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WOW. That's fanstastic. Wait til I show my kid the pictures of your pups. I just spoke to the guy. He literally had 6 pups ready to go just before Christmas. He sold all 6 in one day.

He's 18 months at this point, so mostly full grown. We give him a scoop (+/- 3/4 cup) in the morning and at night. He never begs for food between feedings. When we are eating, we crate him. It's only about 30 minutes and removes temptation for anyone to thrown him a scrap or create bad habits.

I'll reach out to him today and PM you after with more info.

Good looking pups. Congrats!

Honestly, I saw an ad online with cute puppy pictures and called on it. A few years prior to this I surprised the wife with a GSP puppy. Aweseome dog, but more energy than she could tolerate in the house. I learned a valuable life lesson from that one and ended up finding a more appropriate home for that pup. So when I showed her the ad online with these cute Mountain Feist puppies, it was more me testing the waters than anything else. To my surprise, she went along with it. So I called the guy and he gave me some info on the breed's temperament. He was based in Cuba, NY and had traveled to Kentucky and Tennessee a few years prior to pick up the Sire and Dam. Both were UKC registered and any pups bought from him came with paperwork if you cared to register them. So we drove down with our son an surprised him by letting him pick out a puppy. The guy was real nice. He only had the one breeding pair, and this was their second litter. This was all back in July, 2019 and I haven't been in touch with him since. If anyone is interested in pursuing this, I'll reach out to him to see if he still lives in the area, still has dogs, and has any future litters planned.

I might try this out. Last batch I made didn't cool all the way before I bagged it and the whole lot got fuzzy.

Sounds fantastic. I've made jerky, but never smoked it. Is it a cold smoke? 18 hours seems long for normal smoking temps around 225.

PM if you want any more info. I can't say enough good things about them. If you decide to go this route, the hard part may be finding one. I drove down to Cuba to get this one. I haven't heard of any other breeders locally, not that I've done much looking.

Prior to owning one, I hadn't heard of the breed. It turns out most people up here (including my vet) aren't aware of the breed. They're not AKC recognized, but they are recognized by the UKC and some other organization. They were bred down South in the Appalachians for squirrel hunting. They only get to be about 25 pounds total, short hair and don't shed much. Wicked smart, super friendly, great with kids and other dogs. He's calm inside the house, and when you let him outside, it's like a switch turns on. He loves to run and play. They're hard wired to chase fur like a beagle, but not stubborn. Also, he doesn't bark unless there's a knock at the door, or he has a squirrel treed.

Are you looking for feedback only on the breeds that you mentioned? Or are you open to other breeds that check your boxes? I rave about my Mountain Feist. He's not listed, but checks all your boxes. If you're interested, I can post more info and pix.

I've been keeping an eye out for manual stuffers. I'll grab one when I find one I like at a price that makes sense. I usually grab casings at Wegman's. For the seasonings, I bought the big containers of the the core ingredients like fennel seed, garlic powder, paprika and that should last me a few years. Other ingredients like salt, pepper, etc I just grab as needed.

I don't have any pix from this years sausage, but I made sweet italian and smoked jalapeno cheddar. For some reason the texture of the smoked sausage isn't quite right, so i'm still tinkering with that one. When I run it through the grinder once and mix in all the seasonings, it's good. I make a small sample patty and pan fry it, and the taste and texture are just where I want them. Then I run it through again when stuffing it, but after that the texture is off. I don't have that issue when using the same process with the sweet italian. So this year I sent a bunch out to Costanza's, and kept about 25-30 pounds for me to tinker with.

Man I am so not picky when it comes to steak. As long as it's somewhere near medium, there haven't been many steaks that I haven't liked. If it's still mooing, or if it's turned into shoe leather, that's no good. I've eaten at reputable steak houses, as well as lower end places like Outback. I've cooked in cast iron, spooning the butter, and I've grilled plenty. I've also thrown on a spit and slow cooked over coals.

Well that was a hell of a lunch break. I got a call earlier that my FIL's cousin shot a small buck last night and needed help finding it. He only lives a few minutes away so I drove over. Found the deer, dressed it, and dragged it to his garage, and home to eat lunch in under an hour. Happy for him that he finally got one. He's missed a few times this year. His eyes aren't the greatest as he gets older. Great way to close the season. Merry Christmas everyone!

Sounds a little low, but that may just be the difference between a pro butcher and someone who isn't. I tend to get 40ish pounds from a typical doe and I know that I get a little crazy trimming..

So those videos from the ammo exec's.... They're saying that, not only has production not slowed, but that it's ramped up to try to meet this demand... And I can appreciate the part about a few million new gun owners in the market buying ammo... Along with panic buying and hoarding... but you'd think that you'd see some, or at least hear reports that ammo has been seen in stores. That doesn't seem to be the case though. From what people are posting on here, for the most part, common calibers are near impossible to find. Store shelves are consistently empty. I've been in stores where shelves that used to have ammo have been repurposed for other items. Whenever I ask the staff, they just shake their head. So here's my question, and I'm not a conspiracy guy, so I don't think there is any cover up nonsense going on. But if manufacturers have ramped up production for almost an entire year now, but store shelves have remained empty, where's it all going? New owners will only need so much..

I've started the process, but still have a little work to do. All the deer hunting stuff is out of my truck and mostly staged in the garage. I'll need to wash all the outer layers and then I just put them in a portable closet. It's does a decent job of keeping outside smells on the outside, and i hang scent wafers in there in the off season. All the equipment has been checked, cleaned, and put in the appropriate place. I use a few of those 3 drawer plastic shelving setups for most of it. I have drawers for knives, orange tape, hot hands, field dress gloves, flashlights, shotgun plugs/chokes, etc. All the smaller clothing items like hats, gloves, neck gaiters, packs, and harnesses go into a plastic bin. I keep most of this stuff organized because some of it will get used through Feb for small game. It feels good to get all that crap out of the truck.

ammo update - was out and about yesterday in Rochester. Dicks's had boxes of .45 in stock and Wally had a few boxes of 30.06. Not much, but more than I've seen in recent times.

This past weekend I felt tired and achy. Thought it was just from working long hours and wearing myself down. Then I got a fever of 102. Went for a test because I wanted to know just how serious I should take it. The test itself is terrible, but it's over quick. Fortunately mine came back negative. Good luck Larry.

So a beagle got frisky with a lemon and these two are the result? That's pretty cool..

@Kmartinson are those brittany / beagle pups?

I plan to get after them. My buddy has a beagle and loves a good chase. I have a mountain feist that I would love to see chase bunnies. I've got a few pelts in the freezer that I could use to get him used to the scent.

In this case I'd say either could work to your benefit. They should be up and moving to feed prior to the storm rolling through, and you should have fresh tracks to follow after.

Best strategy? Shoot a deer! Welcome to the Forum!

Ha. My stand names are all boring compared to those. I look at the property on a map and mark the locations. Then I just number them moving counterclockwise from where I access the property. Ladder, Hang On, DIY ground blind.. they all just get a number. It's probably because I don't have much history on the property and all my stands are store bought. I have plans this summer (like I do every summer) to build a tower or two at which point I might get more creative.