From the walleye opener through June 14, it was 17 to 26 inches. On June 15, it changed to 20-26 inches, creating a large number of fish now legal to harvest.

I cashed in on this phenomenon several years ago, when I took my wife Julie and our four children up to a resort on the lake called Bear Paw Guides. We went for several days and brought home our six-person limit of 24 walleyes, which kept our freezer stocked for the summer. Getting a limit was not a problem.

I’m going back up later this week to fish with owner Steve Brasel’s son Tyler. I have been on the phone several times with Steve, and learned that the fishing has been fantastic all spring. In fact, he says the fishing may be the best it has been since the lake re-opened to walleye fishing in 2006.

Here’s the amazing part: Very few people are taking advantage of the red-hot action. Steve told me that the cold and wet spring, which kept ice on the lake until after the opener, combined with higher gas prices have kept people away.

Too bad, I say. People don’t know what they’re missing. Steve told me stories of folks catching 100 walleyes in just a few hours. And, right now the crappies are shallow and biting well. Tyler took his three kids out one evening last week and they landed 39 crappies. Some of them were the big 15-inchers the lake is known for.

My schedule is tight, and my wife and I will have just one evening and the next morning to fish. But, that should be plenty of time, as we will be fishing with Tyler. He’s got dozens of spots plugged into his GPS and can take us anywhere we need to go.

But, I highly doubt we will get to many of those locations. We may be able to catch everything we want on just one spot. The good news is that he is fishing all this week, so by the time we get there Thursday evening, he should know what the hot spots are.

Not only that, but the weather looks pretty good. There may be a little rain, but most importantly, the winds are supposed to be light. That is key on this large, oval-shaped body of water that is unprotected from strong winds coming from the south, southwest, north and northwest. I looked at the weather forecast, and it says the winds will be light and from the southeast on Thursday.

Perfect! I can’t wait to get up there.

I thought it would be a great time to hunt, hopefully with hens sitting on nests incubating eggs, and the toms out cruising for the few hens that were left.

I was dead wrong. There were hens everywhere, and they were very vocal. Didn’t seem to me like very many were sitting, and the toms appeared to find them readily once down from the roost. They shut up not long after flydown at dawn, and kept silent after that.

Frustrated turkey hunters like me can thank the snow for that. My theory is that the 13-plus inches that fell in southeastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin destroyed all of the eggs the hens had laid, and many of the hens did not re-breed and lay more eggs. I don’t know how else to explain the high number of hens roaming the woods in late May.

Two of my sons, my brother and his son, and another brother and my dad hunted the last two time periods. Only my brother Joe was able to take a bird. The rest of us had chances, but very, very few. Toms would gobble, but were very reluctant to come in. With so many hens running around, they probably figured one would show up sooner or later without them having to go looking.

I heard gobbling on the roost, and I had some toms close by on a couple of occasions, but didn’t lure one into shotgun range in Minnesota. Based on reports I heard, mid-May was a much better time to be out chasing walleyes and searching for morel mushrooms. In fact, I read that this year was one of the best on record for morels.

Sure would have been nice to find a few of those, like I did last year when I shot a tom in Minnesota in the morning, then went over to Wisconsin, where I also had a turkey tag, and found a vest full of morels while trying to cover ground in search of a gobbler.

No such success this year, at least not during the mid-May period when morels were popping. Perhaps, if I had diverted my attention from the gobblers, I might have uncovered a batch of mushrooms.

Alas, I will never know if I ever walked by a cluster of the cone-shaped treasures. It’s a little hard to think about that, especially after a friend texted me a photo of several bags full that he picked. He’s in the woods a lot more than I am, so I’m not surprised he found some.

Walking away from this year’s spring turkey hunting season, I can be satisfied that I reached my two annual goals: 1. Kill a mature tom, which I did on May 5 in Wisconsin, in the snow no less, and 2. Learn something I can use next year. With all the time I spent in the woods, I got to know the properties I hunt much better, which should pay dividends next year.

One thing is already getting me excited about Spring 2014 – the number of 1-year-old toms, called jakes. These birds are easy to identify – short, stubby beards, smaller body size and a tail fan in which the feathers in the center are longer.

I encountered a group of six to eight jakes on one of my properties in Wisconsin. On the first day, I had one of them in range, but passed on the shot to wait for a mature bird. Then, I had them just out of shotgun range a few more times. I shot at them twice, but missed. Turns out they were farther away than I thought. I should never have taken the shots.

The good news is, the birds ran off unscathed, which means there will be lots of 2-year-olds running around next year. Plus, I read reports of other hunters seeing lots of jakes, too. Next year will be fun!

One thing I have learned is that, in fishing and hunting, timing is everything. Last spring, I hit it right for both turkeys and morels. And, last fall, I hit it right during the firearms season in Minnesota, taking the largest buck of my life in the final minutes of the 3A season.

Fish and hunt long enough and you’ll hit both the highs and the lows. As I put my turkey gear away, I expressed gratitude to the Lord for the time spent afield. I saw plenty of birds this year – and probably the most deer I have ever seen while turkey hunting. That tells me the whitetails came through in good shape, although they did look skinny in early May.

I’m not worried. They will feed voraciously this summer, and should be plenty plump by fall. In the meantime, I will continue to practice with my bow, and I plan to be ready when the archery deer season starts in September.

With three-plus months to hunt, the timing is sure to be right at some point in the season!

Now, things are finally greening up, and I’m seeing the first flower blooms of the year. It’s a very welcome sight! As I was walking past the Cathedral on my way back to the office the other day, I spotted some flowers in the Cathedral courtyard.

Naturally, I pulled out my camera and zoomed in on the splashes of pink in front of me. Taking in the scene definitely put a smile on my face.

With the heat we’ve had this week, leaves on the trees have popped fast. Just a week ago, the trees were bare. Now, we’re near full foliage. With green as my favorite color, this is a beautiful display, indeed.

It also will be very helpful next week when I go turkey hunting during Minnesota’s final season. The H Season starts on Friday, May 24. The foliage will help conceal me so that I can move in closer on birds. That always helps.

And, hopefully, the hens will be done laying their clutches of eggs and will be sitting on their nests. They lay one egg a day up to about 15 or 16, then sit on their nests to incubate their eggs almost round the clock. The first few days this happens, the toms are actively cruising for hens and can be very eager to come to a call.

That’s what I’m hoping for. Eventually, their excitement will fade, but I’m hoping it will last into the H Season. In a normal year, the toms are more subdued by this time, but still have some interest in breeding. This year, they may be far more active, making Season H perhaps the best season of the entire spring!

Originally, I was going to hunt Season E down near Cannon Falls. But, that didn’t work out. So, I called the landowners of the two adjoining properties I was planning to hunt, and asked them if I could switch to Season H. Thankfully, both of them said yes.

Although you can buy the tags over the counter for Seasons E through H, and there is no limit to the amount of tags the DNR will offer, I think there will be fewer hunters in the woods, especially for Season H.

Generally, once fishing season opens, people put away their shotguns and bows, and pick up their fishing rods. I understand that, as I used to do the same thing. But, I have discovered in recent years that turkey hunting can be good in May. And, the fishing season goes a long time, so there is plenty of time to wet a line after my hunt is done.

So, starting next Friday, I will take to the woods in search of a nice gobbler. To me, there’s no better way to enjoy spring!

A snowy landscape made for an interesting backdrop for this Wisconsin turkey hunt.

As I arrived to my hunting spot near Ellsworth, Wis. on Sunday morning for a “spring” turkey hunt, the landscape was radically different from previous years.

I just finished my Wisconsin season, which ran for seven days. On the first evening, snow started to fall where I hunt. When it was finished the next morning, there was 13 inches on the ground. So, I did not hunt for the next three days.

I went back out on Sunday morning. Some snow had melted, but there was still lots on the ground. I hunted a very nice piece of property where my sons and I have killed birds over the last six years.

Turns out there was a fired up tom roosted just a few hundred yards from where I parked the car. The snow didn’t seem to keep the toms from doing what they like to do in the spring – court the ladies.

Making my move

It was tricky to slip in close because there were no leaves on the trees, and the blanket of snow added more light. I couldn’t get in as close as I would have liked, but I got into the section of woods where this gobbler was roosted. I ended up sitting down against a tree in a blanket of snow, which I had never done before.

The tom was gobbling hard on his own, then I heard a hen yelping. I mimicked her a couple of times, then she shut up. I was hoping he would fly down before she did, which is exactly what happened.

He was hot to trot and flew down into the field and continued to gobble. I called softly, then quit. He kept working toward me in the field, and I was convinced I would see him in an opening in the brush on the edge where he was walking. I wanted to sit right along the edge, but felt it would be too risky in terms of him seeing me from the roost. So, I tucked in around the corner, about 30 yards from the edge.

The moment of truth?

Had he walked right along the edge, I would have had a nice 30-yard shot. But, as it turned out, he walked about 20-30 yards out into the field. That put him at about 50 yards or so. Had he stopped in the opening and ran his head up, I would have taken the shot. Instead, he walked right through it and continued toward the corner. I did not shoot because I wasn’t sure I could knock him down.

He reached the corner, but there was a lot of thick brush between me and the bird. I turned to the right hoping he would round the corner and come on in. He only needed to go another 25-30 yards and I would see him again.

What did he do? He stayed right at the corner and continued to gobble. I waited, then did a little more soft calling. Over the years, I have used soft calling to lure the bird the final steps into range and into a clear spot for a shot. He gobbled right away, but stayed put. More than likely, he wanted that hen to come out and show herself.

Time to wait

I’ve played this game before, and knew it was time to shut up. A lot of guys can’t stand it when a bird hangs up, so they keep calling. I have learned that staying quiet usually causes a bird to get curious and come in looking.

I knew he didn’t have any hens with him, and he already had come this far. Plus, there was absolutely no obstruction between him and I, so there was no reason for him to hang up.

Then, he went quiet for a bit, and that’s usually when the bird is moving. So, I got my gun up and ready, then took the safety off. He gobbled again, and seemed a bit closer, but still had a little ways to come. I kept my gun up, and finally took the safety off.

The final steps

Only about a minute later, I caught movement to my left. He walked out into the field about 20 yards and finally cleared the brush and reached an opening. I should have done what my friend suggests and made a call to get him to stop and raise his head.

But, in my excitement, I put the bead on him while he was walking and fired. With his head pulled in toward his body and not raised up, I ended up putting more pellets into the body than I would have liked. In fact, I broke his wing. But, the end result was good – the bird went down! My shot was about 30 to 35 yards, which was well within the range of my shotgun.

I was worried that that the breast on the side facing me would be riddled with pellets. That happened last year on a similar shot. Amazingly, when I breasted out the bird, I didn’t find any pellets on either side.

The two breast halves are now in the freezer. The only tough part was I sliced my thumb when I was breasting out the bird. I had just sharpened the fillet knife, so it went right into my thumb. I went to the Urgency Room and they actually used some type of glue. Oh well, a small price to pay.

Another bird in the snow

Steve Huettl sits in the snow with the bird he took in Wisconsin last week.

My friend, Steve Huettl, hunted the same season and went out into the snow like I did. However, he did not wait until Sunday. He went out Friday afternoon and actually stalked in on a nice gobbler that had hens with him. He snuck in close and shot the bird.

That’s not the way the game is usually played, but you have to adapt to varying conditions. Last year at this time, the trees had leafed out, and the hens were sitting on their nests incubating eggs. With the ladies absent, the toms were left lonely in the woods.

This year, Steve says the birds are “henned up” right now in the areas hit hard by the snow. He believes the snowstorm wiped out all the eggs the hens had laid, meaning they had to start breeding all over again.

That makes for very tough hunting. So, he told me to count my blessings that I was able to get a bird to come in, and come in without any hens around.

I say “Amen” to that. God is good, and I give credit to him for helping me get my Wisconsin “snow bird.”

We went out scouting yesterday and enjoyed a fabulous afternoon, with temperatures in the upper 70s. I’m sure the warmth will get the breeding going strong. I talked to one of the landowners, and he says he has been hearing turkeys gobbling along a ridge regularly. I’ve got my blind close to that ridge and near the edge of two large agricultural fields that have some waste corn from last fall.

An area like this is excellent for turkeys and I have killed several birds in this spot over the last six years. I’m confident that there will be birds around, which is what you want.

Another good sign is seeing a few turkeys tracks, plus wild flowers blooming, a sure sign that spring is here. We did see a few patches of snow as we drove around, but it will be gone soon. I think we’ve seen the last of the white stuff.

Bob, meanwhile, got excited when I showed him the piece of land he’ll be hunting. It’s got a nice trout stream running through it, and he’s an avid flyfisherman. So, he’ll have both a shotgun and a flyrod with him. If the turkeys aren’t active, he’ll head to the stream for some trout fishing.

I just hope the weather is decent for at least part of the time. It’s looking like we won’t see the 70s during our week-long hunt, but I would be OK with 50s. After all, turkeys are not nearly as temperature sensitive as humans are. In fact, the most gobbling I ever heard at dawn came on a very cold morning in early April when the temperature was 22 degrees, and only warmed to the low 40s.

This gobbling fest took place on the same property Bob will be hunting. I hope and pray he can get a nice tom to come in close enough for a shot!

Then, things went bad last week while I was shooting at 20 yards, my usual distance. The first arrow hit 2 inches to the right. Then, the second one did, and the third. I had been hitting the bullseye or close to it regularly, so this was strange. As I continued shooting, the arrows started drifting farther to the right. Finally, I had one hit six inches to the right.

I thought my shooting form was going bad, and I got very upset with myself. Turns out a screw was loose – not inside of me, but on the bow. The day after Easter, I called A1 to ask the guys there about my problem. They instructed me to bring the bow in, which I did.

When one of the guys took a look at it, he instantly found the problem – a screw on the bottom cam had popped out. As a result, two other screws came loose and the string slipped off of the grooves on the cam. This caused three problems: 1. Altered arrow impact, 2. lower draw weight, and 3. shortened draw length.

He took about 1o minutes to find a replacement screw and put it on. Then, he sent me to the shooting range to check it out. My groups tightened right back up again, and I readjusted my sight pins.

As I did so, I saw another employee with his bow, and noticed he had a long stabilizer on it. When I asked him about it, he mentioned the brand name of the stabilizer, Bee Stinger. I asked if the shop carried this brand, and he went and got one for me to try.

Instantly, I liked it and knew this was something I should have on my bow. So, I bought one. I had my first home session with it yesterday, and it performed beautifully. It offers both dampening of bow movement after the shot and stabilization during the shot. I discovered that I could hold the pin steadier on the target, and the bow didn’t jump so much after releasing the arrow.

I’m sold on the Bee Stinger. At my age (51), I have discovered that I am not as steady as I used to be. I’m happy to have assistance in this area. Now, I’m back on track with my shooting, and can’t wait to try it at longer distances.

Finally, I want to say a big thank you to the guys at A1. They really took care of me on this one, and they have won my loyalty. I have gone to other local shops, but A1 has become my go-to archery store!

Steve Huettl shows off a nice tom he shot in Wisconsin last May, while hunting with the author.

There’s plenty of snow on the ground, and it looks like more shoveling lies ahead, but that doesn’t stop me from thinking about the upcoming turkey hunting season. The truth is, now is an important time for getting ready to chase gobblers in April and May.

I will be hunting in both Minnesota and Wisconsin this spring, as usual. Lottery results for both states have been available for weeks. I was picked for Season D in Wisconsin, and plan to buy a license over the counter for Minnesota’s Season E (only the first four seasons, A through D, are by lottery). Back in January, I made calls to landowners to secure permission to hunt properties in both states.

If you haven’t already done so, now’s the time to make those calls. The longer you wait, the more risk you run of having others get permission before you do. Then, you’ll have to scramble to find other properties to hunt.

Pick up those calls

With that accomplished, turned to another important task – practicing my turkey calling. Much to the chagrin of my wife and kids, I have been sounding off for several weeks now. I’ve been turkey hunting nearly three decades, and I have become proficient at several types of calls – box, slate, mouth and push-button.

It’s not a task I need to spend hours on, but I don’t want to neglect it entirely. What I have learned is that when a turkey is gobbling and coming in, I tend to get nervous. My mouth gets dry and my hands tremble a bit. So, calling can get more challenging. That’s why I like to keep my calling simple, and go for the easiest calls to use during those tense moments.

My go-to call for pulling a gobbler those finals steps into gun range has been A Pushpin Pro Yelper by Quaker Boy. It’s a pushbutton-style friction call that is very easy to use. I have called in several birds with it, including a nice mature tom in Minnesota last year. This call works!

Yet, I felt I needed to add something more, something hands free. The obvious thing is a mouth diaphragm call. I have used them over the years, but they can be stiff and tricky to operate. I wanted something that is easy to use and can produce the soft calls – clucks and purrs – that I like to use when a gobbler is close but not visible or in gun range.

How to tease toms

I found a call recently that fits the bill. The company is called Tom Teasers and what caught my eye was the name of one of its mouth calls – Butt Naked Hen. When I ran across this name while surfing the Internet, I just had to go to the website and check it out.

I discovered that the calls are hand made, not mass produced. What’s more, each call has a short video demo that you can click on to hear what it sounds like. So, there’s no guesswork.

That was what really sold me on the calls, and I called the company to get my hands on one. I ended up talking to the founder and owner, Tommy Walton, whose company is located in Georgia. How often is it that you can get on the phone with the guy in charge?

Interestingly, the only other time that happened was when I contacted another Georgia company, Comp-N-Choke. The owner took my order back in 2009, and I have been very happy with the results. I have made shots from beyond 50 yards, and it’s highly unlikely I will ever switch to another choke.

Turns out, Tommy Walton knows about Comp-N-Choke and knows the owner. I had a great turkey chat with Tommy, and he graciously agreed to send me some samples. I waited eagerly for them to show up in my mail box, which they did less than a week later.

Perfect fit

To my delight, the Butt Naked Hen was among the samples Tommy sent. I have tried three of the five and like them all, but I especially like the Butt Naked Hen for the soft calls. It makes great clucks and purrs, and I’m sure this call will be with me when I hit the woods in May.

I noticed two things about these calls right away – they’re very easy to use, and they work great right out of the box. So often, I have found, mouth calls are stiff right out of the box and require a break-in period. That’s not the case with Tom Teasers.

On one of the calls, the tape came loose, and I called Tommy to let him know. Very graciously, he sent me a replacement call that arrived just a few days later. He also told me that he has since discovered a flaw in some of the tape he buys to make the calls. He is aware of the problem, and says all mouth call manufacturers are experiencing it, as the tape company sells to a lot of different call manufacturing companies.

So, anyone buying a mouth call should be aware of this, and be prepared to contact the call company if there’s a problem. Tommy said he will replace any call with this problem free of charge. I did not have this problem with the other four calls he sent me, and the replacement call has worked fine.

How good is good enough?

I will be the first to admit that I do not sound nearly as good with a mouth call as Tommy and the other guy who does the demos on the Tom Teasers website. But, the good news is, I don’t have to. It’s all about cadence and rhythm when it comes to producing hen sounds. If you get that right, you’re good to go, especially up here in the Midwest, where birds aren’t pressured nearly as heavily as they are down south.

Tommy told me that, down in the south, birds are hunted hard and can become call shy. So, hunters need to sound as realistic as possible. He added that any bird you get in the south is well earned.

My turkey hunt begins May 1. That’s only a month and a half away. As always, I’m optimistic about the season. Looks like the breeding could happen later this year, like it did two years ago. That’s one reason why I like to hunt in May. It’s very rare that there’s cold and snow then. In fact, two years ago, the weather was great, despite the late spring.

As I wait for the snow to melt, I’ll keep practicing my calling. Who knows? Maybe I can become almost as good on a mouth call as Tommy Walton. Then again, maybe the birds up here can’t tell the difference!

A common thread is that the campaign started during the offseason. A familiar comment goes something like this: “The day after the season ended last year, I got right to work on my offseason conditioning, and right then and there I set my goal on winning a title.”

Look at Adrian Peterson. The recently announced NFL MVP has said many times that his campaign to be the best running back in the league began minutes after he tore his ACL in a game against the Washington Redskins last season. In fact, before he even left the stadium that fateful day in December 2011, he vowed to play the next season.

And, he did just that. Not only did he lead the league in rushing, he fell just nine yards short of Eric Dickerson’s single-season record. And, in the process, he led the Vikings to the playoffs for the first time in three years. It is well documented how hard he worked to rehab his injured knee. He ended up playing in every single game. And, he left little doubt that he was the hardest working player on the team this year, maybe in the entire league.

I think about that now, with the bow hunting season closed and a seven-month wait until the start of the 2013 archery deer season. Unlike many other hunters, I don’t put my bow on the shelf at this time of year. I continue shooting, mostly to keep my muscles in shape. And, just as important, I am using this time to make improvements on my bow setup.

The biggest tweak is getting a new string on my bow. The old one was showing serious signs of wear, including some cut fibers that could hamper accuracy and lead to breaking of the string. So, I decided to replace it.

For advice, I visited an archery shop in Hudson called A-1 Archery. The guy I talked to recommended one made by a local company called Vapor Trail. I did some checking and saw some great reviews. I even called the company and talked to one of their technicians about the strings they manufacture. I love being able to call a company and actually talk to someone about the products. Seems like companies in the hunting and fishing industry understand this. It’s by no means the first time I have talked to a person at a company about its products. In fact, one time I talked to the company president about a turkey choke and he took my order over the phone! The turkey choke I ordered, called a Comp-N-Choke, has worked great for me, and it likely will be the last turkey choke I ever buy for my Remington 11-87.

I ended up ordering a Vapor Trail string, and got it installed at A-1 earlier this week. The technician there put it on while I waited, then I was able to take some test shots. They put on what’s called a peep sight on the string, which allows you to look through the same opening every time you shoot. Plus, I no longer need special tubing to keep the peep aligned correctly. Vapor Trail says there is no peep rotation in the string, therefore no need to install tubing to keep it in proper alignment.

I had problems with the tube breaking about once every month or two. That means you have to reattach it before you can see through the peep and shoot again. I always feared that it would happen when I was drawing back on a deer. Now, those worries are gone.

Next on my list is sighting in my bow with the new string. After that, I will look at stabilizers. I have a cheap one on my bow now, and would like a high-end one to make sure I can shoot more consistently. It’s all part of being prepared.

I’m really hoping to tag my first archery deer next season. I have gone two seasons without doing so, and the mistakes and failures have fueled my motivation to be successful next time around. I will do all I can to address the little things because that could make all the difference come September.

But, it’s not a bad time to look back, either. This year was one of my best ever in the outdoors. The highlights are many, and reflections of an outstanding year in God’s glorious creation continue to bring a smile to my face.

Turkey time

The wild turkeys got active earlier than usual this past spring, with March feeling more like May. I began the gobbler chase in April with my son, William, during the Wisconsin youth weekend.

Although we left the woods without a bird, it turned out to be an action-packed hunt. We had numerous birds gobbling on the roost not very far away, then had a group of birds come in our direction after flying down. They hung up, but eventually we had a group of 1-year-old toms (called jakes) come in, along with two hens. William got two shots off, but failed to bring down a bird. I would later redeem that hunt by getting what I think was one of those jakes a month later. On  the same piece of property, I had four jakes come in, and was able to get one of them.

I added a Minnesota longbeard to the harvest, and it didn’t even take an hour. I heard a bird gobbling on the roost, then slipped in to about 50-60 yards from the bird. He flew down and came right in. As I stood over the nice tom after pulling the trigger, and my watch read 6:21 a.m.

A wonderful surprise

With the hunt over so fast, I decided to head over to Wisconsin to see if I could fill my other tag. The state went from a series of five-day hunts to seven-day seasons. That meant my Minnesota and Wisconsin seasons overlapped by a day.

So, I registered my Minnesota bird in Red Wing, then crossed the river into Wisconsin. I tried hard to get my second bird, traveling to three different properties. On my last stop, I saw hens but no toms. I decided to try one last spot on this small farm, and saw something brown on the ground in the corner of a field. It turned out to be a morel mushroom. And, there were many more.

I filled my turkey hunting vest with them and headed home with an unexpected bounty.  I ended the day with fried mushrooms, plus a mushroom-and-cheese omelette at the home of Chris Thompson, academic dean at the St. Paul Seminary. He is an avid mushroom hunter, and he almost freaked out when he saw what was in my vest.

Saving the best for last

If someone had told me in early September that I would still be without a deer on Nov. 11, I wouldn’t have believed them. With the archery season beginning in mid September, I figured it wouldn’t be a matter of if I took a deer, but how many.

Yet, there I was in my deer stand on the afternoon of Nov. 11, the last day of the Zone 3A firearms season, hoping I would not get skunked. I had seen very little throughout the gun season, and failed to tag a deer during my numerous trips to the woods, despite hitting two deer with my arrows.

With gusty northwest winds pounding me all afternoon, it was a test of endurance. But, I still had hope, as the last hour of legal shooting hours can produce strong deer movement.

Sure enough, with only about 10-15 minutes left, a buck appeared out in a picked soybean field 180 yards away. Almost magically, he turned and trotted right to me, stopping and turning broadside at about 70-80 yards. I hit him several times, and when I found him just inside the woods, I realized I had just killed the largest buck of my life. He’s now at the taxidermist, and I can’t wait to see the finished mount.

I give thanks to God for some outstanding memories – and some great food in the freezer. Wild turkey, venison and morel mushrooms – who could ask for more?

Fortunately, I work right next door to the Cathedral, and late in the day I happened to go outside to give someone a CD with photos.

I looked up and saw a crisp blue sky and some striking clouds over the dome of the Cathedral. I quickly went inside and grabbed my camera. I stepped out onto the sidewalk of our building on Dayton Avenue and started snapping away. It didn’t take long – only about 10 minutes. I was able to capture some beautiful images of the Cathedral, which once again confirmed that winter has a unique beauty worth recording.

Another bonus was a thick blanket of snow on some tree branches in the Cathedral courtyard. I got a few photos of that, too. I’m sure we can use those photos. Don’t be surprised if you see one or two published in the coming months.