Behind the Lines: by David Heiller

David Heiller The mark of a good deer hunter isn’t always in his or her marksmanship. The Bruce and Sandy Lourey family of Moose Lake proved that on November 7. Bruce Lourey, 53, was hunting that Sunday morning on land that his brother, Dal, owns west of Kerrick. Bruce saw a buck early on that opening morning. He shot at it three times while it was running. After the third shot, the deer flopped out flat, like it was dead. Bruce was confident that he had killed it. He still had a shot left, but he thought he should reload before he walked over to it. “By the time I got two or three more bullets in there, I hadn’t even gotten them in the gun yet, he jumped up and took off running,” Bruce recalled on November 15. Bruce watched where it went into the woods and started trailing it. “I kept thinking, he’s only going to go a hundred yards. He kept going and going and going.” Bruce looked for the deer for about three hours. Two times he crossed the Willow River, wading...

David Heiller Odds and ends this week I WAS SITTING AT the Partridge Café on Monday with two friends, “Bruce” and “Sandy.” (When you see names in quotation marks, that means the names aren’t real, unless some wise-guy editor wants to fool you.) We were talking about kids, how strange they can be. Their son, “Andrew,” had announced on Sunday that he had to do a class project by Monday. One of the suggestions from the teacher was to make a replica of the Mayflower. “The May fl ower!” Bruce said in disbelief. How can a kid make a replica of the Mayflower? What fun is that? Andrew (and Bruce) had other ideas. They wanted to make a stock. You know the kind of things they used to have in public squares to punish thieves back when the Mayflower sailed here. Your hands go in these two slots and your head goes in a bigger slot in the bottom piece. A top piece is put on, it is fastened together, and everybody laughs at you and throws rotten tomatoes. Now that’s a project a kid can ...

David Heiller My son, Noah, is going deer hunting for the first time this year. I bought him a license. He is 14, and because he is under age 16, he can shoot either a doe or a buck in our woods. I will be going with Noah, but I won’t be hunting or carrying a gun. I didn’t buy a license for myself. Noah Most people don’t know that DNR game warden Curt Rossow of Willow River was the person responsible for letting youths shoot either a buck or doe (in areas where antlerless permits are given). He told me on October 28 that it took his daughter, Heidi, seven years to get an antlerless permit. Now it’s possible to get one right away. Young hunters have a better chance at success, which will more likely keep them hunting. Thanks, Curt! I went deer hunting a few times when I was Noah’s age. I used an old 12-gauge pump shot-gun that we had. It was in bad shape. The stock had electrical tape holding it together. Luckily it didn’t misfire and kill anybody. It had a tendency ...

David Heiller HMS Lorely is sick, deadly sick. That’s our car, a 1978 Ford LTD named after my wife’s mother (no resemblance), who gave it to us three years ago. HMS Lorely, our 1978 Ford LTD didn't look  this good. It was the size of a boat! HMS (Her Majesty’s Ship) isn’t much for looks. The gray sides are rusting, and the vinyl roof is bare in the middle and shredded at the sides, cracked and peeling. It’s a real rag top. The loose flaps of vinyl slap the roof like a bongo drummer when she goes 50 miles an hour or more. I don’t mind that. It’s the deadly disease which our friend Jim Kephart calls “blow-by” that really hurts. I didn’t know what “blow-by” was until the car started leaking oil at an alarming rate. First it was a quart every 200 miles. then every 100, then every 50. Now it’s down to a quart every 25 miles or so. I called Jim Monday night to ask him what exactly “blow-by” means. He took a deep breath, like he does when talking to one of his seventh ...