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"Ring bell, ring
Ring the new year in
and ring out the old year..."
...and so on. We do not care too much about
fireworks and other hullabaloo around the magic hour but traditionally
appreciate some lobster and champagne for the new year dinner and the fireworks
we have for free from the telly. The dogs hate fireworks, late Springer being
the only exception. She could stand outside the house and with a wagging tail
look at the shooting and listen to the noise with a "smile" on her face, when
our village was on fire - as it is every new year night. Don't ask me why she
was such an exception....
Metal prices are running mad. While still a year
ago steel shot cartridges for clay shooting were a little bit more
expensive than the lead shot equivalent the opposite is true today. On Friday we
bought 1000 of 24 gram, US7, 12 gauge steel cartridges of best Swedish quality
for 1495 SEK/1000. The price for the same cartridges but with lead shots
would have been 2600SEK/1000. In US$ that would be with the current exchange
rate of 6,45 SEK/US$, $232 respectively $403 per 1000.
So I guess we have to convert to steel for good
now. We shoot quite a lot, at least once a week and now during the holidays
almost every day. We both improve slowly but surely. Nobody knows today what the
next autumn has to offer, but if it offers some wing shooting the birds will
have a hard time.
Right now we still are lacking snow. We have some
ground frost but had a lot of hard, warm winds that melted the first few inches
of the surface making the terrain a bit muddy for my truck and work with
firewood. The coming night will be calm and cold again and we might even get a
hint of snow one of these days.
There is still 30 days of roe-deer hunting left but
it is no use to go out until we have some good portion of snow. Right now they
are hiding mostly in the gardens of the empty summer houses along the coast to
the Baltic sea. Some snow and chill is needed to get them moving.
BTW some days ago I found the track of a single,
big wild boar that had passed by. It was for sure bigger, and hence older,
than needed if you wanted to put it into the pot. Someone not too far from
here killed a 300kg boar on his farmed land some years ago. After removing of
the teeth the boar was buried with the aid of an excavator! Later it was
discussed if the boar could have been used as food anyway. Some folks say they
just have to be treated differently. In Estonia, where the boars are plentiful,
they say that they cook the big boar in 3 different waters, 3 hours in
each water. When they throw away the third water they also throw away the boar
and that's it....
Happy New Year!
Torsti
Borta Med Vindens Kennel
"Ask not what your dog
can do for you.
Ask what you can do for your dog."
www.rospigan.net
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