Annual seedling sale underway

January 28, 2023

As January winds to a close, it becomes reasonable to consider we are over the hump of another winter. I say that guardedly and knowing full well that February is entirely capable of serving up a stint of the harshest winter weather we can get in Pennsylvania. But February is also the shortest month, and as the days grow steadily longer over its duration, a small measure of cautious optimism for winter’s demise is in order. It’s not the end of winter that most of us yearn for, however, but rather the return of springtime weather and the chance to do more things outdoors. For ...

Opening day still up for debate

January 21, 2023

There was so much opposition to changing of the opening day of deer season from the Monday after Thanksgiving to the Saturday after that most hunters knew the issue would rear its head again. And so it has! Most decisions about opening days, bag limits etc. are made by wildlife professionals who have the good of the wildlife at heart. This issue, however cannot be determined by the wildlife. After all, if they could talk or vote, they would go for no opening day at all, obviously. So what are the problems for hunters? For starters, some people just don’t like change for any ...

Momentum for PSU building for 2023

January 20, 2023

Sorting through some Penn State related notes while coming to the realization that college football has no offseason: You have to go back a long time — probably since 1994 — to recall Penn State being in a better position to contend for the national championship than the Nittany Lions are right now. In the way-too-early Top 25 preseason rankings, Penn State currently sits anywhere between No. 5 and No. 7. Georgia, of course, is No. 1 and will be until it’s dethroned. Ohio State and Michigan remain ahead of Penn State, which is in the mix with Alabama, Tennessee, USC and LSU, ...

Don’t overlook your reel’s drag

January 14, 2023

In a column last month discussing some routine offseason maintenance of fishing equipment, I suggested backing off the drag settings on your fishing reels. At the grocery store last week, I ran into a friend who asked me about my reasoning for that recommendation. I explained it was a practice I adopted decades ago when I was first able to afford some top-quality reels. Back then, the drag systems of certain better models included leather or cork washers that compressed slightly as the drag was tightened. To maintain the resiliency of those components, some manufacturers recommended ...

Pursuing greatness in new era

January 7, 2023

Penn State ended the season as Rose Bowl champions at 11-2 and in good position to challenge for the 2023 Big Ten championship and a berth in the College Football Playoff. And what the Nittany Lions have accomplished on the field will help them off the field, where the ability to raise money for Name Image and Likeness will be needed to keep the current roster intact and continue building on it. If you’ve followed college football for a long time, chances are you don’t like the two things dominating the conversation in college sports these days: NIL and the transfer portal. I’m ...

Venison delicious and good for you

January 7, 2023

“How do I cook venison? My husband got a deer and I don’t know what to do with it.” This is probably the question most often asked of me, especially immediately following deer season. My answer is always this: “exactly as you do beef, only not as long.” The next question is inevitable. “What do you do about the “wild taste?” This one raises my hackles. Venison has no “wild” taste, it simply has its own taste. Venison does not taste like beef any more than chicken tastes like pork chops. Frankly, I have often — and I do mean often — served venison in the form ...