jdmidwest

Just looking at the pic on the phone it looked like raw morels. I zoomed in now and see the fried flour. I dust them with flour or bread them with a cracker crumb batter. The cracker breaded ones freeze better.

Probably Vienna Sausages on toothpicks. But it is a novel idea.

I went out this morning between rains to a proven spot. Only found 3. Goofy season around here. Looks like middle of the state and west is the best this year. Not a single mushroom has shown up in the yard at the farm either. Maybe this rain and cool spell.

How did you cook the morels? They look almost raw.

I would not think it would be much. I can lift the tongue on my 14' aluminum jon boat with 9.5 motor, battery, and front trolling motor. I can't imagine the tongue weight would be more than 100 lbs. AWD helps on slick and unimproved ramps, somethng to consider.

http://www.buckmanager.com/2015/01/12/white-tailed-deer-parasite-spread-by-feral-cats/ Another reason to keep feral cats out of your food plots. Nasty feral cats.

Feathers likes the poison ones, not for me.

Ironing board make the best filet tables. Just the right height. Nothing breaks a back like bending over fileting fish.

Many people power an RV with a generator. Most are built in. Some buy the loud outdoor type and use them with an extension cord to keep the noise out of the RV. Make sure the generator you purchase has a 30 or 50 amp connection, whichever your RV prefers. Make sure you get a quite running one, everyone will appreciate that. Make sure it is far enough away that the exhaust does not build up in your RV. If you are going to use sensitive electronics, make sure it has a nice inverter that cleans up the power output. Your 12 volt inverter that is built into the RV should be able to work just like it was plugged into clean, consistant AC. But you may to check the inverter in the generator to make sure.

I have handled more snakes than most normal people. But I make it a point to "IDENTIFY" first. Dad used to get the heebe jeebies when I let the speckled king snakes crawl all over my arms. They have to be the most docile of MO snakes. Next would be the green snakes. I have never made friends with any garter snake. Many rats snakes can be handled after a little work. Common water snakes can be biters for no reason. Ring neck snakes don't really count, they are more like earth worms. Spread heads have a temper, but I have only seen one in the last 20 years. Never caught a blue racer, but have heard many buzz like a rattler, they glide with a movement unriveled by any other. I have only came across one red milk snake, but red and black, no venom. No Coral Snakes in MO, have to wait for global warming to bring them in. I have made friend with many fence lizards, but never cared for the skinks. I chased a collarded lizard for a while, but he was a better sprinter. I have a zero tolerence for poison snakes. Sorry, but that is life. If you want a cottonmouth for your collection, I can take you to a cove in Wappappello lake, Lake Girardeau, or several southern Ozarks streams where they will come right up to you in a boat. If you retreat, they will follow. Water snakes will dive, Cottonmouths will float on top. I have always considered it as they are looking for the higher ground on a boat.

I put some maters and peppers in the ground yesterday. Planted some pole beans, figured out they may work better than bush in the raised beds due to the vertical space. Also did a row of cucumbers. Strawberry patches are blooming like crazy. Snow peas are climbing the trellis. Lettuce kinda foundered this year, but may pick first mess next week. Onions and spinach are doing good. Squash just broke ground. Just talked it over with my neighbor, I will be planting a nice sweet corn patch in his garden plot this year. He is not going to use it. My surprise came today with the bees. This spring has been great, once it warmed up, bees started bringing stuff in. I opened a hive today to put a super on and was amazed. I opened it 6 weeks ago fearing for their life. I did find an small cluster of bees struggling. Today, it was chuck full of bees and one delivered my first sting of the season. All of the rest are in full flow, flying in and out with rapid pace. The next few weeks will be spent splitting and adding more honey supers. I should reach my goal this year of 25 with some work.

Finally broke the ice. After two days of no luck, I found a mess. Nice assortment, grays, yellows, blacks, and half frees. A grand slam from the same spot. Passed on some inkies, never ate those before.

Water snakes are shy and retreat. A cottonmouth will stand ground or advance. I have seen it too many times to count.

Cottonmouths are not comfortable around people either. That is why they chase you away.

I have been wanting to hit that upper part, just have not made it there yet. The lower part that we fish has produced some nice smallies.

I got a text last Monday morning from my long time fishing buddy in TN, Lets Go Fishing This Weekend on Pickwick. I was all in. Was all fired up all week. We made it to the lake with about 30 minutes of daylight to fish on Friday nite and headed to the spillway to make a few casts before dark. I caught a nice skipjack, he landed a 14" largemouth just casting from the bank. Sat. morning, we launched the boat for the first time of the new season. We had talked about the boat the night before as we were prepping it to fish. He was worried because he saw some water in the boat from our last trip out last season. I reminded him that we fished heavy swells that day and were tucked in under the windshield trying to stay dry, the boat was not leaking. I parked the truck and trailer and made my way back to the ramp. I hopped on board at the dock and he stated that he had found the leak. I raised the lid on the inboard 4.3 Chevy V6 to see water spouting from the starboard impellor housing. There was a nice busted seam gushing water and antifreeze into the hull. We puttered around for an hour in the cove on trolling motor and picked up a couple of largemouth each. I was not getting any action at first, so I put on a Ned and nailed mine. Put the boat back on trailer and headed back to boat doctor. First question out of the boat doctor mouth was "did you winterize it?" . "Yes You did" my buddy replied. Come to find out, both sides were cracked. We still have not found out the full extent of damage, but it looks like winterize failure. Went back to lake house and packed. Stopped at Shiloh Battleground and paid our respects to the fine Confederate Soldiers that fought in that battle. We headed back to his house to get the other boat ready for a backup trip to Reelfoot on Sunday morning. The jonboat has sit idle for a year under cover. One battery was dead and seats were moldy. We sprayed the seats down with bleach gel and got the mildew off. My buddy had to turn the water on to the pool house so I could spray the bleach off the seats, which I did. About a half a beer later, he made a dash for the shutoff again. Seems like there is a relief valve in the poolhouse that sticks open sometimes, that is why he keeps it shutoff. It was definately stuck open and water was pouring out the front doors and around the baseplate of the building. Started out fairly early this morning after a good nite sleep. We were at the gas station filling up when he got a call. It was a reminder that he was supposed to be at work an hour earlier. He makes his own schedule, but forgot what he had scheduled. We parted ways at that point, him off to work, me towards MO. I called another friend and was going to meet him halfway to St. Louis with my boat and fish a lake. An hour later, he called back and was worried that the radar was showing an incoming rain storm. We changed that to meeting up and heading out to St. Francois county to look for mushrooms. After a nice drive thru what used to be Forest Service land that is all now marked "NO TRESPASSING" courtesy of a few "Hunting Clubs" we found some nice public land. A few hours later and only 3 thumbnail grays and 1- 2 inch gray, we called it a day. What a weird weekend with some good friends. A campfire story we will tell for years.

It really needs to cool down some, too warm too quick. Average between day and night should be around 50 degrees.

I wear an inflatable when duck hunting sometimes, but mostly wear a regular PFD. I am always worried that I may not be able to pull the cord.

Nope, last year, early June. They are about 4" high right now. I use wood stakes and burn them year after year to keep from spreading diseases. I tend to rotate my Tomatoes around some, but if it is in the soil, it would really spread no matter what. My garden plot is about 30' x 40'. Now that I have raised beds, I could rotate plots. Or I can scoop out the soil and add fresh if needed.

Is there such a thing as a douche bag anymore? Another phrase lost to history. Massengill has gone like a nice summers eve.

Went out this afternoon to a proven spot, nothing yet. Maybe next week. We had an 80 degree day today, that may be a killer for this year. Past experience is that 80 degrees and it is all over. I hope not.

Mine are pretty simple. I pick up scrap stakes from a local pallet mill and create a wire trellis with some light wire that I found on surplus. You could do the same with twine or rope. Here is a pic of the trellis with sugar snap peas climbing it. I use the same for pole beans and cucumbers.

So the forum started in 2005. Is anyone planning a big 10 year party? What is the magic day the forum was started?

Where exactly is the "shoulder" of a fish? Is it above the elbows?

I have the decal on a boat that I don't own anylonger, I guess. Phil has sent those out from time to time for promo. T-shirts to all original members would be great, lol.