When I was a little kid back in Nova Scotia Canada I caught frogs, built clubhouses on an industrial scale and generally ran wild. I started to acquire some elementary skills that would never help me to get a job but would begin building my career as an outdoorsman. And it was probably at this same time, there in the woodlots and swamps between buildings in the Dartmouth area, that I started to think I might like to write about wild things.

Today’s post is written to direct your attention to the current issue of The Backwoodsman Magazine, where one of my articles is featured this month. And along with this goes a word of thanks to Charlie Richie Sr. and Charlie Richie Jr. (editors, publishers, etc., etc.) who have welcomed me with open arms to the Backwoodsman family. The Backwoodsman is a practical kind of magazine for people who really want to advance their hands-on outdoors skills, particularly pertaining to care of guns and traps, tracking, building shelters and camps, canning – things most true outdoorsmen care to know. I appreciate that they were willing to print my more theoretical article – I’m just not the right guy to write articles on gear. I’m more the type to consume The Backwoodsman with great interest to acquire some of these skills myself.

My article this month has more to do with learning to appreciate the outdoor opportunities all around us, even if we happen to live in the suburbs. It’s titled, How to Adventure, and builds on the theme of local outdoorsmanship my blog readers have no doubt become familiar with. If nothing else, I advance the idea that the skills meant for wild wilderness settings are probably best practiced in backyards and nearby woodlots, the kinds of places we probably speed past in the daily commute, taking little notice of.

It’s a good feeling to be in print – one of the much sought-after goals among emerging writers. Backwoodsman will most likely be running a book review for The Dying Fish this spring which is also much appreciated. In the meantime, I also have one of my best long-read articles ever, Libertarian Park, running in the literary journal Confrontation sometime this winter.