Let’s talk a bit more about the work done on the Willard Gun Club property!

The ditch that was re-dug on Sunday hasn’t been dug out for probably 40 years.  It was a depression in the surrounding ground, but was grown in with natural grasses so thick that it had a very rough time carrying water to where it was intended to go.  In fact, the water would travel down the depression, but would spread out on both sides and made it impossible for the land owners to do anything with their lands when there was water in the ditch at all.  That is why they turned the water out and away from their place.  They wanted to get some work done and needed it dry.

So, now with the ditch cleaned, it will carry the water to where our club needs it and not bother the adjacent land owners at all.

I made the trip down to the place yesterday afternoon to see where the water was and this is what I found.

At the head of the ditch is the diversion culvert that we closed yesterday in order to get the sewer water coming our direction

The water is really pouring out nicely!  A full stream I might add.

As I proceeded to walk down the ditch, the top of the ditch contained quite a bit of water and it was flowing pretty good, but I don’t think it had all the water flowing in it that I saw coming out at the culvert.

Not a bad flow, but not the full amount yet.

Well, still curious about where the water might be down the ditch, I proceeded to go down looking.  I fully expect to see it about half way down and soaking into the ground.  Remember the water table is about six feet down and it takes a lot of water to soak up the ground before it travels forward, especially in a slightly sloping ditch like this one.

I was pleasantly surprised at the mid point of the ditch to find water.  Not a full stream, but water none the less.  I continued to walk the ditch.  Looking farther to the West and through a patch of nasty phragmities, the water was backing up some.

It looks like the ditch is the perfect depth to keep all the water contained once it has the full flow.  For now, it is going down the ditch, but is it at the end?  I continued walking down the ditch, when suddenly, my shoes were getting wet.  At the end, the water was flowing out and onto our club!  YEAAAA!

In this picture it doesn’t look like all the flow is going to the left, but it is.  The bank on the right side is about 8 inches higher than that on the left side.  Besides we have a pretty deep ditch cut going South.  Perfect to carry the water where we want it!  As I am writing this I can only imagine we have a full ditch flowing onto the club right now and it should be forming the ponds around the boxes just like the plan has it.  Give it two to three weeks and we should be into the ducks big time!  Get your duck stamps boys and don’t forget your HIP number!

Bears Butt

October 14, 2014

Today is Sunday, but that won’t stop the work that we need to get done down on the duck club.  We have a small work crew going down to clean our a ditch in order to get water to come over onto our club property.  We have about 20 acres with three small and shallow ponds built that are completely dry right now.  Add some water to those ponds and we will have ducks coming in on a regular basis.  Of course it will also stop the use of motorized vehicle travel across our place as well.  As dry as it is right now, Bob and I were able to drive his pickup truck all over the club property without any concern of breaking through the crust and getting stuck.  All that changes when water is added.

Back when the club was first moved from its location now under the water of Willard Bay, to where it is today, they had a very dry year and were able to put in seven cement boxes.  Those boxes were where the hunters hid from the unsuspecting birds.  Back in about 1983 and a few years before then, the Great Salt Lake water level rose to a record high and completely covered our club property.  It was so high it was threatening Interstate 15 on the East.  I recall in the winter of 1983, the ice sheet that formed on that lake water was about a foot thick and in the early Spring it broke up with some strong Southern winds.  Those winds pushed those big chunks of ice to the North and East and completely flattened everything in its path.  It took down huge power line towers and the building and outsheds of a duck club that is adjacent to ours.  Everything in the ice’s path was flattened!

The salty water of the GSL also killed millions of carp and catfish that lived in the brackish waters of the Bear River arm of the lake and deposited them along the Eastern shore….What a stinking mess that was for several months!

Well, those days of an over filled lake and dead fish are long behind us and it doesn’t look like anytime soon we will have a flooding situation again.  The Willard Bay Gun Club has rebuilt their buildings and re-established their club property.  The land all around has regrown into what I call a “mess” with phragmity (sp) filling in spots it shouldn’t be.  The bullrush has come back, as well as the toolies we are so used to hunting in.  The ducks and geese are doing very well and life is good.

Before any vegetation came back we were on the hunt to locate the seven boxes that we knew were out there under the mud.  We did manage to find all seven and we cleaned out the ones that were usable.  We also put in a few more wooden boxes and diked up around them for shallow ponds.  It’s a great place to hunt ducks, “when there is water”.  And that is why we are on our work party for today!

We petitioned and got accepted to receive waste water from the local sewer processing plant, and that is the water we are hoping to get running across our club.  Your first thought is probably “Yuk!  Who would want that running across the club?  Nothing like setting your decoys among a bunch of floating brownies”!  Well trust me with this one, they say the quality of the water coming out of the sewer plant is the cleanest water of any sewer plant in the state!  They have the strictest standards of any plant.  No browns will come floating down!

Well, It’s time to go and maybe later I’ll have some pictures to post up in this story.

This is the track hoe that Doug Younger used to dig the ditch.  I’m just estimating the length of the ditch that he dug, but it was over 1,000 feet and he did an excellent job of keeping it pretty even all the way to the top.  The amount of water the ditch will carry isn’t much, but it will be a steady flow and will flood across our club property and create some excellent duck hunting opportunity.

Looking East, the ditch parallels our property boundary on the South and terminates at the road the Lovelands have going across their place.

And in the West direction it goes out to a Phragmities patch that I cut down with the brush hog.  There the ditch turns South into our place.

Doug also took some time to plug off a pipe that carries water across the main parking lot and dumps into the channel.  The water will have a very tough time going in that direction now, but it will be an easy dig out should the need arise in the future.  As for now, we feel we need all the water we can get for the club to be what it needs to be.  Later in the week I’ll go down and take some pictures of the water flowing in this ditch and post them up on here.  The ground is so very dry right now the flow will soak into the ground for a long time before it progresses down the ditch and across our place.  Looking into the boxes we have dug the ground water level is down about 6 feet.  We need a lot of rain to make a difference in that.

But, because of the dry conditions, I was able to get the brush hog in and take out some of the problem growth around a couple of the boxes.  They are now ready for the flooding and will make for some great late season hunting.

A big THANK YOU to Doug Younger for his day and the use of his equipment to make this happen.

Bears Butt

Oct. 12, 2014

Utah has a great opportunity for youth hunters in that they have special “early” hunts for them.  They have an early hunt for ducks and geese and also an early hunt for pheasants.  They even go out and plant a few birds in special locations ahead of time so the youth and their parents know there are at least a few birds there for them to “find”.

Today was the opening day of a 3 day event for youth to participate in a pheasant hunt.  Ring neck pheasants are cool looking birds and they are fun to hunt….especially if you have a dog.  Dogs can find them and with the right dog you can watch the dog “work” a patch of grass, weeds, toolies etc. and when the dog goes on “point” you can walk up to the dog and signal it to jump the bird….a way fun and cool way to hunt pheasants.  The dog jumps forward and the bird flushes up and out of the brush.  The hunter then takes aim and drops the bird….well sometimes.

As a young hunter I remember doing this every year down on the farm.  It was a blast to say the least.  But then along came Interstate 15, highway 315 and suddenly all those memories are just that….memories.

This morning I got a call from the Weasel, asking if I would like to join him and Conner and Kenzie on  the youth pheasant hunt.  I had other plans and declined the offer.  Two hours later, they pulled up and wanted to share their experience with me and Bob.

How about that!  Conner got two pheasants in that short period of time!

As they pulled up to the Wildlife Management Unit they went to close to home, the folks that had been hunting were all pulling out.  Some had birds, others did not.  And so Weasel, Conner and Kenzie went out in hopes of finding a bird or two.  The limit is two.  They had been stomping the bushes for about an hour when Kenzie said to Conner…..”Look there!  There is a pheasant under that bush!”  Sure enough there was a pheasant under that bush and not only a pheasant, but a male pheasant!  One they were hunting for!  Conner proceeded to shoot it….and did so with ease!

With one bird under his cap, Kenzie promptly spotted another one trying to get away….She alerted Conner, who casually shot it as well….LIMIT!

They were back home 1 1/2 hours after leaving home!

And so, there you have a successful hunt story from Utah….But wait!  Without a dog nobody usually gets to shoot a pheasant!  Pheasants run fast, hide very well and will not jump to flush without a good dog!

SO!  Introduce the dog of the day!  KENZIE!  She is the one that spotted both birds!  And here she is!

Tongue out and all!  She pointed out the birds!

Bears Butt

October 11, 2014