Site Discussions

Back in 1996, I shot my first buck at the age of 14.  For a combination of reasons, I didn’t begin hunting again until a couple of years ago. 

At first,  I dipped my toe in, on my father’s 44 wooded acres; only hunting a couple of times.  Last year, I sat in a blind on my back 25 several times, again without any luck (only hunting bucks). 

The older I get, for some reason, the more appealing it is to harvest my own meat.  Add to this my love of being out in nature, and I found myself hunting pretty hard this season.  I have a small parcel of land near the height of NY’s Tug Hill; this is my basecamp.  I tent camp, waking early, to make the short drive down seasonal roads, to hunt the large tracts of state land which adjoin tens of thousands of acres of contiguous forest, protected from development by conservation easements. 

This region isn’t quite as “big woods” as the Adirondacks, but I often found myself to be the only hunter in the woods for miles.  Opening day was a near whiteout at times, with at least 7 inches of snow adding up; as it turned out, there was at least an inch and a half of snow on the ground every time I hunted there this year. 

On my fifth excursion into these woods (Nov 20), on a 10 degree morning, I landed a healthy six pointer, dressing out around 150 lbs. 

Although my hunts were all solitary in nature, I enjoyed reading your camp dispathes.

If bears “can still be active until mid-January”, when is the earliest they can be expected to resume activity? That is to say, the reasonably bear-safe bird-feeding window in a “normal” Winter is from mid-January to ... when?

  Wonderful story. I’ve never been at a deer camp, because I’ve almost always hunted alone surrounded at times by neighbors who hunted in groups. for few years before my twin boys left home we huned when they weren’t working.
  On November I shot a nice yearling doe with my .50 caliber (shooting a patched roundball) Yorktown flintlock made by Cabin Creek Muzzleloading. Shooting does helps lower the deer herd which is at a high level of about 80-120 per square mile in this area.

No luck yet, but I have seen more deer, tracks, and sign in the hills around the house than I have in our nine years here - a good year for them it would seem. Had a nice 6 pointer run in front of the truck yesterday around noon. I tracked him for 2 and half hours, but lost the track due to snow falling from the trees in the wind. Hoping for better luck this weekend.

I’m NOT a Boston liberal, but I’ll pose this question: Why did you shoot and kill the bear in the first place?  For a few pathetic pints of bear lard? That seems to be the gist of your half macho, half folksy report from the frontlines…

Chain saw and an eight pound maul.
I frequently split green hard woods
and burn it for heat. The white oak I split
would laugh at an axe. I often wonder
if kiln dried or even long seasoned wood is
worth the price or storage. I understand I
am not getting max BTU because the wood is
‘wet’ but if it burns and I get it for free
who cares? I sweep the chimney on my insert
annually and never had a problem with creosote.

BEST TIP EVER!
Use an old car tire and fill it with logs.
Split the logs while they stand in the tire.
The tire gives a slight recoil, the wood stays
in a tight bunch and you never bend over to
to stand up or chase the logs,
and I estimate it to be 85% quicker!
It is an old Yankee magic trick, try it!
I can go to the wood pile in my shirt sleeves,
split an armload of wood for the night and be
back inside before the snow even sticks to
my bare feet.

I’ve been working with Mike Dunbar since last March, making a variety of Windsor chairs in his classes. Mike and I have known each other for 35 years, but this is the first time I was able to take one of his classes. Today, I was finishing a high chair and a child’s Windsor sack back. They’re going to be Christmas presents for two of my kids. Mike and I were talking about factory made chairs vs. hand made chairs. He says it’s like buying a Ford and a Lamborghini. Both are good, but the Lamborghini has a certain something that only very few people can afford or appreciate. Working under Mike at http://thewindsorinstitute.com/ has been extremely satisfying!

@Betty - Here in the UK what you’re describing would be referred to as a Pavoirs maul (assuming it’s a four foot handle).  Used when laying stone flagstones, essentially a giant mallet.

I once had a drawing class and we were allowed only one sheet of paper for the entire semester.The idea was that after each session you would have to erase everything you had created.For beginners this was a good lesson in the detachment that is required to be objective about your work.It also teaches you to become confident in your ability to improve.

Whatever is at work in the creative process, it is seldom under as much control as we would wish.Catching lightning can happen anytime. It’s nice to be able to recognize it when it happens, but sometimes we don’t. So, leave off if it’s not working, but if it has any hope of life it can be good to keep it around and possibly see what might be there with a second look later- maybe much later.

I have heard reports of hibernating frogs that actually freeze solid during the winter months.  Obviously this capability would be highly adaptive during long cold winters!  I wonder however, is this capability commonly used by amphibians in the northeast?  Or, is this a capability something that is limited to just a few unusual arctic species. 

Nice article about our frogs friends!

Hello Dave. Excellent article. Why would a tree make a fake nut? Your answer makes perfect sense. While at first glance a natural event may seem unreasonable, a closer look always reveals that there is a method to the madness. Sometimes it only takes us a bit longer to figure it out.

Claudia

We seem to be on a path that bears use to move from one area to another! It is not unusual to see more than one bear a day here, in fact on one day in the summer of 2013 we saw a female with two very young cubs come down one side of our house and through the back yard, then about 5 mins later two larger bears,still smaller than the female came down the other side of our house. We thought perhaps they were the previous cubs of the same female as they appeared to be following her and I guess cubs stay with Mom for about two years, until the next young is born. Needless to say, we have many pictures and video’s of bears. We thought perhaps our geographical closeness to Ben Kilham may have something to do with the population we observe. Thanks for your article, will wait a couple more weeks to put our birdfeeders down lower…on upper side of barn now.

Hello. I have made just a few single headed drums. I do not hunt, I depend upon the kindness of others to give me a hide. Recently I have had a hard time removing the hair from the hide, leaving holes where I do not want them. I never used chemicals in the past. I am wondering if you have used wood ash?

Just a tip I figured out for assembling snap-together chimney sections that get bent out of round (ovaled). I united a couple of hose clamps (long ones) and ratcheted the oval end until it was squeezed round enough to fit into the next section. Amazing what one can think of when they’re a one man band.

Beautifully written! Did you have to throw away your darling before posting this one?

Thank you, sir, for an excellent tutorial. We are building some top bar hives for our new property and look forward to trying your method. We saw many honeybees this summer so we know there’s a hive close by. Hopefully it’s wild and does not belong to the winery a mile away…

While splitting oak, I found a large, orange grub inside the log.  I’ve never seen another like it.  After photographing it, I placed it in a standing white pine, compromised by a lightning strike, in the hope it may survive.  I have a picture if you have an email address I can send it to.  I’d love to know what this grub will become.

Rachel
Thanks so much for your article about winter tadpoles.  I knew some of what you wrote about, but I loved how you presented the 4 factors that influence how quickly tadpoles develop.  I never thought about their situation quite like that and it makes really good sense.  I wondered if over-crowding might actually speed up development because, as the pool dries, the habitat may be disappearing?  But this would be difficult in terms of feeding and getting oxygen?  I have found the dessicated carnage in vernal pools that have dried before the tadpoles are ready—seems so sad, but I know it is part of the cycles…

Thanks again for your thoughtful treatment of this topic.

Ted

Dave,

Not New England or New York, but I was stationed in Adak, Alaska in 1964 to 1966.  I was a Coast Guard Lieutenant commanding a Loran Station on the island.  We had a “White Alice” installation on the island that was part of the Dew Line of early warning radars.  This installation was still manned through the time I was on Adak.  I left the Coast Guard after this tour and returned to Mystic Connecticut where I have lived since.

Carl Strand

My mom has 2 butternut trees on her property. One is very old and only produces a few nuts a year, I doubt it is infected I have not seen signs of it.  My sister told me of another and I will check it out this spring, and contact you of it looks good.
My question is: I would like to purchase a few butternuts from Arbor Day Foundation, do you feel they may be a bit resistant to or am I just gambling?