How To

I love deer season to the point that it’s really all I can think about – I even dream about deer hunting, when I’m working I wish I was out deer hunting; every spare minute is spent in the field. Opening weekend our son, grandson and son-in-law and two granddaughters head to the family farm for a weekend of white tailed deer hunting. This typically means that my opening weekend consists of spending time with the grand kids – they …

I love to hunt and trap in addition to fishing.  However, there is so little time and so much to do in Nebraska’s great outdoors, so it is natural that we develop our favorite activities.  If you have been reading my blog at all, you know mine is mostly fishing.  I love fish and fishing.  If I could design my fantasy calendar, it would be 3 months of spring turkey hunting, 3 months of fall fishing, and 6 months of …

I am already hearing some reports of folks venturing onto Nebraska ice to drill some holes and catch some fish.  Looking ahead at the weather forecast for the next week or so, it looks like our ice-fishing season is upon us or soon will be!  With that I want to again blog about ice safety.  I LOVE to ice-fish and will be on the ice as soon as possible and stay on the ice as late as possible in the …

To me the week of thanksgiving means chasing pheasant.  And by this time of the season pheasants have become wily critters that make a living…well…staying alive.  In fact, it doesn’t take very long after opening day shots are fired for the roosters to begin to use some crafty ways of dodging the hunter – both two and four-legged.  This holds even more true in years when fewer young pheasants are on the landscape.  This is when a it’s time to …

Whitetails Most white-tailed deer live in heavy cover offered by woodlands, and hence, are most abundant along rivers and in forested areas of eastern Nebraska. The easiest way to harvest a whitetail is to spend an evening waiting for one to arrive at its dining room: a crop field adjacent to heavy cover. Chances are you found one of these feeding areas while you were looking for a place to hunt. All you need to do now is find a …

You don’t have to spend much time around a raccoon hunter to figure out the sport has its own vocabulary. Some of the colloquialisms are self-explanatory, but those who don’t know the difference between a bluetick and a deer tick should read on: Strike – When a hound finds the first raccoon scent trail after being sent into the woods at the start of a hunt. Open – The howl a dog lets out when it strikes a track. On …

Many people will take their entire deer, hide and all, to a commercial processor, turning their $28 deer tag into more than $100 of meat their family may not eat. Not to say that most processors aren’t good at what they do, but they are also working with what you give them. Which is, quite often, an ill-prepared collection of meat that can’t help but taste “wild” or “gamey.” Before you make this mistake again, try these steps to make …

There are few things as thrilling as the sound of air rushing through the cupped wings of a mallard flock or the sight of committed Canadas as they extend those big, black paddles.  These are the things that make waterfowlers leave a warm bed at ungodly hours and put in long hours of work prep.  Now’s the time the effort pays off… To help out a bit for those looking to take their pursuit to the next level the Nebraska …

As I readied myself for the evening deer hunt the strong west winds kept hitting me with the dried-up corn leaves left behind by the combine that had passed through the field 4 days earlier.  Perfect for the Alli Way stand.  I found relief from the wind, and the dust it was kicking up, once I dropped down beside a tall north-south bluff on my walk in.  The day was warm but I made my elevated perch and hadn’t worked …

Looking back to the October 2011 issue of NEBRASKAland Magazine, there was a Page 49 department by Nebraska author and humorist Roger Welsch on the proposed “Olympics” of his home town of Dannebrog. Like many Page 49s, this gave me the opportunity to do artwork to accompany the piece. Here is how I went about the process of illustrating this piece: First, I read his essay and highlighted any descriptions that seemed visual and exciting. I knew about how much room …