BilletHead

Depends if you catch them on Tenkara or ultra, ultra, super duper light spinning tackle a strand from a spider. Oh and it has to be from an Ozark orb weaver spider to count as a qualifying catch. Otherwise it is just another fish. BilletHead

Hey that might be neat to watch! Johnsfolly catching trophy minnows on tiny hooks and Ronnie taking photos of them. . I can see Ronnie taking macro pictures. BilletHead

Great report. Like the play by play. I am thinking about making Aurora squirrel today. Maybe even shooting another one or two if they give me a chance. BilletHead

Ha Johnsfolly, Funny I think they have a name figured out and it is going to be a boy.

Well I have taken women and children goose hunting but it was a first taking a pregnant lady for goose hunting, On one of the farms I am fortunate to have permission to hunt the land owner told me his nephews were coming up to hunt. They are from Texas and hunt ducks down there but have limited knowledge about geese. There was only one stipulation. I was to tell them where to hunt and where not to hunt? Huh I thought? Landowner said he did not want them to mess up my hunting? Again Huh? Really he said you work too hard and they should not mess that up for you. I said how about I give them some guidance and if they want me to take them out I will. So three weeks ago I get a call from Texas and we chatted. They said we will be there the sixteenth. I said just call when you get here and I will tell you what I have been seeing, will make a plan and if you want we will hunt together. Yep he said. I had forgotten until Monday morning when I sen a call from a Texas number. Oops We chatted and he asked if I still wanted to take them out. Sure do and we made a plan for the next morning. Then he asked you have an extra layout blind? Yes, well my wife wants to go with. Sure. So we met at the location picked. Out comes this little gal with a big round baby bump and she is packing her own shotgun. Shuttled two loads of junk with the ATV and trailer and set up. Two dozen goose floaters and two dozen duck floaters. Dozen full body geese on shore. They all worked hard saying yes sir, no sir, what next sir. Not used to hear that out of young folks for the most part nowadays. They have been raised right and I seen that right off the bat. 21,21 and 23 years young they are. I said hey stop that you are making me feel older than I already am. Soon early ducks began to fly and work some but all in mated pairs. They would land wide of decide it was too crowded and leave. Later around nine to nine thirty geese began to fly. Some would work and some would circle and look hard only to flare seeing something that did not look right. Ruger the two year old chocolate lab was somewhat antsy not wanting to stay in his blind may of played a part of that. Well we finished off the morning with eight geese. One missing from the picture. Crashed closer to the truck than the blinds so it was in the truck photo time, So I hear where are we going tomorrow? Ha I laughed. Want to try another place? Yes sir, yep here we go again with the sir thing. I am telling you these boys were workers. We picked up quick and shuttled out. So I told them the place I would try in the AM. Also said no ducks can be shot there it was the closed middle zone. So this morning when I pulled into the driveway where they were staying I was early, They were in their truck lights on and ready to follow me to hunt two. We got there and began to shuttle gear to the pond. A very noisy pond that was full of geese. Crapola I thought. Hope a few decide to trickle back in later. Could of messed this hunt up big time. Set up and still could hear geese that had not left. Thought maybe one or two. Then a single came back to land with the other geese. Then we could see the other geese that numbered like twenty to thirty. This isn't going to work as a mega wad of geese came back and began to land wide in the middle of the big pond, Some swung pretty close and I said might as well try because we need the wad to leave out. Two fell so we were could call it a successful hunt even if we got no more. So foggy and could not see any distance. Could hear geese long before we could actually lay our eyes on them. Some came close and rolled out no doubt part of what we messed with earlier. Then a single sailed in and I said to pregnant Payton that is your bird and boys back her up. Up sat Payton, boom and bird went down. Nice and Payton had her first confirmed canada goose. Actually this made my day even if another bid did not die .Big grins all the way around. More geese in and out not wanting to play much. Fog starting to lift later on and then the hunt got real good. More geese in and down. We had ten and it got slow. Payton was cold and tucked way into her blanket, Decided to give it another fifteen minutes and call it. Time had expired and I said you know what always happens when you begin to pick up. So I tossed the calls to them and said I will walk after the ATV and trailer very slowly and be ready. Sure enough a group came over and gave the guys the stink eyes as they began to call or try to call. They had never had blown a goose call. They sounded funny and the working geese thought so too . Three groups did this before I made it back to them. As I got there more coming and I sped away again. Repeat process no commitment and I drove back down. Hey this will happen again lets get picked up and out of here. Then another pair began a slow decent and right over at maximum range. Guns were still loaded as we crouched. Lets try them, one went right potato sack dead and the other sailed across a fescue field loosing altitude. Two of us went looking, and looking more and more. All over by a creek in the fence row. Nothing. We could see geese again working the big pond. On the way back I took one more long range look way West of where we thought the bird went down. There in the distance I see it's head in the deep grass. What luck I thought and soon we were on it and did the dispatching deed. A four man I mean person limit! What a good day. Peyton and a couple of her birds, look at that belly peeking out the bibs, Ruger their dog with another retrieve. The two year old had only messed with two geese before. He made eighteen of the twenty retrieves the past two hunts. He did not get two because they hit dry land as he was in the water getting others. He would bring them to shore and drop them in a pile. You could see he was perplexed on how much they weighed compared to the ducks he was used to. By the end of the hunt he was bringing them closer each time. The final tally for this morning. They are trying a duck hunt in the morning. A pond I suggested. They wanted me to go but I said no go for it. Loaned them a couple more dozen duck decoys and another layout. Wished them luck and to report and if they needed anything give me a ring and I would be there pronto. Final thoughts. Good kids and well mannered, pleasure to hunt with and hope to do again someday. Funny how much they all were connected to media. It is the thing they all do now. Constantly taking and sharing with others as we hunted. Asked if I was on facebook, well no I am not. Oh heck we could stay connected and communicate. Ha I thought I am a phone call away but said nothing. They could not thank me enough but really the pleasure was mine to have. We should all share with the younger ones. Someday they will be taking us hunting and fishing when we cannot do it by ourselves. BTW Payton is due in early march. BilletHead

Nice Ronnie! Thanks for the photos, BilletHead

Oh My gosh it is getting crazy when the flamingos become part of the spread. Still trying to figure out our hunt John. Got wrangled into a hunt with a pregnant lady today, really true story maybe story tomorrow or the day after . BilletHead

Me too, Send Ness some in the mail like he did the fruitcake . BilletHead

John did you dehydrate any from last season? You can grind them up very fine or to a powder and thicken up broth from braising your rodents. Making a gravy. Get the mushroom flavor with out the leathery texture from dehydrated ones in case you don't find fresh ones. My buddy I mentioned above that has the air rifle brought me a jar of black trumpets when he and his Mrs. came to goose hunt he dehydrated. Trying to figure what to use them in ? BilletHead

Yes john you gave it a good try this season. I am sure you will be ready for the next one. I could of taken a doe the last three weeks. They are out back every afternoon/evening behind the house. Five to eight of them. Just this evening Pat was saying there they are, this is your last chance. Could of done what I did to this mornings tree rats. Just did not have the drive to get another. I too will be ready for next season. Hopefully it will not be as hot as it was early archery season 2016. Yes to looking forward to Aurora squirrel again. The braising process in that dish is the bomb and very tasty. That is the first thing I thought of when the Mrs. said hey why don't you shoot them out the window this morning. She the Mrs. got one of her spring gobblers out that same window several years back . Yes really she did ! My rifle is a .17 HMR Quite a neat little round. I prefer using FMJ for hunting the tree rats but sometimes after being hit they would go a ways before expiring if you missed the head. So it is back to soft tips. With those if you happen to hit as far back as the neck it will blow out bot front legs but they will not go anywhere when hit. My buddy from up by St. Louis has a .25 cal pellet rifle. You can pump it up with a bicycle tire pump but it takes some time. It has an air cylinder that holds enough air for quite a few rounds. He now has a SCUBA tank he gets charged to fill the rifle. He is heck on squirrel and anything else he can get a shot at. I shot it and it is really neat. One thing that is on my wish list. BilletHead

Choot em out the family room window while sitting next to the pellet stove, BilletHead

Well it wasn't that bad in BilletHeadVille. No close power outages that I know of. Shot a few photos to share. Did loose a few big tree limbs. Melting fast now. Got to do a drive by shooting on these guys. Something we don't see many of now. A dozen or more, Ozark Which hazel is beginning to bloom, Then there is just plain ice, BilletHead will be glad when it is all gone.

Yep but hey man I am hungry. As soon as it hits desired temp I am ready to eat . No waiting all night although I can see the herbs and spices in a long desired temperature cooking really flavoring the meat. Got the vacuum sealer, now I want the immersion cooker! BilletHead

Yea get it that it hits and holds a target temp. Was wondering how to figure out how long to cook so that the cut of meat size hits that temp. Say target is 150 degrees. A six oz. will hit that temp before a sixteen oz. would. What a deal never getting something over done. Like I would get my duck breast rare, yank it out, crisp that skin and bingo perfecto! Wouldn't matter if it was the tiniest teal or a extra large fat mallard. Get it to rare but meat size a bit different. BilletHead

Gavin I am really intrigued with your immersion cooker. Do you have a time using it per pound of meat for making sure you have it completely done to target temperature? Oh Griz, this is for you, BilletHead

Finishing up today's eats, First the results of the canadian bacon. Almost there, Out of the smoker to cool, Cooled , sliced for the taste test. Reminds me of ham. Very good . Brine consisted of water,salt,sugar,pink curing salt, fresh sage and thyme, a couple smashed garlic cloves. Then to the main dish. DUCK BULGOGI National dish of Korea. From my Duck, duck, goose cookbook. An adaptation of an adaptation Hank Shaw says. Can be made with different meats. Start with a marinade then throw in the meat for an hour plus. We did this for about three hours. Remove meat and reserve the marinade for cooking down making a sauce. Grill meat, Slice and plate up. Suggest a side of rice and kimchi . Was not going to town for kimchi in the icy weather so added a bit of green tomato relish on the side with the rice, BilletHead may have to do a hot potato roll with gooseberry jam for dessert. I will eat a second one for you Griz, BilletHead

Couldn't be much better. Maybe a hybrid fly rod top water bite would put me over the top . Bet those girls of yours are growing. BilletHead

Holy Mackrel, Bird Watcher makes a post. How are you doing buddy

Boy Griz kind of hate to post todays foodie stuff because you are doing healthy diet, Maybe just a little . A nice coating of ice outside in Billetheadville. What to do? Cook of course! After more reading in my new Charcuterie book and after Walleyemike's post on canadian bacon I just had to try it. Been in a brine for 48 hours and then in the fridge overnight to dry and develop a pellicle for the smoke to adhere better to. Ready to go into smoker, Then the Mrs decided to do potato rolls. She gets into kneading the dough, Then I cut the jerky in strips I did the other day, First dough rise, Between dough rises time for an adult hot chocolate break, http://chiwulff.com/2016/01/28/thirsty-thursday-28-january-tropical-rum-hot-chocolate/ Second dough rise, And into oven! And out of the oven, Right now the BilletHead is eating a hot fresh potato roll .

I have clicked on this a half dozen times this morning, Drew I am at a loss of words and cannot imagine how you feel. God Bless you OA Brother and Prayers and Good thoughts from us at BilletHeadville. Marty and Pat

Crapola Chief! One thing about it about the same color as the adobo peppers, it will blend right in. Hope you get fixed right up buddy, BilletHead

Hey JD on the off season put steel wool in all the openings. Mice do not chew on that stuff. Won't work when you are using the boat as it will just fall out, rust and disappear. Guarantee if it stays dry they won't go through it. Pack tight! BilletHead would rather have a dozen snakes than one stinker mouse.

Good one fellows, Sometime you are the bird and sometime you are the hunter. Been a few trips the birds have one and just glad they don't get to shoot back . BilletHead

Lancer yep on what John P. said, Sometimes no matter what you will not change their minds. You need to be where they want to be which is that mysterious "X" everyone talks about. How in the world the birds decide where that "X" is I don't know. I have watched birds drop into the spot, go back the next day and birds would change. If it were easy women and children would be doing it . Oh right I take women and children and made it work but there is times I have taken seasoned hunters promising a stellar hunt only to be embarrassed with noting to show them. Then there are rare times you can make the "X" if you have enough decoys and a little luck. Don't have to fool the all just a few to make things interesting. Calling in my opinion is a little overrated. Do what the birds do as they look at you. If they are quiet YOU be quiet. When they make some noise you do too. Now if they are going away and leaving for sure give them all the talk you want. Nothing to loose and you never know when one will break out and come back. Each day you go out you will learn something. I can't call worth a darn but am managing a pretty good season so far. Watching what works for others and asking questions like you have here will get you ahead of the game. Our Mysterious non posting Birdwatcher has given me many tips. Are you out there Chris? BilletHead

No he needs to call or he will get detention. That or several swats with the kindergarten paddle. Do they do that anymore or is it a timeout Ness? BilletHead