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• Shannon

  

  • 668 posts
   

  May 6, 2012 12:07 PM EDT

  My ex, his best friend, his girl and I all went fishing at a gorgeous mountain lake in Virginia. All was pretty awesome. My dog Rebel Without a Cause was playing happily around the campsite, we were having a nice lazy day, nothing biting. It starts to get dark so we built a nice fire, started some food and went to reel our lines in. My ex's best friend was bitching because his line was snagged and slowly reeling and pulling...all of a sudden this HUGE highly pissed off beaver comes running up the shore attached to his line. He runs straight at my 168 lb wolf/shepherd and Reb takes off like his tail is in flames leaving us to deal. We all spread out in different directions running for our lives! The beaver runs amok destroying the campsite as we flee. We all slept in our cars the entire night afraid it would come back. :P

  So...tell me a story about something/someone you should've thrown back, or just something wholly unexpected. :)

• Shannon

  

  • 668 posts
   

  May 6, 2012 12:12 PM EDT

  

  This is what Rebel looked like. And the beaver...

  

• Dieter

  

  • 952 posts
   

  May 6, 2012 12:35 PM EDT

  You sure it wasn't any of these beavers

  

• RuneRed

  

  • 856 posts
   

  May 6, 2012 12:37 PM EDT

  Some job related stories, back in my old land surveyor days.

  I was walking along a cliff face (I was not at the very edge, but was about 5 feet in), when the ledge collapsed.  I fell but not far.  I, inadvertantly (and luckily), had gotten one of my feet tangled in an old piece of barbed wire.  So I am suspended, upside-down about 50 feet above a granite outcropping.  As I was leaning up to grab the wire, my friend and co-worker arrived (I have no idea how he got there so fast), grabbed my hand and pulled me back up.

  While working on a job in the woods, I was bitten, on the calf, by a rather large copper head.  Fortunately, he did not pump any venom.  The bruise was rather large (a bit larger than my fist).  I measured the distance between the puncture marks - just a hair over 3/4".

  On another job I stepped on a nest of ground bees.  I received nearly 40 stings.  It would've been more, but a friend (same guy that saved me from the fall), intercepted me (I was running), had me get still and began slapping the bees on me.  When he finished 100's of dead bees were on the ground.

• Dieter

  

  • 952 posts
   

  May 6, 2012 12:39 PM EDT

  Ouch, all of them hurt.

• Dieter

  

  • 952 posts
   

  May 6, 2012 12:41 PM EDT

  Something unexpected to me was when I managed to ride down this very long stairs without falling, that ended just a meter away from the edge of a mountain. Good thing the mountainbike had good brakes.

• Shannon

  

  • 668 posts
   

  May 7, 2012 12:44 AM EDT

  Those are otters, Dieter. What grade did you quit school in? :P

• Shannon

  

  • 668 posts
   

  May 7, 2012 12:47 AM EDT

  Rune, holy shit! You may want to think about a desk job. I am fearing for your safety! Bungie jumping with barbed wire is a little bit too extreme of a sport.

  I got snake bit by my friend's boa, in the webbing between thumb and forefinger, when I was holding him and someone sat on his tail. It was so painful! Not fun! At least he wasn't venomous. Your job sounds entirely too dangerous! :P

• Shannon

  

  • 668 posts
   

  May 7, 2012 12:50 AM EDT

  Good thing you didn't fall off or we would have missed you SOOOOOOOO much. ;)

• RuneRed

  

  • 856 posts
   

  May 7, 2012 1:30 AM EDT

  Thanks for your concern, but I haven't worked as a land surveyor in quite some time (but I may return to it in the future - who knows).  It's generally not dangerous; although nearly every surveyor has a scary story or two (the collapsing bank was a fluke - and unexpected - I guess no one expects the ground to disappear). 

  And I agree, snake bites do hurt - hope you washed it good as even non-poisonous snake bites can lead to a nasty infection.

• Shannon

  

  • 668 posts
   

  May 7, 2012 1:52 AM EDT

  It was a LONG time ago. All better now. :P

• Dieter

  

  • 952 posts
   

  May 7, 2012 3:43 AM EDT

  Look at them and tell me they don't look at that beaver of yours.

• Batman

  

  • 342 posts
   

  May 7, 2012 3:53 AM EDT

  its the lack of the thick flat tail and giant twin front teeth that make them different but that still doesn't make your otters beavers :P

• Asverze

  

  • 162 posts
   

  May 7, 2012 4:17 AM EDT

  I would almost complain that my life is boring in that way but I do have something too

  Several years ago, my grown up son was 3 years old that time, we visited a safari park, overhere that's some sort of zoo where wild animals can go around loose in a fenced area and you can drive through with your own car. We were just in and I'd put my little son on my lap so he could see everything wel. We were slowly passing some bushes with our car when suddenly some Ostrich came running from the side and one stumbled over our car. It hits the fender, slided over the windscreen and hood and fell on the ground before our car. We thought that bird was dead but suddenly it sticked up its head, looked around, jumped on its feet and ran off. What a sturdy bird that was though. Our fender and window post were dented and the hood was heavily scrashed. Fortunally a park foreman saw it happens and came to us to help us out because we were quite shaken about it.

• ricardo maia

  

  • 133 posts
   

  May 7, 2012 9:38 AM EDT

  I am a fisherman and full of fishermen stories (here in Brasil they're a synonymous for lies). In July of 2005 I was fishing in a really beautiful and remote place called Acari, hundreds of miles far from any settlement. I had caught some really good fish that day - 3 pirararas of 7, 15 and 17 kilos - and by 3:00 pm I caught the greatest fish of my life - a great 27 kg pirarara. I fought with her for some good 40 min before I was able to embark her. I usually dont like to pose with a captured fish for photos - it's kind of a cheesy thing - I play catch and release fishing, and I just take the fish out of water, take its measures, and release them the fastest I can. But it was a really great fish and I was convinced by my fishing partner to pose with the fish in my lap. Well... apparently the fish didn't like the exposition or the delay in its releasing, because it dropped on my lap the greatest and smelliest load of fishcrap I ever saw. I was so pissed I released it in the most ungentlemanlike manner, just throwing it on the river as far away as I could from me, and started to curse my fishing partner for the next three generations. It took me hours and a whole flask of liquid desinfectant soap to get rid of that smell. Here's the fish - now don't come to me with your petty squirrels and beavers problems - they're just triffles compared to this red devil.

  

• RuneRed

  

  • 856 posts
   

  May 7, 2012 11:04 AM EDT

  That's a big fish.  And for those not accustomed to the S.I. measurements (metric), a quick way to calculate:  Double the mass in kg, add 10%, and that'll give you a good idea of the weight in pounds.  (So the fish with a mass of 27kg, would be about 60 lbs.)

• Dieter

  

  • 952 posts
   

  May 7, 2012 11:59 AM EDT

  Beekse Bergen?

• Shannon

  

  • 668 posts
   

  May 7, 2012 1:02 PM EDT

  Otters are playful, slim creatures, beavers are industrious laborers and are perpetually gnawing. 

• Dieter

  

  • 952 posts
   

  May 7, 2012 1:04 PM EDT

  But except for the tail there is almost no difference in how they look.

• Shannon

  

  • 668 posts
   

  May 7, 2012 1:04 PM EDT

  Random ostrich, attacks!! That is why I love this site so much!!!

  Is your son terrified of ostriches now? Are you??

• Asverze

  

  • 162 posts
   

  May 7, 2012 1:07 PM EDT

  Yes it was Beekse Bergen. We were just a few 100 metres in. 

• Shannon

  

  • 668 posts
   

  May 7, 2012 1:10 PM EDT

  That is not exclusive to Brazil, Ricardo. Fishermen everywhere are liars!

  And, HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, do ALL your horror stories revolve around poop??!! And three generations is an awful long time to curse someone. However, I don't feel sorry for you. You stuck a hook in his mouth, dragged him out of his environment, suffocated him, then wanted his picture. He pooped on you, you're even. You'll get no sympathy here, brother. :P

  He is a really pretty fish!

• Dieter

  

  • 952 posts
   

  May 7, 2012 1:11 PM EDT

  I've been there once, but in a bus I think and we didn't get to see anything interesting

• Shannon

  

  • 668 posts
   

  May 7, 2012 1:12 PM EDT

  60 pounds! That can put a lot of poop in your lap. :P

• Asverze

  

  • 162 posts
   

  May 7, 2012 1:15 PM EDT

  Not that I know to be honest. For me I've never been a fan of those pecking flapping creatures and still ain't.