Outdoor Odyssey (Entries tagged as goldthwaite)

Goldthwaite Wins State

jbryan@centex.net (Jon Bryan) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:05:00 -0700

In the most exciting high school football game that I have ever seen, last Saturday, in Jones/AT&T Stadium, in Lubbock, the Goldthwaite Eagles, finishing the season at 15-0, won the Class A, Division 1, State football, championship! They beat the number one ranked, Canadian Wildcats, 29-25. Canadian had won back-to-back state championships, while Goldthwaite, state ranked number three, hadn’t won one since 1994.

Pundits, sports writers and those in the “know”, said that Goldthwaite, in their “old fashioned” wishbone formation couldn’t keep up in a scoring race with the high tech, spread offense of Canadian. But, football is a funny thing! Goldthwaite gained more yardage both rushing and passing than Canadian, and, and, passed for three touchdowns! Goldthwaite also had the edge in time of possession thirty-three and a half minutes to fourteen and a half! Goldthwaite lost no fumbles, suffered one interception and had only three penalties, while Canadian lost two fumbles, had two passes intercepted and had seven penalties.

Goldthwaite opened the season with a shutout victory over Collinsville and I forgot to take my camera to the game, so I didn’t mention it on Outdoor Odyssey. Sensing this could be a good year for the team, I didn’t want to jinx them, so I didn’t mention any of their games, but with eight shutouts, it was hard not to. These shutouts weren’t against “patsies” but state ranked, excellent football teams.

And, by the way, our Grandson, Colton, Goldthwaite’s middle linebacker, led the team in tackles for this big game, for the season too and, as a sophomore, was chosen second team All State!

Winter Wonderland

jbryan@centex.net (Jon Bryan) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 08:05:00 -0700

On Friday, the fourth, it snowed in central Texas, in fact, it even snowed in our tropical cities of Houston an San Antonio! In these two cities it snows about once every twenty-five years.

Here in Mills County, the center of our State, it snowed for about an hour, some of it quite intense, and stayed on the ground for three or four hours.

On Thursday I had tilled a patch of my garden and planted some bunch, onions, foreground. My wild garlic is up and growing in the background.

Yes, we had school, and no, the town didn’t shut down. However, Saturday morning, it was 22 degrees, but warmed up to the fifties in the afternoon. And by Monday, our cold snap and snow will just be a memory.

Global warming is a hoax!

A Good Deed

jbryan@centex.net (Jon Bryan) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:05:00 -0700

Mickey Donahoo, my softball buddy, and I have a mutual friend who is recovering from surgery that resulted in a terrible, staph infection and he requested that Mickey shoot him a doe. We were at batting practice this past Tuesday and I mentioned to Mickey that he should come over on Saturday afternoon and comply with the request.

Mickey arrived at 3:00 PM and we drove out, then walked to a tree stand on the backside of my ranch. Within one hour he nailed a real nice doe. Nailed it to say the least, at sixty-five yards, he placed one shot from his rifle, right between the deer’s eyes!

Getting into a nearby ground blind. I was waiting to hear Mickey's shot. My wait was a short one. Hearing his shot, I went back to the house, got the tractor, then went back out and picked up the deer and Mickey. The deer had fallen right in its tracks, right beside the feeder, so Spike, the wonder dog, wasn’t needed to track it down.

However Spike did take charge and guard it once we brought it back to the house.

Deer Watching

jbryan@centex.net (Jon Bryan) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 08:05:00 -0700

Deciding to pass on the Veterans Day festivities, I got up early on Wednesday the eleventh and was getting ready to go to Georgetown and play softball when I walked to the picture window in our kitchen and looked out over the cut, hay field.

To my surprise, in the before sun up, haze, there walking down the fence row, obviously looking for a doe, was a nice eight point buck! He was a young one, three and a half years old with horns well outside his ears and a tall rack. Not much mass, but a real pretty animal!

The deer continued on his way and against the heavy brush two hundred yards across the field, I saw movement and a closer look with the binocs, proved it to be a big, buck, much larger than the “fence walker”. The big boy sensed I was looking at him and broke into a trot, never giving me a look at the size of his rack, only it looked to be half again as tall and much heavier that the first one.

Both my camera and rifle were in our old, ranch house. Such is life! Someone said, “The best blind is your back porch!”

Getting home Wednesday afternoon in time for the PM hunt, with a pulled ham string, thanks to softball, I hurried out to an unused blind on the backside of my property that overlooked a well used deer trail. Taking along a freezer pack, I sat that under my pulled “hammy” for the two hours of my hunt.

Just before dusk, along came a most unusual deer, only six points, but with tall horns that were at least six inches outside his ear. Needing to be in Killeen at 8:30 PM to pick Layla up at the airport, she was returning from a softball executives meeting, I passed on the buck and couldn’t even get my camera up for a “shot”.

All I got was a cold leg!

Like Father, Like Sons

jbryan@centex.net (Jon Bryan) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:05:00 -0700

Randy shot his first deer when he was twelve years old. In 1978, in a drawing held by the Georgia Game and Fish Department, he and I were chosen by the state to participate in a special youth hunt on Georgia’s, Sapelo Island.

After the drawing, we hied ourselves off to Oshman’s, Dunwoody store and including two boxes of ammunition, I bought him a Remington, Mohawk 660 rifle in .243 caliber, with a 3X9, Weaver Scope, all for under $250.00. The next afternoon we sighted the rifle and scope in on the range at the River Bend Gun Club and it shot right on the money.

On Sapelo Island, one shot, bagged the nice, spike, shown below.

Twenty-five years later, Randy’s oldest Son, Austin, at the time age eight, shot this spike, with one shot, on his first hunt using his Dad’s rifle. The deer was shot out of The Scaffold Blind on our ranch.

This year, taking advantage of our State’s Special Youth Hunt, Randy and his middle Son, Sean, were in Maw-Maw’s Blind on the ranch and he shot this spike. One shot was all it took!

The same Remington, 660, with the same 3X9 Weaver scope, over a thirty-one year period, bagged all three deer, all with one shot! This little rifle is amazing, no recoil, deadly accurate and has dispatched over thirty deer!

I’m sure that in five or six more years, Randy’s youngest Son, Jeremy, will duplicate this feat and with another one shot kill!

A New Deer Season

jbryan@centex.net (Jon Bryan) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:05:00 -0700

Yesterday morning, when I got up and looked out of our kitchen window, not over a hundred yards away, two bucks had been fighting right out in the field behind our house! The loser walked, dejectedly away, with head down, across the field. To claim the prize, the winner ran up to the fence, but a bigger buck was already courting the doe that had caused the earlier skirmish. The two ran away into the thick stuff and the "winner" resumed his search for a hot, doe.

Of course, my camera was in my office in the old ranch, house!

I've heard that the best blind is on your porch, maybe not this morning, because I"m in the "Corner Blind", at least until 9:00 AM, then I'm off to San Marcos to see a Grandson play football and then back to Killeen (if the game, postponed from Thursday, will be played at all) to watch a Granddaughter, who is a cheerleader.

Maybe I'll get back in time for the afternoon hunt?

Scouting, November 3, 2009

jbryan@centex.net (Jon Bryan) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:05:00 -0700

Yesterday was a “no work” day that I devoted to scouting on my place for deer. What a nice morning it was, no wind, forty-five degrees, with a bright blue sky! Walking out to the blind at 5:30 AM, the sky was so illuminated from the moon that I didn’t even use a light and I almost needed sun glasses! I believe every star in our hemisphere was out too! With it so bright and clear, the deer moved at night and I really didn’t expect to see much early in the day.

It was very slow, so slow that I took this “shot” of a male, cardinal.

Soon an, almost fawn, yearling, showed up and started picking up the corn outside of the feeder. He was hesitant to jump on in.

Then the little one started getting nervous and took off for parts unknown and out came, an almost spike.

This one barely had the horns outside of the skin, but he was bigger so he ran off the smaller one.

The evening watch was much of the same. On my way in I jumped several deer and on my way out several. But, nothing came around the tree stand that I was sitting in.

Maybe I'll sit out on my front porch and see how many I see tonight?

Morning Walk, October 1, 2009

jbryan@centex.net (Jon Bryan) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 08:05:00 -0700

Many may think that I’m spoiled or else very blessed to be covered up with deer all year. That’s not the case. Right now in Mills County, water is everywhere, acorns cover the ground under our oak trees and deer really have no reason to move around.

Yesterday morning our part of the Texas Hill Country had a heavy dew, almost a sprinkle and as I stepped out for my walk, I thought, Maybe today I’ll get some good pictures, because the last two walks have produced nothing. Walking east on County Rd. 406 for three quarters of a mile the only things stirring were three cows near a stock tank and some goats milling about getting ready for the day’s grazing.

Turning around and heading for home, still nothing and approaching my yard, confusion reigned, deer were running everywhere and I thought, Wait a minute, this is my yard, why all the deer? Trying to snap off a “shot” was as hard as “trying to heard cats”. Snapping off five quick ones with zero results, I was still left with no pictures, only mind pictures of the six deer running around, jumping the fence, tails up, beating a quick retreat out of my yard.

At least walking worked up a good sweat!

Deep Freeze

jbryan@centex.net (Jon Bryan) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:05:00 -0700

Our latest norther, cold snap for non-Texicans, came in on Tuesday and really let itself be known overnight. A north wind, with light rain and chilling 23 degree, temperatures put the deep freeze on our part of the state. Because of the ice, school openings and business activities were delayed, and folks like me that had plans for outdoor work, postponed those until later in the day

A thin coat of ice covered every thing; our cars, the mesquite trees and even the gutters on my house froze up! One good thing was the moisture. We didn’t get any downpours of rain but we did have a steady mist all day Tuesday and early Wednesday morning that gave us the ice.

This kind of weather is unusual around here, but it'll be back up in the mid 60's by tomorrow. Just think, we didn’t even get any snow!

A Successful Deer Season

jbryan@centex.net (Jon Bryan) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:05:00 -0700

Our deer season closed this past Sunday and my family did our part to thin out the deer herd in Mills County, Texas. Our freezers have a lot of deer for the off season; Brad with 2 does and one spike; Jon with 2 bucks; Randy with the largest buck shot, a 15 pointer and a spike, and Colton with a doe. We had one guest that shot a medium buck.

We didn’t take pictures of Colton and Brad’s deer, but Randy’s buck, pictured with my Grandson, Sean, was a nice one!

I shot 2 bucks, one a cull deer with 3 legs

And the other, a heavy, 8 pointer.

Later in the season, Tim, one of Brad’s Army buddies, and a Wounded Warrior shot this 8 pointer.

This year we had a lot of fun, fellowship and some good hunting! Changes are in the wind from our State relating to a minimum spread for buck’s horns. This has spread across our State and resulted, where implemented, in less bucks being killed, but the ones killed were bigger.

Weather

jbryan@centex.net (Jon Bryan) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:05:00 -0700

Getting up yesterday morning and “putting another log on the fire”, I looked outside and noticed moisture, sleet/rain, was falling and the temperature was 31 degrees. Locally, for the past 4 months, we’ve been without any significant rain, so this steady fall was a blessing!

Having to drive over to Brownwood, 33 miles west of Goldthwaite, on my trip over and back, there was ice all over my truck and I noticed patches of ice on the highway that held my speed to under 55 MPH. It rained and sleeted all day and the temperature never exceeded 32. Not a good day for any outside work.

Opening up my e-mail, Randy Pfaff sent me a picture of the snow at his place in southwestern Colorado.

This reminded me that we had snow here in Goldthwaite on Easter day of 2007 and Layla and I went out and took some pictures of the blue bonnets and Spanish daggers. That year our bluebonnets, the State flower of Texas, were beautiful! In 2008, no rain in the fall and no bluebonnets!

This picture shows our tractor ‘marooned’ in the snow. Layla’s batting practice, pitching screen is in the background. At that time, we were already 3 tournaments into our 2007 softball season, so this snow caught us off guard!

Snow is a lot ‘more funner and prettier’ that sleet and ice!

Practice Makes Perfect

jbryan@centex.net (Jon Bryan) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 08:05:00 -0700

Pistol shooting practice time this past Saturday afternoon for Wesley Culbertson, my Grandson, furnished us with a very unusual hit on a clay pigeon target. The kids like to shoot them because they shatter so easy! Not this one!

Like any good Texan, Wesley’s first shot drilled it dead center, but the clay bird remained intact. His second shot clipped the top off and his third one demolished it!

Wesley has been practicing pistol shooting and pistol safety with his Dad, Paul, and the 9 year old has certainly made progress. Pistols can be tricky to shoot and hit a target with any regularity. Some secrets that Wesley has already picked up – keep your finger off of the trigger until you’re ready to shoot, have a good grip, get a good sight picture, then squeeze, don’t jerk. This holds for a .22 up to a .45 auto.

Here Wesley and his Mom, Suzanne are taking shots and hitting the clay birds.

Both of them are good shots and are safe shooters, but they should straighten up their posture a little.

Three generations practicing our shooting sports, not bad!

High School Football, December 12, 2008

jbryan@centex.net (Jon Bryan) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:05:00 -0700

Sara is all bundled up as she tries to generate some enthusiasm. She had a bad ankle that limited some of her cheering and the Copperas Cove Bulldawgs couldn’t overcome 3 turnovers, a failed fourth and one gamble and a cold, gusting wind and fell to Wylie 23-7! Wylie was big and fast and completely throttled Cove’s offense and plays Katy this Saturday in Houston in Reliant Stadium for the Class 5A, State Championship.

Cove had a great year reaching the Semi-finals and Goldthwaite had a good year reaching the Area round. Seems like the season just started and it’s over!

Mikayla’s Goldthwaite Eaglettes traveled to Dublin (home of Dr. Peppers) and lost 35-25. Last time they played Dublin they lost 41-19. They’re getting better. Then they visited San Saba this past Monday and came away with a 21-20 win over their big rivals.

Mikayla is giving away some height as she guards the ‘Dillo center.

This was 2 in a row for us over San Saba and brought Goldthwaite’s record to 4 and 4. The girls are learning how to play the game.

High School Football – December 12, 2008

jbryan@centex.net (Jon Bryan) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 08:35:00 -0700

Sara keeps on cheering and the Copperas Cove Bulldawgs keep on winning. Cove shellacked Houston area, Klein Oak, 48-7 to move into the State’s Class 5A, semifinals. This week’s opponent will be Wylie, from the Dallas Metroplex area.

In the picture, scanned in from the ‘Killeen Daily Herald’, Sara is carrying the ‘D’ (of ‘D-fence’), leading the team off of the bus for their game last week in Corsicana against Klein Oak.

A win this week would propel Cove into the state finals against the winner of the Katy-Smithson Valley game. Over the last 3 years, this would be Cove’s third straight state final game.

Katy High School consistently has one of the best high school football programs in the nation and, an interesting note, both Copperas Cove and Smithson Valley have tailored their football programs after Katy’s.

Meanwhile, this past Monday, Mikayla’s seventh grade, basketball team took on Comanche and lost 32-22, moving their record to 3-4. However, in this years opening game, Comanche thrashed the Eagleetts 42-19, so this last loss shows that the team is getting better. Mikayla scored 5 points and played outstanding defense!

Clayton's Bobcat

jbryan@centex.net (Jon Bryan) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:05:00 -0700

This past Tuesday, Clayton Gist, a Goldthwaite local and a friend, trapped this 27, pound, male, Bobcat on his family’s ranch south of Goldthwaite. Their place is not too far, cross-country, from mine.

Clayton and his Dad operate RE/MAX Texas Lone Star Properties featuring prime, central Texas ranch land.