Activities for the slow days of winter

This is the last of a two-part series about the slow days of winter.

Birding

A bird feeder, positioned somewhere in the backyard, will bring elements of the Great Outdoors into view of the occupants. Even very young children will enjoy watching birds.

There is a rumor about feeding birds during the winter. Goes like this: If a person begins feeding birds, they must feed them all winter or the birds will starve. This rumor is false. A bird in the wild may find a field full of weed seeds and feed there for a week.

When the seeds are gone, they will simply move on to another field of seeds. The same is true of birds finding seeds in your backyard. When the seeds are gone, the birds will move on.

Books and videos

Books were the way to learn outdoor skills a few years back. Today we have videos.

There are thousands of videos available on the Internet, which cover most everything, A to Z. The outdoors is well represented. Want to learn about walleye wings, watch a video.

How can a hunter easily clean a quail and keep it whole? Watch a video. I did so and cleaned several birds as described. They looked super on the platter, being a whole bird and all, but the legs just aren’t worth saving.

There are videos about learning to tie flies, but a local fly-tying club may offer classes. Experienced fly tiers can use the winter months to resupply their fly boxes. Videos can assist the experienced and novice fly tier to learn how to tie a new fly pattern.

Want to learn how to cook in a Dutch oven? Watch a video. Then practice in the oven or use a Camp Chef Dome. The dome makes it possible to cook in a Dutch oven using a gas burner at the campsite or at home.

The dome fits over the oven, with a steel plate under the oven. The plate makes sure the gas flame isn’t blaring on the bottom on the oven. The dome allows the heat to go around the oven and exit through a hole in the top. This makes the combination of steel plate, oven and dome a convection oven, with no charcoal involved.

Clean all firearms

This may be a duty most don’t consider fun, but would be good for the firearms.

Reload ammunition

This would be a good time to replenish ammunition for next year’s hunts.

Final thought

Even though an outdoor-minded person may be stuck indoors, there are many ways to continue the outdoor education.