Have you ever eaten a worm?
 
Worms to my way of thinking aren’t really all that appetizing.  It is not so much the flavor as it is the texture.  They, the worms, should never be chewed.  They are gritty when chewed.  They must be swallowed whole, like spaghetti.   
 
Fish on the other hand have a [...]

As a boy growing up on the Fox River in Illinois my father taught me that all one needed to survive in the wild existed in plenty if one knew where to look.
There were mulberries, strawberries and raspberries, walnuts and butternuts. Wild asparagus was Growing there as was watercress, gooseberries and wild grapes.
Pheasant, duck and [...]

On this particular day I am late getting started. As the new day dawns, animals, large and small, usually seek lay ups where they can rest in anticipation of their evening feed.
I tell myself that it is unlikely that I will see much but you never know, and after all, I need the walk.
As I [...]

Dave, a buddy of mine and I had been fishing on one of the many lakes in central Florida.
The fishing was incredible. We had been using big shiners and it seemed that those largemouth bass were almost eager to be caught.
We had caught several fish in the eight pound category, releasing them no worse for [...]

 
 
 
 
Don, a fire spotter for the U.S. Forest service was hiking down a little used trail in an area seldom visited by man in one of those vast wilderness areas of Montana.  As he came around a bend in the trail he spotted a young black bear moving in his direction on the same trail.
The [...]

Soft fluffy snow mantled the ground like a comforter ‘prized of innumerable downy feathers to a depth of two inches.  Thick, dark clouds scudded across the sky, at times obscuring the moon and dipping the woodscape into an inkwell of abysmal darkness.
 
My father had not told me where we were going but I follow this [...]

Years pass, memories fade, old news clippings turn yellow and hair either turns white or falls out, such is life.
It has been many years ago but it is permanently etched into my memory.
I was preparing to transport an African spotted leopard to another location when quite suddenly I found myself flat on my back with [...]

Once while paddling a canoe on the Wekiva River in central Florida I drifted around a bend and surprised a daydreaming bear as he sat drowsily on the riverbank with his eyes closed.
The bear was totally oblivious of my presence and there we were, no more than ten or fifteen feet apart when he opened [...]

I am drawn back to that rocky shore on Rosseau lake in Canada. I sat there, relaxed yearning for something, perhaps to hear the voice of God?
God, how much I wanted to hear your voice, to feel your presence, but… there was nothing, only silence.
Oh yes, there was the sun on my face, and shimmering, [...]

A little acorn fell to the ground one day and lay there. Oh how it bemoaned its fate. It could go no lower. It had reached the very depths of despair.
A squirrel, scavenging for food, found the little acorn and picked it up and the acorn thought to itself, “WHOOPEE, I am saved; no longer [...]