Fitty's Angling Ramble 7.0

[Nainoa]

I hate to break it to you, but we've had over 30 days of below zero temps so far this winter with the lowest being around -25 or so. I guarantee you that we'll have plenty of skeeters this coming summer.

I remember reading somewhere that the eggs can lay dormant for something like 7 years through extreme drought and/or cold and still survive.

One of the nice things about living in the sand plains up here... While the garden struggles for water, so do the mosquitoes!

Yesterday was ROUGH... The tallest drift was up to my shoulder... For 400 feet!

Managed to punch a hole with the truck and snow blower that stayed open JUST long enough for my wife to get through.

Luckily she has today off... So later on I'm going to go out there and open it up so she can get to work tomorrow. Then on Wednesday Mother in Law is coming in and I'm going to clear the ditches and the rest of the inner compound.

Some of the 4 foot driveway markers have vanished... I did a quick measure last night and I'm 6 inches under the record snow for last year!

Go figure, I move out to the sticks and we have back to back brutal winters!

[lhprop1]

I went to blow out the driveway yesterday. We only had a few inches, but the wind was making some pretty big drifts. Just as I was finishing my last few passes, the neighbor came out and started blowing out his driveway.

He is upwind from me.

[Nainoa]

I went to blow out the driveway yesterday. We only had a few inches, but the wind was making some pretty big drifts. Just as I was finishing my last few passes, the neighbor came out and started blowing out his driveway.

He is upwind from me.

Today is an office day for me, so I'm down in the dungeon. Went up and looked out... The inner compound isn't all that bad. Only mildly worse than how I left it last night.

The LONG stretch of the driveway however is GONE.

My only option is to wait until 3pm when the temp outside has warmed up to -32 windchill to go clear that stretch.

[GREENFEATHER]

I hate to break it to you, but we've had over 30 days of below zero temps so far this winter with the lowest being around -25 or so. I guarantee you that we'll have plenty of skeeters this coming summer.

I remember reading somewhere that the eggs can lay dormant for something like 7 years through extreme drought and/or cold and still survive.

The ones here don't fare well in these cold temps. Ticks and those fukn Chinese stinkbugs will take it in the ass this year though.

[|ceman]

The ones here don't fare well in these cold temps. Ticks and those fukn Chinese stinkbugs will take it in the ass this year though.

something tells me they'll still survive. I hate those dumb buggers. Can't we genetically engineer a praying mantis to go after them or something?

[Hartski]

Good God, when we genetically engineer a praying mantis, we're all done for!

[Nainoa]

something tells me they'll still survive. I hate those dumb buggers. Can't we genetically engineer a praying mantis to go after them or something?

No need... Praying Mantis Kills ALL...

If Chuck Norris was an insect and he brought the terminator with him combined they couldn't kill a Mantis!

I raised some last year to help with garden pests... I had a poor hatch so I'm not sure if I'm going to do it again. But at the same time they certainly knocked down the insect population. I mean I grew 120 potato plants. I saw 1 Colorado Potato Beetle. In 2012 I was infested with BPB's!

You don't see them a lot, so you kind of don't notice them... The best one I saw was Praying Mantis vs a Yellow Jacket.

Mantis was killing the Yellow Jackets on a Tomato plant he'd staked out as his territory. Finally the Master Yellow Jacket came for a confrontation.

Mantis and he tussled. Yellow jacket stabbed him in the Thorax Over and over and over while it was trying to fly away... The two of them sorted of "Hover-Fell" to the ground.

The last thing the Mantis did before it died was reach over and straight RIP the yellow jackets head off and started snacking on it's skull as a last meal before it died.

RIP Henry... You were a bad ass!

[Nainoa]

Well, the day we've been waiting for finally came yesterday when my Father in Law completed his mission to drink himself to death.


Actually it was probably more like last Thursday and it just took until yesterday for someone to find him.


My wife is currently out breaking the news to his 97 year old mother.

His drunkard friends have been stealing from him in bits and pieces, so over the next two days we're going there to clear out all the key valuables. Including his Burt Gummer gun collection and the 1997 F-150 that will become my snow plow once all the probate stuff is cleared away.

Other than my wife his kids are taking a hands off approach... They'll write checks, send cards and show up for the funeral, but they're leaving all the dirty work to my wife and I.

It's a sad way to end a life.

But at least I'll have a plow truck for next winter!

[Hartski]

sorry and congrats at the same time, Nainoa....

[|ceman]

sorry and congrats at the same time, Nainoa....

my thoughts exactly.

[Nainoa]

sorry and congrats at the same time, Nainoa....

Thanks guys...

It's strange because in a lot of ways he liked me and got along with me better than he did his own kids.

He only knew the language of being a man's man and all the booze put blinders on him to see things any other way. Not exactly a great recipe for getting along with 2 daughters and a son who's a tech geek.

I can already see the biggest challenge here is all these other family members telling us how we should take care of his final affairs... But when it calls for their participation they suddenly need to get an emergency dental cleaning or have an important hair cut scheduled.

In an hour or so I leave to go back to the house... Not looking forward to this one!

[GREENFEATHER]

Sounds like my grandfather Nainoa. He was a miserable bastard. Nothing pleased him and he was mean as a fukn snake.

In other news, I made the decision to call the pescalator truck and pull the fish. I can't get the temps in the ponds above 55. While it's OK for the cats, the tilapia will start breaking with every goddamn thing to come down the pike. I'll let the tilapia pond ice over till spring. Better to get a little something that a whole lot of nothing. Get ready to pay A LOT more for fish folks. They're about 3 weeks early so I'll end up losing my ass on this batch, close to $15,000. Catfish will keep for another 3 weeks, but the tilapia are outta here tomorrow.

[Hartski]

Holy crap, Greenfeather. Can you write that off for taxes?

[GREENFEATHER]

Holy crap, Greenfeather. Can you write that off for taxes?

Yea, I raise them to the same size every time so I'll write it all off.

[Nainoa]

What a rough ass day...

Threw up three times trying to clean up the worst of Father In Law's living room. It was so putrid we ended up having a fire of black and green smoke in the yard.

Got the vehicles started...

The car was supposed to have the tires at 35 PSI...

IF you added all four tires together you would have a total of 48 PSI!

Other than an exhaust leak it's a nice grand prix. The plow truck/f-150 was a goddam nightmare!

Actually had a mouse nest light on fire AS I WAS DRIVING IT! It was like Rat BBQ and burning hay smoke pouring through the vents! Tranny is messed up somehow. At the gas station I was trying to shift it from Drive to park. It got jammed in reverse somehow and the accelerator stuck. All I could do was hold the brakes down while I SMOKED the tread off the snow tires in front of a whole gas station full of people.

This woman was broke down next to me with her kids in the car and this dead panic look on her face.

Finally I put it in 1 and turned on the wipers before everything settled down.

Afterward my buddy who was following me, and didn't know what was going on... He walked up and asked me "Why in the hell did you do the ultimate brake stand?"

To top it off the truck's driver seat is stuck completely leaned back, so I had to drive it with a gangsta lean the whole time. Of course Father in law had an incontinence issue in there... So the whole time I was sitting on a sheet of plastic.

[GREENFEATHER]

Try changing the transmission fluid Nainoa. Once with whatever Ford recommends, then to a GOOD synthetic like Transynd from Castrol. That's what I use in the Allison and anything that uses transmission fluid. Or look for a wreck and get a manual and do the swap. And Febreeze works wonders for odors.

[|ceman]

Afterward my buddy who was following me, and didn't know what was going on... He walked up and asked me "Why in the hell did you do the ultimate brake stand?"

To top it off the truck's driver seat is stuck completely leaned back, so I had to drive it with a gangsta lean the whole time. Of course Father in law had an incontinence issue in there... So the whole time I was sitting on a sheet of plastic.

I legit LOL'ed at those sentences.

[Nainoa]

I legit LOL'ed at those sentences.

The brake stand thing is a new running joke between me and my buddy.

This was a huge gas station at rush hour, in the suburbs, full of undead yuppies and office drones gassing up and bringing their kids to LaCrosse practice and Chess Club... Then here I am in a beat to hell old truck, seat kicked back in a redneck gangsta lean SMOKIN the back tires like a Cheech and Chong movie.

I've done brake stands before in my youth... But this one ironically goes down as the best one I've ever done.

Pretty sure I painted some 11's on the concrete!

[Nainoa]

I'm still just WIPED today though... 7 days of busting my ass fighting storms and old man mess... Now the baby has come down with a stomach flu so she was up all night.

[GREENFEATHER]

I'm still just WIPED today though... 7 days of busting my ass fighting storms and old man mess... Now the baby has come down with a stomach flu so she was up all night.

Make sure she stays hydrated bro. Little ones can't handle an electrolyte depletion.

[HairyScandinavian]

I legit LOL'ed at those sentences.

Me too.

The brake stand thing is a new running joke between me and my buddy.

This was a huge gas station at rush hour, in the suburbs, full of undead yuppies and office drones gassing up and bringing their kids to LaCrosse practice and Chess Club... Then here I am in a beat to hell old truck, seat kicked back in a redneck gangsta lean SMOKIN the back tires like a Cheech and Chong movie.

I've done brake stands before in my youth... But this one ironically goes down as the best one I've ever done.

Pretty sure I painted some 11's on the concrete!

The craziest stuff happens to you man, I swear.

[HairyScandinavian]

Wife was working last weekend so I decided to drag my poor 9 year old out on the camping trip. We crossed the bay with 30+ mph winds and gusts up to 40 and got soaked with a 30 degree temp which doesn't mean much to you fukers but in TX with winds like that and getting soaked is pretty damn cold. Temps in the 20's overnight but the sleeping bags were toasty, crawling out of them at 4am sucked balls though. Kid never complained once. We hunted Sat and Sun, Sun we limited out quickly so it was about 2 more hours of me getting cell phone vids like this (below). The dog was not amused.

[Nainoa]

Me too.



The craziest stuff happens to you man, I swear.

Yeah while my buddy said something similar.

We couldn't find his Wallet... And his shady friends are a security concern, so we wanted to wrap up everything of value.

Finally got a hold of the one guy we really trusted. He told us "He lost his wallet about a month ago. He thinks it was still in the old couch when we brought it outside, so it's probably buried still in a snow pile."

So my buddy and I went outside to a 3/4 acre lot FULL of snow piles. I told him "Well you've heard of finding a needle in a hay stack... Couch in a snow pile is a new one on me!"

And of course seeing a couch buried under a snow pile is like finding a rabbit in the clouds, if you stare long enough every one looks like it.

After almost 45 minutes we FINALLY found it... It was actually the snow pile closest to the house

Dug it out... Check the cushions... No luck.

So I lifted it up like a draw bridge while my buddy went looking under.... Only when we lifted it up the under side was crusted with dirty underwear!

Afterward my buddy said "You know whenever my life is getting a little boring, I always know I can call you up to say Hi on a random Wednesday and I'm sure to get sucked into an adventure that will scar me for life!"

[Nainoa]

Baby is doing better now...

She had the biggest splattering poop of her life yesterday came out all 4 sides of the diaper like a feculent fountain of doom. From there she turned the corner.

She just needed a day of Daddy nursing her back to health.

Mother-in-law was being a little bit cavalier about the whole thing... Right up until she came down with it... Now her tune has changed!

It looks like the incubation period for this particular bug is around 36 hours.

I did my best to be super careful yesterday... I figure I've got another 12 hours to know if I'm out of the woods.

DAMN this past 7... No... 10 days has been ROUGH!

[Hartski]

Kate and I have been battling some health issues lately, too. Mine are more just annoyances, but she's got mystery abdominal pain the docs can't figure out and it's really taking it out of her. Tried no dairy, no gluten diets, 2 or 3 different prescriptions, CT scans, bloodwork, ect. Me not being able to help her and make her feel better has taken it's toll on me mentally and physically. I smoked my first cigarette in 14 months yesterday, I'm ashamed to say. And sadly enough, I felt born again for a while. Like everything was going to be all right and I could deal with anything. Powerful neurochemistry at work......

[Nainoa]

Kate and I have been battling some health issues lately, too. Mine are more just annoyances, but she's got mystery abdominal pain the docs can't figure out and it's really taking it out of her. Tried no dairy, no gluten diets, 2 or 3 different prescriptions, CT scans, bloodwork, ect. Me not being able to help her and make her feel better has taken it's toll on me mentally and physically. I smoked my first cigarette in 14 months yesterday, I'm ashamed to say. And sadly enough, I felt born again for a while. Like everything was going to be all right and I could deal with anything. Powerful neurochemistry at work......

Well... First off... Don't be ashamed of your failures... Instead recognize that they are the first step in the new lesson you need to learn about how to handle stress and that slipping back into past comfort zones is at best a short term relief that gains you nothing towards finding the long term answer you need.

If she has a digestive allergy, it might mean that it's been building up over time... And that means that inflamation in the intestinal lining might need SIGNIFICANT time to go down. For instance my buddy with Celiac had been dealing with it for along time. It took him 5 weeks with ZERO gluten intake after 3 weeks of just figuring out all the silly little things in life that have gluten so he could cut them all out.

Ultimately what is really bothering you is the lack of control. Sure most of it you can't control... I get that. But the place to start is to spend some time reflecting... Look for something... Even if it's small that you can influence to try to get a little control... Start from there and with luck you can start turning the tide at least a little bit.

[iccyman001]

Hope everyone is doing well.


I am still living it up over here in this undisclosed location.

[storm1507]

Sorry to hear about your FIL nainoa. It will suck not havig the cooperation of your wife's sister/brother.

Thanks for the vids HS. What kind of ducks did you get? Pintails in that 2nd vid??? We don't get many here.

[GREENFEATHER]

Kate and I have been battling some health issues lately, too. Mine are more just annoyances, but she's got mystery abdominal pain the docs can't figure out and it's really taking it out of her. Tried no dairy, no gluten diets, 2 or 3 different prescriptions, CT scans, bloodwork, ect. Me not being able to help her and make her feel better has taken it's toll on me mentally and physically. I smoked my first cigarette in 14 months yesterday, I'm ashamed to say. And sadly enough, I felt born again for a while. Like everything was going to be all right and I could deal with anything. Powerful neurochemistry at work......

If it's not an allergy I'd have a look at the gall bladder. M had some issues, she went beck to keto which probably purged her gall bladder of stones and she hasn't had an issue since. Make sure she keeps a diary of EVERYTHING she eats and I do mean EVERYTHING. As we age all the things that we did in our youth catch up with is and seemingly insignificant things bring on a world of hurt. Just wait till you're 50+, then the shit gets real. I can't do super spicy anymore or I spend the next day in the loo making the toilet cry like a little girl that just saw a 6" spider.

Hope everyone is doing well.


I am still living it up over here in this undisclosed location.

You think I don't know where you are? WTF do I look like I just fell off the fukn cabbage truck?

[Hartski]

Am I the only one that wants to turn that damned groundhog's head into a cloud of pink mist?