Outdoorsman Thread

[doglegg]

Saw this little fellow on our walk today. DSCN7320.JPGDSCN7321.JPGDSCN7323.JPG

Floyd, that's a "possum on the half shell".
Once upon a time, many, many years ago we, when we were young and foolish, we ate a few Armadillos. We also tried a Cattle Egret and of course Eastern Diamondback was served several times. Alligator, soft-shell turtles, we even tried a mud fish or two and a gar fish. This was 55 to 60 years ago. We read in the National Geographic magazine where a man in Texas became a leper as a result of catching armadillos for research purposes. Seems the little critters have a form of leprosy that medical research could experiment with.
Our taste is much more refined nowadays. The last exotic dishes I had were before I retired from the school district about 12 years ago. Our carpenter would come up with something different every once in a while like Coon Hash or Bobcat Stew when no one had enough fish or venison for our special dinners.
Treefarmer

I've eaten a few odd things but you have me bested Philip. If Miss Joy fixed them I bet they were good.

[doglegg]

The wife and I stepped out of the house yesterday to see these three just yards away.
Didn't seem the least concerned with us . I believe they're the mama and twins from last spring.
And our Confederate Rose is blooming in the background .. ... ..

Knice Kris.

[treefarmer]

Jerry, I don't remember which variety of Gar we tried to eat but I do remember splitting the it open with an ax along each side of the top fin. Their scales are somethings else. On the other hand we have a several very bony fish that are excellent eating. The Chain Pickerel and the Red horse sucker. The pickerel is known as a "jack fish", you can scale them with a water hose, remove the filets with the skin and then "gash" the flesh. Gashing is simply cutting through the ribs down to the skin every quarter inch or so. Hot deep grease will then disolve the bones to nothing. Same with the suckers except for the scaling. The scales are very hard to remove, folks joke about it and say you need to scale them with a garden hoe. Suckers seem to move up stream into the creeks out of the rivers in the late winter about the time we used to be planting watermelons. We would hang a gill net on the railroad trestle piers at night and then a couple of times during the night go and retrieve the suckers and release all the game fish. This too was back when I was a bit younger. Those spring fed creeks in February are cold even in the Florida Panhandle especially when you didn't own a pair of chest high waders. The reward though for such, is a wonderful culinary delight! At one time it could also get you arrested if the Rabbit Sheriff happened by.

Floyd, Miss Joy might have been present at some of those feasts but she's was not guilty of trying to make any of that mess edible.
Treefarmer

[treefarmer]

The camera by the sand pear in the front yard is still taking some pictures.

Strange critter going across the yard.

One of the girls who come every night.

Some other visitors, Red are not as common as gray foxes.

They look a lot healthier than the raggedy coyote a while back!

This one is in high gear for some reason.

Treefarmer

[royal0014]

The camera by the sand pear in the front yard is still taking some pictures.

Busy neighborhood . . .

[Colonel26]

The camera by the sand pear in the front yard is still taking some pictures.
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Treefarmer

TF, if all that was going on in my yard, my dogs would be going crazy all night long! Nice pics!

[treefarmer]

Bro. Wade,
Our pups keep 'em on their toes when Miss Joy puts them out for their evening walk. Then the deer come right back.

Flossie doin' her thing!

2 hours later.

The mini-Dachshund even made this run a couple nights later.

Treefarmer

[FRJ]

Seeing fewer turtles at the pond.
This taken a few days ago.

[TripleF]

‘Twas a good open day of bird season with my son and two of my grandies along with an old bird dog and a new Springer no birds

LOVE IT!!! Great job Bob!!

[doglegg]

Cool pics Philip and Joe.

[Unk]

De-headed and de-skinned a couple of rattlers a couple of weeks ago. Both a tick over 4 ft.

We tack them to a board, and use a paint brush to paint anti-freeze on them every day or so for 3 weeks. Then rub them down with glycerin a couple of times. Makes for a nice tanned hide.

[cudgee]

De-headed and de-skinned a couple of rattlers a couple of weeks ago. Both a tick over 4 ft.

We tack them to a board, and use a paint brush to paint anti-freeze on them every day or so for 3 weeks. Then rub them down with glycerin a couple of times. Makes for a nice tanned hide.

Nice work.

[1967redrider]

Really cool, Unk!!!

[doglegg]

De-headed and de-skinned a couple of rattlers a couple of weeks ago. Both a tick over 4 ft.

We tack them to a board, and use a paint brush to paint anti-freeze on them every day or so for 3 weeks. Then rub them down with glycerin a couple of times. Makes for a nice tanned hide.

Mike, looks like you have a good crop of them going on our there in Weatherford. Great work on the tanning. They look better on the wall than crawling around in the yard. No copperhead skins?

[Unk]

lol - yep, we have a few copperhead skins, too.

[doglegg]

Very cool Mike.

[Mumbleypeg]

It’s getting to be that time of year. From last evening, east pasture, by the creek about 400 yards from the house.

Ken

[royal0014]

It’s getting to be that time of year. From last evening, east pasture, by the creek about 400 yards from the house.

Ken

Not too shabby. Make a decent wall decoration .. .. ..

[treefarmer]

It’s getting to be that time of year. From last evening, east pasture, by the creek about 400 yards from the house.

Ken

Not too shabby. Make a decent wall decoration .. .. ..

Chris, if we ever see a buck like that we'd think we were in Texas too! They sure have some fine ones out there. I think just about every state has exceptional big whitetails except Florida.
Maybe Ken can give him a ride back to the house in a front end loader one fine day.
Treefarmer

[Unk]

Ken,

We didn't see hardly any deer all summer, but we have finally started seeing quite a few around the house in the last couple of weeks.

On a side note, my buddy and I were riding around in the Ranger last night, and we got another copperhead. That makes 18 we have got this year. This one was small - so we didn't bother skinning him.

[jerryd6818]

On a side note, my buddy and I were riding around in the Ranger last night, and we got another copperhead. That makes 18 we have got this year. This one was small - so we didn't bother skinning him.

Mike, unless I'm sadly mistaken, he seems to be missing his head. Would you happen to know anything about that?

[garddogg56]

Should have went bird hunting in stead of foshing

[doglegg]

Should have went bird hunting in stead of foshing

They are pretty and they taste good.

[treefarmer]

Should have went bird hunting in stead of foshing

That's a pretty bird!
How much does an average pheasant weigh? We don't have them in the wild in Florida.
Treefarmer

[garddogg56]

Yes they are pretty,they taste good till ya put a ruffled grouse on the table...about 4lbs.As you know they are from china we buy chicks and raise them in pens for sport.