tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37220788413614511612024-02-18T19:44:46.054-06:00The Thinking HunterGalen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.comBlogger135125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-14448038739028152812013-03-31T02:04:00.000-05:002013-03-31T02:04:28.324-05:00Spring WILL Come & A Thought on Bloomberg
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I am now starting to believe that this North Dakota winter will
finally end!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The temperature has been
creeping up by just a degree or two each day and in response the snow pack depth
has been dropping by an inch or two each day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Eventually green will replace white and I’ll be reaping the rewards of
North Dakota’s long summer days. </div>
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Yesterday I heard the snow geese flying over but the fog was
so dense I never got a look at them, but it was good to hear them after a long
winter with howling winds carrying the yip of coyotes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After hearing the geese I did take a short
drive into the countryside to see if the snow melt will let me get to hunting
fields. Nope. The mud is deep, thick and clinging which leaves me looking for some
pass shooting opportunities as snow geese drop into or leave a field. The
season is open until early May so I’ve got the whole month of April to get some
snows. I am pretty confident I’ll get the opportunity to bring some down for
Cookie to bring out of the muddy field so my feet stay dry!</div>
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When the idea of spring goose hunting was first being kicked
around I wasn’t impressed because, like most other hunters, I had been brought
up on the idea of waterfowl hunting in the fall and early winter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somehow, I thought that spring hunting was
cheating and it gave hunters an unfair advantage. It took a few years to change
my thinking but I did and now I look forward to the spring season as a
reaffirmation of nature’s bounty and, of course, our position as hunters within
nature. </div>
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Another Thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>. .</div>
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I hope that this insane anti gun hysteria that has flamed across
the country is not going to morph into more anti-hunting hype, all because of Bloomberg’s
misrepresentation of hunters in his gun-control ads. What has truly vexed me is
that he and his crew of malcontent mayors and coattail hanger-ons seem to feel
they have the right to influence how North Dakota’s elected officials should
vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We elected our officials,
Bloomberg’s Bums didn’t. What we are seeing from Bloomberg and his followers is
another step in the direction of greater class separation, a conflict that is
being fueled by those who have the biggest bankroll! In today’s culture of
wealth at any cost, as an individual’s bankroll grows, if they spend a
proportional amount of time admiring their reflection in the mirror, they will begin
painting gilt on the mirror’s frame, adding more gold to the mirror until the
frame breaks the mirror, and they then believe thieves from the lower classes
smashed the frame to steal the gold. In their minds they are justified in
denying rights to others because of the broken frame mindset. Fortunately, not
all members of the wealthy class are fooled by a gilded mirror frame and do not
align themselves or their business with the paranoid Bloomberg culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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glg</div>
Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-75434413570660202642013-01-31T00:58:00.000-06:002013-01-31T00:58:06.073-06:00Signs of Things?
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The other day I was driving home
from the Fargo VA hospital and I noticed something disturbing, a proliferation
of “No Hunting” and “No Trespassing” signs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Along one stretch of highway there were posted signs for every field, on
both sides of the road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Frankly, I don’t
blame landowners for posting their property because it is one of the few
methods available to them for the control of who is hunting their lands because
here in North Dakota posted signs are required if a land owner wants to exclude
people, especially hunters, from venturing onto their property. If the land is
not posted the presumption is that the landowner is allowing access.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are restrictions, of course, but the
point is that unlike many other parts of the country, where privately owned
lands do not require posting to be closed, North Dakota’s privately owned lands
are considered open unless they are posted. The system works here because more
than 95-percent of the state is privately owned and even with the state’s PLOTS
(Private Lands Open To Sportsmen) program to provide hunting opportunities,
many of the state’s better hunting lands are not enrolled in PLOTS. Traditionally,
North Dakota’s farmers and hunters had a cultural bond going back to the state’s
19<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> and early 20<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> century Northern European immigrants
that assured the state’s sportsmen and women a place to hunt. </div>
What I find distressing is that
the increase in posted signs seems to be a corollary to the disappearance of lands
enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), and the number of tree
lines being cleared to add a very few acres of cultivated land to a farm. I understand
and appreciate the farmers’ need to profit from their crops but a significant
amount of these land losses are being driven by the lure of inflated profits
being generated by the growth of the bio-fuel industry. So, what we are seeing
is that the sword of our drive for alternative fuels has its “other” sharp side
and it too, cuts. In a state like North Dakota, where there is very little
publicly owned land, as compared to the western states with vast tracts of
public land, there is the threat of huge losses of habitat and the subsequent crash
of wildlife populations, if the grasslands, and other private lands once
maintained as habitat, are lost to cultivation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
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I don’t know how much of this
land loss to cultivation is by local landowners and how much is being
orchestrated by absentee landowners giving instructions to farm managers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have heard complaints from some locals that
absentee landowners, primarily corporate landowners, are to blame for the
losses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do not know the veracity of the
statements, but where there is smoke there is usually some sort of fire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I do know is that when Michelle and I
moved here there was an amazing amount of game and there was nearly twice as
much CRP land. In the last four years there has been a steady decline in CRP
and a corresponding decline of wildlife (game and nongame). The declines can be
attributed to successive severe winters and natural causes but at the root of
the numbers is loss of habitat and its compounding effect on wildlife survival.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
These problems are not exclusive
to North Dakota. At writers’ conferences and by email I’ve heard similar
complaints, i.e. we are trading lands that had once been marginal for crops or
energy production, but ideal for wildlife habitat, for the production of energy
regardless of how marginal the production. <br />
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A very real result of these
losses is something that we may not recognize until it is too late to recover
from it, and that is the loss of aesthetic value of the lands and the wildlife
as they contributed to the whole of the state and the nation. It is not rocket
science to look back in the nation’s history and see where one of the
recognized values of wilderness was its “existence” whether a person was able
to experience it or simply know it existed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For some it may be a stretch to compare a wilderness or even a second or
third growth forest to a half section of grass covered land set aside in CRP,
but the notes of song birds, thrill of seeing a deer or flushing a game bird is
exactly the same regardless of location. The presence of lands where men and
women could go and restore their connection with nature, even if only in books,
magazines and pictures, was a cherished national aesthetic throughout our Republic’s
history. </div>
Every new posted sign, or row of trees
ripped out of the ground and burned, and each acre of land pulled from the CRP,
is a loss. I wonder if we should formulate a miles per acre rather than miles
per gallon exchange rate. It should be obvious to everyone that the sword of
energy independence that we’ve been swinging has two sides and no one knows
that fact better than the hunter who no longer has a place to hunt.<br />
Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-37227449393860643612013-01-16T01:12:00.000-06:002013-01-16T01:12:01.715-06:00Bummer Year
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On occasion just about everyone
has a bummer year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me, it was this
past year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I lost too many friends, and
then my only sister, all in the same year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Frankly, as the losses were piling up, one after another, and each one
unexpected, I wanted to separate myself from the outside world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over the course of the year my retreat
included letting much of my work slide. But this is a new year and although it
has started somewhat slowly I have high hopes for the months to come. Unfortunately,
that hope did not include attending this year’s SHOT Show. Although I did
register for the show and made my reservations I opted, at the last minute, to
not attend. Simply put, I didn’t think I would be in the mood for dealing with
people, even though so many of them are friends and have been for many
years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there are times when we need
to take a step back and give ourselves time to catch a breath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s what I’ve done for the past several
months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, I am back at work and I
hope that I can craft some writing for “The Thinking Hunter,” “The Pines
Review,” and my other outlets that will have meaning and purpose.</div>
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One aspect of not attending the
SHOT Show is that I have time to sit in front of the tube and listen to the
various networks’ expound upon the current debate on guns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no surprise that the anti-gun groups
seized the initiative and launched their attacks. To me these past few weeks
have been filled with the most self-serving garbage that has ever passed
through a television camera. About the only thing that the networks haven’t
been guilty of is standing on top of the news studio desk and cheering for the
madman who murdered those children and adults. Still, New York didn’t waste any
time and is the first casualty in what promises to be a long, long winter,
spring and probably summer. What we, the men and women of this country who are
the gun owners, need to do is keep our heads and avoid being caught up in the emotionalism
that will be slung about like dung. Let’s not give the antigun groups room to
run rough shod over facts. We need to be aware that in the coming political and
legal fight if we allow ourselves to be dragged into an emotional battle we
will not win. In the past few years we’ve proven that a slow and honest
education of non-vocal gun owners and much of that part of the population that
is not gun owning can be successful. It won’t be easy but we can do it--we need
to do it--the stakes are too high to fail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
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<o:p> </o:p></div>
Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-77631567563560223372012-07-24T00:33:00.002-05:002012-07-24T00:33:38.367-05:00Are we losing the "Fun" in "Fund Raiser" Events?This is a Blog post that I wrote weeks ago. I’ve been up to my neck in projects, and a couple of issues, that I simply have not had time to sit and Blog. I’m hoping to do better and post more often because it is something I enjoy. glg<br />
<br /> I won a gun. Actually I won a rifle, a Savage .17 HMR to be specific. Now, to say that I won it implies that I got it for free or for the price of a raffle ticket--the latter is true--I got it for a raffle ticket. The raffle was part of the Finley Wildlife and Gun Club’s biennial fund raising effort and I figure that over the past decade I’ve bought enough gun raffle tickets that I could have bought two, maybe even three rifles of similar price. That’s also the sentiment that I hear from many of the hunters who attend the biennial fund raiser, but they complain with a laugh and admit they attend the auction and dinner for camaraderie (aka, drinking) and because the Finley Wildlife Club is an active member of the community and the money raised does go to good use, including scholarships, the local school and so on. There is a group of people (men and women), however, that use banquet/auction/raffle fund raisers as a source of products for resale. These individuals rarely care about the end use of whatever money is raised and are seldom members of the organization holding the event unless their ticket price includes membership. They are attending the event for the singular purpose of scoring bargain prices on selected auction goods, and by buying large numbers of raffle tickets, while keeping the amount spent on tickets at an acceptable loss/risk level, their odds of taking home raffle items is increased substantially, all of which will later turn a profit. At an event I attended earlier this year I was surprised when one person won a quarter of the firearms raffled and another substantial prize, plus won the bidding on a number of the more expensive auction items. When I said he “is one lucky S-O-B” I was told it isn’t luck--“he’s a professional, all of those guns will be sold at gun shows and the other stuff on eBay or his web site.”<br />
<br />The comment that struck me hardest came from another hunter who said: “Guys like him don’t leave much for the rest of us, if it wasn’t for where the money raised goes, I wouldn’t be here. If there is a benefit auction or raffle around here you can count on him (pointing to the person under discussion) being there and walking out with an armload of stuff--it isn’t luck. They’re taking the fun out of these things.”<br />
<br />His comments were echoed by several other attendees.<br />
<br />Until Michelle and I moved to North Dakota I was unaware of there being a large group of people who specialize in going from fund raiser to fund raiser and also purchase large numbers of raffle tickets to significantly improve their chances of winning and then selling the prize for a profit. I also learned that many of these individuals are also the auction bidders who carefully study items to be auctioned off, make notes of items’ value, then bid the more expensive items past the bargain price others had hoped would win the bidding yet keeping it low enough to realize a profit later. I have also been told that these bidders will often work in teams to squeeze out other bidders yet keep the final bid at or below a specified price, all of which is frustrating many “average Joes and Janes.” (Readers: FYI: I have helped organize nearly two dozen fund raisers with raffles and auctions and only recently seen this phenomenon emerge so consistently although one retired auctioneer told me it was a common practice throughout his career. At the Finley Wildlife Club’s event this has not been an issue but at other events in nearby cities it has been.) <br />
<br />At first, one is tempted to point out that because the money is going to a good cause there shouldn’t be any problem with having these people attend and pour their money into the cause. I agree--up to a point--that being that when the Joes and Janes of the outdoors begin to lose interest in attending our fund raising events because it is becoming increasingly hard for them to win the bidding at an auction and the odds of winning in a raffle are reduced to a level where winning would be “stacked against the odds” because so many tickets are sold to an individual, then we have a problem. What needs to be recognized by the organizers of the various fund raising events that are held around the country (and that does include me) is that when the Joes and Janes begin to drop out of these events it brings them a few steps closer to dropping out of the outdoor sports. The demands on their free time are such that they can quickly justify not going hunting, fishing or out to the range because any of the myriad other activities that are pulling at them can replace the outdoors and shooting sports. Yet, even with this problem firmly understood there still exist the fact that if a person has bought their ticket(s) that person is entitled to win whatever they are drawn for or win at auction. Trying to ban them would be a mistake and probably open some legal questions. <br />
<br />All of that said, I would like to see the organizations that rely on dinner/auction/raffle events to raise money for their cause to post a sign and print on the dinner tickets something like this:<br />The auction and raffle prizes are intended to be used by the winners to enhance their outdoor (or shooting) experience and not as items to be professionally resold on web sites or other outlets. <br />Maybe it is too much to ask because in modern America, profit, whether it is profit to fund Nonprofits, or profit for the individual, has replaced what had been the desire to do good things. Maybe, just maybe, if the Joes and Janes saw such a sign or read a similar statement on the back of their banquet ticket they would feel a little better if they didn’t win that prize they were hoping for.<br />glg<br />Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-77423927409211165042012-05-29T02:03:00.000-05:002012-05-29T02:03:24.307-05:00Summer ProjectProject for the summer--find out how true the regulation is on my new Cabela's muzzle loader double rifle. Once I know their regulation then I can start shoot for best load. It is a .50 caliber and if any of you have some advice on loads I wouldn't mind hearing them. glgGalen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-49393955859276514812012-05-26T01:02:00.000-05:002012-05-26T01:02:32.611-05:00Surprise, Surprise and What's Wrong With Us?Surprise, surprise, I am still around but I haven’t posted anything in weeks because--well--I didn’t want to write! That, in itself, is a surprise because for 40+ years I have always had something that I wanted to write about, but for weeks now I haven’t wanted to write about several outdoor related events that made the national news. I know my reluctance is not writer’s block because when I have found myself on a deadline I was able to get the assignment written, but I couldn’t pen a decent blog post. What makes that reluctance to write surprising is that the issues I have been thinking about, often in great detail and even digging into the issues with additional research, are timely, relevant, and important to all of us who enjoy fishing, hunting and shooting. However, every time I tried to write a draft of a post I became so discouraged that I would put down my pen and turn to working in my yard and garden.<br />
<br />Some might argue that I have been in a slump brought on by the spring weather, or some malady. I think my reluctance to write has been a response to the sheer idiocy that has been exhibited by so many of the outdoor media’s celebrities, and outdoor professionals (guides and outfitters). Let’s be honest, a significant number of these people have behaved in ways that are appalling at the very least. If you go online and begin counting up the game violations by these people you quickly realize we’ve got a problem and it is best expressed in the immortalized words of Strather Martin and Paul Newman: “what we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” The failure is that too many outdoor celebs and professionals are starting to believe their own press releases and from that they are expecting a “bye” when their actions violate the law. What is troubling beyond the actual “criminal act” they are charged with is that they have violated the trust between themselves, their fans, and society as a whole. These miscreants have forgotten that the men and women who are the anglers and hunters of our society most often carry out their activity without any other eyes watching over them, and they do so ethically and honestly, exactly the way they expect others to conduct themselves in similar situations. The vast majority of outdoor men and women are aware that society has entrusted them, through the hunting licenses and the premise of a right to hunt, with an honor system that the game laws will be honored. This is the very foundation of the protection of the right to hunt--it is based entirely on the ethical action of the individual. Sometimes there is a collision between what the ethical behavior is and what “needs” to be done, and when that happens we must make a choice that is based on the most favorable outcome. For a person to follow that principle in the field is not a part time choice but one that dictates all of the actions of the individual, but here is the sticking point: the action must be entirely self started and self completed even if others are present to observe the action. If a person will act outside what is ethical or “need,” regardless of the presence or lack of presence of anyone to observe the action, then is it reasonable to assume that person’s actions are not unusual but part of a pattern? I believe it is, and for evidence of the truth of that belief one needs only to review some of the court documents pertaining to the outdoor celebrity miscreants to see their pattern of game violations.<br />
<br />I am sure that some of you will wonder why I should care so much and my answer to you is that we, all of us who love the outdoors and fishing/hunting, must care because their actions taint all of us in the eyes of nonparticipants. Then, when the time comes (as it invariably does) for the general public to vote on a hunting related issue, the pro hunting groups must overcome a negative image generated by the miscreants’ actions. When we try to use the argument that more that 95-percent of all anglers and hunters are ethical and do follow the game laws and the principles of good sportsmanship the response is often, “how do we know?”<br />
<br />The fact is that we can only know our own actions and assume the actions of others are equally ethical. We cannot know how often the celeb that makes the news for game violations or other actions violates the law or is unethical. The tragic truth is that the rest of us must bear the burden of “their” guilt and consequently redouble our efforts to maintain our right to hunt. In a time when the politics of hunting is getting more segmented and the anti-hunting/gun elements have an increasingly well funded (although still historically, culturally and ethically inaccurate) argument, we cannot afford to continue supporting the miscreant celebrities of our industry. <br />
<br />If an outdoor celebrity cannot gather the footage or sound bites they need for their programs within the law and abide by the angling or hunting ethics, but knowingly violate the law to get their bites, then they do not deserve our support, whether it is watching/listening to their broadcasts, or buying their products. Yet, a sizable portion of the angler and hunter population continues to support them to the point of verbally trouncing anyone who speaks out against the celebrity! Case in point is Ted Nugent. Numerous editors and even the National Rifle Association have all remained silent about Nugent’s behavior and when asked why, we discover it is because Nugent’s fans are ready to rip into anyone who speaks out or writes against Nugent and they are afraid that condemning Nugent’s actions will “rock the boat.” They are unwilling to risk losing readers or members. In short, membership fees and subscribers are more important than the future of the outdoors and Second Amendment!<br />
<br />What is this drive by these fans to give celebrities more room to maneuver, even when those maneuverings are detrimental to all of us? <br />
<br />I do not have an answer. This much I do know; if we are going to continue giving them “passes” for their misbehavior eventually we’re going to pay a much higher price. These men (and women) may have paid the court imposed prices for their actions, but that price alone does not repair the damage they have done to the nonparticipant’s perception of the outdoor community. <br />
<br />A final thought on this troublesome issue has to do with the notion that a person can pile up good deeds and be forgiven for any of their trespasses. Without burrowing into the philosophy of “good” and “good actions” let it be sufficient to say that in the real world, regardless of how many times a celebrity reminds us that he or she has taken dying children, or wounded veterans, on hunting or fishing trips, the fact remains that the celebrity has violated the law, the ethics, and the true philosophy of the outdoor sports--a fact that cannot be repaired or erased by the public spectacle of “good deeds” but only by the offender’s public contrition. They need to let their “good deeds” stand alone and not use sick children and wounded veterans as a public bag balm to hide the effects of their actions. glgGalen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-65332329953066901592012-03-31T00:00:00.000-05:002012-03-31T00:00:40.307-05:00Finding and losing the snow geese<br />
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">The
other day I was walking between my office and the house when I heard the
geese.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At first I could hear just a few
then suddenly the sky was full of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I stood mesmerized by the skeins of birds that stretched across the sky
above Finley.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Had I been in the field I
would have been in easy range for some pass shooting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From my backyard, however, all I could do was
stand and watch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I glanced at my watch
and the show lasted for just under fifteen minutes without a serious letup in
the number of birds passing overhead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Later
that day I went for a drive to try and figure out which of the large sloughs in
the area the birds were using at night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My intent was to find places where I could get under the birds for pass
shooting. The geese were not where I expected and I returned home somewhat
frustrated.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Yesterday,
however, I did find the geese, or at least several thousand of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Snows and blues by the thousand with a
scattering of Canada geese (including quite a few Giant Canada geese) covered
the fields.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I watched them and decided
my best bet would be to mark the fields they flew into and then beat them to
the field the next morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I did
beat the geese then I could get in a few pass shots as they make their approach.
The trick to being successful is to be settled in well before the birds pass
overhead and that the hide be in a position where the birds have dropped to
tree-top height. But, like all things in hunting, sometimes it works, sometimes
it doesn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It didn’t. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">The
geese I’d seen the day before were gone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Easy come, easy go. The spring season is open until May and there are
other flocks of snows in the surrounding area, all I need to do is find them again
and plan another hunt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-48631718132363129492012-03-09T23:15:00.000-06:002012-03-09T23:15:27.244-06:00Therapy Writing & Spring Goose Hunting Might Help<br />
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A NOTE: Sometimes the thing for a
writer to do is simply start writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Choose a word, any word and from that word begin forming a sentence,
than another and another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is this
post.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is my own therapeutic exercise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>glg</div>
The early spring goose season
opened last month and will continue into early May, and I’ve been thinking that
it would be good for me to get out and spend some time hunting geese.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am sure that by getting out of my office
and into the fields my mental outlook would be improved.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Since returning from the SHOT
Show I’ve had a sort of ho-hum not interested detachment from the world outside
my office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It hasn’t been the usual
brutal weather of North Dakota eating at me, because until a couple of weeks
ago we hadn’t had any decidedly brutal weather.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In fact, it has been the opposite, which is good because the mild
winter, if it combines with a mild spring, will give the upland birds and deer
an opportunity to rebound from the depredations of the past few winters. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nope, what’s been eating at me is a book
project that has vexed me for two years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
As some of my readers know, 32
years ago, right after the Russians invaded Afghanistan, I went on assignment
to Afghanistan for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Soldier of Fortune</i>
magazine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although it took some effort I
finally got inside Afghanistan along with an Englishman (Peter Jouvenal) and we
were able to successfully complete a really wild assignment that actually had
some far reaching impact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did write
about “most” of the assignment and what we were able to accomplish for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Soldier of Fortune</i> and some other
publications and newspapers, and in fact a grateful US government actually paid
us (SOF, Peter and myself) a hefty reward for Peter and my efforts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, not all the story was told and a
security lid was clamped down on part of the adventure, but now, after 32 years,
the whole story can be told and I’ve been trying to write the book--but the
story is not cooperating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of everything
that I’ve written this is proving to be the most difficult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know that I will complete it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am confident that I will be able to get a
full draft written before the end of spring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Then, once I am sure the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pines
Review</i> work is completed and whatever writing tasks I’ve got to complete
are filed with the appropriate editors--I am going to go someplace and work on
the manuscript, type all the editing and corrections into it and send it off to
my agent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hopefully, he’ll find it is in
shape for publishers to read and I can retreat to the lakes around here and spend
some time seriously fishing. Better yet, I will take some time and go to
California and see my son and his family and spend some time fishing with my
grandkids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
It is all dependent on getting this
book finished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fortunately, I am not working
just from memory because I’ve got my journals, newspaper clippings and a lot of
photographs, plus the published articles, so I’ve got most of the research
material. It’s just a matter of doing it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There is a twist, which is that whenever I would teach a writing class I
would tell the students that what they needed was a bottle of glue to glue
their butts to the chair so they could write.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It isn’t the glue in my case, it’s the time sitting and looking at the
screen and willing myself to revisit those few weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s just a world apart from where I now live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is an uncomfortable world that was
dominated by lies, deceit, and pushing to the very edge of the rationale for a
story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When all was said and done I
switched to outdoor writing, Peter, however, stayed on in that war-torn hell to
become an internationally famous cameraman of the first order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter is so revered by many correspondents
that it is not uncommon to hear him referred to as the “bravest cameraman in
the world.” It’s true that Peter is that, and more, and those few weeks when we
shared the risk and won a bit of glory by outwitting the Russians, are times
that continue to define me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the risk
of our lives we accomplished something that no one else in the world had been
able to do, and in the end we know we impacted the course of history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were many others who followed us, and
Peter was often with them, but it was a path Peter blazed and allowed me to
join him on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was not Charlie Wilson,
the CIA, Dan Rather or anyone else who first went into that darkness, but three
people, Peter Jouvenal, Edward Girardet and myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This book is the most stressful writing I’ve
ever worked on, but I will bring it all together and the story will be told.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
My therapy session is now over.<br />Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-74188701213583142522012-02-16T23:21:00.000-06:002012-02-16T23:21:20.666-06:00Fixing Things That Don't Need To Be Fixed<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">My fingers have become numb from
typing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obviously, I haven’t been
writing for my blog but I have been writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’ve been trying to get caught up on some article assignments and I am
now 2/3 of the way to being caught up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Of course, being caught up only means that I will then return to other
writing projects that are sitting in the wings, which includes two book
projects, “The Pines Review,” and a couple of other projects that are close to
my gizzard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">I’ve decided to keep the name of this
bog as it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why fiddle with something
that works?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too often we are tempted to
do exactly that and when we succumb to the temptation to tinker it is the rare
person who can honestly say they’ve improved things. That’s a problem that
plagues the entire outdoor industry--too many people want to “fix” something
that isn’t broken. Throughout the four days of the SHOT Show I kept hearing
complaints about different aspects of the shooting and hunting world needing to
be “fixed.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was starting to wonder if
what some of these people were talking about was castrating NSSF because a complaint
that I heard several times was that NSSF should not allow the law
enforcement/tactical companies to exhibit at the SHOT Show.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">When I asked why, the answer was usually
that SHOT stood for Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor, Trade and not cops and robbers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The funny thing is that I can remember when
the big controversy in the press room was the presence of “black guns” in the
show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, one day during a past
SHOT show, the chief executive of NSSF rushed through the aisles of the show to
a booth where the infamous black guns were being displayed and he ordered the
guns removed or the company would be evicted!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The guns were taken down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another year there was a controversy over
paintball guns and still another one was over the presence of crossbows. All of
these disputes have faded and finally disappeared, but I am not so sure the
debate over the law enforcement and tactical exhibitors will be so quickly
resolved. The disconnect between these exhibitors and the rest of the shooting
and hunting industry is one that is too easily fueled by grumbling malcontents
who want to maintain a purist approach to shooting and hunting. I think that is
an entirely wrong approach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is
already too much division between various groups of the outdoor industry and
grumbling about the presence of law enforcement and tactical exhibitors at the
SHOT Show isn’t helping to heal those divisions.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">glg<o:p></o:p></span></div>Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-36718676600870590062012-02-11T00:30:00.000-06:002012-02-11T00:30:11.555-06:00I Have Returned--With a Question<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">I’ve been “checked out” of blog writing
for a number of weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whenever I sat
down to write anything I felt pangs of guilt for not having written for my
blog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I felt as though I was cheating
those who have been reading my musings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The problem is that I didn’t want to write anything and the few post
that I have made during these weeks of absence were little more than apologies
for not posting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Not good.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">But, I was thinking about something that
was troubling me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I get into one of
these “mood” projects I frequently lose myself in my thoughts and write these
thoughts down in one of my notebooks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The whole process is part of a mental movement that begins with a mental
“tick.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Something that I’ve seen, heard,
or read, strikes me as odd and I find myself returning to it and thinking about
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How long it takes me to resolve the
issue to my satisfaction, or at least to a point where I want to present it to
others, is not predictable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve got many notebooks, not all of them full,
but into which I write my thoughts whether for something I want to write or a
problem I am wrestling with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A couple of
notebooks have notes, jottings, drawings and whatever else seemed to be relevant
to a problem that I first started writing about several years ago and I still
think about and write on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">My blog issue hasn’t been completely resolved
but it is something that I want to “bring out.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My mental twitch is that writing a blog as “The
Thinking Hunter” is somehow incomplete.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Besides hunting I am an avid angler and this spring I will be putting my
boat back in the water and hopefully spending more time on nearby lakes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Should I expand my blog from “The Thinking
Hunter” to “The Thinking Angler & Hunter”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Or, as some of my notes suggest, would writing about both angling and
hunting in one blog confuse readers?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
pages of my notebook on this topic seem equally divided with thoughts that
adding angling would be confusing pages of notes that explore reasons for
making the change.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Now, to some readers this may seem like
a trivial topic, but I believe it begs the question of whether there truly is a
strong link between angling and hunting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We know that Wayne Pacelle and his crowd, the sworn enemy of all anglers
and hunters, has a life mission of ending hunting and fishing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That alone should create a strong link
between angling and hunting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">I am not sure it does.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">At the SHOT Show I had the pleasure of
having dinner with a small group of bloggers, mostly gun bloggers, and as I listened
to them I realized the distance between the hunter and the gun enthusiast is
real and often wide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That gap is created
by the number of issues between the two groups; therefore a similar gap,
between hunters and anglers, exists and is equally wide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">What troubles me, and is driving my question
is that by these gaps we are allowing ourselves to become segregated by our
activities rather than united by them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>By focusing my Internet musings on hunting I tend to believe that I am
contributing to the problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is
an old truism about who’s ox is being gored and suddenly all of us in the
outdoors seem to be thinking more about our personal ox, that is the ox of
shooting, the ox of hunting, the ox of bowhunting, ox of shooting, ad
infinitum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">I believe that those of us who have
opted to focus our work on the issues that surround our preferred outdoor activities
should consider stepping back from that gap we’ve created by the “single issue”
approach to the preservation of our outdoor activities and lifestyle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The divisions between shooting, hunting, and
fishing, are providing openings through which our opponents are driving wedges to
weaken us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">This is not a new problem but one I’ve
been aware of thought about throughout my career, but it is being exacerbated
by the explosion of social media and the gaps are becoming wider.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">When I think about what I value in my
outdoor activities I cannot separate my hunting from my fishing as favoring one
over the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nor can I separate the
values I put on shooting, whether casual plinking or shooting at known distance
targets, from my hunting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe the
outdoors is a lifestyle that runs the entire spectrum of emotions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Casting a fly to a feeding trout in a beaver
pond produces as much excitement and accomplishment as a center bull’s-eye shot
from several hundred yards or finally shooting a deer that I’ve hunted for
days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the outdoors have too much in
common, too many shared emotions, too much to lose, to allow those gaps to grow
and perhaps become festering wounds between us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Do you agree?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">glg<o:p></o:p></span></div>Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-41719642281194238272011-11-16T00:25:00.000-06:002011-11-16T00:35:10.569-06:00Deer Season and Thoughts on Today's Optics<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Winter has arrived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Deer season is open and I’ve still got to
fill my tag. This winter’s first snows, plus the threat of more unsettled
winter weather over the next few days, combine for my favorite hunting
conditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now I will put a bit more
effort into my hunt!</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
Two days ago I could have
probably filled my tag when the doe I was stalking crossed a patch of open
ground, just where I’d expected to see her except she was quicker than I
anticipated. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was at the wrong
angle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Had the doe crossed less than a
minute later I would have been right where I’d planned and I could have taken
the shot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The difference was the angle
to a farm house a half mile away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When
the doe appeared I raised the .270 and by force of habit I was looking behind
the deer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s all part of a controlled
movement that I’ve trained myself to follow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I didn’t always look past the target as well as at the target before
fully shouldering the rifle and taking my spot weld to take my shot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">It is tempting to say that my
father, or one of my older brothers, taught me to take careful note of what is
beyond my target but that isn’t necessarily true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think it is a combination of my experiences
as a Marine and just the years of hunting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’ve learned bullets don’t necessarily stop in the deer and as the shift
to non-lead bullets increases, at the same time that velocities are improved,
we need to pay more attention to where that bullet could go <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">after</i> the shot is fired.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
Not taking the shot might have
cost me a few more days of deer hunting but I can sleep easy knowing that I
didn’t potentially endanger the neighboring family with a “spent” round.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know that I don’t always manage to think
past the shot, especially when bird hunting (but I don’t think I would pull a
Cheney on a hunting partner) but it is a practice all of us should take more
seriously.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">All That Said. . . .</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
Recently I’ve heard shots fired
past legal shooting time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The legal
shooting time here in North Dakota is ½ hour before sunrise to a half hour
after sunset.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can live with those
times but apparently some hunters can’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When you look at some of the rifle scopes that are now on the market it
is no small wonder that an occasional hunter will take these shots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some rifle scopes sold for hunters have only marginally
less light gathering capacity than tactical optics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As for the true tactical scopes, with serious
light gathering capabilities, some of the advertisers are aggressively marketing
these scopes to hunters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Is there a line?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to wonder if some manufacturers are
starting to push wildlife agencies into a position where certain types of rifle
scopes will be banned on rifles being used by big game hunters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We cannot and should not try legislating
ethics but is there a point at which legislation is needed to preserve what is
a right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
This is an argument that has been
drifting around in my mind for quite some time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s not a new argument and it has been examined by hunters and
philosophers for centuries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Persians
advocated the spear over the bow to kill game, as did the European kings, all
of whom believed that courage could be gauged by how close the hunter was to
the quarry at the moment of the kill. Ernest Hemingway, Ortega y Gasset, and a
host of other authors and hunting philosophers of recent years have examined the
question of technology in hunting and from my reading of their works all of
them have cautioned against technology overpowering hunting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Are their cautions against
allowing too much technology in hunting something we should reopen and give a
fresh examination? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or, as some others
have claimed, should the rights of the individual, at all times, supersede any restrictive
legislation intended to prevent a possible action by an otherwise law abiding
person?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
So, should we consider this
argument: Should rifle/pistol scopes of exceptional light gathering or
amplification capability, or equipped with enhanced reticles, either
singularly, or in combination, be banned from use by hunters during some
hunting seasons?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">I am not advocating anything other
than a question of the technology’s present and future role.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
This is not as easy an argument
as one might first believe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here in
North Dakota it seems the law is fairly specific: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The use of night vision equipment
or electronically enhanced light gathering optics for locating or hunting game
is illegal. </span></i><span lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Is this law
specific enough or does it leave the playing field open to scopes that have optics
that actually enhance so much light it encourages hunters to take shots after
legal shooting time?<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">I am
really curious to learn your thoughts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Think
about it.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">glg</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-21098367894130237442011-11-03T16:13:00.000-05:002011-11-03T16:13:12.809-05:00For Max<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I hope you don't mind if I venture off the usual topic for something personal, something that I want to share with others. Perhaps, in some ways, it defines me and what I write.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">For Max. . . . </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">A
friend of mine passed away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually,
she was much more than a friend she was someone I cared about in ways that don’t
make sense--at least to some people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her
name was Maxine and I called her “Max,” which is what she preferred.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I learned about her death last weekend and it
has had me in a slump that has been hard to shake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just when I thought I was coming out of it some
little memory would be triggered and my mind would insist: “it just isn’t so.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I
met Max 39 years ago last September.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
was a Marine Sergeant and she was an Air Force Sergeant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>True, I was married at the time, but I was no
longer happy in the marriage and I already knew that at some near point in time it
would end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few years later I was alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Opposites, I had learned, may attract but
that doesn’t build a life.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Max
and I met at the military’s journalism school, Defense Information School or
DINFOS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the same school that
Hunter Thompson, the Gonzo Journalist, attended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lot of other famous people received their
introduction to journalism at DINFOS, and after graduation we were all “DINFOS
trained killers.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Once
Max and I got past the awkwardness of the problems facing us we were together
as much as possible, and it was never enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are a lot of stories I could tell, because the time we had we
filled with whatever adventure we could find around Indianapolis, Indiana. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, however, graduation came and we were
forced to go separate ways, but we made promises to each other. One of the
promises was to try and make my marriage work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ultimately, it failed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was more
my fault than my then wife’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When it
failed I tried to find Max but didn’t because her father, who had become
estranged from the entire family, spitefully lied to me about Max.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He told me she was dead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Twenty years later, by accident, I ran across
her mother and she told me Maxine was alive and where to find her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But by this time all the chances for Max and
me to finally be together had become dust in the fields.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We could only be friends who had a past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That past, those days we were together, were
dreams for us then, and still are. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
held hands and walked in misty rains, we sat in corners of coffee houses and whispered
to each other, we went to parks and built campfires and sitting together we shared
our warmth and the fire’s heat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I
had my third operation on my hand, she typed my assignments so I wasn’t dropped
from the school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Maxine
and I were in love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But for simple
reasons we never took our love to that intimate level where you can never have
another first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s probably why, when
I think of Max, I remember walks in the rain and sitting by the river with a
bottle of Sangria, and putting sticks in the fire while we leaned against each
other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One night, in the shadow of a
covered bridge, she said, “You talk to the trees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think that’s a good thing for you.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Yesterday,
after mourning her for several days, I had begun to think that I should drop
this blog, stop publishing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Pines
Review</i> and concentrate my efforts on something else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe I should give more time to my book
about Afghanistan in 1980.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, with shaking hands I began to read her
letters and her email letters that she’d written me after I found her
again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You always had the passion,” she
said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I remember you talking to the
trees and the birds; you said their answers will always be in the voice of the wind.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I
don’t know about you, the readers of this blog, and the ones you love or have
loved, but when I close my eyes I can still feel her hand in mine and our hands
wet with autumn’s misty rain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I am
sitting in the grass of a tree row while hunting, or just walking, I can feel
her hair brushing me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, now, when I
write, or sketch, I remember her, leaning over my shoulder to watch me write or
draw, and her hair tickling my neck and face.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“It’s what you are,” she wrote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“It’s
what you were meant to do--to write.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I now
know I can’t stop writing this blog, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Pines Review,</i> or any of my other work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In
her last email letter to me she said, “I hope you are still talking to the
trees.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I
am, Max, I am.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Rest in peace, my love.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Love,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Galen (Gale’)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br /></div>Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-57379699177717980482011-10-21T00:06:00.001-05:002011-10-21T00:06:44.901-05:00First Blood Pressure Results and "Sport" Hunting<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">This
evening I took my blood pressure cup/gizmo with me to the nearby slough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, the question is whether duck hunting,
which is sitting in a duck blind, lowers the blood pressure or has no effect
whatsoever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I
took my blood pressure before leaving and it was 142/76 pulse 68.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After sitting in the blind for 30 minutes I
took my blood pressure and it was 136/69 pulse 72.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not sure what to make of it but this is
only my first day of my not so scientific study of blood pressure and duck
hunting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is interesting is that
once I was back in my office I again took my blood pressure and it was 136/79
and my pulse was 82.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, the only thing
I can say to explain it is that I was doing some editing--of my own
writing!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">This
project is turning into an interesting experiment and the more I think about it
the more I think I can turn it into a not-so-scientific article.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will haul the blood pressure monitor out
with me every day I go hunting until I take the results back to the VA
hospital.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am really curious to hear
what my physical therapist and my primary care physician have to say about the
readings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m sure they will both shake
their heads in a little bit of disbelief--but then both of them must consider
me a bit on the pixilated side of reality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">ABOUT
THINK TANK II and “SPORT HUNTING”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I’ve
been doing some work on my notes and ideas from the Think Tank II.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I came away from the gathering wishing it had
been at least one day longer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was
a lot of free discussion about the present state of recruitment to the outdoors
but I heard something that was, to me, very important for the future of hunting,
and it was the simple statement that hunting would be referred to as “hunting”
and not “sport hunting” or have any other adjectives affixed to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is something that I totally agree
with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe that we must stop the
practice of trying to hide hunting under a pile of adjectives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I make this argument even after a great deal
of research has shown me that the basis for “sport hunting” goes back to ancient
Greece when the phrase “hunting for sport” actually appears in the writing of Xenophon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One probably asks why I dislike the use of “sport-hunting”
in today’s language when it has been in use for more than two-thousand
years?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My answer is simple--times
change!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For most of that 2,000+ years
hunting was a very blurred activity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Subsistence
hunting and sport hunting existed side-by-side and often within the same
activity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the past 100+ years, with
only a few exceptions, subsistence hunting has fallen out of use as a “needed”
activity leaving only what had been euphemistically called sport hunting in its
wake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">There
are many, many people who rely on hunting to provide them with chemical free,
healthy meat protein, but to call that true subsistence is to dally about with semantic
spooks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This sort of subsistence hunting
is a choice by personal philosophy and not a choice based on true need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not belittling modern meat hunting as a means
of providing food--I opt for that with deer and other game--it is not, however,
a requirement for our survival in today's world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are
Alaskan and South American peoples who still subsistence hunt because if they
didn’t they would starve for protein.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Could it be that the users of “sport hunting” are drawing a comparison
against those aboriginal peoples?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">A
brief look at the OED and other word research turns up some interesting
information, primarily that “sport,” as was applied to hunting, did not
necessarily carry positive connotations, even as far back as the 15<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>
and 16<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> centuries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the
middle of the 19<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> century “sport” began to increasingly be associated
with athletics and less with what had been popularly known as field
sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
entire evolution of sport and sport hunting is more complex than my quick analysis
but the point is that as we move deeper into the 21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup> century there
is even less to be gained by adding “sport” to hunting as a means of modifying
hunting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We hunt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t harvest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t box with, play tennis or football
with, or any other organized activity, the animals we hunt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t need to lie to ourselves or to the
non-hunter by falling back on euphemisms to soften our language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can start by removing one word and simply
saying that we hunt, we go hunting, we are hunters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is much more to be gained by being
honest with ourselves and others than by trying to soothe the taste of words
with imitation sugar. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Is
that so hard to do?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Think
about it. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">glg<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br /></div>Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-81760213166856123582011-10-19T21:35:00.000-05:002011-10-19T21:35:11.419-05:00Blood Pressure and Bird Hunting<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Today has been a long day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was up and on the road before dawn but not
to go hunting--I had VA eye doctor and physical therapists appointments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The eye doctor informed me the eyes are
slowly getting worse, which is expected, and my therapists, one physical, one
occupational (I can’t keep ‘em straight) try their best to deal with me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jody is tall, looks like he should be a
Marine (like me) and Vicki is petit, blonde, blue-eyed-cute and quite capable
of chewing me out for not following instructions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyway, my blood pressure decided to act up
and Vicki made me promise to take my blood pressure several times a day and
keep a journal with the results, then bring the journal with me when I go back
to the VA next week and show the journal to my doctor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not a problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But here is what I am wondering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jody has repeatedly pointed out that I need
to “take it easy” on the hunting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
didn’t say not to hunt, just change things a little.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I got to thinking about a hunt I
had earlier this week. . . . </span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The other day I took Cookie and
drove out to our favorite grouse hunting area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I wasn’t in a hurry and besides, I’m supposed to be trying to recover
from the cardiac adventure, so, I walked very slowly and Cookie ran ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When she got birdy I turned toward her and
when that bird flushed wild and out of range I just watched it fly away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“At least I don’t have to clean it,” I said
to the wind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cookie was disappointed and
was quickly off again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I called her back
then returned to the Suburban so we could try for a duck.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">At the little slough where Chas
and I had shot several ducks I pulled on my waders (I have <u>got</u> to get
some new waders) and after unloading my gear, consisting of one bag with
shells, coffee, camera, notebook, pen and goodies, and pulling four decoys from
my decoy bag, I parked the Suburban and walked back carrying my shotgun and
holding Cookie on a leash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Back at the slough
I carefully put my shotgun down, picked up the decoys and started into the
muck.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By this time Cookie was having a
good time and when I was about fifteen feet into the muck I noticed Cookie had
switched on the “bird here!” attitude and was eagerly working scent on the far
side of the slough, in the same grass were she’d retrieved two birds a few days
earlier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now, one of the things I am fond
of saying is that Cookie is smarter than me and danged if she didn’t prove it
again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Twice she stopped working the
scent and looked back at me with the “get your gun” expression that means she
is going to be flushing a bird.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
figured she was scenting some ducks that had been there earlier so I didn’t get
my gun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I set the first decoy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then just as I was about to set the next
decoy a mallard drake burst out of the grass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It landed on the water and Cookie thought she had a cripple then it took
off, scolding her as it climbed into the air.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Cookie gave me “the look.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yeah, I stood stupid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I set the other two decoys, went back to my
gun, loaded it and sat down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once I was
comfortable I poured myself a cup of coffee to chase away the end-of-day chill.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A little later Cookie tensed up and
looked over her shoulder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I followed her
gaze in time to see the geese coming over the trees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The loads I had were too light for the big
Canadas so I sat and watched.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I watched
them fly over, they were not seeing either Cookie or me, and I watched them
land in a field a half mile away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Later, when the sun was getting
that golden hue that is a signal to mama earth that for this part of the planet
the day is over, a few ducks flew past but I forgot my calls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Besides, I’d been writing notes for my
journal and I’d talked myself into thinking that unless it was a fat mallard
drake I wasn’t going to shoot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ducks
were cooperative and avoided coming too close and in short order it was dark and
time for me to pack up and return to my office and get some work time in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The evening was a good day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I couldn’t ask for anything more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe I did overdo it a bit with the grouse
walk, the walk to and from the Suburban, and of course wading into the thick,
clinging mud that sucks at your feet and forces you to strain to take each
step.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it was worth it even if I did
have to take a nitro pill later that night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The geese were brilliant, the ducks were just enough to get the juices
going and Cookie had a great time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am
thinking about taking Cookie out tomorrow evening, maybe walking a different
grouse field and then sitting on a slough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Who knows?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I might get a mixed
bag of a duck <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> a grouse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m content with a couple of birds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s still some pheasant hunting to do
before the weather gets too cold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe
a couple of pheasant to round out my larder would be a good thing, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, then I am back to Jody, Vicki, my
primariy care doctor, and everything about taking it easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, I did promise to take the blood pressure
readings and keep a good record.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am
wondering, however, if sitting on the edge of a slough, sipping hot coffee and
sharing a sandwich with your hunting dog would really “lower” your blood
pressure?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m going to find out by
packing my blood pressure cup in my bag with the Thermos, box of shells,
sandwich and duck calls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not sure
how my doctor or physical therapist will appreciate the blood pressure journal
having duck blind doodles, probably some dried dog slobber, a little spilled
coffee and no doubt it’ll pick up that deliciously thick aroma of rotting
vegetation that is common to all North Dakota sloughs, and hopefully a drop or
two of duck blood, but at least I’ll have a complete record.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heck, if I get a shot at a duck or two maybe
I’ll take it then, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might be
interesting to see the results of the blood pressure in a duck blind and prove conclusively
that bird hunting is good for the blood pressure as well as the soul.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Think about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br /></div>Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-22274566329739383242011-10-11T16:06:00.000-05:002011-10-11T16:06:18.695-05:00Friendships Forged by Hunting
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I’ve
been lazy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Okay, so I haven’t been
“really” lazy, but I’ve been doing things that have a higher priority than my
writing projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, and most
importantly, my friend Chas (The Southern Rockies Nature Blog, </span><a href="http://natureblog.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">http://natureblog.com/</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">) </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">arrived
on October 2 for four days of duck and grouse hunting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We would have hunted the four days but I had
to go to the VA hospital for my post cardiac therapy on one day and Chas
graciously went along.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the time I was
through and we were back in Finley the day was shot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other than that one trip to Fargo we were
able to hunt every day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
great thing is that this year Chas got to take home a few ducks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not enough to fill a freezer but enough so he
could know that he shot at, and hit some ducks.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Chas
and I first hunted together in the autumn of 1979 and it was a dove hunt that
morphed into an elaborate dinner that has become a part of the lore of my
personal history with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Soldier of Fortune </i>Magazine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How that happened isn’t the point of this
post, what is the point is that from that first dove hunt on to last week’s
hunting Chas and I have hunted together at least one long weekend nearly every
autumn, and will continue to do so as long as we can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, there have been a few hiccups
along the way and several seasons were lost to work, but there have been more
wonderful memories than disappointments, and a few of those memories are the
fodder for some of the stories in my next collection of short stories--with
names changed--of course.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Whenever
Chas and I have hunted together there has never been a competition between
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve never compared the number of
birds in our game bags or tried to measure tail feathers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t even compare the number of shots
each one of us takes for each bird killed!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Those details are not important to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I also
derive a secondary benefit from our hunts--I bounce ideas off Chas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve always been pleased that someone of his
intellect is open to exploring my zany off-the-wall ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is never derogatory or dismissive of what
I propose and often the nudge he provides is enough to push my idea onto firmer
ground where I can develop it more fully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That’s the power of a true friendship, but more importantly, in this
case, it is indicative of the sort of bonds that are often formed between
people who fish and hunt together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over
the decades since Chas and I first hunted doves in Colorado I’ve developed
many, many other friendships, but I can honestly say that only one other
friendship has the same strength as the one I have with Chas, that is with Robert
K. Brown, whom I met just a few weeks before meeting Chas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like Chas, Brown and I met outside the realm
of the hunt but the strong bonds of friendship were sealed while we were
hunting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Most
of my other strong friendships (though none to the level of Chas and Brown); were
developed because of fishing or hunting. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe that it is because fishing and hunting
are two basic human activities that were once essential to survival that we
form such strong and long lasting friendships with other anglers and
hunters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every experience in the
outdoors, shared with a friend, weaves fibers of trust that are not unlike the long
fibers of steel that become the massive cables holding up bridges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what happens when competition is added to
the experience?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does competition become a
corrosive that erodes the fibers, ultimately weakening them until they pull
apart and the structure collapses under its own weight?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even Hemingway, who thrived on competition,
recognized its dangers and it became one of the foundational elements of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Green Hills of Africa</i>, his hunting
masterpiece.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Today,
competitive fishing and hunting dominates much of outdoor television’s
programming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No matter how much “we”
moan and complain about the programming, millions of Americans watch the
programs, some of them as religiously as Americans once tuned in to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ozzie and Harriet</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leave It To Beaver</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>I am curious as to how many viewers leave
their favorite fishing or hunting program determined to catch as many fish (or
one as big) as the host, or have convinced themselves they can kill a whitetail
buck or other big game animal that will surpass the trophy their much admired
host kills every Saturday morning, and are then discouraged to learn it isn’t
as easy as they thought?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does this
discouragement turn the neophyte trying to glean helpful knowledge into a
non-participant? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The most recent entry
into the competitive world is “Fantasy Hunting,” an online game in which
participants select a team of hunters to score points on the game killed and
win prizes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If one were to ask “What’s
next?” my answer is simple: “I have no idea.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Somehow we’ve now gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. (</span><a href="http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/gun-nuts/2011/09/fantasy-hunting-league-stuff-dreams-are-made"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Field
and Stream</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">, </span><a href="http://www.fantasyhunting.com/how-to-play.php" moz-do-not-send="true"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Fantasy Hunting</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Without the warm
campfires, muddy bogs, the smell of wet dogs and the coppery smell of the
cooling blood as we dress our game, to remind us how precious each life was
that we took on the hunt or from the water, there cannot be truth in hunting or
fishing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without truth there is no
fishing or hunting--only consumption.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Think about it. glg<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-56589682168786181902011-09-18T23:56:00.000-05:002011-09-18T23:56:27.045-05:00Cardiac Adventure
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’ve had several people send me an email asking about my
recent adventure with a heart attack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Well, here’s<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the story.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">On Wednesday night at the Think Tank I had a heart
attack. I remembered what happened to my friend Peter Capstick when he
had his collapse after a speech. People remember his collapse, not the
speech. I did not want to leave that conference by going to a hospital
for emergency care and be remembered as the guy who had a heart attack at Think
Tank II. I self-medicated with nitro tablets and my pain meds. I
made it through the next day’s meeting and then at noon the host of the Think
Tank arranged a limo to take me to Union Station in Chicago (more on the whole
conference thing later).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once on the
train I managed to keep everything together for 14 hours. I then drove
home (very early morning, before traffic, which isn’t much on the roads here in
ND).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once home I brought in my luggage,
computer bag, bag with meds and fly fishing tackle, then collapsed in the living
room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I couldn’t wake Michelle from
living room so I went upstairs (really tough climb) and woke her. She
drove me to Fargo (I refused to go to the local hospital because the “only”
thing they can do for serious cardiac care consist of liquid nitro drip and
stronger pain med (morphine) then send you to Fargo on expensive ambulance
ride.) I still had nitro and oxycodone to treat myself. She drove
to the Fargo VA, I walked in to the hospital, past the check-in desk (they take
too long then put you in a line) and straight to the Urgent Care desk, placed
my bag of meds on the desk and said, “Are you the folks who take care of vets
having serious chest pain—as in heart attacks?”</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Yes,” the nurse said.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Well, my dear, here I am.”</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Within a minute I was on a bed, getting my shirt off,
getting an IV with a drip of nitro and blood drawn from the other arm.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“So, on a scale of 1-10 what is your pain?” the male nurse
asked (while Michelle frowned at his efforts to get an IV inserted in veins
stuffed with high blood pressure.)</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Well, sir,” I said, “last night and yesterday I had it down
to an eight or nine but Wednesday night it was at least a ten.”</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“When do you think you had this heart attack?”</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Oh, that’s easy, Wednesday night about midnight, that is
when I puked and was sweating buckets.”</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“And you are just coming in?”</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“I was in Chicago and didn’t know anyone there.”</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“There is a VA hospital there. You could have called
911.”</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Figured I’d come home to get it taken care of. I
prefer my doctors here.”</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“How’s the pain?”</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“About ten, can I have more drugs?”</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A team arrived to take an X-ray. A minute later the
doctor came in, looked at some early test results, listened to my heart,
watched the BP (very high). I recognized him because he has treated me
before. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Galen, I am going to get you an angiogram.”</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A couple of minutes later, with the male nurse trying to
stop the bleeding of the first attempt to insert an IV, the ambulance guys
arrived. The other hospital, Sanford, felt I should go straight into the
cardiac OR for the angiogram, so an ambulance was sent. Once inside the
ambulance they flipped on the lights and siren, great ride! We went
through two red lights! I asked them to go around the block but they
wouldn’t do it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we reached Sanford hospital
the time from the moment the wheels of the ambulance gurney hit the ground to
when I was in the cardiac OR was maybe a minute. Inside the crew was
waiting, had everything from the VA (via Internet) including X-rays. The
procedure for angiogram was started, they found one of those little blood vessels
that was 100% collapsed. Took them a bit of time to get the thing back up
then get the stints in but they did. Oh, the doctor who was in charge
(not the surgeon who did it) was absolutely stunningly beautiful. She was
leaning over and explaining what was happening then asked me if I had any
questions. All I said was: “How did you get such incredibly beautiful
eyes?”</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">She shook her head and walked away.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The nurses (entire staff, but two nurses in particular--Krista
and Jenny) were wonderful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Best part of
being in the hospital!</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, all is repaired. I need to let it sit without
stress for another couple of days. I’ve been lectured by every doctor and
nurse. Robert K. Brown (SOF) has said he’ll kick my ass if I ever do such
a thing again. He also said he does not know very many people who could
do it. One of the Cardiac Critical Care nurses said I must have been a
good Marine because only a Marine could make it through that kind of ordeal, or
do something that crazy. She must be a former Marine herself.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I am doing much, much better and I’ve even managed to get
out and search for sharptail grouse with Cookie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tried to stretch the barrel for a long shot
but couldn’t do it so came home with a gun that doesn’t need cleaning.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’ve got a couple of deadlines to meet and then I’ll tell
you about the Think Tank.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">glg</span></div>
Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-82590333635831924292011-09-11T19:21:00.001-05:002011-09-11T19:21:27.257-05:00I am back from the Orion Think Tank and I am feeling really juiced about everything that was talked about, over, and someitmes argued (usually me). I had the pleasure of meeting Jim Posewitz, an author whose little books on hunter ethics are game changers in our world. <br />
All that said, the old man here is a little tired and going to call it an early night. <br />
More to come later.<br />
glgGalen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-22691755214463332662011-09-02T02:16:00.000-05:002011-09-02T02:24:05.290-05:00Cookie's DayDove season opened today. For me, here in North Dakota, the first day of dove season is the opening of the hunting season. Next week the season on grouse will open and it seems that every week or two thereafter another season will open, in some cases the new season replacing one that is closing. The sequence of seasons opening and closing is something that I truly enjoy. However, in this household I am not alone because Cookie, my German Wirehair, suddenly finds a new purpose in life--the hunt.<br />
<br />
For the past several days Cookie has been like a tight clock spring. Every few minutes she would walk around my desk and push her muzzle under my arm and then try to flip my hands off the keyboard. If that didn’t work to get my attention she would start looking around on my desk for something to “retrieve,” usually one of my fountain pens. She doesn’t pick up ballpoint pens and rarely grabs a pencil but when she finally settles on something to retrieve she grabs it, sometimes working herself into a semi-standing position to get what she wants. Her game then is to go around the desk, with the pen in her mouth, and then “bring” me the pen.
I don’t know if it is the change in temperature, or like the deciduous trees when the hours of sunlight changes it triggers their change of color, the sunlight somehow tripping Cookie’s awareness that it is nearly hunting season, but something does trigger the change. <br />
<br />
As August counts down to September she becomes increasingly fidgety, wanting to get outside, get in the Suburban and do something. She wants to be active.
Usually the opening of dove season finds me up early to get in the fields. Today everything had to wait until I had taken care of other business, and I don’t know if Cookie could read my desire to go hunting, or there is a mysterious connection between us, but she knew. This afternoon, when I walked over to the hunting vests hanging on one wall Cooke came unglued. She began jumping around the office and one minute she would be sitting by the door and the next she was right beside me. Suddenly, when I picked up my shotgun she calmed down and went to the door and sat in front of it. Her tail was wagging furiously across the floor and her legs were quivering and she was staring at the door as if she could open it by sheer doggie willpower.<br />
<br />
Normally, when I open the office door and Cookie “escapes” into town she runs a few laps around our block, giving my heart another reason not to work as intended because she has no appreciation of cars on the street, but this time she went to the Suburban and waited. I let her in, clipping her leash so she couldn’t get in the front seat, and then I loaded Buster (“her” Basset hound, that’s another story).<br />
<br />
After putting my shooting bag and shotgun in the front seat we were off. Cookie was calm, or at least as calm as she can be, while I drove to a prairie road between roost trees and a harvested field. Somewhere between leaving my office and reaching my hunting spot, a place where I could make a blind for pass shooting at dove, I decided that it was Cookie’s day. I arranged my shotgun, possibles bag and all important Thermos of coffee while Cookie and Buster were clipped to the Suburban. Then I was ready. I turned them loose and stood back to watch. Buster started on a heading and his stumpy, fat, legs blurred as he ran across the stubble field. Cookie immediately started hunting. She had her nose down and began coursing, but just as I had earlier decided that it would be her day, she decided to have more fun. She found water, chased the blackbirds out of the cattails, and when I shot at a passing dove she turned to see if it would fall (it didn’t).
<br />
<br />
Today was Cookie’s day. She ran, she swam, and she hunted, and generally enjoyed life. That is what it is all about, enjoying our world. I fired one barrel of my muzzle loader double and I missed. Okay, who cares? I don’t. Maybe I am becoming older, or less critical of myself, but whatever it is I had more fun watching my dog bound across the stubble field, charge into the cattails and then splash and swim. She shook off the summer and prepared herself for what is truly her season--the autumn, when colors of celebration burst throughout the tree lines, farmsteads and along the rivers, and deep inside those color filled days is the time of the hunt--Cookie’s time--our time. I suppose that is what separates us from those who don’t hunt. All they can do is look at Cookie’s time; those of us who hunt are part of her time. It really is a big difference in how we are living life.
<br />
<br />
Think about it.
glgGalen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-57726054655671477322011-08-10T15:52:00.000-05:002011-08-10T15:52:44.555-05:00Nonresident IssuesI am not a big one for writing and posting from odd places that I find myself hanging my hat for a day or two, but this is coming from the VA hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. I actually completed my appointments a couple of hours ago but the hospital has free WiFi for patients so I thought I’d take advantage of that and post something that has been on my mind for a couple of days. <br />
<br />
North Dakota restricts nonresidents from waterfowl hunting for the first two weeks of the season. The logic is to provide residents an opportunity to enjoy the state’s abundance of waterfowl before the state is inundated with nonresidents. I disagree with this policy. I do not believe that any state should have the power of restricting the legal access of hunters to any migratory game that routinely crosses state borders, whether it is annually or otherwise. I do not have any problems with nonresidents being required to pay extra for their hunting license, but in the same breath I do believe that some states charge nonresidents excessive fees. <br />
<br />
Do excessive license and other fees imposed on nonresidents violate the spirit of the J-D and P-R Fund programs? Also, is it possible that these fees and restrictions on nonresidents actually develop such resentment among nonresidents that in their frustration when the fishing or hunting is poor after they pay the extra fees, usually in addition to the money they spend on other services and products within the state, they find themselves breaking the law or other actions that are detrimental to the outdoor sports? Over the past 30+ years too many times I have witnessed poor behavior by hunters (and anglers) in public places (restaurants, airports, etc.) and I’ve heard them complain (as justification for their actions) that they believe they have been gouged or screwed by the state’s nonresident fees and restrictions. Their poor behavior, whether it is just being part of a public spectacle, or actually breaking the law, always hurts the public image of both anglers and hunters.<br />
<br />
Is the problem with the state as well as the individual and is it equally shared between them? Or, as some argue, it is the sportsman/woman’s responsibility to accept these fees and restrictions without public complaint/reaction?<br />
<br />
What think?<br />
<br />
glg <br />
Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-14752243905559667052011-07-25T23:34:00.000-05:002011-07-25T23:34:05.164-05:00CRP CrisisLots of summer rain and warm, sunny days are a two-pronged attack on my leisure time. For me, a good summer is when I don’t mow my yard more than once a week. Unfortunately, I don’t have a direct line to Mother Nature so I’ve been stuck with mowing the yard once a week. I like my yard and I like it when it is trimmed and mowed but I hate the work. Maybe if I spent more time working on my book I could get a fantastic contract and afford to hire someone to mow it every week. Since that isn’t going to happen except in my daydreams I’ll just stick with reality and brave the weather--sunshine. <br />
<br />
One of the rewards of mowing a yard is that I can mull over something that needs attention. A very serious problem that has had my attention for quite some time is nowhere near being resolved and that is the CRP Land crisis. <br />
<br />
Twenty-five years ago the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program was signed into law. The idea was to reduce grain surpluses thereby jumpstarting commodity prices while at the same time decreasing erosion on the marginal tilled soils. Everything worked great and one of the beneficiaries of this program was wildlife. Ground nesting upland birds had a place to build a nest and brood their chicks. Duck hunters reaped a bonanza (that they are still reaping today) because ducks will often fly more than a mile from water to build a nest and hatch their brood. With a wet cycle in the northern plains the waterfowl had it made with ample water, good, high grass in which to raise their young, protected from most predators.<br />
<br />
We have all benefited from the CRP program. By all I mean ALL. Even if a person never sets foot in the hunting field or picks up a binocular to go bird watching they aren’t choking on dust storms from those marginal fields and the water held back by the root systems of CRP land doesn’t flow into those low spots to join other water to erode the croplands. <br />
<br />
What’s the worry? There are millions of acres in the program--right?<br />
<br />
Sort of right because millions of those acres are scheduled to begin coming out of the reserve program over the next few years and at the present rate within twenty years the total amount of land in the CRP will be reduced to a very small fraction of its present amount. Here, in North Dakota, wildlife managers are predicting that by 2019 there will be only about 200,000 acres in CRP. That is down from a high of 3-million acres in 2007. <br />
<br />
This is an important issue and it is one that is going to impact a lot more people than just those of us who hunt, but it also appears that the people who are going to step forward (once again) and seize the reins will be America’s hunters. Landowners claim that keeping the lands out of crop production is cutting into their ability to realize a profit from farming and when we translate that into how we keep those lands in the CRP the solution is “more money paid out.” Unfortunately we can no longer rely on the government to completely fund the program. I believe that solving the CRP crisis is going to require a stamp program not unlike the Waterfowl stamp. I know it is another hit on our pockets but better a hit than a total collapse of CRP and the corresponding loss of wildlife (game and nongame).Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-69143073275310856702011-06-30T23:19:00.007-05:002011-07-01T00:17:10.104-05:00The Rocking Horse Effect<div>At last we have a real summer day, the mercury has climbed into the high 90s and with the humidity we’re having a heat index of 107. For us, that’s a lot of heat. We’ll be dropping back into the 80s and below in a few days so we will have had our “summer heat wave.”<br /><br />One of my pleasures in life is thinking. I know that all of us “think,” but what I enjoy doing is taking a problem and putting it in my head, somewhere in the subconscious, and letting it percolate. After some amount of time I have my answer. This is probably why I am lousy at taking tests. I want to spend too much time looking at the problem before presenting my answer. This is the point of “The Thinking Hunter.” I am not interested in presenting quick answers to questions that are presented to me, but answers that I try to reach after working with the question. I like to research the question and the ramifications of the different answers before I settle on one. I am not saying that my answer to a question or problem is “the” answer, but that when I do offer an answer it is one that has been carefully thought about. Some questions have no viable answer because each answer creates a new set of problems that require different answers. Philosophers have dealt with this problem for centuries and while they understand it, have identified it and provide several different descriptive names and analyses for it, are no closer to resolving it. An example of this (in our world of the outdoors) is the question of wild geese. Regardless of the course of action taken to control wild geese numbers that have reached problematic population levels the action is going to produce both negative and positive results. Plus, if the action taken is emphasized to produce greater results, whether negative or positive, more negative results will be produced.<br /><br />For Example: If, in one population area, the action taken removes 500 geese and the positive result is a cleaner (but not completely clean) park then removing 1000 geese should increase the positive result. In fact, the result will depend entirely on the remaining population. If the number of remaining geese is too low to insure the population’s survival of the annual migration there are new problems to consider. Will the park’s aesthetic value be decreased by the lack of returning geese? Or, perhaps the value will increase because the geese were actually decreasing the value. The list of consequences for each action goes on.<br /><br />So what am I getting at?<br /><br />Recently I was in a discussion in which the primary topic was whether we (humans) could actually manage wildlife and/or nature. The center of the discussion consisted of the fires, floods, geese and of course wild hogs, all which were brought up by one side as examples of failures of human efforts, while the other side claimed that the present flood situation is a product of humans never having seen this much water, the fires are wholly nature’s doing because of the droughts, the geese populations are a success story and the spread of wild hogs is a benefit by providing meat (when on accessible lands) and income (guides, etc.). I retreated from offering an opinion because I wanted to think about the question: Can we humans manage wildlife/nature without creating such imbalances that nature’s corrections create an ecological rocking horse effect?<br /><br />Think about it--I am.<br /><br />glg</div>Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-62833949343573435772011-06-14T01:32:00.004-05:002011-06-14T01:45:50.269-05:00The Farm ConnectionYikes! I’ve been so wrapped up in working on the remodeling of our house I’ve ignored the rest of the world in favor of hammer, nails and wood. My project was to finish the built-in shelves between the dining room and living room--I did. Now I can begin working on the cabinets/counter that will be between the dining room and kitchen. Lots of work but something I enjoy. I like the feel of wood being transformed into something lasting and naturally beautiful with its own colors and designs. When I am working on wood I can block out the world and let my mind go through all the garbage that has been forced into it and toss out the junk--which is a surprising amount.<br /><br />In addition to building the cabinets and shelves and general remodeling, I am collecting wood from Michelle’s family farm. I’ll be incorporating that wood into the dining room set for Michelle. When it is all finished it will be something that I hope will be passed down to future generations on her side, who will be told that it was made by “Papa-G.” Recently the project took on a little more importance because Michelle’s parents had to sell the farm. A brother (M’s uncle) who passed away a couple of years ago didn’t have a will so his interest in the farm passed to his wife, who also passed away without a will. They didn’t have any children so their interest in the farm (there is also a sister who owned the final third) passed to a niece or some such obscure relative who had no connection to M’s family, who saw dollar signs and not the intrinsic value of the farm. Fortunately, the buyer is someone who does appreciate the value of the farm and when I called to ask about gathering wood for my winter office heat, and cutting wood for the furniture for Michelle (and for her sister) he told me it wouldn’t be a problem and to continue as I have.<br /><br />The value of something like a farm is an interesting and extraordinarily complex thing. I believe it takes someone who has at least a little experience with the pleasure of having a farm to understand that value. My family had a farm in Oklahoma (the farm has an interesting history--for another time) and while I never lived on it (some of my siblings did) I do have many memories of “going to the farm” in the spring and summer. First for planting a garden, then maintaining it and finally harvesting it. It was enough for me that when my parents sold the farm I somehow felt a sudden disconnection that exists to this very day. On my last trip “home” (Blackwell, Oklahoma) I drove to Lamont and then out to the site of the farm. I was secretly hoping to see some trace reminder of what had been “the farm.” There was nothing. Not a tree nor a bush and when I walked where I was reasonably sure the farmhouse had been I couldn’t even find a splinter of wood. Every inch of ground was cleared, plowed and part of what had once been the fields where my father had grown up and later farmed. Now it is all one field and the memories that should haunt it have all but drifted away.<br /> <br />Here in North Dakota Michelle’s family farm was not “my” family farm and yet I had developed a connection to it. For the past ten years I have cut a winter’s supply of firewood out of the farmstead’s dead trees. I’ve hunted ducks and deer on the farm and driven across the harvested fields to hunt other sloughs and dove in the trees. I’m sure the new owner will let me hunt deer in the trees and waterfowl on the slough and dove in the trees, but the connection is forever severed. I’ll cut the wood that I’ll make into furniture and eventually that project will be finished and I’ll be through searching for straight logs to cut into lumber. The only wood I’ll then be cutting will be firewood and finally that too will end. I don’t know if my deer and duck hunting will end before the firewood, or after, but they will end. I have to believe the new owner’s children will develop a connection that will lead to future generations of deer and ducks and hunters. <br /> <br />Think about it.Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-23152615875887610202011-04-14T23:17:00.005-05:002011-04-14T23:53:05.529-05:00New Issue of The Pines ReviewUgh! The weatherman is talking about more snow and I was just getting used to seeing my yard! I feel for the people in the "low country" with all of the flood problems. We really do live in a town that is sort of on a hill!<br />I haven't heard how the bird populations are expected to fare this spring but I am hoping for a good hatch. <br /><br />I decided not to go to the NRA Convention this year because I've got some other trips that I really feel I need to take. One is south to Colorado to see Chas and do some fishing and the other is west to see my son and grandkids. Somehow, I've got to work on attenting at least two outdoor writer organization conferences. It's a busy year ahead and I haven't figured out how much I want to get involved in the nonfamily stuff at the expense of family and friends. <br /><br />I have made some progress in another direction--the new issue of <strong></strong><em></em>The Pines Review<em></em><strong></strong> is finally out. I am pleased with most of it and because it is the annual list of winners of the EIC awards in both national and regional organizations it is a bit thin on editorial matter. There are over 750 awards given out each year in the outdoor media and collecting all those names and award information is a time consuming job but one that I feel has some merit if it gets a little positive recognition headed our way. <br /><br />I hope that you will take a few minutes to follow the Issuu link so you can read The Review online. You can read it with page turning technology and if you need to enlarge the page (like me) there is a bar with tools at the top of the screen. You can follow this link to the online <strong></strong><em></em>Pines Review<em></em><strong></strong>. <a href="http://issuu.com/thepinesreview/docs/v_iv_no_1_winter_2011_jan_-_april?viewMode=magazine">http://issuu.com/thepinesreview/docs/v_iv_no_1_winter_2011_jan_-_april?viewMode=magazine</a>. There is also a section where you can subscribe to the online magazine.<br /> <br />After you've browsed the online version you can order a printed copy by using the below link to MagCloud's website to jump over and order a full color printed Review. The printed copies are really impressive and say a lot about how print media is changing.<br /><div style="border: 7px solid rgb(246, 246, 246); width: 615px; color: rgb(56, 49, 49); background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246); -moz-border-radius: 4px; -webkit-border-radius: 4px;"> <a class="test_navToIssue" href="http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/182346/follow"> <img style="border: 0px currentColor; width: 150px; margin-right: 15px; float: left;" alt="Vol. IV No. 1 Winter 2010 Jan. - April" src="http://api.magcloud.com/Issue/182346/Page/0/Preview?__v=150a4" /> </a> <div style="width: 435px; float: left;"> <p style="margin: 4px 0px 0px;"> <span>The Pines Review Issue 6:</span> <a class="test_navToIssue" href="http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/182346/follow">Vol. IV No. 1 Winter 2010 Jan. - April</a> </p> <p style="margin: 9px 0px 0px; line-height: 21px; font-size: 14px;"> Annual list of the winners of the Excellence in Craft Awards, the premier awards for American and Canadian outdoor writers, phototographers and broadcasters.Kathleen Clary Miller's column "High On The Wild," plus columns by Andy Lightbody, Jeff Davis and Rachel Bunn. Short fiction by Ken Keiser, re… </p> <p style="margin: 0px;"> <a class="test_navToIssue" href="http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/182346/follow"> <img style="margin: 19px 0px 6px; border: 0px currentColor;" alt="Find out more on MagCloud" src="http://www.magcloud.com/images/promote/medium-widget-foot.png" /> </a> </p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div></div><br /><br />After you read the Review don't be afraid to write me and tell me what you think. <br />Take care.<br />glgGalen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-8344285362244758602011-04-14T15:04:00.003-05:002011-04-14T15:09:34.152-05:00I really am hereI've been try to put up a post that I am still here. I just finished the new issue of "The Pines Review" and now dealing with taxes. I'll be back before the end of the weekend.Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722078841361451161.post-68034637243216845372011-03-08T23:42:00.002-06:002011-03-08T23:50:18.352-06:00My Line In The SandI’ve been giving a great deal of thought to the two questions I asked in my previous blog posts. The comments that I received from all of you were very insightful and gave me pause. I wondered if I should rethink my position on the NRA. Were my associations with various officers and other, well-known members, clouding my vision about the organization? It is not an easy question to answer because for nearly thirty years I’ve been a life member and before that I was an annual member. I’ve worked with the NRA and helped organize the first “Friends of the NRA” fund raising banquet in Colorado and I have relied on the NRA to provide information for hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles. Finally, of the two individuals who are the closest to me as friends one is a life member and the other a benefactor and also a member of the NRA Board of Directors. The questions I have been asking myself I wanted to give more than casual thought. I wanted to probe my thinking as deep as I possibly could.<br /><br />Here’s my conclusion.<br /><br />Many years ago I unconsciously drew for myself a line in the sand over the Second Amendment. I had just passed through a phase of my life where I decided I would give up hunting and guns. For several years this “hunting-free” lifestyle seemed adequate but when I came face-to-face with a choice about whether I would once again hunt or leave it forever I chose to hunt. A few years later I wrote a story about that decision and the events leading up to it and the story won several awards and has been reprinted in a number of magazines. At the time I wrote it I did not equate Second Amendment issues with my return to hunting. The transformation occurred when I was sitting in a Colorado Springs restaurant with a young lady I knew only casually. In the course of the conversation I said that on Friday I would be taking my daughter to stay with my mother over the weekend because I was going dove hunting with two friends. Out of the clear blue she asked if I owned a gun. I explained I did and then she asked how I was able to buy a gun and I told her where I’d bought it and the other details. She then screwed up a very serious tone and facial expression and said she thought people who had been in Vietnam should not be allowed to have guns because “everyone knows the fighting and killing ‘over there’ had messed up their minds and they couldn’t control themselves.” She went on to offer, in great detail, how Vietnam Veterans had committed “thousands of murders” and other crimes after coming home and she had believed that they could no longer own guns--she also believed that the police had an obligation to find those Vietnam veterans and take away their guns. “They are easy to find because they dress like they are still in the army,” she said definitively, obviously forgetting I was one of those veterans.<br /> <br />I don’t remember a lot of the conversation after that but I tried to talk to her about how I’d grown up in a family that did a lot of hunting and I started hunting with my father--all of the typical arguments about hunting and guns. She wouldn’t hear any of it. She finally stood up to leave and matter-of-factly said that I could call her “after you get rid of your gun and quit killing animals.” I never again saw or heard from her, nor did I try to contact her.<br /><br />Now, after days of thinking about the NRA comments here on this blog and where I position myself today I’ve slowly realized that on that warm, late summer afternoon I drew a line in the sand. At the time I didn’t realize I had. I only knew that I felt betrayed because the freedom to own a gun is woven into the fabric of the nation. In the recess of my mind there was also the realization that this national fabric that I had taken for granted was not sewn of steel but of the finest threads and its red dye is the blood of its sons and daughters. We take for granted that those ideas and beliefs that have formed our national fabric will stand for themselves and will always be there. We expect our fabric to stand in sacred honor. It does not. We have learned it is a gossamer fabric that shimmers and shakes in the political and emotional winds that threaten to tear each of the threads from its anchor.<br /><br />We are a nation of choice; the national fabric has been woven from the threads of choice. Our nation stumbled by fitful starts into weaving our fabric of choice, a democratic republic if you will, where finally nearly every man and woman can choose. We are not perfect, so we must try to be better.<br /><br />One choice that we have is whether to own a firearm. That choice, that thread of our fabric, is one where I have drawn my line in the sand, and yet every year there are new pressures to change that choice, to erase that choice, and to rip the threads of that choice from the national fabric and in too many cases the foes of that choice have won small, but compounding victories, ripping one thread at a time from our fabric.<br /> <br />Protecting the Second Amendment is not a simple act of maintaining a stand in its defense but of being aware that each and every day someone is reaching for our national fabric and brushing threads away by claiming they are clearing cobwebs. That now nameless young woman I had found so attractive wanted to clear away what were, to her, cobwebs. Often, in so many people’s eagerness to clear away what they believe are cobwebs surrounding the birthrights they call relics, they soon discover they have forged their own chains.<br /> <br />I cannot, individually, stop people who are determined to clear away the Second Amendment, whether they are doing so in small pieces or plan to by one motion, but I can stand firm with others and keep them from tearing down this part of our national fabric. This is my vigilance. Each person must draw their own line; stand their own watch against the darkness and pray they have made the right decision. That is each person’s birthright.<br /><br />Semper Fi<br /><br />Next post, new subject.Galen Geerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11252610309377046803noreply@blogger.com8