On the first day of Wisconsin's 2007 youth deer season, we woke to rain. Sid, my son, thought it would be better if we stayed at home. I agreed with his suggestion.

The showers cleared up by the afternoon, and it was nearly 85 degrees in the shade. Our hunting buddies thought it was senseless to go hunting on such a hot day. The old wife's tale that deer do not move around when it is hot is wrong, and Sid's buck proved it.

We headed out to the woods as the bugs followed us. The first hour passed by with no sign of a deer. We watched time tick away at a slow pace. Then a doe showed up. Sid wanted to take a shot, but I told him to wait. Some more does entered the field and he asked me again if he could shoot. Once more, I told him to wait.

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I have been hunting and fishing with my dad since I was four years old and took my first deer when I was eight. I really love the outdoors and try to go hunting and fishing every chance I get.

On Dec. 1, 2007, my dad and I got up early and headed to a place owned by one of our friends. He has about 20 acres and most of it is right on the Guadalupe River, which is located about 250 yards from our hunting blind. 

Around 6:45 a.m., four white-tailed does came into the field to feed. We watched them for nearly 30 minutes and suddenly spotted an axis doe in an opening. Right behind it was a massive axis buck. I told my dad what I saw and handed him the binoculars.

He gave me the gun, told me to take my time and shoot when I was ready. It looked like the two axis deer were going to come in, but they stopped about 30 yards from the does.

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Halee Burdeshaw, a ninth grader at Arnold High School in Panama City Beach, Fla., loves the outdoors and likes to shoot things: trees, animals, bodies of water and people. Her choice of weapon? A digital camera.
 
Halee discovered her aptitude for outdoor photography about a year ago when she received her first digital camera as a gift. Her grandfather, Phillip Burdeshaw Sr., made sure she got a newer and more advanced camera for her birthday.
 
She has many opportunities to capture images of the things and animals that catch her attention because her family spends a lot of time outdoors camping and fishing. She says she enjoys the freedom of taking photos of subjects that she sees in the way that she sees them. "No one can tell me how to do it."

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Ron Wells of Stratford, Wis., is a very successful whitetail hunter. He has more Pope & Young bucks to his credit than you have fingers to count, and two of his trophies score in the 170s. But this article isn't about Ron's hunting achievements. Rather, it's what Ron has decided to do with his hunting knowledge that is much more noteworthy. 

Over the last several years, Ron's focus has shifted from filling his own tag, to teaching his two sons about the natural world and instilling his love of the outdoors in them. From the results so far, it appears his boys are very fast learners.

Kodi and Kyle Wells were first introduced to hunting when they were three years old. Since Kodi is a year older than Kyle, he was the first to accompany his father and grandfather into the woods during deer season. It was Kyle's turn the following year, and the two boys have been hooked on hunting ever since.

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Before I knew it, the 2006 Pennsylvania deer season rolled around. As my father and I walked into the woods, the same smells of the wilderness began to fill my nose, and yet it felt like this day would be an entirely new adventure.
 
The first day out we were not successful. This was my doing because I was looking for that special white-tailed buck. The next day was much of the same. I let all of the deer go, including another buck.

We came back a few days later and walked up around the bottom of a hill and then slowly made our way up a hillside. About an hour later, I spotted movement at the bottom of the hill. I looked and saw what I had been waiting for. It was a beautiful buck!

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"Sit right here until I come back for you," my dad said. "Whatever you do, don't get up. I will be on down in the woods a bit. If you need anything, key me up on the radio. It will be daylight soon. Make a good shot. Good luck, son."

I can still remember those words ringing in my ears some 22 years later after being wedged in a wooden deer stand with a 16-gauge shotgun held firmly in the clutches of my white-knuckled hands. I added the part about the radio. We used the scream and yell method back then. I remember not knowing which way to expect the game to come from and certainly not knowing which way my father would be arriving from to pick me up. Heck, I didn't even know the general direction of the truck. I was lost before I even had the chance to get lost.

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This story is about the first year I went bowhunting with my dad. I was 12 years old, and we were hunting in Clarksville, Mich., at our deer lease. I had already been on two hunts that year but had only seen a very small doe, which I passed up.

After my dad parked the truck, I got my hunting gear on, readied my bow, my dad sprayed me with scent-eliminating spray, and we were on our way to the treestand. It took about 5-8 minutes to make our way through the field. When we got to our treestand, my dad and I put out some scent canisters hoping these would bring in some bucks.

We climbed up into the double treestand and pulled our bows up. After securing ourselves to the tree and hanging our bows, we waited. We were settled in the stand by 3 p.m. I didn't see anything for about two hours other than a few squirrels and birds. Another hour and a half passed. By 6:30 p.m. something was running through the woods past our field. A big doe took off, giving me no chance for a shot.

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Two years ago I went on my first hunt. I had just passed a hunter safety course that year, so I was very excited. I was using a Remington .35. It was opening day, and Dad and I went out that morning and saw a little buck and a few does. I let those pass.

That afternoon we didn't see anything. I was starting to regret letting that little deer go. But that evening around 4:30, a big, tall 12-point buck came out. I was excited and tried to get situated to shoot, but the buck went back into the woods.

About five minutes later, the same buck came out again. I squatted down and aimed then I fired. The buck took off running, so I put another round into the chamber and fired again. It kept running. I had knots in my stomach, thinking that I missed. We waited about 30 minutes and then went to look for it.

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Can your dog tell you whether to plan a picnic? Could a goose tell you to pack an umbrella? Maybe, if you know how to "listen."

Before there were TV weathermen with Doppler radar, farmers and sailors used the clouds, the moon and stars, and animals to forecast the weather. Animals from ants to wolves can all predict the weather if you believe the folklore.

Should you believe the folklore? Not all of it, but some is based on how animals behave in certain situations and how the weather affects certain animals.

Weather is caused by air, water, and temperature. Air is made of small invisible particles called molecules. As small as they are, these molecules have weight. The weight of the air pressing down on us is called air pressure. 

Warm air molecules spread out. Cold air molecules stay close together. When the molecules are spread out, the air is lighter over that area than when they are packed together. These spread-out molecules also make room for warm air to hold more moisture than cold air can.

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I have been fishing since I was five. I thought you would like to hear about the largemouth bass I caught on a hot day in Florida on July 20, 2005. Using my Ugly Stick, I was flipping shiners in a pond.

One time I cast a little too hard, throwing the shiner off the hook. As I watched the shiner swim, there was a huge splash and then a bass grabbed the bait on the surface. I could see the size of the bass and knew right away that I wasn't about to go home until I caught it.

I put another shiner on the hook and cast to the same spot where the bass hit the bait. Sure enough, I got a reaction strike and it was a hard fight but I was able to pull it up. The bass weighed about nine pounds.players.

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The weather has been damp and rainy for several days, but now the skies are clear. It's the perfect time to go on a fungi hunt. Take a walk through the woods or your back yard. Chances are you'll find a mushroom, puffball, or shelf fungus. 

Search those shady places that don't dry out in the sun. Look along stream banks and low-lying areas. You might see one or two mushrooms growing alone or hundreds clustered together. 

Keep your eyes open for mushrooms among dead leaves on the ground. How many different colors, shapes, and sizes can you find?

When you spot a mushroom under a tree, notice what kind of tree it is. Some mushrooms only live close to a certain species of tree, which helps experts identify the mushroom.

Soil isn't the only place fungi grow. Check tree trunks, broken branches, and stumps for fan-shaped fungi. Peek inside tree holes and crevices. Look for rotting wood covered with cup-shaped fungi.

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No one in our family calls Uncle Junior a liar. That would be mean.

Instead, what we say is, “That Uncle Junior, he sure can stretch the truth.”

Now and then, at hunting camp, folks like to tell stories about deer they shot or big, BIG ones they saw. It is part of the fun. And no one has more fun at those times than Uncle Junior.

Why did you know that one time he saw a buck so big it had to carry a saw around just to cut a path through the trees to fit his antlers through?

And did you know that another time, he saw a buck a mile away with his bare eyes, and made the shot just perfectly with his trusty .270 rifle? Yup. He did. So he says.

The fact is, deer hunting is full of strange stories that are true. For example, a Manitoba hunter once found the bodies of two huge deer at the bottom of his pond. Their antlers were locked together.

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