Weeding the Blogroll
When you don’t touch a website for seven months, maintenance issues tend to crop up. I’ve already mentioned a few (weird characters and image sizing issues), but one I hadn’t tackled was the blogroll. Blogs tend to come and go as the authors lose interest (something that very nearly happened to TVangler), and our blogroll was evidence. The corpses of several one-time favorites were still standing like the skeletons of last year’s tomato plants. So, a couple weeks ago I did some weed-eating.
Before deleting the entries, I checked the sites. You know, just to make sure they weren’t still breathing. I almost didn’t check Chi Wulff because I remembered them closing up shop about a year ago. Chi Wulff was my favorite blog on the Yellowstone area (I like a few others as well, but they’re all blocked at work 
). Luckily, I did check. Imagine my surprise to find them posting again. And now from Texas! I’m still catching up on what I missed, but it appears they’ll be posting about fly fishing both in Texas and in their old home of Montana. Hey guys, I empathize, being a trout addict stuck in the South myself. Love the bass, but it’s just not the same. They have discovered how pretty our women are, and that seems to be providing a bit of consolation.
After doing a quick search for interesting new blogs I had missed, I came across one that was new to me: The Unaccomplished Angler. At least I think it was new to me. It seemed vaguely familiar, so maybe I had crossed it once on a late night caffeine-induced web binge. Anyway, while reading a few of his articles, I thought, “This guy is a really entertaining writer. I’ll keep my eye on him.” Well, tarnation! I must have jinxed the whole operation. I read the site for two weeks, and the guy decides to quit! Wow. Just wow. I recommend the archives. Also, you might check back occasionally to see if the Unaccomplished One is posting again.
Yellowstone Native Fish Conservation Plan
If you care about Yellowstone cutthroat trout in Yellowstone National Park, check out these articles on Chi Wulff and the Trout Zone. I like David Knapp’s assessment, and pretty much copied his response for my comments. What can I say? I’m a lazy piece of crap. But you knew that anyway. I’m all for re-introduction and restoration attempts of native fishes, but it doesn’t make much sense to “reintroduce” native fish to streams where they were never introduced by the hand of God in the first place. You need to respond quickly if you want to have your say. The deadline is January 31. I encourage you to submit your comments.
Winter’s Getting Old
Winter has been exceedingly bleak by Alabama standards. We’ve had two major snows and several smaller ones. Before this winter, it had been over 15 years since the last measurable snow. Temperatures have been far below normal. I’ve done some deer hunting with no luck. Other than that, I haven’t done much outside. The shack-nasties are really creeping up on me. Perhaps that’s why Yellowstone has been in mind so much lately. We’ve been discussing our plans for a Yellowstone trip this summer, and planning a big trip always makes me twitchy, especially in winter. Today I think I’ll get out and do something, anything. Maybe photography. Maybe I’ll take a few shots of the cold, brown, featureless mud that dominates the local landscape this time of year.
Take care,
Nathan
