Terrierman

There were some humpies in there but nothing like that copper nose you took a picture of.

We put somewhere around a hundred nice bluegill in the boat today. Slow start but it got better about 4:00. Found them close to the bottom in 12 to 20 feet of water where there was shade and around docks. Crickets and a piece of night crawler. Long Creek around Big Cedar but it should work anywhere. I'll be tired of cleaning fish by the time that job is done.

My beloved grandmother always served strawberry short cake with a layer of berries and juice first, split the cake and put a layer of berries and juice in the middle, with the top of the cake also spread with berries and juice. Then came half and half or in my really younger days, cream from the top of the jar. Short cake is definitely best wet. With the crunchy bits to remind you what a good cook she was.

Only if the hook, head shape, weed guard and (kind of) paint matter to you.

effin Chopin.

Jameson rocks, It's always Friday night when retired,

Love the UK. Great trip.

OK. So I went to play golf today for the second time in 35 years. Going to walk nine by myself. But there's this old man in the pro shop and he asks me if we can play together. He had a US Navy WWII hat on. I said sure, so we got things going. Turns out the guy is 93 NINETY THREE years old. Served on an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific for the duration of the war. Chief Aircraft Mechanic. He was on the USS Manila Bay. At the end of the war the Manila Bay was among the first ships to sail into Tokyo Harbor. Their job was to "make darn sure those japs didn't fly anymore - and they didn't!" Told him I was USMC and that was all it took. We are now friends from now on. What a day. Had to remind him several times what direction to hit the ball and that we were playing golf not just hunting lost golf balls. His favorite saying was "I hit the ball, and if I can find it, I hit it again" How lucky can one guy get?

How long do you guys brine? I'm thinking for a 12 or 14 pound ham two days. Rubbed, garlic and so on and resting a day then cook. It's going to be a process!

I'm going to go whole hog on the first cook. Brine - sweet and salty, rub (partial to Byron's Butt Rub), insert garlic but never cloves in fresh ham, let it rest a day or so in the fridge and then put it on the egg low and slow over a pan of water with an apple sliced up in it, a fair bit of thyme, some rosemary and sage. My only issue now is whether to go with Hickory or Cherry to supplement charcoal. I'm thinking of treating it like I do brisket, 12 hours open, then another 8 in foil with au jus.

I frequented a fish house near Jefferson City years ago. Top of the menu was buffalo ribs, fries and sweet / sour cole slaw. And beer. Lots of beer. They fished the Missouri with hoop nets. Good times.

How did you prepare it?

Pre-bait a hole with feed corn that has soaked a week or so and gotten sour. Bait the hole three days in a row before you fish. Save a little of the sour corn for bait. Four or five kernels on a hook. Your arm will get tired.

I have personally canned and eaten a fair bit of carp. Fillet, get the red off, cut into one inch or so chunks, one bay leaf and a tablespoon of ketchup in every pint packed as tight as you can get it, then pressure can. Good stuff Maynerd. 10-4 on the cottonseed cake. There are a lot of carp in Pomme. That's where a lot of it came from.

That's because you think you're smarter than a fish.

Well then. One of my buddies who a few here know went pig hunting in OK. Delivered three hams, a shoulder and four loins on ice last night. It was in rough shape. I pulled off four or five hairs and trimmed some fascia, not quite a handful. All are well and proper wrapped and in the freezer at -4 now. I'm going to get in the cookbooks. Don't hate me because I'm pretty. PS. They make slide cutter boxes of saran wrap now. And they work really well.

I fished Thursday. It was on.

The Yeti hat closes that sale.

With onions.

Pearl onions. About the size of the last joint of your little finger after peeling. They are kind of a pain. Maybe a half cup of onions to two cups of peas and then enough white sauce.

So, how are you about pea soup? It's one of my winter things to love. Little cubed pieces of ham, that darned onion again and lots of those wonderful peas, cooked to tender deliciousness.

In white sauce with real cream and real butter and real pearl onions that she would parboil. It would go in more or less order get the onions ready, make the white sauce, blanch and not much more the peas, combine and serve.

Fresh creamed peas with baby onions are one of the finest things I have ever tasted. My grandmother would make them every spring. Great memory.

I fear it is too late.

There is a lot of water in that lake right now. Finding them deeper than normal makes a lot of sense. Great job. BTW, that thing seems to be falling fast. Tough conditions.