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| joeniv |
| This photo is from a varmint hunting safari I was a part of this summer. On the left is Mike, owner / operator of the GGVG board. His sidekick in crime is John, on the right. I'm in the middle. In front of me is a very DEAD South Dakota prairie dog. Bang Bang Bang.... Whop Whop Whop... |
| My two favorite people in the world are my kids - Eric and Jill. This picture is a few years old, taken when we lived in Sherman, TX. The photos below are a bit more timely and accurate. Click either image to send them an e-mail. |
| Eric is a career student at South Dakota State University in Brookings SD. He's into drumlines and marching bands. |
| Jill is a graduated from Dakota Valley High School in McCook Lake, SD. She enjoys her cats and really loves to swim. |
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| I'm a South Dakota native son but reside in Nebraska. I suppose I'll always be one of the state's biggest tourism advocates. I took this picture last year when I was on vacation in the Black Hills. 5 minutes after the picture was taken, the faces were SOCKED IN by fog. If you happen to be driving thru, drop me a note and I'll tell you which spots to hit and which to avoid... |
| Thanks for stopping by.... -niv |
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| I am a card carrying members of the Varmint Hunters Association, an international group headquartered in Pierre, SD. To the left is their patch, to the right is their latest magazine cover. Click either image to go to their website. |
| Varmint Al's is one of the first web sites I ever visited that was dedicated to hunting, shooting, reloading and varmint hunting, all of which I enjoy. He has a great links section and many practical tips for becoming a better shooter. Click his card to visit his site. |
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| This is another varmint hunting buddy I met this summer. He is one truly "inflicted" gun nut. He's also in charge of bringing the dill pickles to the prairie dog patch. He's shown with a double that he collected during our trip. |
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| One aspect of the shooting sports that I enjoy is the workmanship, craftsmanship and sense of individuality that can go into a person's guns. Shown below are two of the finest rifles I've ever seen or handled. If anyone is looking for a Christmas gift idea for me, this would be a great place to start. On the left is my personal favorite, just because I like the look and feel of wood. This piece is owned by DAA's pop. On the right is DAA's gun. It sports one of the most intricate stocks I've ever seen with a full mural of hunting scenes. Think these guns are too pretty to shoot or take afield? Not hardly. They are both working guns. |
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| Here is the rest of the clan. Back row, l to r, niece Amber, niece Charissa, sister in law and token democrat Karen, brother Mike, sister Julie, me and Eric. Front row, sister Jane, mom (Thelma), Jill and dad (Frank). Mom and dad live in Miller. Sisters in Sioux Falls, brother's home is in Rosholt. |
| For me, hunting and shooting was just a part of growing up on a farm / ranch. Like most South Dakotans, I started off by hunting deer and pheasants. |
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| Our hunting heritage runs deep. This picture is my favorite from my scrap- book. This is my grandad, brother Mike and dad with a coyote that grandad had shot from the plane. One of the few times he didn't get air sick. |
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| I take just about any opportunity I can to pop a primer. By far, my preferred target is shown below. There is just something about prairie dog hunting that suits my style. It might be the long range accuracy or the fine guns or the prairie grasslands. I guess you'll just have to try it for yourself to see what I mean. |
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| I've got relatives living in Michigan that are running the Valhalla Game and Guest Ranch. Click their logo above if you are interested in hunting trophy whitetails and big bull elk. |
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| Another South Dakota native son is Billy Etbauer, current Saddle Bronc world champion. Billy's 4th title. Not only a South Dakota native son, but he still calls Ree Heights home. That's where I grew up. He and I are very distant cousins, you have to trace the family trees way back to find the connection. It has been great fun to watch he and Dan and Robert over the last few years enjoy the success they have. Congrats - Billy! |
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| Speaking of Ree Heights, I claim it to be my home town. I grew up on a ranch 20 miles south west of town, but Ree Heights was my mailing address and where our phone number was listed. The image below is from the terraserver data base. This is an awfully cool web site with topo maps and digital USGS pictures available. This is a 4m resolution picture and I've cropped it a bit. Check their site out and have fun. |
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| I couldn't be happier with the results of the most recent presidential election. The above map - stolen off some web site - indicates that the vast majority of the country agrees with me... |
| Jill and I moved to and lived in Pierre South Dakota for about a year. I loved the town and the area, but a seriously better opportunity came up in nearby Omaha. When Eric stopped by to visit over Christmas 2003 - we went to Capital Lake for an informal snapshot |
| Here is our house in Omaha. 3 br, 2 ba, 2 car garage. Nice but small yard. Great neighborhood and great neighbors. When Jill and I visited Omaha to shop for housing, we looked at 7 houses and bought this one, the 8th we saw that day. Took all of 4 hours to find it... We could have searched for another week and not found a house that suited our needs better... |
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| The new job has been a ton of fun and a new challenge. Here I am with one of my engineers, 150' above the port of Georgia in Savannah. My company, Insul-8, builds the big cable tenders - "festoons" shown in the back ground. The crane we were riding has 4 - 150 hp electric motors to drive to and fro and a pair of 300 hp motors to lift the containers. All electric, it takes a bunch of copper to supply that energy. |
