BilletHead

Like MoPanfisher I was a bit afraid to look under the bed covers this morning. When I did a sigh of relief lettuce did good. I worked on thinning the clusters ad then gave the plants a good drink, I am behind Ness on his starts thank goodness. I am sure he will have frozen tomatoes soon Some in the garage growing and some in the house too. Tomatoes, peppers and flower starts, After nineteen degrees a couple nights ago I was happy to see this today. Hard to believe but I think some things are pretty tough, Been working also on the blackberry patch. It was a mess when I started. Last years canes had fell over into the surrounding area and had began to sprout and develop roots. Cut out the shoots that had produced last season. Pulled the complete plants out of the center row. They were a different variety producing earlier but more sour so out with them. Took the volunteer plants out of the surrounding yard and replanted the middle row. Tied everything up and retrained back down into the cattle pannels, Other things that needed done we did. The water pond liner had finally given up the ghost and cracked on the bottom and began to leak this Fall. I caught the fish which were pets and took them to a neighbors bond and released them. The big koi will surprise someone some day when they see the big orange thing. The big channel cat I am sure is happy too now. Removed the rocks and old liner. Got a new one and got it installed. Replaced rocks and tidied things up. Filled it up and a couple days afterwords went to a pond in a gail force wind with the fly rods and caught eighteen green sunfish. Kept five. Two big ones and three little dudes. Put them in. A few days after that a couple small bass went in. The three little greenies are gone no doubt they became fish food for their kin. Here you can see the two bass on the bottom. One of these days I will go to moms pond and net some koi to dump in my water garden. She has some in her pond that are well over two foot long, Sadie says she is glad it is a nicer day for pond peeking, BilletHead

Yep same farm. Any pen raised deer in that immediate area that you know of? BilletHead

Grizz, Feel your pain friend. When I had to change from a self bow it was a step from the stone age to the future. If you have not been around cross bows or shot one be ready to be shocked. I have the ten point titian extreme. Real happy with it. Heavy as cross bows are. Guess they are not heavy just comparing to my self bow. Just weighed both and my self bow is a whopping pound and the cross bow ten pounds on the nose with a sling and without the quiver and arrows. I realize holding the crossbow for the shot is different as most will steady on the leg or mono or tri pod. I have the steady eddy ten point sells and it has its places for use. have the accu draw on mine. Got the package at the Pro a few years back on sale. Making the step I did not want top of the line to start and after getting this I see no reason to do that. This does all I need it to do. If you have any questions PM me. MoPanfisher, Yep heard a week or more back about the CWD over your way. Got a good friend in Weableau and he got me some more info on it. Pretty scary for our deer herd. Pretty neat info here and you can zoom right in on the areas including where they were found in St. Clair county https://huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/hunting-trapping/wildlife-diseases/chronic-wasting-disease-cwd/cwd-surveillance-and-monitoring The other day when I zoomed on this map it showed the exact locations that had positive results. Not sure where the icons went for them? BilletHead

Water chestnuts maybe?

I bought Mrs. BilletHead a trolling motor for her Birthday once. She liked it too . Not kidding either. Speaking of her Birthday it is coming up. A Pat birthday on St. Patrick's day . Go figure! BilletHead

Yes I need to get an immersion blender. Another gadget I don't need. Tell me the truth John Sue just thought it was for her! Yes I would think Ness has surplus tomatoes right now as he starts his really early . BilletHead

One thing I will tell you is the next batch will be done with the mixer! I wanted to do a constant whisking from beginning to end as the Pat drizzled in the oil. All was going fine until I began to poop out. Then we swapped out the whisk . Yes will be doing this as much as we can. The mayo is a good a base for lots of spreads. I have thought many times how home grown ketchup would be ? BilletHead

Joe he is either still trying to digest all this information, has a case of sticker shock or froze out wet wading, BilletHead

We got to hankering for potato soup. With each step the house began to smell better and better. Some salivating was happening right until the first spoonful. Did some olive oil and rosemary skillet toast on the side. Do not think the leftovers will be around long. BilletHead

If legal looks like to me he will be having a five course meal. That is alright in my book. I have a good tartar sauce recipe. BilletHead

Just like farm raised shrimp from Asia they an be raised in sewer lagoons cheaply. Sold cheaply and Americans are of out of sight out of mind mentality. Non regulation over there in most places. Hot enough grease will kill the creepy crawlies but I am not sure it would do anything to toxins like heavy metals. Our resident lab technician Johns Folly might be able to weigh in on this? This is one of the reasons we try to be in control of what we can here in BilletHeadVille. We know we cannot have a hundred percent control but each percentage we can we do . Even if it means we take a life. Swimming, flying, walking or crawling. BilletHead

Not only that we need snapshot and Al to do a painting on the encounter. BilletHead

MoPanfisher nothing these guys say or do anymore is weird. Like I said before because of Oneshots famous posts. Several of the fellows on this forum could very well be be his offspring. This should answer all questions . BilletHead

Fried up some of the fresh crappie caught Thursday. Ventured out of my comfort zone and made mayonnaise, yep with the raw egg yellow. Turned that into tartar sauce. Amazing! Sides of green beans, fried potatoes and onions made In goose fat of course. I am full as heck, BilletHead

RPS says Tell it, brother! Ha good one fellows. I have the opposite problem. Having a hunting and fishing spouse it is like " Don't I need one of those also" You can borrow mine. "But I want my own" When I tie flys there needs to be some done for her. When it comes to spending I have to keep myself in check because she doesn't question me. Thinks I know what I am doing. Boy do I have her fooled, BilletHead

Gosh Ronnie are we long lost cousins? Did our mom's have an identical twin and were they separated at birth? Now I see you are posting a conservative there and this would tell me you are not sharing your good deal. See if you were liberal with your information you would be sharing that spot with everyone until all is gone and all fishermen would be equal sharing the fish. Did not matter how long or hard you worked for those fish. When we work hard to have success there is more gratification as we begin to succeed. Hope I did not get out of line doing this as it is just a fishing lesson, that is all, over and out. I did not conspire with the Russians on this but am worried my phone is tapped so don't call for secert spot info either , BilletHead

Good idea Ronnie. You should tell me of your spot and I will tell you if that is the place I fish. That or we will try your spot first and see if it is as good as my spot. That way I can be sure to give you an equally good spot. Trust me buddy . Yep John things may go into reverse with the front's coming in. Have a peach tree in bloom and an apple tree showing tiny buds. Some asparagus coming up. Might have to put a blanket on the lettuce next few nights. That Ness guy probably has tomato plant in the ground right now. BilletHead

Decided to make a grocery run to the river yesterday morning. Plans included checking some holes for a stray walleye or two and check a couple of treetops in holes for a crappie. The walleye did not come out to play but the crappie did. When the crappie were found the plan was to switch over to the fly rod. Problem was they were so tight in the brush/trash the fly rod was a no go. Caught eighteen crappie, kept my limit of fifteen. They ranged 11 to a couple pushing 13 inches. When the jig hit the sweet spot the hit was hard and the fight for a crappie was good. When they stopped hitting it was like a switch turned off. I either cleaned out the spot or they moved through. When that was over searched another spot and caught two drum and a monster gar which took and kept my shad rap losing him right at the boat Started getting dark in the West so raced back to the ramp getting loaded right before the rain hit. Water temp hit 53. Lots of boaters trolling for white bass but very few caught, There is a little channel cat in the upper left corner. You can see his tail. My elderly mother has been asking me to catch her a catfish, she wanted it cleaned whole because that is the way you are supposed to do it and it tastes better with the bones in it. As a good son should do I did and she is temporarily happy . BilletHead

Like I have said before. Stupid stuff happens to the BilletHeads. Mostly Mrs BilletHead BilletHead

That is because the motors you work on from those times are two strokes. BilletHead

Believe me Straw hat the BilletHead's feel your pain, I sometimes think the right hand ha no idea what the left hand is doing. Will share our story how it relates to yours and others. A few years back we went to a well known sporting goods store in Pittsburg Kansas to purchase the Mrs her own waterfowl shotgun. Had it figured out and went in to get it. We both looked at the gun, checked fit and decided that is what she wanted. Guy got the proper paperwork. Asked who would be buying it. Pat said me and they proceeded to fill out the form. I left them and went drooling over all the neat stuff in the store. I kept glancing back to the counter trying to figure out why it was taking so long. Twenty minutes later I look again to see the Mrs. in tears? I quickly went back to find the salesman handing the Mrs. a booklet explaining to her how to contest the "red flag of her name". I said well can I go ahead and buy this while we contest? No way, your last name, the guns serial number, the address where you live and this store are all flagged together. You and the store would be in hot water if we sell this to you or any firearm in the store. He than said something caused them to flag your wife. Maybe someone had taken her identity, I would check your banking, credit score, yadda, yadda, yadda. Now we are freaked out and stressing badly. The kind of stressing that makes you sick to your stomach. We quickly drove back to Missouri and to our bank. They checked our account and it was OK. Asked them to please run a credit check. They said we cannot do that, Why? Well if you get a loan we will. Told them we have banked there for thirty five years. Sorry that is they way we have to do it. A bit mad we then went up the road to the sheriffs department. Told our story to the front desk and she quickly called a deputy and he took us to his desk. Gave him the scoop and showed him the pamphlet. Asked him what he thought and reminded him his department had her fingerprints passed her and the FBI and all involved in the past had issued the Mrs. her concealed carry permit and that she had purchased her handgun herself several years back. He got red, not mad at us but what had happened. He ran a check on the Mrs. and it went fine. Then he put the phone on speaker and called the number on the pamphlet. Then he proceeded in getting to the point with the guy on the phone. The fellow on the other end said sir my hands are tied. The lady will have to go by the steps on the pamphlet and we will go from there. Deputy was mad, we were mad and the Mrs was in tears again. Then like a common criminal she had to go in the back by the prison cells to be fingerprinted again. The ones they had on file would not work per the special pamphlet? Deputy said do as the guy said, he was sure sorry and to please get back with him for the outcome, gave us her fingerprints and sent us on our way. Are you all still following this? It is going to get interesting. Went home and did a credit check through one of those places you can get one for free and then they bill you each month until you cancel . All was well in that category. Started working on the required paperwork to sent in to the FBI or whatever power to be required it. Fingerprints, SSN, drivers license copy, birth certificate copy, place of emplowment. I am surprised they did not want a urine sample and blood work. We sent it certified. The people on the other end had x amount of days to respond. This was not a quick response either. Weeks later we got a letter. Thought this would be the end of it but NOOOOOO another chapter in the saga. Seems there was another person with the same birthday, same name in Texas that was a ward of the court. Did not matter that this person was a year younger and had a different SSN, address different middle initial etc. The Mrs. was the one responsible to prove she was not this person! The only thing we were provided was the town name in Texas. I am not sure we are innocent until proven guilty anymore. . I then googled the town courthouse and made a call. They was given another number to an office that took care of wards of the court. Called that number and finally talked to someone that really wanted to help. Told me the story of this ward. someone with mental issues and was in custody of her mother. We talked several more times as he took it upon himself to contact the FBI to see what he needed to do. We needed to send him the same info we had sent in to the others. We and he had to prove my wife and the woman in Texas were not the same. Good Grief what a mess it was. More corespondents later we got a letter from the Texas town court signed by a judge saying these were two different people. Again a registered letter back to the FBI. Weeks again later we get a letter with a case number stating these were two different people. So when she purchases any firearm we have to have the case number when her background is checked. So did she end up with the shotgun? Nope! I went and purchased me a backup shotgun just like the one she wanted from another non named store here in Missouri. This was a couple of weeks after the start of this debacle. When I did this I was even sweating the background check. Went through fine and now she borrows my spare. Gosh I would not want her to own her own even though she carries her own handgun . When she says my shotgun I quickly inform her it isn't hers it is mine. There is something wrong with the system. The left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing and remember we are guilty until we prove yourself innocent. Tired of reading? There is more in another deal not having to do with firearms. We started getting calls on our cell phones. Both phones by a skip tracing company. Some of these calls were quite nasty saying the Mrs., yes this involves the Mrs again, saying they would get her drivers license revoked, get her fired from her job, garnishee her wages etc. I told the Mrs. Not to answer any calls just to save the voice mails. I would take this endeavor on. it is still going on now for several years. Again there is another one with same first and last name. I even got a call from the Grandview police department looking for this person. The detective was very nice and apologized for his call and they would not be calling back. We have been called by the skip tracers from all over the country. I explain to them we are not the ones they are looking for. I ask how they get private unlisted cell numbers. We have our way sir is all I get. Some are nice about it, some not. I ask to talk to a supervisor and they hang up. I get mad and start calling them to harass and they tell me they can press charges but I cannot do anything to them. I get we will take you off our call list, we may get off of theirs but we get passed on to another company. So i get the idea to put the cell phones in my name and take her name off the account. Another hassle but finally done. It has slowed down the calls but that is all. Asked the cell phone provider why they share information like that. Oh sir we don't do that. baloney I said they got it somehow. Still laugh at our home listed number. Never a call on it. This will jinx it for sure. So glad our last name isn't Johnson of Smith . Good grief is this kind of crap common? They ask for the Mrs. SSN. No I don't give it to them. I ask give me the other persons SSN. Oh my we can't do that is their response. The standoff continues, What say you all? Straw Hat again we feel your pain, The BilletHeads

Well done and it's about time you did that BilletHead

As long as it is served in a red solo cup I will let it slide this time. I also want to know if it was mixed in a water bottle "Shaken" or poured into the cup and "stirred" ? If you get too hungry before payday I can supply something previously alive from the BilletHead freezer. Micro greens from the garden (lettuce). Got some chestnuts too that are beginning to sprout in the fridge crisper drawer. Canned goods in the pantry but sadly we are out of the O's BilletHead

" The neat new treat you can eat with a spoon, uh o spaghetti O's " What fancy smancy micro brew did you have with this? Maybe paired it with a fine wine? BilletHead

John you ought to do Scampi with some crappie. Lots of butter and all the good stuff except no shrimp and use crappie. OhMyGosh it is sooooo good. BilletHead