jdmidwest

How are you raising them? I was going to start a bed this year. Back when I was young on the farm, we dug a hole with the backhoe and buried an old freezer. Filled it with compost and stocked it with those crawler snakes. I never run out of worms. I have an old mineral bucket that I am thinking about burying in the yard and doing the same thing.

Don't know if everyone has heard about the new Heartbleed flaw in internet security, but here is an article about what you can do to protect yourself. Unlike a virus, it was a flaw or bug in a version of the encryption software that internet and websites uses to secure passwords and other stuff. It was found last week by a Google guy testing for security, but has been out there for a few years now. It opens up your passwords to about a third ot the web or more. The simple solution is to change your password to the site after the flaw has been patched. Then watch for any purchases or bank transactions if you did any web commerce or banking with a flawed site. http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/things-you-can-do-to-protect-from-heartbleed/article_989dca3b-04d9-51d2-b4f5-1d1e43abd320.html http://news.yahoo.com/u-government-warns-potential-attacks-heartbleed-bug-135137709--sector.html

Funny you say that. I probably use a teacup of honey a year or less. I do like chewing on the comb. The pastor heard me say that one day as I was buying some queens from him. He laughed and stated that I was the first person he knew that got into beekeeping for other reasons than the honey. Mom tells me that I quit eating honey when I was young and watched Grandpa working his bees. I did not like the thought of eating anything that a bunch of bugs crawled around on with dirty feet. I watched them sucking juice last year at the farm out of the piles of rabbit poop under the cages and I still don't relish the thought of good fresh honey.

Buddy found several half frees today in St. Louis area. But he said they had a red tint, so they may have been false. Good thing he only eats the ones I pick for him.

Can you really call someone a hoonyak on a public forum?

Make me a great hoppy Pale Ale and I will come and test it. Porters and Stouts are not high on my list of beer. Gdam Ness, are you jonesing that bad for a mushroom fix that you are planning on growing some? Get out and stomp the woods. Buddy found several patches of half frees today, if he would have looked closer, there were probably some grays. They have to be as big as a beer can for him to find them.

I went out Monday to a few spots, nothing yet. Mayapples and other spring flowers just starting to show. With the temps today, I will be looking this weekend. I beat the curve this winter with my bees, others are reporting losses of 25 percent or more in their hives. It was a cold winter with several warm days that made them break cluster and get out and waste energy.

Queen has hatched out and mated. Bees were bringing in pollen for the first time today on the queenless hive. That is a sure sign they are feeding newborn bees. The worker bees were kicked into high gear, another sure sign that there is a new queen in there giving them direction. Bradford pears bloomed out and they are working them good. Lots of activity in the bee hives today and in the pear trees. We have a line of them along the lane to the subdivision so they should have a feast for a week or so. And the neighbors like to grow plenty of dandelions, they will be hitting them too.

I have seen some pretty good deals on the older Lowrance 5 DSI models. I have a Mark 4 DSI, black and white version with GPS that I bought at Academy last spring for $139 after rebate. I wish I would have gotten the color and a bigger screen. At least with color, the fish show a different color than the background and structure. I do miss fish arches but the little thing really picks up on the structure and shows it clearly. And it is really easy to mark a spot with the gps and come back to it. I am with moguy, the new hdi would be an improvement and I saw them on sale somewhere for around $199.

Taking the landowners side, he saw somethng happening on his property and went to investigate. Maybe he has had run ins with some undesireables in the past. Who knows and it turned out fine, nobody hurt. Crooked creek is small enough that I am sure it does not see many overnight campers. I really thought Arkansas was one of the states that allows you to own the stream bank and refuse anyone out of the water. As long as you stay in the water, you are not trespassing. I know it happens all of the time on the Spring River and I have never pushed it on posted ground. Even campground owners post that the campground is for their guests, all others are trespassing. The only exceptions would be Corps of Engineer flood area, State Forest and Riverways, and other public areas.

Obviously someone knows more rougue deer farmers than I do.

I am hopeing so. I have too many things going on to be out stomping the woods for shrooms.

I give up, your coolaid is too strong. Keep carrying your torch and wander along. I never run across any deer farm where they trapped a wild deer and started a herd. All were bought and sold at an auction. They are livestock and should be governed as such. There are no wild captive deer.

Bees are fair. I have 2 hives that are iffy, one is queenless and the other is not laying much. Other 4 are doing fine. Cold weather delayed my order of foundation for honey supers till last week. They don't ship wax in freezing temps, too brittle. Then when I ordered they are way behind in shipping. Same goes with queens, so I have tried to let them make one. Grass is green, but that is about it. Strawberries are perking up nicely. Trees are way behind. no life out of a redbud around here. Bradford pears should bloom later this week, that will make the bees happy.

1: Dept of Ag should be the governing body on pen raise domestic deer, not the MDC. MDC is tasked at protecting our wildlife, forests, and riverways. They should not be burdened by the problem as there are no licenses purchased to fund it in deer farming other than some permits to raise the deer. A hunter in a high fence does not buy a license for the deer he shoots, he pays for it. The sale and trade of the deer creates taxable dollars that do not go to the MDC the same way as licenses, fees, and Pittman Roberts. That money goes to state and federal coffers that fund the Dept. of Ag. If they lack biologists, let them hire some to do the job. 2: Captive deer are livestock. They have been raised in a pen, they are fed and watered by humans, they are tagged in the ear like cattle or hogs, and they are bought and sold for profit. Wildlife can't be treated that way. 3 and 4: They relaxed that testing when the EHD epidemic broke out during the drought. They knew what was causing the deaths and knew it probably was not CWD. I am not aware of the current requirements, since my friend has been out of the business, I have not really kept up with it. It was before the EHD, every head of a deer that died had to be sent for testing. They are numbered and there is little room for cheating. Records are kept of deer populations in a farm herd and the tags they possess. The bottom line is that legitmate deer farmers try real hard to prevent any disease in their herds. They go out of their way to install barriers between their herds and the outside world. Wild deer carry disease too. They sure don't want to get blue toungue in their high priced herd deer. Its just a matter of common sense. I am not aware of how other states manage captive deer, but MO has a pretty good program and track record. To my knowledge, there is no current live test you can perform on a deer to see if it is carrying CWD. Little is really known about it. What needs to be done is finding out more about the desease, not pointing fingers and saying the sky is falling.

How many do you know? Dozens, many of them are local here in SE MO. I could fire a rifle and hit one less than 1 mile down the valley. I thought the one you did know was out of business? He is, he lost his half of his herd to a cattle disease, EHD. What did he do with his heard? Free Range them?? He sold them to a registered breeder in Michigan. At 5K to 20k per deer, you don't just free range them. It certainly isn't out of line to point the finger at the very people that brought this disease into this state. Did they? Or were they infected by a wild deer? Much like didgymo and felt soles, there is just a knee jerk reaction and someone needs a fall guy. There is simply not enough known about the disease at this point to draw any real conclusions. Most of the professionals have a lot of money invested in their herds. They raise them for many reasons, pets, urine, antler products, resell, genetics, and high fence hunting. Many of the products and research done by them is beneficial to the average, one weekend a year deer hunter. Bashing the group as a whole is like condemning all sportsmen based on the actions of a few poachers.

There are several off of 72 before you get to Salem near the Huzzah. They were part of a big fish hatchery system at one time. Forestry service has taken them over long ago and one has camping there, no privies. I think they are simply called Huzzah Ponds.

Funny, most deer breeders I know are avid hunters of wild game. They just raise deer to shoot in pens for the lazy, clumsy hunters that pay for the prize of a big set of horns. I think it is way out of line to bash deer breeders. The ones that I know are all responsible sportsmen and very meticulious about their herds. If they have a diseased deer in the herd, it would do them a very big financial deficit to their wallets. Why would they want to promote the spread of disease into the wild when they would stand to lose so much in their own herd?

I thought the greenery gave it away. Is anybody seeing that yet?

I know the one near Bunker, Little Scotia Pond. They closed the campground in the round of cutbacks of the Clinton years, but you can still drive back the broken road bed to the ponds but the area is in disrepair. Might even find a meth lab or two. I used to run that are alot years ago and fished and camped there a few times. Never really did much good.

That does it, time to start walking.

Cleaned out the strawberry beds today. They were covered with oak leaves from the trees in the yard. I usually wait until the new greens come out and use a small rake to remove the oak leaves, old vines and strawberry leaves. They were already up about 3 to 4 inches today. This warm snap has really started things hopping. Strawberries always put out runners and there are several rooted plants growing in the yard outside of the beds. I dig them up and fill in the holes in the beds with the new/younger plants. All of my beds are second and third season. Past experience, third season plants produce less and will be replaced next spring with new starts. We will see if that holds true this season. I looked over my horseradish and debated on digging up roots and expanding that also, but ran out of daylight. I willl probably move that into a richer, loamy soil in a raised bed to get them to perform better also. They have not done much the last few years, just little thin spindly roots.

A electric fence does wonders. I killed a doe once in season that had a load of shot in her ham from a shotgun. That was the poorest, toughest doe I ever put a knife into. Many pellets under the hide and many in the meat too. She was not limping either and had healed up. I would find something other than a shotgun to keep them out. If you are going to shoot one, just kill it, clean it, and eat it. Poaching is not any greater offense than harrassing, shooting, or maiming a deer. And then you solve the problem for keeps.

I need to find a spot like that. I wonder how many come up and never get spotted?

I have seen the flowers, just never knew they had a name. They are around when mushrooms pop.