Women and Our Woods (WOW)

Women and Our Woods

Women and Our Woods I don’t have to be looking for a new way to get involved with the outdoors – it will find me all in good time. Tanya Rucosky from Downeast Lakes Land Trust emailed me about Women and Our Woods (WOW), and there it was, my new way to get involved. I’m […]

My big buck’s shoulder mount – ruined or saved?

whitetail shoulder mount

It’s been an excellent year. Patience has paid off. I’ve put a lot of meat in the freezer this year. My spring turkey hunt produced a large tom with a 9.5 inch beard early on opening day. I shot my first bear on September 4 and have an awesome story to go with it. Finally, […]

Your Maine Kitchen – Educational Programs

Making Sourdough Bread

Educational Programs – From Scratch: Your Maine Kitchen Oh how I wish this were available at the Cooperative Extension in Machias! I’m a little bit very jealous. I’d love to take these classes. If you attend any of them I’d love to hear about them. A description of each coarse is available at the University […]

Politics, Hunting, and Sunrise on Democrat Ridge

Surise on Democrat Ridge

The television was spewing hateful political ads and bad news when Steve turned it on this morning. I wasn’t long in turning it off. Facebook wasn’t much better. I’m sick to death of all this trash talk. It seems like there’s no getting away from hate and discontent in today’s connected world, and Tuesday can’t […]

Bear stew recipe will warm you up on a chilly day – Cooking Wild Game

Bear stew recipe

It’s chilly and damp today. I’m undecided on what I’ll hunt later. I can sit with my bow and wait for my first deer. Or maybe it’s a shotgun day for partridge and woodcock. I’ve been told the woodcock migration has started so the birds are moving. Any day this time of year is chilly, […]

Cooking tasty bear chops is simple – Cooking Wild Game

It took five years but I finally did it. I finally shot a bear. We are enjoying the meat. Last night we had chops for supper and this time, I remembered to take pictures so I can write about our meal. Bears can carry the parasites that cause trichinosis and toxoplasmosis. You must cook the […]

Veterans, House in the Woods, and a Camp on a Lake

Partridge, ruffed grouse

About six years ago George and Terry Gallagher drove to Lee and knocked on a door. That knock helped improve many lives. The Gallaghers were looking for someone to share their beautiful camp on Upper Sysladobsis (Dobsis) lake in Lakeville Plantation. They were specifically hoping to open their camp and hearts to veterans. At House […]

Getting Reacquainted & Outdoors Fitness

Hi! Remember me? “How vain it is to sit down to write, when you have not stood up to live.” Henry David Thoreau I’ve been away from this blog for a while. I have been living so much I’ve barely written a word in months. We fished a lot this summer. I caught the biggest […]

Downeast Lakes Land Trust honors local conservationist

The Downeast Lakes Land Trust’s (DLLT) President and Vermont Poet Laureate, Sydney Lea bestowed the Downeast Lakes Conservation Award on long-time supporter Pete Borden in acknowledgment of his key role in the initiation and continued growth of the Land Trust. “Downeast Lakes Land Trust would never have developed as it has without the able counsel […]

Banding Geese at Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge

My daughter Taylor is the Youth Conservation Corps leader at Moosehorn National Refuge. When she mentioned banding geese I was all over it. “Can I help?” “I think so. Call Maury or Ray.” Maury Mills manages the Woodcock Singing Ground Survey I’ve been participating in for so long, and Ray Brown allowed me to go […]

A testy bull moose at Sandy Stream Pond

Bull moose at Sandy Stream Pond, Baxter State Park

My sister Melissa called to invite me to hike in Baxter State Park. The weather was going to be perfect so we made a date to meet early Thursday morning. Snapping turtles are on the move. We saw five or six along the way, none willing to move out of the road at anything other […]

Help please! Can you identify these dragonflies?

These gorgeous dragonflies (or maybe they’re not dragonflies?) and others buzzed around the pond yesterday afternoon, eating black flies and mosquitoes. I’m very fond of dragonflies and appreciate them flying inches from my head to catch the biting bugs while I work in the garden. I don’t know the identification of any of these dragonflies […]

Gear Review: Mosquitno Wrist Bands and Spots

Mosquitno Spots

Mosquitno Wrist Bands and Spots Black fly and mosquito season overlap in Maine. Black fly season starts just about the time the brook trout start to bite. It’s poor timing. Black flies are enough to keep even dedicated anglers away from the water. I went out as prepared as possible with a Mosquitno Band on […]

Because Dad taught me to fish

Bob "Ski" Olesky, Dow Air Force Base, 1961

In honor of my dad, Bob “Ski” Olesky, with thanks for the many lessons I learned because he taught me to fish. Dad taught me how to fish. I think we must have started the day after we came home from the Philippines because I don’t remember not fishing. He gave me a small pole, […]

Gun control, mental health and blaming inanimate objects

Note: I don’t often speak up about controversial topics. Controversy makes my stomach turn. I’m not one of the people who pull energy from controversy. It makes me turn off comments so that readers can’t attack each other. Controversy sometimes makes intelligent, responsible discussion difficult for a lot of folks who are typically very nice […]

The soaking wet broad-winged hawk

The rain isn’t giving us a break over here in northern Washington County and I don’t do well with being housebound. “Want to go for a ride,” I asked Steve and Taylor. We rode out to Loon Bay on the St. Croix. I hoped to see moose but we didn’t. We stopped along the way […]