had a big one eating out of my hand

[daniel collums]

here it is the last of dec. and the skeeters were trying to eat me right before dark. i looked down at my hand and the biggest skeeter i ever saw was just fixing to help himself to my blood. i'm ready for winter before spring gets here. i did get to see a bunch of deer and hogs in the last few days. deer were either small bucks and doe and hogs were out of range or in the thick timber or running.

 

[Livbucks]

If I wasn't complaining about the warm it would be the cold. I guess if it aint rainin I'm happy. Then again I don't have skeeters to put up with. I would not like that for sure. I have had a very few days of hunting weather in my life that I would call ideal.

 

[Eric Krewson]

It was 76 here yesterday, I went hunting in my tee shirt.

I jumped one deer walking in, didn't see anything all evening.

I am hunting a rural piece of hilly land, there is about 500 acres of picked soybeans in the bottom land across the county road from my friends property, no houses around.

About an hour before dark the traffic picks up on the road bordering the bean field. I am sure some of these people are headed to church but the vast majority of them are looking for a deer to shoot out the window of their truck or car.

I hunt the top of a ridge and can hear them coming from both directions. The road hunters drive at about 5 mph, the slow cadence crunch of their tires on the gravel road is unmistakable. They very slowly or drive a little bit and stop and drive a little bit and stop. A new vehicle would round the curve every few minutes or so right up until dark.

I wonder about these folk, I guess it is a reflection on where we are as a society as a whole.

I jumped a bunch of deer walking out after dark, the deer were coming off the ridge to feed. I guess they were waiting for the parade to end before they ventured out into the bean field.

 

[Spikebuck]

The road hunters drive at about 5 mph, the slow cadence crunch of their tires on the gravel road is unmistakable. They very slowly or drive a little bit and stop and drive a little bit and stop. A new vehicle would round the curve every few minutes or so right up until dark.

Sounds like a good place for the local warden to set up one of those decoys they use and do some arresting. I watch the Warden shows on TV, especially North Woods Law (Maine warden service) and the violations just amaze me...and the way people can lie when confronted by the warden.

 

[daniel collums]

i have a wide gas line that cross's my land and it cross's the highway right down from my house. every day someone slows down to look up and down the line trying to see something, some just look but others look to shoot. about 3 years ago i requested the game wardens to do a stake out with their big buck decoy. they got 4 shooters right quick then word got around. they done so good about two weeks later they used a small forkhorn that had green glowing eyes when light hit them that they put close to the road. in 2 nights they made 3 arrest and one of them was a guy that had got a ticket for shooting the big dummy buck the couple weeks before, and this ahole got off with out even having to pay a ticket. his aunt was the judge, that was the last year she got elected.

 

[PaulN/KS]

27deg and snowing with wind chill making it 15deg. Skeeters are long gone here. :grin:
Antlerless season runs the 1st-3rd. I still have a tag but I need to get up to the county office to renew my license.
Maybe tomorrow...

 

[Stumpkiller]

Christmas Eve was 64°F. That's a degree less than we had for a high on the 4th of July last year! Our County Climate data average high for December is 33°F.

I don't know if the whole globe is warming but we certainly are climate shifting in this region. I've heard the maple trees may be incapable of tolerating such warm winters. Most on my property are stressed and covered from soil level to well above head level with tree fungus and lichen (which I am told is a sign of an unhealthy maple tree). We're losing a LOT of the ash trees to an introduced beetle, and now they say something is attacking the pines. This points to a sad future for woodland lovers hereabouts.

We have dandylions blooming in the yard. In the past there would be feet of snow by now that would last on through to February. And the damned ticks are STILL alive, active and eager.

 

[daniel collums]

the ash beetle is going to wipe out the ash trees is what we been told (in certain areas), and pine beetles are a here and there thing and can wipe out an entire forest of pine. in 1990 i was part of a team that was marking beetle damaged pine timber on u.s. forest land in north ms. most of the damage was to old growth native pine. after the southern pine beetle had killed the pines the secondary type beetles had moved in and were eating what was left and while we were out in the forest the sawdust falling from the trees was like snow. every couple minuets you would have to blow your Talley sheet off. the cold front is going to be here starting this afternoon then everyone will be wishing it would get back warm. at least the skeeters and ticks and flies will go back dormant.

 

[Eric Krewson]

the wardens put robobuck out in one of my friends grownup fields but had no takers.

I has a bow student that knew all the outlaws in the area. He told me the first guy to drive by recognised the decoy and called all the other outlaws to alert them to stay away.

 

[Patocazador]

It was a degree hotter here on Christmas than it was last July 25th. 86 degrees for Christmas. Only one day in December has been below the average temperature for the month.

My wife is nagging me to cut the grass and the weeds are blooming everywhere.

 

[azmntman]

Snowed all week and on Chrismas morning here (1st white Christmas is YEARS). Then sat and sat nite it was 45 mph wind with top gust 63 and about 4 dgrees w/o wind chill. Pipes froze all over! Mine just froze upstais and I know the quick fix with a lantern so it took 10 min!

I would love to be huntin now but I got busy, finally, and have to work!

I dont believe in man made climate change but do believe in cyclic change and believe that what were seeing.

I hate skeeters.

 

[Old Creek]

when I was a boy I didn't think much of it but lookin back there's just something wrong about water skiing on Christmas day. I was born and raised in the deep south and always have lived in the deep south but the older I get the better southern Illinois looks.

creek