Steuben Jerry

I just do enough for my immediate family, usually less than a gallon. I plan on tapping a few this weekend as the temps look about right next week. This is only my third year of dabbling with it. The first year I hit it early and got the light colored syrup, last year I hit it late and the syrup was almost as dark as molasses. Both were delicious. I'm going to try to hit it right in the middle this year. Pic is from 2015 early stuff.

No offense wolc123, but that's illegal as hell. You can't kill a deer that "had the wind knocked out of it". Besides that, I consider it pretty damn unethical to kill an injured deer out of season when it's clearly not mortally wounded and has every chance to recover. Nothing personal, but I'll skip the lesson.

We used to ride our mini bikes miles to the coal trestle on the Genesee River in Charlotte (Rochester) and messed around on that thing. But never had a train come by - that would have been a blast. Not sure it was still active with trains at that time, but it was a hulking, rusty, tall and dangerous structure that never had any security or supervision on site. In other word, FUN!

Did Cuomo ban those too? Or was it Pataki?

Haha! We did that! How 'bout a game of catch?

Ahh, the clackers are a great memory! But for the ultimate modern day lawsuit toy, how about these?

Well that's one successful company to be running that long. Must have some quality stuff!

http://www.intedge.com/index.html Same company?

Yup. My combined property taxes went up 8% last year, and 9% the year before. We've made no real improvements to the place since building it in 2008. I haven't opened the envelope that came the other day - I'm afraid! At least my town stayed under the 2% limit for the first time, so maybe not so bad this time.

What's up with the short life span of appliances these days? My last Fridge lasted 15 years and we only replaced it because we remodeled the kitchen and changed appliance colors. The one I owned before that came with the house, and I sold it with the house. We lived there for 15 years. There was another couple at Lowes fridge shopping that we chatted with last night, and theirs died at just less than 8 yrs old. From what I hear and read, that's not considered unusual anymore by a lot of folks. I also replaced my washer and dryer last year, and they were less than 8 yrs old. It's just my wife and I, so we're not rough on our appliances. There is a commonality with all of the appliances mentioned above; they were all GE products. I went with a Whirlpool last night.

Thanks Grow. I figure I'm getting my bad luck out of the way early this year.

I'm not off to a good financial start to the new year. My 8 year old fridge crapped out last weekend, and after googling the issue and associated part costs I decided to just replace it. Stopped off last night to buy one, and spent more than I had expected. And it's not even what I'd call high end. A couple of miles from home, we were in a bit of a snow squall and out of the snow a doe barreled into the passenger side doors of our 2016 Car. My wife and I were just talking about unexpected expenses and bam - $500 deductible! I saw it tumble and lay in the road behind me in the glow of my brake lights, so I drove home, got my truck and figured I'd go get it, report it, and get a tag from the NYSP. I got there, and it was standing there 10 yds off the road stunned. Dammit, now I can't even get a deer out of the deal! I got out and walked toward it a bit, started talking to it and it came to and ambled off. Looked like it will recover just fine. I was only about 15 feet from it and noticed it was a button buck - so I guess we have some history now. Go put on some weight little buck, and I'll see you in a few years. You'll owe me $500 worth of venison! That's the third one I've hit in 7 years. Well, actually they've all hit me.

My wife shoots a 7mm-08. When I was sighting it in, I fell in love with it. Very little recoil, but very nice ballistics. Her first deer with it was about a 160 yd shot, and the deer traveled 0 yds. Nice caliber for whitetails, and/or sensitive shoulders.

Flush twice!

Happy Birthday!

We took two bucks and a doe from the same stand on the edge of a 4 acre field surrounded by woods. I sat in that stand on 11/19 from dark to dark and had does in the field the entire day. At one time there were 13 does bedded or milling around, all within 150 yds. I passed on three smaller eight pointers, two of which got taken by my daughter and son in law later in the week. Son in law took his buck from a different field walking in to the stand we all had luck from. Our hardwoods stands had very low activity. Everyone that picked a hardwood stand that week saw few or none. The pic below is around 8:00am on the rifle opener. Hard to see them, but besides the little 8 following the doe around, there are 7 does bedded in the brushy patch in the middle.

Best memory has deer killed in it - sorry! Hunting with my 9 year old grandson tagging along for the first time. He's watching a buck in this pic. The buck was about 350 yds away. Wasn't on my hit list, so we passed. 30 minutes later my wife shot it. He and I took a doe the previous afternoon.

And the 12 year old in me laughed loudly!

Chas beat me to it.

I've never removed it that I can recall. Comes in handy to steady the gun if a freehand opportunity comes up quickly.

Nice last sit Eddie!

Happy Holidays Grow!

Congratulations HB! We have three grandchildren now and I took my 9 year old grandson with me for his first time out deer hunting with me this year. We got a doe and I gained a new hunting partner - he's hooked! If I knew grandkids were so much fun, we would have had them first!

Can't do any of that with Hughesnet or Verizon wireless. Draconian data caps.

I started with Hughes net and now use a Verizon MiFi. I would gladly pay exorbitant prices to have Fios! I love living rural, but internet choices suck.