Some days, or part of days, outside is not the place to be. During these times bringing outdoors inside can than occupy the hours, minds, and appetites.
Jump the season a few months by changing out some displays and photographs, bring in some greens, dried twigs and fruits, force some buds or allow willow buds to expand to the furry stage and then but cut off the water. These artifices will provide several months of enjoyment.
Purchase a new living plant or pot plant a few viable tree seeds and watch the germination process. Even starting a few garden seedlings, regardless if you intend to save and transplant them out will improve a winter-worn attitude.
Ryan Muchenhirn, product sales representative at Vortex Optics in Barneveld, says cleaning and storing deer hunting rifles, scopes included, is timely.
“Begin by taking care of any mechanical items that were noticed during and after the seasons,” advises Ryan. “And unless there is some reason to clean the inside of the barrel, I don’t, but concentrate on removing all the dirt and salty finger marks on the metal and wood on the gun and scope.”
A quality, light oil works well, but not too much. If it’s a bolt action, the rails and bolt should be cleaned but don’t leave excess oil on the parts because gravity may cause the oil to run down into some working parts in the interior during months of storage then standing upright.
The glass on the scope can be cleaned with high quality optical cleaner and wiped dry with an optical cloth, one that is used for camera lenses and eye glasses. Start with compressed air so as not to grind grit into the glass, metal and wood.
There’s no need to look at the scope’s mechanical parts unless there is a problem and then it probably has to be checked by a factory representative or company like Vortex, who guarantees their scopes from damage.
DNR licenses are about at the renewal stage (March 31). Don Martin, at Martin’s in Monroe, gets a few cents from the state to sell, by machine, most hunting, fishing and trapping licenses. “We can’t provide the actual park sticker, but can give a receipt and the user can hand it in at a state park and get the actual sticker,” Don says. “I wish we could provide the window sticker; the customer does, too, but that isn’t the case.”
A few customers are still purchasing worms and artificial minnows (Gulp). “One angler said he caught a 31-inch northern pike on a hotdog piece, but didn’t say if he put onions or catsup on it,” Don joked.
Doug Williams, at DW Sports Center in Portage echoed Martin’s words about park stickers. “Usually we can provide what they need, but sometimes it takes a call to Madison to get an answer of how to finish a sale. In the case of someone trying to purchase over the phone and then stopping midway, the system holds the partial transaction,” he said. “That may be the problem.”
There’s still rabbit hunting, according to Doug, but most landowners are not making brush piles any longer. “They burn or bury the brush,” he said. “I had eight tom turkeys displaying, gobbling and chasing a single hen in my field this morning.”
Wayne Whitemarsh, an outdoorsman from Sauk City, was helping a food pantry business crack and pick wild shagbark hickory nuts. Hank Judd, also of Sauk, explained that with dried hickory nuts from last fall, he heats the nuts in a kettle of water for a few minutes, lets them dry and cool and then puts them through a hand device vise before picking the embryo from the shell. Hank usually picks up 30 or more buckets of nuts each fall and his wife Sue seems to use them in dozens of different ways, including eating them directly.
“It works best if they are cracked a week or so after picking them up, but this method gives me something to do when I don’t get outside during bad weather,” Hank said.
I’m about finished smashing, as opposed to cracking nuts, on concrete for birds who have no problem taking the last step, sometimes while sitting on the concrete, other times flying to a nearby tree to pull ever bit and piece of nut meat from the shell.
Most birds never get an opportunity to eat hickory nuts, but blue jays, nuthatches, cardinals, chickadees, titmice and red-bellied woodpeckers don’t seem to mind. The only animals I’ve seen eat entire hickory nuts that weren’t cracked or gnawed into were white-tailed deer. I don’t know if their digestive systems did their jobs or not.
Bob Ross, at Wild Birds Unlimited on Old Sauk Road in Middleton, says a small amount of grit mixed with bird food is a good idea. “I sell it for a $1 for two pounds,” he said. “Another product I have is Crushed Gran Grit.”
Later in winter Bob will switch from a winter blend bird mix to a nesting blend that has some calcium chips for bones and eggs shells.
“There haven’t been many out-of-the-ordinary sightings this year, other than a few warblers, some bluebirds but not many owls.
“It’s time to begin thinking and doing bluebird nestbox cleaning and closing,” Bob said.
An Iowa County landowner noticed an entirely black red-tailed hawk feeding on an opossum road kill a week ago. It left the area as soon as its meal was finished.
Wally Banfi at Wilderness Fish and Game in Sauk City, expects new licenses to be available in early March, and at some of the larger hunting and fishing expos.
Turkey hunters can get a taste of turkey calling and craftsmanship at the 2023 Wisconsin Open Season Sportsman’s Expo in Wisconsin Dells March 24-26 at Kalahari. Wisconsin’s own Jeff Fredrick and Art Helin take us afield to talk turkey tactics
— Jerry Davis is an Argyle native and a freelance writer who lives in Barneveld. He can be reached at sivadjam@mhtc.net or at 608-924-1112.
