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Random Thought Thread

Blues said:
B beeinak

I've only been up your way once, but it was breathtaking.

We spent about ten days backpacking in the Wrangells, mostly up the Kuskulana toward Mt. Blackburn.

Then spent a week or so in Denali. Our last night there, we were camped in Polychrome Pass and a wolf came into our camp hunting ground squirrels. She walked right up to us, lowered her head submissively, and when we didn't act aggressively, she went about her business feeling the ground with her paws and then pouncing and digging them out. It was remarkable.

On the way out I mentioned it to a ranger there and he said he knew that (she) wolf and said it was extremely rare for anyone to see her. It was a huge highlight for me. (The caribou were a gas too...with their hooves sounding like "castanets".)

I'd go back in a minute.
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That is awesome. There is a pack that hangs out on our place frequently. When we were marking trail to our place when we first got it, they ran up a game trail to about 15 yards of us and we just stared at each other for a few moments and then they ran off. I had one sitting down 50’ away watching me using a snowblower by my cabin, and another time one was watching me getting firewood from the woodshed. They howl back in the winter sometimes and it just makes me smile. Being miles away from anyone and hearing them on a bitterly cold and clear night is a treasure.
 
beeinak said:
That is awesome. There is a pack that hangs out on our place frequently. When we were marking trail to our place when we first got it, they ran up a game trail to about 15 yards of us and we just stared at each other for a few moments and then they ran off. I had one sitting down 50’ away watching me using a snowblower by my cabin, and another time one was watching me getting firewood from the woodshed. They howl back in the winter sometimes and it just makes me smile. Being miles away from anyone and hearing them on a bitterly cold and clear night is a treasure.
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I only get to hear coyotes and Barred Owls at night here.
 
Blues said:
Years ago they'd work cases in concert with our outfit to combat smuggling cigarettes (and maybe booze as well, but I don't remember that), across reservations between the U.S. and Canada. (It involved various organized crime groups who'd pay to have the use of the reservation for their criminal enterprise.)
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I think the days of smuggling cigarettes may be numbered with the availability of vaping. Not to mention the legalization of marijuana.
 
tokerblue said:
I think the days of smuggling cigarettes may be numbered with the availability of vaping. Not to mention the legalization of marijuana.
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There was a lot of money in it then. I can't speak to it now. Then again, tobacco companies are still selling cigarettes. So there's that. When you save on the relevant taxes, that's a lot of incentive.
 
I've had quite a few bear encounters in New England, and when guiding in the northern Rockies in WY, ID and MT in the early-mid 90s. Apprenticing with salted and jerkied mentors was a priceless (and forever cherished) way to learn, plan and prepare for trips into bear country, but it was the effing moose that were the most unpredictable and made me soil my knickers the most. They're blind as bats, don't hear that well, and have not clear behavioral patterns. Ever see an emu get all jazzed up, bouncing around all crazed in the eyes!? They and moose could be drinking buddies.... and terrible drunks at that!
 
Tensegrity said:
I've had quite a few bear encounters in New England, and when guiding in the northern Rockies in WY, ID and MT in the early-mid 90s. Apprenticing with salted and jerkied mentors was a priceless (and forever cherished) way to learn, plan and prepare for trips into bear country, but it was the effing moose that were the most unpredictable and made me soil my knickers the most. They're blind as bats, don't hear that well, and have not clear behavioral patterns. Ever see an emu get all jazzed up, bouncing around all crazed in the eyes!? They and moose could be drinking buddies.... and terrible drunks at that!
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Moose injure lots of people and dogs every year. We had a nice bull in the yard in town today. I have been shoved by a bull, and have had to push a cow out of the garage that didn’t want to leave. In heavy snow years (ones with more ice) the moose like to walk where I have made trail to my cabin with snowmachine and sometimes they don’t want to move. I had one charge me last winter but thankfully she stopped at my machine instead of coming over it. Winter kill was high this last winter and I am planning to try to pack down some areas near birch trees once we get enough snow to ride on. Here in town the moose like to walk the roads which is not great at times.
 
bluemax_1 said:
Lol. There used to be one-stop-shops like that; alcohol, tobacco, firearms, bait and tackle.... Haven't seen one since the 70s - early 80s though. 😔
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Texas has "drive-thru" places like that. They're like big barns with bay doors front and rear.

No, they don't sell firearms, but you can get you a case of Budweiser, a can of Cope or pack of Marlboro's, a box of .30-30/.270/12ga shells, bags of deer corn, and some Mann's jelly worms.
 
Alone said:
Texas has "drive-thru" places like that. They're like big barns with bay doors front and rear.

No, they don't sell firearms, but you can get you a case of Budweiser, a can of Cope or pack of Marlboro's, a box of .30-30/.270/12ga shells, bags of deer corn, and some Mann's jelly worms.
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I know a few places that have an FFL, beer, ammo, smokes, underwear, and even have a deli counter in the back. Few and far between now since Walton's five and dime arrived, but they're still around.

As for bears: I've had a few encounters with black bears in Colorado and in Manitoba which were fortunately brief and painless. However I do know a fellow who killed a charging black bear with a .380. He'd let his dogs out to run in a stand of aspens (a particular stand he was very familiar with) when a sow came charging after his youngest dog. The dog ran right behind my friend who pulled the only weapon in his wingspan: a Ruger LCP tucked in his coat pocket. He dumped the full magazine into the sow before she stopped 10-15 yards away, grunted, and ran back into the timber. He GTFO'd as quickly as he could and came back with a couple of game wardens to trail her an hour later. One bullet hit an artery and she bled out a couple hundred yards away from the scene of the charge. My friend took it hard because they found two orphaned cubs hiding in a tree nearby, but at least they were captured and taken to a sanctuary.

For what it's worth, he most certainly recommends NOT relying on a .380 for bear defense and now keeps bear spray handy nearly everywhere he goes in bear country.
 
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WTF?

If you've never seen the film "Johnny Stecchino", which I believe is available for free on YouTube...it's hilarious. (Don't judge by the scene below,)

Those folks reminded me of this little scene on a bus.

 
Nathan the Machinist said:
Hay!

Well done Timmy. I hope you're enjoying your first day at the new job
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Thanks.

it's odd thouh going from a shop where I know exactly what's going on to a shop where I know no one. Nothing new under the sun I guess.

I'll be on unfamiliar equipment today and will be for the foreseeable future I'm guessing.
i dont see it being ''new'' for long and I'm getting familiar with my surroundings.
 
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