Dusty Devil Dale

Sorry, everyone. I remain unconvinced that dogs bred for size and aggressive fighting are also safe family dogs. "Breeding" means genetics. So tenacious fighting behavior has been made an integral part of their physical genome. They cannot change it, and neither can we; not through training nor affection, nor relationships with them. Statistics are great, but there are still people who get mauled, and if you become one, the rarity of the occurrence doesn't hold much comfort. Chantry, You present good facts, but not enough to overcome my biology and genetics background. So I'm still unconvinced. And I really don't think I will succeed in convincing you either, despite long rhetoric here. So I'll just leave this item with my prayer that you or your loved ones don't ever become PB statistics; rare or otherwise. Thanks for the v. good exchange here.

Having a pet that is bred to fight/kill, and which you cannot physically control or restrain is irresponsible, IMO. It isn't about people using a broad brush to judge or convict all Pit Bulls. It is about people keeping fighting breeds that they don't have the physical size and ability to contain and control, when the unexpected happens.

Everybody who has a PB defends their beloved pets. That is natural. But somebody's beloved pets are in the news fairly frequently for killing their owners, their owners kids, or unrelated people. They are predictably a tough, tenacious, powerful fighting breed. Trying to train generations of selective breeding out of an animal is not reliably possible. It's like trying to train the wool off of a sheep, when sheep are bred to produce it. Behavior is a breed characteristic, like any other bred-in GENETIC trait. You cannot depend on training to reverse or overcome that trait selection and genetics. And every animal can get a brain tumor or suffer pain, at which point they cannot be predicted. So the issue is to only keep animals that you are 100% sure you can physically restrain and control if those kinds of things happen. So, can you pry a big pit bull's mouth open, off of a kid or other dog? I would NEVER keep a Pit Bull Terrier where it has access to children. Kids have a way of unknowingly hurting animals, and Pit Bulls are bred to deal with pain aggressively. I wrote here a year ago about a past employee whose wife was killed in his back yard by her two long-term beloved PB pets, while he was away. The water hose was running so he surmised she tried to break up a fight. Again, you just cannot reliably train selective breeding out of an animal. Size, strength, tenacity and aggression are, and were, the traits bred for in PBs and all other fighting dogs.

My wife and I pack with 3 well trained pack llamas. We have to hike and lead them, but we don't have to carry anything ourselves (I do carry a holstered .357 or .44 to protect the llamas. if needed.) They carry 80+ pounds each (that includes their food) and we can normally make 12 - 18 miles/day, depending on terrain and elevation. We've been llama packing now since 1988 -- have packed thousands of miles through the Sierra Nevada Backcountry. Good times!

Nostalgic! I worked for a big timber company back in the mid 1960s, while in high school. Chainsaws were already the norm then, but a few older guys could wield an axe or bucksaw almost as fast. They had vast experience that they readily shared. In fact, they watched over my every move on the slopes like guardian angels, making sure this 14 year-old didn't do dumb stuff and get hurt. To this day I can hear their admonishions: > never ever get downslope of a cabled skid log. > always clear 15' around a tree for before felling. > keep track of everything happening around you - especially upslope. > Watch the overhead branches. > never cut into a tree without hammering all the way around with your axe head to be sure it is sound. > Don't ever use a vehicle jack on a tree. > Never ever use a chainsaw while standing on a ladder. > Never let a saw chain get loose, etc., etc., etc. To a young kid, it seemed like endless nagging, but they kept that inexperienced kid alive to write this 60 years later.

Nobody likes Poison Ivy or Poison Oak dust in their eyes, inhaled, up their sleeves, or down their neck. But a lightening fast chainsaw kick-back to the forehead or shoulder, caused by trying to do ripping (paralell to the grain) plunge cuts without proper training or with the wrong chain tooth & spacer geometry or improper chain tensioning, is waaaaay more dangerous. Any time a person is ripping with a chainsaw, as in the OP video, they need to be properly trained. There is lots more to it than one would otherwise realize.

A Sheriff's Dep friend said people get Pit Bulls to delay the police at the door long enough to flush the drugs. Police here don't hesitate to dispatch them at the first sign of aggression, when serving warrants. I think many others get Pit Bulls mostly to make some kind of independence statement. But it would be a lot better if they had the intellect to understand their own statement a little better. Demonstrating a total lack of caring about anyone else's well being isn't much to take pride in. Unlike most others here, I have shot three Pit Bulls at my ranch. One was running a doe and fawn, another attacked my neighbor's horse (with her riding it), and the third made me jump into my pickup bed. Two went down almost instantly, shot in the side of the head with a 9mm jacketed solid point. The other caved in when hit by a .357 mag. 160gn hp, fired down between the shoulder blades from a pickup bed. I don't like shooting dogs (or any mammal, any more), but I don't hesitate to take needed care of my family, property, health, neighbors and wildlife.

What could possibly go wrong? It's scary that fb and You Tube have this kind of thing, that can literally tempt DIYers to get themselves killed. I am professionally trained and I do a lot of big timber felling. Large (>15" dbh) tree felling, even in wide-open places, isn't really a DIY job. Proper training (beyond You- Tube) is pretty essential. This technique, called a "directional tenon", is not new. It is one of about 40 well-establoshed tree falling methods. It works in limited situations ONLY if properly and accurately done. And therein lies the concern. I sure dont recommend inexperienced people trying it. All 3 of the major cuts are necessarily precise plunge cuts that can be dangerous without proper equipment, and training. The cut geometry has to be VERY precise-- more so than most inexperienced chainsaw users can accomplish. The 180 degree problem, as mentioned above, is usually handled by first making a normal down-sloping 1/3 deep pie cut on the falling side, and hammering wedges or installing a proper tree jack (not any other type of jack) in a cut-away on the backside of larger trees. You absolutely must leave enough holding wood between the pie cut and the bottom of the tennon to keep control of the fall. Both vertical side cuts must be very parallel without tapers, and the same (i.e., measured) height. The sidecuts must be totally clear of drag and free of any holding wood, or the tree will twist, be pulled to the side, and either snap off the tenon or split the stump, causing full loss of control. AND the technique will not work if the tree has even a hint of side lean. If a tree must be felled in a place so risk-ridden that this technique is thought to be advantageous, it would be way better all around to just get an experienced tree faller who has proper equipment, knows how to use it, and (importantly) can show you evidence of insurance, both workman's comp., and public liability. Afterthought: Usually a tree in a sensitive location should be climbed and brought down in sections, using a zip line. It is far more safe and reliable than ground felling.

Yep. Ready to go. Just add water.

Bullet velocities would also need to be reduced to or near SASS specs, unless the club can afford steel target plate flattening and reconditioning. I commonly shoot factory 9mm loads at my own AR500 12"x12" targets. The 1400+ fps 125-gn bullet impacts quickly bow the 3/8" thick plates.

You can drive 'em just fine-- if you don't need them to hold and you don't mind splitting wood.

Mostly true. But remember, a big part is timing. If the mask catches and holds some of the particles (it does), it attenuates the rate at which you intake them (i.e., you receive them from the mask more gradually than from the initial cough cloud). So there is more time for your T-cells to attack the reduced flow of virus and there is some benefit. Masks should not be an acceptable replication site for virus, at normal air temperatures and humidity. Viral particles must attach to a living cell in order to replicate. But a mask certainly can breed and multiply most any bacteria, and it concentrates numbers of viral particles, if it is not cleaned or exchanged, as you indicated. Personally, I carry two N-95 masks in my truck. I Ultraviolet light (sunlight) clean and dry one while I wear the other -- usually alternating days. No question that proper mask hygiene is critically important. If you pick up virus on your hand-- like from a shopping cart-- and then touch your mask without sanitizing first, you are concentrating virus right at your air intake point. The other thing that helps is to do shopping early in the morning, before the particle numbers in stores' recirculated air becomes elevated. A lot of it is just common sense. If the enemy is coming up your driveway a couple at a time, you can definitely protect yourself. But if two hundred rush you at once, you're probably going to have a bad experience.

The low quality masks can control cough viral release with some level of effectiveness. Better masks to a better job. If a mask blocks ANY virus particles from traveling between people, there is some benefit. Remember, PPE is all about avoiding taking in virus particles in numbers too large at one time for your immune system to arrest before they can reproduce themselves. If you walk through a cough cloud of droplets in a store just seconds or minutes after the person coughed, you get a high dose at one time. If they wore a mask, your dose is lessened (never totally eliminated). If you also wore a mask, your intake of particles is further lessened. When fewer virus particles reach your pharynx, (where they immediately start replicating), there is a better chance that your T-Cell immune system can find and attack them, preventing their replication. If their numbers are too low for them to replicate at a sufficient rate to overtake your immunity, you have a controllable exposure. So it is all about the numbers acquired at any one time. Better masks mean transfer of lower numbers of infectious particles. But it is unrealistic to think that any mask will block 100% of the droplets and particles. That's why nobody can give guarantees. But masks do reduce exposure and increase the odds of a successful immune response. The better the mask, the lower the viral dose acquired at one time.

You're right about dirty masks being a serious health liability. Masks should be cleaned, as you described, exposed to UV as much as possible, and exchanged frequently. Hand sanitizer should be used for 20+ seconds, before donning, removing, or handling a mask. An N95 mask is the best commonly available in the consumer market. They are now about $2.50 apiece. Medical staff in hospital ICU wards have recently been wearing N-100 masks and/or cartridge respirators with hoods. Nobody wants to get exposed to a drug resistant virus. And nobody ever enjoys being on a respirator. If you've been there (I have), it's a horrible experience. It is so bad that they tether your hands to the bed rails to stop you pulling the tube out of your trachea. You experience a constant gag reflex for days.

We agree about individual doctor offices, pre-Covid. I never saw a mask in any of them.

Eyesa, You probably were in an "infection treatment" area at Dartmouth, which is different to a contagious infectious disease ward. Infection treatment is usually about antibiotic (antibacterial) drugs and wound dressing changes. Wound infection treatment is about bacteria like E. coli or Pseudomonas, not viruses; particularly not aeria-borne viruses. OSHA would not permit the conditions that you described in a ward that had ICU patients on respirators and staff attending them. Neither would a hospital like Dartmouth accept the liability risk associated with laxity in patient or staff protection.

Very sorry I mentioned the "M" word, which always brings out all of the quasi-"experts" and pages of descriptions of everyones' contrary experiences on every aspect. My original purpose was only to share the context of the most recent medical literature, and the recommendation of the medical and research professionals working with the new virus derivative that PPE be properly worn, since effective drugs/vaccines may not yet exist. I was prerty clear that folks can take it or leave it-- make your own choices. I hope we don't see another pulse of Covid-related prayer posse requests here or see closure of events and businesses in months upcoming if the thing turns out to really be drug resistent. I plan to wear PPE when indoors around people, and do my best to avoid those consequences.

I missed your point? What's Ca got to do with the OP or subject matter?

Take a look on any Infectious Disease Ward in any reputable hospital, bacteriology lab, virology lab or pharmaceutical research lab where infectious agents are present. Like so many on social media and Internet forums, your knowledge and experience with medical facilities and practices and Virology is way too limited to be suggesting to others that personal protection is not necessary. Just ask your doctor and make your own choices. But don't spread opinions as facts.

Some here will take offense at this. That is unsurprising, given all of the political and social stigma that has been attached to the wearing of masks. I am not trying to be annoying here-- just factually informative. There is new information recently published in the peer reviewed medical literature. From what I am reading in my MD wife's New England Journal of Medicine, Journal Watch, and CDC Bulletins, the Omicron BQ1.1 is a different customer than the previous Covid versions. It is rated as highly contagious, with 57% of all US cases and 71% of all worldwide cases now being OM-BQ1.1. Based on the numbers of serious extended cases requiring hospitalizations, Infectious Disease specialists are concerned it may be resistent to the treatment drugs used for the earlier versions--things like monoclonal antibodies. There is a recent major increase in the number severe cases requiring extended hospitalization and respiratory support. If all of that turns out to be correct, then isolation and individual protection like proper mask wearing (i.e., covering both mouth and nose), and frequent hand washing/sanatizing will be the only real defense we have for a time, until new OM-BQ1.1-effective drugs get developed and tested for release. It is a good time to forget vanity and all of the false controversy and political banter earlier dispersed about mask efficacy and err on the side of caution for everyones' benefit. Hospitals have required masks in infectious disease wards for over a century, for good, proven reasons. They mechanically reduce the number of infectious particles taken in or dispersed. When properly worn, they do, in fact, accomplish that for most bacteria and virus size particles, including OM-BQ1.1.. Reduced initial particle intake reduces the work our immune systrm must do to attack and eliminate the intruders. Everyone can choose for themself. But if we want to ever get past the Covid chain of disease variants. we need to first get past all the stigma that the media has magnified (at great profitability) and use common sense about personal and family protection. Directly interrupting spread is much easier than medically treating the disease, once acquired, and having to develop new drugs to combat drug resistence, while people are sick. The best info we have today is what is factually presented and recommended in the recent medical literature, summarized above. Make your own choices.

That's truly wonderful. Do Enjoy!

When I was 11 or so, Thanksgiving always began at 4:30 AM, sitting in a frozen pit goose blind with my dad. Those memories are special now, 62 years later. (He died of cancer two days after my 13th birthday.) Cherish every single minute !

I'll be mostly on the road tomorrow, so I'll wish all of you a happy, healthy Thanksgiving now, just a bit early. I hope you can all spend tomorrow with family and friends. I'm very thankful for all of the blessings I have received, and I will try to remember the "giving" part as well and try to share those blessings, paying them forward. Do enjoy this special holiday!!!

A lot of the commercially available lady bugs are several Chinese species. They feed on aphids, while they last, then turn and consume the vegetation you were protecting. And they outcompete native Lady bug populations.

Personally, I think I'll stick to chicken (prefer BBQed) and leave the gourmet experiments to you guys. I did try rattlesnake once. I found it to be pretty oily and strong - certainly not good. Kind of a sagebrush smell and flavor. I tried it and threw the rest away.