Outdoors A.D.D.

These decoys were strategically placed in a well-known bird
travel corridor... unfortunately for me, those birds are geese
 and the travel corridor is the grassy fairway between Home
Depot and ABC5. My coworkers are  saying I need to make
more time for turkey hunting! 

I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a very dedicated turkey hunter. I am really trying to be, but Spring always brings out my outdoors ADD. On a daily basis my hunter heart yearns to go outside and track down a big Tom.  Lately, I have even been dreaming about gobblers strutting into my decoy spread and making that challenging shot with my old Hoyt. But then the reality sets in... and on a daily basis, my schedule gets full of all the little things that happen called life. And I know I'm not alone.

Poor Gus Gus. My gas guzzler needs a tune--up!

My truck is acting up. It's been running rough every time it rains (which has been a lot lately), so I have to work on the truck instead of hunting. If it's not the truck, it's the house. I've always got a project on the back burner. If it's not the house it's the new boat. My "new" boat is actually an old '69 Larson tri-hull project in progress and a giant pile of painting, carpeting, bolting and cleaning just waiting in the garage for the day I make time to do it. And the list goes on.

Developing wall cloud 3/4 mile south of my positon near
Admire, KS on Friday April 27th.

I am a meteorologist so severe weather also steals my time. If there isn't any in my neighborhood, I'll often go and track down storms elsewhere. April 27th I went southwest of Topeka, KS to follow and report severe weather to the National Weather Service. I saw several funnel clouds, wall clouds, hail and even one brief tornado. I firmly believe, trained storm spotters, amateur radio operators and emergency management folks who keep watch on the sky do an invaluable service to the public and profession of meteorology. Our radar is good, but often don't provide the reliable information that a qualified ground spotter does.  In order to track a tornado, I forfeit my opportunity at a turkey and severe weather days trump turkey hunting 9 times out of 10.

And then there's the days I do get out. Usually the weather is crummy, like it was this past Sunday. I find that a tad ironic considering my profession, but sometimes you just have to get out and hunt or fish on those fowl weather days. If you didn't, you might not be able to go at all.

I love Iowa in the Spring!

Whether it's Morels or gobblers, Walleye or shed hunting- if you find yourself suffering from a severe case of Spring outdoors ADD, I feel your pain. Sometimes I wonder if it would be better for me to just focus on getting an old Tom before worrying about catfish or chasing Cumulonimbus. But then again, it's kinda fun not knowing what tomorrow will bring.