jdmidwest

Hope you stopped to take that pic...

Walmart here has 2 varieties of whole bean 8 O Clock here, I saw it tonite. No grinder though.

I miss perc coffee. I still have my little camp pot like one shown somewhere. Growing up, it was electric perk pot twice that size. I use k cups travelling now, I like the 8 o clock bean stuff. They used to sell whole bean 8 o clock and could grind it at Wally World. I would do a coarse grind for camp perc pot.

I knew it was deer raiding one of my spots.... https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/growing-mushrooms-for-deer/

Too dry here and 90 this weekend. Nothing, nada. Reports of finding a few last week in Cape County before hot blast. I am not looking forward to much here. My memory serves me that I have never found one after an 80 degree day.

It was in the 80's day after Christmas 2025, saw kids swimming in the creek that runs from my farm and crosses highway a few miles down. Popular swimming hole, and they were hitting it.

88 here this afternoon. No morels

Mine was off to a quiet start, cleaned off a few raised beds for lettuce and spinach, sugar peas, green onions. Replanted a strawberry bed with fresh bare root plant that were hard to find. Stopped at an Amish store to get them. Will plow garden at farm this weekend if dry to turn it over.

The guy on South Park had sex with one and caused Covid.

Big wing went north of house last night swirling.. Funnel spotted up the road from farm also. I think I am damage free. Missed both places. Same weekend a year ago that the F3 went south of farm by a thousand yards.

Interesting about the bee sting part. Have to try it.

The Altenburg Fair still sells a small white meat fish fried whole, bone in, as walleye. Maybe farm raised? Tasty. Strong German community.

I would say around here the locals learned the spawning habits and use of certain areas and compared it to salmon. Who knows?

My take on bees and winters like this. One would think their instinctive nature would make enough stores to be dormant for about 3 months during one of our normal winters. They do not like to fly under 50 degrees, but will make a short purging flight to ride themselves of waste in 40. You can only hold your poop for so long. When days get above 50 during that 3 month period, they will be active. Activity burns stored honey faster and wears out the bees wings sooner. It takes days off the back end in the spring essentially. The queen does not start a new generation until late January, it takes around 3 weeks for them to mature into workers. That is usually timed with the first Maple tree bloom to supply some nectar and pollen. This year, Maples, then a week later, I am seeing danderlions, Bradford Pears, Easter Flowers, small purple flowers in fields, and many other sources of food for them. But winter colonies are at the weakest now without extra workers to go out and forage. A strong cold snap could be the death of a hive. Wet weather complicates it more, they don't fly and pollen and nectar gets watered out.

And the storms cranking up tonite are early too. But, about the same time a year ago when the big tornados came from Arkansas and ended in Illinois right over my places. It was freaky then too, about stepped on a big water snake the next morning running down to the branch to fetch a bucket of water to flush a toilet after the tornado killed the power the night before. This year, I had the same snake swimming in the same place the day after Christmas.

4 out of 5 made it thru this winter. Getting new frames ready this weekend and working on equipment. Gonna make early splits this year and build up hives to 8 if all works well. Honey harvest out of 5 hives last season only made 4 gallons. One was a swarm catch and 2 others swarmed out at the farm without me watching closely. Only 2 made some honey. Wet spring last year then drought, nothing for them to work on. This year is setting up way to early, greening up here. Maples just bloomed last week and now, boom, its green. 70 degree temps and some good slow rain greened it up way too soon.

Are pegged beads legal in Missouri? Kinda like snagging...

That usually comes up too. Lots of lead in the water around that area...

Back in the 90's I fished out of Poplar Bluff at the Sportsman's access for walleye in the winter with a friend's Dad. He had fished it all of his life. Like Al, the fishery had produced 15 lbers many times. We trolled with a square stern canoe with a 5hp motor on it running up river as far as Hillard. We boated some 5 lb ones and hooked in a few big ones, but broke off. That was the start of my walleye adventures. I still put in at the Gravel Pits and jet boat every once in a while, still catch a few in those old drag line holes. My first walleye, actually a "Jack Salmon", was caught on the Castor River above Gypsy bridge back in about 1979 casting a crankbait for bass out of a jon boat. Did not even know what a walleye was til I fished with Richard on the Black.

They are year round residents in TN. But it shows no breeding. Do they just retire there after raising a few younguns? Or, do they take turns flying back to an orange state for a quickie?

Driving down a gravel road 5 miles from nowhere this fall to a river access near Saco Missouri, I encountered one of those "Slow Kids Playing" signs outside of a fence on a remote gravel road with only a 4x4 river ford a few miles down the road. They really should teach the kids to play out in the 40 acre field they own or someplace better than the gravel road if they are worried..

Its a shame they went out of business. How is the part supply situation for them now?

I always like the ones "Slow Kids Playing" A: Don't let your kids play on the street, bound to get run over.. Its dangerous. B: Teach them to run faster. Nature always rules out the slowest and weakest....

They are pretty "residential" down on the TN Rivers I fish. They were stacked 2 each on every light pole along the locks with Black Headed Buzzards on the railing. I did notice they have a way to projectile crap when they let loose. Make sure you don't spend any time around them. That is foul stuff. There are several rookeries where they roost in trees along the river below the dam. The smell overpowers the one that come out of the paper mill.

S T Fire Dept? What town was that?