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--Chad Love

So how long does it take to set up your wall tent? Here's a cool time-lapse video of a Mongolian family setting up a traditional yurt.

From Boingboing:

The nomadic people of Mongolia don't stay in one place for long. That's why they live in gers (which American's know by the Russian name, yurt), a home that is fast and easy to assemble and disassemble.
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by Chad Love

It's always been hard for me, as a bird hunter, to get very reflective around New Year's, simply because most upland and waterfowl seasons are still in high gear. But as we inexorably creep toward February, that starts changing. This is the time of year when waterfowl and upland seasons begin to wind down for many of us, which I think is as good a time as any to reflect on the past year and look toward the next.

For me, this past weekend marked the end of duck season, and in about three weeks I'll no longer be able to walk mile after fruitless mile in vain pursuit of the bobwhite quail, a bird which I'm told is rumored to inhabit this area. Of course, I've also been told leprechauns inhabit this area, too, and I haven't seen any of them, either.
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by David Draper

Mongolian Elk vs. Turkey Curry

What I like about Wild Chef readers is they’re not afraid to get creative in the kitchen. It’s good to know there are some wild-game cooks out there playing hooky from the cream-of-mushroom-soup school of wild game cooking. We’ve got a couple great examples this week, as readers Chris Johnson and Levi Banks weigh in with a couple of mouthwatering dishes, both which offer some international flair.

Personally, I’m a bit torn on which to vote for, but I can probably predict how readers are going to swing this. That turkey curry looks and sounds delicious. Plus, any photo featuring both a bottle of Sriracha and a sippy cup of milk has got to be a winner. Still, you love your venison, which is usually a lock on Food Fight Fridays. But maybe you’ll surprise me this week. [ Read Full Post ]

--Chad Love

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (try saying that five times fast) is rolling out new parameters to determine recreational saltwater fishing harvest estimates, the results of which help determine seasonal limits all along the eastern seaboard.

From this story in the Boston Herald:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on today announced that it’s using a new way to estimate the amount of fish caught by recreational saltwater anglers on the Atlantic Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, the result of years of work on how to make the numbers more accurate. The new estimates will have an impact on millions of fishermen and those who make a living from recreational fishing.
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--Chad Love

And in other quail-related news, as part of its ongoing research project into bobwhite quail numbers, the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch is asking hunters to be on the lookout for any sick, dying or dead quail they may come across while hunting (and by sick, dying or dead quail, that means by means other than shotgun blast...)

The Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch (RPQRR) is asking quail hunters to keep their eyes open for any “weird quail” that may offer clues as to what’s going on with Texas’ quail population. “We’re asking hunters to report any observations of strange-acting quail, or ideally any recent carcasses of sick or dead quail” says Dr. Dale Rollins, RPQRR’s director. “Over the past two weeks, several specimens have been submitted, and these samples may indeed be ‘witnesses to the crime’, so we’re acutely interested in having such birds examined.”
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by Chad Love

Apologies for the lack of blog posts last week, but I was attending the SHOT show in Las Vegas. I did manage to survive the experience, so look for a new gundog and wingshooting product web gallery soon. In the meantime, sad news from the world of canine centenarians: Uncle ChiChi has died. Who the hell is Uncle ChiChi, you ask? Hey, I didn't know either, but he was absolutely, positively, perhaps, might have been, the oldest dog in the world.

From the New York Times:

Uncle Chichi, a toy poodle whose unusual longevity led to fame and an appearance on “Good Morning America,” died on Tuesday after a yearlong battle with cancer. He was 26. Or 24. Or maybe 25. The imprecision over his age led to debate over whether Chichi, or the Cheech, as he was sometimes known, had been the world’s oldest living dog.
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by Kirk Deeter

Lefty Kreh, who may just be the most recognized authority on fly fishing ever, told Tenkara USA founder Daniel Galhardo that, “Tenkara is a fad and it won’t last long." Talk about candor. What's more interesting is that Daniel posted a recap of the conversation on his blog.

Another twist to all of this is that there have been rumors and rumblings for some time that Temple Fork Outfitters (and Lefty is the leading spokesperson for TFO) has been planning to manufacture and market its own line of tenkara rods in the not too distant future.
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by Bob Marshall

When it comes to wetlands protections, it's hard for sportsmen to find any heroes in Washington these days. We have a House majority that spent last year shouting its opposition to restoring protections to 20 million acres of vital wetlands stripped by the Supreme Court, and vows to continue that assault this election cycle. And we have a president who makes a lot of noise about helping--but then doesn't follow through.

So as Congress returns to work this month, sportsmen's conservation groups find themselves fighting on two fronts in the battle to restore protections to those temporary and isolated wetlands. Here's the situation:

When the GOP blocked attempts to correct those court rulings with the proposed Clean Water Restoration Act, conservationists were cheered when the Obama Administration stepped in last spring sending its agencies a proposed new wetland "guidance"--spelling out which wetlands they could protect. This wouldn't put protections back on everything, but it would help.
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