OWEN-WITHEE (The Twin Cities of Wisconsin)

I dont know if I ever mentioned it or not but I grew up in a city called Owen Wisconsin. Now Owen (population 1098) was next to a city called (Withee/ population roughly 300 people). So later on I started calling it the "Twin Cities of Wisconsin"...Growing up there was (if I may say so) AWESOME. Sure there were lots of things I did not like (like going to church/ or getting up for school/ you know the usual things kids hate doing)....

To this day I still stay in touch with many of my classmates. The class I had back then pretty much looked out for one another. The parents always looked out for the kids and it was a very safe community. But the one thing that we all remember about the place was OW Sports and Liquor. The lady that ran that place worked 7 days a week and to this day is still working to please her Customers. She has minnows/tackle/bait/ booze/gas and the heart of an angel. And hunters if your ever in the area stop by and see her she has tons of hunting apparel. She is a huge part of the community and when people go back to town they always stop by and see Jackie.

Or there was the Root Beer Stand. Sure the place was small and not really a big restaurant but dam they made good Root Beer.....I cant find anything like that now down in Madison.

Then there was Berry and Gerrie's....I don't think it is open anymore but Berry made the best burgers in Wisconsin. I know he is still alive but got out of the bar business....It was the best bar ever...

In the last twenty years I have worked for Corporations and I have flown all over the United States and I guess had to grow up a little. It's fun to travel for the first several hours but after that it's a drag. I don't' know why but I think I'm finally realizing that I had it good as a kid and I miss going up North to Owen. When you get older and get a family you can't always do what you want. The good news for me is my parents still live up that way and maybe in the next 10 years now that my kids are older I can get up there more often.

The world has changed a lot in my 42 years. One thing that has not changed is I think that Owen-Withee is still the best city on the planet.

The Black Widow

THE BATTLE OF ALESIA

The Battle of Alesia (The Gallic Wars). Ok so today I had to get up and come to work and then when I'm done with work I have to go to my second job. Now imagine that your job is in the Roman Army. And unfortunately for you your fighting against an army 5 times bigger than you. Caesar is going to try and lay siege to Alesia. As he approaches the city he builds a wall around it (see the inside wall with the men in the tower?) Now he realizes he could be attacked from the left side of the picture so he builds a second wall. So it takes somewhere around 60 K laborers to complete this task in about 3 weeks for a 10 mile diameter wall. The outer wall was 15 miles in diameter....what is my point?

A few years ago I put in a brick patio in my house and it took me 3 days to dig out the dirt and put down the brick. Basically my patio is about 11' w by 20' long. What amazes me about this story is that the wall the Romans built was 15' high and they built about a mile of wall each day. On top of this they had to ward off the enemy , shower/eat/ take a nap etc......No bulldozers, no dump trucks nothing like that just labor intensive. I am simply amazed at the Engineering skills of our Ancestors.

If you want to read a great story go to http://www.angelfire.com/me/ik/alesia3.html and check it out. History simply fascinates me but this is gotta be the biggest coolest thing in history I have ever seen. I keep coming back to this story.

The Black Widow

Wisconsin Winter

I'm not sure what I love more about Wisconsin Winter. I grew up on a farm and it was so cool sometimes to be out in the middle of know where with a snow storm going on all around you. Or it was fun to be out milking cows and then somehow have to make it back to the house in 40 mile an hour wind gusts. Then sit in the house by the fire and drink hot coa coa.

It was also cool to walk into a woods near our farm and just listen to the wind. No people around (maybe a squirrel running here or there) but just complete silence. Sometimes silence is golden. The other thing I love about winter is to see a deer near the woods our out in a snowy covered corn field. Nature is just simply cool.

Not sure I love the cold but indeed during the winter Wisconsin is a beautiful place to be. The driving is sometimes treacherous in the winter but above all I guess I still love the change in the seasons. I guess that is why I'm going to live in Wisconsin forever.

Today in the Southern Wisconsin we are suppose to get up to 12" of snow....Welcome to a winter wonderland.

The Black Widow

Space Ship One

So recently Richard Branson and his team unveiled their new space ship which will fly into space and you can buy a ticket for 200K. I had a few thoughts on this so bear with me. My first thought is he should be giving more money to Charity and things of that nature. Then my second thought was to be honest (this thing is fricken cool). Now my third thought was NASA is nothing more than a large Dum Corporation. A guy like Branson can create a company to design a spaceship and go into space for millions vs billions? What's more he plans on replicating the spaceships and having people go into space. I thought the guy was owned a record company? Did you read that....yes a record company and now he's building space ships....????

I think this is so funny because I use to work with a guy that said if we fired him we could never survive. Because he said know one could do what he does.....Well we fired him and we are still surviving. My point is I think NASA'S days are numbered and I think the private company's will take over space exploration. And I think very soon Richard Branson will have competition of his very own. This my friends will bring the cost of space travel down (Competition).

I am not a rich man and I'm sure there will be people like I talked to that yes he should give more to charity and yada yada yada. But see if people don't' push the limits like this you would not have future ability to design better aircraft and or get ideas on how maybe at some point we can leave this world if we have to. Sometimes ideas come from this stuff that give us a better national defense. There are a ton of goodies that come along with this type of invention.

The real moral of this story is and I've said it over and over .....Never let someone tell you what you can or cannot do.........

So Richard Branson you are my HERO for the week.

The Black Widow

EVOLUTION AND RELIGION (how they go together)

Imagine that you are God. And one day you think "I want to create the world". So you create a Big Bang which actually throws rocks all over space. And inside those rocks are tiny little forms of life (some forms of life are good and some are bad so you adjust what is put into the rocks so that life will even out).

BANG......The big bang occurs and millions of years later the Earth was created. And millions of years after that people started living. Maybe God just did not create Adam and Eve but that was a story handed down from generation to generation through stories told of old. And then one day a guy picked up a piece of paper and a pen and put all of these things onto paper. Kind of like Santa Clause.

Why can there not be a way for Religion and Evolution to go together? To me maybe the world is not 7 million years old like the bible says? But maybe its like 20 billion or however old we can document it.

The thing that sticks out of my mind is the Big Bang. For every action there is an equal to or opposite reaction. So what drives me crazy is WHAT created the big bang. And what created the force behind the big bang. Unless there is magic in this world there has to be something that created that bang......And that energy maybe was from God.

An athiest will tell you there is nothing and has a explanation for everthing like the Big Bang. To me there are to many things that have a hole in them. There is something out there and that is my belief.

The Black Widow

GO BACK TO NATURE

Take a deep breadth and look at this photo. Sometimes we forget that if we died tomorrow the world will still keep spinning. Time passes you buy so fast that you need to make sure to enjoy something each day. I'm not even sure anyone reads the crap I write but if you do on your way home tonight watch some squirrels in a tree playing or just go home and watch your pet and relax for a while.

I have a park near my home with a small lake. And sometimes I go there and watch the geese swim and yak. It's funny to watch other species versus man. Often I will sit there and wonder what they think. Or what do they think of in a day that we don't. Whether you believe in evolution and or your a religious person going back to nature or watching animals is a great way to relax. Every day I play with my shitzu and I wonder what he can remember or what he thinks. It makes me laugh and can usually forget about my crap day.

To think it all started with a Big Bang (the planets being made/galaxy etc)...Ever wonder what created the Big Bang?

Its the weekend for me....take some time off for yourself and treat yourself for being a good human being..

The Black Widow

FREE COFFEE???????????

Last year about now my son and I rented a movie from a local grocery store. About two days later we returned the movie and we bought some candy. Funny thing about it was that I kept the receipt for the candy. But about 3 days later the store called and said I never returned the movie. Basically I went to the store and said look that girl there and the other etc. etc. were working that day. No no you never returned our movie Sir and you owe us $65.00. So I said well can you please check the security cameras for that day and I will be satisfied (note the time on the receipt for the candy).

Oh we can't do that he says our cameras don't work. Well that's just grand right next to their cash machine I hope they never get robbed. Anyway I get into this argument with the store manager that indeed I can replace the movie for $25.00. He says no it has to come from his company (because they charge him $65.00 per movie). I said do you still have the case for the movie? Yes he did. Well I said isn't that strange that you have the movie case and not the movie? I brought the movie back and now you have a movie case and no movie?

SO WHAT HAS THIS GOT TO DO WITH COFFEE?

So the guys says look if you don't pay me the $65.00 I will take you to small claims. I said I tell ya what here is what I will do. I will replace the movie (since you have the case) for $25.00 and if that is not good enough I will see you in court. So finally the guy at the grocery store comes to his senses on a movie I never lost anyway and settles for $25.00.

A few weeks later while shopping in the store I noticed they offered free coffee to Customers. So every time I went in the store I kept saving my receipts (tell you why shortly). Now what I do is instead of going the gas station (and paying .65 cent a pop) I stop for a free cup of coffee at my favorite grocery store....I don't stop every day but I do every now and then and its good coffee. So one day this manager I got in a fight with says sir that is free coffee for our Customers. I said really well here are my receipts for the last two weeks of what I bought here "I'm a Customer"....

Until I make up my $25.00 worth of that movie I never lost I'm stopping for free coffee. And until he puts up a sign that says "Free Coffee for Customers who only bought product today" I still consider myself a Customer......Isn't it great being a jerk right back to a jerk?

The Black Widow

Dog Man In Wisconsin

http://www.michigan-dogman.com/

This is one of my old stories but it's cool and erie...check the link above to the real cool website...Its fun....

First off for the story I had to borrow this photo. Its not mine so whoever owns it if I need to take it down let me know.

One thing that really fascinates me besides Big Foot is Dog Man. There are many stories which I have not read of people who have seen him and or think they have photos of him. The other night I thought of him again when I was in Illinois. We were driving down for some fun when on the side of the road in Elgin IL. I see a coyote. At first I did not know what it was so I Just thought "hey a dog". But a coyote does not move like a dog...It was cool because he was right off a red light near a freeway. And only when I rolled down my window and yelled did he look up. This made me think of Dog Man (I'm not sure why but I did). I have never seen a coyote so close /so in your face. When you see something like that you have to look twice....How a thing moves speaks volumes. And in my head it was like slow motion. I cant imagine what people think when they see Dog Man.

Recently in Peru or somewhere they just discovered a bunch of frogs that have never been seen. I don't know why but I believe in Dog Man because I think there are a lot of things out there we don't understand. I have a hobby (because I work two jobs/ drive a lot/ and try and create fun for myself) that when I drive to work I look for UFO's/Dog Man /or Big Foot.

Maybe I will never see any of either...... The point is have you ever gone hunting and feel like your being watched? The woods can be a scary place and for all those people who believe in Dog Man......I have to admit I do too. There was this one time when I was hunting up North and I quickly turned to look....I thought I saw a grey shadow to my right. No hunter was there so I quickly passed it off to my imagination. The funny thing is the same thing happened to me a few years later while standing in the same area. Have you ever been hunting and then looked quickly in an area and thought you saw a shadow? If it happens to me once I dont think much of it. But when it happens twice I think something of it.......

Maybe its not a dog, maybe it's not Big Foot....But I do believe with all the areas of the world that are still non discovered, why cant Dog Man exist? Somewhere recently I think I saw a photo of a giant fricken pig that was shot in Texas or somewhere/ the fricken thing was like 2000#....Where did he come from? How long was he in a woods and not seen by anyone?

I will tell you this. When I hunt I watch out for the number one thing and that is Hunters. Then I watch out for Deer...And sometimes when I 'm a bit leery or have that feeling I'm being watched........I watch out for Dog Man.

The Black Widow

My Dog......"The Bastard Child" Mr X

About 8 years ago now my wife and I did Invetral and to make a long story short we lost our first child. To make things worse she came to me and told me she wanted to get a dog (we will call him Mr X). Not just any dog but a Shitzu. Now I grew up in the country and a real dog to me is like a Collie/Australian Healer or a Pit Bull.


On the first night this thing starts whining and next thing you know he's sleeping in bed with us. Mr X is no dummy...I started potty training him and to do that I would get a treat and use a key word like Good Potty...Each time he went Potty he got a treat...But now that little bastard has taken it to the next level. Mr X will go out the patio door and then he will look back at the house to see if I'm watching. If he thinks the coast is clear he comes back to the door (without going Potty) and starts wagging his tail. Basically he is saying give me my treat now ...I've been good. If you don't give him his treat he barks like this ...BARK.....as if to say..." hey Dumb Ass give me my treat".


Before I go to bed I always give Mr X the opportunity to go Potty. Sometimes Mr. X will do this but sometimes he wont. Mr X has started this thing were he will get up at 4 in the morning and do his thing. Whether or not he goes you can always count on one thing. He will sit at the edge of the lawn and wait for me to yell. I can yell and swear at him to get in the house but he wont move...What he wants me to say it "TREAT TREAT TREAT"......Those three magical words makes him dash for the house.

If we play a game on the floor with our kids Mr. X will show up...He absolutely has to be part of the family and involved if he can.


Then there is the stroller episode. See after a while we had twins and we got a two seat stroller. Mr X on hot days will only walk so much so we started putting him in the back seat with our son. After a while Mr X got so lazy he would automatically try to get in the back seat of the stroller without walking at all. If a neighborhood dog would pass us by on our walk Mr X would start barking at him as if to say...Your lucking I'm in this stroller or I'd kick your ass..

Finally our kids got to big to ride in the stroller...........................um Mr X did not...We still pushed him in that thing and let our kids walk. I don't know if it was embarrassing for him but it sure was for me.


Dogs are the coolest animal I think in the world. Often I take my kids to the zoo but when I get home I realize I already have a piece of zoo at home. The amazing thing about dogs is no matter what breed you have they all have their own personality. Dogs cant understand all words but they really get the tone of your voice and they also understand a lot of expression in your face....

I often wonder if Mr X would pass away If I would get another dog?. Maybe I would but I know I will never get the same personality.

The Black Widow

Et Tu Bute/ This Boss Was Bad II

Et Tu Brute (You Too Brutus)

The thing about being stabbed in the back is you never know when its coming. For 4 years now I have worked for the worst boss in my 20 years of manufacturing. Today he was finally let go do to some bad decisions against our major investor (my boss cost his boss a boat load of money). See that's the thing about a BAD BOSS. They can mess with the employee's and stab them in the back and treat them like crap as much as they want to. But when they mess with the big boys and their money( it's Et Tu Brute time for them too).

Whenever I get a new boss I think hmmmm.... does he sound like he knows what he's talking about? Sometimes I am wowed....But then after several months I am not wowed anymore. You see I was never the smartest kid in my class and never would be. Howver I pride myself on the ability to learn new things. If I didn't know how to fix a problem at work I would write it down/ take notes and keep those records on how an issue was finally resolved. If the same issue would come up again I now had a way to solve that issue on my own. No matter how much a boss tries to impress you/ unless he is a brain surgeon or a rocket scientist you can learn his job. I am really not impressed with anyone anymore nor should you be......

See all this mumbo jumbo my boss fed me when I started I found out after 6 months its the same mumbo jumbo. He tells the same story every time but to someone new. Not only that but when there was a problem my boss was ready to fire someone/ not fix the problem so it would never occur again...No just fire someone. It got to be comical like Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner..First you fire him then rehire him etc.. I have a new theory I developed this year and that is the 6 month theory. What it means is not only should I be able to do a job and do it well in 6 months. But it also means I should know how my boss will react to the same issues over and over again by that 6 month time period. And I should be able to plan accordingly for the worst type of situation if it comes up (the one that he does not like).

Anway for the last 3 weeks I could not sleep at all. I could not figure it out until I found out my boss was getting fired....Why? For the last 6 months has done nothing. But since he was walking on pins and needles so was everyone else. I came to a realization I hated my boss so much I could not even concentrate on my job. You had to worry about making him mad and then you could be fired before he got the axe. So I have several projects that never saw the light of day which was not my fault, but if he knew about I would be on the street.

Maybe this is whats wrong with this type of boss. He is only interested in covering his ass and not fixing a problem. He was only interested in finding someone to blame. I tell you now in 20 years of Manufacturing this can stifle a company...

Well at any rate I slept great last night...

Remember Et Tu Brute!!!!!!!!!!! Sooner or later we all get what is coming to us....

Today.....My Boss Got His...

The Black Widow



Hunting Made Fun

DELTA 88 ROCKET

No childhood would be complete without your first car. Maybe I should not tell this story but its too funny not too..See I never had a Mustang or a GTO for my first car in High School I got a Delta 88 Rocket. Very similar to the photo above but my car was pea green. At first I hated the car (I got it from my Aunt for like $50.00) but the more I drove the car the more it grew on me. First off the car had a large V8 engine. When I got the car it never ran on all 8 cylinders but only 7 due to some oil in the 8th plug.When you punched it you could tell it would miss a bit. But for $50.00 I had it over 120 mph a few times when I was really having some fun. The front right wheel well was ripped up and the car looked like shit. It looked like someone had taken a huge can opener and lifted up on it several thousand times. But when I parked I never had anyone park next to me. They must have thought anyone with a car that looked this bad must have a bad driver.

We lived on a farm back then and each summer our dirt roads became very dusty. One day while driving down the dirt road dust started coming in the back of the car. I had to take evasive action and opened a window. This in turn created cabin pressure and kept the dust from coming into the car. Lucky for me I was able to think on my feet that day or I could have died from all the dust. Anyway the car was very large and a few times my friends and I took the car we had anywhere from 6 to 8 people in it. We would drive to Marshfield WI/ go shopping and then back home. That dam car had enough room for 12 people if you really crammed them in. Sometimes (and I know everyone has done this) we would put like 4 people in the car and hide the other 3 in the trunk before we went to the all night drive in theatre.

In the winter I would throw some bags of salt in the back and it would go through a lot of snow. That car was so heavy it was probably better than a front wheel car of today. If you think of a big green Sherman Tank that is really what my car was like. Except that it could go a bit over 120 and a tank cannot.

All good things must come to an end. And one summer day they did when the car finally died. See my friends and I were really goofing off and we decided to jump a bridge in our town. The bridge was an old wooden bridge built like a brick shit house. At one time as I recall someone tried to burn the bridge down. But it was built with railroad ties covered in oil (it was like invincible and could not be burned). Anyway I think we hit the bridge doing about 50. We were air born and that's when I think I shit myself. It seemed like a good idea at the time but then when we were air born I remember thinking we were going to die.


The good news is we jumped High Bridge with no problem. The bad news was when we landed we dropped the tranny brace/ the transmission and the muffler all in one fell swoop. Everyone was ok and so to be honest I was very lucky for that/ since looking back on it this was the dumbest thing I did in my life (well wait...that's another story)..

The brakes worked ok and I was able to stop the car. We got a tow from a guy who use to drive school buses in town. I think I finally sold the car for $50.00 and that guy put on another 20K miles. He was a mechanic of course and sold and bought cars all the time.

Whats the moral of this story? The great thing about US cars back then is a kid could change his own oil, spark plugs etc. The engine area always had a lot of room and most cars were built to last 12 years or more. My dad drove the same car ars for many years it was a big old blue chevy station wagon with a tree on the column (I remember 3 cars growing up total).....Today you cant work on your own car...You have to pay someone to do it.....And sometimes if your lucky you can get 5 years out of a car. Bottom line is nobody works for the same company for more than 20 years and cars are not built like they use to be.

To bad we cant just go back in time just a litte...............................................................................

The Black Widow

SHARK (HUNTING)

Disclaimer (The Black Widow reserves the right to start any sentence without a capital letter and or can start the sentence with the letter I as so he see's appropriate). oh and don't forget he/ that means me/ also reserves the right to use run on sentances.... basically i dont care about English I'm German and Irish.....

SHARK (Hunting)

We have all had some friends who have some cool nicknames in high school but I never heard of anything better than my friend Shark. Shark was a year ahead of me in school and I met him because his brother was best friends with mine. When Shark would come out on the basketball court we would all chant....Shark..Shark...Shark.... It was like a total mental thing for the competition because they thought Shark might be a great player. Ummm....no he was not but still a totally cool person and lots of fun. Shark and I did many fun things during high school but there was one story that I always remember him for.

Every year our hunting group splits up and some drive the woods and some post. On this one hunt it was up to Shark and I to post on the South end of a 40 acre woods. To the South of the woods was a corn field and in the middle of that corn field was a large clump of trees we were suppose to hide in. Shark did not show up on time so I ended up posting the tree area by myself. This drive was being pushed to the South. So basically I'm sitting there for about 20 minutes in the freezing cold and watching to the North.

No deer and no birds/ I got nothin....Twenty minutes later I see the drivers coming out to the North of me and the post is done. Shark never showed up so I think I'm going to walk out now and head to the truck. As I walk back to the road there is Shark sittin there in his car. I'm like Shark what are you doin just sitting here (Shark was hung over and late and did not think about waiting for us with his gun).

The drivers just came out so I said to Shark"It's going to be while before they come back to the truck"..."Get your gun and lets get back to the posting area and we'll have a chat while we wait for the others". As we start to walk back to the posting area just for the fun of it sure as shit....what do we see? Yes you guessed it a huge buck (A thirty pointer????).....If Shark had been sitting where he was suppose to in the first place we would have gotten that buck. That's the thing about Shark he's so easy going and easy to get along with we just laughed....Shark was like "SHIT" "I was thinkin I should wait for you guys in the woods but I stayed in the car"....No second chances in deer hunting Shark....kill or be killed.

Hunting is not only about helping the deer population and having fun. Hunting is about making some long lasting memories. Each year when I get the chance to hunt Shark pops into my brain. When I hunt I sit and think about many things going on in my life and the time that has gone by. Its really more like a time to reflect on life for me than it is to kill a deer. Family mostly is what I think about / well and work....eek..

I never said Shark was a great hunter but he was and still is a great friend...The real moral of this story is always wait for your hunting party with a gun. You just never know where and when a buck will pop up.

The Black Widow

The Ultimate Knife Fight (Steven Segal vs. Everett McGill)

Hands down the most awesome and funny Knife fight I have seen in my life.....

Last year I did a survey with my friends of actors in movies and the ultimate fights they are remembered for. Two of my all time favorite actors have always been Arnold and Steven Segal. But today I thought of another fellow (Everett McGill) who just moved up to number 3 position in my all time favorites.

My favorite fighter in the movies has always been Steven Segal. The reason is he literally slaps the shit out of every opponent.

Tommy Lee did a great job as a supporting actor in Under Siege one. But I think the biggest winner for supporting actor ever was Mr Everett McGill (Under Siege Two).

And in my eyes was one of the ultimate villains in a movie of all times..

First off the guy plays a wicked bad ASS....Not only can he sell the fact that he will kill you/ he looks in your eye like he's going to get off killing you. So add to that the power of Steven Segal slapping your ass around and you got a great fight.

So he and Steven meet in the train car and McGill pulls out his knife...Segal pulls out his knife and Mcgill has this look on his face like he just stole candy from a baby. They start fighting and beating the shit out of each other and finally about half way though the scene Segal cuts McGills coat.......And this is what I will remember forever......

McGill says something like "Dam You ruined my coat".......

Segal starts slapping the shit out of him again and finally Segal kills McGill and says "Nobody beats me in the Kitchen".....Corny as hell/ hilarious and will remember it forever.

Do you think this happens in real life? I will say I'm sure it does. After 13 years I went back and I'm reading a book called Vengeance. Its about the 1972 Olympics and the Israeli secret service who tracked down some of the people responsible for Munich. When you think things are really

messed up at your job and you can't stand people. Please remeber at least you don't have another human hunting YOU>>>>>or so I would hope.

Steven Segal vs Everett McGil (The Ultimate Knife Fight).

The Black Widow

"Cow Hunting In Wisconsin"

How many of you have gone hunting and while your posting you see a heard of cows off in the distance. And when you see the cows you think to yourself "I wonder if I could shoot that cow from here?"...... Don't lie if you've hunted you've thought about it and I know it...Especially you Greg.....See growing up on a farm up North was great and so was the hunting (lots of neighbors had woods). And of course with every hunt sometimes you had to be careful about not shooting towards the cows. But when I moved to Southern WI in my older age I was driving to work one day and saw some cows. I thought to myself I have not thought about cow hunting for years.

See I think that you should be able to legally hunt cows in WI. To be honest farmers don't get paid much for raising a cow and this would be a way for them to raise money and stay in business. I mean we have all gone to the pheasant farms and paid for birds right? We have all gone to the Big Game farms and hunted big Elk right? Well hows about we legalize Cow Hunting?Sure: I know what your thinking how could cow hunting be challenging? Well what is so challenging about going to a big deer farm and waiting for a deer to come out that has been spoon fed from birth? Here is how we make cow hunting fun for hunters a challenge.

First we must pick the weapon of choice and you must follow this guidline. Let's say that you can only hunt the cows with a 20 gage single shot shotgun. And the limit of bullets you get is only 3. To make it fair you can only hunt the cow from 7 am till 3 pm (we have to give the cow a chance and some rest for the next days hunt). Now every farmer has to have a 200 acre area that the the cow is released into (this gives the cow a chance). You get 3 bullets and 3 different spots that you can shoot from (each distance is 300 yards minimum/ if you want to get to 200 yards you have to pay the farmer more ......and 100 yards is the closest you can get). If you cant hit the cow with the shotgun from one spot you can move to spot 2, 3 etc. Remember you only have 3 bullets...choose your shot wisely.

Also to make the hunt more fun you can sit there and call the cow...MOOOOOOOOO.....Let's try that call again...MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo.......Sometimes you may get lucky and he or she will come running for you.....Sometimes the cow may sit there and just chew it's cud and look at you like your a dum ass / that is what most cows do anyway.... To me I love the taste of beef over deer and the short of it is cows dont live forever. All Im saying today is let's give the farmers a chance to survive/ and give us hunters a hunt we can cherish forever/ and give the cow the knowledge that he or she made a difference in someones life. Let's put a positive perspective on Cow Hunting In Wisconsin.

The Black Widow

4 Tactics For Hunting Bigfoot

Two things I have always been fascinated with are Aliens and Bigfoot. For today's story we will cover Big Foot because I probably would have a better chance of hunting him than Aliens. Anyway we have all seen the classic photo of Bigfoot walking in the deep forests of California. And recently there was a group of guys who said they got Bigfoot (see the photo of Bigfoot in the cooler). Only to find out that even after the press showed up of course the Big Foot was a fake. And then there are those adds where the guy in a car offers Bigfoot some beef jerky and then speeds away....fricken classic. My point is even if its garbage everyone or at least most people love hearing this shit.

Well here are my first thoughts when it comes to Fantasy Hunting......I would love to hunt Big Foot. But there is a problem right now with how people are hunting him. Most times I see guys with a rifle with a scope. Or they are riding horses and probably being watched by Big Foot. See I don't think Bigfoot is very nice and I don't' think he wants to be found. And if he is found that fkr is not going to lay down and die. He is going to eat you just as soon look at you. So having said that I have come up with 4 tactics on how I would hunt Big Foot.

TACTIC #1

First off no rifle with a scope (why?). If Bigfoot found you he is going to come at you probably from the top of a tree (like a wood tick jumping down on his prey). Your not going to have time to find Big Foot in a scope. No I totally recommend what I think is becoming my weapon of choice the AA-12. If that beast so much as winks in your direction you open up on him with 300 rounds per minute. Whats more the AA-12 has a range of about 300 yards. And if that ain't enough you can literally mow down the trees before Big Foot has a chance to hide behind them. If you can afford one I highly recommend you pick one up.

TACTIC #2

Another issue could arise in the fact that maybe Big Foot gets the drop on you and knocks the AA-12 out of your hands. This is a tough spot for you because now he's going to grab your throat and take a bite. Whoa....big fella its time you say hello to my little friends (Smith and Wesson pistols)...Pull one of these 500's out of your ass / shoot first and ask questions later. For roughly $1400 dollars you can pick up a little added protection.

TACTIC #3

Big Foot might be immune to bullets (or at least might be able to take a lot of pain) so one of your final options would be to defend yourself with a knife. You can pick one of these up at Wall mart or any hardware store. You always have to have a knife for hunting and or when hunting Big Foot.

TACTIC #4

Above all this is most important....please listen carefully. One thing I have noticed in all the shows I have watched is there is always 2 people hunting Big Foot at one time. Why the hell is that I have thought for all of these years? Today it just dawned on me....If tactic #1 - #3 fail you need someone to knock down so Big Foot kills him first. That should give you an extra minute to close the distance between you and your truck...Now if you 3 miles in the woods I would say you better be a great runner.......................And after trying to kill Big Foot with guns and knives he probably ain't going to like you very much. Its ok to break down and cry as your running for the truck....Bottom line I would guess Big Foot, if he's really out there is like that first movie "Predator"....and he was an mother f........Come to think about it he didnt like being hunted either...

Happy Hunting....

The Black Widow

High Tech Weapons vs Old School 30-30

Recently I read a post in which a hunter was sick of hearing about automatic weapons. A thought had occurred to me that he is right. To me automatic weapons are cool but they are more for fantasy hunting (which is kind of what my blog is about). They look cool in the movies but when you come right down to it not many people use them for deer hunting. If I'm wrong on this subject I would love to know where your from and where you hunt (Don't get me wrong I also love automatic weapons and I'm just asking). Anyway in my mind a good hunter is not made by the gun a good hunter is made by how he or she is taught to hunt. I will give you 2 examples of why I think this is true.

Example 1: When I was growing up the first thing I did was take hunters safety. I learned how to carry a gun/ store it/clean it/ what I could point the gun at etc. To this day the first thing I think about before I shoot a gun is where are my counterparts are in a hunt. The second thing I think about is where are the surrounding farms ( I never in my 42 years have shot towards a house or farm). And the third thing I think about is do I have my safety off now that I am posting. I've seen a few good hunters miss deer this way.

These three things are good but they do not make me a good hunter. They make me a safe hunter yes but here is what makes me a good hunter. I know where I am at all times vs the woods and other hunters from my parties and other hunting parties in the area. This is important because I want to know where I can shoot and if a deer suddenly pops into my kill zone I don't have to hesitate to shoot at it. And if I have a 1 mile shot I plan accordingly on what gun I'm posting with (sometimes depending on where we are for posting we will swap guns on a certain drive). A 30-30 is my all time favorite but If I have the longer shot I want the 243 or 30-06 with a scope. Here the automatic super heat seeking shot gun would be great too but lets face it I actually like eating my deer and don't want it blown apart.

Example 2 (Munich). In 1972 there were some Israeli Olympians killed which was not a good idea. The book I'm thinking about was called Munich I think and it was a great story. See the thing I remember about that book was how and what guns the Israeli government gave their team to track down the Black September members. In the book If I recall they simply used a 22 caliper gun. The whole time I was reading this book I was thinking what? a 22?????? The Israeli government was training a team of assassins in this book with only 22's? Dam them....I want high power stuff. The point as I remember it from the story the guy doing the training said something to the point of this. We want this as up close and personal as possible/ we want people to know we can get you any time any where.....And he said anybody can kill anybody all you need are two things....Time.....and Money......His point was you have to plan a kill and get up close to your enemy. You don't need a high power rifle for this you just wait till your enemy slips up. He's out drinking and not paying attention and you walk up and pop.pop....he's lying on the floor.

What I'm getting at here to make a long story is a good hunter / Plans his or her hunt. You don't just show up with the wrong rifle or your really not a good hunter. On the other hand to much fire power if your not use to it will not do you any good/ You will Miss.....Im guessing the majority of hunters out there are not trained with automatic weapons. If you are then you have a hand up on the rest of us (or do you?).

Plan The Hunt......

The Black Widow

ULTIMATE HUNTING TRUCKS

Im always thinking of one thing for fantasy hunting and that is the ultimate hunting truck. Today I started looking at the FMTV from Stewart and Stevenson and the M-ATV from Oshkosh Truck. But then my mind did something I did not think could happen today. What is that? Initially my ultimate fantasy hunts were sky is the limit "spare no expense". But todays blog is really gearing it to the average joe as far as cost is concern. Why is that interesting? Well after seeing who made the trucks above I'm beginning to think you really can have an ultimate fantasy truck.

The trucks above were modified by a company in Texas called Whitetail Trucks. What I think is totally cool about these trucks is anyone can grab their truck and modify it to what you want. You dont have to go buy and Military SUV I mean lets be practical. Take a look these babies/ the ford 150 is very much to my liking. For moving 10 guys like my hunting party I really love the SUV above. But lets face it in todays post Im going with the ultimate hunting truck with the sniper tower.

Imagine that when your hunting....being able to pull up next to a 40 acre woods and get the tower in position. Now also think about WI with our 40 below windchill. I could see adding one more modification to this and that is an indoor heating system. Right now Im not sure what is cooler about this truck. The fact that some guy down in Texas actually dreamed it up "We're Not Worthy"......Or that fact that a group of guys down in Texas put this sum bitch together...."We Are Also Not Worthy"........

My initial fantasy truck was a Hum V with an automatic weapon mounted on the back. But the Ford 350 above gives you the ultimate sniping power one can only dream about. Not to mention the lower tower which can also be used....Un .........B..........Lieve......ABLE>>>>>>>>.

ULTIMATE FANTASY HUNTING TRUCK>>>>>>>>CASE CLOSED>.......

Now if I can only fullfill my quest for the Ultimate Hunting Rifle.

The Black Widow.

Ground Swatting In Gilman WI

GroundSwatting


Today I want to talk about a hunting lodge in Gilman WI. The place is called Big Rock Hunting Preserve. They do not remember me but I remember them well. You see its been over 10 years since I was able to hunt there. Somewhere along the line I had kids, moved away from that area and have never have gotten back. Anyway the folks at Big Rock were always very friendly and they made the hunt fun. What type of hunt? Well if I remember they would release Quail and some other fowl and then you would go shoot them. They had a few 40 acre spots that they would put the birds on and then you simply show up and let the shooting begin.

Now as all my readers know I'm not a hunting professional or a professional writer / I just love to hunt. The reason I'm writing today is I have a confession to make. At that time we had our normal hunting party and we did not have hunting dogs so we drove each field and then I posted on the end of it. We did not do this at first but we soon learned that if it was raining outside the birds would not fly. The little sneaky bastards would run from one hunting patch to another. So instead of jumping up into the sky and letting us shoot them they simply ran off (the nerve of them).

Enter what I called groundswatting and here is my confession. See we were not suppose to shoot the birds on the ground that was a rule at Big Rock. Now if your a rule type of hunter you would not have shot the birds as so directed. But we really looked at that as more of a guideline. Our group as an example playing sheaped (she ped) cheat like a mother f......So do you think we were really going to follow that rule ?.....(no). After a full morning of hunting and getting no birds we dropped the rule and started driving the birds to me at the posting side. It was like shooting frogs in a pond they just came to me at the edge of the sorghum patch and bam they were groundswatted. When they came out of that patch and they saw you there, the look in their eyes was like "Shit".......After your hunt at Big Rock they use to clean your birds for you. When the owner looked at some of our birds and noticed they at a lot of bbs....He said you guys did not shoot any of these on the ground did you? OOOOOOHHHHH>>>>NOOOOOO....not us......(the things you find funny when your a younger kid).

The other reason I remember this hunt so well is for a couple of things. The first thing I remember after this hunt was the thought (how can I love bird hunting more than deer hunting) ? Then I thought (the amount of bird shooting I got in was huge and that was totally cool). I don't love anything more than deer hunting. But when your paying for the birds and they are like waiting in a field for you to shoot its worth it. Your never going to hunt Quail in the woods and get that much shooting. When you look at the total of birds that day we probably got 15 to 20 birds. And If I recall its somewhere in the neighborhood of $20.00 a bird. But the thing is Big Rock gave us a deal on our cabin so the night before our hunting party was able to have a lot of family time (drinking and eating chilli/ playing cards and talking smart). That was the coolest thing of all and I still have the photos from all those years ago. Big Rock made you feel welcome and treated you like a family. If you ever get to Northern WI check out Big Rock Hunting Preserve I totally recommend it. Just remember one thing.....Dont confess to groundswatting........


The Black Widow

It Was Huge (ah really more like a goat)

Take a good look at deer in the woods on the left. Not only is it exciting to have them run by you its exciting just to watch them (they are truly beautiful). Now take a look at the little goat in the photo above. This goat is really not that much bigger than my shitzu. He's very cute but in todays example he's about the size of a deer Dan and Mousey shot one day (yes I'm being sarcastic/ the doe was legal but the first thing I thought of when I saw the deer was a goat).


So here is where we our story beigins for today. It was a dark and stormy night the night before our hunt. The wind blew our house rattled as the snow infested our siding. The morning after it was like Christmas the world was a blanket of snow. It was like 40 below (OK I'm stretching it a bit). Anyway we were going to hunt my favorite piece of woods that day. Why was it my favorite piece of woods? Because when it comes to hunting I'm really only there to see my family and not spend much energy. This woods is about a 1/2 mile from my parents house and to say the least its easy to walk through (no tag alters/ not much brush etc). Plus the big bonus is when you kill the 30 pointer you only have to walk a small distance grab a truck and then get home before noon for some chili...Did I mention the fact I really love chili?


So Geoff and I are driving the woods to the south with our dad. Funny thing about driving a woods you never know sometimes where you come out. On this day Geoff and I came out fairly close together. Before we did we heard what I thought was an automatic rifle. Of course it was Dan and Mousey on the West side shooting at a big buck? that must have come out. You know when your driving a woods and you hear gun shots its like yea....we got one....... Well Geoff and I were really full of anticipation on this one because we heard lots of excited screams and yells.


We headed west toward the posters. Now again let me say this part again because this is important to the story. Geoff and I were driving the woods south and we were suppose to have a poster there. But both our boys were on the West end. And whats more about 3/4 of a mile away from where Geoff and I came out. The point here first of all is we left a lot of open space. But as it turns out in the 3/4 mile apparently our doe looked much bigger to Dan and Mousey. As the photo above shows that's about how big the doe was.

There are a couple of points to this story. First we never came out of a woods where we thought. And when you tell a poster where he should be he may be thinking of a different area of the hunt. And finally when your hunting with us never, ever get to excited about guns going off. You really never know what your going to get until you walk up and actually see it. As it was I took the deer threw it over my shoulder and walked home for chili. That is after my brother Geoff the Dr. had to field dress the deer. We call my brother Geoff the Dr. The joke is the deer is laying there all bloody after being shot and we need the Dr. to save him. Usually the Dr.s patients never survive. Well unfortunately after many years of hunting the Dr. has not saved one patient. But that is another story.


The Black Widow

The Green Van Vrs DNR Restrictions

Later in my years I found its hard to get all the brothers together for hunting. We had a great group but it was not only my dad but my 2 brothers and 2 of my brothers best friends we will call them Shark and Mousey. Now Mousey was older and a great guy as was Shark (we will talk about Shark in tomorrows story). Anyway my parents farm was about 1 mile from any of the woods we would hunt. Each year Mousey would show up with the van. The thing about the van was Mousey and Sharks parents use to run a milk and ice cream store. So there were no seats in the van. So what Mousey would do was he would put milk carton crates on the floor and we would sit on them. And if we got a deer we would throw it in the back of the van and we could always spray it out the blood that is. There were times when we would have 4 or 5 deer in that van with 7 people sitting on milk cartons (totally comical).

The issue with this van was the seating. The longer you rode in the van the more your back would kill you because of the crates. Not to mention the fact that when you hit the brakes the crates and you would slide forward. In otherwords you had to work at sitting and staying in one spot. Mousey would always drive and my brother Dan would sit in the front with him stagging up the smell of the van with a corncob pipe. My brother was also one for saying "Mousey Stop the Truck I want to get out and shoot that deer".

Well it got me thinking one time I told Dan you know you can only hunt like 75' off the road or whatever the stipulation was. The going joke from that day forward was Dan said "I can hunt right from that ditch if I want too". Now of course he was joking but you know how each year when you buy that hunting liscense there is a ton of rules? The DNR is very strict about those rules so just fyi you really are wise to follow them or the DNR might want your truck and or your rifle and some money.

But the point of hunting is getting together with friends and family. Having some of moms awesome chili and maybe a bacardi or two. And yes the rule book from the DNR? Well in our household we read it every year and think of the rules we would like to break and how we would like to rewrite certain pages. And its always important to have a truck that you can get bloody, dirty or even hairy from a deer. We have also found it fun to take the van out in my fathers farm and drive around and talk about the old days. We dont do much hunting at that point but we are together and its always nice to see your family. Some day they are not going to be there and its nice to make memories.

That dam green van went for about 20 years (we used it about 10 years of hunting). Dont know what ever happened to it but I will never forget it.

The Black Widow

Lat -90 39' 35.016" Lon 45 2' 16.967 The Hunt

If you have read my first several posts and have not picked up on this yet I love hunting, military equipment, high tech gadgest and just having fun. Todays story is about traveling light having what you need and still giving the deer a chance at survival. As I mentioned before when I grew up I did not have much money. My dad always hunted with his 30-30 winchester and to this day he still has the gun. The thing I loved about that gun compared to some of the 30-06 and 243s out there today was it weight. The other thing I still loved was its a quick gun in the bush to get a deer in your sites.

Now I suppose and I cant argue that if your posting its great to have a 243 with a nice scope. But where we hunt you are always posting and or your driving through a bunch of tagalters or some kind of cover for deer. To me at this point heavy guns get in the way and if your not good with a scope forget it. Bottom line I guess Im getting old and I just prefer open sites. The coordinates above are for an old hunting area in Lublin WI. Not sure your familiar with WI but the only thing Lublin had when I was growing up was lots of wooded areas. None the less its beautiful country and now I wish I could get back there more often.

The lat and lon I enclosed was very close to an old yellow house we use to rent back in the day. The property was close to woods and if you wish pull up the coordinates and check it out. To the West was a very large woods and in the center was a large open area maybe about a 10 acre spot. This area to me would be a great spot for a single guy hunting. You could either post in the middle of this woods and wait for people to drive some deer to you (while your in the clearing). Or if no deer were moving you could walk the area of woods and then watch the center (or open area ) for something you may have flushed out.

Regardless of what you do there are 3 must haves for a hunt. Like the 30-30 rifle that is quick on the draw (open sites). Maybe some binoculars and a good knife that can cut through bone like the buck knife I enclosed. Obviously a saw would be nice to cut throught the pelvic bone but you know those also cost some money. The hunting party I use to hunt with use to hunt the same property over and over so we never needed to look at a map since we knew the hunting areas. But as you get older it seems like hunting land is becoming a bit harder to come by.

To finish this story I guess I kind of consider myself a hunter with gorilla warfare tactics. Get in and travel light and be able to get out quickly if need be. As I mentioned yesterday there is nothing like being out in the woods without phones and people bothering you all day.

Before I go I'm wondering what my fellow gun hunters out there like to hunt with (open sites or scope and why) and im also wondering how many of you ever never hunt the same area twice. And if you dont how are you planning your hunt (maps etc). What Im really after today is my hunting land in WI is drying up. I'm sure Wisconsin has a lot of Public Hunting Land. Is there any place to go to find these areas that might have GPS coordinates?

The Black Widow

The Black Widow/ Extreme Hunting/ Fantasy Hunting

Before I begin todays post let me completely stress that the below post is only a story in my mind and a thought I have had it for years (Its a joke and I would never do anything like this) Its Fantasy Hunting. Oh and one more thing I'm not here to market products that are discussed in this story. I'm simply a hunter who fricken loves high tech equipment and awesome guns.....

We have all heard of Fantasy Football but how many of you have heard of Fantasy Hunting? I use this term and I dont know of anyone else that does. When I hunt I think of many different guns that I would love to have or knives. But sometimes this one hunt in my mind keeps coming back. But now because of new technology "the hunt" as I call it has changed.

Up North where I hunt there is a 40 acre piece of woods (lets call this piece for today's story / Sector 5) in the center of another 4 woods. So if you can picture this you have sector 5 in the middle and to the right at 1:00 is another woods/ 4:00 is another woods/ 11:00 you have another woods and at 8:00 is the final woods. Each of these woods are about 1000 yards away from Sector five.

Each time I have hunted this property the wind blows from all directions. And if you post in the wrong spot the deer will take off to one of the other woods. Its a crap shoot every time we hunt there but I gotta tell ya if your in the right area its a hunters dream for sniping a deer. My fantasy as I call it on sector 5 has to been to infiltrate the enemy (deer). Hit them hard at their resting place and have the area surrounded. But how can you do this with only a 5 man team?

Its simple (Enter the Himars Rocket Launcher) the (AA12 Automatic Shotgun) and the (Barrett 50 Caliber Sniper Rifle). With these three tools after 20 years of hunting this area I could be at piece of mind knowing that we got every deer in that area. Again let me be clear you have all heard about Fantasy Football and this is my Fantasy Hunt.....make no mistake its a Fantasy...

So think about this, with the rocket launcher you simply position this baby about 1 mile away or 1/2 mile.....(the choice is yours).....Now you take your five guys with the sniper rifles and position them about 500 yards from sector 5. And finally each of the 5 guys has on their back an AA12 Automatic Shotgun (I"ll tell you why shortly). To begin the hunt you simply fire about 3 or 4 rockets into sector five. Whatever deer are not killed in those areas are going to run like crazy to get away from that area. Now the 5 guys with the Barrett Rifles have a fighting chance to shoot any deer trying to escape. They , at 500 yards also have a choice to chose a buck and or a doe (oh one flaw in my fantasy is the rocket cannot stipulate weather or not it kills a buck or a doe fawn etc). At least in my Fantasy with the Barrett rifle they have a fighting chance of sniping a deer.

Having said that I will say my fantasy has always included sniper rifles and a rocket launcher. But recently I saw a show about the AA12 Automatic shotgun and it has now been implemented into my fantasy hunt. So the scenerio goes like this/ you've fired your rockets/ and killed most of the deer. You have now sniped up the most of the straglers that were tyring to get away into the other 4 woods. But now its clean up time. Every deer who has not been sniped and or blown up with a rocket is really not going to be happy and I would say if he has the chance is going to want to run you over an gauge you.

So my ultimate fantasy is to finish cleaning up with sector five with the AA. If you remember my post from yesterday I had a hard time killing a deer without a scope. With the AA there is no need to fear a buck tyring to kill you. Its simply the most awesome automatic weapon I have ever seen (please note I know what your thinkin....hey what about the new Gatlin gun you can mount on Suvs or Helicopters).....Well come on I mean we have to give the deer a chance.... At any rate you can now just walk into sector 5 and clean up what is left. If a buck attacks you , you throw about 60 bullets a second at him and I doubt he has much of a chance (which really is the point of this story).

Then to finish the story and I know up North at this time you now bring in the Himar truck and transport your deer to the local store to register. Its not only hunting made easy but its Fantasy Hunting and Extreme Hunting. Does anyone else out there have a Fantasy Hunt they have been playing with in their mind for years?

The Black Widow.