Ah, wintertime fun. Then comes the springtime mess to follow. But the ducks will like it. And who knows, maybe some of the extra snow will help the levels at Lake Oahe. I’m trying to look on the bright side here, even though I know the constant shoveling is getting pretty old.

All we can do is put more bedding in the dog kennels and wait for spring to come. Oh, and hope the pheasants have enough cover habitat to let them ride out of the worst winter in several years.

I’ve decided that a person should not be judged by the size of his television, but by the wear and tear on his hiking boots.

Too much is going on indoors these days. The digital revolution is out of control. You realize there are digital fishing games. How about this…GO FISHING! The Nintendo Wii pretends to get you involved and make you active. Bah! You are still looking at a video screen and standing in your living room. Get outside and look at the scenery there. I don’t care how big your TV is, the skyline is bigger, more brilliant and REAL!

My former brother-in-law, Lee, is an avid golfer. He’s an urbanite, who doesn’t hunt, but I love his philosophy about golf and the outdoors. Lee told me once, “I like golfing because when you go to a golf course, it’s always nice out there. They take care of the place and and it’s just enjoyable to be outside in a place like that.”

People should apply Lee’s idea to things like hiking, camping, boating and any number of outdoor activities. Go out there and see these things. Find an isolated lake or stretch of river. Take time to explore. Stop being in such a hurry. You are simply racing to the grave.

I used to love boating on Lake Oahe. I call it boating because I’m a terrible fisherman. But I loved being out there because I enjoyed the scenery. While everyone else was watching their fishing lines, I was watching the horizon. There was always something out there to hold my interest. I would have happily pulled the boat ashore and gone exploring, but everyone else wanted to fish. Some day, I’ll do it.

The point is this. Shut off the electronic devices and get outside. Hike in the snow. Go sledding. Find something to do outside. You will be glad you did.

Full moon on the snow

Shadows move in the treeline

What fun will this bring?

Just when I think I’m really getting sick of winter something usually happens to remind me that it’s not so bad. Recently I had to call the boys outside to see the full moon on the backyards snow. The shadows were as stark and well-defined as a summer day. There was no wind, only the creeping fingers of cold that come with a winter evening. Somewhere a dog barked.  We took off outside to look at the stars, point out Orion and the Big Dipper and wonder at the brightness of the moon and the almost limitless black between the stars.

Every chance for a kid to look up and wonder is a chance that might carry over to adulthood. I think I still look to the stars now, because I did so often as a kid.

I wonder if they taste like chicken. I’ve heard all the traditional comments about Groundhog Day and the shadow and six more weeks of winter. But I also learned something else while living in South Dakota… Apparently ranchers have a saying, “Half your hay by Groundhog Day.”   Meaning you are still going to need some cattle forage well after the Groundhog does or doesn’t see his shadow. I shudder to to think what spring will be like in the Dakota Midlands. With a wet fall, snowy winter and the possibility of a wet spring, things could get pretty nasty.

Personally, I’m hoping things even out, weather cooperates and people can stop worrying about what the next season will bring. But then again, does my hoping ever come to much? Typically not. I can wish good thoughts, but that’s about it.

So, I hope everyone’s power is back on. I hope the sun continues to shine and the wind slows down just a bit. And most of all, I hope spring comes right on time, without all the drama and mess that can make people look out the window and shake their heads.

Happy Groundhog Day.

Cold creeps in again

Lining  the cracks in my heart.

Will I ever learn?

You can’t come away from a place like the SHOT show not feeling energized about what you do and the industry you are in. That’s the idea of any trade show; get people excited about where they are headed. The gun business is thriving. Hunting is taking a little hit because of access issues and, I think, the way hunters worship antlers. The whole  deer hunting industry shows no sign it will change until it implodes on itself. What happened to the days of the rabbit hunters, squirrel hunters and the like? Now everyone talks about 170-class racks and food plots. It’s no wonder deer hunters demand huge herds and high harvest numbers, after spending $100,000 on land, plus property taxes, seed for food plots, an ATV to plant the seed, trail cameras to capture all the action after dark… they tend to think someone owes them a deer. I disagree. I think the excitement of the hunt, not the size of the trophy should be the true measure of a sportsman… but I’m just one guy. When will I ever learn?

Faced with the daunting task of trying to stand out among the thousands of exhibitors and tens of thousands of visitors at the annual Shooting Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) show, the folks at Camp Chef went with an old standby, bacon, with a new twist.  They had made special for the event bacon-flavored lip balm.  It is complete with SPF 15, provides UVA and UVB protection and is PABA-free. Take a look

You won't find this in any store...

Yep, that’s bacon-flavored lip balm all right.  And it did just what it was supposed to do. It got everyone’s attention. This stuff has the aroma and flavor of dog food. But it is made by a great company called Shaka Laka. They have some really good flavored lip balm, sun screen that goes on without greasy feelings and sweet-smelling hand sanitizer. Check them out at www.shakalaka.com. And if you need bacon-flavored lip balm, maybe you can have them whip you up a batch.

Haiku Wednesday is coming up… check in again tomorrow.

OK… I owe you some posts so I will try to post every day this week to make up for my lackluster performance in Vegas last week.

I was at the Shooting Hunting and Outdoor Trade show. The kick off the new year for the outdoor industry. And I found South Dakota very well represented. The Governor’s Office of Economic Development hosts a website called www.sdreadytowork.com and part of the deal is to lure, woo, invite and otherwise convince firearms-related businesses to move to South Dakota.

I spoke for quite a while with my dear friend Kristi Hoffman. She and her husband Jeff own Black Hills Ammunition in Rapid City. The firearms frenzy is not really fading away. Credit the Obama sales team for that, but the reality is gun makers need a good place to do business and South Dakota is on top of the list. In 2009 four companies joined the 27 gun-related businesses all ready operating in South Dakota. That’s pretty good growth. I suggest the office specifically starts targeting firearms businesses in the People’s Republic of California… South Dakota could use some more of these great businesses.

Waking up in the monsoon of Las Vegas this week at the Shooting Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show… non-stop action for 12-hours a day. Sorry I missed the last two installments, but meetings and events here have kept me away from computer terminals. There are all kinds of great new guns here and I’ve been seeing the folks from South Dakota trying to recruit new gun businesses to the state… that’s always a good idea.

The two bills coming up in the South Dakota legislature: one allowing the transfer of big game tags for landowners with more than 320 acres and the other restricting access of game wardens on private land are both bad for wildlife management in the state.

The first is going to create a whole new class of pay-to-hunt activities that will make deer herd management even more difficult. Yes, I understand that deer cuase trouble for farmers and ranchers. Yes I know that these same farmers and rancher work hard to make a living in a tough economy. But I still don’t beleive that wildlife should be for sale. I do believe the GF&P should offer more antlerless deer permits in a region to help control the herd and landowners in those regions should allow more hunters to come in and take deer. The other side of that equation is hunter actions. First, most hunters are so in love with antlers they don’t want to take antlerless deer. That’s sad. Good deer management revolves around knocking back the doe population. And good venison recipies start with young, tender antlerless deer. The final part of hunter activities includes the failure of some hunters to act responsibly and ethically. Where as the love of antlers is just sad. Unethical hunting, trespassing, failure to close gates and all the other things landowners hate about hunters should be crimes. They way a few hunters act, it’s no wonder landowners don’t want hunters on their land.  So this question has no easy answer, but getting something good often takes hard work.  Hunters in every community should have a landowner appreciation banquet each year and the GF&P should show up at the banquet with a big stack of antlerless deer permits to help answer some of the concerns.

Now the second bill…keeping wardens off private land… well that’s a little bit more cut and dried in my eyes. If you want to encourage poaching, if you want to encourage unethical behavior in the field, if you want to increase discord between landowners and hunters… simply pass a law that says game wardens can’t go on private land.  I will go out on a limb here and say what lots of people feel… those supporting this bill want to hide something.

Does the hatred for game wardens and the job they do run so deep that our lawmakers feel they should put up roadblocks to the enforcement activities? If there are overzealous game wardens that overstep their bounds and act in a manner that is illegal or violates someone’s rights, those individual wardens should be punished severely and removed from the force. And the process for filing a complaint against a warden should be easy, transparent and open for public review. Anything less is the government trying to hide something.

I believe most of the game wardens in South Dakota, and indeed in all of the U.S., are dedicated law enforcement officers looking out for the good of the hunters and wildlife they are sworn to protect.  The desire to block game wardens from private land begins with a sentence like this: This is my land…

Well, the unspoken end of that sentence is this: …I can do whatever the hell I want on it.

The truth is, you can’t do whatever the hell you want on it. There are boundaries and rules. Game wardens are there to enforce the rules. The game on the land is held in trust by the state for ALL the people. Unless you want to adopt the European model hunting management, let the game wardens do their job.

Winter still hangs on.

But days grow ever longer.

Who counts the snowflakes?

Yes the days are getting noticeably longer. And by that I mean the sun is staying up a few more minutes each evening, not that I have to work extra hours each day. Soon the runoff will begin and we can worry about flooding… but before that, I predict at least one more really cold snap and another major snowfall. What’s that the ranchers recite? Half your hay by Groundhog Day.  Which means there’s still lots of winter to come.