Taking advantage of the warmer weather

The warm weather that we have been experiencing makes it easier to want to get outside and enjoy the outdoors. No, I will not be visiting the hill by the Humane Society on Frank Hall Drive to do any sledding. In fact, walking around is enough of a challenge. I can remember the days when we would take our kids over there to do some sledding. It was a great day when they were old enough to go sledding on their own. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy spending time with them, but the walk up the hill got to be a little exhausting for Dad.

Once the boys were old enough, they would go to the park skating or do some sledding on that hill. One particular time, Brian came running home all excited because his friend, Tony, was stuck under the fence. It seems that he went down the hill feet-first and hit the fence, going halfway through it before getting lodged under said fence. I went over there to help, but by the time I arrived, he had extracted himself from the fence.

I always thought that it was important to give the boys a little leeway, so that they were able to be kids and not have their entertainment planned for them. In other words, they were allowed to be boys. In today’s world almost everything is either planned out or organized for our kids, so there is no time for them to be kids. Both of my boys played hockey and tennis, they spent a lot of their free time skating at Academy Park in the winter or playing tennis on the tennis courts in the summer. These were things that they did on their own.

When I was a kid, I had to manufacture my own fun, which wasn’t that hard to do. The kids that I grew up with liked to play football, baseball, explore the outdoors and fish, so we did it all. It didn’t matter if you were a boy or girl, we all joined in. I loved spending time in the slough, winter, or summer it didn’t matter. I always looked at this as exploring uncharted waters. The winter was spent walking the slough and looking for critter tracks. I would get excited when I discovered a set of fox tracks or raccoon tracks. When walking on the snow and ice of winter, you could scare up an occasional pheasant. Having a pheasant take off from the cover where it was hiding not two feet away would definitely give you a start. This was the fun part of growing up just north of town.

As I got a little older, I would jump on my bike in the summer and ride to town to fish on the shores of Fountain Lake. I spent a lot of time on or around the dam on Bridge Street. After I tired of that, I would work my way along the shore, eventually ending up on Katherine Island. I mainly caught bullheads and small panfish that we called “rubber tails.” These fish resembled sunfish, but were never very big and had a green tint to them. They were fun to catch, nonetheless, and they fought like a sunfish. We never did catch any perch that I can recall. Those were fun times and as far as I can remember, I was never bored.

Until next time: With the warm-up we are experiencing, it is a great time to get out and explore some of the Wildlife Management Areas that we have in Freeborn County. There are 14 WMAs listed on the DNR website that the public has access to. If you go on the DNR website, you can go under destinations and choose the Wildlife management areas bar to select the county that you would like to check. I have frequently mentioned WMAs in my previous columns, but I think it is a great way to access the outdoors.

Please show your support for our troops who are now deployed. These service men and women are making that sacrifice, so that we may have the many freedoms that we enjoy today.