phade

LOL - join the club. You need a super fence or electric...or enough to survive foraging. We had a fence with repel spray up and lost 1.5 acres of beans in about a full week. They went through the fence to get to them. Beans are off the list this year for us; but we may try again next year. We planted a fall blend of turnips, radish, rape, and some wheat and rye mixed in. It came out well and did its job.

#smallhands

Game changers... Was done back in the 2G days called Trail Lync. Failed miserably due to water leaks, cable pinch, and problems with the SD card connecting consistently. It will work for some, but it's going to be a tough go of it for some people. One poor guy already reporting that he cracked his screen due to the wire being sandwiched in the cam shell. Another guy could get pics sent with the latch open on the cam but not when door shut because of cable pinch or it slightly pulled the SD card out of the cam slot. Again...some people will like it, but it's not going to be a tool that is just tossed up with little care. And will cams be warrantied if you break it due to using the cell link (IE water intrusion or latches breaking, etc.).

Wait 45-60 days. There are alot of entry level cell cams hitting the market. Stealth, Muddy, Spypoint, a new Cuddelink, and Tactacam are hitting shelves now or in the next 14 days. Give it a month to see what happens on user feedback. Spypoint has been all over on reviews and use. I had to stop selling them to clients because they couldn't handle service inquiries and clients would complain. Got more complaints on them in 6 mos. of selling than I did in all my other brands combined for 4-5 years. The Stealth cells have done extremely well for me - and I wasn't a Stealth fan. I am hoping the Fusion retains alot of the former model performance with the simplicity of setup that it needed. Also...if you're looking for multiple cells...just go cuddelink. Save ongoing costs.

I grew up hunting in SEVA. Snakes galore...cottonmouths and rattlers. And you cannot kill them on certain grounds. One particular draw hunt on federal land borders the ocean and brackish waters. This island is situated about half of a mile to a mile offshore. The water is just deep enough you have to boat across. It is loaded with deer - the island is around 800 acres and has natural apple and persimmon trees. Salt marsh makes up alot of the edge. Hogs also make it there, too. Deer swim across the bay to get to it. We hit the opening day draw for the island when I was around 19 or 20 years old. I set up on a great persimmon grove mid-island and my father went to a pinch point in the north. I ended up having another drawing hunter nearby so I headed up north to slow push deer to the pinch. Since it was a draw hunt we only got four hours to scout it about a month prior. I made a dumb mistake and pushed too far to the edge of the island and a few deer rounded the pinch without actually going through it. I was pissed, so I just marched up to my Dad to re-plan. About 50 yards to him I'm cutting across waist high reed grass. The kind you can't see the ground on until you lay down your boot. I can still recall the visual in slow motion. My right boot started coming down and as the grass clears lay the biggest meanest cottonmouth I had ever seen. Physics could not be stopped in time and my boot landed square on his head. I mean, you couldn't hit the game winning dinger in the bottom of the 9th any better. I locked up. That snake was so big its tail was smacking my hip trying to wriggle away while its head lay under, at this point, all of my muscles forcing the boot to stay down. My dad walks over, and what seemed like an eternity...led to a game plan of just lifting my boot slowly and staying still. After what seemed like another eternity, I worked up the courage to do that. Then the plan fell apart. I lifted my boot, the snake went north, I went south, and that thing climbed up my dad's leg and over his shoulder trying to get away from us. He was so pissed off at me I thought I was going to have to swim back. But, now he laughs at it since we didn't die, ha. That island is loaded with snakes to this day. I found out they stopped the hunts there last year. Times are a changing.

Cory - you have some pest damage there. I'd research options. The DE mentioned can be an option, as would some organic and non-organic sprays and powders. To me, you also have some nutrient deficiency based on the coloration of the leaves and curling. Lowe's sells a vegetable garden bag of fertilizer for $10-15. It's 5-10-5 but also has some of the micro and secondary nutrients. I'd look into that as an option. Biz...that looks like you have some soil challenges if you are watering properly. Not enough OM and water holding capability to keep the roots intaking water.

bobcats can and do kill deer. There was a recent trail cam video that caught one such example on a full-size doe. The cat jumped on and rode it like a bucking bronco until it was able to get around to the neck and face and the deer collapsed. Bobcat then killed it. Pretty intense cam capture. But if no coyote present...bobcat seems culprit.

Got out for a bit each of the first three mornings and had action each time. Connected at 9:30 opening day. 26 lbs, 9.5 inch beard and 1 3/8 and 1 1/2 inch spurs. Over the three days, heard 8 shots including mine. All pretty close by. I'm a lousy turkey hunter but we did really well at this particular spot.

We have bantam cochin eggs arriving today that we will be putting into the incubator. We're moving toward bantams just because they are easier to take care of yet their egg sizes seem to be just fine for us. We have two large fowl chickens left. A chochin and a gold wyandotte, both of whom are pretty laid back. The chochin none of the others messed with; the wyandotte seemed to be at or near the lower end of the pecking order. We do have 4 silkie bantams, two fluer d'uccles, and one old english bantam, separated from the large fowl. We want to try to merge them....a bit nervous dynamics might change but we will see. Almost put in an order for blue red laced wyandotte but don't really want to have too many large fowl. Probably a next year thing depending on how these bantam cochins go. We cleared out about 7-8 large fowl chickens last week - they went pretty quick suprisingly. Two people cam and got the bunch. I was bummed to get rid of the lavendar orpington but she was at the bottom of the pecking order too and the one person who wanted her, wanted a more laid back bird, of which she was.

Tampa is no slouch. Ybor City can light it up.

www.car-parts.com You are welcome - it's a public-facing junk yard part sourcing site. I used the heck out of it in early 2000s to cut costs for the collision repair shop I worked at. It was a hidden gem back then and still is reliable.

The maran laying? Usually marans have much darker browns. I can see the welsummer eggs in there! The Australorps are premium layers...lots!

We have a family cruise booked for August. Doubt that happens. Definitely trying times - I rarely take time off for turkey season but I'll be off May 1. Just getting to the woods will be nice. Travel deals abound looking out into the future - it's a gamble but some crazy deals. Looked at one trip where air and hotel usually run $1,500-$2K and it can be had almost through the rest of the calendar year for $6-850.

Spent the last 12.5 years at a large company (15K+ employees). Presently leading around $75M in P&L, and way more importantly, a group of 27 awesome leaders and more than 200 team members. Some really great people who can move mountains. I'm constantly in awe with what they can accomplish. For the last two years in a row, they've been the #1 performing business unit in the company. Alot of red tape to navigate in large companies like this though. That part is hard to enjoy but I am good at it, so it's a blessing and a curse. Lately, it's personally felt more like a curse. I'm sure others have more pressing career matters but I'm fighting that internal battle of staying the course vs. aligning with what is becoming more important to me as I age up. I enjoy the people I work with and the present income and income trajectory is more than I reasonably expected to make in my life. So strong that I struggle altering what is a much more secure future for my family against doing almost anything else that likely will not provide that degree of income/security. Thankfully I like the people because it's kept me on the tracks so far. As time goes on, I'd like to have more impact with a smaller company and help accelerate growth and careers for people. One of the business units I lead now does $50M per year and I was lucky enough to be one of the original founding leaders - a start-up in a mature/legacy company. Went from 0 to 100+ employees and families that are supported in less than a year. That business has matured - still innovating, but I really enjoyed the hard work and fun involved in it getting boosted off the launch pad.

Also an option that has become popular - Non-NY states offer online certification. People are finding success taking those and with reciprocity, getting their hunting license here in NY. This seems to remove that need to do the song and dance, which is good. I don't know the specifics - some people say that shouldn't be done, but just passing along as I have seen a few people do this with success and take a meaningful education/certification class.

Yes, about every third year I'll run a soil test just to ensure proper PH and micro nutrients are maintained. I think I've added lime once across 10 years or so based on the tests. I do supplement with fertilizer as needed based on the vegetable/fruit.

raised beds garden mix 1/3 peat moss 1/3 vermiculite or split the 1/3 between this and basic clean soil 1/3 mushroom compost This mix typically gives you good PH and a starting spot. Mushroom compost tends to provide good organic matter yet not impact things like carrots. Using manure tends to cause problems in raised beds. Mushroom compost can be challenging to find bagged but I've had luck at Lowes specifically at multiple Lowes locations so I suspect they'll have it for you. I generally will top off raised beds with a bag of mushroom compost each spring. Vermiculite allows water retention.

A cumulative effect with exponential consequences. History uses fancy phrases like the straw that broke the camel's back...

I definitely visit this site less than I used to. Not really sure why I come back other than it's on a favorite link on my work computer so I do check in for five minutes every so often. Most of my posts here lately have been not hunting related and that's a sign I'm not finding hunting content I engage with. I post some deer pics every now and then but social media has shifted to the other platforms. Admittedly it is way more wild wild west than this - if this ruffles feathers, don't go on some of these hunting groups in FB. That said, there is alot of value due to the platform size. Circling back to the Rona, companies are doing data gathering on human behavior and how quarantine shifts it. People are eating poorer, exercising less, working more (for those who can WFH), drinking more alcohol, etc. Seems reasonable given state of affairs, but there has to be some good somewhere. People innovating new ways of doing things, etc. Don't see much of that reporting in any news outlets.

We had two out of the six we originally got but we were able to give them away - my wife is not a fan of roosters after our first full-size one got out of the coop and chased her around the yard. It was indeed a death sentence.

Our silkie bantams are laying way more eggs than we thought they would. Definitely surprised us compared to the data for them online. They're pretty funny birds. Our full size cochin remains the most entertaining. She is not skittish and will come to you and chill.

Yep via the CARES Act. Its alot of protection - mostly with employers under 500EEs.

We have our first reported/documented case in our town of a few thousand. Seems like the new range of fatalities in US is slated for 80-200K by August based on most models if all is done well.

It will always be a math exercise specific to the circumstances.

Comparing one generation to another on the same playing field is useless IMO. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the great generation, but that doesn't mean the people who found a way to get through the Great Depression, Korea, Iraq/Afghanistan, etc. are not strong in their own right. I think much of our view is morphed by the spread of information and communication - I'm sure there were d-bags in the great generation, too. It just wasn't publicized as much. There are good people in the world. Look at the healthcare workers putting themselves in harm and working to exhaustion. Or people delivering groceries for the elderly. People are so myopic and only look at the bad and think it is more common than the good. If that were the case, then sociology rules would say that isn't deviant behavior then.