Montana Woods N Water, May 2015, Volume 5, Issue 2

May 2015

Volume 5, Issue 2

What’s Inside: Copper Mountain Band -Trout Creek, MT Next Generation Look Really, Really Close

HORNS & HERITAGE SHIRT CLUB

By N.K West Recently, at the Big Horn Outdoor Adventure Show in Spokane, I came across a company that captured my interest.

It was something I had heard of but never truly understood. As I talked to the owners of Horns and Heritage, they simply explained exactly how their company works. While listening, I became aware of how the company started in 2014. I was told that three buddies, all of which I was talking to, and their wives wanted to try something new to spark their lives a little bit. The six of them wanted to try something they’d heard of, but to make it their own. After bouncing ideas off one another, a lightbulb was lit and Horns and Heritage Shirt Club was born.

Their vision has grown into a thriving business. Each month a logo is chosen by the partners featuring a small country lifestyle business. The only criteria being, the logo MUST be cool!! After subscribing to the monthly club, Horns & Heritage customers receive t-shirt and a detailed postcard promoting the featured business. Each unique tee features a company based on the outdoors in some type of way. Whether it is hunting, fishing, ranching or rodeo, you name it, Horns and Heritage has a shirt featuring it!

This explains what Horns and Heritage Shirt Club members get, but there is another side to the concept and that is the giving back. All six of the partners grew up in small towns across the country. If you yourself know anything about small town America, giving back to your community plays an important part.

With every featured logo, Horns and Heritage Shirt Club gives a portion of their proceeds back to the company. This is their way of preserving a way of life that each of the partners holds dear.

Once listening to all this great information and getting to know the men of Horns and Heritage Shirt Club, I was more interested than before. With that being said, I was a bit nervous as to how much the subscription to such a cool club would cost. Turns out, it’s only $23 per month, with no commitment and you can cancel at any time! I would highly advise you to check this great idea out at www.hornsandheritage.com! Subscribe today and get a cool shirt delivered to YOUR door every month!

Publisher’s Notes

By Raf Viniard Where is this year going? Seems like yesterday I was stoking the wood stove.

Montana is so beautiful this time of the year. The weather has just been absolutely beautiful.

Bear hunters are glassing the mountain sides looking for that elusive spring bear. Morel mushroom hunters are canvasing the forest floors looking for those little gems and turkey hunters are still working on bagging that spring turkey. Shed hunters are still combing the forest looking for that shed to show that old big boy made it through the winter and last hunting season.

To those bear, turkey and mushroom hunters that have filled your tags and/ or bag congratulations!

With fishing season opening this weekend, poles are being re-rigged and equipment being checked. Hopefully the boat is ready to go and everything is ready to launch. Make sure Personal Flotation Devices (PFDs) are available for everyone on board and all safety equipment is fully operational. Boaters remember to stop at all inspection stations as instructed.

This month is BBQ Safety Month, please be careful and mindful of those little ones around grills and open flames.

Congratulations to all our 2015 graduates and welcome to our world! Life is just beginning, plan wisely.

Memorial Day weekend is this month, so if any of you are traveling be careful and have a safe trip.

June’s print edition is going to be packed full of stories and pictures. We can never have enough pictures and stories so keep them coming. Thank you for supporting Montana Woods N Water and PLEASE support our advertisers because without them Montana Woods n Water would not exist. Be Safe!

Front Cover Photo Provided By: Nancy Dykstra To Contact Us: Montana Woods N Water 171 Clark Creek Loop Plains, Montana 59859 406-08-0576 www.montanawoodsnwater.com Email: raf@montanawoodsnwater.com

Publisher & Editor: Raf Viniard 406-407-0612 Field Editor: Mitzi Stonehocker 406-544-1868 Sales & Marketing, Lincoln County Kori Erickson 406-293-1478 Director of Social Media Misty Loveless 406-250-4191 Flathead Valley Rep: Kori Missoula Sales Rep: Mitzi Pro Staff Writers & Photographers: Angela Gerych Pastor Jim Sinclair Dan Helterline Zach Butcher Paul Fielder Montana Mitzi Sam Martin Jason Badger Tony Rebo Toby Walrath

Editorial Policy: Montana Woods N Water (MWW) reserves the right to refuse to publish in any form of content that does not include the author’s name, complete mailing address, and/or valid phone number or e-mail address.

Anonymous submissions will not be addressed or published.

MWW reserves the right not to publish anything we feel is not in good taste or appropriate.

All materials are copyrighted!

MONTAN WOODS N WATER “ROCKIN THE WOODS N WATER”

To celebrate Montana Woods N Water 1st Anniversary, the Copper Mountain Band played at the Lakeside Motel & Resort last Saturday night (9 May 2015). The event was a sellout and the house was packed. Country music fans from all over NW Montana put on their dancing shoes and slid across the dance floor until 1:00AM. The crowd was ready to have fun and ages ranged from 21 to their 80’s. The band played a good mix of music to satisfy all ages of the crowd. Cowboy hats and boots was a common scene and they truly “Rocked the Woods N Water.”

So what has Montana Woods N Water got up their sleeve next? You will just have to keep following us on Facebook and reading Montana Woods N Water to find out...but you can be sure it will be fun and different.

To see all the pictures go to this link: https://www.dropbox.com/sc/4sza3kk4g5v9xvx/AACinLVW74A0Q9jJbxgpeeBKa 2

NEXT GENERATION

Cade Stinnett of Plains, Montana. This 12 year old young man with his second bear as a 12 year old. Cade shot this bear with a 308. Way to go Cade...CONGRATULATIONS! Photo courtesy of George Nass of Baldy Mountain Outfitters

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HUNTING

Look Very, Very Closely

By Raf Viniard BEAR!

Bear season is in full swing and in the last issue we talked about bear poop biology and some of the problems trying to locate a bear based on its pooping habits.

Spotting a bear or getting someone to give up their bear hunting hole is like asking for the nuclear launch codes. However, I have found something that is almost as difficult to narrow down as that elusive black bear you seek...Morel Mushrooms.

Luckily for me I had some friends that were willing to impart their Morel knowledge and take me to their honey hole so I could learn what all this morel mushroom picking hysteria was about. I had tasted them while working up in Michigan but never really had the time to learn more about how and where to find them. As if I didn’t already have enough outdoor addictions the last thing I needed to do was add another addiction to my long lists. Well, thanks to my friends I am now addicted to seeking out and eating the much sought after morel mushroom. “Hello everyone...I am Raf Viniard and I have another addiction.”

I knew if I had someone to show me what I was looking for and the type of terrain/habitat they grew in I could find them. I mean after all I have tracked wounded animals with no more than a speck of blood every few feet...how hard could this be to find a mushroom sticking up out of the ground 2-3 inches?

Well let me tell ya...it is easier to walk over them than you may think. As we got out of our vehicles and headed down the public dirt road armed with only a plastic bag and a mental reference from yesteryear we headed to a barbed wire gate on private property. My friends had permission to be on this private property and sure enough we found “Mushroom Poachers” already on scene. Is this something you call in the FBI on? I mean these honey holes are classified “Top Secret—Eyes Only” type stuff. You know like your favorite elk hunting hole.

Not knowing if I needed to start looking right away or once we crossed the fence and between conversations I begin to scan the edge of the dirt road as we walked to our starting point. Within a couple of minutes I found my first mushroom on the side of that old dusty public road. As soon as I picked it I thought to myself, “How many of these darn things have I seen over the years out hunting, scouting, fishing, etc. and just marked them up as raccoon, deer or bear food.” Literally hundreds!

I felt like I was hunting Easter eggs. Within about an hour we had picked about two pounds. Once you get your eyes trained as to what you are looking for, they standout. However, rest assured you will still miss some. At 6’ 3” it is a long way down to the forest floor...I think shorter people have an advantage.

The area we were picking was just hit by a pack of “Mushroom Poachers” and we still found plenty for a little taste testing. With the little brownish/grey nuggets secured in my vehicle I headed back to Plains to show my honey the fruits of my new addiction. So far I have not had any proof of my bear hunting addiction but I now had ample proof that this new addiction would pay off with a plate full of deep fried, sautéed or freeze dried “shrooms” for the winter. Yes, I was selling my new addiction and had samples to demonstrate the importance of my new addiction. All was well until we cooked up a batch and she found out she was allergic to them...what a darn shame! That just means the next bag full will go further than I had originally planned. Go to page 6 to continue reading.

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HUNTING CONTINUED Morel mushroom picking is a lot like elk hunting...they are where they are. After reading a few articles there are some places more likely to hold these little fungus cones of pure eating satisfaction. Since I am a rookie at this, I will not dare jump into trying to explain to you the best places to look for them, instead I have provided you some links to read.

http://www.montanamushrooms.com/mushrooms/morels/ http://fwp.mt.gov/mtoutdoors/HTML/articles/2004/Morels.htm How they taste...I can comment on that with no problem. If you like mushrooms you are going to love these ground edibles. To me they have more of a nutty taste than an earthy taste like a regular mushroom. I am not sure I would eat them raw because of the bugs, sand and dirt that may be hiding in them. Before leaving my friends that day with my bag of gold I inquired as how to properly prepare them and once I got home my honey decided she had better check this out on Pinterest ...you know in case I forgot or left out part of the recipe. I really think she just wanted to make sure I had picked the kind you could safely eat.

At a recent Sanders County Search and Recue meeting Roy & Tina Scott brought in some Morel’s that were deep fried and it looked like a bunch of vultures circling its prey. Within a few minutes all that was left were crumbs! The search and destroy mission was complete.

I came home and placed them in a pan of salt water and let them soak overnight. The next day we gently rinsed them off and fried up a batch by dunking them in a egg wash and then rolling them in a seasoned flour mixture...wow were they good. Season the flour with the herbs and spices that you like. I almost ruined my supper eating all those.

Next, we sautéed some in garlic butter to have with our steak at supper. Holy cow, those things were totally off the chain. Sautéed is by far my favorite way to eat them.

What mushrooms that were left we dehydrated for later use. Don’t be disappointed when you open the lid to the dehydrator and see they are now about a quarter of the size of when they started. Of course I had to try them dried...I am thinking I have a new snack food while elk hunting this year. I want to try canning them and making cream of mushroom soup. Try just a very small piece to see if you are allergic to them before making a pig of yourself.

What kind of information can this newly addicted rookie Morel hunter impart with? Here are a couple things I learned.

Read about them online and learn as much as you can to make sure you don’t kill yourself or your family by picking the wrong mushrooms.

Find someone that knows what they are looking for and where to look. If you are not sure, leave it alone.

When you find one...just stop moving and start examining the area around where you are standing VERY closely...more than likely there is more than one staring back at you.

Take the family….what a fun way to spend and afternoon.

Bear hunters...pack a gun...during this outing we found several bear piles and they were pretty fresh.

Have fun and enjoy these beautiful Montana spring days with friends, family or the neighbors. Remember to never trespass on private property. A knock on the door and the offer to share your findings might just go a long way and an invite back. Remember, look very, very closely you may have just missed that cluster of morel's or that bear standing in the shadows. This can be a “twofer” outing, bears and mushrooms...sounds like the perfect recipe!

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The TBF BASS Federation Tournament will be held on Noxon Rapids Res. May 18th -23rd. The tournament is TBF's Western Divisional that will advance the winners to the national TBF Classic. The western state teams had to qualify in 2014 to fish at The TBF Noxon Divisional.

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