Happy Mothers Day

The kids are so excited this morning. Back in December we made Brook breakfast in bed for her birthday and they have just been counting down the days until Mothers Day to be able to do it again. Brook gets to sleep in and me and the kids are watching Shrek right now to kill time. On her birthday she was served at like 7 am, today we agreed to wait until 8. Pancakes, eggs, and a teeny bowl of bran flakes are on the menu.

Moving along, these three kids do indeed have the best Mother on the planet. When you throw me into the mix she has her hands full. Somehow she manages to take care of us all. She keeps us all fed, clothed, bathed, etc. Like I said she has her hands full.

I actually had plans of never getting married and spending my summers up in the mountains and winters down on the coast pretty much living on the land. Growing up I was always outside, always dirty, and never wore matching clothes. In fact, I barely ever wore shoes, brushed my teeth or combed my hair. I simply didnt care one bit about social events, talking to people, or girlfriends. I worked hard, made money, and spent it on guns, shells, fishing gear, and such.

All that changed when this girl moved here from Iowa back in the year 2000. I started to bathe regularly, brush my teeth, comb my hair, wear shoes, matching clothes, and attend social events (at least only the ones she was at). Two years after she moved into town, someway, somehow, and only by the grace of God, I somehow conned the most beautiful amazing woman in the world into marrying me.

Let me just say the world was shocked. They were shocked that I was actually getting married, especially at the age of 19, and even more especially that I was marrying someone WAAY out of my league. Brook was a star volleyball player, basketball player, track star, swimmer, a runner, super popular, fashionable, and just loved by everyone. I didn't deserve her back then, and I sure don't deserve her right now.

Here is a family pic from last month.

We got married one year out of high school and have been married now for 7 or 8 years.

Even though I have to do all the things I still hate like combing my hair, brushing my teeth, wear shoes, matching clothes, attend social events, and have no money to spend on guns, shells, fishing gear, and such, this is indeed the best time of my life. Even after all these years I still wake up in the morning and am just kind of in Awe that I am married to the most beautiful amazing woman on the planet. The world is still shocked and I just thank God everyday for her.

The rest of the story.........

So every story has two or three sides, or should I say view points, or better yet versions. My last post kind of highlighted and touched on the highlights of the week and overall was a pretty good feel good story. Here is the better version: Two Pound Bluegill. Now here is the rest of the story......

Usually during the middle of the night, I am out on some awesome exotic fishing adventure, stalking some sort of african big game, or walking the halls of junior high school in my under britches. I just never know what kind of adventure is in store for helping me get through each night (or church service, wedding, or fill in the blank with any activity that involves sitting and listening). This whole week though has basically been a real life crazy midnight adventure, only this time I had to be awake during the ordeal.

The first fish truck of the season was supposed to roll in last saturday. I had everything lined up and scheduled out with our route and all my customers lined up eagerly awaiting the arrival of their new fish. Anyhow a couple delays and bumps in the road and that truck finally rolls into town at 2 am on wednesday night. The fish werent loaded the whole time, they dont get loaded on the truck until the very last minute possible in Arkansas. The fish guy just had some stuff come up that delayed the delivery.

Anyhow the adventure started earlier in the week with the usual crazy unorganization that comes along with a lame computer, and an outdoors fish guy trying to be an office secretary. I am just not engineered to be indoors in an office of any kind, but it is a necessary evil to running a business. I cant operate a printer, still dont know how to fax, am not as polite as needed to answer the phone when I am running behind on everything and can never find an ink pen to save my life. Where do they go, HONESTLY, its like they just randomly disappear never to be seen again??? I buy ink pens by the hundreds and even always grab a few cefcu pens when presented with the opportunity, but for the life of me can never find a stinkin ink pen!@#$%

I also messed up a couple orders this week, and made a major communication mistake with a client who was not very understanding. Not very pleasant stuff that I am not used to dealing with, especially when under a bit of stress. I am a fast learner, but always have to just make sure I really learn something by experiencing it the hard way. Out of 2754 online orders we have shipped out, we have messed up less than 10. Out of 1600 acres of water managed locally for over 200 clients, I have messed up 3. The biggest culprit is always communication.

Anyhow, right now I have 27 unlistened to voice mails on my phone and that is after spending the whole day in the office answering the phone and emails. At the moment I have bitten off just a bit more than I can chew and am working on solutions that dont require hiring more employees. Our secretary does start work in a few days which will help out tremendously and Allen did start this week to help Justin which also helps out tremendously, I just want to get organized and figure out how to make everything operate smoothly with a 4 person company.

This week we electrofished in Vermont, installed aeration system and electrofished near Davenport, and delivered fish from two huge trucks to over 25 lakes in the area. I slept hardly at all trying to do all the office work before and after the sun went down. Busy time of year.

So that pretty much brings me to about 2 am wednesday morning and I am headed to Astoria to deliver 2000 Hybrid Striped Bass. This is like the crazy midnight adventure from the beginning of the post only this one was for real. I am putting along driving 10 miles under the speed limit and dodging deer like a car commercial obstacle course when those famous red white and blue flashing lights pull up behind me. I always get a bit nervous when I get pulled over because I always have about 4 things I can think of to get a ticket for, but this night I actually didnt get any tickets.

The police officer was actually really cool and just wanted to let me know that I had a headlight out. When he pulled up his first words he said was "Hey, your the pond guy. I read your stuff online." I definitely didn't need the ego boost for the long run, but would be lying if I didn't say the adrenaline injection of actually being known by someone didn't help me make it through the sleepless night of delivering fish. When I got to Astoria and was sitting there at 2:30 am I got to meet another cop. He too didn't give me any tickets, just wanted to make sure I was ok and sane for being out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night.

All the fish made it to their homes safely except for 3500 big hybrid bluegill. These were some prized fish that will end up as fish food instead of as an evening meal for a happy client. There was a malfunction of some sort with most likely the oxygen supply in their tank somewhere between St. Louis and Astoria. Anyhow that just makes for quite a bit more work having to let folks know what happened and having to scramble to try and find some more fish this late into the stocking season.

So we finished the delivery routes about 5 pm and Justin finished his delivery route about then as well. You see the Wisconsin truck was scheduled for Thursday, but the arkansas truck was scheduled for last week. Having them both come on the same day just makes a stressful big job 3 times as stressful and challenging. We got through em.

I spent the whole day today just answering emails and phone calls and still am not close to being caught up. If I havent returned your call, please send me an email and I will be able to respond while the rest of the world is sleeping. Clients dont mind getting emails answered at 5 am, but most of them didnt seem to appreciate the early morning phone calls (I am a quick learner).

Next week is going to be another adventure that is filled to capacity with electrofishing surveys in Fiatt and at Oak Run. Along with a couple consultations, a few more fish stockings, and a dock to build on Friday. I am looking forward to it, hopefully everything will just start flowing a bit more smoothly and me and my midnight adventures will take place at home while I am sleeping. Hopefully I can head out to the Florida Keys fishing tonight before the oil spill gets there and wipes out the entire ecosystem.

Huge Two Pound Monster Bluegill

I haven't been able to do much fishing lately, but Thursday evening I just had to take the fish guy from Missouri fishing. We had just got done stocking fish into about 25 lakes over the previous 2 days straight with absolutely no sleep. When you have a semi load of thousands of fish, sleeping is not really a priority. Especially when the truck is full of fish that cost $1, $5, and even $10 each! Special feed trained largemouth bass, hybrid striped bass, and big hybrid bluegill from Arkansas were on my truck, while Justin and Allen were making their rounds unloading feed trained smallmouth bass, jumbo yellow perch, pumkinseed sunfish and fathead minnows from their Wisconsin truck.

Anyhow after we were finished we went down and sat on the dock at my fulton county fishing lake with a couple fishing rods and a bucket of night crawlers to just unwind. I asked Rex the fish guy what the biggest bluegill he had ever caught was and I smiled when he replied 1.25 lbs. I may not have been fishing in a while, but I sure knew there were some monsters swimming down below and he would have a great chance to break his record.

Rex not only broke his personal record once, but he managed to break it 3 times in our 45 minute fishing trip. The biggest was this 30 ounce monster bluegill:

His second biggest was this 26 ouncer:

Third monster bluegill was this 23 ouncer:

I have this 33 acre lake in central Illinois completely full of huge bluegill and all sorts of bonus fish. You just never know what your going to catch on any given cast. Rex was surprised when this feisty rainbow trout grabbed his bait:

I managed to catch a couple good ones too, but was more focussing on the relaxing portion of this fishing trip. Besides Rex kept catching a fish about every five minutes that needed a picture taken of. It was fun, but next time I want to relax while fishing I'm not giving him any bait. You know your in a good spot when the small 10 inchers get chucked back in with no thought of a picture.

This gal may not have been the biggest, but I was the most proud of this fish. She is a very young broodstock female with a world of potential!

This spring has just been crazy awesome except for the fact that I really haven't been fishing much and I never once got a chance to go out mushroom hunting and my knox county turkey tags are just collecting dust. All the things that used to be so important (and most likely will be again at some point in the future) just don't get any time slots anymore. My 3 kids under the age of 4 years old kind of need me at home, and I would like to stay married to the most amazing woman in the world. (its mothers day Sunday, so I figured I could score some early bonus points, except for the fact that it will be probably a week or so before Brook reads the blog, but nonetheless future bonus points still have value). Actually all of my bonus points just went down the drain and some when she reads my thoughts I put into parenthesis, but thats the story of my life: one step forward, two steps back.

Last bit of news, I updated our Fish Management page on our website with about 30 good fish pics from the last year or so. I am going to be updating and flooding my website with cool pictures from out on the job.

Ok, for sure this is the last bit of news, but may interest some. Hooked On Fishing Park fellas are hosting a Euchre Tournament on May 22nd. Anyone is invited even if you don't play and just want to hang out and all proceeds will go towards summer fishing activities at the park. Here is more information:

Euchre Tournament Flyer PDF

Receding Hair line took a hit this week

It seems like for every hair I lose off the top of my head, 3 more sprout somewhere else. I figure at this rate of bodily hair redistribution that in about 15 months or so I will be using soap on my head and shampoo on the rest of my body..... Well, I probably just disturbed, scarred or scared off a few people from the remainder of this post, but I am sure I made a few others chuckle a bit (especially those who can relate) with such an introduction. At least I didnt post the pictures!

Anyhow my hairline did indeed take a big hit this week. I just hope that stress induced rapid hair loss on the top of my head doesn't accelerate the redistributed hair growth at the same conversion rate or I would be mistaken for bigfoot next time I head outdoors. What I am getting at is that this has pretty much been the most stressful week of my life. I tried to sugar coat it a bit with an attempt at humor, but that didnt even help as much as I had hoped.

So, what happened to make a week so bad? I think I just might have to take you back a few days into the last week and start from the beginning. While in Branson last week my computer froze up and decided to quit working altogether. On this computer I have absolutely everything for my business. My calendar, contacts, accounting, clients, lake reports, documents, charts, schedules, management plans, pictures, etc, etc, etc.

Already being in Branson during the busiest time of year was not going to be easy, but getting back from Branson without my computer working was an absolute nightmare! I had meetings, appointments, and jobs scheduled for that week, but had no way of knowing who they were with or what time they were scheduled for. Not only did I lose my calendar for last week, but I lost my calendar and schedule for the entire summer. I spent all winter long filling it up and lost it all.

A couple meetings with my computer doctor throughout the week and we were able to salvage pretty much all of everything except for some odd reason my calendar on Outlook. What happened was my hard drive actually crashed and it had something to do with my outlook mail box being just a bit cluttered and my computer not being maintained or kept up properly. When I would delete emails I just sent them to the trash, but never thought of emptying the trash. My computer guy was pretty shocked to see an extra 33,000 emails hanging around that didnt need to be there. Many of them were large files of pictures from folks' ponds, weeds, fish, etc. Anyhow there were no viruses on the laptop, just too much info stored in the wrong places which caused some hard drive issues.

So I missed a couple appointments last week, but was able to fill everything back up again for the summer, except for 3 or 4 consultations that for the life of me I cant remember who they were with. I know the name of one gentleman I am supposed to electrofish for on May 21 up in Northern Illinois: Ron Taylor, but cant find his telephone number or city. The others I am missing are just gone until the people call me up wondering where I was. (unless they get ahold of me beforehand and we can reschedule). I know there technically isn't even hundreds of hours in a week, but I literally spent hundreds of hours trying to piece everything back together this week. Words can't even describe what I went through. My everything was stored in that little black technological contraption.

I was able to pull some important stuff from my hard drive and onto my office PC for the time being, but I am still without most of my stuff. Hopefully by Wednesday of this coming week everything will be back to business as usual.

I was not an easy person to talk to or be around with so much information floating in my head and scrambling to get everything down onto paper and fixed. I know exactly how an overworked computer feels with too much information floating around in the wrong files. I just about had some internal hard drive issues as well. I never got too worked up or mad or anything, I just had too much information going on inside and not enough sleep to function properly. Longterm ramifications from a week like this will definitely be a couple inches on an already receding hairline. I have a peninsula of nice hair dead center on the top which in the morning when I wake up has a good chance of becoming an island.

After church today I sat on the couch holding Drake for a minute while Brook got the kids down for naps and I woke up 2 hours later (apparently Brook came and got Drake). That was the best 2 hours of sleep from the week and greatly needed. Spent the rest of the afternoon just playing with kids and we walked up to Mcdonalds for some ice cream treats before bedtime and before the cold front moved through.

The next 8 weeks are extremely crazy awesome (busy). We will be traveling around the midwest electrofishing, consulting on some really neat projects, putting fish into about 30 ponds and lakes and installing quite a few aeration systems. Every single day is booked up solid, so hopefully we have all the glitches and kinks worked out now.

Allen comes back to work full time on Wednesday, just in time to go to Davenport, Iowa for Electrofishing and Aeration installing with Justin. Our office manager Holly starts up in two weeks just in time to step into a battlefield: May the Lord have mercy upon her soul as she untangles the mess Justin and I have created over the last 6 months since Marcy moved on to greener pastures with Cliffton and Gunderson.

Drake is growing like a weed. Mae and Noah are actually short and skinny for their ages, but Drake is legitimately my child: he's just big! He knows how to eat real good and he has abnormally large feet, hands, arms, legs, stomach, rolls, etc, etc. He still has all kinds of doctor appointments and check ups every week, but he is doing real good at all of them so far. The next big one is May 20th at Easter Seals for his developmental evaluation. Then a week later we meet with the Ear Nose Throat specialist to come up with a gameplan for his ears.

Its 10:39 pm and I am actually headed to bed for the first time this week on this side of midnight. Next week is going to be alot of fun. We start out Monday installing some fish feeders in Lewiston and then head to Astoria in the afternoon electrofishing on a 10 acre lake. Then we have 2 big fish trucks coming in. One from Arkansas on Wednesday evening with some really big feed trained largemouth bass, 1000's of Hybrid Striped Bass, 4000 big hybrid bluegill, a couple thousand 10 inch catfish, and several thousand redear sunfish. Then on Thursday we have a big truck coming in from Northern Illinois with a whole bunch of smallmouth bass, tons of big yellow perch, small pumkinseed sunfish, and 100's of pounds of fathead minnows. It will take several days to deliver all those fish. Stocking ponds and lakes is always alot of fun but can get a bit stressful trying to coordinate deliveries and keep fish alive.....It will be a few days before I will get to post some pictures next, but I will be taking quite a few pics.

Victoria Fishing Club has some Monster Fish!

So Justin and I headed to a fishing club in Victoria, IL to electro shock 5 of their lakes. They have a total of 18 lakes on the property, but wanted to come up with good management plans for their main five.

These lakes ranged in size from 5 to 10 acres each and they all had super healthy populations of large pan and gamefish! Each of the lakes had its own unique characteristics, depths, water clarity, aquatic vegetation, and of course fish populations. For once in my life I really didnt have any drastic recommendations or suggestions for managing and maintaining a natural balanced fishery. Their lakes were not broke and didn't need major fixing. Just a bit of tweaking and direction. We are working on a gameplan that includes implementing some bonus walleye and a handful of northern pike as well as channeling future fish stockings to be a bit more efficient and effective. Check out some of these fish from electrofishing today:

These lakes produced lots of fish, members fish in them, catch fish, and take some home to eat. Some of the lakes had great crappie, some had great redear sunfish, some had good bluegill, a few had big catfish and a couple had some monster largemouth bass. There were sizes and numbers to please any angler (member).