The willingness to share information is also an invaluable aspect to this forum. I recall a time not so long ago that you couldn't buy a tip from the "old guy" down the road about trapping, and many were not too willing to part with their wisdom, either.
I could always count on rounding up some tips at the local conventions, and the Trapper & Predator Caller articles were a great source as well. Mostly though, I personally though slogged through miles of mud, dust, heat, cold, rain, sleet, snow, empty traps, non-target catches, etc. I've made a vow to myself that if I can help prevent ANYONE from having to learn the hard way on some of this stuff, I will do my part to pass on what I've acquired to other generations.
I even started writing a book complete with pictures, etc. have about 300 pages in it so far. I don't plan on selling it at all, but intent was that if something ever happened to me before I had a chance to teach my sons that they could at least have something to go off of. I am considering offering it free of charge in an electronic format to anyone who would be interested, when it is completed that is. My goal was to put this thing into a format like a CD or DVD, that could be popped into a computer drive and would be easy to navigate through. Still working on the program for it but looks like it would work well in that format. I loaded it out to my PDA and it cranks through the reader screens nicely in that setup as well.
My thanks also to each of you participants in this forum. I very much value your time, wisdom, and experiences that you share.
Jim-NE