RHINELANDER - Thousands of deer hunters are getting ready for the nine-day firearms season. Many are getting in some last minute practice before they hit the woods.
"That's always fun, getting my 13-year old son out," Rhinelander deer hunter Mike Luse explains. "He doesn't get to shoot alot. Looking for areas to hunt - checking out the good spots."
While the hunt itself is exciting, many fathers use the hunt as a great chance to get closer with their childern learning the sport.
"The anticipation is there," Tom Larson of Rhinelander adds. "I got a spot I'm going. I know there is at least three or four big deer out there. I'm hoping my kid gets one. I ain't worried about him. I want him to get one."
Tom's son, Al Schrampe is looking forward to, "having some fun with my dad, because we didn't get to go in the woods last year. He had a heart transplant in December, so we didn't get to go hunting."
Nov 23rd marks the latest hunters will don the blaze orange to go hutning. Game officials say the lates start, plus the rough spring expereienced earlier this year could be factors for a slow hunt.
DNR wildlife biologist Jeremy Holtz explains, "We see as much as a 15% drop in buck harveswt compared to when we start earlier in the rut. The weather is a little bit warmer and people are a little more comfortable in the stands. We got a large amount of snow and it stuck around in May. We know coming in our harvest was down. That's why we were a little conservative with the doe tags."
"I think the deer population is up a little bit," Larson says. "A lot of people didn't get deer last year. I know I was one of them."
RHINELANDER - A snow storm caught Hanson's Garden Village in Rhinelander off guard last weekend and collapsed a greenhouse. Now that spring weather is here, Hanson's is ready to move forward by making some adjustments. "We got by for 25 years doing what we were doing," said Hanson's Garden Village Co-owner Brent Hanson. Last weekend's spring snow storm set back Hanson's. "We thought we were ahead of schedule having that greenhouse nice and filled," said Hanson's Manager Beth Hanson.
"One bad storm and there you go. Things happen," said Brent. The storm collapsed a greenhouse holding thousands of plants. "For years we've gotten by with these lighter cheaper green houses," said Brent. "We'll be down a greenhouse for a little bit here," said Beth. Now Hanson's will only use sturdier and solid greenhouses so that collapses don't become a pattern.
MOSINEE - From here on out, Mosinee's Kevin Osterbrink will plow snow with a Stormy Kromer hat on his head--and a Stormy Kromer pattern on his plow.
Osterbrink entered his wife, Kayla Cisler-Osterbrink, in a prize drawing from Stormy Kromer and BOSS Snowplow. Her entry won, and BOSS delivered the red plaid patterned snowplow on Friday in Mosinee.
"I was tapping maple trees, and my wife showed up and said I had some homework to do because she won the plow," Osterbrink said, remembering how he found out they won.
"The first thing I told her was, 'That's the last thing I need, more work to do.' She said, 'Well, I think you want to do this, because you just won the Stormy Kromer plow," Osterbrink said.
RHINELANDER - Oneida County needs more foster care homes. Right now, there are nine licensed foster homes in the area, most of which are full according to the county's social services department.
Foster Care Coordinator Rachel Nelson says that in Oneida County there are 24 children currently living in foster homes. The department participated in a statewide foster care recruitment project last fall, and discovered just how great the need is.
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