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Category: Summer

Passionflower 001

The Purple Passionflower: Beauty, Symbolism and Sweet Rewards by the Roadside

Keith Sutton September 27, 2024 No Comments

While visiting Bald Knob National Wildlife Refuge in White County recently, Theresa and I spotted a purple passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) blooming beside the road. These flowers, with their otherworldly beauty and intricate design, have a rich history and hidden treasures in the form of delicious fruit. The Story Behind the Flower Known as “maypop” in the South, the purple passionflower’s striking appearance has inspired tales for centuries. Early Christian missionaries gave it its name, seeing

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Tigers

Shrews: Hidden Tigers in our Backyards

Keith Sutton September 25, 2024 No Comments

In a rural backyard, the carnivore hunts. Its bite is poisonous. Its blood-colored teeth are needle sharp. It never sleeps. Day and night, it kills and eats—one animal then another and another. Yet its hunger is never satisfied. As soon as one victim is devoured, another must be found. It travels unseen through a subsurface labyrinth of tunnels and trails. Others of its kind live nearby in woods and grassy edges—a dozen, perhaps, on a

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Ouachita Nf Squirrels

Ouachita National Forest Squirrels

Keith Sutton September 23, 2024 No Comments

Ouachita National Forest (NF) covers almost 1.8 million acres in west-central Arkansas and southeast Oklahoma. It is the South’s oldest and largest national forest. When first established by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907, it was named Arkansas NF. President Calvin Coolidge renamed it to Ouachita in 1926. The name Ouachita (pronounced wash-i-tah) is appropriate. It is the French spelling of a Native American word meaning “good hunting grounds,” and the national forest lands are certainly

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Conservation

Conservation Starts With Us

Keith Sutton September 22, 2024 No Comments

Would you like to make our world a better place in which to live? Certainly, all of us who hunt, fish and love the outdoors would answer that question with a resounding “Yes!” There are many ways to attain such a lofty goal, including the following simple things you can do at home and afield to help our environment. Most cost almost nothing to implement. Many will actually save you money. All, no matter how

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Cypress Secrets 001

Cypress Secrets

Keith Sutton September 19, 2024 2 Comments

More than 500 years before Christopher Columbus came to America, a tiny bald cypress seedling sprouted in the mucky ground beside Bayou de View in eastern Arkansas. The tree took root about the same time Viking raider Leif Eriksson discovered North America. It was 100 years old when the Crusades started in medieval Europe. By the time Spanish conquistador Hernando De Soto tramped through the area on his way to fame, glory and an early

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Hunting Arkansas

“Hunting Arkansas” by Keith Sutton. It’s Back in Stock!

Keith Sutton September 17, 2024 No Comments

The University of Arkansas Press recently printed new copies of Keith’s “Hunting Arkansas” book, which we now have available through our DownHomeArkansas.net website. Subtitled “The Sportsman’s Guide to Natural State Game,” this 277-page book let’s you walk alongside Keith as he searches for elusive woodcocks in bottomland timber near the L’Anguille River, stalks deer across farmland or treks through woodlands hunting squirrels. He combines decades of hunting know-how with personal stories and histories of various

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Squirrel And Dumplings

Squirrel & Dumplings

Keith Sutton September 14, 2024 No Comments

Squirrel and dumplings ranks high on my list of all-time-favorite wild game dinners. My mother and grandmother often prepared this delicious, filling meal when I was growing up, and I still get a hankering for it in September just about the time autumn starts chilling the air and hunting seasons begin. Preparation is simple and inexpensive. Take a tough old squirrel, or a young one if that is all you have, and stew it for

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Cliff House 001

Discover the Cliff House Inn

Keith Sutton September 12, 2024 No Comments

(Photo courtesy of Ark. Parks & Tourism Dept.) The Cliff House Inn, six miles south of Jasper on Scenic Highway 7, has long been a favorite destination for Theresa and me. We drop in for a meal almost every time we travel to Branson, Harrison or Jasper. This unique eatery offers incredible views of the Arkansas Grand Canyon and some of the best downhome cooking in the Ozarks. We want to share what makes the

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Buffalo 001

Jitterbuggin’ on the Buffalo River

Keith Sutton September 10, 2024 No Comments

The night was incredibly beautiful and serene. The full moon splashed a ribbon of silver across the mirrored surface of the Buffalo River. The sky glittered with a million stars. A cool breeze carried the evergreen fragrance of a nearby cedar glade and the ghostly songs of two lovesick screech owls. Along the water’s edge, shining in the mud, we could see the yellow-green tail lights of thousands of glow worms, the larvae of lightning

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Lake Ouachita Stripers

Lake Ouachita Stripers

Keith Sutton September 8, 2024 No Comments

The water on Lake Ouachita was calm on that September morning, so my son Matt, my friend Bobby Graves and I had no difficulty seeing big schools of shad churning the surface in several locations. One fountain of baitfish gushed topside 50 yards to the starboard. The school of fish exploded in every direction like silvery shrapnel. Something swirled beneath the baitfish, something large. Then more shad broke the surface to our left, and another

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Ouachita Nf Squirrels

Ouachita National Forest Squirrels

Keith Sutton September 23, 2024 No Comments

Ouachita National Forest (NF) covers almost 1.8 million acres in west-central Arkansas and southeast Oklahoma. It is the South’s oldest and largest national forest. When

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Cypress Secrets 001

Cypress Secrets

Keith Sutton September 19, 2024 2 Comments

More than 500 years before Christopher Columbus came to America, a tiny bald cypress seedling sprouted in the mucky ground beside Bayou de View in

Read More »
Squirrel And Dumplings

Squirrel & Dumplings

Keith Sutton September 14, 2024 No Comments

Squirrel and dumplings ranks high on my list of all-time-favorite wild game dinners. My mother and grandmother often prepared this delicious, filling meal when I

Read More »
Lake Ouachita Stripers

Lake Ouachita Stripers

Keith Sutton September 8, 2024 No Comments

The water on Lake Ouachita was calm on that September morning, so my son Matt, my friend Bobby Graves and I had no difficulty seeing

Read More »