I have to vent and this is my place to do it.

Every year we cut/rake and bale our hay.  We like to think of it as very high quality hay and those who have purchased from us in the past have raved over how their animals (especially horses) love it and how the animals will clean it up to the point they can’t even see any speck of it on the ground or in the feeding bin.  This is saying a bunch about the quality.  Sure, it isn’t weed free certified, but it’s pretty dang close to it.

So, here we go, year after year, taking care of things down on the farm, fixing fences and watering the hay fields.  It takes a lot of time and very hard work to get it done.  And then around the first of July we have a custom hay person come in and cut it for us.  We do the raking and making sure it is dried properly before baling.  Then the baler guy comes in and bales it up for us.

Before the date for the cutting comes around we all try to sell the hay in the field.  A bale sold in the field means we only have to pick it up once (we load for the customers usually) and is sold at a pretty good discount to the buyer.  We watch the market and we know we are selling our quality hay product for a really good price and if we wanted, we could double our money by taking it out of state…but we don’t.  We like to think we are helping out the locals, who are finding it harder and harder to get good grass hay.  And to hear their feedback, we are doing just that.  Providing them with a top quality product, locally for a very reasonable price.

We work harder than most and want the most we can get from our fields.  We spray for noxious weeds.  We cut the ditch banks and hard to reach places that the custom guy can’t get to with his big equipment.  We work with antiquated equipment and are proud to say, “We did it”!  And when the hay is all in the barn, we hold a party for everyone involved!  Beer and sodas, a home cooked meal of roast beef and roast pork, drippins gravy and mashed potatoes!  Does it get any better than that?  It can’t and it don’t.

Our customers are happy when they receive the call to come and get their hay and we are tired and sweaty, but happy at the same time to proudly place our hard earned bales of hay on their wagon or in their truck.  It’s a proud family tradition and I hope it continues for many, many more years.  It keeps us together as a family, always has, always will.

And then along comes a year like this one, 2014…my calls went out to those who desired to be called about the hay and all of them who still had animals needing the feed, responded with very positive orders.  We lined them all up to come on certain days and the crew loaded them as cheerfully as guys in 100 degree heat can do, even better!  But there was this ONE buyer!

When you have been dealing with hay like ours for as many years as we have, you get to know your fields pretty well.  You also get a good feeling about the stand of hay before it’s cut and a feeling as to the quantity and quality of the hay that will eventually get put into bales.  We had a very good stand of hay this year and even though it would not be any sort of record year it would certainly top our 13 year average (which by the way we have a 99.9% accuracy count of).  Something to the tune of 1800 bales is what this years yield should be.  We always make side bets on the number of bales and the winner will get a dollar from everyone who makes a bet.  This year the bets were: 1725, 1750, 1581, 1836, 1776, 1431, 1620 and 1598.

Additionally, we count on the baler to zero his baler before he starts baling, and we keep a running total of bales p/field so that we can take a buyer into a field that has enough hay so that he doesn’t have to move from one field to another with partial loads.  This system has worked for ever.  This year there was a slight problem and the bale counter wasn’t working quite right.  But before he started, we wrote down the number that was on the counter.  Before the baler moved into field number two, however, the custom guy thought he might have fixed the counter.  As a test of this “fix”, we assigned someone to follow the baler through field number 2 and physically count the bales as they fell onto the ground.  Once the field was baled, we compared the physical count with the bale counter, they were both within 3 bales with the bale counter 3 higher than the physical count.  BUT, later on, when a buyer was moved into this same field, the remaining bales matched what the baler counted and not the physical count.  What happened with the physical count is unknown, but from that point on, we trusted the baler counter.

When all the bales were on the ground and the sold bales and bales put into our own barn were deducted from the bale counter, there should be 1227 bales laying in the field waiting for the last buyer!  The last buyer was called and told the total and they were happy.  I’d see them the next day.  Upon arrival that next day, the buyer went immediately into trying to negotiate something we had not agreed to.  Instead of all of them, they would take a lesser amount because of some fabricated reason…the bales are too light!

Having been involved with baled hay for all these years one gets used to having buyers try and talk you down in price or up in quantity at a discount rate etc.  Anything to make their side of the deal better.  But we know we are already giving them a bargain of a deal in the first place and that without this particular buyer, we can readily sell the hay to someone else.  We stick to our agreements and life goes on.  So it went with this one and a check was cut for the amount agreed upon for this number of bales.  But I did allow for this buyer to post date the check so they would have time to transfer some money.

Well, the agreement was for them to load their own hay, count the bales when they unloaded on their end and give me the total when the fields were all cleaned out.  Pretty straight forward and very trusting on my part.  I have to pay the baler and I pay him on the number of bales counted and stacked and not necessarily on what the bale counter says.

So, last night I get a call from the buyer and they say they have taken out loads to the tune of almost 800 bales and there are less than 200 bales left in the field!  Red Flags begin to fly in my face!  I make the trip to the field and count the bales remaining and sure enough less than 160 bales lay in the field.

Now I’m an honest and very trusting guy and I expect others that I deal with to be equally above board, but this time I have screwed myself!  I put my faith into a person who does not necessarily lose sleep over taking from someone else without paying for the product or service.  They have loaded up out hay and are saying there were not as many bales as they have written their check for and what will I be doing about that?  I inform them that I will keep my side of the agreement and will refund their money, or better yet, I will give them back the check they wrote the other day, in exchange for one in the amount of the hay they say they have taken, plus the bales still remaining in the field.

Last night was a pretty much sleepless night for me, as my head was wrapped tightly around the fact that we knew we had over 1700 bales produced and now with this latest count our total production would be less than 1500 bales.  Something did not set well with me as I have no way of knowing just how many bales were taken.  Again my word is my word and even though we are being seduced out of nearly 300 bales of very expensive hay, I can do nothing about it except learn from my mistake….”Never trust anyone”!

Well, in my sleepless stupor, I got up so as not to keep disturbing my wife and do a quick search on the company name that is on the check….sure enough, the Utah Better Business website shows this is a defunct company!  So, I’m going to be receiving another check from this person with a smaller number on it, still with the name of the defunct companies name on it.  Who keeps checks laying around that say a defunct company’s name in the upper left corner?  Nobody!  And so, again my trust has been broken.  As the daylight begins to lighten outside, I decide I need to go to the bank with this check and see if the account is even still open.  At the time they open I’m there with my questions….is there sufficient funds in this account to cover this check?  No.  If I was to bring in a check with a lesser amount, say closer to $X,YZQ.oo is there sufficient funds to cover that?  No.  Nuff said.

Well, with about 150 bales still laying out in the field for this customer to come and get, I know they will be coming to get them today.  I did get some counseling from the local police and it was suggested I call this person and tell them of my position.  Which I did and the bottom line went to “You can keep your 157 bales and I’ll mail you a check for the amount I owe you for the bales I have”!

Well, we shall see and for sure, I’m not going to get paid for “all the bales they took”, I’m just hoping I get paid for the number of bales they “SAY” they have.

Will I be doing business with this person ever again?  Not in the hay business I won’t.  My biggest fear right now is that I will get to know them a lot better before I ever, If I ever, get my money for the hay they took.

Wish me luck!

Bears Butt

July 22, 2014

Yesterday (Saturday July 12) the local group of archers known as “The Brigham Bowmen”, conducted a state archery event they called the “Utah State Formal”.  I’m not an archer, so please correct me in this article through comments below, but this event is open to amateurs and professionals as well general public archers from all over the country.  The event is meant to be a fun day of flinging arrows and each contestant signed up in his/her class of archery.  In Weasel and Conners case, they signed up as Free Lance Bow Hunters, where Conner was in a youth group and Weasel had to play with the old men and women.  There day started with helping to set up the range and a large shade tent in the Box Elder County Fairgrounds in Tremonton.  A great place for such an event.

The farthest targets were set up down range at 60 yards (for the adults) and the farthest target for the younger shooters was 50 yards.  Either distance would have cost me all my arrows because I don’t think I could hit anything at that distance.  So, you have to understand, this is my very first archery event to ever attend and so it was all new to me.  As I understood, each contestant was to shoot 6 arrows at the target and they had 4 minutes in which to accomplish this task (most did not take even half that time), the range would then be shut down and they would go down range and score their targets.  Also, with the scoring, each shooter would score their own target and then another shooter would also score that same set of arrows.  At first it was confusing to me, but then when my “denseness” caught up with me, it all made perfect sense…nobody could cheat this way.  Besides, line cuts always scored into the higher ring.  I guess the confusion came from a target with 18 or so arrows sticking out of it and they were trying to figure out who’s arrow was who’s and where it poked into the target.  It took me a minute to realize that everyone’s arrows were different in one way or another and each shooter knew what his/hers looked like.

So, 6 arrows were to be sent down range, then counted.  Then all the shooters would come back to the shooting line and do it again.  They did this 5 times at the target for a total  of 30 shots (6X5=30).  Once that set was done, the targets were moved to a closer distance (from 50 yards to 30 for the youngsters and from 60 to 40 for the adults).  Once again the action would be 5 sets of 6 shots for another 30 total shots and scoring between each set.  When that was accomplished, the targets were moved back 10 yards and the process repeated for another 30 shots.  At days end, each shooter had shot 90 times at the targets and a total of 900 points was possible….ya right, it looks good on paper.

As I sat back and watched the shooters, my eyes began to bug out of my head.  At first it was the youngsters who were shooting close by that got my attention.  Of course Conner was shooting his target while another set of young people were shooting at their distance, Conner at 50 yards, them at 30 yards.  There were 3 of them all standing at the line at the same time, and each shooting at the same target (sorting out the arrows would come once the range was closed for that set).  As I looked through my binoculars at the target and seeing the arrows striking the center of the target, each arrow right next to the first one, next to the second one, next to the third and on it went.  At one point I had to say to myself, how on earth can any more arrows fit in such a tight spot?

These youngsters were in a 9 to 11 years old age bracket (I think) and their shooting abilities were amazing to me.

(I’m sorry about the fact that the paper covered the one mans face).

I was very impressed with the shooting of most of the archers and I was equally impressed by the bows they were shooting.

There is a LOT of money tide up in most of their bows and the sighting equipment attached to them.  I asked one of the adult archers about his bow and sights and he said he thought he might be into it around $1600, and that his wasn’t the most expensive on the range!  HOLY MOLY!  One thing for sure, you don’t just lay them down any old place.

But, aside from the equipment the guys who have been shooting in competition for many years (40 plus in some cases), here is Weasel and Conners bow of choice:

Nothing really fancy, but it sure did stick a lot of nice 10 ring arrows!  Conner even had an X ring hit with it at 50 yards!  Way to go Conner!

The temperature of the day continued to climb to somewhere near 100 degrees and I sure was glad there was the big canopy over our heads to provide a little relief from the sun.  But as things progressed and Conner’s shooting session ended, we got to learn a little more about the competition.  He had to add up his scores from each of the different distances he shot and get his score sheet signed and up to the judges.

Hey Conner, why do you need a calculator?  Six shots all in the 10 ring equals 60 points….right?  6 times 5 equals 30!

Here he is with his first set of 30 shots and his 50 yard score.  No, he ain’t crying, but the flash of my camera made him squint his eyes big time!  His first ever competition with a bow, and with only a month of practice under his belt, he scored an impressive 177 out of 300 points at 50 yards!  Look out deer come this season!

Well, the shooting continued and the sun also continued to heat things up.  We consumed some very delicious pulled pork and pulled beef brisket sandwiches and drank a ton of water.  I’ll tell you the sandwiches from the concession stand were some of the BEST tasting I have ever had!  No need for extra sauce!  They were delicious!

After Conner and his large group of shooters got finished shooting their 90 arrows, it was Weasels time to show his stuff.  The judges asked the shooters if they would have any problems for the remaining day and a half of shooting if they could change the rules and have everyone line up and shoot at the same time, rather than break up into “A” and “B” groups….of course nobody had any issues with that.  There had to be a way to speed up the shooting and by allowing everyone on the line at the same time, it certainly did speed it up.  So fast in fact, I never did get any shots of Weasel shooting from the line.

That being said, I think I’ll just post up a few pictures I did take during the day.  Right now I can not tell you if the targets shown are of the youth shooting or the adults shooting, but they are all equally impressive.

And then when the shoot was all over for the day, the three shooters on lane number one, did a little showing off for the rest of the crowd.  Keep in mind, they each person shot 30 rounds at 60 yards, 40 yards and then finished at the 50 yard distance for a total of 270 rounds between the three shooters, all shots were taken at the same target and here is the results:

Only 9 hits outside of the yellow and they told me those were all at the 60 yard line.  Who are these guys?

Very Impressive Shooting !

But wait!  What did Weasel and his group do?

That doesn’t look too bad from the side, how about from the front looking in?

That highest arrow was one Weasel put down and I think he did that because the wind was blowing the top of the target around, so he “pinned” it.  I think this is a pretty impressive display of shooting as well!

Congratulations to all the shooters and to the Brigham Bowmen (and women) for pulling off such a great State sanctioned event!

And when it was all over, the President of the Brigham Bowmen Association made Dry Dog two special strings for his long bows!  I’ll bet we see these at the Willow Creek Free Trappers annual rendezvous this September!  Thanks Cory!

Great job everyone!

Bears Butt

July 13, 2014

UPDATE:

The UN-Official results of the tourney:  Weasel lands 4th in his division with an overall score of 662 and Conner takes 3rd with 633!  Congrats to you both!

Today will be a very different day for me at least….you see, we start dealing with the hay come Thursday and I have yet to call the first hay buyer, but instead of dealing with things like that, a group of us are heading off to the Crawford Mountains to see if we can find my old (lost) powder horn…remember that story from last deer hunt?  Actually it’s more of a get away from the norm than to find the horn…sort of rhymes….It would be nice to find that horn because it means so much to me, but I highly doubt we will.

So, Bones, Tracker, Aricka, Wapiti, Edjukateer, Weasel, Kenzie and myself are all headed up there for a toy ride.  Tracker and Bones of course will have their Rhino.  Dry Dog just heard about our trip last night and he might make it up and meet us there.  We are taking along an arsenal of weapons as well in case we see a coyote.  Weasel his 223, Wapiti his 22-250 and I’ll take my 17 HMR, and of course everyone will be “packing”…..There are usually a lot of coyotes up there and now would be a great time to take a bunch of them out.  The fawns are big enough that they make great meals for them critters.

I promise to take a lot of pictures and will post up on here when we get back.  Wish us luck and hope to find the powder horn.

Bears Butt

July 7, 2014

POST RIDE

We got away from town about 7 a.m., which isn’t really early, but early enough for this gang.  Our ride up over Logan Canyon to our destination was pretty much uneventful, which is nice.   We decided to unload in the same place we usually put our camp when someone draws the coveted Crawfords tag.  It sure looks a lot different this time of year and we all wondered just how on earth we ever put 3 campers in that small area and still have room for the dining fly and easy ups.

The temperature at this time (9:30 or so) was 65 degrees and it was quite obvious it was going to be a very hot day.  We took plenty of water for the trip.  Our time on the mountain would have to be short as Edjukateer had to be back to work by 7 p.m. and we have nearly a 3 hour drive to get home.  So, we loaded up as quickly as we could and headed out.  It was obvious the kids were anxious to get going.

Conner is riding with me and he is ready to spot some coyotes.

Aricka is driving the Rhino, at least as far as the rocky dugway, while Kenzie rides shotgun and Bones and Tracker ride in the back.

Our goal, once again, is to get over to where Edjukateer and I tried to get up closer to a couple of bucks last muzz season and try and recall our trail, with the ultimate goal of finding my powder horn.  That is the most likely spot I could have lost it, however it’s never certain, it could have fallen off my shoulder while taking a stretch break.  We will check a couple of those spots on our way as well.

Looking at the country side you would never expect to see hundreds of massive bucks hanging around in this country when it’s 20 degrees below zero, but that is exactly what happens each year.

This was where we took our first stretch break and a possibility that I could have dropped it along side the road.  But we didn’t find it here.

We still had about 3 miles to travel to get to the spot where the bucks were and so we continued on our way.  Some driving slower than others.

When we got to the rocky dugway, Tracker took over the driving from Aricka.  That dugway is a nasty bugger with huge rocks and many dangers to vehicles.  We all made it safely over it and were on our way again.

Before too long we made it to the spot.  For some odd reason, I didn’t take any more pictures of this trip.  I guess my mind was so totally on finding that powder horn I forgot everything else.

We spent over an hour combing that area and Edjukateer, Wapiti and I were trying our best to recall exactly what took place on that day.  We covered it very thoroughly and came home empty.  We gave it a good try, that is the best we could have hoped for.  Our trip ended with us being back home about 5 p.m., a wonderful day in the mountains!

Thanks everyone for going and giving it a go!

Bears Butt

July 8, 2014

As you have noticed there have not been any posts for awhile and the reason is my time has been pretty much consumed with the shooting event for the 4th of July!  Always a fun event.  This year there were nearly 60 people in attendance and over 30 shooters, including 7 shooting bows.  We didn’t have any paper targets this year and that made it a very fun thing.  Paper targets get boring, plus I’m having a tough time thinking of a different and yet fun picture to shoot at.

So, this year we started with the “Ball Split”, shooting at the sharp edge of an ax and breaking two clay pigeons, one on either side of the blade.  Impossible!  You say!  Not so!  However the shooters had a tough go of it at first with only one clay pigeon being broken for quite awhile and then a young man named “Butt Shot” broke the trend and busted them both!  That put him in the lead and made the rest of the shooters have to bear down and try to match him!

As each shooter came forward and tried their hand at it, soon we had our leaders, but with only 4 prizes to give away, we had to have a shoot off.  Rather than shoot again at the ax blade we set clays on top of the log and had them shoot the edge of it.  You would think that if you could hit the sharp edge of an ax that the 3/8ths thick edge of the clay pigeon would be a given to hit….not so and in the end we ended up with our 4 marksmen.  And then we went into another shoot with these four to determine 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th….We had them each shoot at a 1 inch square sticker and the closest to the center with a hit would be 1st and so on.  That was a fun shoot!

Shoot number 2 had to be approved by the County Fire Marshall, and since he was on the scene and we had a backup fire department person with a pumper truck also on site, we went forward with a “Candle Shoot”….this was Weasels idea and it worked very well.  We cut windows out of the sides of some aluminum cans and hot glued a birthday candle in each of the cans.  Shooting 10 at a time, Bones, Weasel and I were able to get the candles lit and back behind the shooters so they could puff out the flame with their shot.  I was very surprised at how many of them actually shot and put the flames out without hitting the wax of the candle.  This shoot also ended up with the shooters breaking ties by shooting at the small black square stickies.  As this event was unfolding, one of the archers had placed his arrow neatly above his flame but the flame did not go out.  So, while we were busy making sure everyone had taken their shot, the flame from the candle licked the carbon shaft of the arrow and eventually the back end of the arrow sank lower and lower to form a ninety degree angle!  A ruined arrow for sure, but the man got a name out of it “Flaming Arrow”!

Our third shoot was at the pop top from the can that we used for the candle shoot!  A very small target for sure and it only took one volley of shots to get our 4 winners.  You think about it, a pop top from an aluminum can is not very big in the first place, but now take it 20 yards away from where you are shooting and it is extremely small.  Most gun sights cover it up completely.

The 4th target was a two shot shoot where the object was to hit the cotton on either end of a cotton swab.  I was amazed to see how serious these shooters were getting by now.  Many of them hit both end of the cotton swab and again we had to have a shoot off at a little black square sticky.

On to the 5th and last target, we saved the cut out portion of the aluminum cans and tied them to a string.  The object of this shoot was to hang it so the breeze would blow it around a bit.  Each shooter had to hit the piece of aluminum in order to proceed to the next level.  Several of the shooters were out of the competition after round one, but those still in it got to fold their piece of aluminum in half and shoot again.  Many more got to sit back and relax after round two, but there were plenty who hit it a second time….so….they got to fold it again for a third shot.  After the 3rd round we still had more than 4 people playing and we only had 4 prizes to give away, so they muscled one more fold and shot again.  This round yielded our 4 top shooters, but then we had to have another shoot off to determine who was first place…again out came the small black squares.  That round determined our winners quickly.

In addition to the shoots, we had made up two special events to add revenue to the pot for the Willard Volunteer Fire Department’s fund.  I made a cardboard cut out of a “near” circle (best I could do under my not so talented ways) and painted it red, white and blue.  Then we put 3 inch long 1/2 inch wide labels around the outer edge of it and numbered each one.  At the Firemans Ball the night of the 3rd of July, Weasel went around and sold each label for $1 each.  The people donating put their names on the label and also on a “totals” board with each numbered label being listed, they put their name and phone number.  Why?  Because this special wheel was to be spun on a bike wheel and an archer was to shoot an arrow into the spinning disk.   The arrow would pierce one of the labels and who ever had their name on that label got 1/2 of the money we collected!  Great deal for anyone into a little gambling.  We ended up calling it the “Wheel of Fortune”!

We let the archers decide who would be doing the shooting and Cory “Night Hawk” Barton drew the long straw and even though his first arrow was outside the wheel, his second attempt found its mark in Adam Christensen’s sticker!  Adam was called later that day and came over and collected his $36!  Congratulations Adam!!!!

Well, the very last event for the day was what I called “Drown the Bears Butt”!  I put together a make shift shelf and attached it with hinges to the door of the Willow Creek Free Trappers P.O.S. trailer.  A look in a rope is attached to this shelf, goes up and over a 3 gallon bucket of water sitting atop the shelf, through a pulley and then down range to the backstop.  Then a nylon string is attached to the rope and extended tightly down to an anchor stake.  For $1 per shot, shooters can try and cut the string, which then releases the upward pressure on the shelf and yours truly gets hammered with 3 gallons of water.

Night Hawk put up $20 in order to have the seven bowmen shoot at the string first.  Mostly because they have to have a backstop behind the target to stop their arrows.  Nobody would argue with this and so they had first crack at breaking the string.  Of course they were all using broadhead arrows.  As I sat behind them watching them fling their arrows down range, I could see and hear the arrows streaming toward the string one at a time and the thumping of the arrows as they hit the backstop.  After the sixth arrow hit the stop, I gave a sigh of relief to think I had escaped the drowning, when suddenly a seventh arrow went flying down range!  Things appeared to me in slow motion as the arrow cruised past the string and the edge of the broadhead cut it cleanly!  The overhead rope came back toward us and down came the cold water solidly dumping on top of me!

When the arrow backstop had been removed, Dry Dog, Lead Burn and 3 guns all had put money into the pot for their cracks at breaking the string.  I have to admit, Dry Dog can sure think up some strange things to try and make sure Bears Butt gets soaked.  He loaded and shot 4 inch lengths of heavy beaded chain and 00 buckshot, maxi balls and all sorts of other stuff trying to break that string but it wasn’t until he shot a maxiball and hit the ground stake did the string let loose and drown me.  3 Guns and Lead Burn each “did things the right way”, but didn’t connect with the string.  After try 10 times, Lead Burn finally took a stroll down range and cut it with his knife!

It was a wonderful day at the range and we will be doing it again!  Thank you to all who came and enjoyed the afternoon and donated their money to a wonderful cause!  The Willard City Volunteer Fire Department!

Thanks to my helpers, Bones and Weasel…I could not have been done without you helping!

Thanks also to the following sponsors and prize donors:  Arnell Wells, Granite Construction Inc., Cover Up Embroidery, Kendall Chambers, Garth Barker, Larry’s Service, Big Boy Toys and the many business’ that donated gifts to the Willard Fire Department (I don’t know who they were, but the prizes I received from the fire department were WONDERFUL)!!!!

Bears Butt

July 6, 2014