https://www.patreon.com/posts/93652533 We managed to survive Thanksgiving, despite the entire household coming down with an extremely virulent flu bug the day before. Nobody—including me—is completely over it yet, but it is what it is. Ironically, despite our challenges with elk season this year, the day after the season closed, we had 400+ elk migrating through the backyard, within easy rifle shot of the house…One of the ironic things about hunting season scheduling is that it’s very generic. It doesn’t really account for variations in seasonal changes. Last year this time, we had two feet of snow on the ground, and the elk had been down for a month. This year, they’re mostly STILL above 10,000 feet, and we don’t have any snow, at all, on the ground yet. C’est la vie. ————————————————– John, thank you, same to you and your family ! Yeah, the elk have been damned elusive this season- the weather has been too nice- not many of us have filled our tags- such is hunting Honestly, most of the “challenge” of hunting in the modern context is just the time frames. Seasons are artificially short, and don’t take into account the changes, year-to-year in weather patterns. On the other hand, I was able to fill my quota for grouse every single day we were out, with nothing more than a throwing stick….so, it’s not like we were gonna starve if we had to rely on hunting. ————————————————- Happy belated Thanksgiving…this is why I also raise livestock…I can always get to them for needed protein! Hunting is always secondary. Obviously, I’ve pushed the livestock food production for years. On the other hand, it’s entirely possible, even now, to subsist as a hunter-gatherer, if you’re willing to ignore game laws/seasons, even using nothing more modern than a muzzleloader. While we didn’t get an elk, the last week of the season, we got onto several hundred head one morning. We couldn’t shoot though, because they were on private ground, and the owners are jackasses, even to locals. We also managed to fill our daily quota of grouse though, with nothing more than a throwing stick. We also had ample opportunity to harvest five or six porcupines, had we wanted to (never kill porcupines, unless you’re actually starving. It’s the only animal, other than grouse, dumb enough that a starving man can harvest it). We’ve had mule deer in the backyard for a month, and the day after the season ended, we had a huge band of elk migrate right through the backyard. Hunting is primary, for us. The livestock is to fill in if we have a bad year. We’ll still get elk this year, when the fish cops come shoot them off the neighbor’s stackyard. It strikes me that there’s something illegitimate about “you can’t shoot an elk after X day, but we’re going to go shoot these a month later, because they’re eating the rancher’s hay….” Maybe rural residents should get a late season tag, automatically or something? I don’t know the answer. It would be cake for me to walk out in my backyard with a .22, right now, and dump six deer in half as many seconds. They’d be no more than 10 yards from me. —————————————————- How is your house coming along? I would love to see some updates. Is there any risk of the snow rotting the timbers if it isn’t dried in? Continue reading...
