IOWA 2011

I arrived early in October as the fall colors just reached their full colors. The harvest was just starting when I arrived so I was kept busy from dawn to dark every day. The weather was great as the
temperature was warm and the skies stayed clear. There in fact had been a very dry summer. The spring had been wet and some of the crop went in the ground very late.

Photos show the timber just west of Joel's house.

Every morning we started of by feeding the calves

and bred heifers back at Judy's. The sky was

usually just getting light so most of the sunrise photos that I took are taken in this area. The sunrises were spectacular. I need to learn more about my camera in order to capture some of the brilliant colors that occurred jn the morning. I am sure it is the high amount of particulate material in the air which provide the brilliant colors. Still other mornings the aircraft provided an interesting pattern in the sky of their "

The harvest of the soybeans and corn was the main priority during the first weeks in Iowa. Donald would drive the combine and I would drive the tractor pulling the empty wagons to the field being harvested and the full wagons to be unloaded. This photo shows the combine with one of the grain wagons in the back ground. The soybeans were all hauled to the Fremont Elevator where they were weighed and unloaded. The trip to town was between 3-5 miles depending on the field being harvested location. The only problem was one flat tire on a wagon.

Friday the 13th - 13 May, 2011

Finally a warm day! It was a bright sun that greeted us at the Dworshak boat launch. We had chosen to get a late start and it turned out to be a very good decision. The temperature was already into the upper 40's. The sun was bright as we motored away from the dock. Our first stop was a short distance up the reservoir where a small stream dropped into the reservoir on the west side. The reservoir was still over a 100 feet below full pool. The fish cooperated at the first stop and we had 7 nice rainbow in the bucket. As we motored along the shoreline with the trolling motor I was excited when a Huge Smallmouth bass followed my lure up to the boat! He made a swirl at the lure before leaving!! Duane hooked up to a big fish on his jig/worm outfit. The battle was on! After staying deep and out of sight for a short time. Duane got him up to the surface and we discovered that he had a big "Bugle Mouth Trout" (better know as a sucker).

We then motored up to Freeman Creek where the bass was more active. The water temp was 52 degrees on the surface. The sun was warming up the water already. Duane caught a nice 2 lb smallmouth bass on a jig/worm combination before we motored to the next spot. I managed to catch a couple small ones on a crappie jig/worm combination. I was having the best luck with a red headed motor oil brown crappie jig on a 1/16th ounce jig.

The action picked up in Canyon Creek for a short time but after landing several bass and one crappie the action quit. It was hard to leave the spot but no more fish would take our offerings.

Additional stops were made in Canyon Creek, Indian Creek and back at the small drainage just west of the boat launch. I snapped a few pictures as we left the last spot and headed to the boat dock.

It was a beautiful day and the temperature was over 70 degrees when we quit for the day. We had a great fish fry that night with fresh smallmouth fillets the main ingredient. I must caution folks that the Annis house is not the place to learn how to play dominos!!!

Boat Ride Dworshak Reservoir

A beautiful sunny day means it is time for a boat ride on Dworshak Reservoir. I meant my boat Captain Duane at 0800am in Orofino. He was taking his boat today as a shake down cruise for our pending trip to Brownlee Reservoir in a few weeks. We of course brought the fishing poles along just incase the bass decided that they wanted to go for a boat ride. Minutes late we were at the marina unloading the boat.The gentlemen in another boat loading at the ramp announced that the reservoir w

as 185 feet down from full pool. It was the lowest that I had ever seen the reservoir. Duane motored away from the launch heading towards Merry's Bay. It was a beautiful day and the lake was very calm.

We motored slow

ly around the bay looking at ground which was usually under water during a normal year (even at low water level). We looked for fishing gear that might have been lost

as we went along. After a while we realized that any

fishing gear lost dur

ing the normal full pool would be at least 100 feet above the current water level. I spotted one fishing line but a quick check with the binoculars didn't reveal any fishing rod. It was a "LONG" ways up the very steep and muddy bank. I choose not to investigate any further.

A quick check of the dam showed that there was a lot of it exposed. The Corps of Engineers dock which was usually at the east end of the dam was not in pla

ce. The water must be too low for it to be used and it was not in place yet.

We then motored up the reservoir for several miles to the entrance of the Canyon Creek drainage. It was amazing to see bare ground where there was usually water!

We got the fishing poles out at the very mouth of the creek. The water temperature was 47 degrees! Very cold! The dass would not be very active in this cold water. Duane had brough along a supply of fresh worms...5 of them to be exact. He quickly put them to work. He sold me one for 50 cents. I wonder how much I owe him for worms borrowed already. Oh well....he knows that i will pay him ....someday! We quickly discovered that while the bas were not active the rainbow trout found our offerings quite to their liking. We soon had 9 flopping fish up to 14 inches long flopping in the fish bucket. Yours truly forgot to take a picture of them. They would have made a great photo to end the blog with! Well use your imagination and I will try to remember to take a photo the next trip of those that didn't get away!

Idaho Turkey Hunt

The day started at 0400am. The moon was only a silver in the dark sky but with only a few scattered clouds the 35 degree temperature somehow didn't feel real cold! Optimism ran high as the truck was loaded at Duane's house. The one hour drive ended in the parking area of a rural cemetery. The tombstones shone in the headlights as Duane parked the rig. We set off across the field in the dark using small headlamps to light the way. I had to keep it in "high gear" to keep up with Duane. After a few minutes we started dropping down an old logging road. It dropped down the slope into Fordes Creek. The side hill was an open Pondersosa Pine habitat. The moon light made walking in the dark possible so the headlamps went out. There was no need to announce our arrival to the local residents. thirty minutes later Duane broke off the old trail and found a comfortable spot under a big pine in the pine needle duff. He scratched out a few rocks and placed his backpack for a pillow and whispered "wake me when you hear a gobble"! He had barely settled down when the cool morning air was shattered by a ringing gobble. The woods was alive!

Duane's head was off the pillow and pin pointing the direction the gobble had come from. Another gobble was echoing in the woods as he grabbed up his pack and headed towards the sound. 200 yards later Duane crawled in under a big Ponderosa Pine tree. His camo blended in perfectly. I found a hiding spot about 10 yards behind him behind some low brush. I seen Duane check his Browning autoloader. The gobbles continued right directly ahead of us in a draw. The eastern sky was light by this time. I hope that those gobblers hadn't seen us sneak in.

Duane soon announced our location to the gobblers on his box call. A smooth "purr" sounding like a love sick hen rang out in the early morning light. the gobblers answered immediately. They sounded almost as excited as I was! It was only minutes but it seemed a lot longer as we waited for the birds to fly down off the roost. A gooble from above our location announced that the birds had flown down. About that time a deer snort announced to the woods that something wasn't quite right. The deer was directly down wind from us and sounded like a "choo choo train"as she announced to the world that something was wrong in this neck of the woods. The gobblers could be heard heading directly up the hill away from us. We waited until the herd of deer had dispersed and Duane quickly made a plan to circle around and try to get ahead of the gobblers.

It was a chore keeping up with Duane. I was sure glad that I have been walking every day! The early morning air soon lost it's chill and I broke out into a sweat. I had wore too many clothes for this kind of hike. We gained a lot of elevation as we made a wide circle to the west of the opening that we had last seen the turkeys in. Now hopefully we could get into the area and call them in with some pleading hen calls. We took a short breather before heading east on another old logging trail. It was going directly ro where we needed to be, I was sure glad that Duane knew his way around these woods.

An opening was soon visible through the trees and Duane went into super sneak mode. We covered another 100 yards as we listened to the toms gobbling ahead and below us. Duane dropped of the road through some heavy brush and crawled towards the opening. He made a short hen call and moved up a vey short distance. I stay behind on the old trail and watched through the timber as the gobblers went quiet.

It was only a few short minutes but it seemed like hours as the time dragged by....where had they gone? A flicker shown throught the veil of trees and brush. There he was! Anothe rwas right behind him! Oh boy! Duane should have the 12 guage talking real soon. The birds disappeared for a brief time and then they could be seen heading back the other direction. BOOM!

Duane was up and running through the brush. I got to edge of the meadow as he grabbed the flopping tom. I grabbed my camera out of my pack and started taking a few pictures of the trophy tom and the hunter. A couple gobblers could be heard directly below us and then the woods went silent. Duane set to work plucking the bird. The feathers come out of a warm bird while if left until they get cold they are very hard to remove without tearing the skin.

I carried the gun and Duane carried the bird back up the old logging trail. The trail was steep but it felt real good to have a turkey in the "bag"! We arrived back at the truck as the full morning sun shone on us. It was a beautiful day!

3 February, 2011 Steelhead Fishing

I met Duane at our meeting spot and we headed downstream to launch the boat at the "Pink House Hole!" We launched the boat and then drove the trailer down to the Harper Bend launch. I picked Duane up from the site and we returned to the boat at the Pink House Hole launch.

There was a lot of fishermen in the river. A lot of guide boats made the traffic heavy.

We quickly made our way down river to the McGill Hole. There was several boats anchored with a number of bank fishermen casting bobber and jog rigs. We watched as a fish was netted ahead of us.

We watched as the guide boats netted several fish. They all were caught on spawn.

Duane stayed on the outside of the traffic and as we drifted by he had a strike! He was hooked up to a nice fish. I held the rod as Duane got out of the heavy current. It was quickly in the net. A nice 6 pound hatchery fish went into the box.

We changed locations at noon and launched the boat just below the Six Mile hole. There was a lot of ice at the launch so we put the boat in on the sand beach below the hole. Duane rowed the boat back up into the hole. I had a strike as he headed up into the hole. Duane rowed the boat out of the current and I quickly brought the 8 pound male into the boat. As Duane slid the net under the fish I could see the adipose fin. A native fish that had to go back!

Less then 20 minutes passed before I had a solid strike on the blue/silver Hot-n-Trot #25 plug. It was a real nice fish that didn't want to come near the boat. He finally came up

close enough for Duane to slid the net underneath his massive frame. WOW! What a fish!

A quick inspection showed an adipose fin! Back into the river it went to finish it's trip back to the spawning grounds.

We had another two strikes before we called it a day and loaded the boat back onto the trailer.

Colorado in January

My blog would not be complete with out a brief recap of my stay in Colorado. Tje weather was absolutely great! Bright Blue sunny skies made up most of the weather with brief snow showers interrupting. I spent the end of 2010 "house sitting" as my son's family visited Montana. I completed my first house sitting job successfully. Also on my work record is the fact that I cared for a dog. Not just any dog...but my Grand Dog, Tika. We rarely missed a day when we didn't walk at least a mile.

During my whole stay I took photographs with my new camera and lens. I was very happy with my equipment. My favorite topic was my Grandkids. My next favorite topic was the numerous mule deer that lived in the neighborhood. It was like a kid in a candy store for me to have the opportunity to take pictures of them.

Rest of 2010 October - December

The story of the "rest of 2010" needs to be told before going onto the new year. Here is a snap shot of some of the activities I encountered on my journeys.

Trip to Iowa in the beginning of October was a very quick one. I went straight through and pulled into the Iowa farm ready to go to work. The fall weather was wonderful for harvesting. The corn and bean crop was quickly put into the bins as the dry weather held through the harvest. The late spring and summer weather had been very wet with the Skunk River being out most of the summer. This wet weather had a very pronounced effect on the crop yield as many of the corn fields were below their expected yields. Weaning of the yearly calf crop went very smoothly but for some unexpected reason the loses after vaccination was higher then desired. The daily chores of bucket feeding 100 head of calves twice a day soon became a routine. They sure were glad to see you arrive with the buckets of feed each morning and night. The old cows delighted when we turned them into a field of corn stalks. You could see them smile as they munched on the harvested corn field stalks.

A fish fry became a staple for the local populous. I was kept busy visiting the local ponds and filleting enough fish to supply the next event. The Millikins and Gambel families shared a number of wonderful fish fries.

Fall field work was accomplished and lots of daily maintenance projects filled the calendar as the normal work day found us up and moving by 430 am. If the day held some extra activities the clock would read 0700 pm before we got back to the house at the end of the day. My pickup was parked in Donald's front yard and didn't move very often for the next three months. One trip was to Melrose where I visited with Laurel and her friend Dusty coming from Idaho. He showed us the fruit of his summer labors, a semi completed Model A pickup hot rod.

Fall found us setting a trap line. Donald and I had ran a trap line back in the 60's together with some of the Millikin boys. So it was high anticipation that we set traps in the local ponds for muskrats and the abandoned buildings for raccoons. The coon population was high but we found that the possum population was even higher. It was hard to get a coon to the trap first when the possum usually beat them too it. The muskrat traps at the ponds produced a number of muskrats and even one mink. The mink was a very welcome addition to the fur shed. He was caught in a connibear set in a muskrat run. Trapping at the ponds also meant a daily visit to the ponds to check the traps. Well you can guess that I took advantage of the visit and had my fishing pole ready to go. Many trapping visits resulted in fishing tales. The highlight of the season was pinching the toes of a beautiful red fox. It was the very first time we had caught a fox in a foot trap. He was sent to the taxidermist and will be an addition to my collection of memories.

No story of an Iowa trip would be complete without a deer hunting tale or two. Remember that these are high tales and any resemblance to real stories is only accidental. Michigan bow hunters are the first story to be told. One and veteran of many hunts brought his rookie brother to the field of dreams. His expectations for a huge buck (locally referred too as "Rambo") was running high. A late afternoon call resulted in high adventure in the local cornfields. Brian, as the Michigan bow hunter shall be called, was reporting an encounter with a Rambo. He had successfully made the shot, but the arrow placement was questionable. We reviewed the site and found many clues. The consensus decision (Michiganders were no allowed a vote) was to pull out and not track the deer until the next day. This action would prevent the deer from traveling a long distance and becoming impossible to recover. After a sleepless night for the hunter the next morning found us on the blood trail. It was a short trail and the recovery of a beautiful Iowa buck was made. The bow hunt was only the first of many tall tales to be told. Many more encounters were made during the bow season. Many early morning hunts were started with a ride to the stand on an ATV. Finding deer standing under the tree stand as you drove up lead to high anticipation for the day's hunt.

Bad news caught up with me in early November in the form of a telephone call from my brother telling me that my Mom had been admitted to the hospital. The rest of the month was a blur as she went from the hospital to rehab centers and back to the hospital. I drove up to Michigan for a visit several days before Thanksgiving to visit her and family. I got to visit with her for a very brief moment in the hospital as she had been readmitted from the rehab center. The doctor had diagnosed her with congestive heart failure and breathing complications. She very briefly came out from a coma to recognized me and her pastor. She passed away quietly during the early morning hours of Thanksgiving Day. The next week of events was a blur as all my immediate family was able to attend the celebration of her life. She was a wonderful lady who will always be a big part of who I am.....I miss her very much.

Back to Iowa in early December to watch the first shotgun season begin. Many tall tales where made during the short season. A big buck being fooled by a Honda Ridgeline (SUV) blind in the middle of a cut cornfield was one of the highlights. Snow and blowing snow made the hunting difficult. Running deer, some out of range, some in range, big bucks, herds of does, pairs of bucks, blood trails, are only a few of the many tales that will be told about the first and second deer season in Iowa.


The photo of the antlers show that a few of the Iowa hunters were successful.

The next leg of my 2010 journey began on a black, snowy Iowa night as I left in the very early morning on the road to Colorado. I had my daughter and most of her worldly possessions loaded in the pickup as we drove on icy roads. Road conditions got better as we passed Kansas City and headed west through Kansas. It was a pleasant drive and when we arrived in Colorado in early afternoon the temperature read 55 degrees! We drove into my son's home in Peyton, Colorado. We spent several days visiting before I took Laurel to stay with her Aunt. She is trying to find work and hopes to find a car and a place of her own to live in the near future. Speaking of work, I now have experience as a "House Sitter"! I took my son to the Denver Airport where he flew to Montana to spend the Holidays with his family in Dillon. I successfully watched the house (played a few computer games) and walked the dog, Tika. I picked up my son and his family at the airport on the 5th of January which brings me up to date. I know that the story is quite fragmented but I hope that you enjoyed it. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years to you and your family. May the new year be a wonderful year for you!