where is everyone??????????????????????

I'm still around... Been mostly lurking these days. Keeping an eye out for the next Fiddleback User Weekend. Hopefully can make the next (upcoming spring) Track Rock? I had a work conflict for the one last fall.
 
What's up everyone! Like all the others in the south, been trying to stay high and dry with little success. My outside time has probably been 10% of what it normally is this time of the year. Hellbender Leather has been taking up my free time, collar sales seem to be doing pretty good and like Orion just spending more time on IG than other social media. Also, been planning going to Alaska with Kevin and Liam for the 2019 adventure, which has kept me preoccupied. Thanks for calling us out Bob, always good to touch base and not just be a lurker. I also need a new way of loading photos onto BF. Any photos I take with my phone I can't direct upload. I always need to email them to my work first and reduce the file size before posting, which also doesn't work.
I use Imgur. Free, has an app, easy to use.
 
I use Imgur. Free, has an app, easy to use.

You should do a small tutorial on this... because always using Photobucket or Fotki for me means I have to be back at my desk or on a lap top. One of the things I love about FB and IG is that it is so easy to post pics in the Fiddleback Group or on IG straight from the phone while still in the field with no hosting sight or image codes required.
 
You should do a small tutorial on this... because always using Photobucket or Fotki for me means I have to be back at my desk or on a lap top. One of the things I love about FB and IG is that it is so easy to post pics in the Fiddleback Group or on IG straight from the phone while still in the field with no hosting sight or image codes required.
I'll see if I can throw something together!
 
I have been chasing a new job, in a new state. So I have been on the road a lot.

But truth be told. It’s been so cold and miserable here it’s almost funny. Least amount of time I have spent outdoors over the winter in many years.

We have been in a weird cycle. Below zero for a week or two. Then a 1-2 day warm up with some freezing rain. Then back in the cooler for another week or 10 days.

When I have been outside, it has been plowing. Trying to get the new snow off the drive before the next freezing rain event. Battling the snow and ice this year has been a chore.

If you leave the driveway. It’s on snowshoes. There are about five different layers of snow, crust and ice. The coyotes are doing fine. The turkeys and deer, not so much.

I did find a partridge the other day. He did not fair well. Nothing left but some feathers. It was on crusty snow so no discernable tracks. But judging by the scat. I’m calling it a bobcat. Looks like the bird was taken right out of its hole.

Also nothing left is usually an indicator of a cat. Dogs and predatory birds usually leave something behind. Skulls, feet, something. All I had here was feathers.

Supposed to hit the low forties on Sunday. I’m hoping for an early spring. But it looks like we will be diving back into the cooler after that.
 
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I have been chasing a new job, in a new state. So I have been on the road a lot.

But truth be told. It’s been so cold and miserable here it’s almost funny. Least amount of time I have spent outdoors over the winter in many years.

We have been in a weird cycle. Below zero for a week or two. Then a 1-2 day warm up with some freezing rain. Then back in the cooler for another week or 10 days.

When I have been outside, it has been plowing. Trying to get the new snow off the drive before the next freezing rain event. Battling the snow and ice this year has been a chore.

If you leave the driveway. It’s on snowshoes. There are about five different layers of snow, crust and ice. The coyotes are doing fine. The turkeys and deer, not so much.

I did find a partridge the other day. He did not fair well. Nothing left but some feathers. It was on crusty snow so no discernable tracks. But judging by the scat. I’m calling it a bobcat. Looks like the bird was taken right out of its hole.

Also nothing left is usually an indicator of a cat. Dogs and predatory birds usually leave something behind. Skulls, feet, something. All I had here was feathers.

Supposed to hit the low forties on Sunday. I’m hoping for an early spring. But it looks like we will be diving back into the cooler after that.
A partridge in a hole? I've always thought they lived in a pear tree. :D
 
Just a quick update.

After a long search, I have accepted a position in Pennsylvania. I have been traveling and preparing a lot so not much net time. We remain cold and snowy up here. So even if I had time, I’m not sure I would have accomplished much woods wise.

15 months with “No Mun” changes one’s focus. I’m excited for many reasons. Income, a new challenge, new places, new woods, all of it. Plus I see an opening to get out of Nanny State New York. It sadddens me a bit, that I have to abandon my birth state. Part of me always wants to stay and press on, hoping to change the tide. But the realist in me says, the battle here is lost.

I will truly miss this frozen wasteland I call home. But Pennsylvania has trees too. And they are more friendly towards things I find important.

I should be able to secure a rural spot if not initially, soon after. This winter has been a long one. Perhaps making the decision a bit easier. It was supposed to be 30F for a low last night. I woke to 12F and 6” of new snow. It has been like that all winter.

Itching to get back in the game. My Fiddlebacks like to play in the woods. I doubt they will care which side of an imaginary line those woods are on.

LV,
 
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That’s quite a story, thanks for sharing. I understand having to be torn that way, I live half of the year in Canada [summer and fall] and half in my homelands of central Texas. Im lucky enough to love both places, and I suspect you’ll find some version of that love for your new land in Pennsylvania.
Like L lmalterna I look forward to reading about your new adventures once you’ve landed in your new home.
 
There is some serious fun to be had in PA, across the entire state. Went to school in Pittsburgh, hung out in Philly and the eastern expanse (DWG, Reading, York, Lambertville, Pretzel factories etc.) while growing up. Only weirdness is with State Stores for booze and beer barn situation. Otherwise a milder upstate NY.

Depending on where you're settling closer to Autotrain from Lorton, VA to Orlando, one of the coolest train setups in the US. And probably closer to Washington DC, Baltimore, the mountains in VA, NC, TN including Nashville and the Jack Daniels Distillery.

And your taxes will drop as well.

Congrats on the adventure of moving to another state, good luck with it and enjoy.
 
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