I have hunted deer on the Island for 35 years and coach junior smallbore rifle at the Cowichan F&G club.
And now my customary first post joke:
Many years ago a young CO was posted to a new town. Eager to make a name for himself, he vowed to catch Old Joe, the biggest poacher in the territory. His plan was simple, he would stake out Old Joe’s farm house in the early evening and wait for Joe to head out for his night’s work. Then carefully follow him and catch him red-handed at his dirty deed.
So, on the first poacher’s moon the young CO drove out to Ole Joe’s farm and parked his truck on the logging road by the farm’s main gate and snuck into the brush across from the house. He waited impatiently into the night ready for some action. Finally at about 3:30 a.m., the lights came on and Old Joe came out onto the porch and called out “Hey, game warden. The coffee is on and I know that you’re out there, so you might as well come in and have a cup. It’s awful cold out there.” The young CO knowing that he was caught, snuck back to his truck and tried to figure out where he had gone wrong.
Thinking that he had parked too close to the farm, the next week he parked up an old skid road about five kilometers from the farm. As he hiked to his hiding place, he was sure that he would catch Old Joe this time. This time it was three in the morning when Old Joe came out onto the porch and called out “Hey, game warden. The coffee is on and I know that you’re out there, so you might as well come in and have a cup. It’s awful cold out there.”
“Someone from town must be informing Old Joe about my movements,” thought the young CO. On his next try, he pretended to go the bed early and walked the twenty kilometers through the woods and dark to farm. Again the young CO heard, “Hey, game warden. The coffee is on and I know that you’re out there, so you might as well come in and get a cup. It’s awful cold out there.”
Over the years the CO tried more and more elaborate schemes to catch Old Joe. With every try came “Hey, game warden. The coffee is on and I know that you’re out there, so you might as well come in and get a cup. It’s awful cold out there.”
The CO was becoming more and more paranoid, believing that the whole town was against him in their protection of Old Joe. He once even took a vacation in the UK and re-entered the country on a false passport. After sneaking his way to Old Joe’s; he once again got “Hey, game warden. The coffee is on and I know that you’re out there, so you might as well come in and get a cup. It’s awful cold out there.”
The day came that Old Joe was on his death bed. The CO had to ask Old Joe, “How did you always know when I was out there waiting to catch you?”
“Well” Old Joe explained “ever since I was a young man, every time that I had to get up for a pee in the middle of the night, I would go out onto the porch and yell out “Hey, game warden. The coffee is on and I know that you’re out there, so you might as well come in and get a cup. It’s awful cold out there.”
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