Maggie's Farm

One of my pals uses this sort of thing. You can leave your trigger finger out. Yes, they make them for lefties and righties at Orvis.

I'd get them as skin-tight as possible. I really do not like gloves for hunting, even for duck and goose in winter. If ducks are coming in, I throw off my gloves. I need the feel of the gun and, even with that, I am not a good shot. Mediocre.

I just do not do enough shooting. I would not mind doing more, but it's a whole day thing like golf and I usually have other things to do too. I am grateful that I never took up golf.

Inverness has several shops which sell waxed jackets. They sell models that are more for working purposes rather than the more style-oriented ones available in the US. If any place in the world is right for a Barbour or similar brands, it is Scotland.

Gore-tex made waxed clothing obsolete, more or less, but people still like it. What is not widely-known is that Gore-Tex, over time, loses its waterproofing effect and you have to replace the item. Waxed cotton and waxed canvas can be re-proofed. I have waxed canvas Filson hunting pants, waxed canvas hunting brush chaps, a Barbour, maybe something else too. Damn things are heavy to wear compared to Gore Tex.

If these things get too dirty or muddy on the outside, you just brush then off or hose it off with cold water. But what about when the lining gets sweaty and smelly? Ideally it won't because of the other stuff you are wearing, but if you want to clean it out, how?

I read up on the topic. The only way to do it that protects the wax is to hose down the lining with cold water. No soap, etc - just cold water.  Let it soak, then hose it again and let it air-dry. That's all you can do until the jacket needs re-proofing, at which time the company cleans the lining too. 

A friend reported back to me about his fly fishing trip in the Maine wilderness a week or two ago. No fish stocking goes on up there, and all fishing was catch-and-release, no barbs.

His report is that in a couple of days they caught about 70 Brookies, from fingerlings up to full-size (10-12"). 

Wiki has a good entry on Brook Trout 

I have claimed, rightly or wrongly, that there are no wild-bred Brook Trout in the northeast US. To persuade me otherwise, I'd need to see a photo of some fingerlings in a stream.

There are two main issues:

The foremost is that most streams become too warm in summertime to support a Brook Trout population. That has always been true. (Yes, Brookies are the only species native to the Northeast US. They like cold water). Hatchery trout can survive in springtime, for a while, in non-trout streams.

Second issue is predators, and the worst is the introduced (from Europe) Brown Trout. That fish will eat any baby fish or fish eggs it can find. They prefer meat to bugs. I oppose any stream stocking with Brownies unless they are streams that would never support Brookies anyway.  The ordinary fish predators like mink and otters can be put up with but always kept the Brookies at low numbers everywhere they could breed.

Given the popularity of fly-fishing, it's up to states to decide what their stocking programs should be. I get it. Fly-fishing is a beautiful experience and it is assumed that pretty much all stream- stocked fish will either be caught, fall to predation, or die from heat by June or July because they no longer have breeding populations to support hundreds of anglers. Stocking is required to accommodate all of the avid springtime anglers. Even the southern US states have been doing this. 

This northern chicken-like (gallinaceous) bird prefers first-growth areas, with access to water and open areas. I most often find them in aspen, birch or alder thickets, but they can be seen in piney woods, old orchards, ferny woods, and in streambeds. In regions where birch and aspen are the climax forest, they can be found everywhere or anywhere, but never in large numbers. They are most commonly encountered when they flush with a startling whirr of wings.

Once known as "fool hens" for their tameness, Ruffies have somehow learned to avoid human encounters once they have had contact with them.

These birds do not migrate, and winter very well, since they are very happy to thrive on tree buds all winter, especially protein-rich aspen and birch buds. Their numbers have been declining in the Northeast as the old farms have become either mature woods, or housing developments, but clear-cutting of mature woodlands is a great help to them, as it is to most species of wildlife (it imitates the natural effect of wildfire to regenerate forest succession, which is key to habitat diversity and thus species diversity).

The Ruffed Grouse is the noblest game bird in the US. Wary, they do not often hold to a dog's point and when they do flush, their flight assumes warp speed immediately and is unpredictable. (Gwynnie's theory is that they have a random-direction-generating gyroscope in their brains.) They have an uncanny talent for putting tree trunks between the hunter and themselves, or for flying at your face, or flying between you and you pal, whose life you may (or may not) value more highly than you value bagging a Ruffie. And even the most considerate hunters ( yes - you, Craig) will pop off a snap shot regardless of whose bird it is, and rightly so. You cannot wait with Ruffies.

Grouse hunters (a very special and scarce, and, to my mind, elite fraternity of intrepid woodsy folks who don't mind cuts, bruises, wet boots, and hours-long struggles through underbrush, raspberry patches, thorny thickets of hawthorn, and impenetrable streamside alder growths) require very quick reflexes and a high degree of "relaxed alertness", but they require, most of all, strong legs for all of the hours of difficult wilderness walking which is required to find these wonderful creatures. It is said that grouse "are killed with legs, not guns." Dogs help, a bit, but they are huntable without dogs. When a hunter finds one, they are generally very difficult to shoot such that every Ruffie is a trophy and is regarded as such. And they are also regarded as a rare gourmet treat, because, with their subtle woodsy flavor, there is no finer fowl for the table.

Why "ruffed"? The males have a dramatic black neck ruff which they display for courtship purposes, while they fan their tails and strut around like little Thanksgiving turkeys. Their courtship drumbeat from an old log is also one of their well-known features: many have heard their deep thumping from deep in the woods, and have no idea that it is just a horny male Ruffie looking for a date.

Read more about the wonderful Ruffed Grouse here. The very worthy Ruffed Grouse Society, which Maggie's Farm supports, pays for research on grouse and woodcock ecology, which benefits all woodlands and woodland creatures.

At the turn of the century, the Eastern Wild Turkey was nearly eradicated by hunting and habitat loss, and was entirely absent in the Northeast.

By the mid 1800s, the woodlands of New England had disappeared for farming, charcoal production, and lumbering.

But the woodlands have returned as farming moved west, and the wierd gobble now can be heard even in residential areas.

Thanks to dramatically successful conservation and transplantation efforts, there are now estimated to be 7 million of these huge iridescent birds, which Ben Franklin felt to be so quintessentially American that he wanted one on the US Seal. (Video of the turkey's comeback here.)

There are six species of wild turkey in the New World, and none elsewhere. (The domestic turkey is likely a descendent of the large Mexican species.) It is the Eastern which we feature here which has, in recent years, been transplanted successfully west of the Mississippi, and elsewhere.

As a sought-after game bird, the turkey's habits have been much studied. They are wary and cautious. In most areas, there is a spring and a fall hunting season for turkey, and they are pursued with bow or shotgun. It is the one game bird which it is sporting to shoot on the ground.

I have hunted them on a couple of occasions. Never managed to shoot one, though. Had a good time however, sitting at the base of a tree in camo, watching the other wild critters pass by.

Does the wild turkey taste different from a supermarket bird? Yes - the wild turkey tastes like turkey and the supermarket bird tastes like a supermarket.

The tail-fanning? That's part of the male's mating strut. The CLO page here, and the website of the worthy National Wild Turkey Federation here.

We're talking about domesticated dogs, from Chihuauah to Malamutes - all genetically-modifed versions of the Wolf, designed to serve or entertain humans in some ways.

The domestic dog appears to be a neotonal wolf. 

They are certainly trainable and well-adapted to interacting with humans, but not as clever as many other mammals. (I hear some reader thinking "But my dog is different. Yeah, right."). 

 How Stupid Are Dogs, Really?

Why do humans anthropomorphise animals?  I am a dog guy, and know how easy it can be to view a dog as a pal. They sure can be great companions if well-trained, with none of the demands of human relationships. 

I guess I am talking about pets, not pure working dogs. Are they pretend people? 

A recent conversation involved exercising our dogs. 

A neighbor runs his dogs by letting them chase his car around the neighborhood each evening until they are fatigued. That reminded me of how they get hounds in shape for fall hunting. In the southern US, you tie the dogs to a rope or chain to the back of your pickup and drive around dirt roads for a while. If you did that around here you would probably end up in jail.

Up here, it's not unusual to tire a hyper-energetic hunting dog, before a hunt, by letting him run around the woods with a 5-6' length of chain on his collar. That can help an overly-exuberant dog focus on his task afterwards.

That's what we do in the gym each morning to ourselves so it is far from abuse. Years ago, I would run with our Lab each morning 5 or 6 miles. Being a well-trained dog, she needed no leash for road running. We had fun. And, of course, any dog loves a few hours to run free in the wilderness too. That's the best for them, going full dog. Dog-training snob that I am, I hate any use of leashes (except maybe on human children, pet Cheetahs, and dancing bears). 

How do our readers make sure their dogs get the exercise they require every day? Don't tell me you "walk them" like a yo-yo. Walking is neither exercise for dog nor human being. Exception: people or dogs recovering from something.

A pal spent last week fishing the upper Green River in northern Utah, near Flaming Gorge, mostly float-fishing.  Browns, Rainbows, some Cutthroat. It's one of the US' most famous trout fisheries.

I tried to find out to what extent that fishery is stocked, but I could not find the answer.  Still, except for Lake Trout, almost all trout fisheries in the US are stocked.

He had one day of 24" snow, but otherwise good (chilly) weather and good fishing. 

A pic he sent me below, and another below the fold -

In addition to house-wide de-cluttering, I am facing a de-cluttering of my daily work space.  It is on the order of The Management.

Some urgency to it too, cuz the place is being re painted. In one cabinet I went through, far more ammo than I knew I had. I had no idea how much I had accumulated in there, including all game loads, plus steel loads, Bismuth loads, and Tungsten loads. 

12 ga, 20 ga.  Just no 16 ga, which I have come to like the best since inheriting my grandpa's 16 ga. I only like 20 ga for grouse and woodcock, and you do not need much ammo for that game because they are so difficult to find.

I have too many firearms too. I love to play with firearms and to shoot birds, ducks, and geese, but I found that I have more than I can ever use.  Only so many Saturdays left and, as I say, retirement is not in my playbook.

I would do the night shift in a minimart rather than be useless.