Handy As Your SAK

I haven't given much thought to bandanas - they bring back memories of the Bad Hair 80's, most of which I wish I could forget. Anyway, came across this and figured maybe I should pack a few, 'cause I don't.

'Tis some good ideas, no? Handy as a Swiss Army Knife (SAK). Is there anything you pack that you always find comes in handy or has many uses?

Pitching Maribou To Ribbons And Shelves

It's some strange hours that yours truly works on Friday nights - ruins my Saturdays...I did try to get some outdoor time in for the last hour or two before the sun went down by stalking the nearest trout stream. My freezer is running low on fillets, and I have not found one good use for the frozen pollock my wife gets from the store now and then.

The drought is playing hell with these streams. The flows are low, the streams shallow. I've seen more ice on them this year than I have in the ten I've been fishing them. There are fewer places for fish to hide. This winter has got to be tough on them. I almost felt bad for them enough that I was talking myself into not keeping any. The simple rig : light spinning gear and a 1/16 oz. black maribou jig -

The places a fish might hold were few and far between. Some may find spots under the ice shelves that lined the creek, giving the open water the appearance of a ribbon winding down the middle. After getting absolutely no takes in the ribbons, I figured I'm going to have to pull the ol' bass fisherman's trick out of the hat, the one where they'll plop a frog on a lily pad, let it sit, and then drag it off.

The only real strike that I got last night was when I dropped my jig off the ice shelf hanging onto the small rock dam in the photo above. I felt tension on the line and as I pulled to set the hook, a brown trout (not a large one, maybe 8 - 10 inches) rolled at the surface just off the ice, and then my line went loose. All the attempts I made to get him to strike again were futile. Oh well, an hour or two of frozen hands and low light is better than none. Hopefully after this ice storm moves through the area, I'll be able to make it out again. Monday, possibly.

Until next time, take care -

Casey

Of An MLK Day Past

Three years ago, I had an outstanding Martin Luther King, Jr. Day off. I have looked back on this day ever since, hoping something magical would happen when I get out on this holiday again. Nothing close to this has happened in the years since, and I won't be getting out this year except for chores. The wind chills today are expected to be -25 to -35 degrees. Not sure I want to live the rest of my life without a nose.

Jan 18, 2010 : I got to watch a mink go fishing for awhile, and the fishing wasn't too bad for me, either. Fat, healthy rainbows that have had to survive in the streams on their own from at least October. They put up much better fights after having rid their systems of the dog food the DNR feeds them.

The camera I had at the time is the one I'm using now, just a Kodak Easy Share point and shoot. The mink didn't get close enough for great pictures with it, but we can get the gist of it. From the photo above, it swam across the water and underneath the ice shelf on the right hand side. As it swam past me I could hear it breathing, like there wasn't a lot of head space under there, and it had to blow water out of it's nose. Below I've tried to crop and blow up a photo of it getting ready to cross.

As it made it downstream from me, it crawled out on a rock to eat a minnow or fingerling trout it had caught. Again too far away for my measly camera, but close enough for me to see the fish's sides reflect sunlight as it writhed in the minks mouth and front paws. A good photo of the fish in it's mouth was never got.

And like I said, the fishing was good for me, too -

Plan B and The Hickor' Nut Egg

I was fortunate enough to be given a couple of free hours yesterday afternoon, so I took to the hills. The temperature was in the middle 40's with a very strong wind that was going to be switching to the north/northwest as the sun was going down. It would be as good a day as any to catch a few trout before a freeze sets in again.

I know I'm not the only one who has had that moment - being giddy about trout fishing in January in the Midwest. It's a special feeling, almost like you're cheating nature. Fishing open water in January? Made even more special when you know you won't have to constantly be cleaning ice out of the line guides.

But here is also where nature strikes back - in the form of forgetfulness. Yep. It's January and that means a new year. That means you need a new license to harvest the fields and streams. Well, "One thing pushes out another, as the say in Bree," (Tolkien fans - you're welcome!) and I plumb forgot to renew for this year. Lucky for me, a walk through the hills is just as good as trying to get a fish to bite. Even better if the fish aren't.

Plan B quickly came to mind - walk the game trails looking for shed deer antlers. There is almost a couple hundred acres to wander here, so off I went. I soon ran into a problem, though. The tracks of another shed hunter and his dog. Try as I might, I couldn't find an area where these two had not looked. It was like I was cursed to walk in their footsteps, or I thought an awful lot like that guy did in choosing what trails to take.

No antlers were to be found, but I did find a very large decaying bolete, which means I'll have to walk the area this fall to try to find some. A couple of southward facing hillsides had just the right slope and dead elms on them to make me think that there will be morels on them come spring, and hopefully I won't forget that. There is always something that catches my eye in nature, even in a bleak January landscape - in a small gooseberry bush I found a nest which looked like it still had an egg. Just a hickor' nut, though (Little Tree fans - you're welcome!).

It's a good thing I'm open to options. These hills were made for them. I could have even taken a nap on the soft bed of needles under a sunny stand of pines, listening to the wind through the tree tops. I love these hills.

Mushrooms and Quandary

When I first started this blogging experience, I didn't have a camera and my posts were just prose about what I had experienced while out on a walk or on a hunt/fish outing. My writing wasn't the greatest, but that was my ambition, to be a better writer. And I did get a little better along the way, if I do say so myself.

Then the time had come where two bloggers had stopped my site, at different times. In this first case, I had been out on the trails and one late spring day, heading to a trout stream, I walked up on two small raccoons climbing a tree, and I described how they were trying to sneak into a hole in a tree without me seeing them. This particular blogger stopped by and told me how great it would be to have a camera to capture these things. I took the blogger's comment meaning that it sure would be nice to have a camera to lend some credibility to what I was writing about.

The same thing happened when I had stopped and made pine tea after a hike on another early spring day. The post was about how easy it is to make and how nutritious pine tea is. But, I didn't have a camera to do a step-by-step tutorial and couldn't prove that I actually drink pine tea. A different blogger stopped by and told me the exact same thing about having a little bit of proof to what I have done, and it sure would be nice to hear from someone who had ACTUALLY DRANK pine tea. Needless to say, I have lost contact with these two and could not care less if they are successful in their blogging or outdoor adventures anymore.

Adding photos to my posts has been a blessing and a curse. The blessing is, that my posts do look much better, and that is what the internet wants. But, I love the old fashioned reading I grew up with, which is almost completely squashed these days. You know, the Gene Hill / Ted Trueblood type of thing, and the writing that appeared on the back pages of the outdoor magazines, before everyone had to be comedian. Stories were written where I could see myself in the writer's shoes and my imagination was put to use, based on my own experience, to help flesh out the story the writer was telling. To me, that part is special.

So now, for me, it's about finding balance between the story and the proving of it. Which can be hard for someone who is mostly a loner when comes to their time outdoors. Peace and solace is what I'm after when I'm out, but damn it to hell, I like to write, too, and have maybe found myself in the wrong medium. Maybe this is just trying to find my way, still.

I guess this has been grinding on me. Time to get on.

A Giveaway and A Really Nice Find

I wanted to let anyone who may breeze through here that there is an excellent, generous gear giveaway from David Wendell at Bushcraft On Fire. You need to follow the directions that David gives in the review video (link below) to be eligible. For myself, who could really use a new pack, it is worth the time and effort to at least try to win it. These bags go for at least $125 and that would be through Wal-Mart.


Here's the video and I've included links to his internet site and YouTube channel.

David's internet site Bushcraft On Fire - click here.
Bushcraft On Fire YouTube channel - click here.

**********

Took a short, very cold, yet very rewarding walk along a stream this morning. I didn't try the fishing knowing the stream would mostly be frozen over, and the time I had to wander was going to be short anyway, so I figured fresh air and exercise would be the point of this walk. The plan being to walk the stream until I came to a trail that led to the ridgetops and circle back to my truck. It was damn cold in that little valley.

The trail at the top of the ridge I took has a little piece along it called the "backbone," which separates two streams. There is a section of it that is probably as tall as a couple of two-story farmhouses stacked on top of each other, with a sheer drop on either side. Not real high or vertigo inducing, but it's all rock at the bottom if you weren't careful and weren't able to snag a cedar on the way down. You wouldn't be in good shape if you survived.

I decided I was going to take game trails back to my truck, and man am I glad I did -

Just found the one whitetail antler, but it's the best one I've found to date. Very thick beam on this one. I have found another 4-pointer before, but it was much skinnier than this one. Get out in the woods! You never know...The squirrels, crows, eagles and owls didn't hang around enough or close enough for any good pics.

Wind-flowers of 2012

The high temperature in my neck of the woods today never got out of the teens, with a constant, biting wind. I don't have much of a problem with this kind of weather unless icy roads are involved, but I can tell that my wife is getting more sensitive to below freezing weather. Got me to thinking about the spring and summer to come - warm, humid....mosquitoes and wood nettles scratching the hell out of me, killing ticks.....Yep, you may get the sense that I would be alright with a short summer and a longer autumn and winter. But I do love the wild flowers and butterflies (or "wind-flowers" as I like to call them) that show themselves during the summer, and last year I even got some decent pics of some :

 

One of the more interesting butterfly photos I got was of this one flying and it's probiscus just kind of hanging down. I would think that it would be curled up and tucked under during flight - 

Anyone anxious for summer, yet? Or are we in no big hurry?

Take care -

What I Can Share About Snowshoeing

With the January thaw we're having here in Iowa, I wonder how much snow we'll get the rest of the winter. There wasn't a lot to be found last year and now we have rain, and grassy areas in the yard that the dogs and chickens are absolutely enjoying turning into mud. "Is our winter going to be over soon?", I have been asking myself. And that got me to thinking about snowshoeing.

In the brief time that I have walked in snowshoes, three times to be exact (call me an expert, now?), some things have really stood out about the experience.

1. I mentioned a couple of posts ago that learning how to snowshoe is easy. Then I looked around in some of my old hunting and hiking books to see if I could find anyone else who would back me up. And I did. From the New Hunter's Encyclopedia, 1967 edition : " Snowshoeing is not at all difficult to learn, and can be mastered in a day or two." Then it goes on to warn us to break into them slowly, as our muscles need to get used to a new way of walking. So I'm not alone in the ease of learning point.

2. I wish I knew the numbers on how much energy a person saves while wearing snowshoes when the snow gets over a certain depth. That's something to look into, but my own personal experience tells me that the energy savings is substantial. Freaky substantial.

3. Snowshoe trails : If it hasn't snowed in some time and the snow is starting to pack hard, it may be easier to make your own trail instead of following in others' so you won't have an uneven walk over the crags and snow "clods" left by others. You don't need the unpleasant feeling that you may twist your ankle while enjoying the winter landscape around you. Winter can be hard enough already.

4. For those of the more adventurous bent, the upturned toe on snowshoes really does help going through areas that have undergrowth such as brambles and branches under the snow. It appears to me that the shoe won't snag as much as you're stepping forward.

5. Snowshoes, deep snow, and dogs may not be the most pleasant mix. When dogs tire, they are smart enough to let you break the trail and usually they are right at your heels, which doesn't work with snowshoes. Until they learn to stay farther back while you're snowshoeing, a dog can be a real pain with this method of travel, until everyone gets the message.

These are the things that have stood out most to me about snowshoeing so far, in my limited experience. The history of snowshoeing, the different styles of shoe, or where to find good trails are things beyond my scope at this point in time, but I can tell you that I am VERY happy that I can venture out in the deeper stuff come winter now, without the feeling that I just may be bringing myself to an earlier end. If you've been thinking about trying it, I HIGHLY recommend it.

My Personal Best Bird Photo Moment

Alright, here goes. I'm going to finish up the "Birds of 2012" series today with a miscellany of our feathered friends. I hope this post doesn't take too long to load, as there are just few more pics than usual.

It's hard for to explain how much I LOVE bird prints in the snow. Several years ago, before I had a notion to photograph anything, I came across what I believed to be an imprint in the snow of an owl landing near a small brush pile. That was in interesting find, but this is just a junco or sparrow after snow bugs near a trout stream -

Not a great photo, but this guy had seen me coming from a ways off, and I guess I may have been trying to be too sneaky ( I have to be with just a point and shoot) -

An Eastern Wood Pewee coming back through last March -

An Eastern Towhee that would not give me a good shot of him -

A few of a wren that had spotted me and would not go into it's house to feed the chicks until I had moved off - just a couple of quick snaps and I had to go -

I never get good shots of woodpeckers. Here I believe is a Hairy -

And now my ABSOLUTE favorite photos of last year, and a moment I will remember for a long time. A woodcock on it's nest -

Geez, I'm aching for spring to get here already...birds, the warming smell of the earth...mushrooms! And by the way, I do have some fungi, wildflower and butterfly pics to put up in the next few days, so please stand by!

And thank you to those that are stopping by and leaving a comment on these beginning posts. It's very encouraging.

Alleviating The Dogs' Cabin Fever

With work looming tomorrow, I figured I better get the dogs out for a romp somewhere other than the back yard. Even though it is winter, you have to love the angle of the sun sometimes, just peeking up over the hills -

The dogs - Ellie, who was just born this past Memorial day, and Trapper, whom I have had for 8 years -

Ellie had never walked this trail with us, so she was a little more alert and checking things out -

And dang not having my good camera anymore! We got pretty close to a whitetail deer while we were walking into the wind on the smooth trail. Didn't hear or smell us coming -

Again, there were no interesting stories revealed in the tracks in the snow. But I do believe the deer are starting to try to knock their antlers off. I did find evidence of a small sapling recently tore up and laying on top of the snow. That would be cool to find an antler or two again this year.

Take care -