"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

My rodents are rats....one of whom is so clever...it stole the pellet tray I laid and then went up on the shelf in the downstairs laundry ....gnawed its way into the rest of the packets I had in reserve...I mean this was a serious effort.....and now he sleeps with the fishes....except under the house and it stinks.
dantzk8 dantzk8 No worries Dan ...sorry if it upsets you...
 
Another quick raccoon story, if you will bear with with me:

For several years my mother kept a raccoon from stealing the goldfish from the small plastic pond on my parents’ patio, and out of their garbage can, by bribing it with food and a small puzzle.

Every night she would put leftovers outside under an upturned plastic container, and put a fist-sized rock on top of the container. The raccoon would lift the rock off, turn over the container, and eat the food.

We all advised her that it was a bad idea, but in the end no harm came of it.
When our daughter was growing up in the 1990s, for several summers we had a 1965 Starcraft pop-up camper that we'd use for short camping trips. Once we made a longer trip, and I had a big plastic cooler in which I stored all the bread, bagels, and other baked goods for our adventure. I had a bungee cord wrapped around the cooler near each end to make sure the lid stayed closed. Once we set up the camper in the woodsy area assigned to us, the cooler sat on the ground outside the camper. During the night, what sounded like scores of hissing, growling, screaming raccoons pulled off the bungee cords, opened the lid, and made off into the woods with most of our bread, leaving a trail of crumbs and shredded plastic bags. :mad::thumbsdown:

- GT
 
When our daughter was growing up in the 1990s, for several summers we had a 1965 Starcraft pop-up camper that we'd use for short camping trips. Once we made a longer trip, and I had a big plastic cooler in which I stored all the bread, bagels, and other baked goods for our adventure. I had a bungee cord wrapped around the cooler near each end to make sure the lid stayed closed. Once we set up the camper in the woodsy area assigned to us, the cooler sat on the ground outside the camper. During the night, what sounded like scores of hissing, growling, screaming raccoons pulled off the bungee cords, opened the lid, and made off into the woods with most of our bread, leaving a trail of crumbs and shredded plastic bags. :mad::thumbsdown:

- GT
If you were older, you'd have had a steel cooler with latches.
Us darned kids today.
 
When our daughter was growing up in the 1990s, for several summers we had a 1965 Starcraft pop-up camper that we'd use for short camping trips. Once we made a longer trip, and I had a big plastic cooler in which I stored all the bread, bagels, and other baked goods for our adventure. I had a bungee cord wrapped around the cooler near each end to make sure the lid stayed closed. Once we set up the camper in the woodsy area assigned to us, the cooler sat on the ground outside the camper. During the night, what sounded like scores of hissing, growling, screaming raccoons pulled off the bungee cords, opened the lid, and made off into the woods with most of our bread, leaving a trail of crumbs and shredded plastic bags. :mad::thumbsdown:

- GT
You’re lucky they didn’t tie you up with the bungee cords and steal your wallet.
 
dantzk8 dantzk8 No worries Dan ...sorry if it upsets you...
No problem Meako, i'm not upset. It's just the kind of recurring joke i like to make (i know, i know...). The only snakes i hate are the vipers.
My dog, a wild and susceptive border collie, came once to me with a bloody deep wound under the eye. He leaded me to the backyard where i found a dead weasel, broken neck. He has a strict conception of politeness and good manners. Good dog. _20220420_130449.JPG

Dan.
 
No problem Meako, i'm not upset. It's just the kind of recurring joke i like to make (i know, i know...). The only snakes i hate are the vipers.
My dog, a wild and susceptive border collie, came once to me with a bloody deep wound under the eye. He leaded me to the backyard where i found a dead weasel, broken neck. He has a strict conception of politeness and good manners. Good dog. View attachment 1797292

Dan.
In '75/6 I was living downtown Paris, near the Casino de Paris, in a former bourgeois mansion, at first floor. My Commando was still very fresh and I had a pal riding a BSA (nobody's perfect, ugh) who was forest ranger in the Fontaineblau forrest. During summer he found what he thought a weasel, whose aft leg was broken, maybe by a car.
He managed to salvage her but his dog did not appreciate the little beast, so she (a female) ended in my 2-roomed. She proved to be very nice to live with, like a cat somehow, without the bad smell.
When her leg fully recovered, she started to investigate the yard, slipping under the CLOSED kitchen window (ok, last change dated decades ago), then slowly getting us rid of all the rats in the cave (former wine cellar), followed by (sorry for faint-hearted) those f....g, b....y, yelling and echoing at night for pussy stray cats.
I saw her acting only once. The b..., f...g, yelling kid, a good 15 time heavier, sitting in front of her. He played once or twice with his leg, sending his paw to her, she stood straight on her bottom, just dodging the cat's uppercuts, then, faster than thunder, jumping for his jugular. The cat rushed into the cellar, no sign of the couple for at least an hour, then she came back. No more b...y, f.....g yelling guy. She climbed the wall back and slept on my sofa for a good deal.
I had several female friends and she was always very tender with them. Except the blondes, she gave them a real hell, running around, jumping on them (did not bite). Never knew why but there clearly was a problem.
One more thing. When winter came (and that year a cold one, under zero) I discovered she was an ermine. Not a weasel!
Sorry if I'm a bit long, but that was quite an experience!
 
I had several female friends and she was always very tender with them. Except the blondes, she gave them a real hell, running around, jumping on them (did not bite). Never knew why but there clearly was a problem.
An other good reason for my dog to kill the weasel, my wife is blonde!
Very interesting story.
I had never heard of a domesticated ermine, martel or weasel. They proliferate in my forestry area but are very discreet and careful. For instance i don't remember having seen a one crossing the road in front of my car like boars, deers, rabbits and cats are used to do !

Dan.
 
When I was a teenager, I shared an old house, with a couple of older guys, for six months or so. Three cats kept the rats and mice under control. Sometime after I moved out, an old lady, who lived up the road, opened a can of fancy cat-food, and fed the cats. They promptly moved to her house, and my friends then suffered a rat problem. One of them bought a ferret. It was just a youngster, but he let it go down the cellar steps, and it went through the rats like a dose of salts, you could hear their skulls cracking. A couple of years later, I was having a drink with one of the guys in the local pub, and we retired back to the house after the pub closed, to drink some more, and put the world to rights. We were sat in front of the fire, a bit worse for wear, and I asked about the ferret. My friend said that someone had left the door open a few weeks ago, and the ferret had vamoosed. "Well what was that, that just sat up on its hind legs right in front of the fire?!" I asked him. A rat had come out of a hole in the skirting-board, and sat there right in front of us! I had only seen it out of the corner of my eye, and assumed it was the ferret! :eek: :D
 
An other good reason for my dog to kill the weasel, my wife is blonde!
Very interesting story.
I had never heard of a domesticated ermine, martel or weasel. They proliferate in my forestry area but are very discreet and careful. For instance i don't remember having seen a one crossing the road in front of my car like boars, deers, rabbits and cats are used to do !

Dan.

All these road crossings, but not one chicken. I smell a rat.
 
All these road crossings, but not one chicken. I smell a rat.
I've never seen a chicken in a forest.
Even in the wire-mesh henhouses of my village on the edge of the forest, foxes and mustelids take a lot. Chickens don't survive in the wild.

Dan.
 
I've never seen a chicken in a forest.
Even in the wire-mesh henhouses of my village on the edge of the forest, foxes and mustelids take a lot. Chickens don't survive in the wild.

Dan.
He was referencing a bad old joke in English:
Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?
A: To get to the other side

Don’t worry, it isn’t funny even if you are a native speaker…

In this case the answer might have been “because he was being chased by a weasel”.
 
He was referencing a bad old joke in English:
Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?
A: To get to the other side

Don’t worry, it isn’t funny even if you are a native speaker…

In this case the answer might have been “because he was being chased by a weasel”.
Thanks, now i understand.
My english isn't the best, "My taylor is poor." (French joke). Let alone the jokes.

Dan.
 
I've never seen a chicken in a forest.
What about a chicken in the woods?! :D ;) :thumbsup:

Chicken-7.jpg

He was referencing a bad old joke in English:
Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?
A: To get to the other side

Don’t worry, it isn’t funny even if you are a native speaker…

In this case the answer might have been “because he was being chased by a weasel”.

Came across this the other week ;) :thumbsup:

pGqRhj2.jpg


UujiZl4.jpg
 
in Jr. High and highschool we had 3 dogs, 2 cats, a adult raccoon, and a adult skunk (they all got along) at my mum's place out in the boonies.
They were about a mile from a boat launch that had a restaurant, store, bait shoppe and picnic tables.
A couple times a week they would call my mum to come get the skunk.
Seems skunks like boxes and bags as much or more than cats, and she was scaring the picnic'ers crawling into their picnic baskets and paper grocery bags. (anyone else remember those?)
Sally Skunk was fully equipped, but never sprayed anyone that I know of.
Both raccoons and skunks make a clean pet.
 
I believe an Ermine is a Stoat with white winter coat...mind you Weasels and Stoats are tiny....pound for pound...only one creature is more fiercesome....
2ATWGY6-scaled.jpg
The Ningaui.....watch out!! Don't get too close.
My best rat story is the house I resided in during my marriage breakup in 2018....I did my first tube lable for the BF knife at that place...I shared the spooky old rambly squalor with 8 or 9 surf/hippie/artists and some rats...which hung out in the kitchen....ASAP after I moved in I set up Operation Mors Expecto.(death awaits).
OME replaced the previous hippy shemozzle ....where we catch the rats and let them go dowwn the beach....! Yep.
OME was a kill on sight with extreme prejjudence
( prejudice and violence rolled into one👍) op. A combination of poison bait,traps and a mentally disturbed ex fireman proved very effective.
Jon :13
Rats :Nil
Hippies: a new concept of life without the risk of Toxoplasmosis.....not that they would have noticed.
 
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