My first year hunting, aside from the possible duck hunting excursions over the next two weeks, has come to a close. I’ve made accomplishments, many mistakes, learned some lessons, and of course, wished I could’ve gone more.

To get the shameful business over first, the mistakes I made were mainly in planning. I’ve learned upgrading parts of your bow mid-season is a bad thing. My heart was in the right place when I decided to upgrade my fiber optic sight at the beginning of the fall archery season. What I didn’t take into consideration was the amount of time it would take me to sight in the new pins, which resulted in me breaking the silencer tubes on my rest and also playing the game of: “Is it my sight that’s off? Or is it my rest? Or maybe it’s my form?”.

Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem. But given that I’m a novice archer but a full-fledged tinkerer, hours became days which became weeks wasted on dialing in a bow that was already dialed in to start. When after-work evenings are only a few hours long and grow shorter as the daylight wanes, it was a losing battle until a free weekend could roll in. And free weekends were few and far between at the start off the season, with 3 weddings, a 10-day trip to Peru, and installing a dog fence to take priority.

But there were still days I managed to get out into the field and animals to see. None to shoot though.

Which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Luckily, I have a good friend who would come up from CT at the drop of a hat to go out with me. Although he’s not an expert hunter yet either, he does have a lot more experience than I do but he loves to learn as much as I do. And, to my advantage, likes to pass on knowledge and just be outside. We spent a lot of time swapping tips he’s learned from his own experiences as well tips I’ve just read or heard. Hopefully, I didn’t make him any dumber in the process. Thanks Scoot.

I’ll share one hunting outing that left us both feeling dumber. It was the morning of Thanksgiving and we decided that while he was up visiting his family, that we’re try to go out for some duck. We had gone out several times before, checking out ponds we had found on Google Earth that looked good. No luck there. He had found some new ponds near his house that looked promising so we decided it was worth a shot. With me waking up late, forgetting my call when I was already on my way, and then the promising pond ending up being strung over by high tension power lines, we were a bit defeated. Standing out there in the cold, holding my brand new 28” barrel Weatherby pump, we decided to head back to his house and grab our bows to look for some turkey. His father had been telling him about a group of Toms that cross through his yard every morning, the same group I’ve witnessed a few times when I drive by his house on my morning work commute.

As we pulled up the road and to his driveway, what do we see? A group of 6 big Tom’s crossing the road INTO his driveway. Yes, we actually had to wait while they crossed and wander into his front yard. We sat there dumbfounded. Although my bow was in the other car, garaunteeing there was no shot capable, we both knew we wouldn’t take one even if we could. He knew that I didn’t want my first turkey to be taken standing in a driveway at point blank range. So we sat there, trying not to laugh at their obvious low IQ,  while we called to them with the windows rolled down. Once they passed into the woods behind the house, we scrambled to get our bows and get to somewhere where we could intercept them. We waited in a spot of woods that they had clearly been using, there were sign all over the place. What once were a group of idiot turkeys and a gauranteed wild turkey dinner that evening, ended up outsmarting us. I guess our hubris got the best of us and in our confidence in that spot being THE spot, they got away.

Oh well. It made for a good story the next day.

I think as a beginner hunter, I’m still learning about myself while learning how to hunt. There is still an inner war being waged between my societal conscience and instinctual conscience. Often times, I’m left wondering which was there first? I’m also still terrified about the point in which it becomes a mile-long draw of a bow and a thousand-pound trigger release. I’m still not sure whether not getting the chance this year is for better or for worse. Will I learn more about myself come next year? Or will wintering this internal debate only let it lose the foothold I’ve dug it this fall?

I guess we’ll see in Hunting Year 2.

It’s becoming more and more prevalent in the media that there is a rise in food prices occurring. The rise has come across the world, and has already begun trickling down to the consumer in the United States. But for whatever reason, the mainstream media refuses to cover it in earnest, but rather devoting small snippets to mentioning it in the news feed. Even coverage of the recent uprisings in the Middle East and Northern Africa failed to illustrate the causes. Most of the coverage implied that it was due to social and religious reform, which is true but in fact, a big (if not leading) cause was a rise in food prices. Here is my take on what’s going on and maybe some useful advice on what to do about it.

Prices are rising, but some countries feel it more than others.

The February of 2011 saw a record high peak in global food prices. The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization global food price index pegged it at 238 points. The only other peak previous to that was in 2008 during a peak of 213.5. Uprisings in Yemen, Tunisia, Yemen, and Egypt began in January during the price rise before that index reporting.  Yes, both social and political factors are at play here, but there is a strong indicator that food prices and cost of living also did as well.

In many developing countries, families spend between 60-80% of their income on food. When such a high percentage of money goes toward food, even a slight increase has dramatic effects on the remaining money in your pocket. Many of these countries import nearly 100% of the food used to feed it’s people. While these countries don’t have much in the way of domestic agriculture, they also don’t have much foreign currency reserve. This compounds a rise in food costs also when their currency grows weaker against the dollar. To top things off, as of June of last year, 44 million people dropped below the poverty/hunger line, and that number continues to rise.

Developing countries, like those in Africa, are often hit the hardest. Somalia alone has seen an 154% increase in the price of white maize (corn). This is a staple food.

There are many things that affect the price of food from where its grown to where it feeds. Recently, rises in energy costs such as oil effect transportation and production costs. Also, increased ethanol production, which requires massive amount of crops, means less food for feeding mouths. Moreover, as more land is used for ethanol production, many other areas have delivered lower crop yields due to volatile weather. Russia, Ukraine, and areas of South/Central America have experienced droughts. Other countries like Pakistan and the United States have experienced massive flooding.

Furthermore, aside from “physical” or direct causes, like weather, speculation and market volatility also run up the price on food. Industrially advanced and developing countries, such as China, buy up and hold huge loads in food commodities. Remember, within powerfully developing countries, many people rise up in class. Continue reading »

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War is a treat to read. On the outside, its an fiction action-thriller written as though its a non-fiction biography of many people’s experiences during a war. Its entertaining, frightening, funny, and, at it’s core, quite humanistic. Many people love it because there are zombies in it. Hell, that’s one of the main reasons why I love it too.

I never thought something so complex and well envisioned would come out when I picked up The Zombie Survival Guide when it was first published 4+ years ago. At the time, my friends laughed at me and told me I was wasting my money. Even the clerk at the Barnes and Noble counter gave me a “Are you serious?” look when I went to pay for it. This was before the huge zombie fascination. Before the vampire fascination. Even before the mainstream super-hero fascination. At the time, zombies were still one of those conversations you had with friends fireside and on rare occasion. Back then, half the group would have no idea what you were talking about. When your “zombie plan” was still infantile and new, there was much room for contention. Nowadays, you can walk by anyone on the street and they’ve already hatched one that’s likely better than yours. Regardless, it’s still fun to imagine “what if”. What if society was put on hold. With no distractions, what would you do to survive?

When I said earlier that Max Brooks writes a deeply humanistic book with World War Z, I mean that beneath the piles of flesh eating, reanimated corpses, there is a deep rooted human sentiment. Survival. Every recounting in the book, from the old, blind man in China to the grunt on the front lines of Yonkers, there is a story of survival.

Throughout the book, one can replace the word “zombie” with “disease” and the book would still make perfect sense. Replace the fear caused by the walking dead by the fear of economic collapse. Or the onset of food shortages. Fuel shortages. Political or social upheaval. In the end, the zombies offer an entertaining, purely fictional villain, but the reaction and description of humanity’s bid for survival remains very true.  The same mass hysteria, unpreparedness, and adaptation can be seen in many conflicts and disasters from the past. Max Brooks did a fair amount of research using these model examples. Moreover, this survival sentiment plays off the notion of individuality prominent throughout the US. We are the allegorical lone wolf. We can take of the problem ourselves, with our own resolve. On the other hand, it also plays off the lack of self sufficiency and self-preservation some have. Just look at the story of the people who went north to Canada. It’s a hauntingly realistic corollary.

My friend just finished the book in two days and has been talking to me about it. It has rekindled the flame of zombie survival in my heart. With the debt crisis looming overhead, maybe its time to dust off our old Z-Plans.

I was looking at some online retailers for ammunition prices today after realizing my supply of Winchester whitebox practice ammo was severely depleted since last fall. I usually check wideners.com first, since I’ve seen very reasonable prices through them in the past. What was listed on their front page was:

“NOTICE:

Large price increases for all ammunition and components are coming in April and May 2011. Record high costs of primary metals such as lead and copper are cited as part of the reason. ”

Oh wonderful, another repeat of the 2008 Ammunition Buying Frenzy. However, this time, I expect it to be far worse. Why? Because in 2008 it was mainly in response to a political climate. Firearms owners bought up ammunition and firearms like it was going out of style, because, in fact, they were worried it was. The concern was that the Obama Administration would quickly relight or create more anti-gun legislation, similar to the Assault Weapons band, etc. Gun enthusiasts bought en masse before this. Some say Obama was the best thing to happen to the firearms industry since John Moses Browning!
Continue reading »