ness

Another excellent, well-written report! You’ve got a real talent for telling a story, like John. Thanks and keep it up please!!

I heard some time ago that an American Indian said something like, 'Only the white man can cut a piece off the end of a blanket, sew it back on the other end, and think he has more blanket.'

It was interesting to us, and you probably know this, but every bar we went to in Ireland had Southern Comfort in a prominent place on the shelf. And, we went to at least one bar a day. Not to sit around to drink but to eat. Because that's where you eat in little Irish towns.

I miss having them around. I used to love seeing a ball of rabbit or squirrel fur laying on the ground. We had a sickly coyote hanging around behind our fence, under our neighbor's deck. etc. a couple years back. I was glad when he disappeared! One of the neighborhood internet wildlife sleuths decided it was probably a jackal

I've never encountered a gray fox. The suburban ones we had were red and generally didn't give a hoot about people being around. One morning our dog was barking out the upstairs window so I went to take a look. There was a red fox in the back yard right next to our little 4-foot fence. He jumped over the fence from a standing stop, which really impressed me. Cool animals!

The three gallons I started back in August fermented out very dry at about 0.998. I added some priming sugar for carbonation and bottled it a couple weekends ago. The test bottle (plastic soft drink bottle half filled) was rock hard, indicating it had fermented more and produced the carbonation, so I pasteurized last weekend. I noticed one bottle had a pretty thick sediment so I thought I'd crack that one open and check it out. I guess it got a little more than its fair share of yeast because when I opened it up it was a geyser! Now I was skeered I had a problem, so I opened a couple more. All was well on those two with perfect carbonation. Just where I wanted them acid/tannin/sweetness/flavor-wise, but still pretty young. With my safety glasses on I inspected the remaining bottles and didn't see any others with heavy sediment, so I think I'm good. But...these won't be getting shipped anywhere. I had one of my November 2023 ciders the other night and it was really good. They have all three continued to improve with age, but have kinda plateaued.

They are cool but kinda act weird at times. We've had them around the neighborhood, even in our back yard, but not recently. I have a friend that's got a second story deck and one climbs the steps and sits on the deck furniture from time to time.

Nice report! It’s cool when you catch on a fly you tied; cooler when it’s your pattern!

My oh my! Great report!!!

Just got back to the room after seeing the Peterson’s in a very small theater in Branson. Four Peterson siblings, their mom and a guy on dobro. We found them on YouTube sometime ago and really like them. Bluegrassy takes on a lot of other folks work and a bunch of their own too. Merle, Alison Kraus, Fleetwood Mac, Queen (Bohemian Rhapsody; didn’t see that coming!), Denver, Emmy Lou, Dolly. Excellent show, good audience rapport too. We were in second to last row, AKA, the fourth row. Up close and personal

Ladies and gentlemen: Sexual Chocolate!

That boy’s good!

This week’s ear worm. Love this rendition

The elk in Estes are interesting - oftentimes right there in the middle of town. Kinda felt sorry for this guy who got tangled up in some Christmas lights.

And…there are native cutthroats in that there water!

Nice shot! I was out Tuesday but it was a little hazy plus I had some light pollution to deal with.

I’d lean towards Roaring River. Easy fishing from the bank, and easy to switch and do something else around the park if the situation dictates. Being committed to a boat for a few hours may work out great, but it would be more of an issue if you needed to bail out. If you do go that route book ASAP as this is a very busy time of year All that said, let him choose but don’t *make* him choose, if you know what I mean. Good on you for taking this on!

Not sure about how fish feel about them, but Red Wigglers just make me smile.

Nice! I’ve never had hen of the woods but would sure like to try sometime. That vinaigrette sounds delicious!

Just couldn’t get the offense going! Pitching was ok. Oh well. Quite a turnaround from 2023. We’ve got most of these guys locked up for next year so I’m hopeful.

Good old Great Wolf Lodge! Pretty popular spot for my boys and their friends to have birthday parties. We haven't been since they grew up When my daughter was young she took horseback riding lessons on that land that is now the Legends/NASCAR track, etc. The ONLY thing around there was the water tower. She's 33 now. It's changed a bit

I shared the story of this delicacy when this thread was in its infancy. I was able to locate the post and share a link to the epoch tale again here

I got them each one of these. But now they don’t seem as focused for some reason.

I suppose I could get one of these https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/09/19/louisiana-drone-missing-girl-found-video/75297197007/ Actually it’s mostly about the dogs for me.