wolc123

The Honda engine on my wood splitter did that a couple years ago. I took the air filter off and sprayed in some carburetor cleaner. Soon it was back to normal, and has been good ever since. I have had way less trouble with my small engines, since I started running nothing but ethanol free gas in them, about 5 years ago. That one little glitch has been it. It is well worth the extra 50 cents a gallon. I also add stabilizer to the ethanol free gas. I have around a dozen small engines, about half of which are 2 strokes. The only ones I use ethanol gas in are my two lawnmowers, during cutting season. The last fill of the year on those is also ethanol-free with stabilizer.

I have to get a bit more firewood cut, then I plan on some hinge cutting in a couple of sanctuary areas at my place. I also want to open up some shooting lanes around my "opening day of gun season" stand, on the edge of a swamp, over at my folks place. I am waiting for them to get the Covid vacseen shot before I go over there. That stand has produced for me on the last 3 years, but a little bit of clearing would make it easier to get a clean shot from it. I had to let a doe and fawn pass last year because I could not get a clean shot at them. When a buck came thru 15 minutes later, he also would have escaped, if I didn't have a grunt call. I have to be careful to not cut too much, which I fear would cause the deer to abandon their normal travel route at the swamp edge. There is a fine line between cutting enough for clear shots, and too much. I don't have a lot of equipment maintenance planned, because a barn and silo demolition project will eat up most of my free time this winter and early spring. I do have an old 8 ft cultipacker I picked up from a neighbor last summer for $ 40, that I would like to get rebuilt for use over at my folks place. It has a couple of busted wheels (I will cut it down to 7 ft), needs a little welding on the frame, and some new wood bearings. My old tractor has a rear rim that looks like it is almost ready to let go, but hopefully I can get another season out of it. The calcium filled rubber tube is breaking thru the rim near the valve stem. If anyone comes across a good deal on an 11.2" x 28" R-1 tire & rim , pm me.

You are right about the "no equal", however, since Roe vs Wade, almost exactly an order of magnitude more innocent lives have been snuffed in the US, before they were able to draw their first breath.

Looking at how busy the butchers were last fall, my guess is that most are in freezers.

If you can't use any spray, I think your best option for 1/4 - 1/3 acre would be a walk behind rototiller. Almost anything else is going to plug up or just bounce over the sod.

Who is in that car parked next to the dumpster out in the parking lot ?

That is similar to what I did. 2 years ago, I found a mint-condition, 2000, Florida, 3/4 ton Silverado with 60k mi for $ 5k. The catch is, to keep it that way, I do not use it in the winters. It works great with a camper on back and for towing 12,000 pounds or more. As long as you keep the road salt away from those, they will last a long time without major repair expense. It gets 12 mpg, with a heavy camper on back and boat behind, 14 mpg otherwise, with the 6 liter V8. For year-round everyday driving, I use a new, small, turbo-charged 4 cyl, FWD SUV that gets 32 mpg. I have yet to see how that does in the snow, but I never had much trouble with the FWD compact car that I had prior (I gave that to our older daughter when she turned 16), so I am guessing it will be ok. I am expecting gas to be north of $ 5 per gallon by the end of the summer, so fuel milage ought to be high on your priority list when shopping for new vehicles at this time. I imagine that the camper and truck will mostly stay in the barn, and we will be doing more hotel/tent camping and pull the boat with my wife's 24 mpg mini-van, after that happens.

Had to break out the good stuff for the Bill's win.

I did an elk/mule deer rifle season hunt, in a north west CO OTC tag area, when I was in my mid 30's. As others have mentioned already, do it when you are able. It only took me a day or so to get acclimated to the high altitude and thin air. I went with 3 older friends who had gone 3 or 4 times before. One of them had a brother in law who lived out there, and he was our "guide" We drove out there from WNY in a truck, taking turns driving, and hunted for a week. We did not see any shooter elk (it was too warm for many to come down out of the dark timber, and the bulls needed 3 points on a side), but we did bring back 3 mule deer. I am glad I went when I was young (I am 56 now), but I would not do it again, unless it cost me less than $ 1000 including tags, transportation, food, and lodging. Also, that would be elk only. They taste as good as NY whitetail. My friends gave me quite a bit from previous years hunts. I would need to be paid to do another mule deer hunt in that area. They don't taste so great. The best thing for me about that hunt, was that the Rockies gave me a real appreciation for the Adirondacks, and mule deer gave me a real appreciation for whitetails. Had I not gone west while I was young, I might take that for granted. High desert dont much for me, as far as scenery. The ADK's are way prettier to me. If you do go with an outfitter, make sure to research them. Some of my friends (who are my age) booked a horseback trip with one a coule years ago and they said that "it was a real shit-show". They spent lots of money and didn't bring back any meat.

I can't imagine using neverseeze, as some have mentioned. That is nasty, dirty, difficult-cleaning stuff for sure. Gorilla grease, by contrast, cleans up real easy.

Teflon pipe tape is meant for use on tapered pipe threads, not straight threads like on a breech plug. Another poster mentioned a melting/difficult cleanup issue with it. Have you ever used something like the gorilla grease that T/C makes and recommends for use on the breech plugs of their ML's ? A small quantity around the first few threads, before installation is all it takes. I think the tiny plastic jar that I bought 15 years ago cost less than $5, and I still have more than half of it left.

The snow load broke one of the poles on a cheap pop-up blind that I picked up at Aldis a few years ago. I had saved the poles from a 10-man tent that blew out of my trailered boat one time, while I was southbound on Rt 81. I never liked that huge, modern, fiberglass pole tent, because it was such a pain to put up. We could never figure out what side was supposed to be the front, and where all the different sized poles were supposed to go. An old, aluminum pole, cabin-style Wenzel, that I picked up for $20 at a garage sale later that summer, is so much nicer. When I saw the huge canvas lift up out of the boat in my rear-view mirror, I put the hammer down. I can still picture the lovely sight of that disliked tent canvas floating away into the sunset. I found that big pack of poles, while I was cleaning my barn yesterday. There are a few different sizes in there, and I am sure it will be no trouble finding one to fit the old pop up blind. Just in time for ice fishing season.

What is your address there ?

I killed lots of them. I even came up with a possum-tailored dispatch method. A single .22 to the head, to the center of an "X", formed between the eyes and ears, has always done the job perfectly with coons. Several possums appeared "dead" after that treatment. It turned out that they were just pretending to be dead. after I left, they went back about their business. The name of that trick escapes me now, playing something I think. They have such a small pea brain, that it is tough to hit. Back in the days of cheap ammo, I would give them a second shot, behind the shoulder. That always got the job done. If the tick problem ever gets licked, and I go back to killing possums, I would skip that first head shot and just use the single double lunger. I never minded catching and killing possums, but it always pisses me off when I have a skunk in the traps, and most years I get one or two. That makes me return to the house and exchange my .22 with a shotgun. A load of #6's, to the head from 10 yards upwind, has always prevented a spray, and has never caused much damage to the traps. I just dont care for the extra time, energy, expense, cleaning, and noise, that the shotgun blast entails. Some brave folks that I know just throw a blanket over the trap and carry it to a pond or creek to drown the skunk. I was always too scaired to get that close to a live skunk. If the ammo situation stays nuts, I might grow some and give that a try this year.

Good thing you missed it. They eat lots of ticks. I started releasing the ones that I catch in box traps (set for coon) unharmed after learning that.

There is quite a few big old dying ash trees leaning towards it in the woods that will make marginal bridges when they fall over the next few years. The town does a good job of keeping that ditch clear though, so they will not last long. I have crossed it on downed trees a few times over the years. It is always little tricky, balancing on the curved logs, especially when there is snow and ice on them. The flat plank ought to work a lot better.

I think 17-18 ft is where you should focus, based on your usage description. For big water trolling, that size is just about right for 3 guys, perfect for 2, and not too big for 1. About 90 % of the time, I have 2. I prefer 3 for salmon trolling, so one can be on the fish, one on the steering wheel and one clearing rigs and netting. There is plenty of room for 3 on my wide 17 footer, and even 4 isn't too crowded. I am out alone about 5 % of the time, and usually only when I have a dock somewhere. I can launch and recover it myself, but I much prefer to have a helper for that. About 5 % of the time, I have 3 or 4 in the boat, but mostly just when trolling. The bulk of my time is spent drifting with 2 onboard, using the bow mount electric to control the drift, along with a drift sock, if it is real windy. Tossing a bucktail jig for smallmouth bass is my favorite technique. One thing you learn quick with a deep aluminum boat, is how to work with the wind. All that freeboard is great for keeping the waves out of the boat, but also makes a good sail, making it hard to control with an electric In high winds, my favorite technique is to deploy the drift sock from the bow, and drift over shoals. I seldom even lower the electric motor when the wind is much over 10 mph. Unless you are helbent on fighting the wind, it dont take much electric power to move a 17 ft aluminum boat. 28 pound thrust 12 volt works fine on mine. The light boat is also economical to push with your gas motor, or pull with your gas truck, compared to heavy fiberglass models. Gas was near record cheap last season, but I certainly dont expect that to continue thru the next 4 years. As far as interior layout goes, single side council, center council, and tiller steer are best left south of the Mason dixon line. If you want to fish outside of June thru August in NY, a dual council with full windshield is the only way to go.

That is the same model that I bought new, with a 60 hp Johnson back in 1989. I think the cost then was $ 9k, with a trailer. I also had a 15 Johnson for a kicker on it. I bumped the main power up to a 70, when it was 10 years old, and I just bumped the kicker down to a 5.5 last year. The kicker gets used very rarely, because even the 70 will troll at 1.5, while continuing to charge batteries. I used to do a little back trolling for walleyes on Chataqua and the Allegheny reservoir with the kicker, but these days I usually go for bass, primarily using the bow mount electric. The 70 is all I use when trolling for salmon on the big O, although I don't do much of that the last few years. With just 2 guys on the boat, I could get it up on plane with the 15 hp, but it took a while. It came in handy when we busted a prop on the 60, on a shoal up in the St Lawrence, a long time ago. That kicker is mostly just there as a spare, which thankfully I only needed that one time. I wore the lower unit out on the 60 Johnson, thru the first 10 years, but have had zero problems with 70, over the last 20. I do a careful job with winterization, but that is it as far as maintenance, except maybe 3 or four sets of spark plugs. The 70 still has the original factory fuel filter in it. I have only used ethanol free gas, since it became available, about 10 years ago. The hull has held up ok. I have always stored it inside. It did get a crack down the center of the keel, after about 10 years. I kept it closed with RTV calk, for the next 10 years, then finally had it welded 10 years ago. I get a little water in the bilge, when I run the live well pump, and replacing the plumbing is on my to do list. I replaced the bilge pump with a big automatic one, back in the days of the keel crack, and it has no trouble keeping up with the little plumbing leak that I have now.

The only concern I have, with the pressure washed ones, is making sure to get all the soft tissue blasted out of the interior spaces. I must have missed a little on one I did for a friend a few years ago. His wife complained of the smell and their dog was acting funny for a while, when they first hung it in their house. He moved it out to his barn for a few months, before bringing it back inside. I have not noticed any smell from those I have done for myself. Just to be safe, I also leave the "fresh" ones, out in my barn for a few months. "Joe" is still hanging out there. The last photo is of the others I have done the previuos 4 seasons:

Did you do the euro yourself ? If so, what was the process, and how long did it take ? I do my own, by skinning the head (takes me about 10 minutes), then blowing everything else off with a 3100 psi power washer (takes 30 minutes and a tank and a half of gas). I get suited up in rain gear and do it out on a concrete pad. The vermin always clean up all the mess overnight. The easy cleanup is nice, but I also like that the job is done, start to finish, in under an hour. Best of all, the final product always turns out better than those I have done the using the old fashioned, "simmer and scrape" way. This method would not have worked so well 25 years ago, when the outside temperature seldom rose above freezing after opening day of gun season. Just another side benefit of global warming I guess.

Just the opposite for me last season. I don't own a trail camera, but saw quite a few bucks in the woods. I am thankful that I did not see a larger one, after punching my tag at home in WNY. I thought for sure that was going to happen to me for the first time ever last year. I "settled" for one on opening day of the southern zone, that just barely met my harvest ctiteria. There would be about 60 more pounds of store-bought chicken consumed in this household over the next year, had I passed that buck, and I am no fan of that. The oddest thing about last season, was that I saw antlered bucks on my last two Adirondack hunts, but no antlerless. I usually see 3 or 4 bucks per doe at home, but not up there. I can't wait for early ML season up there this year. I am due to see a dozen antlerless deer then, to square my usual sighting ratio, back up to what it has always been up there.

The new Starweld, for $10k more, seems like a better deal. That Lowe is underpowered, with a 75 hp four stroke. It would be tough to pull up a skier, with more than 2 adults onboard, with so little power. It would also struggle to get on plane with more than 3 adults onboard. A 75 hp four stroke outboard would give that 17 footer about the same push as a 60 hp 2 stroke. That was what my 17 footer had on it when new. It was fine for two guys on the boat, but significantly underpowered for any more than that. I upgraded to a 70 hp 2 stroke, which has plenty of power in all scenarios. You would need at least a 90 hp, to get the same push from a 4 stroke, due to its crap power/weight ratio, compared to a 2 stroke. The 115, should be very ample.

73-7/8" net.

It sounds like you are on the right track. In my opinion, a 17-18 ft aluminum deep v is the perfect boat for NY state freshwater fishing. If 2-strokes were still made, a 70 hp would have been good, but you will need 90 hp min to handle the extra weight of a 4 stroke. As far as motor brands go, it looks like you are stuck with Merc or Yamaha, since it sounds like OMC has quit the business. As far as the hulls go, Crestlner and Lund are a step up from Starcraft and Smoker/Sylvan, but any of those will give you good service. No experience here with Tracker but they sound comparable. Dual council is definitely the way to go in NY. Center councils are best left to the warm states, and bass boats are just stupid on the great lakes. Freeboard is where its at out there and they have very little. Good luck in your purchase.

I know the feeling. It has happened to me 2 or 3 times, in my 39 deer seasons. I dont run trail cameras, so I am reliant upon pre season observations of "shooters" . In 1986, I saw a nice 8 point one night, out in my grandparents garden, at night with my flashlight in August. It was eating sweetcorn out of their garden. I Hunted hard for it, starting on opening day of bow season (Oct 15). I saw it once thru bow season, but too far to shoot. I heard it grunt and watched it walk away with a doe. On opening day of gun season that year, I heard what sounded like someone dragging a picnick table thru the thick brush, adjacent to my tree stand, just before sunrise. The buck stepped out under my stand, right at legal sunrise. I pushed a 16 ga slug up into the reciever of my m37 Ithaca, and slammed the action closed. I centered the crosshairs of my 1.5x Weaver scope on his shoulder, and sent him to the promised land. Fast forward to 2016. We were over at my parents place for dinner in September, when I noted a bachelor group of bucks out in a clover plot behind their house. There were 6 bucks in the group, most 1.5's and 2.5's. One had a tall rack and a body that dwarfed all the others. On Veteran's day that year, I was over there with my crossbow. I started out in a ground blind overlooking the clover plot, but it just didn't feel right. I moved to my 2-story blind, in the adjacent woods. I found the upper deck half full of fallen leaves. My parents saw the high tined, huge bodied buck come out and feed in the clover, shortly after I moved. Suddenly, it lifted its head, looking at the woods where it heard what it thought was a rival buck clearing leaves from a scrape. When it arrived at the intruders location, it was double lunged with my bolt. This season, once again we were over at my folks place for dinner in September. Just before dark, we saw a buck walking across the back yard. My criteria is 3 or more points on a side, and I only saw 2, so I was not too excited. I had success on opening day of gun over there 2 years in a row, so I was there again this year. Sure enough, he showed up at 10:15 am.. I only saw the 2 points on the left at first, so I gave him a pass. A grunt call brought him in for a closet look. The rest is history. Here is Joe: