ness

Some may find this interesting.

We're overrun with lettuce right now, and having plenty of salads! Giving most away to neighbors and friends at the old salt mine. Basic with Red Salad Bowl and Slo Bolt lettuce: We do chicken lettuce wraps, or as one of the local restaurants calls it on their menu, 'Lettuce Wrapped with Chicken' :D. But, we don't always wrap And, turkey burgers. We've been tweaking this recipe and have it just the way we like it now. Next time, this'll be with Marty-Q sauce!

A friend of mine had an uncle killed in Normandy on a bombing run a few months before D-Day. The pilot steered away from a schoolhouse before crashing, saving the lives of many on the ground, including kids in the school. In February he and his family, and many of the other relatives of the soldiers killed in that crash, were invited to a ceremony honoring those men. Many of the school children were in attendance at the ceremony. My buddy had his uncle's flag and they raised it over the American Cemetery that day. They were able to visit his grave there. He said is was incredible how the French people are so thankful, still, for what was done 80 years ago. Another friend of mine visited Amsterdam a few years back, and there was an annual ceremony in which the expressed thanks to the Allied forces who freed them. We were on a vacation a few years back and met a couple from the Netherlands. They too expressed great thanks to America for what we did, but she had an interesting add on: She said something to the effect of, 'You do realize it destroyed our country in the process, right?' She was thankful, but was pointing out how hard it was on them, knowing that was a different perspective than what someone from the US would have. My uncle Lt. Mansor J. Mansor was killed at Futa Pass, Italy in 1944. Two of my dad's cousins were pilots in WWII. One trained pilots stateside, the other flew reconnaissance in a P-38 in Europe. My dad was a doc in a MASH unit in Korea. GGGGgrandfather fought with the Lancaster PA militia in the Revolutionary War. I didn't do squat

Boy, it’s been 15 years and I’ll have to check my notes to see if I have any ideas for you. I did use a guide named Tim Doyle out of Townsend, TN who was good, and entertaining, but I don’t know if he’s still guiding. Smoky Mountain Flywerks. Edit to add: My notes don’t have any stream names. I didn’t fish much on that trip.

No opening band. How they did the opening song is very cool. I’ll leave it at that. This is the third time I’ve seen JT. Two times at Starlight, and once at what everybody still calls ‘Sandstone’, even though the naming rights have been sold to some credit union. All outdoors venues. He has a great rapport with the crowd, and he is a very funny guy too.

Yes, it was a great show and it was great to spend some time with Marty and Pat.

You betcha Blender Hollandaise Sauce Ingredients 3 egg yolks 1 tablespoon lemon juice (measure this!) 1 pinch cayenne or dash Tabasco ¼ teaspoon Dijon (optional) ½ cup (1 stick) butter Directions 1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat until bubbling hot. 2. Combine egg yolks, juice and cayenne in a blender. Cover and blend for about 5 seconds. 3. Set the blender on high speed, and pour the butter into the egg yolk mixture in a thin stream and blend until thickened.

@Daryk Campbell Sr, @Flysmallie Driftless Area is in NE Iowa, SE Minnesota, SW Wisconsin and a little bit of Illinois. Its name comes from the absence of drift, which is rock, silt, etc. left behind as the glaciers retreated. I like their motto, ‘The glaciers missed us, don’t you.’ It’s hilly terrain with lots of valleys and spring-fed streams. It is the westernmost native range of brook trout. There are dozens of small/medium spring-fed streams with trout. It’s beautiful country. I’ve only done Iowa. Well, except about 5 miles into Minnesota. Iowa has a unique arrangement with landowners in which they allow public access to streams while maintaining private property status away from the stream. Farmers will build stiles, which are ladder-like structures that allow you to go over fences without the need for a gate. Iowa DNR stocks rainbows and browns throughout the area and does restoration work for the native brookies. I’ve always based out of Decorah. It’s a cool town with a lot of other stuff going on. I’m not a fish all day, fish all week kinda guy. I like to do other things as well. Decorah has a few good restaurants and a couple good breweries. There’s a new cidery that does a good job too. We’ve done a couple B&Bs there, but our favorite closed down a couple years ago. Seed Savers Exchange is up there, and I always enjoy a visit there. I like their story and their mission. I buy most all my vegetable seeds from them. So, that’s what we do and why we do it. Tons of info and a couple books at least if you want to focus mostly on fishing in the Driftless. I’ve done at least 2 other trip reports in this forum if you want to read more about my trips there. @BilletHead and @FishnDave may have something To add.

Thanks. No video exists of the actual plunge itself.

Yeah, restaurants are the worst. A lot of times I just check out of the conversation. We've got sound masking at the office and to me it sounds like a jet engine going all day. A while back I pulled my favorite IT guy aside and asked him if he could do something about it. Next thing I know he's on a step ladder, adjusting things up in the ceiling all around the floor to quiet it down. The NEXT next thing I know, the sales manager for our loan officers is at my door saying all the prima donna sales guys are complaining because they are overhearing the guy in the next cube over now. So, we found something in the middle.

We’ll, look who’s trying to spoil my little party😀 The hatchery ones were on a little stimulator with a bead head pheasant tail dropper. Most were on the stimi. Brook trout same setup but on the dropper. The ones at the ranch were on dry/dry setup with a EHC and a teeny something below. All on the EHC

Or, asparagus too.

Like a lot of things, you'll probably wish you'd done it sooner when you do. I'm sure glad I finally did it. I don't have to have the TV on 25 when Kathy only needs about 10. Now, the soft-talker at work is still a problem, but I'm not alone in having that issue.

Probably a good idea to leave them at home when fishing. Of course, I wasn't planning on going in the water. The clothes I was wearing were about the worst possible for that fiasco. Fortunately, I alway keep a couple trash bags in the car. That's a holdover from when the kids were young. More than a couple times I had to bag them up to get them home without trashing the car. So, the inside of the car was kept pretty clean and dry. I'm happy about that because I have a couple dignitaries coming into town this week from Milo, MO, and I wouldn't want the car all stinky smelling

Do you get the crazy sounds when you're near moving water with them? I mean, turn your head a bit and it sounds like a tornado, turn the other way and changes completely.

The sheer number of places to fish, and ease of access, is really impressive. That said, I did see some places posted that were not before. And then there's the head-scratching signs

I forgot to mention we did e-bikes one day. Decorah has a loop trail that's about 15 miles. It goes through rolling hill farmland, along streams, forest and a little bit on the edge of town. A really pretty trail, and the e-bikes make it a piece of cake. Those e-bikes are sweet!

Ding ding ding!

We had Kathy's mom in town week before last, so we schlepped her back to Iowa and spent a few days in Decorah. It has rained a ton up there, and there was a lot of standing water in the fields and overflowing creeks. The first 2 days it wasn't even worth trying fishing, so we knocked around the area. I did drive up into Minnesota to a stream I had fished before, and it looked like it would clear up soon so I popped for a license and went the next day. It's a pretty little stream, and it had cleared out, but I got skunked on the ½ mile that was not posted. I hit a couple places near Decorah too, but it wasn't working. And I was getting bummed. Things started to pick up the next day though. I fished on one of the handful of streams that Iowa DNR manages for South Pine Creek strain of native brook trout. I managed to fool one, which was pretty much the highlight of the trip. Things began clearing up and slowing down, and I was able to get in some decent fishing the last couple days. One of my favorite spots was treating me pretty well, until the cows came home. IMG_3065.MOV The last evening we headed down to the hatchery area to see the eagles. No luck on that, but I did fish the heavily stocked stream there. It was crazy, stupid stocker rainbows hitting my stimulator without giving it a thought. Kinda fun ...until the last one. I was bending down to net him and slipped and fell into the stream. Full submersion, and there were witnesses. Just beautiful. Flailing around in the water trying to get my footing, all the while the fish is swimming around me and tangling the line up more. I got out with everything except one of my hearing aids. BUMMER! That was an expensive slip up! Back at the room, I took off my jacket and the hearing aid dropped to the floor. Somehow it had lodged in the jacket and made the trip to the car/hotel/room without falling out! Neither suffered from the water either. Anyhoo, it was another fun trip up there and we'll do it again. A few random pics from there: Pretty cool museum we did on one of the rainy days. There continues to be a strong Norwegian identity in the area. Rooster and a hen on the side of the road. Dad high-stepped across, and mama slid back into the brush. Maid-Rite loose meat sandwiches. They're pretty good, but Nu-Way in Wichita does them better. Little tiny stream fed by Dunning Spring, just above the Iowa River. I've caught brook trout in here before, but nothing going this trip. One of several beautiful churches we saw. Anyone speak Norwegian? There are a lot of beautiful, well kept, prosperous farms and barns in Iowa. This one is across the road from Luther College, and is likely part of the school.

We're eating a lot of salads here. This cool spring with plenty of moisture has our lettuce, spinach and radishes doing very well. Oh, and peas too.

That sounds like a pretty cool presentation. I'd bet there are some pretty interesting stories about those steamboats sinking. We've got a cool museum here in KC with artifacts from steamboat Arabia that sank in the Missouri River east of KC in 1856. A few guys figured out where it was and dug it up. The river had changed course and it was buried under a farm field. They've been cleaning and cataloguing stuff since 1988.

Absolutely! and… ”As God it my witness…”

Can’t not think of this

First album is a cool thing to talk about. For me, Toulouse Street by the Doobies. I still love Listen to the Music, and the Doobies, especially early, pre Michael McDonald stuff. South City Midnight Lady, China Grove, Long Train Runnin, Rockin Down that Highway, Another Park Another Sunday, Eyes of silver. Too many to type

I love the Cars. Have you ever had that feeling where a song or artist strongly reminds you of a time in your life or a place? For me it’s the Cars and college. My Best Friends Girl, Just What I Needed, Since You’re Gone, Let’s Go.