JAILBIRD
By quarter-to-six the decoys looked perfect in the field out front of the blind, a coyote had drifted across the field like a sneaky...
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Matt Smythe
Mar 22, 2011
WE’RE VIKINGS, SUCKA
We dig Spring. As a matter of fact this year we did a whole bunch of celebrating and out-of-door reveling the day before Spring arrived...
Matt Smythe
Mar 6, 2011
FRONTIER
I’m tired of small spaces. I’m not talking about my space at work…although I am definitely tired of that too. I’m talking about our woods...
Matt Smythe
Feb 17, 2011
DIRT & WORMS
It’s back. Hot damn it’s back. Two steps out the door at lunch and it hit me like a ton of bricks. We’ve turned the corner. The nose...
Matt Smythe
Feb 2, 2011
BECAUSE
Cold is no excuse. There’s not an hour in the woods or on the water worth rolling over after the alarm and slinking up behind 4 a.m.’s...
Matt Smythe
Jan 18, 2011
OF BLOOD AND BOWS
The family tree on my dad’s side is planted in Canada. Winnipeg specifically. But we’re only able to follow our blood back so far before...
Matt Smythe
Dec 29, 2010
LATE GOOSE, DAY 2
There’s a measure of insanity, I suppose, in the psychology of the late season goose hunter. The first couple days of ridiculous wind and...
Matt Smythe
Dec 28, 2010
LATE GOOSE, DAY 1
After two months of watching thousands, nay, tens-of-thousands fly care-free over the Upstate countryside–the season for freezing in...
Matt Smythe
Dec 6, 2010
WHEN THE SNOW FLIES
My last-minute run to the woods to fill my tag with a big buck was not thought out particularly well. I dressed warm, threw my pack,...
Matt Smythe
Nov 22, 2010
SATURDAY MORNING GOOSE BLINDS
We settle in the furrows. Busted cornstalk & camo. Coffee, pipe and tobacco for me, graham crackers, juice and a goose call for Cam. My...
Matt Smythe
Nov 2, 2010
HEADLAMPS & HOMEMADE BOWS
The leaves aren’t the only things that turn in this neck of the woods once Fall arrives. In our barn, upstairs in the hunt/fish lodge,...
Matt Smythe
Sep 20, 2010
SAID ONE SEASON TO ANOTHER
I was born with a sense for the changing seasons, as was my dad. This is not too terribly profound a birthright, since Winter, Spring and...
Matt Smythe
Aug 30, 2010
TOUGH LOVE & HAYBALES
It’s been said that parents need to let their children make mistakes. Protecting them 100% of the time, while most likely keeping them...
Matt Smythe
Jul 28, 2010
GEAR
Ahhh, mid-summer. The prelude to fall…my favorite time of year. Cicadas have begun to echo their rattling song in the lush heavy-ness of...
Matt Smythe
Jul 7, 2010
1985
I was in 8th grade. Live Aid and We are the World. Reagan was sworn in for a second term. The first WrestleMania went top-rope at the...
Matt Smythe
Apr 9, 2010
OLD MAN RIVER, Installment 4, Thesis
Another from the thesis. I spend a total of two months in the Delta doing research for a book about the Delta Blues. One day I had a...
Matt Smythe
Apr 6, 2010
THE BOWHUNTING BOOK
One of the best things about being a creative at an advertising agency is that I’m fortunate enough to call some amazingly talented...
Matt Smythe
Mar 30, 2010
MAIN STREET AND A WILD TURKEY
I turned right out of the driveway onto Main Street, as I do every weekday morning–the kids clamoring from the back seat for for me to...
Matt Smythe
Dec 6, 2009
SNOOZING GOOSE
I should start out by saying that my dad and I have not had good luck when it comes to hunting geese together. We’ve largely been...
Matt Smythe
Nov 11, 2009
ELEMENTS
4:45 a.m. last Saturday. I rolled out of bed to turn off the alarm and got dressed in the dark. Long underwear, jeans, sweatshirt, heavy...
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