Grouse Hollow Journal for June 9, 2016

Grouse Hollow Journal for June 9, 2016 by Greg Koelker

Garrison Keillor once said, “The highlight of my childhood was making my brother laugh so hard that food came out his nose.”

Appropriately, it is time to wish my “little” brother, Del another happy birthday.  Let’s see, he must be like 58 today (June 9).  Brother Del was my almost constant companion back in the day before summer jobs and rock and roll took over my time.  When he got old enough to tag along and I wanted to go do something with my friends, like hike up Millbranch Creek to do macho things like fish for chubs, make dams, catch frogs, take an icy dip, play war with rocks or BB guns, make a campfire or cabin or play Rawhide and round up our imaginary herd like Rowdy Yates and Gil Favor on our imaginary horses,  Mom would insist that I take him along or stay home myself.  He was a pain, but in retrospect probably not as bad as some of my friends or me for that matter when it came to complaining about nettles and mosquitoes and the weather anyway.  He earned the nickname Smoke when he went through a “I like to play with fire phase” and singed off his eyebrows.  

He wasn’t always so caustic; I used to read to Del and my baby sister Carolyn.  Their favorite was Walt Disney's The Odyssey of an Otter.  They always laughed like crazy when I read the title, The Odyssey of an Odor!  I also remember an evening at dinner one summer day.  Del was looking down or away most of the time.  Upon close scrutiny, I realized that he was missing part of an eyebrow; Dad had taken him to get a buzz haircut at the elderly barber in Bloomington.  One of his eyebrows had been neatly removed, no doubt by a slip of the clippers.  I think we all teased him about that for quite awhile.  I remember taking him and our cousin Randy deer hunting for the first time when they were twelve.  We didn’t kill any deer during the three-day any-deer season, but we had fun, got cold, and made memories.  Del became a deer hunter in spite of me I imagine.  Anyway, a couple years later, he outdid me by taking a nice 8-pointer on Grandpa’s farm.  That rack hung in my folks’ house for many years.  

Del and Ellen’s brother Brian were best friends in high school and Del hung out at her family farm more than I did for a long time.  He fit right in with the other rotating group of teenagers El’s kind-hearted mother fed and put up with on top of eleven of her own.  Del even hunted with our deer party for some years.  

In 1973, when we got up the last morning we ever shared a bedroom together on the arctic like 29 below day when Ellen and I got married, he offered me a celebratory swig of peach brandy from a pint hidden somewhere before we went to wash cars.  I was 21 by the way . . . hmmm . . .  

Del took me walleye fishing and turkey hunting for the first time, both pursuits he is better at than I’ll ever be.  Like me he loves bowhunting and ice fishing.  Sadly, he has one serious vice, golf.  We try to take an occasional fishing or canoe trip but we don’t get together enough.  We share political views for the most part too - which cuts down on arguments a lot.  

Anyway, like me, my little brother married well, has two great kids, a farm, but Ha! Ha! Ha!  Now I can say Happy Birthday Grandpa and he can’t say it back to me!  Brother, here’s wishing you many, many more opening days, sunsets on the river, days in your tree stand, and great times with all of your grandchildren.

Important to readers: so far there are many people working to persuade our legislators to change the onerous 2006 Wisconsin Railroad Trespass Law; not much is happening in Madtown because those folks are taking a break I guess.  Anyway, let your legislator and the governor know how you feel about changing this ridiculous ordinance that restricts legal access to so much of wild Wisconsin.  Also, according to the Wisconsin DNR, the public will have opportunities over the next several months to weigh in on how they recreate in Wisconsin's outdoors and what they feel should be priorities for receiving funding for recreational development and opportunities.  The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is in the process of updating the Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan, or SCORP, for 2017-2022. The plan serves as a blueprint for state and local outdoor recreation planning as required by the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, which provides funds to state and local agencies for acquisition, development and maintenance of outdoor recreational land and facilities.  I will try to keep readers informed through this space, but one can keep up online at: http://dnr.wi.gov/news/weekly/.  If you would like an email copy of River Rats for River Access flyer with addresses, emails, and phone numbers for western Wisconsin legislators, send an email to: grousehollow@gmail.com and I’ll do what I can to get you that info, and thanks!

Until next time, get out - I am tapping this out on the laptop while enjoying my coffee out on the porch this morning.  It is cool - like 59 degrees, with a slight breeze and happy song birds adding background music.  A tom turkey just added a gobble to the general cacophony.  Big and little cottontails are enjoying the clover in parts of our fast growing yard.  Ellen’s garden is enjoying this million dollar wet spell we are having as well.  It don’t get no better.  Enjoy.