So the first thing I did was catch up on about 13 months of backlog on this thread...Happy Labor Day, y'all. Some seriously overdue thoughts - the taste of possum is partially dependent on the sex and age of the possum, but a great deal depends on what it's been eating. If it's been eating junk and carrion it'll taste bad. Where I grew up, old-timers would sometimes catch and keep them a few days to feed them something cleaner and make the meet taste better, even bread from what I heard.

Pear trees make wonderful staves for self bows - easy to get too with all those decorative Bradford pear trees that they put in to sell the suburb - they break in half if you look at them funny because water tends to collect in the middle. Take that symmetrical beauty.

Anything fermented with a scoby is fantastic for rebuilding gut flora after antibiotics - I'm fond of sourdough and pickled vegetables for the trick. BILLY BONES. If you want a great mead recipe, holler at me and I'll pass it to ya in messaging. I've got one I used to use a lot, makes a very dry, very strong mead and I'll probably be starting a batch in the next week - I've gotta get the yeast I want first. Also, God bless you, but I'd rather be punched in the face daily than ever do anything with 3 ID ever again. Dumpster Fire of the Marne. 2 ID too for that matter. Basically anything ending in I.D.

I moved some hay this weekend and grabbed a bunch of basalt from a rockslide on the side of the road up on north Whidbey Island for my experiments in molcajete carving. Now I've gotta make a few tools - probably later today. Usually end up laboring on Labor Day, but it's a lousy time for my line of work.

You have to flush out clams if you don't want to chew grit. A bucket of salt water and a little corn meal cleans them out in a day or two. Just remember of keep the water aerated. They don't need much but one dead clam will kill the whole bucket and you DO NOT want to eat a dead clam, they go bad almost immediately. Same with crab and lobster, bad seafood can kill.

Heck, everything's flavor is effected by what they eat. It's part of the bummer about moose hunting season, it's getting into the season when the browse is old and if it's sparse moose start eating spruce needles and the meat starts tasting pitchy and gamey. 

Better sign off I'm starting to ramble.

Frosty The Lucky.

Frosty, the same is true with pronghorn antelope as with moose.  If they have been eating sagebrush the flavor is pretty harsh and gamey (steak sauce is your friend).  If they have been feeding in hay meadows the flavor can be very mild.

I used to hunt an area where the ranchers wanted a lot fewer antelope in their hay fields and the Game and Fish Department obliged them by issuing a  lot of doe/fawn permits (half price and as many as you wanted after the season opened).  It was basically an all you could shoot buffet.  You could fill your freezer pretty easily.

A good long marinade is pretty good at drawing the essence of turpentine from game that's eating conifer needles. Oddly enough tamarack needles don't taint the meat at all.

Dad used to talk about those kinds of hunts and how easy it was to trade a big Old doe to city folk for close to that weight in itty bitty fawns. Then was the problem of people stealing meat from frozen storage. His Uncle told him to label everything "goat" instead of venison. No thief wants goat when there's venison to steal. 

They figured if someone was hungry enough to steal billy goat they were welcome to it. 

Remembering some of the folk's depression stories makes me thankful I missed it. 

Frosty The Lucky.

I actually prefer goat to venison, except for all the danged little bones. Birria de chivo is great in tacos or as a stew. Mandi or biryani's good too, different parts of the world. Big thing is cook it slow, use lots of spices, and if it's too tough, make stew. If it's really gamey, hide it in curry.

Me too, I've never much cared for venison though I've only had goat a couple times. The difference was the times, Dad was talking about the depression and a time when most folk could only afford chicken on special occasions but venison was plentiful. He grew up eating venison and trout or salmon as their main, maybe only protein. 

Thinking about it just now, Dad always claimed to be allergic to cheese which was something he claimed to avoid eating things he didn't like. And seeing as the Pac NW had a lot of dairy farms I'll bet cheese was cheap compared to beef or pork and he just got really tired of it. 

Darn, my last Uncle passed away maybe 20 years ago, there's nobody I can ask what they ate regularly. 

Frosty The Lucky.

In the 1920s and '30s (before the advent of battery farms) chicken was comparably expensive, roughly the cost per pound of steak today when compared to other meat.  I have seen old grocery  ads where chicken was 29 cents per pound while certain cuts of beef were 5 cents per pound.

That is why Sunday chicken dinner was a special occasion.

Also, that is why owning a chicken farm was a big deal in the 1920s.  It wasn't that hard to make a very good return on a modest investment.

Post WW2 industrial size chicken operations made the relative cost of chicken to fall dramatically, probably through economies of scale.

G

One of the effects of the war effort during WWII was the introduction of mass production on a huge scale. Once the war was over there were all these very expensive factories just sitting there costing money. I don't know who thought of it but they were converted to making consumer goods and suddenly the market was flooded with low cost cars, trucks, tools, food, everything. Unfortunately once everybody bought their car, refrigerator, etc. what were the factories going to make then? There was only so much market A N D planned obsolescence was "invented." If a car only lasted 4 years instead of 30 folks would have to replace it more often and here we are.

During WWII chicken being fast growing to maturity, relatively low maintenance and produced another high value food, eggs. Mass production chicken farms came about and at the end of the war folks had gotten used to relatively low priced eggs and now chicken was as well.

WWII changed everything, from the price of eggs to nuclear energy and a space program. And change is getting faster exponentially.

Frosty The Lucky.

Five new tires this week and a DIY brake job today.  Maybe Sunday I can get out to the smithy.

On 9/2/2025 at 7:40 AM, Frosty said:

I've never much cared for venison though I've only had goat a couple times.

Aside from the tenderloin, venison needs to be ground up and mixed with pork fat and seasoning (sausage) or beef fat (burgers), or braised for a long time in order to make it palatable.

When I was a young 2nd Lt in the Marines stationed at Quantico awaiting orders, the base was throwing a chili cookoff.  My CO gave me the task of representing the "Ground-Air Tele-robotics Command," being the junior guy and all. 

My roommate and I had gone deer hunting recently, and he bagged a doe (I got a severe case of "buck fever" and couldn't stop shaking when that big buck was running toward me).  We ate so much venison that we were sick of it: deer sausage, deer burgers, deer burgundy, deer stroganoff, deer tacos, deerburger helper, etc. It was good, but we just had too much. So, I decided to use my dad's deer chili recipe and get rid of the bulk of it.  I simmered it for hours and made it on the very hot side.

Low and behold, I won first place out of about 50 entries, and my career was off to a great start!  The pats on the back felt good after so recently being a "lieutenidate" at The Basic School for the past six months  (lieutenidate is a sarcastic, moniker, a collective self-description of commissioned 2nd Lieutenants who are still treated like officer candidates ). 

I shot four wild hogs one year a few years ago.  Now those were some good eating.  All they need was salt and pepper.

Went flying Friday evening. Unfortunately i crashed and burned on landing. Take off from the top step was good, flew nicely over 3 stapes, then crashed on the bottom. Landed on my left hand, pretty sure my wrist is sprained dont feel broke but it is all swelled up and stiff with no strength to hold anything. Gonna have to go to the doctor, even though my stubbornness doesnt want me to. I have no idea how i am going to work next week.  

DANG BOY I thought you'd know better than sky diving off the porch at your age! Did you get ice on it soonest? Ice will reduce swelling and the damage swelling does. Lots of times the actual injury wasn't as bad as it becomes when swelling spreads connective tissues, joints and stretches muscles. Icing slows the body's inflow of blood response to injury. Flooding an injury with blood provides, oxygen, nutrients, endorphins, etc. and materials to make repairs. Unfortunately it can case "short" term damage. Ice is your friend, it won't stop the important stuff blood flow does it just slows it. Make sense?

Heck you probably know all that but lots of folks who don't are probably reading so giving a little 1st. aid advice might help others, can't hurt anyway.

Just remembered alternate ice pack with warm pack, cold to reduce and control swelling, warm to prevent the damage near freezing temps can do.

Been too many years since taking a first aid class but . . . <sigh>

Be well Brother,

Frosty The Lucky.

Take care billy.

A good friend of mine broke her wrist the 2nd day of her holiday. Slipped around the pool while telling her kids it could be slippery.

She has a 2nd operation since (wad beginning of august) and some sort of inflamation on her wrist as well. Pain, painkillers, fever, are the result.

Hope it's only a strain

Went on a school field trip yesterday with Max N Ash and three school bus loads of kids and a bunch of other parents. 
went to one of those agri tourism farms that had a six acre corn maze and a pumpkin patch and hay rides and 20-30 other things. 
it’s was a hoppin place lemme tell yall!!! 
we got all our Halloween decorations up at the new place and added a few more this year.

(I tried to upload pictures but it didn’t work for some reason)

other than that been busy in the shop with customers, and outside the shop been busy on two different town committees and the VFW. 

the construction at the old place along the highway has all but shut me down there at the shop. 
I have moved a few truck and trailer loads to the new place and started work here. 
also a few loads of blacksmithy stuff but need a semi truck to move everything else lol. 

Good to see a post from you Billy!! Sounds like you had a pretty good time, did Max run around enough to sleep on the ride home? How many more semi loads do you think it'll take to clear the old place out, or are you moving everything? 

I am so behind the curve on what you guys are up to, I almost feel lonely. I look forward to hearing more when, IF you get the chance to post.

Be well Brother, give Ash and Max my best please.

Frosty The Lucky.

Jerry. NO Max did not run outta energy and sleep lol. That kid is super charged!!!!! 
we had a parent teacher conference this evening and that was made clear! Lol

As far as how much stuff to haul I dunno it’s quite a bit. I’ve just been running down there and grabbing tools and parts as I need them waiting on cooler weather to clean the place up and started hauling again.

I’ll try a give you a shout on the phone here soon and give you a full update on all the exciting things going on here in Westville Oklahoma! Lol

I think he gets being supercharged from his Father, you always seem to have at least 3-4 things going at once. I'll bet when he gets old enough to help in the shop repaired small engines and restored forges will be flying out the door.

Weather's cooling off here too, leaves are gone and we've already had a couple frosts, the thermometer is hanging at 33f right now. 

The couple weeks I spent in Phoenix Az. last December is sounding pretty good if we get a cold one this winter.

Frosty The Lucky.

5 hours ago, Frosty said:

the thermometer is hanging at 33f right now. 

As I sit here with the ambient temperature at 56° f and I'm shivering and complaining.

I can’t control the wind. All I can do is adjust my sails. ~Semper Paratus~

In another 3 months a 33f day will be T shirt and shorts weather. It's all what you're acclimatized to and temperature is just a number, it's how you feel that matters.

I grew up in S. California and can remember wearing a hooded coat when the temp dropped below 70f. I had a wool Mackinaw for colder weather and locations. After I moved to Alaska I was surprised to discover that old Mackinaw was snug and comfortable below -20f with a good cap.

Frosty The Lucky.

I was troubleshooting a pond leak over my lunch break (upside to working from home for a bit - I can get more chores done!) and heard a distinct 'plop' in the water. Then a noticeable absence of weight in my shorts pocket. Oh crap. My phone had fallen in. Only about 2ft deep but the water is not clear because I had been cleaning out leaves and moving the fountain and all that stuff stirred up the muck (haven't added the muck-out tabs since it's been leaking). I grabbed a length of pvc laying nearby and started poking around, going by feel and hoping I would be able to tell when I hit the phone rather than the rocks or liner. What seemed like forever later, I finally feel the pvc slip along something smooth. YES! I had zero hope for the phone surviving but figured I could at least try and get it into some desiccant and get it functioning enough to backup the data for the next phone. Imagine my surprise when I pull the phone out and it is completely functioning!

I brought it inside, took the case & cracked screen protector off and wiped it all down with a cloth dampened with vinegar water to hopefully kill the muck yuck/smell, lol. Then I got a notification that there was water detected in the USB port. I dropped the phone into a baggie with desiccant and hoped for the best.

In less than 30 minutes, I received another notification that water was no longer detected and that the USB port was safe to use. I'm going to leave it in the baggie for the rest of the evening anyway - just to be safe.

I know the phone is dustproof/waterproof rated (IP68) but I never really wanted to test it, lol

Ooooh Happy DAY Shaina! I paid the extra for a good phone cover "Otter Box" when we upgraded Iphones and it's paid for itself several times. If I remember to close the USB flap it'll take a dunking. I was worried about the speaker / microphone openings but evidently they're sealed internally. 

A bag or dry rice works well to dry wet electronics.

If you have a way to mix it, bentonite is perfect for sealing ponds. The easiest way to mix bentonite I know of is with a vane shear. Basically a piece of flat bar 1/4" x 2" x 4"-6" or thicker welded flat above the end of a round rod that fits in a drill motor or stronger. A couple at 90 degrees a couple inches apart on the round works a treat. You start a whirl pool in the bucket, barrel, etc. and SLOWLY add bentonite powder a scoop at a time till it's thick gravy consistency.

Then comes the fun part, stir it into the pond and old outboard motor works really well for this. The bentonite mud will swell as it hydrates over several hours. As a liquid the gravy will be drawn into any leak, following the water's current where it will swell and permanently seal the leaks.

If you're making a new pond in soil that perks, plow bentonite into the first couple few inches of the pond bottom, let it sit for a short time and fill the pond.

Yeah, I worked with drill mud for years, marvelous stuff.

Frosty The Lucky.

Desiccant works even better than rice. 

I had an OtterBox Defender case for the phone before last. Kept the USB flap closed but it didn't protect the camera lens when I dropped it on gravel. Saved the phone from a BUNCH of drops though! Last phone I switched to something with a sliding door that protects the camera and also had the military rated impact protection. Then when I got this phone, I couldn't find a case with sliding camera door and ended up just getting the Speck Impact Hero because it was available in a local store rather than having to buy online. I figured I would eventually get something else but still haven't.

I have to wait a few days to be sure but I'm pretty sure I've narrowed the leak to the spillover basin. These are the rigid liner ponds. The larger pond has a flexible liner on addition to the rigid.

  My second cell was a military flip phone that was tougher than I am. Water tight to 30meters, drop safe from 20 meters and all the goodies I want. Unfortunately our provider stopped carrying them and towers changed speed so I retired it, couldn't even trade it in. <sigh> My first was an analog brick way back when. 

I have an Iphone 11 in an otter case. Thin clear screen guard but no lens protection so I try really hard not to drop it on or in anything.

Nice little pond, I was visualizing something different, forget the bentonite. Any idea why one of the liners is leaking? Did you make sure the soil under it didn't have sharp rocks and was reasonably smooth? 

If you can locate the leak there are 2 part plastic rated epoxy glues that are made for gluing and sealing cracks. 

I'll bet it's nice sitting next to your pond on warm evenings listening to the water falling. An adult beverage, good book and comfy chair is calling out to me.  

I was going to make and hang a rain chain from this house but too much water flows off the place I wanted it, the other spot isn't where we could listen to it. <sigh>

I'm a huge fan of water features, especially the musical kind.

Frosty The Lucky.

Went under the knife Wednesday. I now have a couple plates and some screws in my wrist. Hurts worse now than when i broke it. 

Billy, why is it that the "cure" almost always is worse than the ailment?! I feel for you. Hope everything heals up soon and you're better than new - heck, might even say bionic - yeah? lol

Frosty, I had that phone too! Ah, the good ole days, lol

I'm hoping the leak is just a result of some rocks I repositioned in the spillover basin. Maybe the rocks are causing the water to rise up and spill over the edges rather than just out the spout. Since the water level only drops noticeably after a few days, every thing I do for troubleshooting has to wait at least a day to see if it made a difference, lol. Yesterday I topped off the water and added tape to mark the water level. I'll check it again after work today. Then move on to the next step in troubleshooting, make sure the water is level with the tape and check again Saturday evening. I've been at this about a week already. First step was to fill and not have the recirculating pump turned on. No drop in water level so leak wasn't in either of the large basins. To check the pump, I put the pump and outlet hose in the larger pond and let it run. No drop in water so leak wasn't in the hose. Yesterday I put the pump & hose in the smaller pond - not really necessary since I already ruled that out but it's where my brain was. Tonight I'll leave the pump in the smaller pond but move the hose to the spillover. If I'm correct, the water level should drop. I'll then remove all the rocks from the spillover and run that test again. If water level doesn't drop then I know it's the arrangement of rocks and I'll just play around until I get a good balance of an arrangement I like with no leaks. If it does still drop, then there's probably a crack in the spillover basin somewhere. 

I do love this water feature. When we moved here, I had set up my forge on the backside of it - couldn't see it but could hear it. When I moved the forge setup, I moved to the front side of it so now I can see and hear it. I do love the sound of it. I don't sit next to it often, even though there's a nice bench there.