The boys over at Buck Commander just released their second DVD, Buck Commander 2; Ballistic, and I can’t be more excited to see it. Judging by their first DVD and the trailer for the second, this hunting video separates itself from others by incorporating one of my favorite parts of the Buck Commander philosophy: “It is not the size of the horn, score or location that makes a hunt successful; it is the experience and enthusiasm for the hunt.”

During this part of the year, summer to early fall, deer hunters everywhere are antsy for the upcoming season. In the meantime – throughout the year, really – I watch Outdoor TV and ESPN Outdoors for many reasons: entertainment, education and simply because that’s what I love to do. It’s like a college ballplayer (maybe, in my case, a little leaguer) watching the pros. It drives my friends who don’t hunt crazy, but that’s just the way it is – I’ve sat through soccer games before, after all.

But in a lot of hunting shows, they move from hunt to hunt so fast it all seems kind of the same after a while. It’s almost a race to get the animal down, get a camera up there and hold the antlers up. This style of film and TV totally misses out on the best parts – the anticipation and enthusiasm before the hunt, the story behind the hunt, interaction and behavior of predator and prey, the result, and good times had by all throughout the experience. The entire thing, not just the harvest, is why I love to hunt. From all I’ve seen – and I’d encourage you to check out the Buck Commander 2: Ballistic trailer – Ballistic captures the whole package, just like their philosophy, and makes you laugh and reminds you of being with your buddies right after a hunt on a November morning around 11 o’clock.

What other hunting video have you seen – ever – that has one group of hunters hitting golf balls at another group sitting in the stand!? And the other part is there, too: big, old, experienced deer being hunted by experienced hunters. Even if you don’t hunt, watching the trailer should at least have you cracking a smile and understanding a little more about why hunters love their sport.

Other people are taking notice of Buck Commander as well, as ESPN has slotted a 13-episode miniseries of original video on ESPN2 starting July 5 and running every Sunday morning at 8:30 Eastern.

What about you? What are your favorite outdoor shows and videos to watch?

Finally this weekend, I had the pleasure of eating some fresh springtime crappie, and I couldn’t have had a better time – even though I didn’t catch a single one of the tasty fish – only a puny bluegill that I only cleaned because he took the hook and minnow I was using all the way down into his gills … a mistake a bungling fisherman makes if he looks away at the wrong time.

This past weekend, 20 or so friends and I went camping out at Clinton Lake, near Lawrence, Kansas, and had a wonderful time. We stayed Friday and Saturday night, and fished about all that we could Saturday.

It was 75 to 80 degrees for most of the day Saturday, so we couldn’t have picked a better time to head out camping. The forecast had called for rain Saturday night and into Sunday morning, and we felt a few sprinkles, but the rain never hit until Sunday evening.

Saturday, right after I went up to the bait shop and picked up a dozen minnows, about four of us – three adults – headed down to the water to see what we could get into. Our friends who had been there before us had already put one wiper into their fish basket.

After a couple of hours, frustration was building since we couldn’t seem to get a bite. That’s when Gwen and I headed over to Heidi (wife of my pal Kenny, and mother of their four kids), who was using worms to no avail. She threw out a minnow and quickly reeled in a wiper (which is a hybrid breed of fish, identifiable by the broken horizontal stripes, that is a cross between striped and white bass), and it’s hard to say who was hooked more – Heidi or the fish.

After another hour or so with no action, we determined we’d go back and have some lunch, and maybe hit it again later in the day. That was when Heidi surprised me by going over and checking a limb-line she had set, which she called a set-line. Whatever you want to call it, it worked and there was a 1-pound to 2-pound channel cat that we added to the stringer.

Once back to the campsite, I started cleaning the catch with my new Buck Knives Model 223 fillet knife that our friends over at Buck Knives had in my hand in about two days. Right out of the box, it cut through the scales, skin and meat very smoothly, which made me antsy to use the Alpha Hunter skinning knife that I also recently acquired.

I’ve always used an electric knife to filet fish – they glide right down the backbone – and the 223, with slow, back-and-forth strokes, moved down the backbone very smoothly. I was impressed, especially considering the knife goes for $35.

While I was doing that, Heidi and the kids went back down to the water and hauled in another couple of wipers and an even larger catfish.

After she got done cleaning those, I realized this was a hobby she truly loved because she said she was headed back down to the water’s edge.

Gwen, Heidi, two of her kids and a couple of their friends, and I went straight back down to the sunken brush pile we’d been fishing all day and got back to work.

Kenny and Heidi’s 11-year-old daughter, Leah, started pounding them right away, and reeled in three crappie by the time it was getting too dark to see.

I think it was about at the point of crappie No. 2 when I turned to Gwen and apologized for not getting her into fish, but I was genuinely happy Leah was having the luck. Seeing children catch fish, and the excitement that brings, is always pretty awesome.

She carried them all the way back to the campsite, taking them directly to Kenny to show her prowess on the water.

Later, after we grilled them using a little tinfoil and oil over charcoal, she was pretty quick out of the tent to get a taste. The wipers were good, but as I’ve said before, crappie are right up there with walleye according to my taste buds. And seeing a youngster so proud to provide food made me thankful for good friends and simple pleasures like camping on a June weekend. I’m thankful to enjoy rural America every time out.

The summer before my last semester of college, I worked a construction job pouring concrete footings (foundations) part of the time and basement walls part of the time. My time pouring walls was the toughest work I’ve ever done, and I liked working alongside some of the hardest workers, at least physically, that I’ve ever encountered. Workers like these are just what Dickies is looking for as it seeks out a winner of the Dickies 17^th Annual American Worker of the Year award.

Americans value hard work, but only to an extent, which I find interesting.

In my family, hard work was highly valued, and you were scolded and made to feel less of a man if you ever exhibited laziness when there was work to be done. My dad, mom and brothers worked hard, whether it was cutting wood, working in the garden, training for sports, haying or working on the cars. It was ingrained in our psyche that this was what men and women did for their families, and that started (at least in my immediate family) with how hard Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Fred and Mom worked to eke out a living for their family and build a farm.

In other families, I’ve noticed it’s not always the same, especially in white collar professions. I’ve seen, both in TV shows and real life, the doctors who are too preoccupied with their work to be good parents for their families. But it seems to me that too much work, or the too much value placed on the profession, is far less common in blue collar jobs, and that’s probably because it is totally necessary, monetarily, for a blue collar worker to put in the hours that they do.

For doctors and lawyers, the work can become more about ego and legacy than about providing for their families. Wives or husbands and kids, at a certain point, have enough monetary means and need that time with that parent who is too busy building a fortune and reputation.

So there is something special about the American blue collar worker, and I think what is special is that, for some, there is no ceiling on how hard or how much one should work. You work as much as you can to give your family what you need, and no one will ever tell you to stop or give you a break until you can’t do it anymore.

That’s admirable. And thankfully Dickies recognizes this.

“Dickies is very excited to celebrate workers all over the country,” said Chris Prokopeas, vice president of marketing for Dickies. “Millions of Americans work hard every day and rise above some pretty tough conditions with true character and determination. These exceptional individuals personify the Dickies brand and exemplify what it really means to be the American Worker of the Year.”

Past winners of the award have included an oil field roughneck, farmers, builders, teachers, an electrical lineman and soldiers. To me, these individuals represent what rural America is all about, and I’m glad Dickies has chosen to honor this class of citizen. It’s important to let them know they are appreciated, especially in these times because it’s that American working class that will help restore our economy. To read the fascinating story of last year’s winner, Hale Hughes, an oilfield safety manager from Woodville, Texas, check out the Dickies American Worker of the Year website.

To enter, workers can submit a photo and brief essay to illustrate how they represent the ideals of a true, hard-working American. Stories from workers across America will appear online for weekly voting and to honor the nominees.

Dickies will recognize weekly winners and six finalists, then one worker will be named grand prize winner this fall. Those who receive the highest number of votes each week will be recognized as Worker of the Week and they’ll receive customized Dickies garments. Six finalists will be selected by a panel of judges and will each receive $10,000 and a trip for two to the PBR World Finals, where the contest winner will be revealed on October 30, 2009. The grand prize winner will be selected from the pool of six finalists to receive $50,000* and a trip for two to the Dickies 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Race. At that race, the American Worker of the Year will have a chance to win $1,000,000 by randomly selecting one of the top 12 Race for the Chase drivers to win the Dickies 500.

Nominations are accepted until June 30 at www.americanworkeroftheyear.com, via mail or entry forms at stores or mobile tour stops. Fans who vote online can also win cash and other prizes.

*American Worker of the Year grand prize winner will receive $50,000 instead of the $10,000 the remaining five finalists receive. Additionally, should the American Worker of the Year grand prize winner randomly select the driver who goes on to win the Dickies 500, they will receive the $1 million in lieu of the $50,000 grand prize.

Two weekends ago (May 22 to 24), it really occurred to me that I have an awesome job that suits me. I was sent down to Fredericksburg, Texas – beautiful Texas “Hill Country,” in all its glory – to cover the Crawfish Fest and Gumbo Cook-off for the weekend. Look for that article in the September/October issue of GRIT. But during my time in Fredericksburg, I was lucky enough to stay at a bed-and-breakfast, Runnymede Country Inn, and it was an experience I will not soon forget.

When I was a kid, I remember there being a bed-and-breakfast (b-and-b) about 15 miles away from our farmhouse. We drove by it every time we went to our family’s favorite Mexican restaurant. And, of course, I always pictured it as a place with little more than a bed and breakfast … probably even breakfast served in the bed. Later, that perception faded like many other childhood mental images, but I really never paid much mind to bed-and-breakfasts before I landed at Runnymede.

On the Friday I arrived in Fredericksburg, I promptly bought a pound of crawfish, learned how to eat it and settled at a picnic table sort of taking in the scene of a crawfish festival – the first I’d ever been to.

At about midnight, I headed down the road to find the country inn I’d looked at online and perceived in my head. Two to three miles from downtown Fredericksburg, a large country-looking house with cottages spread across the landscape stood in the remote darkness, where the sounds of the city are inaudible and the stars at night are big and bright (deep in the heart, of Texas). I was here to work, but it made me feel more at peace than any vacation I’ve been on in more than 2 years. I was in the country, where my heart always is.

Coming down the stairs the next morning, I immediately smelled eggs, which turned out to be a quiche, and other lovely, country smells – baked cornmeal scones, ham and coffee.

Later, walking around the grounds, it occurred to me … Motel 8s, Holiday Inns and the like don’t hold a stick to these sorts of accommodations.

Everything about it, from the sisters – Anne and Jenny Farrar, who own, operate and live at Runnymede – to the cottages and gazebo, felt down-home to me. It’s more intimate, holding 18 to 24 people most of the time during the busy season, and you can talk to any number of diverse yet cordial people.

Jenny told me they’ve had guests from London, Germany and South Africa. Then, after I had my breakfast, the Farrars where right there making sure everything tasted okay and even seemed a little embarrassed when I brought my dirty dishes to the sink, almost in a, “Oh, no, we’ll get that,” sort of way.

I guess what surprised me most was the fact that I’d never really thought of vacationing like this. For those who love the country, bed-and-breakfasts like Runnymede feel like home, yet not home (or at least it did to me). Beautiful, country landscapes and friendly people, yet you don’t need to bother bringing your dishes to the sink.

The reservation company I used to book Runnymede, Gastehaus Schmidt, is the oldest reservation service in Texas’ Hill Country, and today it services about 175 properties, most of which are in Gillespie County. Gastehaus Schmidt reservation service is the only way to book a room at Runnymede and several other similar lodgings throughout that part of the state.

What about you? How and where do you prefer to vacation and what types of lodgings are your favorite?