The staccato chopping sounds of helicopter blades echoed across the gorges, drawing everyone’s eyes skyward as the little chopper appeared as a dot on the horizon.

Anticipation ran high among the K State “deer crew” as the early morning light revealed the day’s first two Scott Co. Kansas deer suspended safely below the craft. Even though it was blasted cold and we were all bundled up like snowmen, the moment the deer were laid gently on the ground, the crew rushed forward with all the enthusiasm of the doctors and nurses on MASH as they ran up the hill to retrieve their patients from the choppers.

The three year western KS deer research project I wrote about last winter has just entered its second year and the task at hand last weekend was capturing and tagging additional deer for the study. As their headquarters for the day, Kansas State Professor of Wildlife and Outdoor Enterprise Management Drew Rickets and his student crew had chosen this high open knoll in a rolling desolate pasture northeast of Scott City surrounded by deep, winding, brushy draws.

A sizeable tent was erected to hold examination tables and equipment. This year the goal was to capture, tag and collar an additional 30 does near Scott City and an additional 30 farther north near Lenora, KS. Only enough bucks will be collared at each site to replace bucks lost last year through harvesting, motor vehicle accidents or natural causes. The deer selected for capture will be divided evenly between whitetails and mule deer.

Three guys make up the helicopter crew, the pilot, a “gunner” and a “mugger.” The pilot cruises the draws and hillsides and when a deer is sighted, he puts the chopper over the deer so the gunner can shoot a large net that encompasses the animal and puts it safely on the ground. The helicopter lands and drops off the mugger to prepare the deer for transport while the pilot and gunner take to the air again in search of another. The deer is given a mild sedative and all four legs are tied together with a leather belt, then it gets a blindfold and is rolled out of the net into a heavy canvass transport bag. After the gunner nets a second deer, he is dropped off to prepare that one while the chopper picks up the mugger and the first deer. Finally, the gunner and second deer are picked up and both deer are flown back to the tent. Captured bucks are given a GPS tracking collar by the helicopter crew and released where they are captured.

Does taken to the tent site are rolled onto wooden stretchers, weighed and laid on a table in the tent. Again, with all the eagerness of Trapper, BJ and Hotlips on MASH, the crew sets to work. While a couple students gently hold the deer on its side, a veterinarian gives her a sonogram to determine if she’s pregnant, she’s given an ear tag and a GPS collar, various measurements of her body are recorded, and if she’s pregnant a vaginal transmitter is implanted that will begin transmitting when she enters labor so the fawn can be found, collared and tracked also. Finally, a paint mark is put on her back so she’s not recaptured by the chopper crew, and she’s released outside.

The study began as a means to help KS Dept of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism biologists understand why mule deer are steadily regressing westward and being replaced by whitetails. Joyce and I spent a couple days at Scott City last May helping the group track and find fawns, and I was honored to be allowed to participate in this part of the project as well, as the exuberance and attention to detail by these college students running the study is infectious to say the least. The only thing lacking from my experience was a chance to ride in the chopper as the pilot threaded his way through the brushy canyons like Luke Skywalker in Star Wars!…Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors.

Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].

Whoever coined the phrase “Disneyland on the Potomac” years ago about our government and the politics to go with that must be shocked how this whole thing has escalated like never before in our history.

In the event readers don’t understand my point, our nation’s capital Washington D.C. is located on the Potomac River, and what goes on there can be described as a fantasy world in far too many ways. Much of our government and politics seems to be unreal, more like a Disneyland or playground. It’s beyond belief what takes place.

For starters, the left, with new people in Congress as per our last election, have a Green New Deal that many of them (along with old timers) are proposing. No more fossil fuels they say. That means no airplanes or gas driven vehicles. Current heating and air conditioned buildings all to be replaced by the energy coming from wind farms and solar panels. Also, no more cows since their farts (yup, I said farts) causes carbon emissions into the atmosphere and affects climate change. The whole thing is bizarre.

Parts of our government are off the rails. It isn’t even remotely possible to make this writing sound somewhat academic considering laughable stuff coming from the left. They actually came out publicly proposing the elimination of cows for farting.

No matter that coal, natural gas and oil has given us the greatest economy in the world. No matter that the New Deal would cost trillions upon trillions of dollars that we don’t have. The Green New Deal proponents must literally believe money grows on trees. Green trees, pun intended.

It’s all about fantasy, lack of realism, lack of objectivity, lack of facts. The words “funny farm” comes to mind if you get my point. Funny farms are for the insane and much of what goes on is insanity. You would think Hollywood (the mecca of fiction) would be up in arms for taking a back seat to government and the multitude ways its become a make believe world.

Let’s take one of the biggest issues of the day involving our government, that being immigration. Approximately half of our government (and half of our voters) try to convince the other half that a wall or steel barrier at our borders won’t keep out known criminals, drug pushers, those engaged in human trafficking, etc.

Do we, as a country, want open borders? As things stand now, illegals are costing taxpayers billions in the way of welfare and law enforcement. Cheap labor takes jobs away from citizens. For every illegal that may be of benefit to this country, there are a half dozen or more who do not. But “so what” say the out in left field liberals of the Democrat Party who insanely claim walls don’t work.

And there’s the Trump Russia collusion storybook narrative. To paraphrase what America’s top talk radio host says – it’s the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people in our history. For over two years there have been investigations and speculation with no evidence. Nor one iota of evidence Russia hacked into our 2016 election.

Just think! Day after day, night after night, fake news mainstream media has fooled its viewers that Trump will be destroyed for colluding. There is no evidence period, yet media has it’s viewers waking up every day thinking “this is the day” Trump goes down. CNN, MSNBC, the three networks, the Times and Post are master’s of deception. That’s a euphemism for lies and distortion. Who in the heck needs to pay ten bucks to see a movie filled with suspense and drama when one can simply turn on the TV.

No Hollywood director or producer could find a person capable of writing a better or more fictitious script. How about the fake dossier used to get FISA warrants to spy on Trump and associates claiming that Trump, while in Russia, hired hookers to urinate on a bed that Obama and Michelle slept in? And, come to find out Obama, Hillary, FBI, DOJ, and even Russia are behind this make believe story. Only in the world we live in do the hate Trumpers skate free from Russia collusion while they pin collusion on our president.

One has to laugh at how bizarre the collusion fairy tale saga has become, but no laughs when one looks at the time and money spent on fake news for over two long years to bring down a duly elected president. A con game because they wanted Hillary. By the way, there’s indisputable proof forthcoming that the collusion came from those I just mentioned, and not Trump.

Disneyland and the movies are for fun, and I injected a bit of humor in this writing, but it really comes down to a sad state of affairs in this country where reality is a figment of one’s imagination coming from our politicians, media, and half of the voters in this country.

Les Knoll lives in Victoria and Gilbert, Ariz.