Deer

In the last week or so, I have received at least two catalogs for sporting goods equipment: a specialty catalog for archery and another that covered just about everything else a hunter could want. The latter catalog promises you the best price ever on your hunting needs for this fall. A hunter will have no trouble finding that little tidbit that will round out his hunting paraphernalia. Do you need a new bow? I don't, but I still peruse the bow racks locally looking to see what is new. The choices available get more and more complicated every year.

"It was so discouraging, I about decided to not try to hunt there anymore," a friend of mine said. He was describing an incident last fall on the parcel of land that he was hunting at the time, which just happens to be the parcel I have written permission to hunt on this year. It seems there was another hunter on the property who just didn't want anybody else hunting there. Apparently, he was making these woods his own hunting preserve. I don't know who the person was or if he really was trying to claim the property as his own preserve, but it seems that type of thing isn't too unusual.

Officials at East Kentucky Power Cooperative are shelving a proposal for a 2,000-acre wildlife management area on the cooperative's J.K. Smith Station in southern Clark County. The proposal, which has been under consideration for several years, would have allowed hunting, fishing and other outdoor activities in certain areas of a forested buffer zone that East Kentucky Power maintains around its power plant at Smith Station. Officials told the cooperative's Trapp Advisory Group on Monday that East Kentucky Power plans to table the project in light of concerns from residents that hunting could endanger livestock on adjacent property or cause illegal roadside parking.

Kate hustled around the field and never took a moment's break as she sniffed out her enemy. "Hunt, Katie-Kate, hunt!" yelled John Martin. Martin and his son Austin Martin scoured the field for quail with their bird dog, Kate, earlier this month. Austin, 12, a seventh-grader at West Jessamine Middle School, already had four quail in his hunting vest, but wanted more before his time was up on his half-hour field trial at the Bluegrass Sportsmens League. He finished with five, but said he was frustrated to not get more.

Everett Mackey says some of his best friends are tail-raising, scent-shooting skunks - literally. But his relationship with Mother Nature doesn't end with skunks. Mackey also befriends deer, wolves, coyotes and foxes, especially Raynard the fox, who comes up on Mackey's porch on Park Lane, off U.S. 68, every evening to get his dinner of dog food. "I guess people probably say I'm kind of out of the ordinary," said Mackey, adjusting his fox-skin cap so that its long red tail hung over his shoulder.

With summer barely beginning and rainfall totals well below normal local sporting outlets are worried about what lies ahead for them this summer. "If we don't get a substantial amount of rain in the next week to 10 days we might have to start trucking water in," said Arlie Mullins, Manager Superintendent at Planter's Row Golf Links in Nicholasville. "I've had to cut out watering tee boxes and stuff because we're about to run out of water. " According to the National Weather Service, Jessamine County is on the brink of a severe drought, having received approximately seven inches of rainfall below normal (22.37 inches)

CLARK COUNTY SHERIFF Accidents - A vehicle driven by Margaret N. Schwartz, 906 Clemmer Lane in Staunton, Va., was traveling in the far left lane of Interstate 64 on Nov. 19 at 2:50 p.m. when it attempted to change lanes and traveled into the path of a vehicle driven by Terry L. Shepherd, 288 Kelli Lane in Chapmanville, W.Va., and was struck in the rear. - A vehicle driven by Robert D. Wallin, 654 Laura Drive, was traveling on Rockwell Road on Nov. 20 at 8:20 a.m. when a vehicle driven by Jeanette R. Starr, 772 Dogwood Lane, pulled in front of it, striking it in the side.

The 2003 fall dove hunting season looks promising, despite the unusually wet spring that delayed planting of crops that attract doves. "I think we should have a pretty good dove season, comparable to last year," said Rocky Pritchert, migratory bird coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR). "We had a lot of rain, but not any huge blows that would have affected the fragile dove nests. " He said dove population counts are very similar to last year, but the rain hurt the planting of crops for the popular dove lease fields program.

Ah, snow! Nature provides this phenomenon that makes it easy for those who venture out into the hinterland to trail deer to their favorite bedding areas along their favorite travel routes. Of course, this activity can only occur if there is a significant snowfall that stays around for a while. Snow not only provides a way to find favorite deer haunts, but also will show any other type of footprint. You can choose just what kind of game on which you would like to pursue more knowledge of by the tracks they leave and what their pattern of travel is. If you want to know if your property has a turkey population, just go out and walk around.

Albert Lee Deering, 70, of Longview Drive, Nicholasville, died July 6. He was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, a lifetime member of the VFW and the NRA, and was a gunsmith. He was born Oct. 1, 1939, the son of William Albert and Alverta Perkins Deering Snowden. Survivors include a daughter, Susan Deering Neeley, two sons, William Lee and Albert Ray Deering, two grandchildren, Sydney and Shane Neeley and a brother, William Joe Deering. Services was Friday, July 10, at Camp Nelson National Cemetery.