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Maine Bound!

I bought my place up here in the woods a few years ago, and I'm still trying to figure this out. Last year, I had a mouse in every trap every night. It was a nightly battle. I had three mice in the same sticky trap at one point.

This year we have these freaking things:
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I've got snares up. The last one I shot with the 22 with a bullseye right up the asshole. :laughing:
Rona rodents. :flipoff2:
 
We’ve had a few tiny field mice in the house over the last few months. Cats have been taking care of them for the most part. If I spot them before the cats I usually catch them and put them outside. I’ve seen more chipmunks hanging around the vehicles than anything though.
 
We’ve had a few tiny field mice in the house over the last few months. Cats have been taking care of them for the most part. If I spot them before the cats I usually catch them and put them outside. I’ve seen more chipmunks hanging around the vehicles than anything though.
That's the way to do it. Cats. I'm deathly allergic so that's not an option for me.
 
We’ve had a few tiny field mice in the house over the last few months. Cats have been taking care of them for the most part. If I spot them before the cats I usually catch them and put them outside. I’ve seen more chipmunks hanging around the vehicles than anything though.

Putting them outside won't help. Cats will.

I've had some luck with Irish Spring soap in the toolbox drawers...
 
Bird and deer feeders are great for keeping rats and mice around
 
Is the predator population down?

I’ve had mice make a home in the mini-ex sprocket access/maintenance area.

Was talking to a neighbor down the road one day when a mouse ran out the engine compartment of the Jeep.

I wish I could keep our bee population as healthy as the mice. We lost 3 hives this year for no discernible reason
Not sure , we have a steady population of owls and coyotes , but i think the mild winter last year gave the rodents a booster.

We have a few large farms in the area so feed is plentiful
 
Well this old brush hog may be in rough shape and look like ass, but it still works pretty dang good. Didn’t even put new blades on it (neighbor couldn’t find them when I picked it up yesterday, he will send them over when he does).

basically went over it, filled the gearbox with fresh gear oil, greased up all the zerks on it and hooked it up to the tractor. Got 1 field fully hogged and got halfway thru another before o had to come in for a zoom parent teacher conference. After this gonna go back out and finish the other small field and make a start on my huge field.

and speaking of mice, I spotted at least a half a dozen of them running for cover while we were hogging.
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I enjoy brush hogging.. i don't have a cab on my tractor so it's dusty and hot but I still like doing it. :smokin:
Yeah this tractor has me a little spoiled. Didn’t get up over 40 today but it was nice and warm with the heater in the cab. Put the radio in it a few weeks ago so had some tunes too.

all in I got both of my smaller fields finished up and I’d say a little less than half of my big field done. It’s so big I decided the best way to approach it was to do it in sections. I did a decent sized squarish perimeter then worked my way in until that section was done, then started another one. Seems to be working pretty well that way.

not sure I’ll get to finish it over the weekend, but for sure I’ll wrap it up on Monday.
 
Oh yeah, also realized about halfway thru my first section in the big field that the bolts holding the gear box to the deck were loose. Didn’t really notice it at first. Just figured it was noisy. But then after one pass it was suddenly making a louder more consistent noise and looked back and saw the gearbox housing actually moving on top of the deck. Tightened them up and wow, this thing actually runs quiet.

im gonna run it as is to finish for this year and park it. Come spring I’ll give it some love and fix it up a bit. I’ve noticed three or four tears in the metal on the deck that need to be welded up. The oil seal on the gearbox leaks, the three point attachment is bent to hell. All the hardware on it is pretty rusty. I had to beat the wheel bar with a mini sledge to get it to move to adjust the deck height. And the blades have a few notches in em. But it’s doing a damn good job for sitting in a field not moving for a couple of years.
 
Walking out of the bathroom from my morning routine this morning I looked out over the fields like I always do. This morning I noticed a large brown thing. Looked at it for a moment and it moved. Nice little doe picking her way across the frost covered field looking for breakfast. Wish I had a hunting license. I could just walk out on the deck and pick her off.
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Wish I had a hunting license. I could just walk out on the deck and pick her off.

You need to stop following the law out of blind subservience and start following the law as the realities of enforcement dictate. The laws are there to ensure sustainable and ethical hunting. If your activities are sustainable and ethical your conscience is clean.
 
Doesn't Maine have landowner license and tags?
Not sure how it is in Maine, but in New Hampshire a landowner just doesn't need a hunting license. You still need tags. And you can only hunt in season. And if the deer runs off after being hit, leaves your property, and dies somewhere, you're pooched if someone finds it.

Fish and Game have a very fun time making people's lives uncomfortable. Maine Fish and Game is really bad. Its common for them to sit on the shores of lakes with binoculars, have a boat running on standby, see someone catch a fish, and high tail it out there to check licenses. You take out a deer out of season, and they nab you, you're screwed.
 
Not sure how it is in Maine, but in New Hampshire a landowner just doesn't need a hunting license. You still need tags. And you can only hunt in season. And if the deer runs off after being hit, leaves your property, and dies somewhere, you're pooched if someone finds it.

Fish and Game have a very fun time making people's lives uncomfortable. Maine Fish and Game is really bad. Its common for them to sit on the shores of lakes with binoculars, have a boat running on standby, see someone catch a fish, and high tail it out there to check licenses. You take out a deer out of season, and they nab you, you're screwed.
You gotta make it a game. You get out the binoculars, check the make and model of their boat, bust out the smartphone, figure out the draft and then put a shoal that's less than that between you and them and then see how smart they are.

Or you get out the cross country skis and go fishing on like 2" ice with 6" of snow on top and wait for them to show up on their snowmobile.

You work close enough to government to know that it only takes one bad "accident" to create a rule that says they're not allowed to do that shit anymore.

I've always wanted to fish with the game wardens from a float plane. It only takes a little tape to change your tail number.
 
You gotta make it a game. You get out the binoculars, check the make and model of their boat, bust out the smartphone, figure out the draft and then put a shoal that's less than that between you and them and then see how smart they are.

Or you get out the cross country skis and go fishing on like 2" ice with 6" of snow on top and wait for them to show up on their snowmobile.

You work close enough to government to know that it only takes one bad "accident" to create a rule that says they're not allowed to do that shit anymore.

I've always wanted to fish with the game wardens from a float plane. It only takes a little tape to change your tail number.
Its happened a few times where wardens will visit a restaurant with snowmobiles out front, check tags, and wait for the owners of expired tags to leave. Sometimes its a game where two people leave, then the eight others without tags try to break loose without getting caught. :laughing:
 
Around these parts poaching game out of season is a big no no. As much as I think it’s bullshit, the dnr has way too much power. If your caught poaching the seize weapons, cars, utvs etc. you fish out of season with your float plane they will seize that plane. Not worth the time for some shitty meat.
 
Its happened a few times where wardens will visit a restaurant with snowmobiles out front, check tags, and wait for the owners of expired tags to leave. Sometimes its a game where two people leave, then the eight others without tags try to break loose without getting caught. :laughing:
Now if people started slashing the wardens tires when he does that he'll stop doing that.

The problem is solidarity. It only takes one karen to narc on whoever done it.

Around these parts poaching game out of season is a big no no. As much as I think it’s bullshit, the dnr has way too much power. If your caught poaching the seize weapons, cars, utvs etc. you fish out of season with your float plane they will seize that plane. Not worth the time for some shitty meat.
It's not about the fish or the meat. It's about giving them the bird.
 
Its happened a few times where wardens will visit a restaurant with snowmobiles out front, check tags, and wait for the owners of expired tags to leave. Sometimes its a game where two people leave, then the eight others without tags try to break loose without getting caught. :laughing:
Yea, the ole send the guy who doesn't drink out of the bar first stumbling and dropping his keys tactic.
 
Well while the wife took the daughter to her Girl Scout meeting the boy and I hopped back in the Deere and finished up hogging the big field. This field is definitely not as smooth and flat as it looks. Didn’t really have any issues though. I want to go hit a few more small areas with the brush hog tomorrow still before I drop it from the tractor for the season. Want to try and hit along the ditch by the road as much as I can, want to run a small strip between the fence line and the tree line on one of the smaller fields. And I want to just go ahead and run the gap between the trees under my power line just to knock down a few small saplings thru there.
 
I bought my place up here in the woods a few years ago, and I'm still trying to figure this out. Last year, I had a mouse in every trap every night. It was a nightly battle. I had three mice in the same sticky trap at one point.

This year we have these freaking things:
a6a93fa2-5154-4370-934b-08cdc419d91d.jpg


I've got snares up. The last one I shot with the 22 with a bullseye right up the asshole. :laughing:
That's know as a Texas heart shot!
 
Well the boy and I spent the morning finishing up the brush hogging. While I was down running the ditch by the street the neighbor pulled in. Ironically I was going to ask him if he wanted me to do his small chunk of field as well as his property line sticks out maybe 25 yards into the lower corner of my field by the road. I’d say he has maybe a football field size chunk, so no big deal, but I didn’t want to just do it without asking him first. So Ironically he saw me out there and pulled in. I asked if he wanted me to hit his patch while I was at it. He asked if o wanted money and I said he’ll no man, we are neighbors (or will be when he finally gets his house built), I’m out here hogging the field anyway, it’s no big deal.

so I knocked his little section out, finished running along the ditch as much as I could (it gets steep fast), ran the hog along under where my power line comes thru the trees to knock down a few saplings, ran the line between fence and tree line, cleaned up a few more small spots I wanted to hit, etc. then I found a good out of the way spot and dropped the hog for the year. Parked it off to the side of the back driveway by where I park the trailers. Shouldn’t be in the way of plowing operations there.

after that since the in-laws are coming to visit this weekend I decided to do one final lawn mow as well. I had read an article recommending to do one final cut super short (set my deck at 2”) before the snow flies. Supposed to be better for your lawn over winter. So I went ahead and went lower than I usually do. Then I winterized the mower again, cleaned it, covered it, and plugged it in nice and snug in the pole barn.

oh, also drained the washer reservoir in the tractor and refilled it with winter washer fluid.
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Few more pics of the finished fields from the bottom Of the driveway while we waited for sister to get off the bus. I didn’t go super short as I didn’t want to damage my blueberry bushes. But I got all the weeds, grass, and small sycamore and whatever the thorny trees were knocked down.

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shoulda done it with a push mower :flipoff2:

sweet property. Got enough of a hill for the kids to sled on? tough to tell how much it drops off from the porch pic
 
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