Gravel Pit Winter Trout

I wrote previously about the trout I stocked in a flooded gravel pit. You can read the article HERE with details about the gravel pit.

Winter has now locked the pond in under 28 inches of ice. It's nearing the end of January, but so far the fish are thriving. I don't expect them to survive the winter so we've been doing some ice fishing.

... keep reading

Remember

Closing Time: Leonard Cohen

First Trout of the Year

Stocking your own rainbow trout can be a hoot!

They have thrived. In three months some of the fish have grown to almost a foot in length, and they are active and healthy. On quiet evenings after a windy day, the surface of the water is constantly being broken with jumping fish, some launching completely into the air.

More at Whelen Woods.

Wind Farms: The Greatest Con of All Time

James Delingpole dishes up a real treat in a savage piece that hits hard at the horrifically greedy and corrupt interests that have shoved Wind Power down our throats:

How about that all you idyllic villages from Cornwall through Northamptonshire to the Fens and thence up north to the humpy Howgills and beyond who’ve had your views blighted, your peace disturbed, your property values trashed, your avian wildlife sliced and diced, your livestock frightened and your community cohesion disrupted by wind projects you never wanted, which you fought hard to prevent, but which were dumped on your doorstep anyway?

How does it feel to know that – having wasted all that time, money and heartache trying unsuccessfully to fight those greedy developers and selfish landowners through the biased planning process only to be overruled by some sinister Inspector Blight figure from the Planning Inspectorate – you’ve belatedly been vindicated by the wind industry itself?

Read the whole thing.

The New Rifle Scope

I recently decided to replace the scope on my favorite hunting rifle. There are so many options available today that the task could have been tricky, but since I knew exactly what I needed from my new scope, the task of eliminating contenders was actually quite easy.

Here's how it turned out:

4 Outstanding Whelens

Over the years a surprising number of firearms have been chambered in 35 Whelen ... usually on a limited run basis. Some have been budget rifles, but more often than not high quality rifles have bore the Whelen stamp.

I decided to do a search of what is available today and found four very interesting and high quality rifles being manufactured at this time.

Here they are:

Barnes TSX .358

I found that under 57 grains the groups opened up and over 57 grains they opened up. The bullets are seated about 0.04" off the lands. If I got any closer the cartridges were a bit too tight in the magazine box and didn't load smoothly.

Keep Reading>>

My First Ever Bedding Project

I prefer wooden rifle stocks over synthetic ones, even though high quality synthetic rifle stocks make for more accurate shooting. Recently I made the decision to upgrade the wooden stock on my favorite rifle, a 1988 Remington Model 700 Classic. The rifle is chambered in 35 Whelen, my favorite caliber.

My Favorite: Remington M700 Classic in 35 Whelen

The Remington M700 Classic is an accurate rifle; but it is a one shot deal.   The stock is light and thin and has a pressure point at the forend, so the zero moves after the first two shots.  Two shots are generally enough to heat the barrel and begin to change the harmonics.

What this means is that if you let the barrel cool completely after placing a shot, the accuracy is outstanding for the next shot.  But, the barrel must be cooled all over again.

Keep Reading>>

Hunting 2015 and New Blog

They say it's better to be late than never, so I've decided to post about my 2015 hunting season.

Suddenly, and actually to my surprise, the breaking of branches was right beside me ... the moose must've picked up the pace. There was a screen of small spruce about 15 yards to my right, and just like that the branches began to move .. and there he was walking right past me.

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German Girl Pleads for Help

This video was taken down by Facebook. Oh ... you are still on Facebook; shame on you.

Paperclip Mountains

... getting it:

Itty-bitty pundits thinking it’s clever to mock Americans’ opinions are finding the joke is on them. Cozy in their seat of judgment, blowing each other’s horns, protected by a glass screen. Ask yourself: just who ARE these windbags? And what do they build? Towers of paperclips? Lists of Twitter followers?

Devastating

Superholes

An absolute must read:

And yet no Republican "leader" objected to McCain's characterization of the base. Only Donald Trump did, and in doing so flung the crazy back in McCain's face. And all those hitherto somnolent Republican "leaders" stood on their dignity to insist that there was no place in their party for people who disrespect John McCain... no, make that all POWs... no, make that all veterans. McCain himself insisted that Trump didn't owe an apology to him but to all those who've served in the armed forces. So now John McCain is the personal embodiment of the entire US military? Trump didn't insult any of them, he insulted you, and you alone. I dislike the idea of protected classes of persons, and find the notion that John McCain is apparently the Caitlyn Jenner of the right not only faintly risible but, in terms of crude political advantage, unlikely to be as effective.

[...]

Still, we are speaking about degrees of assholery here. I can't quite honestly imagine how big an asshole I'd have to be to tell that Chelsea Clinton joke into a live microphone, as John McCain did. But if "there's a place in our party" for such a man, there's certainly no reason why there shouldn't also be a place for Donald Trump.

... and much much more from Mark Steyn.

A Cooling Planet

While so-called Progressive governments in BC, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec boast about their efforts to mitigate Global Warming, I wonder how history will treat them when Canada begins to experience her first major crop failures due to Global Cooling.

Canada is one of the few countries on earth that provides massive food surpluses ... imagine if that is no longer the case. Imagine, if you will, that the great food producers of the world ... all located in the Northern Hemisphere ... begin to suffer seriously from late spring thaws, late frosts, and early fall snows.

Sadly, by then the Green Fraud Artists will have long ago cashed their cheques and will be sitting smug in some tropical climate while the suckers they bilked freeze when the wind mills don't turn.

The enemy of humanity is not a Cooling Climate nor is it Global Warming ... it's the fraudsters who cloak themselves in the "green" movement and their useful idiot supporters who collectively prevent humanity from preparing for truly devastating climate change; a cooling planet.

As for Canada?  Well, we've carved out a marvelous country in a region that will be especially hard hit come global cooling ... those Ontario Wind Mills will stand as monuments to "progressive" stupidity one day ... bearings seized and blades ice covered, as Ontarians consume massive amounts of life-giving fossil fuels to fend off winters like none ever imagined possible.

From ICECAP:

Dr. Abdussamatov points out that Earth has experienced such major cooling occurrences five times over the last 1,000 years, and that: “A global freeze will come about regardless of whether or not industrialized countries put a cap on their greenhouse gas emissions. The common view of Man’s industrial activity is a deciding factor in global warming has emerged from a misinterpretation of cause and effect.”

“The most reasonable way to fight against the coming Little Ice Age is a complex of special steps aimed at support of economic growth and energy-saving production in order to adapt mankind to forthcoming period of deep cooling which will last approximately until the beginning of the 22nd century. Early understanding of reality of the forthcoming global cooling and physical mechanisms responsible for it directly determines a choice of adequate and reliable measures which will allow the mankind, in particular, population of countries situated far from the equator, to adapt to the future global cooling.”

Go Pro Turtle

Those Moderate UK Muslims

It is important to highlight a number of the other salient points from the BBC Muslim poll, apart from the 27% of British Muslims who sympathize with the “Charlie Hebdo” and Paris Deli Jihad Murders .

32% of British Muslims did not agree with the statement that such violence was never justifiable.

20% said they thought Western liberal society could never be compatible with Islam.

49% of British Muslims believe that Muslim clerics who preach that violence against the West can be justified are not out of touch with mainstream opinion.

Muslim clerics who preach that violence against the West can be justified are out of touch with mainstream opinion – 49% agree

... more.

Rare Retraction from the T-Star

Retraction Watch:

Fifteen days after publishing a widely-criticized article linking anecdotal health problems to the HPV vaccine Gardasil, the Toronto Star has issued a retraction.

The Page 1 story, “A wonder drug’s dark side,” was full of health horror stories from women who became sick “sometime after” the vaccine, as the retraction notes – twitching limbs, feeding tubes, even death. Each of these stories came from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, a public database of anecdotes maintained by the U.S. government to help monitor rare side effects that might emerge when the vaccine is given to millions of people.

In mining this database of self-reported illness, the Star failed to give equal weight to the large body of scientific evidence that says Gardasil has very low rates of adverse effects and a huge public health benefit. The publisher’s note both acknowledges the criticism and explains where the story went wrong:

Previous

We Told You So

... on Cjunk in January:

I don't think Canadians realize just how vulnerable they are. The average city police force, even in large Canadian cities, has at best a small squad trained in high risk tactics. The average beat cop is little better prepared, or armed, to confront well trained, organized, and determined armed threats than is your small town hunter.

To make matters worse, even communities which have a local military organization can not hope to depend on these for any meaningful assistance. The fact is that the average Canadian soldier sees scarce time in actual firearms or tactical training; this is reserved for combat units. Furthermore, firearms and ammunition are secured in a way that makes them difficult to access in short order.

... on CTV today:

Canada is “completely unprepared” for an attack on a shopping mall or other large public place, says one security expert, after Somali terror group al-Shabab urged Muslim fighters to launch attacks in North America and Europe and named the West Edmonton Mall as a potential target.

[...]

Asked whether Canada is prepared, Thompson replied: “No, we’re completely unprepared for an attack like that.”

Urban police forces in Canada are “under-armed,” Thompson said, noting that while officers carry a handgun and possibly have a rifle or other long-barrelled gun in the trunk of their patrol cars, they carry very little ammunition.

Why ISIS is a Distraction

The head hackers of ISIS have everyone's attention. It is hard to ignore the beheadings, burnings, rape, slavery, and suffering that accompany them wherever they abide. When, on occasion, an ISIS-styled zealot manages an act of terror in a Western Nation, the paroxysms of media excitement are jarring. Social media as well goes through an explosion of emotion that feeds participant interest for weeks on end. Essentially, the most violent of Islamist organizations have our attention, as they rightly should.

But, in all the fuss, we are losing sight of an even greater threat, and that is the normalization of Sharia and acceptance of Sharia within Western nations.

How can Sharia be a greater threat than ISIS?  Simply because the threat that day to day Islam poses is not beheading and bombing and flying planes into buildings.  The threat is the undermining of our Western ideals of human rights, freedom, and liberty.  The violent threats of ISIS styled terror  cause fear and suffering, but they also motivate Westerners to reject Islam.  But ... terror attacks make Sharia seem benign, or at least take it off the front pages and out of social media.

In the long run though, terrorists won't win; not in the West.  All they will do is invite military response from a volunteer army which is the most effective ever fielded by anyone anywhere at anytime in history.  They will lose.

Sharia though, can gain a foothold that will be difficult to repulse.  Already in Europe we see governments bow to the threat of Sharia law, bow to Sharia fueled Muslim protest, often going so far as to allow entire city regions to be governed by an underground clerical class.  Essentially, human rights violating Muslim tenets are being normalized within our very boundaries.

Even in Canada, we have accepted a number of ugly anti-human Muslim tenets. Imagine the specter of Muslim children, in public school, holding daily call to prayer which excludes girls from a position of equality, which forces them to the back row, and where those in menses must be removed even further.  It happens. Already, the normally human-rights sensitive "progressives" are all too ready to accept such anti-Canadian misogyny. Sharia creep has begun.

Sharia, in fact, is anti-Canadian, anti-Western, and anti-Human in every sense that we as Westerners have come to believe.  It is we, through a long journey of battling among ourselves and slowly beating back religious and government excesses, who have come to lead the world in expanding human rights.  Yet, in the name of this sensitivity to human rights, we are suddenly willing to accept a religion that turns back the clock on rights, that is rife with misogyny, that would, if it could, inject into our society blasphemy laws and the associate harsh punishments.

And ISIS, with each beheading, takes our eye off the ball.  While we bicker over the use of military force in Iraq, the steady creep of Sharia encroaches.  It does so with each fundamentalist Muslim who arrives on our shores; it does with each fundamentalist proclamation in the local mosque, and it does so each time a  "progressive" launches into high dudgeon that somehow confuses misogyny with religious freedom.

There is nothing quaint about a woman or girl being covered from head to foot in a sheet, only allowing the life giving rays of the sun to shine upon her countenance while in the privacy of her own home. There is nothing culturally peculiar and "interesting" about the punishment for adultery being death.  There is nothing Canadian about Muslim homosexuals having to fear being murdered by their own families or co-religionists. There is nothing wholesome about the fact that fear for one's life and apostasy go hand in hand. There is nothing "progressive", about knowing in your heart that any romantic relationship with a non-Muslim will bring all manner of abuse down upon you, and the most likely loss of family, and friends, and on occasion even life.  Who can laud a young woman having to avoid any contact with non-related males. And, there is nothing humane about covering one's head, or face, or wrists and ankles each day because to neglect to do so will bring down upon you the wrath of your mosque, your friends, and your family. Yet, for the vast majority of Muslims worldwide most of the above are reality; and too our utter shame, we invite it to our shores and indeed, the so-called "progressives" among us defend it and castigate the rest of us as being Islamophobic.

This is Sharia, and it is here and among us and growing while we gawk at beheading videos and fret about ISIS attacks.  Terror attacks are a real threat, but they will never unravel our country.  If though, Muslim communities expand and are allowed to practice and institute Sharia within their communities, the fabric of our nation will forever be changed for the worse.  And it is here that the threat lies.

Western culture is fraught enough with it's own shortcomings; but our greatest achievement has been to cast these off and to become champions for human liberty.  Yet now, we invite to our shores a cultural and religious creed that is anything but compatible, and while ISIS holds us enthrall, this creed digs ever deeper into our society.
  
We have no idea at this point how many Canadian Muslims are secular (live and let live) and who have come to escape the clutches of Sharia, or how many ascribe to that form of Sharia practiced by most Muslims the world over ... the form that is not at all compatible with Canadian notions of human rights and liberty.  Indeed, it is not up to us to know this, it is not our duty to pry, to be religious police ... but it is up to us to firmly reject Sharia each and every time it is foisted on us, and on other Muslims.  And, above all, it is not incumbent on us, a free sovereign democratic nation, to welcome to our shores anyone who ascribes to the fascistic religious creed practiced by most Muslims the world over.

Freedom cherishing Muslims need protection from Sharia as much as the rest of us, especially those born and raised among us and nurtured in our tolerant society. Only those aspects of Sharia that conform to our hard fought values of human liberty should be allowed to flourish; the rest must be treated for what they are ... anti-Canadian, anti-human, and religiously fascistic.  It is critical that freedom loving Canadians call out, criticize, and do political battle with the bulk of Sharia doctrine ... that doctrine practiced world wide by devout Muslims.  While our laws make illegal the more violent of Sharia doctrine, our right to free speech must be used vigorously to combat any other aspect of Sharia that runs contrary to our values.