The historic ice storm of ‘25 is behind us, but what are the lingering effects one year later? The effects are still a visible spectacle in many areas. What seemed less evident during the flourishing summer months when the deciduous trees were full with their yearly display of leaves would prove to be a ruse. As these leaves dropped in their usual fashion, having served as a masquerade of sorts, especially once winter was in full swing, the ugly truth was exposed as the inner ruins of the forests stood before us. Once spring arrives, … Read More
THE LONG WINTER AND NATURE’S CONSEQUENCES
As residents of Michigan, we are no strangers to what winter weather entails. Some years are more difficult than others. It seems that weather can be rather cyclic in nature. Remember the blizzard of 1978? Those who were there sure do. Record snow and high winds throughout the state caused consecutive snow days, remembered fondly by those who were school age at the time. I remember me and my brother being tasked with going to town, 7 miles one way, to pick up groceries for our family on our Alouette snowmobile, something we was more … Read More
Connecticut Valley Arms – celebrating 55 years and going strong with continual new products and innovations
Connecticut Valley Arms (CVA) was first formed in 1971 to manufacture traditional sidelock muzzleloaders that were offered fully assembled or in DIY kits, both of which became immediately popular with American shooters. The timing couldn’t have been better because the revival of using muzzleloaders for hunting was gaining a steady following. Thompson Center Arms (T/C) had come out with their “Hawken” rifle in 1970, and being none too pleased with shotgun slug performance back then for local deer hunting in the shotgun zone (where muzzleloading rifles were allowed), I had opted for a .54 caliber. … Read More
Silence Can Be Golden
A growing trend in the shooting world has been the use of suppressors to quiet matters down and be a bit easier on the ears. Suppressors reduce sound intensity and are often called “silencers” which is a misnomer, because depending upon the ammunition being used, matters aren’t totally silent. It relates to whether the ammunition is supersonic which will feature a loud sonic “crack” exiting the barrel, or subsonic which will lack the noticeably sharp crack. While a couple of “silencer” patents by Swiss inventors appeared during the 1890’s, the first commercially successful introduction was … Read More
TICKS AND LYME DISEASE – “Once Bitten, Twice Shy”
Enjoying the great outdoors is so beneficial to our emotional and physical health. But how might those feel who’ve fallen victim to the effects of Lyme disease? We’re going to take a deep dive into this important topic. It seems the occurrence is on the rise, though that may well be due to better diagnostics. For many years, diagnosing this disease would prove to be quite difficult leading to missed or delayed treatment, leaving many victims suffering with the long-term effects of what can be a devastating disease. We would later learn that Lyme disease … Read More
Michigan’s Sweet Flavor Of Spring
The typical timeframe for gathering sap from tapped maple trees, at least in my neck of the woods, is March 1 to April 1. This year, however, folks I know in the maple syrup world were tapping their trees by mid-February. I’ve also seen times when maple sap hardly ran at all, so it is pretty much up to fickle weather conditions. Last year, the early sap-flow in February caught many folks by surprise, and due to the ensuing balmy weather, which caused maple trees to start budding out sooner than expected, sap-gathering ended in … Read More
Murphy Lake’s 16 th Annual “Pike Pull” ice fishing contest
Located near Millington in southwestern Tuscola County, (manmade) 209-acre Murphy Lake has long offered some bountiful fishing opportunities. It was created during the 1850’s by lumbermen to be able to float logs down Goodings Creek to the Cass River near Vassar. Small creeks were vital during the lumber era to readily access the forest and more easily remove winter-harvested logs. Damming the creeks was a common practice to build up enough water depth to send a flotilla of large logs in a controlled downstream rush when the dam was opened in the spring. Goodings Creek … Read More
My First Year In The Tree Saddle
Are you thinking about getting into saddle hunting but just haven’t been convinced that it’s right for you? Last weekend, my hunting partner, Steve and I took to the woods with my two black labs and removed our climbing sticks and bow hangers from the last three of the five trees we prepped for bow season last fall. Our season was very successful. In fact, even though Steve did not harvest a deer from his saddle, he did fill both his Michigan buck tags for the very first time in his life. As for me, … Read More
Backpack into the Ontario “bush” for Lake & Brooke Trout
Matt and I would become lifelong friends after the two of us made our way into the Ontario wilderness for several days of hiking, camping, and fishing. We shouldered our packs, aluminum canoe, and walked from the truck to the trailhead marker, which was nothing more than a small weathered wooden box & sign mounted on a post. If you didn’t know where to look you’d never see it. We signed in with the date we were going in and our expected date of return. I had been hearing about this adventure from Matt for … Read More
MI Shed Hunter Kills Black Bear in Self Defense
Twenty-three-year-old Kyle Nelson from Norway, Michigan killed a black bear in self defense while looking for shed antlers on April 12, 2024. He shot the bear with a CPX2 9 mm handgun made by SCCY that he has with him every time he goes in the woods. “I was walking along a swamp bottom where I got a buck last fall to try to find antlers from bucks that made it through hunting season,” Nelson said. “At one point I heard a noise by a big pine tree. When I looked toward the sound, a … Read More