knehrke

I'm with you. I hate the damn things! Our dog is a fox red lab, and we found over ten on him last week from a short romp in Oatka Park, not exactly a hotbed of tick activity this summer. He's been there twice a week or so, and these were the first ticks we've found. I heard from others around the state that this late warmth has made it insane everywhere. And I do worry a little bit about alien abductions. As said about the most interesting man in the world, "they abduct him so that HE can probe THEM"

I love the way you think, and I'm working out every day - down from 200 to 185. But what the public hasn't synthesized yet is the vast body of literature suggesting that the critical stage is during development. To be blunt, fat kids are destined for tough times and future health issues. There is persistent metabolic remodeling that sets the tone for the rest of their lives. But losing weight as an adult doesn't do as much for you as you'd expect. It kinds of sucks, because kids are the toughest demographic to convince to do something that won't benefit them for 40 years. So keeping your kids fit is a great way to show them that you love them. And then you can make them drag your deer out lol.

Buddy of mine won the Moultrie Trail Cam weekly prize last year with this one:

For me, it's a matter of convenience. I like to hang deer, and that's tough without a walk-in cooler during early season. But I also won't shoot doe during the rut, unless there's a kid involved. So I pick and choose my times - last night would have been okay as it got to 34 degrees here this morning. But all I had in front of me were bucks. Go figure! Also, doe are a dime a dozen here during muzzleloader, so any unfilled tags can be used then, if needed. I usually give 3-4 deer away to my graduate students and postdocs (perk of working in NehrkeLab), and I usually take them late in the season. One is enough for my family, maybe a second for Costanza's. So c'mon cool weather!

It's actually a GT500 that I got as new old stock, with the Revolution cam. I guess it could qualify for an antique, but dang - I shot a Browning Accelerator Plus for nearly twenty years when I first started bow hunting. I believe in sticking with what you like, not chasing the latest and greatest. I appreciate technological advances (I'm in biomedical research, so it's an everyday thing for me). I'm not unwilling to change. But it has to impact my ability to do what I love - numbers on paper don't translate to my enjoyment shooting. And there's that indefinable "feel" factor, too, that you can't assign metrics.

I shoot a 2012 Elite as well and absolutely LOVE it. I take some crap at 3D for not having the latest and greatest, but my old eyes are more to blame for the ample 8s on my scorecard than my equipment.

Nice when a buddy who's in Vermont remembers you while visiting the factory

A unique drop tine like that should be easy to identify. Hopefully somebody chimes in. We always lose giants to traffic, particular on one property that is near a large park. On the far side of the park is a very busy 55 mph road. One year we had three of the four bucks that were true park monsters end their lives tangled up in somebody's grill. I think that those old, smart bucks that have good sanctuary are actually as likely to die this way as via a gun or bow. The good news for your buddy is that, in general, there's no way that losing a big buck gets kept quiet.

I saw the opposite at work, though not in the same context. I'd traded a 15 acre field for a farmer to plant hay in return for his plowing a couple of food plots (kill plots really). Unfortunately, his bailer broke while harvesting the existing weeds (for bedding), and he ended up planting the field around Sept 30th. He got very little germination and needed to drill some alfalfa in this year to cover the gap. And we had what was in essence a bare field that actually repelled deer all season. Now, this wasn't radishes, it was hay...but I won't take a chance on a late planting in that big field again. I've never seen deer avoid a field like they did this one. Too much work too close to season, I guess, and no food for the effort.

I LOVE Browning Trail Cams. That having been said, who wants to bet that either: 1) the company screws them up somehow moving forward or 2) Cuomo issues an executive order banning them?

I've fished from a Wilderness Systems Pungo 120 for fifteen years, and I love it, but...when there's a chop on the water, it washes in over gunnel very easily. So, it's a flat water boat. I've started looking for something that's better suited for some of the Finger Lakes, maybe even a calm day on Lady O. My biggest concern with the sit on top models is the weight. My Pungo weighs in a 48 lbs. i heave it into the back of my pickup, ratchet her down, and I'm off to the races. I can sling it across my shoulder and carry her down a dirt trail to the water. Some of the SOT models are over 100 lbs! I'd need a trailer. A kayak for me is about ease of use. So - what's the best compromise? A lighter SOT? A different sit in that's better in the chop? Opinions are welcome.

Aliens responsible for COVID!!! Lol

Bullzeye was closed? Must be on vacation. Last time I stopped there a couple weeks ago, Rich mentioned that he was moving to being open seven days a week due to increased demand. He's been nothing but helpful to us and is a straight shooter. Nomad - my buddy Brian Gambell's Dad owns land really close to there, too. He used to have a great pond on his property, but it filled in over the years unfortunately.

I'm a sucker for tall racks. Although we have one that's 7 1/2 years old now, on his way down, we call him the Elk Buck, and his rack looks more like an antelope's than a deer's at this point. So there's such a thing as too much of a good thing. Much like all those matures you have pictures of lol.

Our prayers are with you - it's great that you and your family are able to be there for her at the end.

I'm starting to see some really decent racks in bachelor groups, with another month to put on mass. Tis' going to be a great season!

If only they'd quarantined pallets or treated them for 15 cents apiece, maybe we'd be less awash in Asian invasive species. My woods looks like a Chinese playground. I can't keep up with all of the invasives.

We are headed to the ADK this morning for a long weekend, and it will be interesting to see what I'm sure will be a huge difference in how folks approach this thing. I get it though, if it's not staring you in the face, then life takes precedence. Which is a heck of a lot better than running around scared out of your pants - my daughter works at a pizza shop and some woman came in screaming at them because one of the guys pulled his mask down to wipe the sweat off after taking pies out of a 900 degree oven. It's a tough sell trying to convince him that he needs to be more careful, but there's just no cause for screaming and swearing at kids either. Times are crazy. Hopefully I can find a bit of social distancing in my kayak on some remote pond, but given the national shortage of kayaks, bikes, and outdoor gear - maybe not. One last poke at the bear (I mean snake): just because someone looks at the same thing as you and disagrees doesn't make them uninformed, naive, or needing to "wake up". It could make them wrong - for example, I think that some informed opinions are seriously mistaken. Or perhaps they have an agenda (I see that, too). But yelling about sheep seems more of a rouse the troops ploy than a serious attempt to communicate your views. I suspect that some see this as a war for the soul of America. But IMHO it is just one more battle in the long game to keep our decency, humanity, and dignity intact.

Come on, man, please get off this! We don't inflate the numbers. Having COVID cases works against us. We lost 150 MILLION dollars a month because of COVID. It just doesn't make any sense, except in some conspiracy fantasy world. Sorry to be so in your face, but this just isn't true. If you follow the $$, as you claim to, then you'd realize this.

You may be right in terms of # increasing in the upcoming weeks, but my experience and current hospitalizations suggest that the increase will not be what we saw in April. As for the virus mutating, that's a fact. Whether the mutated spike protein variant is more or less virulent is an open question, but it does appear to increase viral respiratory load, so it may be more infectious. I'm generally on board with you, but "datas is datas" as my postdoc says.

The only metric that really concerns me is whether the ICUs are getting overwhelmed, leading to our losing folks who should have never been lost. It seems like the current surge is less virulent than what we experienced in the early days - did we get better at managing the disease, did we lose our most vulnerable early (or are they all just in hiding), or has the virus mutated? Maybe all three. Regardless, it is important to maintain open eyes and a measured response to worsening conditions, if they should occur. Anyone who stands their ground in the face of our evolving understanding has an agenda, IMHO. This goes for those on both sides of the fence. Just, please wear a mask when you're close to other folks. It's heartbreaking to see friends who won't come out of their houses because of the cowboy mentality. Right or wrong, they are scared. And I'd rather be compassionate in error than righteously indignant.

That was great, but I'm fairly certain it would have been easier, if way less cool, to simply puff on a stogie before speaking or coughing.

Close is when they show up in the middle of the night to demand your passports and send you to a detention center for disagreeing with them, which is exactly what happened the night my wife's family fled to Belgium from a mineral excavation site in Algeria where her father was the head Romanian geologist. But I get you. I happen to think that government frequently oversteps its bounds. In the case of masking, though, I could care less what the government says. It's respect, common sense, and risk-reward. The cost of masking is small. If it doesn't help, then we're not out much. But the cost of not masking could be somebody's life. Tony Fauci is a doctor first, and plays politics by necessity. Believe me, he has nothing to gain here by asking folks to mask. I know lots of people at NIH including my mentor Larry Tabak, currently Deputy Director (and former UR professor for many years). He and most down there work around politics to get the job done. They are a dedicated group of scientists and doctors who, right or wrong, are working for what they feel is the common good. But don't get me started on the shutdown. Lots of decisions were made that were supposedly based on science, but as a scientist they seemed arbitrary to me. Our undergraduate campus still requires faculty to get dean's approval and check in with security to access their office. They are anticipating a 10% drop in tuition revenues, but if cases shoot up on campus, that number is going to be much higher, and the institution will be in dire financial straights. More so, anyway. These decisions appear to be driven by $$, to nobody's surprise.

If you think that being required to wear a mask when distancing isn't possible is totalitarian rule, you obviously have never lived in a communist society. My wife is originally from Romania, and her parents lived most of their lives there. This isn't even close. But I get that you refuse to give an inch, no matter how unreasonable your stance. However, I can only respect your view when your actions don't threaten my loved ones.

When you decide to participate in society, there's an entry fee. You're a paying customer, too. If you don't like the fee, then go live on a desert island where your failure to exhibit simple respect for others will be better tolerated.