Site Discussions

I was rescuing a guinea pig near the woods (someones Pet) and I thrust my hand (like an idiot) into a fuzzy bunch of green leaves. A neighbor called it poison ivy but I have to say it was worse. My hand became almost something I couldn’t recognize! It turned bright red and had gloppy bubbles all over the fingers…it was oozing, I called it creepy holly but I don’t know what caused it. blisters on my wrist would pop, the discharge was so gold it looked weird. It wasn’t poison ivy but what the He—was it? My right hand (three fingers) hurt to this day, weeks later…throbs and hurts slightly, I felt I almost lost the 3 fingers ghastly. I’ll be careful after this!!!

They can survive pretty low water conditions, Judie, so I wouldn’t worry. And they won’t move into your house. They love cattails (they eat the roots in winter, so the brown foliage on top doesn’t matter), so if you want to help them out encourage the cattails.

The best way how to cut a tree which leans different direction than you need it to fall down is to have a helper. Number one, you should always have safety gear like a hard head, safety glasses and gloves. Take a rope (make sure it is much longer than your tree) and either climb it or install a little log and the end of it. Throw it around stronger limb, make a knot (slippery eight loop) http://www.netknots.com/rope_knots/slippery-eight-loop. Make it tight and hook it up behind truck or atv. You can also use a few guys to pull.
It depends how big the leaning tree is. It if is bigger tree, please don’t risk anything and call your local tree guys. It is not worthy to save $1000-$2000 to risk your life.

Anyway, when your rope is tied and person in the truck or the atv ready, you can start cutting. Cut 70% notch into the tree with the length of 80% of the trunk’s diameter. Cut down slide first and then make upward cut to complete the notch. Make sure that your guy at the truck or atv start pulling little bit more. Then make the back cut toward to the corner of the face notch. While you cutting make sure your helpers pulling the rope more and more. This job needs to be done precisely. Your tree should start moving towards to your helpers, if you need to, cut little bit more and then escape the area by going on the left or right.
Bob - Eastern Tree Service in Birmingham, Alabama

There is a muscrat family living in a small pond near our house.  I do not know the depth of the pond and am wondering if muscrats can survive in this condition?  The pond is surrounded by grasses and reeds which will soon freeze and die.  Can I put any food (bird seed, corn Etc) next to the pond to provide extra food for the muscrat family?  I would hate to see them freeze or starve, but I also don’t want them to come in my house!  Thanks…

In the past 10 years or so, twice, I’ve used a brush saw to cut the beech in my woods. The saw did a great job but the stripped maple and beech have returned in force. I’m losing this battle.

I’m surprised at the low levels of glyphosate recommended in the article. If I understand correctly it would require about 3.4 ounces of my 47% glyphosate product that I purchased from Home Depot. That seems to me to be a very small amount. How long does it take for a beech tree to die. How long for the ferns?

I have regeneration of oaks in my woods. They grow next to the ferns and beech. Will this product hurt the oaks or hard maple?

Have you ever tried using a mist blower sprayer? The kind with a gasoline engine? I think Stihl makes at least one model. I don’t own one but I would like to know if anyone thinks it’s worth the cost.

I’ve had this happen to me once - a deer that I hit and didn’t recover - one that I never found out was whether it had survived my arrow or not.  It is not a good feeling and I wouldn’t wish it on any hunter. 

All we can do as hunters - especially bow hunters - is to practice, practice, practice during the off-season. Know our maximum effective range and NEVER shoot beyond that at live game.  Never take shots other than broadside or quartering away with a bow.  Never take shots at moving deer with a bow. 

If all bow hunters followed these four steps there wouldn’t be half the unrecovered deer that there are. 

The rise in states allowing leashed dog trackers is a mixed blessing in my opinion.  On the positive side, a well-trained dog can find most deer that humans with their limited capabilities would never find.  This allows hunters to put tags on deer they wouldn’t otherwise be able to put a tag on.  Then again, nothing is ever wasted in nature.  A deer that dies and is not recovered will become food for numerous creatures - just not the hunter and their family.  And I wonder if many hunters now take less than perfect shots thinking, “If I don’t find him I can always call a dog tracker.”  This was a great read - and eloquently sums up a feeling which I pray I’ll never have again.

Dave, Beautiful piece!  I appreciated reading this immensely this morning, and I’m feeling (and sharing) the pain of our mutual friend.

There’s not much that even a good friend can say to take away the sort of pain, sadness, and frustration that losing a deer can bring.

Bowhunting is never a sure thing.  There are complications that can arise as swiftly and silently as the deer itself.  These things are just plain part of the deal.  The best that we can do is learn from each experience and move forward to the next opportunity.

Shake it off and get your tail back out in the woods, Hiya!  There will be another chance - a time for redemption.

Be well, and good luck during the rest of your season!

I’d like to make handles for my tools,hammer,axes and a custom handle for hatches. Thank you for any help you might have. Phil

Dave - Great story,sad story. Some of us have been there. Should be required reading for all hunters new or old. Tell Hiya the sadness will eventually fade.

I don’t hunt and don’t want to. But I know something about the feeling of the lost-deer aftershock . . . from hitting one with a car. We didn’t know for sure what the impact had done. We couldn’t find it. We still wonder, vacillating between damn-the-deer—it ran RIGHT IN FRONT OF US, leaping off a bank from above-car height, there was absolutely nothing we could do—to OMG, we hurt it, did we hurt enough to kill it mercifully or is it out there suffering a hideous death, or was it just a glancing blow and it’s fine and the shock was all on us?

We’ll never know, just like Hiya.

Dear Dave,

Thank you for telling the hard truth.
Sometimes the best stories don’t have an end, but a deepening. They always make us feel included and I, neither hunter, nor an opponent of hunters, was included in the pain and the mystery.

Steve

To the Stewarts: the Vigilant 1977 is a fine stove, and yes, assuming it’s in good operating condition, it’s perfectly safe to install and use. The EPA approval relates to emissions—that stove won’t burn as cleanly as a newer stove. But as long as you burn good, dry hardwood, you’ll be fine on that front, too. My girlfriend has a Vigilant for her primary heat and she loves it.

That you tried to find the deer is what matters, having been in the same situation with friends and not finding the deer does bother me, but not half as bad as people I know who, after a few minutes,  give up and don’t bother. And to think he kept going at 71 -  good for him, a great example of a real hunter.

Could have been a she.  I shot a rabbit when I was hunting with my dad when I was 12, that was 55 years ago.  There was blood.  I’m glad to have had the experience, but don’t need to do it again.

Dave,
Yes, the story is blunt and unvarnished, but it is also well told. Thanks.
Ed

This is sad and beautiful. Like the column you wrote about taking a young friend fishing for the first time, I have to say thank you for writing such a powerful, honest piece.

Wouldn’t it take the same amount of time to get back up north as it does to get down south?  Can we determine when they leave their wintering grounds that way?

Our environment with or without our human filter is fascinating.  Do other insects lack lungs as well?  What other kinds of natural scuba divers are there?

We just purchased a used vc vigilant 1977 stove with glass doors, someone informed us its not epa approved! We were so excited to install it, is it going to be unsafe? Thanks.

This was truly a article, I ran across it by accident, I was searching for The Sugar Hill Craftsmen of Lisbon, N.H., in the process I couldn’t help but read and enjoy the workmanship it takes to make a simple windsor-chair, thanks for the information.