Doc

I have to wonder ..... If the government is our enemy, who is our friend? Communists, the Taliban, or just who do we align with? Are the militias our friends? Which ones of those are we supposed to trust and align with? Do we now pal-around with terrorists? Do we now begin trusting one wacko after another in hopes that eventually we will get lucky and find someone with a "better" idea that we can hang with. I don't see the government as being a friend or foe. They simply are the tool of organization that our system uses. But when we start calling our government an enemy, then it is quite likely that suspicious but intelligent people may begin to wonder just exactly who we consider to be our "friends". Seems like a pretty logical question.

I have no idea what would cause a crossbow bolt to not enter a target in a straight head-on fashion. But even though you seem to be getting consistent contact with the bullseye, I can say that it likely will cause penetration problems. I would guess that it is something that needs an answer and a fix.

It appears that each municipality has to blow a fortune with these expensive experiments and has no way of learning from the experiences of others. My attitude is, let the majority rule. If they hate hunting more than expensive landscape damage, auto/deer collisions, and hazardous tick-borne diseases, then great. Let the idiots rot with the consequences of their own ignorance. It is exactly what they deserve. The DEC and hunters should simply back away from the situation and let nature take its course, providing yet another laboratory example to display the catastrophic results of these foolish people.

It could be that the guy rents the entire property (residence and land). I could see this kind of thing happening, with the landowner trying to collect twice on the same piece of land.

I was almost always driving my 40 miles to work in the dark, so I became pretty good at spotting deer before any collision could occur. However there was one morning when way up the road, I watched the headlights of an on-coming car blink as the guy nailed a deer. As I approached, I could see a deer flopping in front of his headlights. So I pulled over to see if I could be of assistance. Before I could get out, the deer got to it's feet, ran way out in a hay-lot in a big circle and came right at me. Bam! ..... right in the side of my passenger side door. The poor old Datsun took a hell of a hit and the deer bounced off and ran away. The car wasn't too bad off, but looking at the site on the way home in the daylight, I did notice a nice outline of the car in rust on the shoulder where I was parked. I had one other occasion where I stopped along the road to look at a nice buck in a group of five. Eventually they all scattered, but the buck ran right at my Honda CRX. He nailed me in the side of my passenger side front fender. He backed up and then jumped over the windshield and went on his way. So I don't hit deer, they come after me. I did hit a pig once and killed it........lol.

I would love to see pictures of some of these camps.

See that is the problem I have with paying good money for hunting rights of property that I don't live on. It seems to me that your options are non-existent. How do you enforce trespass restrictions when you don't live on the property or have some trusted person who lives there or very, very close to the property? It's hard enough when you are there constantly. I could probably say with a fair amount of confidence that this one guy is not the only one that hunts there. He's just the only one that you happened to have run into so far.

Ontario County passed the law last year and we have Canandaigua and Geneva. That really made no difference. What you need is some pressure from your local gun advocacy groups and some political interest. If it can here, it can be done in Genesee County as well. It just takes somebody to push it.

We can posture and put up the brave face, but the truth is that when the game cop or other L.E.O. sees you out hunting or target shooting with your unregistered AR, you too will meekly hand it over when ordered to do so. Explain to me what other options you will realistically have. All this defiant Rambo talk is just a bunch of damn foolishness. And by the way, when you are convicted of that felony, you will also be handing over every other rifle, pistol, and shotgun from your home as well (talk about playing into the hands of the anti-gunners). It may be time to start getting serious about legitimate, responsible ways to fight this law instead of being drawn into this movie-set fantasy that we all know ends badly for those of the Bonnie and Clyde mindset.

What is the white thing on the right side of the pond?

Well, I certainly do understand why people would rather not be named on some list of pistol owners, but Right now, at this time, I do see one useful purpose that this list could and should be put to. Astorino should be getting his hands on that list and setting up a very convincing mailing to all of those people explaining how their vote for him is absolutely essential. At least have that list perform some useful purpose. I wonder if that has occurred to him yet.

That unit looks plenty strong enough to simply put a cement block under each of the four corners, and then you will have 8" of circulating air access from the bottom. The plastic tarp idea is pretty good too, but watch out for hornets and such taking up residence. They might get to be a bit testy when you lift up the tarp to get at the wood ..... lol.

About 3 or 4 years ago, we had a bear come through and stay for a couple of nights. He grabbed the trash can and dragged up through the woods scattering garbage and trash all over the woods. Then he bent down the bird feeder to get to the seed (pretty heavy iron water pipe) and chewed and smashed the feeder. Then he took off for parts unknown, never to be seen again. I have not seen tracks, scat, or actual sightings since then. I don't know why, we have some stretches of woods that go for miles without any breaks. It's kind of perfect bear country, but no sign or activity. So I could go out and sit in the woods until mold started growing on me and still never see a bear. So it's not too likely that I will be sitting out there pretending to be bear hunting, sweating and swatting bugs. Maybe some day if some bears decide to take up residence in the area. But even then, as big as this woods is, and as few bears as there are, the odds of actually being able to get within shooting distance are pretty slim (other than some dumb-luck chance encounter). That's the long answer ..... The short answer is .... "no". If I have time on my hands, I'll likely be squirrel hunting and actually get something for the effort.....lol.

What do you think about putting that firewood rack up on blocks just to get the frame off the ground so it doesn't rot? I'm thinking of building one over in our picnic area, and your design looks like something I might use.

So was this just a cattle auction, or the whole contents of the farm? Are you all getting out of farming completely?

You can't turn on the TV without seeing Cuomo's ugly face. Meanwhile his opposition is in "stealth" mode. This is shaping up to be a one-sided blow-out. There's nothing evil, sinister, or conspiratorial about that. It's just a case of one guy has more money than God, and an incumbent's natural edge. Astorino simply has no support, cash or name recognition. Time is running out.

You're right! While everyone is running around looking for the quick fix, there is something very insidious going on culturally and socially. It's all a whole lot more complicated than I think most people realize or are willing to accept. It appears to be a social evolution toward violence with a flair for shock and notoriety. It has nothing to do with clip size or evil connotations of firearm appearances. My big concern is while all these people are running around seeking "feel-good" easy fixes, the stealth causes are continuing to morph into more and more evil and monstrous events. We are still worrying about how a gun looks, while the next generation of horrors may involve bombs and who the heck knows what all.

So, is anybody looking to buy themselves one worthless beat-up Gander Mountain in Henrietta who so far can hardly compete even without competition. They will be forced to clean up their act or get out of town. I love it! Ain't competition great?

Something has to die for others to live. We hunters understand that. It still isn't a pleasant thing to contemplate. It seems unfortunate that Mother Nature seldom is concerned with the humanity of the process.

The look on that coon's face says it all. I think he wishes he had a stick to poke you with ..... lol. So when you replace that camera (and I'm sure that will be soon), are you going to buy the same thing or try to upgrade some? Judging from the quality of your pictures, I would tend to replace it with the same thing.

It seems that the anti-gun/antihunting powers constantly keep us on the defensive. It is simply one issue after the other, which generally are simply intended to keep the hunting/gun world in a constant state of turmoil and harassment. Most of the time the burden of proof winds up on us to try and prove their science faulty. Frankly, I am getting quite tired of reacting to every little needle that they stick in the doll.

Now that I'm older, here's what I've discovered: 1. I realized that at my age I don't really give a rat's ass anymore. 2. If walking is good for your health, the postman would be immortal. 3. Whale swims all day, only eats fish, drinks water, but is still fat. 4. Rabbit runs and hops and only lives 15 years, while a tortoise doesn't run and does mostly nothing, yet it lives for 150 years. And they tell us to exercise? I don't think so. 5. I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it. 6. My wild oats are mostly enjoyed with prunes and bran buds. 7. Funny, I don't remember being absent-minded. 8. Funny, I don't remember being absent-minded. 9. If all is not lost, then where the heck is it? 10. It was a whole lot easier to get older than it was to get wiser. 11. Some days, you're the top dog, some days you're the hydrant. 12. I wish the buck really did stop here, I sure could use a few more of them. 13. Kids in the back seat cause accidents. 14. Accidents in the back seat cause kids. 15. It's hard to make a comeback when you haven't been anywhere. 16. The world only beats a path to your door when you're in the bathroom. 17. If God wanted me to touch my toes, he'd have put them on my knees. 18. When I'm finally holding all the right cards, everyone wants to play chess. 19. It's not hard to meet expenses . . . They're everywhere. 20. The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth. 21. These days, I spend a lot of time thinking about the hereafter . . . I go somewhere to get something, and then wonder what I'm "here after". 22. Funny, I don't remember being absent-minded.

It occurs to me that you can have the best mental health care system in the world and still be inadequate to prevent all loony's from "losing it" and going postal. But is it a gun control issue? It seems to me that after decades of annually piling on volume after volume of new gun restrictions and now having the mass slayings increasing, perhaps it is time to understand that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results may be a bit insane in itself. Maybe it's time to crawl out of that box and start looking at other solutions. Perhaps those solutions lie in the mental health system, or even some other social area that we have not explored yet.

Sometimes it's the only way to get an unbiased opinion that is not aimed at supporting predetermined assumptions organized to create a snappy, attention-getting news article.

It gets even more interesting when you actually talk to some of the people who have to live under the healthcare systems of other countries. Check out some of the waiting times to get simple procedures performed. Studies and surveys are great, but if you want the straight scoop, just converse with some of the people from countries that claim to have a superior healthcare system.