BilletHead

Stumbled into these two this morning. I will spare you all the story but I will tell you it was quite the cluster, debacle, mess or whatever you call a crazy hunt. Two mature gobblers one with a 10.5" beard and inch and an eighth spurs. Other was a 6.5" beard and three quarters spurs. Ok now I will be waiting for fins and feathers Scott to tell me I suck BilletHead

JDmidwest , I have eaten boletes from a friends white pine grove. Chestnut or granulated bolete is what I came up with. Now he doesn't share them with me. Go figure? Spoondog, These are not really canned but jars were sterilized and contents went in hot but not pressure canned. They sealed but are stored in the fridge like you would make some types of pickles. I mixed hot and sweet peppers and onions in mine. I can copy (wife will) and post but I might suggest getting a copy of one of two books offered by the conservation dept. The recipe for the pickled hens and the hearty hen soup are in these books. "Missouri's wild mushrooms" and Cooking wild in Missouri" Both are worth getting. Ronnie, Can you cook, clean, butcher critters? Oh heck we will let you just photograph our adventures and let you tie flys. Plenty to eat around here and just wait until you see what I stumbled into this morning I'll have to post in in another forum, BilletHead

Lots of mixed birds here now too Scott. More showing up daily. It will be a long wait until Thanksgiving. I got to find me some water a few miles North of here. BilleHead

Scott why do you think I'm evil? You need get out of town more often Maybe come up and check out you middle zone opener lake. Gavin get to looking hard. I had no idea they would grow so fast. Like I said they were not there three days ago. Got to get them when the getting is good. I may check out other spots everyday now. BilletHead

I've been known to share some, BilletHead

We have five different places we find hen of the woods mushrooms. Looking for a week or more and finally made a haul this morning. These were not here three days ago. Well time to work them up! We pickled 8 quarts plus a pint. Then we made a big batch of hearty hen soup, Dinner today was a quiche with hens, onions and smoked peppers, While all of this was going on 6 pounds of goose jerky was being smoked and dried, Pretty busy day for the BilletHeads but we enjoy the bounty from God's pantry in the outdoors. Just thought we would share todays work with you all, BilletHead

Last day of early goose. We will start by Fridays hunt. Three more down, It was a good hunt. Over water again. Did not hunt yesterday. Today me and the Mrs. Hit a pond. Nadda, no birds flying. I am not sure what was going on. Even the cows in the field we not feeding much, mostly laying around chewing their cud. One thing for sure was ducks, many ducks. Mostly teal but did have a group of divers buzz us and light in the pond. While checking another pond more ducks with puddlers and divers. First divers of the fall we have seen. Thoughts of our early season. As BirdWatcher told me scouting is the key. I agree big time as this time I looked hard and kept an eye on the birds. Some groups that were here a week ago disappeared but enough stayed around to mess with. By far this has been our best early hunts. Ended up with nineteen for the week. This was our third year hunting early goose. Have made jerky, the pastrami and have some in the brine to do corned goose. Thanks for letting me and the Mrs. share hunts with you all. We like the comments and helpful tips from you guys, BilletHead

JD just PM me when you are making the trip and I will give you my cell number and if you have the time we will visit. Gavin there isn't much better than a fat duck breast that can produce it's own fat to sear up the meat to rare. We finished up our last mallards last weekend. Now we have some nice teal from early season to work on. Yes Duane for sure we will get together. BilletHead

Exiledguide, It is a Jaccard safehands model. We got it at a restraint kitchen supply store in Springfield. Boy it is a neat place with all kinds of goodies in that store. Mrs. BilletHead said it ran about 40 bucks. Came with two blades and five different julienne gizmos. Settings for five thicknesses. We did some taters and squash in the thinnest setting. Olive oiled them and did one layer on parchment paper and seasoned. Cooked and finished under broiler. Man that was good! They also had one that ran about ninety bucks, Mrs. BilletHead did not think I needed one like that I was a bit apprehensive about it slicing meat especially goose breast but it did the job. BilletHead

We can do that Duane, Always up for a surprise. Scott I'm sure there will be a jar in the pantry for you, BilletHead

I'm telling you fellows it is real good. Bet it would be good made with deer. Taking the day off tomorrow from goose hunting and going fishing. There will be goose pastrami sandwiches going with me though. Now Scott I you know I wouldn't pick on you. When are you coming up to get your BBQ sauce? BilletHead

And it is GOOD ! And made out of Canada Goose. If I'm going to shoot them I am going to eat them. Sometimes you have to be creative with the feathered beasts. Birdwatcher told me he had made pastrami and corned goose with good results so I gave it a try. Found a recipe to try on the great world wide web. Mixed the brine and injected the breast halves of three geese totaling six halves. Then I placed the halves in the remaining brine and sealed up the tub. Put in the fridge for nine days swirling the bowl once a day. Yesterday after hunting I opened the bowl and dried the meat. Mixed up and ground spices then covered the meat. Placed on trays and put in the smoker for three hours of smoke. Then raised the temp in the smoker to finish off the meat at 175 degrees internal temp. When done we sliced off and tried it warm. Wow it as good. After a short hunt this morning I got it out and started slicing. We bought a mandolin last week in preparation for the task. I was hoping it would work and It did. Here is a photo of the meat that I was working with, Slicing, The results of my labor. The large slices and the part left sliced that I couldn't slice with the mandolin. Wanted to keep my finger tips safe, Finally todays lunch. Missing the dill pickle. You would not know it was goose. Very tender and moist. This way to enjoy goose is a keeper for sure. In the next few weeks I will be making corned goose and I will let you all know the results, BilletHead

Man I like hunting geese. Someday I will be a real goose hunter but until then this will do Todays set up, The results, Got the three I shot at but they did not want to finish close to my hide but close enough to take them out. Here is one of the best things about hunting this place, Easy in and easy out, BilletHead

Yes Duane I have an idea, one is the owners family member. Anyway you look at it is a bummer. Mrs. BilletHead and I went today on her weekday off. We had a single swing in and set and she hammered it. That was all. People fishing this lake keeps them off and these nice days guys are out fishing. We hit it just hoping. Teal pitched in on us. Pretty cool watching them act normal and doing what teal do. They sure lapped up some nasty looking pond scum. I suppose it what makes them taste so good? BilletHead

Thanks Luckycraft, Have a safe trip and enjoy. Took out another three on a solo hunt over water this morning. Very spooky. Family flocks did not want to commit circling twice and then leaving. Got my three in a single and double coming right in. I thought maybe I was not hidden too well and that might of been part of it. Then I discovered where three layouts had been from yesterday. You could see the flattened mud and a grass/weed/water grass outline where they had been. Lots of feathers on the shoreline and spent shells too. The bad part of it all was the two dead bluewing teal laying there between the layout outlines. Both had been shot. Had to be killed yesterday. The birds eyes had not even sunk in yet. Todays birds, BilletHead

The fish, ducks and deer are trembling at the mere mention of your name Duane, Welcome back buddy. A fun hunt again this morning with two birds in the bag. Same field as yesterday. Seen three groups at a distance going to somewhere and then this pair which we took down, Todays set up, Other birds scattered around on lakes and ponds but have no idea where the great bunch from yesterday went? I suppose if it was easy women and children would be doing it. Wait I have a woman doing it! Just got dome with chicken fried goose with mashed taters and gravy. She can kill , clean and cook the harvest, BilletHead

We can do that Duane! Are you home yet? BilletHead

It's a neat little trailer Scott. Unload the atv from the truck, hook up the trailer and drive to the spot. BilletHead

Will spare you all with this mornings story. I will share a photo though! Mr. and Mrs. Billethead

Thank you gentlemen, I did get blood on the yeti but thankfully I keep baby wipes in the truck so it got a cleaning! hehehehe Ness I have cooked them several ways. One is to bacon wrap the whole breast and throw it on the charcoal grill. When bacon is crispy eat then up. This season I have been filleting the meat off the breast. One nice big bite on each side. Then I coat the pieces with the olive oil I infused with the rosemary. Throw them on the gas grill, let them sizzle just a second or two and flip them. Another couple of seconds and yank them off for a rest. Go to gobbling them up. Get them done on the outside but a bit rare in the middle. Yummy. Ronnie! I got this limit in less than a box of shells too. Show off a bit more, BilletHead

It is so neat when your farming friends give you places to hunt. Even better when they drop by the house to tell you where they see your quarry. So I checked it out yesterday morning. Sure enough bookoos dove. So this morning I was there at daylight. Right off I see dove bombing into the disked corn stubble. Nowhere to hide out there so I took a seat in the tree row. Many, many birds were feeding in the field until a pair came close enough and I took one out. All heck broke loose and birds started swarming round and around giving me shots until I dropped my last bird. Done and picked up my empty spent shells by 8:30. A couple of photos to share. I did this for you yeti haters, sticker haters too. Notice my Ozaarks Anglers sticker? Everyone should have one to advertise this great forum, even you sticker haters BilletHead

Nice job Scott, very similar to how I camo things. BilletHead

Ok here we go, Really simple. So easy I can do it! Take your color choices. I use lighter first. Spray sections, blobs,blotches, stripes etc. Here I used a three colors similar to a WW2 pattern. Use something for a stencil. Leaves, branches, etc. Here I use a clump of pampas grass and hold it on the background. Then I use a fourth color typically the darkest and give the stencil a spray. Remove and place again then spray and repeat. Presto you have passed the camo course. If you got an area too dark or not how you want it hold the grass up again and hit it with one of your lighter base colors. Remember the beauty is there are no rules to how you do this and the more abstract the better thus making touch ups easy. The colors I used are supposed to bond with plastic but it doesn't with the paddle blade but as you can see I touched mine up after a year of hard use, BilletHead

MOsmallies, Pretty easy. Inn the next couple of days I will do a quickie how to. BilletHead

hahahah JD This is a mess of seed left over. I put a bunch of varieties in a bottle and gave it a good shake to mix. Then sprinkled the mix in the planters. Now I have a mixed green salad. It is neat though to just graze by the planter just picking and giving each type a on the spot taste test. Ness glad the new pup is keeping you on your toes. They are a hoot, BilletHead