What I Hope to Learn in 2011- by Jeff Kurrus

First, let me briefly get to what I have learned in 2010.

1) I like warm weather much better than cold weather (refer to Eric Fowler’s recent blog “Weather Wimps.” I can totally confirm all of his findings).

2) Sometimes you don’t know how well your fishing day is going until you ask everyone else how their fishing day is going.

3) I can find great public lands in Nebraska to hunt for dove, squirrel, rabbit, waterfowl…(insert species here)

4) At 106 years old, or however old he is, Jon Farrar has more passion for writing on a day-to-day basis than anyone I have ever seen. I hope to have a smidgin of his passion throughout my career.

5) Studio portraits of animals, a la Joel Sartore, is one of the best ideas I’ve ever seen in this business.

6) Some offense coordinators should be fired from time to time. Just to shake things up a little bit.

7) I will not have enough time in my life to ever spend as much time as I want to with my daughter.

First aid kits are truly man’s best friend.

9) Turkeys have taken over first place in my category of most despised game animals.

10) After reading Chris Helzer’s recent blog contributions on this site, I have absolutely no knowledge about prairies. Everything he writes is new for me.

Which brings me to what I will learn in 2011. Most will come from afield, and many more will come from afloat. I’ll learn about another snazzy camera technique that Bob Grier has known about for 30 years, and I’ll learn something from Eric Fowler that I wasn’t really that interested in learning about in the first place. But I’ll listen because, inevitably, I will have to apply what he told me soon enough (I hate him for that).

And I’ll hopefully learn from even more bloggers that will be working for NEBRASKAlandthis year. Returners include our staff, including Fowler and Farrar, as well as Kelsea Nore and Patrick Mainelli. You’ll also see NEBRASKAland intern Erik Peterson’s work and contributions from both Michael Forsberg and Nebraska History.

Needless to say, my learning capacity may reach its limit this year, from both my time abroad and my time reading. After a few months, I may even feel smart…until some stubborn turkey convinces me otherwise.