This was one of those kodak moments I think and I just had to tell. I was out turkey hunting this morning and I was sitting the top of this ridge with an overgrown old field behind me that the deer use as bedding/security cover and I had just finished a calling sequence on the slate when I heard something moving behind me.

Now you can imagine that my heart has jumped about twice the beats a minute that it should be so I very slowly rolled a bit and looked behind me. All of a sudden I spotted a deer slowly walking parallel with the stone wall that bordered the old field and it stopped right at the break in the wall. As I watched it I noticed that it had velvet nubs already (it was pretty close) which I thought was a little early. It stood there as if it was waiting for me to take it’s picture and I would have if my camera wasn’t still in my truck.

As it walked off I heard another one coming up and it took the same route as the first and even stopped for a moment in the opening t the stonewall. The whole time I was thinking why did I leave my camera in the truck, DUH.

It was a beautiful morning and very peaceful which was very much needed after yesterday procedure. It happened to be the last day to turkey hunt for me this year which was my first year. I didn’t fill a tag but no matter because I enjoyed my time in the woods and got to see deer everyday I went out with them not knowing I was sitting there. I came close a few times on a gobbler or two but it wasn’t to be this year.

I can honestly say though that I only wish I did this earlier because it is a lot of fun and I can’t wait till next spring to try my luck again. But, now is the time for me to get back to preparing for the years deer season.

By: Rick Kratzke

Well I don’t mind saying that I am glad that part of the procedure is done. What I had done was a Colonoscopy and an Endoscopy all in the same day. It seems that I am very enemic right now and it was not getting any better so the doctor said it needed to be done because she was afraid that I was losing blood somewhere. Talk about scaring the !@## out of me.

With everything that has happened the last 10 months it has really taken a toll on me and I am not the type to not go down with out a fight so I agreed to the procedures. I did find out most of what was going on which is that I have stomach ulcers to start with and because of the stomach ulcers I haver a significant amount of damage to my esophagus which can hopefully be cleared up with medication, like I don’t have enough meds to take already.

The other thing was that she found a polep in my colon which was removed and will be tested for cancer. I won’t know the results from that for about 10 days. She did say it was slightly odd that I would have one of those because I am only 45 but the test will show if it is positive or not. Because of the ways things looked she recommends this to be done again in 3 to 5 years instead of 10 years like usual.

So that is about it in a nut shell. At least I know better what is going on. On a personal note if anyone has any doubts that something is not right with yourself than I would not wait to get it checked out. It is better to find things out early than late because sometimes finding out early can be treated where as finding things out late can not. I will let you all know about the biopsy results when I get them.

Again, I do appreciate all your support. Thank You…………

By: Rick Kratzke

Just wanted to let you all know that the next couple of days I might not be around. I will be going into the hospital to have a couple procedures done. It seems my last couple of blood workups they had me go through are pointing to something and without going into details it seems that the only place for them to see what is exactly happening is to go inside.

I don’t mind saying that I’m a little nervous especially with the way my health has been the last 10 months but, I’m trying to think positive.

By: Rick Kratzke

Winter can be very harsh on all wildlife. If they are not prepared for it or if the weather is just plain to nasty for to long it can certainly lower the population numbers. This is an article i saw from New Brunswick Canada which I wanted to share. The numbers that the DNR has stated are staggering in my opinion.

By: Rick Kratzke

20,000 deer died this year because of weather

Doe permits in some parts of New Brunswick will be limited during the next hunting season as a result of the harsh winter, the Department of Natural Resources said yesterday.

Because of the province’s long winter, which saw record snowfall in some areas and caused the province a loss of 20,000 deer, doe permits in northern New Brunswick will be limited this year.

The exact number of permits will be announced by the minister of Natural Resources within the next couple of weeks.

According to Rod Cumberland, a biologist with the department, there will be significant changes. “We will be limiting the number of antler-less permits,” Cumberland said. “There will be changes dependant on the harsh winter.”

He blames the loss on deep snow and extended periods of extreme cold, explaining deer are only able to cope with harsh winter weather for a limited amount of time. Deep snow makes it difficult for deer to find food and crusty snow conditions make deer easy prey. “They can sustain hard winters for up to 120 days,” Cumberland said. “But after that, they begin to lose fat reserves and they get weak.”

Although the decrease in deer population brings the province’s total down from 100,000 to 80,000, Cumberland said permit regulations will vary on location.

Because parts of northern New Brunswick saw the most snow, they also lost a higher percentage of deer (about 25 to 30 per cent). Other areas in southern New Brunswick only saw eight per cent losses and some even less than that.

Cumberland said there may even be an increase in doe permits issued in southern New Brunswick because of the concentrated number of deer in urban areas.

As well, Cumberland said he had a record number of calls from people complaining about deer wandering into apple orchards and onto private property.

On the bright side, while the provincial deer population is down 50 per cent from 200,000 in the 1980s, it is up from 10 years ago when the province saw a low of 50,000.

Published Thursday May 22nd, 2008 by The Times&Transcript.com

This is one of the neatest ideas I have seen that the handicapped or disabled hunter can use. The best thing for deer hunters is elevation and not just so you can see farther and better but so you can be less detectable to the deer. Their sense of smell is as good if not better than their sense of sight.

By: Rick Kratzke

By: Tony Robinson (The News Herald)

Ask any deer hunter if there is any advantage in being elevated above the ground while hunting and you will most definitely get a yes.
The advantages of being above the ground for deer hunting are many. You can see and shoot much further. Deer are less likely to pick up your odor. They are less likely to see you as they pay more attention to what is happening at ground level than to activity a few feet up.
It can be safer, as you would be shooting in a more downward arch into the earth as opposed to the horizon. It can also be debated that you are safer from a fellow hunter’s misguided bullet. This might be the case if hunting on flat ground and a targeted deer was close to your location.
While there are many advantages to being above the ground, there are also several disadvantages. The most obvious is safety. A review of the state’s hunting-related accidents over the past few years shows that falls involving tree stands as being the No. 1 cause of injuries and deaths.
There are dozens of types, styles and methods of tree stands. With the climber style, the hunter must place his stand into position each time he uses it. Stationary stands are secured in position only once.
However, the hunter must use some auxiliary means for getting into the stand. Permanent stands are basically built to stay put. They often resemble miniature towers and tree houses. Many new three- and four-legged semi-permanent stands are now on the market. They usually require two or more people to erect. These stands are good for stability and using in areas with few trees.
These tree stands, as well as most elevated hunting stands, all have one major drawback. They do not accommodate the handicapped and physically impaired sportsman very well, if at all.
Depending upon the impairment, it can be almost impossible to get off the ground to deer hunt. For hunters in 13 of the state’s counties, local laws that are designed for safety actually impede the handicapped further.
These counties require hunters using rifles for hunting to be in some type of elevated hunting stand or platform. While these laws are all different, they range from requiring the hunter to be at least five to 10 feet above the ground. With population and development increasing, more counties will join this trend.
Until recent years, the handicapped sportsman, especially the handicapped hunters, were pretty much left out in the cold. While a reduced-cost lifetime license for the handicapped has been available for several years, little else was available.
In the past few years the state’s wildlife agency has recognized this problem and is currently taking great strides towards correcting it. One of these accomplishments has been in establishing a North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Handicapped Sportsman Committee, which includes a citizenries advisory committee.
To help address the issues facing them, handicapped veteran and sportsman Edward Mays, founded the NC Handicapped Sportsmen, Inc. During the February NCWRC meeting, the commission entered into a matching funds partnership with the NCHS. This partnership came into fruition earlier this month at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the wildlife agency’s Butner depot in Durham County. During the event, the NCHS presented 10 new Huntmaster hydraulic lifts to the WRC. The words of Congressman Robin Hayes may have described the event best.
“I am pleased that North Carolina acquired hunting lifts that can be used by handicapped sportsman, especially our veterans,” said Hayes. “As a hunter, I know firsthand the joy of being outdoors, and I have developed a great appreciation for the nature and wildlife of our great State. Traditionally, physical disabilities have stopped would-be hunters from these activities, but these lifts will open this opportunity to them.”
The Carolina Growler Company, of Star, manufactures the lifts. The units are housed on a mobile trailer for transportation and are able to lift a six by six foot enclosed hunting blind up to 20 feet high. They are equipped with stabilizers, roofs and benches and can hold up to 750 pounds. A solar powered 12-volt battery powers the units. The units will be used in the near future on special handicapped hunts like one that is planned for the new Johns River Game Lands in Burke County.

All good things must come to an end. The playhouse is complete. After 27 hours I can say it is done. Today I had to hammer in the anchoring stakes, build the picnic table and assemble the slide and mount it to the side. Of course Tyler was there to try out the slide to make sure I did it right, he said it will do. LOL

Without any further delay,

This thing has been quite the project but you know I am glad I did it and I think it looks great. Don’t mind me if i take a second to pat myself on the back.

Everybody at some point in their life I think has asked this question “What does Memorial Day mean to me”. I know for me it is a day of remembrance, it is a day to give thanks for the freedoms that I now enjoy and it is a day to thank in my own way the men and women who have died to protect and defend our ideals and our way of life.

I want to share a few pictures and maybe a statement or two that best describes how I feel and what it means to me. I think it all is pretty self explanatory.

By: Rick Kratzke

“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.”
– General George Patton

Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans – the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) – established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.

Heroism is latent in every human soul - However humble or unknown, they (the veterans) have renounced what are accounted pleasures and cheerfully undertaken all the self-denials - privations, toils, dangers, sufferings, sicknesses, mutilations, life-long hurts and losses, death itself - for some great good, dimly seen but dearly held.
–Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

From my family and I here at “Tails and Trails”, we wish everyone a safe and happy Memorial Day………….

This is truly sad to hear but at the same time I was happy to hear that the deer was treated and released back into the wild.

By: Rick Kratzke

A small male deer will be OK after crashing through a window at Purdue University this morning.

By Michael Heinz/Journal & Courier

Emergency personnel look over a deer that is tranquilized after falling into a window well at Lilly Hall this morning at Purdue University. The deer suffered minor injuries and was to be released south of campus.

The deer, which police estimated weighed about 100 pounds, appeared to have jumped into a window well, above the downstairs hallway connecting Lilly Hall and Life Science Plants and Soils Laboratory. The well is about a six-foot drop, with a similar drop to the floor below.

Police received a call around 8:10 a.m. but didn’t know how the animal wound up on campus.

Anesthesiologists from the Large Animal Hospital came to scene and tranquilized the deer around 9 a.m. Following the first round of tranquilizers, the deer bucked its way through the window.

Dr. Michele Barletta said the buck, which had cuts to the face and leg but no apparent broken bones, would survive best if released to the wild. Animal control officers took the animal and planned to release it.

“It’s in its best interest to let out in field rather than take it back to the hospital,” Barletta said.

Now this is definately something that you don’t hear everyday.

A deer crashes through the door of a hair salon, sending shards of glass scattering across the linoleum.

Run? Scream? Not for Randy Goepfert.

“He was charging right at my son, so I decked him,” Goepfert said today, about an hour after he and 11-year-old Tyler Goepfert were surprised while paying for a haircut.

“The only thing I could do, I grabbed him by the neck and slammed him to the ground,” the Richland Township man said.

In a suburbia-meets-wilderness moment, a whitetail buck shattered ? literally ? an everyday scene at Holiday Hair in Quakertown Plaza near traffic-clogged Route 309, leaving a blood-strewn floor, scattered hair products, a broken door and an euthanized deer.

Nine-year-old William Frei was waiting for his haircut when he heard a bang at the window behind his head just before noon. Seconds later, the deer came through the door feet from where he sat.

“I was just sitting there minding my own business, playing a video game,” said Frei, a Haycock Elementary School third-grader. “It crashed through the window and me and my mom jumped onto a chair.”

In the human world, fashion waits for no one, and Frei spoke as his hair was being cut by a stylist — despite the havoc only shortly before.

Goepfert said he felt he had no choice but to tackle the whitetail. With students in Quakertown area schools out for an in-service day, there were four children in the salon, as well as three hairdressers and two mothers, he said.

After bringing the deer down, Goepfert said, he planted himself on top of it and choked it, hoping to keep it under wraps until authorities arrived. Despite back problems that recently required surgery, he took a few kicks before the deer struggled away.

“I weigh 225 pounds and he threw me right off,” Goepfert said. “I couldn’t believe that they’re that strong an animal.”

The deer struggled to keep its footing on the wet linoleum, but Goepfert chased it into a back room and pinned it in with chairs.

Quakertown and state police arrived, as did an officer from the Game Commission.

The deer was first tranquilized, said Quakertown Police Officer Josh Mallery. But after an examination, it was found to have a “completely” broken jaw as well as cuts to its neck, requiring it to be put down, he said.

– Reporting by Riley Yates, The Morning Call

I don’t know about your area but mine is quite busy lately. What I mean by that is the local wildlife. Yesterday I went out turkey hunting and again just like the last time I sat and watch a deer feed by me. The whole time I was think that turkey hunting is great way to keep tabs on the the deer population. I haven’t had a luck yet with obtaining Thanksgiving dinner but I really enjoy trying.

After I left the woods yesterday morning with out seeing anything but a deer I proceeded to head home. Not to far away I had looked over into somebodies yard as I was driving by and what do you think I saw. There standing in the driveway next to the family car was a turkey, how ironic is that. As I continued I caught the sight of a deer crossing the road. I pulled up and stopped to watch this beautiful animal stop and turn to look back at me before continuing.

Later that same day I was on my way to work and again glanced off to the side as I am always scanning and what did I see was a very large deer gracefully prancing across a small area that had been cleared. I was bolting but is wasn’t walking either, just a graceful gate.

On my way home from work at 1:00 this morning I saw two more deer who had just crossed the road and as I slowed down to look and make sure there was not more that were coming I looked at them and remember seeing them turn side to side in unison like they were joined at the hip. I am assuming they had to be twins. They were so close to each that they could have changed into each others fur.

By: Rick Kratzke