Don Kleiner's blog

I know it is January and the snow is deep but how about a quick visit back to October? While I was at Libby Camps last fall they had a videographer working on clips about the fall grouse and woodcock hunting. The results are now posted to the Libby Camps web page.

A letter arrived in the mail last week congratulating me on Maine Outdoors becoming a favorite place on Google maps. Seems that the listing has been viewed frequently and the maps were used many times for directions to Maine Outdoors.

You can see the Google listing.

The sun is at the far southern extreme of its seasonal swing and our view is perfect. Sunrise is now to the south of Pleasant Mountain in Rockport. From the office I look directly southeast down across the field so at this time of year I am treated to an excellent view of the sunrise. The sun also comes up after 7AM long after I am awake and working at my desk. Actually the coffee pot is usually empty by then.

Today is the day with the shortest period of daylight. Seems like only a short time ago we were at the longest day. Here in coastal Maine it is not light until around 7AM and pretty dark by 4PM so the short day is quite noticeable. By early next month the sun will begin to rise earlier and we will be headed back toward the long light filled days of summer.

After last weeks snowstorm we had strong winds out of the northwest for three days and cold temperatures. Last night the wind died down but the cold persisted. This morning when I went down the hill Seven Tree and Round Ponds were both ice covered. Clear hard ice that I am sure you could see through (if it would hold you) formed under perfectly still conditions and without snow to cloud it. I am sure that the wind and cold had really cooled the water on the surface of the ponds and that the ice came quickly as soon as the wind died down after sunset last night.

Today’s storm started slowly. In fact Argy and I went for a long walk this morning before it started to snow. We crested the ridge and you could see the snow falling in the distance. Not too far away maybe in Jefferson, in only a few minutes flakes were falling around us. By the time we returned home it was snowing pretty hard. After many phone calls and e-mails it was clear that my meetings for the day were cancelled. A found day in the office!

We had a few inches of snow on Sunday another dusting last night and are forecast to have another storm tomorrow. Temperatures turned colder and freezing is now a high for the day rather than something it might do overnight. In fact I put the heated water buckets in the kennel yesterday since the buckets had stopped thawing during the day. After a long warm fall winter is here.

I have recently gone to work as the Executive Director of the Maine Professional Guides Association. Don’t worry its part time, I am still guiding all summer and fall. I worked for the MPGA in the 1990’s as their first lobbyist and served as president and secretary of the organization before that. In the interim I have worked for a variety of conservation organizations while guiding at Maine Outdoors and four years at the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Over the last few years Maine Outdoors has put on a seminar (usually twice a winter) to help other Maine Guides run successful small businesses. During my guiding season I occasionally meet one of my graduates at a launch or at a sporting camp. It is a great feeling to see someone who has attended the seminar using some of the information and succeeding. The next seminar is scheduled for January 23, 2010.

Early this morning (it was still dark) I was in the kitchen making coffee when my morning newspaper was delivered. We had a hard rain overnight and I thought that it was still raining lightly. I looked out the window and at first thought boy those are big raindrops, then wow the wind is really blowing those raindrops around and then it clicked. Snowing hard, big wet flakes.