Enigma

At a farmer friend's place tonight. He picked it up. Very thick but kinda short.

Chicken and sausage gumbo from coffee roux. 3h simmer.

That turned into a good ol' donnybrook at the end! The cat didn't seem impressed though. Great vid.

Hanging w a friend tonight. He just got back from an Alabama hog hunt. This little guy hitched a ride back to NY. Nice of him lol.

Mine fits tight as well. I don't recall the brand but it has 5 heat settings. They are nice on real bitter days but I don't care for the battery pack. Mine's located in the left front lower pocket and maybe its just me but that location is annoying. Those battery packs are quite big and long and being that the vest is tight the pack just seems out of place.

That recipe pretty much sums it up. I'm gonna give it a run. Ty.

I've been asked by my lovely gf to can up some chicken soup pints. Of course dear lol. This would be a light broth with chicken meat, vegetables and herbaceous extras. I can't seem to find a specific process. I'ved canned all sorts of meat and broth before but not together in a soup. I want the end result to just not be mush. My plan is to add small amounts of cooked chicken, raw carrots, raw celery and perhaps a raw green leaf in a hot jar. Hot pack with the broth and then pressure can for 75min at 10#. No noodles or starches added. Questions. Celery ok or no? I have conflicting info. Raw veggies or blanched at packing? Like I said I just don't want mush. Ty.

Just received a PM from Buckmaster and unfortunately I won't be attending. No fault of his of course. Should have cleared it with him before offering rides. Sorry.

I'd be leaving from Utica, heading 90E and then north to get up there. Plenty of room in my car for others to ride along. The earlier in the morning the better for me.

I'm interested. What time are you thinking on 4.11?

Thank you @Otto. The pleasure was mine. Reaching out and offering a positive bump to genuine people is easy when you know they'd do the same. Your generosity in return proves my point. Quite a few folks on here do it all the time I'm sure. Pay it forward and "do unto others", especially in today's times. Put your positive thoughts into action. Not much more complicated than that imho. So . . . can we just stop right now with the impinging of my online character? I work hard at maintaining the "no nonsense grumpy father" persona and some of you are just killing my groove lol. We can set up a virtual group hug for later today if some of you need it but I'd rather shift the discussion to killing turkeys and a CNY GTG haha. I hereby nominate Tony as official planner and activities director. All in agreement say "aye".

Very cool.

Appreciate the kind sentiments. Tom is one of a kind. We all need someone as an example to aspire to and Tom's my guy. Devoted husband to my mother, a super grandfather to my sons and a rock for me as a father. Pretty handy too lol. Thanks again.

Just wanted to show these off and brag about my stepfather some. Tom's newest hobby is a little leather craft. He's been showing me bits and pieces of his work the last couple times I've visited. I found the old knives in my cabinet. They were my grandfather's knives that I'd saved years ago. Neither had a sheath so I asked him to make me some. I stopped by today and he was proud as punch to give these to me. He even thought to dig through my camping gear stored at their place, find my hatchet and made a cover for that too. Tom will be 75 in a couple days. Don't know how he's made it the last 25 years being married to my mother but I he's a survivor! Thanks again Dad.

Like I said I understand your frustration. I thought I was top 10 on the list of a couple places I buy from but that's just not the case nowadays. Times change unfortunately. I don't know the profit margins on guns and ammo. I agree with you in the sense that if a shop doubles or triples their typical margin on a product in scarce times I'd consider it gouging. But they also do that with the risk that people like yourself then tell them to GTH and never return. Go down to the local shop and ask them WTH is going on? If they can look you in the face and want to continue doing business with you and in the town they should be able to give you a credible answer. Just realize you're the 29th person today walking in to give them sh!t. I too patronize as many local places as I can. Good times and bad. Maybe at some point they'll patronize my biz. Come's around goes around.

I can understand your frustration but that's a pretty harsh view on the local small business owner. How do you know they "were doing just fine" selling guns and ammo before the craze? Nothing's easy about running a small biz, especially in NY, and especially a gun shop. Why would you criticize someone who stuck around for years during lean times but now has a chance to make some $$$? Why do you feel you're being personally taken advantage of? I really doubt those mom and pops are sitting around scheming to see how much they can screw the local folk. Shouldn't those mom and pops be rewarded at some point in the life of the biz? For actually hanging tough and keeping the doors open when no one was buying? No, the gun stores can't keep up with demand because it's a supply issue. Don't you think they'd like to sell you every shell they could get their hands on right now? Surely they would if they could get any inventory. The whole chain is a complete mess right now from raw materials to production to shipping to retail. I just find it hard to pile all the crap on the local retailer right now. Some people have a hard time seeing the difference between making a profit and what they perceive as price gouging. When an item costs a retailer 3x more today to put on the shelf than it did 18 months ago, due to no fault of their own, wouldn't they have to charge that much more to the customer just to stay in business? No gun shop I know off is actually loading up those 1000 rds of 9mm you're looking for either. They don't have a special place out back to make the stuff you're looking for magically appear overnight. Higher material, production and shipping costs are so much more to blame than the local mom and pops for the high prices.

Last time I was there they were just finishing up a zip line high wire park next door. More family activities I guess. Years ago though. The tour below is cool until you hit the really snug part coming back. I wasn't thrilled about the tight confines tbh but my boys were stoked. There were some folks behind us that really lost it so just be careful. Look in their eyes on the elevator ride down lol.

I second @Daveboone. I lived in and around Philadelphia for 10 yrs. 3.5 hr easy drive and you'll be in the middle of it all. I'd put Boston on the list too. Same category as Philadelphia but a different feel to the whole place. Nice thing about going to the city is that your options are pretty limitless. Food, shopping and activities of all kinds are right out your doorstep.

Late last year I picked up a nice, get this, 2004 Mercury Gran Marquee. I needed something else at the time and when I saw that car I thought it'd be an awesome car for my son to learn on. V8, rear wheel drive, and big and wide. Takes awhile to get going and a long ways to stop. I figured if he wadded it up at least he'd be safe. It was decent but needed the basic stuff to be better. Very nice car now. I've almost got him convinced it's cool to ride around in a grampa's car. Slow and steady when we cruise around. I tell him his friend's parents and their Mercedes got nothing for us in terms of style. A work in progress lol.

I think a lot of learning to drive is just mental. The physical aspects of driving aren't difficult but I know for alot of young people its intimidating. Having confidence in one's self at that age can be tough for some young people. My oldest was the opposite. He was an expert the first time he got behind the wheel. At least he thought so lol. After the first few times out I realized he didn't have a use for Dad's input so I just shut up and only said anything when we were in danger lol. It was recommended to me to enroll him in a driving school. That way he'd have someone else giving him their opinion. That worked very well Two other things that woke him up. I quit telling him too slow down cause he wasn't listening. Go figure. I told him the next person who would tell him would be an officer or a judge. Not kidding but I think it was the next day he (we) got lit up and pulled over. 42 in a 30 I think it was. I never said a word when he was squirming to that trooper. We also hit a bigtime DUI checkpoint one night on the highway. There had to be 10 cruisers and 50 officers. They had people pulled out of there cars doing sobriety checks on the shoulder and there were two wreckers there just waiting. They were NOT screwing around. I hope he remembers that for a long time.

Driving with my oldest one day I tell him "We're not going to turn at this intersection. Just go straight through . . ." Well he did exactly that. Blew right through the red light and we kept on going. After cheating death that day I'm much more careful about what I say to new drivers.

Teaching your child to drive is a treat isn't it lol? I know its a parental responsibility but dang is it stressful. I actually don't mind riding around with my youngest son. He's a decent driver for his age and experience. Its when he jumps in a carful of teens with some other 16yo driving him around. That's what kills me. Getting my oldest son on the road was a crap show and of course I was the one who ended up getting screwed. I took him step by step through it all, getting the permits, putting in the 50 hrs of road time and all the classes and driver's ed. I was told he didn't have to be a named insured on a policy until he actually had his license. So I buy him a car, titled under my name and add the car and him to my policy the day after his road test. Our deal was he'd make payments to me for the cost of the car and a portion of the insurance etc. Lo and behold 2 days later he tells me "Mom bought me a car" (my ex wife) Well crap! I understood where he was coming from (her car was nicer than the one I'd purchased for him) but I was still quite PO'd. He didn't realize the deal he'd made with Satan until a week later. She very quickly started using "her" car as leverage over him and he soon became Uber for my second son. He learned some valuable lesson that summer lol. Anyway, I sold the car I'd purchased for him and call up my insurance company to drop him from my policy. They absolutely refused to accept that he was not driving one of "my" vehicles. They wanted proof that he was a named insured on another policy before they'd take him off mine. I understood their point, but I wasn't trying to cheat anyone. When I told them they were free to call my ex wife and request a copy of her insurance they said it was not their responsibility to provide that info, but mine. Needless to say It took 6 freaking months and threats towards them to finally get him removed from my policy! Nothing but a hassle and waste of time and money! Just trying to get it right this time with son #2 . . .

Appreciate all the info. Ty. I'm now leaning towards both the car and insurance all in his name alone. The separation of liability is not something I'd considered before but makes sense. I realize the cost to him (me lol) will be more than just adding him to my policy, but I also like the idea of him stepping up and starting to have things in his own name. Welcome to adulthood right?! So my follow up question would be, even though he's a minor (16), he can legal purchase his "own" insurance? No requirement to be 18? Ty.

I need to put a vehicle on the road soon for my 16yo son. A new driver. Who's got info they can share on insurance requirements? I'm getting conflicting info on what we need to be legal. Car will most likely be titled in my name and added to my current policy. Driven primarily by him for the typical school, work, athletics and schmoozing. Any help w legal requirements, past experiences and costs is much appreciated.

Trans-species foxy girls and squids need not apply. The last 1m30s is sick and dirty. Riding season is coming up soon.