An Outdoorsman‛s Journal: Thirty-four years an outdoor writer

Hello friends, Thirty-four years ago this week, I hand-wrote my first column for the Poynette Press. I was the camp manager at Chimo Lodge and Outposts, which is a fly-in camp 55 air miles out of Red Lake, Ontario, Canada. I called this column “North of the Border,” and hand-wrote it every Friday from an active bear stand. This week I am writing about three big parts of my life; and I have to tell you, I am so busy, it is hard to find time to sweep the floor.

On April 17 the state of Montana held its drawing for out-of-state General Big Game Combo elk and deer licenses. Just like last year, I received one and I will head west on the 17th of October by myself to live in the mountains and make some meat. The hunt and experience that I had last year was one of my coolest ever — extremely physical, horrible weather conditions that started on opening day, harvesting a beautiful 6x6 bull elk and falling down the mountain in deep snow many, many times getting the bull elk to my base camp.

I was either sweating, freezing or falling and I did not care; I had a bull elk. This fall I would be very happy with a cow or a smaller bull. Selina had my bull aged and it was 6.5 years old and a bit on the chewy side. Can you say, “slow cooker”?

So last year was the worst of my 61 years on this planet. My soulmate, Michelle Chiaro, died unexpectedly and part of me passed with her. I love raising cattle and so did Michelle. In the fall I move them into my garden, and they do all the fertilizer spreading that I need. In turn, I have gardens that yield extremely well. With Michelle’s passing, I was going to have to get out of the cattle business because I no longer had her to feed them when I traveled. I did not want to be out of the cattle business. Two sets of neighbors are going to back me up and this coming Tuesday I am going to be buying some calves. No one can understand what happens when you lose a soulmate, unless they have lost a soulmate!

Here is the final subject and you will now realize that I am officially nuts. With Michelle’s passing I have had only one potential cure, and that is to keep very busy. That cure does not work in the evening for me, and I have been kind of depressed. In my front yard there has been a swimming pool since the year 2000. That pool fell apart about a month ago. It took me about 24 hours to have this brainstorm to cure my depression. Folks, as of four days ago, I no longer have a front yard. I have a very large hole that over the course of the summer will become a pond. I am going to ice skate upon, swim in, look at and manage my large aquarium and maybe that will help me to find my “happy” again.

I am totally addicted to water. I soak in the tub every night I am home and I love going to the bottom of a lake when I swim and seeing how long I can hold my breath.

Smile lots! Sunset

Mark Walters