Country Bounty

As boats go they’re often overlooked, or at least have been in recent years, as evidenced by the ebb and flow of consumer wants and…

There’s no official name, so far as I know, for the portal that took us into another world. But it hides behind a tricky entrance….

  It’s all about speed when it comes to controlling chronic wasting disease. And yet, the Pennsylvania Game Commission is delaying release of its disease…

Don’t become spaghetti. When I and some others used to teach boating safety to our troop of Scouts, and talked turned to hazards on the…

Fat bumblebees explore tall purple baptisia flowers growing in a flowerbed at the Loyalhanna Watershed Association in Ligonier, forcing their way into the indigo blooms…

Long tables covered with healthy, deep green plants filled the Belmont Sports Complex in Kittanning for the Armstrong County Penn State Master Gardener’s Plant Sale….

Fewer than half a dozen steps into the big box sporting goods store and it was crystal clear. There, front and center, stood two stacks…

They will fascinate some and annoy, likely even creep out, others. That’s just how it is with bugs and people. So it will be with…

It was further proof that life often bursts forth in the unlikeliest of places. I was at a close-to-home shooting range, tacking up targets. Someone…

Forget Game of Thrones. This is a Game of Secrets. And it’s being played right now. Hunters of a sort – armed with onion sacks…

Don’t get too comfortable. Yes, it’s true that, statewide, there will be more antlerless deer licenses available in Pennsylvania this fall than last. Pennsylvania Game…

One of the most thrilling days for gardeners is when the seeds get started indoors. It’s a great way to grow things that the neighbors…

Birders have their returning tree swallows, hikers and other woods walkers their skunk cabbage, gardeners their daffodils, and tree lovers their cherry blossoms. All are…

The stunning color of the first crocus flowers fills our hearts with joy. The cheery blooms mark the start of the garden season. But the…

You’ll feel good. Not outright heroic maybe, but certainly noble to at least some degree, believing you’ve done right by conservation and fishing. And maybe…

They’re as dramatic as they are rare. Lightning strikes are magnificent in an otherworldly, catastrophic way. They’re all power and speed and destructiveness. Some even…

Last summer, I had the pleasure of watching a fat bumblebee joyfully buried deep in the center of an orange tithonia blossom, covering itself with…

It’s always been a matter of when not if, given the events of the last few years. It’s when. Chronic wasting disease, or CWD, is…

It was the only vacation that ever made my wife cry. She wasn’t alone. This camping trip had been my friend’s idea – though I…

It was easy to enforce early on. When my oldest son joined his Scout troop, the leaders had a rule: no cell phones on campouts….

Warm morning sun filters through the windows of a conference room at the Grow Pittsburgh office in Pittsburgh. It’s 10 degrees outside, but around the…

It’s one day. Roughly 10 hours, really, figuring the amount of daylight from dawn to dusk. But, this year, it’s potentially a pretty historic day….

Anglers are already showing a willingness to support the cause. But they want assurances. That’s something the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is learning when…

An exact number is hard to pin down. But know this: whatever the figure is, it’s a big one. Americans love their dogs, seemingly more…

A walk down Main Street in Slippery Rock reveals empty patches of dirt every so often where ornamental pear trees once stood. Some of the…

It’s the most basic tenet of firearms safety: treat every gun, always, as if it’s loaded. Mechanical safeties can fail, after all. So the surest…

Pennsylvania’s large and sometimes problematic black bear population might produce an opportunity for muzzleloader hunters. Pennsylvania Game Commissioners will give preliminary approval to seasons and…

Back in a strange and ancient time called the 1970s, terrariums were all the rage. These “far out” containers were filled with a variety of…

These are parades of a different kind. The usual New Year’s Day version is fun and festive, if you like noise and crowds and giant…

They are one of the slowest moving creatures in the northern woods, generally waddling along at a seemingly carefree pace. Yet they are difficult to…

Cold-weather months are a great time for scouring catalogs for seed-starting purchases. Making grand plans for spring is invigorating thinking of what might be once…

The appeal remains the same as ever. From the days of Pirates – and probably even before that – to now, treasure hunting is a…

The firearms deer seasons – at least in those states where whitetails roam, and that’s most of them – are the busiest and most anticipated…

It was a choice of adventure over labor. A niece graduated from high school and we, her far flung family, assembled in Ohio from points…

It’s that most magical time of year for whitetail deer hunters. The rut is at its peak or very close to it. Bucks — including…

Ellen Zachos, known as the Backyard Forager, laments a late fall snow as she talks via phone from her home in New Mexico. “It’s melting,…

There was, surprisingly, no competition on that day, just as there is not so surprisingly little to none on most days in this era. There’s…

By now you probably know of my obsession to extend the season. I’m growing cool weather plants so I can enjoy the garden as long…

Spring of 2020 remains the target date for removing the legislative prohibition on Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania. But the job of reaching it starts right…

There’s nothing like the taste of fresh produce when it’s perfectly in season — an apple pulled straight from the tree or greens pulled right…

It’s all about the birds and the bees when we’re talking plants. But that can be a difficult subject with kids though. Most plants want…

Ever been hit square between the eyes with a blacksmith’s hammer? Me neither, fortunately. But I imagine it feels something like the breath-stealing punch to…

September continues the planting of cool-weather crops in the vegetable garden. Things like spinach, lettuce, corn mache, tatsoi, pak choi, arugula, radishes, turnips, beets and…

Pugnacious and accommodating, that’s what bluegills are. How many angling careers have they – and their cousin sunfish, the pumpkinseed — launched over the years?…

Believe it nor not, it’s already late summer – we’ve got less than a month left, officially – and for many anglers, that means one…

The most serious whitetail hunters spend a lot of time in the woods each autumn, looking for deer. Andy Bensing does the same. In his…

I was aware of Gifford Pinchot when embarking on a yearlong journey of hiking through history, Pennsylvania-style. His wife, Cornelia, was a mystery. Gifford was…

Hunting and fishing in America – and by extension the nation’s system of sustaining wildlife and fish – are in trouble, right now. And unless…

There is something wonderful about growing for pollinators. It’s a hopeful feeling seeing a host of insects, free from pesticides, doing their job. That’s the…

It’s the developing headgear on white-tailed deer that get all of the attention at this time of year. Look what people write when posting trail…