"Stress Begins."

The front page of the Feb. 2 edition of the Vilas County News-Review featured a photo of  a doe in deep snow with this caption: STRESS BEGINS With snow depths going beyond 18 inches this week, biologists say the most stressful part of winter has begun for white-tailed deer."

The deer ain't alone!  Christmas is over, New Year's is over, even the Super Bowl is over.  Experience tells me that, even in places with shorter winters, this is a dangerous time.  People lose perspective.  People lose hope.  People lose focus.  That makes this the perfect time to reach out to someone.  Maybe that person that you sent a Christmas card to, but didn't hear back from.  Maybe that old classmate that you had that random thought about.  Go ahead and be a surprise to someone else.  It might be that nothing comes of it.  Or you might discover that you were a welcome lifeline to someone feeling even worse than you.

I've put suet in the bird feeder, and corn in the deer feeder.  Next I'm going to make a phone call to an old friend.