Saturday, May 16, 2009

Recent Visit to My Folks

Earlier this spring on a trip to Mom & Dad's I decided to take a walk around the lake and through the woods to see the progress Dad might have made on his new deer hunting stand. I knew he was making good use of some of the wood and slabs from his home-built sawmill to construct something more comfortable & spacious than the ordinary tree stand. Well, as you can see, he's gotten quite a bit done after starting by setting railroad ties upright to support his heavy rough-cut oak platform and slab-sided cabin/blind/hut or whatever you might want to call it. Nothing too good for a real hunter you know and such is the case here as the steps are black walnut!


Since this hunting mecca is across the lake and in the "North Woods" area of the farm, far removed from modern conveniences, it would be necessary to build an additional building. And important though this building may be, it could be built almost exclusively out of slabs thereby keeping the costs under control. Due to the "seasonal" use and limited number of hunters in the area, costs & labor were controlled by eliminating the digging of a "pit".

However, it would be expedient it seems, to build a two-seater. I don't know exactly how that was necessary since there really is only one hunter that stalks these woods but perhaps the reason is the builder/hunter was more interested in the aesthetic value of his design.

In the event you couldn't read the sign over the white seat, I shot a closer photo.

And over the left side seat is this sign.

A closer look at the seat itself. Pretty much a guaranteed anti-slip seat indeed if you ask me!

So there you have it. One of the many ongoing projects that keeps my Dad busy. Pretty impressive to see an 81 year old so active and still sporting a good sense of humor!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

OK, Just One More Mushroom Story

Not to turn this into a mushroom blog but there is one more story. Last week I checked out a new area that Doug had arranged permission to hunt.
We headed into the woods with our trusty guide, Trevon, who very quickly "smelled" a mushroom "right over there". I'd never thought of hunting them by smell before so I was glad to introduced to a new tactic! We did have some success.

Crossing a creek

The haul


My biggest one of the season. The lower part of the stem is lower left in photo. Stem extends across my palm toward the thumb, then does a 180 and the head laying back toward the left. I don't know if it grew like that or the weight caused it to collapse upon itself. Wish I'd tried to see how much it weighed.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

More Mushrooming

Mushroom hunters more experienced than I say it's been a pretty good spring for the good ol' morel. Cool & damp preceding these last few mild & sunny days. Last night I found a smaller batch and tonight these 15. All of the ones so far have come from the same acreage of woods. If the weather is right, I might check out a new property tomorrow afternoon.


This qualifies as the largest I've found so far...

And while I could tell you how good they are, how about if my sister-in-law shows you!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

"Shrooms"

An urge to hunt the magical morel mushroom motivated an excursion into the woods late this afternoon. I'm no pro at this mushroom hunting business so finding something like 20-25 "shrooms" was what a smashing success as far as I was concerned.



This plateful met their fate in a skillet of hot butter after being coated with salt, pepper & flour.
YUM CITY!