Yooper Bloopers

By Raymond Syers

The following are only a few of the many adventures that have occurred as I either worked on my house, hiked, hunted, or fished in the wilderness along Lake Superior. I have tried to include many different animals and landscapes so you can get an idea of what you may run into if you spend too much time here. I found it as a great escape from the hassles of modern life and also some good adventures. In greedy gut, I tried to show how caught up in the moment you can get, and the trouble that can follow if you push the limits of time and distance. It doesn't matter how many times you have covered it before. Weather conditions change a lot from summer to fall, and daylight time is vastly different also. Of course you usually have to learn the hard way. At other times, I have tried to emphasize that we humans are just visitors in the critters domain and that we are nothing special in their limited space, as in porkies rule, the opportunist and the spooky woods. I added a few stories of just trying to get by and how complicated it can become such as in the visitor who just dropped in and the siege. I also added our three dogs and one cat that became part of our family. I tried to show how each one adapted to the wilderness and interacted with the wild animals all around them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781643008882

Book preview

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Yooper Bloopers

Raymond Syers

ISBN 978-1-64300-887-5 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64300-888-2 (Digital)

Copyright © 2018 Raymond Syers

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Acknowledgments

First, I want to thank my better half, Sharon, who has for more years than I can count, put up with my many days being absent from her, pursuing a time-consuming hobby or compulsion to catch a larger trout or shoot a larger buck.

My children have made it fun and a joy to take them with me as they grew old enough to enjoy the great outdoors together. I took my first born, Ray, fishing with me at the ripe old age of five. I also took my pretty, petite daughter away from her dolls to join me in some quite long fishing trips. It was a great time to visit with them as long as I didn’t get too involved in thinking about catching fish and not paying enough time visiting them. It is still a good way to catch up with what is going on in their lives, but it is far more difficult to make time available in this busy world we live in.

For many years, I have had people asking me for details on what it is like to live in the far north of Northern Michigan. I especially receive many questions when I visit with my brother Tom, who lives in Southern Michigan in Saginaw.

Many years ago, I had an English teacher who informed me that I had a talent for writing, and that I should pursue it as a career. I would like to thank Mrs. Scott for giving me the confidence to try and write a short book. So now being a retired correction officer, I decided to give it a college try.

I have really enjoyed the memories that come to mind as I tried to bring to others our experiences of trying to survive in this winter wonderland. I hope that you enjoy the bloopers and have a few good laughs and maybe learn from my mistakes how to avoid some serious situations that I have made in my forty-one years of tramping through the majestic forest.

Preface

The following are a few of the things that have occurred over a forty-one-year span of trying to survive and enjoy the lure of the majestic forest and the clear streams that cover Northern Michigan. With clear, cold Lake Superior only a few miles away, I truly think of it as God’s country.

I was twenty-eight years old when I quit my factory job at General Motors and moved away from the smog-producing vehicles and factories along with the constant noise. With very few job skills to offer to an employer in this area of the state, it would be a real struggle through the coming years. We did acquire many great memories and had great adventures that made the financial problems well worth it.

When I was a boy back in the fifties, we didn’t have such things as cell phones or computers to keep us occupied. In fact, I was just as absorbed in Indian weapons, their colorful clothing, along with frontier weapons. I remember how much I was drawn to the Indian chiefs’ bright-colored feathers from his head dress. I used to think that I would like to be a chief just so I could wear a headdress like they had. I was always trying to get my dad to get me the little bows and arrows that had the little suction cups that stuck onto a target. When I was ten, I got my first BB gun. I thought that I had died and gone to heaven that morning. I shot many frogs in the large ditch that ran in front of our home in North Wheeler, which is in Lower Michigan. When I was twelve, my dad let me use his shotgun to hunt pheasants by myself, as long as I paid for the shells with money that I had earned from working on some of the many farms scattered about.

My heroes were Tarzan of the Apes, Davy Crockett, and Daniel Boone. When I was six years old, I remember a little country store that was close to our house that had a large comic book of Tarzan of the Apes. I saw it when I went to the store with my dad to pay his weekly bill that he ran up between paydays. I wanted that book bad! I asked my dad if he would buy it for me and can you believe it, he said, No, not at this time. I started figuring out how to get it quickly. I then had an epiphany. I would try a desperate move. I thought that I may be able to get the book on my dad’s credit account. I just didn’t know if the owner of the store would let me have the object of my desires or not, but it was worth a college try. If I could get the wonderful book, I could read it for a whole week before I would have to face my dad. Maybe he would think that it was nice that I had figured out how to get a little credit also. Then I had to quit trying to kid myself and face reality. I would get