Furlough Day 1

Herein lies the account of nonsensical boredom and haphazard attempts coupled with a bit of idiocracy and  a micrcosm of intelligence.  (And that is borderline untruthful.)  All of this directed at keeping myself occupied while on Furlough.  I capitalize Furlough because to me it is a proper noun, a person or being, who is attempting to lure me across the line of insanity, of which I have tightwalked anyways, the better part of my life!  So anything directed that way shall be adressed in the above said manner.  In a way it shall be as if saying, "Hello Chuck what have you in store today?"  Except in my case it will be, "Hello Furlough, what attempts do you have in store today at destabilizing my already crumbling mindset?"
No I'm just kidding.  I was crazy before Furlough.:):):):):):)

The first thing I did was to finish the siding on my smoker as well as shingle the roof.  I still need to paint the door black.  I want it to be able to sit ouside in the weather.

A good helper is a must.

It's a little dirty but the siding has been in the barn for probably 15 years or better.

Once the smoker was sided I needed to try it out.

So I made a batch of hunter snack sticks.

Organization and cleanliness is key.  Here you see my ground meat which is a combo of pork, venison and high temp cheese.  Mixing bowl stuffing unit, casings, fridge complete with magnets and so on.

Mix seasonings and cure with water then pour into meat bowl.  There was a 4 lb batch in each bowl.

I flatten the meat mixture out in the bowl so the seasoning spreads better through the meat.

Mix thoroughly by hand.

Fill stuffing canister(sprayed inside with cooking spray) with meat mixture.

Load tube with casings and crank the handle keeping slight pressure on the casing with your fingers.  The force of the crank will push the sausage off the nozzle.

Next I let them warm up to room temperature and then into the smoker until internal temp reaches 160 degrees.

This took about 4 hours.  I smoked for 2 hours at 150 then turned up the heat to 180 for last two hours.

I used about 4 chunks of hickory that were about the size of 2 golfballs.

Don't forget a cold beer to inagurate the first smoke of the season!!!

Yep all I use is a steel bucket with holes punched in it and fill it with charcoal.  I put an oven liner above the bucket to catch any drippings but mainly to diffuse any direct heat.  You get a feeling for how much charcoal and how hot it will get after you use it a few times.  I have about 24 briquettes in there.

I added more after the first half was over.  Just make sure it is burned off and gray not black charcoal or you will get a funny tatse.  To speed up the graying process I use WPT.

Wicked Propane Torch

While that was smoking I cut the lawn.  Porkchop came over to return Angels shoes left at the wedding party and I sent him home with 4 grocery bags of tomatoes.  Then I decided while I had the WPT out I might as well burn the stuff I sprayed with herbicide the other day.

Before

After

Things are getting dry around these parts.  Need rain.

Then it was stump time.  A couple years ago the power company came through and cut down all of the trees on the west side of the house.  It was a big row of spruce and austrian with a couple elms mixed in.

Of course they left the stumps.  It's been a bear to mow around so time to take action.

With the help of Joe and some lighter fluid we killed 9 stumps.  About half of them.

We stayed up till about 10 watching one of them burn.  (and drinking beer but don't tell anyone)  Not Joe though just me!!

You can see here that there is a lot of stumps.

Basically we just chopped the hell out of them with a splitting maul, pile up the chips on the remaining stump, soaked with "flammable stuff" and lit it.  Worked well.  Have a few blisters to show and had some good QT with my son.  I removed the sausage from the smoker when it finally cooled down.  Once my internal temps are reached I remove the bucket from the smoker and then close the door.  The smoker slowly cools down along with the meat.  Then I cut it up into sticks and place in fridge.

Oh yeah it was really good.  YUM

Well that's long enough so stay tuned for whatever I do today.  I have kids for awhile.  Think I see some homemade donuts in our future.

Big Brown Dog says BYE!!!!

Pleasant evening

After a soccer match yesterday we attended a wedding reception for a friend from work.  They were serving Smoked Pork Butts and BBQ chicken.  I must say both were excellent.  The tatse of the chicken leg quarters brought back fond memories of family barbeques on Indian Lake Rd.  The whole family used to get together.  Aunts and Uncles, cousins and grandparents.  Those times were so much fun.  I can still see my Uncles and Dad gathered around Grandpas homebuilt brick BBQ off the corner of the pool room next to the big old cherry tree.  Ahhh the good old days. 
Anyways congratulations Mike and Julie. 
So after a couple draft beers and some bean bag throwing game we proceeded home.  I toasted up an "everything" bagel and piled into bed with my book.  Amazingly beer and food is very similiar to a sleeping pill.  9 pages later it was lights out.  Oh well! 
Eric from work also attended the event and wore his best shirt.  Please read the caption before drawing conclusions.

In case you can't see it, "No Leapfrogging" is what it says.

My wonderfully photogenic wife!

They have a nice little pond with a windmill for aeration.  I think my dogs need one of these for Christmas.  Pond not a windmill!!!
Lastly before heading out yesterday we must have a had a butterfly party in the garden.  There were hundreds of little yellow butterflies everywhere.  Cool!!!

Furlough Anyone???????

Uhhhh.....
Not much happening here.  My six day hiatus from posting has left me with so much to blog about, so much to blog about, "you didn't have to say it twice", I didn't it's the echo in my otherwise empty head!
They "gave" us a furlough at work.  More of a force feeding than a gift I would presume, however, other than losing out on a paycheck and trying to cram that weeks bills into this weeks bills and the week after .......
Never mind.  I am glad to have some time off.  I was getting a bit aggravated at work anyways.  They pay me to babysit but camoflauge it with a word called "leader".  So essentially I get to deal with everyones crap, cover for everyones absence, and deal with whiny, sissy old men and lazy middle aged men and then try not to let it bother me because I get paid to do that.  As long as I do it the way they want me to.  With kid gloves and friendly expressions and not with words like ,"your nothing but a crotchety old fart anyways".  Seriously.
My Dad taught me that when you went to work you did your best at whatever task you were assingned.  You gave it your all for the good of the company and the good of the people you worked with and the community as well as doing the best for your family.  Work was not just a way to survive but to make the world better by just a little bit at a time. 
The older I get the harder it is to practice these principles. 
I'll admit I get sucked into the HoHum of everyday life and the days just bleed by like a leaky old faucet that constantly drips into the same spot.  The spot never floods but stays damp and before you know it there is some mold growing and then one day you wake up and say " Hey" where is the bleach and a wrench.
I get stuck under that faucet from time to time.  This furlough could be my bleach.  Just a little chance to let my mind wander from the everday, and the ordinary.  So I would I guess it's safe to say the glass is half full.
It would be fuller but I just took a big swig!!!!!!

So I started the day off yesterday with a big cup of coffee and a goose scouting expedition.  I checked some swale holes on one of the farms we hunt and unfortunatley it was dried up so no waterfowling there.
I returned home and began to put vinyl siding on my smoker.  I made it through three sides and started to feel yucky so I went in the house, fluffed some pillows on the couch and read about a hundred pages or so.

I feel better today.  Of course I have some pictures.  I was looking at them this morning when I downloaded them and noticed Remmi's head peaking around the smoker when I took a picture.  Kinda cute!!

Big mantis we found at work.  Someone threw her in the trash so I dug her out and took her outside.

One of the ponds we hunt.  This a shot of the little cuts on the back side of the pond.  If you go straight out you will hit the larger body of water.  Ducks love it!!  If you zoom in on the other you will see some geese out in the field.  Ok until later.  We have soccer and a wedding party today.

More garden harvest pictures

I went out and picked even more peppers.  I picked a bunch of yellow and green bells, red jalapenos and chili peppers.

The chili peppers I put in the dehydrator, the bells are waiting on the counter to be eaten and given away.

The jalapenos I am saving until next week when I am off work to put them in the smoker and make chipoltes.

This is where the chilis went

This is what happened to half of the cayenne peppers.  The other half I vacuum packed and are in the cupboard next to my sausage and jerky supplies.  waiting to make hot stuff.

Ok that's enough posting for today.  I have 2 slabs of ribs smoking on the grill right now.  With that we will have sweet corn on the cob and fresh sliced tomatoes.  How's that for a summer meal!!

Not sure what to title this post, so this will have to do!!!!!!

I picked a peck of peppers, oh wait, I only picked a few.  How much is a peck anyways.  If it's a lot than maybe we have been "pecking" each others cheeks with kisses all wrong.  Seriously, as if, I did harvest enough cayenne peppers to dry them out for future use.  I borrowed the neighbors dehydrator, thanks Michaelle, it took about 30 -40 hours to get it done but they are dry now.  I will chop some and some I will leave whole and vac pack them and store them in the cupboard.

Before                                                                          After

For dinner last night I used Cowgirls recipe for what she calls Bierocks.  Sort of like a Pasty in Michigan.

I made up the dough from scratch, browned burger, onions, garlic, added fresh cabbage simmered until soft.

Rolled out the dough, plopped down the filling(after cooling) and made little bundles or rocks.

Popped in the oven until golden brown with a double brushing of melted butter.  Go to Cowgirls blog to see the whole recipe in detail.  Link on the right side of this blog.  She has really great cooking ideas.  I think I was most excited about making a dough from scratch.  I have never done that before.  It opens up a whole new world of cooking adventures.  Sounds silly but I never was into baking or bread or anything in that field.

Guess what though?  I think I need a mixer.  LOL

I smothered mine with mushroom gravy and a side of long grain wild rice.  Yum Thanks Jeanne!!

Sunday Morning is here and as usual everyone is still sleeping and it's 9:03AM.

I went outside and it is breezy and remarkebly cool.  I snapped some pics of the garden and my morning glories which are in full swing right now.

This is my upper back porch.  It is covered and leads down to the main deck.

This is where I create grilling magic or just relax with a cup of Joe!  The lattice was originally just for screening.  At the top is also a roll down bamboo shade for those hot summer aftternoons because that is a western exposure.  There is also a ceiling fan with light to move the air around.  Or smoke depends on what I'm cooking.  Like the ribs I will be smoking for dinner tonight.  YUM!!

The view from the yard.  The hot tub sits just below the upper deck and when your in it you can rest your beverages or what nots up on the floor of the upper deck.

Here are some shots of the garden.  The harvest is in full swing however the garden has lost it's luscious look.

It's not nearly as beautiful as it was all summer.  Oh well.  I have already put up 40 quarts of tomato product.

Diced, stewed, whole tomatos as well as some salsa.

Archer has done a really good job of guarding the watermelon patch until this weekend.

He told me he was dozing in the sunshine the other day and when he woke up he was missing 3 watermelons.  I told him it was ok but next time no napping!  Little does he know that two are in my kitchen and Mr. jerry has the other one.  LOL.  Yes I am crazy.  But.....he is a great listener.

That's all Folks!!

Early Season Goose is almost here

We are about two weeks away from the opener of early goose season here in Michigan.
It's always a fun time.  Lots of work to shoot any geese though.  We are dealing with resident geese as the ones up north haven't began to migrate yet.  After the first day or so they get real smart.  You had better have your set up perfect.  There will be a lot of people out hunting them and they will get shot at from field to field.
However my goose partner, Ernie, and I have a secret weapon.  Most guys will hunt the fields that they feed in.  We set up in the water holes and mud puddles and wait for them to come back.  We use our Super Stealthy Duck Boat.  Yeah it works for geese to but duck boat just sounds better.

This a during construction shot last year.

The panels are simple PVC frame with green garden fencing ziptied to it.

Down the road there is a neighbor with a cattail swamp and I asked to cut some down.

Then I wove it into the fencing creating a panel.  I will attatch various forms of vegetation to the outside of the panels as well.  With two guys in the boat we look like a little island out there.

Another shot during construction.  The trick is to layer it so it has some dimension.  This is not the final look by the way.

The sides fold down for easy transport. 

We have a trolling motor on the back.

When the geese hit the water we just troll over to them and pick 'em up.

Looking at this picture you can see that if I were to sit down you woouldn't see anything but the top of my hat.  Also Ernie is on shore taking the picture.  I am usually in front weighting down the bow so that the water line is almost up to the vegetation.  I love the duck boat.  The great thing is it holds all the decoys and stuff we need to hunt with so we simply grab the boat and toss it in the water.

Can't wait.  Great time, Good friends and a bunch of goose jerky(God willing I can shoot them)