left field

Will bleach, thanks. A few months ago, I spent the afternoon at a Mexican hospital with my wife who thought it was a good idea to pet the alley cat that appeared in the backyard of our rental. I'm a little rabies phobic right now.

I could SSS but would like to know what the animal was inflicted with. What kind of shitshow am I looking at if I shot it then called AC to say, "hey boys, just shot a rabid raccoon. Wanna come get it?"

Seems like similar symptoms. I left the faeces alone and won't be back until Friday. Hose it out or don't worry? It's in a high-traffic area for my wife and me. No pets.

Woke up this morning to find a raccoon laying on the grass in front of my place. He was belly down with his face in the grass. At first, I thought he was dead, but then a shiver ran through his body. He wouldn't respond to any noise I made so I got a little closer and upped my volume. He finally raised his head and it took him a dazed moment to find me. We stared each other down for about 10 minutes until he rose then immediately collapsed. A few more tries and he slowly staggered to the woods, falling every few feet or so. He moved like an old man. I thought he was wounded, but I couldn't see anything on him so I went to the spot where he was laying and there was a large pool of loose and liquid faeces. Maybe poison, but I'm pretty far from any farmer or resident that could poison him. And then I thought rabies. Ideas? Assuming it was rabid, what are the proper steps? Who do I call? DEC? Cops. Pop him on the spot?

Fair enough.

I doubt this township has the resources to do an aerial survey. This is a hunting camp up on a private road among other hunting camps, and as there is an existing outhouse I have to imagine I'm grandfathered in. Could be wrong on that. I really just want to move it 10' to the left.

Core, it's a rustic sleeping cabin with no room inside for a bathroom so a new outhouse for occasional use is the only option. There is a composting toilet in the main cabin, which is a 5-gallon bucket with a toilet seat that, once full, is composted under straw in the back of the property. It's also in the watershed and I'm not going to pay for that septic system even if I could put one in.

Thanks. No need to shore up the inside of the pit?

Thinking about building a new outhouse to take the place of a 40-year-old structure. Not sure about the best way to add structure and support to the pit. I could drop in a frame for the corners with some cross bracing, but wondering if I should plank across the sides leaving the only ground contact on the bottom. Any advice appreciated.

Night of the Lepus?

It may not be that bad. Post a few pics if you have time.

As near as I can tell it doesn't look like that badly a lean. Hard to really say without seeing the top. Wedges and some knowledge would have helped. That's not that big of a tree. Stand under the tree and look up. Where is the centre of the mass of branches and leaves? That tells you where the majority of the weight is and may be a deciding factor as to how to approach. If close enough to the house, you may be able to cut off some branches to lighten the load. Pruning saw here, not chainsaw. True. For those interested, Work Safe BC has an excellent series of videos on nearly every type of falling situation, including some sobering reenactments of professionals being killed by trees.

As philo said, trees know all kinds of ways to kill you. I don't think the redbud is a large tree, but, caution is the key if you don't have the experience. There's always these guys.

What could possibly go wrong?

Like sunscreen, most people use too little permethrin to be truly effective. Three ounces per garment is what they call for so the 12oz bottle does a single outfit. I hang my stuff off a tree branch and soak the hell out of it.

When I'm alone in the woods at night every chipmunk sounds like a saber-toothed tiger. Last winter I went fishing for bonefish in Mexico. Standing alone in waist deep water, just around the bend from where this was filmed. I developed whiplash from how many times my head spun around at every little splash.

Charge admission to your Raccoon Circus featuring Clingy, King of the High Wire!

Didn't mean to hijack the thread, but after I wrote the above I emailed CS and had a nice guy walk me through it. The problem was every time I called after his emails the phone agent told me something contrary. Twelve emails and four calls later, the last to a secret number, resulted in a new license being sent to me and a DEC-LS number that will allow me to fish today. Every phone agent told me I needed a hard copy of the license. At one point I asked one of the phone guys why I couldn't download again and he said it was to stop people from printing multiple licenses. I asked what could I do with 30 fishing licenses and he said, "something no good, I'm sure." According to the chart below, all I need is the number.

Can you reprint a fishing license from the app? No? Then to hell with the DEC. I just go off the phone with them after spending 30 minutes trying to navigate their site to reprint a misplaced license. "Oh sorry, you can't do that." "Why not?" "Couldn't tell you." "So what do I do?" "You have to go to a licensing agent." "Where is the nearest one in midtown Manhattan?" "Sorry, we don't have any in Manhattan." "Why the hell not?" "Couldn't tell you." The conversation went downhill from there.

^ Agree. A lot of people don't understand the tension and compression in a tree on the ground. Much less predictable and quicker to react to a cut than a standing tree.

I wear a full rig - helmet, ear, face shield plus glasses, chaps that cover the top of my boots. I don't use gloves while cutting as they offer no cutting protection, but I do when the saw is off. An hour spent on youtube watching what can go wrong with a chainsaw was enough for me. The best money I spent was the level one course of Game of Logging. Chainsaw safety and felling techniques from foresters and loggers. Second best money was on a Cant Hook with a timberjack.

Thanks.

Thanks. Will research. It's a small pond - 20x30 - so I doubt I'll need that much. Is barely straw a common item? Feed store? I buy a few bales of straw for my humanure compost bins, but can't say I know the composition. Have you used this? Is it a new application each year?

I have two ponds with the same springs feeding both. The smaller one (by 2/3) is more shaded than the larger. Both hold large bass (three in the smaller and eleven in the larger), smaller fish, frogs and almost no water plants. Last August, the larger developed an algae bloom so thick you couldn't see more than six inches into the water. It lasted about three weeks. Not sure what type of algae. Not scummy but suspended in the water. Any advice on how to stave this off this year? Or who can identify the type of algae? Thanks.