Showing posts with label Animals. Show all posts

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, July 26, 1924. Camping and plowing.

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, July 26, 1924. Other around the world f...: Argentinian pilot Pedro Zanni and mechanic Felipe Beltrame began their rather belated attempt to fly around the world. Larry Estridge became...

The weekly magazines were out.

The Saturday Evening Post with a girl who had a scouting uniform of some type, or perhaps was wearing an oddly colored representation of Navy white shirt, with red instead of blue.

Country Gentleman had a classic of a draft team.

Going Feral: Report dead wild rabbits to Game and Fish

Going Feral: Report dead wild rabbits to Game and Fish:

Report dead wild rabbits to Game and Fish

POSTED:

JULY 20, 2020

CHEYENNE REGION

NEWS

NEWS

Wyomingites are being asked to keep a lookout for dead rabbits in their yards, rural property and other outdoor areas. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is collecting wild rabbit carcasses for Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus2 testing, known as RHDV2. While not found in Wyoming yet, the disease has been identified in neighboring states. Testing rabbits is key to monitoring the disease spread.

RHDV2 is a fatal disease of rabbits and hares. An estimated 35-50% of infected wild rabbits succumb to the disease.

Samantha Allen, Game and Fish state wildlife veterinarian, said all of Wyoming’s rabbits and hares are susceptible — that includes game and nongame species like cottontail rabbits, jack rabbits and potentially, pygmy rabbits. Domestic rabbits are also at risk; however, other domestic pets and livestock are not at risk from the disease.

The first indication of RHDV2 infection in rabbits is dead animals.

“Any rabbit could become infected with the disease - so it could be a cottontail living in your yard or the one you see while hiking,” said Allen. “Please report any dead rabbits you find. Testing these carcasses is the only way to know if the disease is in Wyoming.”

The disease has been confirmed in California, Nevada, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado.

RHDV2 does not pose a threat to humans, but rabbits carry other diseases which can — like tularemia and plague. The public is advised not to touch or pick up any dead wild rabbits. Rather, note the location and call the Game and Fish Wildlife Health Lab at (307) 745-5865 or the nearest regional office. Game and Fish personnel will evaluate the situation, and make plans to collect the rabbit.

Lex Anteinternet: Wednesday, June 21, 1944. Ox Cart on Saipan.

Lex Anteinternet: Wednesday, June 21, 1944. Operation Bagration com...:

The US 2nd Marine Division captured Mount Tipo Pole and then started fighting for Mount Tapotchau on Saipan. The 4th Marine Division progressed east on the Kagman Peninsula.

Marines in ox cart, Saipan, June 21, 1944.

Lex Anteinternet: The dog.

Lex Anteinternet: The dog.:

The dog.

I've noted here before that I'm not really a "dog person", which is not to say that I don't like dogs. I do.

I didn't have a dog growing up, save for an extremely brief time in which my parents for some reason adopted one from the Humane Society. It was a Scotch Terrier mix and was fully grown, and ran away almost as soon as we got it. I don't know what motivated them to acquire the do, I probably wanted one, and I can barely remember it, we had it so briefly. I was very young at the time.

They probably chose the dog type as our yard was tiny. When I was growing up, my mother wanted a bigger house for many years until she became attached to the one they'd bought in 1958, when they were first married. The backyard really was tiny. It wouldn't have accommodated a large dog.

We always had cats, and I love cats. Having said that, we tended to attract dogs and cats, as some people do.

Anyhow, most people who are bird hunters have dogs, but we didn't. By the time I was in late grade school I was a horrible asthmatic, something I don't talk about much, and I turned out to be allergic to cats and dogs, so that foreclosed getting a dog. I was so allergic to dogs that I'd get to where I could hardly breathe if I was riding in a car with a dog, something that was still the case as late as the very early 90s. For some reason, however, the condition abated enormously after that. A neighbor's cat, for most of its very long cat life, basically lived at our house, which shouldn't have really been possible if I'd remained highly allergic.

About 7 or 8 years ago, my wife decided we should get a dog. I went back for tests and found I was still allergic, and retook the battery of shots that I had taken twice previously in my life. One day I came home to find she'd placed an order for a Double Doodle hunting dog.

I was worried, but largely kept it myself. When the little fluff ball arrived, I was really skeptical, but he started proving his worth as a hunting dog that very fall. More than that, however, he proved himself to be a highly affectionate dedicated outdoor dog.

He hunted all this past fall with me and then a few weeks ago fell ill. Aggressive cancer. Now he's gone.

The past year plus has really been horrific for me in all sorts of ways. Surgery twice, stress to the limit, being ill every day. Two family deaths back to back, and now this. I don't know why these things happen.

I've carried on throughout it, but I can hardly write this due to the tears in my eyes for the dog.

Four in hand.

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, April 6, 1914. Gen. Charles Douglas becom...:

Polish realist painter Józef Marian Chełmoński died at age 64.

Four In Hand by Chełmoński.

Lex Anteinternet: Mid Week at Work: Driving pigs, September 15, 1916

Lex Anteinternet: Mid Week at Work: Driving pigs, September 15, 1916:

Mid Week at Work: Driving pigs, September 15, 1916

LOC Title: "Driving boy" taking pigs to market. Says he is 14 years old and has been working with pigs for 9 years. Goes to school in Paris, Ky. Location: Winchester [vicinity], Kentucky. Published September 15, 1916

Blog Mirror: George Singleton wrote that 'hog-killing time' was a community event

George Singleton wrote that 'hog-killing time' was a community event

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, January 24, 1944. Rendering Skunk Fat.

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, January 24, 1944. Red Advances, Luftwaffe...:

In Cheyenne, a War Salvage lecture was given on the topic of "How to get fat from skunk without smell". Attribution: Wyoming State History Society Calendar.

I don't think I'd try that.

Some apparently do, however.

The question is why?

Lex Anteinternet: Working outdoors

Lex Anteinternet: Working outdoors:

Working outdoors

I was recently asked for some career advice, and I have a long post on that topic I may, or may not, post, but it's sort of related to this.

We have another thread up here on Working With Animals, the basic point of it being that there were, even fairly recently, (within the last century) a lot of jobs where people worked with animals. Just recently it occurred to me, however, how many jobs there once were that were outdoor jobs that no longer are.

Indeed, it seems as if the entire western world has moved indoors, and not for the better really.

Working outdoors is something that a lot more people experienced on a daily basis than they do now. Prior to the heavy mechanization of agriculture there were a lot more farmers and ranchers, for example. People like freighters worked outdoors. Policemen did. They still do, but at that time, they were truly outdoors. Even people you wouldn't associate with outdoor careers, like lawyers and doctors, actually traveled locally a fair amount, in a way that was truly outdoors.

I don't think there's any replacement for being outdoors, and working inside and never seeing more of the outdoors than the space between the office and the car, or the parking lot and the store, isn't a good thing. Of course, people know that, but what most people do, and even have little other choice but to do, is to replace being outdoors by necessity or vocation with a sort of anemic substitute. I'm not blaming them, but an hour in a small city park in the middle of downtown isn't really being outdoors, in a true sense. It's better than nothing, but it isn't the same thing.

I'm sure that in some sense all this indoors has a negative impact on our physical and psychological health. With a nation in which so many are indoors, all the time, that's a fairly disturbing thing.

Lex Anteinternet: Economics of Farming with Horses

The original was posted in 2013, and it can be found with comments on our companion site.

Lex Anteinternet: Economics of Farming with Horses:

Economics of Farming with Horses

This interesting article appeared some time ago in Rural Heritage: Economics of Farming with Horses.

Cotton farmer, 1937.

At the time it ran, I subscribed to the magazine, and I even wrote a few articles for it. None of mine dealt with this topic, however. Nor could they, as I'm not a farmer, and I wouldn't know how to use a horse in farming. Or a tractor, for that matter.

Unhitching horses, 1937.

The same topic, horse vs. petroleum economics, is being explored here on the SMH site, but with a different prospective.

Army freight wagon, 1940.

It's an interesting topic, and one that we usually don't consider in this fashion. The slow (and it was slow) switch from horses to petroleum horse power, was an economic decision more than anything else. There are other factors, but the "inevitable" march of progress type of prospective is wholly in error. Gasoline powered vehicles of all types were enormously expensive originally, and gasoline was as well, contrary to the popular concept that it was darned near free. Early on, gasoline was actually more expensive in real terms than it is now, and for that matter, so were automobiles. The switch away from horse was influenced by other factors in various areas, including convenience and easy maintenance in urban settings, but dollars and cents mattered more than any other factor.

U.S. Army recruiting poster from 1919, the year after the Allied victory in World War One.

Of course, once they came in, petroleum fueled farm equipment not only came in because of an economic tipping point, they changed the economics of everything as well. After awhile, all farmers nearly had to switch to them, or such was the perception. That impacted what they could farm, and then what they had to farm. The irony of mechanization is that in the end, it not only meant fewer farm horses, it meant many fewer farmers.

World War One vintage recruiting poster for the Indiana National Guard.

Going Feral: Fishing season is over, and hunting season has begun.

Going Feral: Fishing season is over, and hunting season has begun.:

Fishing season is over, and hunting season has begun.

I am, by vocation, a hunter. A hunter of wildlife and fish. And I'm not exaggerating.

This isn't a hobby with me. I'm stuck in a feral past, or perhaps a more feral future, but lving in the present.

And I'm more of a hunter than a fisherman, in contrast with my father, who was the other way around

The first two seasons of the year open on September 1. Like most years, due to my occupation (which most people, at least who are professionals, would claim as their vocation, although I'd wager that it is with less than half, very conservatively), I worked. Opening weekend for me, therefore, is usually when I first get out, and I first get out for the greatest of the wild grouse, Blue Grouse.

They are, I'd note, delicious.

This is a somewhat complicated story, but because of the route I take in, I need permission to cross, which is always forthcoming but I didn't hear back in time this year. That meant that I needed to drive into a location a good two miles further from my normal jumping off point.

And the road, due to the heavy rains this year, and the winter snow, was eroded to impassable. So the walk was further than expected.

But still very pretty, in the morning light.

Because of the very long hike, and my recent surgery, I armed myself with a kids model 20 gauge and buttoned my shirt up to my neck. Because my old M1911 campaign hat was a casualty of a rattlesnake event two years ago, I wore a replacement United States Park Service campaign hat. I don't like it nearly as much as my old M1911.

I will say that those wearing synthetic hats are, well, missing the point, and the boat.

The entire trip involves some mountain climbing for the dog.

The dog won't eat in the morning (poodles and doodles are strange about this) due to excitement, so I packed his uneaten breakfast with me. When we hit the high country, he was by that time hungry, in spite of his excitement.