2008 Spring Turkey Season

It’s Long, but Darn worth It. Just like our season.

 

May 5th

Well, another turkey season has come and gone with my clients and I noticed quite a few more white hairs are showing up on a lot of us, especially me. I feel good though when I think back on the many seasons we’ve shared. Just knowing and hunting with so many of you through the years have made these times very special to me. Seeing some of your boys become men, girls becoming young ladies and now I hear the word grandpa being used a lot. Wow, for some of you it has been several years now that we have been huddling up against a couple of cedar trees in silence or setting around the dining room table at the camphouse laughing, telling stories and jokes.  I have many memories, a few sad (loosing friends I have met), but for the most part, pleasant, happy good memories, memories that I will cherish forever.  

Well once again we saw many new faces pass through our camp; we also saw many familiar faces as well and missed a few of my ol’ buddies. All and all it was a very fun exciting season, with new guides, new properties and weird weather, how could it be anything else. It sure wasn’t going to be boring. Especially with Denton, Nate and Evan, the Almighty bull rider, there was no way it could even remotely be close to boring. With these three amigos, I am sure to be totally white headed or bald within few more years. I’m sure they will say I was headed that way before they got here, but what I’m trying to say is, they’re going to hurry up the process by many fold. Most of it I should say though is from me trying to keep up with these young bucks. There’s no way Mike or I can do that. They honestly did a truly remarkable job, especially once they figured out how to stay out of trouble. For one of them unfortunately, his lesson was learned a little too late for us to benefit from this year, but maybe he will improve in that area by next year. Denton had to take over as my main man and that was also a big, big help. My ol’ Buddy Shane came out and helped us out also, but I don’t have to worry about him. He’s just like all the best dogs I ever had, faithful, always ready to go, and loves me no matter what. I want to give him and Denton a big “thaaank yooou” for being there and calling in that monster Rio for me plus getting it on film. I WILL NEVER FORGET that hunt, Thanks guys. That was SPECIAL! Oh!  I can’t forget my Lizzie either, she and her Bo got her a big old bad boy too, her first ever. Way to go Nate’r, and that gal, she’s a keeper. Thanks for all the help to, Miss Lizzie; you took a load off my mind and back. We will see you two this fall, I hope.

May 10th

I definitely was in limbo about what was going to take place this season.  I was a little worried about the bird situation and I think that was reflected in the number of people we ended up taking. We were down around twenty people for the entire season, but hey, the birds did show up and the total number that we harvested reflects that. Can you believe as of now, May 10th, all together we harvested the exact same number of birds that we did last year. Seventy six is the final count up to now, out of a possible 109 tags from 59 people. Last year we had 76 people and 76 birds on the list, out of a total of 146 tags to fill. So I believe this season was a considerable jump up from last year, wouldn’t you? The weather was strange last year and just as strange this year. We definitely had more cool to cold days this year, but no snow. But what we didn’t have this year was that ridiculously warm month of March. This year was definitely different than most because we didn’t have many leaves on the trees or anything almost the entire month of April. In fact it has just now greened up like it usually is in mid April, and here it is almost mid May. I will say one thing though, I think the birds worked better this year than last and Denton said the same thing. Now we have all of these weather elements to use as excuses and I don’t know about you, but I need them or something to blame my poor judgment calls and bad mistakes on while I am hunting.

 Well I mentioned the first timers earlier and we had a good number of them this year. Fifteen so far, wow, now that’s what I call introducing the sport. A couple of them, it may not have been quit their first time ever hunting, but they did get their first bird with us so that’s close enough for me. I also have one more first timer to get out and that would be my friend Kevin Olson. We have the rest of the month to try and get him his first bird and I believe we will. We are both very determined people and I think that God has a plan for us and that includes harvesting a turkey. Hopefully I will capture Kevin taking his first bird on film.

Guess what I did? I took my first one with a bow and it was also my first Kansas Rio, can you believe that! Also my good friends Mark Franson, from CT., Mike Evangelista, PA, Denton Wenner, PA, and Russ Schoonfeld, IN all took their first birds with a bow. Doc also came out to Paradise and took his 3rd bird, I believe, with a bow. Lots of firsts this season, and that is what really makes it fun and exciting for me and the other guides.

May 20th  

Well, we did it. It is now May 20th and I had been waiting to fulfill this little dream of mine and “YES we did it”. I finally got to take my friends Kevin Olson and Steve Hanna out and introduce them to the turkey hunting world. Although Steve didn’t pull the trigger, he had just as big a part in taking this bird as I did. You see, our friend Kevin had a diving accident when he was 19 years old and was left in a quadriplegic state. About a year or so ago I found out about Kevin doing web sites, I just knew that he would be the guy for me. I have known Kevin and Steve their entire lives. Steve helps out Kevin as much as possible plus they are the best of friends. Anyway, we got together last year and started the process of rebuilding Paradise’s web site. “He is good”, and between the two of us we came up with exactly what I wanted. This is my first experience with someone like this working on my web site, (everyone else were duds) and what a difference he has made. My life is less complicated in that area, that’s for sure. Well last fall I invited Kevin and Steve to come down and have dinner with us and the deer hunters on several different occasions at the camphouse. I do know one thing for sure; they both were sure enjoying the food and camaraderie. I asked Kevin one evening if he had ever gone hunting before and he said, “Not really”. I asked him, “Would you like to go sometime and if so, I think I can make it happen”. I explained to him what the machine was like that would enable him to do this. After about a week or so one evening when they were getting ready to leave Kevin looked up at me and said that he would like to go. Instantly tears began to flow and I said, “That‘s the words I’ve been waiting to hear”. At the time we were really talking about deer hunting, but I got to thinking, heck turkey hunting is just around the corner so let’s try that first. He agreed and now the rest was up to me.

Well, I guess I got started a little late on getting the machine ordered, but they said it would be here in about 5 days and that would have been just right for the turkey season opener, April first. But, it took about 20 days or more before it finally arrived and by that time we had missed the youth and disabled season and I was right in the middle of my regular season guiding. I told Kevin to be patient and give me and the birds a week or so to recuperate after the last clients leave. Well between the nasty weather and our schedules we finally got together on the 4th of May and practiced with the Be-Adaptive Machine. After Kevin got his first fat lip, we learned that even in this contraption there is a lot of recoil. It didn’t take long to move the joystick and the trigger mechanism further apart and that solved the problem. Well by now the grass is about two feet tall and it’s muddy, so I knew we would be very limited to where we could hunt. Mike and I had been seeing several birds up in the Scott’s meadow/Millers mud road area, so I kept that feeder going. Many of you should be familiar with this area near Indian Mound because you have hammered birds there. Just to name a few, Ethan Walker, Dillon Walker, and Dr. Joe Colgan dropped a double right there I believe, remember that Joe? Shot one and then the big boy ran over and jumped on that one and you dropped him right on top of the other one. Mark Sykes does, I’ll bet. He watched the whole thing over our shoulders. Anyway, this late in the season I figured we would need all the help we could get and so what, it’s just a couple more bushels of corn. Now remember these birds have lost some of their feathered buddies and or possibly saw their buddies bite the big one. So it’s not like they are tame or something all of a sudden, they’re not, they’re spooky as ever. I also got to thinking about all that tall grass, so I took the ol’ grasshopper mower up there and blazed us a trail and notched us out a few different places to set the blind in. It worked like a charm. Kevin thinks I went to a lot of trouble, but he doesn’t know what makes me feel good or how much fun I have doing this stuff. I’m just like a little kid doing something for the first time. It sure ain’t work. The ticks are a problem now in some areas and we sure didn’t need them interfering either. So the morning I went to set the blind I gave the area a good spraying down. It worked no ticks, but the skeeters were out for a while. Forgot my Thermo cell skeeter repellant…

Well the time finally came when we could all get together and call it a hunt. Kevin said, “Let’s try it Monday morn (19th), bright and early. I agreed. Then he emailed me back and said, “How about Sunday afternoon, I would kind of like to see what it looks like in the daylight first”. I agreed again. Sunday after church and a good meal we were all to meet at the camphouse. When they arrived I had things pretty much ready and we headed out. It was hot so I knew we couldn’t set where I had it all mowed because that was for in the morning and right now there was zero shade there and the temp was in the mid 80’s. So I grabbed the “weed eater” and away I went. I found a good shady spot on the opposite side of the meadow and we sat there about 3 hours. Didn’t see much, but did see a few and I took note of where they were all traveling and  that made the decision a little easier for where we were to set for the morning hunt.

 The ol’ alarm clock didn’t even get a chance to sound off (3:55 am) and I was up and running. I was to get there ahead of those two, (Kevin and Steve) and get the tent and all the equipment, chairs, snacks, camera, kitchen sink all unloaded and then drive back down where we were going to meet and park the vehicles. I no more than got that all done and they came pulling up, 4:30 on the nose. We got Kevin headed up the trail I had cut and it was going pretty good until we had to start pushing. I think we need one of them there 4X4 scooters.  Kevin’s electric wheelchair was having a little trouble making the slight uphill grade along with the soft turf. “Yep” and it was also a pretty tight fit with all three of us studs in that, 360/Double Bull blind, but we did it. Glad I lost 40 lbs this spring.  God was already working! Cause, man was it a beautiful morning, not to hot, not to cold, no wind, just perfect. It didn’t take long and we heard our first gobble and by that I mean it truly was Kevin and Steve’s first gobble that they had ever heard in the wild when they were actually hunting.  We could hear several different toms sounding off in the distance at least a couple hundred yards away. When they had flown down I noticed the difference in the location of their gobbles so I began the process of trying to pull them in. I know this time of the year patience is the best policy, so I just kept throwing out a few calls every now and then, not getting overly aggressive. It must be working because after about an hour we all agreed that that time when they gobbled they were definitely getting closer. Most all you know that feeling. After a few more gobbles I told Kevin, “they’re coming.” I was right; they poked their heads out about 60 yards to our left, down past the feeder. They started coming our way and I had the camera rolling. It looked like the three that Mike and I had been seeing. They seemed a little spooked when they spotted the decoys and ended up turning around and heading back where they had just come from and for us three big boys, those three big boys were gone. They wandered off and never said another word. We were all disappointed as our chance of bagging one of those gobblers faded away. Well as an ol’ turkey chaser that I am, I was sad, but not done. When the birds got out of sound range I knew what had to be done. Where the birds had turned around was a good shot distance, but we had Kevin facing out into the meadow and not towards the feeder. We quickly picked up the tent and spun it and Kevin’s scooter around so we were facing the feeder more. I kept up the calling periodically and started telling hunting stories to keep the spirits up and pass the time. It worked, we were all yakking away and not really paying attention when I looked up and to our right was two lonely jakes. I had just got through telling them that really all we need is a couple clumsy/lonely jakes and low and behold, there they were, right where we had just moved Kevin from, of course, but they were on the move with corn on the brain. It was perfect, except these two looked like they were on speed. They couldn’t hold still for more than a second or two. Kevin was adjusting the gun as fast as he could, but they just kept moving. Finally the shot rang out, but unfortunately neither one went down. Just like many of us that have missed, Kevin was bummed. I told him not to worry about it. It looked like a clean miss and no harm was done. Just a little dent in the ego was all. By now the wind was starting to pick up and I was getting a little concerned about that. Well all we could do is set back and continue calling. After a couple minutes Kevin said, “Why don’t you tell another story, it seemed to work earlier. I was beginning to think he had no confidence in my calling and so was I, but I wasn’t going to let him know that. So here I went again, we got off on the subject of raising hogs, which all three of us was very familiar with. We all three had agreed on how much we hated hogs, so I told them about my therapy sessions I had in Texas. HOG HUNTING, I have never enjoyed killing something so much in my life. If you have ever been around hogs like we had, you would know exactly where I was coming from. Well I no more than said the last word about it and looked up. There they are! A long beard and a jake had just stepped out of the brush and were standing by the feeder. As fast as I could without being noticed I reached for the camera and took the safety off the gun for Kev. They were acting a little nervous about the sound as Kevin was trying to get on them. The two motors on the Be Adaptive machine make a little growling noise when he is adjusting for the shot and at 30 yards close, they were getting a little nervous. They started walking away in single file. I gave Kev the, “kill him” signal. One more final adjustment and the shot went off. Down went the last bird which we all were just sure was the big tom. Wow we did it. I switched from filming the bird to Kevin. His smile filled the entire screen. You got him, you did it, we got him, and he’s down. I could not believe it. God gave us another chance (which he does all the time anyway) and this time Kevin had put him down. Man, were we pumped, it was just 8:30. We came out from under the tent smiling like three opossums in a big pile of persimmons and headed down to look at his bird. Steve picked up the bird and I noticed it was the jake. I couldn’t believe it, we all thought the long beard went down, so we watched the video and sure enough the two birds had switched places. Oh well, a turkey’s a turkey and he was Kevin’s first. We were thrilled and what fun it was. God is good, oh yeah, while we were looking at Kevin’s bird I looked up and there was another big ol’ tom and jake coming straight for us. About then they saw us and away they went. What an eventful morning it was. We saw five long beards, four jakes and one or two hens all together and I would say that was as good a morning as a man could ask for. One thing for sure, “you never know what’s going to happen in the woods when your turkey hunting”. That’s why I love it SO MUCH!

May 26th -27th

Well school is out and my son is the last one I really want to get out and get a bird. He has been practicing with his new bow and is very excited about getting one. Our schedules and this darn rain have prevented us from getting out much, but we did get him real close to getting a shot at a jake over across from Mike’s house about 12 days ago. I know my heart was pounding. One cedar limb kept him from shooting and I told him you have got to learn that that bird will probably be everywhere BUT the perfect spot you want him in, so make sure your shooting lanes are cleared out as much as possible and always expect the worst case scenario. There was a big tom with him, but he went back in the woods.  So this is it, we are down to the wire. Let’s wait and see what happens.

Last night and Memorial Day we had at least 7 inches of rain. In the last week we have had at least 10 inches. Parsons had over 8 inches last night between midnight and 7 AM. NOT GOOD. Here we go again. Mike just called and he is taking the row boat over to our river bottom and is rowing out to shut off all of Dad’s oil wells. The wheat crop in the low ground is not looking to good at the moment. The creek at by the camphouse is over the bridge about 10 feet, 5 more and it will be in our building again by the highway. Don’t know if we can take another year like the last one.

I sure want to thank all of you that donated monies to help me purchase the Be-Adaptive Machine. I want you to know that I plan on taking at least one disabled person at no charge each year if not more. I am also looking at purchasing one of those 4X4 scooters and if any of you are willing to give for that cause, I would greatly appreciate it. Just give me a call or email me with your response. I was going to buy the Be-Adaptive machine on my own no matter what and then I mentioned it to a couple others and they wanted to give and that is how that got started. I am not out to make money on this and will not, but I will not buy the 4X4 until I get some response from you. Not sure what they cost yet, but I know I can’t foot the bill for that one alone. The B-A was a little over $1,700.00 and with only 4 or 5 donations it was entirely paid for. God knows who did this and that is enough, no names will be mentioned. A big “Thank You” from the bottom of his heart came from Kevin many times throughout this entire hunt and he was so grateful to actually be able to do something and not just be a spectator, as he wrote in an email to me. I wish you all could have been there and that is why I filmed it. You can, kind of; Kevin’s hunt is on our web site. You can also read about Kevin at his web site; you can get there through mine. To watch a quadriplegic do something like this is heart-warming, to say the least! It sure pulls on the “emotional strings” – at least it did for all of us. Kevin should have his hunt and several others on the web-site real soon if not already.

I also want to thank God for another safe hunting season.  He has protected this business for 23 years now with hardly a scratch. Think about the hundreds and hundreds of different adventures we have been on, guns going off and different people walking behind us carrying weapons. Not one accident, now that’s a Miracle right there.  Thank You God for Your Protection, Your Grace and most of all, Your Forgiveness, because I know I don’t always choose the right way and or say the right things. But I know He is always there waiting for me.

I can’t quit writing without giving my guides a little recognition too. They did a wonderful job.  I know I have said this before; they must really like guiding as much or more than I do to give up their life at home and better paying jobs to come out here and listen to me whine and growl. I love them for it and hope they know it. Heck, without them there would just be, “Mike”. Uh-oh!   Also it was great to have Miss Rhonda and Miss Debbie back in the kitchen. I know I sure enjoyed it and didn’t gain too much, nothing like Dentron and Nate’r. They’re probably fasting now, you reckon? NOT!      From all of us guides and Lizzie, thank you Ladies.

June 2nd

Sorry, but it didn’t happen with my son Hunter. We were all set to go, last day, Sat. morning, but the storms were rolling through and we have had some tremendous lighting storms lately and when that is happening you do not go in the woods around here. I’m sure the rain has no doubt put some of the turkeys’ too building nests all over again. We had over 4 inches in less than two hours Sat night; luckily it was a pretty isolated area around Mike’s house and towards Carters hill. I have never seen the roads wash so badly from just one rain. At least this all has come a little earlier than last year. We have only lost about 100 acres of wheat and corn so far from the river flooding. Well the turkey season is officially over and it’s time for some relaxing fishing. Seems like all I get done though is mowing all these lawns.

 You all take care and thank you so much for all you do for us. Without you my life would be awfully boring. Hope to see you all next Spring again and I know I will be seeing some of you this Deer Season. Yes sir, White Tail season here we come. Now all you archery hunters get them bows out and start flinging some arrows. Practice, practice, practice!

      From all of us here at Paradise Adventures, have a safe and prosperous year.

                                                          You’re Friends Forever

                                   The Nunnenkamp’s

Written by: Kurt Nunnenkamp

May 5th – June 2nd 2008