April 2019

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VOL. 46, NO. 11

APRIL 2019

www.riverhillstraveler.com

Bladesmith enjoys creating heirloom knives

By MATTIE LINK

F

A fly fisherman fishing an Ozarks stream for bass.

April showers bring

summer smallmouth

mattie@riverhillstraveler.com _____________

rancis Kirk has turned his fascination as a child, and hobby in his spare time, into a full-time business.

Kirk is a bladesmith/knifemaker who owns FK Knives in the Cabool area.

“I have always been fascinated with knives and collected them when I was growing up,” said Kirk. “I have thought about making my own knives and blades for a long time.”

Kirk has been making knives full-time for a year now.

Please see STEEL, 18

I

By Ronnie Moore t’s officially spring in these hills. Birds are singing, flowers are budding, and the white bass are pushing their way upstream to spawn.

Turkey season. Morels. We have a lot going on right now. But I only have one thing on my mind... and that is catching a summer smallmouth.

More precisely, a summer smallmouth, with a fly rod, while wet wading an Ozarks stream.

For me nothing compares to slipping off into one of these cool streams that is too insignificant for most to try or float. We are lucky enough to have a collection of great float streams that give us an abundance of opportunities.

Please see BASS, 19

The Texas adventures of Mike & Matt

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By Sandy McMurry-Richey ike and Matt are on a Texas adventure in search of “liquid gold.”

Liquid gold is a name for rough crude oil that has lured many a “wildcatter” to the East Texas oil fields since the early 1900s.

A wildcatter is an adventurer who drills holes in search of the liquid gold. Many a book, song

and movie have been made about such.

But the liquid gold that Mike and Matt are seeking is the very profitable nectar and pollen that our honeybees turn into pure, sparkling honeybee food used to raise their brood.

According to Matt, “Yes, I’m down here for the early pollen. I’ve got 2.5 frames of brood on average

already. In 2 weeks those will be 5 frames of bees. So they explode early.

“Texas is like the greenhouse for beekeepers. It allows you to start the season earlier.”

As the two men travel the 11.5 hours to East Texas in Matt’s swank F-550 with a 275-gallon tank of sucrose plus boxes of Please see BEES, 18

Page 2 • April 2019

RiverHillsTraveler.com

Rob Parks makes a variety of amazing spinnerbaits.

Blades of glory

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o, this is not an article about a funny ice skating movie. Instead, I would like to take a few minutes to discuss, in some detail, one of the two most important parts of the traditional spinnerbait.

Besides the hook, the spinners themselves make or break the spinnerbait.

These lures that we have all thrown at bass most of our lives are a bit more complex than they might appear at first glance.

Having used spinnerbaits for over 5 decades, I have gotten pretty good at Mike Roux knowing when and ———— where and how to use them.

However, when it comes to what exactly makes up these amazing lures I went straight to the Midwest expert on this topic.

Rob Park is the owner of Raptor Premium Spinnerbaits. Park makes all of his spinnerbaits by hand and is a stickler for both quality and detail.

I began by asking him what makes up a great spinnerbait.

“A spinnerbait starts with a straight shank, wide gap hook,” he said. “The

wire form either has an R-head or a loop leading down to the molded lead jig head.

“On that frame are spacer beads, a skirt and, of course, the blades.”

I became very interested in the blades. I will now pass along some of the massive amount of information I got from Park.

There are three main types of blades.

There are a few other outliers, but I am going to focus on the top three, one at a time.

COLORADO BLADE — These are very rounded blades. Because of this shape they have the most vibration and create a noticeable thump during a slow retrieve.

Blade sizes are universal and sized from #00 to #10. Even though blades of different types may be sized the same, it does not mean they have the same dimensions.

WILLOW BLADES — Sometimes referred to as “Willow leaf” blades.

These are longer and narrower than Colorado blades and are pointed on both ends. Willow blades spin the easiest with less vibration but much more flash.

INDIANA BLADES — Are for all practical purposes the cross between the Colorado and Willow. These have moderate vibration when compared to the Colorado, but produce a bit more flash. Still, though, less flash than the Willow.

Blade material is most commonly steel, copper or brass. Some are plain while others are plated with nickel, gold or silver.

Still others are polished brass or copper. Black nickel is also a good color choice.

Often spinnerbait blades will come painted in a variety of colors. Rob Park

and I have seen white, chartreuse, black and red blades just to name a few. Park said he has also seen walleye fishermen paint theirs with glow-inthe-dark paint.

I asked Park about the number of blades he likes on his spinnerbaits. The conditions of the day is how he decides upon single or multiple-blade lures.

Water clarity, water temp, time of day and the amount of vibration you wish to achieve all come into play as you make the “number of blades” decision.

So, now it was time for me to stop asking Rob Park about facts and get his opinion on HIS favorite spinnerbait.

“I love copper blades,” he said. “The reason for that is that the bass seem to love them. It does not matter if they are brightly polished or tarnished like an old penny.”

Park also told me he has experience with bass that will not hit any other color but copper. He recommends that, regardless of the type or size of the blades you are using, if you are having no success, switch to copper blades.

I have a policy not to recommend any products that I have not personally field tested.

So last fall I took Raptor Premium Spinnerbaits to Michigan in search of trophy smallmouth.

The massive brown bass annihilated Park’s spinnerbaits. I was so happy I had them with me.

So there you have it. Spinnerbait knowledge passed along to you from a true spinnerbait professional.

Contact Rob Park at rdpark@mchsi. com or at rps@mediacombb.com.

(Mike Roux can be reached at 217257-7895.)

April 2019 • Page 3

RiverHillsTraveler.com

Step back in time at Doniphan Heritage Days

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ucked among the banks of Current River is a town that at one time was a hopping little community.

Doniphan — like many other small towns across Missouri — has struggled to maintain its heyday of yesterday, but to no avail.

At one time when Doniphan was in its prime, the town was a site to see. In the center of it all was the beautiful Ripley County Courthouse and the magnificent Current River, the flagship of all Ozark streams.

On any given Saturday on the square a person could watch a championship checkers game, play a round of horseshoes, listen to some gospel preached, and lots and lots of southern gospel and blueRichard grass music being Whiteside played on the steps ———— of the county seat.

The old-timers tell me of a day when the streets could not hold another person.

Those days are but a distant memory to some of the older folks. Times passed and years gone by.

When looking at the old black-andwhite photos in the Doniphan museum, a person begins to feel they were born 100 years too late.

Hungry to once more feel the buzz and excitement of a hopping little river town. Hungry for a town that once existed.

Today that dream is coming to pass.

Once more the sound of bluegrass music will fill the air along the banks of the Current River. Once more you will hear banjos, fiddles and mandolins on the county steps.

These are the grassroots of many, many fun times that lie ahead in Doniphan, Missouri.

Behind the scenes of all of this are normal citizens. A handful of individuals have been working hard to make

invested a considerable amount of time making this an event the entire state can be proud of.

Another big player in this is the Bob

Lewis family. Lewis is a hall of fame bluegrass man that knows just about every person from here to Timbuktu that has ever touched a banjo.

This is more then just grassroots.

This is getting back to who we are as river town folks in the Ozarks.

Everything will get kicked off at this year’s first-ever Heritage Days in downtown Doniphan in April.

At Heritage Days you will see how life on Current River was in the early days. Bring your family and stay for the day or the weekend.

Doniphan Heritage Days and the list of activities and events can be found on the Facebook Doniphan Heritage Days page, plus there’s a flyer in later pages of this issue of the Traveler.

(Richard Whiteside lives in Doniphan, Mo., and can be reached at rlwhiteside72@gmail.com. His blog can be followed at www.ozarkriverman.wordpress.com.)

Fish, float, hunt & explore the Ozarks!

Rick Yates

this dream come true. More than grassroots. One of the key players in this is Rick Yates, a local sign artist and classic car enthusiast.

I would like to add that Rick’s brother, Billy Yates, is a famous Nashville songwriter who wrote several hit songs for George Jones. Billy also has two shows in Branson.

When I asked Rick of what he would like to see this turn in to, he said: “I would like to see the young people growing up here to have a good example of what a town should be like.”

Over the past three years Rick has orchestrated a very nice cruise night event called “Cruisin’ the Park” that consists of classic cars, street rods, muscle cars, etc. All of this along with live local music and concessions.

The combination of hot rods, bluegrass music and lots of good food is Rick’s dream for our community.

Along with his wife, Cathy, and daughter, Ashley Thompson, Rick has

Convenient home delivery!

FISHING • HUNTING FLOATING • TRAVELING CAMPING • GUNS • HIKING

❏ $22 for 1 year • ❏ $42 for 2 years TO SUBSCRIBE: please fill out this form & mail it to:

River Hills Traveler

212 E. Main St., Neosho, MO 64850 or call us with credit card information at

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We look forward to hearing from you!

Page 4 • April 2019

RiverHillsTraveler.com

MO has 8 sites in Civil War Passport program

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issouri State Parks is participating in a Missouri Civil War Passport program sponsored

by Fry’s Lyon Foundation.

Passports are available for $10 at Missouri State Park retail sites, all 39 passport sites, or online at mostateparks.com.!

Participants will stamp their passports at participating locations. The program began April 1 and will end Dec. 31, 2020.

The foundation chose the sites included in the program based on their inclusion in the federally-created Civil War Sites Advisory Commission’s list Jimmy Sexton of historically sig———— nificant sites, 29 of Journey On which are in Missouri.

The group included 10 additional Missouri sites they considered important. Participants who visit and receive stamps for all the sites will receive a certificate of completion by Fry’s Lyon Foundation.

Missouri State Parks has eight sites included in the passport program: •!Battle of Athens State Historic Site; •!Battle of Carthage State Historic Site (stamp location is at Battle of Carthage Civil War Museum); •!Hunter-Dawson State Historic Site; •!Battle of Island Mound State Historic Site (stamp location is at Bates County Historical Society and Museum); •!Battle of Lexington State Historic Site; •!Missouri State Museum;

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•!Battle of Pilot Knob State Historic Site; and •!Battle of Belmont, in Mississippi County (the historical marker for this site is located near Towosahgy State Historic Site and the stamp location is Hunter-Dawson State Historic Site).

——— More than 5,100 anglers visited Bennett Spring, Montauk and Roaring River state parks on opening day of trout season. The catch-and-keep trout season began on Friday, March 1.

“What a great opening day! Nothing stops anglers from coming to these three parks for trout opening,” said Ben Ellis, director of Missouri State Parks.

Based on trout tag sales, 1,684 anglers visited Bennett Spring State Park near Lebanon; 1,727 anglers visited Montauk State Park near Salem; and 1,784 anglers visited Roaring River State Park near Cassville.

This year’s total is an increase of nearly 500!more than!2018 figures. A breakdown of trout tag counts and photos from the day are available at mostateparks.com/TroutOpening2019.

“Each park has something to offer these anglers,” said Carol Comer, director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. “Go to any one of the three state parks, and you will find family traditions that run deep, year after year. There is something to be said about Missouri State Parks and trout fishing.”

The catch-and-keep trout season continues through Oct. 31. Trout season in Missouri is a cooperative effort of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which manages state parks, and the Missouri Department of Conservation, which operates the hatcheries and stocks the streams with trout.!

——— The U.S. Forest Service’s Region 9 recently recognized Missouri Stream Team #4847 in the restoration category of its annual Eastern Region Volunteer and Service Awards for their contributions in cleaning up the Current River and Mark Twain National Forest.

The team, led by Richard Whiteside of Doniphan, gathered individuals and groups for cleanup efforts after the devastating flooding in the area that hit last year and brought massive amounts of debris onto the riverbanks.

Overall, 92 people volunteered a total of 594 hours toward water/soil improvement and stewardship projects. In just one year, Stream Team #4847 removed a total of 300 tires, 100 cubic yards of trash, 40 yards of metal scrap, seven refrigerators, four washers, and 16 cubic yards of household and construction debris.

——— Recently Brent Stock and Todd Wilkinson, as part of James River Basin Partnership, took part in several rapid trash assessments in conjunction with the City of Springfield’s Environmental Services Department along Fassnight, Jordan, South and Upper Wilson’s Creek.

During an assessment, they marked off a 100-foot area from a particular landmark, such as a box culvert or bridge, and then identified and counted as many pieces of trash as they could, from bank to bank. What did they find in these areas?

Check it out: • Upper Wilson’s Creek (Grand & West Bypass) — 85 pieces of singleuse food-related plastics and 56 plastic shopping bags.

• Jordan Creek (Mt. Vernon &

Kansas Expressway) — 60 pieces of single-use food-related plastics and 45 plastic shopping bags.

• South Creek (Sunset & Grant) — 83 pieces of single-use food related plastics and 60 paper products.

• Fassnight Creek (Jefferson & Bennett) — 50 pieces of single-use food related plastics and 40 cigarette butts.

Cigarette filters contain cellulose acetate, a form of plastic that can take a decade or more to decompose, according to NBC News.

"Obviously that’s just a small snapshot of trash in our urban waters," said Wilkinson. "Taking the time to inventory the amount of litter present in small sections of our urban streams was a real eye opener, especially when you consider that the bulk of that trash comes from single uses such as for food.

"Plastics are a huge problem in our waterways, both locally and worldwide, and the new threat of microplastics – which we are only now beginning to discover – makes our commitment to reduce and/or eliminate single-use plastics vital to not only the health of our waters, but also for future generations."

(Jimmy Sexton is owner and publisher of the River Hills Traveler. He can be reached by phone or text at (417) 451-3798, or jimmy@riverhillstraveler.com.)

that rudely invited themselves in through an open back door were sparrows, not turtledoves.!

I guess it could have been worse. It could have been a bat.

According to Mr. Randolph, that is worse than any run-of-the-mill songbird. However, the very worst of the worst bird to have fly into your house so far as life and death is concerned is… an owl.

You probably already guessed that. If an owl flies in, you’re dead. Or “someone” is.

What is it about the poor owl that scares so many people? I’ve always sort of liked owls – from a distance.

But in Native American and Ozark culture both, the owl is just a feathered ball of bad, bad, news.!

The old Ozark superstition, recorded

by Randolph, is that if anyone is sick inside the house that an owl flies into, you must kill the owl and lay its body upon the chest of the sick person or it means absolute death for the patient.

You know, if I woke up to find a dead owl on my chest I think the shock might kill me anyway. I have a bit of a phobia about all fowl anyway, in that I don’t like to touch them – dead or alive.!

Going back to the poor, perhaps misjudged owl, here’s a quick story: A friend of mine and a Native American friend of his were traveling down Ozark backroads one night, when they suddenly came upon an owl just sitting in the middle of the road.

The owl turned its head toward the headlights and probably made an effort to fly, but my buddy, who was driving, couldn’t stop in time and the car ran right into and over the poor owl.

My buddy’s Native friend screamed for him to stop the car. My friend, startled, does so.

The Indian guy then gets out, goes behind the car and commences to stomp the owl, which was injured but still alive, until it was dead.

Why? Because the owl had looked at him before they hit it with the car. The owl knew who he was, you see. He had to kill the owl before it cursed him.

That was all in answer to my friend’s frantic questioning about just what in the world was going on.

He told his friend “Look, man, you do what you gotta do, but hurry it up.

We need to GO.”!

I feel sorry for that owl, and the way in which it died that night, but it goes to show how serious some people take this stuff.

To some people, these aren’t just funny superstitions to read over and chuckle about, but they have an element of truth to them.!

All I can say is I sure hope there ain’t a lick of truth to the “birds in the house” belief or else, having had two birds fly in at the same time, I’m in double trouble!

(Wes Franklin!can be reached by email at cato.uticensis46@gmail.com, or by USPS mail at 12161 Norway Road, Neosho, MO 64850.)

www.riverhillstraveler.com Email: jimmy@riverhillstraveler. com

How do you feel about birds in the house?

had a couple of birds fly into my house recently. Two of them. At the same time. They were in cahoots with each other! Or, more likely, they were mates.!

Most everyone has probably heard that it’s bad luck for a bird to fly into your dwelling. Some of you may have even heard that it means someone will die.

Folklorist Vance Randolph got some interesting feedback from Ozarkers on this subject back in the early half of the 20th century.!

What it really Wes Franklin boils down to is ———— confirmation that a Native Ozarker bird in the house just isn’t a good thing at all, fate-wise, no matter which way you chew the matter.

In fact, it’s apparently a bad sign if a bird even raps on your window, trying to get in.!

Turtledoves, in particular, swooping in through your door means imminent death for “someone” — I presume that “someone” being one of the occupants of the home.

Or maybe it’s just “someone” the residents know. That mysterious question applies no matter what kind of bird it is, and I’d sort of like to know what the answer is, seeing as how I experienced it recently, though in my case the birds

On the Cover Mike Roux was happy to have Raptor Premium Spinnerbaits on his smallmouth trip to Michigan.

River Hills Traveler 212 E. Main St., Neosho, MO 64850 Phone: (417) 451-3798 Fax: (417) 451-5188

Owner & Publisher Jimmy Sexton Managing Editor Madeleine Link Circulation Manager Rhonda Sexton Staff Writers Wes Franklin • Mike Roux Bill Wakefield • Bill Oder Judy Smith • Michelle Turner Dana Sturgeon • Bill Hoagland Richard Whiteside • Ronnie Moore Advertising Jimmy Sexton & Madeleine Link

River Hills Traveler, established in 1973, is published monthly by Sexton Media Group and Traveler Publishing Company. Postmaster: Send change of address notices to: River Hills Traveler, 212 E. Main St., Neosho, MO 64850. Subscription prices: $22 per year; 2 years, $40. Back issues available up to one year from publication, $5 plus sales tax & shipping.

COPYRIGHT © 2019 No part of this publication may be reproduced without the express written permission of the publisher of the River Hills Traveler or his duly appointed agent. The publisher reserves the right to reject any advertising or editorial submission for any reason.

April 2019 • Page 5

RiverHillsTraveler.com

Customers enjoying the Traveler

J

To the Editor, ust wanted to send you a thank you for mailing the copies of River Hills Traveler. We love the magazine. I read it cover to cover.

The articles are well-written, information-filled and entertaining. Our cus-

tomers always ask for it.

Keep up the great job. You are appreciated.

Thanks from The Jane Store!

Sam & Gayla Baker, Jane, Mo.

The dam across Meramec Spring

VINTAGE OZARKS

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his is a relatively late real photo postcard. By the late 1920s much less detailed printed postcards had begun to usurp the market of the more detailed real photo cards, to the disbenefit of local photographers who produced the real photo cards in their darkrooms.

Meramec Springs, six miles from St. James, Missouri, in Phelps County, has the seventh largest flow of Missouri springs. The average from 1922-1929 listed in The Large Springs of Missouri (1944) was 96,300,000. Both its beauty and historical utilization make it a popular park today.

Like many of Missouri’s major springs it was preserved as a state park after earlier industrial utilization.

Today’s peaceful setting is a stark contrast to the industrial beehive that once operated here.

The spring was dammed to provide waterpower for the extraction of iron ore from hematite. Relics of the iron works active from 1826-1877 are park features.

That nature can be restored in this way is hopeful.

Missouri State Parks, a Division of the Department of Natural Resources, has been a national leader in acquiring and protecting exquisite natural resources like these great springs.

(This feature is courtesy of Leland and Crystal Payton at Lens & Pen Press, publishers of all-color books

5 years ago • It’s April and the morels should be up. But I can’t find any. “Why does every spring have them before?” I thought to myself.

“Why can’t Mother Nature make up her mind? A warm day into the 60’s followed by two cloudy days with temperatures hovering around 70 would make things a whole lot easier. That would make the morels pop!”

Years ago, somebody told me that when the wild gobblers start dragging their wing feathers on the ground to make a drummer in a rock band proud, that the morels would stand up!

I’ve taken that advice a few times in past years and found enough morels for a meal. (Aaron Horrell) • When I was a young teenager, my father and I hunted a local cattle farm in southern Missouri. For the previous three or four years I had hunted with my grandfather and this was one of the first times that my dad and I hunted turkeys together.

My father, not having much turkey hunting experience, decided to tag along with me this particular spring morning.

This hunt was another first for me. It was the first time I hunted with decoys.

I brought along a hen and jake decoy to try to fool a big tom into coming into gun range. We arrived several minutes before sunrise and it wasn’t long before we heard our first gobble.

We hiked across a wide-open cow pasture then set up along the edge of the woods. (Heath Wood) 10 years ago • When it comes to hunting gear, Bill Haynes is rustic and primitive, and mighty proud of it! He loves to gather his own materials and use “elbow grease

Real photo postcard. Postmarked Jul 2, 1929

on the Ozarks. Their next book, Lover’s Leap Legends, was inspired by their discovery that both the Osage and James rivers had Lover’s Leaps. Mark Twain’s satiric comments on those legends added motivation and they have found Lover’s Leaps across the country. Their

most recent book, James Fork of the White, was published in 2017. Some pages from this book can be seen on www.beautifulozarks.com. Their earlier river book, Damming the Osage, can be at seen www.dammingtheosage.com)

REMEMBER WHEN

and imagination” to fashion them into turkey calls, muzzleloading accessories and knives.

“My emphasis is on natural materials,” Haynes said in an interview. “I like the concept of liberating something that’s going to fall to the wayside and waste away.”

Haynes, who lives in the country south and east of Rolla, recently had pieces of white oak from an old chair, an old rafter and a red cedar limb displayed on his dining room table.

He was in the process of converting these to strikers and frames for friction turkey calls. (John Meacham) • I still search the brown leaves of the creek bottom forest for my first morel of the day, secretly hoping that those other guys were going to share their bountiful harvest with me. Morel mania kicks into high gear around turkey season each spring. Every turkey hunter seems to keep out for protruding morels white hunting for equally elusive gobblers.

Rarely does a hunter score on both counts. But when he does, fried morels and turkey breast make a delectable meal that most aficionados are only likely to enjoy once a year, if that. (Bill Cooper) 20 years ago • Turkey hunting gadgets are almost as plentiful these days as the multitude of equipment options available to bass fishermen.

Therein lies another dilemma for

turkey hunters. Gadgetry has stimulated much discussion in outdoor circles over the last two decades. How much is enough, or ethical?

Where law dozen’t dictate, individual hunters must decide for themselves. (Bill Cooper) • It took awhile for Ol’ Craz’s bird brain to figure out the sign on the clubhouse down by Petite Saline Creek but when he did, it seemed like just the kind of place he was looking for that April.

The story really begins back in the fall.

It was that year when there were acorns everywhere. Tree branches broke with the weight of them.

Big, sweet white oak acorns hung in clusters like grapes, and the bitter red oaks — just the right taste for accent — were thin-shelled and delicious. (Bob Todd) 30 years ago • I killed a gobbler opening morning of the first week of turkey season last year. And since I’d killed two birds during the preceding year, I felt like I was a pretty good turkey hunter up to a new challenge.

I figured I was up to trying to bag Ol’ Craz. Now this old gobbler, by all accounts, is the stupidest turkey ever hatched. Most turkeys are smart enough to know there may be something interesting in store for them if they answer that winsome call they hear in the woods. (Bob Todd) • It has been almost fifteen years ago that I took my first wild turkey gobbler.

That memorable adventure took place in the deep recesses of Asher Hollow County on the Phelps/Crawford county line in the beautiful Missouri Ozarks.

I was superintendent of the James Foundation’s 1,750-acre Meramec

Spring Park, bordering the Meramec River. I quickly became accustomed to seeing large numbers of wild turkeys roaming around the outlaying areas of the park. (Bill Cooper) 40 years ago • Only the cruelest of men would name their son Sue or introduce him to hunting wild turkeys. I didn’t name my son sue.

I called him Tom. But I did introduce him to turkey hunting. But it was an honest mistake. I thought turkeys were dumb. I’d started with the domestic kind.

“You are in turkey country now,” my new boss said. “You meet me in Mason City, at 3 on Sunday afternoon. You are going to learn about turkeys. We will be loading out 5,000.”

It was quite an experience. A semi full of coups pulled up to a picket pen and the turkeys were herded in. Loaders minded the truck and fathers backed into the flock of turkeys.

You back up to the turkeys in line and reach between your legs and grab a turkey’s legs, bring him between your legs and swing him up to a loader who puts him into a coup. (Dick Bangert) • Fuel shortages, high prices and the threat of gas rationing have caused many of us to revise our plans for a summer vacation. Long trips are out if gasoline is going to cost a dollar a gallon. We must try to conserve energy.

Here, within the River Hills country, it can be as exciting and rewarding as any grand tour and a lot less exhausting.

For years we have been telling you that southeast Missouri offers more recreation per travel mile than any part of the state. This may be the year to prove it. (Emma Dunn) (compiled by MyraGale Sexton)

Page 6 • April 2019

RiverHillsTraveler.com

Let’s get crackin’ on those springtime chores

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f you have ever read any of my articles in this publication, I am sure that you are aware of my fondness for trout fishing.

As much as I’d like to be fishing every day, I realize that is an impossible dream.

However, I do have many other interests besides fishing to occupy my time and one of those interests (it happens to be second to fishing) is gardening.

In other words, I like to play in the dirt. My wife and I are both retired and one thing we have learned is that when a person does retire, that person needs more than one hobby.

We have been retired for 13 years now and I can honestly say that I haven’t been bored or found myself without anything to do yet.

You don’t ever want to find yourself retiring and after a few months find that you are bored to death and thinking that maybe you should go back to work. That is not a good thing.

So the first of Bill Oder March is not only a ———— red letter day for me because of the opening of trout season, it is also a good time to be thinking about what has been going on out in the yard for the past winter.

I have already noticed that some of the stores have already had their seed packets, both flower seeds and vegetable seeds, for sale since the latter part of February.

And now the larger stores have really started to get everything out in their gardening departments. All the garden centers have really started to buzz.

All the beds in our yard are now composed of perennial flowers. I gave up on the vegetable gardening several years ago after becoming frustrated with the deer population in our neighborhood.

I found out that I was only feeding the deer by planting tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce, etc. Our backyard is enclosed with chain link fencing but that is only a minor hurdle for our deer friends.

They clear the fence with room to spare.

I think the deer is a beautiful animal and it’s not that I dislike them. I am a big fan of deer. It’s just that I don’t like it when they demolish my vegetables.

My tomatoes would get to the point where the vines would be full of green tomatoes and then I would go outside in the morning and find that not only the tomatoes would be gone, but the vines as well.

They performed these cruel, sneaky tricks during the night but would always leave their telltale tracks behind.

We now find it easier to go to the farmer’s markets or produce stands for our fresh vegetables.

So my gardening now is with flow-

ers. We had a lot of roses at one time but deer like those, too, so I have resorted to flowers that are easy to care for and one that has become a favorite of mine is the daylily.

They are insect resistant, disease resistant and deer will leave them alone unless they are really hungry. Deer are like any living creature – if they are hungry enough they will eat anything.

The daylily also multiplies so that every two or three years, one plant becomes maybe three or four. So you can find a place for them in your yard or give them away to friends and relatives.

I find that gardening is enjoyable and a good form of exercise along with being out in the sunshine and fresh air.

I try to exercise regularly in order to keep in shape so I will always be in condition for those fishing trips.

Some things that I find it necessary to do at this time of year are: 1. Get the lawn mower ready. Before the mowing season starts, I change the spark plug, the oil and the air filter.

Last year our lawn had be mowed at least once a week all summer because it seemed that we always had at least one day of rain every week. So the lawn stayed green all season.

2. Fertilize the lawn. I do that early in the spring using products with crab-

grass preventer.

3. Pick up all the dead limbs in the yard. We have four large trees and at times, this past winter, it has been very windy.

4. Clean up the flower beds. Trim off all the dead stuff left over from last year’s flowers.

5. Even though I rake (I don’t like those noisy leaf blowers) our leaves every fall, over the winter we still get a lot of leaves blown in from the neighbor’s yards, etc., and I’ve noticed there’s been piles of leaves that are banked up in the corners of our yard that need some attention.

6. The bird feeders and birdhouses need attention. Some cleaning and the wooden ones might need some repairs.

7. We have a martin house but no martins. Still, I clean it out every year hoping that a martin family will find it before the starlings and sparrows do, but still no luck.

I’ve been told by various people that our martin house isn’t high enough or that it’s too close to the tall trees or that it’s pointed in the wrong direction, but I like it right where it’s at and the way I look at it is if the martins can’t find it, the starlings and sparrows need a place to live, too.

8. This is a good time to apply pine needles or ground up oak leaves around acid-loving plants like azaleas, rhododendrons and blueberry bushes.

These are just a few of the things that keep me busy this time of year. Oh, I will still find time for a fishing trip or two but fishing is something that always takes top priority.

It seems like we have had an extra hard winter this year – a lot of snow, several days of freezing rain, singledigit temperatures and a few sub-zero ones thrown in here and there and a lot of days when the furnace seemed to run constantly.

I guess that will make us appreciate spring a little more this year. I know I’ve complained a lot about the winter this year and you can rest assured that in July when the weatherman starts talking about heat indexes of over 100 degrees, I’ll be complaining about it being too hot.

I guess you can say that I’m guilty of being hard to please when it comes to our weather.

Surely, I’m not the only one, though.

(Bill Oder can be reached at oderbill@yahoo.com.)

April 2019 • Page 7

RiverHillsTraveler.com

So what’s the deal with those big white birds?

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f you live in Missouri, perhaps you are wondering about those huge white birds with orange beaks and black-tipped wings that are gracefully flying up and down the river or swimming around your local reservoir.

Clearly, they were not here thirty years ago. So, what’s the deal with these guys?

These huge birds, known in the scientific world as “pelicanus erythrorhynchos,” are white pelicans. Currently, they are in the process of migrating from the Gulf Coast to their summer breeding grounds in Canada and for the next two Bill Hoagland months or so, you ———— will begin seeing them a lot.

Although these birds have been in existence for more than 30 million years, their migratory route appears to be moving further east in the last few years and that is why they are now being seen in places where they did not previously go, such as along the Mississippi River in addition to the large reservoirs in Missouri such as Truman Lake and Lake of the Ozarks.

The white pelican is one of the largest birds in North America; it has a wing span of nine feet and can weigh as much as 30 pounds. Despite its size, the white pelican seems to be remarkably buoyant both on the water and in the sky.

This is no illusion; the white pelican actually has air pockets in its bones and

beneath the skin that help it sit so high on the water and glide so effortlessly in the sky.

These air pockets are believed to be periodically “inflated” by the pelican’s respiratory system, although the mechanics of how this happens is not completely clear.

Pelicans can fly as high as 5,000 feet above ground, often soaring in circles as they migrate, but they prefer to fly just above the water’s surface so they can take advantage of the density of the air between the water’s surface and their bodies; this increased air density allows them to “cruise” or glide above the water as they look for fish below.

Pelicans tend to fly in a “V” formation, similar to ducks and geese, but while in flight, they tuck their heads against their bodies in a sort of “tentative” posture instead of extending their necks in flight like geese and duck do.

Pelicans have preen glands that secrete oil; this oil is an additional factor

in making the pelican so buoyant on the water. They use their beaks to spread the oil over their feathers.

The beak serves a number of other functions but the most important function is that of catching fish and other aquatic foods. The beak has a “throat sack” on the underside of the beak that extends the entire length of the beak.

This throat sack will expand when loaded with fish — and it is huge. In fact, in an adult pelican, it can hold over three gallons of water.

The pelican chases fish along the surface of the water with its beak open and gathers them in its throat sack.

The water in the throat sack drains away, leaving just the fish, which are then “tossed” down the pelican’s throat with a nod of the head.

I think this is pretty cool, especially if the fish going down the gullet with just a nod of the head are Asian carp.

Pelicans love to chase and eat Asian carp.

In fact, some experts think the pelican’s migratory flight pattern is moving further east specifically because of the abundance of Asian carp in the Mississippi River watershed.

Pelicans are gregarious and typically work together to corner fish and catch them — sometimes in mid-air as the fish are leaping out of the water to get away.

They breed in large groups but generally individual breeding males and females tend to be monogamous, at least during the first year of breeding before moving on to other mates.

Once the eggs are fertilized, both the male and female share responsibilities to incubate and care for the offspring.

Parents can recognize their own chicks even in a large group of chicks.

There is a surprisingly high percentage of chicks that don’t survive after being hatched, in large part because the more aggressive chicks cause the more passive chicks to starve and die.

The typical lifespan of an adult pelican is between 15 and 25 years. They are not regarded as an endangered species at this point.

Unfortunately, they are not appreciated in those parts of the country where trout fishing is an important part of the economy, such as Idaho and Montana; sometimes they are killed there — illegally of course — to protect the trout.

In Louisiana, however, the pelican is revered; it is the official state bird and the official mascot of the New Orleans NBA basketball team.

As a critter, you can’t expect to get any greater recognition than that.

(Bill Hoagland can be reached at billhoagland70@gmail.com.)

bring their own canoe or kayak and can provide their own transportation to the starting point in Hermann and arrange for pick-up at the end of the trip.

If boat rental or additional transportation is needed, these arrangements will be coordinated with Stream Teams United prior to the trip.

An optional shuttle will be provided

from the downstream stopping points on Friday, Sept. 20, for individuals that choose to camp the evening before the trip or for 5-day participants that are not being dropped off/picked-up for the trip.

This is the 4th annual Paddle MO trip and is hosted by Stream Teams United, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established in 1999 that promotes the stewardship of streams in Missouri and brings together 20 Stream Team associations across the state.

Proceeds from this event support the general operations of Stream Teams United to provide education, advocacy, and stewardship of Missouri streams.

Stream Teams United welcomes sponsorship contributions from organizations, businesses, and individuals that support river conservation. Anyone interested in providing general event sponsorship or scholarships for the event can contact Stream Teams United at mary@streamteamsunited.org or (573) 586-0747.

To register or learn more, visit www.paddlemo.org or contact Mary Culler at mary@streamteamsunited. org or (573) 586-0747.

Paddle MO will explore the last 100 miles of the Missouri River

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tream Teams United is accepting registration for this year’s Paddle MO trip, which will be held Sept.

21-25.

This great river adventure will begin in Hermann, Mo., on Saturday, Sept. 21, and conclude at Columbia Bottom Conservation Area in St. Louis on Wednesday, Sept. 25.

Participants will travel by canoe or kayak down the last 100 miles of the Missouri River over five days and get to float through the confluence with the Mississippi River during the last mile of the trip.

Registration is open to the public at www.paddlemo.org. Early bird prices will be good through April.

Paddle MO is not a race and it is much more than just a float trip. The route covers between 12 to 27 miles each day during only daylight hours, floating from mid-morning into late afternoon.

With a river current of about 3 mph, this allows for time to relax and enjoy the trip. Lead river guides include professional canoe instructors and educators from Earth’s Classroom. Participants are also accompanied by a motorized safety boat provided by Missouri River Relief.

Participants travel together and stop at islands along the route where river scientists and professional educators provide presentations about the ecology and history of the river.

Meals are catered by local restaurants with a focus on locally sourced food.

Participants are shuttled at the end of each day to group campgrounds where they enjoy campfires and live music.

Evening stops also include time to ex-

plore historic downtown New Haven and visit a picturesque winery for dinner.

Paddle MO is a great opportunity for people that have never paddled on the Missouri River to experience the river in a supported, group atmosphere. It is also a great opportunity for experienced paddlers to enjoy this part of the river with delicious food and educational stops along the way.

Five-day registration is $575. This cost includes 13 catered meals, camping, shuttling during the event, guiding, live music, and education from the morning of Saturday, Sept. 21, through the afternoon of Wednesday, Sept. 25.

The weekend-only trip is $225 and includes dinner and live music from Saturday, Sept. 21, and all trip expenses through the afternoon of Sunday, Sept.

22.

These costs assume that paddlers will

Page 8 • April 2019

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Trashed streams majorly upset this Missourian

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think that it is safe to say that never has a person! laid eyes on the Eleven Point River that would not agree on its amazing beauty.

No wonder the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act was created by congress. The Eleven Point River and a few others were so special that in 1968 the United States Congress had to step in to create an act of Congress in order to protect it and a select number of other rivers in this nation.

The Eleven Point River is considered one of the original Richard eight rivers that were to be seized Whiteside and protected, and ———— the Eleven Point is the river that kicked it all off.

It is our state’s one and only National Wild and Scenic River. Truly one of God’s greatest creations was the Eleven Point River.

I live on Current River about 30 minutes east of the Eleven Point River.

Early on I realized the blessing in raising my children in waters such as the Current River and the Eleven Point.

Over 35+ years of paddling the Eleven Point I have had the pleasure of meeting many out of state visitors while out on the river, including one man and son that traveled from Big Island, Hawaii, another couple from Quebec, Canada, and another mother and son canoeing couple from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Each one of these people expressed how the Eleven Point was the nicest stream they had ever floated.

For those of us that have watched our children grow up in such surroundings we should especially be grateful and thankful to call this piece of paradise our home.

So it was with great disappointment to pull into Turner’s Mill access and it still appear like a trash dump site again for the third winter in a row.

A trashed stream is a direct reflection of those that call it home.

Dirty diapers hanging from limbs, rugs and rolls of carpet, used oil filters and empty gallon jugs of motor oil.

When I pull into a spot in the Ozarks

with this appearance, I am left with the conclusion that nobody cares.

Many states would give a left leg to have just one clear stream when we have an abundance of clear streams.

I am from the Show-Me state and when I pull into a place like the Eleven Point River and see it trashed at this level, then it shows me something.

We who call these jewels home should be exceptionally proud of what the Lord has blessed us with. When I see God’s theater taken care of so poorly I have to wonder where all this is going to end.

Throughout the state we have many streams other then just the Eleven Point that are also jewels, in my opinion. We

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Repor o t hogs to md c.mo.g ov/f ov/feralho og

want those that travel the world to come to the Ozarks and have a trashfree experience.

Our resources here in the Ozarks are second to none.

The Missouri Stream Team program has the perfect answer for the trash problem. Join or create a stream team and adopt an access point this spring.

Missouri’s streams program leads the way in the nation for water quality programs. Something for everyone at any age, old or young.

A group of people — just one person or a family — can create a team. The Missouri Stream Team program will provide all the supplies needed to get started.

It’s fun and rewarding, and a great way to get some exercise.

With enough awareness we can curb this trend.

(Richard Whiteside lives in Doniphan, Mo., and can be reached at rlwhiteside72@gmail.com. His blog can be followed at www.ozarkriverman.wordpress.com.)

April 2019 • Page 9

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Kayaking the Current River in Missouri - 136.3 miles

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By Steve Halter e are so fortunate in this area to have the spring-fed Current River and the Ozark National Scenic Riverways.

I have been to many parts of the Current River at different times in my life.

When I was growing up, we didn’t have air conditioning in the house and even when we finally got one window unit for an eight-room house, we weren’t allowed to turn it on unless it was 100 degrees.

When it was hot and humid outside my parents often took us to the Current River float camp near Doniphan. It was a great day trip and my four brothers and I absolutely loved the cold, clear water and seeing who could skip a rock all the way across the river.

Later in my life I was blessed to be able to purchase a cabin on Current River and we now spend most of our weekends in the summer bowfishing, floating and just relaxing on a gravel bar.

In the back of my mind I always thought it would be so cool to continuously kayak all the Current River in the state of Missouri, from Baptist Camp/Montauk area to the Missouri/Arkansas state line — 136.3 miles total.

In early 2017 I finally decided to start planning the big Current River trip, so I sent a message to several of my river/hunting buddies. I gave them a few options on a 4-day trip and told them with or without them, I was going to accomplish this feat.

As the first couple of dates approached, the weather just didn’t cooperate. One timeframe it was cold and snowing, and the other was just too cold. The last date (end of April) was quickly approaching, and I decided that two of the four days of weather looked good, so I was just going to pull the trigger; regardless of who was willing to go with me.

I had my wife agree to wake up around 4 a.m. and shuttle us 2 hours to Baptist Camp. My plan was to get on the river at daybreak, crank out about 40 miles and spend the night on a gravel bar.

The second day I had planned on hitting another 40-45 miles so we would end up at The Landing in Van Buren. I figured if we did that, we could treat ourselves to a nice dinner and stay at the hotel.

The remaining 50-60 miles we would cover “leisurely” in 2 days and camp on a gravel bar the third night. My cabin is close to the Arkansas state line, so my wife had planned on being there and having a big dinner prepared for us

and we would crash there after the 4day trek.

At this point you must be thinking, “Man, his wife must be awesome”… you are correct!

Anyone who has ever kayaked several days in a row understands that you can’t bring much gear, so we went with only the necessities.

We are all well-equipped with lightweight survival gear because we bowhunt elk in Colorado every year in September. We brought Sawyer filters and just drank water from the river and had a Jet Boil and brought Mountain House meals. Our camping gear was all lightweight and compact. And, of course, we packed our Kuiu rain gear (the best lightweight, outdoor gear on the planet; in my opinion).

Four other guys committed, but two had something come up at the last minute so they agreed to meet us for dinner at the Landing; assuming we could make it that far in two days.

It ended up being me and two of my Colorado elk hunting buddies: Jason Greer and Gary Eaton. Jason and I have logged in more bowfishing hours on Current River than any two individuals could ever imagine and the three of us have canoed/kayaked many of the Ozark rivers and creeks over the last 20+ years.

The first day was amazing weather and sights. The skies were blue, the water was crystal clear, wildlife was abundant (I counted 50 bald eagles), and we only saw one other person.

Incredibly, we felt good after paddling about 40 miles and saw what appeared to be unexpected rain clouds rolling in, so we decided to paddle until

just before dark and get in an extra 810 miles.

We pulled off about 30 minutes prior to dark and set up camp and fixed dinner. Not long after dark a wicked storm popped up and all night we battled lightning and thunder, and a leaking tent.

At daybreak it started to let up just enough for us to prepare and eat a quick breakfast, load up and get back on the river. It poured down rain all day long and never got above 50 degrees.

To say we were miserable was putting it mildly. At one point I remember us commenting how we weren’t even sure if it was raining or not because we were just trying to block it out.

We kept our head down and paddled constantly to get to the Landing for shelter, food and warmth. We stopped for lunch and were so cold we jumped back into the kayaks and started paddling to warm back up.

Although it was very taxing on our bodies and mind, at one point we just started laughing and making the best of it. By the time we pulled over at the Landing, we were very exhausted. We checked into our room and turned the heat as high as it would go and started hanging our stuff to dry.

I remember my arms being so tired from paddling that I had a hard time lifting them over my head to hang up my rain jacket. Our friends met us for dinner and couldn’t believe we continued and made it that far in two short days.

We also met someone at dinner who said, “I saw you guys kayaking today and thought, what are those guys doing out there?!”

As the rain continued, we watched the river rise and pulled our kayaks far away from the water and tied them off.

At 6 a.m. the next morning we were notified that the river was under a flood watch and people were advised not to be on it. We had made it almost 90 miles and had no intention of stopping, so we made the decision to go to the Doniphan bridge and pull out.

We had no other choice because the water was coming up so quickly we didn’t think we could find a gravel bar to camp on. By the time we got on the river the water was all the way up to where we had pulled the kayaks “to safety” the night before.

We got on the water and it was brown, debris everywhere, churning and rising quickly. We had a GPS and at one point it topped out at 11 mph.

Jason got it in his head that we could make the nearly 40-mile bridge to bridge (Van Buren to Doniphan) trip in less than 6 hours, so we paddled like our lives depended on it.

It rained on us the entire third day, but we were so numb to the rain that it didn’t phase us. We were dodging logs, swirling eddies and running through small trees normally on the gravel bars.

We accomplished our goal of bridge to bridge in less than 6 hours then decided to continue on to the cabin. Once we got to the Doniphan bridge, we got Jason to agree to stop paddling the rest of the way. We still wonder if anyone had ever made it from bridge to bridge in kayaks in less than 6 hours.

When we arrived at my cabin the water was so high that we floated right over my deck (which usually hangs over the water) and directly into the front yard.

Once again, we decided we made it that far so we might as well finish the trip as planned and go to the Missouri/Arkansas state line.

There was no good take-out, so we ended up going another 7 miles past the state line. Our total trip was 143 miles in 3 days. We were physically and mentally drained, but it was a great trip, and we all felt an amazing sense of accomplishment.

In total we saw 98 eagles and never saw but the one person the first day.

The rain storm that pushed us down the river so quickly the last day ended up being the devastating storm that pushed the river gauge over 33 feet in Doniphan and is what many have called a 500-year flood.

Maybe next time we will wait for late summer.

(Steve Halter lives in the Poplar Bluff area and can be reached at shalter@ poplarbluffchamber.org.)

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April 2019 • Page 11

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HOM ME OF SUMMER FUN!!

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Would you like to get started in beekeeping?

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By Cory Stevens he Missouri State Beekeepers Association (MSBA) has been focused on helping bees and beekeepers since 1888.

If you take a moment to ponder it, quite a lot has changed since 1888. But as they say, some things never change.

The bees still adore Missouri’s flowers on sunny days, and Missouri’s beekeepers are still fascinated with our beloved state insect.

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in beekeeping. Lots of new beekeepers looking to get more in touch with nature, or perhaps embark on an exciting new journey, are taking up the hobby.

Instead of riding your horse to bee meetings in the late 1800’s, or learning the craft from your neighbor on his farm, modern beekeepers usually start their education via the internet.

To compliment their modern internet education, most find it beneficial to hang out with experienced beekeepers and ask lots of questions.

This can easily be accomplished on a local level, as well as the state level. If you’re looking for a club in your area, check out MSBA’s website (mostatebeekeepers.org).

There is a list of local clubs and contact information, making them very easy to locate and join. MSBA is best known for offering spring and fall conferences, which consistently bring in top leaders in the industry.

At the conferences you can learn about the latest bee research, and effective management techniques. Socializing and networking with the best beekeepers in the state is both fun and rewarding.

This year’s conference was in scenic Cape Girardeau on March 15-16th.

MSBA is also going to trial run a field day this year. The field day will offer something the internet cannot — a genuine firsthand look at bee colonies, guided by experts in the field.

You will hear the bees buzzing, see them working hard bringing in nectar and pollen, and smell the unique scent

of a bee colony. The field day will also offer breakout sessions with education ranging from basic hive inspections for beginners, to queen rearing and dividing colonies for those needing more advanced information.

The field day will offer a laid back outdoor function with a fun picnic atmosphere. This will be a nice compliment to the classroom environment of the spring and fall conferences.

Are you are curious what you can do to help the bees and butterflies in Missouri? Plant diverse native flowering trees and plants wherever you can. The bees will appreciate the nutrition, and the flowers will brighten your day with color.

An even easier route would be to become a member of MSBA. Annual membership dues are a mere $10. MSBA members receive a first class bi-monthly newsletter.

Members also help financially support industry leading researchers, as well as national and state honeybee and pollinator organizations.

For an educational experience, visit Missouri State Beekeepers Association at mostatebeekeepers.org and join the group to talk bees.

(Cory Stevens is president of the Missouri State Beekeepers Association.)

Shown are swarm collectors Nancy and Domenic Giofre, members of Missouri State Beekeepers Association and Boone Regional Beekeepers Club. They produce honey ice cream for the MSBA booth at the state fair. They can be found on the swarm list for MSBA by typing in their zip code 65251.

cords into the lower part of its mouth, which inflates out into a bubble and vibrates like a drum.

This process produces long, loud trills. A spring peeper’s vocal sac inflates to about the size of a quarter.

• Life span: Up to four years.

• Habitat: The spring peeper is primarily a woodlands species. It resides near ponds, streams or swamps where there is thick undergrowth.

• Life cycle: Spring peepers survive winter by digging into the soil. As with a number of frogs and toads, spring peepers produce a type of “anti-freeze” in their blood that protects their tissues from damage if they become frozen.

Spring peepers emerge from winter inactivity and begin calling and breeding in late February or early March and continues courtship activities until May. Small woodland ponds, swamps, temporary pools and water-filled ditches are the frog’s favored breeding sites; particularly if brush, branches and rooted plants are in the water. One female can lay up to 900 eggs. Eggs are one millimeter in size, laid singly and are attached to dead leaves, grasses or sticks in shallow water. Eggs are fertilized by the male as they are laid.

The eggs hatch in three or four days. The tadpoles metamorphose into frogs in approximately two months. (source: MDC)

Critter of the Month: Spring peeper • Species: Spring peeper.

• Scientific name: Pseudacris crucifer.

• Nicknames: None.

• Claim to fame: The spring peeper is one of the Ozarks’ well-known signs of spring because it is this region’s earliest-calling frog of spring. Although some Ozarkers have never seen a spring peeper because they are so small (they could easily fit on the end of your finger), many area residents are familiar with their peep-like call.

• Species status: Spring peepers are common throughout Missouri.

• First discovered: The first scientific description of the spring peeper was written in 1838 by the German explorer and naturalist Maximilian of Wied.

• Family matters: Spring peepers belong to the Hylidae family of frogs, a group that includes most of the world’s tree frogs, cricket frogs and chorus frogs. Hylid frogs are

characterized by slender bodies, horizontal eyes and long toes. Within the Hylidae family, spring peepers fall into the chorus frog groups (genus Pseudacris). Chorus frogs are small, vocal creatures that are extremely vocal during their breeding season.

• Length: Up to one and one-fourth inches.

• Diet: Small insects and spiders.

• Weight: Less than one ounce.

• Distinguishing characteristics: General color varies from pink to tan, light brown, or gray. Spring peepers also feature a dark to medium-colored X on their backs. Spring peepers are best-known for their clear, high-pitched peeps, which rise slightly at the end. At this time of year, these sounds are part of the courtship routines of spring peepers.

A spring peeper makes this call by closing its mouth and nostrils and then forcing air from the lungs over its vocal

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(636) 586-2995

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Page 12 • April 2019

Oh, please let it be spring already!

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s the steam pours off the southfacing roof on this sunny early March day at 11 Deg. F, I yearn to get out and do more outdoors.

I don’t have cabin fever but I want so to be out in the woods doing things. As I have aged (not that I’m old), I prefer the warmer weather over the negative temperatures.

Any temperature above 60 Deg. F is better. And I always wondered why Grandma was always cold.

My comfort level has become more and more important to me as the seasons pass. I find it more Bob Brennecke comfortable sitting ———— on a warm log with chiggers over a snowy steel tractor seat.

I have become more and more anxious to get things accomplished and go places as the winter drags on. We are planning short trips soon to the south, and I am champing at the bit to get started.

The only thing that has slowed my progress is the single digit temps and

RiverHillsTraveler.com

the snow. I can’t wait to get my trailer out of its little tent and get it ready to get on the road.

I know that the biggest difference between the two color whites is mainly the temperature, but I prefer the sand over snow.

Right before the last deep freeze the ground had a frozen crust and when you walked on it the crust would push into the mud underneath.

A few days later the ground was like rock. Man, am I ready!

———

Grandpa’s walking stick

There is nothing so wonderful than teaching a young person a new concept, whether it is fixing a bike, shooting a weapon, growing plants, finding arrow points or anything they might be able to use in later life, especially about the out-of-doors.

When I was a wee lad, well “I WAS NEVER WEE,” but when I was younger I yearned to learn about how things worked, see how a particular job was done, why certain processes were used.

Even today I study manufacturing procedures, materials used, tricks of the trade, and people’s attitudes while they do their jobs. I have been very blessed in my life to be able to do many things mechanical, physical, and mental. (I work really hard on the mental part).

That being said, when I am in the woods or doing a job around the house and there is a young person around that even looks like they might be interested in what I am doing, I stop or slow down and explain the job or process to

them.

If they stick around or stay the least bit interested, I show them what, why, and how I am doing that particular job.

The grandkids like to go on hikes with me I guess because they learn about the trees, bushes, water animals and animal scat. We try to identify the scat by poking it to see what the animal was eating.

Sometimes there is hair, pieces of grass, bugs, or just goo. They all know to use a stick to dissect the lumps, and they all try to get it correct.

While back at the cabin, a visitor asked whose walking stick was leaning against the porch. One of the grandchil-

dren said, “Oh, that’s Grandpa’s POOP stick.”

I made this stick to be able to have a few functions” shooting, walking, pushing brush up and away from trails, and inspecting “POOP.” It works great!

The walking stick is made from a HD mop handle with a half-inch drill bit glued into the end.

(Bob Brennecke lives in Ballwin, Mo., and can be reached at robertbrennecke@hotmail.com.)

——— Text photos of your BIG CATCH or PRIZED HUNT to the River Hills Traveler at 417-451-3798 & don’t forget to include all the info!

April 2019 • Page 13

RiverHillsTraveler.com

Silver Mines Recreation Area open for season

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By Becky Ewing ilver Mines Recreation Area opened for the 2019 season on March 1. Located in Madison County, this Mark Twain National Forest recreation area offers camping, hiking, picnicking, and access to the St. Francis River.

The 2019 season kicked off in a big way March 22-24 when the Annual Missouri Whitewater Championships were held on the St. Francis River.

Event organizers, participants and volunteers set up camp at Silver Mines for the duration of the races and activities.

For more information about the Missouri Whitewater Association, visit www.missouriwhitewater.org/.

Bill Andersen, the Potosi-Fredericktown Ranger District recreation manager who oversees operations at Silver Mines, suggested that visitors bookmark the website known as Recreation.gov.

“Campsite reservations can be made at Recreation.gov for Silver Mines and other federal facilities throughout the United States,” he said.

“There, you will find information about the recreation area, the activities available, driving directions, and detailed campsite information, including prices.”

Many people come out to Silver Mines Recreation Area for just the day.

“A daily pass is $3 and it allows you to access the river, hike, and picnic in the recreation area,” said Andersen. “Annual passes are now available for $20 and the purchaser can visit Silver Mines an unlimited amount of times during the calendar year.”

Day-use passes may be purchased at the Potosi Ranger Station, or from the

on-site managers at Silver Mines Recreation Area.

Jim and Doris Rehkop are the on-site managers for Silver Mines, and they work hand-in-hand with Andersen to ensure you have the best visit possible.

The Rehkops have been working there for nearly 10 years. Visitors can find them at the host site in the Riverside Camping Loop.

If not there, look for their golf cart and they won’t be far – most likely they will be found cleaning restrooms, campsites, or mowing grass.

The Rehkops are responsible for maintaining the grounds, picnic areas and campsites during the recreation season.

Visitors who have met Jim and Doris will tell you that they are always ready to help you, whether you have questions about the campground or local area, or just need some campfire wood or ice.

You won’t be sorry if you stop at the host site to say hello and visit with them.

Silver Mines Recreation Area is located on Highway D, just south of Highway 72, about five miles west of Fredericktown, Missouri.

Day-use fee: $2 per vehicle, $10 per bus, $20 for season pass; camping fees: $11 for single non-electric, $22 for double non-electric,!$18 for single electric, $38 for double electric; group campsite $25 to $100 depending upon number of campers.

The Potosi Ranger Station is open Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.–4:30 p.m. You can reach us by calling (573) 438-5427.

(Becky Ewing is the district ranger for the Mark Twain National Forest, PotosiFredericktown Ranger District. She can be reached by email at rewing@fs.fed. us.)

Silver Mines Recreation Area is located on the St. Francis River. This Mark Twain National Forest recreation area offers camping, hiking, and picnicking opportunities, as well as access to the St. Francis River.

Jim and Doris Rehkop are the on-site managers at Silver Mines Recreation Area. They are responsible for maintenance of the grounds, restrooms, and campsites through the season. Stop in and visit them at the host site in the Riverside Camping Loop.

Page 14 • April 2019

RiverHillsTraveler.com

Every angler’s tackle box should carry some jigs

M

issouri has one of the most diversified fisheries in the country. With its many reservoirs, rivers (both large and small), creeks and farm ponds where an angler can target large and smallmouth bass, trout, walleye, catfish, crappie and other pan fish species, selecting the proper bait can be a challenge.

One type of lure that every angler should have in their tackle box is an assortment of jigs. Jigs are some of the most versatile lures available and it can be one of the simpler lures to use.

Jigs can appear basic when compared to other more intricate fishing lures, but choosing the correct jig shape may not be so simple.

Jig fishing takes a lot of concentration as, unlike spinners, all the “action” (how a lure moves in the water) comes from you. A jig head is designed to complement different fishing conditions and presentation methods.

The head of a jig can consist of many different shapes and colors along with Bill Wakefield different features.

———— The most common is the round head, but others include fish head shapes, coned shapes and mushroom head shapes.

Some of the more popular jig head shapes are the flipping jig head, the football jig head, the shakey head jig, the swim head jig, the tube head jig, and the grass jig head.

These heads come in many different weights and several come with a wide array of colors and patterns. The hooks also vary. These variances can be on the hook type, color, angle of the hook or the material of the hook. Some jig heads even offer a weed guard.

The round head jigs are one of the most popular jig styles. The symmetrical head allows it to cut through the water quickly and it sinks fast with minimal action on the fall.

The hook shank sits flat and the eye points directly upward. The round or ball head jig dressed with a twister-tail grub will fool almost any freshwater game fish.

The curled tail emits vibrations when the jig is hopped up off the bottom and on a straight retrieve it resembles a baitfish. This shape jig is an excellent choice to use for live bait such as a minnow, night crawler or leech.

The tube head jigs come in straight or tapered cylindrical shapes that fit inside a tube’s hollow body. The hook shank is longer than average to properly position the hook point close to the bait’s tail end.

This jig is specifically designed to be used for the wide selection of tube baits.

The tube bait is a soft-plastic hollow bait that hold a weighted jig head inside

Flipping jig

Football head jig

Grass head jig

them. The bodies contain tentacles at the hook-end.

On slack line these baits slowly spiral in a tight circle. When stationary the tentacles will wave in the water current and when twitched they will pulsate, which will attract the fish.

A football head jig resembles a football in shape, with the hook eye in the center and the end points to the left and right sides. The jig’s wide and curved head prevents it from tipping over when it is sitting on the bottom of a lake or river, and the rounded design allows it to climb over rocks when slowly retrieved.

This jig is meant to be dragged along rocky bottoms because the football jig’s shaped head allows it to roll over rock and rubble without falling into the cracks.

The jig should have a fuller skirt and a sharp wide gap hook. Weed guards are common on football jigs, but many anglers also remove or trim them when using them to ensure better hookups.

The best trailers for!football jigs!are skirted grubs, twin-tailed grubs, craws and full-size creature baits.

The shakey head jig has been increasing in popularity and styles.!Most feature a wire, spring or another style of keeper to hold the finesse soft-baits, such as worms.

The jig head shape is designed to keep the hook and bait standing up when it is resting on the bottom. A finesse worm is a popular choice of most anglers using a shakey head jig, but a variety of soft plastic baits will also perform well such as stick worms,! soft plastic jerk baits, plastic lizards and creature baits are other options for shakey head fishing.

Some of the more common baits include a smaller size little beave because they mimic a crawdad perfectly, and a watermelon red flake with a little chartreuse on the tail looks an awful lot like a small sunfish rooting around in a spawning bed.

A baby brush hog also works well on a shakey head, whether a fish thinks it’s a crawdad, a lizard or whatever dragging and hopping along the bottom of a river or lake.

Paddle tail, fork tail and! hook tail worms are excellent baits on shakey heads. If you’re using a stand-up style head and not adding a little something to the end of your worm, like a!paddle!or split, you are missing out.

The zoom fluke and the zoom speed

craw are both natural for a shakey head.

The grass head jig conical design with a line tie near the top allows it to penetrate the grass better which can foul up most any presentation.

Grass jigs are also fished on heavy tackle, so they should also have a stout heavy wire hook. Grass jig trailers should be compact and not feature lots of appendages to snag on the grass. The perfect trailer for grass head is a grub tail.!!

A flipping jig is designed to go into the

heaviest wood or brush and come out unscathed. Flipping jigs should be 3/8 to 1 ounce, and have a stout, heavy gauge hook.

The ideal head shape should be something compact, preferably with a recessed line tie. The weed guard!should also be a little firmer than other jig types, as it’s got to prevent the jig from hanging up.

Rattles are also a big benefit when flipping a jig, and the best models fea-

Shakey head jig

Round head jig

Please see JIGS, 16

April 2019 • Page 15

RiverHillsTraveler.com

Harvesting a tom in the Ozarks can’t be put into words

T

he last morning of the 2005 spring turkey season came too soon. My hunting buddy lay in his sleeping bag snoring away, with no intention of hunting that day.

Like so many times before, that particular morning was going to be a solo hunt.

Fighting the urge to get 10 more minutes of rest, I made myself get up and start the morning.

We all know what happens if we get just 10 more minutes; we oversleep and that could not happen on this day.

After hunting all season I was fortunate enough to have one more chance to fill my tag.

The morning was perfectly still. A heavy fog had settled in the valley Richard that our camp was Whiteside in.

———— I quickly made some coffee over the fire and gathered my gear and gun and got my vest in order. For me, that time of the morning is my favorite. It’s a new day, memories are waiting to be made.

Warming yourself by a campfire with a hot cup of coffee, anticipating the first streaks of grey in the eastern sky and the day that lay ahead.

The camp was a primitive camp on the Eleven Point River that is now mostly no longer tended to by the U.S. Forest Service.

Many of my turkey camps have been at this location, and not because of the number of birds because, in my opinion, there are many other places with more toms.

I like this place because of its geography and proximity to the river I love so much.

I arose early that morning. It was the last day of the season and I didn’t want to miss a single minute of it. At that time in my life I was a very motivated turkey hunter with youth on my side.

It was simply bad news for any tom that gobbled because he would soon find himself waking up in a bad dream.

No hill was too steep and no river was

too deep.

If I could hear it then in minutes I would be in its lap. But not this morning. This morning if it hadn’t been for my buddy sleeping in the tent I would not have had this hunt.

It would have ended as fast as it started. As I stood at camp I listened like I always did.

At 5:30 I had just started my second cup of coffee when I heard him. At first he sounded like he was downriver.

Faintly I was catching the tail end of his gobble.

He wasn’t close but I could hear him.

In the distance I heard him sound off again. His gobble was bouncing of the ridge and echoing down the river valley.

The old picnic table was still standing at that time and I climbed up on the table for a better hear. Again he gobbled, and I could barely get a whiff of his gobble and that was it.

For 20 minutes I listened and by now I could see color in the eastern sky. It was time to make a decision, and yet I

couldn’t pinpoint his direction.

As my buddy was sawing logs in the tent I knew I was going to need his ears to help me locate this tom, so I did what I should have done 10 minutes earlier and woke him up.

As he stepped up on the table the gobbler hammered and instantly my friend pointed upriver, and I thanked him and took off running up the river bottom with my fingers crossed, hoping he was on my side of the river.

He wasn’t. One mile upriver I was at the head of the bottom and trying not to get too close to the loud shoal, and all at once he sounded off again and I realized two things.

He had another tom with him and

they were, in fact, directly across the river in a tree on the point above the river. With no time to spare I stripped down, tried to put my clothes, boots and gun above my head the best I could, and 5 minutes later I was across and putting my boots back on.

Knowing I was in time for the flydown I went ahead and smacked my hat on my leg to imitate the sound of a fly-down and at the same time I imitated an excited fly-down cackle.

For ten minutes all was silent. I knew from experience they most likely were on the ground by now, and one of three things was taking place.

They were either going away, taking up a position on the point, or coming down the point of the big river ridge to me. Lucky for me, swimming the river was the right decision.!Harvesting a tom in the Ozarks is something you cannot put in words.

I gladly crossed back to the other side of the stream without shedding my clothes. Only this time I had a big tom in my vest.

Good, good times await you this spring in the Ozarks.

(Richard Whiteside lives in Doniphan, Mo., and can be reached at rlwhiteside72@gmail.com. His blog can be followed at www.ozarkriverman.wordpress.com.)

Page 16 • April 2019

RiverHillsTraveler.com

JIGS from 1 ture an integrated rattle. The best flipping jig trailers are a grub tail, creature bait or crawfish imitations.

A swimming jig is exactly what it sounds like, retrieving a jig through the water column, just like a spinnerbait or lipless crank.

The perfect swim jig ranges from onequarter to one-half ounce, has a lighter weed guard, and has a bullet-shaped head to slither around and through cover.

Because!swim jigs!are moving when a fish bites, they don’t need nearly as heavy a hook – you want something sharp and narrow for maximum penetration.

The!best jig trailers!for swim jigs are paddle tail trailers because when fishing a swim jig you are trying to mimic a baitfish. As a swim jig is retrieved, you

Swim head jig

Tube head jig

want the tail of the trailer to kick side to side.

This kicking motion presents itself as a nice visual attraction to a bass, as well as creating some disturbance in the water that a bass can sense.

Ideal swim jig trailers include grubs, paddle tails or other plastics with lots of action.

The typical way to fish a jig is to cast it out, wait until it hits the bottom (you will know it has hit bottom when your line goes slack), then retrieve it in a se-

ries of hops.

You make it hop by lifting the rod tip, lowering it, and retrieving your line. Try different speeds, big lifts, little hops, twitching until you find what works.

Pay attention, though. Detecting the strike is the hardest thing about jigging.

If you’re new to fishing and haven’t started using jigs, you’re missing out on a tried and true fish producer.

If you’re a seasoned angler, consider trying a jig presentation you’ve yet to master.

Gain confidence on when and where to use them and you may catch more fish.

Of all lures the jigs are one of the most versatile and least expensive, and can catch about every game fish there is.

Another advantage is that an assortment of jigs can be carried in a small pocket container which comes in handy if you are wading in a stream.

Please obey the fishing regulations established by the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Also become a conservationist by practicing catch and release for smallmouth bass and goggle eye.

Remove and dispose of all trash such as fishing lines, bait containers, paper, cans and bottles whether it is yours or someone else’s.

(Bill Wakefield runs the Traveler’s St. Louis office and can be reached at w3@charter.net.)

ADVERTISE HERE $ • Great space for fishing & hunting club meetings & other special events • Round/square tables & chairs for more than 150 people • Large open room with 2 smaller side rooms Featuring more than 40 historic photographs of the Neosho area!

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Call the Traveler at (417) 451-3798!

April 2019 • Page 17

RiverHillsTraveler.com

This Missouri-made mosquito repellant works great

S

pring is in the air, which means more people will be getting the itch to head outdoors for adven-

ture.

However, that itch can end up being a literal one thanks to the 50 types of mosquitoes that call Missouri home.

If you are like me, then you know all about these annoying creatures. They absolutely love to feast upon my blood!

As someone who Michelle Turner ———— loves sitting around a campfire and watching the sunset, this can be incredibly problematic.

Most mosquitoes are active at night after a long day of rest. They tend to bite early in the evening when they first start moving because it’s in those early evening hours that they are seeking their breakfast.

You name it, I have tried it; Citronella candles, Deep Woods Off, fancy chemically-coated wristbands, Avon Skin So Soft, etc.

I have also worn long sleeves to protect my arms from those little bloodsuckers even in the heat of summer!

I am sure I have drenched myself in more chemicals than what should be legally allowed for the sake of avoiding the swelling, itching reaction that happens with each mosquito bite (because I never, NEVER get only ONE bite).

With that said, as I have gotten older and slightly wiser, there are times I have reached for mosquito repellants that do not require a HAZMAT suit to apply.

Luckily, some of those products are made right here in Missouri.

Herbaria Soap is located at 2016 Marconi Ave. in St. Louis. Their extensive line of skin care products includes a full line of DEET-free insect repellants.

Ken Gilberg is a partner in the Herbaria Soap company and believes

that it’s the lack of chemicals like DEET that helps make their products so effective.

“We use a blend of eight essential oils known to repel insects. Perhaps it’s the synergy of the oils that makes it work so well,” said Ken. “Lavender, for instance, contains 5,000 molecular compounds. There

must be many thousands of compounds involved.”

Ken recommends the Citronella Mist, Camper’s Choice soap, and the Camper’s Choice luffa for people who love the outdoors, but hate the bug bites.

Ken said that their effectiveness has even been put to the test outside of Missouri.

“We get many reports of the effectiveness of Citronella Mist and the insect repellent soaps from people who have traveled to the Amazon, Africa, and Thailand,” Ken shared.

Herbaria not only sells good soaps, but you can visit them for a free tour of their factory. If you can’t make it to St. Louis to visit Herbaria, you can also find them online at www.herbariasoap.com where you can learn more about their product lines, as well as place an order.

Perhaps a Camper’s Choice luffa is in your future!

(Michelle Turner lives in Union, Mo.)

Take a walk & hear these beautiful chorus frogs

T

he spring peepers are singing! Spring is near! I was walking through the field at my house, and heard the peepers in the early evening. It was a beautiful chorus!

Why do these small, slender frogs sing? The males of this species are calling out to the females, who are drawn to their chirping suitors.

These small, slender frogs can be pink, gray, tan, or light brown.

They have a dark X on their backs. This mark can be faint in light-colored frogs and dark on darker ones.

The belly is a plain cream color.

The finger-toetips have adhesive pads. They measure three-quarter to 1.25 inches long.

Dana The spring peeper, or Pseudacris Sturgeon crucifer, is a small chorus frog ———— widespread throughout the eastern Eleven United States and Canada.

Point River There are two subspecies: the northern P.c. cruicifer, found all over the eastern U.S. and Canada; and the southern, P.c. bartramiana which are found along the southern Gulf Coast from southeastern Texas to northern Florida and southern Georgia.

Spring peepers are found statewide in Missouri, but they are not common in the northwestern corner.

However, I talked with my sister this past weekend and she heard these chorus frogs. She and her husband live in Platte City, Missouri (just north of Kansas City).

tifreeze in their blood keeps them from freezing.

So, take an early evening walk around some small ponds or around your backyard, and you will probably hear these beautiful chorus frogs singing in the spring!

(Dana Sturgeon lives in southern Missouri. She can be reached at mo_dana@hotmail.com.)

This species lives near ponds, streams, and swamps where there is thick undergrowth. They eat a variety of small insects and spiders.

These frogs are active from late winter to late fall.

Breeding is in late February to mid-May in small woodland pools. Males call (or peep) from the water’s edge or from objects emerging from the water.

The female lays up to 900 eggs and they are fertilized by the male as they are laid. The eggs are laid separately, attached to vegetation in shallow water, and hatch in 3-4 days. Tadpoles metamorphose 2 months later.

This frog overwinters in the soil; a natural an-

PALMER LEAD COMPANY (Right) A 1937 photo of a lead furnace that once operated on the Potosi Unit. The name of the furnace is unknown, but it is most likely similar to what the Palmer Lead Company Furnace looked like when it operated from the 1870s to around 1920.

(Photo courtesy of the Forest History Society; the photographer was Walter H. Shaffer of the Forest Service)

The Palmer Lead Company Furnace ruins are located at Mark Twain National Forest’s Hazel Creek Campground in Washington County. Soil core sampling will commence later in July within a 600-foot circle around the ruins to map lead and heavy metal concentrations in the soil. Temporary closures of the campground or individual campsites could occur during the two-month project. (Photo courtesy of USDA Forest Service)

Page 18 • April 2019

RiverHillsTraveler.com

STEEL from 1 “I used to make knives as a hobby and about six years ago I stopped, then started brushing up on what I already knew and studied some new stuff and then started making my own knives fulltime,” said Kirk.

For several years Kirk would make knives, post them on Facebook to sell, and did a lot of trading and gifting knives just to get guys to talk about them and review them.

Before starting his own business, Kirk was a mechanic but that line of work started taking a toll on his body.

“My knees and stuff started hurting and I just couldn’t do it anymore, I needed a change.”

K i r k likes to use vintage steel for his knives, which is how he started.

“I go to flea mark e t s , wrecking yards and use spring steel, saw blades, old farm equipment, files, rasps, and trap springs,” said Kirk.

“I want to be able to take something that people see as trash and throw away, and make something that someone can use and fall in love with.”

Kirk’s favorite steel to use is four feet wide sawmill blades. According to him, they are fairly easy to tell what the metal is going to do.

“I like simple stuff. Simple handles, simple blades,” said Kirk. “If you get too cosmetic they look cheap, and then they are never used because they’re too

pretty.”

Kirk has one major goal for all of his knives — to make them useable and sturdy.

“The main thing is to make sure they are useable and can hold a good edge,” said Kirk. “I want to be able to skin my deer, my son’s deer, and my son’s girlfriend’s deer and not have to sharpen it.”

Kirk uses a propane, wood, and coal forge. According to Kirk, he uses the propane forge the most, but his favorite is the coal.

“I have basic hand tool and basic knifemaking tools, and I do it all by hand, I don’t have a press,” said Kirk.

“The cool thing about having multiple forges is that even if we lose power, I have everything I need to make knives.”

Kirk makes a large variety of knives: clever, kitchen knives, fillet, Bowie, bushcraft, folding knives, and several others.

“When I make knives I usually do runs where I make several knives at one time,” said Kirk.

Kirk also gets custom orders and when that happens, he works on that one knife until it’s done.

“If I can see a picture of something then I can make it, or at least my version of that knife,” said Kirk.

Kirk likes to make puukko knives, utility knives, and Bowies.

“I also really like to make trap triggers, because you can make a fire with it.”

When it comes to the handle, elk is Kirk’s favorite handle material.

“I keep it very simple and very primitive, I like it that way,” said Kirk. “I like elk because it’s usually straight and pretty easy to use and it makes a pretty knife.”

FK Knives can be found on Facebook.

Whenever Kirk is finished with a knife or a set of knives, he posts it on Facebook for others to buy.

To place a custom order, message him on the Facebook page to place an order.

“Taking something that has ended its life and turning it into something useful, plus the ‘ooo, ahh’ factor, is just great,” said Kirk.

“The important thing for me is to make something from scratch... something that has heirloom quality and can be used long enough to pass down.”

down there. That could translate into 1,036 nucs to sell for $175 each. Now those $175 nucs are the top of the line, 5-frame nucs with three frames of brood and 2 frames of food available in April.

Minnesota Hygienics are the favorite queens of the two men. Along with the purchase of a nuc, a buyer gets plenty of help with questions.

Mike, who is part hobbyist and part commercial, does a lot of consulting and teaching one-on-one. He has a bee yard dedicated specifically to giving free beekeeping lessons.

Mike, who likes “tinkering with gizmos,” is currently testing the Beetle Buster Base Board and wrote a review on the product in the MSBA November

newsletter.

Mike has also been testing the heat treatment method with his Bee Hive Thermal Industries Mighty Mite Killer followed by OAV. He will be reporting on that later in the spring.

Mike has three lovely daughters and wife who help him. When he is not beekeeping, he uses his twenty years of experience in computer skills to help people set up businesses.

Both men coach, mentor, and present introductory demonstrations to various groups. They have presented workshops at locations including Colonial Garden and Nursery and Terra Health and Wellness in the Kansas City area.

Their Introduction to Beekeeping class is aimed at an audience of potential beekeepers who still want to know why beekeeping is important, what equipment is needed, where bees can be procured, how they are installed into hives, steps in caring for them and to treat or not to treat.

The classes usually last about an hour with 15-20 minutes for questions. Mike will be teaching an upcoming 4.5-hour class with the Midwest Master Beekeeper Program. This will deal more with the biology and history of bees.

Beforehand, however, Mike and Matt will be making a two-week trip back to Texas to split their overwintered hives and prepare to bring nucs back to their customers in Missouri.

They will be singing along with their

BEES from 1 pollen patties and 12 pounds of honey for their cozy bees tucked away among the Maple trees of East Texas, they discuss the things they must accomplish on this trip — such as mite and shb inspections along with possible treatment options.

For even the fields of “liquid gold” have the pests that sometimes take the fun out of modern beekeeping. But soon Mike and Matt will be bringing their “winter Texan” bees back to Missouri all fat and happy to split and sell as early nucs to get a jump-start on the wonderful pollen and nectars that abound in Missouri come spring.

When asked how they found their Texas location, Matt replied that he actually ran a Facebook ad for farmers who might want to trade some winter space in exchange for honey.

Mike Immer, who owns BeeResQ, and Matt Winstead, who owns Golden Rule Honeybee Farm and Midwest Bee Removal, keep bees in the northern part of Missouri near Kansas City, where the winter gets very cold.

They decided that it was worthwhile to take their bees all the way to Texas to get the winter buildup that they could not get at home. They expect to get 5-7 nucs from each over-wintered hive when they bring them back home in the spring.

Matt and Mike, who partner up on a number of ventures, took 148 hives

new favorite group, Asleep at the Wheel, performing Miles and Miles of Texas.

When asked what advice Matt would give to new beekeepers, he said that one should find a mentor and test for mites.

Mite inspections should be done often (like once a month).

Matt went on to say that there are two reasons bees die: mites and winter starvation. Mites need to be treated in spring and fall before they can take over.

In addition to OAV treatments, Matt uses Apivar in July after he pulls off the honey supers. When asked how he avoids swarming problems, Matt listed hive splitting, yearly queen replacement and avoiding Russian bees. He retires his second-year queens into comb-building hives.

For his splits in early spring, he likes to go in and shake the bees to the lower box and pull the brood up above a queen excluder. The nurse bees will go up to the brood and can be given a new queen.

Finally, when asked if he would encourage his two sons to go into beekeeping, Matt responded that he teaches them how to use their hands, but he wanted them to do what makes them happy.

For more information, contact them at the following: Mike Immer at (816) 5205456; or Matt Winstead at (816) 2174214.

(Sandy McMurry-Richey is chairperson of the Communications Committee of the Missouri State Beekeepers Association.)

April 2019 • Page 19

RiverHillsTraveler.com

BASS from 1 But when looking for smallmouth don’t overlook the headwaters or small streams. These streams can produce some amazing fishing and beautiful scenery without the crowd. It pays to work a little harder than others.

As a kid I was lucky enough to have a dad that loved fishing and loved making sure I was included. From float tubes in the farm ponds in Oklahoma, big bass adventures in Texas and Mexico, offshore fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, we did it all.

And, of course, when I caught my first smallmouth out of an Ozarks stream he was right there with me.

I was 17 years old. We had just moved from Oklahoma to the Ozarks and a lot of things were different. It looked a lot different, the water was crystal clear, and people actually bass fished in the creeks and rivers.

That last one I had a hard time understanding. In the area I grew up in the little muddy creeks and rivers were the last place you thought about going bass fishing.

But these creeks weren’t muddy.

They were beautiful.

We had gone to Ash Grove to visit one of my dad’s friends. He told us about a couple of spots we could stop

water of these streams. I didn’t know that was going to be my favorite type of fishing until many years later, but it remains that way to this day.

So, bring on spring and summer. The sounds of baseball games, and pool parties, and motorcycles. I’ll hopefully be deep in one of these streams, just me and a smallmouth bass.

At times forgetting anything else exists.

(Ronnie Moore can be reached by email at flysmallie@gmail.com.)

Home of the smallmouth bass.

and fish on the way back.

One was a little access on Turnback Creek. I had no idea what I was doing.

This was not like the farm ponds where I grew up.

I’m not sure how many casts I made but I remember casting up next to a rootwad with a white Rooster Tail.

Next thing I know some fish that I can’t see is genuinely trying to wreck my spinning reel.

It was a monster! After a brief battle that only my expert abilities could have

Take a day trip to a place that few people know exists

handled, I was able to hold and see my trophy.

And it wasn’t a monster. It really wasn’t much of anything. It was beautiful. That dark golden bronze. But it was nowhere near the size I was expecting.

It was a day I won’t forget. Catching a new favorite fish that my interest in would only increase as I got older and try to consume my time spent fishing.

Being with my dad in another new adventure. And standing in the clear

AROUND the WORLD with the River Hills Traveler

I

By Dennis Bresnahan f you are looking for a short day trip to an out of the way, rarely visited place that few people know exists, take a hike to Shady Eighty Ranch Lake in Lincoln County, in Missouri’s Cuivre River State Park.!

In fact, the only way to get to this place is to hike in on a trail.!There is no open road access.!

I first found Shady Eighty Ranch Lake while hiking the Lone Spring Trail in Cuivre River State Park.!This 5.2 mile trail has two main sections.!

There is the South section and the North section with a connector in-between for a shorter hike.!The North section also has a backpack camp and about a half-mile long spur trail leading to the lake.!The parking lot for the trail is at the intersection of Lincoln Hills Drive and Highway KK in the far north area of the park.!

When I was first hiking this trail with a friend we came to the spur trail that had a sign pointing north that said Shady Eighty Lake.! We thought, let’s take it and see what is there.!

To our surprise, at the end of the spur trail we found an area with a large open pavilion, a couple of closed up outbuildings, a few picnic tables, and a large lake.!We were the only ones there.

This has now become one of my favorite places to hike to.!On subsequent visits I’ve only seen a couple of people fishing or picnicking or no one at all.!

I’ve found out that this area of the park was once a church-owned summer camp that later was acquired by the state park system and added to Cuivre River.!They

have left it isolated and mostly unknown.!There are fish in the lake.!

For the shortest hike in to Shady Eighty, go east from the parking lot, turn left at the junction and cross Highway KK and proceed about a half-mile to the spur trail on your right.!

It takes about 25 minutes to get there this way.!There are no open bathrooms or running water.!!

(Dennis Bresnahan can be reached at (314) 868-7297!or dennisbresnahan@ yahoo.com.)

Anthony Karlinski, of Carthage, Mo., spent a weekend back in September enjoying Maramec Spring Park in St. James, Mo. He took a friend along with him.

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If you're going on a trip or vacation, please take the River Hills Traveler with you and have someone photograph you and the magazine in front of a landmark or somewhere pretty neat. Then email the picture & info to us at jimmy@riverhillstraveler.com and we will publish it an upcoming issue. You can also text your photos & info to (417) 451-3798 or send them to us via our Facebook page.

Thank you very much & we look forward to seeing your family’s adventures!