April Trout Trip 2019 It's not always about the catching.

 Greg, Steve and I took a early spring trip over to Backbone.

 We hit social hour at the Dundee tap and had a great pizza

 Rudy got to come into the cabin while we played cribbage

 We went for an early morning hike.

 The folks would cut Marc and I loose in the morning and let us run wild in these bluffs.  This is a cave that we hit almost 50 years ago.

 Brother Steve still makes it up and down these bluffs to at age 76

 With the morning temps in the mid 30's  we went back to the cabin for a bacon and egg breakfast before heading out to trout fish.

 Not these eggs...  This was a goose nest along the stream at twin bridges.

 Then it was down to Elk creek and then to Spring branch.

 You know, it's the same old story.  Great fishing but slow catching.

But it's always to get together  with these two for some family memories.

# 2

 These two make me so happy and they were happy to burn some of my stuff as we did spring cleaning.

 We rolled through batch number two.  Firing things up friday after school and finishing the batch up saturday after Beau went back to CO.

 A square meal.  Two eggs and bacon .

 And this too,  Nacho leftovers.

These two came down to the bush and kept me company as I finished up my second and last batch of sap to end the 2019 sugar season.

Fast and Furious

 Beau is back to celebrate the thing he loves

 He found two shed antlers within 12 hours of being home.

We got out on the the river and fished with the Gerardies and he hit the trout stream and caught trout within 48 hours 

 Chomping at the bit.  He limited out on paddle fish two days in a row 

 some larger than others

 I caught several cat fish 

 several small channel and this nice pb flat head.

 our captain Dennie

Hot Rail

 Hot rail!  Canadian Northern rolls on by the Council Hill Station.

 Jimmy rolls on in.

 The rhythm nation 

No really, it's French.

Following in the tracks of a buck

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Friday afternoon mid February and cabin fever is hittin hard.  Finished up a cellular respiration lab with the kids and busted out to feed the cats at the farm.

Even though the afternoon temps barely reached 10 * I decided to take my yearly hike out the cedar point across the valley from Marts lodge.  With a solid snow cover I followed a set of buck tracks behind the upper garden.  With so many places to go it was interesting to follow and see just where the buck would travel, 

 This time of the year the does would travel, feed and bed down together.

 This guy would walk, eat, crap and bed down under the cedars and pines.

Looking for sheds is a numbers game.  How many deer and how many bucks in the area, how much time are you putting in walking and looking.  With the snow cover you start to get an idea of how many deer are in the area and you start to see the patterns of movement. 

Sometimes you find a shed or a dead deer and other times something else finds it.

ICE ICE BABY

 First we had the snow and the bitter cold.

Then came the ice and more days off school.

 I bundled up and strapped on the yak tracks and hiked to look for sheds.  I found beds.

The .25" icy glaze made for some super fast sledding runs down to the yurt. 

This is a close up of Jacob's extra wide, custom ride.

Polar Vortex

 Historic all time low temps here in Iowa.

 No school for day and days which is pushing the end of the second semester to the start of June.

Jace and I made the best of the day.

 we ventured out to Mart's to feed the cats.

 We heated up the shop.

for a little warm up before we ventured out into the tundra.

 keep it covered up

Back home Susie and I have been stokin the fire and playing some cribbage and eating some home cooking.

BRRRRRRR!!!!!!