Many of us receive emails (or snail mails, for that matter) from unexpected sources and immediately file them as “trash,” without even taking time to look them over. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is encouraging Mainers to pay close attention to a survey that may be heading their way, and hopes those surveys are filled out and returned, rather than tossed away.

The Kris Kringle's Market Committee is gearing up for its 35th annual Kris Kringle's Market from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7 at the Monson Gym. Kris Kringle's Market offers a variety of crafts (aprons, furniture, fabric items, jewelry, etc.), homemade food and wreaths plus more for sale.

Freddie Gruber was a great drum teacher. If you have a great teacher in your life, no matter the subject taught, then Freddie Gruber won’t be a total stranger.

Cobblestone beaches and the dramatic ocean cliffs. Mossy forests and scenic trout ponds. Open mountaintops and a roaming moose. These are some of the scenes you’ll enjoy in the new outdoor film “Untold Secret,” recently released by the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands.

In the last column I discussed tips for locating the surnames of female ancestors. This can often be a difficult and long task.

Denise Webb won the Maine trivia contest at the monthly Tea Talks on Nov. 14 at Gatherings 4 Main Street. For her knowledge, Webb received a fresh flower arrangement contributed by Spring Street Greenhouse.

A railway company that owns tracks stretching through much of Canada and parts of the northern U.S. will buy Bangor-based Central Maine and Quebec Railway by the end of the year, adding 481 miles of track in Quebec and Maine to its network. Canadian Pacific Railway, based in Calgary, Alberta, will buy Central Maine and Quebec Railway from its parent company, New York-based Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors LLC.

Has Central Maine Power looked at other alternatives to an energy corridor that will stretch across Maine’s northwestern forest? CMP’s proposed route would break up pristine forest.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairman of the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, announced that Newton Field Airport in Jackman has been awarded $3,200,000 to extend the runway to accommodate ambulance air service by LifeFlight of Maine. This funding was awarded through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Airport Improvement Program (AIP).

With a week and a half left in the regular firearms deer season, hunters are on pace to tag more than 30,000 deer this year, according to the state deer biologist and an independent analysis of available data.