jperch

I also have had little luck when I tried getting rid of a nest by igniting gasoline. It kills lots of them of course but not usually all of them. But no failures with the gas soaked rag covered with a rock or board , at night. If the nest is small and close to the house I have sometimes run a garden hose down the hole at night, turned the water on for a half hour and then stomp on the ground, caving in the ground on the nest. The gas rag is easier. They can be nasty, for sure.

My doctor actually taught me an effective and relatively safe method of getting rid of the ground nesting yellowjackets. It's simple, stuff a gas soaked rag into the hole after dark when most all the bees will be in the nest. Cover with a rock overnight. Do not light the rag, that does not work well and is dangerous. The fumes kill the nest. You don't need very much gas at all, maybe a cup. Not completely environmentally friendly I suppose, but neither is using chemicals. It is the time of year when these nests seem to pop up around my house, usually on slopes.

Wow, that is an amazing accomplishment, congratulations!

Also, if you are having a lot of trouble with ferns it is likely that the ph of that soil is very low and needs lime. Seems like ferns pop up in places where little else wants to grow.

Right, this is just for grasses as far as I know. If the grass is still actively growing I think it should still work. In my experience it is grasses that eventually choke out a clover plot. Deer eat many of the weeds that grow in clover plots anyways. We use 2-4 D for broadleaf weeds in the summer if they get bad. Surfactant used with both.

Very sorry, hope your wife is feeling comfortable soon.

There are some neat videos on youtube about this. It makes sense about these being attracted to diseased hickories, they always have these large maggots under the bark. I imagine they are the prey. If you cut a hickory tree up those wasps will appear in a matter of days, there must be a distinctive smell. Life (and death) is amazing.

It's hard for me to judge size from the picture but it appears to be something I see frequently around pignut hickory trees. My guess would be the female deposits eggs into something that burrows into diseased hickories with that spikey protuberance.

I lived in Pa, almost 40 years ago. Back then there was no Sunday hunting, most stores were not allowed to be open on Sunday. Beer was sold in "Package Shops", or bars, not in grocery stores. There were tons of deer on state land, mostly does. It was not unusual to see large herds of does during rifle season. And state land was plentiful, easy access for me.

I imagine that habitat has much to do with the decline in grouse numbers. This is in combination with the increase in the number of raptors. Grouse must be relatively easy targets in open wooded areas as they walk along the forest floor. Forty years ago it was not that common to see a hawk or owl. Now as you drive down the road you see them everywhere sitting on telephone poles and old fence poles. I think the predatory birds also have caused the bunny population to be only a fraction of what it used to be. Maybe, overall, this is a sign of a healthier environment. DDT took its toll back in the day.

I think of DEET for repelling mosquitoes and black flies. For ticks I use permethrin spray on my clothing. Permethrin is not a repellent, it is an insecticide. It is not to be sprayed on your skin, only clothes. Also, it is toxic to cats. It works really well for ticks.

At least he is shooting with both eyes open, I never mastered that.

I agree it's better to start from "scratch" but often I don't have time or all the ingredients. For jarred sauce I look at the ingredients which are listed. I want a sauce with no sugar or sugar substitutes. They are not always easy to find but they exist. I can adjust spices but there is no fix for sauce that has sugar added.

Yikes. Looking at it frame by frame it seems like she had all her fingers. It would be nice to know for sure.

As Avg. Joe said, you really need to test the chokes in combination with loads you might be using. Personally in my 870 turkey barrel with the extra full choke the 3" Winchester Long Beards in number 5 shot pattern extremely well. These shells are affordable as compared to the high density shells. When you find a combination that works well in your gun buy up a bunch of that ammo. jperch

I am at best an average caller. But for me, proper set up is more important than calling ability. By that I mean knowing a good location to set up and setting up in such away that when old goofy face shows up you are likely to get a good shot opportunity. When it comes to calling a majority of times it's best to call less rather than more. Over the last 25 years it seems to me that for whatever reason gobblers have become more cautious. jperch

The deer/turkey interaction thing is interesting and fun to watch. jperch

I'm sure others will chime in who have professional experience but toilets are not so complicated. If the toilet runs every 15 minutes as you say then you have a slow leak from the tank. When the water level gets low enough the ballcock valve activates, refilling the tank to the level where it then shuts off. If you are lucky the problem may just be the flapper valve. Sometimes just cleaning it off will stop the leak. If not, just replace it with a quality new one. If the leaking continues, and if there is no water leaking between the tank and the bowl, then there is probably a need to replace the flapper valve assembly, they do crack. This can cause water to slowly drain directly out to your outflow system. It's not expensive, maybe 12 bucks at your local box store. Below is a link with excellent instructions and explanations. Replace the tank valve (gasket) between the tank and bowl while you are at it and use new hardware! The cost is time, you don't want to have to do it again next year. Good Luck! perch

I have the Ariens 32" DLE model, and a large double wide driveway. It's a great machine, much better than the previous John Deere blower I had. (I am pretty sure the JD blower was really made by MTD.) The Ariens blower has two belts that drive the auger, I have not had to change them yet. Changing belts on the JD was an every other year project, a real PIA. The Ariens starts easily, runs well, performs great. Here is a nice trick I have learned. With wet heavy snow spray some Pam on the inside of the chute, this increases performance. No dealer close by for me, I bought mine online from Snowblowers Direct. jperch

G96 is a great product, I have used it for over 40 years. It's all I use for routine cleaning of and lubricating my firearms. I'll use Hoppes 9 for heavy fouling.

It was a mixed bag season for me but enjoyable for sure. As others have said the weather really hindered archery season. I generally won't hunt with archery gear in significant rain. And so much wind! I did manage a nice buck with a crossbow during a snow storm. On opening day of gun season I passed a small bodied 4 pointer in the morning. I don't care about the rack but it was small and felt I could find a bigger one. That afternoon a spike horn that was wounded in the shoulder came limping by, so I put it down. That left me with no buck tag but that was fine. After opening day the deer got scarce and work got busy. I did manage to fill a DMP with a doe on the last day of gun season. Not as many hours hunted this year but the freezer has just enough room for some perch fillets so no complaints here! jperch

I agree with all of this. I have been bowhunting since I was 16, 48 seasons. I started with a recurve, I had good mentors but it took years to be successful. My shoulders are sore and my overall muscle strength is not what it used to be. I have dropped my poundage from 70 to around 58. I'm ok with all that, but there will come a time. I bought a xbow 3 years ago and shot a nice 8 pointer first year. I didn't use it last year for bucks as I was tagged out. This year I shot another nice buck with the xbow in a tough snow storm. Neither of the xbow bucks would have been possible with my compound. It is simply much easier. By the way, one of the things I like the most about the xbow is I can wear as many warm clothes as I want and not have to worry about being able to draw the string. At this point, I like the seasons the way they are. jperch

Years ago someone bought a small piece of property adjacent to our farm. Shorty after that our posted signs were torn down and he put up posted signs a good 30 yards onto our land so he could sit on our field, I assume. I was angry and called the County Sheriff, who came right down. I showed him the property survey and he confirmed the boundary on his computer. Then he looked up the new owner. He asked me not to speak with the fellow, said that "He is known to us" and to avoid any conflict. He said he would deal with this person, and he did as far as I know. So I learned not to get into arguments with people I don't know that are possibly carrying guns. The LE are the pros, they have been very helpful to us. jperch

I no longer hunt public land during gun season for all the reasons mentioned above. Add to that the large deer drives with somewhat drunk hunters telling us we had to move because they would be driving the woods with 20 guys. But, I lived in Central Pa for 6 years and hunted the Game Lands. Trust me, that is a whole different level of scary!

JeremyK, We hunt in 9P near Ossian. Things sure have changed over the last few years as far as deer density goes. I didn't hunt there opening day but two relatives did and saw no deer, amazing as compared to 10 years ago. The state land gets hit hard with large deer drives, seems like anything brown is down and shot fawns are sometimes left to rot. The state lands near us are in need of being lumbered, and some are being cut. I only saw 2 adult deer during archery season there. I no longer hunt in 9P during gun season, much better hunting locally if you can find a place. And I no longer have to listen to the deer drives. jperch