TALL TALES & other lies...

Subject: RE: TALL TALES & other lies...
From: GUEST,Gary Owens
Date: 26 Feb 01 - 11:35 AM

Dear Kendall : Soooo ….. if Yogi himself, being smarter than the average bear, was a Maine black bear, he would simply climb higher and top your rake marks, no ? Then you would have to leave. Or get some assistance from Winnie … and I don't mean "the pooh". Now, don't get your shorts in a twist all you tree huggers. I would never advocate actually shooting a bear unless it was endangering a human. Most times, a few into a tree near him gives him a sense of the fact that you are not keen about his proximty.

I have always found that urine on the claw marks and at the base of the claw tree and the same urine near the camp ( works best if you pick a small evergreen so the wind carries it ) will absolutely preclude bear/camp hassles if the bear is scared of humans in the first place. However, you need to "freshen" the tree at the camp at least once a week from the start of frost until the snow stays on the ground.

In the fall of 1998, there were six black bears living within 2km of my camp. The first trip in at the end of September revealed the claw marks of a young boar on my camp door. The lads laughed heartily when they brought up the fact that I had always told them that urine in the claw marks really impressed a black bear, for much the same reason you suggest the use of a ladder and rake. Anyway, there were calls for me to wait until they got the camera, etc, etc, but, after the laughter was done, some of the lads who were not particularly woodswise began to think about the claw marks and the situation wasn't so funny anymore. Of course, a few of them wouldn't go any distance from the camp, which was great with me because I wanted someone close by for when the bear came to the camp to check out the new sounds and smells. He was along the very next morning and got a lesson in being scared of humans. Never came back all fall.

Subject: RE: TALL TALES & other lies...
From: Naemanson
Date: 26 Feb 01 - 12:26 PM

Then there's the story of the fishing party at a remote camp. They were city folk with a Maine guide leading them. Every morning one of the campers would have to go to a nearby spring for the fresh water. One morning the water carrier came running into camp without his bucket and pale as a sheet.

"What happened?" the other campers asked.

"There's a bear in the spring!" he answered.

The guide laughed, "oh, there ain't nothin' to worry about. That bear is as scared of you as you are of it."

"Oh, well then, that water ain't fit to drink."

Subject: RE: TALL TALES & other lies...
From: Áine
Date: 26 Feb 01 - 01:06 PM

There are some great (and TALL) tales here -- just the kind of stories needed for The Mudcat Storytellers' Page!

You can post them on the Additions to Mudcat Storytellers' Page thread, OR send them to me via PM or email.

-- Áine

Subject: RE: TALL TALES & other lies...
From: GUEST,Gary Owens
Date: 26 Feb 01 - 06:53 PM

I can't resist telling this one. This story takes a long time to tell.... if you do it right. I'll give you the Reader's Digest version. By the way, it's true.

My dad and my uncle, just after WWII, took Uncle Anthony (pronounced An'ny in Kent County, New Brunswick, Canada) on a fishing trip one late May day. They parked their car on a tote road and fished the East Branch of the Little Forks Stream to the junction of the West Forks and then the West back to the road. About 16km through fairly flat country, so those of you who are woodsman know how tough the going can be... beaver dams, flats, sloughs, the works ! An'ny was seventy-five years old, but lived his whole life in Kent County working on the farm and in the woods, so he was tough as nails and the lads thought they were doing a great service for the old boy. The walk to the car was another 4km.

When they got him back home, some sixteen hours after they had started out, they asked him if he enjoyed the day. In his KC drawl, he said that when he died, he was going to ask Saint Peter one favour at the gates... that he be allowed to come back when my dad and uncle were seventy-five and take them on the same GD'd trip they took him that day.

Subject: Quasimodo
From: Abby Sale
Date: 22 Apr 01 - 12:48 PM

Please see Clicky

Subject: RE: TALL TALES & other lies...
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 22 Apr 01 - 11:50 PM

My uncle Charlie was in his seventies when he told this story about going fishing with his brother Harvey, who must have been in his eighties when this took place:

"Harvey was kind of unsteady, so I had to help him into the boat. Then I couldn't get in by myself, so he got out again and helped me in. Then I had to get out to help him in again. Then he helped me in again, and by that time we were so tired we just went home."

Subject: RE: TALL TALES & other lies...
From: Art Thieme
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 01:04 PM

Me and my uncle did that too.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: TALL TALES & other lies...
From: Art Thieme
Date: 24 Oct 01 - 02:46 PM

refresh to go with "Way Out West In Kansas"