Outdoors Archives - Missourinet

First Lady invites Missourians to candlelight tours of Mansion on Saturday (AUDIO)

December 6, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri’s First Lady is inviting you to tour the Governor’s Mansion in Jefferson City on Saturday morning from 10 to noon.

The 30-foot white pine Christmas tree at the Governor’s Mansion in Jefferson City was lit on December 6, 2019 (photo courtesy of Governor Parson’s Twitter page)

Governor Mike and First Lady Teresa Parson lit the Mansion Christmas tree Friday evening, in conjunction with the Living Windows event in downtown Jefferson City.

The First Lady tells Missourinet they only had five days to decorate the tree.

“There’s been a lot of help, a lot of workers there at the Mansion over this last week, and a lot of hours spent,” Mrs. Parson says. “We’ve been there many evenings late.”

The 30-foot white pine tree was donated by Mike and Ellen Hedgcoth of southern Missouri’s Salem.

There’s also a “Christmas Village” set up on the Mansion lawn, which includes a general store, Santa’s workshop and Santa’s candy cane lane house.

Several thousand people turned out for Living Windows, and hundreds more are expected to take the additional candlelight tours Saturday at the mansion. First Lady Parson, who’s championed Jobs for American Graduates (JAG) for at-risk high school students, says special ornaments will be on display inside the mansion.

“Each of the JAG schools across our state, classes, 82 of them, have presented and designed their own JAG ornament,” says the First Lady.

Student choirs from Weaubleau R-3, Versailles, Sacred Heart Sedalia and School of the Osage High Schools will be singing Christmas carols Saturday morning, on the Mansion lawn.

The tours, which go from 10 to noon, are free and open to the public.

Click here to listen to the full interview between Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth and First Lady Teresa Parson, which was recorded on December 6, 2019 outside the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City:

Deer hunting season means increased sales for many Missouri businesses

November 22, 2019 By Missourinet Contributor

Firearms deer hunting season means more money for many Missouri communities. Ammie Gaston of the Hootenanny restaurant in northeast Missouri’s Perry tells WGEM-TV in Quincy this time of year is critical for her and other area businesses.

White-Tailed deer (photo courtesy; Missouri Department of Conservation/Noppadol Paothong)

“We were slam packed last weekend, I have about 20, 25 flavors of homemade pie, I had about a hundred pies made and we sold out of pies,” says Gaston.

Gaston says the season comes at an important time for all businesses in the region.

“We will slow down while all of our farmers get their crops out, so hunting season kind of helps bring that up,” says Gaston.
At her restaurant last Saturday alone, Gaston said her team served 300-400 tables throughout the day, something she said continues in the following weeks.

When hunters score their kill, they get the meat processed, something that could end up costing them hundreds depending on what they want done. Kristen Caldwell, Co-Owner of 4 Quarter Processing, says from now until after Christmas, their freezer is packed with dozens of deer.

“We have a lot of hunters that come here, we have some from Michigan some from the Carolinas, from Florida, some from Illinois,” says Caldwell.

The fall portion of Missouri’s firearms deer hunting season continues through November 26.

By Missourinet affiliate WGEM in Quincy

Meteor storm could be seen tonight in the Missouri sky

November 21, 2019 By Missourinet Contributor

You may be able to see meteors in the eastern skies tonight if you have clear weather. Astronomy expert Todd Young says a brief meteor storm will take place beginning at 10:30 p.m. where you can see quite a sky show.

Photo courtesy of NASA

“The rate would be upwards of 400 per hour. Quite a dramatic jump from a shower — which is usually somewhere around ten to maybe 30 per hour,” Young says.

Meteors are debris left behind by comets and Young says this storm is from an unknown comet that probably has not been seen for over 500 years. It is suspected to be the debris of a long period comet from the Oort Cloud that surrounds the solar system.

And the Oort Cloud is actually a spherical distribution of chunks of ice and rocks that are much farther away than people realize,” Young says. “And the Oort cloud is usually not typically depicted as being part of the solar system because it is so far from the sun — yet still part of it.”

Young says the meteor storm will be visible low to the horizon, so viewers will want to be up high and away from city lights. He says you should go out and scout out a good view of the eastern horizon on a hill by 10:30.

“You’ll see these streaks of light. They’ll look like they’ll be coming right over the horizon,” says Young.

The meteor storm is expected to be short lived, lasting only 15 to 45 minutes.

By Dar Danielson of Radio Iowa

Watch out for deer – a popular deer hunting weekend begins Saturday

November 15, 2019 By Missourinet Contributor

The state’s firearms portion of deer season gets underway Saturday – marking the 75th anniversary of the popular activity in the Show-Me State. Thousands of hunters are expected to get an early start tomorrow. Joe Jerek with the Missouri Department of Conservation says the firearms portion of deer season begins 30 minutes before sunrise each day.

White-Tailed deer (photo courtesy; Missouri Department of Conservation/Noppadol Paothong)

“The opening weekend of the November portion of firearms deer hunting season, that is probably, if not definitely, the most popular weekend. We get about a third of our total deer harvest that weekend alone,” says Jerek.

The season runs November 16-26 and travelers should expect an increase of deer on the move along roadways.

The cooler weather should lead to more movement of deer in the woods, which means better chances of bagging that prized buck.

“This cold, crisp weather should be great for deer hunting,” says Jerek. “For example, a couple of weeks ago when we got that first cold snap, that was our early youth portion weekend of firearms deer season. The harvest results were up by several thousand over last year when the weather was a bit warmer.”

Jerek reminds hunters to wear hunter orange and to be careful setting up and using tree stands.

The state has reduced the number of Chronic Wasting Disease Management Zones to 29 counties. For a complete list of the affected counties, click here.

By Bill Wise and Alisa Nelson

Heavy rain heading to far southern Missouri; forecasters warn of possible flooding (AUDIO)

November 6, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Springfield says far southern Missouri towns could see two to three inches of rainfall by Thursday morning.

The National Weather Service in Springfield says heavy rainfall is expected overnight in far southern Missouri (map courtesy of NWS Springfield Twitter page)

NWS Springfield warning coordination meteorologist Steve Runnels says Branson, Gainesville and West Plains could see three inches of rain.

“We’re going to see just a ton of rainfall coming out of Oklahoma moving into the southern part of Missouri during the course of the evening into the overnight hours,” Runnels says. “It’s something that’s kind of unusual for this time of the year.”

Runnels says prolonged rain could cause low-lying areas to flood, and warns about possible flooding after dark.

“People that are traveling along Highway 60 and on south should be anticipating very heavy rainfall starting sometime mid to late evening and lasting into the nighttime hours,” says Runnels.

Runnels says far southwest Missouri’s Anderson will also see heavy rainfall. Further north, Springfield and Nixa are expected to receive at least an inch of rain.

Click here to listen to the full two-minute interview between Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth and National Weather Service (NWS) Springfield warning coordination meteorologist Steve Runnels, which was recorded on November 6, 2019:

Patrol: Deer-vehicle collisions peak in November in Missouri (AUDIO)

November 5, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri motorists are being urged to be on the lookout for deer this month, with November seeing the largest number of deer-vehicle strikes.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol logo (courtesy of Patrol Lieutenant Collin Stosberg)

Missouri State Highway Patrol Captain John Hotz cites harvest time, mating season and the firearms deer season.

He says there were officially 4,090 traffic crashes involving deer in Missouri in 2018.

“Well you look at that and that’s roughly one deer strike every 2.1 hours in the state and we know that number is probably, actually a lot higher,” Hotz says.

Captain Hotz tells Missourinet that’s because many motorists contact their insurance company directly, and won’t file a report with law enforcement.

He says six motorists were killed and another 415 were injured in 2018 in Missouri deer-vehicle strikes.

“Most of these folks who are injured or killed are actually in vehicles who take some sort of corrective action and unfortunately they over correct and they lose control of their vehicle,” says Hotz.

He says most deer strikes in Missouri happen between 5 and 6:59 a.m. and from 6 to 8:59 p.m.

Hotz also notes that deer behavior changes due to mating season, which could cause an increase in deer sightings and roadway crossings.

Click here to listen to the full interview between Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth and Missouri State Highway Patrol Captain John Hotz, which was recorded on October 25, 2019:

Missouri expected to get above normal moisture from November to February

October 28, 2019 By Missourinet Contributor

The National Weather Service says there’s a likelihood of above normal precipitation in the Plains and Midwest in the coming months, including in Missouri. Senior hydrologist Mark Fuchs of the St. Louis office says the weather models are showing increased rain from November to January – and even stretching into February. He says a winter weather outlook indicates most of that precipitation would likely be in the form of snow.

A St. Louis city employee uses a brush machine to clear snow off sidewalks in downtown St. Louis on January 12, 2019 (photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI)

“The last thing we really need in the Upper Mississippi and Upper Missouri River basins, given the fact that stream flows are already well above normal, soil moisture content is well above normal throughout this area,” he tells Brownfield Ag News.

Fuchs says Missouri needs time to drain the moisture into the system and flush itself out.

“We could see a potential of significant flooding, as we get into the spring, for both the Missouri and Mississippi River basins again. Certainly the folks along those rivers – that’s the last thing in the world they want to he but that’s what we’re looking at,” Fuchs says.

He cautions that the outlook is not a forecast.

“I’ve seen outlooks like this, especially those that are two to four months away, fall apart and not work out as we expect them to or thought they would. That is certainly our hope – that it would not work out quite like we have it mapped out,” Fuchs.

Fuchs spoke at the Missouri River Basin Corps of Engineers management update Friday. Corps officials say they will be as aggressive as they can this fall pumping water out of the basins to prepare for next spring, in the event of more flooding in 2020.

By Julie Harker of Brownfield Ag News

For the fifth time, Missouri man breaks state record for heaviest pumpkin

October 24, 2019 By Alisa Nelson

A southwest Missouri man who has been growing pumpkins for about 25 years has shattered the state record for heaviest pumpkin. Richard Bottorf of Republic, near Springfield, grew a 1,798-pound pumpkin and the second heaviest weighing in at 1,677 pounds.

Photo courtesy of Republic Pumpkin Daze Facebook page

“This is my fifth time to break the state record,” he says. “I’m kind of competitive. So what I usually do, if I’ve got a good pumpkin, I treat it like it should be treated – probably spend more time there than I do with my family. But if I’ve got one that is only going to be 500 pounds, I go play golf.”

Bottorf tells Missourinet he takes his hobby pretty seriously when he knows he has a good thing going on.

“When I’m on vacation, I usually have what I call pumpkin sitters,” Bottorf says. “So, I call my friends who have done it before and I always tell them this is the most stressing week – you really have to watch it this week. They don’t like it when I do that but I’m kind of kidding them because each week is about the same.”

He says growing his giant pumpkins has been a lot of trial and error.

“My son was playing basketball down in Dallas, Texas years ago. When I came back, it was huge,” Bottorf says. “I thought, well I’m just going to add fertilizer to that. So I added a bunch of fertilizer and I came out the next day – it had grown so fast that it had split down the middle of it. So, you can overfertilize.”

He has quite the method to his madness. Bottorf says the secret to creating his giant record pumpkins is good genetics and, of course, aged cattle manure. He buys his seeds from auctions.

“Those good genetics can cost anywhere from $100 to several hundred dollars for good genetic seeds that have the ability to produce a large pumpkin,” Bottorf says.

He measures his pumpkins in three different directions to get an idea on weight.

“During the growing season, you want the pumpkin not to exceed 40 pounds a day,” he says. “My goal is to keep it in the low 30s. If I know it’s growing in that type of range, I haven’t over-fertilizered it over-watered it.”

Since fruit matures in the sun, Bottorf keeps the pumpkins out of the light by putting tents over them. He plays music on a boombox to keep the animals away from his prized orange fruit.

Bottorf says the inside is not tasty and he will not be making a bunch of pumpkin pie.

“You wouldn’t want to eat it. It’s kind of like having a large cucumber,” he says. “Cucumbers are good when they’re small. When they get large, they’re not going to be edible. That’s kind of the way these pumpkins are. They’re really grown for ornamental and for display.”

His family carved the smaller pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern and placed it in his front yard for passerbys to enjoy. It took them about two hours to make their design.

Missouri’s cooler temps are here but so are the mosquitoes

October 23, 2019 By Alisa Nelson

Missouri reached near-freezing temps last week, but are we in the clear from those pesky mosquitoes? State Health and Senior Services Director Dr. Randall Williams says not so fast.

Photos courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

“What I tell people in Missouri, given our changes in season, that I would always use DEET. If I’m in the outdoors and there’s been any warm weather, check for ticks and use DEET,” says Williams.

Later in the summer is when more West Nile virus cases start popping up in Missouri.

Williams says Missouri does not have as many cases of the disease as some east coast states, but he says everyone should protect themselves, even in February.

“The incredibly troubling thing about it is that it tends to be so sporadic and so isolated, it’s hard to get a clear cluster or pattern to give specific advice. So, we have to give very broad advice, which is for everybody – they need to be aware of it. They need to use DEET. They need to take protective measures, realizing that many people will be exposed to mosquitoes and not come down with West Nile virus. But we’re just not good at predicting those people who will. So, our policy is everybody needs to be protected,” he says.

About 80% of people who get the virus do not show signs or symptoms and recover within a few days or a couple of weeks.

National Weather Service: two tornadoes hit southwest Missouri county (AUDIO)

October 21, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Springfield confirms two tornadoes touched down overnight in southwest Missouri’s Christian County, which is south of Springfield. No serious injuries are reported.

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Springfield issued a tornado warning for Springfield, Nixa and Strafford on October 21, 2019 (map courtesy of NWS Springfield Twitter)

NWS Springfield meteorologist Doug Kramer tells Missourinet the tornadoes struck in rural areas of Christian County. NWS survey teams remain in the field this afternoon, viewing storm damage.

Kramer says it’s too early to tell if Springfield storm damage was caused by tornadoes or straight line winds.

Springfield City Utilities reports 1,575 customers remain without power this afternoon, and the utility is bringing in additional contract crews to assist in power restoration efforts.

Our Springfield television partner KOLR-10 reports massive tree damage in Springfield, including trees on top of houses.

The NWS issued multiple tornado warnings overnight, including warnings for Springfield, Fort Leonard Wood and Willow Springs. Kramer says there were no deaths of serious injuries in the storms.

“You go from like Lawrence and Barry County all the way into south central Missouri and the eastern Ozarks, there’s quite a bit of damage that occurred with that line of storms last night,” Kramer says.

Kramer notes most of the storm damage in southern Missouri is south of Interstate 44.

Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s interview with NWS Springfield meteorologist Doug Kramer, which was recorded earlier today on October 21, 2019: