Turkey, Trout, April suits us to a "T"

Minnesota's wild turkey spring hunting season opens next Wednesday. We've seen a few around the neighborhood this spring, but not as many as in some years past. Driving one of the back roads yesterday afternoon, we saw a tom with his harem of eight or ten hens working through a corn stubble field. None have shown up in our back yard this year although there seems to be plenty of ticks for them to feed on. Our current debate with ourself is whether we want to spend mornings in a couple of weeks hunting toms or chasing trout. Somehow the idea of wearing rain gear over waders and casting a blue-winged olive during a drizzle seems to make more sense than sitting under a pine tree, wearing camo, and making sounds like a hen turkey. Plus, casting will help us get more exercise and stay warmer than just sitting. We'll see what the weather turns out to be like and what we actually feel like doing in a week or two.

tom turkey displaying in the back yard

Photo by J. Harrington

The rain we've had has really encouraged leaf out, especially on the smaller bushes. Once we get some sunshine and warmth, I expect we'll be able to hear the leaves bursting out and growing. Lots of the local pastures have begun to green up nicely already. Sometime over the next several weeks we expect the fields will have dried out enough to let local farmers begin spring planting. Several manure spreaders have been observed being transported to and from fields as barn cleaning gets done. More and more signs of spring are cropping up on the landscape daily. Now, if we could only start enjoying less lengthy spells of rain, with more spells of sunshine mixed in ..., we'd be overwhelmed with an abundance of riches.

April Rain Song

 

Let the rain kiss you

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops

Let the rain sing you a lullaby

The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk

The rain makes running pools in the gutter

The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night

And I love the rain. 

                         Langston Hughes

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