I Passed !!! Look out poachers

It is final I just got my State Exam score and I passed. Only 6 more weeks of in-serves training and I'll be home and on-duty.

Back from Greece

Well I am back from Greece and as you all know the work there is hard. And the morning are hell I have to make my own coffee and then drink it with students. But, some how I seem to be able to struggle through an other day at the "office".

The trip was good and I am on my way to my dad's in Ottawa for a week. Then off to the boat and a bunch of dive training.

Farmer man loved the story and it will be great to be back on the "farm".

Well more later

Gray hunter

What a Beautiful View!!!

I was cutting alfalfa at the farm yesterday, right along the driveway. A car with Florida plates drove in, and a nice looking woman got out carrying a large sample case. She was selling aerial photos of the farmstead. They are now taken by digital camera, so one of the selling points was that she could erase or cover up unsightly areas. I asked her to remove the old trailer house, and take out several junk piles.
Now, as Paul Harvey would say, "the rest of the story". This woman was very well built, and had on a loose fitting tank top that showed her attributes at their finest. To put this description in a hunting vernacular that we can all understand, "she would have a hard time hiding behind a tree during deer season, or she would make a good guide, as she was always pointing the way. She was sitting on the front step of the house, giving me and Josh(my 15 year old traveling friend), her well practiced sales pitch. We were standing above her, totally fascinated by the view (of the farmstead pictures) that she was showing us. All of a sudden, she grabbed the front of her tank top, and pulled it way out, and shouted, Can you see anything?
Duh!! How do you answer a question like that.
She reached down her shirt, and was searching for something. Gentleman that I am, I was ready to volunteer to help her search for whatever had hidden in her cleavage, when she pulled out a seed from the ash tree in front of the house. Curses, I had visions of doing a strip search, and saving her from a viscous bee or wasp, not a tree seed. After I had purchased the photo, which I had been wanting for 20+ years, but have never been around the farm at the right time, I couldn't help but wonder, would her sales technique have been any different if Terri had been the one talking to her?
Things looking great at the farm, several nice rains, food plots looking OK. Lots of deer around, good hatch from the Canadian Geese, and pheasants starting to nest. Think Fall, and hunting, but take time to enjoy the summer, it is way too short.

Happy Fathers Day, the old Farmer.

Food Plots

Just got a phone call from Randy O., the guy who will pick my corn plots. We had a 1/2 inch of rain last night, so he can pick this afternoon, I will make a quick trip to the farm, and hopefully will get the new crop planted today or tomorrow.

More later, the old farmer

drive to the farm every week... :-(

Just found out that sometime this year my job is moving to a new office another 20 miles away. So I might be spending 12-15 hours in a car every week.... just venting.... sigh

MN Hunting leases

Just in case anybody is interested in leasing Potlatch land for hunting in MN...

http://recreation.potlatchcorp.com/mn/tracts/

Prices aren't too bad if several guys went in on it.

Farm update

Finally had a chance to spend a couple of days at the farm, being a working stiff really cuts into my spare time. I did get the food plot down in the big slough planted yesterday, I just planted between the rows from last year, and then sprayed to kill the weeds. The planter bar pretty well knocked down the old stalks, and in the entire plot, I saw 2 ears of corn. Every thing else had a bare cob hanging from the stalk. I'd say the pheasants and deer had pretty good eating all winter. I hope to have someone lined up to pick the two other plots next weekend, then I can get the rest planted.
I had a "slight" disagreement with my renters, and unfortunately, I let them have their way. (I'm just too nice a guy) They denied that I had told them I wasn't going to rent the pastures this year, so they will still have cattle on them this year, and probably chew them right down to the roots, just like last year. Therefore, we won't have the extra corn and grass to hunt on, at least for this year. They are also planting much more soybeans, and much less corn acres.
Next fall, they will get written notice of cancellation of the present lease. I'm not sure what I will be doing, but I will have much more active involvement in management, if not actually farming part or all myself.
Pistol Pat, are you free for the summer, or still tied to the academic scene?
Later, the old farmer

Gun auction

Well, I went to the DNR confiscated gun auction on Saturday. Turns out they haven't done this in about 4 years. I estimate there were about 1000 people there and only about 300 guns. They did about a gun a minute. I'm glad I didn't have any money, I could see how its easy to get caught up in the excitement. I looked over a lot of the weapons and the vast majority were in pretty rough shape. People were spending WAY too much money on some. I saw one basic Remington 870 pump go for $300... you can buy a NEW one for less. There were a few good deals though, I made my buddy bid on a nice Savage .22 which he got for $200. Hardly been used. I saw a Tika T3 decked out with scope and all go for $1000 even, and a like-new Marlin .45-70 govt with a Leupold 3-9x scope go for $650. The only one I saw that I was interested in was a Stainless Browning A-bolt in .338 Win Mag (I could really reach out and touch something with that!), but when the price went over $700 I new I was out... actually when the price started out at $400 I new I was out, HA! And oh what a crowd...

Mr. T

I pity the fool who doesn't do his civic duty!

My brother had jury duty with Mr. T this week in Cook County IL.

Can Killer

If you look close you can see the brass ejecting! This girl was murdering soup cans at 70-80 yards... The new pea shooter is a damn accurate little gun. We saw 5 flocks of turkeys and estimated about 80 birds total... all on Marylin's cousin Ray's farm. Two nice Toms strutting their stuff for the hens.

BTW, if anybody is interested the MN DNR is having their confiscated firearms auction in Zimmerman on May 2nd. They're supposed to have a list of all 300 weapons on the website soon... http://www.hillerauction.com/. I guess out of 570,000 hunters, 300 confiscated guns isn't too bad.