Hunter Safety

So, I finally got my hunter safety certificate this weekend.

I know what you're thinking, and the reason I've never gotten it before now was mostly that I had other people to do the hunting for me, since my main goal is getting something tasty to bring home and eat, rather than the thrill of the hunt.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the rush of getting a big buck, or successfully stalking an antelope. I get that it trips people's trigger and that's awesome. But that's not me.

I'm not against stalking an antelope even though I may never do it... but my reason would be more along the lines of "but the deer is standing there looking at me like I might have a snack for it while the antelope saw me blink and he's over the horizon."

I'm willing to put the effort in for the good meat, but good deer and good antelope are pretty interchangeable to me flavor wise, but the effort to get them is vastly different. Especially since in my opinion if an antelope isn't pretty calm to start with and dropped in its tracks it's bad antelope, not good.

So, mostly, when I got a craving for game I'd tell FarmDad or Darlin Man "Go shoot some x and I'll cook it" or just "Go shoot some rabbits and we'll throw em in the freezer" because I love rabbit.

But, this weekend there happened to be a class and it happened to be free and also happened to be conducted by the most entertaining and personable game warden we've had in these parts for ages, so I figured it would be less boring than it could be and figured I'd go ahead and get it done.

Did, didn't learn a whole lot I didn't already know via osmosis, but it was entertaining. We had several kids in the class and the game warden (quite correctly) built his teaching around them, not the adults (of which there were also several,) and got really interactive with them which was fun.

Got a hundred on the written test and got handed my card since I have my concealed carry and thus am assumed to have safe firearms handling skills which are part of the whole thing here in Colorado, but I went out to watch the live fire anyway because I enjoy watching the kids get to shoot.

All in all there are worse ways I could have spent that time, and now I can get my own danged small game license and get my own danged rabbits... though I did discover via our game identification/habitat handbook that we are viable habitat for spotted skunks. I don't think I've ever seen one, but I totally want a pelt.

Also, in-state mountain lion and bear licenses have plummeted, cost wise. On the bears that's mostly because the bait-is-bad contingent got baiting for bears outlawed. I can understand the part where drawing them in from miles away isn't sporting, but I also understand first hand the consequences of the resultant population boom (they got rid of the spring bear season at the same time, IIRC.)

Over a hundred bears have been euthanized just so far this year, just in Colorado Springs, according to the game warden. Just in Colorado Springs. The population pressure without the control and higher likelihood of a successful cull that we had with the spring hunt and the bait has resulted in less food to go around and more bears coming into contact with humans.

Which is why I never reported the monster black bear that would walk down our alley when Darlin Man and I lived right by that little dry creek that backed onto undeveloped hilly scrubby area. Because he wasn't getting into the trash, he wasn't going after the dogs (he checked them out a time or two but believe me if he had wanted to eat them the fence we had there wouldn't have caused him any inconvenience at all) and he was literally just passing through. But if I'd called him in, he could have been euthanized for that. There was a certain amount of nothing you can do, keep your trash cans fastened closed and don't interact with the bears kind of attitude where we were but in other areas they have gone to a no-strikes policy. Bear is in town, gets reported, bear gets tranqed or trapped and loaded up, taken out of public view, and put down.

So, being the proper nature lover that I am, I do have a bit of a yen for a black bear hunt. It'd be neat to be able to have a bearskin rug from a bear I got, and that would be one more bear towards a properly balanced system in which we get a good number of healthy bears doing their ecological job instead of a bunch of borderline or unhealthy bears that come into town because there's not enough food in the hills, but there is in all those garbage cans in town.

I don't know that I ever will do a bear hunt, since we don't have enough in this area to make it a problem, and I don't really know the area over west by the foothills where they are a problem well enough to feel comfortable hiking about in them by myself. Here we get the occasional bear on a telephone pole or last year I think a little cinnamon stage juvenile took over someone's doghouse because he thought it was a good place to den up. Over there we were picking up trash all the time and watching Gigantobear (I'm telling you that black bear had to be hip high or more on me at the shoulder, and built like a brick shithouse... he was big for a black bear) take his evening stroll down the alley because it was easier walking than the streambed.

So yeah, if I could get a decent guide that I trusted to hunt with for a bear hunt, I'd definitely consider it. On the other hand it's not at all like it's a driving passion or anything, so I probably won't look too hard.

Ah FarmDog...

FarmDog has always had a bit of a licking.. issue. Mostly she'd lick her paws for a while, usually while I was trying to sleep. 

In recent years, as she's gotten older and stiffer, it's gotten worse. As the weather gets cold, she gets achey, which only encourages her licking. So she'll lick sores on herself. 

Not a huge deal, glucosamine helps and when she does manage to do it in spite of everyone telling her to stop licking (which she does... for a bit) I just throw some triple antibiotic on it, wrap it in gauze, and then vet wrap.

Usually she'll lick the vet wrap until told not to but mostly she leaves it alone aside from being pouty and showing you her ouchy for sympathy at every chance. Occasionally she'll take the vet wrap off to get to it but she knows it's only temporary and she'll get wrapped again as soon as I see it.

Yesterday she tried to be sneaky:

She chewed the bottom off the vet wrap, leaving most of it intact, so that she could get to the sore. Of course she got re-wrapped, but I had to get a picture first. She did a pretty good job of making it inconspicuous, honestly.

Edited to Add:  Do you see this sad face? You see how injured she is? She's showing you how injured she is.

Potted Plants

No, I'm not talking about the recent legislative change that made it legal to have five marijuana plants for personal use. Even if I were into the whole pot thing, I'd be leery, since there still isn't any legal method to acquire said plants.

I'm talking about garden variety potted plants. Literally. Look:

That's my plant table. This spring Farmmom decided she wanted to start some of her own seeds, and since the spring here is unpredictable, that meant starting inside. So she bought a little flourescent fixture and a plant bulb, to put over her little plastic seedling greenhouse. 

Then I got Tiny Tim, my tea tree (yes that's him in the far right, with his own lamp, because he wasn't always on the table) and discovered that some of the creepy crawlies around here just love him, so outside for some Colorado Sunshine wasn't an option unless I wanted fuzzy white bugs all over him instead of pretty white flowers. So he got a lamp.

As the summer progressed I made use of the plant light for my fruit tree cuttings (some of which are in the back there, hopefully making roots for themselves... if not, I'll just have to get new cuttings in the spring, cause I want tiny mulberry trees damnit!) and a couple of mom's potted plants that were ailing. Those eventually gave up the ghost, but they were older plants and had survived longer than we had expected them to anyway.

Since it's looking like things will be moving forward on the roof at the farmhouse, and the move to the hermitage is more imminent all the time, I've been plotting on food plants that can be grown in pots. See, the farmhouse has a lovely porch with tons of windows. With a little help in the lighting department over the winter, it'll be a great space for having such food producing plants as can thrive in pots all year round. 

So far, I've managed to get chives and mint established. The pot of mint I found for three dollars turned out to have two plants in it, so of course I split them. 

What's with the empty pot on the left you ask? It's not empty, I answer. See, we had a head of garlic sitting around left over from pickling. When I went to use some for a pot roast I was throwing together yesterday, it was showing signs of imminently sprouting. So what I didn't use, I stuck in a pot. So that will eventually be several heads of garlic. 

When it's a sixty mile round trip to the store, it's worth growing whatever you can yourself. 

Tiny Tim is doing just fine, in case you were wondering. Producing flowers and berries regularly... well, just look here:

A flower and a berry side by side. That berry will turn red for a few days, then start shrinking and and drying up. The little white flowers are pretty as a picture... though not pretty enough to reassure Concerned Worm, as you can see. 

So far, there's far less bonsai to Tiny Tim than you would expect. I do a little clean up on his leaves now and then to make sure he's getting plenty of light, but mostly I just water him and let him do his thing. If I wanted him at the height he is now, that would be a different story, but for now he's got some growing to do, and he'll do it best without a lot of interference.

All in all I've had better luck than I expected to with my potted plants, and I'm really enjoying them.

Major

Major hasn't found a permanent home yet. Being the sucker that I am, I can't do nothing. So I've started a fundraiser.

Because she needs rescued, and I'm the rescuer. Most of you know how uncomfortable I am asking for money, or even receiving gifts. But this is for a good cause, it's not for me. She's in a fantastic place now, but as she grows there are going to be issues having four akitas in one house. Mostly because her mother is very dominant with other females. It's a lot easier to handle dominance issues when most of the dogs are under 30lbs than when they're all nearly 100lbs.

So, if you can afford it, whatever small amount you can afford. Whatever comes in through the fundraiser will be used for Major. I'll be opening a savings account where the funds will live until Major needs something.

The donation page is here, and I'll post updates as we go.

Please do not feel compelled to donate if you can't afford it. I understand completely that money is tight all over. But, if you have a little to spare, you can help an adorable puppy. That's a good cause no matter how you slice it.

Here's the page. If nothing else it's worth checking out for cute puppy pictures.

Puppy Home Needed

As you may know, my dear friends The Nerds have Akitas, and they've bred a couple of litters out of their female.

Adorable fuzzy pups, little bears. Well, look:

That's Major. Her litter name was picked because two of the females in the litter had face blazes like that, Major has the big one, and Minor (who has a home and a new name already) has the small one. 

The reason Major doesn't have a home yet is because she's a very special case. See, she's got some heart problems. At the moment she's a perfectly normal little pup, but as she grows they may cause more issues. I'll let LabRat explain the technical bits, because she's better at it than I am. 

Point is, this little love needs a very special home, somewhere that can afford the costs for the care she'll need going on. She's most certainly not a hopeless case, at this stage nothing is particularly certain. Chances are she'll have a shorter life than most Akitas, yes. But having met her mother and brother and spent time with them, I can tell you that whoever ends up with this gorgeous little girl will be richer for the experience. 

I would take her in a heartbeat, problems and all, if I had the money to handle the ongoing vet costs. I've commented before that down the road when we're shy a dog or two I would definitely consider an Akita. Yes, they're stubborn, not nearly as praise-driven as most other breeds, and can be a challenge. The line I've known is also very loving, and there's something heart melting about having a head bigger than your own laid on your lap for some love. I would happily give her a home and all the love she needs, if I had the ability. I haven't even met her yet and my Sucker tattoo has been flaring up ever since they first figured out she had a heart murmur, before the cause was even discovered. 

But, I know my limitations. Barring winning the lottery or discovering a long lost rich uncle that died and left me his entire fortune, I just can't do it. Surgery and ongoing cardiologist checkups which would be a long drive on top of the vet costs is just out of my reach at this point.

So, I ask you, dear readers, help LabRat find a home for this beautiful pup. She deserves a forever family who can give her the special place in their hearts that she needs. I know times are tough all over and many of you may not be able to cover vet costs any more than I can, but spread the word, on your blogs, at your work, talk to your dentist! 

The Nerds have already laid out a decent amount of cash to find out what she had going on, and will again if she doesn't find a home before it's time to go back to the puppy cardiologist. If you don't know anyone that could take this wonderful baby, but still want to help, I'll pass on any donations dropped in my tip jar, since they don't have their own. Just put "For Major" in the note or email me letting me know and I'll make sure it gets to them. 

She's gonna light up somebody's life, people. Let's help her find that somebody!

Recovery

Still puttering on writing here and there but at the moment it's post-gathering cleanup and recovery.

Much fun, joy, and good food was had, lots of money turned to smoke and noise, new friends made, old friends cherished, sleep schedules properly disrupted.

I'm never this exhausted when we go visit elsewhere but I'm always happy to see people show up.

Thank you to everyone who came, we miss you all already but it is kinda nice to be able to sit around the house in my pj's of a morning again....

An Old Book Finally Finished

Finally finished, and edited, and edited. And I've finally worked up the nerve to let it go to the public.

Jane is available. Since I had the serialized chapters on here via text file, I decided to go with the same delivery method.

Five bucks in the paypal gets you the whole thing, at long, long last... for anyone who hasn't given up on it.