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Posts posted by Spaulding Smails
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After 4+ years of jokingly referring to my yard as my "fourth child", we sold our house last summer. I miss having a yard. Big time. Been following this guy on IG. Worth a follow. Pretty impressive.
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On 6/7/2022 at 11:00 PM, CHIEF said:
I'm Jonesing to hunt so bad hunt, I started on page one, and read the entirety of this thread over the last eight to ten hours today. A lot of good memories were made, and a lot of great advice given.
CHIEF
I'm in the exact same boat. Planning on a quick trip to the ranch in the next few weeks to night hunt piggies and sight in the new rifle. 110* temps be damned.
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Just now, Publiushorn said:
we used David Denies and stayed at the la Dormice Lodge.
Got it. Thanks. I've seen his ads in a lot of DU / CCA stuff. Seems to be the frontrunner at this point.
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5 minutes ago, Publiushorn said:
I've been meaning to post about this for a few weeks but haven't sat down to do it, but here it goes. At the beginning of May, me and three friends went dove hunting in Argentina. We got the trip in August of 2020 almost through happenstance. I live in a Gulf Coast County in Southeast Texas, and my county's Ducks Unlimited chapter held their annual banquet and live auction online because of COVID. It also happened to be the weekend that Hurricane Laura was supposed to hit us so nobody was paying attention to the auction and we bought the trip for the minimum bid. Ultimately, we think it might have saved us $750 at most, but it was definitely the impetus for us to go.
Two of us had some trouble getting down there (United delayed our overnight flight from Houston to Buenos Aires by 12 hours, making it a day flight and turning our 4-hour layover from BA to Cordoba into a 12-hour layover where we had to spend a night in BA and causing us to miss almost a full day of sightseeing in Cordoba), but once our outfitter picked us up at the Cordoba airport, the experience was fantastic.
Our lodge was about an hour and a half from the airport, but they took us straight to the field to start hunting. We all shot 20 gauge Benelli Montefeltros--two of ours being brand new--that we rented from the lodge. The bird boys (men) were all fantastic and reloaded our shotguns for us (I'm still not sure how I feel about that). They built nice blinds each day and had plenty of beer for us while we hunted. Each day we had a 7:00 wakeup call followed by breakfast and a ~30 minute drive to the field. We would usually hunt for about 3-3.5 hours then break for lunch. The would cook lunch for us in the field then serve it to us at a table under a tent with beer and wine. After, they had hammocks and cots set up for us to nap for about an hour before the afternoon hunt.
After we hunted, they would take us back to the lodge, which was an experience itself. They had a fully stocked bar, a full menu for us to order from, a hot tub. They also had a masseuse available and dry cleaning. We almost wished we had an afternoon off so that we could relax there.
On the hunting, we had all heard stories about people shooting 1,000 birds a day, but frankly we didn't see those flights. Each of us budgeted to shoot 1,000 shells a day, but we all ended up shooting half that. Having said that, we all agreed that was a nice, steady pace and weren't upset by it at all. Anymore would've been work. The bird boys picked up as many dove as the could after we hunted, which they cleaned and donated to local schools.
In all, each of us spent about $5,500 on the trip including airfare, with the costs spread out over almost two years. I would recommend doing it once and can see myself doing it again several years from now. I would use the same outfitter but stay at a different lodge, only to get a little different of an experience.
Can you share which outfitter you went with? My son has three buddies who are all going into their freshman year of HS in the fall, and all four dads have already been talking about taking the boys down to Argentina when they graduate from high school. Probably going to start planning in a year or two. Appreciate the write up and info on cost.
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On 5/18/2022 at 8:34 AM, NorthLoop said:
Also does anyone have any good basic pickle recipes?
I've never pickled anything before and I want to try some cucumbers this year. The problem is that Google results are mostly mommy food blogs that tell you more about what Caiden, Aydyn, and Maxxtyr wore to church on Wednesday than providing a decent how-to.
I think this is the recipe we used last year. Scroll to the bottom to skip the reminiscent stories of sister Linda and Aunt Marge and eating jars of pickles while summering in Vermont or whatever these bloggers talk about.
https://www.foodiewithfamily.com/homemade-claussen-knock-off-pickles/
Pretty easy and turned out great.
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If my maths are correct, that means nearly 5% of the county's population got arrested all at once.
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I've been crazy busy with work and our new house for the last several months. Barely hunted this fall but my son and I took a doe each for the freezer. Two weeks ago, I had to head to Kerrville to pick up a new BBQ pit and decided to stay the night at the ranch. It was incredibly dry and the 1" of rain we received last week up there was the first measurable rainfall since October. We have two cisterns on the property, so at least they're getting some water. We try to feed alfalfa during the spring as well, and we've ramped that up some. But, it was sad looking. Not a wildflower in site. Looked like the dead of winter. The whitetail I saw seemed frail and lethargic.
We've seen more hogs than usual on the game cam, so I figured I'd climb in a stand and see what I could see for an evening hunt, then head out early the next morning back to work. About 7:30, this donkey walked out. Tipped out full velvet. 32" main beams and 15" brow tines. Thicc mass at the bases. 180 lbs with his snout resting in the gravel... my A-frame wasn't tall enough to get him completely off the ground.
I was so ill-prepared. I didn't have an ice chest with me. Gutted and hung him in the walk-in cooler overnight then flung him in the bed of the truck first thing the next morning with two bags of ice in the body cavity. Ended up skinning and quartering him when I got home the next morning. Meat on ice and hide to the taxidermist by 11 AM. Not the morning I had planned, but made it work. Should be a really cool mount.
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I've already thought about this. Probably headed to the ranch (Kimble County) and going to Airbnb my house for a jillion dollars. Not a huge astronomy nerd, but I am definitely looking forward to this.
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3 hours ago, kurioster said:
This is what I've used. Works great and is easy to replace.
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Crappy pic. Only one I took before putting it in my safe. Will take more once it has glass on it. I'm in the same boat on not sharing rifles with my son. He's a lefty but right-eye dominant so shoots right-handed.
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9 hours ago, 686 said:
Do you use a rangefinder and are you planning on dialing turrets / holding over with mil dots, etc.?We'll be using a rangefinder on this hunt. I'd like to spend some time this summer once I have the scope on working on shooting at varying distances.
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6 hours ago, clapclapclap said:
So if we want a real, helpful infrastructure project, why not a water pipeline to end ag and urban droughts in most of the western states? Desalination plants in Texas, a network of pipelines/?aquifers? to perhaps central Colorado so it can feed the western Colorado, Rio Grande, Pecos, TX Colorado, Brazos, Red, Arkansas, and Platte River watersheds. Solving the water issues for CA, NV, UT, CO, NE, MO, and every state south of them. Guaranteed capacity for full planting allocations every year, no more drought restrictions on residents, full reservoirs, and optimal stream flows to satisfy environmentalists (though by nature the activists will never be satisfied. But can help with reducing court challenges to future projects across the board.) No more wasting valuable land by building new lakes and the environmental impacts of them. The Gulf of Mexico becomes the reservoir with the capacity to handle all future growth.
Yes, that's a hell of a lot of pumping to reach the western Colorado and the Front Range cities, so short term perhaps not cost effective. But ultimately would provide national ag security and remove a huge growth issue for western cities. (Of note, western cities and suburbs are usually much more efficient, they tend to develop more contiguous and densely compared to back east. Saw a stat years ago that DFW was 3 times as densely developed as Atlanta.) No more poor crops because of drought, only have to worry about the years with too much rain. Long term has the potential to open up more land for ag use if at some point in the future our demand requires it, so a national security guarantee.
Not sure how much of pipeline capacity could be reduced by shifting reservoir allocations or if it is possible to fill near ends of some aquifers and increase pumping from the far ends. I don't know the flows, but seems like there would be a way to refill the Ogallala aquifer. That could allow for reallocations and perhaps other gap pipelines to additional watersheds or aquifers that might benefit all the way up to the Dakotas.
A long-term Fed project that wouldn't have a short term increase in inflation, because the planning and enviro review process would take many years. Would need federal coordination and partial funding, but could figure out a formula for taxing future development in the affected states to repay the feds. Heck, capture the reduced ag insurance costs from removal of the drought threat.
The US doesn't have a long term drought problem, it's just an issue of cost and political will. I'm not the first to propose this. We can choose to start now, or keep kicking the can down the road.
I'm no engineer and I'm about as Libertarian as they come, but that saying that "future wars will be fought over water" is probably pretty darn true. As a voter, I would never vote for an interstate highway system. But, despite its maintenance flaws and all the issues it created (segregation, corruption, environmental impacts), it is one of our country's bright spots and we all benefit from it.
Seems like affordable desalination and significant water pipeline infrastructure is something that could turn the tables.
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After four months of searching, I finally found a left-handed Browning X-Bolt 300 Win-Mag. Will post pics when I get the glass on it. Still trying to figure out which scope I go with. Leaning towards Swarovski Z5 3.5-18x44. This will be used for elk hunting and potentially a pronghorn hunt in the next few years. Any thoughts?
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31 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:
I will note I've never carried the tank in my 3/4-ton. I had a single cab 1/2-ton 4x4 in highschool/college. When I moved to hill country for college, the house I lived in had a 5500g cistern. It didn't appreciably rain for something like 200 days my freshman year. So bought me a 325g tank (fits exactly perfect in a 6.5' bed) and wrote the local volunteer fire dept a donation check, and they let me fill it up every now and then. I'd make 10-15 runs and be good for awhile. Used electric pump to pump it up to the gutters on the 2-story tank. Now I get water bills for 10x the amount of water I was able to live on (wife and 3x girls).
I've been laying a lot of HDPE lines for work in the last year. Need to find a few extra rolls of 2" lying around someday. Go from the well to my feederWhen we bought our place in Kimble County four years ago, we put in two 10' concrete cisterns. I think they hold about 1000 gal each. We put one just down the hill from the house and a second about 500 yds away. It suuuuucked running the rock saw and PVC for that second tank, but we got it done in one weekend. And, at least we did it when PVC was affordable. Put float valves in each and had cages fabbed to go around the floats so the raccoons and hogs don't mess them up. So much better than hauling water.
It's crazy how much having those cisterns on the property has kept the wildlife close.
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I played in a buddy's member-guest last weekend. First time in one of those events. Very well organized. Calcutta was HUGE ($123K total in the pot).
We finished day 1 T-27 in windy conditions. It was an adjusted Stableford format with quotas and adjustments daily. We were 76-77 net (definitely not gross).
Day 2 we absolutely shit the bed. Like abysmal. 88-85 were the net scores. Finished the day in 71st place out of 79.
Day 3, we got our shit together. 73-71 net. Won some day money and ended up right in the middle at 41st place.
I learned a lot. Really looking forward to playing in another one now that I'm able to play quasi regularly and not out there embarrassing myself.
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59 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:
137g. 200 is crazy, that surprises me. I know 325 made my truck not happy. That said, I was hauling it on road to fill cistern. But thats only 2600#.
Call me shocked as well. I thought no way would a Mule hold that.
I've had to haul water to my new property while building my house (c'mon PEC, get your shit together so I can turn on my well, dammit!). I started by hauling a single 250g tank in the back of my F350. It squats a bit and I found it easier to fill it completely to the brim to prevent the sloshing. It was kind of a pain to unload it every time with the backhoe, so I ended up getting a second tank and hauling them on my tandem axle trailer.
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3 hours ago, NorthLoop said:
I may rig something like that up as soon as I get tired of watering with the hose. So like a week from now.
What all plants did you have there? I see about 6 tomatoes, 3 or 4 peppers, some onions.
Rain Bird makes a DIY friendly system available at Home Depot. Super easy to use and install. I had an in-line battery powered timer valve on mine, so it was pretty fool proof. I had a mix of sprayers and drip. I had a big garden (~1200 SF) at my last house, so I had three "zones" that I would control manually with shut-off valves. Because I was coming off a 3/4" water line, I didn't have enough pressure for all three simultaneously, but if you went pure drip, I think you'd get a ton more capacity.
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I had a painter that worked for me for a few years. Good guy. Had a few screws loose, though. Too much lacquer I suppose. Before he came to work for me, he had his own painting business. He told me a story about painting the exterior of this really nice craftsman style two-story house in Pemberton Heights. Lots of sanding. Hand painted. He said they were there for weeks. He had a group of Honduran brothers working for him. Anyhow, he said that one of the Hondurans had bubble guts and couldn't make it to the convenience store. Homeowners weren't home, so he dropped trou in the far corner of the backyard and sprayed some party mud. Crisis averted and he went back to work. Evidently, the same dude's up at the very top of the roof sanding the chimney and sees the family dog come sauntering out of the doggie door into the backyard. The dog's sniffing around in the same back corner and ends up rolling around in the Honduran dude's mud pile. Before the guy can slide over the roof and get back down the ladder, the dog's already back through the doggie door and in the house and doing the dog move where they rub up against the wall and the carpet and the furniture. Except the dog's covered in human shit. And smearing it all over the white walls, cream colored carpet and antique furniture. And the door's locked. And the Honduran dude is freaking out. He calls his boss (the guy telling me this story), and he hauls ass over there. Long story longer, he has to wait for the homeowners to get home and explain to them what happened. He said they were surprisingly cool, but he paid to have everything downstairs in the house steam cleaned.
Not my story, so no clue how true or accurate it is. But, it's pretty damn funny. And, from this day forward, no matter how small the job, I ALWAYS put a line item in the budget for a portable toilet.
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8 hours ago, Zukster said:
My daughter raises broilers seasonally for various AG shows. This year she raised 50 birds. 5 went to the Houston Live Stock Show and the rest went to the freezer. The best and worst part is after the shows are over….. processing 45 birds sucks, but a full freezer is a nice reward at the end of the season.
Any tips for processing? Do you have a mechanical plucker? We had a hen get broody a few years back. Had an employee give me about a dozen fertilized eggs. We ended up butchering the half dozen roosters from that hatch. It was manageable, but kind of a pain. Would've been a real chore with 45 birds. And, they were by no means broilers, so the yield wasn't much, but damn they sure were tasty.
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Someone made the comment in the rain thread, but this year looks "different" as if we're in the midst of a big drought. Seems like wildflowers are late and few and far between. Native grasses and trees haven't started budding out yet. Everything just looks brown and shiny. Kinda like Mother Nature knows we're going into a nasty drought.
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Awesome. That was one of the brands I was looking at. I'm in Dripping Springs. Probably not pulling the trigger until this coming winter. If I do, and if that's close enough to qualify, I'm happy to mention your referral.
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Post a pic that makes you lol
in Lulz
Posted
When I was a senior on the 40 acres, my GF (now wife) lived in a shitty old house that was duplex converted to a 4-bedroom house in West Campus. The pier and beam house was so out of level that, if you picked up your feet when you were sitting in a rolling chair, you'd start to roll downhill across the room. I was sitting on the couch one day when her roommate walked through the living room towards the kitchen. At the perfect moment in time, the globe from the wobbly-ass ceiling fan fell and hit her square in the head. You could've tried to plan it for a week and never achieved that level of synchrony. It shattered, and a Dorito-sized shard of glass was sticking out of the crown of her head perfectly vertically. She wasn't hurt... just shell-shocked and a bit disoriented. I was laughing so hard that I physically couldn't help her. I sat there for five minutes laughing my ass off until my sides hurt. I see her every few years or so, and that story comes up every damn time. Physics makes for some excellent humor occasionally.