Shiawassee Kid

Here’s the latest

Hi All

Here we go again pretty good week but no rain which we need badly

Monday: Glenn and I headed out to work on 6- 14 dike ,when servicing the excavator we found we had a bad radiator hose so we removed it and our day of digging was delayed we spent the rest of the morning trying to find a hose locally,but no luck so I hoped on the Bush Hog -John Deere and proceeded to Mow dike tops from where I left off last week. I finished all the major traveled dike tops and proceeded to mow the ditch in the 40′s therefore giving all the non Mudbuddy access to the 40′s which always seem to be appreciated.  Glenn proceeded to service other equipment the rest of the day and Vic did what Vic does best, laying out plans for a successful hunting season. my last 20 years was spent Managing a Tool and Die business, so I appreciate what Vic does best.

me pulling glenn out of ditch bottom again very mucky and you can t help but slid in once in a while easy to pull out with excavator

Tuesday: I started the morning Mowing dike tops again while Vic and Glenn had a meeting with division people, they were tied up all day in the meeting and I had fun mowing dike tops(rather sit on a tractor than a chair in a meeting anyday) then got a call my radiator hose was in so I proceeded to Bridgeport to pick up the hose,which turned out to be the wrong one so I ordered the right one, Not fair I had a picture to look at this time. so I proceeded back to mow the balance of the dike tops in the 30′s , 40′s and Triangles.

zone 66 with deer damage looking very good compaired to a couple week ago

Wednesday: Vic was busy working up Ryan Rd. fields to be planted to winter wheat, this will give the goose hunters some good hunting , and he picked up a seeder and seed from the elevator, which I might add the Shiawasse Flats Citizen and Hunters Assoc. will pay for .  I again started to Mow the Dike tops on Prior Rd. then another phone call for the Rad. hose so off to pick it up, came back and finished all dike tops on Prior Rd.

to finish the day.

zone 63 and 64 buckwheat 3 ft tall and corn about 8 ft

Thursday: Glenn and I helped Vic get his seeder going, then we went out to work on the Excavator in a matter of minutes we had it going and proceeded to work on the 6 thru 14 dike again, we are coming along very well with almost  60 +%  done. Looking very good.  Vic spent the day seeding Ryan Rd and South Prior, Gary Bronze helped him with the collapactor, now we need some rain to get it going, at the end of the day I saw Vic headed for the 40′s where he will proceed to seed the winter wheat in the decoy strips for you goose hunters.

zones 61 and 62 excellent

Note: I have been getting asked for more pictures, well every time I drive by South Prior I can’t help but marvel at how good it looks, so  pictures of South Prior, also a picture of Glenn as I pull him out on Dozer in the  ditch bottom. Its amazing, when he gets to close to the bottom it just sucks him in and does not take much to pull him out with excavator.
One day last week Leo Gross made a suggestion to members of the SFCHA  that he would volunteer to build a Blind for Zone 1, because of lack of cover in there and due to the location this year, well it was discussed with Vic, who said he would consider it after consulting with other area people to see if would be a good idea and not cause future problems. Well today Vic gave his approval,with conditions, that are acceptable to SFCHA .  so SFCHA (Leo) will build a blind and be responsible for installing and removal, it will be available for individual hunter, with caution the water may be deeper in that area. the area will be directly  north of the west strip (will be open water), this will allow zones 2 and 3 to be extended somewhat, which will give more room for those zones, remember zone 1 was heavily damaged by deer this year,with limited cover, this will be for this year only.
Again Brian Siess is planning more willow cutting if you’d like to help give him a call or email, also next week ,second Tuesday, is our monthly meeting, at the field office in St.Charles. and as always a tour,weather permitting, will follow the meeting, its a great opportunity to view the area.

Remember the SFCHA dinner banquet  will be Sept 9 th and tickets are available on line at shiawasseeflats.com as usual it promises to be a great event and a great way to support the SRSGA.  last year it was a sell out so don’t delay get your tickets today. any question reply to me and I’ll help you out.

Also look for the SFCHA table at this weekend waterfowl event at Bay City State park,they will have this years raffle item there, it is a canoe with outboard motor, pretty nice looking rig. also they will have dinner tickets for the SFCHA banquet.
Pre-registered waterfowl  permit applications are available on line this year, www.michigan.gov/huntdrawings, you have till Aug 28 to get them in. SRSGA area will be limited to 55 preregistered  permits this year. season dates have yet to be decided, but will happen soon.

Looks like this is it for this week

Regards  Butch

here’s from the past week (last week in July)

HI All

Been busy so haven’t had a chance to do my report, so here it is

Monday: Back to 6-14 dike still digging the center out and filling that with sediment in the ditches on both sides. Vic was finishing up where Pat left off ,  work up decoy opening in the 40′s and working up plots on Ryan rd.

Tuesday: Same as Monday   we are well over half way done with this project

Wednesday: As you all know by now Pat is now in Gaylord, he accepted a job with the DNRE as a Biologist. So today Ray Walker came on board to finish Pat hours, which should be about 290 hrs to finish out 719 hrs. Ray has his own excavating business, but because things are slow he applied for the temporary position at SRSGA.  Ray will be a big plus for the area with his experience with heavy equipment , and by the way he also is half owner in the local funeral home, so if you need assistance in that area give Ray a call..
Ray and Glenn proceeded to work on the 6-14 dike, and I stayed at the shop in town to work on old 10 yard dump truck and the Bush Hog. I got the Dump truck going, had issues with alternator, and worked on Bush hog, I ordered a simple part on Monday and it was suppose to be in Wed. but it didn’t make it,
Thursday:  I needed to get the dike top mowing  going, so I went home and  made the part, and finished the day Mowing the dike tops, I have all the main ones done but have a lot of others I need to get at.  Ray had a vacation with his family scheduled for the first week in August so he will be off all of next week, so I’ll be back with Glenn on the 6-14 dike.

Note: we did not get much in the line of rain this week and we sure could use it .  the crops look very stressed out , especially the Buckwheat in the 40′s which is pretty much at a stand still.  I checked out Brian Siess’s crew today (Sat.) they are cutting willows in the north east refuges, its a tough job but sure needs to be done, they are doing a great job.  if anyone would like to get involved with that project give me or Brian a call and he will add you to his list to inform you when he is going to cut willows.  Brain’s # 586-596-7040 and my # 989-284-8011 he could use the help , what he would need is some one with a chain saw and old pair of tennis shoes and old pair of Blue Gene’s , you will also have to fill out a volunteer form, unless you already have, before you can help, Brian has those.
Also take note the SFCHA dinner tickets are on sale on shiawasseeflats.com , you can buy them on line using Pay Pal the dinner is set to go on Sept. 9th at Albee Hall on M-13 south of Saginaw,  Remember all proceeds will be used for hunter access and habitat improvement on both State and Fed reserves
If you want to pass along my report to friends and hunters you can log onto the shiawassekid.com web site he has posted all my reports on line plus a lot of good info on different issues on the flats .
At this time due to Pat Brickel moving on to a different job in the DNRE, it  has been decided to cancel all waterfowl banding projects on the Shiawassee State Game Area. Pat was in charge of this project and had been certified to Band and document waterfowl banding. Unless some one else in the Dept. steps forward it has been call off.
Also take note Connie is back full time, she was part time for the summer, so the office will be open during the week.

Guess that’s it for this week.

Regards   Butch

from july 5th week.

Hi All

Well another week of digging so here goes this is going to be short

Monday: Rain no way can work on dikes  so took it off to save my hours.

Tuesday: 6 thru 14 dike still to wet to work on so  Glenn and I hauled Gravel all day and worked on top of graveled dikes

Wednesday: Finally got back on 6 thru 14 dike Vic,Glenn , Pat and I and got another 50 yrd. completed good day.

Thursday: Back on 6 thru 14 dike and got another 50 yrds done  so far I would guess we are a little over 25% finished we will need another good 3 weeks to finish (weather cooperating)  at this rate, although Vic has a plan once we get the rental equipment on site we will have 2 excavators digging should be able to get a 100 yrds a day.

Notes:  As you all know Pat Brickel has been with the DNRE as Temp for the past 3 summers, well good news Pat has been offered a Biologist job with the DNRE  in Gaylord he will start there on the 26 th so this will be his last week coming up, I have thoroughly enjoyed working and being a friend with Pat and am very happy for him. I know he will do the dept a very good job.
Vic has finally got the confirmation of the rental equipment ,End Loader, Off Road Dump, and a Long Arm Excavator should be on site the 1 st of August , He is lining up as many people with in the Dept to come to SRSGA to assist us in using this equipment . Along with the dike we are working on now. Vic plans on moving dirt from inside 1 thru 5 dike ( this dirt was dug out about 10 yrs ago or so and not suited for dike material so it was deposited in side) to the north west end to expand the crop land, that area now is to low to farm this will give us up to maybe 10 or  more acres of farm land and it will extend  zone 1 and it will give zone 3 some more decoy room. which should help some issues with zones 1,2 and 3.

SFCHA  monthly meeting on Tuesday the 13th was well attended by about 40 members  4 Trustees position were decided by ballad vote sent by members and 2 incumbents Leo Gross and John Klohagen  were retained 2 new Trustees Chris Smith and Dave Roberts were elected as Trustees.  DNRE  was represented by (Vic, Glenn and my self) Vic discussed  area projects we are in process of doing and plan on doing, he also gave an up date on area crop condition, which is very good, talked about the 3 zones in North Prior, It is his opinion that the zones now running east and west  wiil be about 29 yrds from the refuge dike, which would allow shooting to close to the refuge, he is going to shorten those zones to leave about 75 yrd to the refuge dike, This will make it the same as South Prior, Every one at the meeting thought that was a good idea.  He also announced Pat has been hired as a Biologist for the dept and will be working in Gaylord.
Brian Siess and a couple members worked on removing willows last weekend in zone 29 which is now completed his next project will be willows in north east refuge, He told me he is planning on this weekend so if you are interested in helping him and his crew of volunteers, give Brian a email and he will inform you when and where  bsiess@radarrindustries or get with me and I’ll contact him
So far rain has really varied from area to area but we have gotten some badly needed rain for the crops but most of it has skirted us we could still use more but only on weekends please

Well that’s all my memory will allow

Regards

Butch

here’s latest from Butch

Hi All

Not a lot of different things accomplished this week so here it is.

Monday:   as the attached picture shows all of us worked on the Coring project on the 6 thru 14 dike project. We dig the center of the dike one shovel wide about 6 to 8 ft. deep, which is put in a dump truck and hauled to the north dike and leveled, then we clean out both sides (ditches) and fill in the center that we removed. This will do 2 things, it will remove any voids caused by Muskrats or Woodchucks and clean out the ditches. As most of you will recall last year we could not maintain water levels between the 6-8 field and 9-14 field to a proper height because of this dike had many leaks in it, this will eliminate that problem this year.

Tuesday:  Same as above.

Wednesday: Same as above

Thursday:  I had off, trying to save my hours I am limited to  719 hrs and I am almost half way there  September being an important month I would like to get through some of it.

Notes: As I reported last week we had 4 entrance gates stolen, well Vic got a call by the Saginaw Sheriff Dept.that they were found in a local scrap yard.  Sure enough they were sold to the scrap yard just south of town on M-52 (of all places) as it turns out there was only 1 half a gate there,they had processed the others earlier in week. According to the Saginaw News Paper and TV News, a 46 year old man, on parole, has been arrested for stolen property, he also stole bleacher benches (aluminum) from Swan Creek little league park and 3 manhole covers form Saginaw and sold them to this local scrap yard.

Note: Last Friday Jon Oakes finished planting Buckwheat in South Prior and we had a perfect rain Sunday to get that going I expect to see it up when I get back to work Tuesday. Also Tuesday he planted all of the 40′s Buckwheat, the only difference this year in planting the buckwheat is it will be only 25 yards from the corn strips somewhat closer than previous years

coring in progress on 6-7-8 dike.