My friend Dave, who lives in Indiana and a former pilot, sent me some photos that he wanted to share with me of his trip to Colorado a week ago. Every year he attends the Christian Outdoor Fellowship of America which is hosted there. Here are some of the scenes in the area and a couple of pictures of a red fox which actually allowed him to get within about 20 feet, he said. The fox was favoring one front leg and in a way he wanted to go get something for it to eat, but he said that it would not be natures way, and to interfere with the natural order just isn't the right thing to do, not to mention that the next human it came in contact with could be in danger of it becoming aggressive.
Army Corps of Engineers employees have a look at one of the MV Mississippi's two main engines Friday morning. The employees are, from left, Ronnie Mackey, Chief of plant unit; Willie Doss, pile lineman; and Carl Smith, maintenance mechanic.
The pilothouse looks south, toward downtown Vicksburg.
Not many cities have a huge boat sitting on land right in town. Plans are going forward for a Lower MS River Museum and Riverfront Interpretive Center, by President Obama signing the omnibus spending bill. It steer the way for money needed for this project to get underway.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) got a look inside Friday of the 1,450-ton vessel since its slow roll down Washington Street in 2007. The massive twin engines are bigger than some people's houses they said. On the tour Friday, Corps of Engineers managers and the City of Vicksburg Water & Gas Department began the surveys of the boat's power generators for its eventual powering-up to house meeting space and other exhibits. The galley and the engine room will be renovated to become visitor areas. It is expected to be open in 2011. A contract has to be let to build the museum building next to the vessel by September of this year. A walkway and observation deck will be fashioned out of the old Fairground Street bridge, which will be disassembled and rebuilt anew just south of the structures. The motor vessel was purchased from the Memphis District for $1 with plans to make it a showpiece and the school board is mulling and idea to make field trips to the finished museum mandatory for eighth graders. It was a sight to see this big monster vessel being moved (below) from the Yazoo Diversion Canal down the main street of Washington St. which drew hundreds of spectators.
On September 25, 2007, MV Mississippi being moved to its resting place north of town.
Here is a wonderful performance by El Divo at the Coliseum in Rome, Italy. It's a fresh face on popular songs, utilizing their exceptional voices, good looks, and cultural diversity to bring their romantic blend of classical and pop music to audiences around the world. Formed after a two-year search, the quartet is comprised of American tenor David Miller, popular French singer Sebastien Izambard, Swiss tenor Urs Buhler, and Spanish baritone Carlos Marin. Click here for this great experience and enjoy!
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.
This Dachshund is fostering this little guy for another mom who couldn't take care of him. He had his eyes closed, but now they are open. He is just a little bigger than her other pups. She loves this little guy as much as the other puppies and she is nursing him back to health. He is the cleanest pig-uppy ever because she licks him all the time. HIS NAME IS PINK....
'Until one has loved an animal, part of their soul remains unawakened.'
I had a friend to email me some photos and a story behind what happened on Lake Tapps which is in the Puget Sound Region. Gary Wheeler captured some very interesting photos. This is his story in his own words...
I was walking along the shore of Lake Tapps and noticed a big commotion a little more than 1/4-mile away (as measured later by Google Earth). I saw a Bald Eagle circling and repeatedly diving on what I thought must be a school of fish. Soon he was joined by another Eagle and they began to fight each other for the prey. Territorial Eagle fights do happen, but I've never seen one, nor have I seen any good photos...
Naturally, I grabbed my camera. The action was so furious and far away that is was hard to see if I was getting any photos. So I just snapped lots of pics and hoped for the best. I didn't realize what I was watching, until I got home and looked at the pic on my computer. It turned out I had photographed a three-way life and death struggle between two mature Bald Eagles fighting over one very frighten duck! The Eagles fought each other for several minutes while trying to get that duck! It was like WW III in the air! All these pics were taken with my Panasonic FZ-28 at 18X zoom which is 486 mm. (Click on pic to enlarged)
Note: The fellow sitting on the tailgate of his pickup truck never realized the show he was missing.
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.
It's amazing what computer graphic artists can create. Here is a re-creation of the US Air flight that made an emergency landing in the Hudson River takeoff to touchdown, with ATC radio transmissions. This gives you a perspective of how quickly the US Air crew had to react to realize the outcome they experienced. Watch the amazing ending......heroic indeed!
We had our annual Run Thru History yesterday in the Vicksburg National Military Park and was our 30th year celebration. I did not sign up to do the walk this year but wished I had. It was a beautiful crisp morning for the l-miler's, 5K walkers and 10K runners. My congrats to all who participated in our great outdoors! For results click here.
Timmy Farish of Louisville painted his legs with North and South themes for the Run Thru History 10K race.
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....
Bradley "Rocket Man' Monk shows off his "New Balance" running shoes.
Hundreds of runners take off from Memorial Arch at the Vicksburg National Military Park yesterday.
Jeff Kent of Cleveland, MS, and a former University of Iowa runner won by a solid 32:56.
Keri Frazier of Hattiesburg, MS, crosses the line in 43:36.
According to The Vicksburg Post, the 3rd anual armadillo hunt was set for this weekend. Teams of men, women and children took to the ditches and fields of rural Warren and Sharkey counties around sundown last night in hopes of catching enough armadillos to be named champion of the 3rd annual Norris Outfitters and Shriners Hospitals for Children Armadillo Roundup.
While the concept may sound strange, the idea is simple: catch as many of the armored animals through out one night as possible by hand or with a net. Armadillos must not be injured in order to be counted in team totals, and all the proceeds benefit Shriners Hospitals for Children.
Alton Norris, owner of Norris Outfitter in Cary, organized the first armadillo roundup in 2007 and raise $630 for Shriners. Between the $10.00 per-team-member entry fee, a raffle and silent auction of items donated by local businesses, the roundup raised about $2,000 for the charity last year.
"It's just a great way to have some fun and benefit Shriners at the same time," said Norris. "We have a blast. It's a family-friendly event, and we encourage anyone to participate."
The event grew from three teams to five in its first two years. Team Oak Ridge Taxidermy of Vicksburg brought in 18 armadillos last year to take first place and defend its title as champ. Teams choose their quickest catches to participate in armadillo races following the awards ceremony this afternoon, with divisions for men, women and children. All the armadillos are released back into the wild following the races.
A catfish fry was on tap for today at Norris' camp in Sharkey County with awards ceremony, armadillo races, raffle and silent auction following. Norris' camp is located on U.S. 61 North and is the first driveway on the left after you cross the Sharkey County line from Warren County.
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!
When we were not out hunting for hogs, eating or sleeping we enjoyed each others company. Ms. Henry came over to a smoked hog supper Saturday night and brought a delicious strawberry pecan cake. Katie had her good friend Zoey there to play with. I took Erin's picture and then she wanted to take mine. I asked Rex to join me for a picture together and was surprised that he jumped in my lap! It was a fun and relaxing weekend with the Howell family and their friends. Charming, Just Charming!
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!
