Welcome to the new year…one I wasn’t sure I would ever get to. No, not for any health reason, just because back in 1964 when I graduated from High School and joined the Navy, and I was running on all cylinders, it seemed like there was just no way that I would even live to see the year “2000”….it seemed like a long, long ways away. At that time it was…but here we are.

And guess what? I’m still running on almost all those same cylinders. There’s been a lot of things left and lost along the road to getting here….my late wife, Marilyn, being the main one. But there have been many homes, in a number of states, a few jobs, a couple of my best buddies, two phenomenal golden retrievers, and the list goes on.

But here I am, still with Western Outdoors Publications after 23 years on full-time staff, still hunting ducks, trudging a mile to the blind before daylight. Fishing  Sierra lakes, hiking 6 or 8 miles in search of deer or wild hogs, cutting, splitting and loading firewood, traveling to fun places when time allows, and working one heck of a schedule with WON.

This has been a tough year for everyone, and I have to hand it to our owner, Bob Twilegar, and everyone on staff for whatever the heck they are doing to keep us viable at a time when the print media is hurting so badly. Some say that print media is on its way out the door, but I don’t believe that. What I keep hearing is that anything you want to know can be found—and found faster—on the internet. True. But on the internet you have to know what you’re looking for….and most of the time, what I’m most interested in, is what I DON’T know!

I want to know the things that are happening that I’m not aware of, and that impact my life from a direction that I might not necessarily be looking for on the internet. I find those things every morning when I open the daily paper. There are hundreds of things in the paper—daily papers and Western Outdoor News, that you just won’t find out without actually sitting down and reading the paper.

We have a great website at Wonews.com, for sure, but you really don’t think we give you everything there, do you? Of course not! Enough to keep you up to date on some important things, and perspectives, tournaments, and some of the top fishing and hunting spots…but you don’t get it all unless you subscribe to the paper. 

I have friends who don’t read the daily paper, and I’m constantly amazed at how they are now aware of what’s going on nationally or locally. And I meet people in the field constantly who aren’t aware of major issues impacting their chosen sport. Things that we reported on in WON weeks ago. How important? Heck…ownership of a gun! The passage of a bill that now requires us to give FINGERPRINTS  to buy a box of ammo here in California. Thing that only criminals have to do—but now we’re on that list. And the fact that we no longer have to have our fishing licensed strapped around our neck beginning today, Jan. 1.

It’s a new year, folks, and we’ve got a lot of living, fishing, hunting, camping and traveling to do! Let’s get it on!! Together!