jdmidwest

I think the worst part of getting old is seeing the death of the ones you love and know. But, I am still getting older and alive and I can respect that. I was reading an obit tonight about a classmate of the same age as me that died of cancer this week. Both of his parents and 2 of his siblings have already passed. Longevity is something my family has been blessed with, along with fairly good health. I still have my parents and siblings.

We were a close knit family growing up. My uncles and grandfathers played a great role in my up bringing. Dad was there most of the time, but as a farmer, his schedule kept him working 7 days a week. The others had more free time. Grandpa on Mom's side taught me stream fishing, beekeeping, gardening, and retail business. Grandpa on Dad's side taught me hunting, shooting pool, and whisky drinking. My uncles on Dad's side taught me how to shoot, reload, black powder, archery, motor cycle trail riding, and mechanical skills. Then there was Uncle Bo. We were the center of our family group, growing up on the family farm that had been in the family for generations. My uncles from St. Louis brought in trailers and used them as family retreats from the city during the weekends and holidays. They were there alot. From the time I was about 6 till I went away to college, I could depend on them to be there and enjoy the toys they brought with them. Uncle Bo was the favorite, him and Aunt Judy never had any kids. They were actually Great Aunt and Uncle, being 2 generations from me. They spoiled the kids like the ones they never had. I was able to make the most of it, being there all of the time. We went fishing in the old jon boat, turkey hunting, deer hunting, and just piddling around. Uncle Bo taught me how to walk in the woods quietly. He taught me how to fish with bait and lures. We spent countless hours in the field. He was a collector of fine firearms and knives. It was my first knife from him that I still carry a scar from a cut to the bone on my thumb came from. He showed me how to hone a knife to razor sharp and test it by shaving arm hair. To this day, both of our left arms has slightly darker and thicker hair from testing knives. It was his Crosman air rifle that I used to shoot my first squirrel. I used his Winchester Model 42 410 shotgun to take my first turkey. Later, his Browning Lite 20 took my first solo turkey. It was his Winchester 38-55 lever rifle that I used to take my first deer. His little Remington 22 short automatic rifle was what I used around the farm until he bought my first 22, a Ruger 10-22 with another consecutive serial number one that he gave to Dad the same day. When it came to fishing, he had been to several states and Canada on numerous trips. He recounted the hey days of Lake Wappappello when they dammed it up, a few years later producing large bass with every cast. By the time we fished it, the timber had rotted down and mud had sedimented the bottom, but we always caught fish. And unlike the rest of my family, he could catch fish on artificials as well as bait. We did numerous floats on the rivers around the house in his canoe or jon boat. Most of my free time in the spring and summer was spent fishing with him, enjoying bacon and egg sandwiches with the famous fried pies. Nights in the fall was fried squirrels and gravy at their house, spring was fish we had caught. Whatever we brought in, Aunt Judy would cook it up. Years passed and we kept it up. After I married, they moved into a house near us and sold the trailer. We still spent time together, hunting on the farm. Aunt Judy passed in 03, Uncle Bo still came around. We still hunted together from time to time until his eyes gave out and he could not see well enough to shoot. A mini stroke or something a few years ago left him confused at times and he ended up in a nursing home. The last memory he retained of me was when I told him about the cancer last fall. When we went to visit him in this Sept., he asked me if I had survived the surgery not even realizing who he was talking to. He pointed down the isle at someone playing in the cornfield with him. The uncle I knew had left, his body still was here. Tomorrow, I will carry him to his final resting place alongside Aunt Judy. He joined the spirits of my other mentors on Monday morning at the age of 97, now they are all watching over me. All that is left of that generation of men is my dad. He turned 80 yesterday.

I have been shooting black powder since I was a kid. I have a Traditions Hawkin 50 cal and the matching Hawkin pistol in 50 cal, both shoot round ball pretty well. I also have a Traditions break over inline that drives sabot jacketed pistol bullets like lasers down range that is fun to shoot. I have a Thompson Center carbine that I am looking for a barrel for. I picked it up cheap, but the bore was not taken care of. I am always on the lookout for a Ruger Black Powder pistol built on the Blackhawk style frame back in the 70's at gunshows and online, I used to shoot my uncle's as a kid. I have taken several deer with my percussions. I have yet to have a chance to hunt with the inline, but will give it a try in Dec. I have entertained the thought of a long barrel Kentucky Rifle in 36 cal, a black powder shotgun, and possibly a civil or revolutionary war era rifle for the collection. Black powder is the best for shooting. I never was a fan of Pyrodex. I have used Triple 7 lately with good luck. Always use loose powder for reliable ignition and accuracy. Not a fan of pellets.

Rabbit Ice is what we called them growing up. Means it is safe to hunt rabbits, all the pests that plague them are killed off by cold temps.

Since I have been eating other people's birds for the last 24 hours, I decided to do something different. I am batching it this evening, better half is defending her zone at the local Wally World, so I can eat what I please. I have chilled jumbo shrimp that boiled in a beer/Old Bay seasoning bath for an amount of time. There will be red potatoes and corn on the cob that have lingered in the same boiling brew. Cocktail sauce made from Hunts ketchup and horseradish from the back yard. Deep fried mushrooms and Boulevard Pale Ale for appetizer. Last year at this time, I was sucking down slop from a can thru a tube in my noise. I may have only 2/3 of a tongue that is still original, but it seems like taste buds are still working fine. Happy Thanksgiving all.

It started over again yesterday with this nice little 8 pointer. I have the week off celebrating my first year of cancer free. I have plenty of time to work this one up.

This is how I make my Summer Sausage. No casing or smoker needed. You could smoke it if you wanted to for added flavor. Summer Sausage 2 lb Ground Deer Meat ( can use 50/50 deer and beef or pork) 2 Tablespoon Morton Tender Quick Salt (Buchheits or Roziers have it) 1/2 Teaspoon Mustard Seed 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Pepper 1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder 1 Tablespoon Whole PepperCorns 1 Tablespoon Sugar 1 Teaspoon or more Red Pepper Mix all well, I mixed all spices in a measuring cup and kneaded into ground meat a little at a time. Tear off 2 foil strips about a foot long and shape 1/2 of the meat on each in a roll. Non Stick foil works great here, shiny side into the meat. You can roll each stick after you form it to make a good sausage stick. Refrigerate for 24 hours and meat will set up. Tender Quick cures it. Remove foil, place on flat sheet and bake for 1 hour at 300 degrees. Let cool on cookie rack and wrap for freezer.

I don' t like to freeze and thaw meat more than one time. Just leads to bacteria growth. I do know several that do it that way also. Since deer are usually butchered in less than sterile areas and dragged thru the woods, they need to be watched for spoilage. Good thing about this year, mostly grass fed deer. Acorn crop got gobbled up early. Deer smell better and meat tastes better.

It all started with this on Sat. eve. Baby girl got her first horned buck, a little 4 pointer with the .300 Blackout AR I built for her last year. It was her second deer with the rifle, this one was a nice piece of shooting on her part from about 150-175 yards out. Day one, getting it out of woods and field dressed. Prepped for hanging out on a nice cold night. Day two. Skinned and deboned. All meat into the coolers Horns cut off and prepped for simple plaque mounting. Day three. Process all meat into its next components. Tenderloin cut into steaks. A few of the ham muscles cut into steaks also. Two ham muscles sliced into jerky strips. Rest of hams chunked into stew meat. Shoulders and all other trim meat ground up. Jerky meat into Teriyaki brine with some spices. Day four. Jerky into dehydrator. Some of ground meat mixed with ground pork and spices, rolled into logs to set another 24 hrs. to make summer sausage. Day five. Summer sausage into oven. Hour later, removed, and left to cool. Packaged and in freezer. Knives all resharpened and ready to go again....

Every full moon is a super moon. That means you have lived another month!

If you are going thru the trouble, why don't you till in some compost into the plot before you plant the bulbs? They should last longer, depending on your soil type. Daffodils are usually pretty hardy, they still come up on the hillside where the original homeplace is on the farm. It has been abandoned for over 60 years and overgrown with trees and leaf litter. I dug some up along with the iris that still come up there too and transplanted 20 years ago, they still bloom every year in the new spot. The old yellow ones are hardy in our climate. You can find them at about any old homeplace in the state. Various colors are a little more finiky. Your soil must be pretty weak to have issues with them.

And waders too. Great job.

Its all purty again

Rotary Lake in Jackson got theirs. Water was warm, hatchery guys pumped lake water into truck on fish for a while to get them used to the warmer water and dumped them. 2000 trout. Legion Lake in Perryville got theirs this week also for the first time, 3000. Then there is a lake in Farmington they are stocking, this is the second year. I have trout within an hour of me now instead of 3 to 5 hours of driving.

I fished Monday, 2 fish on a dry caddis in fly area and a big yeller sucker on a nymph in the campground. Lots of people, no fish in the park.

I like a good Cardinal Game. I don't keep up with any sport much, unless it's whats biting on my target area. But, October just calls out baseball. Nights are longer and game is on. Cubs are doing well and the games have been good. That adrenaline pumping thrill of October is on. Either team could win, but the Series is just fun to watch, most of the time.

Baptist was always marginal access water for a canoe anyway. There is no need for a large access there. Canoe floats should start at Cedar anyway unless you want to fish.

That should apply there. And the sensitive nature of the area, Ozark Natural Scenic Riverway, and other factors should mandate it. But, if you look at the pics, they are not disturbing soil, just gravel and concrete. Instream gravel permits are a dime a dozen and do not require any barriers as long as they stay away from water.

I used to paint with oils as a kid, but I was allergic to the turpentine. I actually used a different type of thinner that worked well, but can't remember what it was. I never really liked acrylics, could not get them to blend well and they dry to quick. Oil paint lets you take your time to get the right effect. Or scrape it off and reuse the canvas.

Over a year since I had a dip. I came home that night from the ER and tossed a partial can I had in the house. That was a year ago Friday. But, my cancer doc said that was not what was to blame in his opinion. It would have been in Jaw/gums normally from that. My cousin is going thru almost same thing, they blame prior cigarette smoking on it, not his current dipping. His was located at base of tongue in windpipe.

Mitch, that was the PET Test. You fast for 24 hours prior to the test, lowering the blood sugar in your body. They inject a radioactive glucose IV into the bloodstream that has a certain half life that shows up on the scanner. Cancer cells take in glucose faster than normal cells so they glow when scanned by something like a CT Scanner, aka the PET machine. Been there, done that. Then passed out on the chair when doc explained the surgery from low blood sugar, nerves, and lack of sleep worrying, That happened a year ago next Wed. I got lucky, PET only showed the basal tumor, with no spread. Sorry about your Mom, cancer is an evil creature that needs to be eradicated from this earth. But sugar, like anything else in excess, is bad for your body. Nature does not offer many food sources naturally that have the amounts of sugar we consume in our daily diets. And our sugar comes from so many processed sources that could hardly be construed as natural. That in itself complicates it even more. The world we have created has brought on our health problems. God only knows what caused mine. I often wonder it it could be a cell phone that caused mine. Cancer is showing up in so many more people today than I ever saw when I was younger. Look at the things we use in our everyday lives.

You can't live forever. But I am enjoying my extra period. A year ago Friday, I was diagnosed with cancer. Surgery was on Nov. 22. to take it out. I still have to wonder if it will come back since there was no direct cause attributed to the cancer I had. I really can't "Stop" doing anything to keep it from happening again. Just have to keep an eye on myself and watch out for anything new.

I was up there for last day in the park yesterday. Did not make it to Baptist, but the construction at the lower end of the park around the lagoons has started. KCI construction had silt barriers up around all of their perimeter. Fishing sucked.

He has been thru two rounds of chemo now and tumor has started shrinking. 7 more then radiation.

I would think they have barriers up to keep that from happening.