Blue Collar Farm Project June Update

Well, here's the latest. In May I was able to get in and do a bunch of cutting (see BCO on YouTube Episode Three). It was a great day, other than being bluff charged by a sow with cubs lol. I was really able to grasp what was going on deer movement wise. There's a very defined moment following the creek, and two major crossing points on that creek. I was also able to find the major bedding area on

the property (see image 1). It's almost in an ideal location, and was actually set up well and didn't need any cutting. I'm still very certain that the majority of the deer are bedding off property, and this is also ideal. I was able to get two staging

area's ready, to help direct the deer movement past our stands and improve the browse. I also hung a camera on one of the new spots.

David and I were able to have a work day in early June. There we sprayed both the patch of burrs and access and exit trails in (see image 2). We checked the camera and found one antlered deer frequenting the area, and saw a buck just off the new alfalfa in the sw corner of the property. We also cut shooting lanes and prepped some trees. Unfortunately we didn't get any video or pictures of the stand sets as there was rain in the forecast and I didn't want to risk

getting the camera gear wet. We've settled on four sets, three keying on pinch points and staging area's along the creek, and one field set in the sw alfalfa field (see image 3). The trail leading to that field from last fall is amazing, and there's a great fence crossing within easy bow range.

We're going back in July to hang stands and I will video that and explain why we're hanging where we are. We also have planned some strategic planting for next spring. The east alfalfa field actually is mostly grass with small pockets of alfalfa and clover. We can vastly improve the productivity of the hay land for the owner and provide better browse/forage for wildlife. I'll touch on this during the winter.

One thing I've learned over the years of doing this is that a chainsaw is the strategic deer hunters best friend. I'd say 80% of the work I've done on this place so far has been chainsaw work. Something to ponder for all those who say this type of hunting and land management is only for the rich. We're well under our year one budget of $600.00, and will probably stay under even with stand purchases. We're also right on point with time allotment, we will have worked three days after setting the stands.

So watch for an update in July some time. I'm sure we'll have some good scouting camera pictures to share.

 

Blue Collar Farm Project, April Update.

Well guys, David and I finally got a chance to go for a walk about on the farm. There was still lots of snow but we where able to walk on top, making things a little easier on both us cripples (David has a bad ankle, I've got a bum knee).

First impressions on the farm are good. Most of the pre determined locations I had map scouted turned out to be keepers with great trees to hang stands. The north side of the farm was lacking in buck sign from last year, but there's already deer moving through there, plus the land owner mentioned that he often sees deer come out of the north east block of timber, so there's deer there.

 I'm assuming that it's most likely a doe group, the ultimate buck bait in November. The south side of the farm showed a lot more sign from last fall, including a couple of rubs that looked decent. I'm sure there's a good reason with the new alfalfa field on that side of the farm and the fact that the cover oats was harvested late last fall.

I get a sense that the majority of the deer are actually bedding off the farm on the timber both to the north and south. We'll be able to tell better once the snow all melts. If this is the case I may do some hinge cuts where the timber is the deepest to help define the movement a little better. This will give us more cover to access stands in the evenings.

David and I were able to predetermine seven different potential stand locations that offer both safe access and exit along with scent management zones (see stars on picture).

There's four that are particularly strong that we'll key on this year. Three of these spots are going to need substantial timber cutting, both harvest and hinge, to make the locations both more desirable browse wise and to create staging area's, and open up filming and shooting opportunities. There's also some burdock that I will be mowing and spraying out this year.

The back alfalfa field looks like a great location to improve on the already existing ag. There was really well defined transitional edges on both the north and south sides of the field, and a land bridge across the boggy type creek. The alfalfa that's in there is old, woody and offers very little nutrition wise, we'll be able to improve that with some new zero till/rotation techniques that have been developed over the last few years in the states. But that will be in year two.

So it would seem we've found a better spot, now it's time to make our spot even better. David and I will be putting in a day of work in May (should have been today, stupid snow). We'll take lots of pictures to share.

Building a cleaner, brighter future for society.......by being your own person.

Choosing to Live life by societies standards

Grow up, go to school, graduate, go to collage, graduate, get a job, get married, get a mortgage, buy a house, have kids, raise those kids, pay for collage for kids, pay off debt with job, retire, sell house bought with mortgage to survive in retirement, pay taxes that whole time..........then die.

Be a slave for the system

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

or choose to live your life by your standards

This post is going to deviate from my usual material, but it will fit in down the road with what I'm doing.

I'll be honest, my mind has been wandering as of late. There was a point in my life I wanted nothing more than to live “the dream”. Do all those things in the previous paragraph. I'll admit, some of those things are important, such as school, getting a job and paying some level of taxes. But I'm beginning to question the other things. There's a set of societal standards that have been put in place over the last 50 years. Some of these standards are even written into law, such as building permits, standards and inspections, government run retirement plans and pensions, and government mandated living standards.  These laws and systems are supposed to be in place for our protection. But as knowledge and technology has advanced some of the laws in place have become obsolete. Things such as the need for running water, electricity and sewers/septic all have reliable and safe substitutes, substitutes that remove a person from reliance on government or monopoly utility providers. You would think that society and governments would embrace these developments as a good thing and a way to reduce wasteful spending and harmful actions against the planet............but this hasn't been the case.

Now lets drift back to “the dream”. A person has to mortgage to purchase or buy a home. This home must meet these standards that are in place for our “protection” in order to get the money to buy/build. This simple rule eliminates alternative lifestyles and homes. They also ensure that the buyer is reliant on the service providers, and that they are locked into a mortgage with the bank (aka debt slave). All these systems have been put in place to ensure that a person contributes to society, in a fashion that makes companies and governments money. Here in North America government and corporations are tied together, and pander to each others greed. Add in that housing prices have skyrocketed in recent years, well beyond what I'm willing to put myself into debt. So there was a short time where I figured my dream was over.

There had to be another way?

Then I began to think.........really think. Not of how I could do better so I can make someone else richer, or put myself into a deeper hole financially. But instead on what's important to me, and what is actually a necessity and what's a luxury. Things such as house size, how that home is looks vs how functional and efficient is is, how necessary utilities are procured and used and so on. Over the last few years I've been lucky enough to secure a roof over my head that I own with zero debt, but I'm still locked into a monopoly utility when it comes to water and power. So, the solution for me is simple. I'm currently developing a system that breaks reliance on utilities and banks. I'm going to take my current home and develop responsible and clean energy, water and waste management systems. I'm doing this on a budget that anyone can afford. The ultimate goal is to develop this system to the point where I'm 100% self reliant and sufficient.  It's a slow process that will have some hiccups, but I'm set on succeeding.  After that the plan is to buy an acreage I can afford, sell my current home and build a house and greenhouse using reused and re-purposed materials, grow my own food and live completely free of utilities and any societal “system”. All without a mortgage, all without being a slave.  I will save for my retirement in a way that doesn't make someone else richer.  I will be my own man, I will be free. And I plan on sharing it with the world.....

I've chosen to be happy, not to make others happy. I've chosen to live my life as I see fit, in a way that will be proven to be better for me, my neighbours and better for the planet. I don't need someone to tell me how to live..........I've decided that.

The Blue Collar Farm Project

Happy march 1^st everyone! What an amazing day it is, -30 and windy as heck. But regardless of those conditions I really feel spring is in the air. I've got some big projects coming up, and I'm going to introduce this one to you all.

A huge part of how I hunt deer is based off of a system of stand placement, seasonal tendencies and habitat management. I've taken a few different styles and systems that I've read about and then adapted for hunting in Canada. My “test farm” has benefited greatly and so has my hunting, but there's not much work left to do there. I think it would be more beneficial to share the work done from scratch, and I've been lucky enough to make that happen.

In December 2013 a friend, David and I gained exclusive access to a 210 acre property. Over the planing and permission granting stages David and I decided to share our scouting, prep work, habitat improvements, and then the hunts on this farm, and do it with a realistic time and monetary budget. So we've decided to call this the Blue Collar Farm. The idea is to show that property specific strategic whitetail hunting and habitat management (this includes the use of creative agricultural solutions) doesn't cost a fortune, and can be pretty much implemented by anyone.

This is what I know of this property as of right now. It's divided up into three parcels, one new alfalfa field, a pasture, then timber. As of last year there was no cattle in the timber. This timber also has a nice 30 acre alfalfa field that is at the end of its cycle. I also noticed when I had a quick look in

December that most of the timber is over mature mixed boreal forest with some small slough type water, and a seasonal stream. I've created this graphic outlining the farm in red white, red is roads/trails, green is timber and yellow is pasture/ag.

Dave and I have set a budget of $600.00 per year ($300.00 each) for stands, camera's, seed, fertilizer, fuel and other equipment. We're going to try our hardest to do all our spring work this year in three days. This includes scouting, pre hanging stands, selective timber harvest and hinge cutting. I will also create a three year plan that works on the weak points habitat wise on this property.

So right now the plan for year one is to focus our hunting plans around the new alfalfa. This alfalfa will be a deer magnet, pulling multiple deer off of the surrounding properties. This plan will simple in year one, scout out ambush sites that offer both safe access/exit and scent management zones, do some selective timber harvest at selected stand sites thus creating staging areas, hang sets and set up one or two scouting camera's. The plan also includes setting up some new bedding area's by hinge cutting in strategic locations.

Moving forward I'd really like to work some “creative agricultural solutions” into the mix, especially in the 30 acre alfalfa field. This would include the use of a cover crop that nurses frost seeded alfalfa and clover. This is a working farm and thus agricultural solutions such as this can be used to bypass the food plot laws here in Manitoba, something that I'm more than raring to share with the hunters of Manitoba.

So I will be sharing this project on my blog “The Blue Collar Outdoorsman”, on a thread on Manitoba Hunting Forums and also doing some segments on Blue Collar Outdoor TV on YouTube. I really hope that this particular project will be informative and help sportsmen of this province gain insight on how to both improve their hunting while at the same time helping wildlife out, and doing this within a budget that pretty much anyone can afford, and time-frame that is more than reasonable. So watch for my first post on this property some time in April (depending on thaw) and first BCO TV segment in May.

Late Winter's Spring Madness.

Well, it's finally starting to feel like the end is near...........the end of winter lol. It's been a while since my last post, I've been rather busy with family health issues and haven't had much time to write. Lots has transpired since my last post in regards to Blue Collar Outdoors. I've been out filming some ice

fishing with great results.  My girlfriend Melissa and I have had three great days out on the frozen H2O and I have basically put enough content in the bank for a great episode of BCO TV on MTS telling the story of the Pelican Lake recovery. There's two more filming sessions left to film for this particular show, one with a Manitoba Conversation fisheries biologist as he tests oxygen levels on the lake, and explains how winter kill happens, and the other putting some late ice pike on the ice.

Then it's one show in the bag for MTS TV's season two of BCO TV. The plan is to produce six episodes for MTS again this year.

So what's a guy who doesn't have enough time already supposed do? Well, start more projects hahahaha. I've decided to launch a web based hunting and fishing variety show under the BCO banner. I've got the first episode done up and posted the YouTube link to the trailer just before this post, the show will go live march 24^th. I'm very excited about this particular project. I will be contributing content, but the idea is to take the adventures of other outdoors folks and produce a show with the video they've shot. As of right now I have four other folks who have agreed to produce. The plan is to produce at least a show a month for one year. As of this point there's zero sponsorship for this project, I'll be taking a loss on it. I've also started filming and producing video for others, watch for a neat video in the near future.

One segment I will be contributing to this show is a video journal on how to set up a new property for deer hunting. Just prior to Christmas a friend and I gained exclusive access to 210 acres of PRIME deer hunting land. We've decided to call this the “Average Joe” property. We've set a budget of $600.00 ($300.00 each) to use towards stands, cameras and any habitat improvements that are needed. Moving forward we will assess the property, create a three year plan, scout and hang stands and then hunt it in the fall. The whole idea is to show that setting up and then managing a property for deer hunting isn't only for those with money, and with any luck we'll be showing a successful hunt off of this property from 2014. I'll also be working on my current hunting properties, doing some habitat improvements and working with local farmers on some create agricultural solutions that benefit wildlife.

I've been pencilling in some hunting plans for this spring. I've been very lucky to be invited on a father /daughter hunt where I'll film them hunting bears for MTS TV. I'll also be going on my own bear hunt, and will be filming Ty Pettyjohn on his bear hunt. If all goes well I'll line up a turkey hunt or two as well. I'll also be filming some trout fishing on the amazing stocked waters around western Manitoba, and will be going up to Lake Athapapuskow with some friends to film them catching giant lake trout. And I'm sure I'll be doing some open water fishing in May and June.

So the plan is to bring you all along for the ride. I hope to be able to blog at least once a month starting now. I will post an update in late march, right around when BCO TV on YouTube goes live.

Blue Collar Outdoors on YouTube Season 1 Episode 1 Trailer

BCO Volume I (DVD) Two Years In a row Redux

A great hunt that defined BCO Volume I.

BCO Volume I (DVD) Late season bonus redux

Here's a chapter for BCO Volume I (DVD)

North Dakota B roll

Another broll clip from the early years.

BCO B-roll video two, The almost perfect turkey hunt.

BCO broll-Manitoba Late November Bowhunt

I've been a little bored and have been messing with some broll content.  Here's a little clip from a few years back.

Life Lessons With a Camera In Hand

Well happy holidays folks! Deer season has wrapped and I'm transitioning to hard water fishing as I write this. Filming for Blue Collar Outdoor TV was a complete success and I'm in the process of pitching season two of BCO TV to the network, as well as starting to work on another media type project. So all is well. Filming and post production schedules kept me from writing throughout the fall, but I now have the time to start hitting the keyboard again with all work being done on the show. The last eight months has been quite the journey and I've decided to use this post as an opportunity for me to share what I've learned over the last twelve months as it applies to life working in outdoor media.

Mother Nature Runs The Show

We all know those types of hunting or fishing situations that are “sure bets”. For me it's fishing late ice stocked trout lakes and bear and turkey hunting in the spring. The plan was to film ice fishing for trout in early April, then scout and prepare for the coming deer season while the ice was going off, then prep bear baits and finally hunt turkeys in late April. I'd then hunt bears in late may early June.

Well, mother nature had other plans. I started to get worried at the end of march when the snow kept building up instead of melting. April came and I started hitting the trout lakes hard, with little to no success due to the colder than normal water temps and late thaw. I came out of early April with absolutely zero content for the show. Filming strike one.

I then sat at home waiting for the snow to melt so I could scout and prepare for whitetails. This was a long wait as the snow didn't melt until April 20^th. I then needed to make a choice, ether film turkey hunts or prepare for whitetails. The choice was simple, for me whitetails always take priority so I ditched my sure bet turkey hunt to make the time to prepare for fall whitetails right. Filming strike two. Then it was time for bear hunting at my north camp. Up there I use lakes for access to my bait sites. Well, the baits were late going in due to the delayed ice off. This wasn't a huge issue as plenty of bears had found my baits by the first week of June. I set up camp and got ready for what I thought was going to be a great adventure type hunt for BCO TV. WRONG! I had hit green up to perfection and my baits went dead literally overnight due to the abundance of food everywhere. I hunted HARD for the entirety of the nine day hunt, with two whole encounters to show for it. I went home with an un-notched tag in my pocket, filming strike three.

Mother nature kicked my butt in the spring of 2013, plain and simple. Many would have thrown their hands up and walked away. But I always look for an upside, another way to make things work.

Making The Best Of A Situation.

I'm an outdoors man first, and a cinematographer second. During my bear hunt I woke up the morning of June 5^th to an amazingly beautiful day, clear, calm and warm. I had brought my kayak along to use to quietly access my bear baits. But this day the kayak would be used in more of a traditional way. I knew of this little lake back in a creek system that held amazing numbers of pike and figured I'd go have some fun catching them. I had mounted two cameras on my kayak and decided to film the impromptu fishing trip more for fun more than anything else. I loaded the boat up on the box of my truck and headed for some fishing. I slipped into the water around 10:00 am and after a short row was ready to fish. Now I'm not lying when I say I caught ten fish in ten casts, then proceeded to slam pike for three hours.

I captured some of the best fishing content I had ever filmed, all on a “fun” fishing trip. I might have gone home without a bear hunt on film, but instead had an amazing day on the water to edit into a show instead. I had made the best of a bad situation. While I was up there I was able to do some prep work for whitetails and film some technical segments as well.

Work Hard Towards Goals, Believe In Yourself.

I mentioned earlier that I worked hard in the spring of 2013 to prepare multiple locations to hunt whitetails. This includes creating edge cover, prompting new browse and mast to grow, dig in water holes and to fine tune my stand sets in regards to access and scent management. Most of this work was done on one specific farm in the south west corner of Manitoba, and I had plans to hunt it hard the first 14 days of the deer season. I went into the 2013 deer season more confident than ever before.

September 2^nd found me sitting 20 feet up in a burr oak tree waiting for a shooter deer after returning home from a quick elk hunt. I was ready to give up by the 4^th, the deer simply weren't on the farm like I had thought they'd be. I had thoughts of heading to other farms I had hunted in the past with great success, but decided to hold off for a few days and give these particular spots a good run. I had my first encounter with whitetails the morning of the 5^th, two does slipped in from an alfalfa field towards their bedding area, and right past my stand. This boosted my confidence a bit. I then slipped into my favourite set the evening of the 6^th and checked the scouting camera that was hung in there. One of my target bucks had walked passed the camera's the previous two evenings during daylight hours, and the confidence went up a little more. With 15 minutes of filming light left I caught a noise to the east. It was the other shooter buck on that farm, and he was going to walk right in-front of me. After a few minutes the four year old 4×4 stepped out with another two year old and finally gave me both an ideal shot for the camera and bow. I laced the buck and he ran 40 yards, then piled up in a huge crash.

 

 

 

 

That was a wrap on my 2013 Manitoba deer season. Preparation, patience and persistence paid off in a big way. 28 hours of hunting produced two encounters with four deer, far from what I had expected. But I had faith in my set ups, my techniques and didn't give in to the negativity that was trying to creep into my thoughts.

My 2013 hunting season went much smoother after that. I had an amazingly rewarding whitetail hunt in Saskatchewan that turned into the best episode of BCO TV. I filmed some good friends having a blast shooting waterfowl. I then captured the mentored youth waterfowl hunt and took a first time deer hunter out on a hunt. I went into the fall not knowing what would happen, and came out of it feeling more secure that BCO is on the right path, and that I have what it takes to make a career in outdoor media work.

So where am I going with all of this? Well I learned first not to count my chickens before they hatch, the spring filming session was a bomb and I almost threw in the towel right then. But through sheer determination and sacrifice I was able to make six episodes of BCO TV come together. I simply wanted it bad enough and took the measures to make that happen, a great lesson for anyone. Then there's the technical side of filming and editing, I made huge gains in my skill to turn raw content into an enjoyable watch for all. Finally, I never once forgot what being in the outdoors is about, having fun, staying humble and not once stepping outside of personal ideals and ethics to ensure I had enough content for BCO TV. Going into this journey I was adamant that this be the case, and it was in the end. Filming season one of BCO TV has been a rewarding experience, one that I will use to improve and grow BCO because of the lessons learned this year.

Hi All

Hi all

First off I’d like to take the time to personally thank you for checking out my blog and to welcome out all to check in on a regular basis. I will be posting the links to this blog through Blue Collar Outdoor Media’s Facebook page and I’ll encourage you all to go and join. With this blog I’ll be sharing not only my adventures, but thoughts on conservation, wildlife and much more. But before that I feel the need to provide you all with a little history on how my passion, Blue Collar Outdoor Media came to be.

Ever since I can remember I’ve wanted to have a career in the outdoors. In my youth the dream was being a professional fisherman, teens it was to be a guide, and writing and videoing was the goal of my twenties. There just never seemed to be an easy way to get started though. I tried writing in my mid-twenties………and failed miserably. Shortly after though, 2006 to be exact, my path towards an outdoor career took a major turn. I was going into my second year of bear hunting and had been amazing people with the stories from my first year. There had been a fire smouldering within me to start videoing my hunts in the past, to show my friends and family that I wasn’t full of it and that these things I told them were really happening. That winter I had purchased a point and shoot digital camera….and this camera had a video function. So off I went into the woods with my good friend Trevor Fisher to video his first bear hunt with my little point and shoot Kodak.

The hunt was amazing, two days of hard hunting produced an amazing encounter that ended with Trevor making a great shot…..and it all was captured on film. The fire that had been smouldering now burst into a flame and that very week I went and purchased a Mini-DV video camera.

The following years were a whirlwind of hunts and learning experiences. I threw myself into filming in 2008 with a serious goal of producing a video product. Blue Collar Outdoors Volume I was released on DVD in the spring of 2009, 14 hunts on a 90 minute DVD. It was a great start and many hunts were filmed for volume II in the next year. But then life got in the way in more ways than one, first a falling out with my partner and friend over creative and personal differences with BCO in 2010, then a major back door type of investigation into my hunting style and success by Manitoba Conservation in 2011 (more on that later). These two life events really put a damper on that flame. But a couple of good hunts and a verbal butt kicking by now "pro staff" Ty Pettyjohn really put things back into perspective for me. In 2012 I re-evaluated, re-focused and rebooted BCO. I took the events of the past two years and learnt from them not only to become a better outdoors man, but a better person as well. I began to take my experiences and write, becoming a featured writer for Manitoba Outdoors soon after. I then secured a 6 episode contract with MTS TV to produce hunting and fishing variety show for their on demand "Stories From Home" channel. So now here I am seven long year after I started working towards a career. I’m taking an extended leave of absence from my job to film this fall, and hopefully lay the foundation for many years of outdoor media work. It’s been a long haul, but one that’s now showing some promise as a way to earn ends meat.

To get to this point in my outdoor media career has been a long journey, one with many ups and downs, supporters and haters. I want to first acknowledge the haters. I know there will always be those who are jealous anytime a person has a higher level success, and those people will always try to knock you down. I want to single out two in particular and thank them. The former wildlife "biologist" and his buddy, thank you. Thank you for showing your true colours, thank you for providing me with the motivation to prove you wrong in more ways than you can ever imagine. Your assumptions of my activities, jealous attitude then the subsequent "investigation" by the Manitoba Department of Conservation brought me more stress and pain then I can tell you. I had made mistakes for sure, and I own them, now the question is are you willing to own yours? During your tenure at Manitoba Conservation wildlife numbers have plummeted to lows that haven't been seen in 40 years.  Any time we talked all I ever heard was excuses.  To think, all this could have been avoided if someone had just simply talked to me. But I’m kind of glad you didn’t, so thank you.

Finally, I need to genuinely thank those who have been supportive in my life and have helped me become the man I am today.

Trevor Boake, you rode the wave with me for the first five years man. I know our lives have gone in different directions but without you I wouldn’t be writing this. Thanks dude.

Gerry Oliver, man we need to do some hunting together some time soon. Thanks for being that guiding voice when I needed it, and thanks for everything you’ve offered me.

Andrew, Muriel, and the late Jack Boake, thank you for taking me into your family and your lives for those early years. I miss you guys, you still are and will always be my second family and I wish I could visit more often.

Melissa Ericson thanks for being so understanding and supportive. I know that the outdoor lifestyle is all new to you and a little tough to grasp. I love the fact that you’re giving me the time away and leeway to work on my projects. I love you babe and I’ll make it up to you, thank you.

Finally, Bev and Dennis Yaskiw, a huge thank you! It took me a long time to find a direction in life and that whole time you’ve been there for me…..and still are. I know I don’t need to say it, but I love you.

So as I write this final paragraph it’s now 17 days away from formally starting my outdoor career. In time I will go deeply into explaining what BCO stands for, but for now I’ll close by saying this. Being a Blue Collar Outdoorsman isn’t about what gear we use, or how what one person does is better than anything else. It’s about having a positive attitude towards others that share the outdoors with us and a desire to give more back to nature then we take. Nature and thus our lifestyle will thrive if we all make a point of thinking and acting this way.