Childhood Temptations. The Devil Made Me Do It Mom.

When our family moved to near St. Louis in the 1960s the city had just built this fine new mall called Northwest Plaza. A trip there was like heaven, all kinds of sights and smells you'd never experienced before. The tool and sporting goods department at Sears, ice cream from Walgreen's soda fountain counter, Orange Juliuses.



On one such trip our moms parked us kids near the escalator to wait on the bench while they looked at washing machines. Right next to the escalator was a huge awesome water fountain, about 50'x50' with water running down from the ceiling on tiny plastic tubes. Everyone tossed coins in the 1 foot deep fountain so it was like looking at a broken open piggy bank to us poor kids.

With visions of a new model and more baseball cards my friend Will and I made a deal with his little brother Mark to get him to go fetch some coins while we watched for our moms or any store employees. This included the usual bribe to my lil sister to keep her quiet.

With a little encouragement Mark hopped over the low rail and was sloshing around pretty good in no time, we were even smart enough to remove his shoes and roll up his pants to evade any questioning later. He must have been up to around 3 or 4 bucks when I heard my mom holler.

Poor Mark didn't even get half way over the rail before his mom snatched his azz right back over to the bench. His mom lit into him right there. Naturally he only held up to questioning for about 2 minutes and we got it later back home.

Needless to say it was a long time until we got asked again if we wanted to go to the Mall.

Got any childhood temptation stories?

Navigating The Legal Morass On The Wild Wild Interwebz

Many of us that own websites or pound out blogs are small companies or sole proprietors who don't have legal representation on staff. I just found this website BlawgIT that does a really good job of explaining the do's and don'ts for conducting business on the Internet for the small potato folks.

Brett Trout is the BlawgIT lawyer who covers subjects like , patents, trademarks, ID theft, social media accountjacking, copyright and more. Brett gets the Internet, writing in a switched on style about topics that website owners and bloggers need to learn about. He's "switch on" as we used to say in the military.

Brett has also written 2 books that are highly regarded for Internet users and business owners. Cyber Law: A Legal Arsenal for Online Business and Internet Laws Affecting Your Company. I just ordered mine for handy reference in the office.

Big Bear Valley Sportsman's Club Shooting Range

Westy and I managed to sneak out for some bowfishing this past weekend at Big Bear Lake in SoCal. When the carp refused to come into the cold shallow water where we stood shaking like dogs passing a peach pit, we headed for the Big Bear Valley Sportsman's Club Shooting Range to reconnoiter.

The range has some history with the likes of John Wayne, Jeff Cooper, Jack Weaver (Weaver Stance fame) and others practicing their shooting when up in the high pines around the lake. We happened to bump into actor Christian Slater and his friends who were looking to rent some guns for some shooting fun. Unfortunately the range doesn't have any guns for rent and we didn't have any to lend them.

So if you're ever headed up to the mountains around Big Bear and want to throw some lead downrange or bust some clay targets there is a nice range just north of the lake at the Stanfield Cutoff. With all the famous folks running around the area you never know who you'll run in to.

CA DFG & NWTF Cuts Us Loose. No Turkey Transplants.

Been awhile since I've had something to good to rant about, something to sink my teeth into. "Brace yourself", as the doc told me on my last prostrate exam.

4 of us were there at the Inland Empire chapter NWTF meeting last Wednesday night at Bass Pro. You can really see how important the turkey transplant issue is to the local turkey hunters by their overwhelming support. /sarcasm.



Not to be a Debbie Downer but the turkey transplants starting back up are not going to happen here in San Bernardino National Forest. NWTF has come out and said they are more worried about banquets and the money generated from them. NWTF regional director Dave Halbrook said they are happy with their local chapters even without any huntable turkeys in SBNF. Tom Dockter, a member on the CA state NWTF board, told Yucaipa Mike and me that the NWTF regional directors biggest and only concern is banquets and generating money. NWTF corporate couldn't care less, they dismissed Yucaipa Mikes plea for help.

Worrying more about lifting as much money as they can out of my pocket and not about local issues was the biggest reason I left the NWTF years back. I'm headed that way again.

Bottom line, we're being told habitat improvement is the only thing we can do now since the turkey transplant EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) was poorly written by DFG and just invites being sued by the Native Plant Society. The same Native Plant Society that stopped the transplants of turkeys into San Bernardino and San Diego back in the late 1990s by filing a lawsuit.

As far as a hunter or a hunting group suing DFG, that's not possible I'm told. Wishful thinking but not something that can be done. I'm being told to just keep the heat on DFG to do the right thing.

I am a bit ticked also in that I was lead to believe the transplants were coming the past couple years. Every year there was a new hurdle for us to get over like prove there were still turkeys in the local forest only to find out there never was any real push to get the transplants going. We only just recently got the California DFG and NWTF to admit it publicly. Well, actually, it's the same line from years back, we just had them restate it to be sure.

Dave Halbrook said they would try and get money to fund another biologist position to help the local DFG biologist (Jeff Villepique) study turkeys and the habitat here but as local outdoor writer Jim Matthews told me, that's BS. Have the local DFG biologist just do his job, that's what he's paid for. Ryan Mathis, the California NWTF biologist, was down here in San Bernardino 2 months ago to meet with Jeff Villepique for a mind meld on what to start doing to help the local turkeys and Jeff Villepique was a no show for some reason. Same ole same ole, nothing getting down and nothing but more excuses.

I'm going to post this on the national NWTF forum, WON (Western Outdoor News) and OldGobbler.com so it's gets even more publicity in the last ditch hope someone will light a fire under the DFG or NWTF to do something. If they refuse to help us out, I'm done with the NWTF. They can bleed other fools for their banquet money to send Regional Directors on grand turkey hunts around the country while we scrap for turkeys on the crowded public land here in San Diego or travel hours north.

In fact, that's how it was put to us by Dave Halbrook. Hey, others are having fun right driving half a day one way to hunt right?

Not me, I'd rather stay local a few weekends to save money and hunt less crowded land, but that's me.

You folks make up your own minds.

Here is the thread on our CA turkey forum with more info. It's a sad tale of betrayal, complete with antis, money grubbers and skunk belly gubmint workers.

Turkey forum post

Story About a Big Squirrel And a Baby Squirrel

Continuing on the spring young theme, a fun video from the Interwebz for a Wednesday. Every once in awhile you see nature and the human race interact and you wonder what if we could talk to the animals.

What critter would you want to chat with?

What would you ask them?

What would you tell them?

Have you ever helped a critter out that was in a bad situation?

Enjoy,

Spring's First Casualty For 2009

Spring has sprung as they say but along with the fresh green growth and new babies we have our first casualty around the homestead here.

I've been doing some garden work in the backyard lately so I already knew there was a bird nest nearby. What kind of bird nest? I'm still working on that part, my best guess right now is a California Towhee (Pipilo crissalis). The colors, size and beak are close.

Anyhoo, every time I went near the ivy covered fence by the pool filter momma bird would scold me relentlessly. I figured something was wrong this time when momma and poppa's frantic chirps caught my attention since I wasn't even near the nest. A predator maybe? The neighbor's cat out for a tweety sammich?

Nope.



It turned out to be a baby bird floating in the pool. It must have fallen in while eagerly trying to learn to fly. Mom and dad were hopping wire to limb encouraging the dead bird to get back up and out of danger with no luck.

I fished the baby bird out of the pool and gently laid it in the high garden grass. The parents seemed to lose sight of the bird when it was in the pool net and they went crazy trying to get sight of their lost kin again. Both birds flitted around the pool, landing on the mower handle, then the electric wires above for a better view.

Every spring us kids found baby birds dead or flopping around the yard after getting the heave ho out of their nest. What an introduction to the world, fly or get eaten. Wood ducks have it the worst I think, they get pushed out and fall several long feet into the wet water.

Gee, thanks Ma.

What a wake up call that must be.

The big lizard under the pool filter slab was the next one to turn up toes up, not sure what enticed him into the pool. He's the first one to commit Hari Kari in the water like that.

Hopefully, that's the end of the spring deaths, it's not fun to find baby anythings laying silent.

P.S. If you recognize that bird please post up in the comments here or drop me a line.

Thanks.

Gettin Stuck. It Must Be Turkey Season

Ah, tis that time of year for slippin' and slidin' down icy snow covered ridges. Turkey season is about to be unleashed and that means time to explore and tear up some vehicles. Even the local gendarme's SUV is taking a beating rescuing pilgrims who venture out only to find themselves stranded in the dark high a top a mountain.

This was near Green Valley Lake in CA. Don't ever trust a woman for a road condition report. We met this lady on the way in and she said the road was fine. One turn later and we slid sideways to the bottom of a nasty mud and ice hole. 100 shovel scoops later and we were free and up the hill.

Note: Get winch installed.



The good news is Mike and I found some Merriam's turkeys to let the air out of. San Diego is a better hunt for bird numbers but holy mackerel, do they draw a crowd down there.



The bad news was the dumping and crashed gates we found on local forest roads. That and the trash we picked up after some donkeys left it. I pray there is a special room for these folks in Hades where they can live with their trash they dumped on Earth.


This was down at the T6 bridge crossing of Deep Creek by Lake Arrowhead CA. The crik hasn't flowed like this in awhile so I'll be back when it gets hot for a soak in the cold pools. I love hiking and hunting in this drainage.


I don't understand how folks can visit such a beautiful location in the country and then leave their trash. Makes me want to put a boot in their azz. Here's Mike picking up shotgun shells some clown left all over the bridge area. They must have shot almost 3 boxes from all the shells we picked up.