BilletHead

Good job and report JD. I have a long a while to wait until my South opener, BilletHead

Sounds yummy RPS, We happen to have goose sausage and dried chanterelles or hens. We will try. Thanks, BilletHead

Ok trying to get the most out of my fall lettuce. Had a fried tell me his wife kept some all winter by doing this. Maybe a smaller plot? But trying it myself. Ok I surrounded my bed with straw bales. Then made clear covers with Plexiglas. We have had a couple light frosts but did not cover then. Well tonight they are calling from 20 to 25 degrees. We planted this bed in the third week of August. Been eating well and it really tastes good. There are a few tops that are touching the bottom of the covers, we will see if that burns them any. Why is this so expensive? Well it I bought two 4'X 8' sheets of the Plexiglas @ 79 bucks a sheet. Used a sheet and a half. Then there is the wood for the glass frames, Made three frames. Now 12 bales of straw and it will be junk by the time it is all said and done. 10 of the bales were a gift from a neighbor I helped out this summer. Maybe a dumb investment but I have done dumber things in life. The covers will be used early this Spring for getting the garden off to a good start. So let the test begin! The patch with the leaf/critter cover, Two of the three covers, Fully covered and ready for the big freeze! BilletHead

Yes for sure JD but every deer if you could get a close look that time of the year are infested. Just the cycle of life I suppose but kind of gross looking, BilletHead

Thanks Ralph, Yes the South side. About half way in the big timber lot. Same place where the last two photos with the barbed wire is. You know the place had a camera there before and have photos of us coming back from a hunt last time you were here. I have got pictures of him in three different places. The live photos of him is just across the fence South of the food plot, At the fence where I got him and straight North of where I got him on the North side of the timber lot. Pat did not see anything last evenings hunt. She sat on the hill top stand where you shot one of your bucks. I doubt she will hunt in the morning at 22 degrees unless she hunts the ground blind? Will try to get her out the rest of the weekend, BilletHead

Thanks again fellows, Today was the Mrs. day off. Things to do this morning but she wanted to hunt this evening. I have never seen her so jealous. I mean me getting this buck is getting to her. We hunt as a team, compete with each other, laugh and share stories. We had a good day and after a great lunch/dinner she says pick me a stand. We study the wind and pick one. So I walk her in and get this weird feeling. I mean weird it is like the feeling you get when you put your child on the school bus for the first time. Who knows if she will even see anything? But here I sit worrying about her. When we split and hunt far away she walks out in the pitch black in the morning and same in the evening back home. Ok enough about that, Thought I would share some more trail cam photos from behind the house. Left out the smaller spikes and forks. Unless I have a neighbor that wants a deer I may not even firearm hunt? Anyway enjoy the pictures! BilletHead

RPS, If we were doing this deer ourselves there would be a roast or two involved and some cuts for braising. Trying to make it simple for the processer we just told him the good inside loins and to go ahead and cut some thick steaks out of the back strap. Will just sear the back strap and eat half raw, should be ok. If not can pound and chicken fry. The balance told him to grind it up. No fat as we will add fresh when needed for a variety of needs. We really do enjoy doing our own but we (I mostly) were pretty spent last night. Scott, Yes I have been taking some flack about shooting the buck from the Mrs. Only chance she has had is the two orphans from the doe I shot. I told her to go ahead and shoot one but she won't. We sat in a blind one morning and they came by and were trying to look in the windows. Pretty funny. I had shot the doe pretty close to the house and for over a week the fawns hung around. We would let the dog Sadie out to do her business and they would just look at each other and do there thing. We have taught the dog deer and turkeys are off limits. Now if there is a cow across the fence or squirrel with in sight she goes nuts. That is my fault though

Thanks fellows, and yes that split brow pulls the eyes towards it. I kept staring at it as he came in and had to keep telling myself to quit before the shot. I am very lucky to live where I hunt. Over thirty years in the same spot so I can TRY to keep tabs on the deer. I just deer hunt behind the house on 79 acres. I have two out of the eighty. Landowner says to keep on doing as I want here. May change someday but it has been a good ride. I have seen some good times and bad. Several years back when we had a big hit of that stuff they call blue tongue. Caused by a biting midge near water sources during drought conditions I found thirteen dead deer on this place. We took quite a hit. You could just follow your nose and find dead deer. We still don't have the numbers we once had. Farmers are happy though. Ronnie, I like it a lot and it is fun to shoot. Heavy though and with the bum shoulder I cannot just hold it and shoot very accurate standing. Sitting where I can brace with my elbow on my leg it is fine. No quick loading like I could do with my self bow. Heck I could get off two dozen shots before I could get this thing cocked. BUT I could miss those two dozen shots to the one with this thing

Shot a meat doe around the first of the month. Got that out of the way. Kept watching the trail cams behind the house. Sure enough some nice bucks started making rounds. All were at night. Been out hunting and seeing does and fawns. Nothing yesterday morning. Cool enough with this front to go yesterday afternoon hoping sooner than later one of these nice bucks would slip up and show up in the daylight hours. Sure enough this one did. Here are a couple of cam pictures of him, Then the one of him on the ground. By the time I got him gutted and back to the house I was hurting so bad I was dreading skinning and quartering him up. Mrs. BilletHead says lets let someone else do it. We have done our own for over thirty years but not this time. Had to use a block and tackle to get him into the truck, BilletHead

Thanks Wrench. Love it! Makes my Evening even better than it was, BilletHead

Way to go Wrench. There is unconditional love right there. Oh yea getting through that puppy year will be interesting. Can't show this to Mrs. BilletHead or she will want another. One is enough for me but when I croak she will become the "Dog Lady she tells me" BilletHead

Most excellent! BilletHead

Pure awesomeness right there Ness. Bring cider if we can get a waterfowl hunt going. Trade for sauce. All this fermentation gets me to thinking. I'm not getting older I'm fermenting and getting better with age. Although Mrs. BilletHead might think I'm going sour or going to vinegar. BilletHead

Thanks for checking this out, Very rewarding and good for the soul. Hey there Jim! Need to get down for a visit sometime, BilletHead

We just got done with the second Reeling and Healing retreat. There was one in April and then again this past weekend. Mrs. BilletHead and I have done Casting for Recovery in the past but it has been dropped from Missouri. Mostly due to the cost to run it and also because it was just for breast cancer. Reeling and healing for any type of cancer affecting the woman. The current program has until this year been only held in Michigan. I also help as a river buddy in Reel Recovery for men. Lost all my photos for that so sorry it will not be covered at this time. I will prepare something this Spring for you all. I urge anyone that is asked to help in something like this to do so. it is for the men and women that have or are battling cancer but I will tell you first hand it will do as much for you as it does them. I know my Friend Nighthawk (Russ) does Project Healing Waters and if he ever needed me I would do that too. We all were asked by Phil to help with Scouts and if I had not been busy I would of done my best to help out in that. So we will start with the Spring. Here we have the group, We had eight. Some for health reasons at the time of the retreat had to drop out. These ladies got to learn about fly fishing gear, a quick casting lesson, and some entomology. This was all jammed into a quick short Evening and then a morning session. Then fishing in the afternoon. Then fishing the next morning and then graduation. We will have to thank Mrs. BilletHead for most of these photos. So this Spring I was paired up with Sue. You can see we made a great pair because of out perfect heads! She was a wonderful lady and we have since met her husband and even fished with them for a day this Summer. Now to the Fall retreat, We had eleven with one not being able to attend. I got to fish with two of the women. Dana and Tracy. First Dana. This gal was a ball of fire. We worked hard for her fish and did catch some. Both days it was tough. Tight lipped fish and very spooky. We did these two retreats at Westover near Steelville. Yes hatchery raised stocked fish but low clear water made it tough. Dana missed many strikes but getting that hook set was a struggle for her. I remember one fish in particular. She had a perfect roll cast, the perfect drift and hook set. Once that fish hit the net she began to cry which in turn got me to crying. I said quit that crap and we began to laugh out loud. Day two we had to change ladies. I was told by Dana at breakfast that morning that SHE would pick who I fished with that morning and that Mrs. BilletHead would be her river helper. So I got Tracy. I had thought that day one I got the wild child and day two the mild child, not so as Tracy would be ball of fire number two. Tracy was from inner St. Louis and had never fished in any shape or form or even been away from her five sisters. Every time a fish was netted she began to dance and we had to do a booty bump. Other than the little tear up I had a grin on all weekend. This was Mrs. BilletHead and her first "guide job" for a participant, And finally the Mrs. and our two gals, Our reward for helping is one of the greatest feelings we have ever known, BilletHead

Well done Kayser, Thanks for sharing

Yes Ness! The BilletHeads like this. Thanks.

OK Justin that sounds a bit more like it. I have read where chicken of the woods (sulfur shelf) could do that. It would even cause swelling of the lips! Thanks to Amy for the info. BilletHead

Bummer Justin. We have been eating them for years. Where did you read that 5% of people get sick on them? I have many books and never have read that. How do you fix them? You will have folks scared of trying them. They are one of the most prized finds and easy to ID. BilletHead

Checked on the hens I had found yesterday. They had grown some overnight. The comb tooth had not and I also found a beard tooth very fresh. I ended up picking three hens and the comb tooth and beard tooth. Tomorrow we will do hen soup and jar up some pickled hens and peppers maybe grill some hens too. Still have hens to pick. Today we made some Hericium salad out of the beard and comb tooth. This is the first time we have tried that. Turned out like a crab meat salad. Very good and it will be a keeper. Some photos of the haul and finished salad, The BilletHeads love shrooming in the Fall

That sounds tasty Wayne. What I like about jam is its more chunky as apposed to jellies, BilletHead

We worked up some gooseberry jam yesterday. If you are going to make a mess it might as well be a big one. So we made two batches and each batch was a double size the recipe called for. So this netted eight pints and seventeen half pints. I think we might of lacked a bit of pectin in the pint batch as it did not set up too solid. Who cares it will be more spreadable. This sweet / sour treat is my favorite jam for sure. Some photos. First one the Mrs. BilletHead needed a stool to get some more height. BilletHead

Because, The hens are in. I usually wait until the middle of this month to look for hens. Sometimes I found then too far along. So this year I started a week ago. Nothing. Today was different. Found four. They are all pretty small so I will watch then and hope they will grow. One is very small. I still have three trees with nothing yet and another to be checked. Here are three of them, I also found a comb tooth, There are two on the log. I have eaten beard tooth before and this is related to them. Fixed basically the same way. I will give this one a day or two and pick it. It is only about six inches across and they do not get too large. I have waited for them to grow before and in a couple of days they have gone beyond prime.. Both of the comb tooth and beard tooth are Hericiums. Comb is coralloides and the beard erinaceus. Have picked some puffballs a couple of weeks back but they are pretty bland. I think puffballs might be a good filler stacked in a casserole as a filler. Too bland of a flavor for me, BilletHead

Will do young Man, BilletHead

Ness used the beer to marinade and then the reserved liquid added to the pot. Rps yes I am too very glad I tried it, BilletHead