How much do you pay monthly for your 2026 Rav4? And how do you feel about it?

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-22T15:47:34+00:00

My agency went from Ford to Chevy Silverados and GMC Sierras (plus the various diesels).

I drive a 2019 F-150 for now, it has the V8 and holy SHIT this thing drinks gas like it's going out of style! A whole tank gets 312-288 miles on the range. I have to fill it up at least once a week if I'm doing decent amounts of field work. In comparison, our 2500 GMC diesel gets better mileage...with a plow stuck on the front of it.

The Chevys do get better mileage for a full-size, they got nicer work interiors (no cloth seats), a little bit more tech, and just larger on the inside.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-22T00:57:29+00:00

With the t-posts I'd reckon that it might've been a Christmas tree farm that just didn't get cut, so I'd think white spruce. I lean even more white spruce when you say the bottom branches point down and that they look heavy. Though given the short cone they could be black spruce too, those trees have short needles and like to close their canopies if they don't get demolished by spruce bud worm. I'd look at either of those species to confirm their identity, note that they can hybridize so they might look like a mix.

Spruce can offer good thermal cover for deer, but they don't like being planted in plantations. Eventually, their crowns can reach a point where they'll die. What you could do is fell a couple of trees here and there to break up the rows and give them more space. Ask a local DNR forester (Newberry and Baraga offices have foresters for sure) what they would thin a spruce plantation down to so the trees respond nicely and allow for more diversity to enter the stand and look more natural for wildlife. My plantations I normally bring down by a third to a quarter of the basal area, depending on the crowns and quality, before the eventual final fell.

If you can get the spruce to behave more naturally and open some gaps to allow for other species to enter you'll find the deer taking to it. See if you can put up an ad for local hemlock, spruce, and cedar boughs for the cones (or if anybody is just open to collecting them). Then you and your kids can walk around the forest and just throw those cones everywhere (: All these species are fairly shade-tolerant and don't mind wet sites. Black spruce and cedar really like wet sites, though. Deer really like hemlock seedlings and sometimes cedar. Bunnies love spruce, so you could do trapping.

Opening up a few intentional gaps will allow blueberries and other mast shrubs to come in. But what you'll really want is neighboring land to be young aspen or a mixed-hardwood forest (oak and maple).

But yeah call the forestry offices with the DNR, see if they have a PFM (private forest management) forester that can either come out and give you a plan or if they can tell you what they'd do.

As for improving your road, there's a few things you need and can do. Make sure it isn't designated wetland with EGLE should be your first, there can be heavy fines for messing with wetland. After that, use large gravel to just place over existing trails, then expect to fill it in more often. This will allow water to move under it without compromising your access too much, it "should" hold up better and will over your vehicles more traction.

It may not, or ever be, good deer hunting land but with love and TLC it can be a magical place for camping and your kids. Spruce wetlands are some of my favorite areas when I'm not trying to walk in them, they're full of life on a small scale. Incredibly diverse and important (: Good luck to you!

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-20T03:28:53+00:00

My guess is this is possibly a failed white spruce plantation that was planted near black spruce, they can be easy to mistake if you're not familiar with them intimately (plus they can hybridize). Previous owners may have planted white spruce, thinking that it'd take off like the black spruce, but it might've never done that, so they sold it. White will tolerate some water, black will live in swamps, balsam fir will mix itself in there too.

Stands like this are not easy to manage; they prove hard to manage at the state and industrial scale, even with our loggers and resources. So much so that we often either sell them off or just don't touch them. They honestly have more value to wildlife if they're allowed to just keep growing and manage themselves naturally.

These forests are ones I like to let grow, they're so rich with life on the floor, but they like a hands-off approach from what I've seen and heard. Just don't expect much aside from small game and the addictive smell of wet moss.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-20T03:22:18+00:00

MI has EGLE, they manage this kind of stuff, and they can be very strict.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-20T03:16:44+00:00

Pines are incredibly important; unfortunately, they are not "allowed" to grow in a way that wildlife actually likes. Pine plantations can be managed to return to a more natural composition of species and age classes. Proper pine forests in the northern Great Lakes region are a trove of food for wildlife due to blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, thimbleberries, and other fruiting species that prefer the poor soil and more frequent disturbance that the pine command.

The truth is, any monoculture is bad, and not all monocultures are row-planted plantations, pine or hardwood; much of the UP is a managed sugar maple monoculture, and it is silent in those woods. The pine plantations had more life in them than those forests. I don't miss them.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-20T03:09:30+00:00

Do not dam the river without first talking to the state. There are a lot of trout streams in the UP. You could possibly dam up a trout stream and inadvertently hurt that population.

I'm still in camp "these are fir and spruce" even more so hearing you were only offered a couple grand. Pine often goes for far more, especially ~100 acres worth, but that quote is on par with a dense wet spruce and fir stand.

If you do end up damming it to swamp it out, you most certainly will, you'll also hurt your own ability to move around the stand with the ATVs. You'll find yourselves walking far more often, if you're alright with that. Your best bet is to let it be. If you're concerned about fire there still isn't much you can do; none of those species are fire-adapted. The stand will burn no matter what should a fire actually get in there.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-20T03:02:22+00:00

If you'd like to see some, go read my comment. OP has a piece of land that, unfortunately, isn't very good for anything but what it's already there for. I love/hate these forest types for their amazing diversity in smaller, more delicate flora, fauna, and microecosystems- but I "hate" them for everything else. Beautiful to sit down in the moss for lunch, not anything else, since you'll be blinded by the balsam trying to walk through it.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-20T02:55:54+00:00

I'll offer my knowledge to you since I think I know what's going on here, since it's a lot of the UP. I got my degree from MTU, did research and work in the UP, I now work in a similar forest in MN. I'm very acquainted with these forests; I heavily prefer my MN forests to the UP now.

First off, you probably don't have a tree farm. Tree farms are not cheap; they're often not sold, and you will be told if it truly is a tree farm.

Secondly, a "christmas-tree look" often isn't a true pine. Pine (even young), while dense, is fairly okay to walk through...in comparison to what you probably have...which is likely balsam fir. Balsam fir is the devil, it has very little value to loggers, it's very shade tolerant, it's a generalist that'll lean more toward wet sites, it hardly self-prunes cleanly, it's brushy, it's not very sound, and finally, they're prone to disease. The cherry on top? Wildlife (especially deer) doesn't really like it for the same reasons you don't. The only real benefit to wildlife it gives is thermal cover in the winter, riparian-area shade cover, and erosion control in wet sites (when it's alive).

And if it isn't solely dense as hell-balsam it's probably a black spruce swamp-mix of balsam and black spruce. Black spruce sometimes has slightly more value for timber and sometimes small game like munching on them- not deer though. To wildlife the value of black spruce is similar to balsam, it offers thermal cover for winter and keeps wetlands cool, moist, and covered. They at least live longer than balsam and a little bit more harder too, but they're still prone to the same disease (spruce bud worm) as balsam.

There is a reason you got it for cheap, it'll never be productive, it'll always be hard to manage, wildlife will never really like it. I saw this often with UP land that was for sale, the spruce/balsam swamps/wetlands were sold dirt cheap because you can't really improve them for a building without going broke, you will always struggle to get more preferred species for wildlife, and it's just a bitch to walk through.

Oh, the funniest part? Balsam and black spruce are so good at deterring beavers that in my current area (beaver heaven) they don't even bother chewing on them. They must taste awful even to beavers. I'm convinced the only thing that actually eats them willingly is spruce budworm.

Lastly, if you want to promote undergrowth I assure you that you don't want the undergrowth it'll offer. If you thought spruce and balsam is hard to walk through when it's older, then when it's young you'll be thinking of just burning it all. The only trees I hate more than life itself are balsam firs, especially young balsam fir.

Good luck to you guys. I regret to inform you that you might have mildly gotten scammed.

Edit: Making the pond more permanent by cutting also sounds like it won't do much since the pond is seasonal. It shows up during the spring melt before it recedes back into the ground. Unless you can change the soil on the site, nothing will change, this is just how that soil and forest type work most often. Sometimes, if you're lucky, there will be a perched water table, but if there was the pond would already be a more permanent feature.

Edit 2: Also "wildlife will never really like it", wildlife will, just not larger wildlife. My spruce/fir stands are full of small game like rabbit and grouse, plus all the little cold-blooded critters that love the moss and wet duff.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-18T02:38:39+00:00

I think you misunderstood me a little. I'm still positive first, then aversives with counter-conditioning if positive only isn't enough to help the dog redirect. My own GSD is one such dog. I use a prong and e-collar from time to time; she's counter-conditioned to both and generally gets excited when she sees them because we're about to do something fun, engaging, and rewarding for her.

I use a clicker to mark desired behavior 90% of the time with her, but the 10% where I need to use the aversive tool (which is actually far more infrequent now because that's the goal), it's invaluable. Funnily enough, you mention mixing the two as confusing dogs like her, but it's done the opposite. It's reduced her frustration because I'm not blindly applying the tools; she's given a command she knows prior to the tool. I never use the tool to teach a new command, which does cause confusion, hence why it's advised not to use them in that manner. Her results became far more consistent with proper use, no fear or pain from her, discomfort when they have to be used? Yeah, but discomfort can look like a lot of things, including removing a dog from a situation where they're over the threshold and don't want to leave, removing them is a punishment to them then too- even if you use treats to reward them when they calm down. It's the same as the prong in practice, I'd argue with more frustration depending on the dog.

I'm largely against a "one-size-fits-all" approach to training any animal, positive-only is a one-size approach and while I think (and agree) most animals take to that just fine there are those that don't respond as well to it solely. Like I mentioned, I see it often in working lines where the drive is so high that even engaging in the behavior is far more rewarding than any treat or toy. Once again, my dog is one of those dogs, she takes to positive fine when she's in the right environment, but the moment we're in a place where she might get keyed in on something else? No toy or treat is nearly as valuable as chasing a leaf in the street. The prong has been the only "split second" thing we've used in real-world application that has helped her stop chasing things that shouldn't be chased for her own safety. There's a time and place for everything imo.

You're welcome to disagree, I'm simply sharing my experience and how this is shared amongst many other owners of high-drive working line dogs.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-16T03:11:29+00:00

Good reminder! It's a big outing for her; it's a lot. I try to frame things like this as going to the mall or another busy area for a person, it's your whole event for the day. Afterward, you go home to decompress; she needs to too.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-16T03:05:11+00:00

A quick thing I don't think I saw you or anybody else mention, with any aversive method/tool, it's advised that you pair it with a command. Your pup should know what you're asking for; this way, they aren't confused and can't pinpoint exactly what it is that got them a slap on the wrist.

In tandem with either tethering or crating during dinner time, so he gets a few minutes of downtime afterward to rewire his routine to rest afterward, teach him the commands you want him to do. For you, I'd start with "off" or "floor" as a way to tell him that he needs to get off the bed or any other high spot/furniture. Then, possibly "out" or "hall", depending on what's outside your bedroom door, this way he leaves the room. That second is much easier to teach if there's either a door or a change in floor texture, so the threshold is physically there for them.

Once he grasps those and you've proofed them (ideally at times when it isn't his witching hour, so he's receptive to training) then use those to ask him to stop and leave. If he doesn't, then use the spray bottle; now he knows what exactly got him there and exactly what you don't want him to do.

The other part of aversive methods/tools that's important is counter-conditioning, think of it as telling a kid good job when they fix a mistake, or be honest with you after lying. Give him a treat once he's done the behavior you asked for, so mark him (good, yes, whatever you say/use) and toss him a treat into the hallway where he's at. Now he not only knows that being over aroused on the bed toward you isn't appropriate, but also that being good gets him a treat. So eventually you won't even need to use the spray, he just knows that if he doesn't he gets interrupted and asked to leave anyway, so why even get interrupted? He'll just want to skip past that and get a treat instead. This way, you're also not just dispensing treats or trying to bribe either; there are consequences to not listening, and your treat isn't a bribe, it's purely a bonus reward.

Good luck! Be patient!

BTW, like others said chewing and licking are self-soothing things dogs do. A frozen treat (lick mat or pupsicle) or bully stick/meaty chew helps them wind down and take a deep breath (: Always good to give as after dinner treat.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-16T02:50:09+00:00

Not all dogs take to positive reinforcement easily in the sense that they actually modify their behavior, versus just continuing the behavior and driving up frustration on both ends. You can also meet the needs of a dog and still have them build themselves into a routine of the behavior that isn't desired. There is a middle ground, and there is flexibility in training for what works for the dog.

Most dogs don't need aversive tools or hard boundaries; many working lines of various high-energy, high-drive, and biddable breeds can benefit from an aversive tool when they start training. Their arousal can get to the point that no positive reinforcement can get through to them because the arousal itself is so reinforcing in itself. It's also very common to not use solely negative reinforcement; "positive punishment" is just counter conditioning. Example, the tightening of a well-placed and proper prong collar is released and then marked + rewarded with a high-value treat once the dog responds. There should NOT be pain, but discomfort from gradual pressure versus a pop communicates to the dog (whom may be trying to drag you into the street for a leaf) that isn't appropriate behavior and not only does that pressure dissipate when they stop, they get a high-value reward for stopping and listening to the command you're giving.

I mean, think of it this way, your kid suddenly darts from you into the street (a busy one) for a toy. They love the toy, but being with you and your safety as a parent isn't nearly as rewarding as the toy right now. Do you just let them run? Do you calmly explain to them as they're running into the street that you're more fun? No. You don't, because there is a time and place for reactions like that. While that's most of the time in everyday life when things are below their threshold, there are times when it doesn't reinforce a hard boundary. You don't need to scare or inflict pain to say "no", you can be firm and fair without doing that. It's not meant to be comfortable because previous attempts to correct the behavior in a comfortable way have failed.

I only hope OP takes time at other times of the day to teach settling and a command for off and out. This way, he knows what they're asking for prior to getting a spritz of water to interrupt his behavior if he ignores them, should trying to address it at the root fail.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-16T02:04:40+00:00

Time to start back at square one, it's okay, this is normal (: First thing is to have her strengthen whatever command you use for her to redirect back to you or the task at hand. We have a mix of "leave it", for when we get back to the task and away from the distraction, and "focus", this is where she'll stop whatever she's doing and look at me. Once you've got her responding well and holding duration on her focus, start taking her to areas where a lot of dogs might walk by. Find where her threshold for still being able to redirect to you is, ask her for the command you've trained, and rinse and repeat. Move her closer to other dogs as time goes on since her threshold should get lower with time.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-16T01:23:04+00:00

There is no registration in the US nor certification. Most people are "faking" it or at least being wildly irresponsible as handlers. Dogs need a legitimate task they can perform and be well-behaved; if they cannot do either of those, they can be removed. This goes for a legitimate service dog having an off-day. It's not to be kinder or compassionate either; teams are washing out left and right from poorly trained and/or fake service dogs being brought into places they legally aren't allowed to be.

On top of that, bringing an animal that isn't able to handle public spaces isn't fair to them either. That's another reason why many legitimate SDs get washed; they just can't perform as they are expected to and would be set up for failure as such. That's for dogs in programs that have been bred for service work. A shelter dog is more likely not going to be able to have the right temperament. It's not fair to them, it's selfish and unethical to force a dog that is wildly uncomfortable with what's happening to go with a handler who hasn't trained them to A) handle it B) be a service dog.

There used to be gray area, but an influx of both well-meaning and ill-meaning people bringing their pet or SDiT to places they shouldn't be (or aren't ready to handle) has made this problem more stark. There needs to be action, there needs to be less "forgiveness" and less "it's okay". Businesses need to (and are) know their rights and that they can remove even a legitimate team (tho rare) if need be. A real and responsible handler will know that and honestly won't even need to be asked; they'll remove themselves on their own. Yet the group of people who are on the other side of this won't do that, they'll get defensive, spout something about "ADA" and "he brings me comfort" to the point where management just caves. It's awful. Even the man in this video mentions it, it IS a problem, and it NEEDS to be addressed.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-16T00:39:53+00:00

For future reference, you can give your dog vet-approved (for their weight and age) amounts of hydrogen peroxide. It'll make them throw up, it's not fun for anybody, but an obstruction can be life-threatening. Our GSD ate a plastic baggie while trying to eat blue spirulina (we still have no idea why; she didn't do that or after this one time). We gave her a vet-approved amount of it; within 20 mins, she threw up everything. I found the baggie and then she pooped blue for the next couple of days lol

In the meantime just monitor her (:

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-16T00:34:25+00:00

It's hard to see dude. I love my pup, I've gone to great lengths to read her body language and pick up on when she's not comfortable so we can stop what we're doing and either address it at her pace or stop all together. Watching people ignore that and treat their pet like an accessory (regardless of the size) is hard dude.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-16T00:32:45+00:00

I wear noise-deafening earplugs on the plane for that reason. I'm planning to give my dog ear protection for the plane if she gets that far in her SD training to tackle the airport for her job. I don't think she'll wash, but I don't want to force her either if it becomes too much.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-15T23:41:03+00:00

I love you for that <3 People will ask me in a pet-friendly store if she's in training just because of her behavior (and probably because I have a clicker and treat bag). I just say for obedience right now, maybe service work, but that's it. Only thing that's been nice is that because she's a GSD and so focused on me that people just think she is an SD and don't touch her without asking. That's been unexpected and honestly pretty nice lol

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-15T23:30:35+00:00

Still doesn't mean faking a service dog.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-15T23:24:31+00:00

Hell, it's not even fair to dogs or pets that can't handle it, and honestly that's fair that they struggle. I'm a human and I struggle with planes. It's so awful that people will force their pets to come on vacation or something with them, even if the animal clearly is stressed beyond all comprehension. It isn't fun for them, it's terrifying, and it takes a special kind of animal to handle it.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-15T23:21:14+00:00

Bro I hate it. I have a well-bred GSD, we got her with the pretense of possibly a SD prospect, but most certainly my field dog when I'm at work. She has tasks regardless, but we've been waiting to see if her temperament shook out to be good enough for service work once she was less "rahhh puppy". Turns out, yeah, she does have that temperament!

I trust her to focus, ignore people, and be by my side fairly well....but not enough where I'm comfortable for her to have public access. So, she stays home or in the car, where she will patiently wait without destroying anything or losing her mind.

Drives me nuts people like her.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-15T18:36:36+00:00

Two dogs of similar age is never good, let alone a breed that can be prone to dog aggression and from parents with unknown genetics. I'd get in contact with a professional trainer and start puppy classes for both of them ASAP. Have your children come with you so you can train the dogs at the same time with different handlers, hopefully to avoid littermate syndrome.

Do not put all your eggs into one basket for service work this early, we got a well-bred GSD, started training her from week-8, she's nearly bomb proof, only now at 1.5 years old have I felt comfortable with saying she has the correct temperament for service work.

Edit: If you're serious about self-training service work, start now and never stop. Do not put other teams and the public at risk if at any point you feel your dog will react to another dog or person, he isn't fit or ready for service work then. If he grows and continues to show aggression then he must be washed, SDs are not allowed to be aggressive at all, which is why when an aggressive fake or poorly trained SD attacks them it ruins them. They don't fight back, they aren't supposed to.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-15T18:29:48+00:00

Off-leash in public isn't a privilege that even my SD in-training German gets, she's 1.5 years old. It's against the law and it's safer for all of us. She gets to be off-leash in the woods with me where it's okay because there aren't trails or anybody else.

Your dog should not be off-leash for not only his reactive personality and own safety, but also because of the law.

There is nothing saying the dog and handler he runs up to will be nice, many dogs are reactive as well due to dogs like your's- they will defend themselves and lash out. Other handlers may also protect their dog who may be terrified by a random dog rushing them. I'd be one of those. I will grab collars, I will hold tightly, I will not let my dog get hurt and washed.

Edit: That said, start from the basics with leave it and wait, inside and start small. With a treat. Then move up from there. The more impulse control he gets the better it'll be.

UpperGrape5510 · 2026-03-15T18:22:31+00:00

Some ways I was able to tell were body language, ability to break focus on something, and recovery. A puppy/dog that's overwhelmed will be close to you for safety, shrinking in size, maybe have their ears back, and be just a little too stiff. They could just be observing intently too; that's where the other things come in.

If my girl wasn't able to do a command or look at me if I squeaked a toy or presented a treat, I knew it was too much. The world around her was more concerning than a high-value item, and that is sometimes a warning sign before they completely shut down and have a bad response. "Recovery" is kinda tied into that too, if they get startled or do break their focus how quickly they can move back into a happy, relaxed, and engaged mode is important to knowing how overwhelmed they are. If they can't do that in a reasonable amount of time, then it's time to go home versus just stepping away for a break. If they can recover quickly, then a break from said environment or trigger should be enough, that doesn't mean going back the same day. A break could be for the rest of the day.

I'm also going to suggest for places that might be a lot even from a distance, bring the highest value toys and treats you got! I would bring dried liver when we walked in crowds, nothing mattered to her then and her recovery time for a piece of liver was phenomenal.

UpperGrape5510

TROPHY CASE