wolc123

"I'll take a Genny cream"

The meatball/grape jelly/bbq sauce/crockpot deal sounds good. I would skip store-bought meatballs (no telling what the ingredients are in them) and make my own from ground venison with a little egg added to help them stick together when baking.

1.) My grandad's Ithaca 37, 16 gauge with 1.5X Weaver scope (killed my first deer - a button buck of course, and my two largest-antlered bucks with this one). 2.) Ruger 77 with 3-9 Redfield scope (killed my first and largest Adirondack buck with this one, my only mule deer - won't make than mistake again - taste like crap, and made my only perfect shot on a deer with this gun) 3.) Barnett Recruit Cross-gun with Barnett "Red/Green dot" scope (killed what may have been my heaviest buck - largest measured chest girth anyhow, with this one) -These three gun/scope combo's have one thing in common. Every deer that I shot at with them has gone directly to "deer-heaven" (our family's food supply). There were a few misses in there (glad neither firearm is a single shot), and all but one of the shots was less than perfect however. Since Moog has set the precident, I will add a fourth that fits that above paragraph: Marlin 512 with 3X Bushnell Banner scope. This one works great on does and button bucks but I have yet to take an antlered buck with it, which keeps it out of the top 3.

No vacuum sealer ? We had a mix of vacuum-sealed bass that had been frozen for a week and 10 months for dinner last night. You could not tell which was which and it all tasted fresh caught. The only pain with the vacuum sealer is that it works best to dry the fillets good prior to sealing. Squeezing them in paper towels works good for that. The sealer instructions say to freeze first, then vacuum, but that traps air pockets and the paper towel squeeze works much better. Most of our family's protein comes from "free" vacuum-sealed, NY state venison and fish. I bet the folks up in Alaska have a tougher time living a subsistance lifestyle than those of us who are "stuck" here in NY. Are you going to eat all that yourself ?

I bush-hogged the big timothy field at the edge of our farm this morning. The neighbors usually cut and bale that field for their horses every few years, but their barns are already filled. The temperature was over 80 deg F out there by 8:00 am, and broke 90 by 10:30 when I finished. Our 4 ft deep pool was nice yesterday, but today it was like bathwater, hardly even refreshing. Tomorrow morning I am loading the girls in the truck and driving up to the in-laws lake house in the Adirondacks for a few days. That crystal clear, 100 ft deep lake should be a lot nicer. I sure am thankful that the factory where I work is on shutdown this week. We are heading out as soon as I am able to roust them out of bed and pack a cooler with Genny lights. Up there it will be fishing for smallmouths until the sun breaks over the pines in the morning, swimming all day, and campfires at night (unless it don't cool down enough for that when the sun goes down). In that case, we will be watching movies in the house (or baseball games), with the central air set at 72.

Here is mine by one of my favorite singers. It sums up the whole deal pretty good. We sure do have it good here in the USA.

They do get a little lazy when the water warms up and I have also done that out on Lake Erie with a few. I have also dragged a good number of immature kings cohos browns and steelhead out on Ontario, so I just edited the above post to add "respectable" size. I have probably dragged more 6 pound plus walleyes out on lake Erie than not however. Most of them just roll belly up as soon as the rod is taken out of the holder and come in like a water ski. I always use paper clips and rubber bands for planer board releases and you need to use some pretty weak rubber bands for the walleyes to break them, while a 13" coho will snap even a heavy rubber band with ease.

Lots of big walleyes get dragged for a while when trolling but no respectable sized trout and salmon do.

Just finished spraying the RR corn, typing in the central AC house now, going to jump in the pool soon, then grab a bite to eat, then head out to mow some clover plots. That job is not too bad under the shade of the tractor canopy. When and if the tractor engine or I get too hot, it will be back to the pool. Drinking lots of water (maybe a Genny light or two) should help.

Sheephead's fighting ability is comparable to walleye. Their style is a bit different, typically staying deep and swimming in circles, without that characteristic "head shake" that denotes a walleye, or the immediate vertical rise that indicates a smallmouth bass. They would probably be stronger if they had a little more meat on them. They are kind of like bears in that respect. Maybe 15 % of their body weight is usable meat. Before I was married, I use to take the future wife down to a hunting camp that I belonged to, with my boat and truck camper, every so often in the summer. The only food we ever took was some onions and bag of potatoes. We were completely dependent on fish that we could catch out of Lake Erie for protein. All but one time, we caught plenty of bass. The guys who stayed in the cabin down there would always come out in the evenings and join us for campfire baked bass and potatoes. That time when we could not find any bass, I kept what I thought was plenty of sheephead, maybe (6) 2-3 pounders. When I filleted them, I could not believe how little meat they had on them. Fortunately, the guys from the cabin turned up their noses and stayed away when they saw I was cleaning sheephead. There was just barely enough meat there for the wife and I. I can not recall if they tasted any different than the bass, but I have not had to eat any since that time, almost 20 years ago.

Trolling has its pros and cons. On the plus side, not needing to detect the strike makes it easier to enjoy a few beers while you are actually fishing. I find that the ability to detect the strike is the first thing I loose when I get a little alcohol in my system. Bobber fishing is also good for that. On the con side, I really don't get to enjoy the fight much of weaker fish (like walleyes), when I take them trolling. Most of their energy is spent by the time I get the rod out of the rod holder, and bringing them in is just about as much fun as reeling in a chunk of driftwood. Most of my walleye trolling experience has been on lake Erie in the mid to late summer. Another problem I have with that is they don't taste as good then. The meat takes on the flavor of the zoo-plankton that they suspend under. Those taken near on the bottom in the spring and early summer taste much better, and getting them on jigs lets me enjoy all of their limited fighting ability. If I do get any spare time and fuel in the late summer for trolling these days, I prefer salmon on Lake Ontario. Those taste pretty good and the smaller ones may not be too bad to eat from a health advisory standpoint. Best of all is that they put up one heck of a fight compared to the late-summer walleyes. I don't target walleyes too often any more because we eat most of our fish baked, broiled, or grilled and bass are a little better cooked that way because the meat has more oil in it, which keeps it moist through the cooking process. Bass are also easier for me to locate consistently. Plus, smallmouth outfight walleyes pound per pound about 4:1, and largemouth about 2:1 and enjoying that fight is the second biggest reason why I fish (just like hunting, meat is always first with this natural born killer). Most of the walleyes we catch now are taken by accident while bass fishing. There is nothing wrong with an occasional fish fry however, and the walleyes are a lot better for that. I am always thankful when a few of those "accidents" occur. Bass gets a bad wrap on the table because most folks have no clue how to handle the meat (much like is the case with venison). As long as the bass are kept fresh and alive, until they are processed, they taste great. A good livewell, is your best friend for that. You can not get away with tossing a whole bass in a cooler on ice all day like you can with walleye or perch. They get very "fishy" tasting if you do that. Vacuum sealing and freezing keeps the bass fillets tasting "fresh caught" up to a year.

I think the only time it showed up was in some farm-raised whitetail that was imported from another state and fed to some folks at a wild game dinner. I wonder if any of those folks who ate it got sick ? I think that the NY state DEC does a pretty good job of regulating the deer herd, without bowing to pressure from trophy hunters as has occurred in many states where CWD is now a problem. As long as they keep up the good work, and keep us meat-hunters happy, it is unlikely that CWD will ever take a foothold here in NY.

It was real good. She made a big batch and I am looking forward to leftovers for lunch at work tomorrow. If you google those ingredients and the name, the recipe comes right up. There were a few interesting spices in it also. My wife is not a real big tomato soup fan, so she added some regular spaghetti sauce, but other than that, and substituting venison for beef, she followed the recipe.

I can relate to that. Two years ago I killed a 2-1/2 year old at the peak of the rut, and I smelled him approaching through the standing corn upwind, long before he emerged about 15 yards from my stand. That strong piss smell is not something I will soon forget, and I imagine that an 8-1/2 would be considerably stinkier He was slightly quartering to me when he stepped out, and the wide three-blade mechanical broadhead passed diagonally thru, entering just behind the a front shoulder and exiting the ham on the opposite side. That made real smelly mess of the gutting job, but I washed it out with the blood from forward of the diaphram. The meat from that buck was very tender and tasty after the carcass was aged for 10 days.

My wife made "cowboy lasagna" from some recipe that she found on-line. It had rice, tomato soup, corn, mozzarella, ground venison, and tater tots (bottom layer) in it. It was very good and the kids loved it.

Bring it on, I am ready for it. I am very thankful that the factory where I work is on shutdown next week. I just got the pool set up at home, and we will spend at least 3 of the hottest days up at the in-laws place on an Adirondack lake. There is no place on Earth I would rather be during a heat wave than up there. They have central air, the lake is nice and cool, the smallmouth bass fishing is very good, and my mother in law is a great cook. One job that I hope to get done at home, and is not too bad even in the middle of the hottest days, is mowing the clover plots. That one would be unbearable without the canopy on the tractor. That blocks the sun, and moving along at about a 10 mph clip provides a nice breeze, even on calm days.

Did you age the carcass prior to processing ? I bet if it had hung for 2 - 3 weeks at 33 - 43 F, it would have been nearly as tender as your average 1-1/2 year old. Even the burger is much easier to chew if the carcass is properly aged before processing. The older the animal, the longer it takes to break down the rigor mortis. The process is similar for any red meat. Another good option for an old tough deer is canning. My buddy did that with a 8-1/2 year old moose, that was butchered immediately after killing , and it was just as tender that way as the 2-1/2's and 1-1/2's that the other guys who were on that hunt got.

They certainly have enough of it to "pattern" hunters. For me, almost every 2-1/2 or 3-1/2 (I am not sure if I have killed any that were older than that) was "tripped" up by an "unexpected" move on my part. The one last year was brought down by my move from a ground blind in a food plot, to a nearby tree stand, with just 15 or so minutes of daylight left. I raked out some leaves, fooling him into thinking that a rival buck was over there clearing a scrape. I do not think he would have stepped out into that foodplot, had I still been in that blind. The one the year before thought it was ok to step out of the heavy cover, after his little buddy made it through unharmed. Little buddy got a rare pass from me and he paid the price. My favorite was the 3-1/2 year old a few years before that, who thought he was safe if he hung out with a flock of turkeys. I unexpectedly dropped the book I was reading and got down from my stand, into the little patch of brush it was over, with a few minutes of daylight left. Had that book not fell when it did, his turkey pawns would have spotted me in my blaze orange camo a mile away up in that stand. The jig was up, when the happy group landed on that brush patch, with 2 minutes of legal shooting light to go. Fortunately, my slug gun was still loaded and his big neck made a nice target from 15 feet away. I had to aim carefully to avoid hitting a turkey with that shot.

I have had it and it was good but it would be a little to cold for my liking, up where they live. I did not like it as good as moose, and would rate the flavor about a tie with elk and Ag-fed Whitetail.

I am a somewhat fussy eater, and because of that, there are a lot more big game animals that I would not hunt, than I would, regardless of my free time or finances. Topping the list in North America would be the mule deer. I killed one myself and it tasted terrible, as has any other that I have tried at game dinners, etc. At the other end of the spectrum, there is no big game animal that I would rather hunt (regardless of my free time and finances) than Whitetail deer on the edges of the Adirondack park, near some Ag land. I feel very blessed to have both the time and finances to do that now, and have been able to score up there a few times over the last several years. They taste great, the scenery up there is the best in the world (in my book anyhow), and the hunting pressure is minimal. That makes for an "unbeatable" combination. Other big game animals that I would not rule out are black bears under 200 pounds, moose, and elk. They all taste great. Every other big game animal is a no-go for me no matter how much free time or extra cash I have. "Antlers" and "challenge" mean next to nothing to me, as a pure meat hunter.

That is more of a solution to the lack of "position" control on the 9N's (introduced in 1939) and 2N's (introduced in 1942). In 1948, the 8N's brought us the "position" control in addition to the "draft" control, like the 9N's and 2N's had. I like having both on my 1951 8N, but the only thing I use the "draft" control for is plowing. Almost every other implement (certainly mowers of any kind) do a lot better with that little lever under the seat set "up" in "position" control. With that selection, there is no need for them chains you need to use with a tractor that only has "draft" control. Draft control can't be beat for a moldboard plow though, as it keeps the plow at uniform depth in the soil as the tractor passes over uneven terrain. I did use the 8N on a bush-hog for a few years and got by ok with it, but "live" hydraulics sure makes that job easier.

The first tractor I owned was a 1951 8N. I bought it from the widow of the original owner in the late 80's. It had 1200 hours on it and still had most of the factory paint. I still have it and it remains my favorite make/model/year tractor of all time. I would not recommend it for the primary task of mowing, because the Ford N-series do not have live hydraulics. That means the hydraulics will not work when your foot is on the clutch. That is a pain with a bush-hog, if you want to stop and chop up some big bushes, or raise it up when you get into some thick stuff. It also lacks live pto, which is no big deal because a $50 overrunning coupler takes care of that handicap. The N's have some definite advantages though, with the biggest one being their durability. Most of them are still in service even though the design is almost 80 years old. No tractors have better parts availability. These were the first production tractors with the three point hitch, and the one on them works better than most newer versions. For Moog's rough mowing tasks, something a little newer like a Ford 600/800 series or 2000/3000 Ford could still come in under budget, have live hydraulics, and would get the mowing job done a lot easier. I would be a little wary with the 1953 Ford Jubilee and the 54 600's though, as Ford's early attempt at "live" hydraulics were trouble-prone. By 1955, they had the bugs worked out pretty good.

$ 4k should get her a good-condition, used 2wd tractor in the 30 - 40 hp range and a 5 ft light-duty bush-hog. I would look for something like a Ford 2000/3000 or 600/800 series tractor. These are durable and easy to find parts for. A light duty bush-hog does a decent job clipping grass and is perfect for maintaining perennial clover plots. If you get unloaded R1 tires on the back, they won't damage the lawn that bad and will do a very good job pulling a disk on food-plots. Older 2wd tractors of that size, with unloaded R-1 rear tires, are pretty handy as long as they don't have a front loader on them, even without power steering.

Here's one he did for a Union General