How'd it go today?

Not knocking Jim, come from farming myself.

But there’s no way a tree can compare to a sentient life form, anymore than a hedge or runner beans.
 
Yes.
We are probably the outfit on the island that cuts the most per person.
Last "winter" everybody were bitching and moaning about there beeing nothing to log, we were at it full time for the whole season.

Looks like it will be more of the same this year.
 
Raccoons are very smart, and look cute at times. But make no mistake, they are a predator, and reproduce faster than you can get rid of them. Where I'm at we have tons of woods, right by suburban homes and businesses. The coons here get huge, and are a total pain. Releasing them in another territory leads to fights between them and the coons in that area, they are vicious with each other, maiming and killing. So that's why the law is to kill them. Seems cruel, but in reality it's not. 22 to the head is likely what the trapper will do, if you can't discharge a firearm in your location, set them loose into a 220. Kills them instantly, and if you can set it up where your dogs can't get to the chicken coop, placing a 220 over the hole where they go in and out will do the job quickly. Do not let your dog get to the trap tho, it will kill them.
 
220? You mean a bare wire that has 220 volts in it? How would you set that up?
 
Just differences in people I guess Mick.

You look at a tree as just another plant and I stand there in amazment.

I will kill a coon with a club if it's tearing my shit up and not loose sleep.

I would probably bawl like a little kid if I had to cut my crab apple tree down.
 
Well I'm hoping I only have one more coon to trap. I've only seen two together. We are pretty isolated by fields. So it's not a real easy spot for critters like this to come and go from now that it's winter. So hopefully once I've got them caught we'll be free of them.

It's still chilling in the trap. And by chilling I mean growling and hissing every time I go anywhere near it.

I will admit when I hear that growl. I feel rage well up in me, a real shot of adrenaline, like it's go time. Must be a primal thing or something. I've felt the same thing with coyotes too. A strong natural dislike, no real reason for it. But it always happens.

I'll be glad when they're gone.
 
How do you achieve that? Are you personally cutting as much/unit of time as 10 years ago?

I am in fact. Thought I'd be getting slower as I turned 60, but so far I keep up fine. It pisses the former apprentice off no end, that he can't catch up to me.
I've always been a very productive cutter, so even slowing down, I'll still be ahead of most people.
Rchard puts a lot of wood on the ground, too.
Also, we simply have a longer season than most other outfits.
We know a hell of a lot of foresters by now, having been in business for so long, so we get lots of smaller jobs that aren't made public for folks to bid on.
They just call, we agree on a price and that is it.
That makes it really hard for new people to get started in this busines.

We didn't get a big contract that we bid on this winter, but we only bid on that because it was closer to home, than were we mostly log.
Guy who got it bid way low, simply to try and get his foot in the door.

Hand logging is slowly disappearing, and so are the people able to do it.
The reason we go to the southern Islands once in a while, is that there are nobody left down there. The last couple of guys retired last year.
So they have to import fallers to an area plaqued by unemployment.
Sure is a weird world, sometimes.
 
Well the coon went without a fuss. High powered pellet gun. The fellow said that coons aren't naturally in the forest here and that is why it's illegal to release them there or transport them. They are a introduced pest.
 
That's what he said? He is a trapper but works for a company that does pest removal. They work for the local big ranch a lot doing range patrol and driving off coyotes and stuff. Also anyone can hire them if they want to get rid of various pests. He did say he had taken a course on it and whatnot.

Nice fella, he said he'd come and take any raccoons I caught for free until the end of March. Something to do with the cold making them worthwhile for the pelts or something and after that time they aren't worth anything so he'd have to charge if I wanted him to take one away?
 
This quote is all I could find?

Under B.C. law, raccoons are considered alien species or pests and residents are allowed to kill one humanely if it is damaging property.
 
Surprising to me coons haven't spread more or less world wide given their adaptability and the tendency of humans to spread invasive species purposely or not.
 
But they're so cute!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IRdivT8pcl4" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
A forester in Germany released 2 in 1934 near Hesse, to" enrichen the fauna"!
Well, it sure got enriched, they have upwards of a million today.

Some American soldiers at an air base in France released their pet racoons, so France has a nice big population as well.

This is one of those animals that shouldn't be let in, outside of it's natural habitat.
 
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