“The wind it was howlin' and the snow was outrageous; we chopped through the night, and we chopped through the dawn,” – Bob Dylan The persistent and deepening snow and cold of late has signaled primal feelings of survival within me. Just walking to the mailbox and back is an adventure ...

By JOHN PEPIN Michigan Department of Natural Resources “And the birds up on the wires and the telegraph poles; they can always fly away from this rain and this cold; you can hear them singing out their telegraph code; all the way down the Telegraph Road.” — Mark Knopfler The wind ...

By Michigan State Forestry Innovation Center ESCANABA — A forester, psychologist and microbiologist meet with each other in the woods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. No, this isn’t the start of a sappy joke. However, the story about to be told is sappy. Jesse Randall, director of the ...

It's that time of year again, when the fuzzy socks are working overtime, the heat is cranking and somehow lots of homes are still freezing. That's because a lot of that heat leaks out of the house — and the colder it is outside, the faster the warm, inside air leaks out. There are ways to ...

I've been growing herbs in the garden long enough to know they don't require much. Just water, sunlight and my best intentions. In the garden, herbs are forgiving plants. They aren't fussy about soil pH, almost never need fertilizer, and can power through if you occasionally forget to water ...

“There’s a pale moon waning as the blackbirds dot the sky, but the crows are my friends and I wave to them a-passing by,” – Otis Gibbs A crow floats down into the wintry scene. His presence cracks the moment like a light bulb dropped on the kitchen floor. He looks lost or out of place ...