Bow hunting tips

Running:
The last couple of days I got out for my runs during my lunch break at work. I couldn't resist taking my watch, but I did resist looking at it until the runs were completed. I wanted to run these just free and easy, no hard running and no big hills. To avoid the hills I modified my route some. Both days I ran five miles. Tuesday I did the run in 37:35 and today it took me only 35:45. Today's run felt like the same effort as yesterday and is a good sign for Sunday. If I could keep up this "easy" pace for 26.2 that PR could be had. Tomorrow I'll likely run 4 or 5 miles, and then rest for Sunday after that. The weather for Sunday's marathon looks real good right now. Let's hope that forecast holds.

Hunting:
A few years ago I tore out a magazine article on bow hunting tips. I jotted these down and added a few of my own. With that said here are some tips to keep in mind to be successful.

*Have a somewhat detailed plan and a good idea of how and where you will hunt.
*Have a good knowledge of the terrain and where deer travel.
*Always be downwind of where deer move. The key word is always.
*Know which deer frequent your hunting area. Some areas are better noted for big bucks than anything else. Have everything in your backpack you’ll need. An extra release, more Game Tracker string, compass, light, matches, Space Blanket and other items.
*Wear clean clothing and clean rubber boots.
*Shoot two or three times at a target before going out. Know exactly where your bow is shooting.
*Use a Game Tracker device. It can help eliminate long hours of searching for a weak or nonexistent blood trail.
*Use only razor-sharp broad heads. Factory sharpened heads are rarely sharp enough.
*Wear a safety harness when hunting from a tree stand.
*Visually inspect all stands before committing to them. Don’t take unnecessary risks.
*Inspect areas within shooting range for open shots, and commit them to memory. Know where you can shoot.
*Use a grunt call sparingly. Too many hunters call too loud and too often. Err on the side of too little and not too loud or often.
*Know your best shots and wait for either a broadside or quartering-away shot. Never take a low-percentage shot.
*Pay attention to what other deer are doing while you wait for your buck to turn and offer a good shot. Make certain you can draw without being seen or heard.
*Pick your shot. Never shoot at the center of mass, but pick the exact spot to aim. Concentrate on not lifting your head at the shot because it can cause the arrow to go high. Follow through!
*Know your ideal shooting range and never exceed it.
*Always sit quiet and motionless. Be still and be quiet, and draw the bow smoothly and silently.
*Know a deer’s body language. It will tell hunter what the animal will do. Each deer is as different from other deer as fingerprints, and that means that each animal can and will react different to various stimuli.
*Hunt alone. A solitary hunter is quieter, moves less, and there is less chance of one person spooking a deer than two people.
*Be prepared for a shot at any moment. Deer hunting means paying attention. Never be caught with the bow anywhere other than in your hand.
*And an extra bonus tip for good measure. Shoot once, shoot straight and don’t miss.

Gardening:
Last night we had our first frost. Tonight we are likely to have more. I covered up a few things to give them a little more time. Some plants are just done for the year. The frost will kill all the pumpkin and squash vines for sure. At least we shouldn't have a hard freeze. If we do I'm in trouble as the rind on the pumpkins could get ruined. There was no time to pick all of them so I'm hoping for the best.

Salamanders

Running:

Monday was a scheduled off day. There will be a couple more later in the week as we are heading into the final few days before the Lakefront marathon. I've put in my miles, but am a little concerned about the type of miles they were. There have been lots of distractions over the past months. I'm also heading into the race up about 5 lbs from where I usually am this time of year. I really would like to set a new PR (currently 3:12:20), but not sure if this is in reach. The 3:12 was run on the Lakefront course. Plugging my 5K time from this past weekend into the McMillan predictor I see a marathon time of 3:23. My Parrott predictor time for this past week was 3:13. (based on the the theory of George Parrott of the Dead Runners Society that a runner can run no faster in the marathon than he runs his fastest 26.2 miles in a week during training). The Parrott predictor has been the closest gauge of how I will do over the past 14 marathons I've done. Only a couple of easy days of running with some strides thrown in the rest of this week. I'll probably not use the watch either.

Here are the stats through last Sunday.

WTD 34

MTD 170

YTD 1461

ODO 24727

Hunting:

The property Wayne and I looked at last Sunday is relatively small, but it does hold some promise. We found two spots to put stands/blinds. There was lots of deer sign and several spots where trails intersect to set up the ambush. Yesterday I finally bought some new arrows. At the shop they helped me paper tune my bow and select the correct arrows for how my bow shoots. They also speed timed it so I know it's shooting at 270 ft per second. Now I have to sight in again.

Gardening:

I forgot to mention that last week when we closed the pool I found two salamander lizards in the skimmers. I have seen them around before, but never had one in the pool. One had yellow spots and one had blue. Here's a couple of pictures I found so you can see what they look like.

KM 5k

Running:
Saturday morning I was supposed to be watching my daughter run at her XC meet. Turns out the coach held her out because of a quad injury. Nothing serious he just wanted to keep it from getting worse. Because she didn't run I opted to run a local 5K last minute. Optimally I would have rested for this on Friday, but as mentioned I didn't anticipate running this. It's a pretty hilly course. I ended up finishing 6th overall with a time of 21:15. I was second in my age group as my competition showed up for this race. Neil is a good runner. I've beaten him several times in previous years, but not this year. Anyway here's a link to the results. http://www.badgerlandstriders.org/results/09KETTLE1_Results.txt
Today I got out early and ran a nice 12 miles. The first 6 were run at about 7:20 to 7:30 pace. The next six is primarily up hill so things were a bit slower. Overall the run took me 1:35:34. I'm pleased with this run. With the Lakefront marathon 1 week away from today it's now all about resting enough with a little running just to stay sharp for race day.

Hunting:
Today I'm going out with my friend Wayne to get a look at a new property. We have a coworker who's looking to eradicate some of the deer that are destroying their property. Could turn out for another bow hunting opportunity and for sure Wayne will use it for some of the gun seasons.

Gardening:
Got the lawn all mowed and garden picked yesterday. Now I have aerating and fertilizing to get done. A little rain tonight would help soften things up for doing this. Here's a link to the latest garden pictures. http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=Jeff.Paavola&target=ALBUM&id=5386230146391409233&authkey=Gv1sRgCOXx4PC8pq-7yAE&feat=email Notice all the pumpkins out in the field. You also can see how well the food plot is shooting up.

31pt buck

Running:
Thursday I ended up with an unscheduled off day from running. It was just one of those days at work where there wasn't an appropriate time to get out. Before you know it the day was over. I'm not a fan of running in the evening, so when this happens I usually just take it off. Friday it looked like it might rain in the afternoon, so rather than risk again not getting out or (god forbid) having to run on the treadmill twice in one week I opted to get out in the AM. I did a nice 8.5 mile loop in 1:5:12. I did a one mile warm up, 5 miles at about 7:20 pace, and then just cruised the last 2.5.

Hunting:
I still haven't been out hunting yet, but lots has happened regarding hunting. My practicing has fallen a bit behind, but I've gotten out a few times. Even without shooting for a few days the consistency of the shots hasn't suffered, so I think I'm ready for the real thing. The food plot continues to grow well. This weekend I'll get a picture of it. It has filled in almost completely with green lush deer loving plants. I've been able to detect activity all around the plot, but haven't seen anything out there yet. When I was up north I was able to get down to check my bow and gun stands. Wow, is there deer sign around both of them. Also signs of bears, but things are really looking promising. Down here I set up two tree stands on a property just west of the house I have permission to hunt. Again the deer sign is plentiful. The trails past my stand areas are wider and more beat down than I can ever recall seeing.

A guy in Wisconsin shot a huge 31pt buck earlier this week. Incredible deer. Here's a video clip showing the deer and an interview with the hunter.
http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20090922/APC0101/309220031/Story--photos--video--Man-kills-30-point-buck

Gardening:
As I mentioned in the last post I've fallen way behind on lawn and garden chores. Today I'll have to get the long grass mowed. I also need to start harvesting some of the pumpkins. I'll take some last pics of the field before I move any of them.

Run catch up

Running:
I have lots of catching up to do. I've continued my training for the 10/4 Lakefront marathon despite all the distractions of the past couple weeks. As any serious runner knows the best way to keep your sanity when things are crazy is to just keep running. I've not trained exactly as I would have, but overall things should be OK. No more 20 mile runs, but enough in the 13 to 16 mile range for the last few weeks. I also have tried to run 5 miles a couple times a week at marathon pace or faster. Sometimes these miles have been in the middle of a longer run. Right now the runs seem easy and there are no aches or pains. Lets hope things stay that way.

I found this link http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/lifestyle/60321332.html to a video shot of the Lakefront course. The 26.2 miles is covered in about 6 minutes. Interesting to watch.

Since my last detail posting:
9/09 11 miles 1:28:15
9/10 6 miles 48:38
9/11 13 miles 1:47:21
9/13 16 miles 2:13:29 Weekly total 46 miles
9/15 5.2 miles 45:23 Trail miles
9/16 11 miles 1:28:58
9/17 5 miles 36.22
9/18 5 miles 38:03
9/19 6.5 miles 52.22
9/20 15 miles 2:03:52 Weekly total 48 miles
9/22 5 miles 35.00 Treadmill
9/23 5 miles 38.05

MTD 146 miles
ODO 24704 miles - 153 short of my first lap around the earth

Hunting:
I'll catch up some more here on my next post. For now I'll just say I haven't been out hunting yet at all. Not even once. I'm itching to try, but the warmer weather is helping to sooth the itch a bit.

Gardening:
I'll catch up a bit here on a future post as well. Gardening chores have also fallen way behind. The pool will be closed for the season tomorrow.

Miss you dad

How do you start again? How do you stop hurting and missing someone so much? No matter how much it hurts I guess you just need to move on, which is what I will try to do. It is so hard to comprehend that dad won't be around in body any more. I know he's in a better place and will be watching over all of us the rest of our days. I know there is lots more grieving to do and future events that will trigger the great sense of loss over and over again. For now it still hurts every day.

The services last week were a great tribute to my fathers memory. We saw so many people. Maybe as many as 500 over the course of two days. The memorial service itself was very nice. Instead of flowers we had Christmas trees at the side of the alter. Dad's ashes were kept in an "Old Pal" tackle box along with a large picture of him holding up a trophy fish. My sister Cheri and brother Scott somehow pulled off singing a few songs that had the whole place sobbing. They did an incredible job. My brother Tad delivered a Eulogy of sorts, a great tribute to dad that said it all and was very well done. Everyone was so generous in their love and support shown to all of us. Monetarily there was an exceptional amount of money donated to the church, local hospice, and a scholarship fund we sent up to be given in dad's memory. Thanks to everyone for all the heartfelt sympathy and support.

Running:
I only recently found out that dad had been a "miler" in high school. I never did find out what his times might have been or how many years he ran. I will have to look this up. My memories of dad related to running have to do with him coming to watch me race. There was a big picture on the picture board at church of me and dad after Grandma's marathon in 2006. He had a bigger smile than me. It made running in the races "up north" fun for me knowing he would be there along the course and at the finish to offer encouragement and congratulations. He was always proud of me for doing this. The Lakefront marathon will be run in his memory, knowing he's watching from above.

Hunting:

This is the activity where dad and I spent the most time doing or talking about. This and fishing. I will really miss not having my partner with me. More than my other brothers over the past twenty years dad and I spent the most time hunting together. Part of this is because I'm the only one who bow hunts, part of this is because dad and I hunted close to each other while the rest hunted "the other side of the hill". I'll miss seeing his big smile and seeing how proud he was when you came dragging a deer out of the woods even though he didn't even see one. I'll miss the comfort of him waiting at night at the end of the road with the truck warmed up as I get out of the woods last. I'll miss the company at those breaks during the day and the special time at night going over the days hunt.

Gardening:

Dad was never much of a gardener. I remember planting a garden as a kid, but we never got much. I'm sure this was because it just wasn't priority, and gardening takes patience and time. Patience dad had, but taking time for a lower priority was another story. The memories of dad I have related to gardening will always be related to Christmas trees. Dad trimmed trees for a summer job and cut trees in the fall for a nursery in the early days. For over 40 years he sold trees locally, some from the nursery and some he had grown himself. Each year this was a big deal for dad and something I think he truly enjoyed doing despite all the work. I spent lots of time helping trim, cut, deliver and sell trees with him over the years. I know how special this was to him and that he didn't really want to ever give this up. One of the last things he wanted to do with me before he became too ill was to go to the tree farm to go over which trees should be cut for a couple special customers this coming season.

Marvin Paavola 9/3/36 - 9/8/09

My father passed away this past Tuesday 9/8. I was lucky enough to have been with him quite a bit over the past couple months as he suffered with a dreadful disease. I was with him as he drew his last breaths. Please excuse this blogger while I attend to business and get myself together from this devastating loss.

Dad's Obituary
Marvin Walfrid Paavola was born to Bruno and Aili Paavola on September 3, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois. The following year the family moved to the Sanborn area where he spent his childhood. Marv graduated from Ashland High School, County Teachers College, attended Stevens Point University, graduated from Northland College with a BS, and University of Superior with his MA.

He married Sandra Engen on June 15, 1957 at the Saron Lutheran Church in Ashland. His first teaching job was in Lac du Flambeau. In 1959 He took a job in Bayfield teaching 8th grade, and loved it so much that he continued there for 35 years. He was also the grade school principal for many years, but missed teaching and returned to teach 4th grade his last few years prior to retirement. His students still affectionately refer to him as “Mr. Paav.”

Marvin was a 7th and 8th Grade boy’s basketball coach, Little League coach and taught Hunters Safety and Snowmobile Safety classes. He was a scorekeeper and announcer for athletic activities for over 30 years, which also let him watch his boys as they participated in different sports.

Summers were spent trimming Christmas trees for Jens Nursery where they shipped several thousand trees to Chicago. In later years he trimmed only enough for his own customers. He was in the business for over 40 years and enjoyed the once a year visits with his customers, their children and then their grandchildren. He enjoyed picking out trees for people so that they could depend on having the perfect tree every year. When he cut them he marked them with the proper name so that everyone could have their special tree. Woe to anyone who took someone else’s tree!

He also loved fishing, and although he never had his own charter boat, he was a captain for most of the area boats including the Crusader, Silver Fin, Connie Jean, Muriel Ann, Mr. Ed, and the Eagle. The highlight of his fishing career was in June 1971 when fishing with Larry Reiten at Cat Island, he caught the first big red-fin lake trout in the area after years of lamprey devastation. The fish weighed 22# and 13 oz and hangs in the hallway of his home. He won the Lucky 13 prize that year and had to go to Eau Claire to accept the award on TV.

He was an avid bow, turkey, deer, pheasant and partridge hunter, and was lucky enough to have hunted with his sons, son-in-law, grand daughter, father-in-law and grandfather-in-law, among others. Building a new tree stand was an annual event, and usually the planning started a week after the current season.

He did not enjoy the bears, and the most terrifying time of his life was being chased by an angry bear at the Ski Hill tree farm, escaping into the car and racing back to Bayfield, eventually returning to find the shirt he left behind in his haste ripped to shreds by the bear.

Marvin also loved cribbage, rummage sales, the Packers, blueberries, chocolate, Coconut Joy ice cream, and gooey snowballs. He has had many special friends through the years. Some of these people had been part of his life for a long time while others even though becoming acquainted in recent years still meant so much to him. In the early years friends enjoyed the stone soup and smear parties, as well as many fish boils and faculty parties.

Marv was passionate in his love for his family, his hobbies, and his faith. He enjoyed fishing and hunting with his children and grandchildren. During his last days he had forgotten how to reel in a fish, but his training with the grandchildren enabled them to help him. He loved his daughters-in-laws and son-in-law like they were family, and was proud of the grandchildren’s special talents, whether they were sports or music.

His last week was spent in bed with his family and friends surrounding him with love, comfort, prayers and song.

He is survived by his wife Sandy of 52 years, sons; Jeffrey (Sandy), Scott (Cathy), Cheryl Tesarek (John), Tad (Colleen), Todd (Keiko.) He is also survived by 9 granddaughters, Karrie Rasmusson, Kylli and Alia Paavola, Amanda and Michelle Tesarek, Joy, Elisabeth and Iris Paavola, Christina Paavola, and one grandson Erik Paavola, as well as his mother Aili Paavola (Heino,) sisters Marie Sigler, Martha (John) Oxley, and Margie (Bryon) Petz, and the many nieces and nephews that he loved dearly. He is also the great-grandfather of Emma and Andrew Rasmusson. He and Sandy were also host parents to Luis, Andres and Daniella Ramierez from Venezuela and Olav Smidstrod from Norway, as well as a foster parent to Angela (Larry) Ochsenbauer.

A visitation will be held in the Bethesda Lutheran Church fellowship hall on Sunday evening Sept 13 from 6-8 pm. Marv’s favorite chocolate chip cookies and Kool-Aid will be served at the event.

Memorial services will be held at Bethesda on Monday September 14th at 11:00.
In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to Bethesda Lutheran Church, Regional Hospice, or a Marvin Paavola Memorial Scholarship fund.

Race results and new Pics

Running:

I did run in the Lake Country half marathon on Saturday. I finished 64th overall out of 838 finishers and finished first in my age group. My time was 1:35:41 which was right about what I expected. I didn't run this to set a PR at the distance. Only to test out my expected marathon pace and check fitness to see if I'm in the ballpark. The run was fairly easy and I felt real good at the end. Here is a link to the results. http://www.itiming.com/raceresults/543-lake-half-ovl09.pdf

After the race I scrambled down to Minooka park in Waukesha to watch my daughter run in her XC race. The coach put her on JV despite her time on the race last week. This race ran JV and Varsity girls together. She ended up finishing 5th fastest on her team beating one of the Sr captains. She was the 3rd fastest Freshman and finished sixth place in JV. Obviously she's doing very well so far.

This morning I went out for another 13.1 miles. I ran it in 1:48:02. Adding these two times together should get me my worst case scenario goal time for a full marathon 3:23:43. I got 42.7 miles in this week.

WTD - 42.7

MTD - 42.7

YTD - 1334

ODO - 24600

Hunting:

I got out this morning to shoot a few more times. Opener for bow season is one week from yesterday 9/12. I don't know if I'll go or not as it's hard to hunt when it's still so warm out. We'll see as the week progresses.

Gardening:

New pictures are up that I took today. Here is the link. http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=Jeff.Paavola&target=ALBUM&id=5378459974777149297&authkey=Gv1sRgCM-As47-x9vJ2QE&feat=email

New Shoes

Running:
Initially I was going to take Thursday off from running. Then I decided I was going to wear my new shoes for the race on Saturday. I felt I better give them an easy test anyway. I went out for a 4 mile easy run in 32:51. The shoes felt great. They are Asics Landreth 5's. I have been doing all my long runs in this model since coming back from injury in May. I scored these a few weeks back on eBay for about 1/3 of the going price of $100. Friday I will be resting up for the 7:00 start of the half marathon on Saturday.




Hunting:
I put up my new ladder stand this morning. As I mentioned the other day I still have some additional work to do to clear shooting lanes and camouflage the stand. Climbing up in it though I think it will provide me the view and coverage I was hoping for with it's placement.

Gardening:
The pumpkins are really looking fantastic. I will have at least 100 of the best looking bunch of them I have ever grown. Most vine crops start having problems with powdery mildew as the summer goes along. I noticed this was starting to spread in the pumpkin patch. The pumpkins are big and plentiful enough that if the plants start shutting down soon it won't be any problem.
Over the weekend I'll take some more pictures for posting.

Hill repeats

Running:
Tuesday I got out during my lunch break and ran an easy 5 miles. Total time 39:51.
Today I was hoping to get out in the morning for some speed work. Because there was so much going on with school starting for the kids this just didn't happen. The timing was just off to devote 1.5 hours or so before I needed to head into work today. So I got out during my lunch break again, but chose to run some hill repeats instead of speed work today. I started off with a 1.8 mile warm up to the base of the hill in a local subdivision. This is a great hill for repeats. It's about .20 miles up at about a 30 to 40% grade. The .40 mile repeats take about 3:30 each. Almost the same time up as down. I ran 8 repeats today. Then finished the run with the rest of my 4 mile loop back to the office. Total distance 7.5 miles in 1:05:25. I think I'll do this workout once each the next couple weeks. I don't want to do it in the two weeks before the marathon. It's much to draining.

Hunting:
This morning I did get out with my clippers and cleared a bit of the brush from the deer trail that runs in the back of the property. I like to keep this clear of limbs, branches and small trees so the deer have free movement down the trail. The seeds in the food plot seem to have sprouted pretty well. I only see a few bare spots that may require over seeding in the next few days.

Gardening:
Tonight I picked quite a few pears and apples to have in the house to eat and put in lunches. The early apples were done a couple of weeks ago, now the later ripening varieties are starting to come in. I have 6 different varieties that will ripen between now and October.

Back to school

Running:

School starts out here today. The roads will be busier in the morning on the runs now.

Sunday morning early I got out for 2 loops around my favorite route. This gave me a total of 15 miles for the day. I ran this in 2:02:30. Monday was an off day. Totals through August month end.

WTD - 50 (last week)

MTD - 261 (highest monthly total this year)

YTD - 1291

ODO - 24557

The odometer number leaves me exactly 300 miles short of my first trip around the earth (assuming 24857 is the number). This means I should reach that milestone some time in October.

Hunting:

Dunham's had a great price on a 17.5 foot ladder stand.

With $70 off MSRP this was almost 50% off. I couldn't pass it up.

This one will be going up at my new spot in the backyard I mentioned a couple days ago.

Gardening:

The garden is overflowing with produce. There is some or lots of everything that is ripe or harvestable right now. Good for coworkers and neighbors too!