Woodsman Journal Think Spring

Yesterday was a beautiful, blue sky, winter day. Even though it was quite blustery. It was the kind of breeze that reminds us to keep the woolies, long johns, and Sorrels handy for a little while yet. But there was something else mixed into the crisp, clean air. It was an earthy, yet sweet fragrance. Yep, it was a spring!

Well, not quite yet. But you can literally smell by it mid-February. I’m not saying we won’t see Old Man Winter again. ...

Woodsman Journal: Bring Them Up Right. It was another beautiful day in The Great Northwoods and it almost got up to freezing. I was babysitting my 5 month old grandson Axel for a couple of hours. Our conversation, between bottles, vomit, and dirty pants (sounds like deer camp), eventually got around to pocket knives. It's never too early to think about a boy's first pocket knife. When my wife Lori heard this she asked me why I would possibly discuss pocket knives with a 5 month old baby? I ga...

Woodsman journal. Good morning it's a cold, snowy day in the big woods. I had 10 below early yesterday morning. Nothing was moving. Not even the chickadees. When it's too cold for a chickadee it's just plain too cold. Haven't seen a single bug though. Life in the woods is complicated. It's sort of a karma thing. They're calling for warmer temperatures next week. High in the 20s. Since I'm about done hunting for the season I can spend time cutting firewood. In fact I've already begun to look l...

Woodsman Journal

It's the last day of November, and typical of the"deer rut month," its grey and gloomy outside. Its 33 degrees and spitting rain and snow. But the fire in the wood stove next to my spot at the dining room table is warm and inviting. Add a hot cup of coffee, a Paul Milnamow sweater, some wool socks and I could be in Miami. But I'm in the great northwoods, the hunters are all gone, and the place is all mine for 6 months. I still have a month of backwoods bow h...

I'm not saying we're not going to have anymore hot days this year. I'm sure we will. But it's September and that means hunting season and that  means ... Fall! The mornings will get cooler and the evenings darker.

It's the time of year when a woodsman's thoughts begin to shift from fishing and swimming to work. The fall chores are at hand. Take, for instance, I took a full inventory of my firewood supply. I don't have enough. Unless I want to stop burning in February. But then Marc...

You may have heard about the big buck I saw in my yard. The deer seem to be on the move, even the bucks. Maybe its all the mosquitoes in the woods. It's been a bad bug year. Lots of rain, lots of heat. But like I said, I've seen lots of bucks, on the road and on the lake. At least half of them were crossing the road with their noses to the ground just like during the rut. In August?

I'm not ready for ruttin' bucks. I've not worked on my treestand. I've not tinkered, sighted, or practice...

I've never been too crazy about this time of year, the Dog Days. It started when I was very young, all kids go through it and grow up to hate it. It's just naturally in our genes, it's called school and all the things that go with it. School supplies, but the paste never tasted good, and the note books made lousy bases. A new backpack was nice but it took a whole year to find enough mudpuddles and slush to drag it through until it's good and broke in. Mid-August was the time you got tied down...

7:00 a. m. 68 degress. Mid Juily. It's a bright, shinning sun that breaches the pines at the east end of the lake. The sky blue water sparkles and the breeze is soft and warm. It's the kind of morning you think about when you think about morning. The heat wave we've endured for the last week is suppose to subside slowly starting today. We've been in the low 90s and someplace in the mid or upper 90s but the thing is, of course, "it's not the heat it's the humidity." The humidity has been above...

Cool, 76, cloudy and some rain. Not the deludge we received several days ago. It measured 9 inches on my official boat seat measuring line on the top of the seat. The seats are exactly 9 inches high, I know this for a fact because when I catch an 18 inch bass I only have to fold it once. And now the water was just skimming across the top of all 4 seats.

Who the heck is gonna' bai...

We celebrate the end of June the same way we celebrated the beginning, with a fish fry. Specifically a morning, breakfast fish fry. There's nothing better than fresh caught fish, with farm fresh eggs, and maple breakfast sausage from Louie's.

I catch the fish, blue gills and bass off the pier around 7 a.m. It's a golden time of day on our lake. The sun has just come up over the pines on the east end of the lake. The lake surface is smooth as glass and a few whisps of fog rise from the w...