Thin Ice Safety - A Must See Video For You and Your Family!

December 30, 2009

I guess you have to say that 2009 is pretty much in the books. Only two more days left for those avid late season bow hunters that are still out chasing white tails.

Speaking of hunting, I don't know if you received the same email that I did about the Pure Michigan Hunt Application . It's a program, actually I'd call it more of a contest, that would give three hunters a license to participate in every limited-access hunt available - elk, bear, spring and fall wild turkey and antlerless deer. In addition, those chosen in the drawing will get the first pick of a hunting zone in a managed waterfowl area reserved hunt. If you were lucky enough to get selected you would not lose any of your preference points for any of the species listed. Even if you were drawn before for an elk license, you can apply again for this contest. It cost $4 and you can buy as many chances as you would like, and you can buy them online. I guess there's a sucker born every minute as P.T. Barunm use to say, so I'm off today to buy a couple of chances. I've always wanted to try and harvest an elk.

If you didn't already notice, Dennis Cook had me post the new 2010 Tentative Ice Mountain Tear Drop Tournament Trail Schedule (Scroll down to view it). I'll make sure to put it in each of the next few month's archive, because this month is only a couple days away from that status now.

There has been quite a controversy coming to a big head carp crescendo. The State of Michigan is preparing to file suit to have Illinois shut down the access canals from the Mississippi to the Great Lakes. These canals connect the two drainages and actually allow a great deal of our Great Lakes to flow to the Gulf of Mexico. They say the canals cause a three inch drop in Great Lakes levels. They also provide a means for invasive species, like the big head carp, to make their way into the Great Lakes and connecting waters.

The big head carp, or Asian Carp, are those that you may have seen in videos that jump out of the water when a motorized boat cruises near them. They are algae feeders and are prolific breeders. There is real concern as to what they will do to our fisheries if they make their way into the Great Lakes. Here is a very good article that talks about the history of the canals in question as well as information on the big head carp. The title of the article is Michigan Sues to Protect Great Lakes from Asian Carp .

In surfing the net today, I visited several of my regular web haunts and was reminded that there are a number of sites that offer good video fishing tips that may be of interest during times when you are on the verge of cabin fever. One of those sites is Bass Edge. Here is a link to their video tips library. This link will take you to a Guido Hibdon Fishing Docks video that would make a good starting point. Once that video is over you can go on to quite a few others that they have listed.

I also watched today a short video clip from Bass Zone that features Mike Iaconelli in one of their "In The House" video series. There are some pretty entertaining videos on Bass Zone which feature a number of top pros. You learn some pretty interesting details about the pros you see on TV or get to fish with when you Marshal like me and the Cementman.

If you're off work on Christmas vacation you may be up for some more reading, and one of the articles I also read this morning that you may be interested in, was a expose on Elite Series Pro Kevin Short . He won the Elite event on the Mississippi this past summer, and in this article he shares some of his thoughts on the 2009 season and on the upcoming Classic in February.

I have been getting some reports about the ice up north. They are out on Hamlin Lake, although I'm not sure if the whole lake has safe ice. The Bayous freeze up first, so if you head up to fish make sure you check on ice conditions. The weatherman has forecasted some very chilly temps for the next week and a half so that should start getting the lakes pretty hard. Like the video recommends at the top of the page, make sure you know your lake. Many are spring fed and have week spots even in the dead of winter. The majority of the lake can be many inches thick, while isolated areas are still quite dangerous.

Ed Dyer has been out on a private lake recently with ROI Tournament Director, Luke Winstrom. They had a really nice mess of gills. A number were over nine inches! Here are a couple of pictures that Ed sent me. I don't know what's up with his camera, but he's been sending me some blurry pictures. I have tried to clear them up, but this was the best I could do. Maybe Santa brought him a new camera.

Some first ice slab blue gills.

You can fillet gills that size!

I thought I'd end the blog today with a quote from Doug Collins, a former Pistons coach. He once said, "Any time Detroit scores more than 100 points and holds the other team below 100 points they almost always win." Yep, I think that's the reason why Detroit has had some troubles over the years with their sports team. They hire deep thinkers. I really hope he said that as a tongue and cheek comment to the press. Take care, be safe, and enjoy the holiday. Happy New Year! Here's a toast to the future, A toast to the past, And a toast to our friends, far and near. May the future be pleasant; The past a bright dream; May our friends remain faithful and dear.

PS If you need a copy of Auld Lang Syne for your New Year festivities here is a You Tube link. Auld Lang Zyne You'll need to scroll over to the right to access the player.

December 26, 2009

Merry Christmas! A day late, but I guess I wasn't as good as I should have been because Santa brought me a touch of the flu which set in Wednesday. Today, I'm feeling almost back to normal.

I missed out on all the Christmas festivities. We have a small family get together at our house, and then we head over to Gramma's for our big family get together. We always have a lot of fun and there is a ton of good food. The only good thing about missing this year's get together was that I didn't gain any Christmas pounds.

I recieved an email from the Ice Mountain Tear Drop Tournament Trail Director, Dennis Cook just before Christmas. He's been trying to put together a schedule for the 2010 season. He asked me to put up this tentative schedule, and he wanted to emphasize that is is tentative. It won't be official until it appears in the yearly flier.

2010 Ice Mountain Tournament Tear Drop Tournament Trail

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

May 30th - Cadillac/Mitchell - City Ramp

June 13th - Crystal Lake - Beulah City Ramp

June 27th - Grand Traverse Bay - Elk Rapids Launch

July 11th - Hamlin Lake - Wilson Hill Park

July 25th - Portage Lake - Onekama City Ramp

August 8th - White Lake - Municipal Ramp

August 21 & 22 -Classic - TBA

August 29th - Host Tournament Cadillac/Mitchell (City Ramp)

If you have any questions or comments, you can contact Dennis at teardropbassclub@charter.net or call him at 231-690-2605.

Even though there is a lot of winter left in the north country, when you start reading schedules for the upcoming season it starts the competitive juices flowing. You start to immediately plan your strategy and think about which of your baits are going to be the go to winner.

Before you get to that next season though, it's time to start to get that tackle and equipment taken care of. Time to get the reels torn down, cleaned, and, if you've done your homework, oiled very lightly. It's also time to get your tackle organized and inventoried.

One of the best things that I have done toward this end in past years is to redo completely the way I store my terminal tackle, specifically hooks. I don't have to tell you how much money you can spend on hooks. They're expensive little devils. What I've done is to buy a large, and by large I mean deep, plano box. The box has to be deep enough to stand plastic prescription pill containers. You can go to your local pharmacy and they'll probably give you or at least sell you 20 or so containers. Then, while you're there, ask them if they will save for you the little packets that come in the larger pill containers that absorb moisture. I was able to get quite a nice bag full from my pharmacy. Now that you have the storage containers, start filling the pill bottles with various size hooks and jigs. Use a black permanent marker to label the tops. What you then have is a container that is organized for easy access. However, in my opinion, the most important aspect of this set up is its functionality.

In the past, I would have to retie or change out a hook and being on the water, and often times in the water if it were raining, you would open your hook box and the whole inside would be exposed to the elements. Almost always by the end of the season you would end up with a box full of rusty hooks. Having the hooks stored this way allows you to select the size you need and then open the pill container up against yourself to keep the rain out. Even if there is some moisture that works its way in the moisture absorbing packets keep the hooks from being damaged by rust. Since I've went this route I have never lost a hook to rust.

Another plus with this storage system is that it helps is in keeping my hook inventory filled. When I have the hooks all sorted and labeled in this manner you can tell very quickly which hooks need to be refilled. One other advantage is that if you're on a pattern and using a specific jig or hook you can just grab that container out of the box and keep it in your pocket. It's "the only way" to keep hooks in your pocket :).

Besides spending time organizing your boxes and refreshing your moisture absorbing packets, it's time to start thinking about taking care of your reels. Being mechanically challenged, I box up my reels and send them in to the "Reel Man" David Valentine. I have sent my reels to him for the last three years. He really knows his stuff and does excellent work and in a very timely manner. You can email Dave at devalentine@auburngear.com. Last year he charged only $10 per reel plus shipping. His place of business is called The Angler and is at 7430 S. SR 327, Hudson, IN 46747. You won't be sorry if you decide to have Dave take care of your reels.

Now if you really want to trust yourself to care for your substantial investment in reels here are a couple of good sites that you should check out. The first is an article on the Probass Network by Capt. Mark King. Even if you are not interested in attempting your own reel maintainance you should read this article.

A must have, if you're tearing apart your reels is a good schematic. Thanks to Bender on the greatlakesbass.com he posted the Captain Mark article and this reference for Shimano Reel Schematics .

During the last blog I posted part one of a two part article on "Rules" that Bass Fan had up. Here is Part Two of Pros Diverge On Whether Rules Are Effective, Enforceable . Bass Fan is on a holiday break for a week so they won't be having any new articles or news until 2010.

That's going to be it for today. We've had a dusting of snow, and I haven't been out of the house for three days, so I think I'll go outside and shovel what little snow we have. Take care and enjoy the rest of this holiday season.

December 21/22, 2009

I must have deleted a day or two of blogs because I can't believe that it's been five days since my last entry. Can that be right. Sure doesn't seem like it. Time flies I guess.

Got Darius Rucker in the earphones this morning. My newest favoite Christmas song, "Candy Cane Christmas." If you don't recognize Darius by his proper name you may recall him from his group name, "Hootie and the Blowfish." They were a group that had a huge first album with every song on it becoming a top ten song. Then, they kind of faded away and neve really had another big album. Darius is trying to come back now as a country artist. He's got one of those classic voices that are a real gift. I liked his group and still enjoy listening to him sing.

Each year, I make a Christmas CD to give to friends and family. I try not to duplicate any songs from year to year and spend quite a bit of time putting it together. My middle son designed some CD jewel case covers for me. He did a good job, and I have been out delivering Christmas greetings with them.

My buddy JB sent me an email that has a whole bunch of Christmas songs from the 50's. True classics. If you're interested in listening to them here is a link to a site that has them, it's called Heaven's Gate - A 50's Christmas . When the site opens up, go to the very bottom of the list and on the left is an option for the Drifters, "White Christmas." I'll warn you though. It's a different but very catchy orchestration that grows on you. Maybe it's the animation, but I've been playing it a lot and have included it on my 2009 mix. You can purchase it on iTunes.

I haven't talked to the Cementman in a couple of days, but I am pretty sure muzzle loading season ended on the 20th and I know he was on the track of a big buck that he's been pursuing through archery, rifle, and with the blunderbust. I think if he would have got him he would have called, but I'll give him a call today to see what the status is. He's still got time with his bow. That season doesn't close until the first day of the new year.

Our old buddy Kendall Ulsh, from our BFL fishing days, sent me an email the other day that may be of interest to some of your hard core tournament anglers that are looking to get some shirts made.

Kendall receiving his BFL AOY check and plague.

Kendall, who has a website called Kdawg.net , came across a business that makes team jerseys for tournaments. The price is definitely right. You may want to check it out. It's on the net as boombah.com . If you decide to give them a try shoot me an email and let me know how you like them.

Surfing and purusing internet artcles, (I like that word purusing, sounds like you know what you're talking about when you use tenth grade vocabulary.), for bass fishing news in December rules out much of what's going on in the northern tier. Down south and out west they are still fishing. In fact, I got a text from our good friend and B.A.S.S. Federation Nation National Championship contender Sidney "Guns" Reeves just the other day saying he was out on the water on Blue Lake , near Wendover, Utah when I tried to get a hold of him. Sidney, is the guy as the site opens up, that is holding that gigantic smallmouth.

Sid lives out in Ogden, Utah and fishes some water that we rarely hear much about here in Michigan. I need to twist his arm and have him do some write ups from some of the tournaments he fishes out there.

If you have Google Earth , which is a free download, you can fly to Blue Lake and take a look at the high desert lake. It has bluegill, largemouth, and some illegally planted tilapia in it. Sid said he was flipping the structure for largies. Must be nice. Here we are sitting with hard water and guys are still out on soft water catching bass.

Speaking of hard water, Dandy Don called me last night and said that they are icing fish on Lakes Cadillac and Mitchell. He told me they had several inces of good ice and a couple inches of snowy ice. Snowmobiles were running the edges of the lake, but only the foolish bubble-heads were crossing the lake. If you're interested in doing some first ice fishing check out Pilgrim's Village and Steve will have ice angling info for you.

As I mentioned above, I have been doing some reading on the web. There is a pretty good two part article up on "Whether Rules Are Effective, Enforceable" mainly the "no info" off limits rule for B.A.S.S. and FLW pros. It's not an earth shattering article, and it's pretty much what you would expect with opinions swinging both ways, but it is a quick read and worth taking a look at.

I do like an off limits period for any tournament angling, and for local events the "no info" rule doesn't ever come in to play. Even enforcing the off limits rule is one that sometimes isn't 100% enforceable, but that's where you hope integrity comes in to play and angler's own personal ethics code takes over. Whenever there is a contest involving any amount of money, however, there is always the possibility that there will be those bending or breaking rules. It's unfortunate, but it's the nature of the beast.

Well, once again I started this blog on one day and finished it the next. Counting today there are only three days of shopping left before Christmas. If you are looking for a Christmas gift for an angler you may want to consider buying them a subscription to Seth Burrill's Ax Fishing Gallery . Seth has some of the best instructional fishing videos that you're ever going to see. His drop shotting DVD is phenomenal! Right now' by clicking on the link I just provided, you can get a look at all that is offered in a subscription. The cost is $35. I have been a member for a while and would unequivocally say that it is well worth the price of admission. If you check it out you can get a free trial membership.

Almost since the time I started blogging, I have had a link to Seth's site on my webpage. I don't get a nickel from it. Seth has been kind enough to send me some DVDs to give away though. He has a great knot tying DVD that would make a great stocking stuffer. His "Secrets of Catching Big Fish" DVD is a very intense and well put together strategy DVD. If you subscribe to the gallery, and mention me at teardropbass.com, I will get $5. That would certainly help a tad to defray the yearly cost of maintaining the site. I have to pay for the domain name, hosting, and the uploading, yearly. I do think, $5 kick back or not, that you would like what you get for your money if you subscribe to Seth's site. He, if you are not familiar with him, has a regular fishing show on the cable called Angler's Xperience. You get access to those shows on demand as well as a big list of other videos.

Time for me to do a few odd jobs and to do a little last minute Christmas shopping. I mentioned yesterday (at the top of this blog) that I have picked a favorite on my 2009 Christmas CD mix. It was the song by Hootie and the Blowfishes Darius Rucker. It was a free download on iTunes. I found a site that allows you to listen to it free as well. So, for the parting shot of the day here is Darius Rucker's Candy Cane Christmas .

Take care and have a great day!

December 16, 2009

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the first and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

Couldn't resist that different intro this morning. Teaching reading to kids is an amazing process, and they're learning more and more all the time about better ways of helping to make sure all kids become successful at it.

It's been probably almost two weeks since I got an email from my walleye fishing buddy John Baker. I guess I should qualify that statement. He's been sending me a bunch of emails lately. He took a tumble off a ladder and broke his ankle rather severely, requiring surgery and the whole nine yards. He can't put any weight on it until some time in January and he fell before rifle season opened. So, he's got some couch time. Here's a picture from one of his emails.

Suppose to be the biggest elk ever taken.

John also forwarded to me some pictures that a friend of his sent from a December 6th, 2009 walleye fishing trip on Saginaw Bay . His buddy's name is Nick Dood. I'm not sure if I know Nick or not. The Dood name is a family name that is familiar to me from my teaching days. Any how, I emailed Nick to ask him if he minded if I posted his pictures. He said, "Go for it!" He also sent some info on how they caught them.

Nick said that they fished out of Linwood Beach Marina . It's between Pinconning and Bay City. They fished in 15-17 feet of water water trolling Rapala Deep Husky Jerks in glass colors, and Storm Deep Junior Thundersticks in madflash series colors. The lures were presented 20 to 40 feet behind planer boards. They caught over 30 walleyes with the fish ranging in size anywhere from 2-9 pounds. They trolled 1 to 1.5 mph according to the GPS. Nick said they had a great day on the water despite being cold.

I'll say they had a great day. Boating that many fish, especially good eaters, makes for a spectacular day! Here are some of the pictures from Nick's trip.

Now that's a pretty good bunch of eyes!

Steve O'dette, Nick Dood, Todd Sokolow

Steve and Todd bundled up but having fun!

Steve and Todd toting some big ones.

Nick with a nice trophy eye.

Wow! December on the Bay looks pretty good. Saginaw Bay can get pretty exciting weather, rock, and wave wise at times, but it's a tremendous fishery for walleye and bass. I didn't get over there last year, but hope to this Spring. Even if you get blown off the water and have to wait weather out, you can find solace in that donut shop/restaurant that's right there on the corner in Au Grey where you drive in to the big state launch site. Great cookies there too.

Well, word has it that the Genmar auction is slated for January 7, 2010. Genmar is the company that presently owns Ranger, Stratos, 4 Winns, plus several more boat lines and is going through foreclosure. It should be interesting to see how it all shakes out. If you own one of those brands of boats, I'm sure you're particularly interested to see what happens.

Yesterday, you may have listened on the link I posted to Boyd Duckett talking about preparing for the Classic. A number of fishing sites are starting to feature the hype that leads up to that February contest. Here's an article from Rick "The Cementman" Skinner's bowling buddy KVD. It's on the Bassfan site and is entitled KVD talks about his 20th Classic .

I spent some time looking for the link to the ice fishing safety video that I have had up on the site during the winter months the past couple of years. I could only find a copy of it on You Tube, and on that site it has some "Flip for Mac" advertising on it. I'm going to be looking for a "clean" copy of it, but for the meantime I am going to be having this Thin Ice Safety Must See link up at the top of each winter time monthly blog. If you've never seen it before, make sure you gather your kids and watch it. It has life saving information for any of us who live in Michigan or venture anywhere out on frozen water.

That's going to be it for today, but who knows, maybe I'll go for three days of blogging in a row. You'll have to check back tomorrow. Be sure to watch that ice fishing safety video. It's worth seeing it a second time if you've seen it before.

Take care and make sure you don't get caught up too much in the Christmas commercialism and just take some time and enjoy the season. In a few more weeks, if you're not already, we're going to be lamenting the daily gray skies and the snowy mess. This is of course if your working. If you're out spudding holes that's a whole nother story.

As a parting shot, I'm going to put up another one of those bass fishing gift sites. It's called bassgifts.com .

December 14/15, 2009

Double drats! GVSU lost Saturday to North Missouri State in the DII National Championship game. They had a horrible first half and just couldn't get anything going on offense and never found a way to stop Missouri's LaRon Council, the Bearcat's premier back. The second half was another story and GVSU almost came back to steal the win. This was the sixth time in nine years that Grand Valley has played in the National Championship game.

GVSU just couldn't overcome the injuries this year. Over a third of their starters were lost to injury. That doesn't even count the four players that were suspended just before the National Semi-Final game for breaking team rules. Two of those players suspended were starters, and one was their leading ground gainer.

It will be interesting to see if the Lakers hang on to their coach Chuck Martin. Martin was the defensiver coordinator for Brian Kelly before Kelly moved on to Central then Cincinnati, and most recently to Notre Dame as its new head coach. Rumor has it that Kelly will be asking Martin to join him at Notre Dame. An offer like that would be hard to decline.

Well, once again this blog entry got set aside and picked back up the next day. Sometimes the spirit just doesn't move me to finish a blog and especially if the day moves along into night. I'm much more productive in the morning than I am at night. Any who, I'm up at the crack of dawn on Tuesday. 9:46 am is the crack of dawn isn't it?

The snow once again is covering my driveway this morning. There's not much there yet, but we're expecting a few more inches today. Most of the snow we had melted Sunday and Monday and now what's left is hard and crusty and covered by this new stuff.

This time of year provides a bit of a lull in the bass fishing world especially in the Northern tier of states. Our bass season here in Michigan goes until the first of the new year. I always stress a little during that last month because some of our black bass are often quite susceptible to first ice anglers. I can sit in my cabin and watch the hard water fisherman flop green fish on the ice. I just want to run out there and slide them back down the hole. I know though that eating a few fish is what angling is all about so I have to temper my concern a bit.

With our warm November this year, we may not have good enough ice for icefishermen to get out on this December. That will put that "first ice" off till after the season for bass closes. That's okay with me, but I do plan on a couple of ice fishing excursions this season for some panfish and walleye.

As I type this morning, I'm trying to listen to a radio interview featuring Boyd Duckett. I'm not terribly good at doing two things at once, but I wanted to get a sampling of what the "Bass Reporters" radio program is like. Bass Reporters is featured on the Bassmaster site. Right now Bassmaster's site opens with it front and center.

I've talked about how I like to listen to podcasts while I exercise or on roadtrips. The technology isn't too hard to take advantage of. If you have an iPod it's really easy, but if you don't there are still ways to listen. Of course you can listen to these programs on your computer, if you're on line, and even if you're not. If you go to ESPN's link for Bass Reporters you'll see all their programs listed. You can click on them to listen immediately or you can download them. I'm presently stymied with the download feature. It downloads to a window that I can then access, but it doesn't appear that it stays on my desktop or stores in a folder. I'll have to explore to find out if it is being plopped into some folder that I'm not finding right now. In any case, if you want to listen to Bass Reporters or a bunch of other free bass fishing podcasts you can go to iTunes . You don't have to be a Mac computer owner to get iTunes. It's a free download. Once you download iTunes to your computer, you can access the iTunes Store. Just click on the link on the left of the window. It's about midway down. There you can get all kinds of media. What you're looking for in this case though is "Podcasts."

Click on iTunes Store, Type in ESPN in the "Search" window, and you'll see this.

Once you have the screen above go to the top where it says "Podcasts See all >". Click on the "See all" and then scroll down and you should see the square that says ESPN: Outdoors and BASS.

"ESPN: Outdoors and BASS"

Click on the area that says subscribe. Remember it's free and easy to delete if you don't want it. When you click on subscribe, you should get a screen that looks like the one in the picture below.

Podcast Subscription Page

Your page won't have the other subscriptions at the top like mine does. You should just see the subscription for "Bass Reporters." Click on the little triangle just in front of where it says ESPN and the menu drops down and shows you all their old podcasts that are available. If you want one just click on "GET." If you decide you want to get the podcast regularly you just click on subscribe. Remember it is free! You will then get the new Bass Reporters podcasts downloaded automatically, and you won't have to click on "GET."

You can now listen to the podcasts any time you want. You don't have to be online to listen to them. The other good thing is by having them in to your iTunes Library, you can load them on a CD and listen to them in your truck. If you have an iPod you can just click on the podcasts and have them accessible through your headphones.

If your computer has a CD burner in it, and most now do, you can drag podcast episodes onto a "New Playlist" and then burn them to listen to on a CD player. If you have never done that before, all you need to do is to be sure you have your iTunes opened up so that you can see your Podcast window like in the last photo above. Then go all the way to the top under "File," and when you do, you will see a drop down menu that says "New Playlist." Click on it. In your iTunes window, on the left side, about three-fourths of the way down, you'll see a heading called "Playlists." Under it you'll now see it also says "New Playlist." If you click on "New Playlist" you can name it whatever you like. Now all you have to do is click on the Podcast you want to copy and drag it over to the "New Playlist." If you want to be sure it is now in that folder just click on your playlist. It will open to a window that should have the podcast listed. To get back to the "Podcast" screen go back up near the top of the left column and click on "Podcasts." You can then drag another episode to your new playlist. A CD will hold about an hour and ten minutes worth of programming so you have to watch how much you drag over. If you try for too much, when you try to burn the CD, it will tell you that there is not enough room. If that happens, just go up to "Edit" at the top of the screen and select "Cut." It will remove that episode or song from your playlist, but don't worry it won't cut the program or song from your "Library" permanently. If you have any problems with any of this just email me and we'll take care of it pretty quickly.

I was going to put some pictures from a December walleye trip on Saginaw Bay, but I think I'll wait and do that tomorrow. This "Podcast" blog just took most of my morning.

As the final cast today I am going to put up a last minute Christmas list gift link. It has some pretty unique outdoor type gifts.

Well take care, and make sure you take some time out of your work day to do something, even if it's just for a few minutes, that puts a smile on your face. Check back tomorrow, because believe it or not I plan to have back to back days with a blog. I'm on a mission.

December 11, 2009

As the song goes, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas." We have the snow and the colored lights on houses and trees do something to stir that Christmas spirit.

The news has made a big story out of the recent "Blizzard." Most of what they thought would hit us didn't, here where I live. There are areas that received more snow, and up in the Irons area Rick "Birthday Boy" Skinner told me they had well over a foot of snow. I also asked him how the lakes were icing up and he said there was some shoreline ice starting to form.

I recently bought my sister's John Deere 828 D two stage snow-blower and last night was the first time I used it. The big dog can eat some snow. My old Toro is now almost 20 years old and still throws snow, but just like me, it isn't as spry as it use to be. I don't think I'll be second guessing the John Deere purchase.

Ed "Kelloggsville" Dyer sent me some pictures and wrote up a nice story about a nice whitetail he just recently harvested with his muzzleloader. Just to interject, the muzzle loader season in Zone Two opened today. Hopefully I'll be getting some more muzzle loader pictures of some of those nocturnal bucks that eluded hunters during the rifle season. This cold weather ought to get those nighttime marauders out earlier and give hunters a chance at some venison and quite possibly a nice trophy for the wall like Ed got. Here's Ed's 2009 muzzle loader whitetail story.

I hadn't planned on hunting the brisk morning of December 6. The night before, Jane and I had a night out together, eating dinner and fighting to stay awake at a play at Spectrum theatre. I thought I would sleep in for a change, seeing I hadn't seen a "shooter buck" all season. I didn't set the alarm clock. I awoke at 5:08 am and thought, "what the hell", I might as well get bundled up, walk back through the swamp, climb up into a treestand in the dark, and get cold.

I did exactly that. I didn't even see a doe, even though the day before I had seen 20. About 8:45 I was thinking that I really am a fool, when I glanced to my right and spotted a deer moving through the thick stuff. I could see right away it had a decent rack. I waited for it to expose itself for a shot, but as they often do, he sauntered away back into his thick haven. I stayed up in the stand for about 45 more minutes until I was really cold. After I climbed down from the tree, I struggled with the idea, "Do I sneak out quietly, or do I try to stalk the big racked brute?"

I knew I risked scaring him away forever, but there was snow on the ground. I started following his fresh tracks as they meandered over and through the swampy trail. Suddenly, about 30 yards away through the thick swamp jungle, the buck appeared from nowhere and took off. All I could see was his huge rack, rapidly disappearing in front of me. I pulled up and took a hurried shot with my new TC Omega muzzleloader. He seemed to struggle a bit, but continued out of sight. I followed his tracks and discovered why he was struggling.

I was now struggling myself in knee deep black swamp muck. It grabs your boots and tries to pull them off as you try to escape. I grabbed on to a small tree and pulled myself free and continued on. After I escaped the swampy trap, I called my buddy Joe and told him my story of sorrow. I had finally seen a "shooter" after days and weeks of scouting and hunting, and blew the opportunity. Joe said, "At least you finally saw one. Be happy about that." I told him he was right, but I wasn't happy.

I should have given up for the day and went back to the warm house, thankful the swamp didn't swallow me up. But I didn't. Even though there were hundreds of tracks going through the snow below the area known as "The Dump", I was able to find a set of tracks that looked "different" than the rest. They were large and had powdered snow on and around them. What are the odds I could ever get close enough to this big racked brute again?

I looked at my watch and it was "Only ten o'clock, I have time I thought". I journeyed on. The buck's track converged on a trail heading towards "squirrel ridge". I couldn't see his tracks now, so I just followed the trail.

To the right of the old bridge I discovered where a deer had left a trail of broken ice through the swamp water. I walked over to the narrow and now very slippery foot bridge that "Brother Jim" had engineered to allow passage to "Squirrel Ridge".

It was a little more than a month earlier, that I helped Jim drag a beautiful 8 point that he skillfully arrowed with his Matthew's bow, over this same bridge. It was now snow covered and very slippery.

I made it across the bridge without getting a wet butt. I moved as swiftly as I could across "squirrel ridge". As I passed Jim Walter's ladder stand, the buck bolted away again, about 80 yards ahead. I couldn't get off a shot, but I knew on the other side of the next foot bridge was the "back forty" that at one time was a field, but now is a mature maple forest. I thought if I could run to the big woods, I might get a shot at the buck, who might be looking back to see if this fat old guy with the orange hat was still foolish enough to follow him.

I figured with a muzzleloader, I could still confidently shoot if he was within 200 yards, seeing how last year I killed a doe at 175 yards. I also remember Brother Jim telling me that the deer when pressured will usually go to the "Sanctuary" between the second and third lakes.

When I reached the woods, I spotted a large deer about 150 yards away. It ran before I could put my scope on it. I did see a few other deer in the woods, looking at me. I scoped them, but they were all does.

I was about to quit, when I decided to at least follow the swamp edge on the right until I reached the sw boundary of the Crissman property. I stealthily moved along the swamp edge, when suddenly the buck bolted again! He was headed for "The Sanctuary"! I ran in the direction I last saw him. I was about sixty yards away when I spotted him trying to cross the neck deep, ice covered water. Thinking he was about to get away, I rushed a shot at his neck, but he dipped as I pulled the trigger.

I watched in disbelief as I realized I had run out of bullets! I called Joe again and told him what was happening. The buck was having a hard time getting through the deep, ice covered water, but I didn't have time to go back and get more ammo.

I usually carry one speed load in my pocket, just in case I have to finish off a wounded animal. Usually with a muzzle loader you only have one shot. But suddenly, I realized I had put a second speed load in my other pocket. I quickly struggled to push the bullet down the barrel of the TC Omega. I ran to the edge of the water. The buck had finally worked his way to the other bank and had his front legs out of the water, just a second away from escaping his crazy pursuer. I quickly steadied the TC against a small tree and placed the cross-hairs on his shoulder and fired at the escaping buck, about 30 yards away.

He dropped on the bank, his body over a small log. I called Joe and my son Jon for help. They said they would meet me back at the house. I took the long walk back, hoping the buck would still be there when I returned. It all seemed like one of the many fantasies you think of when you are daydreaming up in your treestand.

By the time I walked all the way back, my clothes were drenched in sweat. Joe was already there waiting, but it took a while for Jon and his wife Gabby to arrive.

While waiting, I pulled up an aerial map of the property and tried to figure out the easiest way to get the buck out. We decided to drive the Gator to the foot bridge, and walk back from there.

Jon arrived with his waders and we made the anxious trip across the foot bridge and to the spot I had tied a hankie to mark the spot. Jon waded across the frozen swamp, breaking his way through the chest high water. When he reached the other side, he tied the back legs to the rope we had fed him as he crept across the 30 yard watery moat.

Joe and I pulled on the rope as Jon tried to steady the buck and keep him above the many tangles that are under swamp water. His beautiful bride took pictures of the event. After the buck was on dry land, we were amazed at what we saw. I had only grazed his back with my first shot, and missed with my second. He did have an older wound in his left leg, probably from the opening gun season or early bow season. My last shot was just behind his shoulder. A little high, but effective.

The rigors of the rut and possibly the leg injury had taken a toll on this magnificent animal. His rack scored 126 inches, but he only weighed 102 pounds after being field dressed. You could see his shoulder blades and back bone sticking out. We concurred that he never would of made it through the winter. But you never know, these amazing animals have impressed me with their "will to live" and their "will to reproduce" many times in the past, and I'm sure they will again.

My son Jon thought that this buck might have been one I had a picture of from one of my trail cams. He was right. He was a beautiful thick buck on July 29. He was still in velvet, but his rack seemed to be about full grown. His left brow tine is a little longer in the picture, just like the real rack that I now possess.

It was an adventure I thought I should share, and I would like to thank my wife for letting me hunt, my son Jon and buddy Joe for coming to my aide in time of need, Gabby for showing that you can be a beautiful woman, but still enjoy the great sport of hunting. I would also like to thank my Brother Jim in sharing all his wisdom and expertise of the hunting grounds, farmer John for allowing me to hunt on the farm he runs, and for Doc Crissman who worked hard to purchase this property so that many family members have treasured memories like the one you just read.

Wow, what a great story! Thanks Ed for penning it and emailing it to me. Here are the pictures that went along with the story.

July trail cam picture of the Big 8

Another trail cam pic of the Big 8 in velvet.

Ed's swamp buck took him on a hike!

Finally, the trophy in hand

A little water logged but what a deer!

Now that's a look of a job well done!

Father and son sharing a memorable moment.

Loading the Big 8 in the mule

A good look at the Big 8's spread.

A little blurry, but you get the picture.

What a great deer!

Thanks again Ed for taking the time to write up such a great account of your December 6, 2009 adventure in the deer woods. Thank your daughter-in-law for us for taking such great digital memories. Send us another picture when you get the brute on the wall.

Just an F.Y.I before I sign off tonight. Tomorrow at 1:00 pm Grand Valley State University will be playing down in Florence, Alabama in the DII National Championship game against Northwest Missouri State. The game will be televised on ESPN2. Go Lakers!

For the final cast today I'm passing along a musical Christmas card that I hope you'll like. It takes a moment to load, so give it a minute. Here's the link Merry Christmas 2009 . Take care and enjoy your weekend!

December 9, 2009

I received an email yesterday from Brandy Meyers. She gave me the particulars on her and Josh's new little one. They had a little girl, Aubrey Kathryn on December 2nd. She weighed in at five pounds and two ounces. She was five weeks early, so she came to DeVos Children's Center in Grand Rapids to take advantage of their neonatal unit. They're hoping that by Wednesday or Thursday of this week they will be able to take little Miss Aubrey home. Maybe I'll get an email with a picture of the new baby, and if and when I do I'll certainly put here front and center on the blog.

I had another email in my inbox from the north country yesterday and this one was from my ole buddy Steve Block. He filled me in on his deer hunting this year. He had some bad luck on Halloween for about the third year in a row. He missed out on a nice eight pointer. He did take a six pointer.

The deer woods isn't the only place where Steve, who is probably the most versatile and accomplished outdoorsman I know, has been spending time. He has been in his duck boat, and you probably could never guess where he's been taking some very unique birds. Steve lives near Manistee, Michigan and he's been out on Lake Michigan anywhere from a quarter mile to three miles out hunting a duck that breeds in the arctic regions and winters on northern coastal waters. The duck is formally known as an Old Squaw, but for some reason I couldn't find why the name changed, but it is now referred to as a long-tailed duck . If you look at the picture from the hot link you can certainly see why they call it a long tail.

The duck is quite unusual in that it is a deep diver. It dives to depths of 200 ft. I double checked that and yes it dives down to 200 feet! In fact, the site I referred to said they spend more time under water than they do on top of it. Another unique aspect of this duck is that it has three different molts and plumages. Most birds only have two. Here is a couple of pictures Steve sent featuring the long-tail.

Old Squaw or Long-tail ducks.

Mark Barbara and Steve with a nice bunch of ducks.

Steve said that hunting the long-tails is very challenging. They fly at 60 mph so wing-shooting is tough. If you get one in six to eight shots you're doing well. He also said that they are not the tastiest of birds. He said they melt in your mouth with a mix of flavors, a cross between sea gull and gar pike! They're much better if you marinate them and make jerky he said. I sure hope so.

The weather is going to be the focal point of the news the next couple of days. Right now it's 36 degrees outside and the snow is melting off the roof rather rapidly, but there are some frigid temperatures ready to storm across the lake later this evening. With that in mind, I have some battening of the hatches to do so I'm closing the blog early today. Actually, I typed most of what is here last night and was going to add some more this morning, but I slept later than I would have liked and need to get some jobs done ASAP.

The final cast today comes from one of the greatest American writers of all time Mark Twain. He once was quoted as saying, "Don't tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish." Take care and make sure you give the Cementman a shout, it's his birthday tomorrow! (hunterskin10@yahoo.com)

December 6, 2009

When Mother Nature decides it's time for winter she doesn't mess around. After one of the most mild late Novembers that we have had in many years the first part of December had been white and cold.

The snow started last Thursday night, and depending on where you live in the Grand Rapids area, you received between six and sixteen or more inches of snow. Temperatures have been peaking in the low thirties. I'm glad I got the cabin winterized last Tuesday just in the nick of time.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I had made plans to meet mi amigo de Texas Nick Vawter for breakfast Friday morning. Rick "The Cementman" Skinner decided to join us and made plans to drive down Thursday and spend the night. However, Nick's plans changed and he had to cancel.

Nick and his three sons were fixing to leave Friday for their annual Iowa deer hunt. As it turned out, Nick's departure time shifted from 4:30 pm to 6:00 am which negated our breakfast plans. Oh well, we'll get together yet, and maybe it will be to look at the pictures from their hunt.

Nick has been a local here and works for Gentex who has him now representing them in their various plants in Mexico. Consequently, he lives now in Texas. He does his fair share of commuting, and he's back and forth fairly frequently. He and his three boys are serious outdoorsmen and take their share of trophies on the water and in the field. I can't wait to hear their stories and see their pictures from this late muzzle loader hunt.

Rick made his way down from Irons Thursday and got here around dinner time. We ate and made a trip down to the Ourdoorsmen Pro Shop to puruse the store. We continued visiting area shops on Friday after a pretty big breakfast at Arnie's . I am a particular fan of breakfast out, and there aren't too many places around that I haven't tried. Arnie's is right off 131 at 54th St. and if you are passing through Grand Rapids, Arnie's is a safe bet for some good eats. They have very good entrees and desserts. You don't go away hungry.

Our first sporting goods stop was at Silver Bullet Firearms on Division. Rick was looking for a new pistol called "The Judge." The "Judge" is a gun that Taurus has made that will shoot either a .45 long colt or a .410 shotgun shell. It's touted as one of the top personal protection weapons. If you click on the "Judge" hot link you can see a short You Tube video highlighting the weapon and off to the side in the link, there are a host of other videos that focus on the weapon.

Rick had seen the gun in a six inch barrel, and that's what he was hoping to find. Silver Bullet had it in a four inch barrel. They also had just got in ammo for the gun, three inch .410 buckshot loads. The loads have five marble size BBs that would do some damage. One of the factors that make the gun a good personal defense weapon is that the barrel is rifled, which causes the shot in the .410 shells to spiral out of the barrel expanding much more rapidly than it does coming out of a smooth barrel.

Rick thought long and hard about getting the Judge in the four inch barrel, but decided to wait. We also went down the road a piece and looked at Al n' Bob's . They had the gun in the two and three inch barrel. Al n' Bob's price was around $550 a little higher than the $499 price at Silver Bullet. Rick did buy a nice treestand at Al n' Bob's that was on sale. The stand looks very comfortable and Rick better be wearing a safety belt in it because once he's up in the tree in that thing he'll be checking his eyelids for leaks. It's just too comfy.

I did some work on my computer this week and sorted some pictures and saved a bunch of others on my external hard drive. I ran across some shots that I forgot to post from my salmon fishing outing with Steve "Mr. Manistee" Block. I just passed along some of the salmon from that outing that I had smoked. I gave some to my daughter-in-law to try. Here are a few of the pictures from our August trip.

Salmon fishing out of Manistee in August

Steve's duck boat rigged for salmon.

Ready to set the hook.

Dodging the salmon traffic .

Some mighty tasty eating.

Manistee's cleaning station. Nothing but salmon fillets go home.

I haven't talked with Steve lately. He usually takes all of his vacation time to bow hunt and rifle hunt. Hopefully, I'll get a report and some pictures soon.

Before I go too much further I hear there are congratulations in order for Josh and Brandy Meyers. Rick told me that Brandy had her baby last week. It was five weeks early, but weighed in at five plus pounds. The report I had was that mom and baby were doing well. Great news and our congratulations go out to them.

In cruising the fishing sites, the Genmar bankruptcy case is still garnering a lot of ink. The stalking horse, Platinum Equity, has made a 55 million dollar offer to buy Genmar's major lines like Ranger, 4 Winns, Stratos, Champion, Wellcraft, Glastron, and Larson. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

The other salient features on the web are beginning to focus on the upcoming B.A.S.S. Classic which will take place February 18th. One of the classic previews that caught my eye was one done on Matt Herren. I spent a day in Matt's boat as a Marshall in the Lake Wheeler Dixie Duel. It was a fun day and Matt showed his dock prowess during that event.

Matt made the move to B.A.S.S. from the FLW and was the B.A.S.S. Rookie of the Year last year. He had a good year and earned a Classic berth which takes place in his home state of Alabama. Here's the link to the article Bass Zone did on Matt Herren's Classic Berth .

Grand Valley State University won Saturday's "Snow Bowl" Division II National Semi-final game against Tennessee's Carson-Newman University. GVSU won the game despite having four players, two of them starters, benched for breaking team rules. One of the two starters benched was there all time leading rusher, Jimmy Berezik. Berezik was in trouble the same time last year and missed the 2008 semi final game because of an alcohol related incident.

Grand Valley will be playing in the DII National Championship game against Northwest Missouri State down in Florence, Alabama December 12th. Florence is a half hour or so from my bother and sister-in-law's house. We've made the trip for a final once before and are thinking about a possible trip this year.

Time to set the blog aside for today. I was going to put up a piece about the carp invasion that is working its way up the Mississippi through the Chicago shipping canal, but I'll save that for tomorrow.

The final cast today is a quote from Dr. Seuss. It deals with how fast time seems to fly especially around the holidays. It goes, "How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?" Take care and make sure you take some time out of your work day to do something that puts a smile on your face.

December 2, 2009

Only twenty-two more shopping days until Christmas. It's that time of year again. Time for many to up their credit card debt, and buy things that end up stacked up in someone's closet. I'm sounding like a humbug. I don't really mean to because I enjoy Christmas and like buying presents, but I try, more and more, to make sure I buy things that people need and will really use. Also, I'm finding retirement dollars don't go as far as two people working dollars do, so like it or not I have to be a little humbugish.

We headed up to the cabin Monday and I'm working this morning from my corner window seat overlooking the lake. About 7:50 am I saw two deer meandering through the edge of the woods alongside the cabin. They were browsing along, but seem to be headed somewhere directly.

Last night was quite bright with a big full moon, and I sat in the dark for a while watching to see if any critters would visit the cabin yard.

I had worked earlier in the day on raking some of leaves that stack up against my shoreline out of the water. I got about nine wheelbarrows full of leaves raked out. This will really give me a jump on a job that I usually start in May.

Last night we went out to diner with the Cementman and his wife. They wanted to try Club 37 , which is on M37 north of Wolf Lake, which is north of Baldwin. Rick had the best looking meal to me. He ordered from the "Lighter Side" menu and had perch. If his plate of food was considered "lighter" I would have liked to see the regular size portion. He had half a platter of perch, a pile of potato skins, dinner roll, and salad. The potato skins looked really good. My wife and Jean had french dips and I had a burger. My burger and fries were okay. Nothing out of the ordinary but good. My wife said the french dip was good but not great. She would have liked the prime rib to have been sliced thinner. Jean, Rick's wife, had a bowl of their white chili which she said was very good. Menu prices were a little on the high side, but that's not unusual up north. They don't get the numbers of patrons that restaurants do in the big city and they don't have the competition either.

As you probably have already noticed I have broken the blog and started the December 09 edition. I continued, as I did last month, to include the last day of the November blog. Those last few days of the month don't stay up as long and this way you don't have to work as hard to catch up a day or two.

We will be packing up soon and heading home through Cadillac. I plan on stopping at Pilgrim's Village to see Steve and drop off a copy of the DVD iMovie that I made for Don. I had footage of the B.A.S.S. Federation Nation State Championship, the year he made the team, and also footage of his win at the Northern Regional down in Vermillion, Ohio.

We'll drop off a copy for Don. Maybe we'll see him for lunch. I have a second DVD for him of some footage I transfered to DVD for him of some hunting video he shot.

Speaking of hunting, my hunting and fishing addict son Nate, who is living and working down in Texas, harvested a nice little five pointer. He's been seeing some big deer down there where the hunting season is about two months long. here's a picture of his buck.

A nice little Texas five pointer.

Well, I have to winterize the cabin before we leave, and I have to grab as much as will fit in the car of my fishing tackle, poles, life jackets, etc. to bring home for the winter. I don't like leaving that stuff in an unheated garage. Take care and make sure you take some time out of your work day to do something that puts a smile on your face even if it's just for a few minutes.

November 30, 2009

Another hiatus of sorts. We've been busy over the holiday, and I just haven't gotten to the blog. Aside from the usual eating, watching football, and enjoying the company of family and friends, I have also been busy taking care of the doe I shot.

When I got home on Tuesday, I skinned the deer and got it ready to cut up. While I was skinning it, I found the bullet from my 30/30 lodged just under the hide behind the front right shoulder. I had hit the deer just behind the left shoulder, and we saw the path of the bullet through the lungs when we gutted it. The confounding part of the whole scenario was that there was a hole just in front of the left hip. A bunch of fat was protruding from what looked like an exit wound. You can see it in this picture.

You can see what looks like an exit wound near the hip.

Rick thought that I hit it back of where I thought I had, but we both found that I hit the deer where I thought I did behind the front leg. It didn't make sense to have an exit wound on the same side. When I found the bullet under the skin opposite of where I hit it, I called Rick. Rick surmised that I had taken a doe that Ricky had shot at with his bow. Ricky told Rick that he had hit it too far back. They never found the deer. Ricky had hit the deer the Thursday before the gun opener. The type of wound it had was consistent with the scenario. It solved a riddle that was confounding Rick and I since we found the deer.

I try to hang my deer overnight after I skin it because I hose it down to get any hair from skinning off the meat. Unless the meat dries overnight, it is very slippery and makes boning it more difficult.

The next day I got the deer boned and the meat cleaned a second time. While I quartered it I found that this deer had a good deal of fat on it. In fact, I would say the layer of fat over the back of the hind quarters was thicker than I have seen on any other deer that I have cut up. I would expect to find more fat on a doe, because the bucks run a lot of their fat reserve off during the rut chasing does. The bumper crop of acorns this Fall allowed this deer to fattened up. This year's mast crop will help many more deer make it through the winter and help build the herd back up from two consecutive bad winters.

My son and his new wife arrived Wednesday night and he brought with him his meat grinder, spices, brat recipe, and sausage stuffer. We ground up the meat and mixed the spices to add to the burger to make the brats. We then soaked a "hank" I had bought.

A "hank" is what they call a quantity of hog casings, pig intestines. One Hank is enough to do about a hundred pounds of meat. It comes heavily salted, and the casings are woven together like a tangle mass of kite string. We ferreted out a casing and then hooked it up to the faucet and ran water through it. My son says this helps lubricate the inside of the casings and helps when putting it on the sausage stuffer end which they call the horn.

With the casing on the horn you begin to feed the meat into the machine, and it slowly pushes it into the casing. Stuffing the casings is easier if you have two people. One to steadily feed the auger and the other to pinch the casing just hard enough to prevent it from slipping off the horn too fast.

The sausage comes out in one long piece. When that individual casing is stuffed you then pinch and twist each brat. You twist the first one one way and then the second the other way and so on. Once they are all twisted you cut them. You might think that once cut the sausage would ooze out, but it doesn't.

We stuffed twenty five pounds worth of brats. That's about eighty good sized brats. I then used the food saver and vacuumed sealed and froze them. By the way, if you use a vacuum sealer the "Food Saver" brand bags are $19.99 at Meijers. They also sell a generic brand that is half that price, $9.99. I thought I'd try the cheaper bags and they seemed to work just find. I also found today that those same cheaper bags are sold at ABC Warehouse for $7.99. That's a very good price. I saw them when I stopped today to buy some jewel cases for my DVDs and CDs. You can get twenty-five jewel cases at ABC Warehouse for $3.99. That's the cheapest I've ever seen them. They also had 100 CDs or DVDs on sale today for $15.99 which is a very good price.

Here are some pictures of our sausage stuffing operation.

This is the whole "Hank" soaking in a pan. You can save the extras by salting them heavily. They say, they will last a long time that way.

Using the "Kitchen Aid" to grind and stuff.

Another shot of the brat action.

I grilled some brats, and then put them in a crock pot with two bottles of beer and onions. I let them soak for about four hours. My son learned that is how all the brat restaurants in Milwaukee cook and keep their brats. Very good gumming.

I bagged and froze some of the meat we mixed for brats. In Milwaukee, you can get brat burgers and they are very good, so I thought I would freeze some to hold in reserve for one of those cold winter days that will be coming up soon.

If you think you might want to try to make some brats or sausage my son got his info off of The Spicy Sausage Website . Clicking the link will take you to the recipe we used. The website has a lot of good information on all facets of sausage, brats, etc. making.

Stepping away from the brat line a bit, I spent some time today sorting pictures that I was given by several folks. They had taken a bunch of pictures at my son's recent wedding and recently gave them to me. I spent a couple hours today readying 200 of them to upload to the Cosco Photo Center . I get all my pictures printed at Cosco. They have very good pricing and you can do everything online. Here is a print of the wedding posse making sure my son got to the church on time. Not really, we were walking off a big lunch we had following our Lakefront Brewery tour and lunch at the Brat House Brat House. The second shot is of a couple of old Tear Drop Bass Tournament Trail anglers.

The Wedding Posse with Dandy Don packing the heat.

Myself and my ole buddy Dandy Don all wedding out.

Well, I had better get some other work done today. We are planning on running up to the cabin for a couple of nights. I have to be back in town Friday. Nick "Tejas Bajo Magistra" Vawter emailed me, and we are going to meet for breakfast on Friday morning. If you are in town and want to join us, email me for time and place.

Take care, and make sure you take some time out of your work day to do something that puts a smile of your face.