How'd it go today?

Best of luck, Stephen. Pinched a major nerve in my back last year. No sleep or work for a couple of weeks. :whine:

Hopefully, you'll do better. ;)
 
Im taking the day off for a few reasons. Spent yesterday helping tear down and rebuild a chimney. Oyhat work isnt my style. My groundman scored a woodstove from a customer of mine for a good price. He hooks it up and cleans the chimney. The terra cota flue crumbled. He has been in a panic and without wood or oil heat. Soooooo i called in multiple favors. Got him chimney block and flue sections and mortar for 30% below retail. Got a blocklayer to come out and do the work in exchange for hot lunch. Got a friend to lend a mivxer and scaffolding. So, tim has a new chimney and still has money for bills.

Tomorrow i have a white ash to wreck that has my knees knocking. Pics will follow.
 
My life is no where near as exciting right now.
We are fencing some clear cuts in the state forest, that we'll be planting in a couple of weeks.

With the exploding roe deer population, the new trees will be gone in a few days, if we don't fence.

This spring we planted 6000 Abies Grandis only to have a Sika deer jump the fence ( like western blachtail, Sika can jump ANYTHING if they decide to do it) and eradicate every one of them.

We really should reintroduce the wolf here.
 
Best of luck, Stephen. Pinched a major nerve in my back last year. No sleep or work for a couple of weeks. :whine:

Hopefully, you'll do better. ;)

Katy had this one little more tyhan a week ago. Now it's my turn... People are gonna wonder if that Fifty Shades thing is playing into it, basic same injury and all :lol:
Landed an appointment at 1PM today.
This has been coming. My back has been giving me some grief for the last few weeks and Kat kept telling me to go get it adjusted. I wanted hers taken care of first. Guess the tissues finally got too irritated, probably pinching a nerve. Had the kids all day yesterday for a church thing and took them to the park. Daddy was no fun at all :(

Did some schedule shuffling so I don't have to climb for a couple days. Sent Rob onto a continuing brushing job on that mile long driveway. Levi volunteered (very sweetly) to go help him in my place. :) God my kids always make me proud and smile. :)
 
Bermy you need something about 60 cc's . As little as you are you could handle that .

Yup, I have a 361 20" in Bermuda...I've run a 460 over here, LOVED the extra power. I need something that will handle the bigger diameter trees yet I can take aloft if needed, I think I would be pushing it with a 460. Seems like the 441 has a good range for bar length yet not too heavy for using up top.
 
My life is no where near as exciting right now.
We are fencing some clear cuts in the state forest, that we'll be planting in a couple of weeks.

With the exploding roe deer population, the new trees will be gone in a few days, if we don't fence.

This spring we planted 6000 Abies Grandis only to have a Sika deer jump the fence ( like western blachtail, Sika can jump ANYTHING if they decide to do it) and eradicate every one of them.

We really should reintroduce the wolf here.

Nobody seems to care for grand fir here. What will it be used for when mature?
 
Pulp, most likely.

It is planted on a hunting estate, so it's main function will be to give shelter to the 7000 pheasants they release every year, and then shoot in fall.
Thus is hunting done in Denmark!

The going price for a dead pheasant is $3, but shooting one on one of those great, upper class people only, "hunts" costs $70. They have shotcounters posted, any 3 shots fired counts as a bird, no matter if you hit or not.
It is not unusual for people to pay 50 grand for a days "hunting" with their friends or business associates here.

Back in the 80es when I worked in the woods of Giesegård castle, they had what was known as " American hunts" where rich Americans paid through the nose to come over and be part of a traditional castle hunt, with dinner at the castle, liveried footmen and uniformed drivers , loaders and hornblowers at the pheasant slaughter.

What a circus:lol:
 
We used to have pheasants by the thousands and thousands . Two things pretty much killed them off .

It used to be a common practice to let the farm fields lay fallow over the winter .Then they went to fall plowing plus all the fence rows were removed .Loss of habitate for the birds .

The worse was prilled fertilizer the birds mistook for gravel .Birds need grit for two reasons ,first for their gizards to work and secondly for the egg shells which need calcium .The hens with lack of calcium would lay eggs with either soft shells or no shells thus no chicks and thus no pheasants .
 
They've pretty much given up the practice of fall plowing and in fact even using a breaking plow .The only fall preperation of soils is usually because of the planting of winter wheat and usually done with some form of a chisel plow .

The pheasant population however has not increased nor came even close to what it was back in the middle 60's and probabley will not for sometime .The last cock ringtail pheasant I ever saw was 1971 a few days after I got out of the navy which I blew the tail feathers out of from about 150 feet away .

In my way of thinking regarding the birds is there should be a mortorium on them for maybe10 years to let them repopulate .They raise young pheasants in hatcheries and turn them loose in early fall but they are as dumb as a chicken .A really stupid chicken to be quit frank .
 
They aren't native to Denmark as far as I know either .Legend has it they were introduced from China by Marco Polo .What should be sent back to wence they came are those freakin Europian starlings .About the only thing they're good for is sport for a cat .
 
I don't think I've ever said they were, Al.

I have a real hatred for pheasants. It was because of them that our eagles and bigger hawks were wiped out in the beginning of last century.

Their crime was eating the released pheasants, that were meant to end their lives in orchestrated mass slaughter for sport ( and money, especially!) not being killed by raptors.

It took 30 years of work to re-establish a healthy sea eagle population (they are primarily fish eaters, but were killed off because of the " golden eagle by proxy" syndrome aka " It's a raptor, kill it quickly") ,we only have about 2 nesting pairs of goldens right now and Goshawks are scarcer than hen's teeth.

I should put this in the "anti hunting" thread, because this is what I have against hunting.
Not the killing of animals for fun and prestige, about that I really couldn't care less,I've killed my share of carrots for fun. But the relentless eradication of any species that eats the sacred game animals really piss me off.
 
Butch, your post was too fast for me.
I'll answer it here.

IMO any non native species are a bad thing, be they pheasants or starlings.
We have really screwed up by spreading non native species where ever we go.
The bad examples are beyond count.

Al, at least the pheasant was imported for a reason, the starling made it merry way to the US because some idiot of a Shakespeare lover decided to import and release all the birds mentioned in his works.:|:
 
I used to see Pheasants pretty regular too around my shop. Maybe they flew over from China? The little ones are sure cute the way they scamper around. I think what did them in here were Fox. Those birds and stray cats have all but disappeared, and Fox can be seeing cruising around in the afternoon now.
 
Regarding birds of prey their very presence is a sign the eco system is healthy .For any predator there has to be prey ,to have prey the system has to be able to support them ,like food .

It's very foolish to eliminate predators because they play a large part in the balance of nature .BTW we have a rather large population of both large and small hawks plus several variaties of owls .On occasion a bald eagle is spotted as they nest on the shores and wet lands of Lake Erie which is about 80 miles to the north .

The pheasants didn't cause the eradification of birds of prey in Denmark ,people did that .

Conversely while human error and just plain ignorance of things did cause the demise of the US midwestern ringtail pheasant it was not done intentionally .Sometimes things just happen that it takes nearly a lifetime to reverse .
 
I dont hunt pheasants. No challenge for me or my pointer. I call them ditch parrots. Ruffed grpouse are my hobby. Season started last saturday. Molly pointed 11 grouse and 6 woodcock.
 
Slightly different eco system from the woods lands of Pa. to the wide open fields of Ohio and Indiana .Mich. has grouse as well as the hills of southern Ohio but up north we have none .Fact as I type my buddy who is retired is in Mich. with his Britteney's .
 
In other news I did manage to repair both my splitter plus Tom's .Had to do some slight alterations on the pump adaptor on Toms' but it worked .

Also managed to lay down a couple dead ash and tested out Tom's splitter which worked like a charm .Not too bad of a day for an old fart .:)
 
I'm not sure if the ring neck pheasant ever actually caused a hardship on the ecosystem any more than the native turkeys , grouse and quail .They are all ground feeders .The turkey being the only "roosting " bird of the lot although I've seen the Colorado blue grouse in trees .Talk about one stupid bird now ,that's it .
 
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