ness

I like that they're crispy, but I have to bundle several together to get a decent bite.

Seed Savers is a cool place. I've been there a few times and have fished the stream there. Caught a nice little brookie there in 2021. I do mostly heirloom, but have some hybrids too. Heirlooms can be more fussy to grow, but the flavor can beat the hybrids, making it worth the trouble. Heirloom tomatoes I like: Cherokee Purple, Black Krim and Brandwine. Great flavor on all three. Hybrids: Celebrity and Sun Gold. Celebrities are pretty disease resistant and have excellent flavor. Sun Gold is a very prolific indeterminate cherry. Delicious flavor. I also do several heirloom varieties of lettuce: Black Seeded Simpson, Tom Thumb, Forellenschlus, Paris Island Cos and Yugoslavian Red. Baker Creek at Mansfield, MO and Seed Savers both sell only heirloom seeds and some starts, and both do a good job. It's about time to plan the garden, do an inventory of seeds and place some orders.

There are a few in the Kansas City area now, and each opening had press coverage, the huge lines, redirected traffic, etc. Silly. We were out one evening last month and happened to drive by one. There wasn't a line so we went through the drive thru. First off, it took a really long time to get through with only a couple cars ahead of us. And...it was just a fast food burger, like all the rest. I wouldn't bother to go again. Do you guys have Freddy's down your way? They do a good smash burger, shoestring fries and fry sauce.

I don’t think so. I don’t have the equipment and don’t think I’d want to deal with hot bottles anyway. I used Star San to sanitize. It’s widely used in dairy operations, breweries and wineries. Pretty easy to do. I’ve run bottles through the dishwasher without soap before.

And… Look what the postman brought! Thanks @BilletHead and Pat!

We racked the wine off the sediment into a clean carboy on Wednesday and let it settle for a couple days before bottling. The not-so-fun and time consuming part of all this is the cleaning. I bought a couple gadgets to make bottle cleaning a little easier: a rinsing contraption that shoots sanitizing solution into the bottle, and a bottle tower that helps with draining the solution out. After the bottles were washed and sanitized, we set about to bottle. Kathy has been involved all along the way, and her mom is here for the holidays so she helped out with the bottling too. We ended up with 29+ bottles of wine. We tasted the + after we were done. Of course it’s a little raw, but it has excellent potential. I’m gonna wait three months before cracking open the first. Hopefully it will be ready to gift next Christmas.

After the Yukon Jack party of ‘81, I swore off sweetened whiskey for life 😀

I just looked -- about 3 to 3-½ pounds of honey per gallon. How much honey are you producing? That does sound like a lot.

Good color, and nice and clear too! Yep, we’ve got a couple things going. 6 gallons of a Chianti-style red wine from a Winexpert kit, and 5 gallons hard cider from a local cider mill. Wine is done fermenting and settling out. Should be ready to bottle in a week or two. Cider is still bubbling away nicely.

I had to look it up as I wasn't familiar with that style. Looking at all the pictures out there, really nobody is able to make it look very appealing. I think regular stroganoff is the same. But it sounds really good!

Ran across this article https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/news/stories/2016/02/bobwhite-quail021616.html. The link to another study in the article is broken, but I found the document here: https://ag.ok.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Forestry-landowner-assistance-Bobwhite-Quail-Habitat-Evaluation-and-Mgmt.pdf

Congrats, and nice looking Britt! It’s cool when they figure it out.

No, no, no! This is where you spout some wisdom, or better yet mysticism, wow the youngsters and get them to do the heavy lifting for you. You could leverage that into a big harem of females in the old days, but that wouldn't go over so well now, especially with you-know-who

I haven't researched it at all, but the glory days in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, seem to coincide with the low populations of hawks. I don’t think it’s the only factor, but I think it’s a major factor. Seems like I see a hawk on about 1 out of every 10 telephone poles these days. CRP certainly gave things a boost, but it’s been in decline for years. All the people I used to hunt with in western KS for pheasant/quail have given it up. I joined a club several years ago but quit that about three years ago due to some club BS. The hunting wasn’t that great anyway. The last few years have been preserve hunts close to home. It’s ok but I miss the camaraderie of the big group and the challenge of hunting wild birds.

This looks like a pretty good resource https://quailforever.org/Conservation/Habitat-Education/Resources.aspx

Joe Montana, passed on 16, did 19 out or respect. Always loved that story.

Oh Brother is a great movie, too. And, I love Alison Krauss. The bank was entertainment sponsor for a Boys and Girls Clubs fund raiser a few years back and she was there. She's a very kind and humble person too.

Concert for George. Good stuff!!

Wow! What a story. I hadn't heard of that.

Golden Corral, Grandview, MO, May 1996.

Maybe 3 months before it felt normal. I think 100 degrees is good for 3 weeks.

You’re welcome. Good luck with the new knee. I’m 2½ years into mine and very glad I did it. It’s a process and takes some time, but do what the doctor says and you’ll surely be way better off than before.

Hold please… We have a winner! Please pm me your address and I’ll get it in the mail to you.

I'll ship this book to your door, absolutely free, to the first person that correctly solves this problem: 429 x 32 ? No calculators, and must show work to win!

Apparently not enough to cover the payments.