Too Switched On?

The other night I was heading north to a duck hunt at Kern NWR. It was dark, having just left a fine supper of Carnitas at the Los Pinos restaurant at the top of the Vine (Grapevine) as some know it on I-5, north of Los Angeles. As each vehicle passed me I began to notice the blinking displays from laptops, GPS units, cellphones, Gameboys etc. I've always been a gadget freak and nerd but I began to wonder just how far we've become addicted to electronics. Many of the cars whizzing past had several people using electronic devices in them.


RING!!! RING!!! RING!!!! Hold on a sec, gotta answer this call.

I can remember a time when you loaded up the truck for a vacation to get away from the ringing phones and never ending questions from work. When you arrived at the rustic cabin or campsite there was no phone to answer, no mail, nothing. It was you and the beautiful woods with no annoying distractions.

On the other hand, a cellphone is good insurance to have if you become stranded or have an emergency of some sort. Most of these folks were traveling for the Christmas holiday. The I-5 can be a boring haul with the Tule Fog causing California's deadliest pileups.

Where is the line for too much electronic gadgetry?

I know some families who can't go anywhere unless little Johnny has his Gameboy, it keeps junior occupied and quiet many parents tell me. The world Johnny has never seen is screaming by and his head is buried in the toy. Part of traveling to me as a kid was seeing the sights, the wonder and awe of seeing new places and new things. Is the next generation missing out in their enlightenment or is this the new world order? Do I need to assimilate or can we bend the folks who are constantly wired and tuned in, off?

BEEP!!! BEEP!!! BEEP!!! Be right with you, gotta answer this page.

I see folks everyday walking around with I-Pods in their ears or yapping on a cellphone as they blindly negotiate busy intersections or walkways. Hearing is one sense I want turned on when big buses and machinery are buzzing by me just feet away. I wonder how many have been squished when they didn't hear the yell from someone to "Look out!!". Some states like CA here are passing laws prohibiting the use of cellphones while driving to try and prevent accidents from inattentive drivers. Some of the cellphone ring tones are flat out annoying, especially in a movie or restaurant. One goof had a screaming elephant in his cellphone the had everyone in the local cafe jumping up and looking for cover, me included. It was that loud.

That begs the question. Is all this electronic bombardment ruining our situational awareness as outdoorsmen? If we don't hear that Towhee singing how would we ever know what one sounds like? If all we hear is music and phone conversations as we walk around outside we will never enjoy the funny chatter of a red-headed woodpecker scolding a squirrel for daring to invade his tree.


RING!!!! RING!!! RING!!! Excuse me, gotta answer this call, BRB.

Goin' To Hell For Sure?

I first started varmint shooting as a kid. We would skip school, grab our varmint rifles (usually a .22) and head down to the local dump along the Missouri River bottom to shoot the plentiful rats that lived amongst the trash. The dump was a perfect shooting gallery, just like at the carnival. There were different levels and ranges that the furry critters would run back and forth on.



The first time I was slapped on the back for splattering a varmint I felt a tinge of guilt. The giggles and snickers when a rat's head went sailing off or the red mist flying out from a groundhog made me feel kind of bad too. Afterward I wondered if this was what got you into hell? The trigger time made us better riflemen but what was the price we would pay? When you get to the Pearly Gates is this one adventure that is recorded on the "Bad Side" in the ledger of your life?

Fast forward to today and I'm still zinging the varmints that need shooting. Depredation many call it, which means plundering; to pillage [Latin depraedare to pillage]. The ground squirrels here in California do tremendous damage to cattle and horses when they fall into the ground squirrel burrows. Heck, I've almost snapped a leg bone or two due to them dern "squeaks" and their tunnels they have everywhere.

I catch a lot of flack over the varmint shooting videos I post. Many are antihunters or antigunners who rant on with all kinds of name calling and foul language. I'm not so sure about some of the other comments, some may be just folks who drop in on the link not sure what the link is about and they are neither a hunter/shooter or an anti. Shooting animals and giggling about it must appear to be pretty callous to the uninformed. Would a caution or advisory about the varmints being pests before the video rolls help?

Am I going to hell?

One old friend offered another opinion on this catch 22 situation. While at the range during a media event where the outdoor writers were shooting ground squirrels he overheard one old scribe from the south offer that varmint shooting may not get you straight into hell, but you were darn sure to be getting a warm room for doing it.

Lord forgive me, I wonder if they make asbestos in 3XL?

Well, Hello Kitty.

I was deer hunting down San Diego way recently and spied this bobcat sneaking along the far open hillside. I squeaked out a couple "kisses of death" and the bobcat came up so close I finally had to put the camcorder down and shoo it away before it pounced on me.

I lost the creeping cat in the small camera viewfinder and had to pull my head off the camera to make sure where it went, I didn't want any surprises that included fangs and claws. The bobcat was actually stalking some California Valley quail in front of me in the chaparral. At one point he snuck right up to the bush the quail were in and flushed 2 of them. His leap and paw swipe are not on the video dad gummit, that shot must have come when I was wobbling the camera around trying to find the cat. That's probably why the cat isn't real interested in my squeaking, he wants a quail cheeseburger and I'm almost annoying him.

I didn't take a shot because the .300 winmag in my lap would have made a mess of the pelt. Time to get a combo gun maybe. A good western cat hide is bringing near $400 last time I checked.

Camcorder was a Canon GL-2.

15th annual San Jacinto Junior Pheasant Hunt

This was the 15th annual San Jacinto Junior Pheasant Hunt. This junior hunter event is put on by the California Department of Fish & Game (DFG) along with the Riverside Quail Unlimited (QU) Chapter.

Lots of smiles and high fives for the junior hunters again this year. There were 39 juniors, we were hoping for 50 but the rain may have kept some home. It turned out to be a nice day after an early morning rain, just a bit windy at times which made for some challenging shooting for the young hunters.

Huge thanks to the staff at San Jacinto WA, the volunteers who brought their dogs to point and retrieve the birds and everyone else who helped out to make it a great day for the next generation of hunters..

Sponsors included Bass Pro, Valley-Wide Recreation & Park District, Inkredible Prints ((951) 654-1111) and Jesse's Hunting & Outdoors. Mike Brown also donated a $100 NRA Shooting Class certificate.

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GET OUT AND VOTE!!!

I voted today. Line wasn't bad, maybe 5 minutes. The hard part was smelling the beans they had cooking for the poll workers in the back room at the church where I vote here in Redlands CA. Man they smelled good.

We have electronic voting here now which replaced the old punch out hanging chad type ballots. The new ballots are huge, big 2 foot by 1 foot cardboard like sheets. To vote you connect two bars with a line from you pen. The ballot choices looked like this:

Joe Blow ==== ====

with the dashed lines above being solid bars on the ballot.

When you turn in your ballot you get an "I Voted" sticker for your shirt. This was my 8th presidential election to vote in. Sometimes I'm so disgusted with the politics and the sorry arse folks that hold office that I don't want to vote. I do vote since many have sacrificed their lives in defense of this country so that we have the ability to choose our goobermint offcials.

I wanted to film some folks at the church where I voted, not ask them who they voted for but what they thought of the election. The signs said no one within 100 feet could ask voters about their choices. After awhile I thought it might be best not to pull out a camera, even if I was 100 feet from the door. I don't know if I would want someone filming me while voting.

Here's to 4 more years, of what I haven't the faintest.

Politicians are always interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs. - P.J. O’Rourke

D16 & G13 Mule Deer Hunt Opener Near San Diego CA

This was our D16 & G13 Mule Deer Hunt Opener in San Diego 2008 October 24-26. Rick (Westy) and I camped at Lake Henshaw Campground and hunted nearby.

Saturday's sunrise was warm with a slight wind. Several trucks parked near us and 17 vehicles went up above us. Saw 2 bucks checked in at the Henshaw Store at lunch. A nice 3x3 from Mike and a forkie for another guy, his first deer. They had to track the forkie for 3 hours and when they found it the butt was eaten out by coyotes and a cougar then chased the coyotes off it appeared and the cougar started in on the belly. They said there was cougar tracks around the dead deer and the belly was freshly opened up so it looked like they scared the cat off when they approached. The 3x3 had a separate 3rd main beam and the start of a drop tine. Their bellies were full of acorns. Nobody mentioned any bucks pushing does that I heard so the rut hasn't kicked in hard yet.

Saturday evening we crawled down into our same canyon from the morning and about 4pm WHAM!!! right below me, Westy popped a yearling doe that stood up and ran from her bed. Of course the canyon was straight down and Rick busted butt to get the small doe back across to the easier slope where we boned it out and hauled it up to the waiting truck.

Sunday morning Westy and I watched the same live oak ridges where he got his doe Saturday. I had one spike buck feed by me early around 8am. Later I saw a big bodied deer ghosting through the timber and when I put the binos on the deer to see what it was, it just disappeared. I figured the deer had bedded down so I waited a bit then slipped down the finger ridge toward the deer and then hooked around the knob where I last saw the deer. Then I sat down. Sure enough, up popped a big ole doe peeking around the knob where I had come from about 50 yards out. Had it been a buck I would have had a good shot. I love sneekin' and peekin' with deer.

It's Apple Time!!!

The fall leaves turning bright colors means it harvest time. Harvest time means it's apple time. Time for apple cider, apple butter, apple anything. Here are a couple videos of my recent trips to Stetson Creek Ranch apple orchard near Seven Oaks CA and to Emmaus Homes in Marthasville MO where Thierbach Orchards was making some fine apple butter.

This was a trip tp pick some apples at Stetson Creek Ranch, near Seven Oaks CA. Every autumn the desire to pick a fresh juicy apple right off the tree calls people to the country, to the mountains, to the orchards. It is here that the best and most flavorful of falls fruits can be found. Apples picked fresh have a depth of flavor that makes grocery stores apples green with envy!

The ranch dates back to at least 1865, when Mr. W. O. Taylor used the ranch for grazing livestock. In 1885 it was owned by the notorious cattle rustler James McHaney. He used his various mountain properties to hide cattle that had been stolen from other ranchers.

In the late 1800's it was acquired by Richard Stetson, who with his family planted the many magnificant apple trees you can see there today! Fred Hill later owned it and also grew apples here.

The ranch has also been a Boy Scout camp, and an equestrian camp. However the owners have respected the natural beauty and the history of the ranch, and it remains much as it has been for the past century.



Grandma made her apple butter by grinding it first before cooking it. In this video the folks at Thierbach Orchards had peeled, cored and sliced the apples into 8ths. This takes a little longer for the apples to break down but it's less labor than grinding the apples into an applesauce first before cooking.