Steve Gruber

We spent three hours floating the river through Argentina last night trying to get close enough to a Capibara with the Excalibur Crossbow. No luck yet on the 200 pound rodents. But we will head out again in a day.

I shall work for no man and I shall ask no man to work for me. This is America! Get off you dead ass and do for yourself. Do not put out your weak and shameless hand and expect me to fill it for you. This is America! Build your own kingdom with your vision do not ask me to build it for you. This is America! Be accountable for who you are and what you do. Take pride in your successes. Draw strength, knowledge and courage from your failures. Stand up. This is America! Teach your children the values that come from your own sweat and not sitting idly by to take the fruits of my labor. This is America! Take pride in yourself, your family, your community and your nation. This is America! Walk tall and be proud of all we are and have done as a nation, This is America!

Over the past couple of weeks I have spent several hours flying just above the treetops in a Buckeye Powered Parachute. The powered parachute is a unique flying machine that moves at only about 30 miles per hour and offers viewing opportunities you can only imagine. The view from a few hundred feet is exhilarating and will change the way you look at the world but that is a story for another day. What I found truly amazing is the number of deer I have seen from the air and the tremendous number of antlered bucks.

This of course is the time of year you can see those beautiful bachelor groups and it is certainly the time of year to get started looking for the bucks you’d like to get close to during the upcoming hunting seasons. A couple friends of mine call this ‘making the list’. They spend scores of hours driving, glassing and checking literally thousands of trail camera pictures trying to make the critical decision of where to put in their time when the time arrives. This is the time of year they get acquainted or hopefully reacquainted with deer in their hunting areas. Getting re-acquainted is great news because it means the deer have been in the area for a few seasons and have finally qualified for the coveted list.

My father was a significant force in my life. That is the definition of understatement. He kindled in me a fire and a passion for life beyond the concrete that is hard to define with mere words. My earliest memories all involve my dad coming home with his friends and showing off King Salmon from Lake Michigan, pheasants from Iowa and my favorite a 13 point whitetail from Saskatchewan that until the age of about 14 I was convinced was the biggest deer anyone had ever killed.

My father also had the ability to rearrange my emotions in a cold and calculating pattern that would often result in uncontolable rage. He knew me well and could entice the very best or the very worst from me and often in the same moment.