Hobo Jungle

[rogruth]

Daisy,

I have friends of all types [you can interpret my use of that word] and I have always repected their opinions.Have we argued?Of course.Are we still friends? of course.

One of the great sections of this forum is the HOBO JUNGLE.Lets see.Who started the jungle?Is it a place to give opinions?Is it a place to talk about anything you want?Of course.

I think we learn AND have fun.

[webenda]

...when I would leave a field to it's own devices, it quickly filled with Multiflora Rose, Canadian Thistle, poison ivy, and a very dense thorned ground briar, (which I have yet to identify), among a host of others. None of those are palatable to anything.

Pete,

Your post wasn't addressed to me, but it was so interesting to hear about some problems of non-farming the land.

I also take critters out of the house and turn them loose, if I can catch them before the cat gets to them. (The cat and I never did catch that ten inch long centipede, it was too fast for us.)


Rosa multiflora

What a lovely flower. And wonderful for wild beasties. The flowers are followed by numerous small red fruits (hips) that persist into the winter and are eaten by birds and small mammals.

Probably would not survive here, what with 117° F summers and no rain.

I can see why Pennsylvanians do not like it...
It is not a native plant, came from Asia.

Multiflora rose is so common in many areas of Pennsylvania that any open habitat such as lawn, meadow, pasture, or prairie is vulnerable to infestation due to the constant "seed rain" from birds.

A single plant can produce as many as a million seeds. Seed germination is high; seeds can also remain viable in the soil for as long as 20 years.

Roots are wide-ranging and capable of resprouting. In addition, stem tips that contact the soil surface are capable of rooting, through a process known as layering, to form new plants.

Looks like mowing will not get rid of it.

http://www.paflora.org/Rosa%20multiflora.pdf

[webenda]

Someone wants to burn the depot.

Posted by: the annonymous
Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 01:12 PM

The waitress also said there were two small fires at the train depot.
The fires were put out with the help of another waitress.
The fire department was called but they just drove by and didn’t even stop.
http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/ ... mous/27448

[webenda]

Someone wants to burn the depot.

Someone burned the depot.

TEHACHAPI, CA - Friday, June 13th, 2008, at approximately 3:08 A.M.,
a call was received by the Kern County Fire Department, for a fire at the Tehachapi Depot.
Damage to property and contents was estimated to be more than $1 million.
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/r ... ,nodelay=1

[rogruth]

Stupid people/person.

[The Dirt]

Daisy, it pains me that you were feeling so badly. I ABSOLUTELY had no intention for that to happen. I just wanted to describe my side of things, and had no intent to challenge or humiliate or marginalize your point of view, and particularly because I think we (us and you two) are more alike than different.
I got an inkling of this when Kim and I were getting to know each other, when she brought her car to a screeching halt in traffic, only to jump out in that traffic, and move a baby bird to the side of the road. I was appalled about the danger and lack of judgment, but it was then that I knew how mental she truly was. She'll feed every stray that shows up at our door, and tend any animal we find injured.

But I wouldn't still be making attempts at humor, had I known about how you felt.
I will try to consider other ways to deal with these groundhogs. They won't be shooed, they avoid cages, and the other two methods of which I'm aware involve suffocaton in their holes. They're a tough problem.

But I've spent many words in dancing all around your main objection. Out of my deepest respect for you and your boyfriend, I will be glad to no longer put any pictures of groundhog killings on this forum. That is certainly easy enough, and I should have said so long ago.

And I can only hope your dismay about the display doesn't extend to Aaron himself. He's one of the nicest kids you'd ever want to meet. His teachers have been unanimous in expressing their affection toward him, and have told us that he is 'always friendly, always the first to raise his hand, always well-behaved, always ready to help'. All the ladys at work love him, about how polite he is and courteous to adults. He's a sensitive kid with some deeply-held convictions and lots of passions. he's the first to jump when I ask for a hand in the garage. He loves our dog and cat and rabbits, and is always playing with the strays. His soccer coach, also a phys-ed teacher in his school, loves his work ethic and hustle on the field, and is alone with the coach's son, (of whom we are very fond), in being the only two who play the full field when they are only required to be on offense or defence. The coach's wife, a teacher in the middle school, took Kim aside at a recent game to tell her how much their son loved Aaron. Coming from them, I was thrilled. Day before yesterday, Evan and Aaron helped Kim's dad get hay into his barn loft. He paid them both 5 dollars, but before the day was out, totally unbidden or suggested by us, they went back up to return the money and told him that 'they work for family for free'. Aaron has come home from school with explanations about how he has broken up fights or stepped-in to stop a kid from getting picked-on. Because of all of the above, he was chosen this year to be in the "peer-mediator" program at school, and for his level-headedness and equanimity of mood, to be someone to help staff resolve conflicts between students. He is a total sweetheart, and I'm tremendously proud of him, and I think you'd feel the same way once you'd met him. Please don't let my glorifying his 1st groundhog kill to cause your opinion to extend to him.

[2railjon]

I'm out in the backyard.

[Tramp]

Is this the Hobo Jungle or some feel-good encounter group? Even Jon sounds like he's been in gentle-breezy-weather polite poets fancy writer's rehab. I'll never open my damn mouth again about anything but tits and beer and broken bats. Besides, in the morning I'm on my way to Pete's to shoot all those freaking pesky groundhogs. Bastards!

[Renovo PRR]

Wow since I'm running for President should I even comment on this subject? I could loose some votes.

I have probably killed more living creatures than anyone on this forum period. I hunt and I slaughter and I have spilled a ton of blood over my few short years on this earth.

I love to hunt, I love the thrill of the kill it is that simple. If I didn't like either one of these I suspect I would of stopped hunting many years back. Contrary to what others say I don't need the meat to feed the family. Mine is given away to friends but mostly to the local church for their game animal feed used as a fund raiser. I hold no bad feeling towards anyone that thinks this is cruel. Though strange as it may seem I am affected when my shot is not well placed. Just because I love to hunt doesn't mean I love to see anything struggle in pain as the result of a wound.

I celebrate the birth of each calf or piglet born on the farm. Even after hundreds of births I still think watching the birth of a calf is one of natures best shows. However I have learned not to get attached to them as I do pets. The life of a bull is only 18 months while a hogs is only four months. My youngest daughter the anti-hunter has even learned not to name the bulls. My daughter is a very special person and we hold different views when it comes to animals. However we have learned to live with each others views.

Respecting each others view is pretty easy, she accepts my killing of animals and I live with her cap on the number and types of animals I can kill during hunting season. The farm is mutual respect, she understands the business and I make sure she doesn't witness the demise of the stock at butcher time. We don't lie to each other but it is understood that at dinner time we don't mention where the beef comes from.

Just because I don't share the same views on animals doesn't make me a bad person just as your views do not make you a bad person. I would not dream of making you change and I would hope the same was reserved for me.

I will leave you with a photograph that shows you a nicer view of farm life and yes that is my anti hunter who some day no doubt may turn this farm into a animal shelter. However she will have to wait a few more years.

[Renovo PRR]

I thought I would add one more that shows you how special my livestock really is.

[The Dirt]

Wayne, as I've heard it, it was brought by Mamie Eisenhower as a way to beautify roadsides. If I ever find her grave, I'm going to piss on it!

They've been a terrible scourge to me. They are beautiful and fragrant when in flower, but they have tremendously tenacious and woody stems that form a 360-degree periphery around the central growth that can be 12 feet in diameter and is totally impenetrable. To remove them, I have had to use a weed-whacker with a metal toothed blade, and cut 'wedges' out of the canopy of peripheral stems that extend from the ground to the peak, so that I can use a pitchfork to spread the stems to approach the central part of the plant to cut it loose from the ground. Even then, because the stem tips root into the ground, it takes considerable effort to separate them from the ground. The thorns, as I've said before, would have made the thorns of Calvary jealous. I've drawn plenty of blood fighting them out. And driving the tractor over them has flattened a front tire at least 4 times.
I've got a new trick now. The guy that owns the original B&S train station in the town of Forks by me, and who has his excavation business in the original Harrison's General Store, has a piece of equipment with caterpillar tracks (no flat tires) that that has a blade on one end, and a bucket on the other that has a hydraulic jaw that closes on it. He pulls right up to a bush, grabs it entire in the jaws, pulls it out by the roots, and then uses the blade to smooth it out. I need him again this summer, but what a difference he's made!
Otherwise, mowing once a year suffices to keep it down. As I understand it, to mow it 4 or 5 times a season will eventually kill it.

[rogruth]

Tramp,

Nothing wrong with a little feel good now and then.

I DO feel good about the this discussion because,as I have said,it was all very civil and the subject was well covered.

Now back to booze and women.And trains.

[AG]

[color=blue]Well said Roger!!![/color]

[The Dirt]

AG, yowza!!

One last thing. I was bullsh*ttin' about that 'circle of life'.
I stole it from Mufasa.
I thought surely somebody was going to bust me on that one! LOL!

[Renovo PRR]

You need a few goats they love the stuff. Short of that some green slim and a brush hog will do the trick. I just use the goats since it is cheap fodder.