Grouse Hollow for June 1, 2017 by Greg Koelker

Grouse Hollow for June 1, 2017 by Greg Koelker

Did you ever misplace something and beat yourself up trying to find it?  You know, keys, you phone, maybe a book, or an important note.  Well, the older I get, the slower I get except for one thing that gets faster - time.  I wonder what the heck I did with January, February, March, April, and May.  They say time flies.  I think it has has space shuttle engines strapped on, thrusting at full throttle.   

Going backward, I guess May had a lot going on to make the time pass.  Mountain men Ben and Drew were here for a week of hunting turkeys.  I turned 65 in May, so I spent the better part of several days on hold dealing with health insurance companies.  Speaking of getting older, we went up to Glenwood City to celebrate our dear friend Angela’s  21st anniversary of her 29th birthday.  Ellen was finding morel mushrooms.  She and I went over to Osh Kosh for the Wisconsin Conservation Congress Convention and a fishing trip on Lake Winnebago with Pat Kolbe.  I also cleaned up and sold a lot of junk (to me) on Craig’s List. I subbed at De Soto High School some days too.  Scout had surgery to remove a tumor on her left front leg requiring several trips to the vet.  She is doing as well as a bored outside dog can do in the kitchen.

In April, I worked my second election day for the Town of Bergen.  I also chaired the Vernon County DNR and Wisconsin Conservation Congress hearings at Viroqua.  Ellen started finding morels.  I subbed at De Soto High School some.  After five days of turkey hunting, I managed to trick a trio of jakes into coming within range.  To celebrate Earth Day, Gordie and I went fishing out of Red Wing, and I hooked my first beaver.  El and I caught enough fish for a meal one pretty morning - at least it didn’t rain on us anyway - in Gundersen Bay.  She and her sisters attended the Midwest Horse Show in April.  I spent a morning walking around the ranch with a forrester and learned a lot about the emerald ash borer and other tree stuff.  Vince and I got out on the river at Blackhawk Park and De Soto Bay.  As always, the highlight of the trip was cheeseburgers and fries at The Thirsty Turtle.  Speaking of good meals, I had a great prime rib at the NASA fundraiser with Bud and Rick and Paula and Dan and Batman in La Crosse. Ben and Drew also visited on their way to marketing REEL Game Calls at the Wisconsin Buck and Turkey Expo. There was also the NFL Draft to burn time on.

After a spring-like February, the weather turned back to winter in March.  We spent a lot of time being entertained by the Wisconsin Badgers and La Crosse Central Red Raiders hoops teams.   There was snow to be moved a couple times.  After my annual physical, Doc told me it is better to be healthy and heavy than unhealthy and heavy.  Good enough for another 12,000 miles - I hope.  El and I attended the Wisconsin Conservation Congress District 5 meeting at Alma and we had great BBQ at J and J’s BBQ in Nelson.  Speaking of excellent meals, Ellen and I and Curt Christensen went to the Annual De Soto FFA Banquet.  We were still seeing some antlered bucks around the ranch in March.  There was snow in early march no doubt surprising all the large flocks of canvasbacks, mallards, and some flights of smaller ducks on the river.  Ellen and Scout started taking hikes again as El recovers.   My three apple trees were budding. Timber Todd Slaght and three of his beagles howled their way up the coulee on a March day.  I helped with the primary election in Bergen Township - my first time doing this.  El and I helped celebrate Elaine Wrobel’s birthday one Sunday afternoon.  

February, well, I was glad it passed quickly I guess.  We started the month off with Ellen’s heart attack and hospital stay and therapy and such.  She is doing so well now, it is easy to forget how terrifying that was.  February was mostly relatively warm.  I even washed the truck while wearing in a tee shirt and shorts one day.  El and I were able to sit in the sun on the porch almost like late April a number of late afternoons.  We sold our Explorer to a nice young couple from Esofea in February.  I was so inspired I wrote the rest of my journal about all the cars I’ve known before. (Good name for a song maybe?)  We have been hearing tom turkeys gobbling and we saw four toms strutting for a big flock of hens one morning.  The river was open so I started thinking about walleye fishing.  I actually started complaining about what happened to the year already then.

In January,  Mark and Ben were back out west after week here at home.  Mark said he just enjoyed soaking it all in; having them both here filled us all with good thoughts, brought up great memories of other good times, and made this ever so fast holiday vaporize even faster.  We brought home El’s family’s desk and she asked me to clean it up and oil it; it turned out better than I would have guessed.  My ambitious outdoors woman took our labrador retriever for no doubt crunchy walks up our icy ridge road as often as she could. I complained about how much of a pain it is to get ready to go outside this time of the year.  I pondered what it must have been like in our house back in the day when the original Prokschs first lived in it.  Wisconsin writer and historian Jerry Apps reflected that he likes winter for the quiet and a time to slow down and relax a bit. Ellen and I went for a hike on the hardwater of Stoddard Bay one Saturday and didn’t catch anything but it was a beautiful day.  We saw a buck and two other deer feeding in the sunshine down the road from home one morning, in fact, we saw maybe a dozen deer up on the hillsides.  Ellen and Scout got out on snowshoes a couple times. We had Eli’s dog, Jax as our house guest for a few days.  We started hearing more about breaking up of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.  I got a shot of springtime when I got my spring turkey season permit in the mail.  Our Green Bay Packers, got closer to the Superbowl than the Lions, Giants, and the much vaunted Cowboys.  Go Pack!  

Until next time, get out - I remembered about back in the day when slowing down time came easy to middle and high school kids and teachers complaining about how time isn’t moving and how the wait for the last day of school is so unbearable.  Maybe we all could use a dose of that feeling to appreciate the time we have.  Oh yeah, speaking of time slipping away, Happy Birthday A-Day-Late (or two) to my beautiful bride.  Enjoy.