Kansas Senior Press Service News ArticlesKansas Senior Press Service News ArticlesBy Dan Lekie
Kansas Senior Press Service
This is the first in a series by Dan Lekie, an extension agent specializing in agriculture and natural resources with Johnson County K-State Research and Extension. Dan’s experience and expertise can guide seniors into the great outdoors in an active way, season by season.
The spring turkey season is just around the corner. For many sportsmen and women, this is a highlight of the year. Very few things can get your adrenaline pumping as quickly as the gobble from an adult tom turkey.
Turkeys are normally harvested with shotguns or archery equipment. Four species of wild turkeys live in the United States. Missouri has the eastern turkey within its boundaries, and Kansas has the eastern turkey, the Rio Grande turkey, and a cross of the two. Rio Grande turkeys are located in roughly the western two-thirds of the state, while the eastern turkey and Rio-eastern hybrids are found in the eastern one-third.
The Kansas turkey season runs from April 8 to May 31, while the shorter Missouri season is April 20 to May 10. In Kansas, hunting hours are one-half hour before sunrise to sunset, while the hours in Missouri are one-half hour before sunrise to 1:00 p.m. Hunters may harvest up to two toms or bearded hens per year. For detailed information regarding rules and regulations, check with the state in which you are going to hunt. In Missouri, the following Web site will provide all the pertinent information needed to hunt turkeys this spring: mdc.mo.gov/hunt/turkey. The information needed for Kansas can be found at ww.kdwp.state.ks.us/news/Hunting/Turkey.
Many hunters prefer turkey hunting in the spring, during breeding season. That’s when, by mimicking the sound of a female turkey, or hen, a hunter may attract a male turkey, or tom, to harvest. Several types of calls can be used to attract turkeys; they include mouth or diaphragm calls, paddle calls, slate, aluminum, glass, wood, wing bone, and many other combinations. A bird may be harvested by learning a single call of the hen turkey vocabulary, but most experienced hunters use several call types and learn several hen turkey calls. At a minimum, hen turkey calls to learn should include the yelp, cluck, putt, purr and cackle. Numerous turkey-calling tapes are on the market to help novice and expert alike perfect their calling techniques.
Wild turkeys have excellent eyesight, making camouflage clothing a necessity. “Camo” allows a hunter to blend in with the surrounding vegetation and makes the hunter’s movements less easy to detect. Most hunters also wear gloves and face masks, making them even harder to detect. Stores with hunting departments will have several brands and styles of camouflage clothing available for purchase.
The biggest key to avoid being spotted by a turkey is to eliminate movement. Start with a comfortable pad to sit on. Having a cushion between your backside and a rock or a greenbriar vine drastically reduces your need to move. These cushions are also available at stores with hunting departments.
If you have yet to experience the thrill of a spring turkey hunt, why not give it a try this year? One need not harvest a turkey to have a successful outing. Spending time outside, enjoying the sights and sounds of nature, can be an enjoyable way to rejuvenate from the stress of everyday living.
Spring outdoors—and the hunt
By Dan Lekie
I wake up and look at the alarm clock. Four o’clock a.m., five minutes until the alarm goes off and wakes the house. I shut it off and head for the living room. Piled on the floor are 15 years of accumulated camouflage clothes, calls, vests, hats, decoys, boots, and tons of miscellaneous stuff that any serious outdoors person owns.
Each year, the opening of spring turkey season gets my energy pumping and offers me the opportunity to experience the wonders of early-morning Kansas. I put on my outdated camo clothes, grab my shotgun and shells, top off a huge mug of coffee, and begin the hour-long drive to my favorite hunting spot. On the drive I pop in a tape of turkey calls so I can be ready to go when I get to my spot.
The dirt road in front of me explodes with whippoorwills fleeing my headlights as I approach my destination. As I finish loading my turkey vest with a few more calls and a bottle of water, a coyote howls in the distance. Three more join in and then an owl hoots in the woods behind me. A turkey answers this commotion with a thunderous gobble. A huge smile crosses my face, hidden by the face mask hanging from my hat. This is what turkey hunting is really about: enjoying all the sights and sounds Mother Nature provides during these early-morning outings.
I head to a spot about 75 yards from the gobbling bird, quickly set out a decoy in a small opening in the timber, and slide into cover about 25 yards from the decoy. I sit quietly for about 10 minutes and then make a few very soft yelps on my slate call. There is an instant response from the gobbler. Ten minutes later, another soft call and an immediate response. Everything is perfect! The legal shooting time has arrived and I hear the gobbler fly down. I make another soft call and the tom responds with a somewhat muffled gobble. I wait. A flock of honking Canada geese passes overhead. A cow begins bawling in the distance and is joined by another. I wait.
I view two hen turkeys walking away from the opening. This is not good. I make a call. No answer. I wait. A coyote runs up to my decoy and sniffs it. He almost jumps out of his skin when I wave my arm to move him along. I make a call. No response. Two deer walk out of the woods and begin feeding toward me. They are joined by three more, and a crow decides it’s time to start calling from a nearby tree. Male cardinals and a chickadee begin their nonstop chatter in search of companionship. I make a call. No response. I wait. I continue this sequence for a little more than three hours without successfully bagging a tom.
It’s time to call it quits. I need to get back home and then to work. I stand up and look in the direction from which the tom had been calling. There he is, in all his majestic beauty. His head is a brilliant white, bordered with blue and bright red. He’s an old bird with a beard dragging the ground, and he has a harem of six hens. That explains what has happened. It can be difficult to call a tom away from hens.
I head to the truck and begin my trek home. Was this day a disappointment because I had not bagged a tom? Absolutely not. The experiences I encounter while pursuing game are a huge source of enjoyment for me. As I get older, I find myself enjoying these encounters with nature almost as much as I enjoy the hunt. I would not be surprised, in a few years, to find that I enjoy them even more.
By Shirley Carson
Kansas Senior Press Service
Wait, what was the question?
We are all familiar with statistics illuminating the sleep deprivation typical of our society. A significant number of traffic accidents result from fatigue, the quality of innumerable work hours is compromised as employees struggle with waning energy levels, our physical resilience is diminished by lack of rest — and yet we persist in our determination to suck the life out of every last second of the day. Our fast-paced, stressful lives rob us of desperately needed sleep, and eventually we — and our families — pay the price. Those of us who are raising our grandchildren know this all too well.
From infancy to adulthood, there are marked changes in how much sleep people need, the amount of time spent in each stage of sleep, and how easily they fall asleep and stay asleep (a factor scientists call “sleep efficiency”). Infants need from 16 to 18 hours of sleep, babies and toddlers need 12 to 14 hours, preschoolers need 10 to 12, and both elementary students and teens need a minimum of nine hours. Adults typically need 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 hours of uninterrupted sleep.
The real agony of sleep deprivation emerges in adolescence. As kids go through puberty, two things happen to make sleep problematic: They need more sleep than prepubescent children, yet their body clocks shift to later sleep and later wakening. Sleep deprivation has been linked to poor grades, moodiness and depression. Ronald E. Dahl, a sleep expert at the University of Pittsburgh, says sleep deprivation among teenagers creates a “negative spiral” of fatigue, emotional instability, poor decision-making and risky behavior.
For those of us caring for children, the negative health consequences to inadequate sleep include high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, weight gain, diabetes and depression. So it’s important to get ourselves and the grandkids to bed early.
According to sleep experts, with a sufficient amount of sleep we will wake in the morning without an alarm clock. Constantly pressing the snooze alarm may indicate a problem — not with strength of will or self-discipline, but with your sleep.
Simple choices can be made to improve your slumber. One of the first is steering clear of caffeine, a daily vice in which many of us indulge to counteract fatigue. Drinking coffee, sodas and caffeinated teas throughout the day can cause the very problems we are drinking to solve. Caffeine intake, particularly in the evening, delays sleep and increases the tendency to waken during the night.
Just as with the children, a regular bedtime routine, such as a cup of herbal tea an hour before bed, will mentally ease your transition from the busyness of the day into a sound night’s sleep. Reading relaxing books or magazines can be helpful, but television sets should be off at bedtime.
Do not skimp on nighttime comfort! Maintain a pleasant temperature in your bedroom, and create a soothing environment. Mask troublesome noises with a white-noise generator. If you wake at night, don’t fret that you are not asleep. Avoid watching the clock, which can cause anxiety. If you are awake for more than 30 minutes, leave your bed and do something boring in dim light until sleepiness returns. Then give it another go. Curl up under the covers, breathe deeply, and sink into sleep.
If you can’t fall asleep within 30 minutes of lying down, if you have excessive daytime sleepiness, or if you sleep for seven or more hours and still wake up tired, you may have a sleep disorder. See your doctor, who may recommend an overnight sleep study. People with disorders such as sleep apnea are at higher risk for stroke and transient ischemic attacks (“mini-strokes”), coronary heart disease, heart failure, irregular heartbeat, heart attack and high blood pressure. Although there is no cure for sleep apnea, successful treatment can reduce the risk.
Chronic sleep deprivation, for whatever reason it occurs, is a valid concern. It can harm your health and negatively affect your parenting. As we care for our grandkids, making sure they get plenty of sleep, let’s not neglect our own sleep needs.
Shirley Carson, RN, is a retired nurse and grandmother. Since raising her three oldest grandchildren, her desire is to encourage others who are parenting their grandchildren. She lives in Olathe, Kan.
By Gene Meyer
Kansas Senior Press Service
Your chances for a more tax-free retirement took a big leap upward this year, thanks to some of those bailout packages that Washington has been passing by the shovelful lately. Briefly, here’s why, according to financial planners:
Four years ago, Congress passed the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005, allowing taxpayers in 2010 to convert their traditional tax-deferred individual retirement accounts (IRAs), 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and small-business SIMPLE and SEP IRAs into Roth IRAs. Roth money is tax free when you pull it out; money from the other accounts is taxed as ordinary income, the same as a paycheck.
The 2010 window is a one-time deal. Taxpayers in 2009, or in 2011 and beyond, may convert their accounts to Roth IRAs only if their incomes do not exceed $100,000. And everyone who converts will feel a tax bite when switching from a traditional account to a Roth. (Uncle Sam still wants a cut from the sheltered money somewhere along the line.) But if you make the conversion in 2010, you can spread those taxes over the two subsequent years, 2011 and 2012, notes Christine Benz, personal finance director at Morningstar, Inc.
Recently the deal got sweeter. Just before Christmas, Congress passed more tax legislation — the Worker, Retiree and Employee Recovery Act of 2008 — which temporarily halts, for 2009 only, the requirement that account owners older than 70 ½ years withdraw and pay taxes on part of their retirement savings each year. The 2008 law also makes it easier for children, charities and other beneficiaries other than widows or widowers to keep money in an inherited tax-deferred plan longer if they choose.
Cut through the tax jargon and you discover that the difference is huge, says Ed Slott, author, IRA maven and host of the “Stay Rich for Life” specials on public television. Waiving the required minimum distribution for a year cuts your chances of being bumped into a higher tax bracket when the extra cash hits your income stream.
Also, nearly all our retirement accounts have taken hits since the stock markets began tanking last autumn. That hurts, of course. But there is a bright side for anyone thinking of converting retirement plans to Roths. The potential tax bite when you convert is smaller if, say, 25 percent of your previous balance is gone — and the money you earn afterward, when markets presumably recover, will be tax free.
And tax-free income won’t be anything to dismiss lightly in the next several years, Slott said during a Web seminar in February while multibillion- and trillion-dollar relief bills were zipping through Washington, D.C. Political promises to the contrary, Slott said, “I believe tax rates will go through the roof with these bailouts.”
So, how good a deal is converting? You’ll need to push a pencil around your own numbers and probably talk with a trusted tax professional to decide for sure. In the meantime, there are some potential falling sandbags to watch for as you do the math:
● One is that one-time windows of opportunity like this eventually slam shut. Specifically, in this case, income limits on who can and cannot contribute to Roth IRAs presumably will kick in again after 2010. You will want to be reasonably sure you can still make future contributions if you want to when that happens, said Morningstar’s Benz.
● You also should be sure you have resources outside your retirement plan with which to pay the taxes you will owe at conversion. Otherwise, if you are younger than 59 ½ and don’t convert dollar-for-dollar into a Roth, you will owe additional 10-percent penalties on any money you keep out to help with the taxes.
● Finally, look at all the potential tax consequences that converting might trigger. Even if an extra five- or six-figure shot into your income stream won’t disqualify you from opening a Roth in 2010, you will want to know whether the extra money might bump you into a higher bracket for the year or potentially wipe out credits, deductions and other breaks you want.
“Remember, this is all about controlling taxes,” Slott told his seminar listeners. “You can always get money back from the market, but if you lose it to taxes, it’s gone forever.”
Gene Meyer, a Fairway resident and former staff reporter at The Wall Street Journal and The Kansas City Star, reports and writes about financial topics at www.kitchentablenomics.com/.
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By Gene Meyer
Your biggest barrier is apt to be the tax hit. When you convert a traditional IRA, 401(k), 403(b), or 457(b) savings plan into a Roth IRA, you will owe taxes on all the contributions you or your employer previously deducted and any investment profits that haven’t been taxed so far. You may convert just part of the plan if that seems more affordable.
Converting may increase your taxable income dramatically and push you into a higher bracket for the year you make the switch. The extra money also may threaten some exemptions and credits for which you now qualify.
Future tax rates are impossible to predict. But conversion makes sense if you think your future rates will be the same or higher than now.
Roth owners are not required to pull money out of their plan at 70 ½ years of age, which gives them more flexibility for saving and investing than traditional plans offer.
For more tax help
By Gene Meyer
Your own tax professional, if you use one, is a good adviser on conversion questions because he or she knows the most about your situation. Other options:
These articles are also available electronically at the Center on Aging Website: http://www2.kumc.edu/coa/Senior_Press_Article/Topic_Index.htm