so waht ya doin today?

I have spent my career building logging road here in southern Oregon .
I have no idea how many thousands of miles I have traveled on logging roads here in S Oregon and N Cali going back and forth to work.
I have seem right at 20 cougars in my life and have only seen one that was the dark color phase.
I t was a dark chocolate brown, not black.
People have reported seeing black cougars, but not in this area.

I think the Cougar that ranges mostly from Canada down into Mexico is a different breed of cat from the Black panther that is primarily in Mexico, Florida and the southern states. They are about the same size, Panther has a thinner face than the cougar, A long thick tail about body length like the cougar. Both are secretive and keep to themselves for the most part. The panther is a deep glossy black. Both are beautiful critters.

All the time I spent in SW Oregon I never saw a cougar there, have seen one in SoCal and a panther in N. Central Arkansas.

My dentist is locally born and raised in this area. He has shown me pictures of a large cougar/panther that he picked up on his trail cams. They do exist in these parts, contrary to Fish & Game. His acreage is just south of Smokeywolf's place. I'm further south. Haven't picked up any on my trail cams...........yet. Or bears or pigs, but they are definitely, in the area. Seen bobcats, on my property, on several occasions.

Ordering tab curtains for my reloading room....no joke. Found a deal if I open a new account at JC Penne can get an extra 15% off the sale price. Been in our house for 30+ years and never had any curtains on the front. Which is OK.... we're in the country and other than deer,ain't too much looking in the windows. So wifeypoo wants curtains.... "fine,but you do realize two of those windows are in the loading room"? Woohoo,getting me some curtains,haha.

Ole_270 said:

Put in about 11 miles hunting pheasant in the Kansas opener. The good, I went 100%. The bad, it was one for one. Used my Dickinson SxS 16 gauge. Population lis really down where we were hunting. Our group of 6 saw a grand total of 4 roosters, but got both that were in range.

Click to expand...

Used to hunt out around Garden City back in the 90's and then found a place near Anthony that held as many birds. That plus the people that owned the family farm we hunted on WOULDN'T LET US HUNT unless we came in around 12'ish and had a meal with them. Super nice folk and a great hunt.

I finally "jarred" my sauerkraut yesterday. I let it go longer than usual. It looks and tastes great, better than ever, in fact. I am doing something different this year. For the first time, I am not heat processing it in the Jars, so it is unpasteurized. I put a couple jars in the frig...and the rest in jars, put in the Freezer. Years ago, my neighbor (Pepsi), told me that is how he did it, God rest his soul.

Yum...................add some caraway seeds to make it Bavarian style.

Unpasturized is mo' betta IMO, my only issue with that is stopping the fermentation fully. Freezing ought to do it, in the past I just made small batches and ate it all before it went off.

Saw one cougar years back in the Adirondacks. I caught it in the headlights of the Troop car at an old logging landing. I went back to see if I could find tracks, but it was all hard gravel and I couldn't find anything. Never said a word about it for years as I'd already been laughed at and called nuts for reporting a moose sighting.

SWMBO made it safely home. Tried doing some stuff outside, got cold and gave up. Tried doing some work on that furnace inside. Gave up when I smacked my head on a beam. This chair sure feels good...

Chipper/Shredder issues posted SOS in general discussions!

JobB,
Did you ferment that in a crock then bottle it?

Over the past few years I have been making small Lacto-fermented batches in Mason jars because I am on a salt restricted diet.
The Key ingredient ( besides chopped cabbage is Greek Yogurt "Whey"... the liquid that forms on a container of Plain greek yogurt)
That becomes the quick start so you do not need to add much salt.

The Cabbage is sliced then mixed with a bit of salt to bring out the water..... after about an hour it is squeezed out and mixed with about 2 to 4 oz of yogurt whey. The mix is packed into mason jars right to the top. I put a saucer over the top of the jars and place the jars in a container to catch the excess liquid that oozes out during the the fermentation! I put them in the basement for about 4 weeks ( @ around 60 deg)
About that time I pull a jar and test it. If It is done I remove some excess and clean lid area and Put a ball lid and ring on it and put in the refrigerator. Unopen refrigerated bottles last 24 months ...open bottles can stay good for 12 months!
Solved my problem for low sodium Sauerkraut

Bret, I'm glad your wife made it home safely. I always worry about my family when they're outside my range of protection.

Weather is too bloody warm; choking on wasps today. That warm weather problem will be fixed in the next 12 to 24 hours.

Think it's time to shop for thermal underwear. With the exception of a few camping trips, I haven't worn long underwear since I worked nights in uniform and my office was the front seat of a patrol car and my desk was a "posse-box".

Ian,
"mo betta" is the plan. This is kind of a small batch (7 qt jars). I put 2 jars in the frig and figure they should be stable in there for a month or two...and get used up by then. I got two jars to give away, my Daughter gets one, and my veggie farmer friend gets the other. I put 3 jars in the freezer (left plenty of headspace for expansion, cuz they are glass jars). My neighbor always did it this way and I ignored him, and was always a bit nervous about eating food that wasn't pasteurized...well, I've come to the conclusion it's "mo betta"!!!

JW,
I use the very old traditional recipe, fermented in a plastic bucket with a second bucket (weighted with water) over the top. Typically ferment for 6 weeks. Sept 30 was the 6 week mark, so this batch went about an extra 6 weeks.

I believe I posted this photo, along with a couple others, back in August.

No affiliation,just reading up on "rolling" micro lead screws. Makes CB lube grooves look positively gigantic?

A couple more shots of the office and bathroom under construction. The large opening behind the wood panels is where a 4' x 8' x 3/8" sheet of polycarbonate will go. To the right is where the sliding door into the office will fit, it will slide left to open. The opening into the bathroom will have a sliding door that slides to the right to open. The ceiling is 2 x 8s on 16" centers, it will have plenty of load capacity for what we intend to store up there.

The HVAC contractor is scheduled to start next Tuesday and should be finished in 2-3 days.

Been shopping around for some used office furniture, I have a desk, some bookshelves and a small table and one chair here at the house that will go over. I'm needing acouple of file cabinets and a kitchen table size worktable with some matching chairs. I have a full size frig in storage that (if it still works) will be moved in, and I plan to buy a small microwave oven when they put them on sale. Also have a Keurig coffee machine that we don't use here at house, it will come over also.

Gary said:

Used to hunt out around Garden City back in the 90's and then found a place near Anthony that held as many birds. That plus the people that owned the family farm we hunted on WOULDN'T LET US HUNT unless we came in around 12'ish and had a meal with them. Super nice folk and a great hunt.

Click to expand...

On the way home and just stopped for fuel. Older guy asked how we did. Told him it was poor. He said he was from Anthony and was seeing lots of birds. We just assumed he meant quail that far east. Guess we were wrong

JonB,
I really miss that old method! My Mom and Dad had a 10 gallon crock in the basement when I was a kid.
It had a heavy wood lid that fit in the crock pretty tight but could follow it down the sides My Mom had a set of "Sauerkraut stones"
( Probably just nice clean rocks!) that weighed the lid down to follow the ferment.
Not usually.... but when they were not in use they were rolled up in clean white towels and stored on the canning shelves!
I do not remember them bottling the sauerkraut but usually just took it out of the crock as needed!
Probably the reason why most of us turn out the way the way we did ...we had the correct food!

Ole_270 said:

On the way home and just stopped for fuel. Older guy asked how we did. Told him it was poor. He said he was from Anthony and was seeing lots of birds. We just assumed he meant quail that far east. Guess we were wrong

Click to expand...

Actually, they had more Quail than we have locally here. We didn't take any of their Quail as their cousins liked those. We hunted just south of and between Harper and Anthony. If I was to go again it would be there.

JonB,
love that wood frame slicer! Haven't seen one of those since I was a kid!

I know. Nothing happens without pictures. But i am just dog tired. I will post some pictures in a couple of days
This morning i Bang/Flopped the local big boy 9 pt. An interesting story there. Came home and the wife and i quartered my grandsons doe from yesterday. We then hung my deer. Skun it, quartered it, brought it in the basement. I then de-boned it, Separated all of the larger muscle groups. Wrapped each section in plastic wrap and put them in the freezer for later cutting into steaks and dried meat. An it is now 8:12 and i am going to bed so i can do it all over again Tomorrow.

hope you got him with that new rifle you been working on.