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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

Well, the story I've been waiting to write since the ultrasound nurse detected an extra appendage will have to wait at least another week, as my son and I are continuing our time-honored tradition of not shooting deer. The good news is, our sorrowful story is getting out and my friends in the hunting community are stepping up and inviting us to their farms, where we subsequently shut down all deer activity for the next 24 hours. It is not out of the norm to ask permission to dove or rabbit hunt on someone’s property, or even ask to duck or goose hunt if no one is hunting there, but you simply don’t ask someone to deer hunt on their

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all the outdoors-folk in our beautiful little piece of America! Jesus is the reason for the season, and there are blessings abound in our neck of the woods. Lord knows I love the thrill of fishing and hunting, and the beauty of the great outdoors, but without friends and family to share this awesome passion with, I doubt many of us would be near as adamant about it. So take a kid fishing or hunting, and thank the Lord for time spent in the serenity of God’s creation with the ones we love, because you never know what tomorrow will bring. Hopefully a lot of kids (and dads and grandpas) are receiving a ton

TJ Shands with a big blue catfish from the Ohio River near East Prairie, MO I don’t necessarily believe that karma is a legitimate force of nature, but I’d like to think that those of us who go out of our way to be kind and helpful to others have a bit more good fortune. I have been told by more than one person that I have the uncanny ability to walk through a pig farm and come out smelling like a rose, and I always attribute that to holding the door open for people, being friendly to everyone, and trying my best to be a genuinely nice fellow. Well, apparently I let the door fall on a little old