Friends, For Better or Worse

I'm kind of homesick today so I've taken a little stroll down memory lane, looking at old pictures. I had a lot of fun growing up. I dated, played sports, and did what most kids do, but my favorite memories all include two things: the outdoors and my friends. We never got hooked on Nintendo or PlayStation. Instead, we had fun the old fashioned way, even though we didn't always come up with the brightest ideas...

I wouldn't trade those days for any others, even though they are not mistake-free. Like the time we skipped out in the middle of church to go "diggin" (a.k.a: Driving Jake's dad's truck straight up a hill only to slide back down and ruin the bumper).

Or when my buddies came and got me after work (while I was still in my white shirt and tie) to go look for deer, but we ended up breaking the Jeep's suspension playing in a mud pit.

I never did get the mud stains out of that shirt.


One place that saw its fair share of good times is Chris's cabin. Standing on the deck of the cabin is where we first attempted to cut down a tree with our shotguns. His dad was not too happy about it, so we waited to try again until later in the summer on a campout near Pump Ridge where we unloaded our boredom on a much larger tree. Forty five shotgun shells into it we finally realized how stupid the whole idea was and moved on to waste our money elsewhere. That wounded tree still stands in that field as a monument to our senselessness.

The Utah desert is another place where many memorable moments were born. Once on a southern desert trip we found ourselves bored around the campfire. Why not tempt fate by jumping over the fire with a big box burning in it?


When that got old we began searching for more interesting ways to entertain ourselves. "How can we involve guns," we wondered aloud, "Shotguns always make things more interesting." Right about then Ryan yelled from the truck, "Hey, aerosol bug spray is flammable isn't it?" I think it was Chris who linked the two together, suggesting that we place the can near the fire's edge and shoot it into the flames.


We had fun that trip climbing up rock goblins, hiking up slot canyons, and cliff jumping into flash-flood potholes.


I'm surprised we all came out of it uninjured.

On other desert trips we'd go out to hunt turkeys, coyotes, or rabbits, but usually end up messing around, trying to talk each other into letting us shoot a hole in the other one's hat, or seeing if we could keep an old tire rolling by repeatedly hitting the top of it with bullets. Once after waking up early and hunting hard all morning, but not seeing one coyote nor a single rabbit, (and as a result developing an intense need to shoot something), Jake finally found satisfaction for his incredibly itchy trigger finger...

He moved the crosshairs of his dad's .30-06 rifle into place and sent 180 grains of copper-coated lead down range at 2800 feet per second, carrying just over three thousand foot-pounds of energy, (enough to kill a mature bull moose), to eventually strike...of all things...a meadowlark. Pieces were everywhere.


He was so proud of himself. That stunt was almost as bad as shooting a little hummingbird out of the air with high-brass pheasant load. We won't mention who did that one, (because then my wife might not speak to me for awhile).

We've definitely grown up a lot since then, but I do miss it. I love the outdoors. The rise of hungry trout to a dry fly that I tied, the drilling of a woodpecker echoing through a hollow grove of white-barked aspens, the satisfying ache in my muscles after a long hike back to camp, the blended smell of dutch oven chicken and campfire smoke, and the satisfied look in the eyes of my hard-hunted, sun-soaked dog that declares "The world is a beautiful place", all fill me with life and energy; but the people I enjoy it with are what I prize the most.

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I plan to continue making more of "the good ol' days" in the years ahead of me. I have a feeling that though they won't be as senseless as the originals, they'll be just as enjoyable.

Nebraska's Spring Woods

This time of year Nebraska gobblers are out strutting their stuff, hoping to impress the hens whose sides they never leave.

This morning they weren't calling much, and I was lucky that I spotted them before they spotted me. I crept in as close as I dared, set up two decoys, and started calling softly. They gobbled every time I hen-yelped and they eyed my decoys up and down, but I guess my plastic birds just don't compare to the real thing cause they never came.

It's still early in the archery season, and most of the hens have yet to be bred. Trying to coax a gobbler into leaving his ladies is just about impossible. I finally gave up and turned to Plan B: sneak within bow range. I got pretty close too, until this young doe walked up and ruined things.



I don't think she had any idea what I was at first. Still, she bounced off waving the white tail of warning, and the turkeys grew nervous. Though I followed them a little, I never could get close enough for a shot; and eventually left, not wanting to spook them completely out of the woods. The rest of the morning was filled with photos.


Since it is Spring, the bird-nerd blood in me is running thick, so here are a few species you don't find in Utah or Idaho that I spotted this morning.

Northern Cardinal

Winter Wren

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Harris's Sparrow

The Wild Life of Cedar Row

Recently I've come down with a severe case of cabin fever. I catch it every Spring when the frozen world begins to thaw and my restless mind starts aching to play outdoors. In the past, various therapies have cured my fever, such as shed-antler hunting, birdwatching, 3D archery tournaments, and Cabela's spending binges; but this year I've found my cure in playing around with trail cameras. I first became converted to their use back in July (click here to read), and this actually isn't my first post about it (click here). These are just the latest pics.

On a section of public land near my home the Division of Wildlife Resources has planted a variety of trees and grasses to house and feed the local wildlife. One particularly dense row of cedar trees acts as a natural wall that funnels traveling deer to my yellow "x" where there is a single, heavily-used "gateway" to the cornfield nearby. I've marked what deer trails I know in red.


I placed my trail camera in that "gateway" hoping to get a shot of a buck or two before they shed last year's antlers. What I found instead was this...


...and this...

It snapped hundreds of pictures of coons, rabbits, possums, deer, turkeys, bobcats, coyotes, and more, all within just three days. I never expected to see such a party going on in one row of cedars. Rather than post dozens of the pictures here, I just photoshopped some of the good ones together into one photo. The final product has a cool effect.

Here's a scene from the night life. How many different species can you identify?


Stay tuned for future posts of more critter pics and other fever-curing outdoor festivities.

Lions and Tigers and Bears...well, not Tigers

Strangely enough, one of the things I miss most about hunting in Utah and Idaho is that it's done in the presence of mountain lions and black bears.


There's just something about an after-dark hike back to the truck down a cold, lonely canyon that makes your neck hairs stand straight up. The anxiety-induced adrenaline bursts from every predator-shaped shadow are addictive. I've only ran into bears a couple of times in the woods and have yet to encounter a cougar while not in my truck, but it's not uncommon to hike a dusty afternoon trail back to camp and see bear or cat tracks on top of your morning footprints. That was exactly the case here, (click the pic to enlarge if you need).


On my last Utah elk hunt before moving to Nebraska my buddy and I spotted these old claw marks in the bark of an aspen tree.


He's from Mississippi so he thought it was the coolest thing. I didn't understand what he was feeling until I hunted this year out here in Cornland where the most vicious animal you'll encounter on the three minute walk down the dirt road back to the car is the farmer's drunken daughter making out with her boyfriend in the grass. Well... you might see a bobcat if you're lucky, but it's just not the same adrenaline rush.


The truth is human encounters with mountain lions and black bears are very uncommon, and usually end with the animal scared and fleeing the scene. Still, it makes me feel like more of a man carrying a gun "just in case".

Trail Cam Captures

I got a trail camera for Christmas a month or so ago and have set it up several times. Here are a few photos just for the fun of it.

I threw some birdseed out onto my back porch and caught several pics and videos of these House Sparrows bouncing around. This chunky little guy decided he'd steal a free meal as well.


In this video you can see the sparrows dart for the bushes once they spot the danger fast approaching, (watch the top of the fence).


That Sharp-shinned Hawk was the coolest thing I had caught on camera until this week when I placed my trail cam in the woods.


If you look close you can see the coyote in this video holding something in his mouth, perhaps a squirrel? A rabbit? The pheasant I missed earlier in the year?


Late one night a couple of months ago I let Rudy out to do his doggy business just before going to bed. I hadn't even closed the back door when he erupted into a barking fit that I knew meant something or someone was in our backyard. Expecting to see a cat or our neighbor, I stepped onto the back porch and was surprised to catch a glimpse of one of these being chased away:

I had never seen a possum before that night. I figure it lives nearby because I've spotted it twice since then. I've set up the trail cam a few times trying to catch a photo (this one isn't mine), but no luck yet. Not long after that I caught another trespasser in my yard but this one was quick, (unlike possums), with a ringed tail (like a coon), but skinny as a cat (unlike a coon) and I only got a glimpse in the dark. I'd really like to catch a picture of it because I think it was a ring-tailed cat, though all the books say they don't live around here.