Life changing. Mentoring. Marshmallow Fight. Great Memories. New Friends. Fun. 3D shoot. Campout.  These are just a few of the words that come to mind when I hear the words Kicking Bear One on One!  For those of you who aren’t familiar with Kicking Bear camps, its a nationwide mentoring program developed by world renowned bowhunter, Ray Howell. The camps encourage our sportsmen and women to get involved with today’s youth, especially underprivileged youth,  by becoming mentors.  I should also mention that this camp is COMPLETELY FREE to families!  Now a days, its hard to find anything that is truly free but every year, with the  generosity of individuals and local businesses, we find a way to pull it off!!

Well on June 17th and 18th, we hosted our 3rd Annual Kicking Bear camp on the Seiler family farm.  As four o’clock rolled around and the cars and trucks started to arrive, it reminded me of a line and scene from the movie, Field of Dreams ” if you build it, they will come!”  Well, they came and once their tents were set up, the fun began!

Friday’s are typically filled with lots of activities for the kids and their parents to choose from:

             

        

Scavenger hunt in the woods, hayride, shooting paintballs at targets, archery practice, ax throwin, flu flu arrows, and the list goes on and on!  The highlight of this year’s camp I would have to say was the addition of the dunk tank!!  The kids stood in a line, waiting to show off their baseball/softball skills to try and dunk Ray, Brian, Shelly and me. 

 

 

To top Friday night off, we had a campfire and a huge marshmallow fight.  I’m talking 140 bags worth of marshmallows were flying around the yard!!  Normally, when you think of marshmallows, you think of roasting them to make smores.  Well, after you attend a Kicking Bear camp, you will look at marshmallows in a whole different light!  Plus, the adults are the ones that started the marshmallow fight, so you can imagine the kids’ excitement, when they saw their mom,dad, grandma, or grandpa, running around doing something that we don’t normally do when we’re sitting around the campfire!

Saturday morning, is all about the 3D archery shoot.  This year we had 15 3D targets set up in the woods next to our house.  We broke the kids up into groups, headed up by a volunteer who guides them through the course.  Each target also has a volunteer there to help the kids learn the fundamentals of shooting.  What is great, is that if the kids don’t have a bow, the camp provides a bow for them at NO cost! 

         

After a great home-made lunch from our mother in law, Dianne Seiler, some of the families went bowfishing, which AMS Bowfishing put on for free.  The rest of the kids and their families stuck around to go down the 75 ft waterslide and this year they got Shelly to go down too!

            

We want to give a big thanks to these individuals and companies for helping us with this year’s camp.  Through their generosity, they are helping us inspire these kids!   ~journal entry by Tara Seiler

Dianne Seiler- she made all the meals from scratch!  She spoiled us and she is already planning bigger and better things for next year!

Star Downing- this little 10 yr old raised over $1,300 for our camp! She attended our first camp and has been coming back and helping us ever since! 

Rohde’s Sales and Service in Pardeeville WI

Holliday True Value- Montello WI

Holiday Wholesale-Wis. Dells WI

Pierce’s grocery store- Portage WI

Wal-Mart

Serina Seiler and Group X Athletic Training- Portage WI

Country Plumber- Portage WI

Club 23- Wis. Dells WI

Mason Station- Briggsville WI

Danielle and Kenny Wiedenhoft

K & S Builders- Wis. Dells WI

Bob Kane

Mike Weyh

All the people that attended our Kicking Bear 3D shoot fundraiser

All our volunteers and Workin’ For Whitetails team members

Poynette Bowhunters Association

Ace Hardware- Portage WI

Apocalypse Paintball- Poynette WI

Chula Vista- Wis. Dells WI

Dells Raceway- Wis. Dells WI

The Original Ducks- Wis. Dells WI

Mt. Olympus- Wis. Dells WI

Culvers- Baraboo WI

I was lucky enough to acquire four spring turkey tags.  My first hunt found me hunting an area in the northwest corner of Illinois.  As the sun started to light up the horizon, the woods erupted with at least four toms gobbling all around me.  To make a long story short, they didn’t follow their normal pattern and flew out the opposite way.  I had another close call about an hour later.  I had a tom coming into my calls but a hen popped out of the woods 50 yards away from me and you guessed it; the hen made her way towards the tom and lead him out of bow range!  Tag #1 unfilled!

The 3rd season in Wisconsin finally arrived and after work on Friday, I was making the familiar two hour drive north to Brian and Tara’s.  We had our traditional fish fry and I enjoyed the rest of the evening playing with my grandkids, Brady and Jackie.  The next morning Brian and I headed out in extemely windy conditions but at first light, we could see a tom with a couple hens across the field we were set up on. We could see him gobbling through the Nikon binocs but couldn’t hear him because of the wind. Shortly after that a huge tom came out of the woods 100 yards from the other birds.  After some very loud calling, we finally got his attention and he slowly started making his way towards us.  After he made it half way across the field, a big gust of wind caught our decoy and spun it around three times!  The gig was up and the old tom made a beeline for the woods!  Tag #2 unfilled!

Before the 5th season arrived I would get daily phone calls from Brian or Tara telling me they were seeing at least one tom in one of our food plots between 9:30-10:30am.  Saturday morning found Tara and myself setup in a blind and just like clock work, we spotted some turkeys but the only problem was, there were no toms in the group!  Around noon, we headed back to pick up Brady for the afternoon hunt, when Jackie came up and said, “Papa, can I come to?”  I couldn’t turn down my little princess, so we packed some treats, toys, blankets and headed back to the blind.  We re-positioned the blind just so that it was inside the woods because the wind had picked up.  We got settled in and after a few treats, Brady and Jackie were out for the count!  After their short nap, they woke up to see a tom making his way towards our decoy, gobbling as he came in.  I grabbed for my gun and just as I was about to take the safety off, I see another tom with some hens coming in from my left. The turkeys all stayed out of range and I was a little disappointed until I looked at Brady and Jackie’s face and saw the excitement in their eyes.  That meant more to me than harvesting a turkey! Tag #3 unfilled!

This brings us to the 6th and final Wisconsin turkey season.  My good buddy and fellow team member, Jeff Kaye called me on Wednesday and asked me if I wanted to go hunting with him that weekend.  I jumped at the chance!  We were also both going up to the Seiler’s to help with a fund raiser for Kicking Bear.  Friday evening we put the birds to bed and I told Jeff that I had seen turkeys come out of the those woods on several occasions so we were confident they would be roosting  just inside the edge of the woods.  The plan was if only one tom came out I was to get first shot because Jeff had harvested a nice tom earlier in the year but we were going to try and pull of a double.  The next morning, we were setting up way before daylight.  As Jeff set out the decoys I found a spot against a fallen tree at the edge of the woods.  It was very still with just a slight breeze so we could hear the turkeys moving in the trees well before light.  The first crack of daylight got them gobbling and I whispered to Jeff that they were very close.  Jeff let out a few soft calls and right after first light they flew out and landed about 5 yards behind us!  Neither one of us moved a muscle as we listened to them walking to our left, right behind us.  Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a tom four yards to my left.  He was checking out our decoys, he slowly walked farther to my left and entered the field about 15 yards away from me.  A few seconds behind him, a second tom entered the field, so I whispered to Jeff that there where two in the field headed towards the decoys.  Jeff couldn’t see them right awayfrom his vantage point until they got closer to the decoys.  After a bit, they both turned slightly and started feeding away from us and without a word, we both raised our guns at the same time and Jeff then whispered, “Are you ready?” I said “yes”, so he counted 1, 2, 3… BOOM, BOOM!  Two toms lay on the ground and for the next 10 minutes we were high fiving and celebrating our double!  

 

Jeff’s tom had a 12 inch beard with 1 3/16 inch spurs.  Mine had an 11 inch beard with 1 1/16 in spurs.  Jeff’s tom had the bigger beard and spurs but mine weighed more.  Don’t you all think weight is more important! haha I had to get that in there Jeff!  All jokes aside, thanks for going out with me buddy, I had a blast!  Tag #4- FILLED!

 

 

 

 

Well, the 2011 turkey season ended on a high note!  Not only did I get a bird but I got to spend time with my family! Jeff also brought his daughter Chloe up for the weekend to play with the kids and after the weekend was over, I feel like I adopted a grandchild!  She was calling me “Papa” like the other kids!  I can’t wait till mid September when we can make some more hunting memories!

~Nate Vogelsang

 

 

Congratulations to David Hunter!  He is our May winner and is going to receive a great prize package from our good friends at Muzzy!  Please make sure to check out this month’s prize package from Antler King!  You don’t want to miss out on this one!

Congratulations to <strong>Joe Lautenschleger</strong>!! You are the winner of the Antler King prize package!  This month we will be giving away prize package from Muzzy as well as picking two winners this month for our Hunter Safety System giveaway!!  Remember you can enter once a day!  You can also go to our facebook page, Workin’ For Whitetails Television and simply click the LIKE button to be entered to win prizes from Hunter Safety System!

As always, Keep Workin’ For Whitetails!

~Tara Seiler