When I was 5 years old, my mother dragged me into the woods 10 to 14 days before Christmas to cut a tree for the living room. In those years, she was more anxious than her son to put up a holiday evergreen, an ancient custom passed down from pagan cultures before Christ’s birth. While […]

Deer hunters get one more chance.

deer success If a hunter’s yardstick for success means tagging a deer most falls but that plan usually fails, then the following tactic may improve the odds. Ideally, this new approach begins with preseason scouting to find deer trails with heavy daylight traffic as opposed to strictly night use. Then, the hunter places a tree […]

Much to dad’s disgust, gray-squirrel shooting excited me more than deer hunting until my 14th birthday, and why not? As the gerunds suggest, “shooting” implies action, and “hunting” sounds a tad pedantic to a kid.

Hank Shaw’s “Duck, Duck, Goose” (Ten Speed Press, Berkeley) crossed my desk recently and contains everything a home chef needs to create dishes for family and friends. Shaw’s work wowed me within minutes, a superb cookbook with excellent recipes, ranging from simple home-style to gourmet to myriad choices between. It goes on sale Oct. 1.

Thickening clouds roil over the barren tablelands, blotting out the remaining blue skies and greatly reducing the possibility of views from the top of Katahdin. No matter; it’s always a thrill to be high on the mountain whatever the weather, which will do as it pleases in this harsh Alpine environment.

As my ocean kayaking season winds down with the shorter, cooler days and decreasing water temperatures, I recently embarked on what may have been my most enjoyable day of the entire summer in an area I’d thought about exploring for a long time but just never got around to it.