We finished up hunting today with a tally of one buck, two does, and three of the luckiest moose ever to cross a field of wheat stubble. I considered shooting one, then ramming the carcass with my brother's farm truck to plead "road kill", but thought better of it.
It's a quixotic place, this oil well riddled, environmentally decimated province. I can't recall ever hearing of moose in the southeast, and neither can my father, whose lived here his entire life. Now, moose aren't entirely uncommon - the unintended consequence of chem fallow and no-till. Thanks, Monsanto!
I'll post a photo of the featured carrion when I get home. Tomorrow is a travel day, after which normal blogging will resume.
Thanks for your patience.
?
if the overgrowth is zapped chemically, what is the draw for moose? see potential mates from further away? I thought moose had crappy eyesight.
also, what effect does it have on beneficial fauna, earthworms, bacteria, whatnot when you nuke the ground like that?
jist askin' . . .
living better through chemistry !
I happened to talk to the farmer who bought my grandfather's farm. He said that there is now a moose living on the farm that formerly was the home only to buffalo, whitetail and pronghorn, well OK occasionally a mule deer.
You sound like Canada's Sarah Palin, Kate.
gellen:
Kate just sounds like a Canadian living in Canada's natural state, rather than in some man made concrete jungle. Nature Red, in tooth and claw, more like it.
Congratulations to you and your family on a successful hunt Kate.
i don't bother to hunt rabbits mesself....let the dog run them down usually...
the dog's too small to pull down a moose tho...he'd harry them of course but even with flubber on his pads he'd never ring their bell...
'barney barney buck or doe
has kept me out of channel row."
Good on ya, Kate!
"It's a quixotic place, this oil well riddled, environmentally decimated province."
No doubt. Don't stop tilting at those stinking giant fans.
"nuke the ground"....realy Curious, how close to a nuking machine have you been?
Kate's right! Through technology like Round Up less machinery is working the land all summer, no longer do we see dust blowing in the drying wind, grazing for wildlife is not separated by tracks of fallow.
Proof is in the pudding Curious even though you don't understand. Where I live we now have Bears, Antelope, Moose and the odd Elk where 20 years ago none.
Joe - its called Bison - buffalo(s) are in some other part of the world.
BTW Kate- any chance of going after some of that bounty on "coyotes"?
I saw a swamp donkey in the farm yard down near Lucky Lake last year, I'd never heard of a moose anywhere near that when we were growing up.
What's patience? Oh what you have with us!
Alright Kate!
I'd be hunting right now too 'cept I banged my knee up a few days ago and now my lower leg looks like a hunk of bung balogna with protuding mini sausages (ie my toes) with appropriate colour scheme. Hurts like hell!
But, with regards to moose, a dozen years ago we had none in the area, now they're the norm. Yesterday, not 50 yds from the house, was a bull, cow and calf. Alas, no season for them... but probably next year they'll open this area up for draw.
Regular moose season opens tomorrow, and if I can get mobile, I hope to get up north in a couple of days to join the guys.
Uninformed_george- You probably think that the whole countryside is under endless assault and is being denuded by Monsanto's Roundup chemical.
Fact is, it's used in-crop to control competitive weeds, and post-harvest to eliminate winter annuals that will be a problem for next year's plantings. It is not being used indiscriminantly on every acre of pasture, rangeland, hayland, marshland, bush, sloughs, forest, road right-of-way, and in fact about probably half of the farmland. Greenbots like you should be heralding the move away from intensive tillage practices!
Re: nuking the ground- a benign product with regard to our fauna, earthworm, bacteria concerns-it neutralizes very quickly. Unfortunately, the alarmism continues....
I live as far south in SK as you can get and we have moose. Next to bison, moose were the next most plentiful animal on the prairies.In the fifties and sixties we hardly ever saw a deer now you can't drive down the highway with out hitting one.
Yes, a different bob, and a gopher is actually a Richardson Ground Squirrel. Give me a break. My great grandfather wrote in his diary that when he moved in there were "buffalo bones" on the prairie. When I went to school one of the farm kids brought in a "buffalo" skull to show the rest of the class. When I wore a young boys clothes we learned a song that spoke of the "buffalo" roaming where the deer and the antelope played. In other words the politically correct name is bison; in the local vernacular they are buffalo. I really don't see the reason for changing the recognized name of an animal because someone wants to pretend he is educated.
What patience, Kate? You post more (and better) when you're off hunting than most do when they are home all day.
The three I saw were a cow, calf and bull as well. A young bull, if antler size is any indication. Spotted them about 4 miles east of Willmar.
And isn't there a community just south east of Willmar named Moose Creek?
agreed Joe, buffalo tastes good. bison tastes good.
I know that 10 years ago there were moose in the furthest south east corner of Sask. in Cypress Hills Provincial Park. Not to say it's time for a cull, only that they've been there for some time. These folks say they're an "introduced species" ... http://www.cypresshills.com/index.php?id=27
I'd like to introduce them to my kitchen.
On the subject of Round Up,I spent the day pulling barbed wire out of the dirt in a fence line that was buried by drifting soil from the days when ALL the farmers farmed organically and the plow,the disc and the harrow were the norm.
Good for you Kate. While going to a meeting last evening, a nice buck crossed the #12 in front of us near Can Oat.
Antelope and moose (new to us)have been hanging around our place for 3 or 4 years now.
Lots of coyotes along the North Saskatchewan north of Saskatoon.
did you killed with with your dodge or ur new virginal white ford?
Roundup is neutralized by clay coloids(particles) so there is no leaching etc.
One of the myths the lonie-toons spread is that Roundup resistance GMOed into the crops can be transferred to other plants---like H1N1---
Roundup and GMO Roundup resistance has provided the biggest change in cropping in about 6-7 millenia.
Roundup is too pricey to waste....
I use it next to buildings, trees (saves weed whacking) and so's I don't have to mow the driveway. I used it to kill off a piece of lawn to plant a bit more garden this year. I use it to keep grass etc growing in the cracks in the abandoned feed lot out back.
Proof is in the pudding Curious even though you don't understand. Where I live we now have Bears, Antelope, Moose and the odd Elk where 20 years ago none.
Posted by: ivbinconned at November 19, 2009 10:36 PM"
dear conned: why the fcuk do you think I asked the question. I have no agricultural background and EVERYTHING humahns do has side effects. some desireable ones become the emphasis of the 'discovery'.
I can't even ask a straight honest Q around here you pompous smarmy righties get uppity.
I notice you still didnt answer the question why moose show up when the ground is stripped to bare dirt. s-m-ar-t-a-s-s.
Ken (Kulak)
Not to split hairs here but it is the South Sask that runs through Saskatoon. The North Sask goes through PA, Muskoday reserve then meets the south at the forks north of Weldon.
Now I know you said the north is north of Saskatoon. But it is also north of Regina, Minot, Omaha, ...
See when you give a geography lesson, don't sound like the CBC. "Prime Minister Harper was in Regina today. Thats 4600 kilometers west of Toronto."
It sounds like you are giving us a load of BS.
So Kate, are you going to upgrade from .3030 for moose? Or just shoot 'em in the eye?
The new Marlin lever guns are niiiice. Picatiny rail, bigger lever (gloves!) and available in .45-70 Gubmint. BOOM baby! I want one real bad. :)
Moose? They reproduce almost like rabbits - slower, of course. Unless you hunt them, in ten years you'll have more moose than you can quite believe.
"Gotta get me moose b'ye!"
"The proof is in the pudding", curious george? Have you been eating at the courthouse cafeteria again?
Long live the Moose
send me a burger if u get one though
steak would be nice
I'll throw some A1 on that
recipe book if can find one
"The proof is in the pudding", curious george? Have you been eating at the courthouse cafeteria again?
Posted by: ebt at November 20, 2009 4:21 PM "
?
proof of what et?
is the prairie ground covered in pudding after monsanto's stuff is laid down?
and the courthouse, well, you can be the court jester if you want. so here it is for the THIRD time:
what do moose find alluring about ground that is barren of vegetation?
I heard they scarf down about 100 pounds of said vegetation a day. munch munch munch. why are they gonna hang around bare dirt?
good thing computer disks are measured in terabytes now. gotta make room for all the right wing stuff coming out of the moose's backside.
"what do moose find alluring about ground that is barren of vegetation?"
Nothing. Therefore if there are moose, it can't be barren, can it? No-till means it doesn't get plowed every year, which means there's lots of plants left on the ground after harvest for the moose. It means they -didn't- kill everything in sight. Which is different from how it used to be, right?
Why don't you google these things instead of freaking out? It'd save wear and tear on your liver and lead to less cranky postings, wouldn't it?
You guys should be declared pests and a bounty put on you.