knehrke

I cut quite a few trails, some on uneven ground, and keep some fields mowed, so I opted to go with a big dog: Kunz Acrease - the tow-behind model comes with various engine options, from 20-26 hp, including Kawasaki, Kohler, etc..and cut widths from 44-60". It's a heavy duty beast that doesn't appear to require more than basic maintenance. I've had to replace a belt over the past five years. The cut is amazing with the rough cut model, and I assume the finishing mower would be even better, but who here needs that lol? I want to be able to run over 3" saplings and laugh at exposed rocks in the fields. It's made in the US, too. The drawback: price. Last I looked it was ~4.5K. They show up used very infrequently.

It seems like current guidance is that if you think you might have it, you probably do. Since we're all smart enough to stay at home so long as we're symptomatic, the doctors and/or state don't need to be involved unless you hit a snag, such as trouble breathing. This means that the actual number of infections is likely to be much higher than is being reported, but honestly what does it matter if it's limited to mild disease? The biggest issue IMHO right now is the staffing shortages at local hospitals due to employees coming down with some crud, be it COVID, or flu, or RSV. I'm truly hoping that this round exemplifies for some of the doubters that nobody's making stuff up - folks are working hard to get us out from under the umbrella of COVID, and when the situation improves, the numbers will reflect it. I just feel bad for all the health care workers who lost their jobs to the mandate, when it likely wasn't called for or necessary, and is contributing to the current shortages. Just my 2 cents. Rob - feel better. If you're going to get it, now seems like a great time since we're between seasons. I've been licking doorknobs, but thus far can't catch a break lol...

I love my cameras, both old school and cell both, but they don't impact my actual hunting experience much at all. It's instructive for me to note how little deer will tolerate intrusion, and to have pictorial evidence of such, or to watch the progression of the season over time while reviewing photos, but I have never seen a buck on camera, made a move, and had an encounter - although I did bump a nice ten to a neighbor trying once lol. There's a huge difference between getting a buck to pose (which works once until they're wise to cameras) and getting them into range for a clean shot. So, I'm in favor of retaining my cameras. I love the analogy to fish finders! And I appreciate that some may consider them an unfair advantage but IMHO that's not a realistic fear. Jeremy K makes a great point that cameras may provide cause to let more young bucks walk, if you have a photo of a true stud, too.

There are lies, damn lies, and statistics lol. You know that red-headed folks get sunburned more easily, too? Obviously the sun is a man-made construct designed to inflict damage on gingers. Just kidding! But you get it - susceptibility occurs due to natural variation, and you give us gene jockeys more credit than we deserve thinking that we could hijack a virus that differentially impact folks selectively. We can only wish we knew the factors that regulate disease severity. That's the golden ticket of individualized medicine. Don't ask, don't tell. Especially on truly divisive issues like Xbows, AR, and euronymphing... Glad to hear you're feeling better, First-light. We had dinner last night at Embers in Livonia (highly recommended), and the place was dead; maybe COVID-related, maybe not, but the number of daily cases has become staggering. Good thing omicron causes mainly mild disease, because it seems like everyone is catching it now.

Okay, got to step in here. You will not test positive for COVID if you have the common cold. Absolutely, 100% untrue. I'm assuming you knew that any are just throwing fuel on the fire. Nice play lol. And for all of those who think that keeping a pandemic going somehow benefits financially, that just doesn't make sense. There are so many big leaguers losing money hand over fist that if $$ were the primer motivator, it would have been over 18 months ago. Now, if you want to talk about the reins of power, mandates, etc..that's a different story lol.

Best wishes for a fast recovery! Folks are dropping like flies, vaccinated and unvaccinated, though the later faster of course. Still, it doesn't appear that omicron generally causes severe disease...but with so many hitting the floor, there's going to be an increase, regardless. Just a numbers game. What we are most concerned with now is the number of staff who are calling in sick, when they're needed most (and yes, I appreciate the irony of firing unvaccinated staff back in September - I was dead set against it, as I am mandates). And while I hope that omicron provides natural immunity for those who contract it, there is no guarantee how broad or persistent it may be. Nobody in the world can predict with certainty how this will shake out in a year or two. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst I guess. Be smart, stay safe, take care of each other, and take care of yourself. Obesity is among the biggest factors that contribute to disease severity (besides age, which we can't do anything about). It's always a great time to start getting in better shape; maybe now more than ever. Be well.

I'm less concerned about the ongoing differences of opinion than I am that the sides have stopped listening to each other. There is value in keeping an open mind and not trying to dismiss your opponent's argument before even considering it. I hear these calls for civil war, and I'm guessing that the callers haven't a clue as to what that would entail. No matter what folks claim, we live in a free country. This thread is proof of that. I think that we've been in a good place for so long, that we've forgotten how bad things can get. Forget history, doomed to repeat it and all. One of our adjacent landowners in an old German woman. She lived through WWII, and she tells me, "Cleave to the middle, loudly and firmly. I've seen what happens when you let the extremists have their way". So this is me, standing firm in the middle. Remember, we have more in common than not. Okay, jumping off the pulpit to go shoot some deer - there's snow on the ground in WNY!!

No doubt what doesn't kill you can make you stronger. The sterile environment argument has some real merit IMHO. All that sanitizing crap kills the good, commensal bacteria along with the bad. But my biggest fear isn't something that we can perceive...it's the truck you don't see that leaves you like road-kill. I think that modern society relies heavily on manufactured goods that often involve chemicals nature never intended. Exposure to these things has the potential to impact the way our genome interacts with the environment, and these effects can persist for generations to come. For example, I've developed an alcohol allergy as I've gotten older. Two drinks and I'm suffering a hangover before I'm even drunk. Crazy thing is, I have four friends now that have the same thing. The NIH has now made studying how we acquire emerging age-dependent allergies a focus - some of the stuff we've done to ourselves in the name of progress is horrifying (like having an alcohol allergy lol).

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I'm going to say the same thing that I've said throughout this whole thing: be smart, don't be afraid. But please try not to be too cavalier. Just because you haven't experienced an impact from COVID yet doesn't mean that you're immortal. We aren't teenagers anymore, right lol? Enjoy your holidays - maybe shoot another deer. I wish the snow would stick...

Yeah, that's complete BS. Simply give folks the facts and let them make up their minds themselves. This game of narratives gets real old real fast.

VAERS is a system for tracking adverse events that allows self-reporting and is open to anyone. It is not curated. There's no official follow up. IMHO, it is less than useless. I think we're on the same page here? Garbage in, garbage out. I played with it a couple months into the pandemic, and it was amazing to see what constituted an "adverse event" in some people's minds. A guy gets hit by a car the day after he's vaccinated, and his sister reports it. Another person experiences appendicitis, but was complaining of stomach pain days prior to getting the jab. Crazy.

Being a certified gene jockey, I will point out that there is no gene manipulation occurring as a result of vaccination. Your genes are safe. Just because it's an mRNA vaccine doesn't mean that it manipulates the genome. I can respect an argument that is counter to my own viewpoint, but it should be accurate. I'm also a bit confused by the long term side effects. We really haven't had a long enough term to judge whether this could be true. I guess there's a chance, but you need to weigh it against the immediate benefits. You have between a 6-20 fold lesser chance of being hospitalized or dying after the jab. Of course, these are just statistics and individual results may vary...and variants can change the game. As usual, I agree 100% with people's right to choose not to be vaccinated. Even if vaccination seems smart to me, I recognize that I'm fallible, science is fallible, and we all need to take responsibility for our own health. I will echo JeremyK's comments on this being a motivation to take better care of yourself., because diet and exercise impact everything from COVID to Alzheimers to cancer to longevity. But there will certainly be consequences to these choices, since diet and exercise confer autonomous benefits, but vaccination - maybe - can impact others. I think that the more of an open mind we keep and the more we try to appreciate everyone's opinions, while still fighting for our own, the better off we will all be. And maybe I'll get world peace in my stocking lol...

My wife and I were talking about how America would benefit from something akin to Israel's two-years of required military service, but from a global standpoint. I think that a year spent helping others, interacting with other societies and cultures, and generally giving back to the world would benefit both our reputation as an international leader as well as our youth's perspective. It will never happen, and in today's world it might not be safe even, but just imagine how much of the misunderstanding and mistrust we could erase, and how great it would be for our youth's psyche. To be perceived as both worthwhile and necessary by the world...something that I feel is outside of many youth's experience in this era.

Disagree. Both. We didn't lose many docs, but they are still being asked to volunteer extra time due to COVID influx. I have a buddy who's taken on X-mas to New Years shifts - which he had off - because he doesn't have kids. I can tell that it's wearing thin, and when docs wear thin, mistakes happen. Not a good situation.

I'm literally the only person I know who hasn't reacted badly to the booster. Not a huge deal - a day of feeling like garbage - but be prepared. My wife is all about taking precautions, but even she says that a booster every six months is going to have to be weighed very carefully first, in her mind. I hope it doesn't come to that.

I looked quick, and it seems legit. And makes sense. Vaccination provides selective pressure, and so you get selective expansion of mutations that allow for evasion. It's certainly yet another thing to consider in the constantly evolving game between virus and host. Akin to antibiotic resistant bacteria. What we have to hope is that viral evolution to evade vaccines creates a less virulent strain. It make my head spin...thanks a lot lol!

You are correct, we are sure as hell not lol. But I was referring to other countries where these variants seem to emerge frequently. Sorry for the confusion.

Omicron is mild, but contains many mutations that heretofore have not been seen. That means first, that it is a platform for further mutations of unknown consequence, as of course many of our members on here appreciate and have remarked on, and second, it's a wake up call that this virus has the capacity to mutate extensively. Unfortunately not all mutations are benign. My question is how did this thing arise with so many de novo mutations all at once? Likely in an extensively unvaccinated population under the right conditions serving as a perfect incubator. It will happen over and over. Admittedly, the current status doesn't warrant panic, but we shouldn't blow off the potential for things to go south, either. Just another something to keep our eyes on. Game on.

That's some persistence in the face of tough sits. Good luck!

Waiting with baited breath for the outcome of that last track. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

You and me both. Verizon has gotten to be a joke West of Rochester. I can usually text if I need help, but otherwise most areas have less service than they did years ago. I switched all my cell cams to ATT for that reason. I've heard that it's because of a spat with local authorities on who foots what part of the bill for 5G tower upgrades? That's just hearsay, but makes sense. At least it keeps me from twiddling on my phone in the stand lol.

I heard that they are requiring even the small operations to get a dumpster on site, which caused many of them to retire. It does seem that there are fewer and fewer every year.

I don't know if it's that we have become better hunters (thinking about scent), or whether the advent of social media has driven everyone to post their trophies, or whether passing up younger bucks has created more opportunities on giants, but man there are some big deer taken in NY now. It's like Kansas in the heyday. I don't recall seeing this many huge racks when I was a kid. I use Remington gasketed bins and an ozone generator off eBay that I run in the bed of my truck with the cap closed for ten minutes a few times a season. But I sometimes get busted when deer are close and downwind. I'm not sure there's any measure of scent control that will routinely prevent that from happening.

So, I'll chime in just a little bit - the Merck agreement is in fact intended to help provide their drug to third-world countries that traditionally can't afford newly developed medications that are still on patent, by allowing other companies to do the heavy lifting. Not completely altruistic, but better than what we normally see with new drugs. Their bottom line is unlikely to take a hit, since the target countries can't pay much $$, and it's essentially charity. I wish the vaccine manufacturers would do the same. As for the drug itself, it is a nucleotide analog that interferes with viral replication. It has been in development for ten years to fight other viruses, but was repurposed for COVID. It is structurally and chemically very different from Ivermectin, which targets a parasitic nematode ion channel that is present in sperm. Since this channel is not present in mammals, how ivermectin may exert its purported anti-viral effects is unclear. Nevertheless, what is clear is that Ivermectin and Merck's new antiviral are completely different entities.

I haven't looked at this thread in some time, but it seems the gap widens. I'm glad that COVID hasn't impacted a lot of people, but feel bad for the folks that it has. A great deer hunter from the area, one some of you may know, just got out of 12 days in the hospital. He is in his thirties. There's no reason to be scared, but also no reason to be dismissive. Just stay smart. Don't lick doorknobs to prove how much you don't care lol. It's deer season, and we all want to be in the woods. If the rain ever stops...