knehrke

Man, those fire departments made a great save! Sorry to hear about the shed - and all the stuff in it - but thank god for our first responders.

I forget sometimes that many of our members are from the Hudson Valley. Up here on the Lake Plains, Lyme is the primary concern, but there seems to be a whole variety of stuff once you get downstate, albeit not as prevalent as Lyme. Still, nothing to sneeze at. Pun intended.

I heard that tick populations are closely tied to field mice, their most populous host, and that field mouse populations are impacted most by mast production. So, maybe the gypsy moth outbreak of the past few years will have one good outcome to outweigh devastating acorn crops?

It wasn't too long ago that we were sending her appreciation cards. It won't be too long until she's graduating. Time flies. My daughter is finishing college this year, and I don't know where it went. Watching them pupate into their adult forms is an awesome journey. It's great to see your daughter thriving.

I visit both sites with my morning coffee...content is getting a little bit thin now that we're in between seasons. I may need to start a bowhunting thread on FOC setups.

Dox will do you. It also has the advantage of inducing a mild mitochondrial stress response through an off-target mechanism that can help protect you against ischemia-reperfusion injuries like heart attack and stroke. lol. Some redneck scientist who posts here occasionally published that...

Neighbor of mine had seven of them feeding under a pear tree (!) this fall. I was in a stand one day when all he$$ broke loose, with deer running everywhere across fields and in front of me...three dogs came by less than a minute later. One of them stayed with an arrow through him. We can't let a deer lay overnight after the shot anymore. Even a couple hours is long enough for the dogs to find them. It's been an incredible resurgence, and I know there's guys who hunt them on our block. They are incredible, resilient predators.

I just reread my scathing take on Moultrie's latest offerings, then saw this lol. I'm glad to hear that the Edge has worked for you. I'm still in the once burned twice shy category, but hopefully Moultrie has turned it around. I do like their app, as well as their billing paradigm, where if you cancel early they pro-rate the month. Tactacam takes everything and if you read their agreement, can charge you an early cancellation fee to boot. I've never tested this - I always cancel service with them on the last day of my service period. Happy New Year!

Very nice! You will notice that if you're trying to smoke fish at 180F, you may need to use a small torch to get the chips started burning - but at 225F, it should rock.

I did a bunch of that when I first bought land. It seemed like it would be an easy way to establish cover. Turns out that without a weed mat and protection, the return on your time is virtually nil. I'm not sure that any of the hundreds of poplar, willow, elderberry, dogwood, or any type of cutting that I planted actually survived. That having been said, I also helped a buddy out doing things the right way with long rolls of landscape fabric and protection from the deer, and he has beautiful screening hedges now - so it works if you pay attention to the details. I never tried blackberry or raspberry from seed (I did plant some named blackberry cultivars for consumption). Any opening at all and those seem to sprout on their own from native stock if I don't mow. Raspberry is nice, but blackberry can become a messy tangle of impenetrable thorns very quickly.

I trained one of my first dogs over pigeons years ago, nearly 600 of them hit the ground between May and September. When the first goose dropped, the dog hit it like a freight train, then stood there like, "now what?" before dragging it by the head to us. For the next ten years. whenever a flight of pigeons would go over the house, the dog would get crazy. What a great way to introduce a young dog to the game! The fact that they decoy just like ducks made it even sweeter.

I love my forest clearing saw with a carbide head! Great for opening paths and clearing thick brushy stuff. I recall growing up down near Bath, there were quite a few areas where DEC had clear-cut and planted Poplar. I know it's not the most sexy of trees, but from what I understand, grouse can't survive without stands of young poplar. Winter food and cover I guess. So, that's a thought? I've used poplar / pine combos for screening, but that's about it. Salt the earth? Sounds biblical...

It may take years of effort, but a chainsaw is your best friend. There's plenty to be learned on appropriate tactics here: www.habitat-talk.com If you can knock down the invasive species, maybe spread a little seed for native grasses and whatnot, you will reap long term benefits. Plowing, tilling, glyphos, these things are short term solutions that fill immediate needs. It's good you're taking a more holistic approach. Remember, anything above browse height is wasted on a deer.

Give me snow and strong wind. Cameras don't lie: it's what gets the big bucks moving.

Heck, yeah! Life is chaos, and I want to respect my harvest. If I know I won't have time, then IMHO it's smart to pass. I don't know why, but it seems tough to get motivated when you know you're not going to pull the trigger - i'm a hunter, not a bird watcher. But motivation is a strange thing, too. If I have my sights set on a trophy buck, chances are I won't get a chance to pull the trigger, but I'm still hunt-crazy. Flip side is, once I've taken a buck, then what you're talking about creeps in...