All posts by Jon Bryan

Sports

The Texans Score Big Win

This past weekend Stumpy and his Senior Softball team, The Texans, participated in, and won their age group in The Tournament Of Champions, held in Lakeland, Florida! This event, sponsored by Senior Softball USA, is made up of teams that in 2008 won state, regional or national championship tournaments and represents the best of the best in senior softball.
The Texans, proudly showing their championship trophy and grins, beat a very good team from the Cape Cod, Mass. area 22-21, having to rally in the bottom of the seventh inning from a 21-14 deficit. The rally is only half of the story. The Texans trailed 21-14 with 2 outs and the bases empty, but 8 hits and one walk later, they pulled out the amazing victory!

In 2008, Stumpy and The Texans played 68 games with a record of 52 wins and 16 losses. They won the 70 plus, Texas State Championship and the Softball Players Association, National Championship and finished second in the other 2 major association’s tournaments.

This year, the season started early and The Texans are looking to repeat their championship performance in 2009. Their second tournament in 2009 will be held in Georgetown, Texas in late March.

Sports

Softball Starts Early

Softball in January? Yes, softball season is starting early this year. January 9,10 and 11, Layla and I will be in Lakeland, Florida and I will be participating in the Tournament Of Champions. We will be playing 8 champions from other states and regions. The Texans, qualified for this event by winning the Texas State Championship in June of last year.

Here, as manager for the State Championship Tournament, I’m accepting the trophy for my team.

TexansChampsSPA9-08

Everyone is smiling as we won the Softball Players Assoc., National Championship last September.

With no practice or game time under our belts for the past 3 months we don’t know what to expect, but with each man on our team having over 60 years experience, we should be able to call on this and come out OK. At least Lakeland’s weather forecast is for highs in the mid 70’s and lows in the low 50’s. Not bad for January!

Hunting

A Whopper

Dad is all smiles, and his son, the lucky hunter, is beaming over the very nice, mature, buck he shot in late, December at the {RRR Ranch}, here in Mills County. The buck scored a gross of 130 B&C and netted 126.
The buck has a very wide spread for Mills County, but these older deer look much different post rut having slimmed down and lost up to 30% of their body weight.
Now for ‘the rest of the story’.
Pictured are the 2007 sheds for this deer.
This year’s gross score 130, last year 126. Base in 2008 was 4.2 inches, 2007, 4.0. G-1 was 3.1 this year and 3.0 last. G-2 in 2008 was 11.1 last year was 10.0. G-3 in 2008 was 9 last year was 8.3. This deer had reached maturity and had added no points but 4 inches overall!
This was a real nice trophy for the young hunter!

Weather

Weather

Getting up yesterday morning and “putting another log on the fire”, I looked outside and noticed moisture, sleet/rain, was falling and the temperature was 31 degrees. Locally, for the past 4 months, we’ve been without any significant rain, so this steady fall was a blessing! Having to drive over to Brownwood, 33 miles west of Goldthwaite, on my trip over and back, there was ice all over my truck and I noticed patches of ice on the highway that held my speed to under 55 MPH. It rained and sleeted all day and the temperature never exceeded 32. Not a good day for any outside work.

Opening up my e-mail, Randy Pfaff sent me a picture of the snow at his place in southwestern Colorado.

This reminded me that we had snow here in Goldthwaite on Easter day of 2007 and Layla and I went out and took some pictures of the blue bonnets and Spanish daggers. That year our bluebonnets, the State flower of Texas, were beautiful! In 2008, no rain in the fall and no bluebonnets!

This picture shows our tractor ‘marooned’ in the snow. Layla’s batting practice, pitching screen is in the background. At that time, we were already 3 tournaments into our 2007 softball season, so this snow caught us off guard!
Snow is a lot ‘more funner and prettier’ that sleet and ice!

Hunting

Cats

The last couple of weeks several of my friends have sent me pictures of cats in the wild.

Dave Lazor started it with a picture of a big, mountain lion in central Washington. Dave and I spent a lot of time together playing senior softball and fishing for speckled trout, but he’s moved back home to Washington. No more speck fishing but the lucky guy gets to fish for steelheads and salmon!

A local Goldthwaite man, Clayton Gist, sent me a picture of a big, 28, pound, female Bobcat he trapped the last week of December. This is the second big one he has trapped in the past two months. November 30th I posted a story,{“Clayton’s Bobcat”} along with a picture of the cat.

 

Randy Pfaff followed these up with a picture of a fine, mountain lion he shot in Colorado. Randy was Warren Blesh’s guide for the nice muley that Warren shot in November and it was pictured along with several other pictures from Randy, in {“Pictures from Randy Pfaff, Outfitter, Colorado”.}

Mills County has a lot of sheep and goats and they draw bobcats like “flies to honey”. We have one that lives around our place and , maybe, I’ll get a shot at, or of it, this turkey/predator season?

And, we also have a lot of cattle and deer, and they draw mountain lions. The closest lion was killed 2 years ago about 20 miles south of my place. They haven’t moved any closer, but who knows, maybe this year?

Hunting, Uncategorized

Paul’s First Deer

Paul’s First Deer

Layla and our 2 Daughters, along with 2 of our Grandchldren, Colton, age 2+, and Mikayla, Age, -1 were visiting at our house in Houston, while Mike Mitchell and Paul Culbertson, our 2 Son-In-Laws and I had taken this opportunity to crowd in a day and a half of Deer and Quail hunting at my “Big Country” lease at Millersview, in Concho County.

Driving to Goldthwaite, I picked up the boys and we hurried the 55 miles to the lease. Arriving, Mike who had been working all day, decided to take a shower, while Paul and I choose Deer hunting.

During past hunting trips to the lease I had scouted for Deer extensively and had come up with several spots that showed promise. One of these was a dead mesquite that overlooked a game trail leading to the stock tank 200 yards south, and as Paul scrooched down behind the tree, I spread out several hands full of corn along the trail to, hopefully, coerce a buck to stop and take a bite. I headed a half mile, to the north, along another game trail, spread some more corn and climbed into a 15 foot Deer blind, tower.

The wind picked up from the east, 12 to 15 MPH, as I checked my watch, 4:15 P.M. and began to scan my immediate area. Here came a Turkey, he’s got a beard, so I just watched it nibble at the corn. The rancher leases the ranch to a Turkey outfitter in the spring and doesn’t allow us to shoot one. The 2,000 acre, ranch had hundreds of the wily birds, so all I could do was watch!

The wind picked up and here came more Turkeys, toms and hens, and they vacuumed up all of the corn I had put down. Counting over 40 big, birds, I continued to scan for horns. No luck, I only spotted several does, no bucks, so when it became too dark to shoot, I climbed down and walked back toward Paul.

Hearing no shot, I didn’t anticipate the smile on his face and he’s not behind his stump, but standing beside a downed Deer. Walking up to him, I saw it was a nice buck and counting 9 points, I said, “I never heard you shoot!” He replied, “Around 5:15 the buck came walking along the trail, stopped and took a bite of corn, and bam, down he went. I’ve been sitting here admiring him.” Below is a picture that Paul snapped the next morning of his first Deer hanging on my windmill.
We headed back to the camp house and found Mike dressed and packed. He had just gotten a call from Laura that Mikayla had pneumonia and they had checked her into the hospital and for him to come to Houston, 5 ½ hours away, ASAP!

We hurriedly cleaned the Deer, packed, loaded up, stopped the Deer and Paul off in Goldthwaite and headed on to Houston. Mikayla recovered nicely and today she is a beautiful, 7th grader!

Shooting

Practice Makes Perfect

Pistol shooting practice time this past Saturday afternoon for Wesley Culbertson, my Grandson, furnished us with a very unusual hit on a clay pigeon target. The kids like to shoot them because they shatter so easy! Not this one!


Like any good Texan, Wesley’s first shot drilled it dead center, but the clay bird remained intact. His second shot clipped the top off and his third one demolished it!

Wesley has been practicing pistol shooting and pistol safety with his Dad, Paul, and the 9 year old has certainly made progress. Pistols can be tricky to shoot and hit a target with any regularity. Some secrets that Wesley has already picked up – keep your finger off of the trigger until you’re ready to shoot, have a good grip, get a good sight picture, then squeeze, don’t jerk. This holds for a .22 up to a .45 auto.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Here Wesley and his Mom, Suzanne are taking shots and hitting the clay birds.

Both of them are good shots and are safe shooters, but they should straighten up their posture a little.Three generations practicing our shooting sports, not bad!

 

 

Politics

Lee Wallace’s Thoughts

Rereading my Great Uncle, Lee Wallace’s book, “Waif Of The Times”, I came across some of his ‘thoughts’ about income taxes and wealth redistribution. Lee’s writings spanned a time period of 1900 to 1930 and definitely covered 1913, the year the 16th amendment to our Constitution was passed, eventually giving us the IRS.

Lee was a staunch Democrat and elected official – County Attorney, District Judge and received an appointment by Pres. Roosevelt to become a Federal Judge, but turned it down because of his health. It turns out he had successful surgery and lived 22 more years. He should have taken up FDR on his offer!

After the Civil War ended, and for the next 100 years, Texas and the entire South was almost 100% Democrat. As the liberals and elitists encroached on our society and government, the South and Texas became more conservative and Republican. Lee’s thoughts, written almost 100 years ago, echo true to this day.

“If you take away from me the things I have earned without my consent you are a robber. If you give it or part to another, you make a robber out of him.”

“I hate you for taking my earnings without my consent; I hate the one you give it to for accepting it, and you both hate me for hating you because you know that I know you robbed me.”

“A thief always hates a sheriff, not that the sheriff has done the thief any wrong but because the sheriff is in the business of competing with the thief.”

Feelings were obviously high against the recently passed income tax. I believe we, that pay the taxes, still feel that way in 2008!

Hunting

Nailed

Putting this hunt in perspective, winter started 5 days ago and this fall, we’ve only enjoyed two cold snaps with freezing temps. Being a 5th generation Texan, I call myself a ‘flatlander’, have thin blood, am adverse to cold and cold to me is 45. But like most men, a little self-punishment is good for the body.

Monday morning in Mills County, Texas was foggy, the temp was 27 and it was way too cold to go sit in a blind, but Monday afternoon was different. It was cloudy, 34 degrees with a southeast wind of 10-15 MPH, and a wind chill of around 23. Rather than stay in by the nice warm fire, I decided to go hunting and try to shoot a big doe and I picked a tree stand overlooking a small food plot. Since the deer have over grazed the plot and we’ve had very little rain in the past 2 months, I use the term, food plot, as a description only!

With my .270 unloaded, climbing up into the stand, I was about 15/16th in and just sliding into the seat when I saw movement on the edge of the plot and I froze. About 80 yards away, a yearling doe picked that time to came out and browse a little. Not being able to move, I felt kinda’ silly “half in and half out’, but all I could do was just remain in that cramped position.

Then out comes a big doe, a shooter, obviously the yearling’s mom, and she starts grazing. No scent problem since the cold wind is off of the deer, blowing into my face and both of them have their rear ends toward me and as I ‘scrooch’ down into the seat, up go their tails and they bolt off! The sound of cloth on cloth must have spooked them.

Finally loading my rifle and tying my camera to a convenient limb, I settle in and wait for another doe or a good picture. Being ‘bucked out’ since the 8th day of the season all I can shoot are does and we have plenty of them!

The longer I sit, the colder I get. The wind ‘finds’ every crack and space in my garb, even the eyes of my shoelaces. Of course, being cold and thinking about it only makes me ‘more’ colder. My thoughts race – “Maybe another doe won’t come by?” “Maybe not even a picture opportunity?” “Maybe it’s too cold to even clean one?”

Just then a spike comes out of a trail not 20 yards to my front and turns and stares at me. He must be thinking, “What in the world are you doing out in this weather?”

As he ambles on down the trail, I answer that question for him, climb out of the stand and head back to my Jeep. No deer today, and as my Dad said many years ago, “Boy, don’t worry about today’s bad hunt. Just remember if it was easy each time out, it would be called shooting instead of hunting!”