Florida’s Python Season

The state’s first licensed hunting season for the Burmese python has ended, with a body count of 37.

A state-sanctioned pilot hunting program aimed at determining location and formulating an eradication plan ended Saturday with 37 of the invasive reptiles being killed.

“This was more about finding where they are and seeing if we can contain their expansion,” Scott Hardin, exotic species coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, told the Miami Herald.

The constrictors can measure 18 feet long and weigh 160 pounds, and wildlife officials say they could number in the tens of thousands in the South Florida region — mostly in the Everglades.

Snake owners who released pythons when they became too large to manage are believed largely responsible for this troubling phenomenon. The snakes, which are reproducing in the wild, have become a threat to native wildlife.

The wildlife commission is collecting data from the snakes killed so far and will expand the hunting program next year. Meanwhile, licensed hunters after other species can continue to kill pythons in designated areas, including parts of the Everglades around Big Cypress National Preserve.

“If you’re in there hunting, and you see a python, you can kill it,”‘ Hardin said.

Hunters have used nets and snares and guns to subdue the reptiles, but all legal hunting methods are allowed, including bang sticks, harpoons and spear guns.

In a letter encouraging the harvesting of pythons, posted on the commission website, Chairman Rodney Barreto wrote, “You can even have some fancy cowboy boots made from python, but I don’t recommend eating the meat because testing revealed high levels of mercury in the meat — levels well above that considered safe to eat.”

Are you looking for a place to talk hunting? A place full of friendly hunters. Than MHT is your place. Come see us soon.
Say Hi to “Rev. Jeff” for me. As moderator Jeff is the last line of defense for the forum. An avid blogger he can be found over at his site as well, The Sacred Hunt

Moses

The link will take you to the MDIFW website…….all you need is proof of previous licensing as the site will specify ….and a credit/debit card.

It may be November….. but there are deer to hunt…….coyotes to shoot, and birds and bunnies to harvest.

See you in the woods!!!!!!

The Outdoor and Shooting Wires have received- and verified the accuracy of an internal Remington memorandum that effectively answers most of a question that has been making the rounds of the industry: Is Remington getting into the handgun market?

Short answer, yes.

An “Organizational Announcement” from Chief Marketing Officer Marc Hill to all of Remington’s employees confirmed the existence of a Remington handgun team by naming Tom Taylor to the position of Senior Vice President of Marketing and Product-Handguns.

That’s a definitive answer to the question, and should serve notice to the industry that Remington has no plans to lay off what has been a torrid growth pace over the past year.

To industry folks, Taylor’s also a face both recognized and well-liked.

The affable former Vice-President of Marketing for Smith & Wesson, Taylor has most recently been the Executive Director of the Remington Outdoor Foundation, establishing, as Hill wrote, “the pillars and strategies for its long-term success.” Hill also praised Taylor for his “vast amount of handgun experience” calling him the “ideal person to develop and lead our strategy for this important category.”

Taylor has also continued to be extremely involved and committed to advancing the Honored American Veterans Afield (H.A.V.A.) organization, helping injured servicemen, veterans and their families get back outside. (Note: The organization hosted its largest event to date, the second annual National Family Day last week in San Antonio, Texas).

Prior to Smith & Wesson, Taylor was an executive with Coca-Cola in both sales and marketing.

According to the memorandum, Taylor will transition into his new position over the next sixty days, joining Remington full time on January 4, 2010.

And the Remington handgun strategy?

While attending the Remington 2010 product introductions, I asked the same question of Marc Hill. At that time, he declined comment, but it has been no secret in the industry that Remington has been “shopping” for a handgun company. Several names have been mentioned, but it appears the first product will be “organic” coming from inside Remington, rather than via acquisition.

A 1911 is in first-production testing, and may be ready for introduction at SHOT Show in January. That is a qualified date because the company seems more concerned in making a solid product before introducing it to the consumer public, eschewing other companies’ practice of launching products and making adjustments on the fly.

Remington has been out of the handgun business for decades, but does have a handgun history to call from, should it remain “organic” and reintroduce new versions of older handguns.

From 1963 until 1998, the XP-100 was a solid member of the Remington product family. In fact, it is widely credited as having been the gun that started the sport of varmint shooting, and served as the initial platform for the .221 Fireball cartridge.

The Remington Model 51. Could this small pocket pistol be part of Remington’s re-entry into handguns?
From 1918 until the early 1930s, Remington also produced a pocket pistol designed by John Pedersen.
Available in .32ACP and .380 ACP calibers, the small, reliable Model 51 might be a candidate for a revival – especially if it were lightened by the use of polymers and/or new metal technologies not available during its original production gun. Only about 65,000 of the Model 51s were produced, but they remain a gun with a small, but strong following. Less than an inch thick, with a 3-1/4 inch barrel inside a frame 6-5/8 inches long, the hesitation locked, detachable, single-stack semi-auto might be significantly “amped up” with new technologies and ammunition.

One fan of the Model 51: General George Patton. As an interesting historical footnote, the U.S. Navy recommended adopting the Model 51 – if it were made in .45 caliber.

In that variant, it was known as the Model 53, and was regarded as being smaller, lighter, more accurate, and more controllable than the M1911.

And revolvers? Yep, the Remington & Son percussions in .36 (Navy) and .44 (Army) calibers were used in the American Civil War from 1862 forward. It was primarily carried by Union solders, and actually preferred over the standard issue Colt Army Model 1860 by those who could afford it. It’s primary advantages were said to be its durability and the ability to quickly swap-out cylinders, significantly speeding up reloads.

Today, Uberti and Pietta New Army replicas are nearly identical to Remington-Beals design, and are favorites among cowboy action shooters who like the period-accurate “cartridge conversion” – as did the real cowboys of that period.

At this point, what Remington will introduce-or acquire- will remain a topic of conversation with both consumers and industry members wondering if they might find their products in the gunsights of a company that has shown no reluctance to either introduce products – or acquire other companies.

And as any marketer will tell you, “buzz” is important.

Whatever happens, we’ll keep you posted.

–Jim Shepherd

I’ld Like to thank The Shooting Wire for this information……..thanks.

After you listen to this song, click on the “Prayers We Light” link ,awesome song too ……… such a waste of someone so talented.
” Lord… I hope you took this Angel home to sarinade the heavens. She died in a harsh way…. but had the soul of a believer. Let her light shine brightly in the Heavens…….over all of Cape Breton/Toronto/ and the world. Amen”

I found this in the YahooNews file……..what is happening to us?

Grinch! North Pole irked at end to Santa replies

By RACHEL D’ORO, Associated Press Writer Rachel D’oro, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 41 mins ago
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Starry-eyed children writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season likely won’t get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers.

The U.S. Postal Service is dropping a popular national program begun in 1954 in the small Alaska town of North Pole, where volunteers open and respond to thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. Replies come with North Pole postmarks.

Last year, a postal worker in Maryland recognized an Operation Santa volunteer there as a registered sex offender. The postal worker interceded before the individual could answer a child’s letter, but the Postal Service viewed the episode as a big enough scare to tighten rules in such programs nationwide.

People in North Pole are incensed by the change, likening the Postal Service to the Grinch trying to steal Christmas. The letter program is a revered holiday tradition in North Pole, where light posts are curved and striped like candy canes and streets have names such as Kris Kringle Drive and Santa Claus Lane. Volunteers in the letter program even sign the response letters as Santa’s elves and helpers.

North Pole Mayor Doug Isaacson agreed caution is necessary to protect children. But he’s outraged North Pole’s program should be affected by a sex offender’s actions on the East Coast — and he thinks it’s wrong that locals just learned of the change.

“It’s Grinchlike that the Postal Service never informed all the little elves before the fact,” he said. “They’ve been working on this for how long?”

The Postal Service began restricting its policies in such programs in 2006, including requiring volunteers to show identification.

But the Maryland incident involving the sex offender prompted more changes, even forcing the agency to briefly suspend the Operation Santa program last year in New York and Chicago before reinstating it with the same restrictions implemented nationwide this year.

The agency now prohibits volunteers from having access to children’s family names and addresses, said spokeswoman Sue Brennan. The Postal Service instead redacts the last name and addresses on each letter and replaces the addresses with codes that match computerized addresses known only to the post office — and leaves it up to local managers if they want to go through the time-consuming effort to shield the information. Brennan said no one is barred from continuing their programs, but they have to comply with the rules.

Anchorage-based agency spokeswoman Pamela Moody said dealing with the tighter restrictions is not feasible in Alaska.

“It’s always been a good program, but we’re in different times and concerned for the privacy of the information,” she said.

Moody stressed that kids can still send letters to Santa Claus. The Postal Service still runs the giant Operation Santa Program in which children can have their letters to Santa answered, and the restrictions do not affect privately run letter efforts.

What will change are the generically addressed letters to “Santa Claus, North Pole” that for years have been forwarded to the Alaska town, although Brennan said only a fraction of the letters with no specific address wind up in the Alaska town anyway. That program will stop, unless changes are made before Christmas.

Losing the Santa-letter cache is a blow to the community of 2,100 people, who pride themselves on their Christmas ties. Huge tourist attractions here include an everything-Christmas store, Santa Claus House, and the post office, where visitors can get a hand-stamped postmark on their postcards and packages.

Another issue raising the hackles on some locals is another recent change. Anchorage — 260 miles to the south — is processing the thousands of out-of-state requests for North Pole postal cancellation marks on Christmas cards and packages; Fairbanks, just 15 miles away, had long done so.

Moody said with as many as 800,000 items processed last year, Fairbanks is not equipped to handle the overload. Anchorage is the only city in Alaska with the high-speed equipment necessary to do the job without delay. Moody disagreed with the mayor’s belief that the process creates a false postmark. Brennan said the move is a matter of resources and finances for the agency, which lost billions of dollars in the last fiscal year and has closed facilities and consolidated districts nationwide.

Santa Claus House, built like a Swiss chalet and chock full of all items Christmas, sells more than 100,000 letters from Santa and one of the lures is the postmark.

Operations manager Paul Brown believes his business will be affected under changes to the volunteer Santa letter program because tens of thousands of letters are addressed to Santa Claus House, North Pole, Alaska.

Those letters will still be forwarded to volunteers but it’s unclear yet if anything will be done with them. Those intercepted by the postal service will probably eventually be shredded.

Brown worries about misinterpretations of the changes, such as people believing it’s no longer possible to get individual pieces of mail graced with the North Pole postmark.

NOW THIS IS GOING TOO FAR USPS!!!!!!!! BOYCOTT THE USPS……..USE EMAIL AND FEDEX !!!!!

Over the last couple weeks I have seen a drastic increase in traffic here. So apparently you like what I am doing and I take it you wish me to continue. After all this is “wanderings” and I am definitely Northwoods. The combination has left room for alot of variety in my posts. I hope to incite,invite, and inform …… God bless.

Oh yes…..please feel free to leave your comments…..I love to hear from You!!!

U.S. residents fight for the right to hang laundry

Reuters – By Jon Hurdle – Wed Nov 18, 11:32 am ET

PERKASIE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) – Carin Froehlich pegs her laundry to three clotheslines strung between trees outside her 18th-century farmhouse, knowing that her actions annoy local officials who have asked her to stop.

Froehlich is among the growing number of people across America fighting for the right to dry their laundry outside against a rising tide of housing associations who oppose the practice despite its energy-saving green appeal.

Although there are no formal laws in this southeast Pennsylvania town against drying laundry outside, a town official called Froehlich to ask her to stop drying clothes in the sun. And she received two anonymous notes from neighbors saying they did not want to see her underwear flapping about.

“They said it made the place look like trailer trash,” she said, in her yard across the street from a row of neat, suburban houses. “They said they didn’t want to look at my ‘unmentionables.’”

Froehlich says she hangs her underwear inside. The effervescent 54-year-old is one of a growing number of Americans demanding the right to dry laundry on clotheslines despite local rules and a culture that frowns on it.

Their interests are represented by Project Laundry List, a group that argues people can save money and reduce carbon emissions by not using their electric or gas dryers, according to the group’s executive director, Alexander Lee.

Widespread adoption of clotheslines could significantly reduce U.S. energy consumption, argued Lee, who said dryer use accounts for about 6 percent of U.S. residential electricity use.

Florida, Utah, Maine, Vermont, Colorado, and Hawaii have passed laws restricting the rights of local authorities to stop residents using clotheslines. Another five states are considering similar measures, said Lee, 35, a former lawyer who quit to run the non-profit group.

‘RIGHT TO HANG’

His principal opponents are the housing associations such as condominiums and townhouse communities that are home to an estimated 60 million Americans, or about 20 percent of the population. About half of those organizations have ‘no hanging’ rules, Lee said, and enforce them with fines.

Carl Weiner, a lawyer for about 50 homeowners associations in suburban Philadelphia, said the no-hanging rules are usually included by the communities’ developers along with regulations such as a ban on sheds or commercial vehicles.

The no-hanging rules are an aesthetic issue, Weiner said.

“The consensus in most communities is that people don’t want to see everybody else’s laundry.”

He said opposition to clotheslines may ease as more people understand it can save energy and reduce greenhouse gases.

“There is more awareness of impact on the environment,” he said. “I would not be surprised to see people questioning these restrictions.”

For Froehlich, the “right to hang” is the embodiment of the American tradition of freedom.

“If my husband has a right to have guns in the house, I have a right to hang laundry,” said Froehlich, who is writing a book on the subject.

Besides, it saves money. Line-drying laundry for a family of five saves $83 a month in electric bills, she said.

Kevin Firth, who owns a two-bedroom condominium in a Dublin, Pennsylvania housing association, said he was fined $100 by the association for putting up a clothesline in a common area.

“It made me angry and upset,” said Firth, a 27-year-old carpenter. “I like having the laundry drying in the sun. It’s something I have always done since I was a little kid.”

(Editing by Mark Egan and Paul Simao)

Thank You Rueters!!!!!! I needed that!!!!
Well at least here in Maine we can still Dry our clothes the Green way!!!!!!

Hilarious take on Vanilla Ice song!!!!!!

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Now my stats tell me that over a thousand readers a week come through here. Wow…..that is pretty impressive. Now if 10% of you join in my contest that is 100 possible contestants, per week. Now let’s stay at the 100 for a moment. If 100 tyers join the contest that’s 100 flies in the contest and only one winner. The winner takes all!! That’s right…the winner gets all the flies as the prize. So go over to Aroostook Flyers & Tyers…join the contest. Give it a try…….tye me a fly!!!!!