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Mother Nature has finally given some indication that the weather patterns are returning to their normal routines and spring is here.  My memory is still good but I have vague recollections of hunting Easter Eggs in the snow one year when I was a little kid. I had a couple of ideas about what to write about but an old Missouri Conservation magazine changed those thoughts to something more urgent.  People have been asking me when to put out hummingbird feeders. My wife is anxiously waiting another week and then the first feeder will go out with a small amount of food for the “scouts” that will appear ahead of the migration of hummers that surely will come sometime early

Have we had enough winter yet?  I can assure you that this man has.  This snow has lingered way too far this time and there isn’t too much enjoyment to be had.  Sledding, snowball fights, snowmen and the like are activities best enjoyed by the younger crowd.  I do enjoy watching my grandkids play in the frozen mess, but personally I’ll stay indoors. I can remember nasty winters, but it seems like they have gotten worse.  Maybe that’s just my recollection. Spring is coming and soon it will be turkey season.   A long time ago, we didn’t have much of a turkey population.  I can recall when the first wild turkeys were released in the area in the vicinity of

When it looks like my outdoor writing career has come to an end, the end so far just turns out to be a bump in the road.  The SEMO Times decided recently to eliminate my outdoor column, but that wasn't as hard as being fired from the DAR after writing "The Ridge Runner" column for over 30 years. After two months, Brian Becker of SEMO.net called and asked me to continue to write for his internet publication.  I gladly accepted as I believe I have a lot of information and stories of interest for all his many readers in Southeast Missouri, Northern Arkansas, and anywhere else with the internet. With the waterfowl season winding down in Missouri, there won’t be much hunting

What an awesome year we've had in the great outdoors, and hopefully 2015 will be even better! There’s a bit of a cold snap bearing down on us that should bring at least a few ducks down to our area. Deer season is all but over, with just a week of archery hunting left, and the fishing has been fantastic everywhere in the Midwest and will continue to get better as long as Mother Nature will refrain from freezing all the water again! To keep from crying on my computer over the sad story that culminated last Tuesday without filling that youth deer tag I've been carrying around, I figured a look back at the year was in order. If

For those who read this column and enjoy the outdoor colors in the fall of the year, it would be wise to take a trip this weekend as the colors will begin to fade pretty soon. For reasons that only Mother Nature knows, the colors did not begin to appear as early as they normally do and therefore the early October color watching didn’t happen. The late spring, the warm conditions during part of the winter seems to have messed up everything outdoors.  I have recently seen doe deer with young ones that still have their spots.  During the normal weather, the young buck deer have nubbins on their heads that you can see if you get close enough.  Usually