I miss his columns in the paper, they were mostly all about here, the  fields, the marsh , Great Bay. I have added the Joe Dixx tribute site  to my blogroll. It takes a moment to load, at least on this old rig, patience. They are  posting  his outdoor columns aligned with the current month. I always looked forward to his columns. The paper would do well with a search  for someone to try and fill that void. What am I saying?. It’s impossible.Richard Schanda passed away in 2004.

Northeast Boating went under this month, it was previously called Offshore Magazine. Our own  Lara Bricker was a regular contributor. Another  magazine in Portsmouth went under too. I am  going to miss my boating magazine, the publisher  has substituted with Soundings magazine till the subscription is done. Soundings is a large format,tabloid sized  magazine. It’s huge like a trade publication .I don’t like it, it’s a tactile thing.

I feel like I should be wearing  clown shoes while reading it.

This Summer our Bailey(dog) was tormented by chipmunks under a rear deck. They teased him relentlessly. I bought a trap and was catching nothing but  gray squirrels.Chip and Dale proved elusive,that  chipmunk laughing still rings in the air out back.

This past year was kind to our local squirrels they were huge, lots of acorns to consume. They were chasing some people and his dog out of Gilman Park.

When they are jumping in the cage on their way to  release  it’s crazy! I was releasing them at the edge of my woods and  eventually gave up with the trap. I did  make a call to a local woodsman about the grays I was catching and releasing. “Are you eat’n em?”  he asked me.

He was serious.

“Nah, I only eat raccoons and skunks you know that ” He wasn’t laughing along with me.

He wasn’t  chuckling.

So, I had to check the recipe corner for gray squirrel and found they  are fond  of grays  in the UK. They are paying bounty’s to eradicate the American Gray and the butcher shops can sell all they  get. The American Gray is threatening  the habitat of the  beloved  Red Squirrel in the UK.

Sept 1 -Dec 31 is squirrel season  in NH. It requires some  marksmanship if your intent is consumption. I understand they  are a  very difficult beast  to skin unless you are that  Bear Grylls guy. He can skin one as he jumps from the helicopter, without a knife.

Farmers Market? These critters are as green as you can get, besides fricasseed Robins.

Dixx had all the recipes.

This guy can’t make enough of these pastys. You think George Olson might be doing all this UK trekking because  he has   squirrel jones?

We are having a devil of a time  with chicken here. The switch  to farmers market is proving  difficult. So fish  in on the  menu till we figure it out.

Mike