Utah Fishing ReportsI had not heard of a semi automatic pellet gun until yesterday when I found this on You Tube:
Enjoy!
Bears Butt
June 15, 2014
Happy Fathers Day
Some 25 years ago we were down in the field with our two boys and some of their friends, helping them set up for a camp out. It was just after dark and Winemaker and I were about to head home and leave them to their camping, when suddenly there were little flickering lights all around us. Fireflies! They weren’t everywhere, but they sure were noticeable. The kids immediately went in pursuit and it didn’t take them long to have several of them captured up! What I remembered most about them was how badly they stunk! Yuk! But aside from that they were cool to see all lit up. Like little LED’s and flicking all around the field. These little creatures are not well known around Utah and especially 25 years ago. Everyone we told about seeing them called B.S. and finished their statement with “There are NO fireflies in Utah”! Well, Ok then, I guess we were just seeing things and catching them in our dreams, but they still had an awful smell about them.
So, just last year, 2013, the folks at BYU finally found some closer to their campus and wrote this article.
http://news.byu.edu/archive13-jun-fireflies.aspx
I’m sorry you have to highlight and copy this link to see the video and read the article, but that is just how it has to be.
So, last night for Conner’s 13th birthday celebration, Weasel and Hot Spark allowed him to bring some friends down for a cookout and birthday celebration which included a camp out in the same area where 25 or so years ago Weasel got to see his very first firefly and sure enough, last night they saw Fireflies! How cool is that!?!
Bears Butt
June 13, 2014
A mix of things happened today.
First off I had a long day planned for me at the VA Hospital Complex in Salt Lake City for Agent Orange related testing. I hate driving into SLC and today proved once again how bad it really is. About Lagoon, I passed a truck full of gravel but before I got past him, BLAM! Big rock right in the middle of the windshield! Well, there takes out another part of a day for windshield replacement and also a chunk of change out of my deductible pocket. I’d call that “Bad Luck”.
Well I made it to the VA place with lots of time and found a parking spot right up on the front line. They told me to get there two hours early to get blood work/Xray and EKG done prior to my real appointment for a physical. I call that “Good Luck”.
When I finally found where my blood would be drawn there was a short waiting line and the “waiters” were friendly and we had a great conversation. Sometimes the “waiters” are ornery and bitchy…not today..Good Luck.
The lady who drew my blood didn’t seem to want to stop, she took like 6 viles and left my arm feeling like I was there to give a pint…Bad luck.
Then to my surprise, they told me I had to pee in a bottle….Why? I asked and the guy asked me where I was going to work?…I told him I was there for a physical for Agent Orange related stuff…he said…O! I peed in the bottle…Good luck.
Then it was off to another part of the complex for my X ray. I had to ask directions several times in several hallways but finally ended up at the X ray place. The behind the counter liked my “bears butt” shirt…Good Luck.
The X ray technician was very friendly and we made several jokes about different things. He took X rays of my chest, from the back and from the side…Good Luck.
Then down another hallway, close to the X Ray place to where they were going to do my EKG. I had never had an EKG before and so I was very concerned about it being a procedure that would cause me not to be able to drive home. I had no idea. I signed in at the desk and sat in a chair. There was another guy there and we struck up a conversation. He was cordial enough but very opinionated and did a lot of bad-mouthing the VA hospital for incompetence. I have not seen any of that in my two visits and told him as much…he said I was lucky….I count that as Good Luck.
In the room where the nurse (doctor?) was that did the EKG, she had me take off my shirt and lay on a board covered with a sheet and a piece of white paper and then she stuck round or square (not sure cuz I only got a glimps of them) around my stomach and chest. Then she hooked up all these wires, she said there were 10 of them. I take her word for it because I was more interested in her adornments (body parts). Then she said to relax and think of pleasant things. I told her that a man who has just been hooked up by such a pretty woman should have a few minutes to relax before the test. She told me there was no time. I have no idea what she did next, but soon she was saying to get up and put my shirt back on and please take the EKG graph with me to my appointment. She was cute. Good luck/Bad luck.
Well, now I was done with the pre-stuff and my appointment was just 45 minutes away. I had to once again ask where this building was that I was to go to and the nice volunteer information lady pointed me in the right direction. I walked and it was a pleasant walk even though it was quite a ways. I arrived a half hour before my scheduled appointment and the desk guy checked all my paperwork and then called for the male nurse to come and take me away. He wasn’t nearly as good looking as the last Nurse (doctor?) I had seen, but he was friendly and took my blood pressure, temperature and heart rate. Good luck.
I waited in a hallway for about 15 minutes and soon the desk clerk came over and said the person ahead of me for his appointment was stuck in the “Blue Room” and so they were moving me ahead…Good luck. Actually, they didn’t have to tell me anything about ‘the other guy’, I wouldn’t have known anyway….just move me along!
So, now I’m sitting in a Doctors examination room. He is a doctor from India and hard for me to understand but we finally figured out what was going on as he asked me questions and made comments about my medical past, personal stuff, preferences about different things, old surgeries and general doctor related things. As I was sitting there he was constantly looking at his computer and moving the mouse around and generally acting like he was playing Candy Crush, all the while asking me questions and responding with “Good”, or “That’s nice”. My first indication that he was actually looking at my medical records was when he said (asked), “You were in Viet Nam in 1971-1972 correct”? I said, “No, 1969 to 1970”. He said “Good, You passed that one. I was just checking to see that you were telling me the truth or even listening to me”. Good luck (not really as I was telling him the truth and listening).
Before we went to the next step of the process…the part I hate with the finger wave and all…He said the results of my blood, urine and X rays had been inputted into the computer. He read off my results: A slight showing of emphysema in my lungs from my years of smoking…Nothing to worry about, he said. No problems with liver, thyroid, prostrate or anything else. My bad cholesterol was .3 above where it should be…another no worry call. Heart beat normal, blood pressure good. Good luck.
So after about 30 minutes of questions and answers he had me strip down and get to the “dirty work” of the physical. When all that was done, he told me “You go and get out of here! You are a healthy man! And a happy man”! And you know what else…no finger wave! VERY GOOD LUCK!
So here I am one very Lucky Guy! No health problems that showed up in all that testing. I managed to get to SLC with only a broken windshield and got very good news, so my trip home deserved a special stop…In and Out Burger in Centerville where I order up a number 3 and drank 7-up with it! YES! Good Luck!
On my way home I had to stop at Smith And Edwards to trade vehicles with Winemaker. I sat with her while she ate her lunch and told her about my exam….not the part about the good looking nurse tho. She was happy about the results. Then I headed for home. Still had to get with Bob and go over the fur sale results and split up the money and still had to go and check my beaver traps.
Got home to relieve MaPa’s from his locked up state….he only had one accident in the house and I cleaned it up easily. Good luck.
Met with Bob, we agreed on everything and split the money fairly…Good Luck…(Thanks for the help Brek and Weasel).
And then headed for the field to check the beaver traps. You know life is really good when you have all your faculties, can see, hear, feel, breath….you know, all the good stuff. That is the way I was feeling as I entered into the farm today. Nothing pressing except checking the traps and hopefully having Mr. Beaver caught up solid. There was no activity of a beaver anywhere. My traps were empty, except for the last 3…they were gone! Bad luck!
I put my hip boots on and went to where the traps were set….nothing….no traps. Not a lot of torn up looking property around there either. Unusual for an animal to be caught in a trap and then get away with 3 traps all hooked together and not be anywhere close by. These 3 traps were all wired together at the trap rings and all were securely wired to a 2 inch tree root that protruded from the bank of the creek. When I wrapped the wire there I thought I might have an issue should a beaver get caught, he might figure out that the traps were tied there and chew off the root, but no other animal should do that. HMMMMMM. Bad luck.
I looked up the creek, I looked down the creek, I looked out into the swamp to the North, I looked out into the pasture to the South…nothing! Bad luck.
I went back to the place where the traps had been set and examined the point of where I had wired them to the root. The root was clearly broken and looked like it had been chewed by an animal, but in my mind, NO animal is going to know that at that exact spot if they chewed through it they would get away from there, even though they have 3 traps to deal with, probably one on a foot and the other two dragging behind. If a wild animal is caught he is going to try and get away. He will pull to the end of the chain, tear up the surrounding area and eventually exhaust himself and either drown, die of over stressing or lay in the grass and wait. What I saw was a very suspicious. I suspect foul play here. Bad luck.
So, with that, I returned to my vehicle and proceeded to take off my boots and I noticed the drivers side rear tire doesn’t have much treat showing…Bad luck! But hey! I have a totally unused spare tire that has NEVER been off the vehicle! Good Luck! I’ll change it out when I get home.
I pull into the garage and go right to work getting ready to replace the badly worn tire with the brand new tire that is under the cover on the back of the rig…been there since 1999. The old tire off, the new tire on…life is good! Good luck. Then I want to put the old worn out tire on as a spare and put the cover over it. The cover will not fit on this tire! What gives?! I try and try to get the spare tire cover to fit over the tire and it just will NOT fit. In my frustration I check the size of the tire…P265 75 R 16…..I check the new tire I just put on the truck…P245 75 R 16! Damn! Different sizes! Bad luck!
Good luck/Bad luck kind of day!
Bears Butt
June 11, 2014
The other day I asked why an arrow being shown in a slow motion video did a snake like maneuver as left the bow and traveled down range, Night Hawk coined it as “Archers Paradox”….HMMMM I said to myself not knowing what the heck he was talking about. So I went looking for the answer and found this video I think sheds a whole lot of light on not only Archers Paradox, but also a few other things that deals with shooting an arrow out of a bow. I didn’t know any of this until I saw this video. The guy that did this video is obviously a very knowledgeable person when it comes to the science of shooting a bow and arrow and in this video he does a great job at explaining what is going on. I am impressed!
Bears Butt
June 11, 2014
My buddy Muskrat tried to get me to go to the VA hospital over two years ago and get screened at the Agent Orange clinic. I put it off even though I filled out the paperwork and sent it in. I had an excuse every time they contacted me about it. Well, today I’m headed down there for my check up.
Blood work, X ray, and EKG and then a physical. NO cost to veterans.
Hey! If you set foot on Vietnam or Korea in the 1960-1970’s, do yourself a favor and contact the VA and get yourself on the list of Agent Orange list. Agent Orange was the chemical that was used to defoliate the trees and brush in Vietnam and it has been proven to cause a ton of illnesses including cancer to those exposed to it. Whether you think you were exposed or not, if you touched one toe on either of these countries, or if you were responsible for loading or unloading barrels of it on/off an aircraft, you are entitled to a free exam and should you come down with one of the diseases associated with it the VA will treat you for free as well.
Muskrat was one of the victims of this chemical and look where he is now (see Willow Creek Free Trappers who have gone on ahead category).
I thank Muskrat for pushing me in this direction and I encourage you to do the same. The hardest part for me is the drive into Salt Lake City…I hate that drive…an hour of pure hell!
Bears Butt
June 11, 2014
Last evening I went with Weasel down to check on the Beaver issue, and to shoot his newly acquired bow. For one who has not shot a bow in over a million years, I think I did quite well. Actually, the way we used to do it back in the day, was to cut a stout stick, string a good cat gut sinew to it from end to end, cut some other hardwood type wood sticks and sharpen one end and go hunting. As time progressed through my childhood, we actually cut a small notch in the unsharpened end to accommodate the cat gut, that helped keep the cat gut pretty close to the exact center of the back of the sharpened stick.
I could usually hit what I was aiming at from about say…10 feet….pretty good for a boy my size. The actual penetration into the “thing” I hit was all according to sharpness of the stick I used to shoot. Have I ever told you about my left hand thumb?
So, down to the field last night, Weasel offered up a chance to shoot six of his highly prizes arrows at a target some 20 yards away. 20 yards is a considerable distance for a man of my size and age, but I took him up on it and didn’t lose any of his arrows. He even gave me a second chance to “hit the bulls eye”. You know me and bulls and so I don’t usually hit them in the eye anyway.
The thing that was amazing about last evenings experience was the mosquitoes!
They were everywhere and hovering in line…much like going to Smith and Edwards!!! There they were perched on wing, high above us and as we brushed away the ones on our arms, necks, faces and hands, the next swarm would drop in for a good taste of warm blood. It was brutal! But we made it through. This morning I drank an extra glass of orange juice to help build up my blood and right now I feel pretty dang good. So good in fact I want to share this little thing I found on the internet with you:
Bears Butt
June 7, 2014
I was reading a duck hunting story in a Ducks Unlimited magazine and in it the author talked about getting into the duck blind early and also staying late, both meaning before and after legal shooting hours. All of us duck hunters have experienced the flights of birds before and after legal shooting times. There is a magic moment in the waterfowl world where they all seem to want to take flight and all we, as hunters can do, is watch them. Thousands upon thousands of the birds we have chased all day long are now flying in and landing all around us. Quacking and making splashing noises as they hurriedly catch up on their feasting. It’s actually pretty cool to see it. In the early morning twighlight hours as we are setting out our decoys, the birds are in flight to go back to their resting ponds after being out all night. That too is a great sight to see, but it leaves you feeling a bit empty knowing they are going to the resting area and most of them won’t be coming out any time soon.
Anyway, in this story I was reading the author mentioned “Perkinje Effect”…..What the heck is that?
Well I looked it up and in my own way of telling you (without all the scientific stuff) it goes something like this:
A young man named Perkinje, somewhere in Europe, observed that his favorite flower, the Geranium, had a vivid red batch of flowers on the stems and the leaves were dark and contrasty blue/green. He loved these flowers, but his observation was this: As the light of the day began to darken after the sun went down, the red flower took on a different appearance. Now make a note, he probably wasn’t the first one to ever see something change like that, I highly doubt he was, but he was the first to write down what his observance was….the vivid red began to take on a dark shade of well, black and at the same time, the blue/green leaves began to take on a shade of well, whitish.
As time went on, his curiosity continued forcing him to study light and the eyes and how light effects the eyes and how things are seen. So, when we are out hunting and it begins to get dark around us, we have seen how the bushes and trees lose any color and just turn dark, so that all the leaves on the bushes and trees become the same dull shade with little or no 3 d effect to them. We also have noted that the animals begin to show up in abundance as well. Are they showing up at this time of day because they know they have the upper hand on the ability to see after dark…I think so. Especially those with big claws and teeth.
Well, Perkinje wrote down what he saw and theorized what was happening in 1819 and since then there have been a lot of studies done on this. The real “what happens” has changed some since his writing, but it still carries his name. Our eyes have cones and rods in them and it’s the cones that can tell the difference between the colors, while the rods can only see light and dark. In the twilight hours our eyes switch over from the color vision of the cones, to the light vision of the rods. It’s a slow process marked by the visible light around us at the time. The next time you are out camping, get away from any un-natural light source and sit and observe how the colors disappear and turns into a dark something. Try not to worry too much about the sound behind you, it is probably only a large grizzly bear, and if you don’t move, he might just perceive you as another bush in the woods. After all, he don’t got no cones to work with.
Bears Butt
June 6, 2014
Mr. Beaver is once again attacking us in the field! Yesterday I removed his dam from in front of the creek pipe. The water was just about to go over the top of the roadway and had backed up nearly to the narrows of the pasture. Today, Bob went down and removed the dam again. This time it was to the top of the pipe, had water going across the road and water was backed up clear to the creek bridge! This bad boy has to go and go soon! Grab your shotguns boys and girls! $20 bounty!
Winemaker and I are venturing out on this fine Saturday morning to do something we have never done before….hitting the yard sales! We don’t need anything and it’s just a curiosity thing for us…to see how others do theirs. We have had several yard sales in the past and even last year we convinced the neighborhood into having a block sale. It was fun and most of the families got rid of some unwanted stuff. It’s funny what we save and I’m probably the worst….It’s Good Junk and if I throw it away, I’ll be going out and buying another soon…..Ever hear that?
If nothing else it puts the two of us together doing something we both like and that is meeting people and B.S.’n…..we don’t have any definite plans nor specific sights to hit, it will be a drive down the highway looking for the telltale signs of a yard/garage sale. Stop and Gawk! Who knows maybe we will run into that “once in a lifetime” box of highly valuable stuff…this totally reminds me of “Gattlin”! “Got anything in the line of sporting goods”? That’s his main line and it puts him onto some super deals on guns and gear! Sometimes he makes such a good deal on a fancy rifle that I have a tough time knowing how he even sleeps at night.
So, wish us luck! We’re Outa Here!
Bears Butt
May 31, 2014
UPDATE:
That was fun! We hit about 10 yard sales and it was interesting to us to see so many clothes at them…everyone of them. We couldn’t do without a coffee table for Winemakers area down stairs and how could I pass up 5 drill bits for 50Cents! I never got around to asking about “sporting goods”, but we did see some fishing tackle and a lot of power tools. Tons of glassware and dishes also. A wonderful day with a great thing to do. I’m not sure we will ever do it again, as she works on most Saturdays, but today’s adventure was a fun one.
Bears Butt