This is an informal introduction to Urban Self-Sufficientist TV also USSufficientistTV on You Tube. I started this blog a few years ago and I have been rewarded with meeting so many people from all across the World. Even though I'm just a small fish in a very large pond; I have in many cases provided entertainment to anyone bored enough to listen to my muse!! As I continue to develop as a Urban Farmer I want to take the next step in providing the occasional Video of my stomps... Whether it be working in the Garden, developing cheap and efficient ways to maintain sustainability or enjoying the outdoors, I will like to add another dimension to my blog through my life.
Below is my first video of a Recent Hog Hunt. I hope you enjoy..
http://youtu.be/UEYFQ4086IE
Showing posts with label Hunting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hunting. Show all posts
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Coon Hunting
Product Review- LL Beans' "The Original Maine Hunting Boot"
I want to start off by saying, I don't receive any benefits from endorsing any product. But some of the best things I have purchased or heard about, come from the honest assessment of consumers who are not pressured to sell items.
I bought these boots a few months ago for hunting, fishing, gardening and believe it or not to wear out when I'm just kickin it at my local pub. These boots have absolutely been the best purchase I have made for a pair of footwear in a long time. I chose these boots because I wanted something that was extremely durable, water proof, and they look cool. This past week I have been hunting hogs in central south GA, and I have been trekking through some nasty bogs at above ankle deep water for several hundred yards. I stepped in what appeared to be quick sand up to my shin and amazingly my feet stayed dry all the way through this. The waxed canvas is amazingly durable, which makes the boots very light and weathers great as you use them more. The best thing about these boots is the fact that they are extremely easy to clean. As we walked out of the swamps to the vehicles, my boots were cleaned by walking through the wet grass. Defiantly a Boot worth every penny spent. They run a bit larger than expected for a boot because they are made for folks who where thick socks. I wear a size 10 and I bought a size 10 and there is a lot of room in there. But when I wear thick socks they are dead on comfortable. If your looking for a sexy pair of shit kickers I suggest you take a look at LL beans Signature Original Maine Hunting Boot.
I bought these boots a few months ago for hunting, fishing, gardening and believe it or not to wear out when I'm just kickin it at my local pub. These boots have absolutely been the best purchase I have made for a pair of footwear in a long time. I chose these boots because I wanted something that was extremely durable, water proof, and they look cool. This past week I have been hunting hogs in central south GA, and I have been trekking through some nasty bogs at above ankle deep water for several hundred yards. I stepped in what appeared to be quick sand up to my shin and amazingly my feet stayed dry all the way through this. The waxed canvas is amazingly durable, which makes the boots very light and weathers great as you use them more. The best thing about these boots is the fact that they are extremely easy to clean. As we walked out of the swamps to the vehicles, my boots were cleaned by walking through the wet grass. Defiantly a Boot worth every penny spent. They run a bit larger than expected for a boot because they are made for folks who where thick socks. I wear a size 10 and I bought a size 10 and there is a lot of room in there. But when I wear thick socks they are dead on comfortable. If your looking for a sexy pair of shit kickers I suggest you take a look at LL beans Signature Original Maine Hunting Boot. Wednesday, October 21, 2009
What a Week!!
I can remember preparing to go hunting last week saturday to only find out that it was way to windy to be really succsessful. It was a hoot trying on my ghille suit for the first time. I felt like the yeti; in fact I could almost bet that the guys who made that infamous big foot video had on a ghille suit. But nonetheless, I had a great time out in the field. I saw tons of sign and I look forward to getting back out this weekend for some hot pre-rut action.
On sat afternoon and all day sunday, I did some much needed yard work and the misses and I planned our meals for the week. This week it was homemade chili, with jalapeno Cheddar cornbread, baked chicken with fresh veggies, lasagna rolls, or fajita burgers with lean ground beef. The wife and I have been planning our meals every sunday for the week and making sunday our official cook family day. I told her my official name is chef. Shes still rolling her eyes.
I uprooted my eggplant and transplanted it into a container and brought her inside and so far so good. My beautiful pepper plant the habanero is not doing so well, all the leaves have drooped and although it remains green, it looks really really sad. All my other transplants are doing great with a few flowers being set this week as well. I really hope the big habanero gets well. I think its from being left outside and taking in a tremendous amount of rain. Im at a lost of what to do. I just hope he pulls through. Big Sigh...............
On sat afternoon and all day sunday, I did some much needed yard work and the misses and I planned our meals for the week. This week it was homemade chili, with jalapeno Cheddar cornbread, baked chicken with fresh veggies, lasagna rolls, or fajita burgers with lean ground beef. The wife and I have been planning our meals every sunday for the week and making sunday our official cook family day. I told her my official name is chef. Shes still rolling her eyes.
I uprooted my eggplant and transplanted it into a container and brought her inside and so far so good. My beautiful pepper plant the habanero is not doing so well, all the leaves have drooped and although it remains green, it looks really really sad. All my other transplants are doing great with a few flowers being set this week as well. I really hope the big habanero gets well. I think its from being left outside and taking in a tremendous amount of rain. Im at a lost of what to do. I just hope he pulls through. Big Sigh...............
Monday, October 12, 2009
Ground blind for Hunting
This weekend is the opening of Gun season and Im looking forward to tagging my first deer of the season. T
his year I am trying something new. Today I walked in the woods and found a great spot to make a ground blind. Essentially the blind serves as a way to break up your pattern so that wild animals can not discover you. If you have never hunted before, it's tough to find the perfect spot. Many people think that it's a disadvantage for hunters because we have weapons, but to the contrary deer, wild boar, turkey and other big game animals have extremely keen senses with smell being there most powerful senses. This is not true for turkeys because birds use more of eyesight than smell. But nevertheless, its extremely difficult to sneak up on game if you don't know what
your doing. So this year I decided to make a ground blind. I usually climb a tree with my tree stand so that way I can get above the line of sight for most game and therefore get the advantage. But recently I have been doing alot of reading on how effective ground blinds can be if placed right. So today was my attempt to find the absolute best place and from the looks of it I found just that place. When putting up a ground blind you want to keep in mind that you have to find funnels. Funnels are areas where animal movement can be predicted by terrain. For instance: if there is a river running from north to south, and a patch of woods separating the river from a wide open field. We can safely assume that the patch of woods will serve as a funnel area for animal movement as they move secretly. I found a perfect funnel along a ridge that has a spur which con
centrates predictable animal movement. It has been raining intensely over the last couple of days so trails have been washed out, but it is pretty apparent where deer and wild hogs will travel. So I decided to stake my blind along a group of trees that overlook the spur and give me the ability to see deer and hog movement with 360 degree capabilities. So my ground blind is set. Even though deer will be spooked by my scent over the next day or two, By this weekend it should back to business as usual, but that time I will be there waiting hopefully, with fingers crossed and the taming of my infamous buck fever. I don't even get buck fever.
I get everything fever, Because everything that comes into range, Buck, doe,hog and turkey I get the jitters and my excitement always gets the best of me. Oh well. As I headed out of the woods I saw a nice sized hoof print from what appears to be deer cross the path I walked through. This is a great sign!!
his year I am trying something new. Today I walked in the woods and found a great spot to make a ground blind. Essentially the blind serves as a way to break up your pattern so that wild animals can not discover you. If you have never hunted before, it's tough to find the perfect spot. Many people think that it's a disadvantage for hunters because we have weapons, but to the contrary deer, wild boar, turkey and other big game animals have extremely keen senses with smell being there most powerful senses. This is not true for turkeys because birds use more of eyesight than smell. But nevertheless, its extremely difficult to sneak up on game if you don't know what
your doing. So this year I decided to make a ground blind. I usually climb a tree with my tree stand so that way I can get above the line of sight for most game and therefore get the advantage. But recently I have been doing alot of reading on how effective ground blinds can be if placed right. So today was my attempt to find the absolute best place and from the looks of it I found just that place. When putting up a ground blind you want to keep in mind that you have to find funnels. Funnels are areas where animal movement can be predicted by terrain. For instance: if there is a river running from north to south, and a patch of woods separating the river from a wide open field. We can safely assume that the patch of woods will serve as a funnel area for animal movement as they move secretly. I found a perfect funnel along a ridge that has a spur which con
centrates predictable animal movement. It has been raining intensely over the last couple of days so trails have been washed out, but it is pretty apparent where deer and wild hogs will travel. So I decided to stake my blind along a group of trees that overlook the spur and give me the ability to see deer and hog movement with 360 degree capabilities. So my ground blind is set. Even though deer will be spooked by my scent over the next day or two, By this weekend it should back to business as usual, but that time I will be there waiting hopefully, with fingers crossed and the taming of my infamous buck fever. I don't even get buck fever.
I get everything fever, Because everything that comes into range, Buck, doe,hog and turkey I get the jitters and my excitement always gets the best of me. Oh well. As I headed out of the woods I saw a nice sized hoof print from what appears to be deer cross the path I walked through. This is a great sign!!Friday, April 3, 2009
My hunting buddy Taka is starting a new Life
Today was finally the day that I released Taka back into the wild. I have had her since Oct 14th of 08. I trapped her along the highway as she was perched on a utility pole hunting over a field. From that day when we both met our relationship grew into one of trust and admiration. It is a bitter sweet moment for me right now, knowing that when I head to the backyard past the garden to feed the chickens I won't hear her bells as she turns towards the sound of my footsteps, I will miss the inquisitive look 
she gives me as I enter her mews to feed her each day, I can still hear the soft chirps she lets out when she is feeding from my fist. The beauty of her flight and the power of her glide as she closes in on her prey. Taka was special to me for many reasons; the most notable reason is that several years ago when I started falconry I trapped a similar hawk, who had the same grace and powerful stare that only a red tail hawk could give, her name was cova and cova was an awesome hawk. I trapped Cova on Sept 26 2001, approx two weeks after 911 on Pennsylvania's most popular Hawk mountain, but do to my negligence, cova died and it happened a day before Christmas. It was the saddest day of my life. As I started to learn the art and practice of falconry I developed an ethos that I would follow, and that would be to trap a wild h
awk, train her to hunt with me and at the end of the season return the hawk back to the wild in a much better physical state when I trapped her. I failed to do that with Cova, she died of a terrible disease called aspergillosis and it was because her condition was low for to long. When Cova died I vowed that I will never lose another hawk to my negligence again. And so sometime went by and after a few tours of duty I finally found some time to pursue the sport again and on that sunny mid afternoon of Oct 14th of 2008, I found Taka and committed myself to training her effectively and to one day release her back into the wild physically fit and mentally strong to deal with the harsh environment that nature will throw upon her, and here we were today on top of Pine mountain overlooking the valley with the breeze in my face and streaming th
rough her feathers. She is looking at the mountain tops and in an instant she crouches back and leaps forward. Today there would be no whistle to call her back, there would be no fist full of food to entice her to return, because today she is finally free and as she flies of into the mountain side I see her turn her head to look back at me and all I could say is "thank you." "Thank you Taka for giving me another chance to make this right and thank you for gracing me with your presence, for you will truly be missed." Happy Hawking
she gives me as I enter her mews to feed her each day, I can still hear the soft chirps she lets out when she is feeding from my fist. The beauty of her flight and the power of her glide as she closes in on her prey. Taka was special to me for many reasons; the most notable reason is that several years ago when I started falconry I trapped a similar hawk, who had the same grace and powerful stare that only a red tail hawk could give, her name was cova and cova was an awesome hawk. I trapped Cova on Sept 26 2001, approx two weeks after 911 on Pennsylvania's most popular Hawk mountain, but do to my negligence, cova died and it happened a day before Christmas. It was the saddest day of my life. As I started to learn the art and practice of falconry I developed an ethos that I would follow, and that would be to trap a wild h
awk, train her to hunt with me and at the end of the season return the hawk back to the wild in a much better physical state when I trapped her. I failed to do that with Cova, she died of a terrible disease called aspergillosis and it was because her condition was low for to long. When Cova died I vowed that I will never lose another hawk to my negligence again. And so sometime went by and after a few tours of duty I finally found some time to pursue the sport again and on that sunny mid afternoon of Oct 14th of 2008, I found Taka and committed myself to training her effectively and to one day release her back into the wild physically fit and mentally strong to deal with the harsh environment that nature will throw upon her, and here we were today on top of Pine mountain overlooking the valley with the breeze in my face and streaming th
rough her feathers. She is looking at the mountain tops and in an instant she crouches back and leaps forward. Today there would be no whistle to call her back, there would be no fist full of food to entice her to return, because today she is finally free and as she flies of into the mountain side I see her turn her head to look back at me and all I could say is "thank you." "Thank you Taka for giving me another chance to make this right and thank you for gracing me with your presence, for you will truly be missed." Happy Hawking Oct-14-08 thru Apr-3-09
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
We Got One!!!!
Well finally after several days of hunting, I finally took an Ol Bushytail with Taka. Up until now it has been a bad game of chess with trying to figure out the best way to ambush a squirrel on top a canopy with heavy leaves. Nevertheless, she endured and figured out that if she stays close to me she would have a better chance at a reflush. Todays hunt was quite long. It took several game flights and repositioning for Taka to put herself in the zone to deliver a fatal strike. Which resulted in her flying some distance to where she could have a better view. I was wondering why she flew so far across the canopy from where I and the squirrel was positioned. But when she found her perch she did an immediate about-face and had at her disposal every square inch of the kill zone to strike. From that position the squirrel knew he was in trouble and freaked and Taka went into a game flight crashing through leave and branches striking the squirrel as it tryed to flee in dense foliage. It was amazing. Our first official head of game.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Taka has been trying to Fool Me
Taka was an amazing 1110g today; Wow thats the lowest she has ever been. Her response at 1145g was amazing but after she got the hang of flying free she was in lala land and forgot about me. So I figured I bring her weight down. Its been warm down here in the Durty. So I can experiment with her weight at a lower weight.
So we were out hunting and her response was excellent, she turned around to follow me and flew to the fist when asked. And then she saw her first Squirrell and I saw her head boobing and weaving and she went into a game flight at a squirrel and just missed it by milliseconds. She is getting the hang of hunting with me And I need to challenge her some more. So we will see what she does tomorrow.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Taka is too Fat
Days light saving time hit today and Taka weighed in at 1142g. I thought this was a great weight for her today to hunt some squirrels. She seemed really keen; However, she wasn't we went to the field today and i called her to the fist twice and then she gave up she wasn't interested at all. If she is not hungry she will not follow me. So I suspect that I need to get her down into the 1120s and than see how she responds. This tiny dragon has alot of heart and is cabaple of killing some game. I just have to find that happy medium for her and I to join this union. More to follow
Takas First Free flight
A few days ago I finally cut the creance on Taka and allowed her to fly free. It was a nerving moment and I was absolutely cautious of any behaviour that would indicate she is about to go lone wolf on me. I trapped her at 1260g and at 1148-50g I was flying her free.
All in all she did absolutely amazing she followed and pitched high into the canopy looking for anything that I may stir up as I moved through the big Piney woods. We were hunting rabbits and although I wasn't able to flush a rabbit for her. I was pleased to see her participate in the hunt as if she knew instincutally what I was doing.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Urban Falconer- Taka flew to the fist
Today was a great day. I dropped Takas' weight to 1168g and I took her to the park. It was her first time in an area that had alot of things going on. I called her to the fist and she flew at some distance. 1168 seems like a call for her. I killed another Quail today and placed it in the freezer. I am going to use it in a few days for lure training. All is looking good with Taka and she is responding pretty well
Friday, October 24, 2008
Urban Falconer- Weight control
Taka is finally coming down in weight. Today I got her to 1177g and she flew to the fist before I could pull out the meat. I suspect that I almost there. I trapped her on the 14th of Oct and it is exactly 10 days today that her weight has come down enough to where she is flying and looking keen. I think she is going to be a great hawk to hunt with. She has some personality. I want to give her the utmost respect and take care of her so that she can be a killer in the woods. I suspect that If I bring her weight down 7 more grams than she is going to be just right. Now she still is a bit all over the place. I just need her attention. More to follow......
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