Grouse Hollow Journal for April 13, 2017 by Greg Koelker

I just peeled my Packer sweatshirt off.  The Sunday afternoon sun came out here and is doing its best to roast me here on the porch.  I had a nice visit with Mom and now I am visiting with you.  

It’s been a quiet Sunday, well not really.  This morning I got Scout out and we went down to get the newspaper.  I was looking at some of the headlines through the orange wrapper when I turned to see Scout with a whitetail deer standing in the driveway to a field.  Scout’s tail never quit wagging like she wanted to play.  The deer did not; it was hunched up and apparently hurting.  It looked pretty distressed to me with ribs and backbone sticking out through a tight skin.  I left messages with a warden and left it at that.    

While I was perusing the Sunday Tribune, I got a fishing tip text from nephew Chet.  He said they hammered the perch and bluegills behind his place yesterday.  Okay, we have been through that “you should have been here yesterday” stuff before, but El and I loaded up the Queen and headed out a short time later.  We put in at the north landing at Goose Island.  The current was strong as we motored north.  Chet and Kim live along a backwater of the Mississippi River that shall remain nameless.  We actually tied up at their dock and dropped in hooks tipped with chunks of nightcrawler.  Ellen got off the snide first, hoisting a small ring perch into the boat.  A few moments later, she hooked a dandy perch, and then we commenced unhooking perch and bluegills into the livewell.  The sun came and went and an occasional front moved through, but there was no rain, and our time in the boat was pleasant enough.

Chet and Kim and her folks were laying cement blocks for a retaining wall.  (At first I feared this was a set up to get more laborers.)   Anyway, before we motored away, we visited with them a bit.  I offered to help them “dedicate” their new back yard and patio some time soon.

Back at the ranch, the unfortunate whitetail was dead, and there was a message from the warden that gave us permission to dispose of the carcass, but I cleaned fish first.  Scout kept me company while I sipped a Coors and filleted 18 keepers.    

Our neighbors - who don’t have a dog - said we could dump the deer behind their grainery and they would take care of the last rites of the unfortunate critter tomorrow with a bobcat.  Upon further examination by the way, El and I concurred that the deer had been hit by a vehicle and probably was not sick - so that’s good.  I don’t know how animals know so soon but Ellen spotted a coyote up the road when she went to church.  Later there were dung beetles and blowflies all over the deer while a pair of turkey vultures made lazy circles overhead.  Hunters always hope for a quick, clean kill.  Seeing an animal suffer is so difficult.  El helped load the carcass into our dump trailer, and after strapping the corpse in for the ride, I hauled it up the ridge.

While I was gone, Ellen made coleslaw and boiled up some red potatoes to go with the fresh fish.   I rolled the filets in Andy’s cornmeal mix and fried them using the same Wisconsin-made Presto fryer we have been using for over 30 years.  She told me that this was the first fish she caught since last fall.  I guess it was the first keepers I have got into since before Christmas.  Anyway, it was a treat to have fresh fish filets.  

Until next time, get out - I worked last week’s election for the Town of Bergen.  I was there all day and I can assure you the Russians - while they came up often enough in jokes - did not interfere with our results.  The voting machines are NOT connected to the internet; in fact, Town Clerk Tina Dahl had to call in the results to a LIVE person at Vernon County.  Our polls were so secure the ladies I worked with wouldn’t let ME vote because I forgot my billfold and had to Ellen drop it off when she came to vote.  Still the Russians may have tried interfere here if they saw all the food people brought for the workers!   Anyway, I can’t wait to hear the stories from the youth turkey hunt this weekend, and I can’t wait to get my stuff ready for my first season turkey hunt either.  Enjoy.

Grouse Hollow Journal April 6, 2017 by Greg Koelker

Grouse Hollow Journal April 6, 2017 by Greg Koelker

On Monday morning last week, Vernon County Forrester Matt Bauer and I took a walk up on our ridge.  I had contacted him to talk about our managed forest plan and the health of our woods.  Matt was great, showing up on time and sharing more than I could absorb regarding our hundreds of trees.  Matt said, “Your woods are healing well.”  (These woods were logged back in 1982, years before we bought them in 1995.)  He said that we had lots of hard maple coming up on the north side of our hillsides and many oaks coming up on the south sides.  Matt is knowledgeable and full of ideas regarding making our woods more productive.  He answered my questions about emerald ash borer and the effects of this atrocious disease on much of our woods.  

We have many ash trees showing the devastating signs of this tree killing bug.  Forrester Bauer said the emerald ash borer larvae do the deed of killing the tree, but that beige bark discoloration is a secondary effect caused by woodpeckers foraging the bark for a meal of the larvae.  He suggested that we contact a logger to remove any viable ash trees before they die and fall on other trees.  Time will tell.

I went fishing by myself at Genoa last Wednesday morning.  There were so many fishermen that the parking lot was full and I had to park along Highway 35.  There was an overcast sky and the air was damp.  I fished along the bay on the beach across from the bullnose on the lock. I drowned a chunk of crawler for an hour or two.  I visited with several fishermen who said the few perch they hooked were small.  One man said that he had driven over from Wisconsin Rapids.  I visited with a gentleman from Viroqua who told me that if he lived near Stoddard like I do he would fish every day.  Another guy told me that there were some perch being caught in Black Hawk Park, so I drove south.  I talked to one of the three fishermen with lines in the water in the creek that empties into Battle Slough.  He said he wasn’t catching much, but he did really well yesterday.  It was peaceful and I enjoyed a quiet half-an-hour of moving my bait around.  I have to remember to change my last wish list so that it says, “You shoulda been here yesterday” on my urn.

Mountain men Ben and Drew showed up Thursday night about 10.  They had been archery turkey hunting on a ranch in western Nebraska north of Ogallala that morning.  Drew had arrowed two of the three toms he called in with his REEL Turkey call the week before.  They also called in a bunch of birds that morning while crawling up a dry gulch, and when Ben rose up on his knees to take a shot, he was staring at a very startled tom turkey looking at him from 8 feet away.  Anyway, the bird exploded stage left taking the rest of the now warned turkey dinners with it.  Ben and Drew were in Wisco to display and market their REEL Game calls at the Field and Stream Deer and Turkey Expo in Madison.  I talked to Ben on Sunday morning and he said the weather was too nice and the show was pretty slow on Saturday.  They plan to hunt Nebraska turkeys again on their return trip to Colorado.  Ben and Drew are coming back for the third turkey season in Wisconsin in a few weeks.  

Vince and I had decided to put the Queen in at Blackhawk Park on Saturday morning.  (As we passed Genoa, the Blask Landing parking lot was filled up and fishermen were parking their rigs along the access road half-a-mile from the landing.)  We put the Queen in at the Green Lake Landing and we were able to get a parking spot.  We motored down to De Soto Bay in hopes of conjuring up a perch dinner.  To save time, we didn’t.  While we saw a few small perch caught, Vinny hooked our only fish there, a 12” largemouth bass.  Regardless of the disinterest of the fish, we found the morning to be beautiful.  The scenes on the ponds and lake and the views of the bluffs above make Blackhawk Park beautiful even at this leafless mud time of the season.  Back the Green Lake Landing, the trucks and trailers were lining the park road because the lot was full and there were people still putting boats in.  We pulled out and put in again on the main channel.  We fished along the main channel near Victory.  I finally got off the snide, pulling in a small northern pike.  My reel locked up, so I had to grab the line and pull the fish in.  Anyway, we saw a few perch caught, but the highlight of the the morning had to be cheeseburgers and fries at the Thirsty Turtle.  

On Saturday afternoon, after Scout and I made a trip to the dump, I hauled three tent blinds up on the ridge with the four-wheeler and set them up in spots where I have had some luck calling turkeys to in the past.  The air was warming and the sunshine precious.  There is much green peeking out and the trees all seem to be budding.  I saw butterflies too.  I also spent an hour trimming wild blackberry canes in hopes of some plump, juicy sweetness come fall.  When I got back in, Ellen had finished raking in the yard for the day, so she and I and Scout had a cocktail and some almonds and cheddar cheese on the porch as the sun set.  (Scout doesn’t drink but she loves ice cubes after the vodka is gone.)  

When I woke up in front of the TV in the family room that night, a crescent moon was shining through the window near the peak of the ceiling, prompting me to walk outside and take in a star filled sky.  It was quiet with no wind and stars as far as I could see.  Anyway, it don’t get no better.  

Until next time, get out - remember this coming Monday, April 10 is the Department of Natural Resources Annual Spring Fish and Wildlife Public Hearing and Wisconsin Conservation Congress Annual Spring County Conservation Meeting at 7 PM at the Viroqua High School commons.  The meeting starts with delegate elections and then a report from the Vernon County Deer Committee followed by the DNR and Natural Resources Board questions, wrapping up with the congress questions.  Come, listen, discuss, and vote on resources questions.  Enjoy.

Grouse Hollow Journal March 30, 2017 by Greg Koelker

Grouse Hollow Journal March 30, 2017 by Greg Koelker

Trees

I think that I shall never see   
A poem lovely as a tree.   
  
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest   
Against the sweet earth’s flowing breast;   
  
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;   
  
A tree that may in summer wear   
A nest of robins in her hair;   
  
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;   
Who intimately lives with rain.
  
Poems are made by fools like me,   
But only God can make a tree.                       By Joyce Kilmer

We have always loved trees.  They help us celebrate holidays, warm our hearths, trim and decorate our rooms after they helped build our homes.  There is nothing like an aromatic cedar board for grilling, or for making long-lasting outdoor items including the many, many split rail fence posts in fence rows all over our land.  One enjoys the walnut wood work on fine rifle or shotgun, cherry cupboards and oak staircase and picture frames or the huge oak logs from the original 1877 cabin that are exposed in our family room.  This list could go on and on.     

Anyway, much of my life has been spent around and in trees, and sometime out of my tree so I have been told.  Anyway, I remember the first important tree in my life was a pear tree that grew in my Grandma Potter’s front yard fence line.  We could climb up woven wire onto an old oak beam that help brace the fence.  We played games, picked green pears and tossed them at grandma’s chickens, checked out bird nests, and hid from each other and adults looking for us. I fell out of that tree more than once - hmmm. . . that may explain a lot.  Anyway, like my grandma’s house, that tree lost life and was cut up many years ago.  We used to sit on Sundays in the shade of the huge old oak in front of my Grandpa Koelker’s farm house while he grilled dinner in their outdoor fireplace. I remember one day when my sister Diane and cousin Deb were baby sitting their siblings under that tree when the girls started screaming.  They were going to ride their bikes and discovered or were discovered by a big old rattlesnake coiled up under spokes.  Farm hand Freddie Hafel grabbed a hoe and dispatched that snake, but I am not sure those girls would ever feel good under that tree again.  Freddie was shaken so much that I imagine he was dreaming about that snake that day he passed.  That huge tree still grows there, but with a cable tied up in the tree and anchored against a fall into the house.   

Ellen and I don’t need to cut firewood for heating anymore, but we cut a little birch and cedar once in awhile for the fire pit and fireplace.  We used to go all over the woods and along fence rows cutting dead elms and downed hardwoods to load the pickup many times to feed Big Red.  Now we just cut trees to clear paths or clean up downfalls.  I kind of like running a sharp saw on a cool morning.  The smell of sweet sawdust blends with the slightly acrid exhaust from a snarling Stihl and the smell of disturbed earth and leaves. The exercise is honest while the woods seem a little neater with the dropped tree cleaned up and a rank of good firewood stacked in the shed is rewarding too.

Speaking of cleaning up, the other day we saw Terry and Jim, our town road crew cutting down trees, ash trees mostly up on Mohawk Valley Hill.  Those trees could fall on the road as they rotted and got caught up in the next big wind storm.  All over our farm and our coulee, there are dead Ash Trees, victim of the emerald ash borer.  In one area in the Grouse Hollow one can stand in the middle of a grove and not take a step and count at least 20 standing but dead ash trees.  One can pick them out easily; just look for trees where the bark has faded to a beige color and appears to be falling off.  These were nice trees.   

Until next time, get out - Saturday is April Fool’s Day.  Nuf said.  Enjoy or watch out!