ness

Last visit almost exactly 10 years ago. Man, we've ben at this a long time!!

Off topic kinda, but my suburban neighborhood is buzzing because we've got some bobcats around. This is one a neighbor took a pic of on my fence last year. She said it didn't seem to care there were people around Then these in the last week or so These next ones are screen grabs from a video somebody shared. I wish I could figure out how to share the whole video though because it's pretty cool. Anyhoo -- this juvenile dashes across the street and goes into creep mode up to some bushes. He gets right up there and a rabbit darts out to the left and gets away. He just looks kinda stunned/pissed. You can just make out the rabbit and its white tail to the left of the cat.

From ChatGPT Got it — let’s walk through the life cycles of the most important aquatic insects for trout fishing, and pair each stage with the common fly patterns that imitate them. ⸻ 1. Mayflies (Order: Ephemeroptera) Life cycle stages important to anglers: 1. Nymph – lives underwater, crawls or swims. 2. Emerger – nymph hatching into adult on or just below surface. 3. Dun – first winged stage; rides the surface to dry wings. 4. Spinner – mating stage; falls spent on surface. Fly patterns: Stage Common Fly Patterns Nymph Hare’s Ear Nymph, Pheasant Tail Nymph Emerger RS2, CDC Emerger, Soft Hackle Dun Adams, Comparadun, Sparkle Dun Spinner Rusty Spinner, Poly Spinner ⸻ 2. Caddisflies (Order: Trichoptera) Life cycle: 1. Larva – worm-like; some in cases, some free-living. 2. Pupa – transformation stage; swims to surface. 3. Adult – skitters on surface or lays eggs. Fly patterns: Stage Common Fly Patterns Larva Green Rockworm, Caddis Larva Pupa LaFontaine’s Sparkle Pupa, Soft Hackle Caddis Adult Elk Hair Caddis, X-Caddis, Goddard Caddis ⸻ 3. Stoneflies (Order: Plecoptera) Life cycle: 1. Nymph – lives under rocks, crawls to shore to hatch. 2. Adult – large, clumsy flyer; lays eggs by dipping abdomen. Fly patterns: Stage Common Fly Patterns Nymph Kaufmann’s Stone, Pat’s Rubber Legs Adult Stimulator, Sofa Pillow, Chubby Chernobyl ⸻ 4. Midges (Order: Diptera) Life cycle: 1. Larva – tiny worm-like form. 2. Pupa – rises slowly to surface. 3. Adult – very small mosquito-like insect. Fly patterns: Stage Common Fly Patterns Larva Zebra Midge, Brassie Pupa Black Beauty, WD-40 Adult Griffith’s Gnat, Parachute Midge ⸻ 5. Aquatic Terrestrial Crossovers (e.g., Grasshoppers, Ants, Beetles) While not aquatic, they fall into water often in summer. Fly patterns: Parachute Hopper, Foam Ant, Beetle Bug. ⸻ Diagram Style Overview Imagine each life cycle as a loop: • Mayflies: Nymph → Emerger → Dun → Spinner • Caddisflies: Larva → Pupa → Adult • Stoneflies: Nymph → Adult • Midges: Larva → Pupa → Adult If you want, I can make you a visual chart that shows each insect’s life cycle in diagram form with fly pattern names beside each stage so it’s quick to reference streamside. Do you want me to build that chart next?

I still miss @Wayne SW/MO and his level-headed contributions here.

I tried to quickly find an online resource that had it all in one place but didn't find anything. I think if you Google mayfly, caddis, stonefly, dragonfly or midge life cycle and click on images, you'll get a decent idea of the various stages, names and a visual of aquatic insects. Associated names and pictures of flies that match the bug and the given stage will usually have a picture. Kinda like this: mayfly life cycle will get you: nymph> emerger> dun> spinner> spent spinner mayfly spinner fly pattern will get you pics of flies

I'm not sure which I think is funnier: a guy with a parrot on his shoulder, or a guy with a fake parrot on his shoulder

My daughter and SIL recently bought a house. Pretty cool place: a farmhouse built in 1930 on about an acre of land in OP. It's gonna take a lot of work but it's got all the stuff they were looking for: a decent size lot, large garage, etc. So, anyhoo. There's a mulberry tree on the property and they made some excellent jelly. Besides run-of-the-mill jelly applications, I've stuck a little in my ho' made yogurt the last couple days. Delicious! Oh, and we all know about the mulberry tree downsides. But they're excited and so am I.

I'm up to 11 mice dispatched this morning. I probably could have a few more but I'm not super diligent at resetting traps out there. But, I'm making progress. Lost two decent maters to something in the last week. That really hot blast last week turned off tomato production, kinda like it does every year it seems. But this cool spell has things perking back up.

Great report and absolutely gorgeous fish! Congrats!

We took the MIL to Iowa to visit, then the missus and I went on to see my sister, nieces and kids in Chicago. It's really pretty amazing to see the vast rolling fields of corn in IA and western IL. Here's a pic from a few years back that I like It's prime sweet corn time so we picked up some on the way back home. Look at the length of these ears! We've been eating a lot of caprese too with tomatoes and basil from the garden. Here the missus does a little food styling fer the pic

Is there a salmon candy recipe you could point us too? I don't have Alaska salmon, but I do have Aldi salmon.

Remember that 'Salmon Candy' @Phil Lilley had at our get-together? If I had a bunch of salmon, I'd be looking to make some of that!

Summer pasta with garden tomato, garlic and basil

Don’t give them your credit card number. Give it to me and I’ll get you fixed right up🤪

That’s pretty cool! Except for the manual labor part😀

That sounds kinda tough. Good thing you had the right gear. At least it was cool and you could cover up and be comfortable.

Thread hijack coming, but @Daryk Campbell Sr mentioned sports, so this is his fault I wanted to get the missus some tickets for us to see the Royals for her birthday. I used to be able to snag the company tickets occasionally, but we dropped them a couple years back. Seats like we had -- lower level, around 3rd base, $152 a piece. No thanks! We've got a large baseball/softball complex a couple miles away. I told her I'd taker her to a game there Thread hijack hijack coming now. This one's all on me: An old female friend of mine from high school messaged me and asked if I was going to try to see Paul McCartney when he tours in 2026. I had seen that and got on the list for first pick of tickets in Des Moines, the closest show (First pick, oooh hurry, yeah, right). I got my notification and checked it out. They started at $300ish and went up to $500,000,000,000! I might be wrong on the high end number So, she tells me she got hers for $800 for a show in CA. She apparently has more money than she did in high school. She and I saw Paul McCartney and Wings at Kemper in KC in 1976. She's got her ticket stub. It was $8!

Oh, and Kodiak too. Might finish reading up on this when I retire! Duty calls!

I didn't know Brown Bear and Grizzly were the same species! Coastal brown bear and Inland Grizzly Bear.

Well, we had company

That meal looks excellent, especially that salmon!! Caprese here too.

We like yogurt but the stuff we had recently in Switzerland and France was really excellent. Thinner and more tart than the stuff we get here, which is almost exclusively Greek yogurt. So, I struck out to try to replicate it. I gotta say this turned out really well. And, it’s easy to do. Bring whole milk to 195 and hold it there for 10 minutes. Cool it down to 110 and inoculate it with some store bought plain yogurt with live cultures. Then keep it at 110 for anywhere from 4 hours to 24 hours. The longer you go the more tart it gets. I did two quarts and used my sous vide stick. One batch was 5 hours, the other 14. The 5 hour stuff was very bland so I stuck it back in for about 10 more hours. Both quarts turned out really good. Mixed in a little strawberry rhubarb jam and hit it with a bit of granola. Delicious!!

Can’t remember the last time I saw an ad here. Just using Safari.

Yep, Caputo Pizzeria 00. Not 100 percent convinced it makes a big difference but that’s what I’m using.