This past weekend was the annual Fall Picnic at Conrads in Moose Lake.  This year’s theme was “Lutheran Hot Dish”.  My parents and Allison organized the bulk of the activities while the rest of us brought the good weather and an assortment of Minnesotan hotdishes. 

This year’s attendance was spattered with quite a few more kids than previous years.  In all I think there were 40-50 attendees, with 10-12 being kids under the age of 10.  Activities for the kids (and kids-at-heart) ranged from Hayrides around the 80-acre farm, a scavenger hunt, fox-and-the-hen in the pasture and jumping in mud puddles.  For those of us whose wives wouldn’t let us get dirty in the mud, there was plenty to eat and drink, as well as putting on the boots and walking out to the maple grove.

Jason and I were also lucky enough to get out bow hunting on the land on Saturday and Sunday mornings.  Our trail cameras have picked up quite a few different bucks on the land this year.  The biggest reason for this is because Wilbur/Neal Koecher didn’t use the pasture land for their cows this summer.  While I’m sure my parents missed how well the cows kept the grass mowed throughout the property, Jason and I both welcomed the high grass which have given the big deer more reason to stick around the land.  We’re still undecided on whether or not to hunt Conrads this rifle season (November) or if we’ll stick to the public land in Barnum.  I suppose our decision will be made partially from the pictures from the trail cameras between now and then.

 

My parents have been building a ‘Bunk House’ up at Conrads  this past summer, and it’s shaping up nicely.  They contracted the cement work and framing out to a local contractor, but decided to do the siding and interior work by themselves. 

The exterior siding is horizontal cedar planking.

The interior is pre-finished, tongue-n-groove, pine siding provided by Sam’s company.

The A-frame bunk house is equiped with in-floor heat (fancy, fancy), plenty of windows and a nice small deck/patio.

Too warm; Too wet.  Jason and I hunted Thursday, Friday and Saturday without any luck whatsoever.  Our bait stations were being hit, but no bears decided to come out during daylight hours.  We did however get visited by a few other creatures during our time in the stand.  On Thursday night a wolverine wandered under our tree (which was a bit unnerving), and into the bait station.  I had never seen a wolverine before so it was pretty cool; they sure do look mean.  Their marks/striping give them a menacing look.  Just before dark we heard what we hoped was a bear…only to be disappointed by 3 well-fed raccoons.   After watching them crawl all over the logs at our bait station, we scared them away and headed back to Conrads to clean up. 

Despite being shut out by the bear on Thursday, we decided to celebrate bear hunting season by splurging on frozen pizza and Premium Grainbelt at Doc’s Bar in Sturgeon Lake.  Unfortunately we were 1 day too early to be entertained by Karaoke Ken, but I did kick Jason’s butt in Big buck Hunter.

Friday Jason and I helped my Dad (along with Dave Tatge) finish up the exterior siding on the bunkhouse.  The bunkhouse is really looking better and better! 

Friday night was Jason’s turn to hunt, will I manned the camera.  I was “sure” a HUGE bear would walk in front of Jason with a bulls eye painted on it’s chest (I will devote a future blog entry to Jason’s trophy wall vs. mine), but (un)fortunately the only visitors of the night were the same 3 raccoons at dusk.

It rained all day on Saturday and we decided that it would be wise for us to split up and double our odds of getting a bear that night.  It rained the majority of the time in the stand, which made it impossible to hear anything except for the billions of raindrops bouncing off of everything in the woods.  The only sign of life I saw that night was a lonely skunk and a few woodpeckers.  Jason was visited by the wolverine and raccoons.

Overall, the hunting was a bust, but I’m not complaining.  Getting out in the woods, and up in the tree stand is a welcome change from the hustle and bustle of “real” life.  Ah, but it’s nice to be home again.