TWISTEDWILLOW

Caught a ton of perch or sunfish whichever you want to call them and small mouth bass today, locals refer to small mouth as brownies or brown bass, but my favorite is this little guy, they call them pumpkin seeds, and they fight like a fish ten times their size lol I like them because they are so bright in color with orange and blue colors, the picture really doesn’t do it justice and capture the beauty of these

Here in eastern Oklahoma in the Cherokee nation reservation (not really a reservation in my opinion but they call it that for some reason) a LOT of tribal members believe in… “the little people” there are tons of tribal stories/legends about them, some have been passed down for generations some of the stories are about the little people helping wayward children or warriors lost in the woods and other stories I’ve heard where that the little people were not so friendly in some cases I’m not really educated on all the stories enough to repeat them but I will ask around and see if I can find some good ones, im member of the Muskogee Creek nation but I don’t know any of their stories either, I never got really involved much with either tribe but I know some people who are really deep into the heritage and can tell me some of those stories

We’ve got a flock of hawks here around the property they get pretty rambunctious every now an then fighting with crows and chasing prey A couple months ago I had a big ol fat red tailed hawk set in front of the house just ten foot off the porch we got a bunch of owls too, one night a couple months ago I was on the fishing dock on the pond in the pitch black fishing for perch, and a big ol owl swooped above my head and landed in a tree about twenty feet from me, sounded like an air plane and scared the bejesus out of me I grabbed a light an shined it on him and he didn’t like that much so he took off saw another pretty big owl setting on the fence the other day around dusk he was looking for dinner in the field the biggest owls we have here are the Great Horned Owls and those dudes are flat Massive, I think they are the largest owls in North America, man those guys skip over the mice and jump onto bigger animals like skunks and possums we see Bald Eagles here through out our winters but they leave out in the spring

Jerry im not sure if Cottonmouth’s gaurd their eggs or not, I’ve had them go from sunning themselves to flat out swimming clear across a stream at me and I’ve seen them try an run people away from a pond I know some people that have had them try and get in the boat with them before as well I’ve been meaning to go buy a cheap used beat up .22 revolver and some shot shells for a creek gun that I won’t mind getting all scuffed up and wet I talked with the Game warden last summer about that because I fish on state land as well as private land along the streams and I know there’s special regulations for firearms on public property and water ways I told him that I have no desire to seek out and kill the snakes or anything else, I just don’t want to be a mile away from the truck in the countryside and get bit and have to make it all the way back to get help, He said I could carry on the game preserve if I felt my safety was in jeopardy and as long as I held a current hunting license, I told him no problem I’ve got a lifetime combination license i Still haven’t carried down there on the state game preserve yet but it’s nice to know I can if I choose too,

Don’t worry Jerry if you come to visit I’ll make sure you don’t get snake bit! I think when cottonmouths get territorial and come after you aggressively it’s probably their mating season or something Ive been around them all my life, and usually they just set there and watch you if they do wanna pick a fight just hock a big rock at em and show em who’s boss! or wack em up side the head with a stick until you knock some sense into em lol but honestly I’ve only ever had to deal with a spunky one a few times

We have timber rattlesnakes in a few isolated spots here in the county mostly on top of hills in the rock piles, we had a problem with them at on of my dads property’s they kept getting up in yard pretty thick, a neighbor stepped barefoot on one on his porch one morning while taking a leak of the porch lol We skinned a few rattlesnakes out and mounted them on boards and my Dad keeps a rattle in his fiddle Most of the time cottonmouths will mind their own business and just stare at you when you pass by, sometimes they will turn tail and move away Other times they can get aggressive and territorial and will actively come towards you I’ve known a few people who got bit and it’s a rather nasty bite luckily I’ve never been bitten by anything serious in the water except a regular ol water snake who didn’t appreciate me stepping on him, he didn’t even draw blood though he just let me know he was there I always get really nervous when I’m wading through the mud and weeds and the brush is so thick I can’t hardly see where my feet are going But like I said the creeks and rivers they are there but not concentrated enough to get really worried about unlike the place I was cleaning up last year, they are so thick there that you have to move slow and REALLY pay attention to wear you gonna step before you take the step

My God!?!?!?! that would take some serious amounts of propellant to clear the Atlantic Ocean!!! Unless it’s like an icbm a they were to fire it into the atmosphere and then it would come back down on the US east coast but even then that would be a feat of engineering!!!!! could you imagine the sheer amount of powder that would take!

lol you an me both! I’d love to be a pro fisherman but I ain’t got the gear air the boat am truck to travel around to do it! I can catch a ton of fish but landing those trophy Bass on a regular is out of my pay grade! I only catch the bigger Bass every once in awhile, most of mine range from 10”-15” but I don’t lake fish a whole bunch, I mostly run ultralight rigs and wade streams I’ve snagged a few turtles here an there but I haven’t hooked a snake in a stream yet, although I have had some disagreements with Cotton Mouths before about who had the right of way lol The creeks and River that I fish I run into them all the time but the Westville City lake is infested with them, so much so that it’s become a serious problem, people can’t get in there unless it’s freezing weather for all the cottonmouths they are extremely thick down there, in the grass, in the trees, in brush, in the water everywhere, there’s been talk of having a purge day to go down and thin them out to make it safe for anglers honestly I won’t take Max there for that Very reason, he’s to curious of a toddler and would get snake bit down there

I recall Thomas talking about his Cannon on several occasions but I don’t recall if he still had it Jerry speaking of movies and Cannons, the Hern Ironworks I’m looking at made Cannons for both the movie Master and commander as well as the pirates or the Caribbean movies they also have made historical reproductions of cannons for a fort in the Florida Keys or the Virgin Islands I can’t remember which

some of the higher end US made rods are over $600 now, I would have demanded payment!!! lol kicking butts don’t replace high end fishing gear!!! That’s just the rod… the reel I had on it that particular day is another $250 Believe it or not that’s not even high end! the Stella or the Exist are $1k reels and people normally put them on high end rods that cost as much That said, you can catch plenty of fish on a cheap Wally World combo rig the big difference in high end gear is it’s lighter, it’s wayyyy smoother action due to better construction and more and better bearings, and casts much farther if your just goin down to fish in the creek or pond a couple times a summer there’s absolutely no need for high end gear if on the other hand your making a 1000 casts per morning and per afternoon and running different lure techniques then it comes in handy to have specialized gear for what your doing I’m not a pro Angler by any means I won one little tournament last summer but it was nothing to speak about, I mostly fish for myself and enjoyment the guys using the really high end thousand dollar rods and reels are usually competing in big tournaments for big prize money and sponsorships or just have more money than everyone else and want to show off lol Its just like blacksmithing, you don’t need a 500 pound anvil that cost thousands of dollars to forge a fire poker you don’t need a thousand dollar reel and thousand dollar rod to catch a fish If you’re gonna be fishing year round on a regular basis weekly then you probably might want to invest in some better equipment but it’s not necessary for someone who only fishes a couple times a year

Interesting enough the company I’m looking at made cannons for both the movie master and commander as well as pirates of the Caribbean they have been in the cannon business since the early 1979s apparently all the videos I have watch so far of full sized cannons with full powder loads definitely have a recoil your for sure right about that! the smaller cannons aren’t so violent in their recoil from what I’ve seen so far looks like the max powder you want to use on the little ones is 2oz but from what I’ve watched you don’t need to even load that much for a big boom and to launch projectiles in the smaller ones if I decide to get one though I like the idea of a cone shaped ram rod just in case they suggest even with wet mopping that you wait 15 minutes between firing just in case

Oh man!!! I’d be so ticked!!!! Lol

Me too! It was like a kick in the gut when it snapped lol Jerry Max loves when I take him to the creek, he got a pair of mini waders for Christmas that I need to take him to try out while it’s still cold here

Thanks for the Video George! that was really cool! I hadn’t seen that video but I watched one about the process a ACW artillery team did start to finish loading and firing by the numbers, it was interesting that one guy had to stand there the entire time with his thumb over the vent hole! and I learned that when mopping, ramming, loading, ect… never to hold your thumb over the sticks incase of accidental discharge you don’t want the stick to fly out and take you hand with it im by no means looking at getting into reenactments, those full sized cannons are wayyyyy more then I would want to spend or keep up with lol im looking at the scaled down version, its 32-1/2” long and weighs 98#, 1-3/4” bore mostly I just want to make a big boom once in awhile to irritate the countryside and shoot golf balls out of an antique looking pirate cannon for fun! maybe fire the occasional lead ball at a target from what I’ve read so far the next size up will fire billard balls and beer cans filled with concrete and after that you get into the BIG guns and Mortars! they also have a mortar that fires bowling balls! It cool but it’s out of my price range and I don’t have enough space to safely shot off a mortar that size without lobbing them into a neighboring cow field! Lol Jerry if your sister ever comes across your old cannon have her send you pictures!!!!!! id love to see your shop built one! the ones from hern ironworks are cast I’ll see if I can find a picture of it

Oh man if it’s the same ones I’ve seen that’s an excellent idea! they look almost lifelike

I had been wading and fishing all day that day and had caught a load of fish and that was my last fish of the day… not by choice though… I just had snapped a $100 St Croix rod on that fish lol Jerry Max gets so excited when he catches a fish it’s hilarious, I try to get him outside often and away from his IPad and fishing is a good motivator for him

So I was looking at the Cannons on Dixie Gun works and that opened a rabbit hole that lasted most of Sunday, I looked at probably around 20+ Cannon makers as well as mold makers for cannon balls, watched a bunch of videos on YouTube ect… I ended up looking at Hern Ironworks that makes historical reproductions of cannons specifically some of the little 1/2 sized cannons that fire a 1-3/4” projectile, (mostly because it said that’s the size perfect for shooting golf balls) I was just curious, Does anyone here have cannons or mess around with them? anyone have any experience with the hern ironworks cannons? their small cannons are cast around 1/4” wall steel tubes with welded breach plugs They don’t drill the vent holes like other makers do, so you have to do that on you own, Dixie sells the books to build the carriages as well as all kinds of accessories for cannons so there’s plenty stuff out there to learn with I got my eye on the 1/2 size six pounder, and instead of a field artillery carriage I wanted to make a navel style carriage for it, both places sell all the hardware to build carriages or you could forge it all out yourself, anyways just curious if anyone plays with a comparable size cannon shooting off golf balls, and what your experience is?

Lol Jerry the top four pictures are from the pond at our new place the last it needs a lot of work, but no it’s not the reservoir that I put a lot of work into last year, the last two Pictures are from the Baron fork creek, I fish there year round, this time of year you got to wear waders though cause the water is freezing there’s two separate Game preserves and a third stretch of stream on private property that I fish on the Baron fork it’s really good for small mouth and there’s some large mouth and spotted bass as well, and loads of perch, That little bitty guy had some serious goals in life lol, I think that’s the smallest fish I’ve ever caught! Max really likes having a pond we got out and catch those little perch all the time there is some larger stuff in the pond to

George there is front sights like a little bead on one for sure because I noticed it, there is no writing that I can find just some artwork scroll led into it That said I’ll bet your right about them being shotguns because the barrels seem awfully thin to me compared to modern rifles I’m familiar with, but like modern shotguns they have thin barrels I don’t have any calipers here at the new place they are all back in peavine at my shop down there or I’d get a measurement tonight don’t worry about my trying to shoot them I don’t have any intentions of that. i have a nasty memory of standing next to someone when they fired modern ammunition in an old rifle and it blew up sending the shell casing and gun parts into their throat… but that’s a story for another day… infact along with these two firearms I also was given an old Winchester model 12 pump shotgun that from the serial number and google I gathered to be from 1936 and I don’t have any intentions of putting modern ammunition in it either! anyways it seems that you have put me further along with information about them then I had before, and whoever did the original appraisal apparently didn’t know what they were talking about, thank you!

Here’s some close ups for anyone interested,

Randy i take a left over pickle juice in the jar and punch a bunch of little holes in the top, it works a wonder for catching fruit flies

Hiya Debbie!!!! the word I was given from when they took them to get looked at was that they predated the ACW but I really don’t know because they couldn’t find the paperwork from the appraisal I was told they were from around the American revolution era, and had been reworked from flintlocks Next time I make it to a hammer in that y’all are going too i might bring them so you can look at them Randy, I might drag those old swords with me too

Randy I just checked after you asked, they are full of cobwebs but from what I can see there is no rifling I’ll have to find where my cleaning kit got buried during the move so I can run mop dow there and double check

Yes it’s been a long time, and it does seem like new stories, I’m still only Less then half way through Sherlock Holmes though so it will be a bit before I switch over to reading some nautical novels, I used to read nonstop when I was younger so I decided a couple weeks ago to start reading all the classic adventure tales again I decided to start with the complete Sherlock Holmes, reading a few chapters every evening, So far I’ve made it completely through A Study In Scarlet, The Sign Of The Four, all twelve short stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and have made it through the first two short stories in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, I start the stockbrokers clerk tonight it’s funny I remembered a few things so far here an there but it really has been like reading it all over for the first time