What in nature are y’all thankful for?

[Frosty]

Oh yeah, dump bears and tourists is always good for a show. Long time dump bears rarely if ever maul humans dumb enough to get too close, they usually snarl and bluff charge. There was one curmudgeonly brown bear at the Ketchikan or maybe the Sitka dump that just took a step closer, shoved them down and THEN snarled at them. 

Oh yeah, watching the dump bears was often the only entertainment not found in a book or bottle on field jobs. We'd sit in the truck, watch, read and comment on entertaining action. What surprised me was how unafraid most dump bears were of fire. Pick up some burning trash, sort through and eat the select bits burning or not. We usually labeled a couple fire eaters. 

I've never been chased by a bear but I have been within touching distance of a black bear. I was no fooling taking a dump in the woods and I hear snuffling right darned NEXT to me! I turn my head a little to the right and there is a big fat black bear with it's nose in the air sniffing the yummy aroma of my growing pile. I could have no fooling slapped it on the nose.

Instead I grabbed a handful of leaf litter off the ground and threw it in it's face while I screamed HEY BEAR from a couple feet away. While I was jumping to my feet to run for it. 

The bear's eyes got REALLY BIG, it squealed the bear version of YIKES, spun on it's haunches and disappeared within maybe 10'. I was watching and listening and couldn't see even a leaf move nor hear a thing.

I felt out of immediate danger enough to wipe and pull my pants up. Happily I  missed them finishing my business so . . . explosively. 

Bears don't  have to move silently, they just do. 

That's it my one close bear encounter in 50 years in Alaska.

Frosty The Lucky.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Ive had some run ins with a lot of critters and have lots of stories and memories here in eastern Oklahoma, 

But I think one of the most memorable was when I was a kid camping out down on the Barron fork creek with some friends one summer and I decided it was a brilliant idea one summer to go around and catch snapping turtles and I had pretty good luck but one day I seen something up in a root ball of a tree in the water and I didn’t know what it was but I crept up slowly and reached in there slowly and then grabbed it….
 

Turned out to be a beavers tail, needless to say mr beaver did not appreciate his tail being grabbed and took off with me hanging on for dear life, I didn’t know how strong of swimmers those dudes were, anyways he pulled me out a little ways and then pulled his tail loose an started beating the water like they do, directly in my face lol, 

So I learned a couple of valuable lessons that day, 1 don’t grab hold of anything unknown and 2 beavers are much stronger than they look lol

[Frosty]

Lucky it didn't bite you!

I wonder how fast they could tow you if you held them by the scruff. Hmmm, the voices are starting to talk about Daniel Boone's swim fins.

Frosty The Lucky.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Lol yeah, I’m not sure I’d wanna learn how bad a beavers bite is, if the critter can chew up a tree I’d bet they can bite through bone! 

when I was a kid running around the woods, and creeks I got into all kinds of crazy little adventures, and I had a habit of trying to catch just about every wild animal I laid eyes on, 

on another occasion I got in trouble for catching a half grown coyote pup and putting him in the well house lol,

seems my parents weren’t to keen on having a coyote hanging around a commercial chicken farm for some reason lol

[Frosty]

Parents, what's a kid to do? I actually got a spanking for jumping out of the 2nd. story window into a big pile of snow that'd slid off the roof. We were living somewhere in Washington, and it never snowed more than a dusting. I remember having to use a chair to reach the window, the jump and dropping past the kitchen window. The landing was smooth and soft. Getting jerked out by the arm and swatted was a down check though. Mother had seen me go by and the door was really close.

I also did myself a mischief by taking a running jump off the top of the basement stairs. It was a GREAT flight the landing was a bit rough and tumble though. I was convinced I just hadn't been running fast enough to make it to the next floor.

It upset the parents both times and there was absolutely nothing bad about the snow jump EXCEPT the swats. I lost interest in flying down stairs that one really hurt.

The big lesson was to NOT do fun things where the folks can see you.

Frosty The Lucky.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Lol, I kinda have a same stair story,

one of my friends growing up decided he wanted a snow board for Christmas, why I don’t know because we don’t get enough snow here to use one, but he got one all the same,

well he also lived in a two story house and one weekend while I was over staying I got the bright idea to strap that thing on my feet and go down his stairs lol, 

needless to say it didn’t quite work out to well, my head took out some drywall and I ended up at the bottom of the stairs in a pile lol, 

his mother was very displeased lol, she always tried to  watch me  like a hawk when I was over because she knew I was always up to something 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I learned what not to do from my older brother, like jumping out of a very tall pine tree with a parachute made from a very large war souvenir flag our uncle gave to him.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

IFCW, that flag could be worth quite a bit today.

 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Lol hopefully he didn’t hurt anything but his pride? 

[JHCC]

On 9/5/2021 at 7:36 PM, TWISTEDWILLOW said:

Turned out to be a beavers tail, needless to say mr beaver did not appreciate his tail being grabbed and took off with me hanging on for dear life, I didn’t know how strong of swimmers those dudes were, anyways he pulled me out a little ways and then pulled his tail loose an started beating the water like they do, directly in my face lol, 

Could be worse: might have been a platypus. I've seen pictures of what their spurs can do to the unwary.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

JHCC, I don’t think there’s many platypus hanging around in Barron fork creek, but I agree that wouldn’t be very fun aren’t their spurs poisonous? 
 

there are a lot of cottonmouths down there most of the time they’re pretty chill and just hang out in the sun but other times they get really aggressive and territorial certain times of year, so it’s best to always carry .22 or a good heavy walking stick, i saw a guys leg turn all black an blue and swell up after one bit him on the foot! 

 

[Daswulf]

18 hours ago, TWISTEDWILLOW said:

I’m not sure I’d wanna learn how bad a beavers bite is

There's a guy I watch on youtube that goes by Aquachigger. He does metal detecting and cave exploring. He has a recent video where he was attacked by a rabid beaver. It came up behind him and nipped him while he was in a river metal detecting. Then it proceded to persue him for a bit. He mentioned having had a rabies shot before which may have helped him not get rabies after getting tested and testing negative. He called animal control and ended up dispatching the beaver and it did test positive for rabies. 

There's a b rate movie about zombie beavers out there. Hmm. Now real rabid beavers....

[BillyBones]

I have seen both Auqachigger and the beaver zombie movie. 

When i am bored at work i will try and find some videos, mostly look for smiths but some times there are not any i have not seen a bunch already so i will watch some others like the metal detector guys. It amazes me with the amount of colonial buttons they find how people back then kept their clothes on. 

When i was a kid the apple tree outside the kitchen had about all the small branches cut off becuase that is where grandma made me cut the switch from. Surprised that me and my cousin did not cuase the demise of that tree from cutting so many switches. 

[Daswulf]

Is the fruit much sweeter knowing it sacrificed so much in the name of pain and discipline? Lol

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Nature news break!!! 

today is national squirrel appreciation day! 

thank y’all for your attention, you may now return to your regularly scheduled programming 

[ThomasPowers]

You didn't post a recipe!

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

 sorry Thomas! 

cook one on a stick, over a hickory wood campfire, until crispy, then dice it up with some Jerusalem artichoke bulbs dug from a local field, 

Wrap it all in a piece of tin foil with butter and a pinch of salt an pepper, 

then place it on the coal pile for 20 minutes,

Remove and let stand for 4 minutes,

serve with spring water, 

 

[ThomasPowers]

I'm thankful that I'm an omnivore!  (I've fond memories of having a BBQ'd rattlesnake and moonshine dinner with some Cajun rig hands working an oil rig in south east Texas...)

Now to get an Alferd Packer "Eat Local"  T shirt...

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Lol, 

i read somewhere that he became a vegetarian after he got loose from jail, and never ate meat again 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Spring has hit and the critters are all on the move, recently I’ve got a resident woodpecker that’s moved in and I’ve had an indigo bunting that’s visiting right in front of the shop everyday, as well as all my regulars,

about a week an a half ago I had a bobwhite visit the smithy, 

And just a few minutes ago I got a treat, I walked through the smithy to grab something and on my way back through I had a new visitor,

I believe it’s a rough green snake, i guesstimate about 2-1/2’ long and a diameter of a clicky pen 

He was very calm, patient an curious an let me get close to take some pictures for a couple minutes,

then the shop cats came came out to see what I was looking at and he got spooked and went into a fire pot I had setting out,

hope he sticks around! One more critter thinning out the bugs in peavine Oklahoma is fine with me! Lol

[Frosty]

That's pretty neat Billy. I miss snakes, the only ones you'll see here are in terrariums. I don't miss seeing wild rattle snakes though and heck after 50 years I've lost the automatic behavior I had when we shared the countryside. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

I don’t have an issue rattlesnakes down here in peavine,

but back off behind me a few miles, on the south edge of walkin stick mountain before you reach England holler, you’ll run into rattlesnakes there, 

My dad has some land back there with an old house on it, an you gotta be careful because their everywhere up there,

ive came to the conclusion the rattlesnakes stay on top of the hills were the boulders are, 

We’ve killed an skinned a few that were hanging out around the porch up there, but we leave them alone as long as they stay out of the yard,

[Scott NC]

  Thats a pretty snake billy.  I just learned there are coral snakes here, rare but still.... We have a pair of bluebirds in a nesting box we put up.  We hung up a meal worm feeder for them but the squirrels empty it out in hours.

[Frosty]

I'm grateful for every breath I take, the mountains I can see everywhere I look on a clear day, the rain we usually don't get enough of except when it rains all the time, the animals around us except the mosquitoes but the trout need to eat too. 

Being alive makes me grateful for everything, even the unpleasant ones just make me more grateful for the good things. I'm thankful to be alive.

Frosty The Lucky. 

[ThomasPowers]

Yesterday we couldn't see any but the closest mountains as the smoke was too heavy.  I was thankful that the smoke wasn't "local"!