Wait a minute — who’s that old, long haired geezer in the picture? Is somebody else doing the column?

Nah, it’s just me in real time. The editor has long been bugging me for a new picture but I’ve procrastinated. It’s been so comforting to look at the column picture each week and breathe a sigh of relief that it was just everybody else getting older and not me.

Now the cruel, heartless editor is dragging me kicking and screaming onto headline reality.

Also note I have a new e-mail address, larry@lyonsgunworks.com. For years and years I happily tottered along with Verizon as my internet provider. They seemed to be a big, stable outfit with service as good as any. I’m borderline computer illiterate but after some time I became quite comfortable navigating their sites.

But recently the rotten buggers sold their IP division, meaning I would have to change my e-mail address. Major bummer. Between column followers from around the world, all the endangered species researchers and prairie enthusiasts I work with, friends and business contacts it seems half the world is accustomed to my old e-mail address. Now they must all be retrained.

I could also envision a continual game of musical providers.  How long before this new outfit sells out?  How much longer before it’s sold again and then again?  I decline to be the ping pong ball in that game.  I have a business restoring antique and classic firearms so I set up a website and am now my own e-mail provider.  Take that, ya’ bums!  Should you care to check out the website at www.lyonsgunworks.com. It’s not finished yet but there’s enough photos and text for interest.

Getting back to the header photos, comparing the two reminds me how long I’ve been doing this column. I can’t remember exactly when I wrote the first one but it was around 15 years ago. For over 30 years Jack Mell of Niles wrote it, or at least one of an outdoor nature.

Ironically, Jack was my high school Conservation class teacher in Dowagiac way back in the ‘60s. I had two years of it, Conservation I and Conservation II. They were the most unique classes unheard of at the high school level then and now. I did cool field projects like following fox tracks in the snow for miles to record their behavior, studying the effects of barometric pressure on fish activity and studying the entire ecosystem of streams from microscopic organisms on up to predator fish to name just a few. Some of the projects had never been done before and our research went out to the scientific community. Along the way he worked in other stuff like first aid and taxidermy. Made my standard Biology class seem like studying a toaster repair manual.

Jack’s column was mostly the typical local hunting and fishing reports common in newspapers. After he stepped down I was asked to continue it. Every week I diligently called the area conservation officers and sporting goods stores to see what was biting where and who shot what. It soon became evident that not only was it mundane stuff but with publishing lead times it was all useless last week’s news.

It was the wife that suggested I deviate and try one about some topic of general outdoor interest. Without consulting the ‘powers that be’ I snuck one in and there were no repercussions. I scattered a few more in, all about hunting or fishing related topics. Nothing was said so I dropped the weekly reports entirely. After a few years I was running out of meaningful things to say about hunting and fishing so I tried a few on other, unrelated nature topics. The reader response was instantaneous and enthusiastic. I continued down that path and quickly had an ever growing following of nature enthusiasts. Most of the regular hunting and fishing readers enjoyed the broader field, too.

Then some years ago Leader Publications put the column on the internet which flung the barn doors wide open. Reader responses jumped from local to global and they continue to come in almost daily. It’s a hoot and I thank all of you.  Don’t forget to change my e-mail address.

Carpe diem.

Larry Lyons writes a weekly outdoor column for Leader Publications. He can be reached at larry@lyonsgunworks.com