Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[Bill G]

**** Butkus what a real mans man

The censors took out his name so insert Richard but his name was D,,, ck and he was a monster

 

[Bill G]

We've got both here, a feeder, and a garden. But, I don't hunt on this property. My wife would **** if I shot Bambi in front of her. So, I hunt at our other house in WI, about 40 minutes away. But this is our garden. It didn't do crap this year anyway, but the deer still can't get to it.

You have peaked my interest. Are you in the UP? I see your location is Michigan but you said you have a house 40 minutes away in Wisconsin. I assume you must be in the UP or that would be a quick ferry trip.

 

[JustPlainJeff]

You have peaked my interest. Are you in the UP? I see your location is Michigan but you said you have a house 40 minutes away in Wisconsin. I assume you must be in the UP or that would be a quick ferry trip.

Yes, the U.P (Iron River). Our full-time residence is here. We've had the house in Land O' Lakes WI for about 15 years. We bought the house in Land O' Lakes when we still lived in IL, and it was our "vacation place" or whatever you want to call it. Then last year I retired for the most part, and the wife already retired about three years ago, so we sold the IL house just as fast as humanly possible, and got the heck out of that state. The house in WI was already paid for it, and we've got a lot of friends there, so we decided to just keep it.

 

[JustPlainJeff]

The censors took out his name so insert Richard but his name was D,,, ck and he was a monster

Ya, I realized why they did it after I saw it. It just made me chuckle. And yes Butkus was an animal for sure!

 

[Bill G]

Yes, the U.P (Iron River). Our full-time residence is here. We've had the house in Land O' Lakes WI for about 15 years. We bought the house in Land O' Lakes when we still lived in IL, and it was our "vacation place" or whatever you want to call it. Then last year I retired for the most part, and the wife already retired about three years ago, so we sold the IL house just as fast as humanly possible, and got the heck out of that state. The house in WI was already paid for it, and we've got a lot of friends there, so we decided to just keep it.

Well the trip from Illinois to northern Wisconson is great distance for a vacation home but I am not a traveler. I do not blame you for wanting to get out of Illinois. Our ultra rich liberal governor now wants to tax folks pensions. That is great....... retire after 35 years of paying taxes and now you want more.

 

[JustPlainJeff]

Well the trip from Illinois to northern Wisconson is great distance for a vacation home but I am not a traveler. I do not blame you for wanting to get out of Illinois. Our ultra rich liberal governor now wants to tax folks pensions. That is great....... retire after 35 years of paying taxes and now you want more.

Our house in IL was right on the WI/IL border, so it was about a 5-1/2 hour drive to Land O' Lakes. For the last 12 years, I owned my business, and the wife was a teacher, so she had a lot of long weekends, and all Summer off, and I made my own schedule when I had employees that I could trust, so we were able to go up for a lot of long weekends, and extended stays during the Summers.

And ya, Pritzker and Beetlejuice.........well, what can I say about them that wouldn't earn me a vacation from this site for a while? And the taxes...........I went from 1 acre in Round Lake IL with a 2,000 sq.ft. home @ 7K+ a year in property taxes, to 40 acres with a 3K sq.ft. home and 2K per year in property taxes.

 

[Bill G]

Ya, I realized why they did it after I saw it. It just made me chuckle. And yes Butkus was an animal for sure!

The sad thing is growing up that was a common name here as well in most every area. We all share some same things and naming boys is one. I had two cousins named "D". I worked with colleagues named "D" Treat and "D" Brand. None of them were ever looked at in a bad light. That was their name. Never was any offense made.

 

[Bill G]

The sad thing is growing up that was a common name here as well in most every area. We all share some same things and naming boys is one. I had two cousins named "D". I worked with colleagues named "D" Treat and "D" Brand. None of them were ever looked at in a bad light. That was their name. Never was any offense made.

Well Round Lake is too close to Chi town for me. I was a teacher for years I stayed in rural districts of Illinois and Iowa. That is my roots. My beautiful ex-wife's aunt and uncle were teachers in Woodstock/Carry Grove. They moved there after leaving the peace corp to chase the dollar. They made out well as the salaries there were twice ours in rural Illinois. My beautiful ex-wife just changed teaching positions to go across the river to teach in Iowa. She will get a rude awakening when she sees her paycheck and realizes what she just did to her TRS pension. She hates me and will not talk to me sobeit but I taught in both sates and I know the ins and outs. I can discuss the ins and outs of the pension system but no point in dragging the thread down. In the end getting out of this liberal high tax state was best

 

[Cowboy254]

Good on ya! Great pic, and a great looking scrounge. However, the chain on your big saw look's a bit loose bud. Just saying!

Ah yeah, I like to loosen the chain after using the saw...

 

[Lionsfan]

I'm curious. It seems like a lot of guys on here grow potatoes. now mind you, I don't have a darn thing to do with our garden, that's strictly my wife's domain. I hate gardening, to me it's too much like work. But the person who owned this house prior to us grew potatoes, and he was giving my wife advice on growing potatoes. After we were no longer around them, she told me "I'll never grow potatoes, because you can't tell the difference between store-bought potatoes, and home-grown ones". Now, I don't know if that's true or not, but I take her word for it. I know things like tomatoes and some other vegetables are definitely better when grown at home, but do you guys just grow potatoes for economic reasons, or do you actually taste a difference?

They don't taste a bit different and I could buy them in bulk from the potato farm in Elmira pretty cheap. I'll still grow grow my own until I can't physically do it anymore.

 

[jolj]

I grow my own white & sweet potatoes, so children will know how to do it. The way things are going, we may have to grow what we eat.
I know winter squash, beans, corn are just as easy to grow, but knowing s always better than learning on an empty stomach.

 

[JustJeff]

Aerial pic of our garden. Lol. From my deck. The fence is hideous but was originally placed to keep our coonhound puppy out because she will destroy anything! It also seems to keep everything else out. We used to have garden visitors. Not sure if it's the fence or the hound but either way, the only issues we have is birds enjoying our strawberries. I used to keep chickens and ducks and yes, fox will come around. I buried the chicken wire a few inches and 90° out a foot. Keeps critters from digging under. Free ranging had to be supervised after I chased a fox off that was trying to abscond with a duck. I guess a grown man in boxers wielding a hockey stick is enough to abandon a meal! I'd hate to shoot a fox, I think they are beautiful. We don't get a lot of critters here because we are surrounded by wide open fields. Those who live in more wooded areas can cut down on critters by clearing brush and eliminate the hiding spots close to the house

 

[svk]

Kind of funny being the ‘Gopher State’! I guess it’s limited to college sports.

Philbert

Even more funny that their mascot is technically a ground squirrel!!

I’m a Minnesota-Duluth Bulldog so I don’t get too excited about U of M sports. Unless they’re playing Wisconsin LOL

 

[svk]

Many years ago I was up in the boundary waters and saw a lot of moose. After having three sons I investigated hunting moose in your state well not possible. You have VERY restrictive laws.

As for gophers are you not known as the "gopher state" Is not the University Of Minnesota the "Golden Gophers"

I am kidding you. We are the "Fighting Illini" and I have yet to see a Illiniwek Indian. Acroos the ditch is Iowa and I have yet to see a Hawkeye.

Moose used to be very plentiful and back in the day residents were eligible to hunt them every 12 years… Once the wolves became protected and became overabundant the moose population crashed. This was compounded by the moose brain worm as well but the big killer is the wolves, they wipe out 40% of moose calves in the first 12 months.

When I was a young man I was eligible hunt Moose but at that point it had changed from once in 12 years to once in a lifetime hunt. I decided that I would wait for my three young boys to be old enough to hunt so they could join me in our once in a lifetime haunt. Since then, the whole season has been closed indefinitely and by the looks of it will never be open. Such is life I guess.

Pisses me off too because there were several good moose hunting areas within an hour or so of my home.

 

[svk]

Bill (and others):

The thing with fox taking your chickens is when they are free range. Obviously better for your yard and the chickens to be free range rather than cooped up in a pen all the time which of course will attract both airborne and land based predators. Aggressive roosters and/or guardian dogs will help.

When I lived on a hobby farm for a few years I had chickens. Only lost one chicken to a hawk but lost a few roosters to eagles and foxes.

Being close to a lake I’m going to have mink in addition to foxes, coons, skunks, and hawks if I get chickens and/or ducks. I thought about building a pen outside of the building I would use for a hen house and I would have to use hardware cloth versus chicken wire to guarantee that a mink couldn’t sneak in.

 

[svk]

In regards to potatoes: I’ve had some really good homemade canned potatoes from a friend. In the big picture I don’t think the time and space needed to grow your own potatoes is worth it when you can still buy a big bag of potatoes for cheap. With that being said I actually prefer red or yellow potatoes over white when I do eat them.

 

[Vtrombly]

Bill (and others):

The thing with fox taking your chickens is when they are free range. Obviously better for your yard and the chickens to be free range rather than cooped up in a pen all the time which of course will attract both airborne and land based predators. Aggressive roosters and/or guardian dogs will help.

When I lived on a hobby farm for a few years I had chickens. Only lost one chicken to a hawk but lost a few roosters to eagles and foxes.

Being close to a lake I’m going to have mink in addition to foxes, coons, skunks, and hawks if I get chickens and/or ducks. I thought about building a pen outside of the building I would use for a hen house and I would have to use hardware cloth versus chicken wire to guarantee that a mink couldn’t sneak in.

That's what I have hardware cloth and chicken wire apron buried in all the way around and its inside a garden fence. I should add that to date I have not had to shoot a fox. I always keep a lookout on what is around though and I have lights and other deterrents around and for now the deterrents seem to be working because I have not seen them.

 

[svk]

One other note on guardian dogs… One of my friends runs a pretty good sized “petting farm” She employees two guardian dogs and has basically zero loss to any type of predator including airborne. Apparently all of those eyes watching for predators coupled with dogs that will respond to unfamiliar noise makes the place an inhospitable target for vermin.

 

[rarefish383]

A few years back we had a ton of gray foxes. They were very fun to watch and would get along well with other wildlife. They would share the deer feeder with deer, coons, and even the neighbors cat. The sole red fox would chase them out. Then all of a sudden all the grays were gone and we started to get a lot of red foxes. There was a couple of pairs of reds around and they were very tame. I used to throw my duck carcasses to them after I was done cleaning them and they would haul the rest away before eating them. It was great because I didn’t have to find a spot to dump them and it was fun to watch the fox. Someone must’ve called a trapper because all of a sudden all the foxes were gone. I thought about getting chickens out here but I know the red foxes are murder on them. I’ve also thought about getting ducks because I live on a lake but heard that you need to give them fresh water all winter too which turns into a giant icy mess.

Steve, sorry to get OT. How do we find how many members on AS? I thought it used to be posted? Need to get new glasses, every thing is blurry.

 

[rarefish383]

One other note on guardian dogs… One of my friends runs a pretty good sized “petting farm” She employees two guardian dogs and has basically zero loss to any type of predator including airborne. Apparently all of those eyes watching for predators coupled with dogs that will respond to unfamiliar noise makes the place an inhospitable target for vermin.

my neighbor in WV has attended our Howard County MD Sheep and Wool Festival 29 years straight. Before Covid hit I took my wife to meet the out of state neighbors. “Hope“ said that would be her last Festival. The Coyotes were ripping the new borns out of the mothers as the were giving birth. They have two big guard dogs that look like Perinese, but are something else. They used to be able to keep the Yotes away. It got so bad the dogs couldn’t watch the whole heard. That fall local hunters shot 7 yotes and they disappeared. You can still hear them singing at night, but they have been staying away from Hope’s sheep. Wonder what they are doing to the deer heard?