On the OP - LP: Varmageddon
Guns are too quick.
You can't savor all the little emotions
--The Dark Knight (2008)
He was especially hard on the little things
the helpless and the gentle creatures
--Raising Arizona (1987)
My religion is kindness
--The Dalai Lama
____________________
Topic for consideration: How do you interact with the creatures in your world?
Varmageddon is a bullet manufactured by the Nosler Corporation specifically for waxing little critters. Yesterday I read an article in a hunting magazine which advocated for coyote hunting in Montana and Wyoming in the winter as the coyotes are starving and therefore must be on the move.
It struck Ranger as an odd reaction: Animals are starving, therefore, kill them. Lotsa kills to be had as a starvation dividend. My relationship with nature is different.
The animals passing through my compound do not starve because I provide them food and water to help them sustain their lives. Rattlesnakes have even drunk from my automatic waterers. Water is the most dire need for most animals, especially in the summer, and in urban environments. It will soon be the limiting resource on human life, as well. (Many of us do not see that because the water always flows when we turn the faucet.)
In return for allowing the animals forage, I get to see fifteen wild turkeys with three mature males safely eating 20 yards from my bedroom window. Same for deer, coyotes, foxes, squirrels and rabbits. Now that my dogs are no longer on patrol and squirrels are no longer being shot, rabbits and squirrels frolic in the front lawn and have taken over the water from the dog bowl.
Buddy the dog has entered the cycle of life, too, and his passage allows the squirrels ascendency. Every now and again the urge comes to kill one and place it on Buddy's grave, but I have fought that impulse so far. Enjoying this ebullient life refreshes my jaded soul.
The most common request from people who know my property is, "Can I come over and kill a few deer this year?" They do not get it.
Changes have happened over the 20 years spent on this acreage. The once-plentiful whippoorwills have disappeared and the white egrets have become a rare sight. Ditto the honeybees and butterflies. Is this due to the pesticides, herbicides and fungicides so liberally dosed on the local environment through the largess of truck farming?
There is an ebb and flow to life and it is at our peril that we ignore this fact. The whippoorwills used to sing me to sleep and they are missed. A coyote or a rattler could have destroyed this family of birds, yet that too is the cycle of life and the pattern of nature.
My critters will have a haven as long as I can hold onto this land. My dominion over the beast will be one of conservation. The world is filled with too much killing.
--Jim
Labels: advice for the war torn and lovelorn, on the op - lp, out on the outpost listening post, ranger advice column, varmageddon
posted by Lisa at 4:46 PM
9 Comments:
Hi Lisa and Jim,
I loves me some critters too, but I draw the line at the front door. Scorpions are not allowed inside.
Dave
florida development projection to 2060 graphic.
Jim & Lisa, Please post this for me, my husband (avedis) says it won't post from this computer and I can't get the other computer running without the password and my husband is off playing a guitar gig and probably drinking a gallon or two at a local bar and he knows that password and I forgot it.
I want to share this story about animals on our "compound".
Some falcon babies got sealed into our attic when we had some work done on the house a couple months ago. They were almost fledgelings - a little bit of downy feathers left. We could hear them in the attic screaming. So my husband lifted me up through the crawl space and held the light and a cage and I caught them - three of them - and brought them down.
We spent several hours researching these birds. Turns out they were kestrels (a kind of falcon). We learned what they eat and what they need.
First we put them on the roof to see if their parents would come for them, but they didn't. So we fed them raw hamburger and chicken. They learned to sit on a gloved hand while they ate. We kept them for about a month. then they started acting like they really needed to fly. I let them fly around the room to test this idea. Sure enough, they were ready.
We decided they needed some advanced training. So we bought some feeder mice. they weren't sure what to do at first, then they started to get it. Instinct kicked in. We decided they could only be set free when they had demonstrated proficiency in killing and eating a mouse.
Sure enough they all got it. One by one we let let them go. Kind of sad. They are cool birds and it feels so good to have them sit on your hand, but they are wild things and need to do what wild things do.
It's been about a month since the first one flew the coup and maybe three weeks since the last one left. The nice thing is that they have all settled in the big oak tree out front. And they seem to be doing well for themselves. When I go out to get the mail they sometime fly over me and circle me. I know they are saying "hello".
They had a war with some starlings that tried to establish nests in the oak tree. The war went on for three days. One starling was kia and the rest retreated back to wherever it came from. It was interesting to me that raptors would organize to fight together, like a little squadron. Of course i was rooting for my kestrels.
Other than that, I caught a racoon in a trap that had been getting into the horse feed. I was going to shoot him, but I couldn't do it. We took him a few miles away and released him.
My husband and son used to shoot gophers and groundhogs in the pastures because the holes are a danger to horses. So it's not all good for all animals around here. Necessary evil.
Basically, if an animal is not a real trouble maker, our "compound" is the best piece of land they could call home.
avedis2
Oh...one more. We don't let people shoot our deer either. Every year my husband says, "maybe this year i'll get us some venison". That's what he tells people that ask to hunt. "That big buck is mine". he never does it though and I'm quite sure he never will. And that big buck stays in the woods behind our pastures all hunting season. I put out some horse feed for him to make sure he doesn't wander into anyone's kill zone.
Recently they hayed the field across the road and we noticed a doe nervously pacing out in our pasture not used by the horses at that time. We knew something was wrong. We got the binos and we saw that a new born fawn was across the road in the field being hayed. It was really lost and confused and it looked like it was going to attempt to cross the road to join its mother. My husband ran out to the road and stopped traffic while I herded the baby in the right direction. Thankfully this tactic worked and mother and baby were safely reunited on our our farm.
I felt like something worthwhile had been accomplished that day.
avedis2
UC,
I once almost sat on a scorpion which had made it's way into the living room. Despite sharing their zodiac sign, I wanted him out on the double.
G.D.,
Startling graphic, thanks.
Avedis 2,
Wonderful to read about your fellowship with the creatures on your space. Brava for the kestrel and fawn work, and repatriating the raccoon. (I once did the same with a dear little mouse which had fallen in through the heating vent.)
I sounds like the wayward animals could not have a better friend. I am glad to hear this -- thanks for sharing.
Ha ha ha.....it was only 1/2 a gallon.
Yep, we are with you, Jim, regarding wildlife and nature's cycles.
Off Topic (but this the weekly advice column): We got a call from our son today. He managed to get a hold of an iridium sat. phone. We were pleased that he thought to use it to call us.
He and the other eleven members of his team are heading out to COB Boris tomorrow. Their mission is to work with the Afghan Border Patrol out of this little COB on the Pakistan border in Paktika Province. It sounds like extremely crappy duty. The COB is up there at some headache altitude and patrols will be conducted at around 13,000 to 15,000 ft and there's already snow - or maybe there's always snow. MREs and bottled water showers for six months and frequent rocket and mortar attacks.
My mission today is to identify a viable means of getting care packages out there. I'm somewhat distrusting of some of the vendor advertisements I've seen so far. Could be scams. So I'm looking for some blogs where soldiers who have been in similar situations can discuss the whats and hows of this with me.
avedis
Lisa and Jim
I quit hunting about 15 yrs ago. I enjoyed getting out in the mountains but found no pleasure in pulling the trigger anymore. This spring I had to put a cow elk out of her misery as she got hit on the highway and stumbled on to my property to die. It spoiled my whole day. I watched for the next couple of weeks as the coyotes, ravens, eagles and vultures finished her off. Back to the earth so to speak.
My property remains a haven for wildlife also. Even the trout in my pond are treated as pets and I refuse to let anyone fish for them. I trick a few of them but always put them back. It's enjoyable and calming to watch them rising for flies in the evening.
Alarmingly though, this year I have no swallows. A few came in the spring but none stayed. Usually I have hundreds.
On the climate side, we here in SW BC seem to be moving towards rain forest. Wet summers. The intake on my pond has flowed yr round the past 4 yrs for the first time in 25 yrs. We may benefit from global warming.
Avedis,
i have no source of info on shipping packages.
i find it a hoot that your son is with the AFGH Border police types.
Imagine having border police for a gov't that can't even force it's own citizens to pay taxes.
jim
G.D.,
I love the Scorpions.
To an anon whose comments didn't post:
Thanks for the "invenomation" cmt. Being a Scorpion myself, I'll remind Jim of our harmless nature.
BTB: I always shepherd bugs et. all. out, vs. killing.
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