wolc123

Which one would you use for cutting hay that was real thick and 6-8 ft tall, like that to the left of the deer and my old Ford in this picture ? My current 5 ft, Medium duty Bush hog will handle 3” brush pretty good, but I have to drop my 43 pto-hp tractor down to low range to cut that thick hay once per year. I could easily cut it in mid-range, with the light-duty 6 footer, that I had previously, but that would only handle 1-1/2” brush. The problem with that 6 foot light-duty was it was a lot heavier and took up more space, so I couldn’t use that little 8n Ford on it, if I wanted to (didn’t have enough hydraulic power to lift it). It was also a pain to store, compared to the 5 footers. I can’t imagine a flail mower doing very well on real thick and tall hay or weeds, but I never tried one. My experience on them is limited to mowing grass with an old 6 footer a long time ago. We had a 5 ft heavy duty bush hog also back then, which I always used for “once a year” mowings of tall weeds, with a Ford 3000 gas tractor . To me, the flail mower is more of a maintenance tool and if someone must have just one or the other, a light or medium duty bush-hog might be a better choice.

We use to have a pike tournament every year on Silver lake in wny. I won a few of those using mostly a big jig & minnow while most of the other folks were running big shiners and bobbers. Up in the St Lawrence, nothing works better on pike than a big willow leaf chartreuse spinnerbait, slow rolled over the deep weedbeds and a big rubber bass jig with a rubber shad tail trailer, cast along the deep weed edges. You’ll outcatch live chubs on bobbers at least 2:1 with that combo.

I always liked a big jig, tipped with a small minnow for pike. I could usually catch more pike that way, using cheap “by the scoop” perch minnows, than I could with big expensive golden shiners. For the jig, I like a 3/8 oz black back, white belly bucktail with painted eyes. My hooking percentage was never stellar with a big shiner below a bobber. By contrast, very few pike are lost after they strike a jig. They are way easier to hook that up at than bass are. You can’t miss the strike. They will rip the rod right out of your hand if you are not holding on tight. One sip of beer costs me the ability to feel the strike of a bass on a jig, while pike jigging while impaired is quite doable. If you don’t want to mess with the minnows, those little rubber shad tail baits work almost as good for tipping the buck tails.

Well at least you’ll get them cheap if you plant today.

Obviously because they don’t know no better.

Today is the absolute worse day of the year to plant a tree. They should only be planted in months with “R’s” in them. Let the nurseries care for the potted trees thru the summer. Take some time to figure out what you want, pick it up and plant after September 1st.

If you just want to shoot “a deer” then setup downwind from a well used trail intersection (also approach it from downwind). Mature bucks seldom use the “well used” trails.

This one just ran across our back yard, as I was setting up the pool. I think he might be 3.1, if it’s the one I saw a couple times out back last season. I passed him twice as a 1.5 (once in crossbow once in gun season). As a four point his first year, he had one side antler that was normal and the other side at an odd angle. He had an 8 point rack, during early September gun last year, that was funky on one side. He fed 20 yards from my stand for about 10 minutes on the first evening of that season. I never saw him, when I could have legally killed him, but I didn’t hunt back there much then, and probably would have passed him up to the last day of Holiday ML, if I had seen him due to his small body size last year. Today’s also had a funky right side, and his body looks bigger, so I think it is him again. If he shoes up in range after crossbow opens this year, he won’t be getting a pass. Somebody’s got to take those funky racks out of the gene pool. Don’t matter to me, because I am mostly in it for the meat.

Happy birthday Fletch.

Happy birthday AH.

Happy birthday Moog.

My guess is 2.1 years old with about 75 % certainty, based mostly on the size of the antler bases. They are too big for a 1.1 and body is too small for a 3.1.

Big sheephead and (5) smallmouth (largest 19-3/4”) this morning on the upper Niagara:

Not a bad Father’s Day morning on the upper Niagara. (5) “keeper” smallmouth (12-1/8”, 12-3/8”, 17”, 18-1/2”, and 19-3/4”). My buddy caught (2) and I caught (3), plus a 15ish pound sheephead. I release all bass over 20”, so that last one was just shy of “freedom”.

I don’t even like electric powered boats. I took only an electric outboard with me on a fishing trip on Easter weekend this year. It sucked whenever the wind picked up much more than a light breeze. I was a much happier camper on Memorial Day weekend with my 2 stroke gas outboard. I lack the patience required to be content with electric primary power for any type of motor vehicle. Electricity is just fine for secondary power, but it is ludicrous now and always will be, for primary power. That said, there may be a place for hybrids, but I don’t think mankind will ever get smart enough or politically aligned enough to pull that off. We are heading down the full electric road and there is probably no turning back.

I just wrapped up planting our garden this morning. (2) more rows of candy corn (89 day), and (2) rows of silver queen (92 day). I planted (4) rows of cappuccino (72 day) and (2) rows of candy corn on the weekend before Memorial Day. That is about a foot tall now and I cultivated and hoed it, after I finished planting this morning. That makes about a half acre total of sweetcorn for us, in addition to the (2) acre field corn “deer/turkey garden” farther out back. I hope to get that cultivated and sprayed next weekend, because it looks like the grass and weeds are growing faster than the corn back there. Usually, the coons start hitting the sweetcorn, just after it starts making ears. I start trapping them at that time (late July). NY state allows landowners to trap and kill “damaging” coons before the October start of regular trapping season, but the carcasses need to be burried or burned, prior to the trapping season opener. After that, they can be tossed out in the fields to feed the buzzards. The furs have not been worth the effort to remove for going on 20 years now. A couple deer came out, in the adjacent clover plot, as I was hoeing this morning. It looks like they chewed a few corn plants down to the ground the last few days. I thinned it out a little further today with the cultivator and hoe. Hopefully, we will have plenty of fresh sweetcorn throughout the months of August and September. I can’t wait to start taking out the coons. I don’t get them all, because that’s impossible and because field corn that has been knocked down by coons is more attractive to deer (and much more attractive to turkeys), than standing corn. With only (2) acres of field corn planted this year, I’ve got to get most of them or it won’t last thru the Holiday ML season.

That’s right, Watts on second and Idanoes on third.

The food plots were dried out very well today and I got about 4 acres dragged, where I had corn last year and will be planting a wheat clover mix around September 1. Before I started, I put 4 new NGK sparkplugs in my old Ford 8n tractor. It ran nice and smooth on the my 6 ft section drag today. I got about 15 years out of the Champion H-12’s plugs that were in it prior. I knew that the low idle roughness It had been suffering was not caused by the points or wires because I put a whole new distributor and new wires on it last year. I don’t ever remember it running as smooth as it did today. I hope to get in the last of my sweetcorn in the morning, in another small spot that I got worked up with the drag tonight. That will be the last of my spring planting for the year. The RR corn, that I planted the weekend before Memorial Day, looks like it will be ready for cultivating and spraying next weekend.

I use very little spray also because I like to keep my venison as “organic” as possible. I usually get 3 years out of a 2.5 gallon jug of gly. I am thankful to have bought a fresh jug of that last season, before the big price spike this year. The only place I use it is directly on the corn rows. I cultivate in between. I need to do that next weekend if I can because the grass is now growing faster than the corn.

It’s not to early for plot prep work. I dragged the ground, where I am going to plant brassicas in late July and wheat/clover around September 1, this afternoon. I will probably do that 2 or 3 more times before planting. As long as gas stays under $ 7 per gallon, it is cheaper to suppress weeds with a drag, than it would be to use a $ 75 bag of buckwheat for that purpose. This was mostly on ground where I had grown corn last year, except for the brassicas and sweetcorn spots, which were old clover, that I plowed under earlier this spring. I also worked up a spot for a few more rows of late sweetcorn (candy corn and silver queen). I hope to get that planted in the morning. With global warming, we seldom get early frosts anymore. I like having fresh seeeycorn, right up till October.

My buddy, who is in the retail gas business, thinks we will see gas down to around $3.50 per gallon by Election Day. The reason for that is because: he thinks that is the maximum cost for gas necessary to keep Democrats in the majority in Congress, after the mid-terms. He also believes that, if they do hold the majority, the price of gas will quickly rise again to higher than current levels. The Leftists are simply milking us common folk like we were dairy cows.

I have owned (2) Marlin 336’s in 30/30 and hunted with (3), counting my father in law’s. They sure are nice to carry, up in the Adirondacks, compared to my old, big, heavy Ruger M77 30/06. Unfortunately, I have yet to take a shot at a deer with any of them. I blew a golden ,15 yard opportunity with one, on a big Adirondack buck two seasons ago, thanks to this damn smartphone. Someday, the stars will align, and I will finally get the chance to see how the 30/30 performs on a deer. Most say that the .35 Rem outperforms the 30/30, but with current ammo availability issues, I am glad I went with the 30/30. My father in laws 336 is a scoped, standard model. It was missing the thumb extension on the hammer, but I put one on it last time I used it. I only hunt with that one when the weather is dry. My own 336 is the shorter “Big Loop” model, which I have set up with fiber optic sights, and use on wet days. They are my favorite guns to carry up there, but will only be my “true favorites” after they have a few notches on the stocks. Both of these were made when Remington ran Marlin production. The fit finish of my father-in-law’s is a little better, and equal to that of the pre-Remington one that I owned long ago. They must have made that one from old Marlin parts. My newer “BL” is not quite up to the same standard on fit and finish, but it’s not horrible like some that I have seen. I am glad to see that Ruger has now taken over Marlin production. I have owned Ruger rifles (2) M77’s and a 10/22, for many years with no quality issues whatsoever.

I got one (by accident)with my bush-hog once. Surprisingly, it was much less noticeable than a woodchuck, which nearly stalled my old 36 hp tractor. Just a barely noticeable, soft “thump” from the average sized snapper. My old neighbor used to make some pretty good chowder with them.