COLORADO SHED HUNTING

Beau and I left the Springs to meet up with his friend Dylan in an undisclosed location

We made camp in a beautiful location

The camp cooks were on their game.  

We ate venison,promg horn and elk.

Melly was a good camp/shed dog

With our Funguy glasses on we were ready to look for some sheds

Sometimes they were right where they should be

I found a few nice mule deer sheds and a couple rag horn elk sheds too

Beau picked up this nice mule deer shed

The weather was a mixed bag with sunny and 60's to snowy and 20's

Beau found what he was looking for.  A nice pair of brown elk sheds already stacked.

The boys packed out there finds

Dylan found this monster set along a fence line 

The stack

me 

The crew

 

 

SPRING THINGS

Little browns are a lot easier to take selfies with than the big brown trout. I'm always happy to see natural reprouduction occuring here in the driftless.

but I don't mind catching a few stockers at our urban fishery, for a little stream side therapy 

Driving the back roads I always see plenty of wildlife

deer on the daily basis 

in the gardens I've cleared asparagus beds, planted greens, potatoes and a few dozen onions.

one of lasts years garden visitors

Prairie burn down at Jace's

I finished up a project that I started last year

I mounted this Rooster weather vane that I made at Bellies last spring

Cleaning up the yard means firing up the hippy hot tub

 

BIG BROWN TROUT SELFIE

The ice is gone and I've got open water here in the Driftless at least for now. I hit the stream trying to catch the big one I missed before things froze up.  Sometimes I'm happy with catching one and done.  But, today I took my time and pushed on to try my luck at catching something more than this nice stocker.

 I don't really know what it is about fishing the Driftless so much but it's something our family has done all my life.  My father would catch and eat every fish he could no matter what the size.  I very seldom keep any trout unless we're camping or I deep hook them...

Size doesn't really matter but I know the rubber part of my spinning rods handle is 10" and the end of the gold wrap is 13"

Today I caught 3 nice browns and a rainbow for good measure.

The Salmonoid family has a fatty fin know as the adipose fin which is full of nerve endings which helps the trout detect changes in the water around them.

I'm glad I kept fishing because I was lucky enough to catch this beautiful brown.

but the picture doesn't do it justice unless you know the distance from the tip of my finger to the bend in my elbow is 20"!

After fumbling with a wet fish, cold fingers and a camera the only real way to to judge th.e size is to look at the size of my smile

 

Exploring Illinois West Coast

Driving the old river road below chestnut

Not many folks on the mountain today 

A look across from Blanding's

Jimmy stayed warm in the car while i explored this old root cellar

Great stone work

view from the inside looking out

The bucks over by Jimmys are still holding antlers

Adios, see you in April , Gringo 

SNOWTREAD SNOWSHOES

 

Susie and I busted out the 1960's Snowtreads and went for a walk.

for more on the history of Snowtreads click on the link below

ATLAS SNOWSHOE BINDING REPAIR

making tracks

Dress for success

 

Going Bananas in Phoenix

Our friend Amanda Banana

duck

Warm-ups

Fan banana toss

The Stretch

We explored the neighborhood

Lemons

and a little walk to the Lux