Roughin' it

My travels take me to Gettysburg fairly often, which is over 20 miles from the home fires. Alas, this weekend has me needin' to be in Gettysburg a lot, so instead of runnin' back and forth and burnin' a bunch of gas, I just packed up some gear and headed for the "campsite" at the farm (otherwise known as the location of several fine parties over the years). In this case, it'll serve just fine for modest accommodations.

Best breakfast sandwich ever

Tack this on the the many reasons I will never be skinny.

A few weeks ago, my coworker brought in a bag of Thomas Maple French Toast bagels. Once I caught a whiff, I knew I had to try this phenomenon for myself. While discussing with him how goddammed delicious they were, we brainstormed up the brilliant idea of whippin' up some breakfast sandwiches with 'em.

So, I assembled the basic ingredients...

...and proceeded to marvel in the culinary bliss. Washin' it down with delicious, pulpy orange juice made it all the better.

Unfortunately, they're a limited edition flavor, so I don't have long to get my fix. So, you best run to the store and grab 'em soon and give it a try. You can thank me later.

Findin' some geese

The late goose season recently ended here in Pennsyltucky. I managed to get out a fair amount of times, which was great since I really hadn't spent much time gettin' after 'em the last few years. I hadn't done much durin' the late season, but with the final few days loomin', I made some time to go.

The ol' man and I checked out a local pond, and we had geese from start to finish. Our setup wasn't exactly optimal though, and after an abysmal display of marksmanship, we had shot almost a box of shells and had two birds to show for our efforts.

A couple days later, the last day, Dad and I went to the same pond in the mornin'. As a family, we were sittin' at 47 birds on the year, and Joe was all gung-ho about makin' it to 50. Thankfully, Dad and I found our mojo again that mornin' and walked out with four birds, puttin' us at 51 with the afternoon shoot left.

That afternoon, Dad went to check out another spot while Joe and I set up another pond that had birds on it that mornin'. I shot my first goose on that pond twenty years ago, and it has continued to produce many memorable hunts since then. That day was no exception, as Joe pulled in a nice group of birds that gave us the purtiest toll I've seen for awhile. We swept a pair that came in a little while later to finish out the season on a high note.

And so another goose season came to a close, with our family havin' bagged 58 birds. Not our best year, but most certainly not our worst. Best of all, I got to spend plenty of quality time with my favorite huntin' buddies.

Fans from last season

I finally got around to knockin' out a couple of gobbler fan mounts that I had piled up from last spring. I have mine and the ol' man's sittin' around waitin' to be done, but I ain't quite sure what I want to do with them yet so they can wait a bit longer. In the meantime, the slayers of these particular longbeards will be happy to finally have their hands on these.

Body Count '16 - #1

And so it begins....

Found this dummy this mornin' while followin' up on a goose that I knocked down. It's all of 25° out, but this'n didn't get the memo.

I said last week when it got warm for a few days that I'd have one killed within a week. Took eight days, but oh well.

Pennsyltucky's dumbest politicians

The NRA's Great American Outdoor Show recently wrapped up just a few miles to our north in Harrisburg, PA. In its third year bein' run by the NRA, it has increased both vendor and consumer participation after Reed Exhibitions screwed the pooch, got the show shut down and lost the bid to host the show again. Long story short, it's a great show that brings a boon to the local economy (to the tune of 200,000 attendees and bringin' in over $73 million this year, accordin' to preliminary guestimates), and the NRA Foundation also pledges $50,000 each year to be used within the local community (last year, the H'burg PD received a brand new, fully-equipped police car). Needless to say, the show has a significant and positive impact on the area.

Well, enter H'burg's brilliant mayor, kickin' the gift horse right in the shins like a petulant child.

Harrisburg officials have pulled city police officers from the Great American Outdoor Show this year after negotiations collapsed over an NRA donation.

Although Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse cited the donation as one of several reasons the city is "not supporting the show," he admits he's "no fan of the NRA." He noted the National Rifle Association had "explicitly worked against the city's interest" in promoting a Pennsylvania law that opened the city up to expensive lawsuits.

To be clear, the city doesn't specifically assign officers to the show. However, many officers will work the show off-duty, often takin' vacation to do so. Unfortunately, the mayor and his cronies have the authority to tell the officers what they can and can't do durin' their time off. Furthermore, I suspect that Little Liberal Papenfuse is prolly less concerned about the NRA's choice of donation than he is with his hatred of the NRA and the Second Amendment in general. Thankfully, the local commissioners get a boner by thumbin' their nose at their fearless mayor, and did their part to uphold relations with the local PD.

Two Dauphin County commissioners plan to give 300 tickets for the Great American Outdoor Show to Harrisburg police officers who were forbidden to work at this year's show.

Commissioners Jeff Haste and Mike Pries plan to present the tickets Friday night to the police union president at a reception at the Sheraton Harrisburg Hershey Hotel. They used campaign contributions to pay half of the cost of the tickets, according to Jack Sherzer, county spokesman. The National Rifle Association, which is sponsoring the outdoor show, covered the other half of the $10 group tickets, Sherzer said.

You'll have to read both the articles to get the full gist of all the bullshit politicin' goin' on, but suffice it to say, the Stupidbomb that is omnipresent in the Harrisburg mayor's office certainly went off again. While I love havin' such a neat show right in my backyard, I would certainly understand if the NRA packed up and headed to a friendlier locale after their five-year contract is up.

My winter in pictures

So far, the new year has been a lotta wakin' up early, goin' to work, comin' home and goin' to bed... rinse, lather, repeat. Yet, there's been a few items of interest along the way. Rather than bangin' away on the keyboard, I'll just catch ya up with some pictures I snapped along the way...

I threw in the towel right off the bat and asked the pretty girl of mine to marry me. Those aren't fireworks in the picture, that's just my head explodin'. But hey, as CenTexTim has mentioned before, marriage is a right of passage that every man should do at least once. I picked a good one and have been testin' the waters with her for a long while now, so I reckon I'll only do it once.

We introduced Grandma to the Hulk gloves at our family Christmas gatherin'. Hilarity ensued as she put the whoopin' to several of my cousins, and I snagged my favorite picture of the year thus far.

The ol man and us brothers headed up to bear country for a little grouse huntin'. As per usual, the very same patches that produced multiple flushes in bear season yielded no thunderbirds. Regardless, we had a great time with lots of laughs. We don't all get to hunt together as a family unit very often, so we usually make the best of it even if we don't bag any critters.

I also managed to sneak out with the ol' man and put the waffle to the ol' suicide pair. Hell, we hadn't even thought about gettin' decoys out yet, and they came in just purty as a picture. Sharin' a goose blind with the ol' man never gets old, and while those two were all we got that mornin', we had a great time as always.

 Then the snow commenced to fallin', hard and fast. Broke a few records in our area. It's a little tough to gauge at our place due to the trees and buildin's causin' weird drifts, but the unofficial total at our house was a hair over 27", with the closest town registerin' over 30".

There was a fair amount of shovellin' and clearin' to be done, but with the help of the ol' Cub, we were cleared out in no time. We spent more than we prolly shoulda to get that tractor after spendin' our first winter shovellin' damn near daily with all the snow we had, but I guarendamntee ya, I wouldn't have sold that thing for three times what we paid for it after clearin' up from the blizzard. The ol' gal just ate it up and pitched it out like nothin'.

 We've had a few more bouts of snow since. Shore is purty to look at, and thus far, it ain't causin' too many headaches. With exception to the last two winters, where it seemed to snow damn near daily for four months straight, I'm usually willin' to deal with the headaches in exchange for the aesthetics.

Then it got cold. Not that I mind too much. I'm a fluffy fella with plenty of insulation.

Other than that's it's just been purty much the usual winter doldrums. Not much to hunt, no real incentive to go outside, therefore limitin' the projects I really feel like gettin' into. Kinda gets a man down with the blues. So, even though it was a balmy 30 degrees today, it was clear and sunny out so I felt the need for some group therapy...