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Feb. 9, 2014 marks a special day in the life of yours truly. It is my three-year anniversary, writing about the Great Outdoors at Carson Now.

Three years! Time certainly flies when you are having fun, and it has been both a totally enjoyable and memorable three years of writing about all kinds of activities in the Great Outdoors, both near and far away.

Rational Carsonites carefully deploy their finite personal capital for maximum value and tangible results. Conversely, our city's officials serially ignore the value proposition, favoring redundant, feel-good projects lacking objective analysis, justification and worthwhile benefits. Core civic services and infrastructure maintenance suffer.

The recent initiative to raise sales taxes, projected to saddle taxpayers with $15 million of additional long-term debt, is largely ($13 million) targeted for more indoor basketball courts and arterial street beautification projects.

The @ Two Digital Learning Center, on the second-floor of the Carson City Library, has launched learning opportunities by scheduling a new-round of basic computer classes.

Located on the second floor of the library annex, above the current Youth Department, @Two has been a busy community resource for patrons over the last year. Unfortunately access to the second-floor has been unreliable thanks to an aging and highly temperamental elevator.

If you are like me, I would be willing to bet that by now, you are feeling trapped in your home by our winter weather.

And, as a die-hard winter addict, I love cold days, frosty nights, frigid temperatures, deep snow, thick ice, long hours of darkness and the starkness of our landscapes in the wintertime. However, I must admit that sometimes our winter season even wears me down a little bit.

So, when I am tired of browsing on the internet, playing card games on my computer and feel like the walls are closing in on me, I take some remedial action that you, too, might try.

It has been a busy week at Incline Village on the north shore of Lake Tahoe for Nevada Department of Wildlife game wardens dealing with nuisance bears. On Thursday, NDOW euthanized a 263-pound male black bear and on Sunday a bear was released in the wild south of Gardnerville.

The euthanized bear was positively identified as one that had been breaking into and entering cars, at least one home and some garages in an Incline neighborhood, according to a Nevada Department of Wildlife news release.

This is a reminder that if you are planning to fish in the State of California in 2014, be aware that you will need a new license as of January 01. You can purchase that license and any applicable stamps at a number of local outlets or on the Internet.

If you need to buy a license and stamps, here is some info:

With all of the crazy “Black Friday” shopping madness (shootings, knifings, fights, etc.) now behind us, we can begin, once again, to think rationally about ideas for Christmas gifts for that special person(s) in our lives.

So, if you were not part of that frenzied mob scene on the day after Thanksgiving, or if you are still scratching your head about what to get for that person, here are some “Don Q” suggestions for Christmas gifts:

Join Karl Neathammer and Shelly Aldean with guests Larry Werner, Carson City Manager, and Steve Mokrohisky, Douglas County Manager, as they discuss the nature and challenges of local governance and the benefits of regional cooperation in an era of diminishing resources.

Tell your friends who do not have internet they can see “Capital Crossfire” on Charter Cable 210 Sundays at 7:30 p.m., Tuesdays at 8 p.m. or Saturdays at 2 p.m.

As I look forward to the year of 2014 with high expectations, hopes and dreams, this is a good time to reflect back on some selected personal memories from the rapidly ending year of 2013.

Here are my top memories of this year, ranging all the way from Carson City to British Columbia and the Yukon in Canada:

Before the Internet, before television, there was radio, and before radio was Vaudeville. The small orchestras of the radio shows and vaudeville stage performed varied repertoire from short snappy commercials to full-length works by major composers arranged for their size. Trinkle Brass Works presents Portable Masterpieces, a salon/theater orchestra that will bring this music to life at Piper’s Opera House on Saturday, January 11, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. Light classical, ragtime and plenty of melodrama. Just like it was in the late 1800's and early 20th century.

Charter Communications in Carson City will soon enjoy access to more than 150 high definition (HD) channels as part of an all-digital upgrade.

On December 3, Charter will clear all analog signals from its local network, making way to add more than 120 new HD channels in Carson City and neighboring Storey and Lyon counties. Customers will have access to more than 150 HD channels once Charter completes its move to an all-digital network.

This is my annual reminder that November 18 is a very significant date in the lives of some 4,212 hardy Alaskans (as of the 2010 census).

Those folks live in a unique location known as Barrow, Alaska, which is the northernmost community in the United States.

It is located in the Far North, on the edge of the Arctic Ocean, about 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle, and roughly about 1,300 miles south of the North Pole.

On November 18, the sun sets below the horizon at Barrow and it will not peek back up over the horizon until January 23 (weather permitting).

In a unanimous vote at their last quarterly meeting of 2013, the Carson City Library Foundation agreed to commit $33,000 toward renovating and furnishing the library auditorium to house the new Digitorium, a proposed space build-out for around 20 MacBook Pro computers, high tech software and more.

Approximately $22,000 in residual private matching monies that helped open the library’s first digital space in January of 2012 will also be used for the project, targeted for completion by late spring of 2014.

UPDATE: The Carson City Board of Supervisors will meet jointly with the Carson City School Board beginning at 6 p.m. tonight, Wednesday, Nov. 13. From the Community Center’s Sierra Room, located at 851 E. William St., the 12 elected officials will discuss the school district’s strategic plan, Empower Carson City, and meaningful linkages to the City’s initiatives related to education and lifelong learning.

This week's Carson City Capital Crossfire with Karl Neathammer and Shelly Aldean features guests Heather Cunningham, national training director for the National Circles Campaign, and Brenda Silis, coordinator of the Capital City Circles Initiative.

The student veterans group of Western Nevada College celebrated the opening of the Western Nevada College Student Veterans Resource Center on Thursday, Oct. 31, 1-3 p.m., at the Carson City campus.

The four-room center located in the Cedar Building is the only one of its kind in Northern Nevada. It offers counseling services, student staff, access to VA benefit/medical information, and a study/tutor area with Internet access. The center is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 8 a.m. to noon on Friday.

Douglas County has re-launched last year’s popular budget challenge again, inviting citizens to an online conversation that will harness their input on the County budget.

Residents can participate in one of the budgeting exercises centered on the question, “How would you spend $500 to fund what is most important to you in Douglas County?”

Residents will also have the opportunity to make general comments about the budget process, upload photos or videos to illustrate their concerns or suggestions and put a value on the priorities they think are most important.

In August, Western Nevada College received recognition for its work with veterans, applauded at a national conference attended by President Barack Obama. Just two months later, WNC has continued its multi-faceted support of veterans as they make the transition from serving their country to a life focused on academics and career preparation.

The student veterans group of WNC will celebrate the opening of the Western Nevada College Student Veterans Resource Center on Thursday, Oct. 31, 1-3 p.m., at the Carson City campus.

Six local ladies just returned from an enjoyable, day-long visit to Apple Hill. They were: Mary Bottoms, Patricia Isaman, Mary Morris and Elaine Quilici of Carson City plus Emily Bradburn and Lorraine Scholes of Dayton.

The ladies were six of the passengers on a special, once-a-year, chartered bus that traveled to Apple Hill from the Carson Senior Center.

If you are a newcomer to our area or if you have never been there, fall is a great time of the year to visit Apple Hill. And, if you are a newcomer, you are probably wondering, “What and where in the heck is Apple Hill?”

With October designated National Cyber Security Awareness Month, state and federal agencies in Nevada will be recognizing efforts to protect citizens against attacks on computer networks and infrastructure.

The Nevada Division of Emergency Management/Homeland Security, Department of Administration/Enterprise IT Services, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Cyber Security Alliance are all participating to increase awareness throughout the U.S. and, specifically Nevada.

Elaine and I just returned from a three-day, two-night, fun-filled visit to the Sierra Nevada mountains, just west of Bishop, Calif. The purpose of our return visit to the mountains was to do like we had done in 2012 at this same time of the year:

Here is the latest fishing report for rivers, lakes and streams in Nevada, Northern California and the Sierra. This report is for the week of Oct. 2-9.

The 75th anniversary of the Nevada Day Parade will be celebrated on Saturday, October 26th, 2013 in Carson City and is expected to produce record-breaking attendance.

The day-long experience is kicked off with the opportunity to ride in a hot air balloon. This is a rare opportunity to participate in a mass ascension with a downtown lift-off in Carson City. A downtown lift-off is extremely rare in the hot air balloon industry. Individuals and businesses can sponsor a balloon, which includes the opportunity to ride in the balloon during the event.

Carson City resident, Rick J. Radecki of Lion's Roar Media, will be performing his unique blend of live singing of Romantic Standards, Broadway Show Tunes, and 70s/80s love songs on Sunday, September 22 at the "Dayton Valley Days" celebration.

Elaine and I just returned from a memorable visit to a very special place: It was our second visit to that remote, far-north locale. The first time was about 15 years ago, when Elaine and her late husband Jim McGee and I went there to film Canadian fishing experiences for our weekly TV show.

Internet search giant Google has selected Carson City as the Silver State's leading digital business community. The Google eCity Awards recognize the strongest online business community in each state.

It's a story News 4 brought you last week that's gaining international attention. A woman's dog is put down by Carson City Animal Services after she can't pay the fees to reclaim it during a 72-hour window, a policy the city may change.
Since Jeraldine Archuleta's story broke, employees of Carson animal services have been attacked on social media sites across the internet, and now we know they've been receiving physical threats as well.

I’ve been having fun roaming around on the Internet collecting all kinds of interesting outdoor-type information about Carson City.

And, I thought it would be fun to share that information with everyone who lives here or anyone else who might be interested in my home town.

Hunters who did not draw a mule deer tag in Nevada’s recently completed second draw still have a chance to go hunting this fall.

Results of the second draw were provided Friday, July 19, along with information on remaining tags. All remaining tags will be sold on a first come, first served basis, beginning Friday, July 26.

Mule deer hunters will find tags remaining in several hunt categories and units.

65 tags are available for the Resident Mule Deer Antlerless Any Legal Weapon Hunt (Hunt 1181) in hunt units 101, 102, 109.

Here is a suggestion if you would like to take an mid-summer vacation at an out-of-the-way location, right here in the state of Nevada.


If you are interested, did you know that our very own White Pine County is home to one of the Nation's least visited and Nevada's only National Park: The 77,000 acre Great Basin National Park? 
If you've never been there, here is a whole bunch of useful information: