Johnsfolly

I haven't seen a golden eagle. Apparently there was a golden eagle that wintered in a town southeast of us here in Maryland last winter. I never thought that they would be this far east but seems like they can be. Pretty cool that they are being seen in MO.

If I had the money that would make a decent boat to striper fish the Chesapeake here in Maryland.

Great video. Good luck if you get out!

Nothing like the smell of your hands after using them, especially if they were old ones left on the shelf for a while !

Will keep this in mind. So far it has been raining at least one or two days a week and rarely been below freezing. The birds have been fine so far. My creek fishing has been a bust due to the rain !

Had one of those when I was a grad student. We lived in an old house converted to have two apartments upstairs. The owners lived below us. They were in their late 70's so we never had to heat our apartment. I had the bird feeder on the window and one day the wife of the owner was walking in the garden below the window when the feeder came off and crashed right next to her. Just missed hitting her on the head and nearly scaring her to death. Needless to say we were no longer allowed to have a window feeder .

That's a great way to spend Christmas eve! Congrats to you and your son! I got out Xmas eve as well, but fished the brine on a boat out of Ocean City.

I should have taken you up on this invite Chief or found out if @trythisonemv was available. Could have used a guide! I drove up to the upper wire road access that Sat with Ham to try for rainbows and see if there were any pickerel or chubs in the creek. Only fished for a couple of hours. One of the spots where I have used a large tree right on a deeper "S" curve in the creek had been modified a bit, since the tree had fallen into the creek. Still there were trout there and while kneeling I threw a olive green microjig to a 12+" rainbow. It turned and took the bait and I missed the hook set. Had a couple others swim at my baits in a pool or two below that one, but never hooked a fish. Also never saw any pickerel. We ended up fishing the Spring river above Stott's City and caught a few micros that were new to Ham making it worth the drive.

If that becomes a problem, my ground blind is just behind it. Baiting deer is legal in Maryland and I have permission to hunt there if needed .

We have had issues with feral cats. About 6 years ago someone dumped a whole litter of kittens in our neighborhood. I bought a live trap and began catching them when they would end up in my yard crapping everywhere and killing the rabbits and squirrels in the neighborhood. The first couple that I caught all had the same coloration, white with gray and black patches (I believe that I caught all 8 of that litter). Initially I would cart them to the animal shelter. They told me that if they were not adopted within a week that they would put them down. I had no issue with that policy, but I would only bring over ones that would meow when I went to the cage. If they hissed they would take a short one way trip in the car. It got that I had to go to different public land spots to feed the coyotes. Raccoons and opossums would get dropped off alive. In a period of 18 months I caught over 24 cats, 9 opossums and 8 raccoons. Only three of the cats were neighbor cats. I only brought four to the shelter and by the last one they were telling me that they could only give it 24 hours to be adopted due to too many cats being abandoned. I would love to start a program to catch feral cats all over Columbia, but although necessary to control that population that would be a political firestorm. I strongly oppose those groups that want to catch, sterilize, and release them near where they caught them. Ok so they will no longer increase the population, but they are still out there killing songbirds and spreading diseases. I would also advocate popping off English sparrows, starlings, cowbirds, etc. from my feeders for the same reason, overpopulation! Ok down off the soapbox !

Dan - there were a couple of winters several years ago in Columbia that we would end up feeding a coopers hawk. As you can see our feeder was on our porch railing just outside of our sliding glass door. If the hawk would fly parallel to the house, it was a clear flight path from the big oaks on the right side of our house, past the house, over the side yard and over the neighbor's yard on the left. So it would just fly by and pick one off. We could tell when the hawk was around by the birds, especially cardinals would hit the door trying to get away. had a couple of cardinals die, but not the hawk. When we got our chickens I was really worried about that hawk since our bantams would have been small enough to get its attention. But we hadn't seen that hawk(s) in a long time and never had an issue with the chickens and hawks.

my wife has been pretty understanding so far with the amount that i spend on grain and seed in a year.

If I get a bunch coming in, then I will get into making my own mix, which is pretty similar to what you provided.

Oh and since this was the only keeper fish landed, I won the big fish pool and took home $60 ! That didn't suck either.

My Betterhalf used my Hilton honors points to score a decent rate for a night and a late checkout for a room with a view of the beach. I didn't suck looking out onto the ocean. Also meant that I could get up at 5:30 to catch the boat and not 3:15 am and drive down to the boat on Monday morning. Water was looking really calm Sunday evening. It was going to be relatively calm in the morning, but the wind would pick up later in the morning. It would be a NW wind so it would likely be choppy when the wind did pick up. Got to the dock about 6:20 am. It was weird seeing all of the offshore boats in dry dock around the marina. It was a nice sunrise. There were ten folks on board. The mate never showed up. So the captain recruited one of the regulars to act as the mate for the trip. That was Ben and he is a dentist. It made for a strange trip. Ben did a great job. Anchoring became a challenge and that extended the trip by an hour. We fished a dual hook rig where the hooks were on both end and attached to the line near the middle between both hooks and an 8 oz sinker. i expected to get hung a bit and was not disappointed. But if you weren't right in the structure you didn't get bites. As with most party boats, there were a few guys that are in the right spots or just that much better fisherman than the others and caught the most fish. Walt must have caught over a dozen tautog on this trip. I'm sure that he caught one or more keepers (>16"), but he would measure them and throw them over the side calling them shorts. Ben when he could fish caught 6 or more. I got hung a bit. One the first set up I was right on top of a steep piece of structure. I could feel the weight slide down the structure. I hung into it a couple of times before we moved the boat slightly. I caught my first fish of the trip, a cunner (a bait stealer), a species of wrasse. Didn't expect to catch a microfish on this trip, but I did and it was my 65th species of the year! Not a tautog, but at least I was on the board with a fish. Then came a strong scraping and a strong bite. I set the hook on my first tautog of the trip and landed my 66th fish species of the year! The captain measured it, 14.5" and quickly over the side before I could get a photo. So when the guy next to me caught one I had to take a photo so people can see a tautog. After our next move, there was a long time for Ben and the captain getting the anchors set. It was after 11:30 am and the wind picked up to a 24 knot blow, which made a bit of chop on the water and we were in a spot with a lot of current. It took three times to get the anchors set for our last stop. On my first cast, I got a solid bite and good hook set. I reeled in my biggest tautog of the trip and the first keeper on the boat ! Now the captain had to measure it as well since I wanted a second opinion before putting it in the cooler. I didn't get another, but I enjoyed the trip. I hope to get out for these guys again. Oh and my Betterhalf and Livie did do some shopping, but mostly spent time in the hotel pool. Still had their own great time.

Ness thanks a bunch!

My daughter and her boyfriend gave me this for Xmas. Achieving my goals will be a little easier this year as well. And will get me some new ones for 2020 as well.

May have to wait. We are negotiating our dinner plans versus how much we had at lunch. Maybe something light and make the ham dinner this weekend.

Merry Christmas Ness. All that sounds great! I wouldn't mind getting that date nut pudding recipe if you are willing to share. I was watching the 1935 version of Scrooge and had to look up what constitutes a pudding in the UK. It seems that any item that needed to be set by heating, e.g., sausage, haggis, Christmas pudding, plum pudding, etc. was considered a pudding. Tell Kathy congratulations oh and to the guy she is going to Marry !

Have not seen a whole lot of birds in the yard. I hope that this shelf feeder will get more visiting the back yard a bit more. Yes those are yard sticks. Cheaper than wood slats and easy to measure !

Christmas eating so far. This morning we made Amish apple maple breakfast sausage and onion and chees omelets. Lunch was yesterday's blackfish filets, chicken of the woods mushrooms and shrimp cocktail I made the Don's Chuckwagon onion ring batter mixture with half a can of beer and an egg. I dredged the mushrooms in the batter and two fish fingers with that batter. The remaining fish got seasoned flour, egg wash, then panko breadcrumbs with parmesan cheese, garlic powder, dried oregano, and dried sweet basil mixture. Made home made tartar sauce with capers, sweet relish, mustard powder, and mayo. Picked up some white shrimp. I deveined the shrimp and boiled them in water, Old bay, and smoked salt. Served with store bought cocktail sauce. Will have to start dinner.

I have been accosted by squirrels only during spring turkey hunts. I always carry a turkey call when hunting squirrels because I often have them come down trees to see what's up when I hen call. Twice I have had squirrels run up my back when turkey hunting 😌.

I have heard stories of deer coming back to life and running off. I read an outdoor life story that the hunter put his gun in the deer rack for a photo when the deer recovered and ran off with his gun in its rack. A friend from grad school had an uncle do something similar. Must have hit it's antler and knocked it unconcious because the deer got up and ran off just as he was going to field dress it. He keft a piece of antler.

I have spatchcocked all of our turkeys for the last three years due to listening to @rps and will never go back. Cooks faster, evenly, and stays juicy! I love turkey, swiss, dill pickle slices, mayo on white toast! No turkey today. Making ham. Chilling large shrimp I just cooked in Old Bay for shrimp cocktail in an hour or two😁. Thawing chicken mushrooms to dredge in Don's chuckwagon batter as well.

TJM thats a great tip to get a bunch at one time. I have the best time employing that strategy when the hickories ripen and they draw squriiels from all over. I have also been lucky enough to stumble onto nest trees as well. Many years ago I was hunting Davisdale CA in Howard co. I was hunting along a creek bottom and heard one cutting a nut. I looked all over and had a difficult time finding it. Then I saw a tree up ahead of me with a hole at eye level and saw the squirrel sitting in that hole. Since it looked like it opened below the squirrel that it could fall through if I shot it. I shot it with my 22 and it did drop through and to the ground below. I was heading to get the squirrel when another popped out of a hole higher up that same tree. I shot that one. Then another popped out and I got that one as well. Then another came out. I shot that one but not in the head. It ran down the tree and up under a rootwad along the creek bank. I gathered the three dead squirrels before going to find that last one. I saw its tail and gave it a tug. Fortunately it was dead!