tfhr, there is strong military tradition on the banks of the Potomac and Cville, I suppose you are aware of that.

I had a female Lab in the early eighties, one of th best dogs in the world. I had a long driveway and there was the remote possibility of bear attack or a deranged moose or elk, but she walked down with my little ones and waited until they boarded the bus and then walked back to the ranch house. She had an uncanny ability to know when the bus was coming to drop the kids off and she would walk down to the end of the driveway and wait until the kids got off the bus, simply amazing.

I had a black bear that would prowl the ranch whenever I would leave, m ex and I were afraid of an attack, but the bear knew not to show up while I was there, so U showed M ex how to shoot the rifle and told her to shoot the bear or never tell me about it again. I came home from work and she had shot the bear and he ran off. Oh boy! I took my Lab and followed the profuse blood trail into some dark muskeg. I was thinking it was too dark to shoot at a charging wounded bear when the hair on my dog’s back stood up and she started sneaking forward like she meant to do serious business. I followed her, and I should have stayed back and waited for the fight to sart; but I was worried about my brave dog’s life. About thirty yards into the dark swamp, she found the bear dead as hell, thank goodness. I’ve been lucky and had many wonderful dogs, but I was sure proud of her that night. I cooked her a nice moose steak and she ate it like a lion.

G-d speed my friend and good hunting.

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@Skookum:

Unfortunately that 12 miles includes both banks of the Potomac, hence the crow reference. And don’t kid yourself into thinking I haven’t thought about using a jet ski – anything larger and I’d just head down river and not return.

You mentioned C-ville. It is a likely future destination for the next phase of my professional life. Got one of my Labs from some folks near Orange, VA – it’s beautiful country there and many of the people are actually Southerners – so I’d say it’s a good place to live too.

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Skookum I will have to introduce you to my Texan Grandmothers white chili. They say if you leave it in the bowl too long it eats the enamel off.

Boar in KY or Wild Pigs as they also call them here are a year round game, and Eastern KY is probably the best place to take one in the hollows. Will let you know if I get gored or eaten in the future…lol.

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Aleric, I felt pride reading your notes. One of my best friends in the Marines was an Apache. He introduced me to the South West and to hot food, he was one o the best men I have ever known.

The English were great long bow men. Their arrows could pierce the armor of the knights and made knights obsolete. Their weapons were so accurate and powerful that many people thought that war was so terrible because of the long bow that no one could go to war because it was so deadly. Every Englishman or Yoeman was required to shoot his bow so many hours a week and to make a certain amount of arrows every week. During England’s Hundred year War with France, the French were capturing English bowmen and cutting off the middle finger of the right hand so that they couldn’t pull the long bow. The English finally surrounded the French army at Aggincourt at day break and in the first few minutes of daylight they raised their right hands and showed the middle finger of their right hand to taunt and terrorize the French before they decimated them with their arrows. Thus the one finger salute that is so popular today was started.

My bow is a Bear Grizzly, 45 pound pull recurve, I always liked the recurve and it is a little easier to string. Boar with a bow sounds like a great hunt. Is there a season or is it just open? I’ve heard those can be great eating and they can get huge. I am going to get a new bow soon and start practicing. Thanks for the inspiration Aleric, I like a purist hunter. The true reason they call it hunting and not killing.

Keep me informed my friend, G-d speed.

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jlfintx, history has been so hard on people at times, I think many people in the past have felt they were surely in the end times with war, disease, famine, and natural disasters. It s only unt the last few decades that we have been aware of world wide disasters. To us they seem catastrophic, however in the past we missed much of these horrible events and now world events seem so much more tragic simply because we know of them, too tired to continue catch you on the flip side.

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tfhr, twelve miles mmm mmm, that’s a bitter pill to swallow. You could make better time on a bicycle, ok I wont rub it in. I used t worl in the Unionvlle PA area and then in Northeastern Maryland around Calora and Rising Sun, then I would frop down to Burtonvile Marland and Falls Church VA and finally down to Charlottesville and Southern Pines. It was all great horse areas and fairly nice people.

Drive Safe, God Speed Skook

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@Skookum:

That would be the same Beltway and my presence on it was an unusual thing for that time of day. I’ve learned many strategies for dealing with the traffic if avoidance is not an option but in the end, I will have to move from this area.

I learned to drive here when I was a kid so I’m as acclimated to it as anyone can be and I have to say that I found transitioning into third world road nets to be simple as a result.

Until I retired I was working shift which meant I hit the road NLT 0430 for a day shift or ran against the traffic at 1500 when I was working the night shift. Despite working shift I still saw a steady increase in traffic volume and added traffic lights which turned my 35 minute trip to a 45 – 50 minute trip over just the last two years. I mention those numbers because leaving at 0600 turns the trip into an hour long ordeal if there are no accidents adding to the congestion. That might not sound so bad until you learn that my home and place of work were just about twelve miles apart as the crow flies.

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Skookum

jlfintx, actually Jesus said we shouldn’t concern ourselves over when the end of time will come, that was good enough for me.

By the way, I in no way shape or form, want to go on anyone’s blog (or to their guests) and start preaching. I do believe that there will be a time for that soon enough, but those who will not believe will not believe. I am astounded at Revelation where the people are experiencing events unimaginable and still will not repent. I think I saw a glimmer of that before, maybe in LA after a famous trial, or in another place after a hurricane.

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“Aleric, I have a suggestion, learn the bow or black powder. The bow is one of the most primitive weapons, and a hunter who can use a bow will have great pride in his sport. The black powder rifles are now delivering almost the same accuracy at 70 yards as a sporting rifle, that’s about as good as you can get. When the holes touch each other, you are there, my friend.”

Skookum thank you for the advice, I am actually a very good shot with a long bow, having been given one by my father when I was 7 years old. It was a Green Bear Long Bow and I used to be able to hit a balloon blowing in the wind along the ground at 50 yards. Never cared much for the compound bows my friends used to tout as being the best, since being half Chiracau Apache it didn’t seem right to try and improve on something that was already perfect. Never cared much for hunting deer since it seemed too easy to hit them no matter what I used. I used to hunt doves but most of the places now a days are closed off or baited which I never approved of. Perhaps I will try and get a wild boar next year.

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ilovebees, thank you for the kind words. English is a complicated language, it is easy for those of us who speak English as a first language to write something, without realizing that it is perceived as an insult by someone else. I saw one of your comments a while back and said, hmmm a little out of character; and bingo it was seized upon by a zealous patriot. Don’t sweat it, it happens to all of us occasionally. If you can purchase Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, by Lynne Truss it may help you with some of the finer points of English and give you a few laughs in the process. It takes a talented writer to make you laugh at English grammar and syntax. I also use Usage and Abusage for the fine frog hair that is purely debatable and on those long evenings, when I want to argue with myself.

My personal cougar stories are not that exciting, except for the sequence of events that happened one evening after a lovesick female cougar found me irresistible and start tracking me down a river of ice. I will try to put that story into a decent format that applies to our pathetic administration in the next few days.

For this story I offer a trailer or teaser as the say: from my hero William Shakespeare’s Sonnet #129

On purpose laid to make the taker mad;
Mad in pursuit and in possession so,….
A bliss in proof and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.

All this the world well knows, yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this Hell

Now bees if you can find the literal translation to that Sonnet, no not the one they use in school, but the early 17 th Century translation that the patrons in the Globe laughed heartily over rather than watching decapitations and torture, bear baiting and dog fighting and gong to the whore House named the Rose behind the theater, you will be well on our way to appreciating the utter madness of the English language. Don’t publish your results in the commentary, we strive to maintain a certain level of decorum, just let me know if you accomplish your mission. Life is a blast if we just break free of these chains that bind us in provincial thought.

G-d Speed my friend.

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