Did You know - outdoor edition

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know that arachnids are nots just spiders? They include Daddy long legs, tarantulas, scorpions. ticks and a few other species.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachnid

[RetiredTech]

I don't know if there are more stupid people in this world or if reporting is getting better.

In regards to reply 3620 I hate to report that as the number of people in the world increases the number of stupid people increase disproportionately. Many of them have good educations.

[Chuck White]

I recall my Dad referring to some college graduates as "Educated Fools", meaning they have very little or no common sense! 

[WV Sawmiller]

Chuck,

  I have seen the terms used as "Educated beyond his abilities" or "Educated beyond his raisin' "

  My dad had a chain link fence business on the side when we were growing up and we put up a short line fence for a well respected dentist in a nearby town. He called us back and wanted us to lower the fence in one spot. There was a small runoff and in one spot near the center of 2 posts where there was about a 6" clearance. He wanted us to lower the fence so  his neighbors cat could not walk under it and showed us as it walked between the 2 yards. We could have just cut off the 2 adjacent posts and lowered the fence leaving a distinct sag but closing the gap and he was okay with that but we pointed out "You know cats can climb and it is only 50' in either direction and the cat could walk around as it is only a single straight section." While we were talking the cat jumped up and climbed the fence further down and jumped over as the fence did not even have the points facing up. The dentist scratched his head and said "I never thought about that. Go ahead and leave it as it is."

[barbender]

My BIL is a mechanical engineer. Brilliant guy. On paper 😂 My sister still has me babysit him when they visit, the common sense is not strong with that one😬😊

[Hilltop366]

A lot of the time I think it is just different opportunities as we go through life, think city mouse/country mouse.

Now think of all the things we learned the hard way (so far) and wonder how you are still alive.

A lot of those bandages, stitches, casts and near miss holy "shoot" moments could have been the "that boy doesn't/didn't have much common sense" for someone else to say. 

[WhitePineJunky]

  Did you know the number of stupid people getting gored, trampled, clawed and chewed on seems to grow every year? I don't know if there are more stupid people in this world or if reporting is getting better. It amazes me, who admittedly has done some stupid things in my life, how many idiots go out to Yellowstone or Yosemite or other national parks and decide it would be so cool to get a selfie with/petting an angry bull elk in rut or a bison bull or a mama grizzly with cubs or cow moose with a calf then get all upset when, in spite of all the warning signs and people telling them to stay back, the animal attacks them. I guess the problem is with modern medicine and such most survive and pass along their stupid genes.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/yellowstone-tourist-suffers-consequences-getting-093000137.html

 The bad part is the animal is sometimes blamed and is killed or transplanted to another area outside his comfortable home range for protecting himself or doing what was natural.

There literally is more stupid people yes considering 1980 4.5b people to today 8b lol

[barbender]

Nah, at least with my BIL his thinking is just on a different plane. He's a great guy, we all love him. We also don't let him take our kids on ATVs, boats, and such. He just doesn't think things through🤷 Yes he is a city boy, but that's not the issue. I also have a friend who moved to the woods up here from California. He grew up in Compton, right in the hood. He had a steep learning curve with a lot of stuff up here, but he's very level headed and gets on just fine.

[WhitePineJunky]

Nah, at least with my BIL his thinking is just on a different plane. He's a great guy, we all love him. We also don't let him take our kids on ATVs, boats, and such. He just doesn't think things through🤷 Yes he is a city boy, but that's not the issue. I also have a friend who moved to the woods up here from California. He grew up in Compton, right in the hood. He had a steep learning curve with a lot of stuff up here, but he's very level headed and gets on just fine.

He grew up with Dre and ice cube lol 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you ever examine a squirrels leaf nest? They often use twigs and tougher outer leaves and such for the outer edges but the inside will be soft, partially green, leathery leaves or even Spanish moss where available for the inner nest materials. They are typically about 12" in diameter but I have seen them up to nearly 3' in diameter. I know I have chased as many as 5 individuals out of a big nest. 

[WV Sawmiller]

    Did you know that a centipede does not have 100 legs? In fact they all have an odd number of legs ranging from 15 to 191 pairs of legs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centipede

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know that Millipedes do not actually have 1,000 legs as the name implies? They do have 2 pairs of legs per body segment. They often roll up into a ball to protect their tender underbelly. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millipede

[JJ]

In fact they all have an odd number of legs

Trying to understand I look at images of centipedes and concluded that the legs are matched pairs, so even number of legs (pairs), with odd number of segments.
say_what  -JJ

[WV Sawmiller]

   Sorry for the misunderstanding. They always have an odd number of segments but yes, unless one has a tiny peg leg from a naval boarding incident, they will have an even number of legs.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know yellowjackets do not only nest in the ground but also sometimes make football shaped nests above ground like hornets do?

https://a-z-animals.com/blog/where-do-yellow-jackets-nest/

  Yellowjackets tend to tolerate cooler weather than other stinging wasps and they tend to become hungrier and more aggressive in the Fall of the year. They are a common problem for early season bow hunters and late season catfish fishermen. They are very much a meat eater and seem to smell blood in the air very quickly and become a real nuisance and are very dangerous.

[WV Sawmiller]

    Did you know that sharp arrows are much more effective than dull blades? Now that sounds pretty obvious but since bow hunting kills the animal more through blood loss than through shock. My son told me about a test he saw where the tester set up a series of rubber tubes very close together and filled the tubes with brightly colored liquid and shot a pair of arrows through the tubes. The first arrow had very sharp edges while the second was deliberately dulled.

  Both arrows passed through the tubes easily but the first/sharp arrow cleanly cut each tube it contacted while the second/dull arrow basically pushed the rubber tubes aside and passed on through. The same would be true with a deer or other game animal and while a very sharp arrow will cut the arteries and veins it contacts causing massive and immediate blood loss and a quick death, a dull arrow could quite possibly pass completely through a game animal while inflicting minimal damage to the blood vessels it passes and pushes past.

[barbender]

 I butchered chickens in the fall one time, and got SWARMED by hornets! I was going nuts trying to keep them away from me, but then I finally realized they really weren't being their normal jerk aggressive selves...they were just after the blood and none were aggressive towards me. I finally started to ignore them🤷 

 Normally I'm after those things right away. If I get stung, I'm not allergic but get a "local" reaction. However, every time I get stung I get a little bit sicker than I did the time before. Aches, chills, and flu like symptoms in addition to the throbbing swollen area where I actually got stung.

[Old Greenhorn]

Barbender, you gotta get you some MSG meat tenderizer and keep it handy. When you get stung, wet the area and pour that stuff on and rub it it. It breaks down the enzymes in the venom very quickly and the problem goes away... quickly. It should also keep your immune system from reacting to the stings, if you are quick enough. I've been using it for years and it works like a charm.

[WV Sawmiller]

BB,

   You made a good point when you talk about hornets (and I think you mean yellowjackets) being plentiful but not particularly aggressive. I find that is common here with our yellowjackets this time of  year when I kill and skin/butcher an early season deer or tap into those late season catfish I encounter large numbers of yellowjackets in a frenzied state to feed but not attack. Most of the stings I get this time of year come by accident when I reach for a better hold on my game/fish and accidentally grab or pinch one of them.

   I've always heard about the meat tenderizer and believe in but have not tried it. I do know the sting is an acid so if you can get a strong base on it quick enough you can neutralize the sting. I've used a spot of bleach or alcohol. I once solved a hornet sting to the forehead with a cotton ball soaked in bleach but ended up with a worse bleach burn so be careful with it. Old timers put chewing tobacco or chewed up a cigar or cigarette and put  that on the sting. I have grabbed a couple of juicy green leaves and crushed them and put the sap on the sting and that seemed to give me some relief.

[barbender]

 Howard, I probably do mean yellow jackets, the terms are interchangeable up here.

 OG, I will certainly keep the MSG in mind👍

[Old Greenhorn]

Howard, those other 'treatments' you mention are just things to reduce the after effect pain, like putting wet mud on, it may fell slightly better than leaving it alone, but it doesn't eliminate the problem. Some treatments I have tried over the decades are old wives tales and do nothing but keep you occupied or distracted while you are moaning.

 The MSG actually breaks down the venom proteins or enzymes, or whatever they are and literally make the pain disappear. The only way you can believe it is to actually have it happen to you. The key is that it has to be applied immediately, the longer you wait the further the venom travels. If you can get it on properly within a minute or two you have a good change that there will be nearly zero effect of the sting at all. The downside is that you have to have it handy when you get stung. I used to have a bunch of small plastic bottles with screw tops I would fill with Adolf's every year or so and stick them all over, like first aid kits, glove boxes in vehicles, shop, and places like that. I have lost or given away all of them and now just keep one container in a kit in the truck med bag. I treat about a dozen or so stings every year on other people at the Festivals I do medical coverage for and get to see it work all the time. But again, quick application is the key. The further it spreads, the less effective the MSG is. Even used it on myself a couple of weeks ago (pithed off yellow jacket).

 Barbender, around here we (I at least) do not lump them all together. Our 3 primaries are yellow jackets, white faced hornets, and paper wasps. All have different attack methods and dispositions. The Hornets are the very worst and 2 or 3 stings can put a real hurtin' on a full grown man, and a couple more can bring a man to his knees.

 About 35 years ago I was doing yard work and my cousin's from Texas were here helping. I stuck my hand into the back of a steel box to pull it out of the swamp and there was a paper wasp nest in there I could not see. They saw my hand and covered it. I had 15 or more stings before I realized something was not quite right. I looked at my hand and realized my work day was done, and for something like this I might need an emergency room. My cousin ran to his camper and came back with the Adolf's and had me spit on my hand and spread it around. Then he sprinkled it liberally, the whole time I am thinking this is the stupidest thing I ever heard of. Well just as the major throbbing in my hand began to take hold and I drew in a deep breath, the whole thing just faded away. I mean it went away to nothing except a few red stinger dots on my hand. 15 minutes later I was back to work and never even thought about it the rest of the day. Ever since then I am a convert, but I will admit you really have to experience it to believe how well it works. It's pretty amazing.

[K-Guy]

I have seen the terms used as "Educated beyond his abilities" or "Educated beyond his raisin' "

Years ago I was working driving rock truck doing site prep for a gold processing plant in the interior of British Columbia when one of the other drivers had PO'd the hoe operator so bad that as I pulled up and bad driver left, he swung the hoe around so he could open the door and talk to me. He said" That boy must of gone to college because you have to go to school for a long time to be that stupid!!" :D

[doc henderson]

I have given a few the label, "arrogant for no apparent reason!"  some are family members.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know the term for an eagle or falcon nest high in a tree or on a cliff is an Eyrie?

[WV Sawmiller]

   How do you skin your caribou, bison, musk ox, elk or moose? I was watching the Mountain Men TV series last night and one of the actors involved and his wife had shot a couple of cow elk. I know on the east coast when we kill a deer or such we typically hang it from a tree limb or rack and rip open the belly when skinning it. I knew bigger game was typically skinned and quartered on the ground leaving the animal on its own hide to keep it off the dirt but I thought they always ripped open the belly and skinned the hide back, pulled the quarters and backstrap on top then flipped the animal over on the hide and did the same with the other side.

This guy just ripped the elk up the middle of the back and pulled the hide down and quartered the cow elk. Then he flipped it over and did the other side. One advantage is he did not seem to have the legs in the way while working it up.

 It did not appear he was trying to save the hide so that may have been a factor.

 Those you you who hunt and skin these larger game animals - do you rip open the belly or down the back?