Most people dread the thought of shoveling snow. Call me crazy, which wouldn’t be a first, but I actually get some kind of satisfaction out of doing it. I guess it’s being able to step back and see what you’ve accomplished, sort of a self-inflicted pat on the back. Spending time in the outdoors is what it’s all about and it really doesn’t matter whether it’s winter or one of our other seasons.

I had to break out the trusty old scoop the other day to clean the snow from my driveway and walk. Although “old scoop” still works it is getting pretty rickety and I am afraid that it may not hold up well when handling the heavy, wet stuff. I am not a snow blower type of guy, especially when only 2 or 3 inches of snow is involved. There is something about the physical thing that makes it work for me. I guess I enjoy shoveling as long as I am still able to do it.

My brother-in-law Lynn Johnson is kind of that way, only he almost takes it to the extreme. Living in Alaska gives him plenty of outdoors to roam in and his life actually revolves around hunting, fishing and being out in the elements. The one thing I can’t believe is that he hasn’t found time to fit in some trapping in his spare time.

Lynn works as an airline mechanic and actually owns four planes of his own, one for parts. He also has two snowmobiles, two ATVs and a fishing boat. I guess that as an outdoorsman it seems that you can never have too many more toys than that. Although we may call them toys he insists they are necessities.

Once again this year he has bagged a moose, a grizzly bear, and has enough salmon and pike in the freezer to last until spring. The last I heard he hadn’t gotten a caribou yet because the day he and a friend headed out to find the herd they got stuck in a snowstorm and had to turn back after they had dug the truck out.

Some of us start stressing out when the temperature drops below freezing but when we were flirting with the 70s near the end of October he called and said it was 5 degrees and they had blizzard going on. It is a different world up there but if you enjoy the outdoors and living the part it can be very rewarding. I would venture to guess that if you were to look in their freezer there wouldn’t be much, if any at all, domestic meat. The only exception is the chickens that he bought from my grandson Trevor when he was home in October. As long as Trevor keeps raising chickens we’ll find a way to get them up there.

Whenever Lynn’s wife, who we call Sister, prepares one of those chickens they also have to include some of the corn that Jean buys from Bisek’s Gardens in the fall and blanches, bags and freezes. We always find a way to send them a cooler of that corn every year, too. Whenever one of these chicken dinners takes place Lynn calls and tells us how great it is. He actually called just the other night and said that they had just finished a meal of moose roast, potatoes from their garden and topped it off with that great Minnesota sweet corn.

Sister is a master at preparing game and for the most part you’d never be able to distinguish between moose meat and a top cut of beef. The one thing Lynn still talks about is the time my son Brian and his brother-in-law were up there caribou hunting. Both of them managed to bag trophy caribou and after they had left, Lynn went to cook some of the meat. He said that it’s about the only time he couldn’t stand the smell of meat being prepared and it didn’t matter how he fixed it, the smell was just plain nasty.

Whenever I see a picture or video of Nome, the area of Alaska where they live the beauty of it almost seems overwhelming. It’s not only the beauty but the realization that there is still so much wilderness that is untouched and will hopefully remain that way for generations to come.

Until next time, play safe, look out for thin ice and enjoy the outdoors.

Please continue to show your support for those that have chosen to proudly serve their country.