Sorry I have been missing this past week. There has been a lot of things going on, some good and some bad.
The majority of the events involved family and extended family. Everyone is fine but taking care of things meant coming home from work each day and leaving to go and help family members and not getting home until very late.
This left me with no time to post and since I didn't have anything written ahead of time, I was left with no new content for the blog.
But, that is okay. Blogs come second to family needs.
I think that one thing all of us have in common is that family comes first and all else is secondary.
I hope to get back to work posting next week.
See you all soon.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The Greatest Enemy of Women Whitetail Deer Hunters?
What or who is the greatest enemy of women whitetail deer hunters?
TIME!
Our lives are so busy and hectic that finding the time to hunt deer can be a real challenge.
I think that women hunters find it more difficult than our men counterparts.
Women, by nature, are the caretakers of the family. We take care of the children, our partners, the family pets, shop for groceries, cook, do laundry, clean, balance the checkbook and in many cases, work a part-time or full-time job.
Now guys, before you get mad at me, I know that you work hard too and that you have your own chores that need to be done to insure that the family functions like a well-oiled machine. You shovel snow, cut the lawn, perform maintenance on the house, take out the garbage and work a part-time or full-time job.
But, someone has to keep the home fires burning during hunting season and it is usually the woman who stays home to take care of the kids while Dad goes deer hunting.
It is easy for me, I have no children, no pets, and nothing except my job to compete for my time. I take at least three days off during firearm whitetail deer season. Combine that with the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and normal weekends and I usually get to hunt between 8 to 10 days of the 15 day firearm season.
I consider myself one lucky woman.
So, my question is, who takes care of everything while you go hunting? Let us know.
See you next week "Around The Campfire".
TIME!
Our lives are so busy and hectic that finding the time to hunt deer can be a real challenge.
I think that women hunters find it more difficult than our men counterparts.
Women, by nature, are the caretakers of the family. We take care of the children, our partners, the family pets, shop for groceries, cook, do laundry, clean, balance the checkbook and in many cases, work a part-time or full-time job.
Now guys, before you get mad at me, I know that you work hard too and that you have your own chores that need to be done to insure that the family functions like a well-oiled machine. You shovel snow, cut the lawn, perform maintenance on the house, take out the garbage and work a part-time or full-time job.
But, someone has to keep the home fires burning during hunting season and it is usually the woman who stays home to take care of the kids while Dad goes deer hunting.
It is easy for me, I have no children, no pets, and nothing except my job to compete for my time. I take at least three days off during firearm whitetail deer season. Combine that with the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and normal weekends and I usually get to hunt between 8 to 10 days of the 15 day firearm season.
I consider myself one lucky woman.
So, my question is, who takes care of everything while you go hunting? Let us know.
See you next week "Around The Campfire".
Monday, June 15, 2009
Whitetail Deer Hunting - Scent Control
You may notice that I called this post “Scent Control” not “Scent Elimination”. It just is not possible to totally eliminate your scent.
Years ago when my Dad and Grandpa hunted whitetail deer, they never even heard of such a thing as scent control. Sure, they hunted with the wind direction in mind but there was very little that they could do to mask their scent. Grandpa probably didn’t even concern himself with it as he liked to puff away on his pipe while hunting. The deer must have like the smell of Prince Albert because he usually got a deer.
Today, scent control products and clothing are a multi-million dollar industry but do these products work?
My answer is YES, because I’ve used them and found them to be very effective. But many hunters would argue that they really don’t work all that well and are just a big waste of your hard-earned money.
When I first began bow hunting, I read everything I could find on the subject. The main point of every article was that to be successful the hunter had to take steps to control and eliminate as much of his/her human scent as possible.
So I religiously washed every single piece of clothing (including underwear) that I was going to wear hunting, in scent-free detergent. I stored the clothes in an air-tight container with these dryer sheets that smell like dirt. (And yes, they really smell just like dirt, it is amazing.)
The day I planned to hunt, I washed my hair in scent-free shampoo. Just before I was going to hunt, I washed every inch of my skin with special scent-free soap designed to kill the bacteria (that make you smell like a human) on my skin. I used scent-free deodorant under my arms and on my feet to keep them from sweating in my hunting boots.
I dressed as quickly as possible in my scent-free hunting clothes. I then sprayed the bottom of my boots with cover-scent and also my hunting backpack and bow and arrows.
I went out to my hunting spot and sat on a stool in a ground blind I had made out of some brush. I had set out some corn and apples about 12 yards in front of my blind.
I had been sitting for awhile when I thought I heard something walking behind me and to my left, the dry fallen leaves crunching with each step. As I sat perfectly still, not daring to breathe, a small doe passed by me within about eight feet. She walked directly to the spot where I had put out the corn and apples and began to eat.
Finally, after sitting so still for so long, I had to move just a little to ease a cramp in my back.
The doe either heard or saw me move and stared right at me. I froze.
Suspicious, the doe walked toward my blind and stopped. She kept staring at me. Slowly, she began to walk to my left, circling the low brush of my ground blind. Every few steps she would stop and look right at me.
She passed out of my sight but I could hear her walking slowly behind me and then to my right as she circled me.
Ever so slowly, I turned my head to my right and found myself eye-to-eye with the doe about five feet from me. I didn’t even dare blink.
For what seemed an eternity, we stayed that way. Finally, she moved back to her meal of corn and apples and I could breathe.
It was then obvious to me that it was my slight movement that had triggered her suspicious response and not my smell.
She had circled my blind and was never further away than six to eight feet but she didn’t smell me at all.
The scent control products that I had used had really worked.
The experience had taught me a valuable lesson about whitetail deer. They use all of their acute senses to alert them to danger; sight, hearing and smell.
To be successful, a woman whitetail deer hunter must do her best to eliminate her human smell and blend into the forest.
If you choose to hunt from a ground blind rather than a tree stand, it becomes even more important. Some experts believe that a whitetail deer can detect human scent from as far away as a half a mile.
There are many scent control products to choose from but I prefer Hunter's Specialties Scent-A-Way™. They make a complete line of products to help you control your human scent without breaking the bank.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
The Deer Cam
Send me your favorite photos of whitetail deer
at whitetailsforwomen@live.com and I'll publish them
on Saturday's "The Deer Cam".
at whitetailsforwomen@live.com and I'll publish them
on Saturday's "The Deer Cam".
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Venison and Noodles
This recipe is one that my friend Arlene created and she makes it for big gatherings of her family. It will feed about twenty people.
Ingredients:
Venison Roast or Venison Steaks
Garlic Salt
Three Large Onions, quartered
No Salt Seasoning
Noodles - homemade or two or three packages of the big fat ones you can buy in the frozen section of the market.
Put the venison roast or steaks and the onions in a crockpot and add seasonings. Cook overnight on low.
In the morning, break up the roast or steaks into small pieces and put it back in the crockpot. Add water to cover the meat and cook on high for two hours to make a nice rue. (I had to ask what rue is and it means like a gravy).
Boil the noodles and when the meat is done, put the noodles in a large roaster and pour the meat and rue over the noodles. If you don't have enough rue to sufficiently cover the noodles, add two beef bouillon cubes to a cup or two of water and add that to cover the noodles.
Heat in the oven at 200 degrees until you are ready to serve.
I can't be more specific about some of the amounts because like all great cooks, Arlene prepares dishes by how they look and taste along the way. She tastes it and adds a pinch of this and that until it's just right or looks at how much meat and rue she has and then decides if it needs more liquid or not.
But, this is a great dish and Arlene's family really loves it. She took a big roaster full to her family reunion and it was completely gone in a heartbeat.
Many thanks to Arlene for sharing this great recipe.
Ingredients:
Venison Roast or Venison Steaks
Garlic Salt
Three Large Onions, quartered
No Salt Seasoning
Noodles - homemade or two or three packages of the big fat ones you can buy in the frozen section of the market.
Put the venison roast or steaks and the onions in a crockpot and add seasonings. Cook overnight on low.
In the morning, break up the roast or steaks into small pieces and put it back in the crockpot. Add water to cover the meat and cook on high for two hours to make a nice rue. (I had to ask what rue is and it means like a gravy).
Boil the noodles and when the meat is done, put the noodles in a large roaster and pour the meat and rue over the noodles. If you don't have enough rue to sufficiently cover the noodles, add two beef bouillon cubes to a cup or two of water and add that to cover the noodles.
Heat in the oven at 200 degrees until you are ready to serve.
I can't be more specific about some of the amounts because like all great cooks, Arlene prepares dishes by how they look and taste along the way. She tastes it and adds a pinch of this and that until it's just right or looks at how much meat and rue she has and then decides if it needs more liquid or not.
But, this is a great dish and Arlene's family really loves it. She took a big roaster full to her family reunion and it was completely gone in a heartbeat.
Many thanks to Arlene for sharing this great recipe.
B.O.W. - Becoming an Outdoors-Woman
What is B.O.W. and why is it important to women whitetail deer hunters?
According to the B.O.W. home website at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, "Becoming an Outdoors-Woman is an educational program aimed at making women more comfortable and more aware of the outdoor world around them. We encourage a supportive environment conducive to learning, making friends, and having fun."
The History
On an historical evening back in 1989, a few women were enjoying a backwoods campfire when a question was posed.
"Why do fewer women than men participate in outdoor activities like hunting, fishing and camping?"
At that campfire that evening was Dr. Christine Thomas, a natural resources professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
To try and answer the question, Dr. Thomas brought people together for a workshop in 1990. The group met for three days and identified 21 barriers that they felt prevented women from participating in outdoor activities. They found that at the core of these barriers was the fact that many women had no basic outdoor skills and as a result, women lacked the confidence to engage in hunting, fishing or other outdoor pursuits.
To try to help women learn these skills, the very first BOW workshop was held in 1991. The 100 woman workshop quickly filled and there was a waiting list. That first workshop taught basic outdoor skills for beginners, with a focus on hunting and fishing.
The first BOW workshop was a huge success and since then, at least 44 states and most of the Canadian provinces have implemented the BOW program. Over 20,000 women attend BOW workshops each year.
BOW Director, Peggy Farrell, says that "the growth of BOW means we are reaching more women and providing them with a venue to learn not just outdoor skills, but also more about themselves. Women all across the country have told us, BOW changed my life."
Beyond BOW
BOW is expanding as program coordinators are offering actual pheasant turkey and whitetail deer hunting experiences, guided fly fishing tours, caving excursions, sea kayaking and more.
The idea here is that while a BOW workshop may teach a woman how to shoot a shotgun or a rifle, where does she go from there? Beyond BOW offers the next level of outdoor experience in the form of an actual guided hunt.
Support for BOW
Funding for BOW is provided by state natural resources departments. the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Shooting Sports Foundation and other organizations. Additional funds come from the fee paid by women to attend.
Outreach
BOW is also researching ways to involve women with disabilities in outdoor activities. "We know that women who attend BOW workshops gain self-confidence and self-esteem in addition to outdoor skills".
Workshops
A typical BOW workshop offers a mix of outdoor activities spread over a three-day weekend. Meals, lodging, equipment and instruction are provided for the participants as well as some type of evening entertainment.
Here in Michigan, for example, the Upper Peninsula Summer Workshop for June 5 - 7 has been filled for quite a few months. The cost is $175 and that includes instruction, materials, lodging and meals. Participants choose six activities from a list of 28 and are asked to rate them on a scale from 1 to 6 based on preference. The program coordinators then attempt to place each woman in her top four preferred activities.
Choices include shotgun, handgun, muzzleloader and rifle, wilderness survival, outdoor cooking, birding, rock climbing/rappelling, and many, many more. They all sound like great fun.
Why is BOW important to women whitetail deer hunters? Because BOW workshops and Beyond BOW give women the skills and confidence to actually try deer hunting and join the ranks of the women whitetail deer hunting nation.
How can you help? If you know a woman who might be interested in learning a new outdoor activity tell her about the BOW program and encourage her to try a workshop.
Finding A BOW Workshop Near You
More information on the BOW program can be found on the Becoming an Outdoors-Woman website. The information provided here was taken from the BOW homepage and from the Michigan DNR website-Becoming an Outdoors-Woman webpage. My thanks to those websites for the use of their information
According to the B.O.W. home website at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, "Becoming an Outdoors-Woman is an educational program aimed at making women more comfortable and more aware of the outdoor world around them. We encourage a supportive environment conducive to learning, making friends, and having fun."
On an historical evening back in 1989, a few women were enjoying a backwoods campfire when a question was posed.
"Why do fewer women than men participate in outdoor activities like hunting, fishing and camping?"
At that campfire that evening was Dr. Christine Thomas, a natural resources professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
To try and answer the question, Dr. Thomas brought people together for a workshop in 1990. The group met for three days and identified 21 barriers that they felt prevented women from participating in outdoor activities. They found that at the core of these barriers was the fact that many women had no basic outdoor skills and as a result, women lacked the confidence to engage in hunting, fishing or other outdoor pursuits.
To try to help women learn these skills, the very first BOW workshop was held in 1991. The 100 woman workshop quickly filled and there was a waiting list. That first workshop taught basic outdoor skills for beginners, with a focus on hunting and fishing.
The first BOW workshop was a huge success and since then, at least 44 states and most of the Canadian provinces have implemented the BOW program. Over 20,000 women attend BOW workshops each year.
BOW Director, Peggy Farrell, says that "the growth of BOW means we are reaching more women and providing them with a venue to learn not just outdoor skills, but also more about themselves. Women all across the country have told us, BOW changed my life."
BOW is expanding as program coordinators are offering actual pheasant turkey and whitetail deer hunting experiences, guided fly fishing tours, caving excursions, sea kayaking and more.
The idea here is that while a BOW workshop may teach a woman how to shoot a shotgun or a rifle, where does she go from there? Beyond BOW offers the next level of outdoor experience in the form of an actual guided hunt.
Funding for BOW is provided by state natural resources departments. the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Shooting Sports Foundation and other organizations. Additional funds come from the fee paid by women to attend.
BOW is also researching ways to involve women with disabilities in outdoor activities. "We know that women who attend BOW workshops gain self-confidence and self-esteem in addition to outdoor skills".
A typical BOW workshop offers a mix of outdoor activities spread over a three-day weekend. Meals, lodging, equipment and instruction are provided for the participants as well as some type of evening entertainment.
Here in Michigan, for example, the Upper Peninsula Summer Workshop for June 5 - 7 has been filled for quite a few months. The cost is $175 and that includes instruction, materials, lodging and meals. Participants choose six activities from a list of 28 and are asked to rate them on a scale from 1 to 6 based on preference. The program coordinators then attempt to place each woman in her top four preferred activities.
Choices include shotgun, handgun, muzzleloader and rifle, wilderness survival, outdoor cooking, birding, rock climbing/rappelling, and many, many more. They all sound like great fun.
Why is BOW important to women whitetail deer hunters? Because BOW workshops and Beyond BOW give women the skills and confidence to actually try deer hunting and join the ranks of the women whitetail deer hunting nation.
How can you help? If you know a woman who might be interested in learning a new outdoor activity tell her about the BOW program and encourage her to try a workshop.
Finding A BOW Workshop Near You
More information on the BOW program can be found on the Becoming an Outdoors-Woman website. The information provided here was taken from the BOW homepage and from the Michigan DNR website-Becoming an Outdoors-Woman webpage. My thanks to those websites for the use of their information
Monday, June 8, 2009
Great Software for Organizing Your Whitetail Deer Photos
We women whitetail deer hunters love anything that's free, easy to use and saves us time, and Google's Picasa photo software sure fits the bill.
What is Picasa? Picasa is a free software program, that organizes, edits, and shares your digital photos.
I found Picasa totally by accident.
Overwhelmed by the hundreds of digital photos stored in various locations on my computer, I longed for a simple and easy way to see and find all of my photographs.
I had tons of photos from my digital camera and hundreds of whitetail deer photos from two different trail cameras. When I needed to find a photograph to use in a blog post or to share photos with family and friends, it was nearly impossible.
The Kodak Easyshare software that came with my digital camera was supposed to help me organize my photos but I found it to be a piece of junk, sorry Kodak. Kodak has great digital cameras but the software that comes with them is horrible.
So while surfing the internet looking for something that would help me store and easily find my photos, I stumbled on a review of Picasa. It sounded like exactly what I needed so I went to the Google Picasa site to check it out.
The program download was simple and easy. When I opened Picasa for the first time, it instantly found all of my photographs and pictures and indexed them.
Picasa displays your photographs almost like you were laying them out on a table. In the large right-hand pane you can see 20 to 30 photographs at a time and you can easily scroll up or down through your photos. In the left-hand pane is a list of the folders where those photographs are stored on your computer. Clicking on a photo in your right-hand display highlights the file folder where the photo is stored.
Picasa has many great features.
It is fully integrated with Google Blogger and you can instantly upload photos to your blog posts from the program through the "Blog This" icon.
You can publish your photos online to share with family and friends and Picasa Web Albums gives you 1 gigabyte of free online storage.
You can backup all of your photographs to a CD or a DVD (if you have lots). Picasa remembers which photos were previously backed up so you don't store them again.
Although Picasa doesn't have the photo editing power of Adobe Photoshop, it does a great job and doesn't cost $700.
Picasa has other neat features like Geo-tag to integrate with Google Earth and show your photos on a global map.
Picasa is really powerful and easy-to-use software and best of all, it's free.
So check out the Picasa Features and Download Picasa.
What is Picasa? Picasa is a free software program, that organizes, edits, and shares your digital photos.
I found Picasa totally by accident.
Overwhelmed by the hundreds of digital photos stored in various locations on my computer, I longed for a simple and easy way to see and find all of my photographs.
I had tons of photos from my digital camera and hundreds of whitetail deer photos from two different trail cameras. When I needed to find a photograph to use in a blog post or to share photos with family and friends, it was nearly impossible.
The Kodak Easyshare software that came with my digital camera was supposed to help me organize my photos but I found it to be a piece of junk, sorry Kodak. Kodak has great digital cameras but the software that comes with them is horrible.
So while surfing the internet looking for something that would help me store and easily find my photos, I stumbled on a review of Picasa. It sounded like exactly what I needed so I went to the Google Picasa site to check it out.
The program download was simple and easy. When I opened Picasa for the first time, it instantly found all of my photographs and pictures and indexed them.
Picasa displays your photographs almost like you were laying them out on a table. In the large right-hand pane you can see 20 to 30 photographs at a time and you can easily scroll up or down through your photos. In the left-hand pane is a list of the folders where those photographs are stored on your computer. Clicking on a photo in your right-hand display highlights the file folder where the photo is stored.
Picasa has many great features.
It is fully integrated with Google Blogger and you can instantly upload photos to your blog posts from the program through the "Blog This" icon.
You can publish your photos online to share with family and friends and Picasa Web Albums gives you 1 gigabyte of free online storage.
You can backup all of your photographs to a CD or a DVD (if you have lots). Picasa remembers which photos were previously backed up so you don't store them again.
Although Picasa doesn't have the photo editing power of Adobe Photoshop, it does a great job and doesn't cost $700.
Picasa has other neat features like Geo-tag to integrate with Google Earth and show your photos on a global map.
Picasa is really powerful and easy-to-use software and best of all, it's free.
So check out the Picasa Features and Download Picasa.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Outdoor Friends - Home On The Range
Something on your mind? Share it here.
Guest Bloggers Welcome.
Email your guest post to whitetailsforwomen@live.com
Again, I have no takers on my weekly invitation for guest bloggers so I'll use this time to profile another of the blogs I really enjoy reading.
Home On The Range written by Brigid, one of the great women I've met through blogging.
Brigid's blog is all about the two really important things in life, guns and food. When it comes right down to it, is there anything else? Well, maybe one or two other things.
Home on the Range is extremely well written, and filled with lots of great advice on guns and shooting. Brigid's posts run the gamut from extremely funny to dead serious.
She is a talented and gifted writer and a great photographer. When you read her blog, you don't have any doubt about where she stands on personal freedom and the right to bear arms.
But it is the "food" portion of her blog that really gets my attention.
Brigid always has great recipes on Home On The Range and with each recipe is a photo of how the dish looks after it is finished and ready to serve. The photographs are so vivid and clear that you feel like you could reach inside the computer screen and grab the plate.
But, it was her recipe for Blazing Brownies and the accompanying photograph that darn near drove me to tears. The only brownies that are ever in my house come from Little Debbie.
I'm always starving after visiting Brigid's blog and spend lots of time rummaging through my frig and cupboards looking in vain for something to eat. But, alas, there is never anything in my house that remotely resembles those heavenly creations that Brigid has on her blog.
So the next time you need a great recipe or just want to be royally entertained, visit Brigid at the Home On The Range.
You'll feel at "home" in no time.
Guest Bloggers Welcome.
Email your guest post to whitetailsforwomen@live.com
Again, I have no takers on my weekly invitation for guest bloggers so I'll use this time to profile another of the blogs I really enjoy reading.
Home On The Range written by Brigid, one of the great women I've met through blogging.
Brigid's blog is all about the two really important things in life, guns and food. When it comes right down to it, is there anything else? Well, maybe one or two other things.
Home on the Range is extremely well written, and filled with lots of great advice on guns and shooting. Brigid's posts run the gamut from extremely funny to dead serious.
She is a talented and gifted writer and a great photographer. When you read her blog, you don't have any doubt about where she stands on personal freedom and the right to bear arms.
But it is the "food" portion of her blog that really gets my attention.
Brigid always has great recipes on Home On The Range and with each recipe is a photo of how the dish looks after it is finished and ready to serve. The photographs are so vivid and clear that you feel like you could reach inside the computer screen and grab the plate.
But, it was her recipe for Blazing Brownies and the accompanying photograph that darn near drove me to tears. The only brownies that are ever in my house come from Little Debbie.
I'm always starving after visiting Brigid's blog and spend lots of time rummaging through my frig and cupboards looking in vain for something to eat. But, alas, there is never anything in my house that remotely resembles those heavenly creations that Brigid has on her blog.
So the next time you need a great recipe or just want to be royally entertained, visit Brigid at the Home On The Range.
You'll feel at "home" in no time.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Breakfast Pizza Recipe From Marian Love Phillips
Marian of Marian's Hunting Stories, etc., etc., etc., sent me this great recipe for Wildgame Wednesday:
"I have made this so many times and is always a hit! :)", she says.
Breakfast Pizza
1 lb. venison sausage
1 (8-ounce) package refrigerated crescent rolls
1 cup frozen loose-pack hash brown potatoes, thawed
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
4 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
Pimiento (optional)
Fresh oregano (optional)
Cook venison sausage in medium skillet until brown; drain and set aside. Separate crescent dough into 8 triangles. Place with elongated points toward center of greased 12-inch pizza pan or dish. Press bottom and sides to form crush; seal perforations. Spoon sausage over dough.
Sprinkle with hash brown potatoes and Cheddar cheese. Combine eggs, milk, salt and pepper; pour over sausage mixture. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and bake an additional 5 minutes.
Garnish with pimiento and fresh oregano, if desired. The oregano really makes it taste so good!
Sounds Yummy! Many thanks Marian!!
"I have made this so many times and is always a hit! :)", she says.
Breakfast Pizza
1 lb. venison sausage
1 (8-ounce) package refrigerated crescent rolls
1 cup frozen loose-pack hash brown potatoes, thawed
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
4 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
Pimiento (optional)
Fresh oregano (optional)
Cook venison sausage in medium skillet until brown; drain and set aside. Separate crescent dough into 8 triangles. Place with elongated points toward center of greased 12-inch pizza pan or dish. Press bottom and sides to form crush; seal perforations. Spoon sausage over dough.
Sprinkle with hash brown potatoes and Cheddar cheese. Combine eggs, milk, salt and pepper; pour over sausage mixture. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and bake an additional 5 minutes.
Garnish with pimiento and fresh oregano, if desired. The oregano really makes it taste so good!
Sounds Yummy! Many thanks Marian!!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
The Wolf At The Door! - Conclusion
The gray wolf is the new "poster-child" of many animal advocacy groups. You can read a fine example of this campaign for the wolf at Encyclopedia Britannica's Advocacy Blog. They also promote the cause for the re-introduction of the mountain lion.
I have real issues with the talking points that the blog author, Gregory McNamee uses as facts in his post.
"A similar number of residents (70%) of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, many of whom identified themselves as sport hunters, supported returning the wolf to the wild." .
I'd like to know who these people are? I don't recall any survey of any type taken in Michigan's EUP about the re-introduction of the gray wolf.
"Similar rhetoric has resounded in recent years, issued by anti-reintroduction groups like the deceptively named Abundant Wildlife Society of North America. But it is false. Wolves are not cannibalistic, and they prefer ungulates—a reindeer herd in Lapland, say, or deer in North America—to cows and sheep. Numerous studies show that where canid predators have attacked livestock, the culprits are almost always feral dogs, and not wolves, although reintroduced wolves have indeed attacked livestock at Yellowstone."
Wrong again! A sheep farmer in Rudyard, Michigan lost an average of seventy lambs a year until he bought several Great Pyrenees dogs who live with the sheep and are big enough to fight off the wolves. He hasn't lost more than one or two lambs since he got the dogs. This is a true story and has been documented by our local paper.
Another myth perpetrated by the groups that support wolf re-introduction is that wolves are shy, elusive creatures who avoid human contact.
Again, we have found this to be untrue in the EUP. My friend, Arlene, her son-in-law, Dan and I have seen a total of six wolves in close proximity to ourselves or our camp. Dan had a wolf come within twelve feet of him while he was in a ground blind and the wolf knew he was there. Our experiences have taught us that these wolves aren't one bit afraid of us.
In his blog post, even Gregory McNamee points out that "Valerius Geist, a respected Canadian animal behaviorist ..., says it’s time to end the ‘harmless-wolf myth’. Geist says North American wolves had grown ‘extremely shy’ of people, after decades of being poisoned and shot and trapped. Now, however, they’re less afraid, and more likely to attack. Geist says he had to shoot a couple of wolves a few years ago in self-defense. Wolves kill people in places like Russia, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, Geist adds; why should we expect to fare differently?”"
I truly believe it is only a matter of time before someone is attacked by a wolf in this area.
You may think from the tone of my posts on the re-introduction of the gray wolf, that I hate wolves. You would be wrong.
I think that wolves are one of the Creator's most interesting and beautiful creatures. We humans have much in common with the gray wolf. We are both hunters who love and spoil our children and protect our family group.
My problem with re-introduction is that we are putting the wolf on a collision course with humans to satisfy our own agendas.
Even the blog author, Gregory McNamee agrees on this point: "Is reintroducing Canis lupus truly to the benefit of the creature itself? Or does it instead only satisfy our own aesthetic pleasure, assuage the dreams of guilt-laden urban environmentalists? Is bringing back a species from the brink of extinction akin morally to keeping a brain-dead patient alive on a respirator, hoping against hope?"
As more and more wild places disappear each day, can we really hope that the wolf will survive?
As wolf populations grow, younger wolves are kicked out of their family groups and move off to colonize new territory. What happens after the wolves have established territories all through Michigan's U.P.? They will move on, eventually crossing the Straits of Mackinac in the winter when the Straits are frozen solid with ice and move into the upper Lower Peninsula.
The Lower Peninsula has forest areas too, but is much more densely populated than the Upper Peninsula. Eventually, the wolf will again be in conflict with humans and those encounters could end tragically for either the wolf or the human.
It is only a matter of time.
Many people believe that it would be "really cool" to hear a gray wolf howl again in the wild but when that wolf is howling less than 40 yards from your cabin door, it sort of takes the "romance" out of it.
See you Around The Campfire next week, when we learn about Becoming an Outdoors Woman - The B.O.W. Program.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Hoppe's BoreSnake Bore Cleaner
Deer Tech
When I first read the description of the Bore Snake on the Cabela's website, I thought "Oh sure!".
According to Cabela's..."The Bore Snake is definitely the world's fastest bore cleaner. Crafted with a series of built-in brushes, it combines all the cleaning processes into one simple step, effectively cleaning your bore in a single pass. First, an initial floss area brushes the action then removes loose grit and debris in the bore prior to the main scrubbing. Finally, the main floss, with 160 times more floss than a standard cleaning patch, super-scrubs the bore to a mirror-like finish. Brass-weighted drop-through cord slips easily down the barrel, simply grasp and pull cord through the barrel - one pull through does it all. Lightweight and compact, it's easy to take to even the most remote hunting destination. There's no exposed metal to damage the rifling or crown, and no assembly is required. And it is solvent safe, washable and reusable hundreds of times. Available for rifles, shotguns"
But, I thought "what the heck" so I ordered one for my 20 gauge shotgun. Wow, was I surprised! It worked, it really worked!
Not only did it work, the Bore Snake made quick work of what can be a real chore sometimes. I simply put some solvent on the brush part and a little gun oil on the flossie part after the brush part and the gun barrel was clean as a whistle.
I was so enamored with the bore snake that I bought one for every gun I own. No more screwing together the little rod thingies, no more patches that don't stay in the little part that is supposed to hold them, or changing from the bristle end to the patch holder end. It was "no fuss, no muss and no bother", as my Gram used to say.
The Bore Snake is definitely a time-saver and a great product.
When I first read the description of the Bore Snake on the Cabela's website, I thought "Oh sure!".
According to Cabela's..."The Bore Snake is definitely the world's fastest bore cleaner. Crafted with a series of built-in brushes, it combines all the cleaning processes into one simple step, effectively cleaning your bore in a single pass. First, an initial floss area brushes the action then removes loose grit and debris in the bore prior to the main scrubbing. Finally, the main floss, with 160 times more floss than a standard cleaning patch, super-scrubs the bore to a mirror-like finish. Brass-weighted drop-through cord slips easily down the barrel, simply grasp and pull cord through the barrel - one pull through does it all. Lightweight and compact, it's easy to take to even the most remote hunting destination. There's no exposed metal to damage the rifling or crown, and no assembly is required. And it is solvent safe, washable and reusable hundreds of times. Available for rifles, shotguns"
But, I thought "what the heck" so I ordered one for my 20 gauge shotgun. Wow, was I surprised! It worked, it really worked!
Not only did it work, the Bore Snake made quick work of what can be a real chore sometimes. I simply put some solvent on the brush part and a little gun oil on the flossie part after the brush part and the gun barrel was clean as a whistle.
I was so enamored with the bore snake that I bought one for every gun I own. No more screwing together the little rod thingies, no more patches that don't stay in the little part that is supposed to hold them, or changing from the bristle end to the patch holder end. It was "no fuss, no muss and no bother", as my Gram used to say.
The Bore Snake is definitely a time-saver and a great product.
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