Factoid:Visit Jim’s website at www.naturealmanac.com

Jim Jung has been interested in nature for as long as he can remember. His search for an almanac that covered his interests turned up empty, so he took matters into his own hands.

“It’s something that I wanted to read as a kid growing up,” said Jung, a Southern Illinois native. “No one ever published it, and it didn’t look like anyone was going to, so I had to.”

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That is when he created “The Waterman & Hill Traveller’s Companion 2005 Nature Almanac for Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri.” The almanac includes information on various topics such as hunting, camping, folklore, ghost chasing and canoeing.

Along with Jung, friends, family and other readers contributed to the text and illustrations in the almanac. Jung’s wife Ruby said she thinks the book is a great family activity.

“It always gives us something to do,” she said. “It’s a wonderful ongoing project.”

Jung has been publishing the almanac for eight years. On average, 1,500 to 2,000 copies of the book are sold each year.

“We try and sell only through locally owned and operated businesses,” he said.

The core of the almanac is the monthly “Natural Events” pages, which lists what is happening on each day. For example, the almanac says that today the migration of the Eared Grebe – duck-like marsh dwelling birds – is at its peak.

Some highlights of the current issue include information on cougars in the Midwest, Grotto Sculpin – a new species of fish in Missouri – and the Yellow Mandarin, which is a new wildflower species for Illinois. The fishing and gardening sections give enthusiasts plenty of information such as how to garden and fish by the moon’s position.

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A few of Jung’s previous jobs included teaching sixth grade, editing for the “Southern Observer,” running a garden nursery, serving as a consultant for the “Illinois Geographical Survey,” managing an off-campus international dorm and working as a gas station attendant.

Jung said out of his many jobs, his favorite was the gas station attendant. He pumped gas from 1977 to 1980 at the Red Carpet Carwash on the corner of Walnut and Marion, which is now a lawn car shop.

“They wanted my body, not my mind,” he said. “I just hung out at the station, and I could read all the time. That’s where I learned an awful lot of stuff.”

Jung spends the majority of his week in the woods, many times searching for petroglyphs and rock carvings. He has discovered seven new sites this year, with his most recent finding Tuesday.

Jung said nobody knows exactly what the carvings stand for, but they might be associated with astronomy. The majority of his findings have been centered on Fountain Bluff in western Jackson County. Jung said people etching their names into the rock have vandalized a lot of the sites.

“These things are very fragile, and one idiot can come along and destroy the whole site,” he said. “Several sites I’ve found are heavily defaced.

“If I ever find anybody defacing petroglyphs, God help them, because I sure as hell won’t.”