One perk of being a backyard gardener is that you never know what might pop up. Volunteer plants, for example. One year, I had a strange plant sprout and could not for the life of me figure out what it was. We let it grow to maturity, and finally pulled it up. It was a peanut vine compliments of my resident squirrels This summer, I have another unknown addition to my garden. I thought … [Read more...]
My Resident Mockingbird
There have always been mockingbirds in our neighborhood. In past years, they have staked out vantage points in my neighbor’s yard. Occasionally, they would come to my yard to drink from the birdbath, but mostly they were my neighbor’s mockingbirds. But not this year. For the first time, a dominant mockingbird has claimed my back yard as his turf and woe be to the other mockingbirds who … [Read more...]
Signs of Our Times
Southern Baked Chicken
I’m always on the lookout for different ways to cook chicken. Like it or not, chicken is better for you that steak or lasagna or pizza or any number of other yummy dishes. The trick is it to have chicken taste (almost) as good as the yummy things. I saw a recipe for Southern Baked Chicken and the “southern” part got my attention. With the exception of chitlin’s, most anything … [Read more...]
Hurricane Lee? No problem
Hurricane Lee was on the radar of many anglers, but it did not affect the local fishing conditions, except for some big swells. In fact, fishing was good. Red drum are now leaving the Bay and heading to the ocean, where they can be seen in large schools on the surface, but they are still biting. Surf fishing for them should be extremely good in the coming weeks. The lower bay and the … [Read more...]
A New Fishing Cooler
“Hey, I just caught some fish down on the dock. Anybody have a cooler I can ice them down in?” “Take mine. Take mine,” they all say. Bull! No one wants one of their coolers to be used to put fish in. Why? Because once you ice down fish in a cooler, that cooler is destined for life as a fishing cooler. My fishing buddy, Tim Tigner, and I have discovered a crappie hotspot at a lake close to … [Read more...]
Aldi’s Continues to Impress
I am now one of Aldi’s staunchest supporters and admirers. They continue to amaze me with the quality of their products and their low prices. In recent times, several grocery products have exploded in price. Cereal, for one. A box of Cheerios at Kroger’s is $4.29. Not a giant size - the regular 9-oz, box. I bought a 20-oz. box of the Aldi’s brand of Crispy Oats last week for $2.45 – twice as … [Read more...]
Signs of Our Times
Chicago DA sues shooting victims for not getting out of the way of bullets. … [Read more...]
Thistles: A Beautiful Weed
I have a love/hate relationship with thistles. The “hate” part comes back when I fly fish Mossy Creek. The stream is especially productive in September when leaping grasshoppers miss their mark and plop in the stream – to the delight of some large brown trout. But fly casting involves back casts where you flip the line backwards to load the rod, only to see the line settle in the stream with no … [Read more...]
Ham Muffins
You can’t really buy a small ham. If you want the goodness of a big, fat ham portion, it’s going to be 9 or 10 pounds or more. Ten pounds makes a lot of meals for two people. But I buy hams anyway and eat sliced ham for breakfast, for lunch as sandwiches and chip away at it before freezing the remains and making soup at a later date. After my latest ham purchase, I found a recipe to help finish … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 88
- 89
- 90
- 91
- 92
- …
- 446
- Next Page »