I had the nicest and sweetest surprise yesterday when my Great Grandson, Tidus David, came by to visit me. His parents will be here for approximately two weeks. They drove from Great Falls, Montana and it took them three days to get here. He had a blast playing with my artificial apples and grapes from a wooden bowl on the coffee table. I look forward to spending more time with Tidus before he has to head back home. This is a sweetthing! 
Keione Mellon, 11, bagged his first turkey last Sunday while hunting at Goat Hill Hunting Club with family friend Andy Freeney, left, and great uncle Allen Shiers. The gobbler weighed 18 pounds and had a 9 1/2-inch beard. Mellon is the son of Stacy Shiers and the grandson of Eddie and Debbie Shiers. Congrat to Keione for getting his very first turkey in the great outdoors.
Bradlee Ross, 9, shot this 8-point, 205-pound buck on January 17 on private land in Southern Warren County. Its rack had a 16 1/4-inch spread with a 21-inch main beam. Bradlee is the son of Jon and Jennifer Ross. My congrats to Bradlee with a nice 8-point buck. Way to go Bradlee!
Hunters in Wyoming rescue a cow elk stranded in a icy hole in a stream. After she nearly tramples the hunters, she confounds them with her actions that follow. Video courtesy of Elk Foundation Life Member Ron Niziolek. Here is Ron's story behind the video....
I thought I’d share a pretty cool experience that happened while elk hunting with my family over the New Year holidays. My son Nick is home on leave from the Air Force and my brother Riff and his family came over from Oregon. My nephew Sam is also home on leave from Iraq. Sam, Nick and I had late cow tags.
Sam and Riff were out scouting for us around Cody a couple days before the end of the season when they spotted an elk head sticking out of the ice in a creek. Closer inspection revealed what they thought was a calf elk stuck in a massive hole in the ice. It appeared to have been there awhile but seemed nervous, so they didn’t approach too close.
They came back to town and picked up my nephew Kevin, Nick and me. We gathered up some rope and an ice bar in the hopes we could do something to save it. If not, one of us would use our tag and not let the meat go to waste.
When we got to the elk, we could see its ears above the ice. As we approached, she disappeared. The hole was 6 feet deep with a couple feet of water. She was a full-grown cow, and we decided to rope her up and yank her out.
Sam lay prone on the ice right above the elk, while I anchored myself and held his feet to keep him from sliding in with her. He slowly leaned out and down with his 40-foot lariat and did his best to talk reassuringly to her. Sam got the loop around her neck with ease and managed to do so without her thrashing at all.
As they started to pull her up, she began to lunge and kick. After awhile she popped out, and with the slack in the line all the guys fell over backwards with the elk still coming at them. The elk had more energy than we anticipated, and it was quite a sight watching my brother and nephew get run over and stepped on. Now we had a wild elk running and bucking and pulling Sam around. Nothing like some good old redneck Wyoming boys having fun! Seriously, we never really got that far in our thinking to figure how to get the rope off the elk once it was out.
She ended up spinning around and running back down on the ice. She gained her footing, looked at us briefly, then jumped willingly back into her hole. I think she felt safe down there. She stood looking at us with the rope still around her neck and Sam still attached to the other end. You could read it in her eyes: “You guys are really stupid.” Right about then, the guys felt like shooting her. Riff had a big hoof print on his knee and was quite upset that we were back where we started. My friend Jim showed up and thought maybe we could tie another rope on the first one at the loop (referred to as a honda). When we got the elk up again, he would pull on the new rope and get some slack on the first one.
For this round, the guys braced themselves and started pulling. She didn’t fight or help too much. It took about two full minutes to get her up and pulled 20 yards from the hole. Sam was able to talk to her, hold her head and get the ropes off. She mewed a few times, lifted her head, then barked and got to her feet. After a few wobbly steps she was off at a trot for the mountains. We watched her for about a half mile until she disappeared over a ridge. With our sick sense of humor we were expecting to hear rifle shots from the other side. That would be just our luck. It’s a family memory that will last forever. I want to say thanks to my son and two nephews and everyone else who is proudly serving in our armed forces. God bless.
Ron Nizeolek - Cody, Wyoming
'Until one has loved an animal, part of their soul remains unawakened.' 
The little duck watches as the Eagle speeds straight at him at about 40 mph.
With perfect timing, the duck always dove and escaped with a mighty splash! Then he'd pop to the surface as soon as the Eagle flew past. This was repeated over and over for several minutes. I worried the poor duck would tire and that would be the end of him.
A second Eagle joins the attack! The duck kept diving "just in time", so the Eagles began to dive into the water after him!
After several minutes the Eagles got frustrated and began to attack each other. They soon began to dive vertically, level out, and attach head-on in a good old-fashioned game of high-speed "Chicken". Sometimes they banked away from each other at the last possible second. Other times they'd climb vertically and tear into each other while falling back toward the water. (The duck catches his breath at the right side of this picture)
A terrible miscalculation! The luckiest shot of my life catches this 100 mph head-on collision between two Bald Eagles.
On Eagle stayed aloft and flew away, but the other lies motionless in a crumpled heap. The lucky duck survived to live another day.
It's sad to watch an Eagle drown. He wiggled, flapped and struggled mostly underwater. He finally got his head above water and with great difficulty managed to get airborne. To my astonishment, he flew straight toward me, and it was the most wretched and unstable bird flight I've ever seen!
The bedraggled Eagle circled me once - then lit atop a nearby fir tree. He had a six-foot wingspread and looked mighty angry. I was concerned that I might be his next target, but he was so exhausted he just stared at me. Then I wondered if he would topple to the ground. As he tried to dry his feathers, it seemed to me that his beleaguered Eagle symbolized America in its current trials. 
My half-hour wait was rewarded with this marvelous sight. He few away, almost good as new. May America recover as well. 
Bradley "Rocket Man" Monk celebrates finishing the 10K Run Thru History yesterday.
Since Bradley Monk first laced up his shoes a dozen years ago to go for a trial run with some friends, he's lost weight, grained a nickname and become a running sensation. Read more about the "Rocket Man" here.... 
Hundreds of runners take off from Memorial Arch at the Vicksburg National Military Park yesterday.
Keri Frazier of Hattiesburg, MS, crosses the line in 43:36.
On the way home from the Christmas Plantation and Hunting Club Sunday afternoon I stopped along side the road to take a picture of some egrets by the swamp. This one was probably thawing out in the sun from the snowfall that fell during the early morning hours. (Click to enlarge)
Hershel, Rex's Dad with his sweet friend, Ms. Henry. 
Katie, Burney's daughter with her friend, Zoey.
Erin, Rex's youngest daughter.
Myself, with my mentor, good friend and hunting buddy, Rex! 
The gang of hog hunters at the first successful annual hog hunt.
Kim is pictured here with her hog behind her at the famous Christmas Place Plantation and Hunting Club. This was her first hog kill and said that this red one came out long enough for her to put the bead on it and shoot. I'm so proud of Kim and her hog wild harvest in the great outdoors. Congrats Kim!
Snow on the bumper of our GMC Sierra truck! Took this picture while hog hunting the field Sunday morning.
Snow looks so pretty in the grove of trees to the right of the Christmas Place.
Snow blankets the Christmas Place Plantation and Hunting Club camp house.
Five frosty and snowy pigs hanging on the pole!
Looking out my window to the right. 
A picture of the cold droplets of rain on the branch outside of Bob's window.
We did not know that the weather was going to be so cold and have a blanket of snow on the ground by the next day. I forgot my hat at the camp and Bob was kind enough to let me use his for awhile to warm up.
Deer grazing on the wildlife refuge.
As soon as we pulled up in our truck there was a 170 pound hog hanging on the pole already. Tyler has shot the first hog at the very "First Annual Hog Hunt". It seems that Hershel, Rex's dad, and Tyler were riding in the gator around by the lake area and saw the hog and was a good thing he had brought his gun along with him. Tyler said he managed to drag the big hog out by himself. It was the beginning of a fun weekend which ended with snow on the grounds at the Christmas Place Sunday morning.
Tyler and Rex getting ready to gut the hog.
Sitting around the table talking about the hog hunt Friday evening. Left to right, Bob, Denise, Kyle, Kim, Chris, Rena (Chris's Mom), Hershel and Trigger.
It was unreal. Did not see a hog. On the afternoon hunt we wanted to go back to the same stand and saw 20 more deer on the game refuge. There was a dozen in one pack...they were running and jumping all over the place. No deer came out in our field. Then about 3:40 shots started going off and around 4:00 I saw this big fat black hog to the right running in front of our stand in and out between the brush/tree line. I tried so hard to get the hog in my scope. Bob had his gun up and shot at it before it veered off to the left and went into the woods. At least we saw one hog and it was running so fast. This hog must have weighed at least 200 lbs. When Rex and two other hunters came to pick us up they checked out the area but found nothing in the woods. It was fun to see one hog in the wild. Had seen one before while riding on the 4-wheelers last year by the corn field. When we got back to the camp their were 5 hogs hanging on the pole. It was awesome. I was so happy for all the hunters and for Kim who harvested her first hog. Burney cooked up some smoked hog with baked beans and we had Hershel's delicious Idaho salad. It was Spencer's birthday and we had two cakes to celebrate. The hogs were gutted and left to hang overnight since it was so cold and when we got up the next morning snow was everywhere even on the hogs! We had one last hog hunt which was a drive and Bob and I hunted out of our truck near an opened field down from the camp and saw no hogs but five more deer. Little Katie and Zoey hunted with us and was on lookout using our binoculars. So altogether we saw 48 deer in all. A great weekend to meet new folks and to enjoy being with the Howell family/friends again in the great wild outdoors at the famous Christmas Place Plantation and Hunting Club. Charming, Just Charming!
