We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
I'll start with an introduction to a wonderful gentleman, personality and writer named Gordon Wickstrom. I came to meet Gordon at a fly-fishing trade show when he, as a member of the wandering press stopped by to check out our new concept in fly rods. He's grown to be an excellent friend. Gordon has published two books and writes a newsletter, now a blog, and I find his "take" on things to frequently be just a "twist" away from most of what we read these days about fly-fishing (theatre, politics, music and a great many other things). I think that Maggie's readers would likely enjoy many of his perspectives. Gordon is retired from a long and successful career as a professor of Literature and Theatre at Franklin and Marshall College (he's a master Shakespearean actor and director as well). He lives in his original hometown of Boulder, Colorado and is a frequent contributor to The American Fly Fisher magazine, the journal of the American Museum of Fly Fishing. To initiate that introduction, following are links to two columns he's written - as a sample of his work.
Following is a link to a recent piece in Gordon Wickstrom's current blog - then another, as an introduction, and also a partial quote I lifted from another of his essays.
" .......As the snow keeps coming on, let me tell you that a few days ago an old friend sent me an old copy of an old issue of Gray’s Sporting Journal for April/May,1976-- an issue in which I had an essay on catch and release. That was thirty-one years ago. I thought that anglers were not looking hard enough at the ideology of no-kill, and so I should do it for them. As I re-read the essay now, it sounds all right, but the penultimate sentence caught me: pretty much what I believe today, and it’s in connection with my proposal of a sixth, The New Period, in American fly fishing. Here’s that sentence: “Now let us go a-stream more like our fathers-- individual, unself-conscious, unreconstructed, and quiet with our streamcraft and our love more important than our equipage and image.” But how, I wonder, can I both blog and, at the same time, in Walton’s use of Scripture, study to be quiet….? It’s snowing now, those great, beautiful, sloppy spring flakes. For us Westerners they fill the air with promise-- and are superbly quiet.....".
One final thing follows as well ... from my website for Hexagraph I've carried a "philosophy" page, the higlight being a poem you probably know from W B Yeats:
The Song of Wandering Aengus
I went out to the hazel wood, Because a fire was in my head, And cut and peeled a hazel wand, And hooked a berry to a thread. And when white moths were on the wing, And moth-like stars were flickering out, I dropped the berry in the stream, And caught a little silver trout.
When I had laid it on the floor, I went to blow the fire aflame, But something rustled on the floor, And someone called me by my name. It had become a glimmering girl, With apple blossom in her hair, Who called me by my name and ran, And faded through the brightening air.
Though I am old with wandering, Through hollow lands and hilly lands, I will find out where she has gone, And kiss her lips and take her hands. And walk among long dappled grass, And pluck till time and times are done, The silver apples of the moon, The golden apples of the sun.
Pic is a sea-run Brown Trout we caught from a stream in Long Islanda couple of years ago. Sea-run trout is a story in itself.
We're having 30 friends over here at Maggie's Farm HQ for a casual wild game dinner tomorrow night. Perfect for a 10 degree (F) winter night. I'll have all three fireplaces burning.
Three of us guys now do the cooking for these events, and lucky are the invitees.
Hor's doevres: Slices of rare charcoal-grilled wild venison filet mignon and slices of rare Canada goose breast, en croute, with a dab of horseradish.
Entrees: One hunting pal is making his favorite venison curry with rice. My Louisiana-born and bred hunting buddy is making wild duck gumbo. I am making wild duck breast with dried cherry sauce, with cheese grits. Or maybe a warm duck breast salad. Can't decide.
Somebody offered to bring a big salad, and somebody else graciously offered to bring home-made desserts. I supply the beer, and everybody will bring a bottle or three of red wine.
I'll provide pretty good cigars too, for them what wants 'em. In my experience, women never complain about guys and cigars when men do the cooking and party planning. We'll have to set up a few extra tables in the living room to do this, because this ain't no palace (but not a trailer either). The persnickety Mrs. BD just hates it when a plate of gumbo or a tankard of Pinot Noir gets spilled on her furniture.
When sitting in a duck blind or deer stand, standing on a ski slope watching your grandkids, and winter hiking, it's much more pleasant to have warm toes and fingers. I have had times in duck blinds when my fingers were too cold and numb to pull a trigger, but I have a touch of Raynaud's Syndrome.
Assuming that you wear things to keep toes and hands dry, hand and foot warmers can add plenty of comfort.
This site has aluminum-coated insoles and insoles ("footbeds") with inserts for 6-hour warmers.
Thanks for a good, fatiguing day in the field and plenty of good talk about serious matters. Glad I had the chance to test out my Grandpa's 16 ga. A-5. It seems to shoot straight. Heavy, though, after a few hours. This is how we roll in Yankeeland:
By the way, I know our readers always wondered what Woodcock "chalk" looks like. It's like a white splash on the fallen leaves. You have seen it in the woods, if observant. I took a photo:
We have plenty of space if you would like to go on a duck goose combo hunt. We get ducks and geese in the same blinds on the marshes we hunt. It is $190 (plus $10 tax) per full day per hunter. We hunt all day and meet you at 5:15 am and hunt till sunset. We can come in for a lunch break or a break at anytime during the day or we can bring you lunch from a local restaurant if you want. We have many nice duck blinds, most all have roofs, we have all the decoys, you will be in your own blind & dogs are welcome. Hotels are listed on our website and off season rates are about $55 a night. Just bring your gun, ammo, boots and lic. You can get your license by calling 866-721-6911, it is easy and immediate over the phone, you get your lic, hip number and state stamp, just get the federal stamp at the post office, you can also get a 3 day out of state lic. for about $40, be sure to sign your state and federal duck stamps. You will love this place, we get a large variety of waterfowl: black ducks, mallards, teal, shovelers, brant, pintails, wigeon, gadwall, a bunch of other ducks plus Canada and snow geese.
Hunting Woodcock, which we usually do in conjunction with hunting Ruffed Grouse, is an interesting and challenging sport. They tend to fly in a spiral, and many of us have a moment of remorse when we take one of these lovely little tasty birds from the dog.
The dog is needed not so much to flush them or point them as to find them when shot. Their camo is perfect.
Always make a sauce for them by sauteeing all of their innards and guts in butter and shallots, and shmooshing them up with a fork with a little brandy and pepper. There's no mess in there, because they conveniently flush out their GI track when they flush.
Readers know that the best Woodcock recipe is Woodcock Ravioli in a splash of gibier sauce and shaved black truffle on top.
If you're set up in the right barley or hay field before 5 am, the Snows will come noisily fluttering into your decoys like this. Hot barrels. Great fun.
You get up at O dark 30, grab a coffee, a Marlboro, an apple and a banana and a handful of granola bars, then drive a while down gravel roads and through vast farm fields and set up early in the chilly field in the dark with the aid of headlights and headlamps. Then you drive the trucks out of the field and hide them behind a distant tree row.
Unlike Canadas with their tough plumage and rugged build, Snows are easily killed. As it is said, "They go down like a prom dress."
The view at sunset with the “second half” held firmly in one hand, a Montecristo #4 in the other. Lord Dundee, who drank his whiskey by the tumblerful, once said, ''A single Scotch is nothing more than a dirty glass.'' We love single malts and single cask single malts, but, for regular drinking, Famous Grouse is the favorite.
Feral pig, Wild Boar, Wild Hog, Russian Boar, farm pig. They are all pigs, all very slight variants of the one species Sus scrofa. (The tusks are removed from farm pigs at birth.) In the US, they are all called "pigs."
No sus scrofa is native to North America.
We have posted in the past about the pig/boar hybrids which have been expanding their range across the US, wreaking havoc in the process to woodlands and to agriculture. They are so prolific, and so destructive, that most areas of the US now have open season on the pigs. Hog wild: Feral pig population explodes in U.S
Distinguishing European (aka Russian) Boar from farm pig/boar hybrids is almost impossible, but it is thought that, in many or most areas, most animals are hybrid. Since they're all the same species, it doesn't really matter. Pigs.
Texas and California have seen enormous population growth of Sus, but they have spread around the country - even around Albany NY where the biggest pigs have traditionally been the NYS politicians.
Since every area in the US in which they have appeared is eager to be rid of them, year-round hunting opportunities are abundant. Hunting over bait stations is entirely legal. Some use AR-15s, some use bow, some use revolver, and some macho dudes use baying dogs and kill the pigs with a hunting knife.
There are simply not enough pig hunters to control these creatures, so I propose releasing Wolves into areas where the wild pigs are a problem. The Wolves would have a field day.
Some people do not enjoy the taste of wild pig, which is a bit gamier than the corn-fed farm pig. I have had the wild boar, the same Sus scrofa, which lives in the Appenines of Umbria, and it is a special treat when cooked the ways the Umbrians do it. "Cinghiale." I've had it there cooked several ways, and the sausage too. Even snuck some cinghiale salumi home in my bags.
While in process of cleaning out my parents' house, we discovered where Dad had stashed the shotguns. This nice surprise, among other well-used field guns, had been one of my Grandpa's.
It's not as if I needed more shotguns, but this is a 16 ga., which is a good thing.
You know what this is. Remington built this one. It's a fairly heavy SOB. I don't think I have used it since I was 15.
The bore is clean as a whistle. I will clean 'er up and use it again for both sentimental and practical reasons.
It's the end of April, the Bluefish are beginning to show up and the Spring Spawn stripers cannot be far behind.
East Coast stripers (called Rockfish on the Left Coast) are an anadromous fish meaning that they spawn in fresh water, but live their adult lives in salt. There are four breeding stocks on the East Coast - Chesapeake Bay, Delaware River, Hudson River and Cape Cod. These four main schools provide most of the striper population along the East coast.
Recently, there has been some investigation about the Thames River (New London and Norwich, CT) over winter school being an addition feeder school to the Cape Cod stock. It is not unknown for the Thames River school to reach tremendous populations over winter and spawning up the Thames into the Yantic and Shetucket Rivers in the Spring.
Striper fishing is one of my passions - fresh water impounds down south or inshore in New England, stripers provide me with the best and the most honest type of fishing. I say honest because striper fishing isn't a case of chasing down a fierce predator like any of the bill fish or tuna. Stripers are basically lazy and thus require patience and knowledge of the bottom structure to obtain the best size.
A few of my favorite spots and techniques are below the fold -
Like many, I find hummingbirds absolutely fascinating. I mean, it's one thing if a bird can hover. That's pretty rare. Quite another if it can actually fly backwards, and almost as accurately and as fast as forwards.
One of the things the Intelligent Design people like to pull out is that evolution wasn't smart enough to invent the eye. It was, however, apparently smart enough to design a three-dimensional gyroscope. Like all birds, watch how still their heads are, no matter what gyrations their bodies are going through.
Their tail feathers also perform an interesting role. Notice how it's almost like the birds are hinged on a rod running through their wings and the tail feathers act as a 'tilting' mechanism. One quick flap and they tilt up or down on the axis running through their wings. Truly a marvelous animal.
I have always figured that we are free to transport firearms from state to state. In the Northeast, it may be getting more complicated. My friends and I shoot and hunt in upstate New York often, and have NYS hunt licenses. I assume we're allowed to own our firearms and to transport them.
But are we? Nobody wants to become a felon just because the laws are too complicated to understand, but maybe that's the point.
In Massachusetts, a permit to possess firearms is required. I have one. But with the new CT laws, I am confused. Can I transport a firearm through CT from MA to New York? I know that I can take a firearm to the airports in NYC because we have done that many times and it's no big deal (provided they are in locked cases).
No surprise here. Poodles originated in Germany as duck retrievers for marshes, with the haircut designed to reduce ice build-up. In recent years, some breeders have been selecting them again for hunt instinct instead of show-dog features.
I always say about training poodles (as someone who has trained Labs and Standard Poodles) that the difficulty with Poodles is that they are smarter than people. Labs just want to please you, but Poodles are always looking to negotiate a compromise.
To stay healthy, breeders and vets say Standards need a one-hour off-leash run daily. So does the owner. Another interesting thing about Poodles: they are not into food. They just eat what they need and leave the rest. Nobody has ever seen a fat Poodle. Many humans could take a tip from that, too.
Our fishing friend Harry Briscoe of 
The Song of Wandering Aengus
Here's an online magazine some readers will enjoy: 
We're having 30 friends over here at Maggie's Farm HQ for a casual wild game dinner tomorrow night. Perfect for a 10 degree (F) winter night. I'll have all three fireplaces burning.
When sitting in a duck blind or deer stand, standing on a ski slope watching your grandkids, and winter hiking, it's much more pleasant to have warm toes and fingers. I have had times in duck blinds when my fingers were too cold and numb to pull a trigger, but I have a touch of 
Feral pig, Wild Boar, Wild Hog, Russian Boar, farm pig. They are all pigs, all very slight variants of the one species 
While in process of cleaning out my parents' house, we discovered where Dad had stashed the shotguns. This nice surprise, among other well-used field guns, had been one of my Grandpa's. 
