After taking a few weeks off from blogging, I’ve got the urge to get writing again and today I have finished the first step in our new food plots.  Read the rest of this entry »

     Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing Steve Scott, the Vice President of Whitetail Institute of North America about the basics of food plots.  As you may already know, Whitetail Institute of North America produces seeds for various crops that are designed for wild game food plots.  Below you will find a few of the basic questions I asked and the answers he gave. Read the rest of this entry »

     Last night I had the pleasure of meeting yet another listener of my Up North Journal podcast.  John Fleming is from Minnesota, he and his eleven year old son made the trip to Michigan yesterday to do a hog hunt.  John and I had been emailing back and forth about the hunt and we made plans to meet since the hog ranch was near where I live.

     They rolled into town last night and we met at the local archery range I shoot at, that way he could check his equipment before he headed out on his hunt.  When he arrived he had a nice gift for Mikey (my son and co-host of Up North Journal).  He brought him a beautiful numbered and limited edition goose print.  Since he isn’t a waterfowler, he knew Mikey would love it.  He was right, Michael was floored and very greatful!  Then he proceeded to floor me!

     He told me he wasn’t done with his gifts.  He began to tell the story of his recent deployment to Iraq and how they recieved a package for their service for our country and defending it’s freedoms!  In this package was five things that he was supposed to give away to others he felt deserving for defending the great freedoms we all enjoy here in our great nation.  He then told me that even though I didn’t fight in combat, but he felt I along with my son and the Up North Journal crew fight and defend our freedoms through the podcast each and every week!  My jaw hit the floor!  I was speechless! 

     I do promote hunting, fishing and the great outdoors along with our second amendment rights!  But that is easy compared to what this man has done by giving of his life and time to defend our freedoms!  I want to thank John for his gift and more importantly thank him for his dedication and giving of his life and his time for defending our great nation and freedoms! 

     John is currently serving in the Minnesota Army National Guard and we here at the Up North Journal thank him and all of our servicemen and women for what they do along with all of those that have served our nation!

     If you see a serviceman or woman make sure and thank them for their service!  Once again thank you John for the great gift, I will treasure it forever!

     This last weekend I had the opportunity to share a special moment with a new friend while out hunting.  This veteran hunter never had the pleasure of hunting the elusive wild turkey here in Michigan.  After we had got to know each other after chatting on a web forum and then eventually meeting each other one afternoon, we began to plan an outing to try and get him his first bird. Read the rest of this entry »

                                                                                   What a wild week for the Up North Journal Team!  Turkey season is in full swing and I had the opportunity to guide a first time turkey hunter this weekend.  I managed to call in not one, not two, but four toms for him to choose from.  He took the double bearded tom out of the bunch!  We cover that story this week along with a nice interview with the Vice President of Whitetails Institute on the basics of food plots and what they can do for the health fo the deer herd.

Mikey covers the basics of a do it yourself turkey fan taxidermy job in this week’s Mikey’s Game Bag, then I cover a few of the new crossbows we recieved to kick off our crossbow review this spring.  Check out what else the Up North Journal crew has been up to this week by listening to this week’s installment of the Up North Jouranl podcast.