I feel the pain expressed here. This has happened to many deer hunters who have been at it awhile. I am 60 years old and have had this experience twice out of many deer shot and recovered. One was an average 9 pointer I found about week later. The other was a huge bodied wide-racked 10 point that I found 2 days later by raven squawking within a half mile of the main search area.

Both of these losses were while still hunting on our hunting grounds less than 20 miles from the Canadian border. I sawed off the racks, but it is just not the same as recovering the animal while still being able to use the meat. It is hard, but has to be accepted and learned from..but they are extremely tough animals and it is a reality of deer hunting.

Within our hunting party this has happened to our son, my cousin, and my brother-in-law. My hunting buddy going back to high school days came within a whisker of this happening to him after breaking a front leg up high on a big boy, but he was able to keep after him among other deer tracks due to the drag marks in the snow from his broken leg.

He shot him at about 8 am and it ended up being an all day affair through some of the nastiest brush in the country with all kinds of twist and turns, circling, doubling back, jumping him a few times, then finally finishing him with a neck shot several miles from where it initially shot. We got back to the kill sight after dinner, quartered him up by headlights, and back to camp near midnight.

That brings back memories from the “IBOT” festivities out of West Winds, The Triangle, and “shooks shake” era. When they starting biting like you described Cookie, the fish house floor or ice would often be littered with minnow parts and those big crappies that bit so fast they didn’t always get to the bucket or cooler right away, let alone being able to fish more than one line. Stopping to get a count was necessary to avoid going over. Haven’t been back in years, but the memories sure are nice! The last time I went the crappie were tailing off and the walleyes were starting their recovery. We considered them a nuisance fish during that transition period as the crappie became more hit and miss. Thanks for helping relive those good old days

“Making the Carry” by Timmothy Cochrane is an amazing detailed account of John and Tchi-Ki-Wis Linklater during the early fur trade era in the MN/Ontario border country.

“Trap-Lines North” by Stephan Meader is an account of the adventures along a family trapline in the Thunder Bay District of Ontario

“The Last Guide” by Ron Corbett about the life of Algonquin Park fishing guide Frank Kuiack.

“Quest for Ore” by Russel H Bennett includes some beautiful written accounts of a geologist’s explorations in the pre-Cambrian shield lakes of the MN Ontario Border country prior to, and including the discovery and development of the iron ore industry in MN.

“Once Upon a Lake: A History of Lake Minnetonka and It’s People” by Thelma Jones describes the pre-settlement era through the early settlement of the lake. This book includes references to the lifestyle of the indigenous people in the area, and gives the reader an idea of the diversity of flora and fauna surrounding the lake, including it’s vast populations of fish, game, and other natural resources.

Nice mix of greens and orange habaneros. What do you do with your end of season peppers picklerick?

My two habanero plants are loaded even after fresh eating, and using 60 for pepper jelly, which made 13 pints.

I will be picking the rest and drying them in the dehydrator for winter shakers for use in cooking and seasoning.

We love them. I have tried other super hot peppers, but habanero are by far our favorite.

All my excess garden plant material, yard waste, kitchen scrapes, some wood ash and hardwood biochar from the wood stove, small game remains, as well as fish remains go into my compost. I save about 50 bags of fall leaves from the neighborhood to mix in throughout the year for my carbon source, which is an absolutely essential element. Moisture is another important element to consider, which required vigilance and some inputs from the hose this past dry summer.

I manage my compost piles to be large and hot using the Berkeley method. I measure the process using a compost thermometer. It is routine that my piles reach internal temperatures of 140-160f. I turn them once every four to five days until it is not heating up anymore and the final product is a rich loam sweet smelling soil. It takes a on average 4 weeks to finish mine.

With the internal temperatures I am getting the fish remains become nothing but bones and scales after a week, with no offensive odor.

I liken the process to garden alchemy, and results are outstanding.

I hadn’t heard of Balsam flower, will have to check that one out for next year.

Another good one for bees is Borage. I planted it about 10 years ago and its seeds come up here and there every year now.

Most summers I have them regularly at our bee balm (Monarda) patch here in the west metro.

This flower attracts more bees of a wide variety to our gardens than any of our other flowers. A lot of the bees I see around them are ones I would never have seen otherwise.

Our hunting in zone 126 up around Hovland/Grand Portage took a nose dive after the 2017 rifle season. I have a detailed hunting journal going to to 1989. In the subsequent years we had a several big snow and cold winters, as well as a lot of deer, wolves, bear, and moose in our area, which is about 2 miles inland from Lake Superior covering over 4 square miles of hunting grounds.

The first notable change was the disappearance of moose sign and sightings in about 1998 – but there was still deer, bear, and wolf sign everywhere. I swear a guy could still hunt or set a tree stand just about anywhere and see deer most days. I didn’t realize at the time how good we had it. There were even multiple doe bonus tags for a few years in an effort to thin the herd to benefit the moose.

Then the bottom fell out starting in 2018. I walked a five mile loop the weekend after Thanksgiving last fall on 1” of of snow that was over a week old just to see what was going on after seeing one deer in 5 full days of hunting during the rifle season. I saw only one set of deer tracks that happened to have a set of wolf tracks following. During my time in woods last fall I only a few small scapes and rubs. Areas that traditionally were always tore up from the rut had not be visited.

I asked a friend of ours who has a lifetime of hunting the area (he is 75) about what he thought was going on with the deer herd. He recalled seeing very few deer in the mid to late 70s, and then by the late eighties there were a lot of deer again, like there were in prior years to the low point in the cycle. He didn’t think it had to do with any one thing in particular (logging, wolves, snow, etc.). He said he thinks the current situation is likely part of a long cycle.

Irregardless I will still be going out, enjoying myself, observing, learning, and hunting.

One thing I have noticed the last few years is more deer sightings much further inland than the traditional deer range along the shore. There always were some in those areas that migrate down to the lake after the rut, or sooner if there are some big snows early, as well as a few groups of deer that would over-winter in yards up around Gunflint lake. During the heyday our friends from the Thunder Bay Ontario area were enjoying some great deer hunting after their moose population dried up.

There are more beaver than ever so I assume the wolves are making some hay on that front, but I have to imagine that the dearth of deer is making it a struggle, and they seem to be getting less concerned about being in proximity of humans. In fact I saw a wolf within 50 yards of our camp this past August when I was walking down the trail to my garden. At about 40 feet it stopped walking, looked at me over it’s shoulder, and casually lifted his leg to pee before jumping off the trail into the woods.

Good idea Coletrain27.

My mechanic also mentioned that washing too frequently in the winter can do more harm than good as it can force water and salt into small spaces where it ends up getting trapped.

2006 Toyota Tundra; 2009 GX470. Fluid Film inside all body and door panels, tail gait, hood, etc.. I do this every other year.

I now use PB Blaster Surface Shield for a yearly coating of everything underneath the truck, including inside bumpers, on-and-underneath the spare tire, and inside the frame rails, etc.. It doesn’t wash off easily from road spray like Fluid Film does. The underside of my trucks are clean of rust.

They both have developed a nice coat of the oils covered with road dust over the years which is impenetrable by chemical road treatments and water.

I asked my mechanic if he minds working around it, and he said, “no problem – it sure beats working on a rusty vehicle.”

Vehicles treated this way will not rot out from under you while they are still running perfectly 20+ years down the road (including our chemically treated winter roads).

Lexus GX460 V8 is a great one. Like you said tswoboda it is a luxury 4Runner with and amazing full time four-wheel drive system, hi/low grearing, and locking center differential. Also called Land Cruiser Prado over seas. I have had a 4runner, a Blazer, and two Suburbans, but our current GX460 is by far our favorite. My wife loves it and won’t drive anything else. They are easily good for well over 300,000 miles. We have a 2009 GX470 in the family well over 200,000 miles that drives exactly how it did right off the lot new.

Consider finding a used one after someone else took the initial depreciation. Typically they are one owner, impeccably maintained, with all service records from the dealership.

It is hard to keep cottontails at bay by simply eliminating them. I have shot, live trapped (then killed), and snared them, but they just keep moving in. I pressure can them and use it to make stew for lunch at work since my wife doesn’t like the idea of eating rabbits, or squirrels for that matter.

They do their damage at night. The snow was so deep this winter that they got over my fencing and protective plastic tubes to reach some lower branches. I am probably moving to tree wrap before next winter. I also shovel around my trees because they will stand on their hind legs to chew/gird trunks of young trees and scaffold branches. I just wrapped some severe branch damage yesterday with the clear grafting tape to help them heal.

I don’t even try with the raspberries anymore. The advantage is that the canes they chew down always come back and produce really nice, big, and sweet late summer/early fall berries.

CaptainMusky, It is a honey crisp. I prune my apple trees to an open center and keep them short enough to pick all my apples without needing a ladder.

Hey guys you could try wrapping the tree damage with grafting tape. I had rabbits do this to one of my favorite apple trees last winter. I thought it was a goner for sure, but it ended up surviving and producing.

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I would highly recommend it. I sent a message with a few details to you.

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Glenn I used to go to Perham show and gathering every spring. I have also been to the Alex show a few times. It is always a fun time to connect with folks and see all the nice spears and decoys. The last few years I have been sticking a little closer to home with grandchildren and our aging parents needing more help, and just going to the Medina sporting and collectibles show in the spring.

After further examination of your picture Glenn, I am almost 100% certain that is W. Pimple spear. Those who are fortunate enough to have one typically display them, and will not sell them. It is heirloom for sure!

ThunderLund78 I don’t know the maker of that one off hand, but it is a good example of an old collectible spear. The tines look to be attached to the shaft at the shoulder with a key/wedge, like Glenn’s example, but looks like there is extra material brazed onto the spear at that juncture, which may have been added later.

Many of the old quality spear makers of that day used the key/wedge method, and often used rake tines for their spear tine stock.

The barbs are unique. I haven’t seen that style before, and it definitely would help identify the maker. I will cross reference a few sources I have when I have more time and get back to you if I find a match.

Glenn that looks like a Wendell Pimple spear, out of Albany MN, and one of the most collectible MN darkhouse pike spears.

Can you post a picture ThunderLund78? I am a spear collector and may be able to identify it.

If it is a quality vintage spear, which it very well may be, you will be diminishing it’s value if you were to prime and paint it. The rule of thumb among spear collectors is to never paint a spear. The only vintage spears that I ever see painted are the Randalls which were made in Willmar MN.

You could consider running some coarse steel wool over it, hitting the tines with an emery paper versus a file to avoid taking too much metal off, oil it, display it and/or use it, and oil it down after each use, or yearly to protect it and to keep it’s natural patina.

Hey Denny.

Not sure on hours. It ran flawlessly during our cabin trips spring, summer, fall, winter for 20 years. It was stored and ran in it’s own vented generator shed. Since then it has been in our garage. It looks pretty new. I kept up with regular oil changes, and cleaning the air filter, and that is all it ever needed. I remember changing the spark plug at least once.

From what I can tell reading on-line about the Honda EB3500, the amperage on 220 plug is 20, which sound about right since it was able to run all the lights, two Hunter ceiling fans, and one other item at a time, such as a vacuum cleaner. If my wife used her hair dryer, I would switch off the ceiling fans, as that load would sometime trip the breaker.

I can send a few pics if you send me a text at my number above.

West Metro/Near 169 and Medicine Lake Rd.

Congratulations on the really nice boats out there. I like seeing them out being used, and imagining how much people are enjoying them.

My wife and I are in our late 50’s, with an eye toward planning for an early retirement.

With the supply and inflation issues going on, I have firmly decided to keep relying my fleet of fishing boats that can be simply flipped over in the fall, and feel very fortunate to have them: 2 canoes (Wenonah and Alumacraft); 11.5’ StarCraft that doubles as a duck boat; and F-14 Alumacraft. Motors are newer (2.5 Yamaha and 6hp Suzuki).

They are fully equipped when fishing with seat cushions, anchor, oars, fish basket; cooler. My wife and I typically fish for panfish in the metro, and walleye/lake trout/bass in the Grand Marais areas for periods of 2-4 hours at time, on nice days, before and just after dawn. We enjoy getting out more than ever, so I guess our system is still working out pretty good for us, and will be into the foreseeable future.

I have a 1993 Ski Doo Tundra. It has been used hard since brand new for breaking trail, dragging out deer, hauling a sleigh full of gear and another person, and ice fishing in the Grand Marais area. I like it so much I bought an 87 Tundra from my elderly neighbor for $700 when he and his wife were no longer ice fishing. He later told me it as it was the best starting snowmobile he ever had. It still is easy to start even in -20f.

Top off the gas with non-oxy gas mixed with a little sea foam each fall, start and run, cover them up in April. All major parts are original on both. I have proactively replaced the fuel lines, plugs, belts, and that is it.

Granted they are not fast or all that fun to ride compared to bigger machines, but more importantly for me they are light so once stuck in deep snow or slush they are easy to free. They have always been hard to find for sale on the used market for a good reason.

I would be interested to know if there is a utility sled made today that would be equivalent in terms of function and reliability in case I ever want a new one.

crappie55369 wrote:

About how long does it take you to spray your truck Tom?

I like to take my time to get all the nooks and cranny’s, so I take a good hour or so per vehicle I suppose.

The kit on Amazon that I bought includes the wand that attaches to the spray cans. I buy the spray cans by the case. I go through one case a year which covers both trucks. My pick-up is 15 years old and my wife’s GX is 11 years old and both look and drive like new.

Initially you may go through more product, but once you get some layers built up, you won’t be going through as much.

crappie55369 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Doug M wrote:</div>
Very cool, congrats! Any option or new feature you looking forward to using or impressed with so far? Tailgates on the new gmc is interesting, and anyone seen the fords with the onboard generator?

About the only feature I’m looking forward to is when this thing still starts on the first attempt 20 years from now lol. Thats not to say other truck brands can’t but Toyota is known for its reliability and thats the main reason I bought it. I also like that it’s a straight V8 no turbos or cylinder disengagement.

Overall Toyota doesn’t provide a feature rich truck in terms of technology which is ok with me. Give me 4×4, heat, and a radio and im pretty much good to go.

It will be reliable in 20 years, but make sure you protect the frame and body from rust.

I go over my Tundra and my wife’s Lexus GX470 with Fluid Film twice a year April and October…We have no appreciable rust. Get the spray wand, pull the plugs, and hit the inner doors, rocker panels, hood, fenders, tail gait, inside and outside the frame rails.

Congrats…should be a good rig for you!

My 15 year old Tundra runs as good as the day it was driven off the lot.

Luckily I got a good frame on both of mine, and there is virtually no body rust on my 06.

I am pretty sure you will get a good price if you sell it, even as it is. When I sold my 02 I found out that a lot of people seek out the 1st gen Tundra for their good reputation for reliability in an older used truck.

I bought my 2002 new and when I sold it 2 years ago it didn’t have as much as a loose thread in the interior, and drove as well as the day I drove it off the lot.

There was a single truck parked on the north end of Medicine Lake this morning near French Park. I would guess he drove out from the west beach park access. The north access gets pretty soft this time of year due to the sun, and Harty’s access on the SE corner is gated off. I drove by the that end this morning and the ice was tight to shore.

I don’t think I will seeing any more vehicles out there after today.