Back in October 07 (link) and again in January 08 (link) I wrote about a huge curl leaf mahogany tree we found while grouse hunting. We went back with the official state big tree scorer today from the Division of Forestry and re-measured the tree. We were excited to see that it was not only the state record, but also the world record largest curl leaf mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius) tree. Keep in mind that these are typically more like a tall shrub than a tree. A good sized mahogany is  as big around as your thigh and about twice your height, so this tree was huge. It was a fun field trip with folks from the State Division of Forestry, Division of Wildlife, BLM and Forest Service. We are now entered in the record book for the world’s record mahogany tree. We stole the record from California.

Oh yeah, another funny thing was when we went back, there were grouse feathers at the base of the tree. The day we found the tree, we were hunting dusky grouse and were skunked.

This post doesn’t have anything to do with gun dogs, other than it’s outdoors and it’s a lot of fun to have the dogs along in the field with you when you are mushroom hunting.

     Last year was such a great year for morels, so I was really pumped up for this spring. We had a good wet winter, and some nice showers early this spring, so I hoped that we would have another good morel crop this year. Unfortunately, I think it has been too cool and the timing of moisture just wasn’t right and we weren’t able to find a single morel. On the flip side, the coprinous mushrooms were very abundant. Their fairly tasty, but need to be cooked and eaten shortly after picking, whereas the morels can be dried and used in dishes for months.
     The dogs weren’t particularly helpful finding the morels, but they were fun to have out in the field. While out mushroom hunting we did have the one of the dogs point a nesting turkey. Luckily I was able to see her and pick up the dog and carry him off without bumping the hen off her nest.

I just found out that the mahogany tree I blogged about finding back in October during a blue-grouse hunt has been nominated as the biggest individual tree of its species in the State of Utah and in the Nation. Pretty cool if you ask me. If you know anything about curl-leaf mahogany trees, you’d know that this one was huge. It was worth the hike into see it. I guess it takes about a year for the registration process, so I’ll be watching for it. It is wild think that this tree was probably a respectable size mahogany when Columbus was playing with toy boats as a kid. (I guess it’s kind of like Boone and Crockett record for trees, eh?).

Pig hunting was a great diversion from bird hunting for a couple of days. Here Jay and I are enjoying a moment over a big sow we shot. I did miss the dogs though.

How long do you have if you have fallen through the ice and what should you do?   This doesn’t directly relate to hunting dogs, but as an avid outdoorsman I found this information very interesting. The information and picture come from the yukonman website. Watch the videos about what do in a cold water survival situation.

Follow the links to his ”Read This - Cold Water Survival” page and click on the three streaming videos or follow the links below.

Special thanks to http://www.yukonman.com for sharing this information.

http://media.yukonman.com/bchost/cold_water1.wmv

http://media.yukonman.com/bchost/cold_water2.wmv

http://media.yukonman.com/bchost/cold_water3.wmv