Category: Essays & Stories

What the Hell Just Happened?!? A January 2026 Pictorial Retrospective ********** It all began innocently enough as we trekked towards the new year. All had been quiet on the western front as December ushered in winter. We got our first real snow near the end of the month. It...

As I sit here basking in the warmth of my woodstove as the thermometer plummets to 28 below zero & we all wait for winter’s next windswept storm surge of ice, cold & snow, I thought I’d share a humorous take on a familiar tome. Because a little levity...

When I was a young boy growing up, due to my father’s career, our family moved a great deal. The Mayflower moving van people knew us by name. By the time I began fifth grade in Saranac Lake, we had moved ten times. I’d been the new kid in...

Adventures Await As we bid farewell to 2025 and welcome 2026, I wanted to share an exciting Monroe Wildlife Area announcement. For those who haven’t yet heard the news… Through the National Wildlife Federation, The Monroe Wildlife Area is now officially CERTIFIED ! This has been an undertaking I...

A Whitetail Christmas Wish Deer Santa Claus, I’ve been a good buck this year So I’m making my list In hopes that as your sleigh passes overhead You will grant my one wish I’m not asking for fancy sleigh bells or jingles I don’t want clothes or toys Save...

Far More Than Wrinkled Brown Lines on a Map As I put pen to paper it pains me to know that in today’s cell phone technology driven GPS “land navigation” environment, many folks are reading the title & thinking to themselves: “Contour lines? What’s this guy yammering about now?...

A Simple Coincidence? Or a Legendary Baseball Great’s Ghostly From Beyond the Grave Greeting? ********** October, 1920 A Baseball Legend Retires After a career spanning 14 illustrious Major League seasons, 3 National League Pennants, the 1912 Chalmers Award as the Senior Circuit’s best player, the 1915 NL batting title,...

Author’s Note: I penned the first drafts of this story as a poem in the summer of 1983, while working out of Lake Colden’s Interior Headquarters as a trail hand on the NYSDEC trail crew, during one the two summers I served as assistant to Lake Colden’s caretaker. I...

I’ve got some nutty 2025 news thatI have not previously shared. My 15 year wildlife food source tree diversification program has finally, this year, produced its 1st tangible results. In the form of my 1st ever hazelnut crop! When Robin & I 1st purchased our home over three decades...

A Whitetail Deer Hunter’s Tale It was finally here. The day I’d been waiting for. Opening day of 2025’s Southern zone rifle season. When I was a boy growing up in Saranac Lake, the Southern Tier was shotgun only. They had no rifle hunting season. As a result, two...