Three Super Star Acts Coming to the Redlin Art Center Saturday, August 7th, 2010!
The Redlin Art Center is proud to announce three super star acts – Restless Heart, BlackHawk, and Little Texas on their Triple Threat Tour! Together, these performers have sold more than 15 million records, had 30 Top Ten hits and 10 songs that were number ones! This FREE show will be held Saturday, August 7th, 2010 on the grounds of the Redlin Art Center. Everyone is welcome.

These three bands will bring the total to nine nationally recognized entertainment groups to perform at the Redlin Art Center in seven years! The Redlin family and the Redlin Art Center began a tradition of a summer concert celebration with an outdoor concert by Mannheim Steamroller in 2004. Since then, each August, thousands of visitors have enjoyed concerts by Lee Greenwood, Ronnie Milsap, Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers, The Oak Ridge Boys and Sawyer Brown!

The Redlin Art Center strives to make the event bigger and better for the community and those who travel to the event from surrounding states. The Redlin Art Center is honored to have another opportunity in 2010 to bring entertainers of this caliber to Watertown. With the combined efforts of the Redlin Art Center, the Redlin Art Center’s event partner, Home Federal Bank, and sponsors Schwan Financial Group and the Watertown Bid Improvement District, the event in 2010 is sure to be the best ever!

Mark your calendars today! You won’t want to miss this exciting event at the Redlin Art Center in Watertown, South Dakota on Saturday, August 7th, 2010!

Black Hawk                    Little Texas                        Restless Heart

WREP Pivot Program one of five projects chosen by USDA to conserve wetlands in Midwest

Grand Island, Neb. – July 13, 2010 – A Pheasants Forever-sponsored wildlife habitat project in the Rainwater Basin region of south-central Nebraska has received $3.25 million in financial assistance through the Wetlands Reserve Enhancement Program (WREP). The multi-year, pilot program will allow center pivot irrigation systems to travel across wetlands and upland buffers restored and protected through the USDA’s Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) as a reserved right.

The project was one of five announced by the USDA to restore and enhance wetlands in five Midwestern states through WREP. A voluntary conservation program, WREP is carried out through partnership agreements with state and local governments, non-governmental organizations and Indian tribes. NRCS Chief Dave White announced the projects on behalf of Secretary Vilsack at an America’s Great Outdoors Initiative listening session in Nebraska. White and other Obama Administration officials toured the Rainwater Basin Water Complex.

This pilot WREP program provides a unique conservation tool that will increase program enrollment throughout the Rainwater Basin Region. Nearly 75% of the restorable wetlands are intersected by center pivot irrigation systems. In the past, multiple landowners have withdrawn Wetlands Reserve Program applications or not applied due to the uncertainty of being allowed to let their pivot cross a wetland enrolled in the program. “In the Rainwater Basin, the number of pivots is likely to increase in the future,” says Pete Berthelsen, Pheasants Forever Senior Field Coordinator, “The overall impact of center pivots on wetlands and wildlife is likely minimal when compared to the overall benefits that long-term protection of wetlands and associated upland buffers will have on wildlife populations.”

Springtime is when Mother Natures Garden starts to grow and mature.

Unlike other gardeners, Mother Nature doesn’t see the need to plant her garden in nice neat rows like we do.

When gardeners see weeds and grasses growing in their garden, out comes the how, not Mother Nature as she has the right plan, as she allows all anything and everything to grow in her garden.

This is the time of the year when hunters can hit the field, sandbars and wooded areas without a gun and still bring home something for dinner.

It’s morel and asparagus picking time in the upper Midwest, when both of these delectable edibles will poke their heads above the ground, just waiting for someone like you or I to come along and pluck them from he earth.

Before getting into the who, what, when and where of mushroom and asparagus hunting, there’s one thing that we need to remind ourselves of.

With any type of hunting or picking we need to get permission of the landowner before entering their land.

Morel Mushrooms

Morels, general appear prior to wild asparagus and can be found throughout our area, they are easy to recognize, delicious to eat, making them the most popular wild mushroom in the upper Midwest

Elongated with an off white stem and a crown, covered with white ridges and dark brown pits, the morel mushroom are easily recognized.

Varying in color from light gray to dark gray, light tan to golden brown, pale yellow to yellow to dark brown, a morel looks like is to look for something growing on the ground resembling a cone shaped brain.

Morels start to pop out in mid to late April, when temperatures reach around 50 degrees, with the best hunting or picking happening when temperatures hit the mid 50’s.

In the upper Midwest there are several things that indicate to mushroom hunters that morels will be up.… Continue reading

LINCOLN, Nebraska – The public is invited to attend the free Nebraska Outdoor Expo on May 15 at Fort Kearney State Recreation Area, according to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

The fourth annual expo, open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., is designed to meet the needs of anyone interested in outdoor lifestyles, regardless of age or experience, through a variety of hands-on activities, demonstrations and interactive displays.

This is a great way to learn everything about the outdoors from the experts, with displays and instructions on hunting fishing, camping and a whole lot more.

New attractions in 2010 include nationally known hunting experts, hands-on bow fishing, youth Discovery Zone, and a Marketplace showcasing outdoor-related vendors and exhibitors.

Visit… Continue reading

Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal

These two jakes came running into our hen calls at the Big Blue Ranch and Lodge near

Burchard, Neb. (Journal photo by Larry Myhre)

BURCHARD, Neb. — Like so many times before, it was a gobble that first alerted us that a tom turkey was coming in.

Gary Howey motioned that the bird was downhill in front of us just in case I hadn’t heard.

I had the video camera running and began looking for the bird.

The first indication was the tip of his tail, spread in full strut, and slowly rocking back and forth as the bird stepped forward.

Then he was there, all puffed up and drumming. It was a glorious sight and one that sets a turkey hunter’s heart to pounding.

He was 15 yards out when Gary “putted” sharply on his diaphragm call to make the bird come out of strut and stick up his head.

Just like that it was over.

Less than two hours into our hunt on the Big Blue Ranch and Lodge south of Burchard, we had both filled turkey tags.

Gary, from Hartington, Neb., and I were guests of Scott Bodie and his wife Billie Kay. Their 2,000-acre working cattle ranch is the backdrop for a retreat for hunters, fishermen, horse enthusiasts, bird watchers or anyone just seeking relaxation.

Their cedar log lodge sits above a 25-acre, spring-fed pond stocked with largemouth bass, crappies, bluegills and northerns.… Continue reading

Believe it or not, spring is here, finally the snow is disappearing and the weathers starting to warm.

It’s something that a lot of us have been waiting on for a long time, giving us the opportunity to get outside and enjoy the spring weather.

As I mentioned in earlier columns, this is the time of the year when I do my pre-season scouting for turkey.

While I’m out there tromping around in the woods looking for some sign of that big Tom, I’m also looking for deer sheds or “Shed Hunting” as it’s known.

For those of you that haven’t hunted sheds, they’re the previous years antlers that the buck sheds or dropped after the rut.

Bucks shed their headgear/rack/antlers annually and if you can beat the rodents and other critters out there that chew on them where they use them for a source of calcium, you’ll have the opportunity to find a shed or two.

A buck’s antler/rack is a lot different from cattle horns, which are hollow, as they’re made up of honey combed solid bone.… Continue reading

Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal

YANKTON, S.D. – The allure of holding a prehistoric fish which swam 50 million years before the dinosaurs ruled the world is hard to resist for Mieke Slaba, Wagner, S.D.

Each year she looks forward to pursuing paddlefish below the Gavin’s Point Dam with her father Gary Howey of Hartington, Neb.

Of course they have to be lucky enough to draw one of the 1,600 paddlefish tags issued annually by Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks. This year they were.

Mieke is not alone in her quest for paddlefish. Snagging is so popular that special regulations had to be put in place years ago to protect this valuable resource.

Although the chance to catch a really big fish, Nebraska’s state record paddlefish weighs 93 pounds and was caught from the Gavin’s Point Dam tailwaters in 1998 by Kathy Reiman of Yankton, is undoubtedly one of the reasons. Another is that this fish is incredibly tasty, if you remove all the red meat from the fillets.

And in late fall, paddlefish congregate by the thousands below the dam, jammed up here during a prespawn migration urge eons old.… Continue reading

Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal

“There’s no shortage of prairie dogs right here,” Gary Howey said as he scanned the huge pasture.

I agreed. There were mounds as far as the eye could see on all sides of us.

“We just as well set up right here and get to work,” I said.

We lifted the big picnic table from the back of Ben Bearshield’s pickup and set it on the ground.

With our rifles uncased and set up on bi-pods on the table, a spotting scope in place, binoculars and ammunition beside us, it was time to begin.

We were hunting the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in south-central South Dakota , a premier destination for prairie dog hunters from around the nation and even the world.

It is easy to see why. There are currently somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 acres of prairie dog towns on the reservation. If you drive the roads west of Rosebud, chances are anytime you care to look, you will see prairie dogs.

The little rodents are the bane of livestock ranchers. Their holes and mounds of dirt are literally traps waiting to break the leg of a running horse or cow. They eat the vegetation to the ground, eliminating the desirous grasses and forbes and in their place grow weeds if the town is ever abandoned. That’s why hunters are welcomed in prairie dog country.… Continue reading

2009

Rising majestically from the prairie, The Redlin Art Center can be seen long before the city itself.

Located where Interstate 29 and U.S. Highway 212 intersect in Watertown, South Dakota it’s one of South Dakota’s premier tourist destinations.

The Art Center itself is a work of art as are Terry Redlin’s paintings that are so beautifully displayed inside.

At the Redlin Art Center you’ll have the opportunity to see over 150 of the award winning prints and paintings by Watertown native, Terry Redlin.

Terry is one of America’s most beloved artists, famous for his many wildlife paintings that have graced the front covers of numerous magazines.

Redlin is not only a wildlife artist, he’s an Americana artist as his paintings capture much of the American traditions that he remembers from his childhood while growing up in the Watertown area.… Continue reading

A warm sunny day can bring a lot of warmth to people, especially those of us who long to be outdoors after a long cold winter.

I know you’ve heard the old saying “too much of anything is not good for you!”

That holds true when it comes to being in the sun too much.

Sure, who doesn’t want to get a good tan, but there’s a thin line between a tan and skin cancer.

If you don’t take some precaution too much sun can a life-changing event.

It’s really pretty simple!  Too much sun can and will lead to skin cancer!

I know what you’re saying; skin cancer is something others get but not me.

Don’t believe it, because it can happen to anyone at any age.

When a patient hears the word cancer, it will scare you to death, literally.

Death was the first thing that came to mind when I was told that I had skin cancer.  I can remember it like it was yesterday.  I had gone in for an annual physical and thought I was home free when a dermatologist stopped in to talk with my doctor.

He recognized me since he’s seen our television series.  We talked about hunting, fishing and the show.  He asked how things were going and I told him things were going well and during that conversation, he indicated if there was anything he could do for me to let him know.

I mentioned that there was a spot on my lip that had been there for awhile, not a big spot, anything that hurt, just a spot that would break open from time to time.… Continue reading