Posts by Daryl Gay
Damp Remembrances
The six Ps: Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance. Got it? Write it down, because if you’re anything like me, you’re certainly not going to remember it. What brought on this erudite educational essay you ask? Rain… “Man, I love that jacket,” old compadre Brad Gill greeted me as I back-stroked out of the flooded…
Read MoreRestoring Old Army Jeeps
GP. General Purpose vehicle. Believe that designation. Dane Schroff certainly does. And he has tens of thousands of miles bouncing behind the steering wheel to prove it. He also had a couple of barns packed with GPs. “It is,” as he says, “an obsession.” Today’s fancy new side-by-side vehicles—Kubotas, Can-Ams and Gators—have taken the outdoor…
Read MoreA Float With Jake
Jake lounged—his customary emplacement—on the pond bank, chewing sourweed and providing enlightenment concerning my schedule for the (hopefully) warm months ahead. It’s likely he was hoping the cork wouldn’t dip; too much outlay of his well-stocked and stored-up effort would be required reeling anything in…. “Us needs to take that thar float trip,” he philosophized.…
Read MoreEvans County PFA Keeps Getting Better
Being fairly level headed and tending to take things pretty much as they come, it’s not often that I do flabbergasted. But returning to this place for the first time in eight years was pretty much a shocker. What flitted through my mind, pretty much in order, was, “Where did the grass go? Where did…
Read MoreWoods-N-Water’s Trophy Boars
It’s dark now. DARK dark. Like a bear down a well. Without a flashlight. The sun went down hours ago on this second January Tuesday. Turbid clouds are rolling ominously overhead, fleeing a tornado-spawning system headed my way. The wind moans and, at times, howls. Limbs click, clatter and thump to the ground. The ground…
Read MoreParfum De Color
You’ve had a month’s recovery period, so don’t whine. Figured if I threw this at you on January’s Back Page the result might well have been delirium tremens. Besides, that nasty little deadline thing ran out into the road and flagged me down… So, as part of your ongoing educational experience, let us hie back…
Read MoreWimmens. Deer Variety
Doe. So come on and admit it: a totally dismissive attitude crept unsummoned into your brainbox immediately upon reading the word. I get it; skinheaded whitetails don’t get no respect. Been there. And got over it. For the most part. Sure, I’d still rather see something wearing a bundle of bones on its head come…
Read More50 Years Of Turkey Obsession
“When I was 12 years old,” Brad Campbell was saying, “I traded a pig for a .22 rifle.” That remark caused me to smile all over my face. It called to mind a certain long-ago conversation with a sociology professor who was attempting to explain the term “hunter-gatherer” as a single entity. It became quickly…
Read MoreDogging Deer With The Duck Roost Gang
Way off in the distance, the yammering seems to be getting fainter; the race is headed away from the huge clearcut I’ve wandered out into. Perched atop a pushed-up logpile, out front there is but scattered brush and a single line of trees too scraggly even for the loggers. Down the narrow dirt road 50…
Read MoreThe Race Is On
Familiar with the term, “skinnin’ it back?” If not, thing for you to do is—as my little Ma used to say—“Pay ‘tainchun!” In my home county of Dodge, there’s a certain strip of highway—which shall remain uncharted for our purposes here. One tops a hill, then motors in a dead straight line to the top…
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