There is MUCH fun to be had at a ski village and you don’t even need to know how to ski. The heated patios with the beer buckets at your table are every bit as refreshing. I was impressed with BlueMountaun’s village. For what’s basically a large hill it has a lot to do. I remember when it was just those concrete bobsled slides that we all used to get spinal injuries on.
Got a new gas-insert fireplace last year, and it took 3 solid days of "high" before the smell went away.
Froze to death mid swat? Not that I have anything against beaver death. God are those things annoying...like aquatic mosquitoes that can knock down all your trees and flood your property.
We spent about 5 years trying to get rid of them at my old hunt camp... amazing the amount of destruction they did. We tried blowing up their dam, but nope... 6 tries with dynamite and you could still drive over the thing. They dropped trees all over the place, one on the cabin, causing some roof damage. They flooded out a major field and caused some water damage to the cabin. We eventually brought in an old-school trapper who snared them for us. I was pretty surprised with how big they actually were, and their tails were like big hunks of rubber, but yeah, they're not cute... they're destructive pests.
Yeah, we picked a real winner for a national emblem. Down south they get the badass bird with the angry-eyes....we have timberwolves and cougars and lynx and huge bears and wolverines.....nope, we get the Water Rat.
I did not realize it until recently but we actually have them all the way down here. I wonder if yours get bigger than ours because of the cold weather. We have some on that college campus near here and they actually help the situation there. There's a tributary that cuts through the middle of Campus that they dammed up for a road and they were having to dredge it periodically because of all the silt and soil back up. Recently, they have been leaving it alone and it has become more natural, and more trees and grasses have been growing and filling in. Recently I noticed that there are beavers around and they are helping take care of the trees that are growing up in the water. It's a really cool little ecosystem over here now. I had no idea that they were so aggressive and forward with their work. I've never heard of them falling a tree onto a cabin! That's pretty crazy.
Beavers were just one of many animals I’ve trapped and “tested “ over the years for scientific purposes. We had one job at a National wildlife refuge where we trapped/collected beaver, groundhogs, frogs, fish, freshwater mussels and aquatic insects- for identification, examination and submittal to a lab for testing. Groundhogs were the most vicious, and beaver the most interesting to trap. They are hard wired to respond to the sound of running water and create a dam. We would lay out a spring basket type trap, and knock a hole in the dam. Then we would put an apple on a stick, with a little beaver scent (like a thick paste from a jar) in the stick and insert the stick through the mesh in the trap right above the trigger plate. The beaver would hear that the dam was damaged and come to investigate. The combination of apples and beaver scent overwhelmed their sense of caution. They would step in the trigger plate trying to get to the stick and wham! trapped beaver.
Beavers are a ecosystem pains in the ass. And their small, cute Mini-Me known as the muskrat are ecosystem pains in the ass. The point is that if it has buck teeth, kill it... Spoiler
You can't say they're not hard working little fuckers... https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/nt/woodbuffalo/decouvrir-discover/beaver_gallery
Went to home depot for some lumber, came out with a brushless Makita impact driver with a 3 ah battery, charger and case for $100. Considering a brushed ryobi with a 1.5 ah battery was $85 alone, and I'm a big fan of the tools in the makita lineup, the choice was easy. Gonna make repairing that fence a hell of a lot easier too.
Just grilling up a big ol’ sirloin and heading to to some bowling alley-pool-bar-thingy place for New Years because I have a family and am designated corny as fuck so New Years now sucks and I don’t care so fuck you all. Wife is being Designated Dave for tonight I can tell you that. It’s her punishment for winning the damn tickets.
Man am I thankful for all the knowledge on this board. Just finished sharpening all my kitchen knives (and the Japanese chef knife, sushi knife, and paring knife I added) with the Lansky's sharpening system. Holy fucking hell!!! Somehow managed not to cut myself, that shit is sharper than a turd in Ted Cruz's ass. If you're at all interested in it, I highly recommend you also buy the clamp that is designed for it. Makes life about a thousand times easier.
Fuck muskrats too. When I was about 7 years old I was fishing in our boathouse and a muskrat came swimming up and scared the hell out of me. I beat that fucker half to death with a boat bumper. I thought it was a monster. Damn thing probably scared 5 years off my life.