Squirrel and Dumplings – High Country Comfort Part 2

Squirrel and Dumplings – High Country Comfort Part 2

SQUIRREL AND DUMPLINGS High Country Comfort Foods: Part 2 Although the grand comeback stories of the white-tailed deer and wild turkey have relegated the humble bushytail to a place well down the ladder when it comes to game species favored by hunters, for several...
Squirrel and Dumplings – High Country Comfort Part 2

High Country Comfort Foods: Part 1

HIGH COUNTRY COMFORT FOODS: Part 1 “A body can get the miseries or suffer from mollygrubs most any time,” my Grandpa Joe used to say, “but somehow they seem to come most often in the dead of winter.” He had a bunch of what he considered surefire remedies for these...
Spirit of Christmas, Mamma Casada

Spirit of Christmas, Mamma Casada

If the Spirit of Christmas embraces things such as love of family, togetherness, warm feelings, goodness, excitement and faith, then my mother was the quintessence of that spirit. Many adjectives seem appropriate when describing her love of life in general,...
Earthly Yuletide Decor – Natural Christmas

Earthly Yuletide Decor – Natural Christmas

In today’s world, obtaining the family Christmas tree involves nothing more than a stop at a store, viewing trees stacked side-by-side in a vacant lot, or retrieving an artificial tree from the attic. Real “adventure” in obtaining the family tree involves going to a...
Stage for Stories – A Paean to Porches

Stage for Stories – A Paean to Porches

Porches were a place where you could be at peace with the world…a stage for stories. In yesteryear one of many blessings, what folks living in my native heath, the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, tended to take for granted was that they could enjoy...
The Literature of Turkey Hunting

The Literature of Turkey Hunting

Jim Casada contemplates the art and romance in the literature of turkey hunting and the world of sporting, wildlife literature at large. The malady of bibliomania exhibits varying symptoms. Some collectors are perfectly happy to do little more than gaze on lovely yet...
Old Flintlock: A Sporting Scribe for the Ages

Old Flintlock: A Sporting Scribe for the Ages

No writer has sung the South’s sporting song with the same alluring sweetness as Archibald Hamilton Rutledge. Known to family and friends as “Old Flintlock,” he was a proud son of the southern soil with roots that reached deep into the Carolina Lowcountry’s past. His...
Cane Pole Magic

Cane Pole Magic

A cane pole, whether used from shore or in a boat, is wielded by a simple, graceful motion in which the angler lobs the baited hook. The image is as enduring as it is appealing, something straight from a Norman Rockwell cover on an old Saturday Evening Post. A...
A Fascination With Fly Rodding

A Fascination With Fly Rodding

From the time I was first able to tag along without completely impeding his fly fishing, Daddy let me accompany him on short after-work outings to nearby trout streams in my native Great Smokies. My father was a dedicated fly fisherman and one of those wise mentors...