Common house flies, Musca domestica, are regarded as a greater threat to human health than most other insects and considered a vector for a number of filth-related diseases. Some of these include; food poisoning, dysentery, meningitis, bacteremia, pneumonia, upper respiratory diseases, and urinary tract infections. They can also help transmit pinworms, hookworms, and some tapeworms. The fly's entire body swarms with millions of bacteria.

 Growing up on a farm, I frequently saw flies swarm around piles of fresh cow manure. It was also common to find dead animals, birds, and rodents crawling with flies and maggots. The relation between filth and flies was clear. However, I knew flies had a place in the scheme of things. In fact, maggots were instrumental in producing some pretty awesome skeletons for "show and tell". When they were through feasting, the bones were picked clean.

 Flies never stood a chance in our house. As soon as one accidentally buzzed past my mom she grabbed the swatter and, showing no mercy, kept vigil til it was safely eradicated. I felt sorry for these misplaced creatures and remember catching slow ones around windows to release outside. I even washed one once in a dish of warm, soapy water, then presented the "clean" half-drowned little fly to my mom as my new pet! We were both banished outside to play. The poor little water-logged guy didn't stand a chance against the chickens and I eventually lost interest in trying to save the flies.

 Living in town now, sometimes it's easy to forget just how filthy flies really are. Town doesn't have the obvious excrement and carcasses available to remind us of the gross stuff these guys eat and crawl around on. However, they are finding enough pet waste and rotting garbage to keep us perpetually sick on a variety of bacteria and parasites. Keep the fly swatter handy!

 There are several ways flies contaminate our food and food handling areas.

 Flies feed by sucking liquid through a tubelike lower lip. They prefer liquids containing sweet or decaying material, but can easily change solid food materials into liquid. The housefly feeds by depositing a drop of regurgitated saliva on its intended food, which may be garbage, excrement, or other filth. This digestive fluid breaks down its food into a liquid. Although most of the liquid drop is sucked back again, a residue remains that may contain disease-causing organisms from previous meals.

 The fly also transmits diseases by carrying disease organisms onto food. It picks up disease organisms from garbage, sewage and other sources of filth on its sticky foot pads and hairy body. These organisms then stick to other surfaces the fly visits and continue to grow and multiply on their new surface.

 Lastly, the fly spreads disease organisms through its feces. It's one thing to share food, but this little guest is using the toilet on your share!

 Good sanitation is the basic step in all fly management. Whenever possible, food and materials on which the flies can lay their eggs must be removed, destroyed as a breeding medium, or isolated from the egg-laying adult. Garbage cans and dumpsters should have tight-fitting lids and be cleaned regularly. Dry garbage and trash should be placed in plastic garbage bags and sealed up. Wet garbage should first be wrapped in old newspaper and then put in plastic garbage bags. All garbage receptacles should be located as far from doors as possible. And last but not least, use the flyswatter.
Until next time.....Maggie.

 I was tired the Sunday evening in early December when I arrived home from my last deer hunting trip of the year. I had arrived to late to see my two oldest kids at their Christmas concert so I showered and got a much needed meal. Well the family arrived home later and I was greeted with the usual "Hi Dad, you're home. Did you catch anything?" After bragging about my successful hunt they went about their business. It wasn't long when Maggie, my wife, called me into our office saying she wanted to give me something. I thought "Alright!" since it had been a long weekend but shouldn't we wait until the kids are in bed. And the office? Well after almost killing myself to get there, I saw our son Josh sitting at one of the computers playing games and Maggie motioning to a chair. Darn it! This wasn't what I thought it was going to be. After making me sit down she said she couldn't keep it secret any longer and handed me a piece of paper made up as a certificate that said the Mazonia Hunt Club. With a gleam in her eye she said went on to explain she had arranged a combination goose and pheasant hunt for me and a quest as a Christmas present.

 Wow! What a surprise! I had never been hunting for either geese or pheasants but had always wanted to. I do have memories of goose hunting with my dad a few times when I was knee high, but they mostly consist of me freezing my butt off. Maggie went on to tell me all about it. How we would arrive on a Tuesday and spend the night at their lodge and then get up in the morning to hunt geese and then pheasant hunt in the afternoon. The dates were set for early January. I could hardly wait.

 Now comes the hunting story. First of all the Mazonia Hunt Club is located near Gardner, Illinois about an hours drive southwest of Chicago and a four hour drive from home. About two miles east, as the crow fly's, is the Mazonia/Brairwood Fish and Wildlife Area. The area holds tons of geese because the water never freezes over. The lake we found out is a cooling reservoir for a nuclear power plant. And for those who are wondering, the club is located in the Central Quota Zone.

 We left shortly before one in the afternoon after I picked Josh up from school. We arrived right at dark at their clubhouse. Entering we found three guys sitting around a table sucking down beer. "These are my kind of guys" I thought to myself. A big guy got up from the table and introduced himself as Eric Fjelde, one of the owners of the club. I introduced myself and Josh and told him we were there to kill some geese. There was a bit of confusion at first because Maggie had registered everything under her name. After sorting things out and shooting the bull for a while we followed Eric over to the Sportsmen's Lodge where we would be staying. After a twenty minute ride we arrived to find the place locked up tighter than a dog on point. A quick phone call by Eric was all it took and we were in.

 The place was great. I wouldn't call it a lodge, it was more like home. A fully furnished house with all the comforts. We all shot the bull for a while then headed out. Josh and I out to the local scoffing establishment for some supper, the rest of guys home for supper. Arriving back at the lodge after a great meal at Ray's Ranch House we settled down to an evening of television watching, eat snacks and drinking a few cold beers (well me anyway).

 Arriving at the club house at 6:00am sharp we were ready to go. We signed in and got our stuff ready. While waiting to go out we were introduced to Margaret Fjelde, Eric's mother and a fellow by the name of Bernard. Eric also told us that there had been eleven geese killed the day before and eight the day before that. A new flock had came in a few days before and things looked good. They looked even better when we found out that we three (Bernie, Josh and I) would be the only ones in the field that day. Alright! We were driven out to our blind by Neal Brooks, the other owner of the club, which saved a lot of walking in the mud. Our guide for the day was a great guy named Dave, but everyone around there called him Goose. I found out later why they call him Goose. Dave has been hunting ducks and geese since he was six years old and this was his forty first waterfowl season.

 Anyway, back to the hunt or lack there of. It turned out to be a beautiful day. Sunny, windy and near record warm temperatures, not ideal goose hunting weather. The geese were flying that morning just not our way. We watched all morning as bunch after bunch took to the sky off the lake and headed to the north. Unfortunately we were west of the lake. We watched thousands of geese that morning all go the other way. We did have two flocks kind of start our way only to turn while still pretty far out. Oh well. We were disappointed to say the least, but what can you do. I've set many hours on a deer stand with no results so I know how things go sometimes. You just can't call it. After a great lunch brought out to the pit by Margaret we were picked up a little while later by Neal for the second half of our adventure.

 We followed Neal over to the South Wilmington Sportsmen's Club where we would be hunting pheasants. Great place, ideal pheasant habit. These guys know their stuff. We signed in and waited for the birds to be set. Off we went with Neal's dog Caesar taking the lead. Not going far Caesar went on point. Wow, what a beautiful sight it is to see an experienced dog do his thing. Well the bird looked dead. Neal walked over to it and so did I so we decided to move on only Caesar wouldn't break point. After several attempts by Neal to break him, Caesar took matters into his own hands and grabbed the bird out of the grass. It was then we realized it was a live bird. Caesar dropped it and it took off. (Just goes to show you should trust the dog sometimes.) Two shots later from my 12 gauge, Caesar was retrieving my first pheasant. I thought "That was easy. Nothing to it". Little did I realize they aren't all that easy. The next point was a nice rooster and Josh put him on the ground with a couple of shots.

 After the first round we had jumped four birds and killed two. Not to bad I guess. The second round was tougher. I missed some real nice birds and Josh missed his share too. When it was over we had seven pheasants. Six we had killed and one the dog had killed when the sucker took off across the ground. Back at the club house we posed for some pictures, look for them on the site soon. I then asked Neal " Now what do we do with them?" The guy who had set out the birds for us, Gary, showed me several ways to breast them out or he said you can pluck the whole bird. Not wanting to make a spectacular of myself I asked if they would be okay until we got home. Gary said sure and got us some plastic bags to put them in. We stowed them in our cooler, shook hands with everyone and headed for home.

 We ended up skinning the birds, (which was real easy) when we got home. After finishing my part I headed for the shower and bed while Maggie finished cleaning the pheasants. She has experience with this sought of thing from being raised on a farm and cleaning chickens, geese and ducks while growing up.

 The whole experience was a great one. I hope to go back next year. Everyone we meet was nice and friendly and the faculties were top notch. I just wish we could have gotten a shot or two at a goose but that's no ones fault. Just the luck of the draw. If you want a great time I recommend you give these guys a try. Visit them at their web site at www.mazoniahuntclub.com and tell them you heard about them from Backwoods Bound. Thanks to Maggie I had enjoyed the best Christmas present ever. James Burns

ANSWER TO BACKWOODS TRIVIA:   The Ohio River is formed by the Monongahela River and the Allegheny River.

Bonus question answer: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

**To all our Backwoods Bound Buddies: We sincerely appreciate all your support! We hope you'll continue to help by forwarding this newsletter to all the people in your address book. Give them the opportunity to participate in our site! In addition, if you know of someone that shares our interests, why not ask if you can sign them up for our newsletter? With a web site like this, the more the merrier!