Grouse Hollow Journal for March 16, 2017 by Greg Koelker

On Saturday Ma Nature’s tempest tantrum finally simmered down.  Except for a couple restless nights with the wind roaring and rattling the house and maybe half-a-ton of pine cones and limbs to pick up in the yard, we came through relatively unscathed.  While there is snow and ice hanging on in shady places, the wind actually dried things out quite a bit.  The weather has turned so cold that Scout and I drove through Goose Island Park to see if there might be enough ice in the back water for a fishing trip.  There was ice, but not ice for walking on by me - yet.  We’ll keep checking.  There is snow in the forecast.  I sure hope this qualifies as coming-in-like-a-lion weather after being spoiled by the weather in February.  

This last week has been full with appointments and substitute teaching and meetings and food and fun.  On Monday, I had my annual physical.  Doc told me it is better to be healthy and heavy than unhealthy and heavy.  Oh well, I am good for another 12,000 miles - I hope.

On Wednesday evening, Ellen rode along with me up to Alma for the Wisconsin Conservation Congress District 5 meeting.  We drove to Nelson first and had some great food at J and J’s BBQ.  Ellen ordered a pulled pork sandwich and I had a third of a rack of seriously smoked ribs and a quarter of a chicken with fries and barbequed beans.  I needed about twenty napkins to get my elbows unstuck from the table top.  Good stuff at a fun place.  

At the meeting elected officials from Buffalo, Dunn, Eau Claire, La Crosse, Pepin, Pierce, Trempealeau, and Vernon counties that comprise District 5 come together to learn about and comment on the questions up for voting at the upcoming county hearings on April 10.  Our Vernon County group is Dave West, Jason Leis, Al Smith, Tim Morgan and yours truly.  We heard about a lot including all 82 questions in the upcoming hearing handout, but the following questions and info stood out for me: possibly raising the musky size limit statewide, changing panfish limits and even size limits, DNR staffing updates, a southern Wisconsin deer study,  elk restoration project, the DNR alignment process, state budget process related to the department, the loss of the Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine, filling warden positions, Go Wild, new game tags, Vernon County has a new fish manager as Kirk Olson will replace Jordan Weeks who is the new Mississippi River Manager, raising the trout stamp from $10 to $15, proposed spring hearing voting on line, CDACs, and more.  We got home around midnight.  

On Thursday, Ellen and I and our friend Curt Christensen went to the Annual De Soto FFA Banquet.  We had a great dinner of delicious beef tips, chicken, and mashed potatoes and all the fixin’s catered by Borgen’s of Westby.  Then there were speeches and awards.  Curt and I have been helping FFA supervisor Ron Von Glahn with the Jag Lake FFA retreat since the mid-90’s and we were awarded honorary FFA degrees for our service.  We rewarded 160 plus people with a karaoke sing along.  Yeah, enough said.

Friday night we all met met with the Von Glahns, Gronnings, and Curt for fish at Rocky’s in Stoddard.  The place was hopping, the Badgers were winning on the TV, the adult beverages were excellent, and the fish was better.  Anyway, it felt good to sleep in a bit on Saturday.  

I have told stories about NASA, the North American Squirrel Association.  NASA provides outdoor opportunities to the disabled and elderly.  The other night at Rocky’s Rick Elsen invited me to join his table at the annual NASA banquet on April 26 in La Crosse.  You can learn more about this worthwhile fundraising event online at:  http://www.nasasquirrel.org/images/2017%20Banquet%20Application.pdf  This is for a great cause and the banquet should be great fun.

We are seeing lots of deer browsing in the fields in early evening and after dark.  We are still seeing some bucks with antlers too, including a dandy in a valley to the north of us.  I took the truck for a test drive of the fog lights Saturday night.  I saw four deer including a good buck just down the road.  Take a ride in the country at dusk if you like seeing deer right now.

Speaking of being out at dusk, I like Daylight Savings Time.  Why can’t we just leave the clocks like they are today (Sunday) all year long?  Some claim Daylight Savings Time is good for the economy because we spend more money when it is daylight later in the summer, but according to JP Morgan, the research does not bear this out because returning to Standard Time in the fall negates any economic gain from the summer daylight hours.  Some say that school children will have to get on the bus in the dark.  When the school buses turn around in our driveway in the morning to pick up the neighbor kids, it is dark-thirty most of the school year - just sayin’.  Also, I submit that maybe we’d save a great deal of electricity during the holidays because the decorations would go on later (by sun time) and could be on for an hour less each night.  Recently, there was an ill-conceived move afoot to do away with Daylight Savings Time by a couple of Wisconsin legislators.  Fortunately, time ran out on the idea due to a lot of pressure on social media; however, I’d be on board to go the do away with Standard Time.  I say, Daylight Savings Time now, Daylight Savings Time this fall, and Daylight Savings Time all year long, if for no other reason than to give fishermen and bow hunters an extra hour of daylight after work in the fall.  

Until next time, get out - Ellen said that she was greeted by a robin’s spring song when she walked outside this morning on her way to church.  Our newly arrived regiment of robins must be wondering what they were thinking when they decided to head north so early.  They definitely didn’t check the weather forecast and they are definitely not rockin’ - maybe shivering.  Oh well, we made it past the Ides of March, so daffodils and swallows can’t be far behind.  Enjoy.

Grouse Hollow Journal for March 9, 2017 by Greg Koelker

Grouse Hollow Journal for March 9, 2017 by Greg Koelker

It is midday Sunday.  Ellen and Scout just sneaked in from a walk up on the ridge and surprised me surprising Ellen by washing windows.  They had a good walk and saw a number of turkeys.  In fact, while we were talking on the patio a couple of the big birds flew across the Oak Hollow up behind the tobacco shed.  Ellen had a good report at the clinic this week where they restored her driver’s license, let her walk up the ridge and shovel some snow, and let her get back to volunteerring with the First Grade at Stoddard Elementary.  Anyway, Ellen said that on her way home from church this morning she saw four big toms strutting their stuff for a big flock of hens over in valley to the north.  The farmer there has been regularly spreading a fresh feast of smelly stuff that turkeys love.  Our neighbors will start that soon enough.  

I spent much of Saturday getting the Mississippi Queen river worthy, fixing a leaky fuel line, cleaning up a corroded battery, and getting all the trailer lights to operate (only two trips to town were necessary).  This morning Vince and I took the MIssissippi Queen down to Genoa.  While purchasing some minnows at Captain Hook’s, owner Mark Clements told us the Clements Fishing Barge will open Saturday.  He was heading out to work on the float as we spoke.  

The sun was shining when Vinny and I motored up behind the float near the dam and tried angling for perch.  That time is coming I think, but it was not this morning.  We drifted along the railroad rocks north of the power plant for a bit and then tried fishing around the barge cells.  We hooked stuff, but not fish.  Vince said smoke was coming out of my ears while I tried to think of another idea for fishing.  The sun left us soon enough with clouds and a rising breeze.  I told him that I remembered a day when Kevin Withey schooled my nephew Jason and I south of Genoa.  He was trolling upstream along the sand bar below the northern Twin Island on the Thief Slough side, catching one walleye after another - and tossing them back in the river.  Like any good teacher, he told us how he was fishing, then he showed us what he was using, a lead head jig with a purple twister tail, and then we were on our own to practice the lesson.  Jason and I made tackle and got in line along the sand bar and commenced  watching Kevin catch and throw back pike.  I made a subtle suggestion that he could throw a few of those fish dinners into our boat, but he just laughed and didn’t.   Anyway, Vince and I had pretty much the same luck this day although the water is higher and no one appeared to be catching much of anything where we were or had been.  

Finally, we did as we so often do and chose the better part of valor - that is we went for breakfast at The Thirsty Turtle.  Their weekend only, breakfast was good: biscuits and gravy, home fries, eggs over easy, toast and bacon.  Today was the second day in a row I have eaten at The Turtle.  On Saturday Ellen’s three sisters: Barb, Kathy, and Lori drove up to visit her (and make sure I am taking good care of her I am pretty sure).  We all went down to The Turtle for lunch, and Chad and Meg served us the usual good stuff.

Ben and his partner Drew Rouse are working at the Iowa Deer Classic in Des Moines representing REEL Game Calls.  They said the show was going well and sales were good.  They will be in Scottsdale, AZ for the big Sportmen’s Expo on March 25 and then Madison the next week for the Wisconsin Deer and Turkey Expo.  Ben texted they will head back to Colorado this evening.

Last week, a group including George Meyer of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation and Mark Clements of Genoa all representing many thousands of outdoors types visited with Senator Van Wanggaard in Madison regarding the onerous railroad trespass law.  The group presented over 5,000 signatures from petitions to the legislature from citizens around the state.  Not sure where this stands, but we need to keep letting our representatives and the governor know how we feel about this ridiculous law.  Remember, this is not a safety issue.  The fact is that almost 100% of train track fatalities are not people trying to access the thousands of miles and acres of Wisconsin’s natural lands, but suicides, drunks, and foolish people trying to beat a train.  According to statistics, almost all of these deaths happen at already marked crossings.  Also, tell your elected representatives that this issue is not going away until it is fixed, even if that takes a change using  the voting booth.  

Speaking of being heard, join me at the Wisconsin DNR and Conservation Congress Spring Hearings  at 7 PM, Monday, April 10 at the Viroqua High School Commons, 100 Blackhawk Drive.  (There is hearing in each Wisconsin county at the same time if that doesn’t work for you.)  Come and weigh in and hear others on the issues being considered and vote on them.  Several proposals that caught my eye include a proposal for a slot limit and smaller bag limit on walleyes on the Mississippi River, allowing the possession of shotgun slugs while hunting outside of a firearm deer season, and raising some stamp and license fees.  

I just got in from a walk of my own.  Scout and I went up the Grouse Hollow path.  I didn’t hear any grouse, but there were owls calling, mating calls I bet.  There are deer and turkey tracks.  Some clover and other greenery is trying to peep out in the Christmas tree food plot.  Sadly, everywhere I look there are dying ash trees.  They seem to go faster than Dutch elm trees even.  I also saw many recently dead elms - mushroom trees we call them.  One has to give the Dutch elm tree credit for tenacity.  Whenever a couple die in an area, many more spring up nearby, giving hope to morel mushroom hunters anyway.       

Until next time, get out - mark your calendar for the benefit for the Gina Nickelotti Benefit on Saturday, March 18 at 3 PM at the Retreat Sportmen’s Club.  Finally, I always say, you can’t catch ‘em if you don’t go.  What I don’t usually add is that I often mutter under my breath that some of the time, you can’t catch ‘em even if you do go.  Oh well, we’re having cedar planked grilled salmon with raspberry chipotle sauce for supper tonight.  Enjoy.

Grouse Hollow Journal for March 2, 2017 by Greg Koelker

Grouse Hollow Journal for March 2, 2017 by Greg Koelker

It is Sunday morning.  The sun is brilliant on the new snow.  There are rivulets trickling from every rooftop where the sun shines its heat.  Last week’s warm weather proved a joke on the many waterfowl on the Mississippi I fear.  On our way home from La Crosse this morning we could see large flocks of canvasbacks, mallards, and some flights of smaller ducks.  There were also many ice fisherman.  Well, bald eagles actually along the open water in the decaying gray blue ice north of and in Stoddard Bay, looking for a breakfast of fish.  

Yesterday I shoveled snow and ran “the beast” up and down the driveway.  Ellen is doing well, but she is still on restriction so the patio and sidewalk and driveway aren’t cleaned up as well as if she’d shoveled them.  While moving snow is not something I take pride in, I did get some fresh air and much needed exercise.  Anyway, the afternoon proved perfect for a walk and Ellen and Scout took it up along one of our fields and back on one of our trails.  El said there was plenty of coyote and rabbit sign in the new snow, but no deer tracks.  I pulled one of my trail cameras and found lots of pictures of coons, coyotes, fox, rabbits, squirrel, chocolate labradors, my wife, me and on last Thursday night, three deer, a doe and a pair of fawns - one for sure a nubbin buck, that ventured into the meadow to browse for an hour or two before it started to snow.  I was a bit dismayed to see that my three apple trees were budding.  I hope they were only kidding and can survive the next few weeks of colder weather.

Saturday proved perfect for a rabbit hunt.  Timber Todd Slaght and three of his beagles hunted and howled their way up the coulee.  I sat in the sun and just enjoyed the baying.  Todd only hunts with a .22 and said he had missed a couple rabbits on the run with it.  I spent some time sighting in my Russian made pellet rifle.  The front sight was broken, so I drilled out the top and screwed in a shortened sight pin from an archery sight.  It works.  I can hit a milk jug from 30 paces anyway.  So if any milk jugs cause problems around here, they’d better watch out.    

Speaking of watching, last week I helped with the primary election in Bergen Township.  As a newbie, I listened and watched and learned a lot.  First off, the folks that man your voting stations work long hours on election days.  We started at 6:30 AM and got done at 8:30 PM.  I learned how to operate the voting machines and what procedures are to be followed with the paperwork.  When the polls opened we opened and counted absentee ballots.  When a voter comes in we direct them to the folks manning the tables with names and numbers.  The voter is asked to state their entire name and provide a legal picture ID - even if the person voting is the spouse of the poll worker.  They are checked twice.  There is a separate process to register new voters too, but no one registered this day.  Anyway, after being duly recorded, the voter must sign his or her name in the voter registry and then they are sent to the voting machine.  The voting machines are not connected to the internet or phone lines, so there is no way to electrically interfere with the result.  Each voter must review their vote on the screen and on the paper print out before pressing the “cast your vote” button or going back to review their vote.  At the end of the night, clerks and poll workers must do another tally on paper that must tally the same with two counters and the voting machines.  We signed our names on numerous forms.  Bergen Town Clerk Tina Dahl runs a tight ship.  There is a process to follow and really no way to tamper with the vote, a theme I heard repeated numerous times.  I agree.  I don’t see how anyone can claim any illegal voting with all the rules and safeguards in place.  

Anyway, during the long, pretty slow day, I got to know my coworkers better and visited with many friends who came to vote.  We talked of our families and interests and fishing.  One poll worker and I discussed our interest in old cars.  An old friend on the team and I talked about her kids that were my former students.  We talked cooking and the weather and so on to pass the time.  Clerk Dahl talked about the training and meetings that go into elections and the expense too.  She mentioned the extreme expense of recall elections and recounts for example.  I was pleasantly surprised when I found out we get paid for our poll work!  The day progressed from cool to sunny and warm and we were able to open the town hall garage doors and let the sun in.  We could hear some sandhill cranes gronking over in the marsh and I saw a flight of snow geese I think circling in as well.  I could see Gregg Teff trimming his many grapevines in the sunshine up the hill from the town hall.  Like any sort of regular activity like this there were stories to share.  Angry voters, a flood that caused toilet trouble, bad weather issues, super busy elections and super slow ones.  I was told that what goes on at the polls stays at the polls, so no details here except that I got to hear and tell several Ole and Lena jokes.  One of my favorite parts of the day was the food.   We had grilled chicken in a crock pot, there were cookies, sausage and cheese and crackers, pineapple upside down cake, chips and dip and I happily grazed my way through the hours like a family holiday.  Then to top it off, Tina got us South Lanes Pizza for supper!  

Until next time, get out - we helped celebrate Elaine Wrobel’s birthday Sunday afternoon.  She and her family are longtime friends.  El and I went for a drive then with the the Badgers at Michigan St. on the radio.  We took a turn to Esofea and drove on mostly back roads that were new to us.  Looked like some great deer country out there.  When I stopped at the Westby Cenex, the young lady explained that we had not really seen all of Esofea as we turned left and could have turned right.  She said there used to be Esofea Gardens, a nine-hole golf course, and a bar.  She said the bar is all that is left.  Have to try to find it again sometime.  We stopped in Chaseburg and went for a stroll on the Chaseburg Nature Trail along Coon Creek.  We could smell wood smoke on the air.  The trail is a pleasant place for a nature walk for sure.  The Badgers failed to take advantage of Purdue and Maryland losing, dropping their second in a row by ten points.  Enjoy.