ness

Whatever color you want!

$10,000 plus I'll thrown in the paddles and deliver it to your driveway.

One company bought another, and it wasn't hostile. Most aren't. I didn't take the time to look too deep, but PolyOne was about twice the size of Spartech which had about a billion in annual sales -- so not a small company. Both companies were profitable beforehand. I suspect Royalex was a tiny portion of their combined business and just didn't fit, and/or the product line wasn't profitable. If you think of all the plastic crap in the world, it's easy to see how that could be the case. As for profit motive -- well, that's what makes the world go 'round. If you're charging money for your paintings, and deducting expenses for your taxes, you're just as bad as those big shots at PolyOne

....well. I don't think we really know what the demand for Royalex is. We also don't know why Spartech sold, but one reason companies sell is because they just can't make a go of it. It's not because big bad cigar-chomping executives break up the companies they buy just for the fun of it, without any regard to the workers or product users or -- yes, profits. If there's value in the Royalex name, patent or material, it'll get picked up, or another suitable material will eventually come along. And we're not out of canoes yet anyway.

Cabal -- had to look that one up

Tom Skerrit, Craig Sheffer and Brad Pitt. Seriously...dad wasn't much of a fisherman, but loved to hunt, so we didn't fish much as kids. Drowned a few worms here and there. I got married 25 years ago, and my wife's family all fished. I took it up and her uncle Roger became my fishing mentor and also a great friend. He had a fish & ski, and we'd fish the local reservoirs for crappie, bass, smallies and walleye. Before I had my own babies I had a nephew, who didn't have a dad, and I took him out all the time to fish. So, really those were the ones that influenced me -- one as a mentor, another as an enthusiastic student. I started reading up on flyfishing at some point, and it really sounded like something I wanted to do. Sorta dove into it head first, and have really been my main thing for many moons.

I'm glad you enjoyed the movie. Bob took some artistic license in his interpretation of my book, but it worked well I thought.

If you're interested in family snapshots and fishing pictures, a DSLR is probably more that you need. If you've got a larger body and a couple lenses you'll have some stuff to lug around, and you'll probably find you're leaving it behind and using a point and shoot or phone a lot of the time. That said, there are huge advantages to a DSLR. They're sturdier, feel better in your hand and offer a lot of features only available on higher-end point and shoots. (BTW, there are very nice point and shoots, like the Canon G-series, Olympus Pen, etc.) SLRs have the interchangeable lenses that will focus faster and CAN be sharper than P&S lenses. But the 'kit' lenses are often pretty mediocre. If you're serious about the best quality photos, a DSLR is the way to go. As far as brand, don't believe your source that said stay away from Nikon. Nikon and Canon are the big two. Canon is a much larger company and markets a lot more. They took a lot of Nikon's market share in the early digital years through rapid product development and slick marketing. Nikon took a more measured approach, and made fewer but better and more advanced and better built products than Canon. A typical example was when Canon rushed out video capability while Nikon was working on high ISO (low-light) sensors. Video's cool, high ISO was a photographer's dream though. Think gym photos. They also made big steps in autofocus technology and metering, while Canon spent most of their effort building sensors with more and more megapixels. I shoot Nikon -- with a 8-year old D200. The thing is built like a tank, and I've got over 15,000 shots out of it so far. It doesn't shoot video, but I've never been big into video anyway. It was a fairly expensive body, but I tend to buy quality that lasts. I really like that camera, and it's gonna be around for a while. My son has a 3100, and it's a fine camera too. He can use my lenses, but he's usually got the 18-55 kit lens on it. Now, for lenses. No matter what DSLR you buy, more of the equipment-related picture quality will ultimately depend on the lens. (The MOST picture quality will depend on YOU). I would always recommend you spend more on the lenses if you can swing it. Last I looked, Canon had a wider selection of lenses in the low-mid priced area than Nikon. But Nikon covers all the bases too. Both have excellent glass. I popped for a now-discontinued 18-70, and an 80-200 f/2.8. It really covers the range for me. The 80-200 is especially sharp, but heavy. The 2.8 allows for nice sharp portaits with a nicely blurred background ("bokeh"). I've done a few senior pictures, and mainly use that lens. Subjects can be more at ease if you're farther away. As for editing software, I really like Adobe Lightroom. I really hate Photoshop Elements. Lightroom is more intuitive and easier to use. It does non-destructive editing, i.e. it saves your edits without changing the original or making a copy. It has excellent key wording and organization tools, which is HUGE once you start accumulating photos. It interfaces with Facebook, Smugmug and other photo-sharing applications. There are cheap and free editing packages out there. If you're serious, buy Lightroom. Finally, take a look at B&H Photo/Video. They're an excellent web source for all things camera, computer.

Everybody's got their favorite, go-to flies and techniques, myself included. But I'll also adapt to where I am and what's going on around me. Wouldn't ever rule out scuds in a place crawling with them.

Nice write up. Seems like he might be an ok guy.

Nice!

We've stayed at the Roaring River Resort several times. Just outside the park, next door to Tim's Fly Shop. Rooms from typical motel on up to big cabins. Nice folks.

I'm liking these poppers guys. BilletHead -- you've got some pretty good looking color schemes on those guys.

Nice looking haul there, BilletHead! The peppers look good. I try to spray at the first sight of problems and stay on it. That still didn't help my beans though. I may have a soil-borne problem. First nice-sized mater yesterday too, a Brandywine. Red Cheese pepper is the first of any size. Bananas and others are taking their sweet time. Pulled all the carrots this morning. Brandywine St. Valery These Sun Golds have exceptional flavor Garlic from last week Red Cheese sweet pepper -- I need these to come on, because I wanted to pickle them Dills and Bread and Butter from last weekend. Did 4 jars of Dill, 2 B&B.

The river is spinning...

Garden's looking bare, like it always does this time of year. Bush beans are out now, pole beans are shriveling up. The Brandywine mater I posted on page 2 just got picked the other day. Pretty dog gone big -- I need to weigh it. Having a spell of cool weather and rain right now. Low of 69 last night, high in the high 70s today. Should set some fruit with those temps. Time to amend the soil and get the fall garden going.

x2

I'm not commenting on this topic any more, so all I can say is ... where's the friggin thumbs-up avatar?

I know I'm beating a dead horse, and this will be my last post on this topic: when people are acting like azzholes, and they come across another azzhole, the law doesn't freakin' matter. Right or wrong; Elder or Decour; navigable or not; high water mark; purple paint; keep out signs; easements; fishermen's rights; the government; how big Ed is ... nothing freakin' matters. What matters is how you act at that moment. Crocker asks nicely and the cousins calm down and say ok, and Dart is back home Sunday night. You with the bad azz mentality and the ones that feel the need to have guns for protection ARE the problem.

John: I wonder if you ever considered walking up to the man and saying something like, 'I hear what you're saying, and I don't like the trash anymore than you. I've got a bag of trash out in the car that I picked up today.'? I guess, in my humble opinion, your good deed is sorta offset by your shouting at that guy and coming on here to brag about it. Last shouting match we talked about on here ended up with somebody dead.

On iPhone it's settings general accessibility for starters

Take a look at your settings. There will be ways to adjust the speed and autocorrect

Looks like it's working Hog Wally. You haven't been misbehaving, have you? To my thinking this whole thing boils down to a couple pretty simple concepts. Know and do what's right. If a property owner comes around, first -- keep you cool. A hello and a smile would be a good start. Quoting, or worse, arguing floater's rights streamside is a no-win situation, so don't even bother. Playing dumb and asking questions would actually be more to your benefit. You can't make everybody in your group act right, so don't take responsibility for the everybody -- just worry about yourself and your family. If it starts to escalate give a friendly wave and a smile, then head on down the creek and have a good time. If the situation dictates, report the landowner's behavior to the authorities at the end of the day.

The ness family has never made the trek over there, and it's bugging me. This was gonna be the year, had done the early stages of planning, but early in the year that plan started to fall apart. Baby girl decided to take classes this summer and squeeze in a week as a camp counselor for kids with spina bifida. (Kinda hard to find fault with her summer plans). One of the boys got invited out to NC for a convention. Etc. So, it's gonna be 2014, and I'm starting to work on it. Gonna have to pay closer attention to these posts.

Used see a guy about every year when pheasant hunting in western Kansas. Always was limited out when we saw him, even at breakfast. We called him Topper.