Bright Idea Outdoors Weblog

Loudoun Was Excluded from Youth Hunt Because of Early Bow Season

When I recently published my post on Virginia's Sept. 26 Youth Deer Hunt, I mentioned that my home county of Loudoun and two other Northern Virginia jurisdictions had been excluded from the event.  I assumed that was because we already have an archery season in progress at that time, but one reader suggested to me that perhaps it was because of anti-hunting sentiment in this part of the state.

I told the young deer slayer that I don't get much of an anti-hunting vibe from anyone around here, but I checked with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries anyway to find out for sure.  According to DGIF media relations coordinator Julia Dixon, the early bow season was in fact the reason for the exclusion.

"Loudoun, Fairfax and Prince William were excluded as they already have an early antlerless only archery season that overlaps with this date," Dixon wrote in an email.

As relieved as I was to find out it didn't have anything to do with a negative view of hunting among my NoVA neighbors, I still think it's a shame that Northern Virginia youth will not have the opportunity to participate in this hunt, which allows them to use not only archery tackle but also modern and muzzle loading firearms.  Other states, including Arkansas, hold youth hunts during bow season; the only difference between those days and a normal archery hunting day is that bow hunters are required to wear blaze orange.

And if doing it that way was not an option, why not just suspend the archery hunt for one day?  I mean, come on; adults in my county can hunt deer seven months out of the year.  You mean to tell me we can't give up one day of that for the kids?

I hope that the youth deer hunt is a statewide success; that everyone is safe and that lots of kids get started on a lifetime of hunting.  I also hope that the regulations are modified and the youth in my part of Virginia get to participate next year.

Because Tomorrow I Might Have to Go and Fly Away...

Credit Country Music Superstar Tim McGraw with this post's title, and credit my wife with the great pictures of the baby birds that were born and quickly raised on our porch.  You can see them and read the story here.

Not So Bright Idea Leads to Minor Disaster

Returning to work after a week-long vacation is always tough, but my transition from Outer Banks fishing bum back to the life of a landscaper was going fairly well; until yesterday morning.

When my landscape crew finished a drainage job much faster than expected, I had the bright idea of sending them by my house to trim the bushes.  I took the two-man crew there, showed them what to do and retired to my office about six miles away.  Just as I was getting settled in, the phone rang.

It was the foreman, who told me in broken English that he had cut a pipe; I couldn't quite understand him, but the words "propane gas" rang loud and clear.  I jumped back in my car and called my wife at the house.

"Jorge says he cut a gas line!"

"Oh, I think he's trying to tell me that right now," she replied.

When I pulled up, I could smell gas from across the street and could hear it rushing out of the broken copper pipe.  My wife had already called the gas company, and they had someone on the way.  Still, as a precaution, I evacuated my family to Camp Cowboy and sent the landscape crew packing off to their next job.  Meanwhile, I stood on the other side of the street; waiting for my house to explode.

After five minutes that seemed like five hours, I decided the gas company was not making my emergency a high enough priority, so I called the fire department.  Their truck and the Washington Gas van pulled up simultaneously a few minutes later.

It turned out that Jorge had not seen the gas meter, which was hidden by thick juniper bushes that some short-term-thinking landscaper planted before I lived in the house.  Using gas-powered shear pruners to trim the shrubs away from the house, Jorge cut the copper pipe that runs from my basement to the gas meter.

With the gas shut off, and the firemen on their way back to the station, the gas man informed me that his company could not fix the busted pipe; I would have to call a plumber.  I saw an ad for My Plumber on the back cover of the yellow pages and dialed.  The plumbing company actually had someone there within 45 minutes.  About two hours and $290 later, everything was back up and running.

I've been in the landscape business for longer than I care to admit.  During that time, I've had guys cut phone cables, fiber optic lines, cable tv lines and many many invisible dog fence wires.  Until yesterday, however, I'd never even heard of a gas line--or any other metal pipe--being severed by pruning tools.  Interestingly enough, the Washington Gas man said he'd never heard of it happening either before this year, but that he has been on several calls in 2009 similar to mine.

With disaster narrowly averted at my home, I'll take this opportunity to pass a few lessons on to you:

• Don't ever plant shrubs so close to utility equipment that the apparatus will be obscured;

• Don't ever prune shrubs without first checking behind them;

• Gas-powered shear pruners will cut copper pipe; and

• Going back to work after a vacation is never easy, even if it seems to be at first.

Eatin' Fish

Here are some more fish pictures from our '09 Outer Banks vacation.

I pulled this 18" flounder out of the surf near our Kitty Hawk beach house.

The Captain and I caught these red drum from his boat at Manteo Harbor.

Maybe if he eats enough fish, his footprints will be as big as mine someday!

The Monsters of Manteo Harbor

Gar fishing is not for everyone, but for the staff of Bright Idea Outdoors it doesn't get much better than hauling one of these pre-historic monsters over the rail of the vessel known as the "Chieftain."  These are leopard gar, caught near Manteo Harbor during our Outer Banks beach vacation last week.

  For the record, the guy in the picture with me is the one who caught the gar.  I was the only angler to get skunked on the gar grounds.  We managed to land some edible fish on our trip too... should have some pictures later this week.

Last Day

"I saw this kid today coming back from the beach in tears...  I was like, 'I'm right there with you buddy.'"--Uncle Frank on the end of a beach vacation.

Outer Banks Fishing Report

The fishing has been great this week here in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  In addition to edible species we've landed like flounder and red drum, the Captain found a little spot near Manteo Harbor from which the kids have been pulling huge leopard gar all week.  He's got some pictures, and I'll post them as soon as he forwards them to me.

I hope to make it down to the Avalon Pier today or tomorrow.  I hear they're catching bluefish, Spanish and speckled trout and would love to get into a school of any of the above. 

Book Review: JEFF'S GOD by Hershel Howell

"The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."

Saul said to David, "Go and the Lord be with you."--1 Samuel 17:37

That conversation took place in the Old Testament of the Bible just before David took on the giant Goliath.  Like David, Jeff Logan--the main character in Hershel Howell's new book Jeff's God (Publish America, 2009)--is tested time and time again.  He is pursued by his enemies and repeatedly brought to the point of despair.  But also like David, Jeff Logan turns to God in these moments of desperation, knowing that even when there appears to be no hope, there is always a chance that the Lord will see fit to deliver him.

Throughout the story, Logan very effectively uses advice he gets early in the story from his mother, who said praying was "just talking to the Lord like we're talking one person to another... He doesn't come right out like a bolt of lightning and make something happen, but when the time comes, He answers..."

Jeff's God is an exciting historical novel that begins in North Mississippi just prior to the outbreak of war between North and South.  It is a story of adventure, of heroism, of family bonds, of love lost and found and of faith.  From Logan and his father's trap lines to the plantation steps; from the Battle of Shiloh to the wild territory of the nineteenth century American West, Mr. Howell and his characters cover a lot of ground.  The story has its share of gun fights and at one point finds its main character at the business end of a hangman's rope.  It also has healthy doses of hunting, trapping and Native American culture, and, like most fictional stories by Mr. Howell or his son Rex of the popular Deer Camp Blog, the story revolves around lost Civil War gold.

Readers who enjoy tales of adventure in the tradition of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Little Big Man by Thomas Berger will love Jeff's God.  It's also a breath of fresh air for anyone looking for a hero who really is a hero, always and who choosing right over wrong, even when it puts his own life at peril or causes him to deny himself something he wants or that would make his life easier.

As in his earlier book Lim, Howell also offers a perspective on life in the South that could only come from an octogenarian son of Mississippi like himself.  Readers who enjoyed Lim will definitely like this new book and even those who did not must give Jeff's God a try.  This is definitely Mr. Howell's best effort so far.

Hokies v. Rebels: I Can't Wait

OK, so the Hokies of Virginia Tech and the Ole Miss Rebels aren't actually playing each other in the coming college football season, but take a look at numbers 14 and 15 in the AP and USA Today/Coaches polls. I don't know whether to shout "Hotty Toddy" or just pull my keys out of my pocket and start shaking them!

I look forward to college football every year and going into the season with both my alma maters highly ranked makes it all the more exciting.

Ole Miss, led by quarterback Jevan Snead ended the season on a great note last year with a Cotton Bowl win over Texas Tech.  Prior to that, the Rebels had gone 8-4 with a big win over Florida and a five-game win streak to close out the regular season.  This could be the year that coach Houston Nutt brings glory back to the Grove.

Tech, meanwhile, ended their "rebuilding year" with another ACC title and an Orange Bowl win.  The Hokies return 17 starters, and defensive coordinator Bud Foster's unit could be stronger than ever.

But the Tech football team faces what may be the toughest early season schedule it's ever had.  The 2009 campaign will get underway in prime time September 6 when the Hokies take on #6 ranked Alabama at a neutral site.  The following three games are all at home but include tough opponents Marshall, Nebraska and ACC rival Miami.  Another test will come October 17 when Tech takes on #22-ranked Georgia Tech.

Now if I could just figure out a way to hunt and watch college football at the same time. . .

Virginia Youth Hunters Get a Special Day

There's great news for Virginia hunters aged 15 and younger: they get to go deer hunting a little early this year.  A month-and-a-half early as a matter of fact; youth will be allowed to hunt deer with firearms on September 26 this year, when Virginia has its first Youth Deer Hunting Day.  Firearms season doesn't start for the rest of us until November 14.

This is probably the best thing I've ever heard of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries doing.  In a state, er commonwealth, that doesn't allow Sunday hunting, the deck is really stacked against youth and the people who want to teach them to hunt.  At least with this extremely early youth hunting day, kids will have a chance to knock down a deer who hasn't even thought about a gunshot yet, much less heard one.  Unlike the September early archery season we have here in my home county of Loudoun, the Sept. 26 youth hunt will not be limited to antlerless deer.

Speaking of Loudoun though, why were we excluded from the youth hunt?  Along with kids from our neighboring Northern Virginia counties of Fairfax and Prince William, Loudoun youth are getting the short end of the stick on this one.  Luckily for me, I have a couple spots in other parts of the state where I could take my kids.

Unfortunately for them though, they'll probably have to sit this youth hunt out anyway.  My oldest is eight, and, while I think he may be ready to take a deer this year, I don't think he's ready to hunt without an adult who can take a follow-up shot.  Adults may neither carry nor discharge a weapon on the youth hunt.

So he'll probably have to wait, at least until November.  But I'm thrilled that the Commonwealth of Virginia is doing something to help kids get excited about hunting, and I wish all the youth who will be able to participate the best of luck!