Grouse Hollow Journal for May 7, 2015

Grouse Hollow Journal for May 7, 2015 by Greg Koelker

On Saturday Ellen and I spent a couple of hours on the future. That is as oft happens, we started with the past and dug old cement and rocks and old railroad tie chunks out of the very old cement water tank in the center of our garden. That old cement water tank held a galvanized stock tank for many years before and after we moved here to the farm. The garden now was the barnyard for Clement's Guernsey heifers and/or black angus cattle, then. We often talk about when the heifers would come in to drink. Now, anyone who knows heifers knows they are not nature's sharpest tools in the shed, and to prove it the future milk makers would wait out in the pasture and woods up on the hills until they were almost dying of thirst before they came stampeding down into the barnyard to drink, making a cloud of dust a volcano would be proud of , and crowding around the tank like a last call at an event with free beer. Often in the melee that ensued, cows would end up in the 300 gallon tank or tangled up in the barbed wire that enclosed the yard. One day, El and I were in the kitchen fixing lunch - I believe I had grilled some chicken and El had made a salad and crisp for dessert, uh, well no matter - when the Guernseys charged in to drink. I happened to look their way and noticed what looked like a cow leg sticking straight up in the air. You see, there was a three foot opening in the cement tank beyond the metal tank and somehow this 600-pound heifer had gotten knocked in there cattywampus and was caught upside down. Anyone who knows cows knows this can be fatal for four legged critters. Anyway, Ellen called Clementses to tell them while I saddled up King, our older quarter horse. By the time Emmett and Ken got there, I was in the barnyard with the horse and strapping a lariat around the cow's head and then to the saddle on King. King lunged a couple times and that cow popped out of its trap. I remember Emmett saying something like, “Well look at that. Who would have thought that horse could pull that cow like that?” Anyway, the heifer survived, and Ken filled the tank hole with some chunks of railroad ties, no doubt the ones we were digging out of the tank with the John Deere on Saturday. As to the future part, after getting rid of the rocks, cement, and rotting wood, we filled the entire tank with fresh dirt and dug up and transplanted some red raspberries. Now to the future: picture red raspberry pie, crisp, jamb, sauce, jelly, ala-mode, on cheese cakes, in cakes, raspberry lemonade, on corn flakes, just straight from the cane, and best of all, in Mama Koelker's fantastic Three-berry Jelly. It doesn't get better than red raspberries.

Anyway, we have spinach, radishes, lettuce, and asparagus up in the garden now. Rumor has it that some kids found some morels on Friday near De Soto, and on Saturday night I heard that people in Grant County were finding a few, so they can't be far behind here, especially, if the wet weather and heat we are promised pans out. Picture steak with fried morels or fried morels in scrambled eggs or on pizza or with just about anything. It don't get much better.

Our neighbor's the Sikoras, annual trout and turkey weekend was half a success as far as I know. There were no turkeys killed, but several limits of trout were hooked and fried up. Oh yeah, imagine grilled trout with lemon, butter, and raspberry chipotle. It don't . . . well you get the idea.

Until next time, get out - this last week I stopped by Steve's Meats in Genoa for some of my favorite breakfast pork sausage and some hamburger. Steve shared the story of a turkey hunt with me. While he didn't kill a bird in the first season, he took his son-in-law John Nickley and his pre-school grandchildren Grady and Reed out for a hunt in the second season. They were able to call in a tom that was a bit shy but it still put on quite a show for the children, gobbling and strutting just out of range. It finally wandered off - they could see its head on the horizon - gobbling and following five other birds. Steve said the love struck lothario eventually came back and John was able to take the bird. I am going to predict that Grady and Reed are hooked on gobblers from now on. Very cool. Enjoy.