Bolt action

$4.50/gal for regular this morning around 6a when I drove past the gas station on the way home from the gym. Monroe County. It jumped about .40 overnight.

Agreed. She had some strange, excited reaction when Biden was talking about people breathing toxic smoke. Almost like she wasn't paying attention at all but knew that at some point she was supposed to cheer.

@Swamp_bucks what county are you in? I've been dragging my feet on this, but am starting to think I should apply before the application gets any harder..

I've had the opportunity to shoot some pretty big guns.. nothing this big, but still big.. but I've never seen the point of shooting something that's going to hurt and possibly develop a bad habit at the same time.

It's unfortunate because it puts home ownership out of reach for most. With the average median household income at +/- $50k in upstate ny (not including NY, Westchester, Nassau, Putnam, Suffolk counties), most folks can't afford a $400k house.

My wife and I have been wanting to move for a few years now. Our current home was our first house and a great starter home in that it hasn't needed and big maintenance items. When we bought it, my mother in law lived with us, so we had to make some concessions to accommodate her. (On a side note, she moved out 2 weeks after we moved in.) Now we're looking for something that would be big enough for our growing family and have some of the things that we had to pass on the first time around. We'd also like to move before some of those big ticket items need replacing. The problem is, in this market, we couldn't afford our current house, let alone an upgrade. What @The_Real_TCIII is spot on. I spoke with a realtor friend of mine who said that there are generally 2 groups who are poised to buy in this market: young people with good jobs who currently live with mommy and daddy; and people who's jobs are based in the downstate market but are no longer tied to an office. The younger folks can bank most of what they make and jump on a house when they see one, cash in hand. And the downstate folks take advantage of the more affordable (relatively speaking) upstate market where they can live and work remotely. The typical middle class family looking to upgrade are the ones having the hardest times making moves until this stabilizes. My friend's advice? Purge stuff that you've accumulated and no longer need, and make any updates that you want now so that when the market cools, you're in a better position to take advantage of it.

I opened an account with Caesar's before the game. The interface wasn't the most user friendly. I put some money on the under, on the Bengal's with the points, and a few others. Overall, I'm only down $10, it made the game more interesting because I had some skin in the game, and apparently now I have 300 credits to use, whatever that means. I'll probably take a closer look as we get closer to the Derby in May.

I love a good symmetrical rack..

Is bullet selection or availability a consideration? 7mm-08 is fantastic, but not much good if you can't find ammo.

I actually had the same thought the other day. I usually see it for around $2 for the blue bottles, but all of a sudden it jumped to over $4. What gives?

I hunted Steuben for years, although it was on private with pretty strict rules on what can and can't be shot. I really enjoyed the elevation changes there. I'm hunting WNY now and it's all flat. I prefer hunting and stalking through the hills and benches that made up the terrain in Steuben.

Man what a game! Congrats to the Chiefs on getting the win and advancing. With that said, I'm not sure they were the better team. That idiotic rule ended the game prematurely. Both teams played incredibly and were trading blows like a couple of heavyweight fighters in the final seconds of a title fight. They should have put up 5 or 10 or 15 minutes and let them play it out to see who the last team standing really was. The coin toss cut it short and now we'll really never know who the better team was last night.

I've travelled to the 'Daks every year since I was a kid, sometimes more than once. We've seen all sorts of critters up there from deer to loons to black bears (LOTS of black bears on the dumpsters in the state part at night..) but have never seen a moose. I'd love to see one in person and would be stoked to get a chance to hunt one if NYS ever opens up a season.

My thoughts going along with what most people are saying.. as I get older, family, work and life tend to get in the way of getting out like I used to. Part of the change in dynamic is on me though. As I get older (only 40..), my preferences change. I've got a buddy who's mid-40's and single and still likes to get out to catch a band as often as he can. He'll call me up on an hour's notice. I tend to decline because I need to find a babysitter and can't on an hour's notice. My wife could watch the kids, but depending on how she's feeling, that's not always an option. Along with that though, between the babysitter, food and booze, I'm looking at spending $150-200 bucks on a band that I probably don't like (usually 80's cover bands), staying up past my sleepy time, and losing half of the next day because I went out the night before. That's just not me anymore. Another aspect of the live shows though is that my taste in music has changed. When I was in high school, I went to hundreds, maybe thousands of shows. I went to everything from garage punk at the Water Street Music Hall to the Warped Tour at LaSalle Park to Woodstock at Griffis AFB. If it was a live show and was in WNY, I was there. Now I'd rather head over to SPAC or CMAC for Rascall Flats, Little Big Town or Toby Keith. Tastes change, people change. It's life.

I'd love to get into ice fishing.. but between having no time for another winter hobby, and not having the space to store the gear, I've never gotten into it. Looks like it can be fun though with the right people and enough beer.

When we were down last year, the group that we were with probably went through 20-25 dozen in the week. Some of the flavor combinations seemed a little off the wall, but they were delicious. If I remember right, there were options like maple bacon (with crumbled bacon on top), key lime, and a few others that i wasn't used to. At least, not on a donut...

I don't use them on my ladders, although I've thought about it. In the past 10 years or so, I don't know that they would've have changed the outcome on my seasons. I can't recall a time when I've been in the tree and busted before getting a shot off. I do have one on the climber that i just picked up. I only used it twice this season, and didn't deploy the skirt either time.

We've got a trip booked down in Duck, NC in early may. The weather can still be a little cool, or it can be nice and warm, but booking that early saves us a few thousand bucks. Hoping to do some surf fishing, an inshore charter, and maybe hit a pier while I'm there. Also when I was down there last year, I scored some ammo so I'll be on the lookout again this year. Right after that in late May or early June we're doing a 4 day trip to Hershey Park. I've never been and am not really sure what to expect. I love amusement parks, but I hate waiting in long lines in the sun for long periods of time to ride a ride that is over in 60 seconds. Then in August we're headed up to Speculator for a week at Moffitt's. In my opinion, it's hard to beat.

$360k for a permit?! I can think of a lot of other ways to spend that kind of money.

I've been out a few times. Haven't seen any with shooting. Go figure. During deer season I'm covered up in squirrels that I won't shoot. Now that I'm looking for them, I can't find 'em.

I try to put on a good spread whenever I host for a game. The key is to offer stuff that holds up over a couple hours, and where people can graze without getting too full. I'll usually do some combination of: wings, beer, smoked baby back ribs, buffalo chicken dip, beer, sliders, chili cheese dip, chili, pizza, jalapeno poppers, did I mention beer?

My first was a Mossberg 500. Killed done deer with it but can't say I enjoyed it. That thing kicked like a mule. I ended up selling that one because I had others that were more enjoyable to shoot. I still have a handful that I hang on to for drives, not that I ever do drives. The most fun slug gun I have is a single shot break action H&R with a heavy 10ga barrel machined down for a 12ga slug. It looks like a cannon with the short fat barrel on it.

-15 sounds crazy. Anyone know the temp where they would call the game for unsafe conditions?

That breaks down to $3.5/round.. I don't shoot premium factory loads, and I don't hand load, but that seems awfully high to me.

I cut up all the meat the I plan to process. Usually it's trimmed venison and either cubed beef or pork with the fat from either. I put all the meat that I plan to work with in a large mixing bowl and season it. Then I feed it through with the course grinding plate. When it comes out, I'll hand mix it to make sure I get the desired distribution. Then I'll make a little patty and pan fry it to sample it. Tweak the seasonings if needed. When I'm happy with the flavor, I'll roll a bunch of little meatballs that I can just drop into the hopper as needed. From there, I'll run it through the grinder again, but without a grinding plate, and load it into the tubes and casings. The flavor comes out where I want it, but I'm still working on the texture. Here's the foot pedal I bought. It made using the grinder for sausage making a lot easier with the hands free operation. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08BZX4XGY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1