Story behind MNO?

[Go Big Red!]

After all this time, checking out posts and things for sale, trade and the general rants and raves I still have no idea who are the people behind the scenes.

Who? Where? When? Who are the "leaders", the moderators, etc.?  What has the past taught those people regarding the site? 

[HD]

Not me................. 

[Cody Gruchow]

or me............

[Lee Borgersen]

Will the men behind the masks please step forward? 

[Mayfly]

This is a good story. I am one of the founders of MNO which is also now known as MWO. Its a long story. If I had more energy I would dive into it right now but its been a long day in the woods and I am tired!! 

[Go Big Red!]

Lee, I am now scared..... So much for months of productivity in therapy....... Thanks.......

[Outdoors Junkie]

Will the men behind the masks please step forward? 

The story begins with a masked tag team wrestling duo.  By day they were hunting buddies, by night they were the "Masked Night Outdoorsmen"!  They were torn between their love of the spending time outdoors and the excitement within the wrestling ring. 

A few years ago...late ice fishing (Feb. 06).  This duo went out to the ice shack on the morning before their championship match in Bemidji.  They spent the day focused on jigging and reeling in monster URL crappies.  They stumbled into the mother load!  They would drop a line in the hole and "Bam" a fish was hitting it.  They were one fish away from catching the limit for both of them when one of their poles bends over with a monster pike (45 incher).  They took turns fighting this beast...reeling and pulling...reeling and pulling.  This lasted for hours!  When finally the monster gives up and enters the hole (thru three feet of ice).  They pull this mighty fish up thru the hole.  They were exhausted!  Each of them took turns holding the 28 lb northern for pictures.  Then they released the lake monster back into the water.  As they both sat in that warm fish house tired and proud of there great feat, they realized they where late to the most important wrestling match of their careers!  They jumped in their 4-wheel drive and hauled butt to Bemidji.  They had no time to tell anyone about their awesome day on Upper Red Lake.  They arrived to their big match and had to change into their  span-dex very quickly.  They had no time to show anyone the picture of the giant northern they pulled thru the ice.

They went out and won the championship that night!  Their opponents did not put up half the match that the big northern did earlier in the day.  Now the "MNO" duo where champions! 

Their schedules got even more hectic.  They realized that in order to share there day-time experiences with others, they needed a place that they could tell stories and share pictures.

So they created www.Mnoutdoorsman.com.  The best outdoors website online! 

That is the story behind MNO!

[Go Big Red!]

I am still scared of the masked men duo.

So who are the moderators?  How did they and others get caught up in this mix?  Time to step up Cody and HD!!!

[Fawkinnae]

I'm pretty sure the wrestling picture is of Lee and Borgie (spelled with an ie). They recently won the Lake Geneva mixed couples championship.

And by the way Dennis tells a hell of a story - and I think it's all true. Except the wrestling part. I think the MNO duo raised grey squirrels for pets and dabbled in badmitton.

[Bobby Bass]

Masked wrestlers, would explain why they don't like the local Hamms beer and Wild Turkey shots!  I can see this thread heading south real quick....

  But a good question, to quote Butch Cassidy: I couldn't do that. Could you do that? Why can they do it? Who are those guys?

[GirlGuide]

The story behind MNO???

...well, here's the WHOLE truth and nothing but the truth!!



They all followed ME here!!            

~gg

...Can you blame them???

 

[Randy Kaar]

After seeing you in them granny panties on the playboy site, can you blame us?

randy

[Go Big Red!]

I have never seen such a great looking buck and a yellow lab......... and my wife wonders why I hunt so much!!!!!

South is coming real quick.....

[HD]

Yea......Dennis was sitting in the  with Cheech and Chong....saying "ear" 


So........what do ya wanna know about me Big Red?

(cept I own the old mill on Lake Iwanttobethere)


Hunter

[HD]

After seeing you in them granny panties on the playboy site, can you blame us?

randy

Blaze orange granny panties no less....................

[Go Big Red!]

Tell the truth , the whole truth, and a little bit of 

[HD]

Well...okey dokey then.....

I'm a part time farmer, plus have a job. I take special needs kids hunting and fishing, and do gun training. I spend all of my free time either on here, or outside. (mostly outside) I don't watch tv, or follow sports.
I'm an outdoorsmen....my wife thinks I have a.d.d. cause I'm always outside doing something.
I fish when I can, and hunt like a mother  when it's season. I trap a little, bow hunt, rifle hunt, muzzle loader hunt, pheasant hunt, goose hunt, grouse hunt, duck hunt, deer hunt, bear hunt (your getting the idea by now) My kids have been raised on wild game, and don't even like the taste of a hamburger made of beef. We raise alot of our food in the garden and store what we can. And, everyone in my household, knows how to handle a gun, and what they are used for. That is why I got attached to this site...cause, I love the outdoors........

Now....for the  portion....

I was on this little boat, taking a ride around the Florida keys....It was suppose to be only a 3 hour tour, well the waves, she started getting ruff and the tiny ship was lost...if not for the courage of the fearless crew....the ship would have been lost! And thats when I found myself deserted on a desert island in the middle of Lake Iwanttobethere, known as Rootbeer Island. 

Hunter

[Go Big Red!]

That's  hilarious!!!!  Love it!!! 

Great to get some background on a few of our leaders.  Anyone else?

[Randy Kaar]

My story would be too boring..

randy

[GRIZ]

My story is pretty short and boring but here ya go. I believe there are only 2 staffers left that started b4 I. I was invited to check out this site by a friend and liked it. I brought it up they should have a trapping forum. They agreed and wanted me to staff it. So I did.

Trapping has always been my favorite outdoor pursuit. There are many that would like to know how but as a general rule lotta trappers are tight lipped. So it's hard to get much information on it for many, especially in urban areas. This is my way of trying to help others get into and enjoy the sport too.

For me it was easy, everyone of my elders in the family trapped. As kids we all trapped gophers for bounty money. We trapped things for food, money but we enjoyed it. I want to give to others interested knowledge about it. Growing up it was discussed at the table just as much as the weather. Most don't have that background. I guess that's my story.

[Go Big Red!]

Thanks Griz. 

The only trapping I was made aware of was not to touch the traps.  The old "stick poke to trip the spring"  was as far as I went. 

[GRIZ]

Big Red

If you only knew how many times I've had been pinched by my own traps. It really only smarts for a short spell.

[Go Big Red!]

Very true Griz, very true.

[Outdoors Junkie]

My MNO story is pretty simple.  I joined MNO as a member about a month after the site was started.  I was looking for some information on icefishing on URL.  I started replying to posts and making up intresting topic that other members replied to.  MNO was growing.  The higher ups asked if I wanted to become staff (since I was a very positive person) on the site (all staff positions here are unpaid).  I jumped at the chance.  I came up with some idea's to promote MNO to others out there.  MNO continued to grow.  I helped recruit some additional staff members.  The highers up gave me a new title "Staff Director".  My responsibilities were to help coordinate duties for staff members.  MNO continued to grow.  Now I'm a admin.  I along with all of our current and former staff members on MNO have helped to get MNO where it is today!

Short & sweet not too exciting!

[Realtree]

My MNO/MWO story is pretty much the same as the one Dennis told previously, in fact Dennis invited me to "come and check out this new site he had found about MN hunting and fishing".

I clicked through the link to MNO that Dennis sent me, checked out different areas of the site and I liked what I saw so I became a member of MNO and started frequenting the site. As i visited MNO more often and started posting things and becoming more familiar with other members on the site, I was approached in the same way that Dennis was and asked if I would be interested in becoming a member of the MNO Staff. I jumped at the opportunity and took over a few of the responsibilities of the site to help out Dennis, Tim, Ryan and a few other staff that were here at that time.

As things continued to grow with MNO, Dennis and I both took on a little more responsibility here and there to help out where we could. Over time, we were both promoted to Administrators for the site based on the things we had done to help promote and grow MNO to where it is at this point.

[Realtree]

I had been very active on the site up until Nov 2007 when my Mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer. At that point, I dropped most of the extra things i had going on in my life to focus on Mom and our family. Mom passed in May of 2008, and since that time i have been more active with helping my Dad with things and also partnering with him and my sister to help him get an entreprenuerial business going that he and my Mom had been working on for some time before her passing.

I have had a little more free time recently, and so I have been more active with my hunting and have also made some time to get more active back here at MNO/MWO as well.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.....

[Go Big Red!]

So the higher ups and admin have spilled the beans.  Moderators?  Anyone else?

I find it refreshing to hear the why and the because stories behind the site.  Granted some of you reading or replying may think your story is boring or this thread is lame.  Fine. I just want to know what makes this outdoor site interesting and something to look forward to in my mind.  We live in such a fast pace world that I don't think enough people take the time to enjoy the simple things in life.  Rush to work, rush to soccer or dance, rush here, etc.  If I can't be in the woods or in the duck blind, I might as well be here...........

[Bobby Bass]

I blame Randy for being here! Actually I write about a special place called Lake Iwanttobethere and Randy was a reader who asked me if I would like to come here and post my stories. So I started posting lake stories here and got to know some of the other members. I had an idea for a fishing Challenge that had a few twists to it and the owners here let me launch it. The fishing Challenge has found a home here and is just wrapping up it's second season. From time to time I also write stories and help out where I can.

[sandmannd]

I came to this site while on a "temp" ban on a larger more "pain in the  " site. I started reading through it and found some great information and great folks on here. When they were looking for Mods I put in my 2 cents and they gave me a shot. I'm not on here as much as I should be but contribute when I can. Went to an ice get together last year and had a blast meeting some members. There are only two other sites I go to as I'm a junkie for outdoor forums. I will say that this site has my respect and that's why I'm here. They run it right and treat their members with respect and, to me, that is what makes a site great.

Thanks for having the site for all to enjoy.

[Mayfly]

To be honest MNO/MWO started as an accident. A friend at the time asked me if I was interested in starting an ice tournament series. It sounded like a lot of fun so I said yes! After discussing it more in detail we decided that we would need to have a platform or a website to base the tournament series out of so we knew at that moment we would need to create a website. As we discussed it further we thought that we would need forums and some content to get people intersted and a way to communicate with members. From there it began to snowball and go more in the direction of what we have now. We found a few other guys that we had worked with on other projects and things in the past and asked them to be involved and then we staretd. I remember the day I bought the domain, we had a site live within a day or two and we started working on logo's and everything else. I was working at a desk job and did nothing at work so I used that 8 hours to get things rolling. Its been an interesting ride with a lot of ups and downs. I still work behind the scenes and pay the monthly bill to keep the site alive. I want nothing more than to see the site evolve and grow into something great which I already think it has. I would love to hear any ideas people have of what we could add. I understand that the base of this site is forums but I would like it to be so much more. I guess i'm not sure what else to write. This site wil continue to grow and I hope to add some exciting things in the coming months and make 2010 a great year!!