Category Archives: Lifestyles
The turkey rut
By Dennis Chastain
For The Courier
Just like deer, wild turkeys have a rut season fueled by testosterone. Hunters can easily turn that information to their advantage.
Nothing gets a deer hunter excited like the coming of the rut. That’s the magical time of the year when thick-necked bucks are overcome with love lust and do stupid things like standing out in the middle of a cow pasture at midday, crashing through shopping center windows and chasing does around right in front of deer stands. Well guess what — there’s a wild turkey rut too.
This has long been a pet theory of mine, and now after 30 years of chasing wild turkeys from the mountains to the sea, I can tell you that it is true. Most long-time turkey hunters are aware that there are days during the month of April when there is nothing you can do to pull in a gobbler, and there are days when all you have to do is holler “come here turkey” and they’ll come running.
It’s all about testosterone, the male hormone that is both a curse and a blessing. Whether you’re a wily white-tailed buck, a lovestruck teenage boy or a mature wild turkey gobbler, testosterone has the ability to take over your brain and make you do things that you would not ordinarily do. Testosterone can get you in trouble. More deer are taken during the rut in South Carolina than any other time of the five-month-long season. It’s testosterone that drives the rut, in both deer and turkeys. And like the deer rut, the turkey rut comes and goes in various stages.
There is the pre-rut, the rut and the post-rut. The trick to taking advantage of the turkey rut is recognizing what stage the gobblers are in where you are hunting. Here are some signs to look for.
If it’s still near April Fool’s Day and you can’t raise a gobble with an owl hoot or a crow call, it’s the pre-rut. If you’re standing out there on a fine warm spring morning at first light and there are turkeys gobbling at crows, woodpeckers and car horns, the rut is on. On the other hand, if it’s toward the end of the season and it’s a silent spring out there — in other words, you can’t buy a gobble — the turkeys are in the post-rut blues.
So, how do you turn all this to your advantage? Well, depending on which stage of rut you determine the turkeys are in, adjust your hunting strategy accordingly. During the pre-rut, the turkeys are more interested in food and security than in breeding. Set up in areas where the sign indicates they have been feeding or scratching.
If all indications are that the turkey rut is on, get ready. Never call until you are ready to set up or you have already set up in front of a big tree with your gun up. I have had turkeys during the rut fly straight from the roost to right where I was calling from. I have also had testosterone-pumped turkeys fly off the roost and literally come running in. It pays to be ready.
Finally, if all indications are that the gobblers are in the post-rut doldrums — just like cooking good barbecue, the secret to success is to take it low and slow. Don’t be aggressive. Don’t push the turkeys. Use low, soft clucks, purrs and yelps. Be patient. It may take a turkey an hour or more to amble over your way. One good strategy during the post rut is to just go to a place with lots of scratching in the leaves or in the woods adjacent to a lush green food plot, and just sit up right there until you get a response. Just be advised that sometimes lackluster gobblers will silently sneak in from behind to check things out. Keep in mind the Boy Scout motto — be prepared.
Heard, not seen
All about the big ol’ bullfrog
By Scott Stegenga
For The Courier
More likely to be heard than seen, bullfrogs’ eyeballs are raised above their skulls so they can stay almost totally submerged and still be aware of their surroundings.
Anyone who has spent even a little time near the shore of a lake or pond has probably encountered a bullfrog now and then. They are more likely to be heard than seen. In the Upstate, bullfrogs are the largest frog in their family, reaching a length of 6 inches or more. Smaller species in the same family are the leopard, pickerel and green frog.
A bullfrog is perfectly suited for its aquatic habitat. The frog’s color is a plain green or a mottled gray or brown pattern on a greenish background, providing excellent camouflage among
How to protect natural animal habitats
Though birds or other small animals may routinely gather on your property, what if you one day looked out and saw a black bear lapping up water in your swimming pool? That’s what happened to Cheryl Pawelski of Altadena, Calif., in the hills not far from Los Angeles, during the summer of 2013. After losing interest in the water, the bear retreated to the hills.
In early 2014, a woman in Cicero, N.Y., saw three coyotes in her backyard while taking her dogs outside for their morning walk. And while people who live near the Florida everglades are accustomed to seeing alligators, a woman in Skyesville, Md., was surprised to find one roaming
Mounted Ministries offers horseback riding with a higher purpose
Mounted Ministries is a nonprofit 501(c)3 religious horseback riding organization in Pickens. The group offers “Christ-Centered Riding” using horses rescued from neglect or that were unwanted/donated.
Founder Cathy Childers is also a horse trainer and riding instructor who refers to her rescued horses as “The Redeemed.”
“After the horses are rehabilitated and retrained, some are made available to loving forever homes through an adoption process,” Childers said.
Others, she said, are used for ministry purposes as she teaches children, youth and adults more than just how to ride. She uses the horse’s behavior to illustrate biblical principals on a variety of
Exploring spiritual formation outdoors
Southern Wesleyan offers course
on wilderness spirituality
CENTRAL — This past fall, Southern Wesleyan University offered a new course devoted to the spiritual benefits gained from a solitary wilderness experience and a temporary retreat from an increasingly connected, urbanized society.
Jonathan Stegenga, a Southern Wesleyan University junior from northern Pickens County, jots down some thoughts in his notebook while spending time alone in a wooded area. This past fall, Southern Wesleyan University offered a new course devoted to the spiritual benefits gained from a solitary wilderness experience and a temporary retreat from an increasingly connected, urbanized society.
Wilderness is a locale used frequently throughout the Bible, two prominent instances being the Israelites’ 40 years of wandering in the desert and Jesus going up to an isolated mountaintop to pray. Monastic orders built monasteries in isolated areas for sacred activities.
Dr. Rocky Nation, professor of biology at Southern Wesleyan University, developed “Wilderness
PASSING THE TORCH
Special to The Courier
Four generations of mountain turkey hunters: On porch, from left, are author, author’s great uncle Charle Cloer and author’s father Carl T. Cloer Sr. In front is author’s son, Carl T. Cloer III.
A farewell hunt
Editor’s Note: This is the second half of a two-part reflection on five generations of turkey hunting by Courier contributor Dr. Thomas Cloer Jr.
Sounds of an old gun
ou’ll have to carry my gun and cushion. I couldn’t pull a greasy string out of a cat’s rear,” Dad complained as I met him for the last hunt.
“Of course I’ll carry your gun and cushion. I’ll carry you if I have to,” I said with a bravado that served to obscure my fears. I knew Dad had just gone back to see the doctor.
The author’s father, Carl T. Cloer Sr., with a huge gobbler bagged just prior to his death.
“What did the doctor say about the kidney?” I queried.
“He said it was malignant son, and I have to go back for them to keep checking to see if it spread.”
“They probably got it all,” I said. “You will likely outlive me.”
The morning looked threatening as we left in our four-wheel-drive vehicle, three hours before daybreak. Dad never liked to go into the woods at first gobbling time. He wanted to first sit in the vehicle and sip coffee, and then be in place and be ready long before the first little wren awakened.
“It looks like it might rain Dad. You got your raincoat?” I asked.
“I got it, Tom. This cool air goes through me like a dose of salts through a widow woman,” he said. “I can’t take anything, old hunting buddy. You would get more help bagging a gobbler on these old rough ridges today from a little child hunting companion than from me.”
Passing The Torch
Dr. Tom Cloer with a huge mountain bird.
By Dr. Thomas Cloer, Jr., Special to The Courier
Editor’s Note: This is the first half of a two-part reflection on five generations of turkey hunting by Courier contributor Dr. Thomas Cloer Jr.
My grandson, Dylan Cloer, came running toward me at our turkey hunting camp, shouting, “Grandpa! Grandpa! I got him; I got a gobbler!”
“Fantastic, Dylan! The torch has been passed!”
Author’s grandsons, Dylan and Ryan Cloer, with Dylan’s first wild turkey.
I can remember when my son — and Dylan’s dad — Tom Cloer III did it as well. He had heard the old gobbler in the Jocassee Gorges and had hidden on a steep bluff overlooking the river. He bagged that turkey with the same Model 12 Winchester that both my dad and I used to bag our first wild turkeys. The torch passes.
I can remember my first successful turkey hunt with my dad as if it were yesterday. I can remember walking into our mountain hunt camp in the 1950s and seeing the magnificent bird hanging in a blooming dogwood tree. My Dad had called it up close and bagged it in the middle
Grace Christian Fellowship offers Growth in the kingdom of God
Although it is now known as Grace Christian Fellowship and has moved to 377 Deer Creek Road in Dacusville, the former Dacusville Church of God of Prophecy has the same group of believers and goal as it always has — “growth in the kingdom of God,” according to pastor Jeff Hunt, pictured at above.
New name, new location, same church
By Ben Robinson, Courier Staff
After many years of serving the Dacusville community from a small building on Hunts Bridge Road, the group of believers once known as the Dacusville Church of God of Prophecy has a fresh start in the community.
The church has a new name, though it never forsakes the old name.
Officially the name is Grace Christian Fellowship dba Dacusville Church of God if Prophecy. The
Grace Christian Fellowship
new name comes from when the church membership moved into the building formerly used by Grace Presbyterian at 377 Deer Creek Road four years ago.
The building was originally used by a group from Jones Hill Church of God, which eventually outgrew the location and moved into the facilities now known as LIFEchurch on Thomas Mill Road. The Presbyterians tried, but were unable to establish the Dacusville location and gave up the location on Deer Creek Road.
Dacusville Church of God of Prophecy happened to be looking for a new location at the time. Started in 1951, the church had vigorously served the Dacusville community from its small facility on Hunts Bridge Road. Pastor Jeff Hunt, who had already served as the church’s pastor for four years, led the church as it moved into its new facility.
Hunt has served as a pastor for the church since before it moved four years ago. Later, the former Church of God of Prophecy building was rented to Hunt’s friend Cleve Holloway, who started New Works Christian Fellowship at the Hunts Bridge Road location.
Hunt has been in the ministry for 40 years. He started his ministry by serving as a pastor for nine years.
“But the lord got a hold of us to go onto the mission fields,” Hunt said.
He and his wife went to western Canada to serve as evangelists for four years, “then we were asked to pastor a church in Winnipeg, Manitoba,” Hunt said.
The Hunts were only supposed to be interim ministers there, but ended up staying for eight years.
“We stayed in Canada for a total of 12 years,” Hunt remembers. “Then we came back to South Carolina and began pastoring again.”
After leaving for Canada in 1984, the Hunts were happy to return to South Carolina in the mid-1990s.
“I was born in Greenville County in the old Greenville Memorial Hospital,” Hunt said. “My wife is a native of Belton-Honea Path.”
Moving has not affected church attendance, despite one member who lived just three houses from the Hunts Bridge Road location. She still comes to the Deer Creek Road location. Two other members lived on Raines Road, just down from the old church location.
But the church continues to attract people from the Upstate area, including Easley, Travelers Rest and other small towns in the Upstate.
Hunt lives in Greenville in a home he and his wife purchased four years ago. Previously he had depended on whatever church he served to supply a church parsonage, but the older he got, the better the idea of owning a home seemed.
Hunt is healthy now, but he once suffered a heart attack while on the church pulpit bringing the week’s sermon.
EMS was called in to take him to the hospital, where on Monday a muscular stress test was performed, and then on Tuesday a heart cauterization was performed. On Wednesday, a six-bypass open heart surgery was performed.
“But God was good,” Hunt said. “I was back in the pulpit four weeks later.”
In all, Hunt considers the heart problems somewhat of a blessing.
“I feel better now than I did 25 years ago,” he said.
After the church moved, there was a conversation about what the church would be known as. Hunt liked the word Grace being part of the title, and eventually members agreed with him.
“But we are legally The Church of God of Prophecy doing business as Grace Christian Fellowship,” Hunt said. “When we go into the community, we do not hesitate to tell people that we are a congregation of the Church of God of Prophecy. We don’t try to hide that.”
The Church of God and The Church of God of Prophecy have been separate denominations for many years.
The two used to be one denomination, “but a division took place in 1923,” Hunt said. “Out of that came two denominations — one became the Church of God of Prophecy in 1952.”
The two groups continue to work closely together, Hunt said.
While Hunt would love to see his church grow, he gets more excited when the church can send someone into the mission field. Recently, longtime member Houston Hunt, no kin to the Dacusville minister, trained for the ministry. He now pastors the Highlands Church of God of Prophecy.
Another member is currently being trained for a chaplain ministry, offering love and support but not focusing on preaching.
“I would love to see the building packed, but I would even more love to see more people come in and we could send them out to serve somewhere else,” Hunt said. ” I see growth in the kingdom of God as being a lot more important than just growth in one church.”
Pickens County Museum hosting Youth Arts 2014
“Robin Nest,” ink and watercolor, Morgan Summerlin, Daniel High
Local artists honored at kickoff reception
COUNTY — Pickens County Youth Arts 2014 is now in full swing.
Saturday’s kickoff reception at the Pickens County Museum was attended by more than 800 proud parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, friends, and, of course, the talented young artists that created the 994 works of art that are on display at the museum through March 27.
The cultural commission presented awards to artists in both high school and middle school divisions at the reception.
In the high school division, first place went to Daniel High School’s Morgan Summerlin for the
Black History Month
A history of the celebration
Black History Month
Black History Month, or National African-American History Month, is an annual celebration of achievements by black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African Americans in U.S. history. The event grew out of “Negro History Week,” the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans. Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to celebrating black history.
The story of Black History Month begins in 1915, half a century after the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States. That September, the Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson and the prominent minister Jesse E.
