MOSES LAKE - It is appropriate to consider this first week of February to be the dead of winter. This time of year offers the least amount of outdoor activities than at any time during the rest of the year.

The ice thickness is not sufficient to support anglers and fishermen are encouraged to stay off the ice. Otherwise I would be out there inside some type of ice hut with a heater or two going, seated beside a hole in the ice watching the tip of an ice-fishing rod.

The duck, goose, coot and snipe hunting seasons ended on Jan. 30. The pheasant, quail, chukar, Hun has been over since Jan. 17. Oh, one more: The crow season ended on Jan. 31.

Interesting how crow is listed under the upland game seasons, with no daily or possession limit. If a hunter shoots 23 and then throws them in the garbage, could the hunter receive a ticket for wasting a game bird? And yes, I would be interested in reading recipes involving crow meat, but won't try the recipe or taste the crow meat until the person sending along the recipe eats crow first.

Hiking throughout the Columbia Basin is a viable outdoor activity, but make sure you go prepared and do not hike alone. Taking a walk in the Basin is usually a pleasant sport, but during the winter months, with ice possible in places and death-causing temperatures, those simple hikes can turn dangerous in short time.

If a hiker was alone and broke a leg in warm weather and an overnight stay in the outdoors resulted, the situated wouldn't normally be life threatening. But if the same situation occurred this time of year, the overnight stay may cause a different outcome.

Day trips are a good way to shake the doldrums resulting from cabin fever. There are safety suggestions involved with this pursuit also. During other times of the year, I have few hesitations about driving down an unknown public dirt road. The unknown roads are avoided during this time of year.

In past years I would restock my fly boxes by tying lots of flies in February. This year, however, there are ample numbers of flies remaining in my fly boxes.

An angler could sharpen all of the hooks attached to the lures in his tackle box and then polish the lures, but, hey, get a life.

This is a time for reading outdoor-related books and watching outdoor videos with the idea of picking up a tip or two.

Yes, this may be a time of year when little is happening in the Great Outdoors, but, with a little exploring, outdoor-minded people ought to be able to keep the cabin-fever blues on the defensive.

Last elk hunt of 2010

One master hunter elk hunt ended on Dec. 31 in the Ellensburg area. I wanted to try one more time to notch my tag, so called Bill Green of Ephrata to see if he was available.

Bill and his wife, Rosann, helped ban geese last spring and helped empty fish nets and fillet the fish for the food bank. We became friends during these volunteering excursions.

We intended to go goose hunting this fall, as Bill said he has a few hundred goose decoys, but the plan did not materialize. I'm going to suggest we plan early for several goose hunts next fall.

Bill was available, so I picked him up at 7 a.m. and we chatted about life in general and our love of the outdoors during our drive to Ellensburg. He and Rosann had been active in mountain-man gatherings for years, but no longer participate. Still I plan to get him to the shooting range this spring with our muzzleloaders for some smoke-pole instruction.

We hunted several areas and even saw a couple hunters shoot their elk. I started the camp stove on the tailgate of the Ram, placed water in a pot and we visited some more as the moose stew warmed in a FoodSaver bag. We both brought enough food to keep a small army well fed, but only ate the stew and drank the coffee.

The closest we came to seeing an elk to shoot was a visit with a landowner, one I had visited last year who was having trouble with elk eating his hay. When we stopped at the house, he said, "Yes, you have permission to hunt, get one please, they are still coming around."

The animals had been there the night before, but were long gone at this point.

Bill and I headed for home as dusk was approaching, visiting about the outdoors all the way. It was one of those days where getting an animal would have been nice, but good company is a close second.

Air Force

Air Force personnel are once again stationed at what was Larson Air Force Base. My wife, Garnet, and I attended the official welcome Tuesday afternoon. After touring a KC-135 Stratotanker, we returned to the Airport terminal just after all of the speakers had finished their speeches.

Really we didn't plan it this way, but the community turnout was tremendous and it took about an hour of standing in line to get to the airplane.

I sought out Col. Paul Guemmer, the Air Force man in charge, and spent a few minutes visiting with him. He was amazed at the community showing and mentioned aircraft tours in the future. We discussed hunting, fishing and Columbia Basin History, all of which his troops may want to participate and learn.

Later Command Master Sergeant Rudy Lopez was standing before me talking about goose hunting and other outdoor activities. I was visiting with Lieutenant Colonel Jim O'Connell when he asked, "Who was the first sheriff of Grant County?"

I couldn't remember, although serious research into the subject was conducted in 2009.

"It was Whitney," he said, "one of my great grandfathers."

A hearty welcome to all of the Air Force personnel. It is great to have you in the Basin again.