Sorry for the absence. Had to take a bit of time off to try and help a neighbor, with a small child and a husband who needs a ride to the Train Station. He is now in jail and likely to remain so for a decent amount of time. Rehab for drugs, did not take. It too often, does not. Had a bit of body shop work on the old body for a tune up for my next and last 20 years. Shoulders, knees, hips are good to go, I am told, and back is about 75% which is as good as it has been for 30 years. I even loaded up about 20,000 hulls for shooting for the next couple years.

Eightbore, I would move back to MD if you could move all the morons in charge out, so it would be the state I grew up in. I am sure others would like their childhood state back, the way it mostly was, so I am not alone in that. I loved Maryland of the 50's, 60's and even 70's. Sometime after that it went liberal and now woke. I still have property there, but feel the ridiculous amount of regulations, taxes and need to ask permission to do anything on my own land. I never thought it would come to it, but the entire state has become Montgomery or PG county, with those elected or employed by the state, in charge and directing you in every little detail. I was not "allowed" to harvest timber on a "tree farm" I planted in 1973 because harvesting timber would disturb the ground and could cause runoff. That is not exactly what I was told. They said I could cut the timber, if I did not disturb the ground within a set distance from any ditch which drained into the Bay which would have made almost half my land impossible to harvest. Helicopters and long cranes would be an option. If you want to price one, let me know. I did and the numbers scared me.

So I did a little research and found out the ditches in question were not part of the local "tax ditch system" put in in the 1960's. It was private and only tied into the "tax ditch" system. The state did not own them, maintain them or have total control of them. I guess I was technically taking unfair advantage of the Tax Ditch system on the other side of the farm. So I filled in 20 feet of every ditch draining my property where the timber was. Cut the timber in the dry summer, that hurt the local farmers and had all my ditches cleaned out afterwards with a couple new pipes installed to drive across. Replanted pine trees for the next generation to harvest. The state pitch a fit but could not do anything about it. I doubt I could do that again, but I might have to try in a couple years. I have seen another attack starting of the Pine Borer infestation that killed a lot of trees a couple decades ago. That along with the red oak fungus blight, which is killing most of my red oaks is killing most of my trees. A squirrel needs to bring his own lunch these days to live in most of the woods of my youth and quail are just gone forever, forever. Pine trees, small grains and chickens are about all we grow there anymore. And those in government, working to protect what they see as their duty and rights. That is a bumper crop in its own right.