Belgian Bier

Around here Belgians figure significantly in the local populace so Stella Artois can be had. It is a fine Pilsner and their advertising is rather creative...

White House Reveals Obama Is Bipolar - Entering Depressive Phase

Consider the Larch

Aka - Hackmatack, Eastern larch or American larch - Larix laricina – the Tamarack is one of my most favorite trees.

Girlfriend I were out woodcock hunting and happened upon a stunning stand of tamarack.

The tamarack is one of only three native North American larch species and is the most common.
An unusual species in that this larch sheds its needles in the fall like bald cypress. It turns a bright golden yellow just prior to shedding its needles.
Tamarack is the most cold-hardy of any native tree and has the strongest wood of all the conifers. Tamarack also has the widest range of all the North American conifers.

The tamarack is often found in association with black spruce, balsam fir and northern white cedar.

Large trees are rare as most old specimens were killed years ago by the larch sawfly.

The wood is heavy, hard and very durable in contact with soil. It is often used for posts, poles, ties, pulpwood and locally for timber.

Obama Inspires Change - Hunters and Shooters Benefit

Thanks to President Obama – next year Wisconsin's going to benefit when the Department of Natural Resources receives nearly $13 million in federal funding for its wildlife conservation programs, 50 percent more than it received this year.

This is the sixth largest payment made to any state. The DNR will also receive nearly $2.4 million for hunter education and shooting-range work in 2010. That's also a 50 percent increase from 2009, and ranks No. 17 nationwide.

In one of life’s great ironies all of this is the result of Obama’s anti-gun stance.

Read the rest of Pat Durkin’s column here.

Check Out the Impromptu Traveler

A member of our deer camp is on assignment in Malaysia for a spell and he's started-up a blog to keep us posted of his cultural impressions.

He's posted some pretty funny homemade videos if you are looking to expand your world view.

Check it out by linking to: The Impromptu Traveler.

Or scroll down to the Blogs I Follow.

At great risk of offending someone's delicate cultural sensibilities - Andy needs to know that there has been intense lobbying for the serving of Sid's humongous porkulus, apple and kraut dish at deer camp again...

Mail Call

Oh sure. The blogger who dwells on this site gets some interesting email from time to time.

But this was a treat.

Good old-fashioned snail mail!

The Campingplatz received this very nice letter from the Wauwatosa Farmers Market thanking one of the verrückter Deutschen for participating in the inaugural return of this community’s farmers market.

For the record I also happen to live in Tosa Town more than half of the time and mein liebchen (who happens to be the brains of the organization) figured that if she loaded the truck with all manner of our surplus fall produce she could sell those Door County desirables for top dollar.

In the short space of a few hours she netted $270 for pumpkins, decorative gourds, fall produce and red osier dogwood.

This was matched by a corporate donation which allowed for a contribution of $540 to the Wauwatosa Historical Society.

Now that I have the official papers I think I might have stumbled upon the perfect plan for a comfortable retirement…

Drink Beer - Butcher Deer

Quite possibly one of the simplest and finest pleasures in life is drinking beer, butchering deer and listening to the Packer game in your man cave.













These steaks are awesome!

And if you are a Labrador retriever - if you are patient enough - the butcher might flip you a delectable schibble of raw venison once in awhile so you can indulge your inner wolf.

(Click on any image to enlarge)

Deer Camp Downtime

Sitting by the fireplace and trying to bake the chill out of my bones. 40 degrees and rain this morning. Nobody is seeing any deer.

I have a borrowed copy of Army Staff Sergeant David Bellavia’s account of the battle of Falluja.

It’s a rather gripping and raw account of urban combat.

And almost impossible to put down.

Peace Initiative

First the Nobel Peace Prize - Stay tuned for Walking on Water...

The Big Stink

Just like the seasonal flu the seasonal stink is back.

Sometimes I would welcome the flu and not the stink. Nonetheless the neighbor’s honey wagon is as predictable as the spring and fall migration of the resident songbirds.

I’m not sure how many gallons that tank holds but it is full of liquefied bovine poo.

And it has its own unique pungency. Having festered in a manure pit for a spell - by the time this high octane stuff is sprayed on the field it will make your eyes water if you happen to be directly down-wind of the stuff.

Whew!

But that’s part of country life. Once all the city folk move to the country seeking relief from the city woes they will most certainly begin to bitch about stuff like harvesting late into the night, hunting and manure spreading – all of which predated their arrival.

You see – they want everything to conform to their comfortable vision of country life.

Me?

I like the stink this time of year.

It’s good cover for bow hunting when the wind blows wrong.

(if you want a bigger stink - click on the picture to enlarge)

Another Letter to the Editor

The following letter to the editor was published in the Door County Advocate following a front-page story about a Door County youngster afflicted with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

This little fella enjoyed a guided hunt, used a donated bear tag and fired his rifle by blowing through a straw. He bagged a bear. It was a dream come true.

Good for him.

Here's the letter-

Don't Encourage Animal Cruelty

I was extremely dismayed to read the story entitled "Dream come true" on the front page of Wednesday's Advocate regarding the 13-year-old Door County hunter who shot a 100-pound black bear.

While I certainly understand the issues he faces as a person with muscular dystrophy and sympathize with him and his family, I also feel for the animals who try to share our world and get blown away for no reason other than entertainment.

Sport hunting inflicts irrefutable cruelty on living, sentient beings and should be at odds with the values of a humane and caring society. Isn't there enough hostility in the world? At a time when youth violence is a nationwide epidemic, we should not be teaching our children that stalking and killing animals for trophies is wholesome fun. Shouldn't we be encouraging our youth to show compassion and kindness, not advocating violence?

Of course, I wish Ben the best; however, I'm sorry he wasn't armed with just a camera instead.

JoAnne Rosenfeld
Egg Harbor
______________________________________________________________________

So I composed the following letter in reply and emailed it off to the editor of the Door County Advocate.

We'll see if it is published.
______________________________________________________________________

Dear Editor:

JoAnne Rosenfeld's letter to the editor (Advocate 10/10/09) begs for a response.

Your readers can probably take comfort in knowing that Ms. Rosenfeld is a vegan. Judging from the sincerity of her views we might appropriately conclude that this is the case and accord the necessary gravity to her opinion.

I would. I have vegan acquaintances and I respect their views and they respect my hunting.

I read the article about Ben Junion and nowhere did I note that this animal went to waste.

I presume that Ben's family would do what any other self-respecting family would do - they would put the meat and the pelt of Ben's trophy to good use. And Ben's presumably shorter number of years on this earth would be blessed by his efforts and the generosity of others.

Why would anyone get their nose out of joint over this?

Sincerely,

Thomas Gaertner
Brussels

Smile for the Camera

Between September 28 and October 7 (when the batteries died) the trail camera captured 42 deer pictures. I strapped the camera to a tree adjacent to a trail that led from a tangled thicket into a meadow. (click on image to enlarge)




This one – as if posing for a holy card












This spike buck

And the three in this shot

The Perfect Cockail Hour Food

This might possibly be the perfect cocktail hour accompaniment.

Smoked Canadian trout.

I recommend that you serve this with an aged Renard's cheddar, sea salt bagel chips and a Martini on the rocks (in a tub) topped with a couple of queen olives and a twist.

If you want to make this at home the Signature Brine can be found over at the other blog.

Snow!

I sat for a couple of hours last night with my bow in a ground blind adjacent to a wildlife opening. At six o'clock four deer materialized opposite from me - two adult does and a couple of little deer born this year.

That would constitute a small herd.

Raising my bow and clipping on the release I waited for them to cross the opening and exit into the woods on their well worn trail adjacent to the blind.

Yet all they did was fiddle fart. The adults actually reared-up and boxed each other for a bit.

I wondered what that was all about.

Impatient with their lack of cooperation and rapidly losing my light I though maybe a call might bring them closer. You know - make them fatally curious.

I think to myself - Grunt or bleat? Grunt or bleat? These are girl deer so go for the bleat.

If any of you hunt deer you're probably familiar with The Can. It replicates the sound of a deer bleating. Which for any of you non hunters sounds just like a sheep bleating.

I give them a bleat.

And the responses is - No way do we like the sound of that. We're out of here.

They all skedaddle.

Darkness falls with no other deer to be seen. But as the sun disappears a raucous chorus fills the darkening woods. Chirping and squawking like I haven't heard for awhile.

Doodle birds!

On the half-mile walk back to the house I flushed no less than eleven woodcock from the grassy trail. And there were uncounted more of them in the alders and willows around me.

I'm thinking - Hey. They've been feeding all day and they're staging for their night migration flight. I better get out tomorrow with the dog and take a long walk and see if we can't bag some of these guys. They're all over the freak'n place.

Today it dawned cold. Thirty two degrees was the overnight low and the weather guessers are predicting an overnight low of twenty tonight.

As I tap-out this post it is snowing. Yes, a genuine snow squall.

Girlfriend and I are going out to hunt woodcock in the snow.

More later...

U.S. Concemned for Pre-Emptive Use of Hillary Clinton

Not a Visit From the Tooth Fairy

Upon my arrival at the office this morning I found this on my desk.














Has this ever happened to you?

I’m thinking – How strange? A 50 cartridge box of 9mm Makarov rounds. 94 grain - FMJ too.

I’m not sure if someone is trying to send me a not-so-subliminal message or if the ammo fairy paid me a visit.

Either way I can make use of them.

However - if anyone bumps into the ammunition fairy be sure to tell that woodland nymph that next time I want a big box of 7mm Remington Mags . Preferably tipped with 150 grain Swift Scirocco boat tail Spitzers.

More Birds

As a child I haven’t any recollection of seeing a bald eagle. Although I saw a snowy owl perched on a utility pole once. Forty some years later I saw my second snowy owl – perched on a fence post only about a mile or so from the farm. I guess there was an owl eruption that winter because the vole population in Canada had crashed.
Now I see eagles almost year-round.


When I’m fishing I watch them fishing.

They nest along the peninsula’s coastline.

I saw one a couple of years ago on a fence post.

One of my readers caught this pair on camera just the other day.

That female poised to take flight looks like she belongs on the top of a flag pole.

BREAKING NEWS: Bat Loose in Congress

Who Pushed Over the Crapper?

There is a secluded spot near the ancestral campsite where a simple commode has been maintained.

It's just a three-sided box topped with a second-hand seat and lid with a big hook upon which you can hang your roll. It's constructed of big pieces of treated lumber. It’s tough and built to last. The proof is that it has been out there braving the elements for a decade and a half.

It sits over a hole. However, the hole has moved from time-to-time.

It is the handiest darn thing as it's a bit of a hike to the nearest flusher and you never know when you are out communing with nature when nature will call and you will have to answer that call. And the view is pretty nice. During the deer season you can see directly to one of my neighbor’s condo deer stands. He has a good view of the moon.

This is a heavy and bulky object and I want to know who knocked it over.

Ornery buck maybe?