grampy

Nice picture! Still lots of snow in our corner of 4H too. Looking forward to seeing some melting over the next couple weeks!

Congratulations! Nissan makes a great truck. My 06 frontier has almost 170k on her and still runs great. I'm sure yours will serve you well too!

The area in the background, just screams DEER! One of our best spots on the farm, looks very similar. Just think of the memories you will have, each time you look at the mount of the first BIG buck killed from this spot! Knowing how the stand, came to be. Making memories with your kids, is what it's all about! Good stuff here. How cool would it be to have one or both kids, take their first deer at this spot!!! What did you use for the ladder and hand rail? That looks pretty slick.

Happy Birthday! Wishing you all the good stuff today buddy! See ya at Saratoga Lake thus summer!

Wonderful way to spend a day with the kids! Platform looks great, nice job! The truck will come clean..........eventually. Cool little hunting buddies ya got there! That's pricless.

Love that truck! Been awhile since we've seen her!

Nice tractor John! So many jobs you can do with a machine like that! Like this one.We bought a new Mahindra last summer. Great tractor so far.

What a great day to not be at work! Looks like you guys had a nice time! World class taxidermy! And a world class burger too! We love Red Robin! So what did you take home from Cabela's?

Good luck buddy! This has been a crazy year for the brackets! A few of the picks I had, to be in the Elite 8, have been long gone!

So cool looking! Love the dark coloration, and black engraving. As always, great work my friend!

Wonder if anyone here is still alive, with eight teams left?

I still have 3 of the elite 8, alive in my bracket. Going with Villanova to take it all? We'll see.

God bless her! What an inspiration!

The one that killed my last deer!

I renounced my membership to NYB many years ago. I didn't like being told who the enemy was, (anyone who didn't hunt strictly with a bow) . I got the feeling some of the members there were more anti, than the anti's! JMO.

Couple years ago, I sat through the firearms and bow classes with my grandson. There was a good mix of ages, and even some females too. I was really glad I went. All the reminders of safety, got me thinking, a refresher sure wasn't a waste of time. Welcome, and glad to have you with us! Good luck with all your future hunting adventures! Pull up a seat, and join right in anytime!

Thanks for the belly laugh, this morning wooly!!

Really hope you feel better soon Rob. Pain like that is terrible.

This is what I do. Just look for exposed bedrock along the edge of the stream. Then just clean out all the cracks, nooks and crany's as they act like a natural sluce box. As the heavier gold, will find the bottom of these cracks. I'll dump the material in a five gallon bucket, with a classifier on top, then 'slowly' pan the material from the bucket. Sometimes you get nothing. Sometimes a few flakes of color, to show for your work. You won't ever get rich. But it's another fun thing to do outdoors! Some day, I'd like to go to Alaska, for a hunt, do some fishing, and pan for a little gold! "It ain't about having the gold, it's finding the gold!".......Steve Massey.

Very true.

Hope someone told them the picture is upside down.

I've done a bit of panning in various places in NY. And have found some flakes of placer gold. Though any gold you find, belongs to the State, by law. During the receding of glaciers in the last ice age, small pockets of placer gold were deposited throughout NY. The Green Mtns. of Vermont, also have some nice streams to do a little prospecting. And who knows ya might even get lucky, and find a small piece of color, to rattle in the bottom of your pan! It is a lot of fun. And can be as inexpensive as $50 or so for a couple pans, a classifier, and hand tools. Oh, and knee pads!

So I'm a loser.........................pffft. And my esteem is lower than snake privates..........yawn. I'll get a participation trophy, after moving to wooly's site!!!

One of the few skills I have left, to impress my wife, is my driving skills! Slipping and sliding in snow, pulling into tight parking spots, backing a trailer, avoiding distracted drivers, not having an "incident" in close to forty years. That is a source of pride for me! Driving is one of the things, I'd rather just do myself!

As stated in the article, with less hunters contributing to conservation funds, the impact will be felt from many sides. Not just hunters. With hunter numbers declining, where will the funds come from? To keep conservation efforts to the levels, they are now, you will need future input, from all sides. Not just hunters. It will take cooperation from both the hunting and non hunting public. This will take a level of understanding, not often seen, from both sides today. The future of hunting, as we currently know it is in question. There can be no denying that. With more leaving than coming into it, recrutement is the key to keeping our traditions alive and growing. Mentoring new hunters is the way to accomplish this. Young or old, if we each took the time, to mentor even one new hunter, and have them pass it along. The future of hunting 'AND' conservation, will continue to coexist. That benefits everyone. Be a mentor. Pass it on.