The Old Folks Home

[chickisoup]

My 2 cents on the bear thing;

I carry the bells so they make noise when I get busy picking and forget to keep singing or yelling "hey bear".

As for the bear spray, It's not legal in our state, but, (shhhhh!) I have it anyway because my police officer SIL gets it for me.
However, I don't carry it in the woods, I grab it when some fool lets his bear dogs run onto our land if they get too close to my chicken fence.
Then they get to "recover" locked in the garage while I wait for the owner to radio track it to where I am sitting on my porch, collar in hand.
Guarantee they learn not to mess with a crazy chicken granny and don't run their dogs thru our back forty twice.

Oh,I also carry my bear spray when I have to go into the big city!

 

[chickisoup]

Some are pretty funny... Unfotunately lots of the really funny ones that popped up had profanity.

Not sure why that has to be so rampant.

Ditto

 

[chickisoup]

WHERE'D I LEAVE MY COFFEE CUP!!! OH NO!!!
Went hunting. Found it in the coop, EMPTY

Darn chickens.

Oh, forgot to add, and worse than chicken spit in your coffee cup?
I just finished watching the velociraptors wildly tear apart a poor little toad.
Too much caffeine?????

 

[Kusanar]

My 2 cents on the bear thing;

I carry the bells so they make noise when I get busy picking and forget to keep singing or yelling "hey bear".

As for the bear spray, It's not legal in our state, but, (shhhhh!) I have it anyway because my police officer SIL gets it for me.
However, I don't carry it in the woods, I grab it when some fool lets his bear dogs run onto our land if they get too close to my chicken fence.
Then they get to "recover" locked in the garage while I wait for the owner to radio track it to where I am sitting on my porch, collar in hand.
Guarantee they learn not to mess with a crazy chicken granny and don't run their dogs thru our back forty twice.

Oh,I also carry my bear spray when I have to go into the big city!

Lol, that's probably a pretty priceless look on the hunters face! Though, if I were running dogs across someone elses land and found someone with my dogs collar and didn't see the dog, I would assume they shot it and just be happy that all that happened was the dog got a face full of pepper spray.

 

[chickisoup]

Lol, that's probably a pretty priceless look on the hunters face! Though, if I were running dogs across someone elses land and found someone with my dogs collar and didn't see the dog, I would assume they shot it and just be happy that all that happened was the dog got a face full of pepper spray.

Honestly, the first one I wasn't too rough on because he walked up pretty sheepish, apologizing right away and offered to pay me for any losses when I told him what his dog had been up to (his dumb hound never got thru the fence and behaved pretty well as I drug it across the yard by the collar) but I knew he didn't run on our place on purpose because the dog was wet which meant it had got on our place by swimming the creek on him.

Had a tangle with a real jerk one time tho. He pulls right up on the grass in an old beater truck and just sat there. When I just smiled but didn't move he finally climbed out, wearing a filthy old worn out orange deer hunting suit (it was September) and reeking of stale beer. When I first saw the truck my radar went up so I did two things right away. I moved my 22 lever action within easier reach, making sure he saw it and then I jotted down his license plate. I stood up on the porch as he approached, blocking his attempt to climb the porch steps. He asked if he could drive back and find his dogs. (I had heard the other dogs a while earlier and could tell they never crossed the creek and were heading north) I gave my best smile and said "sorry, no". (the DH was back there bow hunting and did NOT want a possibly armed drunk sneaking up on him!) so he gave me a sneering look and said "what if I do it anyway?" I just held up where he can clearly see it, the piece of paper with his plate number on it in the same hand with my cell phone. That's when I quietly reached over with my free hand and picked up the 22. He quit sneering and started back toward his truck. "Hey, you want this?" That's when I held up the collar. "Where's the dog?" "Check with the shelter. Son should be there with it about now". (Yep, I lied.) He grumbled something I'm probably glad I didn't understand and he left, almost hitting one of the big pines on the way. The dog? He was actually happily napping in the garage after scarfing down several cans of dog food. That poor old guy was skinny as a rail and covered with old scars that I was not at all convinced were only from hunting skirmishes. He was so sweet and really seemed grateful for the rescue. After I was sure the jerk was long gone and DH had come out of the woods, I relayed the whole story, fed the hound another can and we went for a ride to the county seat where there was a no kill shelter. They were happy to see him. After waiting the required days for the "lost" dog's owner to claim him, they easily found him a good home protecting the driveway of a very kind local potato farmer.

P.S. I knew the jerk wouldn't claim him since he had no idea what I might have told the shelter, or the sheriff, since not only had he been "under the influence" but that collar the hound was wearing was totally illegal. Our state law requires a bear dog collar contain a brass plate with full ID of the owner, including phone number. All this one had on it was the tracker which didn't have proper identification either. That is what tipped me right away whoever was going to show up looking for him probably was going to be a handful.

 

[room onthebroom]

Ah,,, you beat me to it. I was about to post that that nasty can stuff isn't even pumpkin when I saw your reply. Good job. That is why store bought and diner "pumpkin" pie tastes so flat. I made the mistake one year of baking extra of my pumpkin pies for a close friend for her Thanksgiving dinner because I knew she hadn't had time to pick up her's from the bakery (she didn't bake) and she was having a house full of deer hunters. She raved and raved about how great and "real" they tasted. The mistake? The next year I got the call in October from her placing her order for her Thanksgiving pies (along with an order for a batch of my Deercamp cookies I make for my hunters). How could I say no? Couldn't. She's not just my good friend, she's also my attorney and judge for the next county!

I agree with the Sugar Baby pie pumpkins being the best commercially sold pie pumpkin, however, if you are serious about it, you have to grow the French heirloom pie pumpkin. Don't remember the name but it has the white lattice webbing on the skin, yum!

I always bake my pumpkin for my pies cut in half and "face down" with the skin side up, on aluminum foil. This allows more of the water to drain away and concentrate the flavor.

Great tip on cooking them face down. What are Deercamp cookies?

 

[Alaskan]

I think I read somewhere that it was futile to try to raise pigs in Alaska because polar bears love pork.   Even a cinder block pig house isn't bear proof...nor the possibility of crazed hungry bears waiting outside of one appealing.

Depends where you are.

It isn't too horrifically difficult to keep a black bear out of a coop.... A grizzly though people in those areas have to use electric wire, very well done and high voltage.

 

[Alaskan]

Reminds me a bit of Maine, Al. 

Yesterday I used my phone GPS to get somewhere. It came with this warning: fastest route has unpaved roads. 

Did it try to get you to drive cross county over a farm field?

What I like, is sometimes you enter an address and it pops up the marker out in the middle of the bay.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

SCG did you go to the dentist yet, or did I miss it?

I wish I had missed it but no, that was you.

Did it try to get you to drive cross county over a farm field?

What I like, is sometimes you enter an address and it pops up the marker out in the middle of the bay.

I think my definition of "unpaved road" is different than theirs. I have AWD and high vehicle clearance (and studded snow tires in winter).

You'll have to ask Wisher and Dsqard how our GPS worked in rural Alabama. I thought we were going to die.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
face down is squash cut in half and layed cut side down on an oven sheet.... You can cook just about all squash that way