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horn4life

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  1. Not understanding this, unless you are talking about foot traffic? I have a mix of bermuda and weeds in the front. The Freeze made me realize how much more weed percentage I had accumulated (not the cool kind...). I think I went grass patch, literally with my last patches. I had thought about just killing off the weeds and reinforcing the bermuda. Which would be both cheaper and easier, and then maybe I put more money into a new tree. I am going to go drive the neighborhood today and check out some of the Zoysia i know was put in the the last 2 years and see how it looks. I think most all my tropicals and a huge pride of Barbados I had that dominated the front bed with summer color are toast. Not seeing any green spurts and I would think I would be seeing a tiny something by now. Think I am going to really plan stuff out and get after it. But I need to find some replacement plants to get started and I have a feeling that some of the stuff I like, such as the Pride of Barbados that the deer won't devour may be hard to find. A lot of the big nursery's are in South Texas and took a beating due to the freeze. THX for the reply. If anyone see's Pride of Barbados plants around (I think it's still too soon), please let me know.
  2. First off... not that grass, "But it would be cooler if you did." Well because of the week of frigid weather it looks like I am going to get arm twisted into putting in a new front yard and perhaps redesigning my pond entryway at the house. I already had planned to do a scrape on the front yard and put down new sod, and perhaps plant a new tree. But I figure if I am going to go to all that work, I should probably put in a sprinkler system to protect my investment. And while I am designing that, maybe replace and plan for new plants post freeze... it's the old one thing leads to another. Sprinkler System - I did some research a while back and basically it's a bunch of math with the GPM, and coverage calculations for each zone. Since the wife and I are traveling more this simply make sense to put it. Anyone here done it yourself? I think Toro has a calculator tool to assist here and if I am tearing the hell out of the front yard anyhow now is the time to do this. The only thing I really have any concern about it tying into the water line. I could access the one outside wall water line, knocking out a few bricks on the wall. Tie in, put on a back flow preventer and start laying out the grid. I might only do the front yard as my back yard is in pretty good shape and I am not needing to put in a whole new yard and landscaping. I would probably leave a stub out that I could always add onto later if desired. So where right now do I find a good price on Zoysia? And is there anywhere around now that has decent sized trees to put in? The Harvest Moon place near me looked toasted out from the freeze when I last did a quick glance. Thanks in advance
  3. I honestly hate the idea of abolishing the filibuster. Simply because Dems overreach to try and get things done, Pubs overreach for ONLY political power, never for the good of the nation. McConnell refuses to approve judges with corrupt intent. Dems allow for exception to finally get some of the blocked judges through. McConnell changes the rules blocks a supreme for Obama and does the opposite to steal a seat for the GOP. The GOP is a party that demographically is about to become a dinosaur. So honestly. IF the Dems scrapped the filibuster, it is probably in a position where there is a decent chance the GOP does not regain control of the Senate anytime soon. That is why you see so many desperation voter suppression bills locally. I personally would simply change the rules of the filibuster. As long as you can talk and hold the floor you can filibuster. EXACTLY AS INITIALLY INTENDED!!!! But I am beginning to believe if the Dems broke hard with tradition and made voting extremely easy for all? The GOP is fucking toast. SO "scorched earth" from a minority is not really a huge threat. The good news for Mitch is that a block of politicians without a single principle among them, nearly always votes as a unified block. Simply taking orders from the top down. The Dems are a much more independent bunch, and the fuckers have some principles... which makes them weaker from a political standpoint.
  4. I am actually extremely fiscally conservative. I was OUTRAGED over adding $1.9 trillion Republican budget busting tax cuts for the richest in our country. Simply because fiscally it was stupid as fucking shit. To be fair, in the 1940's up until the late 1960's tax cuts did spur economic growth and hiring. But that was when a CEO made maybe 30 times the salary of the average worker. So tax cuts naturally would not be completely skewed to the richest, and thus there would be a money multiplier effect. This same philosophy today... stupid as fucking shit. Simply as in past decades there was not near the mobility of money into investments we have today. Give a billionaire a $200 million tax cut, and he may buy a mine in Indonesia. There simply is nowhere remotely near the money multiplier stimulative effect. This 1.9 trillion should honestly have been spent months and months ago. But the GOP was not interested once the millionaires got their STRINGS FREE!!!! checks last Spring. In a program that was SPECIFICALLY designed not to have any accountability for the administration the dollars for the richest Americans that flowed like water last year. But being fiscally conservative does NOT mean you do not spend money, it also does not mean you never, ever, ever invest in anything but Debt for more millionaire tax cuts. Which is what "conservative" means for the GOP currently. Basically the GOP "fiscal conservative" is simply a whiner.... that whines really, really loud ONLY when a Dem is President. But Republicans are NOT fiscally conservative, they are socially conservative, with a decent dose or racism baked into their economic thinking. You see if you give a poor person $1400 they spend nearly every last penny, in a manner that is a LOT more local than the dollars you give to the wealthiest. And that very simple fact that is impossible for Republicans to grasp is why they simply do not understand economics. For example, Student loans are burdensome to our youth, and hurt future economic activity. But this move was made to accommodate, lower taxes for the well heeled. Incarcerating shit tons of brown and black people for drugs while nearly always allowing for non-prison sentences for lighter skinned more financially secure folks is fucking stupid as shit fiscally. Prisons are fucking expensive, and the long term costs of decreased lifetime wages that are the direct result of serving time, get heaped onto the total cost. It is simply fiscally stupid to keep GOP policies in place here. But again, you need to remember Republicans are NOT fiscally conservative, not in the least. I could go on and on and on...
  5. The lower the viewing angle the better. My wife and I both notice the irritating upward angle when we stayed in our RV for a month in Port A. If you are in a recliner then who cares, but with traditional seating having the RV as close to eye level as possible is best.
  6. What if funny as fucking shit is the FACTS are that Red States are the ones receiving a LOT more federal tax dollars than they take in. It's "welfare" for these states that cannot take care of themselves. The same states that are racing desperately to try and suppress the vote so they have some small chance of winning with ideas and politices that are not in the interest of the majority of the citizens. In other words Democracy and voter participation scare the shit out of the Republicans! The Dems are FAR, FAR from perfect, but the GOP tossed away $1.9 trillion, with 80% of that taxpayer money going to help the top 1%, and corporations that already do not pay taxes. Debt is something that GOP Presidents have accumulated at a mind boggling pace in GOOD economic TIMES!!! BECAUSE the GOP inherits hand offs from the Dems that provide for the GOP largesse. But unfortunately the Dem Presidents always end up with a shitty Republican hand off and are forced to spend to try and save the country from the mess they inherited. Wouldn't it be nice if folks like John Locke, gave a fuck about the continued GOP pattern of tax cuts that are going to "create jobs" that simply do not create the jobs promised? Those giant debt accumulations in good times are why when you hear a Republican blame dems for the Debt, you have to always remember.... they simply do not know what the fuck they are talking about, because they are FORCED to live in a world devoid of facts, so they don't slash their wrists at recognizing their decades long stupidity....
  7. The GOP is against "cancel culture" the same way they are for "local control", and love the shit out of the "unborn" babies, and not so fond of the actual babies that turn into children.
  8. Well that has me excited as fuck. Banks gives TWO "loves" for Hand and company. LSU came close but with one of the loves coming from Dad. CB Texas!
  9. I sort of think anything with a wider grip to give you a little more torque is the way to go. The curved handle should really help at with the twist at the point of attack. If I start going nuts I will probably hire some shuckers, but I enjoy watching grown men struggle trying to get to the sweet nectar! πŸ˜‰
  10. IS the Peche in New Orleans the same as the Peche in Austin? I don't think so, but thought I would ask. It's on my list in N.O. when I go back in two weeks. Personally I think that knife is too sharp? I had my best results putting my hand flat on the oyster on a towel, and put a little weight on it to hold it in place then just wiggled that knife into it. Once I got the hang of it they went pretty quick honestly. Now the first five or six were considerably more challenging. Seems like taking a second and making sure the larger part of the shell is on the bottom also increased my quick success ratio. I also think a fatter handle might be of help. One of the great things about chargrilling is the flare ups from the butter. I also like the idea of perhaps using the disposable tins, simply as I could fill the tins and let other folks decide if they want to add this or that. Making the management a bit less for me. It seemed like in past years (non-covid) Pappadeaux's used to have some sort of $0.50 oyster deal at lunch? or happy hour? but that was like two years ago. Here is what I got form Amazon to get the party started. I especially like the fireproof, cut resistant gloves as I can use those for fish cleaning with better grip, as well as reach into super hot areas on the grill. These gloves were a better fit than the normal gloves you might get in the fishing dept. I personally liked the fatter grip on this particular knife than the thinner white handled models. The long glove length was awesome with dealing with the fire. 932 Degrees of protection I only bought one of these ladles, but I am going to buy a couple more. The one ounce size made the pouring control onto the oysters much better than a larger ladle and the longer handle kept you from needing to always wear protective gloves when putting the butter mixtures onto the oysters. I did consider buying some extra oysters for roasting that were already shucked, but I woried about how fresh they were compared to the ones I was shucking that were only days old. I think that Quality get's their oysters for the weekend in on Thursdays, and at that point they were two days from bay harvest. Not sure that even the better restaurants are getting them any fresher than that? At $1-.80 each I am saving huge bucks from going to the local Oyster bar. But damn it was fun and the ones I got were fresh, fresh, fresh! Here's to slurpin' shuckin' and fuckin' (I just made this one up, but I like it!)
  11. Imagine if instead of giving the power companies $16 billion in 48 hours of price gouging we actually made the operators spend their own money to winterize all their equipment? Instead they companies get the gouge billions and the Texas taxpayers will pay for the funding. Of course when you have "unpaid board members" that have their actual salaries paid by power operators put in place by Abbott to put into the latest ERCOT vacancy, would you expect anything but fucking the citizens for corporate political donations.
  12. With the Supreme Court rejecting the final gasp of Trump election lawsuits... the last nail has been put in this coffin. Not to say that a lot of very stupid people will still believe that the courts stacked with Trump and GOP appointees are actually martians masquerading as Judges ina secret plot to deprive American from Donald Trump's sent from heaven greatness. But the factual, lawsuit part is now over.
  13. Why don't the elected GOP legislatures just adopt a skin color chart for placement at voting locations. Then declare light brown skin votes count as 3/4 of a vote, and declare black votes as only counting as 3/5th and get it over with? Then they can decry Dominion voting machines counting the partial votes as full votes!!!!
  14. I figured let's give these little fellows their own thead. Simply as going forward I am going to be a regular home consumer after hosting my first raw/chargrilled oyster get together this weekend. I cannot more highly recommend taking the plunge yourself. I remember my very first oyster. I was about 8 years old and my neighbor was shucking some, I tried one. It was spit out on the GI Joe battle field behind my garage. Eight years later I sat down with my Dad as a 16 year old at Acme and had my first few dozen. A few days later after a long run I ate 10 dozen at a little spot on the bay in Pensacola. Nearly besting the record of Louisiana Jim. So I like these little suckers! Sadly it took me more than 50 more years to host my first oyster feast at the house. Do not make the same mistake, use this thread for inspiration, and take the plunge. DIY - it's worth it! About the only real requirements are oyster knives, protective gloves, fresh cold oysters, an old small towel and a sturdy table to shuck on. I actually did not really anticipate the need for the sturdy table, but my hillbilly engineer side grabbed some saw horses, a cut down scrap of 1/2 inch plywood, and two clamps and my oyster shucking table was complete. I laid down an old towel to hold the oyster in place, but my weight on the oyster, and got to prying with the knife. IF you are a foodie, and have kneaded much bread, the perfect hight of the table was a couple inches below counter height, to allow you to put some weight on your work surface, to help with the hard to open shells. Plan an oyster party! I cannot more recommend doing you own oysters at the house. Assuming you are willing to manage the shucking! The box I bought for Saturday from Quality Seafood contained right at 100 oysters. They were harvested on Tuesday March 2nd, at Quality Seafood on Thursday the 4th, and in bellies on the Saturday 6th. So about as fresh as you are going to get in most any of the local restaurants. They were absolutely delicious! Even my Clarke's and Perla's restaurant lovers were impressed with these little gulf oysters flavor. I think that most any oyster roast/bake etcetera is always going to be a raw party, then a cooking party. So plan accordingly. Eating raw oysters goes pretty damned quick from the consumption side of the equation, and you need to make sure you have at least one extra set of cut proof gloves and oyster knives. I think next go round I may institute a "you can eat what you shuck" rule after I shuck your first half dozen. Simply to trail a larger and larger group of shuckers, to share the production load. I personally would never, ever shuck ahead to deal with the demand, as that sort of defeats the purpose to me. The sweet brine of a freshly cracked oyster is certainly a gift of God where I am concerned. Trays stacked in a refrigerator are not part of this equation in my eyes. New Orleans is the mecca of oyster prepared in all manners, and is probably the starting point to research when trying to decide what you might prepare for your friends and family. My first inspiration to hosting my own oyster bake was initially curiosity with a large hunk of rested metal on what looked like old cedar fencing was hanging out the tailgate of a pretty nice truck. That was more than five years ago when my oldest was doing her undergrad on scholarship at ULM (University of Louisiana - Monroe.). After a few minutes and with the clues of a propane tank, and one of those cast iron burners you set you crawfish pot on adapted with a big grill burner I realized what I was looking at: a portable homemade oyster bake flat top. It was hillbilly genius... They took a big hunk of sheet metal, fabbed it into a tray and used old fencing for the supporting structure and to hold the head in. Basically it was a giant griddle where the oyster would be dumped, covered with wet burlap sacks, and baked until they pop open on their own. This methodology is a LOT better from a host labor perspective, as your guests take what they want, open the shells themselves and add whatever butters or additions they choose. I never did this method, but plan to in the future, and when I do I will add more info and hints. Instead more recently I have been more exposed to roasted oysters in New Orleans that would allow the wife and I to experiment with more flavors, and the always welcome fun of a fire pit as part of the equation, which ended up being perfect. What is more Texas than standing around a fire pit in cool weather drinking and eating? My pit is not fancy at all, about all you really need is a fire pit with a swing out grill. Mainly to keep your face out of the smoke, as I learned on this first attempt. You could also just buy a large grill rack and place it over a fire for a cooking surface and that would work just as well. The main thing is the grate has to be close enough to the first to get the oysters to get their juices boiling. That is your, "we are getting close" cooking thermometer. Past getting the great close enough for a high heat, the rest of the choices are yours! There are tons and tons of recipes, with about the only constant being butter, and nearly all having garlic. As the origins of the roasted oyster come from the french escargot dishes that blended with the much more widely available oysters of New Orleans. So you are only limited by your imagination! Our first roast we did two varieties, Rockefeller and the Acme Oyster House recipe. My first glance research always mentioned Acme and Drago's atop the chargrilled ranking in N.O. Here is the recipe starting point in my hope oyster feasting. Acme Chargrilled Oysters, and this guys video is good in the second half on how to blend the butter together Acme Oyster butter how to video. Things I would buy/bought: Fireproof gloves, to deal with the grill and the hot oysters. Small one ounce long handled ladle to drench the butter over the oysters once they start bubbling. The flare from the butter is part of the presentation and fun... IF you have a long handled ladle. If not your jumping around getting singed is sort of fun to watch too... Some large round serving trays Academy has lots of them. We bought a bunch of little small condiment containers and put the red sauce in one and horse radish in the other for individual servings and covid safety. I think the only thing I will really do differently is on the prep side to accommodate future larger groups. We have a lot of baking sheets and I think I will just buy a couple of tray cooling racks and prepare the oysters on those and transfer the whole tray to the pit. Doing it one by one, was not efficient and I got a lot of smoke in my eyes. Only real screw up was we were so busy shucking, eating and drinking that I didn't take one damn picture of the finished product. But trust me as good as this first try was we are already starting to plan our next roast! So Pics WILL be forthcoming.
  15. COCHON! HaHa! I've only been there once, and yes... I "corrected" my spelling to that of the spelling in the recipe title. I will say that I cannot recommend doing you own oysters at the house. Assuming you are willing to manage the shucking! The box I bought for Saturday from Quality Seafood contained right at 100 oysters. They were harvested on march 2nd, at Quality on the 4th, and in bellies on the 6th. They were absolutely delicious! I think the only real changes I would make is starting the party a lot earlier than 4:30, as after sunset when I was managing the fire pit roasted oysters it was hard to see in the dark. I could have fixed this pretty easy with my headlamp, but would just be easier and probably have a more consistent quality control with better vision. As with any seafood it is best when BARELY fully cooked. Past that you are taking moisture out of whatever seafood and the quality was best when I could see better. I also next time will buy a second box, for another $80. The folks that like oysters, like the raw as much or more than the roasted. My next effort will be a lot more organized, but damn, WHY did it take me five years of talking about this to pull the trigger? Damn that was a mistake. The best recipe and most visually exciting was the Acme Recipe, just because it was easy to put together a big pot of butter. I did wisely buy a one ounce long handled ladle and some fire proof gloves that made managing the oysters pretty easy. I am going to put up a longer and more in depth how to on the Crawfish tread, or might even start my own all encompassing oyster thread, to consolidate the contributions of others. It was hailed by all as one of the more fun things they had done. Probably the most important part of having fun, is not being the ONLY guy who can shuck! I am already designing a portable oyster shucking table that I can take with me. I see some oysters on the beach in my not too distant future!!! Only real fuck up, was I was so busy shucking, prepping and the consumption was so quick that not a picture was taken by myself or wife!!! Acme Chargrilled Oyster Recipe the video is just for the 24 oysters, freshly shucked (on the half shell) 4 sticks salted butter 2 bunches green onions, chopped fine 20 cloves fresh garlic, pureed 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper. - we omitted as there was enough heat in the Creole seasoning 3 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped fine 3 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped fine 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 1 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce 2 tablespoons Creole seasoning 2 oz white wine 8 oz Romano cheese, grated 1 loaf French bread
  16. oops - link for prep instructions for Cachon recipe might help. https://www.mensjournal.com/food-drink/two-ingredient-grilled-oysters-w436172/
  17. Since I am going to pick up my box of oysters from Quality Seafood in a few hours to do my very first chargrilled oyster cookout today I thought I would give you guy's the Cachon Recipe. We went to Cachon the last time I was in N.O., and it was pretty darn good. Reminded me of some Austin creation, it was cool to see them roll in the side of hog in on a granite dolly. Heading back next week, and hopping on a plane for the first time- Here is the Recipe. I had not planned on doing a Cachon version, but might. Definitely doing, Acme, Drago's and some Rockefeller- I'll post pics later. Cochon's Grilled Oysters with Garlic-Chile Butter Makes 16 oysters Ingredients 1/2 lb (2 sticks) butter 3 cloves garlic 2 anchovy fillets zest of one lemon juice of one lemon (about 2 tbsp) 2 tbsp Vietnamese garlic chile paste 2 tsp crushed red chile flakes ΒΌ tsp cayenne 1 tsp salt 16 oysters, in the shell lemon wedges, for garnish --------------------------------------------------
  18. So though Abbott's PUC screwed the pooch and allowed for $16,000,000,000 in unecessary overcharges the solution is to... do nothing. So in addition to the increased direct expenses related to broken pipes directly the result of a lack of power to warm homes, and the likelihood of higher homeowners insurace rates, and some consumers getting completely and totally screwed. Abbott's hand picked appointees to protect the citizens of Texas, thought it better to simply send a bill to every living human in Texas for $537 dollars. How do I get there? I take the $16 billion in PURE OVERCHARGES, divide it by the 2021 estimate population of 29.8 million Texas citizens, and the price gouge amounted to $536.91 (rounded to $537). You have to love Abbott's license to steal power grid super gouge, while most assuredly going after any individuals you profiteered off the storm with little bitty gouges. The big monster fucking gouges are ALL GOOD with Abbott! And while you won't actually receive a bill documenting this citizenry rip off, you can be fucking certain that the costs will be passed onto the citizenry.
  19. I took an interest in his story when Herman was starting to hit the high school coaches and heard a story about him from a high school coach of his. Graduating with a degree and a letterman's jacket from UT is an accomplishment in and of itself. Good luck in all your future endeavors Marquez.
  20. That's sort of what I figured, the worst pic I saw was this one... lots of keeper reds belly up. This is Pringle Lake in Port O'Conner. Basically like Port A's Shamrock cove as far as location. It's gonna take a while to recover I would think. Plus they had to be extra fishing pressure in the last year with covid.
  21. When I was last there it sounded like the new owners wanted to keep Shorty's around for "flavor?" But that was October and the general thinking of the locals I was talking to was that if Edwin let his wife negotiate with the new outfit there was a good chance it would survive. If Edwin was the negotiator it seemed like the odds diminished dramatically. I also thought Edwin was going to try and put together a chicken shack in Port A? Or maybe he was just thinking about it when we were talking. Probably not one fucking dead hardhead in all of that... I wonder if the new water bridge might provide a better possibility for some of those fish to make it into the deeper water of Packery Channel? Or did the overall water temp just plummet to the point that access from the canals to even deeper water would have saved some? ALSO - Are the empty areas in the fish map some sort of bubblers or pumps?
  22. Yeah Port A, is quickly going to be Kemah... Wish from a real estate standpoint I already had a toe hold. Should have bought a destroyed Pelican Condo for $65K and eaten the $25K+ in HOA fees after the storm. The changes just in covid time sort of freaked me out with the number of people on the beaches in my normally "just enough people" October. I'll always come back again and again. Booked the next two Octobers a few weeks ago, praying that in person school allows me to again enjoy surf fishing without some dumb ass 50 feet to one side or the other. Super happy Irie's is back. I look at the Seagull cam most every day, and then the malaquite cam... Love Austin, but the coast is always calling me...
  23. Could I legally form a "Why is Ron Johnson such a Prick" PAC? The WIRJSAP PAC. πŸ˜‰. I am sure I can come up with a better acronym, but let's start with the prick premises, because of accuracy. Could I also get kindly folks such as yourselves and a herd of others to maybe fly banners around Wisconsin Football games with the "Why is Sen. Ron Johnson a PRICK?" OR as if probably letter limited on the plane banner, "PRICK Sen.Johnson PRICK." It just sort of popped into my head, that something little in advertising could grow into something big. I need to do some research, but you can say or spell prick most anywhere correct? I am sure I can think of a good Acronym for "GOP PRICK" that might even allow me to do some political fundraising. I thought of it in my head as a joke, then I thought about all the dumb ass go fund be pages... Actually just a few planes with some solid media heads up would be funny! Amazing what comes into your mind when it's idle. And not having to figure out how to keep yourself warm, how to flush a toilet, how to get water over to your in-laws to flush a toilet, help friends save their pool pumps, etc....etc... So what is the best and most fun way to address this Prick Johnson? πŸ˜‰ I can even see a condom line, Called "The Senators Johnson."
  24. Seems fucking crazy doesn't it. Instead he managed the system EXACTLY AS IT WAS DESIGNED by Abbott and the GOP. So the reality is he was fired as a scapegoat and without any cause other than political cover for Gov. Abbott.
  25. So... on top of fucking up the access to power. The ALL GOP Public Utility Commission didn't do what they should have and the citizenry got GOUGED for $16 BILLION extra just to add another layer of GOP incompetence to the misery. No wonder Abbott is willing to kill people to distract from his mess. https://www.chron.com/politics/article/ERCOT-overcharged-power-companies-16-billion-for-16001160.php
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