Piles of snow…piles of snow! What a great winter for skiing and snowmobile riding. What a lousy winter if you don’t enjoy the snow sports. Shoveling, plowing, snow blowing and winter driving are my winter sports…yuck! I was just wondering what Punxsutawney Phil had against us when I received a phone call from the neighbors. We just call the Flynn Family “the neighbors” when we speak of them in a warmest regard. As I was driving down a slushy highway I heard these words, “This is Mike, what are you guys doing tonight after work?”

Our neighborhood is very friendly and we often help each other out so I expected some helper task was being organized. He went on to say, “Michelle is sick of being indoors so we are planning to have a cook out. It will be casual with a wood fire in my fire pit and we will be roasting hot dogs.”

Wow…a February weenie roast during the middle of the week, now that’s thinking outside of the box! Well we went and it was a great evening and just enough of a break in the winter monotony to get us hopeful for spring being right around the corner.

I received quite a few phone calls from folks in the area that were “hawking those winter birds…or should I say owling” and giving me updates on their observations.

Keep on watching for the spring migration heading back this way as that will definitely be a sure sign of spring because the birds know!

Local Audubon Chapters would love to have some enthusiastic new members as well.

Another contact that I had was with Bryan Dean of Moniteau High School. Mr. Dean reminded me that his Moniteau FFA group is sponsoring their Annual Field, Fish and Game Day on Saturday March 1st from 12 p.m. until 6 p.m. at the Moniteau High School facilities.

The high school is located just north of Clearview Mall and West Sunbury on Route 308.

There is a $2 admission with children under 12 free.

Special games and activities are planned for children while adults will have an opportunity to mingle and view adult type displays and presentations.

Free door prizes and raffles will also take place through the day as well. Get on out to West Sunbury and see what’s going on at the Field, Fish & Game Day.

Believe it or not the Annual Spring Trout Stocking Event is planned to start in March! That is if the waterways are clear of bank to bank ice cover. Ice fishermen have over 6 inches of ice to work with which is plenty of thickness to hold a person’s weight without giving away. We will need a lot of transition in the weather to melt off the ice for stream stocking in the next few weeks. I remember when we had to cut holes in the ice to put fish in the water below…yikes! The earliest dates scheduled with the PFBC in Butler County are March 1st on Buffalo Creek, March 5th on Connoquenessing Creek and March 14th on Bonnie Brook and Little Connoquenessing Creek. The stocking of local streams is always a sure sign of spring and another way to get out of the house for some outdoor fun. Always be careful when helping or observing the trout stocking.

There are always some clueless drivers flying past people gathered to help stock and they seem oblivious to the potential of a child darting out of the crowd.

This weekend our local club sponsors the late winter annual game supper event which has been going on for 26 years in a row and one of our favorite dishes is braised venison in red wine.

The dish started with some old timers that gathered on weekends to visit and play cards with each other.

The dish was eventually shared with a few more people and it now is a dish that people look forward to having on a cold February night. My dear old friends Louis Isacco and then Tony Andreassi have been the chefs with this dish using their own homemade wines. Louis has since passed and Tony is under the weather so he decided to trust me with the recipe this year. I’m a little nervous because I don’t want to disappoint 350 people and the hunters that donated their choicest venison cuts for the dish…wish me luck and keep Tony in your thoughts as well.

I will let you know what the food critics of Butler County think of my efforts. Until we meet again get outdoors and do something wild!

Jay E. Hewitt is the outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.