Outdoorsman’s Journal,
An Outdoorsman’s Journal,
By Mark Walters
Good Friends, Helping One Another!
Hello friends, This week’s column is a bit different than normal, but once again shows you there are a lot of good people out there.
Just over a year ago, I received a very nice letter from Charles and Kathie Stelzner, who live in Howards Grove, and read this column in The Plymouth Review.
I started communicating with the Stelzners, who have walked this earth a solid seven decades, and it was obvious we were going to become friends.
Even though we had never met, they sent my daughter, Selina, a very nice gift when she graduated from high school.
Last July, I finally met Chuck, as I call him, when he asked me to come to Camp American Legion and take veterans fishing. Chuck and Kathie do their best to help Camp American Legion, and I spent three days rooming with him, and with great pride, I took vets fishing in my boat.
Rodney Bensley owns Roosters Run Pheasant Preserve, which is located near Fox Lake. Nine years ago, my then pup, Fire, had a break down, when her mate, Ice, passed away from Lyme disease.
Fire was nine months old, and the day Ice passed away, she became very ill and went into a serious depression. Over the next 60-days, I tried getting her out of it and wrote about our situation.
Rod, as I call him, reached out to me and said he thought he could help. Over the next three months, I would take Fire down to Roosters Run, and we worked Fire with live pheasant and chukar. Long story short, Rod really helped pull Fire out of her funk.
Back in April 2015, Rod invited Selina and me down to Rooster’s Run, where he let Selina participate in the youth turkey hunt on his property.
On literally the last minute of the last day, a big tom came into our spread and Selina knocked its lights out.
For Selina’s high school graduation party, Rod drove all the way up from Fox Lake, with the tail to her turkey on a wood carved plaque, with the date of the harvest. Rod also gave her the rights to harvest 10 pheasant at Roosters Run.
Back in October, I was duck hunting with Selina and, as usual, her 12-gauge I had purchased brand new, failed to work, even though I had it rebuilt three times.
When Chuck and Kathie read that column, they called me up and told me to bring Selina over to Howards Grove, that they had a gift for her.
So, I made arrangement with Rod to do our pheasant hunt over the course of two days, and first, we went to the Stelzners for an excellent dinner and a very nice visit. At that time, Chuck gave Selina his Remington 11-87 that is literally in mint condition.
That same day, we drove over to Roosters Run to try it out. Rod hunted with us both days, and we had Fire and her pup, Ruby, who, considering the low amount of upland bird hunting they do, are both pretty good at it.
Roosters Run covers over 200 acres and is a real nice place to go for a walk with a gun in your hand.
When Fire flushed the first rooster, Selina dropped it with her first shot. When Ruby flushed the next rooster, Selina dropped it with her first shot.
By the time we were done shooting for the day, Selina had dropped four pheasants with five shots.
That night, we headed over to Burnett for supper, and the next morning, we sent six more pheasants to the frying pan This summer, Chuck and I will be back to Camp American Legion. Selina is back to UW-Stevens Point and sometime in the future, I will do some form of dog training or taking a kid hunting to Roosters Run.
I have no desire to retire! Sunset
