Steuben Jerry

Talking about being unnerving, a few years back I was getting some fieldstone from a fallen down rock wall on the property for whatever garden project I was doing at the time. Hot summer day, and I'm picking up flat rocks in rattlesnake country. I don't see them much, only two in many, many years, but we do have them. So I'm very conscious of listening and looking as I pick rocks in the summer. As I'm stepping back to put a stack in the tractor bucket, I hear a rattle by my feet. Red alert - adrenaline on overload! I try to jump out of the way, trip over the corner of the bucket, drop the stack of rocks right on the old family jewels, cut my thigh up pretty good, skinned my shin, bruised my elbow, and tore my jeans. The snake? It was just me brushing up against the dried leaves of a sapling I broke over on a rock picking trip the previous weekend. I LOL'd at myself for real for a few minutes. And then went back to the house for band aids and a beer. No witnesses!

It is unnerving at times!

That toad seems to be taking it in stride.

I love that shooting bench!!

Great pics Chris!

That looks like a pretty stout 14 footer!

I hope so!

So, we hear endlessly about polls. President's job approval poll, candidates polls, polls regarding American sentiment, etc, etc. I consider myself somewhat of a news hound and a registered voter since forever. I have never once in my life ever been "polled" for anything. How does that even work, phone calls, emails, knock on the door? Am I an outlier and everyone else gets polled? Am I the ugly girl at the high school dance that nobody wants to poll? Full disclosure - I have participated in the annual antler restriction and crossbow poll here on this site. I thought I'd start a poll to find out.

I put one of my Tasco cheapo cams out in a field a couple of months ago. I put it out to try the video setting and kind of forgot about it. Came across it last evening while brush hogging and pulled the card. Kind of a cool video for me. I wish the cheapo cam had sound, but no such luck. Pretty grainy video, most of the full night or full daylight vids are crisper. Must've been in that in between transitional light period. Just a 10 second clip.

I have to try that! I use this in the house - more for spiders than flies. Better than just squashing bugs in hand to hand combat, lol.

You'd think I'd be a better shot, lol.

Range is 400 yards to the rear tree line, target stands at 50, 100, 200, 300. Can shoot elevated from tower blind or picnic table below it. All targets have dirt backstops - most of the pics were from when we were laying it all out. Range is a few hundred yards behind the house. Also have a 50 & 100 yard setup so we can shoot from the house deck and 3-D targets in the lawn, so technically that's the backyard range.

Beautiful job!

I paid more in taxes than I do now, and my healthcare costs went up dramatically. The cumulative additional expense adds up to a fairly painful number. I put off buying a new truck until the tax cuts a couple of years ago. I also couldn't keep my doctor.

We've never talked about an out of stater - Shhh, don't give her any ideas!

Companies got bailouts? WTH? I know there was PPE loans which are converted to grants once employers prove that they used the money on employee payrolls and certain operating expenses. Those funds were supposed to keep employees on the payroll and not fire them during the shutdown of business. But there were pure bailouts? I did not realize that..

Yeah, they do drive up the taxidermy bill.

I don't really follow her, but I know I sure wouldn't run her off!

I liked doing that every time a news tidbit came out during the whole Mueller investigation. It was amazing to see the different viewpoints of the same facts.

Look at the southern tier. Deliberately extended up to pick up Tompkins county and Ithaca, a densely populated, heavily blue area which is the opposite of the general political population of the southern tier. CNY picks up Syracuse and the Mohawk volley picks up Binghamton. All gerrymandered to tilt left.

Republican redistricting? Where? The entire state of New York has been gerrymandered for pure Democratic advantage.

The view is nicer from the high road...

Death by 1000 cuts and the cuts just keep coming. Not to be infringed means exactly that. I don't give a hoot about other democracies. I do care deeply about our republic.