oxcowboy

great place to catch sails, i have never been but have a partner with cattle that takes his family about 3 times a year. my wife and i also went fishing on our honeymoon, even she agreed that it was one of the best sidetrips we did while in cancun for the week. it could have been that she kicked my butt with a really nice mahi mahi in my avatar. lol good luck have fun. jason

sorry to hear about your troubles, but i have been there and done that. i purchased a doublewide right out of college and set it up on the upper part of my farm. the price was good, the furnace not so good, so after a few years of patching it up by the local furnace man and about 1500 dollars and still a hunk a junk, i broke down and bought an outdoor woodboiler. By far the wisest choice i ever made, especially since propane has went through the roof, and we own 200 acres of land with about 70 being wooded. All the dirt is outside,it burns seasoned or green wood, fill it once a day unless its real cold. my house can be as warm as i want it and has very little risk of fire since it sets about 15-20 yards from the house. After 3 years of use, it has paid for itself, and i still have 17 years of warranty left on it. Best of luck getting everything fixed back to normal, hope ya got an electric blanket to stay warm. jason

mine comes from my college days, i was in a fraternity called theta chi, which has the greek letters OX and since i helped pay my way through college showing and grooming purebred cattle and working cow sales and farm work they nicknamed me cowboy, so it just stuck with me oxcowboy. jason

congrats to your children, my brother and i share the same birthday as well, may 29th 5 years apart within the same hour.

glad to hear that two are home, i hope they can get through this quickly and heal up fast. jason

i agree with gcd, that is my favorite christmas movie, i think alot of people can relate a little to christmas vacation at one time or another. jason

great job, what a way to start your hunting adventure. couldnt ask for a better 1st year. way to go. jason

great job, your season looks alot better than mine, just one doe so far, i was too selective in the beginning and now nothing doing. still got one weekend of shotgun, muzzleloader and archery till feb, so im not in panic mode yet. jason

not sure, any chance that some poacher may have popped it, then got scared to go get it do to traffic etc. i found a nice bodied buck earlier that somebody had shot and took the loins and horns and left everything else near our road. ive never seen any of our coyotes take down a deer, usually more opourtunistic, just finding downed deer from hunting season. interesting post jason

i also am a meat hunter, sort of. i wont take a fawn or a small buck, but i will take the first mature doe or buck that shows a good clean shot. i am happy to say that i have yet to walk further than 20 yards from where it was standing to retreve any animal that i have shot. i usually only get to hunt opening day of shotgun season here in ohio because i have that day off, after that its just an hour or so of an evening during the week and by saturday everything is tucked away and hiding. i have killed a few decent bucks, but i have also missed some chances to get a great one, because my buck tag was filled. but ol well i still have meat in the freezer from what i did take. as for up north im not sure, but i would think food supply and the previous winter would have a pretty good effect on the population. i also have friends that are headhunters and will only take a big rack, i think it just hurts the next few years of hunting. im sure they have got some does bred, but would be nice to keep those genetics going. all in all i say to each his own, im sure the mnr have a decent idea of what is going on within the herds, and will make the proper adjustments. happy hunting to all, jason

congrats on the first deer, you will never forget this one no matter how many or how big the next ones are. good job, jason

wow, that sure is a great one. any idea of a green score on that bad boy? way to go hunter. jason

good shootin man, there is nothing better than that first fresh steak, or first batch of jerky for the year. i for one am glad to see when someone on this board gets a nice deer or moose, or anything else they are proud of. good luck on the rest of the season, keep us informed. jason

hey folks, just bought a Barnett Revolution crossbow tonight on ebay, and was wondering if any of you hunters had any experience with them. What are your thoughts, pros-cons ? from everything ive read its a hunting machine. 345 fps with a 60 yard kill range. i dont figure on taking any shots that far, i have been using a compound, but worry too much about not making a clean kill so i havent even let one go this year. any input would be greatly appreciated. jason

awesome job tj. im not sure which would get my heart pounding more the fresh moose droppings or face to face with the timberwolf ! im sure you had a blast. jason

ok folks, first of all i am a dog owner, i own several dogs as a matter of fact, Boston terriers and blue heelers. i am also a cattle, hog, and now goat farmer. i love my dogs, but i also have seen what they can become when in groups (packs). they are not the same animal when they are with others, they are often more aggressive and more likely to get in trouble. we have had several area farmers flocks of sheep nearly wiped out by stray dogs. one guy lost around 30 head in 1 night. once a dog gets a kill, they will usually continue this type of behavior. i have read all the post on this and can see where people without an agricultural background may see this as some crazy blood thirsty farmer murdering two defenseless pets, and it might be, BUT it also might be some guy thats not going to have much of a christmas for his kids this year because his source of hard earned income has be destroyed. Farming isnt an easy life, there isnt much glory and the pay isnt near what it should be. by the way, these prices are per 100 lbs of body weight, and for common animals. i worked a purebred cattle sale about a month ago, the top lot brought $27,000 and seven day old frozen embryo's were bringing anywhere from 300 to 700 per egg. livestock can be very expensive, there is a lot of cost in producing that steak that you eat! the farmer has a small proffit if any in the product that they sell. even at stockyard prices a beef cow may weigh 1200 lbs and @51.oo that is still over 600 dollars that the animal is worth. How many of you have that much money that you let your dog chew on a stack of 100 $ bills? just my thoughts on the matter. jason

great job, im new to bow hunting as well, bought a bow off of ebay on a low bid, so far i like it, as a matter of fact that just made up my mind, gonna go out this evening. jason

john, not sure about january, but i caught several off the beach one night this past june. nothing real big, about 6 lbs was the biggest, but still had alot of fun. i used calamari that i got from walmart up near market 28. this was a rouge fish i caught not sure about this one biggest rouge check out the teeth i would recomend going out on a deep sea charter, we went on a shared charter and had a blast,it cost about 90 dollars for a 6hour trip. there was me and my wife and 2 other guys. boated several mahi mahi, bonita and a rough jack. the pic in my avatar is one of the mahi mahi. best of luck, cant wait to get back there next year. jason

i wish this one was mine, but he was killed by an amish hunter opening day of bow season last year. it is from my home county, approx. 8 miles from my farm. i think it scored around 295 and is the second biggest ever taken in ohio. not sure what i would do if one that big walked out infront of me. jason

gerrit, very sorry to hear about your families tragedy, as a young father, i just dont know how i would be able to keep going. best wishes to you and your family on this sorrowful day. jason

hey folks TJ's post about going to his hunting camp got me thinking about my deer seasons past, deer season has become even more special to me now since my little one is big enough to go out and sit in a blind with me. Got to take him out last season for the first time, and he is hooked on it. yes it is unloaded. his first hunt was successful, we managed to bag this basket rack 8 pointer, but to him it was a monster! I have just started bow hunting this year. here in southern ohio we can take up to 6 deer this year, 1 buck and 5 does, 3 must be taken by bow and before shotgun season starts. so far i have drawn on 2 does, but havent let the arrow fly yet, its just been too warm here to let one cure properly. i hope all the hunters on the board have a great year in the woods/bush, remember to be safe, wear all the proper gear, know what your shooting at, and whats behind it. if ya got a young one, take a day to let them go out with ya. you might not bag a trophy, but you may gain a hunting partner for life. here are a couple of my better bucks from the past. nice 8 pt from 05 decent 9 point, just not real wide if ya got any good hunting pics of the past feel free to add them on. jason

i too usually deep fry it as well, but sometimes i will bake it. put a few spoon fulls of butter and a light shake of lemon pepper seasoning. cook at 350 for about 20 minutes, depending on size of course. its simple and pretty good. jason

this is one of the best reports i have ever read, way to go guys! this is what its all about. best wishes for your friend and his family. jason

we have done well on the walleye and pike imitations the last two years targeting pike, but then again a pike will hit just about anything that comes in its path. the life expectancy for them on pike is usually 2-3 fish per bait, so they can get expensive. jason

i am 33 and 9-11 is easily the most tragic day in history of my life, i was teaching a class of 9th graders when we first heard the news, it was hard to try and explain to them what was exactly going on, i am proud to say that one of those students in that very class is now in the marines and is headed to iraq in about 3 weeks, i had a chance to talk to him this past weekend, and we recalled some of the things that happened that day. i thanked him in advance for what he is about to do, and i am very proud of the man he has become. please dont ever forget all that have gave their lives to defend the freedoms that we have, and also please thank all that have served to help keep it that way. jason