You want to hear a cool story?

Jeff Foxworthy’s daughter, Jordan, has started a campaign through Compassion International to raise money to provide mosquito netting for people in Africa.
Jordan went on a mission trip last year to Kenya, and as she tells it, “God put it on my heart to do whatever I could to help.”

Jordan decided, after learning of the devastating loss of lives to malaria, that she would concentrate her efforts on making people AWARE that about one of every five childhood deaths in the tropical African countries of Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda are the result of malaria.

Also, according a report from the Compassion Ghana field office, 90% of all illnesses among children reported to hospitals are malaria related. Jordan recalled that when she went to Africa, she slept under a mosquito net even in her hotel room, but as she ventured into the remote villages, she immediately noticed that no one had the nets to protect them from the mosquitoes carrying malaria.

Seeing the people at risk for malaria with no way of preventing it stirred her soul to the point she decided to do something about it. How can we help? $10. The cost of a lunch will purchase an insecticide treated mosquito net and it will be delivered to the children registered in Compassion projects in the above mentioned countries.

Wow.

Please join me in helping Jordan raise awareness and money to save people’s lives.
You can buy as many as you’d like for $10 each.

Go to compassion.com to learn more or send a check to: Compassion International, c/o Jessica Clark, PO Box 65000, Colorado Springs, CO 80962-9951

A while back I ran a unique photo on the blog with the “story behind the picture”. Well, it’s time for another one. This photo was taken in the Hardee’s parking lot in Belle Fourche, South Dakota.

WHERE?

Belle Fourche is located in the extreme western part of the state near the Montana and Wyoming borders. I couldn’t resist taking the picture even though I had to take it with Hugh Nall’s camera since mine was packed away and the opportunity had to be seized quickly. Here’s the story: We were headed back to the Rapid City, SD airport to fly home after The Merriam Madness World Tour concluded. Myself, Michael Waddell, Coach Hugh Nall, Phillip Culpepper and Dan Johnson. We’d had a great trip, smacking a bunch of longbeards in Wyoming and Montana and Hugh, Michael and I were hungry (not for Hardee’s) and headed toward Rapid City in search of a restaurant. Dan and Phillip, in spite of the severe winter storm warnings for the next few days were excited about staying out and doing some turkey hunting of their own, taking turns videoing each other.

While they’d had a lot of fun videoing all the hunts on the trip, they couldn’t wait to squeeze a trigger!

Dan’s parents, who live on the outskirts of Belle Fourche were to be waiting at the Hardee’s to “make the switch” so Michael, Hugh and I could head home. We show up at the Hardee’s, unload Dan’s and Phillip’s gear and wait around to say, “thanks, see ya, had fun, good luck with the blizzard, shoot straight, peace, etc.” Being courteous, we must have waited around for at least two minutes. No sign of Dan’s parents.

Phillip and Dan decide to go inside and order a milkshake! Hugh, Michael and I had our sights set on something bigger and better! So we left...!

As we were pulling out of the parking lot, I looked back and...well, I just couldn’t resist.

Was it rude to leave them like that? Was it rude for Dan and Phillip to order a milkshake knowing we were hungry? Hard feelings are tough to get over.

We heard a few birds at daylight that first morning in Illinois and they pretty much did the same thing almost all the Eastern birds I hunted this spring did . . . they snickered at my calling, continued to gobble just to aggravate me and then shut up when I got within 300 yards.
That was all right. I didn’t come to Illinois to turkey hunt anyway. I had better, more important things to do and I refused to chase a dumb longbeard around and subject myself to more ridicule.

So Ben, camerman Daniel Thomas and I went to the truck, drove around the property to where we wanted to hang the Lone Wolf stands for my November bowhunt, and proceeded to take the stands out of the boxes.

As I was finishing attaching the climbing sticks to the stands for the carry into the spot we intended to hang the stand, Ben mentions to me, “Hey, you know there’s a good chance we could run into a tom back here where we’re going. As a matter of fact, there’s a cut cornfield in the bottom next to a creek that I see turkeys in a lot this time of day. You really should take your turkey vest and shotgun in with you.”

“Sure!” I thought, “Why not endure a little more humiliation while I’m here!”

So off we go toting a Benelli, turkey gear and a tree stand and climbing sticks slung over my shoulder.
We approached the crest of the hill overlooking the cut corn field and as I ever so slowly took a peek, I immediately saw the full fan of a strutter. At first, we thought he was beside himself but soon we picked out the hen he was showing off for.

We knelt down (all of this is being documented through Daniel’s camera by the way) and quickly got a strategy together. We would circle back and around, drop the stand and sticks at the base of the tree we wanted to hang in, and continue down through the timber to the fields edge.

Everything went perfect. (How often does THAT happen!)

After calling a few times, it was no surprise that he was not going to leave his girlfriend, so Plan B was concocted.

It was simple, we had to get in front of the pair of lovebirds. We did. Next, I crawled out, popped up the Montana strutting decoy, crawled back into some cover and commenced to calling.

It wasn’t long before the hen started my way with “you know who” behind her. Soon, they saw the decoy and the show was own. The ol’ bird was content to strut closer but he didn’t run in for the fight. I knew he was either really smart and confident, or he was a 2 year old.

When he got to around 40 yards, he came out of strut long enough for the Federal No. 5s to make their point.

He was an awesome bird. A thick, 10-inch beard and 1 3/8-inch spurs. A 4- or 5-year-old tom.

Ben, Daniel and I whooped it up, picked up the bird, carried him up into the hardwoods, laid him down beside the Lone Wolf, took off some clothes and proceeded to hang an awesome set for November!

How cool is THAT?

For more information on turkey or deer hunting with Timberland Outfitters, contact
Ben Plattner, 217-632-7060

Well, the 2008 turkey season is officially done. As always, some did good and some wished they'd had more luck.

As far as Realtree goes, we had a pretty good year. We killed a few birds in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Alaska. Just kidding about Alaska. But did you know they are the only state that does not have wild turkeys?

So now that all the states have closed the turkey killing, let's get a tally on which state had the most success.

Post a comment on how many birds you killed and in which states and we'll see which state will come out on top.

Have a great weekend!

Above is a cool pic of Daniel Thomas, Ben Plattner, me and Rhett Rossi taken while we were in Illinois just a couple weeks ago.

Come this November, I will have the honor and privilege of be able to hunt with Ben and Lynn Plattner of Timberland Outfitters in Central Illinois. Ben and I have visited on several occasions over the past few years at different trade shows and consumer shows and just hit it off so we arranged for me to travel there this fall and try my luck hunting with him. (This is where Rhett Akins killed that huge 165-inch 8 pointer on Monster Bucks XVI.)

Since I’ve been so busy this spring and have done very little turkey hunting (the only trip being with Michael to WY & MT) I was anxious to get out of the office and “mess around” a little bit. So Realtree Outdoors Producer Daniel Thomas and I planned a quick two-day trip out to Timberland to scout and hang some Lone Wolf stands for the upcoming deer season. This was our first priority!

Then, Ben calls me up just a week prior to our trip and asks if I’d be interested in doing any turkey hunting and since I had a tag I, well, uh . . .duh!

THAT’S A “NO BRAINER”.

I was terribly inconvenienced to have to pack along a gun case carrying my Benelli 12 gauge. This really is a tough job.

Still though, scouting, getting these stands hung, and shooting lanes cut was our MAIN objective.

Daniel would video the entire ordeal and hopefully it would piece together really nicely with a huge buck I shoot there this year. This would be a really cool segment for the show . . . all the tough decisions of where to hang, walking dozens of miles, wading through beaver swamps with stands on our backs, fighting off water moccasins . . .

Okay, so Ben already had the trees in mind where a “booner” will give me an 18 yard shot and I didn’t even have to walk more than 300 yards from the truck. . . across a cut bean field. But hey, it’s my blog and I can write anything I want.

Oh yeah, my next blog will reveal how the turkey hunting went while we were there “working”.