Wishin' I were fishin'...

If you are like me, this is the time of year your mail box gets bombarded with fishing catalogs full of all kinds of paraphernalia in all kinds of colors, and trip brochures touting the advantages of booking a trip at this particular lodge or that one.  And while they are fun to look at, they only accentuate the bummed feeling that most Ohioans (and anyone else, for that matter, above the Florida state line) have about now in light of these lingering wind chills and late season snowy forecasts .  It's almost March, for gosh sakes.  The golf pro has sent out emails telling of the opening day on March 1st.  Fat chance of playing on that day with wind chills at -5.  Oh well, at least they will have their indoor hitting range open.  So anyway --- back to the topic of fishing. 

As I was looking thru the picture tubs in the basement, I came across these shots of our first "Bass-n-Bogies" trip.  Chuck, Kevin and I decided that we needed to do a "man trip" back in 2000 so we put this together.  We went on line and looked for a good fishing place that would occupy our time in the mornings and evenings, but also had decent golf courses in the area that would likewise keep us busy in the afternoons.  So we came across a place called Blue Bank Resort at Reelfoot Lake, TN.  The pictures of the place looked real nice (for a fishing lodge) and it was endorsed by fishing legend, Bill Dance.

 These pictures show you the general layout of the place.  I did not shoot the pool or the other areas, but if we ever decide to do this again and take our wives we will point out these amenities. The picture on top-left shows all the boats that they rented out to those who didn't bring their own.  This was a morning shot.  It was pretty cool there as all we had to do was bring our boat back in at night and they gassed it up and got everything else ready for us.  The top-right shot shows the boat tie-up area at night as well as the lodge.  Also, I don't recall taking any pictures of our "cabin" as it was really so small that the three of us could barley fit in it.  That may have been because we were looking for a cheap place.

The other two pictures kinda give you an idea of the water and how really nice this place really was.  We were usually out of the cabin early and fished till noon or so.  Then we played golf and literally finished the day with fishing, coming back to the boat dock well after dark.   I think we had to be back NLT an hour after dark if we wanted the boat serviced for the next day.

We have taken several of these trips but it has pretty much morphed into a golfing only trip now.  Now the man-trip is pretty much old duffers (no pun intended) who really enjoy playing golf.  At least we can all now get the senior discounts at the golf courses and the restaurants (if we eat early enough).

The actual fishing part of it was pretty good.  In fact, this place was the best fishing I have ever had outside of Canada.  Check out these shots:

 I know Chuck caught some fish too, but I don't seem to have any pictures of that taking place.  Hmmmmm.  But I did have this shot...  The caption on the back of the picture says something about "What a life..."

As I said, this was really a good time.  I think we're going to have to do this again sometime, even if it is only Chuck and me.  We actually got to act like we were on a real big-time fishing expedition.  My other brother-in-law, Luke and his buddies actually fly in to some place in Canada and fish .  They have bears in the area and have to put food and fish in containers that are air-tight so the bears don't get into them.  Another of my friends goes with his buddies to Canada and sometimes it is so cold, they say it is more like ice fishing than anything else.  So maybe ours does look more like a "gentlemen's fishing trip" than theirs.  So what.  We had fun and caught fish and got to hit golf balls.  It really doesn't get much better than that. 
This planet is covered with sordid men who demand that he who spends time fishing (and golfing) shall show returns in fish (and pars).  Glad they didn't go with us.

 Hooah

Looking thru some old pix...

They just sit there, the assorted collection of big plastic tubs, safeguarding the pictorial history of our family.  Keeping the collection of newspaper clippings, old photos and even older VHS tapes safe from loss or destruction, they just sit there on top of a couple of old army foot lockers, patiently waiting for someone to come look through the decades of pictures.  And that is just what I did tonight.  I managed to look through the top container and came up with some good pictures and topics for about the next 5 or 6 entries.

This set of shots caught my eye right away.  I was always a big fan of M*A*S*H and, even though I knew this was nowhere near the reality of what happened at a Korean War MASH unit, it was a great series and allowed people to see, maybe, a glimpse of life in that Conflict. 

So anyhow, the story behind these shots was a "Mayberry/M*A*S*H" Days celebration that took place in Bradford, OH back in 2000.  My brother-in-law, Chuck, is all things Mayberry, so when he heard of this gathering, he contacted me and told me of the M*A*S*H part, knowing that I would have to go...especially since the event sponsors had contracted Jamie Farr (Cpl. Klinger) to be there.  There were some Mayberry role players there too, but I don't remember their names.  I did get an autographed picture with Farr.

 

This gathering was spread out over a very large field, and they had several displays set up to give it that military flavor.

I recall having had a pretty good time looking around at all the displays.  During my Army days, when I was a company commander and a battalion commander I had a tent like the one shown above which served as home during ATs, deployments and even some extended weekends.  They weren't too bad and for the most part kept us dry and warm.  In fact, I even came across this old shot of my old Command Sergeant Major coming out of our "Home" heading off to the shower in one exercise in California.

Back to the M*A*S*H event.  The sponsors also had a UH-1 there.  It was in really bad shape and they were trying to raise money to restore it.  I seem to recall that they were somehow tied in with the WACO people in Troy and I believe the helicopter is now housed in Troy at the WACO field on 25-A.

Over my career, I had my fair share of time in these. Nothing dangerous. But even so, once you are in one or see one in the condition this one was, you really recall the history and service of this piece of military history.  This was the workhorse for the entirety of the Vietnam war, and carried the load well after that...up until the Blackhawk took over.  Sitting in this one, looking around inside, wondering what took place in there, I certainly reaffirmed my admiration for the pilots and crews who flew these into all sorts of situations in support of troops.

So with this entry I'll start another series of stories, some from Army, some about golf or fishing, some from my teaching and coaching days, and some about my family.  Some or many of them won't mean anything to you, but  some will be general enough to perhaps spark a memory from your past, giving you something that will take you away from your "here and now" for just a while.  In any event, I will write so my grandsons will know a little more about this old fellow they call "Grandpa."

"Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed." Aurelius

Hooah

Our take on "The Band of Brothers"...

An article from this past September highlighted the reunion that our old MP Battalion had in Columbus.  It was the initial effort at this sort of thing and went very well.  But as can often happen at these things, mingling can only go so far, and conversations can sometimes lag a bit.  So I put together picture boards which featured training events and individual Soldiers.  And although I was hoping these would spark conversations, bring back old memories and serve as icebreakers where needed, I also found out they sometimes better serve to highlight how much more hair we all had back then, and how much thinner and in better shape we all were.  We had some good laughs at these -- especially when we tried to suck in our guts and regain some of our swagger from back then.

The reason I mention this is I had a chance to reexamine some of the pictures and my attention was caught by these two.  I had been watching (actually rewatching for the maybe the 50th time or so) the HBO mini-series, Band of Brothers, and thought about the "guys" in these two shots. 

As an MP EPW Battalion, we would set up a camp and prepare to conduct our mission of processing, housing, safeguarding, etc., etc. enemy prisoners of war.  The only trouble was we seldom had a population of other soldiers to serve as EPWs.  So, in order to get any training benefit out of the exercise, we often had to "volunteer" our own people to serve as the enemy population.  And when we did this, we would turn our uniform top inside out so we looked the part. 

These particular pictures were taken just before surrendering ourselves to the guards who would process us and take care of us for a few days.

Pretty dangerous looking bunch of desperadoes.

Then PFC Boatwright (l) was looking over this group of "troublemakers and warning us of the consequences of any misbehavior in the camp."  You can see how much we were paying attention to his orientation. 

Being a prisoner was not the most exciting part of our job.  Nobody really wanted to do it but it certainly was necessary because this same training which took place at Ft. McCoy, hot, nasty, and dirty as it was prepared these Soldiers (both the "prisoners" and the guards) for the trials they would have when they were later deployed three and four times to Iraq and Afghanistan.  The leadership lessons that were sometimes learned the hard way, the creativity and initiative that was fostered as well as the endurance and discipline that was taught paid huge dividends when they were actually called to do their thing.

These Soldiers really were professionals.  It was an extreme pleasure to have had the opportunity to serve with them and it was even more rewarding to see them at the reunion, knowing that they all came through their "whatevers" and could share their experiences.  We had some good laughs and I expect we will have even more and greater ones the next time we get together.

You don't always know how the hand you were dealt will play out, and you can't always control all the variables that influence the final outcome.  But you can make the most of the friendships you establish along the way.  You can make the best of tough situations, because they will be the stuff memories are based on later in life.  And as  you recall these memories later in life, a time when some of the edges are a little ragged and details aren't quite as clear, at least you will have the faces and situations to take with you.  And as Major Dick Winters said in the movie, "I was not a hero, but served in the company of heroes."

Life must be lived forwards, but can only really be understood backwards. (Attributed to S. Kierkegaard)

Hooah

First introduction to sights and smells of the desert...

A couple of weeks ago, I took a group of Vets from our VFW to the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum just as a day-trip.  It was a good trip and they got to see a lot of things.  More importantly it got them out of the house on a cold winter afternoon and gave them something to do.  But now we'll have to schedule another trip to go back some time because there is just too much to see and you can't really get it all in in one day. 

I have been down there many times, and thought I had seen all or most of it.  Wrong. I found a new area where I had never been yet.  It was a display featuring the Air Force during the Korean War,  and the most interesting part for me was the tent area they had set up.  Amazingly similar to the display at the Warner Robins museum I had seen in November,  the one thing that hit me right away, in both places, was the smell of canvas. There are two things that instantly take me back to Army days -- the smell of canvass and the smell of mold.  So when I returned home from the trip, I began looking around again for old Army pictures and I just happened to come upon these.  Just kinda thinking of the old days.

This was a deployment back in 1985 to Egypt to participate in a exercise called Bright Star, an ongoing joint training exercise between US and Egyptian forces.  This particular exercise had been going on for a few years, alternating deployments between Egypt and the NTC in SW United States.  I also think it went on for a few more years after our participation, but this was the one and only time I took troops to the Egyptian desert.  Little did I know I would return to deserts again on down the road.

During this exercise, we performed physical security MP duties, something our Company had done for quite a while, dating back to its WWII days I think.  Anyone who knows anything about MPs knows that there is a great deal of "spit and polish" associated with their duties and appearance.  MPs are known for pressed, if not starched, uniforms, highly shined boots, and a clean appearance...at least in a garrison environment.  In the field, some accommodations are made, but they still stand out in a crowd of soldiers.  And that was the first conflict we had -- it was hard to maintain uniform appearance in the desert.  We tried.  We ironed uniforms when we could and tried to keep all equipment and facilities in top order.  After all, we were working at a four-star HQ, so we had to look like we belonged to him.

 So what is the tie-in between the Wright Patt. trip and this blog entry?  Well, it was the thoughts of my "home" in the middle of the desert outside Cairo that just popped up when I smelled the tent at the museum.  As tents go, this wasn't that bad.  In fact it would have been a great tent  --- in a forest!!  We had big windows in the sides of the tent as you can see below, but they were only good for letting in lots of sand and heat.  The sun baked the roof and sides of the tent and generated that unmistakable smell of Army canvass tents that soldiers never forget.  There is supposed to be a tent liner or a cover which goes over the top of the tent and these are supposed to provide some measure of cooling.  Guess whose unit didn't have these items??!! 

So we all lived in a tent city, and this was my house.  I know, "location, location, location" is the catch phrase of all real estate agents, but the one who assigned this one to me had a patch over one eye and didn't speak English very well,  Oh well, it was a place to sleep.  Notice the laundry out on the line.

This was a pretty barren place.  These pictures of the rest of the area were taken when we were leaving. We were instructed to take everything out there and leave only sand.  The liaison guy said that the local Egyptians would take the big cardboard packing crates shown in the background and use them as "houses." 

The picture above was taken just after we had packed all of our "stuff" and were ready to saddle up for our trip home.  The picture below was taken at our formation just before leaving the tent city area enroute to the airport for a long trip home.

As I said earlier, this was my first time in this kind of environment, and the first time for all of these troops too.  But as things go in the Army, it wouldn't be the last.  Although our paths took many different twists after this assignment, I think the vast majority of these troops (say 20 to 25 of the ones shown above) also saw duties in Desert Storm, Iraq or Afghanistan at least once and some more than once.  Some also served in Bosnia and in Central America.  MPs get around.  These troops were really good people.  They trained hard, and were a source of pride when we deployed for missions like these.  They were professionals, and generally received high accolades wherever we served.  I saw some of them at our reunion this past fall, but some of them are now gone.  Unfortunately,  I don't remember all their names now; 29 years have clouded my memory a bit.  But I do remember some of them, and I remember how each of them served as well as they could, and how each of them taught me something -- something I more than likely used somewhere on down the road.

So as you can easily tell (and I have been reminded by some who read this blog), I have been focused a bit too much this winter on watching the snow fall and the birds flying around.  I've ignored the old Army days.  But, I think I will have to get back into this and some of the other topics for the blog.  Right now I'm sitting behind a large pile of old Army photos and I'm making a list of future topics.  So stay tuned -- I'll start cranking them out.  I want to get more of them done before golf season comes and I really become a slacker about writing.

Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there...to serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson or help figure out who you are or who you want to become.  (Anon.)


Hooah

Unsolicited snowballs and other winter stuff...

I think I am going to approach this article, which is mostly a reflection of these past few days, a little bit  differently this time.  I'm going to break this one down into sections.

First, the "Things I had to do..."
 
Those of you who live in this area are probably pretty tired of this "old fashioned" winter by now.  And I can't really blame you.  If all you do is sit in the house and watch the snow pile up and listen to the winds, that gets real old, real quick.  We had some doozies last couple of nights.  Saturday it deposited several inches of snow and the winds piled it up in drifts 3-4 feet deep in places.  The plows had quite a time getting around that day and there was not much traffic on the roads.  It really didn't let up till Sunday morning, and then only for a couple of hours.  But there was enough of a break on Saturday to get the drive plowed out.  I couldn't get the Jeep in the garage because the drifting was so bad.

So, having accomplished that with the help of my neighbors and their snow blower, I thought I would look around and see what else was just "there" waiting to be discovered.

And then I got a reminder that I had forgotten to do some maintenance this past summer.  I had intended to replace the rubber strip thingie on the bottom of the garage doors.  They were pretty bad and some parts were completely gone, thus when it rained or blew, we would get a little trail of water in the garage.  Not much, but enough to remind me that it needed fixing.  Well, guess what, snow blows through the opening too.

I put this on the list of things to do this summer.  Just hope I don't lose that dang list again.

Second, "Remind me to thank Him for this warm house..."

Sunday night's winds were really fierce.  The gusts were topping the 30 m.p.h. mark when I went to bed, and they really roared all through the night.  I got up at 5 a.m. and went out to the "Pentagon" to sit for a while (mostly because my knee hurt) and just watched the snow blowing and listened to the winds.  It was strange though because the skies were clear and the moon was pretty bright.  With the snow on the ground, you could see for quite a ways.  I knew that it had to be pretty cold out there and should have looked at the weather machine to get a reading but didn't.

But that's when I saw a couple of things in the yard.  Couldn't really tell what they were until morning and then I saw that the winds had completely destroyed two of the bird feeders.  One was wooden and it looked like a bomb had gone off inside it...the pieces were literally torn completely apart.

The other one, the one we liked to call "The Red Roof Inn" was MIA.  All that we could find of it was the roof which was still tied to the tree and two sides.  The main body was not in the yard anywhere.  I would have thought at least it would be over by the fence  or by the shed.  Nope -- it probably went airborne and got blown clear across the field.  It could be over on the neighbor's landing strip or even further for all I know.

The wooden one was made in China.  The Red Roof Inn was made in Ohio.  I guess if someone wanted to try to make a claim for one country's products being superior to another, this wouldn't be the best case study.  I don't think it matters who made it, (except for the one Grandpa Joe made which is now probably 34 years old and still attached to the fence), it probably isn't going to stand up to Shelby County winds very well or very long.

So that means the birds will have to rely on us just putting feed on the ground and the winds and snow not covering it up too quickly.  I wonder if I can claim these on my home owners policy?

Third, "Signs of spring are out there..."

In the middle of all the cold, snow and wind, a beautiful cardinal just showed up one morning.  His bright red colors really stood out against the white.  We also, just this morning, saw two really fat robins out by the seed.  Although they were probably freezing their tail feathers, they were a welcome sight. Golf can't be too far off !!

Fourth, "There's drifting everywhere..."

In order to get out back to explore, I had to either trudge through a snow drift on the deck that was over my knees, or shovel a path to the two exits.  So, I took a few minutes and shoveled the path, figuring it would eventually be more convenient than a boot full of snow each time I went out.

Fifth, "The pond is frozen..."

For a few days now I had been meaning  to get out to the pond and see how thick it was frozen.  Considering we haven't had but one or maybe two days this month much over zero, let alone anywhere out of the teens, I figured it had to be pretty good.  It was just a question of how thick it would be.

This is a 9" deep hole I chopped this morning.  I always like to put one or two holes in the pond during the winter to let some oxygen get into the water.  And with it being totally covered with snow for pretty much all of three weeks, I figured the fish might like a little light. And it gives the birds some water too.

Now that I have determined the pond is sufficiently frozen to hold my weight, I thought I would send out a "howdy" to Quinn and Heath.  Guys, check this out...

I will probably get my skates on and tool around for a bit later on.  But at least, this makes another year that I have been able to get out on the ice.

And last, but not least, "Unsolicited snowballs..."

This is something I have never seen before.  The wind blew so hard last night, that it must have gotten a little bit of snow rolling along and it built up into a snow ball all on its own.  Look at these pictures.  You can see the little trails behind them where the wind had blown them and built them up.  Pretty cool.  Just another one of those things one might not have seen if you had just stayed in the house the whole time.

 Again, I had never seen such a thing.  Guess that just further intensifies the legend of "The Shelby County Winds."  And now you know why I call this "The land of the hundred mile per hour winds."

He who marvels at the beauty of the world in spring, summer and fall will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter....

Hooah

Boy is it cold...

I am old enough to go into the old "Back when I was young, it was really cold, and the snow was at least 2 feet deep all the time, and we had to walk uphill to school both ways..." stories, but not sure anyone would believe them or even care. 

When I got up this morning, it was zero degrees on the weather machine and it has gone up to a rip-roaring 2 degrees at 11:00.  The wind chill has been fluctuating between -32 and -25.  The daggone wind is really blowing, even bad for this area.  The snow plow went up the road at about 9:00.  I was taking the neighbor boy to school (schools were on a 2-hour delay)  and when I came back, you could hardly tell it had even been there.  The drifts were already back.

When it is this cold, I try to keep the bird feeders full.  Today, I noticed that the birds were really hunkered down.  Some of them didn't even take off like they always do when I go out to fill the feeders.  Must have really been cold.  Anyway, here are some pictures  I thought were interesting.

These doves sit out here in the sun because it is on the back side of the house, out of the wind.

The pond has been pretty much iced over for a while.  I will have to go out and cut a couple of holes in it so the trapped air has a chance to get out.  I don't think it will be much good for ice skating, because of the rough places.  But I will try it anyhow -- I have skated on this pond almost every year (except when I was gone in the Army).

The feeders in the side yard get emptied about every other day.  But that's OK. 

So, that is about it from here.  I am still working on my studies of Morse Code.  I have all the code down pretty well, and am working on building my transmitting and receiving skills and speed.  I have the 5 w.p.m. down pretty well now, but that won't cut it when it comes time to get on the HF bands and try my hand at making CW contacts.  But I am coming along.  I told my brother-in-law the other day that I am counting this as a third language.  So now I speak English, pig-Latin, and Morse Code.  That's pretty good, right?

I wonder why birds always stay in the same general place ... and then I ask myself that same question.

Hooah

Doing our part to feed the birds...

15 m.p.h. winds usually don't even phase the birds around here, but when they are tied in with a winter temperature of -2 degrees, that usually equates to a wind chill of about -15 degrees or so.  So even the birds are probably shivering under those feathers.

One of the things that we can do here is to make sure they get the opportunity to eat and keep up their energy.  In order to do that, I have made several of my homebrew feeders.  I saw these at the Columbus Zoo in one of the nature areas and thought this would work here.  Besides, it's also cheap and gives me something to do with all those water bottles that would normally just get recycled.  Check this out.

 

These are really easy to make.  Cut a little slice in opposite ends of the bottom of the bottle and push a stick thru there which will serve as a perch.(click on the picture and you can blow it up to see them better).   Just above that, cut a little triangle in the bottle (it works best if the triangle base is on top as this allows a wider area for the bird to eat and less of the seed will fall out on the ground).  Then fill them with wild bird seed and hang them on a tree.  It normally will take a little while (maybe as long as a month) for the birds to overcome any fear of them, but when they do it is interesting to watch.  We have these hanging just outside our pentagon windows.  The birds do their part by eventually overcoming their fear of something new and eating while we watch them.  

With all of these hanging in the tree, it kinda looks like some huge cocoons hanging out there, like some alien bird or bee left them there.

Of course, we also have the more conventional feeders for birds who can't overcome their inhibitions, who can't live on the wild side.  The first one is a store bought feeder hanging from a limb on "Colonel Oak." (far right).  And there is also the sunflower seed container (green thing in the center of the picture).  And there is also the feeder which my dad made for us many, many years ago.  We had this when we lived in Troy and brought it here in '96. It's been hanging on the fence ever since then.

Every year, the bottom of this one sags a bit and requires some maintenance in the spring, but it is still hanging in there.

And, last but not least, is the newest feeder -- what we like to call "The Red Roof Inn."  Unlike the bottles and the other feeders, this one requires little maintenance.  Just a piece of duct tape to hold the roof closed in the winds.

We tried to put the suet cakes in the side , but they sat there all winter and were never eaten.  Don't think the birds cared for them at all.  There is also a pretty generous amount that falls or is thrown out of this one to the ground below.  That works out just fine for the morning doves as they have a really hard time perching on the narrow edges of any of the other feeders.

So that is the way we wake up here in the winter at Bailey's Harbor on McCartyville Road -- a cup of coffee or juice, the binoculars, and our friends the birds.

If one were to visit this area for the first time, one thing would quickly stand out  ... there are lots of farming fields everywhere around, and that means there is no room for trees.  There are plots of woods scattered here and there to serve as wind breaks, but they are generally a long ways from our houses and it makes it hard to watch and hear the birds.  We have planted quite a few trees here and really enjoy watching the birds all year 'round.  They give us song and color for most of the year, all at no charge.  So the least we can do for them is to give them food when they are shivering. 

 A bird does not sing because it has an answer.  It sings because it has a song. 

Hooah