stubborn1VT

I drove my little tractor out to my food plots at the house and waded around in the snow. I did manage to prune a wild apple tree. I will plant peas, salad greens, onions, beets, sweet peppers and some tomatoes in my two raised beds. These are next to my grill, so I weed a little while I tend the grill and drink a beer. I plan to plant zuchinni, summer squash, cukes, pumpkins, and a variety of winter squash in my "pumpkin patch". This is a long, slightly raised strip that I cover with heavy duty plastic. It requires very little watering and less weeding.

The recent sub-zero temps froze the shorelines up in some of my spots on Champlain. I went out for half a day yesterday. There was 14" - 18" of decent ice and almost no snow on top. The fishing was really slow, but it beat sitting around at home. Managed a meal of perch for some of my older neighbors and a big meal of crappie and bluegills for us. The bass and pickerel were crazy! I landed over a dozen largemouth and a couple pickerel and got broke off/cut off 5 times. I still haven't found or replaced my digital camera, and I don't have a smaht phone. Sorry, no pics.

Happy Birthday Dan!

Good luck with your decision making. I can see why the doc was surprised. 2K seems like alot. I guess "hand jobs" are really expensive in Germany!

No doubt! What if there was an unseen sasquatch in the background? At least if you were blazing away with a .223, you wouldn't kill it, but more likely just wound it.

I agree. I'm mystified over the reaction to this thread, especially the vilification of Pygmy. 8" of snow? I wish I was so lucky.

We just got 14" at my house, and 27" at my family's farm. The worst part is that the ground thawed out. I was gearing up for spring work, and now I'm settling in for another stretch of hibernation.

I shoot about a 500 grain aluminum arrow. I keep my shots around 25 yards. I'm happy with what I get for momentum and penetration. You never know when you might have to put down a squirrel!

That should be enough gun, but make sure you use a quality bullet. If you somehow make a marginal shot, you want a BIG hole and a good blood trail!

Now .223 isn't considered big enough for squirrels? Tough crowd!

I will continue to research it. Not much else to do since we got 14" of new snow here, and 22' of snow at the farm. I guess I will wait a bit before I head out to do my pruning. Big snowfalls aren't exactly rare in March, but I was still taken by surprise. Now I'm starting to feel the cabin fever!

Satellites, drones, trail cams, night vision...

Thanks for the input everyone. I did find a couple places that will custom bench graft apple trees. You can either send them your desired scion wood, or have them use theirs. Either way it's about $12, if I remember correctly. That's pretty cheap, but it still puts you a year behind buying a 4-5' tree that is ready to plant.

It's a skill I would like to have, so I will mess around with it this spring. It will allow me to get clones of some really old trees before they go by the wayside. It I am successful, then I may grow my own rootstock and then buy a bunch of different scion wood. I will probably start with 10-12 rootstocks and see if I have any success. I will try to remember to post my results later on.

Just curious: What is the advantage of a centerpin reel over a spinning reel? I'm not familiar. Nice steelhead!

Well if chuckhawks.com says so then it must be the gospel!

I have a really good track record of finding them. I'm a sitter, so I don't jump many deer. Most of the time you find them if you're willing to stick with it.

Can't kill 'em if you don't shoot!

No, it doesn't count. Good story though. Was it a racker? I knew a guy who missed a huge buck with his bow. He sent an arrow through it's antlers. Guess where he was looking!

People often call me to track. The last 3 rifle deer I tracked were all with 30-06. They were trackable, but not recovered. By your logic, they just need to shoot more gun. By my logic, they need to be more accurate.

Next thing you'll be telling me you can kill them just by shooting CLOSE to them (if you use a big enough gun).

Whatever. Shoot a deer in the heart/lungs and they die. Case closed.

I've gotten into watching all kinds of stuff on YouTube this winter. I think it would be interesting. It think that shooting a bow and running a chainsaw with your prosthetic arm/hand is pretty badass. What do you run for a saw, by the way?

I get the argument, but a poorly placed shot is the same no matter what the caliber. I know there's supposed to be more leeway with a bigger caliber, but I've seen enough deer hit poorly with a 30-06 to have my doubts about this argument. I'm not saying I would choose a .223 to hunt deer. I think accuracy has way more to do with results than caliber.

I planned on using electrical tape or surveyor's tape. Do you use any other kind of sealant?