Last Updated: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 8:56:45 AM
by Mart Allen
Good news and bad news
The first thing I do every morning is turn on the news. Before he died early this year my best friend Morgan Roderick and I compared notes on the passing scene at least once a week. You see we both came from the old school and never ceased to be bummed out by the direction we saw the country headed in. One of our favorite analogies was to compare our versions of current mores with those of our respective parents. I shudder to think that if the trend continues ...
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 8:52:47 AM
by Meg Ulrich
Bugged
And so POOF! All of the sudden it is spring and it's springing all over the darn place. My itchy eyes and drippy nose tell me that the pollen is on the loose. I happily blow my nose and dab my eyes. Every year I stand in my yard and survey the feet upon feet of snow and become convinced that the world will never, ever be green again. It seems like it will never melt, like it's an impossible feat and yet one day it is gone. I remarked just yesterday that the bugs hadn't been ...
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 8:46:27 AM
by Hilary Smith
Partners "pull" together to fight invasive species
Most people eagerly await the arrival of spring. I do, too, although it is typically short-lived and comes with mixed emotions. As the ice melts, I am always excited to get out on the water, though, upon seeing the first anglers and boaters of the season, I wonder, "Did they clean their gear?" The joy of seeing plants come back to life in my garden is often fleeting, too. I remember, just as desired plants begin to grow, so too ...
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 8:40:19 AM
by Gary Ramsey
Stubborn May gobblers
If you're lucky in the spring turkey woods, you've done your homework, located a roost, arrive at dawn, set up close by, and after fly down, thrown out a few clucks and yelps and bang, another bird in the freezer. Yes, I've had it happen this way, but not very often.
Many times the big gobbler hangs up just out of range, tending to his lady friends. Here are a few tips that might just bring him in:
Remain patient and vigilant, don't give up and the worst th ...
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 08, 2013 9:57:10 AM
by Stan Ernst
Honey hole
I motored up the dirt road to the gravel parking area like one hundred times before. I parked at the far end so after my foray I could discreetly change outta my soggy fishing togs. I normally make the trek through the backwoods to the honey hole with a fishing buddy. The fishing buddy's usually Pierre, a retired bureaucrat and Marine who can withstand any torture that might be applied to pry the secret spot outta him. I fear withholding his daily beer ration may someda ...
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 08, 2013 9:59:32 AM
by Mart Allen
Fleeting thoughts on the passing scene
I must admit to being perplexed when I think about current happenings on the national scene. I was brought up in more demanding times that necessitated more personal responsibility. People were expected to work for everything they got out of life. From the very beginning at Plymouth Rock people had to struggle. We were a nation of immigrants and every newcomer was expected to carry their own freight if they were to live here. The recent Bosto ...
Last Updated: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 8:09:51 AM
Most fish stories start with, "The big one got away." In this story it was a turkey that gets away. My 14 year old grandson Alec Gousset was introduced into the hunting fraternity on Saturday, April 20, the opening day of the youth turkey hunting season here in New York.
The story of turkey hunting here in the Adirondacks begins years earlier. I do not believe anyone can say for sure the exact date when a viable turkey season began in the Adirondack region. If memory serves me right it was some ...
Last Updated: Monday, April 22, 2013 12:20:23 PM
by Mart Allen
Everybody has to make hard choices and some are harder than others. That's life. Life is much harder for some people than others. We have all heard the saying, "There, but for the grace of God, go I." We cannot pick or parents, sex, nationality or station in life. We take what we get and have to work our way from there. I have given a lot of thought to it and one of my earliest recollections was how lucky I was.
I was born in 1929 during what is thought to be one of the most tryin ...
Last Updated: Monday, April 22, 2013 12:15:10 PM
by Meg Ulrich
So I'm beginning to think I may see the grass someday. I'm seeing it as a real possibility in the coming weeks. Right now we are playing a little driveway game at our house that I do not find fun at all. Our driveway is not paved and is therefore a pit of muddy doom during the moths of March and April. March was not a problem this year because it was still frozen solid and easily passable, but April is proving to be a royal pain in the tires. The game entails trying to not to pull ...
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 4:48:58 PM
by Meg Ulrich
There are so many holidays now that I am really struggling to keep up. I mean, I have three children...is it not enough to know the days (and occasionally the years) that they were born? I am required to know all kinds of things about them; appointments and practices and who won't eat what. For goodness sake, how am I to keep track of when National Popcorn Day falls every year? FYI, it was Jan. 9, and I'm betting a host of you failed to celebrate with appropriate popcorn laden fest ...
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 4:48:58 PM
By Mart Allen
There are some things you wonder about, especially when you get older. It's because the longer you live the more changes you see. Much of the changes I have seen in the technological aspects of life have been very positive. They have made life easier beyond comprehension. The things I wonder about the most are the cultural changes, and I fail to see how they are improving society.
Generally speaking every generation, at least in this nation, had it better than their forefathers, an ...
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 08, 2013 6:48:32 PM
Journeying
by Meg Ulrich
There is a fine line between vacation being fun and vacation being plagued by more work than you actually do at home. With my older children it has become fairly, and I use the word "fairly" rather loosely, easy. I can tell them the temperature I expect our destination to be and instruct them to pack their backpacks. They are warned that they are responsible for their needs and anything forgotten is their own darn fault and they will simply have to live without it for a ...
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 08, 2013 5:48:28 PM
By Stan Ernst
Deb and I enjoy the Adirondack sides of March. She circumvents the inhospitable spells by rubber stamping undercover with friends. My imaginary friends avoid me therefore I enjoy endless solitary hours of snow removal. I designed our camp so the snow slides off the metal roof directly onto our walkways. Thanks to me I always have snow to shovel.
We have ample opportunity to tramp the trails on snowshoes and watch the wittle birdies and squirrelies raid the feeders. Like the locals ...
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 08, 2013 5:28:27 PM
by Mart Allen
How hip are you when it comes to hunting and fishing? I used to be, but at 85, after years where I once considered myself as being with it, I feel like a greenhorn. When I worked my way into both sports it was a whole lot easier to work your way up to where you could consider yourself fairly knowledgeable in either field. It takes a lot more of everything today to consider yourself even halfway there especially if you are as old as I am.
In my day the only professionals in either f ...
Last Updated: Sunday, April 28, 2013 9:08:42 PM
There have been many a snippet about the differences between growing up thirty plus years ago and growing up in this day and age. I, of course, have two cents and am prepared to share it. I am the helmet advocate around my house. Should you engage in any activity that might cause your head to come in contact with the ground, a helmet should be worn. It's just good business not to incur blows to the head in my opinion and in the opinion of the American Medical Association, as well. Now I'm bankin ...
Last Updated: Sunday, April 28, 2013 9:08:44 PM
As an outdoor guide, gunsmith, avid hunter and outdoor writer, many have asked I publish my opinion on the recent flurry of gun control activity. Well, here goes.
While on a mini-vacation, we spent a few days in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. The kingdom or NEK is not a political subdivision but rather a "region" made up of three counties in Northeast Vermont. It is similar to the "Adirondack" or "Leatherstocking" regions of New York, where several counties band together to promote economic d ...
Last Updated: Saturday, April 27, 2013 6:08:56 PM
Raccoons and I go back a long way. As a devotee to the natural world, my interactions and interests in raccoons goes back before I was old enough to have any contact or dealings with them personally. I came from a family of outdoorsmen. Hunting, trapping and fishing became the defining interest in my life along with my earliest concepts of what life itself is. Anything connected to all three pursuits commanded my waking moments. As an example, I well remember my first day of kindergarten forming ...
Last Updated: Monday, March 25, 2013 4:11:05 PM
Varying hares
The varying hare is a creature of the north. The Adirondacks with its extremes of cold, snow and rugged terrain provides ideal conditions for their survival. They are considered a game animal and a popular one especially with hound owners. I am writing this on the last day of the hunting season for them in New York. I would like to be able to tell you that I was taking advantage of that fact and out with my grandson, son-in-law and their dog Lilly, as they are, but I am not. ...
Last Updated: Monday, March 25, 2013 3:59:45 PM
Toon time
I've been brushing up on life lessons through Nick Junior lately. It's simply amazing the things I learn from cartoons and as a bonus I get an awful lot of amusement out of them. There's a hilarious show called Peppa the Pig that I cannot get enough of lately. Peppa and her brother George are involved in minor, innocent shenanigans and always learn an important lesson from them. The best part of the entire show is that the piggies speak with British accents. Maybe it's just me, but ev ...
Last Updated: Monday, March 25, 2013 3:11:46 PM
I put an arrow in a deer on Valentine's Day. I know you're thinking that this is a typo, and that I meant to say that I put an arrow in my dear on Valentine's Day. But I'm not cupid.
I'm just a hunter, and here in my neck of the woods we have an urban archery season that allows us to hunt this time of year. I'll admit it seems odd to be hunting when the days are getting longer, not shorter. Odd to be hunting when I could be looking for shed antlers of bucks who's annual season of love is past.
U ...
Last Updated: Friday, March 22, 2013 2:24:45 PM
Something brewing in Lake Placid
Be advised that a momentous summit transpired in Lake Placid on Friday, March 1, 2013. The high-level pow-wow included emissaries from the twelve NYS counties constituting the Adirondack Park. The envoys conveyed maple syrup from their respective realms as tokens of esteem for their gracious hosts. The summit dignitaries included Adirondack Life Magazine’s Creative Director, Elizabeth Folwell and Lake Placid Craft Brewing’s brewmeister, Christopher Er ...
Last Updated: Friday, March 15, 2013 3:35:14 PM
Diversity
If you have not already met them, let me introduce you to Harri and Jatinder two of Old Forge's hardest working business people. They are the managers of the Runway convenience store, formerly the Byrne Dairy. Harri and Jatinder are married to each other and came here from India. They came for what they hoped would be a better life. They are nearing a one year anniversary date from when Byrne Dairy changed hands and they took over the management.
They, of course, are well known to the ...
Last Updated: Tuesday, March 12, 2013 10:28:05 AM
No more, no less
by Meg Ulrich
Spring, sprang, sprung
Daylight savings time has come along again and this means that I have officially had it with winter. It also means that the clock in my car will not show the correct time for at least three months, at which time my husband will act exasperated and pull the instruction book out of my glove compartment. He will spend ten minutes getting the clock to read the correct time and, in the process, will screw up all of my radio stations and stereo se ...
Last Updated: Tuesday, March 12, 2013 10:39:10 AM
By Stan Ernst
I'm giddy with anticipation. It's like waiting for Christmas Eve. Soon it'll be the night before St. Patrick's Day and I'll be loitering in front of the Blow Hole with a red Solo cup of Labatt Blue backwash. I'll be awaiting the first glimpse of Town Supervisor Ted Riehle and Councilman Mike Ross riding down Main Street on the business end of TOW's venerable loadpacker, "Proud Mary." Following the dignitaries will be synchronized shopping carts, synchronized snow plows, synchronize ...
Last Updated: Tuesday, April 09, 2013 4:28:17 PM
We had to make one of the most difficult decisions everyone has to make on February 28. A family pet had to be euthanized to save it from undue suffering . I am not ashamed to say it is hard writing this with tear filled eyes. It is almost as hard as saying yes to Dr. Colleen MacLachlan-Jenny when she asked me if a 3:15 appointment on that day would be all right for the procedure.
Dutch was nine years old this last first day of November. Not really that old for a dog with the excellent medical c ...
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