Site Discussions

Phil in Boston…why NOT shoot the bear? Read the article before you post comments. The bear was processed for steaks, burger and roast…just like any deer, or do you have a problem with that, too?

“...It’s healthy in a scientific sense – bless science for being restless and poking things from every angle. But when a study becomes a cherry-picked bullet point in the hands of an activist with an axe to grind, or cover for a politician looking for easy answers, or a merry-go-round for a concerned citizen who’s trying to do the right thing and is just being spun around in circles and left to drop by the lack of context, well then it can be unhealthy, too.”

All I can say to this is: YES. Yes. Yes.

This was a very timely and thought-provoking article.  I was moved to search around on line, found this link:

http://norwichenergycommittee.wordpress.com/2013/12/08/andrew-friedland-talks-about-heating-with-wood/

which answered some of my questions.  It is indeed a complicated subject, I would like to hear more arguments and observations on all sides.

I do hope we won’t damage the long range life of the northern forest by ill use and short-sighted decisions.

Thanks Dave for an interesting piece.  To add some fuel to the fire (sorry), and not to pick on Dartmouth, here’s a link to a press report on another Dartmouth College research effort that has a different perspective:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-12-05/dartmouth-study-says-cutting-down-certain-trees-can-save-the-environment

I haven’t gotten the full study yet, but the summaries suggest that intensive harvesting in northern softwood forests may reduce climate change because of the increased reflectivity (albedo) of snow-covered vs. forested terrain. To oversimplify, if you clearcut a northern spruce/fir forest, the snapshot of the terrain as seen by sunlight in the winter changes from dark green to white, so more sunlight is reflected, resulting in less warming.

Putting all the studies together will not, as you point out, amount to any compelling conclusion.  But they do let a person find some support for almost any position!

“Because the females are unable to fly, the moths move across the land at only 1.25 miles per year and, without human help, would by now have traveled about 170 miles and just be approaching New York City”

This implies that humans are the only method of quick travel. Thats not true. Perhaps moths could be transported on a long bison journey, or sucked up into the atmosphere by weather conditions, perhaps by a log in a river. I’m sure there are more.

I also would tend to think, (of course i am not an expert—who also tend to be wrong quite often) that ‘slowing the spread’ is just a justifcation for someone job and not really a rational strategy. Time would be better spent building up mantis and native bird populations. Time would be better spend reducing ‘pesticide usage’ to help predator populations and time would be better used increasing biodiversity to support more diverse predators. Time would also probably be better spent identifying ideal tree specimens to be protected when the moth arrives to help preserve the best of the best. A program should also be put in place to identify resistant trees and offer them added protection for their genes.

This is how we could work with nature, not beat our heads against a brick wall. It will also never happen.

Good article tho, thanks.

I have more than enough and would like to know a way of getting rid of it. I thought it was a 2 year life cycle, but constant cutting doesn’t do it.

Haven’t had a chance to get out at all (dang work!). But, my brother and his son have had great success here. Thanks too for sharing your bear story. The best to all!

Fascinating article!  I always wondered how they did this prickly affair…

I say that bear oil should be clear liquid like yours.  No need to refrigerate or seal it, if properly rendered it will keep for decades. We always have put it in plastic shampoo bottles, as the old timers say it will go through glass, but I don’t know if that’s true.

I use it exclusively as a linament.  It will penetrate sore muscles and joints like nothing else I know.

Bears are still very active in the beechnuts.

Thank you Dave. Thank you for writing this story. I know Hiya.

Great story and thanks for sharing Dave.  The second gun season in our region of Ontario open on Monday with lots of sign evident in the bush…keeping our fingers crossed!

I don’t have an answer to why the fat is staying liquid and not becoming like crisco. I do know, though that you don’t want to keep glass jars in the freezer for long. When they freeze solid, the glass usually breaks. It never hurts to “process” anything you put in jars. For 1/2 pints filled with boiling liquid, I would still process 5 minutes in a boiling bath.
I make my own chicken and turkey broth. It is still boiling when I put it in the jars, but even so, I’ve had a few that have spoiled. I started processing them for 5 minutes for the pints and 10 minutes for the quarts. I haven’t had one go bad since.
Congratulations on your bear. I hope the fat is sealed properly and doesn’t spoil. It would be a shame to waste your good fortune. 

In the summer of 2005 we were living in Fairfax, VT The back acreage of our property and the neighbors on both sides of us was all wooded for at least 35 plus acres which also bordered on forest.

For a series of nights over about a 2 week period in the middle of the night we heard blood curdling screams that ranged from sounding like an extremely loud terrified screams of a woman to almost a maniacal loud almost human like laughing sound.

There were many reports both official and non official of catamount sightings in Franklin county VT.

A friend of mine has a relative who lives on French Hill overlooking the City of St.Albans and Lake Champlain. He and his wife say they have seen a catamount on their property over the years. I do not know what these animals sound like and would welcome any feedback. Some people say we heard a fisher cat but the sounds sure sounded like something much larger than a fisher cat. I was familiar with the sounds of foxes and coyotes or coydogs. It did not sound like them either. Does anyone out there have any idea what catamounts sound like?

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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!