stubborn1VT

I don't think it's that hard. My buddy made this for me from a bird I shot 3 or 4 years ago. I believe he just used salt, and then a Borax solution. It was something he looked up on the internet. He made mine as a test, before doing the same thing with his son's first turkey. The frame is just wire and Bondo.

I don't see the harm in planting either in the spring. The worst that could happen is that the oats and brassicas get too mature. If you have good deer density, the deer would help with that by keeping them browsed down. My vote would be to plant 2 smaller plots instead of 1 bigger one. I'd plant the clover/brassica mix in one, then fall plant the other with the oats mix. The nice thing about having 2 plots is you can try 2 different approaches and see what works for you. I'm not sure there is a "right" answer to your questions. Another option is to plant the oats this spring, and frost seed in some extra clover next spring. I would be tempted to throw in some extra clover seed into the Plot Spike mix. The oats, peas and rapeseed (annuals) will be gone next year, and you will be left with the clover next year. Hope this gives you some options to consider.

Anyone have any luck calling coyotes with a turkey call during the winter? I've called them in accidentally while turkey hunting in May. I would think it would work in winter. Just looking for other people's experiences. Here at the house, I've actually called in as many coyotes/bobcats as I have turkeys. Between the predators and the ticks, I don't turkey hunt here anymore.

Not really much cold / snow to handle so far this winter. At least in the Champlain Valley.

I'd just get a 7mm-08, but the Mag was FREE. I don't shoot it for fun, but it does kill deer. I have an issue with calibers with seriously expensive ammo. My Mag likes $24 blue box Federals from Walmart.

Pygmy, The rifle is a Savage 99, and it's a shooter. The trigger has been lightened to around 4lbs, and it has almost no recoil. I have a couple boxes of ammo for it, and I don't think ammo is as scarce as some other calibers. I'm not sure I can bring myself to carry it. I'm pretty partial to my 7 Rem Mag. I thought the 7mm was .284, not .280? I'm surprised there's not more difference in capacity between it and the 7mm-08. They look pretty different to me when you put them side-by-side. One big difference IMO is recoil. I'm fairly well used to the Mag, but the 7mm-08 is a dream to shoot in comparison. The only reason I shoot the Mag is that my best friend gave it to me years ago. He bought it for himself, and couldn't get used to the recoil. He was used to the .308. After outshooting him with it several times he told me to keep it. I've shot 20 or so deer with it, a few coyotes, and a bunch of woodchucks. It would be hard to switch deer rifles for me. The model 99 will stay in the safe for now.

I spent a couple summers on Martha's Vineyard, and they had a mix of wild and "feral" birds. They had all kinds of colors. They looked strange to me, but they were BIG. Some of that was climate and lack of predators. I think that hen stands a chance because she's with a flock of wild birds. Of course, it has been a mild winter so far.

Took a walk in the new snow. Unfortunately, we got a good shot of freezing rain before that. Brought the .22 mag, but it was crunchy walking. I kicked a big turkey off it's roost, saw a gray squirrel, and a flock of robins. There weren't as many tracks as I expected. I did find 5 sets of coyote, 1 partridge, many squirrel and rabbit and ZERO deer tracks. I did find an old rub line. I also looked at how to get up the hill above the woods plot. There's a couple different angles, but if I can get up there with the tractor, there's a lot of firewood before it turns into pines/hemlocks and nasty honeysuckle/buckthorn thickets and blowdowns. It's great cover. Seeing it in winter makes me realize there's a very defined "path of least resistance" along the hillside. If I can clean up some of the blowdowns, cut some of the firewood, and direct their travel with some brush fence, then I can really take advantage of that path. I can only do so much to bring deer to our property, but at least when I do, I can predict which way they'll arrive. On a different note, the woods are strange around the hill. Below the hill is almost all green ash and red elm. Above the hill is mostly pine, hemlock and some cedar. Right along the top and bottom of the hill there is all kinds of other hardwood! There's soft maple, black cherry, white oak, beech, 3 kinds of birch, hop hornbeam, poplar, and American elm. I wish I knew how that happened. Anyhow, I guess my point is that I was feeling finished with tree work around the woods plot. Now I have another project at the top of the hill! Thinning, cleanup, and possibly some hinge cutting.

Grow, I looked at Cumming's nursery site, but didn't sign up for the news letter. I'll have to look at where they are located. It may be a long round trip. It's funny you should mention grafting. I was watching a Youtube video from Nativ Nursery on bark grafting. I'm sure I could learn some of the simpler methods. I may have to order rootstock and give it a try. I am also trying my hand at propagating apple trees from cuttings (scions). They say trees started this way will not be hardy. I'm not sure what that really means, but I'm going to try it anyway. I started two cuttings from a Mac in a 2 liter soda bottle, and they have tiny leaves on them. I don't know if they are rooting. I'll let them go for the winter and check in the spring. When I was at the farm a couple days ago, I gathered 40 or 50 cuttings from a bunch of different trees. We'll see what I can come up with. So my newest plan is to buy a very few nursery trees, start propagating my own from cuttings, and buy a half dozen rootstocks and give grafting a shot. One way or another, I should have apples in a few years.

Could you imagine growing up with an uncle like "Uncle Ted"? What a riot!

Listed at $29.99 a bag on TS website. Sounds like a deal to me. Seed should be fine, depending on how it was stored. Either way, it's a lot of seed for the money. I may have to wander by the store later.

It has already survived most of a year. Domestic birds can roost if they aren't grain fed and heavy. We used to have to trim our bird's wing tips to keep them from flying over a 5 foot fence.

I've been craving venison meatloaf. Mine isn't anything fancy. I use half venison, half beef from my brother's dairy farm, and the trusty McCormick's meatloaf seasoning packet. Does anyone have a recipe that kicks it up a notch?

LMAO. If you replaced the little house on the swing set with a Redneck blind, and shot a Youtube hunting show from it, you would be my hero.

We always did when I was a kid. Of course, I live in Vermont!

Ever shoot a whitetail with the 250-3000? I bought one from a family member. It's a great shooting gun, but I have always "over gunned" for whitetail. I know that a 100 grain bullet will get the job done, but none of the 20ish deer I shot with my 7 Rem Mag ever complained.

I'm not really sure. I don't know anyone who quarters them. Not sure if the state discourages it. All our big game gets reported at an official reporting station. The state uses the reporting stations to gather data, especially with moose. The football team thing was more of a bet / fundraiser. I think he said he would give them $300 if they could do it.

Yeah, some guys hire horses here in VT. I know guys that pull with two 4 wheelers chained together. My sister's boyfriend shot one and hired a high school football team to drag his moose close to 3/4 mile. It took them 7 hours!

I used to have this rock I sat behind on opening day of rifle season. It was on a high spot overlooking about 30 acres of hay field. There was a couple times that I saw shooting stars before sunrise, and then shot a buck. When I got older, I realized that if I looked hard enough, I would see a shooting star almost any morning. Not a pattern. Those were good times though. That land got sold and I can't hunt it any more. I do have the memories of being a teenager on opening morning, watching the sun change the landscape, keeping an eye out for deer and shooting stars. Quite a feeling.

Neat to find two of them. Some places are like that. There's a spot on the family farm, most of the way to the top of the hill, where I have found probably 20 or 30 "party balloons" over the years. They are those foil, helium ones. They get hung up in a patch of hemlocks there. Makes me think about wind currents and weather patterns and other stuff I don't understand. By the way, you've got me wanting to find just ONE decent shed, so I can make one of those rings. I don't wear rings, but I still want one. I can't sacrifice antlers off a buck I shot, so now I'll have to try and hunt down a shed. Oh boy. Mission impossible.

I don't miss the snow either! I do like frozen ground over mud, and ice over open water though.

My brother told me about this critter. He said 2 of them got loose from a hobby farm almost a mile away. I believed him, but here's the proof! It is running with a flock of actual wild turkeys. Not sure why they didn't end up on camera. Unfortunately, it's a hen, so I won't be able to call it in and shoot it in May.

Rain/sleet/freezing rain here. Spent yesterday at the family farm pruning apple trees. I wanted to get in the woods with the truck and get some wood out, but there was still too much snow. I didn't expect that. No snow here in the Champlain Valley. So I worked on 5 trees that I'm releasing near my "woods plot to-be", then went to another property and worked on some very old trees that are all grown together. All in all, I guess I made progress. Oh yeah, I paced out some other areas for expanding a plot from 1/4 acre to a 1/2.

Part of me thinks a January thaw is normal, but this is a bit much. I took out a bucket of scrap from cleaning fish and our pasture is MUD. Boating makes more sense at this point. I don't really fish open water (too busy working) so I'm hoping for ice to get my fish for the year.

Maybe they were celebrating the inauguration? I've heard that kind of shooting more and more in the past few years. I don't get it either Doc. 10 years ago I drove my Tacoma to Alaska. On the way I traveled north along the Clark Fork River in Montana. The road followed the river, so it had big bends through the valleys. You would come around a corner and there would be a ranch. In another 3 miles or so you would round another bend, another ranch. Sometimes I wish my closest neighbor was 3+ miles away...