Grouse Hollow Journal for the week of June 5, 2014 by Greg Koelker

Grouse Hollow Journal for the week of June 5, 2014 by Greg Koelker

During all of that wonderful summer 80+ degree weather last week, Ellen and I were thinking about ice fishing! For one reason, we saw the pictures of swimmers floating on mini ice bergs on the great lakes; then Mark's father-in-law, our friend Randy Swenson had been in Canada for the fishing opener and his crew had a rough time of it. He said there was so much ice on the lakes that they were very limited on where they could go. (Don't feel too badly for them as they are back up there again this week and I bet the report will be better.) The final reason to think about ice fishing is that as she changed decades on Friday, I gave Ellen a special birthday present of an Ice Armor fishing suit for use during cold weather activities, but mostly ice and walleye fishing. Some of you women are probably groaning, but she loved it. With any kind of luck, she'll get many opportunities to use it in the pursuit of a fish dinner.

Last week we spent some time in our woods and on our trails clearing brush. Eli Jackson and his friend Mike Mitchell came out to help clear some brush and work on food plots. We have some serious erosion at the head end of the Oak Hollow, so we started there to try and get some sort of erosion brake put on. After cutting some tree limbs and examining how the earth appears to be just dropping away from underneath, we opted to just pound in some fence posts around the edges to ward off a disaster for someone on a four-wheeler or in a truck. The hole is big enough for a combine to disappear in so we are hoping to get some advice from the soil conservation people on how best to try and stop this.

Later, while we were trimming trees along the ridge road, Ellen dropped down into the woods to check some of her morel spots. Eventually, my morel maven called up that she was busy picking mushrooms! Eli looked at me wide-eyed and headed over to help her. Mike and I finished the tree trimming and I noticed a morel by his right foot, right on the ridge road. It turns out that both he and Eli were morel virgins. It is hard to tell just by looking at someone. We looked around at bit and then took the vehicles back down to the farm. Ellen and Eli showed up with their shirts full of morels. When she found out that they had neither one ever hunted or tasted morels, Ellen had me start cleaning the mushrooms while she sent the boys back up the hollow with some mushroom bags to get the rest of the mother lode (all in all around three pounds) she had found. She got busy in the kitchen and fried two pans full of the fabulous fungi in butter, warmed up some sloppy joes, and we had a feast. Not everyone likes morels, but the boys were both hooked on morels. After lunch, they went down to Ferryville, ostensibly to check some tree stands on some property owned by Mike's dad, but I am betting they kept a keen eye out for morels too.

El has her garden partly in. Last week I sprayed it with Round Up because of all of the grass and then tilled it down. I shoveled most of a yard of compost as a topping and tilled it down, (messing my back up in the process). El has tomatoes, peppers, onions, and some herbs in so far. Things ought to grow like crazy or at least as well as our our asparagus, spinach, lettuce, and rhubarb have been. I also see lots of blossoms on the black and red berries, so this should be the year for lots of berry crisps, berries with ice cream, and Ellen's fantastic three berry jam.

Into all this wonderful stuff, some bad must come - the gnats are back attacking my ears, hairline, and bald spot. If I remember when I go out, I can foil them with my little girl vanilla spray toilet water I bought for a couple bucks at Walmart. It really works; it's cheaper than real Vanilla or Absorbine, and it smells delightful.

So far we've had nearly 2 inches of rain in the last week including a couple tenths on Sunday morning, so things are looking pretty good. On Saturday we went down to Grant County, and at least in the southwest edge, they are dry with nary a drop of rain so far this spring. Mom's yard is burning up.

As I finish this, the thunder is still growling and the rain pounds down and fades and then comes back.

Speaking of rain, I got an email from my long-time friend (and former exchange student), Radmilla Isailovic who lives along the Mediterranean. Members of the DHS class of 1991, will remember her as Radmilla Todoric or Rad. I know many of us probably saw the story on the news, but Radmilla reminded me that Serbia and Bosnia have been hit by the worst flooding in their history. She wrote, “I am asking you to help spread the word. It will be our small contribution. Some of my very close friends are from Obrenovac, a town that's been hit the most. They spent a whole day on the roof waiting for the evacuation. It was terrible. Their house was flooded but thanks to God they are all safe and sound. I must say that this situation brought back people together, and it is so good to see the number of good, helping people all around. But, it is usually like that, big troubles unite people. I hope this lasts until we repair everything in the Balkans (Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia).  Yes, we had a civil war among us and now we help each other. Life. We couldn't live together (politics) but we  are first neighbors and we must help each other.  Thank you for your support.” This is a link to an article by an American journalist about the floods in Serbia:http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5368500/?utm_hp_ref=serbia-floods.

If you would like to help out, here are two places where one might send a contribution: http://helpserbia.com/ and http://floodrelief.gov.rs/

Until next time, get out - there are panfish to catch and fry, it is the the time for bonfires and evenings on the porch. (It is also time for me to get to the gym or out on a walk or two to work off some of this graduation party chow.) Enjoy.