A squirrel I shot this fall. It did not want to give up its nut.

 

Ice fishing is coming!

Well winter is upon us now. We got about 10 inches of snow sunday and sunday night. It is also below freezing also which means the lakes are starting to freeze. The snow on top isn't helping much tho. Gunna try and get out ice fishing here soon. Gotta wait for the ice to get a little thicker first.

Second Annual Black Forest Lodge Awards

It is that time of year again!  Time for the second annual Black Forest Lodge awards.  This year at the BFL was a little less crazy but a little more venison filled so it mostly evened out.  It is nothing short of a miracle the BFL is still standing and we are still waiting on Jared's relatives to do some improvement on the building.  Eric was noticeably absent except for one day at the BFL.  Therefore, sadly we kick of the awards of biggest puss wagon and for second year of the row the winner is...

Biggest Puss Wagon

Eric
Now, first off to give Eric credit he has improved greatly over last year.  There were were empty beverage bottles hidden throughout the woods, and we didn't find any bottles filled with water.  That alone, made me consider taking him out of this category this year.  But, as I was reminded by Ryan, he hunted the least number of days at the BFL which qualified him for this award.  I did invite him to go hunting and trap checking/setting with me on the last Saturday of the season and his only answer was a straight "NO" with no reasoning behind it.  Now this could be because it was one of the coldest days of the season, or because he had a date with a little filly.  Either way we are assuming the first reason until we hear otherwise.  The fact that Ryan was out hunting at the BFL more days than Eric brings us to our next award which is a two way tie.

Most Improved

Tie: Jared and Ryan
Each of these men deserve for a few reasons.  First of all we will talk about Ryan.  Again Ryan went out this year to the BFL whenever he was invited and had free time with not a single complaint.  Even on a cold day when Eric would not show up Ryan was there.  He also beat Eric for both number of days and hours out at the BFL.  We are still waiting for him to get his hunter's safety and get hunting which is only the next logical step from here on out.  Therefore with improvements pushing him into the spent more time at the BFL hunting than Eric category Ryan again wins the most improved award.

Jared
Jared won most improved this year for one main reason.  That reason was he actually was seriously hunting for at least two days out of the time he was there.  One of those days he even helped George harvest us some meat.  He also brought less liquid than normal to his stands in an attempt to stay on top of things instead of below them sleeping.  Twice he also stayed out hunting until hunting hours were over.  He did not once this year use a truck as his stand or go against walking in the woods instead of sitting.  Also he, George, and Ryan tried there hand at a little trapping practice during the deer season which shows all three men were very dedicated to being in the outdoors.

Laziest Hunter

Jake
Jake did what he always does and got his buck within the first few hours of the Wisconsin Gun Deer Season Opener.  After that he was just as hard to get out there as Old Man Rounce.  While Jared was home getting out to the BFL before noon was next to impossible with Jake and Old Man Rounce screwing around.  This year Jake didn't do his typical be up at 6 am to hunt, be a little bit wobbly by noon, then cook Supper for everyone at night.  He instead mimicked the ways of Old Man Rounce.  We had high hopes for Jake considering how he won BFL Man Of The Year last year and had everyone impressed by his skills and abilities, but this year must have been an off year for him.

Best Shot and Worst Shot

 George
George win's both awards this year.  He had the uncanny ability to drop deer where they stood.  A good story about that will come on later down in this article.  Even a deer he hit from the rear end dropped right away.  We all know that is a bad shot, but he dropped it along with his other two deer he shot this year therefore George wins both awards just on his ability to drop deer.

Best Mustache

Ryan

We thought the contest would be a little bit closer between Ryan and Jared, but according to the woman vote Ryan wins it.  Ryan also has more donations than Jared for Movember so that probably helped him winning this award as well.  Either way congrats to Ryan and his mustache he has mad Jared jealous.

Best Beard

Andy is on the right

Andy

As always Andy has again won this award without even trying.  I don't know what it is, but it seems like Andy can win this award without even trying.  You give him some adult beverage and two hours of thinking and he will somehow grow a beard Santa would be proud of.  I don't know if it will ever be possible to knock Andy off his best beard pedestal, but I encourage someone to try.

Most Badass

I know it is the same picture, but jimmy is in it

Jimmy

This year Jimmy one the most badass award for two major factors.  His ability to process a deer at record speeds, and then his even quicker ability to turn that processed deer into amazing food right in front of your eyes.  Jimmy with little help from both Jared and George (less help from Jared though) got a deer processed and cooking within a very short amount of time with little light and it being very cold outside.  What really put the icing on the cake though was how amazing he made that venison taste.  George and I ate it until it was all gone even though we were full it was that good.  Jared even had to pay for overeating a little later that night.  Jim should seriously start a guide service or something it was that good.  You will see it in the deer season video I will get to working on soon.  Thank goodness Jimmy covered for Jake in the cooking department, because I don't think anyone else could have done as well as him.

Do you see how amazingly good this looks?

 And now to the most treasured award of the BFL awards...

Black Forest Lodge Man Of The Year

George

As you know this award is given to the man who strives to be the manliest hunting man around.  This year that is George.  This award has been given to George for his ability to get deer even when he is not trying, and his ability to stay out later at night than me.  Here is a story of one of the deer George got:

It was Thanksgiving early afternoon and George picked up Jared just to go sit in the woods and spend a little time hanging out for the short time Jared was home.  George brought his puppy and Jared brought basically nothing.  Jared and George were visit, George's puppy was playing around in the leaves, and Jared was also playing around with some deer call stuff on his phone.  Somehow a deer comes upon George, Jared, and his George's puppy Bella.  George with his man of the year skills shoots it and it drops where it stood.  It was nothing short of amazement and Jared could not believe it.  That wasn't the end of George's thanksgiving day though.  Later that night he got another deer on another piece of land.  Two deer in one day is amazing!  Also it was very tasty thanks Jimmy!
Anyway, George wasn't done feeding everyone with his manly hunting skills even after getting two deer in one day, because on the last Sunday of deer season he decided two deer for the season wasn't enough and got three.  Yes, three deer!  That was not all though, George also went out with Jared to practice some trapping and then he built a fire for Ryan and Jared.  A good fire mind you here is a picture.

With all this amazingness George wins The BFL Man Of The Year Award.  Congrats George in being the manliest man this year in Quad Survival.

This concludes our Black Forest Lodge Awards for the year of 2012, but there is a video coming of the deer season and there are more pictures below for you to view of the Quad Survival members at the Black Forest Lodge.  Enjoy the pictures below

The old bus which was the original Black Forest Lodge

Jared walking back from hunting

Jared filling his pipe

George and Jared playing with traps practicing for when they really trap

Jared and George playing with more traps

Jared walking back from hunting again

Jake sharpening a knife with the knife sharpener he got Jared

Jared hunting with a cigar

Jared climbing down out of Jake's tree stand aka Big Dick's Buckhorn

Jared and Eric hunting below Jake's stand

Jared all to happy

Jake being himself

Jared still hunting and smiling

The BFL sign

Jared and George hunting

The Lincoln driving into the BFL

Ryan and Eric

Jimmy's head

One of George's deer again

My last few weeks of upland hunting in North Dakota and Movember

It has been a few weeks since I have last posted and I have been up to quite a bit.  I went hunting one day every weekend since then for upland birds and I was not very successful.  You can't expect to much though it is Eastern North Dakota and I was hunting without a dog.  Anyway, I didn't see a single thing in the way of birds until my last day out hunting.  I was driving along a road between some public land and what I could only describe as a massive number of grouse flush from the ditch on the side of the road.  It was actually around probably 30 grouse which I considered a big number.  I quickly found a spot to park the car and go attempt to chase after them.  It just snowed the day before, and there was quite a bit of snow on the ground which made walking difficult.  The grouse were nothing but annoying after that.  I could hear them making their noises so I would head their direction and they would either flush over 100 yards ahead of me or just keep running on the ground and staying around 100 yards in front of me.  I tried every tactic I could think of to try to fix that.  I would try to sneak up to them, run up to them, try from different angles relative to the wind, nothing changed the way they acted I could not get a shot at all.  Finally after following them around for an hour and being quite far away from the vehicle at this time they all decided to fly onto some posted private land and that was the end of me chasing grouse for the season I guess.  I did hunt a different location after that, but to no avail there.  My grouse and pheasant season in North Dakota before their deer opener ended in 0 birds and 1 jackrabbit.  This is more than previous years, but still less than hunting only one afternoon in Wisconsin.

My hunting these past few weekends has not been in vain though.  First off I really enjoyed being out of the city and enjoying mother nature.  You really can't beat that, because even if you don't get any food for the table you still enjoyed the day.  Second, I found quite a few signs of fur bearers.  There was one spot of public land where this one truck always was every time I went out hunting.  Finally one time when I went out there the truck wasn't there so I decided to check it out.  Little did I know after walking through the some of the extremely rare wooded areas in this part of North Dakota that I would come to a creek.  I was surprised and happy to find something besides the same fields over and over again.  I found a tree stand which I assume was the guy's with the truck who had always been there.  In the part of public land by this creek I found tons of gnawed trees and beaver slides.  This got me excited as I was starting to wondering if trapping was really going to be worth getting my car stuck in the snow tons of times this winter.  I also found what looked to be the makings of a beaver dam but that was on private property so I could not get to close of a look at it.  I think I found at least one spot to possibly trap this Winter which excites me.  To add onto this topic Eric and I decided to go combine our efforts in getting trapping stuff this year as we both have been challenged by someone we know in an outdoor contest.  Eric traded a bow for about a few dozen traps all size 1 through 3 coil spring and long spring.  I ordered things for the traps like swivels, in line springs, and stakes to put his traps in better working order for the coyote and fox he wants.  Eric still needs a catch pole and if he's reading this I would like to remind him to get one or we may have a bad time.  I want to try to trap a little more than just fox and coyote, so I got some dog proof coon traps, some weasel boxes, weasel lure, coon lure, and some muskrat colony traps.  I already own a #1 long spring, and #110 conibear as everyone has seen from my videos.  I have already ordered all my stuff, and it is currently sitting in Wisconsin waiting for me to come get it.  I will see it soon as I go home to celebrate the greatest national holiday known as Wisconsin Deer Season.  I won't be there for the while time, but I will get at least 4 days in of hunting.  So, lots of excitement is coming up for me.

Here are the pictures I took while I was out hunting these last few weekends.

Beaver run

Beaver run there were a lot of them

chewed on tree

same chewed on tree

chewed on tree next to a run

More runs

Treestand I found there

chewing

dam in progress

The dam again

another run

More beaver work

Rusting old farm equpiment

Sitting on one of the few hills taking a short break from chasing the grouse around

Cows staring at me

Finally the last part of the post for everyone who is sick of reading.  Quad Survival has, as you know, grown mustaches for Movember to support awareness for men's cancers.  Well this year we have decided to participate in it some more by having a Movember team.  Our team address is http://us.movember.com/team/893129 if you want to donate.  Also if you want to donate on my behalf which also goes towards the team as well you can donate at this address http://mobro.co/quadsurvival.  Either way works except donating on my behalf puts me up higher in the team rankings.  I encourage everyone to donate for Movember as it goes to a good cause, and showing the world it is not only women who get cancer.  You may also join our team if you would like and help on behalf of Quad Survival.  As  many of you know I recently lost my father to cancer and I thank everyone who will contribute to Movember in advance it means a lot to me in many ways.  Stay updated as we will have more posts coming soon especially with deer season coming.

Upland Hunting Last Weekend in North Dakota

After I wrote the blog post last Saturday I went out for some upland hunting.  I know the area I live in in North Dakota can only be described as embarrassing compared to hunting in Wisconsin, but dammit I need to do outdoors stuff.  I've gone upland hunting in this area of North Dakota many times before, and it is basically a miracle if you flush a grouse or partridge any more than 3 times in the season.  Yes it is that bad I kind of wish I had a dog to help me.  Anyway, I got ready and prepared for a day out in the fields seeing nothing.  I packed snacks water and so on.  I walk into the first field and within about 10 minutes of walking a jackrabbit pops up right next to me.  Within that split second I decided I was hungry enough to try jackrabbit, so I shot it and put it down.  This was the first time I have ever seen, or shot a jackrabbit and when I walked up to it I noticed it was quite large.  I picked up the rabbit and headed back into town to clean it.  I've never cleaned a rabbit or jackrabbit before, but from what I was taught it was pretty simple.  

When I got back to the apartment I weighed the jackrabbit and it weighed 7 pounds!  This seemed big to me, but from what I understand is normal size for North Dakota jackrabbits.  I did some looking up online on how to skin one and found there are about 8 different ways people are showing, so I decided to try it how my grandfather told me to, but modify it so the meat was boneless.  I don't think I did to bad for my first time skinning jackrabbit, but I didn't get as much meat as I could.  I got most of what Uncle Ted would call bountiful back straps  and some hind leg meat.  I made a pretty decent mess in the kitchen and decided that the sink was not the best place as the jackrabbit kept sliding around.  I have no learned and will be able to do a better job and get more meat next time.  After I was done cleaning up I put the meat in a bowl of saltwater in the fridge and went back out hunting for a while.

I didn't see anything else out hunting the second time that day, but I almost got my car stuck on minimum maintenance road.  When I finally got off the road my car was so loaded up with a dirt/clay mix that I had to get most of it out from the parts of my car by hand.  That wasn't fun.  Anyway, after that mess I went back to my apartment to get my jackrabbit ready.

I follow the way my grandfather, you know him as Old Man Rounce, told me.  I seasoned the meat with garlic salt, salt and pepper.  Then I shook the jackrabbit meat in a bag filled with flower.  Fried it on the stove in butter and olive oil at medium low for about 12 minutes, with a cover on it most of the time.  Then I took a pot put some butter in it added half a cup of water and a few shots of Brandy (the Brandy was my choice).  I set the oven to 350, put the meat in the pot (I don't own a dutch oven or I would use that) put a cover on it and let it cook for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees.  Remember that rabbit is an extremely lean meat with nothing but really protein in it, so you must keep it as moist as possible and use lots of butter to give it more flavor, and keep the meat from getting to tough.  When the food came out of the oven it look pretty good.  It tasted not bad either, but Patty said it didn't have much flavor, which it didn't so for next time I have to add more spices and probably use real butter (Patty doesn't like real butter so it's almost never in the apartment).  So everyone make note of that use real butter not fake butter.

Patty went out hunting with my the next day, but we didn't see anything.  Below are some pictures of the weekend.

The jackrabbit

Getting ready to skin it

When it says Town Car for the name I guess it means Town Car

Sunset ending the first night of hunting

The jackrabbit after it was cooked.  Some of it was already eaten by me I was hungry.

The second day of hunting.

Also last weekend I guess Eric went salmon fishing in Wisconsin.  He sent me a picture with no details on if he caught this fish or not, but I'm sure if he actually contributed to this blog he would have some good stories for everyone to read.  It looks like he or someone did well salmon fishing though.  Here is the picture below.