Did You know - outdoor edition

[WV Sawmiller]

   What amazed me when I looked on line was how little info there was about the use of dogs during the rounding up and herding the cattle from Texas to the markets mostly to the north. A dog getting an unruly cow or steer out of the brush has to be much more effective than riding in there with a rope or whip.

   BTW - one explanation for the term Fla Cracker came from the use of whips when they were collecting and herding cattle out of the brush there. The other suggested source is that they cracked their corn to make their grits which was a staple food item for them.

[barbender]

Florida does have a lot of forgotten but fascinating history from the Spanish period. I listened to an audio book about some of the early explorers. I can't remember his name, but he organized people to start a colony in Florida. This was after the Incas and Aztecs had been conquered, and the Spanish were figuring on another big gold and silver stockpile. Didn't happen, the natives they found didn't have gold and their population was pretty sparse. The terrain was horrible with swamps and impassable brush choked forests. They lost 90% of the expedition, the survivors put out on rafts. They blew across the Gulf of Mexico, landed around current Galveston, Texas. They made friends with some natives who at first befriended them, but then enslaved them. They were there several years before they escaped, made their way across Mexico to the Gulf of California where they ran into some Spanish slave raiders who thought they were natives at first. Around 10 years had passed, no one could believe they were still alive. I'm leaving a ton out but it was an incredible story. Also, maybe some of those Florida cattle came from them😁

[WV Sawmiller]

   Since we were talking of cows, herding, ropes, etrc. did you know many of our American words came from other languages and the Lasso or Lariat apparently came from the Spanish words La Riata for rope? Lots of times we change the accent from the original language.

   The word "Clear" in French is "Transparent" but they pronounce it Trans Pear Aunt while we typically pronounce it Trans parent. Chauffer is French for Driver. If you have a pretty good vocabulary you can often get the gist of much of a foreign language although they sometimes get the order of the words all jumbled up. :D

[Hilltop366]

I had bought a used Ford f150 Lariat one time, I was showing it to my Dad and said "it's a lariat, what ever that means" to which he replied " it means lasso but in this case it probably means tow rope". :D

[WV Sawmiller]

   I can see your dad was clearly a Dodge fan like me. :D

[K-Guy]

American words came from other languages

Actually 40% plus of the English language is French based and 30-40% German based. It probably has something to do with all these lands being Roman at some time and proximity.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I see several threads here now about shedding of antlers. Did you know shed antlers are pretty quickly gnawed to nothingness by any rodents and such in the area?  Examples include mice, squirrels, chipmunks, porcupines, and I suspect rabbits and hares eat them too. They gnaw them to obtain the minerals the antlers provide and the animals need. If you are looking for sheds you better find them pretty quickly or they will be severely damaged with points chewed off and chunks missing from the min beams, etc.

[Walnut Beast]

Good point! Usually in my experience the closer it gets to spring and warms up the chances are much higher the squirrels 🐿 will really chew on them. I've found them with a few chews and some completely destroyed. 

[KEC]

I've taken some of my not-so-great antlers from the garage and tossed them back in the woods to let the critters have them. Some areas have precious little available calcium. I regularly take eggshells and crush them in my gravel driveway and they go fast. Birds in many calcium poor areas can benefit. They use it in their gizzards to grind food and in nesting season to make eggs of their own. Birds in areas like New Yorks' Adirondacks have been found to have trouble getting enough calcium during nesting season.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Thanks to KEC reminder to prompt today's topic. Did you know birds need some gravel or grit in their craw to help digest seeds and such? Crushed seashells like are fed to chickens are readily picked by wild turkeys. I knew an old experienced turkey hunter that routinely located and hunted turkeys in N. Fla in areas around old gravel roads where the turkeys would go to pick gravel.

[KEC]

Not too far from my home there is a state forest area that was planted to larch and spruces many years ago by the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC). It is the one place around here where you have a reasonable chance of finding/seeing Red Crossbills and maybe White-winged Crossbills. A while back you needed only drive there to a parking lot and look along the edge of the road to see crossbills picking grit and not being that wary. When driving dirt/gravel roads through heavily forested areas, watch for various kinds of birds down in the road, oftentimes either gritting or dust bathing. At times when there is a lot of snow, watch for birds working the bare ground along the edge of the road that were scaped bare by the wing on the snowplows. I've seen Pine Grosbeaks that way and many Horned Larks and Snow Buntings.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know a male hog is called a boar but if he has been neutered he is a barrow or more often called a bar hog? A young female is called a gilt but after she has had pigs she is called a sow.

[WV Sawmiller]

    Did you know that rodent's teeth constantly grow and they must chew hard materials to keep them worn down? If not the teeth will grow very long and curl to the point the animal cannot eat and will starve to death. This is a mistake many people make when they make a pet of a squirrel, beaver or woodchuck or such. They feed the animal soft foods and his teeth do not get worn down as they would in nature.

[KEC]

I've caught 2 woodchucks over the years that had their incisor teeth that did not wear properly. The teeth were long and curled like a wooly mammoth or something. Both appeared to be healthy.

[WV Sawmiller]

   They must have had access to a decent supply of soft food they could eat and survive on. I had heard of the same thing with woodchucks but have never seen it myself.

   Elephants have 3 sets of molars with each replacing the other till the last one wears out. When that happens they have to eat bananas and soft papyrus stalks instead of woody fiber like they normally eat. 

[WV Sawmiller]

    Did you know Guinea pigs did not come from Guinea and they are not pigs? They are a south American rodent that was originally domesticated for food and eventually they have been bred into the present day animal primarily raised for pets.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know that an oyster is made up of about 40% gonad? (I think I heard when I was in school it was 80% - suffice it to say its a lot.) I think this is where the term Rocky Mountain Oysters came from or at least a contributing factor.

[Don P]

The cavies will have to speak up for themselves  :D.

[Texas Ranger]

so much for oysters.

[Magicman]

I did not know any of this so Google provided some interesting reading.  I do not eat oysters but still interesting.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know snakes coil for several reasons - some of these are fact and some are speculation? You can try to figure which is which.

    A snake can strike further and faster from a coiled position.

    A snake coils to protect its vulnerable tail area. (Did you ever watch an experienced dog, fox, coyote, mongoose, etc. catch a snake? They dance around in front of it tempting it to strike and when it does and is out of position the predator strikes,) If you watch the snake hunters in the everglades or old Crocodile Hunter shows they almost always move around till they can get the snake by the tail then they can control and catch it by the head later.

     A coiled snake presents a smaller footprint and can hide in ambush better.

     A coiled snake retains any body heat better.

     For climbing snakes, a coiled position spreads out the body across limbs and such for a more stable position.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know Black Widow spiders actually rarely eat their mates? They will eat other spiders that get caught in their webs and in some species the newly hatched spiders may eat their unhatched siblings. The common black widow most of us know is about 1/2" long with the stereotypical red hourglass marking on her abdomen. The male is about half the size of the female and lighter in color. I can't say that I have ever recognized a male black widow. 

   The bite is poisonous and you should seek medical attention if bitten. They hang out around woodpiles and old wooden structures so most of us need to remember to be careful and wear gloves. 

    Most bites in the old days came from people using old outhouses and such. I cannot imagine a much more embarrassing reason than having to go to Crystal, my lady doctor, and tell her I was bit by a black widow spider on my mountain oysters. :

[doc henderson]

guys were tougher in the old days, and would have never sought help for a little poisonous spider bite!      8) 8) 8)    :D :D :D

[doc henderson]

mostly we see folks worried about brown recluse bites.  nothing to do unless you feel sick (rare) or the skin is necrosing or infected.  half the folks show up with some other insect bite, or 5 minutes after seeing one in the house (that they think might have been one).

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know they have spotted a rare leopard in Turkey that had not been seen in 45 years and had been though to be extinct? I had never even thought about leopards living in Turkey. I m always glad to hear about a discovery like this where an "extinct" species suddenly reappears.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article271692037.html