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Archaeologists traversing the Great Basin National Park in Nevada came across an interesting find: a 132-year-old Winchester Model 1873 repeating rifle. The Facebook page for Great Basin National Park said in a post last week that researchers found the rifle, known as “the gun that won the West,” leaning up against a tree. “The 132 year-old rifle, exposed to sun, wind, snow, and rain was found leaning against a tree in the park. The cracked wood stock, weathered to grey, and the brown rusted barrel blended into the colors of the old juniper tree in a remote rocky outcrop, keeping...

Few other dreamers I’ve known have managed to fulfill their ambitions. In my experience, most dreams don’t die because of a lack of practical homesteading skills or passion, but rather become casualties of the failure of knowing to work efficiently to get enough of the right kind of work done. Bills pile up, gardens don’t get planted, roofs continue to leak, enthusiasm wanes. The cause of these problems often goes unrecognized until passion is cold, relationships frazzled and finances exhausted. Knowing how to work efficiently on a homestead where you are your own boss requires a specific skill set that...

A man from Scotland has been killed with two others in a fall of almost 2,000ft down a mountain in Canada. The bodies of Neil Mackenzie, 31, Elena Cernicka, 35 and Stephanie Grothe, 30, were found below Joffre Peak, in the Pemberton area of British Columbia. According to the British Columbia Coroners Service, they were ice-climbing on 11 January when they are thought to have fallen down a couloir.

<p>They have the Detroit Auto Show going on, but also in the Motor City now has a frozen house!</p> <p>This 100 year old Detroit home has turned into a gigantic icicle formation --- after all the pipes burst. According to neighbors, when the weather turned cold in November, whoever was staying here left and never told the water company.</p>

Minnesota adventurer has succeeded in becoming the first solo climber to reach the summit of Alaska's Mount McKinley in the month of January, his support team said Monday, citing a GPS tracking device. Lonnie Dupre, of Grand Marais, reached the 20,320-foot summit of North America's tallest peak at 2:08 p.m. Alaska time Sunday, said project coordinator Stevie Plummer. Dupre sent a text message saying "All OK, Doing Well," through a SPOT GPS messenger device that showed it was sent from the same coordinates as McKinley's summit. Plummer then posted on the expedition website and on Dupre's Facebook page a map...

Good Morning!This Pic was sent to Me from My Bestest Friend in Denton, TX yesterday. He took it at the Water Plant. Two Bald Eagles by the Basins. There are Bald Eagles that live on Lake Buchanan, 230 (+/-) miles South & West and there are Guided Bald Eagle Boat Tours there I have been on 25+ years ago and saw 15+ of them in a few hours.But I would never expect to see any by Denton- just North of DFW.Anyway I figured this was too Awesome and Cool to not share. Hey George?What Mable?Did you know that the Turkey...

Honey Bee is a cat, born in Fiji, who just so happens to be blind. Nevertheless, her lack of functioning eyesight hasn't stopped this inquisitive feline from hitting the hiking trails in her new forever home in Seattle -- an appropriate story to tell in January, which is National Walk Your Pet Month.Now rolling with the motto "Bravery, adventure, cuteness," she has also become a YouTube sensation after a video of one of her jaunts escalated to viral heights. The story of Honey Bee begins in Fiji, where she was living in the care of the Animals Fiji organization.

a driveable ice shack

Zoo Won’t Let de Blasio Hold Groundhog After He Killed One Last Year The NYPD isn't the only city organization that has lost complete confidence in the esteemed Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio. After he dropped the groundhog during last year's Groundhog Day celebrations, the Staten Island Zoo has unequivocally banned De Blasio from holding or handling any more of their animals in a celebratory setting. - Mayor de Blasio won’t be killing any more groundhogs — zoo handlers are forbidding the butter-fingered mayor from holding the critter at the annual shadow-sighting ceremony on Feb. 2, The...

Zwier Spanjer recently purchased a DJI Phantom 2 camera drone and captured the video above on his first day of flying it outdoors. The flight didn’t turn out the way Spanjer planned.

'Mysterious Beasts' Spotted by Arizona Highway Cameras A suspicious pack of what appeared to be a group of large animals has sparked a viral debate about a possible sasquatch sighting in Arizona. The Arizona Department of Transportation was behind the latest announcement -- and conspiracy theories began to grow after they posted a photo from a highway patrol camera. It wasn't Big Foot enthusiasts reading too deeply into a suspicious photo; the government officials were the ones to suggest that something sinister -- and mysterious -- was going on. "We might have spotted a family of sasquatches on SR 260...

As anyone who has grown up around snow knows, part of the fun of sledding is the risk of soaring off a jump or careening around a tree. But faced with the potential bill from sledding injuries, some cities have opted to close hills rather than risk large liability claims. No one tracks how many cities have banned or limited sledding, but the list grows every year. One of the latest is in Dubuque, Iowa, where the City Council is moving ahead with a plan to ban sledding in all but two of its 50 parks. […] A study by...

Just now heard about this gun. Apparently it's been around a while. Reviews pretty positive. Priced at the upper end of 1911's. I'm very intrigued. Anyone have any experience with it? http://www.coonaninc.com

A moose caught in an avalanche in Hatcher Pass may have three passing snowmachiners to thank for making it into the new year. The men dug the moose -- a young cow, they think -- out of the snow, apparently unharmed, after it was caught in an avalanche Dec. 28. One of the men, Marty Mobley, 44, said the moose probably caused the slide that swallowed it and that without the group's help, it would not have survived. "There was just enough of its snout sticking above the snow that it could breathe," Mobley said. Mobley said he and friends...

What is a dog handler? It is someone who is delusional enough to think that taking instructions from a professional (or amateur) dog musher might seem like good fun. Reality typically intervenes quickly and jarringly. Handling dogs actually has less to do with the dog than the various things the dog leaves behind. The first thing a new handler is handed is the poop scooper. Summer or winter it is the same. There is less volume during the summer months, but it’s messier.

Photographer Eliot Dudik captures breathtaking images in a beautiful region of South Carolina known as the “Lowcountry”.

The reported rise in Swedes asking for money in other countries comes as the number of foreign beggars in Sweden continues to rise. As hundreds of thousands of Swedes head for sunshine over the winter holidays, police in Australia have reported a rise in young Scandinavians posing as bogus beggars. Sweden and Romania to discuss begging surge (17 Dec 14) Swedish teen caught stealing beggar's money (19 Jun 14) Stockholm launches 'beggar hotline' (13 Jun 14) Swedish tourists are begging on the streets of Melbourne in order to help fund their trips during the holiday season, with the region’s police...

These good Samaritans help save some baby cubs stuck in a dumpster by giving them a ladder as the mother bear waits outside.

You know how that guy at the karaoke bar singing Journey's "Don't Stop Believin' " sounds a little off after he's had a few drinks? The same goes for buzzed birds, according to a team led by researchers from Oregon Health & Science University. For a study published in PLoS ONE, scientists found that when they got some unsuspecting zebra finches drunk, the birds slurred their songs. The findings could help scientists study the neural processes underlying birdsong - and shed light on human speech. While many scientists want to understand alcohol's effects on such a complex system as speech,...

Credit: Brian D. Peer (Phys.org)—Ornithologists Brian Peer and Robert Motz, with Western Illinois University, found themselves with a unique opportunity a couple of years ago—to study a gynandromorphy in its native environment for an extended period of time. They have written a paper describing what they observed and have had it published in The Wilson Journal of Ornithology. The observations made by the pair of researchers represent the most extensive study of a bilateral gynandromorph bird in the wild to date. Gynandromorphy is a condition where an organism unnaturally possesses both male and female traits. Examples have been observed in...