Pine Donkey

+1

Been telling that joke all day. Even the women love it!

He was so right. My grandfather and uncle worked at the Flagstaff mill years ago. If you have not ever lived in a small one horse town, like a mining or logging town, you just won't understand the importance of a mill or mine. It becomes the constant that everything revolves around.

It's nice to hear there are new mills popping up. Logging used to be a huge part of that community. It is sad to drive past the old saw mill site.

That was a great fight. How cool you were able to catch it on video. Thanks for posting.

Ernesto, you are so right, that is a very cool buck. Congratulations.

No, no,no. They are transported through chupacabre droppings.

Lark, my dad worked at a mine in New Guinea for a couple years. He brought home some of those gourds and gave them away to family and friends. Quite a uniqu item. By the way, mine is the biggest gourd! Kinda gives new meaning to the term are you outta your gourd.

Over the last few decades, there have been so many regulations and restrictions on logging that we have effectively killed the industry in Arizona. That is itself is a contributing factor towards our huge fires in the past decade. We have forced so many of our saw mills out of business, we are not able to harvest the massive amount of timber that was burned. Where are they going to cut it up at...Springerville, Flagstaff,? A few small operations remain like the Reidhead Brothers mill in Nutrioso, but we just don't have the capability of harvesting the current amount of lumber available before it rots.

Great story. I love to see kids get into hunting, then see such a genuine smile of joy in the trophy photos. Congratulations to all.

That first buck is a stud! Thanks for posting the story. Congratulations.

To be continued, same time, same channel...that's just not right. Finish the story!

Our house is a simple place in an old small town, but we sure enjoy visits from our neighbors. They show up almost everyday and often drink out of our koi pond. Sometimes the ladies bring in their boyfriends. Unfortunately, the boys tend to get picked off from the streets and porches of town. My beautiful wife Chrystie likes to go outside and talk to them when they are in the yard. Sometimes they look at her as if they understand. Over the years we have watched generations of deer come and go. The deer in town don't even get alarmed by dogs anymore.

Josh, that's a stud buck! Sounds like a great trip. I love the mass on that unique, high 2x3 that kept posing for you. Congratulations to both of you.

For all of you that cherish time in the field helping a child to love the hunt and the outdoors, there is a very good article in the January/February edition of Bugle Magazine entitled Growing a Hunter. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I received this picture in an email. It said the moose got his antlers tangled in the wire before they were pulled up. While pulling them, the crew notices extra resistance and went to investigate. They lowered the live moose and he took off. Sounds a bit fishy to me, maybe some who work on utility lines can chime in.

I have a couple old PSE bows. One is about 10 years old, the other about 15. They were good quality bows when purchased, but technology has left them behind. I am offering them for free to anybody who might be kicking around the idea of getting into archery. All I ask is that they get used or given away to another, not sold for profit. If anybody is interested, let me know. I can also post pictures if needed.

At my parent's place near Nutrioso we get a lot of elk in the meadow by the lake, over 100 at once sometimes. Very few deer in that area. We have seen bears and wolves several times. It will be interesting to see how the travel patterns change after the fire.

What a trip, and what great bucks. Thanks for making the post.

All PM's responded to.

No they are adult bows. Sorry

PM me your number and I will call you. They are both 29 1/2 inch draw.

Nice looking pig. The memories made on a first big game hunt will last a lifetime. Congratulations.

Sounds like a great time. Let's see the pictures.

NOFX, I appreciate your perspective on this post. I feel the need to address some of your comments. First off, you say my comments sound a little whiney and liberal. Whiney is a subjective term, and up to each individual's interpretation, so maybe it was a bit whiney. In applying the term liberal to me or my beliefs, you missed by a long way. In fact, it is my disdain of an every growing Federal Government and its continual barrage of new regulations to control the people, that caused me to make my ranting first post. In my first post I admittedly, did a poor job expressing my feelings. First of all, in no way do I believe that all or even the majority of the people that work for the land, or law enforcement agencies, are accessing these areas illegally, or allowing others to do it, but some do and have. Next, the San Pedro Riparian Area is not the only place this is happening. I have seen first hand, and heard stories of similar things happening beyond locked Forest Service gates. You mentioned that your job puts you in some prime hunting areas, and that your hobby benefits from your job. I see this as a good thing. I know many very dedicated people who do the same thing. I appreciate all they do in their professional careers to maintain, promote, protect, and improve our public lands. Many have chosen their career because of their love for the land, the animals, and the outdoors. I hope working there on a daily basis provides them with great job satisfaction in these times of frozen payrolls and shrinking agency budgets. As far as the points of my post, that I have reiterated in subsequent posts of this thread: if it is good for an area to close a road, then close it completely. If it is closed to the public, but open to "official" or " special" use, the area will be accessed by others, because it is virtually impossible to control and enforce the limited access. Some who work hard to hike into their hunting area will be joined at times by others who did not have to do the same work. You indicated that my opinions are based on rumors I have heard from friends. That is just an incorrect statement of convenience. My opinions are based on my experiences. Since my first post in this thread I have exchanged PM's with some who work in the Riparian area on a regular basis. I have provided specifics, including names, situations, and locations. I will limit my response here to a few specific examples that have happened in the last few weeks. I have spent several full days, dark to dark, in there this January. Yesterday, we went in before first light. When we were about 2.5 miles past the gate, we could hear a vehicle coming in. it sounded like it was a diesel truck pulling a stock trailer from all the rattling and clanking noise. It stopped at a developed area 2 miles in. Later I heard quads driving around the area, so maybe it was pulling a quad trailer. In the afternoon, we heard quads or motorcycles near us. I think they were riding on the old railroad bed. It sounded like they were racing. Last weekend at dusk, we were headed out and about a mile from the gate when a couple guys pulled up in a private vehicle, and stopped to talk. They had been looking for animals driving the roads and the old railroad. They asked if we had any luck, and what we had seen, they shared what they had seen, then offered us a ride out as they left. They had used a key to get in there. The week before, as we came through the developed area, 2 miles from the gate, late on a Sunday afternoon, there was a private vehicle parked alongside the road. Later, at the gate, we ran into an old friend. He was driving down the highway, saw our truck, and stopped. We BSed for a while. At one point in the conversation he questioned if his key still worked in the gate lock. He took it out, tried it, and it worked. This person retired about 6 years ago, and has never worked for a land or law enforcement agency, but he had the key through his job. These are just my most recent incidents that have helped me form my opinion. There are many more over the years, and I am sure there will be others in the future. The Riparian area is locked up and there are not many people in there, this is one reason i enjoy hunting it so much, however, to believe that the motorized access is limited to official business only is quite naive. If additional areas are locked, like the proposal in the Huachucas, there will be some who work hard to hike into the area only to find others who drove in. Again, if he closing of a road is good for an area, close it completely. Limiting access to official business only does not work. In the riparian area keys are inventoried, but there are still some official copies that are out there unaccounted for. I also suspect unauthorized copies have been made along he way. Some of the gates have the keyed lock on them as well as a combination lock (BP access maybe). Combinations are notoriously easy to distribute, and soon it is almost impossible track who may have them. There is at lease one gate that has a third lock on the chain. This lock belongs to a private individual. Additionally. There is at least one remote gate without a lock on it. Hopefully someday we will run into ech other on a hillside and we can share some stories and our opinions. Until then, take care and good hunting.