Our Outdoors: In the Thick of It

Give me an expanse of cattails in December, with a little snow on the ground and a lot of pheasants scattered throughout it, and that's about the best gift the outdoors can provide. Even in those years where I did not yet have a dog, I can recall serving as my own flushing machine, stomping over the three-toed tracks of pheasants weaving through a frozen slough. My buddies were often content to hu...