What Did You Do Today?

[Pappy]

Sounds like fun Eric, beautiful gun. Pappy

[YosemiteBen]

Well folks! My birthday was this week. I hit the ripe old age of 56! In this week I have most likely gained guardianship of my two oldest grandchildren aged 16 and 14. Their dad has some issues including a narcissistic personality with ZERO accountability! It started with the 14 yo expressing emotional abuse to the high school counselor. Things went down hill from there. After a bout with CWS and potential court hearing (thrown out for lack of evidence) dad said he would relinquish guardianship. Then he talked with his lawyer and decided not to. Then my wife talked to the lawyer and voila we are getting guardianship. This has been an emotionally exhausting week! Thank you all for your support over the years. Not many of us older folks here any more..... Not sure how long these message boards will be around. but, thank you!

[Eric Krewson]

Got my vet buddies together for a free meal at Applebee's yesterday. I have been going there on veteran's day for years but we got a bad waiter yesterday that wouldn't wait on us in a timely manner. After waiting for 2 hours with no food in sight I walked out and went home. I did have a great time sharing the space with my old friends.

Getting old, 77 now, Army, 67-68-69, they sent me to Germany instead of the other place, I got lucky.

[bjrogg]

Thank you Eric.

I’m so sorry about your waiter.  But glad you got together with your buddies.

Bjrogg

[Pat B]

Happy Veterans Day, Eric.    My brother was in the other place in '69.

[Pappy]

I have always regretted not serving but at the time 68/69/70 we had the lottery and my number never came up, but I have the greatest appreciating for the ones that served and are serving now, many thanks to all of you. Eric you don't look any older, you know what they say age is just a number. 
 Pappy

[bjrogg]

I have always regretted not serving but at the time 68/69/70 we had the lottery and my number never came up, but I have the greatest appreciating for the ones that served and are serving now, many thanks to all of you. Eric you don't look any older, you know what they say age is just a number. 
 Pappy

Pappy, I was too young to serve and honestly I am not sorry I was. I remember the news stories on TV.  The POWs coming home. The sad treatment of our returning soldiers.

It sure would be nice if we didn’t need the brave men and women who defend our freedom. But as I see it we need them more than ever.

Thank you veterans and I second that Pappy. Eric looks great

Bjrogg

[WhistlingBadger]

I have always regretted not serving but at the time 68/69/70 we had the lottery and my number never came up, but I have the greatest appreciating for the ones that served and are serving now, many thanks to all of you. Eric you don't look any older, you know what they say age is just a number. 
 Pappy

Pappy, I was too young to serve and honestly I am not sorry I was. I remember the news stories on TV.  The POWs coming home. The sad treatment of our returning soldiers.

It sure would be nice if we didn’t need the brave men and women who defend our freedom. But as I see it we need them more than ever.

Thank you veterans and I second that Pappy. Eric looks great

Bjrogg

My dad served in Viet Nam.  I pretty early figured out that I could serve my country better as a teacher--I'd have made a lousy soldier.  I sure appreciate those who do serve that way.

[Pat B]

Service to our country comes in many forms. Military service tops the list but civilian service, in country and out should be an option for those with that desire. My lottery number was 88 but since my Dad passed away in 1969 and older bro was in Nam at the time the
Selective Service opted to give me a 4F eliminating my service in the military.

[Eric Krewson]

Todays adventure; more mushroom hunting at the TVA trail. I like to get off the paved walking path onto the adjacent hiking trails to find mushrooms.  I made the rounds of the usual dead trees that have oyster mushrooms growing on them, most had dried up but one still had a few usable mushrooms that I could pick.



There are a lot of these hiking trails on the Gov reservation where I walk, they were made by the CCC boys in the 30s, always good for mushroom hunting.



My best find was a giant puffball mushroom, and I mean a giant. I had never eaten one of these before. I was a mile and half from the truck and already had one bag of oyster mushrooms so I broke off half of the puffball to carry back to the truck with me. Old men with bad shoulders can't carry stuff over long distances.



As with any new mushroom, the first order of business was to watch several of the videos about it on YouTube that cover picking, cooking and long-term storage.

Finding that it is considered pretty good to eat, I got out my skillet, some butter, garlic and onions and fried some up to taste. It tastes like what you cook with it with a hint of earthy mild mushroom taste.



 Because this mushroom is so delicate I decided dehydration was the best way to preserve it, I did the same with the oysters.

[Deerhunter21]

Very nice Haul eric! Looks delicious!

[Eric Krewson]

Dehydrated;

[JW_Halverson]

I found a soccer ball sized puffball here once. We sliced it in inch thick steaks, drizzled with worcestershire and soy sauce and then fried in butter. I think they were some of the best steaks I have ever had!

[Eric Krewson]

I killed a doe on Monday (rifle), the deer population has gotten to be few and far between and I needed to ensure I had meat for next year. I like to soak a deer in ice and water for a few days.

I opened the butcher shop to start to process the doe I shot the other day, it takes me a while because I trim every speck of membrane, fat, shot up meat and sinew. 4 hours of cleaning, cutting, grinding, making cube steaks, packaging and vacuum sealing only gets half a deer done and is all of the time I want to stand in the kitchen at one time. I will finish off the rest tomorrow.

As for my equipment, I traded 400 processed wild turkey feathers for the Cabela's commercial vacuum sealer, a friend owed me some money and was broke (she said), she offered me the cube steak maker that her late husband had bought for the owed money. I knew I would never get the cash out of her, she was the shifty type with a tendency to lie like a dog so I took the cuber. I bought the grinder used off eBay for $19, 30 years ago. It is one powerful son of a gun, I do a double grind with a 1/4" plate. I washed it the dishwasher on the bottom shelf last year and the chrome came off the outside of the grinding head but not the inside, lesson learned. I had washed it on the top shelf countless times with no problems

I finished up yesterday and washed everything for round two today.

 

[Eric Krewson]

My brother was a butcher in a large processing facility for over 25 years, he said to never put your grinder blade or plate in a dishwasher because the abrasives in the dishwaher soap would dull them ever time.

I had always washed my cutter blade and plate in the dishwasher and sometimes had to stop the grinder to unwrap all of the sinew that had wrapped around drive shaft and was clogging the grinder.

I took my cutter blade and plate out to the shop yesterday to sharpen them. All I used was a sheet of crocus cloth to polish the edges, I put the cloth on the level metal feed ramp on my jointer and rotated the part in circles on the cloth. I would make 3 or 4 circles on the cloth then turn the part 45 degrees and repeat to make sure every surface was honed equally.  I could tell that all of my edges were very sharp when I finished.

When I started grinding meat, I could tell that my grinder was working much better and not bogging down at all. When I disassembled the grinder for cleaning there was almost no sinew wrapped around the drive shaft at the plate.

My brother was right.