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In the summer, cooking with a Dutch oven outside prevents me from having to heat up the house, and while camping, it allows me to cook a homemade meal. Here are my tips on using and maintaining cast iron cookware for outdoor use. Dutch ovens come in many sizes. I recommend an 8-inch oven to feed two or three people, a 10-inch oven for four and a 12-inch oven for six. For outdoor cooking, buy an oven with three 1-inch …

It is the primary reason I hunt wild turkeys in the spring. It invokes such strong feelings of excitement that it escapes words. It is a crazy sound in nature, really, perhaps even a bit comical. The sound, made by a wild bird and denoting spring, is actually a loud, shrill, descending, gurgling, throaty jumble of chords that lasts about 1-2 seconds. This is the gobble of a male wild turkey. Gil-obble-obble-obble. For those of us who enjoy being outdoors …

Those of us who enjoy outdoor activities such as hunting, fishing, boating and camping are spending an awful of time around the house when it rains or is cold outside. Nevertheless as you think of or plan your next outdoor trip, those conditions offer an opportune time to go through your gear – cleaning, repairing, restoring and organizing various items that most likely were shelved, locked in a cabinet or safe or neglected. You have the time to do this, …

You’re staying at home, hardly going anywhere except for essentials. There’s not a lot to do. Or, is there? Have you ever taken the time to watch or listen to the birds around your yard, acreage, farmstead, ranch house or lake house? After all, it is spring and that means courtship, breeding and nesting. But spring is also means migration. Our overall diversity of birds peaks in early May, so new species arrive every day or week. I have to …

As avid spring wild turkey hunters, we possess a major advantage over other outdoor enthusiasts: We know what it feels like to be completely isolated, and to be alone, most notably in a turkey hunting blind for hours. As Henry David Thoreau once said: “I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.” For us hunters, we are used to sitting alone in different blinds quietly for long periods of time with our thoughts, waiting for a moment …

Merritt Reservoir has long been one of Nebraska’s top fishing destinations. Merritt is an irrigation reservoir, but unlike some others, it fills every year because of the ample flow of the Snake River. It consistently has great water quality and abundant prey fish. And with this year’s adoption of a 50-inch minimum for what many consider to be Nebraska’s greatest fish, the muskellunge, Merritt has entered rarefied air as a trophy fishery. “Merritt has alewives, white suckers and various panfish,” …

I’ve paddled many of the state’s rivers, mostly during the past 20 years creating stories on the state’s water trails in this magazine. But until 2018, I hadn’t floated the Platte, despite living a mere 30 miles from its course. By then, my wife, Theresa, and I had owned kayaks for five years, but we mostly paddled lakes around our home in Lincoln. On this day, it wasn’t long before we asked ourselves why we’d waited so long to float …

Last spring, I received a call from conservation officer Matt Seitz who asked me to pick up an eagle that had fallen from a nest near Barneston. Although I was on vacation at the time, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hold a baby eagle. I said I would get it and went out to meet the farmer who knew where the bird was located. Gary Remmers was working in his field on April 27 when he noticed something …

Step away from ordinary equipment to fly-fish Nebraska’s trout streams. Let’s get this out of the way early. When looking for fly-fishing advice, you might want to go elsewhere. Mind you, I have fly-fished many times, but when it comes to getting serious about catching fish, a spinnerbait or can of nightcrawlers is usually involved. My fly-fishing dates back to the 1990s when I was gifted a rod-and-reel combo package. As with all fishing, it was fun. Too often, though, …

The lawns are greening. The flowers will soon be blooming. And the trees will be budding before you know it. But, let me ask you a question: Did you know you that you may have food growing right under your feet in your yard, lot, garden, acreage or field edge? Yep! Most likely, you do! Now that spring has finally sprung, some of the more prolific, more accessible wild edible foods will soon begin to make their initial appearances. It’s …