An Outdoorsman’s Journal: 2024 – A year on the run!
Hello friends, When I hit “send”on this column, I will be getting into my truck along with Ruby and Red and heading to the state of Mississippi for what seems to be an annual deer and (hopefully) hog hunting and camping trip.This week I am summing up the year 2024 and, in all honestly, for myself it was the busiest of all 63 years I have walked this planet.
In January of last year, right after my daughter Selina graduated from UW-Stevens Point, I helped move her to Missoula, Mont. Selina took a job as a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and listening to what she does on a daily basis would make anyone a wiser person. Without biologists, this planet would be in bigger trouble than it already is.
On the Selina end of things, she traveled to Wisconsin three times, and I headed out to Montana in August and again in October. I love that part of the country and really enjoy elk hunting, even if no elk are harvested.
In 2024, I drove to Montana three times, as well as Canada and Mississippi once each. The GMC Hotel is broken in.
NOAC, or Necedah Outdoor Adventure Club, has continued to grow. We are part of the Necedah School District. I am the president and co-founder and in 24 months, we have created a very cool beach with a picnic area and ice skating rink with lights, and are currently building a disc golf course that is going to kick butt. Every two or three weeks, I put out a message on Necedah’s local Facebook page, and that is a large part of how we have come up with our finances that it takes to build everything we have created.
About all I can say is this: use Facebook like we have, create a group of get-it-done people and every community could have its own version of NOAC.
I am still the president of KAMO, Kids And Mentors Outdoors, and our group of six chapters is simply on fire right now in a very positive way, as in getting kids outside. COVID set us back, but that is in the past. Check KAMO out at kamokids.org. If interested, we will help start a chapter in your neck of the woods. Lake Matilda is named after Michelle Chiaro, who was an incredible human being and a lady who made me dream big dreams. Michelle passed away unexpectedly on June 15, 2022, and that about crushed me. A person has to plow forward, and I built a pond in my front yard and named it “Matilda,” as that was my nickname for her. I put over 350 hours of hard labor into it in 2023 and again this past warm season. Lake Matilda is pretty much built and stocked with perch, and next will be crappie and a few walleye. I cannot describe how much I love Matilda, especially since it is 40 feet outside my front door.
My gardening, cattle raising and heating with wood are a way of life for me: physical, time-consuming and fulfilling. It keeps me worn out, but I can’t/won’t stop.
In regards to this job: I am now into my 63rd winter walking this planet and traveling on an almost weekly basis with a budget less that the average Kwik Trip employee’s pay. It really is crazy between the go-go-go and the “no, you cannot buy that” attitude I must live with.
I have come to realize that if you were viewing me with a drone, from the time my feet hit the floor each morning until the time I take them off the floor, I am moving at a faster pace than the average human.
Matilda is built and my easy season, which used to start the day after deer gun season, will start when I get back from the trip that I am about to leave for and last until April.
This job is very much my identity and someday, I will go every other week. After that I will retire. For now I have miles to drive, hopefully hogs to kill and campfires to laugh around. Shop local, and thank your paper’s management for running this column. Sunset
Mark Walters
