The Bug House

Hope youre healing well and have had a good start to Cardiac Rehab WTN!

Congrats!

I received the Pfizer vaccine in December. Arm soreness and about 6 hours of slight malaise after the 1st shot.

I've read the same, over here in VT also. I did spend all last week hunting NY Northern zone muzzleloader ... punched 3 of 4 tags and saw 2 Wardens, 1 hiker and no other hunters all week. Mostly public land FWIW.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/489996-rhode-island-police-national-guard-begin-stopping-cars-with-ny-plates

We've been on lockdown for 3 weeks now, schools canceled until Sept. at the earliest. Still empty shelves in the paper goods, canned food, frozen and meat counters. Supermarkets have limited the amount of people allowed in at once and the Governor has cracked down on non essential businesses after issuing several orders. state police have been going to lodging businesses to make sure they're in compliance. There are also monitoring checkpoints at all entrance points to the State. Not stopping anyone yet, but keeping track on out of state plates coming in. The amount of people who have fled the NYC area is alarming to say the least. There has been a growing sense of resentment and it is very tense out there to say the least. I have 2 high risk children, so I've moved into our vacant rental unit and maintaining distance from my family for the time being. I'm quite grateful that we are in the situation we are, my income hasn't been affected and I can still come home (almost) and at least see the family every night. I'm a Respiratory Therapist at a relatively large hospital, we've been at DEFCON5 for weeks now. we've converted one of our ICU's into a 40 bed COVID cohort, there are also 30 additional negative pressure beds available. There are contingency plans for more. We have the capability for ~150 ventilators. I also feel grateful because we're well funded and have solid people in our emergency response positions. The vast majority of our PPE is reusable, we are currently using 7700 respirators, goggles, gowns and extended cuff gloves. Looks as if there is a strong possibility of a surge this week or next. There are no visitors allowed, and all elective surgery and clinic activity has been canceled for now. It's eerily empty in the halls. We've been running Code blue and airway drills every 2 hours every other day. Today I was drafted to head up a "proning team" where we prone and supine the really sick patients. Quite the task on those intubated patients while wearing full airborne PPE. I'm also one of the ECMO specialists and we've been ready to go on that front as well. I am definitely stressed out to the max, but I am also grateful that our lives haven't been disrupted more than it has. Trout and Turkey season HAVE NOT been canceled or delayed here thankfully!

Insanity.

Ha! pretty cool. I met Tim Andrus in January at the Yankee Sportsmans Classic, nice guy!

I'm a critical care Respiratory Therapist / ECMO Specialist at a large hospital ... this has been on our radar since December. Effecting in a substantial way to say the least. lol

LOL!

Wow! Nice job

Beauty of a deer! Congrats!

I can't believe it's over already. Muzzleloader here closes on Sunday, but I was back to work today, I managed to spend more time hunting this year than previous years. I got to know a couple local spots fairly well, I feel like I was able to bring some knowledge and intuition to the table this year. Got 2 trips to my family camp in the Adirondacks in, where as I previously posted, I took a nice Doe with my muzzleloader in Oct. A few weeks later our youth weekend debacle occurred, painful but exciting and unforgettable. Then on opening day of rifle in VT I passed on a bear, although he would've made a nice rug, he was just not quite big enough for me. We have TONS of bears in the northeast nowadays, I bet the chances are good for me to take one in the future. The next week a trip to my buddies camp high in the Green Mtns for a few nights. We covered a lot of ground and had some fresh sign but no one took a deer there this year. Lots of good food with good friends and a couple wicked hands of cards made up for it though. Then for the last week of rifle in NY northern zone (We're closed in VT that week) 3 of us headed back to my camp over there, I managed to take a nice little spikehorn the first day, about 130 lbs with 6" spikes and a little sticker ... almost 3 points. What a fun hunt, had fresh tracks all day, and after we met up for lunch, we went our separate ways and planned on meeting up back at the cabin about 2 miles away. An hour before dark I decided to sit in what I thought looked like a good spot, and he came walking right in just before the end of shooting time. I shot him with a Ruger Deerstalker .44 mag I recently got ahold of, I love that thing! Heart shot, he started to run down the hill and dropped about 20 yards from where I shot him. Would've been an easy track with all the snow we had anyhow. I know he's not a monster, but he is special to me. I've been going to that camp my entire life, several of my ancestors ashes are in the lake there ... I couldn't be more grateful. Between the 3 of us, we killed 7 deer this year, pretty good IMO for this part of the country. I hope everyone had a memorable season, and if you're still at it ... good luck!

So sorry to read this. Peace to you and your Daughter.

Yea, I definitely hear you there. I was initially hesitant but after some research about the .223 deer rounds and him proving himself at the range I felt far more comfortable. We also spent quite some time discussing acceptable range and the importance of shot placement with that caliber. He understood he would not shoot unless the perfect shot presented itself ... and wouldn't you know it ... lol I did acquire a Ruger .44 mag carbine just before the season, my daughter carried it the one time we made it out. She had more time once the season started to practice with it, but they'll both use it next year for sure. In fact I shot my first buck with it last week! You're right about that one, some nice ones taken by kiddos this year.

Oh man, I will never live this one down. As I mentioned in my last post my 2 older kids passed hunter safety this Summer and had been shooting my AR15 regularly. They both took right to it and could consistently achieve nice tight groups at 75 and 100 yds. Youth weekend rolls around and my daughter had a scheduling conflict so she opted to get out with me later on in the season. So my 10 y/o son and I were in the woods (Private land I've been hunting for several years now) before light. It was around 10 above so we could only sit for about 90 minutes before we had to move. We worked our way to a perfect spot just below where I know they like to bed. He sets up leaning against a chest height rock, and has a nice soft moss covered rest. Due to my daughters sport schedule, I had been able to spend a lot more time with him scouting and handling the rifle, I am very confident of his ability. (and about 100 times as proud ... lol) So we sat for about 10 minutes and I decided to grunt softly ... immediately a little 5 point buck comes right out and is staring at us, broadside, at 40 yards. He had that thing zeroed in an instant. I'm just standing there in disbelief, whispering to my boy to "breathe then shoot ... breathe then shoot" I can hear him steady his breathing, focus, and CLICK! I just about died on the spot. I instantly knew it was because eased the bolt in as to be quiet and we never tapped the forward assist. This was over a month ago and I am still kicking myself. He lived up to his responsibility 100% and I let him down. No doubt in my mind he would've killed that deer. He, on the other hand, took it like a true sportsman ... he looked at me and said "boy that buck got lucky!" I am so proud of him, he told me that I taught him that in a situation like that, the deer deserves to live. I can't say I remember telling him that, but we had quite the moment in the woods together to say the least. Neither one of us will ever forget it! With any luck we'll be talking about it at camp for many years to come. He came within a hair of shooting a buck before his Daddy. (That opportunity is gone BTW! I'll make another post about that). The silver lining is that we gained a sportsman for life, he is absolutely addicted.

Thanks everyone! I just wrapped up a fantastic season! back to work unfortunately! I will post our youth weekend story in the deer hunting room, you don't want to miss it. LOL

Thanks wtn! Yep, still hanging around... lol Family is doing well, same to you! It's been an extremely busy late Summer/fall so far, I can never seem to catch up, but we're keeping our heads above water so that's always good! Got a teenager on my hands now, I'm not sure what to make of that. She's a good girl though, her and her brother passed hunter safety this Summer and are both looking forward to youth weekend. I have them on my AR-15 with the Fusion 62gr ammo. I'm proud of them both, they really took it very seriously and enjoyed it. I'd be delighted if one of them got a deer!

Killed my 1st deer with a ML'r last week. Spent 4 days hunting in NY's northern zone, and took a nice 120lb Doe at ~50 yds on the hill behind camp. I've had a wicked dry spell going and after what seems like countless close encounters over the last 4 seasons, it lined up for me. I covered a lot of ground, those Adirondack deer don't give it up easy ... lol My knees are still on fire, but somehow a nice veni dinner takes the edge off. We still have almost a week of archery season open here at home, hopefully my luck will carry on.

HOLY MOLY!!! I've been following this story for a few days now, it's all over the local FB Ice fishing pages. I instantly thought of you! Hope everyone gets off alright...

Yep, came with every bow. From what I've heard their service was great. Very sorry to hear about this, I bought a Parker Xbow new and have hunted the past 5 seasons with it, haven't had any issues with it at all.

WTG!!!!

Awesome

Oh yea, I can relate! I haven't had much of a chance to get out, and I'm itching to get onto a bite. The annual winter trip to camp is next week, I hear the Laker bite has been hot ... we will fish hard for 3 days ... between the food and friends its always a great time. I'll be sure to post pics, you do the same! You always get some nice ones up there!

Same here bud, jigged all day yesterday and pulled up one decent perch ... that's it. It almost got up to 40 yesterday, there were a ton of people out. Tip ups every where, and not one flag. Sure beats sitting home!