Soon To Be Extinct In America

[SwampDonkey]

Oh and how many times have you heard I wont buy timber from a box store as its all crappola  ;)

A lot looks like it was salvaged from a ware zone, kinda like what we always called utility grade. Splits, pull outs, edges maimed all with a price of select lumber. I have on occasion put them on the spot, when the bill and price state select lumber, then they back off on price.  >:( Can't get nice smooth softwood lumber unless it portable milled and planed at home.  ;)

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

Thats Dang right Swampdonkey  ;)
And then big buyers want to compair our wholesale price with That  s!@*      : : : When ive had a buyers approach me then  say well im getting it from soandso for x amount i just say Well You just go and do That Then Mate  ;) Ill still be here when they go broke ;) :D :D ;D

Chris

[farmerdoug]

How about seeing kids playing outside?  A drive around here when school is out makes you think there are no kids.  TV, Video Games, Phones and Computers have made the outdoors unneeded by most of todays kids. :

[SwampDonkey]

One of my cousin's bunch of kids were never out until after sun down. I called them vampires. When they were home for their grandfather's funeral, they roamed all night, go-carts, bikes and fireworks.

[Clark]

Wild horses?  Who are we kidding?  Do we think they existed in North America 700 years ago?  They're an exotic species much like the EAB or tree of heaven.  As far as I'm concerned we can let them go extinct here, maybe replace them with something that should be living there...buffalo anyone?

Honey bees.  I read something (I think in Discover magazine) about a researcher in New Jersey who was trying to see if native bee species would fill in the gap left by honey bees.  Well, not only are there tons of native bees in North America (40+ species where the researcher was working) but they more than made up for any work left undone by the honey bee.  Oh wait, sort of like they did when there were no honey bees in North America!  (Pre-1622 according to Wikipedia.)

Sure, some things go "extinct" but I don't understand our reasoning that we will be worse off when some of these extinctions are entirely made by man when we introduced a species to a new continent.

Clark

[SwampDonkey]

I often wondered myself about wild blueberries. I have picked wild blueberries in the wild a long ways away from honey bee keepers and the bushes were so heavy with berries that they couldn't hold another blueberry. Just hanging like grapes, couldn't begin to pick them all. In the summer fishing, I noticed different kinds of Hymonoptera working them blue berry blossoms. There was a small bee like insect that was quite common and a lot of hornets. Bubble bees and hornets seem to be up and down from year to year. In 2007 I was on a hardwood lot and there was a carpet of wood sorrel in bloom with thousands of bumbles. You walk right through them and they never paid you any mind.

[moonhill]

Blueberries, did someone mention wild blueberries?  It is proven that when a grower dumps large amounts of cash and time into a crop if they don't top it off with additional pollination they will loose money or the chance at it.  It is possible to get by with out additional bees but your return on the investment is chucked out the window.  In the blueberry field there are many local pollinators.  The weather has much or all to do with it as well.  There are over 100 different clones in a normal field.  During the blossom season the prime time for the individual clone is limited to a couple of days.  If it is cold or wet the bugs are not out doing thier thing and the 2 days go by and no fruit or very small fruit result.  The more times a bee visits a blossom the more seeds are in that berrry which means a larger berry.  So with the additional bees when the ideal days are present the bees are working.  All one needs to do is walk on a field with 2+hives /Acre on a sunny 70°+ day and it will be very evident, pollination is happening.  I have a 3' square frame which I use to count the bees visiting a certain patch of ground, lay it down and count the bees coming into the square in X-amount of time.  To meet the demand the markets require growers need the additonal pollination.  There are only a limited number of acres of wild blueberries, it is a crop that isn't tilled and can't be grown by seed.   The conventional grower uses pesticides and fertilizer to increase stem length and bud count, it is topped off with the additon of honey bees. 

Tim

[Dana]

Wild horses?  Who are we kidding?  Do we think they existed in North America 700 years ago?  They're an exotic species much like the EAB or tree of heaven.  As far as I'm concerned we can let them go extinct here, maybe replace them with something that should be living there...buffalo anyone?

Honey bees.  I read something (I think in Discover magazine) about a researcher in New Jersey who was trying to see if native bee species would fill in the gap left by honey bees.  Well, not only are there tons of native bees in North America (40+ species where the researcher was working) but they more than made up for any work left undone by the honey bee.  Oh wait, sort of like they did when there were no honey bees in North America!  (Pre-1622 according to Wikipedia.)

Sure, some things go "extinct" but I don't understand our reasoning that we will be worse off when some of these extinctions are entirely made by man when we introduced a species to a new continent.

Clark

If honey beey's weren't needed do you think that the fruit and vegetable farmers would pay beekepers for their polination services? ???

[SwampDonkey]

I think it's true honey bees are needed in these full blown commercial farming operations, but go into the wild away from the spray and pollution and I see mother nature doing a good job of it. 

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

Thats a nasty little bug your honey bees have got overthere  :'( they just found the same thing in NZ  Alot of our producers are getting edgey about it saying its only a matter of time till we see a breakout overhere  . I heard of a bloke not far from me thats exporting 3000000 Bees to Ca every week hes makeing a kiling out of it  ;) pardon the punn  ;) :D ;D

Chris

[scgargoyle]

I think newspapers are already circling the drain. We get the highly respected (by some) St Petersburg Times, and it's getting so light it just kinda flutters to the ground when the delivery person tosses it. (Remember kids with paper routes?) Those of you out in the country better hoard incandescent bulbs. Ever try to keep the pipes from freezing, or keep baby chicks warm with a CFL? I think many of these things will die with us old-timers. I don't like most 'digital' gadgets (OK, I tolerate the computer), so I don't read the papers, magazines, or books on a computer. Makes my eyes hurt. I'd rather curl up on the couch with printed material like the Good Lord intended. Along with all the things on the list, you can add morals and manners- I think they're pretty much gone in a lot of places. Well- gotta go shake my cane at somebody....

[SwampDonkey]

Aside from reading the forum, I will agree with you on the reading material being printed. I don't buy newspapers very often. Mostly because it is biased and controlled by one family. I get my news off the web, radio and TV. I don't spend hours and hours however reading news sites, I go to CBC's web site and might spend 10 minutes, more if i write a reply to an article. I look forward to my Atlantic Forestry Magazine coming every other month. We had a paper war here for about a year between an upstart paper and the Irving con-glob-eration. Irving won. They have been allowed to absorb about every paper in the province.