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Spaulding Smails

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Everything posted by Spaulding Smails

  1. Southern Comfort. I was 19. Easter weekend. I drove down from the 40 Acres to my parents' place on Lake Medina. We were going to hang there for the long weekend, then drive to Seguin for Easter Sunday with my grandma and all my kinfolk. I had a few beers at dinner during a little get-together at my aunt's house Saturday night. I remember at some point after dark going to the patio where we all the food was left out after everyone left and seeing an enormous raccoon sitting on the folding table like Jabba the Hut with a bag of Ruffles between his legs, just chowing down when I flipped the lights on and busted him. He stopped mid bite like I'd busted a fat kid with a hand in the cookie jar. But I digress... I told my parents I was going to stay with my cousin that night who lived in a single wide trailer next door. They drove home, and I proceeded to drink an entire fifth of SoCo (it was still sealed and kept in the freezer. How cool is that!?!?). We fished, night skied, shot pistols and raised hell with some skanky neighbor chicks that were much older than me. I remember passing out in the grass out front and banging on the skirting of the trailer until he came out so I could ask him to roll me over so I wouldn't choke on my own vomit. The next morning, I poured myself into his truck for the 20 minute drive back to my folks' house. I had to help my dad put the boat back on the trailer, and it was sheer agony. My dad realized how bad of shape I was in and drove my truck to Seguin for me that afternoon. We had Easter lunch, and I remember sitting on the front porch puking bile in the flowerbed nursing a dinner roll all afternoon trying to not embarrass my parents. I hung around with my grandma after everyone left. It was honestly one of my fondest memories of her. She told me stories of her and my grandpa painting the town red, him playing semi-pro baseball, running across the border to Acuña and all the other things I could never fathom my grandparents doing. So, great memory, but I've never had a sip of Southern Comfort in the 26 years since that day.
  2. No direct experience at all, but does the access to exotics include nilgai? Because that would be pretty f'n amazing if you could arrow one. I've had some friends do the (somewhat questionable) hunt for nilgai in the tidal flats south of Port Mansfield. One I know had success, but it came with constant concern over confrontations with King / Kenedy ranch personnel along with the chore of dragging a 400+ lb nilgai a few hundred yards through muck back to the boat. Any idea on the total number of drawn hunters and previous kill rates? I looked through the TPWD draw hunt harvest results and didn't see a single listing for Laguna Atascosa. Regardless, that's going to be a fun experience. Congrats on getting drawn!
  3. Drip looked really good. Expectations were down this year because they lost a ton of talent. I'm obviously biased, but they had a great game plan and executed well. Defense had Teodecki (K-State commit) confused all night and he couldn't get in a rhythm. Great run-pass balance on offense kept Vandegrift's defense on its toes. They had a few mistakes on the O-Line and that TD they gave up at the end of the first half showed signs of fatigue, but they bounced back incredibly well in the second half. The biggest play that doesn't show up in the box score was a fluky deal in early Q3 when they were up 20-14. Starting center goes down with an injury. Second snap from the backup center goes almost completely over QB Ames's head. He's able to JUST BARELY get a hand on the ball, and they're able to fall on it. If that goes completely over his head, it brings a turnover into the conversation. Next play is a false start. So, 3rd and 25 from their own 10. Instead of being conservative and running the ball up the middle, taking your medicine and punting, they dial up a wheel route to RB Gotta for 52 yards. Punched it in a few plays later. HUGE swing in momentum. My son is a senior baseball player at Drip. So, he's grown up with / played sports with most of these kids. If they stay healthy, this could be a fun season.
  4. @utee94 that turned out pretty slick. Those wall pendants above were a great addition. Nice job!
  5. Pretty much spot on. In my defense, I spaced the studs @ 11" OC so that my siding would land on them directly and I could avoid sheathing. And yes. Can double as a bomb / tornado shelter.
  6. Nothing too major. I designed the last one myself, but I'm no mason and a lousy welder, so I had it built. Biggest thing is figuring out how to prevent the stone veneer from cracking. It had firebrick inside, but the heat still cracked the mortar joints within months. If I keep the stone veneer, I think I'm just going to use high heat refractory cement for the mortar joints unless I can figure out another option. The two other big changes center around access. I need to make sure the main access door to put logs in the firebox is flush without a lip. It was a pain scooping out ashes. The next one can't have a lip. I need to be able to slide the ashes right out. Similar thing around the perimeter of the grills. I had one over the firebox for direct grilling and a second as a smoke chamber. They worked great, but there were basically voids around the perimeter that were difficult to access. So, I need to figure out how to make those flush vertically for easier access. The last big thing would be to add a retractable (swing-up) steel ledge in the front that acts as a counter for staging the meat. The dimensions of the last one were pretty big, and the ledge was 12" deep. So, it was tough to reach the back of the grill. I'll shrink that some for sure. That little square thing in the middle of the front was a handle for the baffle between the firebox and the main smoke chamber. That needs some modifications as well to improve balance, but that's pretty minor. Ultimately, I just make it completely out of firebrick and forego the veneer. It won't look as nice, but it should remedy some of the depth issues and mortar cracking. Need to get the wife to buy off on those aesthetics first. Yep. That's exactly what I'm thinking.
  7. That's basically what the pit will be. Just need to figure out how to duct it over. Here's the old one I'm going to replicate from my last house with a few modifications.
  8. Before the birth of our first when she decided to be a SAHM, my wife worked for a startup. They were fledgling. She had been there 4 years and had some decent stock options. But, they weren't vested, so she would have had to scratch a check to the tune of about $20K to get the stock. Simultaneously, a good friend that was a stock broker at the time had the inside scoop on a pre-IPO for a company called Spare Backup. This was right on the cusp of cloud storage being a real thing, so it seemed like a no-brainer. My wife and I decided that her stock probably wouldn't be worth the paper it was written on given the perceived direction of the company. So, we bought $20K in Spare Backup stock and passed on her shares. Fast forward a few years, and my wife's old company sells to AT&T. At roughly 20X the price we would have paid for the stock. And my sure thing? Screen shot attached. The ROI comparison between those two decisions is roughly infinity. I never adjusted my cost basis, but I didn't get out quickly enough. Got under $1,000 out of the deal. Still brings back nightmares.
  9. I'm almost done with a fun little project. We make all of our own sausage, and since moving two years ago, I've been limited to breakfast, Italian, etc and can't do my traditional link sausage. That all changes this winter. I didn't get pics of the pad, but I poured a little 6'x6' 4" thick slab with #3 rebar at 12" OC. 20 bags of 80# readymix was 2 bags short, so I had to haul ass up to Home Depot before it set up the day I poured it. I framed it the following weekend and put on the siding / hung the doors last weekend. I've got probably 12-15 hours of work in it total so far. Just need to install the metal roof and stain the exterior to match the house then throw in a thermometer. After that, I still need to figure out my strategy on the fire box. I'm toying with buying an old offset smoker, cutting the firebox off, and welding to a little skid, then running some 4" duct to the smokehouse. This would be a somewhat temporary solution, so I don't want to go too crazy. Eventually, I'm going to build a large "Lockhart style" BBQ pit adjacent to it, and I think I can run a duct straight from that into the smokehouse. So, i want to kind of play around with a cheap solution before I commit to that.
  10. Played Friday with two friends. I hit the ball OK, but missed by just enough just often enough to screw up a round. Short sided myself multiple times. Missed fairways by less than a yard four separate times, all of which ended up in heavy rough that affected my approach shot significantly. It was one of those rounds that should've been in the low 80s, maybe upper 70s with some good breaks, but carded an 89. Second shitty round in a row. Meanwhile, my 12 hdcp buddy rattles off 6 birdies, and my 18 hdcp buddy lips our for albatross and has a banner round. I need the pendulum to start swinging back the other way. Soon.
  11. That's been my golf game the last few months prior to yesterday. Solid off the tee with good distance. Decent long irons. But struggling to capitalize on short approach shots. Chipping has been suspect. And putting fell off a cliff. I was averaging under 30 putts/round last year. Up to over 33 this year. Not a lot of three putts, but missing makable putts constantly. So, for the strokes I've picked up off the tee and from the short grass, I've given them back around the green. I also have the inevitable 2-3 blow up holes per round. I feel like I'm a 5-6 hdcp tee to green, but have been a 20 hdcp around the green and putting. It's all about putting in the work, which I haven't. I'm hoping work slows down in the next year so I can try to turn that corner to a consistent single-digit handicap.
  12. You're probably right. But, that 3i has been my go-to fairway finder for years, especially on short par 4s. It usually nails on long approach shots. To the point that I'm considering trading in my old Cleveland hybrid for a 2i.
  13. Played yesterday after work. I've been feeling like I was SO CLOSE to turning the corner to the point I can start breaking 80 every once in a while. Consistently 80-84 for the last few months. So, what do I do? I lay an absolute egg. It was like I forgot how to play golf. Started off OK, but had a stretch of bogey-double-triple-triple-triple-bogey on the front 9 for a smooth 48. Somewhere in there was a 3-iron that went about 40 yards. A drive that was in another county and a one-putt triple bogey on a par 3 despite being pin high and 6 ft right of the green off the tee. I recovered somewhat with a 42 on the back, but it was an absolute grind. Couldn't find a fairway to save my life and irons were just far enough off line to cause issues. I hate golf. Which is why I'm going back out there to walk 9 after work today.
  14. This is the way. I had a fox that nabbed a half dozen or so chickens and two ducks at my last house (in a neighborhood). Smell is one thing. If they ever get the taste of chicken, they'll be coming back indefinitely. The day it nabbed the ducks, I found the head of our drake about a half mile down the road in Godfather fashion. Foxes are some of the coolest animals... until they gain that affinity for your birds. Finally got him with a sub-sonic .22 round in the cloak of darkness. Held the spot light under the stock of my old lever action iron sight .22 and popped him between the eyes at about 30 yds.
  15. Sandia is a really fun course. And Albuquerque is an awesome location for a quick, cheap golf vacation. Twin Warriors and Paako Ridge are both easily accessible from downtown / the airport. Paako is pretty spectacular and worth the 45 minute drive. About 10 years ago, we did a three day weekend there. Flew in early Friday morning from Austin. Landed by 8 AM (gained an hour). Got 36 in at Sandia. Gambled at their shitty casino that night. 36 at Paako the next day (27-hole course). Ate ribs and fajitas at El Pinto that night. Blakes' green chile burrito followed by 18 at TW early Sunday morning. Back home to Austin in time for supper Sunday night. All-in for under $1K.
  16. Thanks! Hope you're right. Trying to figure all that out right now, and encouraging him to do it on his own. I've always pushed him to do things himself. So, it'll be up to him on how hard he wants to pursue this thing.
  17. One more tournament for my 17 YO this summer. 12+ years of baseball nearing the end of the road, and it's bittersweet. As much as I'll miss it, it's sure going to be nice to have more time to fish and hunt when baseball doesn't dominate the weekend schedules. And, after several months of being down in the dumps post-surgery (TJ) and kind of loafing around, he finally found something within himself this spring to start getting after it in the gym. We found a really fantastic pitching coach with a big focus on biomechanics that's made a world of difference. His delivery (LHP) is so much smoother and consistent, which undoubtedly will help him stay healthy. We're still ramping up the pitch count, but it's been like watching a new kid this summer. I'm super proud of him. He's certainly not on a national / scout type team, but he's been facing some pretty good competition. He missed the first summer ball tourney since his HS team was in the state playoffs and he was traveling (but not playing) with the team. He's been pretty salty through his first four outings post surgery: 3.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 10 K (three walks came in the last two innings when you could tell he was getting tired, but nice to see him work out of a jamb) Total: 15.0 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 10 BB, 21 K, 0.46 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, .102 BAA FB has been sitting in the low-80s and he's touched 85 a few times. Throws mostly two-seamers, but works the four-seam when he's up in the zone. Breaking ball is starting to come around, and his change up came out of nowhere and has been his strikeout pitch. He's been asked to play an extra tourney in San Antonio in August with a higher-caliber team that's short on pitching, so that'll be his first test against really good competition. This has been a big confidence boost going into the offseason. His goal is to add 15 lbs of muscle before spring. He's 6'2" and 185 lb now. Should be a fun senior year if he can stay healthy and continue to improve. I don't think he'll get any looks for college at this point. His academics are excellent, so it's going to be interesting to see what he decides if he does get a sniff from a smaller school.
  18. We did Quandary Peak last summer. We used the shuttle from Breckenridge that drops you off at the trailhead. It was mid-week and parking at the trailhead didn't seem to be an issue. No idea on a weekend. It was a fun hike. We took our time, and I think we did the round trip in about 6 hours. Got up close and personal with a few mountain goats along the way.
  19. The rainfall along Cow Creek last night is astonishing. Almost 13" of rain in 3 hours.
  20. I'm on Onion near Drip and it's not up much. Definitely not a flood threat at the moment.
  21. About two years ago, I was putting in some temporary fencing along the road through my front pasture. That area is mostly caliche, so it wasn't too tough to drive in T-posts. Not as easy as loam, but much better than solid rock. I had about 30 or so 6 footers to get in the ground before I strung the barbed wire. It's the middle of summer, just shy of beer:30 in the afternoon, I'm on the last post, and I'm dog tired. I've got it almost all the way into the ground, so the top of the post is pretty low. Evidently, I lifted it up a tad too high and the driver caromed off the top of the post, turned a few degrees away from me which mean I slammed the butt end of the driver down squarely in the middle of my forehead. I think the brim of my baseball cap saved me from needing staples and probably prevented a concussion. I was still seeing stars and bleeding like a stuck pig. I walked the 200 yards back to the house with blood dumping down my face. My wife turned white as a ghost when I walked in the house. I told her "tis but a flesh wound" (which it was). Crazy how much you can bleed from a scalp wound. I had to throw away my shirt and jeans.
  22. Team #SanAngelobar here on the nomenclature. I keep one at the house and one at the ranch. Just replaced the one at the house. Bent it trying to leverage up a big boulder. The point was worn to a nub, so it was time.
  23. Gotcha. That was well before my time. Riverside is where I started to play golf during college (98-01). Been the same since them from what I can recall. Never had a chance to see it pre-ACC.
  24. Haven't played there in probably 6-8 years. What has changed?
  25. What are the existing conditions like? I'm three years into a similar situation. I had about 3 acres of open pasture with good soil with established native grasses. I also took out about 2 acres of THICK Cedars and that's been a process. This is the first year where that area is starting to take shape. Lots of manual work getting thistle, horseweed, croton, and sticker burrs out. Where native grasses were present, they're finally filling in those areas where Cedar was removed. In other areas that were absolutely barren, I had lots of luck with Austin Hydroseed. I think I spent about $5K and did a few different blends including their "Damaged Earth Mix". The first year I thought it was going to fail, but it's really taking shape now. They have both native grass mixes and wildflower mixes. Great customer service and I thought the pricing was fair. https://austinhydroseeding.com/ It seems like the wildflowers weren't the best this spring, but my front pasture is thick after recent rains. There's some verbena, antelope horn and Indian paintbrushes, and I'm getting a ton of Mexican hat popping up in recent weeks as well. It's so awesome to sip coffee on the front porch and watch rabbits and deer. We had two fawns that were bedded down in that pasture this spring as well. Definitely seeing mother nature do her thing.
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