By: Bears Butt

deaddeer

I just finished processing my third deer for this year.  This one was taken by 13 year old, Braden Brailsford from Brigham City.  A nice 3X2 with pretty good mass for a little buck.  He was lucky enough to get a clean shot just before dark on the opening day and nailed it perfectly.  There was only about 3 pounds of meat that was destroyed by the shock, not bad for a high caliber bullet.  His parents were both extremely proud of him and they should be.  He was pretty stoked too telling me the story.  That is two bucks in two years for him!

As I was processing it, it became very apparent this little buck had been eating very well.  There was fat layered in all the muscle throughout the animal.  I have never seen so much fat marbled in a deer.  I suppose that is what happens when the buck eats nothing but alfalfa, corn and home grown veggies its whole life.

So, I have processed 3 deer this year, all taken in Northern Utah and all three were fat as could be.  Does that mean they had a good growing season with plenty of water and forage?  Or is it Gods way of preparing them for the upcoming winter?  If in fact it is the upcoming winter, I suggest everyone reading this pile in an extra cord of wood for the stove and maybe even fix up the snow blower or ATV snow plow, NOW and not wait until that first snow storm.

Another thing I’ve noticed is all the fuzzy caterpillars crawling around….many more than usual.  Another sign of a harsh winter?  HMMMMM…..

Extra cord of wood…..A new heavy duty coat…..snow blower fixed and ready…..extra gas in the gas can…..Or perhaps just jump in the jalopy and head down South!  NAH!  South is for sissies!  Come March of 2015, we will be able to know what the fat and fuzzy caterpillars were trying to tell us….let’s learn a thing or two about this, as Nature tends to tell us stupid humans things that we sometimes don’t notice or if we do, we don’t take heed to.

Maybe there is a need for a new pair of red flannel underwear in my future.

Bears Butt

October 20, 2014

Written on October 20th, 2014 , Uncategorized
By: Bears Butt

I think you will like this one:

Written on October 18th, 2014 , Uncategorized
By: Bears Butt

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Making good tasting jerky is always a fun thing to do.  I have my own recipe and have gotten really used to it.  Recently, on Facebook, one of my friends posted up a picture of some of his home made jerky and he has allowed me to post his recipe up on here to share.  Looking over the ingredients I can see it would be VERY HOT to my liking, but it can be toned down.  This is the time to be posting up a recipe like this one as folks have either gone out and harvested their big game animals or are about to.   Give it a try and post up how well you like it.

Shawn L Spring:

3 lbs. Sliced elk strips
2/3 c. Worcestershire sauce
2/3 c. soy sauce
2 teaspoons seasoning salt
2 teaspoons Accent
1 teaspoon pepper
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
Red Pepper Flakes

Slice into 3/8-inch strips, be sure to cut with the grain. Combine ingredients in a small container (i use a zip lock bag) and stir or shake. Put the elk strips into the marinade, make sure the meat is totally covered. Allow meat to marinate overnight. To finish the elk jerky recipe, slay (lay) strips over a rack and bake at 150°F for 6-8 hours. You can also use a dehydrator for this elk jerky recipe rotating trays every 4 hours for 12 – 16 hours. Sprinkle red pepper flakes on before applying heat to dry. I use A LOT of red pepper!!!

Bears Butt

October 17, 2014

Written on October 17th, 2014 , Recipes
By: Bears Butt

porkribswithbeans

Yesterday was my day to decide what we were having for supper.  I have had a craving to chew on a bone and so looking into the freezer I saw a package of “bone in” pork ribs!  YUMMY!  Perfect!

I’m always looking for the “just right” way to cook ribs and this day was no different…on to the web I went.  Do you realize there are no less than 10 million recipes for BBQ ribs?  It seems like everyone has one on line and they are almost all the same….rub them with this, rub them with that, cook them this way, cook them that way and they all look just about the same.  Well, I decided to make up my own recipe, how wrong can I go?

With the ribs thawed out and at room temperature, I mixed up my own rub……1/2 cup of brown sugar, a TSP of salt, a TSP of garlic powder, a TSP of onion powder and a TBL of paperika….I blended all that in a bowl and then rubbed it all over the ribs…even the bones got rubbed.  Then I wrapped it loosely and let it sit on the counter for about 2 hours.

As time to cook came around, I preheated the oven to 300 degrees….why 300?  It just seemed like a good temperature to cook ribs that’s all.  I put the ribs in a shallow baking dish and covered it with foil (tightly) and tossed it into the oven.

It was about 2 hours later, after running to town to pick up a part that had been made for the farm I pulled the dish out of the oven and took off the foil!  Boy did they smell good, but they didn’t look like they were done yet.  My mind went racing….what do you usually have as a side dish with good old ribs?   Baked beans always comes to mind.  Down stairs I went to look in the food storage area for a can of Bushes baked beans or whatever we had….the only thing I found was normal old pork and beans…what the heck, I can make my own baked beans out of them.

I opened the can and looked at the contents….hmmmmm….pork and beans.  I remembered there was a time when I was in the service I opened up a can of pork and beans and sat right down and ate the whole can….I digress.  Setting the can on the counter, I pulled the ribs out of the dish and set them on the foil.  There was a lot of grease and juices in the pan and so I dumped it out and put the ribs back in the dish.  Then I spooned the pork and beans over top of the ribs.  It sort of looked good, but it was lacking something….those just aren’t baked beans, they are just pork and beans.  To the fridge I went in search of something else to put with them…..a fourth of a bottle of bbq sauce was calling from the bottom shelf.  Up it came and I dumped it all over top of the beans.  Now that is taking shape!

OK, with the ribs almost but not quite done it needed more time in the oven.  I put it back in without covering it….set the timer for one hour and came in to look at Bears Butt Dot Com (or Candy Crush whichever came first).  I went through all the classified groups on Facebook and even his ksl.com classified.  You never know when someone is “giving away” something you really want….like Swarsky binocs, or a Nikon spotting scope….It seemed like just a few minutes went by when the buzzer on the timer went off!

Opening the oven door revealed a most delicious looking meal.  I poked the meat with a fork and it revealed “fall off the bone” tender ribs!  OH BOY, is Winemaker going to be in love with supper.

Then back to the fridge and pulled out the left over biskets from the other nights supper…wrapped them in foil and tossed them into the, now cooling down, oven….temp set at 200.

When we “finally” ate supper, I was like an amoeba….I crawled over the plate and when I crawled off the other side it was as clean as if it had come out of the dishwasher!  Those had to be the BEST bbq tasting ribs I have ever eaten!

Don’t take my word for it, try it yourself.

Bears Butt

October 16, 2014

Written on October 16th, 2014 , Recipes
By: Bears Butt

frostedwindow

With the coming of the cold months and in inevitable frosted windshield, folks have been posting up a simple formula for taking the frost off the windshield of your car.  2/3 cup of vinegar and 1/3 cup of water…mix…spray, frost is gone and life is good.  I went searching and found this:

 

Bears Butt
October 15, 2014

Written on October 15th, 2014 , Uncategorized
By: Bears Butt

DougYoungerWithDitcherLet’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

WaterPoursOutThe 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.

TopOfTheDitch

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.

AboutMidWayI 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.

MidwayLookingWestIt 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!

AtTheEndIn 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

 

Written on October 14th, 2014 , Hunting Stories
By: Bears Butt

ditch

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.

DougYoungerWithDitcherThis 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.

DitchLookingEast

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.

DitchLookingWestDoug 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

Written on October 12th, 2014 , Hunting Stories
By: Bears Butt

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!

ConnerWith2Pheasants2014As 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!

KenzieActedLikeBirdDog2014Tongue out and all!  She pointed out the birds!

Bears Butt

October 11, 2014

Written on October 11th, 2014 , Hunting Stories
By: Bears Butt

ryan-drones

Drones!  There is a whole lot being done with Drones these days.  A lot of time and energy has been spent with drones in the world of warfare and unmanned aircraft are the thing that puts the enemy down without any of our guys being in harms way.  But, that is not all there is to drones.  Back here in the states a lot of people are finding that flying their own drones and filming stuff is really cool.  The cost of buying a drone is slightly more than the cost of one of the helmet type cameras at around $500.  Even less expensive if you don’t want to fly one for more than a couple of minutes at a time.

Some people are even using them to try and track down wild animals during their hunting and this has caused several states and even Canadian officials to ban the use of them for hunting activities.  In Colorado, a small town named Deer Trail has even imposed a $25 license to “hunt drones”.  The town officials never expect to have to pay the fees associated with someone actually killing a drone and bringing it in for the bounty, but they have imposed the license and have even sold a few to the locals.

It is being spread around that anti hunting groups like PETA are using drones to scare off animals from the hunters, however, I’ve not been able to find anything on the web that actually shows the use of drones scaring off anything from the hunters.  I’m sure if I was out hunting and saw a drone buzzing around me, I’d be taking a shot at it.  I don’t think I’m alone on that thinking.  So, if I had spent $500 for a drone I don’t think I would be buzzing it around someone in a blind.

So, what is a drone?  Take a look at this video:

Now this guy has obviously been flying drones for quite some time and knows his stuff. But he is not alone, there are a lot of drone techies out there and some of them have videos that don’t make any sense to me as they are talking WAYYYY over my head about stuff they are doing with their drones and how they have them set up.  That’s ok.

The really cool part is the movies they are coming home with after flying these contraptions.

Pretty cool huh? But that is not all. Like I said, some folks are using them to track down big game animals and save themselves a lot of walking. I suppose you could use one to see what was over the next rise and decide if it was worth it to make that hike. But that isn’t what I would call hunting.
I went in search of an interesting video of someone taking pictures of wild animals and found this one to be very interesting. Even though it isn’t a wild beast, it is still an interesting critter that got even with the guy playing with the toy.

Funny huh!?

Bears Butt
Oct. 11, 2014

Written on October 11th, 2014 , Uncategorized
By: Bears Butt

camping-is-fun

Camping is fun!  And it is always funner if everything is in its place and safe from the elements.  For instance there isn’t much worse than going to the cooking area and finding a whole roll of paper towels drenched from the nights rain!  Or to go out to the woods toilet and find the same thing with the toilet paper roll.

I did a little research on the web and found this Do It Yourself site with some great ideas on it.  Some of them will be employed by myself the next time I’m heading out.  Some of them will be done and put in my backpack for future needs, the fire starting ones always interest me.  I’m a bad one for flashlights and fires.

So here is the link to the site and I hope you can use one or more of these in your next camp:

http://www.diyncrafts.com/2039/health/top-33-most-creative-camping-diy-projects-and-clever-ideas

 

Bears Butt

Oct. 10, 2014

Written on October 10th, 2014 , Uncategorized

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BearsButt.com | Stories, Ramblings & Random Stuff From an Old Mountain Man

Just some of my old stories, new stories, and in general what is going on in my life.