Continuing to reminisce about 2008
This is the last of a two-part series about the past year in the Great Outdoors.
Last week I mentioned about being blessed to be writing this column and helping to inform readers about outdoors news and information. I’m also blessed to have a radio show. Columbia Basin Lifestyles airs every Saturday from 9 to 11 a.m. on KBSN-AM 1470.
Shortly after this column began to appear in the Herald, Ted Mason, the radio station manager called and asked me to stop by for a chat.
“You are writing an outdoors column, why not have an outdoors radio show?” he said.
Sounded good to me. The idea was cleared with the publisher and editor of the Herald and Columbia Basin Outdoors began as a taped, three-minute show appearing each week on Thursday and Friday. This evolved into a one-hour live show on Saturdays and eventually to a two-hour show.
Summing up 2008 in Christmas card, Jim Davis, who is now the KBSN/KDRM manager, wrote, “Looks like you kept your bait in 08, don’t tangle you line in 09.”
Sounds as if he expects me to continue the show into next year.
So each week my mind is challenged to put words in front of readers, so they will learn about the outdoors, plus be the producer and host of a live radio show. It is great fun.
As I look back at 2008, one activity captivated my attention for six straight months, trapping Crawfish. Not only was this fun, but crawfish are delicious eating. My wife, Garnet, and I had at least one trap, and most of the time 10, in the water for the entire season, from the first Monday in May through Oct. 31. I’m not sure how many pounds we pulled from Moses Lake and Crab Creek, but we still have a pound or two in the freezer.
Three nights ago for supper, a thick venison steak was cut on the side to form a pocket. Chopped crawfish tail meat mixed with minced garlic was placed inside. Butcher twine closed the opening and my version of surf and turf was grilled. Yes, it was delicious.
A new Basin resident was spotted last summer, the Eurasian collared dove. This bird first appeared in Florida in the early 1980s and has spread to most of the nation. It is larger than our mourning doves, perhaps twice as large. Because it is a non-native species, there is no hunting season or limit, meaning they can be hunted any time of the year. All that is needed is a small game hunting license.
The relatively new sport of geocaching was explored. Using a global positioning system geocachers look up various caches other people have stashed around the countryside. There are thousands such caches, 133 for zip code 98837 and 13,886 in Washington State.
A geocacher traveling from Seattle to Spokane will use a computer to look up a site, or several sites, along I-90. Let’s say the cache is at one of the rest stops. The person will enter the coordinates into a GPS and follow the signal to the location of the cache. It may be as large as a five-gallon bucket or as small as an ink pen. Geocaching is an appropriate sport for the entire family.
Twice Garnet and I traveled to Olympia, to appear before a House and a Senate committee about making the advisory committee for disabled hunters and anglers permanent. Getting disabled hunters and anglers into the outdoors is of great interest to me, because of my friend, Jerry Lester.
He uses what is called a companion card to allow another hunter or angler to help him catch his fish and bag his game. He has notched his deer tag during the past four or five years. Jerry has been able to share the sights, sounds and smells associated with deer hunting and assisted as best he is able during the butchering process.
If you know of a disabled hunter or angler, I encourage you to get them into the outdoors. Fish and Wildlife, along with the advisory committee, makes it easier for the disabled to participate in outdoor activities.
Besides being proud of Jerry for his achievements while seated in a mobile chair, I shared with readers the accomplishments of two other hunting companions, Dr. Thomas Steffens and Garnet.
Thomas is a great shot and he seems to enjoy shooting offhand, standing with no support. He did it again this year, hitting a nice buck in the neck.
Garnet legally shot three turkeys in one day this fall, the first person in Washington to achieve this distinction.
I look back at 2008 with fondness. Not only is it enjoyable to write about and broadcast the details and particulars of outdoor activities, but it is also interesting and a learning experience for me.
Let’s do it all again next year.