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Hello, friends,

As you are reading this week’s column, I am more than likely just returning from a nine-day, fly-in fishing trip to Ontario, Canada.

To cover my deadline, I have written about a way of life that is just as important to me as my weekly outdoor adventures.

As you may have noticed over the years, I like to frequently push myself to the limit on my outdoor excursions. I also enjoy harvesting fish and game and feeding it to my family as well as giving it to friends and neighbors.

Just as important as the fish and game that I harvest is the food I grow and the meat I raise (garden, fruit trees, chickens, ducks and cattle).

Later this summer, you will read about a major change that is coming into my life, but one thing that is not changing is my natural desire to produce and store good, quality food.

Anyone that spends money in a grocery store is well aware that a dollar is buying a whole lot less than it was two years ago and the price of food will probably just become higher.

The garden I grow is huge, and, thanks to the manure from our cattle, grows a healthy crop of vegetables. Five years ago I started planting asparagus, raspberries and strawberries, and now the fruits of that work and investment are really starting to come in.

Last year we harvested maybe five pounds of asparagus, 15 quarts of strawberries and at least as many raspberries. This year all those figures should easily be tripled.

Another way that I am trying to stay somewhat self-sufficient is by actually creating some revenue with excess raspberry and strawberry plants.

My daughter, Selina, is 7 years old and her daddy is not exactly in a profession that has a large income. I decided that if I could sell $500 worth of plants a year and then put it in an account for college, she would have a lot better chance of actually going to college in about the year 2020.

With the help of our local True Value store and Kwik Trip here in Necedah, Selina and I set up a stand and did our best to reach our goal. We came up a bit short, but daddy will find a way to reach it and then I will take Selina in when we actually make the investment so that she learns that end of the process.

I learned a few things in our first year of sales and next year will actually have a self-service stand set up at the house.

This summer I will teach myself how to make salsa, properly freeze corn and braise green beans.

Our garden has plenty of squash, onions and both red and white potatoes planted in it. The garden, along with heating our house with wood, help create big savings on the pocket book in a years time.

When I return from Canada, I plan on purchasing a hog to raise, as well as several chickens that will be butchered in the fall and a few more hens to add to our flock of layers.

I will end this week’s column on a serious note. I was recently operated on for skin cancer (basil cell, right temple). Several times over the last five years I have had simple procedures to remove skin cancer and this time, after a spot returned after removal for the third time, I was sent to Gunderson Lutheran Clinic in Onalaska.

In the times we are living in, there is no excuse for anyone to receive excessive exposure to the sun.

Please wear a floppy hat and use sunscreen. I was told that if sunscreen does not have both UVA and UVB guards that you are not fully protected. Anything with less then a 30 SPF will not get the job done as well, and you are better off jumping up to 50 SPF. In the very least, the medical procedures to remove skin cancer can break the bank down the road.

Thanks for reading! Sunset.