January 2023

The grainy, old photograph showed a kid in his mid-teens, wearing jeans, pack boots, a hat and parka, standing on a river bank in a veil of wood smoke. The image ignited a flood of memories and set me off to find a journal entry from January, 1978, to “ground truth” those memories, because the lad in the photo was me. Stunningly, I had the foresight of writing down at least some rudimentary details of my numerous outdoor adventures by that time, and if it is possible to be grateful to one’s former self, I am.

The Nutty Professor was at the shack over the weekend and the toxicology reports didn’t look good. He wasn’t toting the rhino gun that he had during last year’s hunting season, a weapon that may have helped reduce the Lake County rhino herd significantly.

Hockey Day in Minnesota and WILD in deep! In The State of Hockey there are any number of participants, their families and fans from Spring Grove to Warroad and from Luverne to Grand Marais who are waiting in heavy anticipation of Hockey Day in the NorthStar state. In actuality though, the event has turned into a four-day weekend of celebration of the state's favorite winter pastime. Other sports are popular, but in these parts, the fastest game on ice rules the roost by far. It is ingrained into the fabric of the land. The event begins now on Thursday evenings with some ceremonies and a Girls' HS contest. It continues on Friday night with a Men's DIII game on the outdoor sheet along with other festivities. And then the big day of the weekend, featuring another Girls HS tilt, followed by two Boys HS games and then the Main Event with the Minnesota WILD facing off against the Buffalo Sabres at the X in downtown St. Paul. The main site of the event this year is at White Bear Lake and I can only guarantee you that interest in this weekend extends to many places across the hockey world, not just in Minnesota. The event wraps up on Sunday featuring sled hockey games and caps off with a contest involving two United Heroes League teams. There will be plenty to see and do throughout the busy weekend and if you don't have an excellent time, well, you weren't trying. If you love this game like most of us do, you are in for a great event!

The ringing in of 2023 brought a big change to Seagren’s in Two Harbors, leaving Scott Seagren, co-owner, reflecting on hard decisions and some heartache. Seagren’s True Value Hardware, purchased by Scott and his wife Jenny in 2016, closed its doors just after the new year and consolidated everything into their uptown store “Seagren’s-Home– Hardware- Outdoors”.