Southern Snow???

[bort]

My friend Jonathan here, just got an *awesome* face paint job.

[tbn.al]

(What's the best type of gun to shoot them with, btw? Whenever I shoot turtles, they sorta tend to "explode". )

I know a guy who used a 30-06 to shoot a turtle that was sunning itself on a log. He never found any evidence of the turtle after he fired his shot. It obviously vaporized.

yup. 30-06 is what I'm using now. Previously, I had a 6mm, and even that would "explode" them.

Probably, the only way to successfully enjoy turtle soup is to grab them (live) when they're on dry land.

Doesn't matter what you shoot them with. The trick is to only hit the head. They will float long enough for you to row out and pick them up. Even a .22 works if you hit 'em in the head. Much more economical too. You do need to be up really high because the round will hit the water, richochet 4 or 5 miles away and kill someone. My uncle got a neat .30 cal hole in the top of his car that way. My favorite place as a kid was an abandoned railroad trestle over a slough in the Ouchita river bottom. We could get .10 a pound for them at the general store in Calion. That usually paid for the ammo and the gas.

[lgb&dtuba]

You don't need a rifle for snappers. Just a can of Vienna Sausages.

1. Open can of Vienna Sausages.
2. Pour the liquid into the pond. Eat the sausages.
3. Every turtle there will make a bee line to the Vienna Sausage slick.
4. Pick up the turtle of your choice from this end:



NOT this end:



5. Clean and use in your favorite turtle recipe. It can't be any worse than those Vienna Sausages.

[Donn]

Actually, turtles rock. They're the coolest in the pond.

I like turtles too, very much. I also like bullfrogs, in a way, but in my part of the world they're an introduced species that has been a disaster for, among others, the native Western Pond Turtle. So in areas where the bullfrog is not native, and where people have an overwhelming urge to fire on small stationary animals, the bullfrogs would be better targets than the turtles (though here they're usually introduced species also.)

[SRanney]

On a related topic...

If you live in an urban area, how bad is your mosquito problem?

When I was disassembling that greenhouse in the midtown part of Memphis, they were (just as back when I lived in town) trying to eat me alive.

Out here, I don't recall having been bitten ONCE over the last three years.

Between the frogs, fish, turtles, dragonflies, martins, bats, and other stuff that eats them and their eggs, they just don't have much of a chance out here.

Are you suggesting that there is a positive relationship between mosquito abundance and urban development? It has been my experience that mosquitos are worse in undeveloped areas rather than urban areas. The highest numbers of mosquitoes I've ever encountered (and I grew up down south in the land of man-eating skeeters) has been here (keep zooming out until you get your bearings). The nearest population center is close to 50 miles away and probably totals less than 500 individuals.

[tbn.al]

Speaking of "Montana" and such (ie. your map), my daughter went to Banff (Canada) a couple of summers in a row to play her oboe and claimed that the mosquitos were larger and more concentrated there than she's ever encountered anywhere.

I spent the summer of '63 working for the forest service in AK. The only thing about the experience that I did not absolutely love were the skeeters. 3 times the size of the ones I left in South Arkansas and mean! Up there people said that if you really wanted to find the big ones you had to go farther north. I guess since they have so little time they have to make the most of it. The ones just north of Anchorage were enough to keep me busy. One of my buddies on a fire up by Fairbanks sent me this picture.

mosquito_422.jpg

[Tundratubast]

I know snow in the south sucks, It is truly a mood & attitude buster when you get 2-3 " of snow on June 6, like in Dickenson, ND We had heavy rain in Fargo, ND yesterday and it was bouncing around 39 - 42 degrees. Snows not to far away at those temps. At least the grills still fire up, so you can at least pretend it's spring. This was not intended to be funny!