Boating season is just around the corner and now is the time to enroll in a boating safety course.

  Whether you’re a new boat owner or a veteran of many summers on the water taking a course can either introduce you to the “rules of the road” or offer a much needed refresher.

  Most states offer online courses so you can fit them into your schedule. With the ongoing pandemic restrictions, an online class is probably your best bet. They don’t cost much to take and you can study at your leisure.

  Probably the best benefit of taking a course is learning the “rules of the road” and yes there are rules just like driving on the highway. One of the rules I see ignored quite often is who has the right-of-way when two boats cross paths. Just like when two cars stop at a stop sign at the same time, it’s the boat to your right that has the right-of-way not the fastest one. I’ve yielded many a time to boats approaching from my left because either the operator was ignorant to the rules or just didn’t give a crap. Remember, boats don’t have brakes and they take some distance to stop.

  Another great benefit to taking a course that some people forget about is that most insurance companies will give you a discount on your boat policy! The cost of taking a course can pay for itself the first year. Check with your insurer for any possible discounts.

  Since we’re talking safety here, you may not know that a new federal law took effect on April 1st. It requires the operator of a boat with an installed Engine Cut-Off Switch (ECOS) to use the ECOS link while operating on all federally navigable waterways. This includes not only major rivers like the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Tennessee but the lakes on those rivers like Kentucky Lake.

 The link is usually a coiled bungee cord lanyard clipped onto the operator's person, personal floatation device or clothing and the other end attached to the cut-off switch, but there are plenty of variations on the market, including electronic wireless devices.

  When an operator is wearing a link while underway, the engine will cut-off if the operator is separated from the operating area, an occurrence that can happen if the operator is ejected from the vessel or falls within the vessel. The shutdown of the engine is essential for safety reasons. If the operator is ejected from the vessel, the shutdown may prevent the operator from impacting the vessel's spinning propeller, and may aid the operator in safely returning to the drifting vessel. Boats with motors less than 3 horsepower are excluded from the law.

  Stay safe while on the water and remember the rules. We’re all out there to have fun so be courteous to each other. Life has been hard enough lately.

 Some of this information came from the great folks at the Iowa DNR. To find out the more about the outdoor adventures in Iowa visit them at www.iowadnr.gov .

  When the subject of the turkey comes up, one must wonder, "Which came first, the bird's name or the country?" Since no one really has a definitive answer as to how the bird came to be called a turkey, it is just possible it was, indeed, named for the country of Turkey.

  Another possibility is that Chris Columbus named them tuka, which eventually evolved into "turkey". Why would Chris call these birds tukas? For the same reason he labeled inhabitants of the New World "Indians" - Senor Columbo thought he was in India. The wild turkeys resembled peacocks to the intrepid explorer so he used the Tamil word for peacock, "tuka''. Tamil is one of the dialects spoken in India.

 Yet another explanation may come from those very same "Indians" Chris encountered. The Native American name for the bird was "firkee". Sounds enough like turkey to be confused or mispronounced.

  And the last possible origin may be the bird itself. When frightened or alarmed, turkeys make a noise that sounds like "turk, turk, turk."

 The turkey was a staple in the diet of many Indian tribes all across North America and Mexico. Some tribes, especially the Aztecs and other Meso-Mexican tribes, revered the bird. The feathers and bones played a part in many rituals. Some of the northern tribes looked on the turkey as a friend of man and able to battle evil spirits.

 However, other tribes didn't hold the turkey in such high regard. The turkey's natural wariness and propensity for flight at the slightest provocation was cause for several tribes to look down on the bird and treat it as a coward. The Cheyenne wouldn't eat the bird fearing its flesh would make them cowardly also. The Apaches viewed the turkey likewise and would neither eat the bird nor use its feathers on their arrows.

 North American Indians had domesticated the turkey more than 500 years before the Europeans arrived. The Spaniards took turkeys back to Europe in the 1500's and English colonists, like the Pilgrims, brought domesticated turkeys with them to America in the 1600's.

 The next question about these large Native American birds may be. "Why is it a custom to eat turkey on Thanksgiving and Christmas?" The obvious answer would seem to be that the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving by roasting a turkey and we just carry on that tradition. The problem with that is, it is very unlikely the Pilgrims did in fact eat turkey that day. They certainly may have seen wild turkeys running around Plymouth. They may even have brought a domestic turkey over with them on the Mayflower. By all accounts surviving from that first feast, they ate lots of different foods, including a variety of meats; however there is no mention of turkey. The menu consisted of duck, venison, goose, seafoods, eels, white and corn breads, leeks, watercress, various other green vegetables, wild plums, dried berries, wine and beer. No mention is made of turkey. (Menu was provided by the New York Public Library Telephone Reference Desk)

  The custom of having a Thanksgiving turkey is probably a carryover from the English traditional Christmas goose. The turkey was no doubt more readily obtained in Colonial New England, so it was a good substitute. That would explain the Christmas turkey as well.

  Now, you ask, why are some people who aren't even in politics, referred to as turkeys? That use probably originated in the theater. A show was said to be a turkey when attendance and reception was low. This was frequently the fate of those performances given during the Holiday (turkey) seasons. They often played to a sparse, overstuffed and snoozing audience.

  Nowadays, the term is used to describe any disastrous endeavor, a very doltish person or any U.S. Vice President in this century.

  Most hunters just measure the length of the beard and spurs after taking a tom or jake but there’s a little bit more to it than that. Here’s the procedure to get the “official” score on that big tom you plan on taking this season.

 Step one – Weigh the bird to the nearest ounce on scales certified as accurate for trade by the state Department of Agriculture or on an accurate scale by a licensed guide or outfitter, or on the official scales of a governmental wildlife agency.

 Step two – Measure the length of the beard. It must be measured from the central point of protrusion from the skin to the end of the longest bristle.

 Step three – Measure the spurs along the outside centerline from the point at which the spur protrudes from the scaled leg skin to the tip of the spur.

 Step four - Total up your overall score. Add the left and right spur lengths together. Multiply that total by 10. Multiply the beard length by 2. Now add the spur total, beard total and weight together. The sum is your overall score.

 Example: Left spur 1½” + right spur 1½” = 3 multiply by 10 = 30. Beard length is 7” multiply by 2 = 14. Weight is 20 lbs. 30 + 14 + 20 = 64.

  * Beard and spur length measurements are measured to the nearest 1/16 of an inch. In order to standardize measurement, all measurements are to be recorded in sixteenths.

 Thanks to the National Wild Turkey Federation for some of this info. For more information visit them at: www.nwtf.com

   In late February, I received word of the passing of my friend and hunting companion Dan “Dano” Meads. I had the pleasure of hunting with Dano many years at our friend David Falconer’s ranch in Oklahoma. He seemed to always have a smile on his face and was a lot of fun to sit and shoot the breeze with around the fire in the evenings. I hadn’t seen him in a few years because a back injury pretty much ended his hunting days but would email him from time to time. At deer camp, someone would always bring him up in conversation and the last person to see or hear from him would fill us in on how he was doing.

  I dug through the archives and found this little ditty Dano sent us some years back and decided to share it once again in his memory. Rest in peace my friend and send a big buck by me next season. I can use all the help I can get. – James Burns, Editor.

 In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannons fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. However, how to prevent them from rolling about the deck? The best storage method devised was a square-based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem....how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding or rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a 'Monkey' with 16 round indentations. However, if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make 'Brass Monkeys’.

 Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too low, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannonballs would come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally, “Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.” (All this time, you thought that was an improper expression, didn't you.)

Dano in 2006.