A Michigan Asset and CYA

Michigan as a great asset that her citizens can use to good advantage and a lot of the info can be of useful to preppers. I am talking about the PBS program /Michigan Out-of-Doors/.

Each week Jimmy Gretzinger and Jenny Olsen come into our homes with stories of hunting and fishing. They also have stories that deal with trapping, bird dogs, hunting stands, shooting, and just about every outdoor activity you can think of.

I like the information the show gives me so that I can improve my field time to be more productive. If the time ever comes where the meat on my table has to come from the woods I want to make sure that I can provide for the family. I enjoy watching the trapping episodes too. I have traps, stretchers and lure, but I have never had the time to run a line. My knowledge of trapping comes only from reading and watching, but being a visual learner, watching how it is done helps a lot.

I would recommend that you add watching /Michigan Out-of-Doors/ to your preps. It is sort of like chicken soup, it couldn’t hurt.

On a related topic, I hope that if you do take to the woods for hunting/fishing/trapping as part of your survival plans you have the correct licenses. I fished for thirty years on a Michigan lake and never saw a DNR officer. Never bought a license either. I now make sure that I buy a license every year for deer hunting, trapping, small game, and fishing. It has come in handy several times and saved loosing a nice rifle, fishing gear, and heavy fines. The DNR found that lake I fish and I see them there several times a year now. Got stopped once with a rifle in my truck. I told the guy I was headed to a friend’s farm to hunt woodchucks. When I showed the hunting license I was allowed on my merry way. (The gun was cased and empty per Michigan law.)

The reason I do this now is that a friend of mine from the reserves shot and killed a skunk on his place. The Ohio DNR found out and he ended up with a fine since he did not have a small game license. It didn’t matter that he was on his own place. I do not want those kinds of hassles with MDNR shooting woodchucks on my own farm. For the money I spend each year it is cheap insurance.

One other story to add. I fellow I know buys his wife a trapping license each year. She has a long drive to work early each morning. She stops and picks up any road kill raccoons, muskrats and the rare fox on her drive. When I last talked to the guy her fur check was near $700 and about paid for her yearly gasoline bill to go to work. Without the license she could not legally keep the critters she picks up. Just another reason to make sure that you CYA with the correct licenses.

Wolverine