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 that 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 US 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 is the Necedah Outdoor Adventure Club, and we are part of the Necedah School District. I am the president and co-founder. In 24 months, we have created a very cool beach with a picnic area, an 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 the finances that it takes to build everything that 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 Kids And Mentors Outdoors (KAMO) 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 www.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 that made me dream big dreams. Michelle passed away unexpectedly on June 15, 2022 and that has about crushed me. A person has to plow forward, and I built a pond in my front yard and named it after Matilda, as that was my nickname for her. I put more than 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. Next will be crappies and a few walleyes.

I cannot describe how much I love Matilda, especially since it is 40 feet out 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.

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 no you cannot buy that attitude that 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, my easy season, which used to start the day after the deer gun season, starts when I get back from the trip that I am about to leave for and lasts until April.

This job is very much of my identity and some day, I will go every other week and 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