By Dick Herfindahl, Tribune Outdoors writer

The days are getting longer! This is not a revelation just an exclamation of anticipation. It doesn’t mater what some Pennsylvania rodent does the first part of February, I can feel it and it’s just around the corner. We still have the month of March to contend with but I have always felt that I can deal with just about anything that month has to throw at me.

There was however, one March that was pretty cruel to us. I was fresh out of high school and driving a milk truck for Conger Creamery. We had a real old-fashioned blizzard. It started with an ice storm and escalated from there. I remember getting stranded at home and not being able to get to work and when the roads were cleared I made it to work only to have another storm hit again, stranding us at work. That was a rough winter and I can’t remember one with more snow but I am sure there have been many.

I have always thought of March as the, &uot;Even if it snows it won’t last&uot; month. There have been April snowstorms and I can even remember getting snow in May on opening day of fishing but those were not the normal years.

Getting back to spring, there is a certain feeling I get when it gets into March with the longer days and the fresh smell that is in the air. As a kid we had simple entertainment. When the snow would start melting and running down the roadside we would be there. Five-buckle overshoes were the footwear and runny noses abounded because of the fresh air and the colds brought on by getting soaking wet playing in the water.

The overshoes worked to keep your feet dry until that time when you thought you could magically walk over eight inches of water with six-inch overshoes. We’d make boats out of scrap wood from our dad’s garage and we’d have contests to see whose boat would make it all the way to the ditch which ran along the front of the houses on Bridge Avenue. Once in the ditch the boat would be swept away by the swift current and we would race alongside the road following the boats until they disappeared under the rushing water going into the culvert. Once the boat entered the culvert we raced to the other end in anticipation of its re-emergence from the raging river that was flowing through our yard if only for a short time. Once your boat emerged and continued the journey to the &uot;crick,&uot; you had to accompany it to make sure it didn’t hang up on any obstacles that would prevent it from being a successful voyage. If it reached the crick you would bid a fond farewell as it flowed out into the vast wilderness of the slough. There was a certain feeling of accomplishment almost like you were on that little wooden boat that was setting sail in search of another great adventure.

The running water and melting snow also meant that it wouldn’t be long until there would be fish appearing in the crick. Now I know most Minnesotans couldn’t get too excited about seeing a school of baby bullheads but to me they meant there were fish in the water we loved to play in or take a leaky old duck boat on.

I guess that’s what is refreshing about spring. Spring always seems like it is the time for a fresh start. Baby birds begin to appear and as kids we would spend hours at a time at the old bridge watching minnows and other fish come and go along with the amazing transformation of a tadpole to a frog. I can remember going back every day to watch their natural transformation and listen to the unmistakable sound of the red wing blackbirds as they busily made their nests in the cattails of the slough. That was nature at its best, it wasn’t TV or a Game Boy, nothing fancy at all, just something that fascinated a bunch of curious kids growing up in the country.

Just a reminder to our ice fishermen Minnesota’s ice-fishing shelter removal dates are fast approaching. Dark houses, fish houses and shelters must be off the ice of inland waters no later than midnight on Feb. 28 in the southern two-thirds of the state and March 15 in the northern third.

If houses or shelters are not removed, owners will be prosecuted, and the structure may be confiscated and removed, or destroyed by a conservation officer. Contents of the structure may be seized and held for 60 days; if not claimed by the owner within that time, it becomes property of the state of Minnesota.

After the date when ice or fish houses or shelters must be removed, portable shelters may be placed on the ice and used from one hour before sunrise to midnight, but only if there is an open fishing season on the lake. Storing or leaving fish houses or dark houses on a public access is prohibited.

Until next time, play safe and enjoy the outdoors.

Remember to keep our brothers and sisters serving our country in your thoughts and prayers.