Breaking News

Friday: Outdoors

DNR weekly fishing report

St. Ignace: St. Ignace City boat launches have been put into the water, and the cleaning station is open. At the Carp River cement footing pier, steelhead anglers saw limited success. Smelt were running at the Carp River over the past week. When using the roads to get back to the Carp River mouth, watch for deep potholes. Anglers looking to fish from shore at the Pine River, are now able to get back to the DNR access safely. The DNR boat launch at the Pine River has not been put in yet.  Les Cheneaux Islands/Detour: Anglers were trying their luck dipping for smelt in the Carp River, ...

Outdoors North: Lady Springtime may have hit the snooze alarm

“Meet me on the mountain when the winter lays her head to rest,” — Gary Richrath As the gray morning wore on, I was heading west across the peninsula with a cold wind putting a snap in the springtime air. Watching the sides of the road, I was surprised to see many of the small creeks and streams flowing still well within their banks despite a good deal of the snowpack now melting or already gone. In many a past springtime, these waterways would be unapproachable, consumed and swollen, flooded and roaring. The miles ahead would explain the phenomenon as the farther into big ...

Asparagus in the garden takes its time but is worth the wait

Asparagus isn’t the most common vegetable among home gardeners, and that’s likely because growing it is an exercise in patience. But three years of patience is a small price to pay for up to 20 years of relatively effortless tender green shoots. If you’ve never seen an asparagus plant, ...

Outdoors North: Patiently waiting for the bird’s song to return

“Bird on the horizon, sitting on a fence, he’s singing his song for me at his own expense,” — Bob Dylan Rolling along the highway with the window down, fence posts blur and the warm wind comes whipping inside the car, it swirls around me and goes out the open window on the passenger side. Tree swallows overhead twist back and forth as they fly. A bluebird sits on a fence rail, just a couple of feet away from a wooden birdhouse the bright male bird has claimed as his summer residence. I see a highway sign and slow down to make my right turn off the blacktop onto a graveled ...

After a long winter, send your houseplants on a summer vacation

Most houseplants are tropical plants that require the warm, somewhat humid conditions of their natural habitat. In the home, many can become tired-looking, especially over winter, when even your brightest window provides lower-than-ideal light levels. So why not send your houseplants on a ...