will be added, but the way things are going I can't guarantee it will be me placing them in the pond, or getting in on the fun of catching the transfer fish.

We grabbed a bite to eat, and then made a split-second decision to try and fill our turkey tags. There was some talk about a round of golf with the ladies, but we knew if we used our time wisely we could get both hunting and golf in during the afternoon. We left the lodge about noon, and made a triumphant return about 3 PM with our remaining three turkey tags filled. After a couple of quick planning sessions we spotted the turkeys. Delvin (Cordie's brother) and I positioned ourselves to ambush the turkeys if Cordie spooked them. Well, Cordie certainly spooked them. After a quick stalk two turkeys fell with one shot. Delvin and I were unsure of what happened, and after a few minutes came out from our hiding spot. We quickly found another group of turkeys after conferring with Cordie and Robert. I quickly made my way down the creek to cut them off, but was too slow. I did manage though to catch up quickly and take a shot to put another gobbler down. He certainly wasn't the biggest of the bunch, but he was the closest and most suspicious.

On the way back to town Robert managed to get his new nickname after Cordie wrangled a four-foot bullsnake. Robert was quite hesitant, but Cordie eventually convinced him to hold the writhing snake. After nearly popping its' head off, Robert held on long enough to let the snake wrap up his arm and then he pitched it to the ditch to live another day. Rob "bullsnake" Clarke is still unsure what convinced him to hold that snake.

The day ended with a cool and windy, slightly wet round of golf. It wasn't pretty but the "Pros" (Cordie, Marlys, Delvin, Joann) beat the "Joes" (Jamie, Abby, Robert, Casey), but failed to capitalize on the ever important ninth (beer) hole. Back to the lodge we hurried for the feast which consisted of NY strips, wild turkey, wild rice, morels, and buffalo ribs. Add a little wine from Hogue winery and a fire in the pit, and you've got the perfect ending to a great day.

SD Maydays

I was privileged enough to take Rob, and meet my friend "Bob" at an undisclosed location for a day of bowfishing and morel mushroom hunting. Any "shroomer" knows that it's often tough to get other "shroomers" to give up their favorite picking spots, and this was no exception. After spending a couple of hours shooting Bigmouth Buffalo with our bows, "Bob" swore us to secrecy and blindfolded us before entering one if his areas for the coveted morels. I've had morels before, but had never hunted for them, and Rob being a Chicago boy, and not much of a mushroom eater, we were both unsure of what to expect. "Bob" found the first morel several minutes into our hunt and called us over to make sure we knew what we were looking for. After our brief lesson and another lecture on secrecy we blazed a trail filling our bags with the tasty morsels. After about an hour or two of picking we decided to head out happy with our catch of the day. "Bob" said the mushrooms are just beginning to take off, and the next couple of weeks should be pretty good.

What about the fish you say? Those bigmouth buffalo are a hoot to shoot, and "Bob" was nice enough to take the hard part of cleaning. Buffalo ribs like you've never had them before. I have had them before, and they're not bad, even though I'm not much of a fish eater. The biggest one tops out at 40 lbs, and the others range from 27 to 36 lbs. There were many others that didn't make the picture, and there were definitely more misses than hits especially from a couple of rookies like Rob and myself. Lots of fun and another thing you can add to the list of things to do in May. So much to do, and so little time, but I look forward to the morels and any dish that we decide to pair them with. I think it will be steak tomorrow night, and after that maybe some wild turkey, and then maybe some buffalo ribs, the possibilities are endless.

People sometimes ponder why anyone would live in SD, but it doesn't take long to figure out if you've experienced some of the things we have in the past couple of weeks. Sure the weather is sometimes a little nasty, but it can also be some of the best weather anywhere. May is only one month out of the year, and between turkey hunting, fishing, mushroom hunting, and golf, there's hardly time for anything else especially when you throw work into the mix, and there's plenty of that to go around.

Happy hunting for whatever your quarry may be.

Sunday Service

"And on the seventh day he rested", well actually we worked food plots, and it went pretty well for once. Cordie, Rob, our little helper Kellen, and I got some of the nearly 600 acres broke up. It's been slow going, and later than usual, but what can you do when it rains every other day. Cordie worked some more last night at K&M, but today we shut the crusher down after another .5 inch of rain. We also managed to get some more concrete poured this week between the rain and the food plots.

The pheasants seem to be doing well, but maybe a little behind on their nesting because of the cool wet spring, but the ducks sure do like it. I can't say if the goose enjoys it much at K&M, but she has yet to abandon her nest. We'll see the fruit of her labor here in a couple of weeks if everything works out alright. I'll try to get a few pictures and put them up when the magic happens.

Turkey Soup

I finally managed to get out and hunt some of our SD Merriams. Rob Clarke accompanied me as I harvested this nice tom, since Cordie was busy trying to work food plots. We set up in our usual spot, but the turkeys had a different plan that morning. At about 10:00 AM we stepped out the blind to find them and sure enough they were making their usual loop, backwards. We had a close encounter with six hens, and then a few gobblers came nearly within range, but became a little suspicious. We crept back to the blind, and about 2:00 PM seven jakes and gobblers showed up and slowly made their way to our setup. This was intended to be an archery hunt, but when I failed to connect with the bow, I closed the deal with the shotgun. Not necessarily pretty, but I got the job done. Cordie, Brandon, and John Wayne still have their tags to fill, so hopefully we'll get a few more birds for the table and the hunting archive. Can't wait for another turkey breast hot off the grill. Hopefully, if things go right today I'll have a few fresh morel mushrooms to go with it.

Trees, mud and more mud

It's been a busy couple of weeks since my last post. We finally got out and got some work done, but it's been a mad scramble between pouring concrete, and running back and forth planting trees and getting food plots worked. Cordie hasn't touched a food plot yet, but it looks like the weather may cooperate and he should get a chance tomorrow through the weekend. We finished our tree planting for the year, and got in 3000 Rocky Mountain Junipers last week. Robert and I finished it off yesterday by trying a few Cottonwoods up to the Dam. We also planted a few willows near one of the dugouts on the preserve for a test plot. We'll see how they do, and if it works out we may plant more in the future.

The weather has definitely affected the work we're getting done. Last week it was nearly 90 degrees on Thursday and on Friday night it snowed about 2 inches. We woke up to a snow covered landscape on Saturday, but it didn't take long for things to melt, and more rain came Sunday.

We have managed to get several grain bin slabs poured with more on the schedule, but farming will be the priority for the next several days. If I'm lucky the work will include a fish transfer or two, and I may even be able to slip out and try to fill a turkey tag.