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Duck Calling Dos and Don’ts

Seven things to remember when you’ve got birds working your spread

In my 20 or so years of chasing webbed feet, I’ve shot many a duck and have often enjoyed the company of duck callers far better than I. Here are seven things you should and shouldn’t do with a duck call.

DO: TAKE A LISTENING WALK Go to a local duck spot with some calls hanging around your neck. Don’t bring a gun; simply spend time listening to the birds. My favorite time for a listening walk is during the spring migration, when birds make a lot of noise and their jabber won’t be interrupted by hordes ‘of hunters. Head out in early morning when ducks are most vocal. Pay close attention to the birds’ distinctive enunciations and practice mimicking them. Intentionally spook birds to learn what their alarm calls sound like–that way you can avoid using such calls when hunting.

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Ipod Tips

Play On: Get More Battery Power From Your Player

THERE ARE MILLIONS of iPod stories in the Naked City, and many of them involve dead or dying batteries.

Apple faced one of its biggest public-relations brouhahas when users of first-, second-, and third-generation iPods complained en masse about the relatively short life of the music players’ lithium ion batteries. After only a few months (sometimes weeks) of use, they could no longer hold a charge. Even notebook batteries go south after a time, but at least you can replace a laptop’s battery–you can’t swap out an iPod battery (although Apple replaces out-of-warranty iPods containing failed batteries for $59, plus $7 for shipping; browse to find.pcworld.com/54452 for more).

A quick and humbled learner, Apple improved the battery life of its latest hard disk-based players–up to 20 hours on one charge for the 60GB model. Still, several tricks will let you extend the life of your iPod battery, both for daily use and for the long haul. Note that while some of the following tips will work on the iPod Nano and Shuffle, which use flash memory, they are intended specifically for hard-disk iPod models. Pausing vs. standby: Because much of the power consumed by hard-disk iPods (not the Nano or Shuffle) spins the disk, press Pause when you leave the player unattended. Left playing in default mode, the iPod will run until the battery is drained.

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On the Road to Financial Health

Recovering from a serious illness can give you a new perspective–and a new set of financial challenges
MOST MID-LIFE CRISES ARE A BREEZE COMPARED with the one Cheryl Roberts has dealt with over the past year. In August 2005, at 43, she learned she had an aggressive form of breast cancer that had spread to one lymph node. “I had no idea what was going to happen,” says the San Luis Obispo, Calif. real estate appraiser. “It was terrifying.” The next nine months were a painful blur of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation–fortunately, with a happy ending. Roberts finished treatment in April, cancer-free. By June the avid bicyclist had completed a 50-mile ride and returned to work full time–with a new appreciation for just about everything. “I have the rest of my life ahead of me, and that feels awesome,” she says.

The next stage of recovery for Roberts: getting her finances back in shape. While she was undergoing treatment, she was able to work only 12 hours a week and her income, normally around $65,000, dropped by more than two-thirds. As a result, she dipped into savings to help cover her living expenses and to pay the $15,000 in medical bills she incurred for deductibles, co-payments, prescription drugs and other costs not covered by her health insurance. Roberts had routinely socked away about a quarter of her pay before her illness, so she wasn’t forced to take on debt. But the disease stalled progress toward her goals of buying a home and retiring early, and added a major element of uncertainty to her financial outlook. “I’m assuming I’ll live another 50 years,” she says. “But I know the cancer could return, and I don’t know how to plan for that.”

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Wine & Cheese Party

Throw a wine-and-cheese tasting that’s casual, fun, I and fuss-free. Invite a group of friends over and host with ease. Here’s how to do it.

1 invite your guests
Six to 10 people is the ideal group for a tasting party: big enough to spark interesting conversation, but still small enough for everyone to sit around the table.

2 go shopping
Buy three or four different wines and cheeses (see pairing suggestions below). You’ll need 12 to 20 ounces of each cheese and two or three bottles of each wine. Buy cheeses no more than a day in advance so they’ll be fresh and flavorful.

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Tricks For Halloween Treats

Did you know that each American eats an average 11 of 25 pounds of candy a year? That’s a lot of sweet stuff. It can be fun to trick-or-treat and then pig out on candy. But you have to admit that it can also leave you feeling … icky. Here are five ways to enjoy a healthier, happier Halloween.

1 Instead of going candy crazy all night, limit the number of houses you go to and get just a few pieces. Then settle in with friends and watch a scary movie.
2 Pace yourself by creating a schedule. For example, you can choose to eat eight pieces of candy on Halloween and then one piece a day after that until it’s all gone. Or decide that you will eat no more than three pieces a day for a week.
3 Separate your candy into three piles: what you really like, what you sort of like, and what you couldn’t care less about.  Then give away all but the first pile. 
4 Stay in and make your own healthy Halloween recipes with friends. Try this recipe for Bloody Finger Pizza.

You’ll need:

• chopped red bell peppers

• low-fat string cheese sticks

• cooked pizza crust

• pizza sauce

Spread pizza sauce on cooked crust. Arrange cheese sticks on the pizza. Then place bell pepper pieces at tips of cheese to look like fingernails. Heat in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees or until the cheese starts to melt.

Source: Current Health 1, Oct2006