This weekend had its ups and downs for our family. While descending a larger tree than I normally climb, my platform got hung-up on something on the back side of the tree. I was down to about 12-14 ft when this happened. While trying to free it to get down the platform slipped off my feet and went to the base of the tree. By the grace of God I was able to catch myself and climb onto my bar that goes around my seat. Cell phone photo of my platform is in my gallery. Always take your cell phone with you while hunting. Thankfully I was able to call my uncle and he came and helped me out of my situation.

I now have my platform and seat tied with about 5' of rope so if it would happen again I will be able to get myself taken care of. I did not have my safety strap on while descending this time since I was only up about 15 feet. I normally try to be about 20-25ft up. I will always have my safety harness on the ENTIRE time, from the time I leave the ground till I come back down. I used to climb towers and poles in the military (340 ft tower was my tallest) and felt confident in my abilities. Arrogance almost got me hurt being only 15ft off the ground.

My great-uncle who lives in Illinois called my grandma today to tell us that Jim Jr. fell from his tree stand this weekend and fractured 3 vertebra. His buddy was able to help him out of the woods, he walked out, and to the hospital. Thankfully he didn't suffer any paralysis. I don't have any other details of the fall.

I don't care how confident you are in your tree stand, your ability to climb, your lack of fear of heights, your arrogance will get you hurt. It almost did me.

Please be smart and always use your safety harness while ascending and descending and of course while you are sitting in your stand.

Another note of caution. ALWAYS have something to put your feet into while you are hanging from your harness to relieve the weight and pressure around your legs. Death has occurred while hanging because the blood can not circulate from your legs back to your heart with some harnesses. AND NEVER EVER USE THE SINGLE STRAP AROUND YOUR WAIST. YOU "WILL" END UP UPSIDE DOWN AND POSSIBLY DIE.

Please be safe I want to see every one of you here at the end of every hunting day.

God Bless You All To A Safe Season.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

In a year when trillion dollar bailouts have become routine, many Americans have become almost numb to our acceleration towards socialism.

But gun rights activists aren't in that crowd, and so GOA has to inform you of yet ANOTHER threat to your privacy, the Second Amendment, and even your wallet.

It is called an "individual mandate" or, alternatively, the "Massachusetts plan." And over the weekend, both the Washington Post and the New York Times worked hard to build momentum for it.

First, a little history.

We alerted you a few weeks ago to the gun control provisions in the stimulus bill that President Obama signed in February. Our government will now spend between $12 and $20 BILLION to require the medical community to retroactively put our most confidential medical records into a government database -- a database that could easily be used to deny veterans (and other law-abiding Americans) who have sought psychiatric treatment for things such as PTSD.

Currently, gun owners can avoid getting caught in this database by refusing to purchase health insurance or by purchasing insurance with a carrier that has not signed an agreement with the government to place your records in a national database.

But that's all about to change. A budget resolution -- to be voted on this Friday in the Senate -- will be the first domino in a process that could FORCE you to buy government-approved insurance, thus making it impossible to avoid the medical database.

Put another way: If you do not have health insurance -- or, potentially, if you do not have the TYPE of health insurance the government wants you to have -- the government will force you to purchase what it regards as "acceptable" health insurance. And, in most cases, you will have to pay for it out of your own pocket.

What would all this cost? Based on comparable insurance currently on the market, it could cost $10,000 a year -- or more.

If you were jobless, the socialists would probably spot you the ten grand. But if you are middle class and can't pay $10,000 because of your mortgage payments, your small business, or your kids' college education, you would be fined (over $1,000 a year currently in Massachusetts). And, if you couldn't pay the confiscatory fine, you could ultimately be imprisoned.

Scary, you say. But why is this a Second Amendment issue? Under the Massachusetts plan, your MANDATED insurance carrier has to feed your medical data into a centralized database -- freely accessible by the government under federal privacy laws.

So... remember when your pediatrician asked your kid if you have a firearm in the home? Or when your dad was given a prescription for Zoloft because of his Alzheimer's? Or when your wife mentioned to her gynecologist that she had regularly smoked marijuana ten years ago?

All of this would be in a centralized database. And all of it could potentially be used to vastly expand the "prohibited persons" list maintained by the FBI in West Virginia.

How serious a threat is this?

If it gets into the budget resolution the Senate will consider on Friday, it will be almost impossible to strip out later. It will be as much of a done-deal as the stimulus package was.

We have asked senators to introduce language to prohibit such an individual mandate for socialized medicine that would violate the privacy of gun owners. In the absence of such an amendment, we are asking senators to vote against the budget resolution.

ACTION: Write your U.S. Senators. Urge them to vote against the budget resolution if it does not contain language prohibiting a mandate that Americans buy government-approved health insurance against their will.

Today was a nice day, if your not a waterfowler that is. The sky was bright and clear with a few clouds here and there. The wind was blowing about 10-15 mph and the temp on my Garmin Rhino was 14 degrees.

That was the key to today’s hunt.

Looking out the window I would have said the geese would never fly today.

My buddy Steve says "The birds gotta eat today." With which I agreed to. But I would have thought the birds would have flown while we were at work after the sun got up.

Knowing that our hunting here in this part of Pennsylvania can be hit or miss I decided to give it a whirl. So, home I went to hook up the trailer, change clothes and head out into the field for an afternoon hunt.

Steve and I arrived and proceeded to put out the 81 deeks we had. Since it was so cold we changed 95% of our deeks to feeders with only a few sentries. The ground was frozen too hard to get the silhouettes in the ground so they stayed on the trailer. Will have to work on a silo base for frozen ground hunting this summer.

We finally got all the heads on our various makes of shell decoys and got them into position. We then worked on our layout blinds and took the vehicles back up to the farmers barn.

The 250 yard walk back without a coat and gloves was a little chilly. Remember, its only 14 degrees with a stout wind.

Coats on and everything in place we huddled down into our layout blinds to await the evening flight.

Had I been a gambling man I would have said that the birds would not fly the rest of the day, having thought everything flew in the morning hours while we were at work. Isn't that how it usually works?

Laying there with the wind blowing from at an angle from our left to right at approximately 330pm, we patiently waited for the birds we knew would not fly.

"Steve, over your left shoulder is a flock flying back to the quarry,"

"That’s not a good sign buddy" I said.

Still waiting in hopes of a good evening flight, 20 mins later, I look behind us and there was the first flock sneaking out the side door from the quarry.

Then they started coming out over our preferred route. Coming around the trees and houses several hundred yards ahead of us, and just barely treetop high, I hit them with some honks to get there attention as Steve flips the flag a little.

The birds see us and start to turn in our direction. I hit them with some more honks and go into a cluck moan combination.

Once they heard that the wings locked and the first flock of Greater Canada’s sailed right up the pipe. Unfortunately they started landing at the far edge of our long leg of decoys. Still within range we come out of the blinds and score on 3.

Excitedly we jump out and retrieve our birds, bringing them back and placing them around us in a sleeping position with bloody heads hidden beneath a wing.

Back in the blinds, the birds are starting to move good now. We see several hundred birds in flocks from four to 200 come off the quarry. We work several more flocks, some commit and some don’t. On two flocks we have one bird come in and land but the rest do not. Steve gets out for the first one and makes a clean kill as it rises off the ground. The second one I do the same and discover I took my first true Cackling Canada.

Not much larger than a big mallard, the Cackler has a bill that’s about 1/3 that of a Greater Canada. That one will go to the taxidermist this week. Too bad it wasn’t banded.

Five birds on the ground on a bright, sunny, bluebird day. I would say that was a good day.

In extreme cold the birds have to eat to maintain warmth and fat reserves. This is what made our day a success.

The biggest thing with bright sunny days is blending in very well with your surroundings. If you do not go the extra mile to blend in you are going to have a long cold day. And it doesn’t help that most of the flocks will be large and have hundreds of eyes looking at you.

So when it’s cold and sunny and you don’t think you have a chance. Try it out anyway. Things may just go your way like they did for us.

Steelers Fans!!!
On the first day of school a first grade teacher explains to her class that she is a Cowboys fan.
She asks her students to raise their hands if they, too, are Cowboys fans.
Wanting to impress their teacher, everyone in the class raises their hand except one little girl.
The teacher looks at the girl with surprise, 'Janie, why didn't you raise your hand?' 'Because I'm not a Cowboys fan,' she replied.
The teacher, still shocked, asked, 'Well, if you are not a Cowboys fan, then who are you a fan of?'
'I am a Steelers fan, and proud of it,' Janie replied.
The teacher could not believe her ears. 'Janie, please tell me why you are you an Steelers fan?'
'Because my mom is an Steelers fan, and my dad is an Steelers fan, so I'm an Steelers fan too!'
'Well,' said the teacher in a obviously annoyed tone, 'that is no reason for you to be an Steelers fan. You don't have to be just like your parents all of the time. What if your mom were an idiot and your dad were a moron, what would you be then?'
'Then,' Janie smiled, 'I'd be a Cowboys fan.'
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Four football fans - a Cowboys fan, an Steelers fan, a Redskins fan, and a Giants fan - are climbing a mountain and arguing about who loves his team more.
The Redskins fan insists he is the most loyal. 'This is for the Redskins!' he yells, and jumps off the side of the mountain.
Not to be outdone, the Giants fan shouts, 'This is for the Giants!' and throws himself off the mountain.
The Steelers fan is next to profess his love for his team.
He yells, 'This is for everyone!' and pushes the Cowboys fan off the mountain.
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A Steelers fan liked to amuse himself by scaring every Cowboys fan he saw strutting down the street in an obnoxious Blue & White shirt. He would swerve his van as if to hit them, then swerve back just missing them.
One day while driving along, he saw a priest. He thought he would do a good deed, so he pulled over and asked the priest, 'Where are you going, Father?'
'I'm going to give Mass at St. Francis church, about two miles down the road,' replied the priest.
'Climb in, Father. I'll give you a lift!' The priest climbed into the passenger seat, and they continued down the road.
Suddenly, the driver saw a Cowboys fan walking down the road, and he instinctively swerved as if to hit him. But, as usual, he swerved back onto the road just in time.
Even though he was certain that he had missed the guy, he still heard a loud THUD. Not knowing where the noise came from, he glanced in his mirrors but still didn't see anything.
He then remembered the priest, and he turned to the priest and said, sorry Father, I just missed hitting that Cowboys fan.'
'That's OK,' replied the priest 'I got him with the door.'