Rewards of rural living:

[slaveToHorses]

I am too lazy to get the deer pics off of my other computer but here is the field across from my house. about 15 ac of poppies.

Oh man, that's a nice view. Makes me want to take my lounge chair, a cigar and some scotch and just veg out

 

[dancer]

Eddie, those hogs won't run after ya will they?Or do they shy away from people.

bones1,
I've been doing 'way too much talking about wild/feral hogs lately, and this is definitely my last post on the subject. I've developed a ton of respect for EddieWalker and his Texas straight-shootin' manner ... so I'm going to give you, directly, a few hog facts from my experience rather than argue with Eddie...

1. I was 15 and riding the school bus home in the afternoon. A man flagged the bus driver to stop. It was my Dad! He'd been out in the local woods several miles from home hunting for squirrels and pre-scouting the deer prospects for the upcoming season. He had our Winchester .22LR semi-auto rifle and our three feist-type dogs which did a passable job as squirrel dogs. He, or maybe the dogs, surprised a large wild barrow (Dad's description, as I never saw the hog) which charged and attacked him -- upending him and dislocating his left shoulder. He said that the hog turned to charge again as he lay on the ground but the dogs distracted it long enough for him to retrieve the .22 and kill it with a one-handed shot from the rifle. He managed the half-mile or so of walking out of the woods and back to civilization by himself of necessity, but when he got to the road was all used up -- more than I'd ever seen him. I drove him in our pickup to the doctor where his shoulder was reset at the cost of two or so broken ribs. He was a heavy equipment (dozer) operator by trade with trememdous upper-body development necessary in those days of pre-hydraulic cable-operated blade control. He passed away about six months later of a myocardial infarct -- blood clot interfering with heart valves or arteries -- possibly though not necessarily related to the muscle damage of that shoulder dislocation and subsequent resetting. Nobody ever went back to see the carcass of that hog. End of long story #1.
2. In the cold of winter in the South Arkansas woods, hogs will gather in large groups and huddle together for warmth. Not only that but they will sweep up large piles of leaves and pinestraw and completely cover the group with it. The result will be a hump in the landscape which might be 20 or more feet across and three or more feet tall, flat on top and looking like solid ground -- just a "hump" which might be a relic of Arkansas aboriginal inhabitants called the Mound Builders. YOU DO NOT WANT TO DISTURB THE HUMP -- ACCIDENTALLY OR ON PURPOSE! When disturbed the group of hogs explodes with the speed and suddenness of a covey of quail and the purpose of as many injured Cape Buffalo. Hogs everywhere and some will be coming at you. In my personal case, the same dogs that saved my Dad's bacon in the first tale above were the stimulus for the explosion and I was a few yards behind. I climbed a tree, leaving my 12-ga. on the ground to do it, and stayed in the tree for an hour while three of the larger and certainly more aggressive of the hogs patrolled at the base of the tree. Eventually they lost interest. My dogs, by the way, had left the area chasing one or more of the smaller hogs that would run from them -- so they were no good to me (and never came back to my tree, the cowards!). End of long story #2, sort of (see long story #3).
3. Here's something that bothers me about wild hogs -- I believe that if wild hogs killed you, or found you pre-killed, they would eat you! Once, one of our river-rat neighbors caught a HUGE alligator gar in his hoop-net rig in the Ouachita River. It's size was really note-worthy and he drove it around the community in his pickup truck bed to show everybody, and then drove an extra dozen miles to the nearest large scale (at the ice house) where it weighed 258 pounds. It turns out that would have been a state record in Arkansas up until a few years ago when a 264-lb gar was caught, but there wasn't a state record book for such things back then. This story ends with Mr. Nash taking his catch back home and dumping it into his hog pen which then had five hogs of various sizes. They ate it, all, in about three days!

I could refresh some anecdotes of other people, but I think I'll stop there. If you're a hunter, I suggest you contact the Arkansas Fish and Game Department and learn when feral hog hunting is legal in the Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Arkansas just on the Louisiana border. Go there. Do that. Then tell us your own tales!

 

[dubba]

This is the latest contender for the coveted "porch freezer apartment". He has been hiding out back by my woodpile watching me work (75 ft away when I noticed him) After I drove away from him another 75 ft he came out to get a good look.

(I'm not sure if I've posted this one yet, sorry if it is a duplicate)

 

[BB_TX]

bones1,
I've been doing 'way too much talking about wild/feral hogs lately, and this is definitely my last post on the subject.

Here is an article from Texas A&M. Down in the article it mentions a lady jogger that was attacked by a wild boar and a Cherokee county deer hunter that was killed by one. http://agnews.tamu.edu/stories/WFSC/Jan1698a.htm
A google search brings up other articles about hog attacks on humans.

 

[rswyan]

I was out this morning with the tractor and landscape rake pulling the rock out of the topsoil where the old driveway used to be - I was just pulling over to park and go in the house and get a drink and a big hawk flew over to the adjacent woods and lit in a tree about 40' away. I shut the tractor off and walked up to the house and got the wife for her to come look.

He was still there when she and I got back - but took off to another perch about 150' away when we got within about 30'.

I've been moving alot of dirt from behind the polebarn and we had cleared a trail through the woods to get over to where I'm dumping the soil. The wife thinks I may have displaced some tasty morsels with all my activity.

 

[dancer]

Here is an article from Texas A&M. Down in the article it mentions a lady jogger that was attacked by a wild boar and a Cherokee county deer hunter that was killed by one. http://agnews.tamu.edu/stories/WFSC/Jan1698a.htm
A google search brings up other articles about hog attacks on humans.

Thanks! Sounds like there should be a declaration of an official new game animal in Texas.

BTW, my Dad's birth certificate listed his birthplace as "Fannin County, Texas".

 

[jinman]

BTW, my Dad's birth certificate listed his birthplace as "Fannin County, Texas".

So did my mom's. She was born near the little town of Leonard.


Dancer, you have your hog stories, but around here, it's the gangs of turkeys. You just never know when they might "gooble" you up. This gang shows up several times per day to check out our deer feeder. This picture was last night just before sundown.

 

[dancer]

[/QUOTE]Dancer, you have your hog stories, but around here, it's the gangs of turkeys. You just never know when they might "gooble" you up. This gang shows up several times per day to check out our deer feeder. This picture was last night just before sundown.[/QUOTE]

My neighbor says I have turkeys too. Says she sees them cross the lane between our places almost daily to feed in my "pasture". I could see them too, if: 1) I can get past the recovery period for the recent fix-up surgery on my right knee, and then 2) Finish my backhoe projects, so that 3) I can dismount the BH and put the RC back on the tractor, and then 4) Cut the #@%$ overgrown 10-acre pasture that presently hides everything, so that 5) I can stand on the edge of the hill behind my barn and take pictures of turkeys and deer, and the occasional mountain lion (saw one following deer two years ago). This would be especially possible if I planted a critter food plot or two back next to the tree line. Frustrated!!!

 

[3RRL]

Jim,
That's a great Turkey photo. I wish we had more around here. I've only seen 2 over the last 3 years...a Tom and hen together passing through our meadow. We have plenty of deer, an occaisional bear and lots of coyotes and bobcats. Lions higher in the hills about 3 miles back, but I've never seen one. Have seen their prints on the road though.
I'd sure like to see more turkeys like on your place.

 

[jinman]

...an occaisional bear and lots of coyotes and bobcats. Lions higher in the hills about 3 miles back...

I think I know why you don't have many turkeys.