Don Jacobs column

Latest Columns by Don Jacobs

February 4, 2012

Rufus and the Grouse Whisperer

I must admit that I didn’t expect to see what I did. Bob Cragle of Huntington Mills e-mailed me with an invitation to meet his friend Rufus. Rufus as it turned out is a ruffed grouse who has taken up home on a piece of property owned by Bob. My invitation included a short ATV ride through a patch of pine trees. Half way down the trail Bob started calling for Rufus and the chase was on. It ran after the ATV until Bob came to a stop next to a log on the ground. What happens next is truly hysterical. Bob sat on the ground, called Rufus to the log and a bird versus man pecking battle began.

January 7, 2012

Don’t walk on thin ice this winter

What do you say we start the year off on a positive note? This is my first article for the year 2012 and I want to be upbeat about things. I could write about the fact that I have hunted deer with my flintlock four times and have yet to squeeze the trigger, but I won’t. That’s a negative thought. I could write about the two invitations I had to hunt rabbits but was forced to turn down because of a bad head cold, but I won’t. Once again that’s not the way I want to start out the year. The list of things to be negative about extends from a huge car repair bill to the Penn State Bowl Game loss and yet I insist on being upbeat and positive.

December 17, 2011

It was a great year to be outdoors

Wow, where did this year go? It seems like we were just watching the ball drop in New York’s Time Square and then all of a sudden it’s time to put up a new calendar. I remember wondering what 2011 would bring and now I can say it wasn’t all that bad. Sure I wish I would have scored with a spring gobbler but that didn’t happen. What did happen was mornings in the woods with friends chasing the elusive Pennsylvania turkey. Those trips were worth getting up for.

November 26, 2011

The Buck Season opener is Monday

I am happy to report that I’ve still have it. I promised to tell you when I lost it or when it was slowly slipping away but I’m excited to report that isn’t happening yet. It has overcome a few of my friends and for that I reason I feel sorry for them. It must be sad when you lose something you’ve had for over forty some years and especially when you loved it so much. I am of course talking about the excitement and anticipation of the opening day of the buck season.

November 12, 2011

Sightings are bear-ly believable

There is a connection between the recent bear sightings and oak trees.

October 29, 2011

Mentor Doe Hunt is a success

Mentor Doe Hunt is not quite the name of the season. It’s a collective name of all of the deer hunting seasons where a young prospective hunter can harvest a doe. A recent change in the law now allows for a mentored young hunter to harvest an antlerless deer by using the license of the adult they are hunting with. The idea behind it is to allow a mentor (adult, licensed hunter) to give up one of their antlerless deer licenses to a youngster (under 12 years of age) involved in the mentored hunting program.

October 15, 2011

Memories and lessons learned

Sometimes bad memories are hard to get rid of and the best we could hope for is to have learned something from them. Take for example a bad experience of falling out of a tree stand during a deer hunt. That would probably be forever imbedded deep into the pages of your memory and take it from personal experience, it is. There are several things that remind me about my tree stand hunting accident from a few years ago. I think about it every time I walk by a rickety old wooden tree stand. My incident took place when my daughter Kristen and I were hunting out of a well maintained wooden tree stand. I leaned on a board that wasn’t designed to take the weight and the next thing I know I was in the ambulance wearing a neck brace and an air splint on my arm.

October 1, 2011

Get ready for some fall foliage

Hello and welcome month of October. I am mentally finished with summer and have been waiting patiently for you to arrive. I enjoy the cool crisp mornings of fall especially while I’m sitting in a treestand waiting for the sun to rise. While I do enjoy the smells of spring, the enticing aroma of mushrooms growing on the damp forest floor is quite seasonably nice. The leaves are about to start changing and the anticipation of Mother Nature’s colors of fall is driving me crazy.

September 17, 2011

It’s tough to think about hunting season

It has been a trying week for many residents of the Greater Pittston area. I sit here with a very heavy heart trying to write an upbeat story while many local people are still scraping the mud off of personal belongings. I close my eyes and see the piles of furniture, muddy carpets and ruined clothing lining the streets of our area. Much of my time this week was taken up by flood coverage. It was hard to look in the faces of the people who lost everything and some without flood insurance. The flood waters and its devastation have consumed their lives not just their property.

September 3, 2011

Chanterelles and early Podpinkis

It is time to grab your pocket knife, wooden basket and plastic bags and head to your favorite mushroom picking spots. Hurricane Irene surely did some damage to our area with her strong winds and heavy rains. In fact, I know a few people who will be cleaning up their properties for weeks. The good thing is that all of the rain has jump started the mushroom picking season. My yearly pilgrimage to the land of fungi started this week when reports were circulating about people finding sheepshead mushrooms. Of course I had to check out my honey-holes.

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January 22, 2011

Don’t become a couch potato

Becoming a couch potato is an easy thing to do when the Pennsylvania winter weather takes hold. It is easy to spend your down time staying warm in front of the TV or curling up with a book in front of the fire. My friends and family will tell you that I can’t sit still on my days off. I can’t stay in pajamas all day and I certainly can’t park myself in front of the tube watching old movies.

September 18, 2010

It is time to start scouting deer

There are a few things that trigger my thought process to think fall and hunting. Labor Day is one of them and that is well be behind us. The cars are covered with dew in the morning as we make our way to work through the thick Susquehanna River fog and the grass is wet enough to soak our shoes. I can smell mushrooms in the air as a few of the leaves on the trees begin to turn colors. Fall is truly upon us and I welcome its arrival.