To say I’m getting excited for the upcoming hunting season is sort of a joke.  You know when the excitement is getting the best of me when you see me pull out some ground venison from last years hunt and begin the task of seasoning and salting it in preparation to make jerky (see my recipe in the recipe category to the right of your screen).  Well, as usual I’m always trying to improve or invent something better and this year was no different.

I had loaded up the dehydrator with 5 1/2 pounds of my delicious concoction and still had a full 8 ounces of jerky meat still in the bowl.  My mind went into overtime to think of how I was going to make this raw meat into jerky….AH HA!  I’ll make some pemmican!

What’s pemmican?  (In true mountain man lingo)  Wall sunny, lit me till ya.  Pemmican is a mix of raw meat frum a buffler er other four legged critter an sum dried fruit what’s found in the hills.  Sum like wild berries and sum like wild plums.  After the fruit is dried it is pounded up reel gud and made inta a powder.  That there powder gits mixed wit the raw meat reel gud and then the whole kibuddle gits dried same as other jerky.  Whin it’s all done dried up an ya eats sum it is reel gud with fruit and meat flavors blended tagither.  Sort a like eatin Christmas candy.

Well, I went in search of some dried fruits laying around the house.  Trouble is, at my house we ain’t got no dried fruits.  The bananas either get made into cookies or cake before they get dried enough to make into powder, or they get thrown out because of the sticky mess dripping down off the counter top.  Other fruits find the same fate when the flies are more numerous than the fruit itself.  I looked everywhere hoping to even find some raisins but none could be found.  My hopes were just about dashed when suddenly my eyes fell upon a box of Black Forest brand fruit snacks made with Real Fruit Juice with juicy burst centers!  I took a package out and opened it up….six little fruit wonders fell onto the counter.  These ought to work.

I got two more packs out of the box and proceeded to cut them up into small pieces.  The gooey centers made quite a mess on the cutting board and as the pieces got smaller they were really hard to cut up but eventually I had a small pile of the sticky little guys sitting there.  I poked and pried them off the wood cutting board and into the bowl with the meat.  Mixing by hand I tried my best to get the meat and the jelly pieces to blend together, but like common ends of two magnets they did not like each other.  So, what now?

I decided I would make little hand mashed rounds out of the meat and placed each one on a cookie sheet.  Then I took the little pieces of fruities and pushed them into the meat rounds.  They looked very similar to M and M cookies only raw.  When I had all the meat used up and on the cookie sheet, I popped them into the oven at “warm”.  I, being the smartest of cooks I know, also placed a thermometer in the oven to make sure the jerky got up to 160 degrees (F), propped the oven door open with a wooden spoon and walked away.  About 30 minutes later I peeked in to check the temperature…I was surprised to see it only about 120…So I “up’ed” the temp…On my oven setting it was set at 200 degrees.  That should do it and I walked away.  30 minutes or so later I came back and checked the temperature….again surprised it only read 130…I up’ed it again…240 this time.

Well, time got away from me and it was nearly an hour later when I went to check the temperature and wholy mholy it was 180!  The juicy little sprinkles were melted all over the cookie sheet around each of the meat rounds…NOT what I expected.  Well, what is done is done and I left it all there to finish drying but not before I turned the temp down just a tad.

Just before bedtime I turned off the oven and pulled out the cookie sheet.  There sat 7 little dried up rounds of jerky meat with some color splashed here and there in each one of them.  Had I done this back in the 1700 or 1800’s I would have been the laughing stock of the whole tribe.  Not only because it was womens work to make the jerky and pemmican, but also for my fool hearty attempt at putting fake berries in my pemmican.

Well, the next day, I found myself traveling into the woods with Weasel and Squirrel.  I gave them a condensed version of what I just told you about (well, perhaps they got a longer version of it) and then asked if they would like to be the Guinea Pigs to test it…..they both said they would give it a go.  I had only brought one of the seven rounds with me and so I tried to split it 3 ways.  It was very sticky on the outside as the sugary mess had poured out of the little beads of melted fruities and bubbled its way out of the meat like small volcanos spewing molten lava and it ran all down and around the meat leaving the sugar coating the little rounds and no way of touching it without getting it on your fingers….definitely finger licking stuff.

After eating our small portions we all agreed they were not worth making any more of them.  Pemmican it was not.  AND, you will not see a recipe in my recipe category about this.  I’m putting this one in a generic category.

Bears Butt

July 27, 2015

I guess it wouldn’t be right to just let the hay season go by without saying something about it.  July is not necessarily a month we look forward too, but once the hay is in the barn we are all very glad.  It takes all of us to pull off the hay trick each year and as we age it gets harder and harder.  Not sure what the future is going to look like.  At least we are not still cutting it ourselves like we did when I was in my 20’s, 30’s and early 40’s.  We used the 1948 John Deere tractor (that we still have and use once each year) and the sickle mower that came with it.   A 5 foot cutting swath!  It generally took 3 people to run the job.  One on the tractor, one pushing on the mower blade and one resting in the shade waiting for his turn at the blade job.

It took us at least a week of hard work daylight to dark to get it all cut.  Then Bob would run the power rake and rake it all up before a custom baler guy would come in and bale it.  We could count on about 3 weeks of intensive farm work to get the hay into the barn.  It kept us all together, taught us how to work hard and to complain was not an option….allergies?…no such thing.

As I sit here typing this my wrists are aching from picking up the bales I picked up.  My fingers are sore from the strings of the bales.  My back feels like it has a kink in it that needs to be popped back into place.  My eyes are puffy from the hay chaff, lungs filled with the same stuff and I think if I coughed hard enough I’d spit out a bale of hay.  I have lost 10 pounds just working the past 2 weeks.  And you know what?  I’m the second youngest of us dinosaurs that call this farm ours.

It always looks good as each phase of the job is done.  First cutting, then raking, then baled and finally hauled and the fields cleared and ready for irrigating!

Each day we hope and pray nobody gets hurt or worse and I’m certain there have been some closer than we know calls on that one.  So far the worst accident we have had in about 40 years was when Tracker was stacking the wagon and stepped back and off the stack of hay breaking his hip.  That was a bad deal and took him months to heal.  I think he still walks with a slight limp to this day.

And yet the farm still looks good and we continue to do the same things year after year.  I’m not so sure our children want to consume there years with dealing with the farm their entire lives and we are trying to get it sold.  We know deep down in our soles that if we ever do sell it we will kick ourselves in the butts for selling so cheap.

But, as for now, we have a BIG meal planned for this afternoon and the ladies and others have been preparing it for days.  Roast Beef, Roast Pork, Mashed Potatoes with real drippin’s gravy, salads, deserts and lots of beer!  That is the payment for a years worth of work beginning in the late winter with the ditches, fences and assorted stuff that “just happens” during the winter months.  There is always something on the farm that needs attention and always someone willing to step up and take care of it, perhaps reluctantly, but still when something needs to be done we get it done.

During the haying season we are ALWAYS glad to see the last load of hay leave the field…that means the hay season is over and this year that happened this morning.

We tied it down the best we could and hope they made it back home with all the hay they left with and no accidents happened.  They had an hours drive down the freeway!

Thank you all for your help through out the year and I sure hope I see you at the “Farm Dinner” today!  A big thank you to the hay buyers who take advantage of a discount per bale by picking up their hay in the field!  It saves us from having to pick it up and then put it into the barn and then pick it up again in the winter to sell it out to someone who couldn’t take advantage of the discount.

Thanks again!

Bears Butt

July 18, 2015

So, Squirrel called me last night and asked if I would help him win a million dollars by proving something scientific…..sure….what else does a Grandpa do?  He then sent me an email and said we would talk more in the morning.  OK.

Here is what the email said:

this is the problem:

Yang–Mills Existence and Mass Gap. Prove that for any compact simple gauge group G, a non-trivial quantum Yang–Mills theory exists on  and has a mass gap Δ > 0. Existence includes establishing axiomatic properties at least as strong as those cited in Streater & Wightman (1964), Osterwalder & Schrader (1973) and Osterwalder & Schrader (1975).

In this statement, Yang–Mills theory is the (non-Abelian) quantum field theory underlying the Standard Model of particle physics;  is Euclidean 4-space; the mass gap Δ is the mass of the least massive particle predicted by the theory.

Therefore, the winner must prove that:

• Yang–Mills theory exists and satisfies the standard of rigor that characterizes contemporary mathematical physics, in particular constructive quantum field theory,[2][3] and
• The mass of the least massive particle of the force field predicted by the theory is strictly positive.

For example, in the case of G=SU(3)—the strong nuclear interaction—the winner must prove that glueballs have a lower mass bound, and thus cannot be arbitrarily light.

——————————

So, if he can come up with the solution to this and present it in such a way as to convince scientists world wide that what he is saying is true, he will win $1,000,000!  U.S. dollars!

I began looking some of the stuff up that is highlighted in blue and it didn’t take very long for me to be tossing my hat off and getting myself another beer.  This is WAY over the top for a 65 year old even if I do have a minor in math.  2+2 is still 4 in my mind.  Quantum field theory?  Never heard of it.  But I can tell you that the guys in the back of my calculus class…the ones with the Bulbous backs on their heads…they know all about that stuff.  I’m convinced I got a C out of college calculus because I sat in the chair right in front of the teacher and I tried my darndest to understand what on earth the derivative of the derivative was.

Well, this morning came quickly and the phone began to ring….it was Squirrel…..I was in hopes he had forgotten….Come on up and let’s talk!

He arrived with a handful of papers…he said…I almost ran the printer out of ink printing all these important papers!

Sure enough, he had printed all the papers from the little blue highlighted things above.  He really thinks and is planning on figuring this out and proving it without a doubt that he knows what the answer to the weight of a glueball is!  And I hope he does.

So, he and I sat down at this wonderful machine in front of me now and started looking up some of the blue highlighted things.  Most of which he had already printed of course, but I had not had a chance to review them.  Soon, I was looking at images of Nuclear cells and stuff with hard to say words.  Some with blue, green and red circles inside mauve big circles, all connected with wavey lines.

YO!  Dude!  This is what he has to prove.  The wavey lines are what are called the Glueballs!  Do they have any mass or not?  Something is holding those other things in place and so of course it MUST have some mass or it wouldn’t be there!  Now the problem is finding out how much one Proton weighs and we already now how much the nutrons weigh, the difference is what the glueballs weigh…right?

Yang-Mills say the glueballs don’t have any weight…HA!  I differ!  Anything that is anything has some weight to it or it wouldn’t be something (anything)!  I’m not a rocket scientist but I know that!

We also learned that the interior of a proton contains 2 each of positive things and 1 each of negative things.  These are the things held together by the glueballs.  But occationally you end up with a proton with all negative things, or all positive things, or 1 positive and 2 negatives.  They all have names too but I can’t remember those names.

So, calculate for me (and him) the weight of the “least massive particle of the proton”…. OH and I THINK in the statement above…”glueballs have a lower mass bound”,  they actually mean “bound” is “bond”…….Bulbous headed people don’t always think straight.

Well, Cody James “Squirrel” Zundel, I sure hope you get this one figured out.  Don’t forget to ask your Grandpa for his input.  It will probably NOT help you win the big prize, but I do have something to say about all of this.

Bears Butt

June 15, 2015

There are no images except in your own mind as to how this all goes.  A colonoscopy is very important for people at high risk of cancer or older people (older than 50 they say) who can develop cancer issues without even knowing it.  Cancer knows no boundaries and strikes all ages, all healths, everywhere!  I have a friend who’s father never saw his 56th birthday because of colon cancer.  Another well known Utah TV outdoors celebrity died of it as well.  Neither of these two men knew they had anything wrong with them and all because they never went and had the procedure done.

Well, this is number 2 for me and I thought I’d like to lighten things up for those of you who are “dreading the day”!  When you think about the whole deal it really isn’t that big of a thing.  If you want the doctor to find anything or better yet, NOT find anything wrong inside your body, you have to give him/her the best view possible.  And that requires you clean out your belly!  Of EVERYTHING!!!!

I have read the prep instruction a couple of times during the last week and still missed one important part….no solid foods the day before the procedure.  Well, this morning after hunting turkeys in the wee hours of the morning, I made myself a nice big breakfast!  Spuds, eggs and sausage patty.  It sure was good.  And then just before beginning the cleansing process, I sat down with Winemaker and started to eat a good old meat loaf sandwich and have some chips.  As I was munching away I pulled out the instructions and started to read them again…..”You must begin your liquid diet the day before your procedure, beginning with breakfast”!  HMMMM.  Guess I blew that one big time!

Well, will this cleansing still work?  I’m counting on it and following through even though I messed up.  Should the Dr. get in there tomorrow and can’t see anything because of “debris” in the way of the lens, or having to wipe it off a lot.  Well, he will say, Hey fella!  Go do that all again and come back in two days!  Doctors don’t like their time wasted you know!  They have patients, not patience!  But it’s OK for you to sit in the waiting room for an hour…just sayin.  That is another subject and I’ll now get back on track….is this on track at all?

OK.  The instructions said to mix a 8.3 oz bottle of Miralax with 64 oz. of water, soda pop or other clear type liquid and prepare to spend the next 2 hours and 40 minutes consuming it.  That is 5.3 beers worth of liquid.  So, why does the picture above show two big bottles of soda and two Miralax bottles?  You have to do this twice with at least a 4 hour wait between them.

Well, I have just had my 4th 8 oz glass of that yummy mixture and have nothing better to do than sit here and type this.  I can already feel the need to be somewhere else very soon coming on.  Wapiti Dung told me earlier today that when I begin this process to make sure the neighbors yard gets plenty of fertilizer on it.  I don’t think I’ll do that and I sure hope everything down at the city treatment plant is working properly.

I told Winemaker earlier that perhaps I should have considered the drought situation before scheduling this procedure.  She just grinned.  But, I’m going to keep track of the number of gallons of “flush water” this is going to take.  I have placed a pad of paper and a pencil near my next sitting spot and will make a hash mark for each time I flush!  Gotta go!

You would think by now a better way would have been figured out.

Glass 5 is having a tough time finding room down there.  Someone must have messed up with the instructions saying to drink 8 oz every 20 minutes.  Maybe this is what happens when you eat solid food before starting this.  So, if you have never done this and are embarking on it…please follow the instructions closely.  You do not want to feel like I do right now.  Maybe I should go lie down.  NO!  I’m trying to educate you on this.

I tried to find out on line when colonoscopy procedures first came to be and could not find anything on the history.  But I do know that my dad had it done and he has been gone for over 30 years.  Ya, they had indoor plumbing back then just like they do today only the flushes consumed a whole lot more water then than they do now.  Did you know the last name of the inventor of the toilet with a flushing system was “Crapper”?  I just thought I’d throw that out there for your education.  Before that it was a wooden out building with a seat that had a hole cut in it and a partial moon cut out of the upper portion of the door.  I digress.

Just so you know, I’ll explain my body right now.  My belly is bloated up like a mule deer buck that has been dead since being shot first thing this morning and you just found it.  I’m still good though because flipping it with my thumb only sounds like a ripe watermelon and not a drum.  I’m just afraid that the next time I write “Gotta Go”, I might be awhile!  Being awhile should save on total gallons of water don’t you think?

Let’s talk about this Miralax stuff.  I remember my dad telling me about having to go to the bathroom alot and he would always mention “dose of salts”.  I have no real idea what “salts” he was talking about unless it was Epsom Salts.  This Miralax contains Polyethylene Glycol.  (Heard the buzzer and went for glass number 6 and then it hit!  WHEW!  Back to more normal, no more watermelon).

This according to Wikipedia: Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is a polyether compound with many applications from industrial manufacturing to medicine.

Using it for industrial applications as well as medicine….powerful stuff right there!  Nothing like dad’s old “salts”!

Again the buzzer reminds me to go get another tasty glass of polyether!  There was PLENTY of room for that one!  I just did some math and 64 divided by 8 = 8…..I have already had 7 glasses of what I thought was 8 oz of polyether and its only been one hour and 40 minutes.  I still have an hour to go according to the instructions but by my rate, I only have about 2 more glasses of good old poly in the mixed container!  I’ll cut back on the next go round!  I guess I got too excited to see things get going.

More on Polyethylene glycol:

Commercial uses[edit]

• PEG is the basis of many skin creams (as cetomacrogol) and personal lubricants (frequently combined with glycerin).
• PEG is used in a number of toothpastes as a dispersant. In this application, it binds water and helps keep xanthan gum uniformly distributed throughout the toothpaste.
• PEG is also under investigation for use in body armor, and in tattoos to monitor diabetes.^[28][29]
• In low-molecular-weight formulations (i.e. PEG 400), it is used in Hewlett-Packard designjet printers as an ink solvent and lubricant for the print heads.
• PEG is also one of the main ingredients in paintball fills, because of its thickness and flexibility. However, as early as 2006, some Paintball manufacturers began substituting cheaper oil-based alternatives for PEG.^{[citation needed]}
• PEG is also used as an anti-foaming agent in food^[30] – its INS number is 1521^[31] or E1521 in the EU.^[32]

Industrial uses[edit]

• Nitrate ester-plasticized polyethylene glycol is used in Trident II ballistic missile solid rocket fuel.^[33]
• Dimethyl ethers of PEG are the key ingredient of Selexol, a solvent used by coal-burning, integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants to remove carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide from the gas waste stream.
• PEG has been used as the gate insulator in an electric double-layer transistor to induce superconductivity in an insulator.^[34]
• PEG is also used as a polymer host for solid polymer electrolytes. Although not yet in commercial production, many groups around the globe are engaged in research on solid polymer electrolytes involving PEG, with the aim of improving their properties, and in permitting their use in batteries, electro-chromic display systems, and other products in the future.
• PEG is injected into industrial processes to reduce foaming in separation equipment.
• PEG is used as a binder in the preparation of technical ceramics.

So, I have been drinking this poly stuff and have consumed 7 glasses of it and am just now finding out it is used not only for what I’m taking it for, but also is used in the filling in paint balls AND in solid rocket fuel!  The last one says it is used as a “binder”…..Trust me when I tell you this stuff is NOT a binder….At least not a “hinder binder”….Gotta Go!

Ya baby!  Not much left in the track and still at least one more glass of poly left for this first go round.  Maybe I’ll stretch it to two more smaller glasses!  The taste of this stuff reminds me of Dr. Harimoto from my college days, talking about the law of diminishing returns.  There would have to be another theory about this stuff and what it does however.  Because I know I have not consumed all 64 ounces yet (in one end), but there has been a WHOLE LOT MORE than 64 ounces going the other way!

Well folks, only one more glass to go and the first wave is done!  How do I feel?  Well, still bloated, not watermelon bloated, but bloated.  The 4 hour break from drinking that junk will be more than a reward and I think I will even indulge in a beer.  It’s a clear liquid with no pulp and it contains nutrients.  One of my college professors called beer “The all food drink”!  I believe him!

Bears Butt

May 11, 2015

UPDATE:

WOW!  What a night!  Little to no sleep, but it’s over and now to go see the doc.  What about gallons used?   First off you need to know I have one of those economically green water use toilets…1.28 gpf, I used 35.84 gallons!  And a full roll of toilet paper.  But, it wasn’t as bad as I remember from 11 years ago.  I think since we have switched to toilet paper instead of those costly Sears catalogues, things are much better.  Charmin, Extra Soft in the super roll!

After the doc gets through with me, I can eat and I’m starving!

I’ll post an Update to the Update later to let you know the doc’s findings!  HELLO!!!  Is my head up there?

Butt (literally)

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE:

Back from the doctor.  It’s time to re-fill this body with solids!  The doc says he doesn’t want to see me for 10 more years!!!  YEAAA!  No polyps, no nothing!  I must be a boring scope for him, nothing to talk about.

The nurses and all the staff were great at the facility.  Pretty women everywhere, all caring and nurturing.  I had to lay down after they put the IV in my arm, I almost passed out.  Wimpy me.  Anyway I got a free ride down to the room where the puffer machine resides and when the anesthesiologist came to put me out, she said it wouldn’t take long for it to work.  I asked her if she wasn’t going to ask me some sort of questions and then tell me how many I got right when I woke up.  She said I had already answered them and POOF!  Next thing I knew was the recovery room.

So, don’t be afraid to go and get your screening.  Sure you lose a nights sleep, but then you can relax for 10 years knowing you don’t have any bad issues building up inside your body.

I think it’s time for a nap.

Bears Butt

Winemaker had me spit into a small vile the other day and then send it off to a company that looks into DNA.  The objective?  To try and tie my ancestry back through my mother’s father (Grand Dad Meyers).  Rumor has it that as a young boy, his father (my Great Grandfather) farmed him out to a black land owner and the land owner would pay him (Great Grandfather) for the labor received.  Is there any truth to that rumor?

Grand Dad as we called him was a pretty good looking guy and as I remember him when he was in his late 80’s or early 90’s, he lived by himself in a little old house, while Grandma lived by herself in another home a few blocks away.  I guess they didn’t get along.  Anyway, when we visited them in Moab, we would always stay at Grandma’s house, and would walk down to visit with Grand Dad.

He was a gruff sort of callused man, used to working hard for his money.  I recall him smoking a pipe and he had a Great Horned owl that would come to visit him every evening.  It would sit on his shoulder as he puffed away and then would go up into the rafters to spend the night.  He also had a talking magpie.  Told us he split its tung and taught it how to speak.  I don’t recall anything the magpie said….maybe I couldn’t understand it….

So, through genealogical records to find a link to him has been an impossible task.  So, the need for the DNA testing.  The results have come back.

I haven’t been able to put a lot of it together as yet, but Winemaker is busy as a dickens trying to find “the key link”.  My lineage goes in a whole lot of directions including some pretty famous people. Henry Chaucer is one.  A writer of poems.  Maybe that is where some of my poem writing ability comes from….Who cares?

So, today she comes to me with a last name of “Cooper”…..seems there are some Coopers in my lineage.

Changing the subject a bit, but when people came to America they would sometimes change their last name.  Why?  Well, perhaps they didn’t want to be linked with their relatives from the “old country”, or perhaps still, they were running from a past that they wished would not have existed.  And still, some would take on a name that associated them with the trade in which they loved and enjoyed.  Cooper is one such name.

I have a friend who sent me a really nice embroidered hat, who married a guy named Cooper….Cooper is his last name.

Let’s investigate anyone named Cooper.  Back in the day and I suppose even in todays modern world, people who embarked in the trade of making barrels was a Cooper.  Not just barrels, but butter churns and most any roundish wooden container that would either keep moisture in or keep moisture out was made by a Cooper.  A good Cooper was important in a lot of ways and two of those involve guns and alcohol.  Whiskey and beer barrels!  And gun powder kegs!  Without Coopers, this world would have been a much more boring place to live.

I’m proud of my heritage and look forward to meeting my Cooper relatives.  Maybe I won’t ever meet them, but as long as I live, I will be proud to have Coopers in my life!

If you can find a link to my Grand Dad, please inform me as quickly as you can.  He was in Kansas for a while and I can’t help but think it odd that his dad would farm him out to a black man with a farm….sounds like child labor issues, but then there weren’t a lot of laws back in the 1800’s protecting kids from becoming slaves to the farm.  That is why they had kids back then wasn’t it?  The more the better for ma and pa.

Anyway, there is a tid bit about my heritage.

Bears Butt

April 26, 2015

I have to share this as it is just too good not to.  I had the pleasure of meeting Ron Brown many years ago through a mutual friend, Steve Shipley.  We met him and his boys up at Strawberry Reservoir for an ice fishing day.  I liked Ron from the moment I met him and since that time have enjoyed many days fishing with him.  Ron is one of those people that you just can’t help but like.  He always liked a good joke and had plenty of jokes in him to share.  He worked hard and he loved life.  It is sad to think that he is no longer with us on this earth, but that some day we will see him again.  He left his family in good hands and his legacy will live on forever.  We have not heard the last of Ron Brown.  My God Bless his soul and the souls of his family.

Rest in Peace Ron.

Just copy and paste this link:

http://www.mormon.org/me/B5VC

Bears Butt

April 23, 2015

Last weekend I was afforded the opportunity to work as a range officer at an archery event.  After putting in several hours on Saturday, my legs and feet were feeling the pain of being on them all day long and walking 120 yards back and forth every 10 minutes or so.  Sunday morning I was to be back at 9 a.m. to do it again.  My legs were feeling cramped from the day before and so I ate one of the HuntNdurance energy bars just before my shift came on.  The energy bar tasted GREAT!  I didn’t bother looking at the flavor on the outside of the package, I just opened it up and ate it.  I have to say it did what it was advertised to do.  I didn’t have any issues with my legs cramping for the 3 hours I was on the line!  NONE!

I still have a few more to eat and I’ll keep things posting up based on what I experience.  As for right now, I think these guys are on to something very good!

Bears Butt

April 15, 2015

Turkey hunting season:

I took 3 HuntNdurance fruit bars with me on one of our turkey hunts.  And had Weasel, Hot Spark and of course me, try them out.  They tasted wonderful!  A whole lot better than the other snack granola type bars on the market.  As for what they did for our stamina on the hunt, that is impossible for us to know.  But I can tell you they Tasted Great!  They filled the void in our bellies from no breakfast and got us through until lunch time!  I’d have to say they are worth giving a try next time you go hunting!

Today, May 7, Weasel and I were hunting and had been since before daylight.  It was about 1 p.m. and we had a gobbler crossing an opening about 300 yards ahead of us.  We needed a boost of energy to get us over to the other side to try and intercept him.  We each gulped down one of the 2 oz Energy Shots and then off we went in hot pursuit of the gobbler.  I’m 65 years old and after that I never looked back as we busted our way across the hillside and up to intercept that bird.  Ya, we never did see the bird again, but I didn’t feel any ill effects from having my butt kicked by not having any energy to get there!  I had lots of energy!  And it didn’t taste bad either!  Berry flavor!  Get yourself some!

We are truly lucky to be celebrating Easter in the Northern Hemisphere (North of the Equator) because those folks on the other side of the line (equator) are just entering their cold winter season.  So, when we hear the church authorities speaking about Spring and the new life of the plants and new born animals after a long cold winter, it coincides with the resurrection of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion.  New life.  New beginnings.  Regained faith and a new start.

We celebrate with the Easter Bunny and the many parties that the little critter is involved with, the antics that people can contrive that the little guy gets blamed for doing.  It’s all meant in fun.

I went in search for what the other half of the world does to celebrate Easter and fell on a site explaining what happens in Australia.

I’m sure the folks that live in the land down under don’t have any more time on their hands than we do, but they celebrate Easter for 50 days!  And instead of having an Easter Bunny, they have an Easter Bilby.  Rabbits and Australia don’t get along.  There are soooooo many millions of rabbits down there that the people hate them.  They eat the crops, dig their holes and in general cause a lot of grief.  An Easter Bunny would be a bad thing.

But, on their endangered species list is a little critter called a Bilby:

And just like our Easter Bunny, the Easter Bilby gets into the act:

The Auzzies also like to make pancakes and most of their parties involve pancakes and what they call “hot cross buns”…..sort of like a sweet roll with raisins or other dried fruit mixed in and a sweet frosting put on top.  Besides eating (and I’m sure drinking), they have a traditional game called “Egg Knocking”….they boil up a bunch of eggs, gather around and pair up.  Each participant chooses an egg from the boiled eggs and then in turn, they knock the small end of their egg against that of the opponent.  The owner of the egg that cracks is out of the game and the winner goes on to “knock” their egg against the winner of another pairing.  It sounds like a silly game, but in the end everyone gets to eat an egg.

Egg Knocking Champ!  (Where’s the beer?)

On a side note, when I was in the Air Force stationed in Germany, we had a lot of young Australian people working on the base.  They did odd jobs in support of our mission and were very eager to have a party.  It seemed like any reason was reason enough for a party.  When I left the base to come home and leave the service, they held a big party for me.  I remember as one last note from one of the Auzzie ladies, she said “If you ever get down to Australia, knock me up”.

I actually thought that egg knocking might have something to do with that but was pleased to find out it didn’t.

Enjoy your Easter!  The picnic on the farm is going to be fun as usual!  Easter Bunny is hiding eggs right now and will unleash the kids at 12:30!  Hope to see you down there!

Bears Butt

April 5, 2015

P.S.

In Australia, “knock me up”, refers to going to the persons house for a visit….knock on the door.

You have to love cars with problems.  You may remember the last time I vented about a recall notice on my Pontiac Vibe….it went something like….the passenger side airbag could deploy without warning, so keep that in mind as you are driving and when we get the parts to fix it we will send you another letter.  In the meantime, good luck.

It didn’t say that exactly, but the bottom line was about that cold.  My thoughts back then were….Why in the heck don’t you pull all those cars off the road, give us all loaner cars to drive and not subject us to the crashes that WILL happen in the event the airbag suddenly deploys as we are cruising down the freeway at 70 mph?

OK, back to the reason for this post.

Recall number 3!  Just got it in the mail yesterday.  It says, if I haven’t had the previous 2 recalls taken care of, that there is a 3rd recall for something related to the other 2 and to get the others done soon, because “when the parts become available for this recall”, the vehicle has to have had the others taken care of or this fix won’t stop the deploying of the airbag, but will only stop the “Electronic Control Module for the Supplemental Restraint System in your vehicle……..short circuiting when exposed to certain electrical noise from various vehicle electrical components”.  And it goes on….

That sounds like anyone sitting in the passenger seat could suddenly be held tightly by the seat belt as it tightens as if in a crash to keep you from flying forward.  And that could happen by anything causing an “electrical noise from various vehicle electrical components”……I take that to mean the blinker….the brake lights….headlights….electrical window winder….door locks….radio….cigarette lighter….air conditioner/heater fan….110 volt converter and/or anything under the hood that keeps the gas and air mixture doing whatever it does and the sparks sparking when they need to spark.

So, what is under my control?  I can use voice control to warn my passenger when I’m about to do something……”WARNING, WARNING, I’m about to turn the blinker on”!!!!   “WARNING, WARNING, I’m about to stop the car”!!!!   “WARNING, WARNING, I’m going to turn on the AC”!!!!   “WARNING, WARNING, I’m about to change the radio from Don Williams to Lead Zepplin”!!!

HOLD IT!  Head banging music will FOR SURE set off the deployment of that module!  It’s no wonder you don’t see Pontiac Vibes full of head banging kids with nose piercings and belly button rings!  All those Vibes have crashed already!

And so, I offer all of you this warning.  I know there aren’t many Pontiac Vibes on the road now, but as you are driving and are about to meet or pass one, keep this in mind….The air bag or subsequent seat belt deployment devises could suddenly react to an electrical noise, blow up violently inside the cab of the car and cause the driver to jerk to the left or right!  Meet or pass with quickness and be always on alert!  It’s not just them that are in danger here.

Me?  Well, I’ll drive as little as I can and might just make a sign for the passengers to read, telling them of the dangers of riding in my Pontiac Vibe.

Bears Butt

April 2, 2015