Doc

I wonder what would happen if the DEC started a small campaign of TV spots to boost outdoor activity participation? Or how about making arrangements for some school assembly programs, based on the idea of youth health benefits of outdoor recreation? The youth hunts are good probably, but they should be only a start toward bolstering up the current threat of cultural changes that have driven kids onto the couches with their electronic gear. I think there needs to be more effort expended, not only for hunting, but just the general health of future generations.

You guys have got me thinking that a pro might be the better way to go. I'll get an estimate and see what it looks like. There's lot of things about this set-up that makes nervous.

Now you get a chance to sharpen up the skills on your left hand.....lol. What in your shoulder did they repair? How long did they estimate before you could start using it in a "heavy-duty" way (like shooting the bow)? Was the malfunction caused by shooting the bow, or do you think it was something else? Let's get those left handed typing skills up to speed with a whole lot of questions .... lol. Anyway, I hope all the healing process and PT goes well and you are back ship-shape in a hurry.

The tree is about a foot in diameter at the base and probably 30' or 40' tall. It's not huge, but big enough to hold a few surprises.

My own personal observations kind of tell me that hunter numbers or at least hunter participation is not anywhere near what it used to be. And the threads that I have read here sound like I am not the only one noticing that. All that along with occasional articles that proclaim the shrinking hunter numbers has me pretty well convinced that it is not all a myth. Today we have a license for every kind of season and prey and weapon that has artificially expanded the amount of licenses sold. So I don't think that is a reliable gauge of hunter numbers. I do believe that the decline has many natural elements to it. Simply noting the cultural and societal changes and the flooding of competing pastimes seems to show a shift of interests and participation. Also, the shortage of huntable lands is a relatively recent trend started by the decline of family farms, and the mass exodus from the cities into the rural countryside. All those things point to the fact that something besides a couple of special youth seasons is required, or at least somebody should begin talking about solutions instead of pretending that the evolution away from a hunting culture will somehow solve itself.

Ha ha ha....... did you ever watch Tim the Toolman when he gets all ramped up to take on a project. I just hope the results don't come out similar.....lol. I will be putting it off for awhile until my Brother-in-law comes down from Canada. He's pretty good on these things, and the two of us together can really get into some trouble. He'll probably have some idea that involves dynamite.

It is interesting that as we watch the future of hunting slowly sink into the sunset, we have pinned all our hopes for boosting recruitment rates for the hunting ranks on a couple of early youth seasons and seem to be patting ourselves on the back for having solved the problem. Is there anybody working on other aspects of returning hunting to being a "cool" thing that kids are eager to get into? Is there anyone working on a media campaign to get kids back into outdoor activities. Any DEC/school activities, assemblies, and programs aimed at selling outdoor activities to kids? .....Anything? Or is everything riding on early youth seasons as the one and only way to save the future of hunting, fishing and trapping and other outdoor activities? And while we are at it, what are the plans for extending adult participation into the future. We are so focused on youth recruitment, I don't suppose that anyone has noticed how quiet the woods are getting after opening weekend. There seems to be a lessening of enthusiasm and actual man-hours in the woods from the adult hunters after the original excitement of opening day. I honestly don't think that it is only the youths that are losing interest in hunting. I think there is a heck of a lot of work to do in this area before we start thinking a few days of special youth seasons are going to save the day. The DEC is so happy doing special studies, have they spent anytime figuring out what's happening to hunting and how to fix it? We hunters are their only control tool on game populations. I would think they might be a little more interested in reversing the trends than simply declaring a couple of special youth seasons.

So what they are saying is that there will be no garden because I will never get the tiller out there this year in the swamp I call a garden, and all the fruit trees will have another year with no fruit.

So, I have a super tall redbud next to the house that got planted in the absolutely worst spot. It struggled for light and grew way taller than they are supposed to and leaned out toward the house. So the other day I noticed that a huge hollow spot is now visible about half way up and the tree is not long for this world and when it comes down, it will likely take gutters and a bunch of vinyl siding and perhaps even a window. so now I have to figure out a way of getting this thing down by dropping it 180 degrees from where it is leaning. Here comes the plan. I have to get a rope up into the top of the tree so I can winch it backwards with a come-along and or my ATV. So I have been busy this morning mounting a fishing rig on one of my old recurves. I am going to shoot the arrow through a crotch at the top of the tree. Then tie a good heavy rope onto the fishing line and pull the heavy rope up and through the crotch in the tree. Then, I will tie a cross-bar on the rope and pull it through until it lodges into the fork in the tree. Then I can apply pressure and drop the tree where I want to. What do you suppose the odds are that all that is going to work perfectly ....... lol. This all sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

Yeah, no claws showing, and the roundness of the track make it look like a cat. The only thing that makes it a little confusing is the scale. Is it a bobcat or a house cat?

One time when I was on a fishing trip, deep into the wilds of Ontario Canada, the only defense was a big old stogie. So go find a few of the stinkiest, rotten smelling, cigars and torch one up when you are on the verge of madness due to any bug infestation. And then post a selfie. That would be a riot...... Growie with a stogie .... lol. I gave up all smoking so that remedy is no longer available to me, but I will say that it sure worked. There were no bugs that could tolerate that smoke screen. I'll bet a pipe would work good too.

Dang! I love that follow-through ..... perfect!

The most gear that I carry for hunting happens on opening day of gun season for deer. That is the day when I intend to spend the whole day. I am not all that far from the house that day, but the food alone would break the back of a good horse. I have all kinds of crap. Cameras, a full thermos of coffee, layers and layers of clothes, a folding stool, and so many other things that I can't even remember. The first part of the hill is almost hands and knees travel. It is crazy. But I don't want to have any excuses for quitting early when the shooting slows down to near nothing, and I start getting bored. If I have to, I'll pull out a magazine just to keep myself entertained. I always know there will be something in that pack that will keep me there just a little bit longer. Maybe another one of those 5 cold fried egg sandwiches.....lol. That opening day is more like a camping trip than a hunt.

Sooner or later, we all will be forced to slow down a bit ....... one way or another. I am starting to see it. My hunting is starting to revolve around where I can get my ATV for deer retrieval. The future of projects are starting to be determined based on what kinds of aches and pains and incapacitation that I might suffer if I take them on. Slow and steady for everything these days.....lol. It's not time to stay in bed yet, but I'm not ready to sprint up our hill anymore.

I wouldn't really try to assign any kind of trend to the way my life developed around archery. I was fine until I got the competition bug and started thinking that success was measured by the amount of equipment that I owned. It was that and a bit of becoming a archery hoarder ..... lol. There is always something intriguing about thinking that some magic piece of new technology can provide a band-aid for form problems or some other natural flaw in one's shooting expertise. It's not an age thing or something that everyone has to go through. But there does seem to be a constant evolution in bowhunting that becomes a search for short-cuts and crutches and paths to a purchased type of success that provides things that mentally trend towards guarantees or at least a notion of a guarantee. We tend to say we're in it for the challenge and then do everything in our power to remove as much of the challenge as is technologically possible. I think it is merely human nature. Is it just bowhunting? ...... Probably not.

You know we laugh at this picture as a ridiculous representation of a bowhunter, but I saw a guy up on the hill a couple of years back that would have been a good character to start this photoshop project with. This guy had a huge pack (and I do mean huge!) bulging with I don't know what all, and was carrying some huge ladder-stand, and had all kinds of junk hanging off his pack his pants his coat and any square inch of his body where he could fit something. He had just made it to the top of our "killer-hill" and was sweating like a pig and huffing and puffing like he was in the throes of cardiac arrest. I hope I wasn't laughing at him loud enough for him to hear as he staggered past.

Ha ha ....... Last time I was over to Bullseye was to have my broken string replaced on my 17 year old Mathews so I could go out and shoot my hi-tech autumn orange XX75 aluminum arrows. I even sharpened up some of my old 1960's bear Razorheads a few years back and killed another deer with those.....lol. No, my days of chasing technology and trying to buy success have been over for decades. In fact, look up cheap in the dictionary and you'll see my picture right there with the definition....lol. Ah, but I did have my day. You should have seen my wall of equipment back in my tournament days. I out-did most of the archery shops. Damn the chrome 3' stabilizer bars and metal-fleck custom paint jobs and the drawer full of releases and sights, and the other drawer of all the latest gizmos and go-fasters ....I had it all. I was not to be outdone by the best of them. But that old Mathews (which was the hottest thing on the market) was the last investment in new technology that I have made. I have bought replacement equipment for broken stuff, but I took a look at that old Damon Howatt recurve on the wall and realized that that bow had killed a few deer just as dead as my fancy Mathews. I began a cheapo campaign from that day on. I started counting up the deer that I had taken with that nasty old Bear Whitetail Hunter, and it put it all in perspective. Those clunky old epoxy limbs that could double as a crowbar really was actually a deer-killing machine. That thought was the cure. I can now walk into an archery pro-shop and never have my hand even twitch toward my wallet anymore. And I'm still killing deer.

Not much can be said at times of loss like this. Grandparents are special people that often take up a large part of our heart. My grandparents have been gone a long time now, but I still remember the hurt when they went. Nothing will replace their loss, but try to fill the void with fond memories of the good times you had together. The pain will eventually pass, but the memories will be with you forever. Treasure those.

Yeah, this was intended to be funny, but the fact is that it is a graphic reminder of what has happened to bowhunting. I remember when guys got into bowhunting because they wanted a form of hunting that represented extra challenge. Success was a noteworthy accomplishment because the equipment was quite stripped down and primitive function. Over the decades, we have done our best to remove challenge in bowhunting in any way that technology can provide. Today bow season is just valued as a warmer time of the year to hunt deer. Everybody likes the idea of taking a deer with a bow, but tries their best to make that challenge and accomplishment less of a big deal by adding whatever techno-gizmos they can pile on. It is a whole different mentality than it was when the season was first established, and this picture although intentionally exaggerated to be humorous, shows the new mentality of bowhunting perfectly.

Yeah, I have no idea what Kansas looks like this time of the year. But two guys sitting close enough together to both be shot in the face is really hard to believe. My gosh, didn't they see him pull up getting ready to shoot. It's all so hard to even imagine. There had to have been a clear line of sight between them. Weird!!!!

He shot two different guys in the face with one shot? It really doesn't make any sense. The damned foliage isn't even out yet. The woods is wide open such that you can see forever. One guy could never be obstructed such that you couldn't clearly identify him, let alone TWO. Really, this sounds like something intentional. The investigators should look long and hard at this one.

Those big fat pollywogs .......... super great bullhead bait!

Every time I read one of these Trump-bashing threads, I am reminded of just what the alternatives were during this past election, and it puts it all into a whole different perspective.

I've still got puddles of standing water in the garden. Not sure when (or if) the darn thing will ever dry up.

Yes ..... Where do you find one of those deaf, blind, and clueless deer. It was like she was waving a flag, and still the deer wasn't catching on. That is where those myths about deer never looking up come from.....lol.