Posted on 05/01/2026 6:24:57 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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Oh my! That does look decadent AND delicious!! Will have to try sometime soon.
I had to go scrounge in the shop for the covers we used on the hosta pots last year. That dang deer has visited at least 3 times & is munching her way around the pot. I think she may have done some munching on the variegated pot, too. Anyway, they are covered for the evening so she’ll be disappointed tonight.
The heavy humidity of this afternoon is gone - cool, light breeze & sprinkling. The chorus of frogs is unbelievable.
I haven’t seen any bees emerging, and this is the first time they’ve built there, so I’m wondering if heat was a factor?
I’ll keep an eye on the spot (I can see the mud up under the siding against the field stone) and let you know.
Sunny day, blue skies, pretty good breeze. Things should dry out a lot today - plan on mowing tomorrow. The humidity should drop off this afternoon & be lower tomorrow.
I will definitely have to move my peppers to keep them from getting sunburned this afternoon. I might have enough agricultural cloth to make a shade.
I need to get those Lantana planted in our large pots. The dirt currently in them is just that: dirt. It packs hard & is from our old brush pile at the Old House. I want to refill all 3 pots with potting soil. I am hoping to recruit mom to help - she’s a workhorse & in my current ‘state’, I don’t think I can do the pots myself.
The lavender has taken off & grown a couple of inches. Once I can mow a path through the long grass/ticks to the metal beds, those can go in the ground & I think they will be very happy.
Do you still have the female pup who was being aggressive with Grover?
Here’s a question for... someone...
I have a large Rubbermaid cooler with the double lids. The problem is, those lids are filled with foam (good) but the seal around the lids (to keep moisture out of the foam) has failed and rainwater got in. So, now the lids are heavier than heck and don’t insulate well. There are a couple plugs that pull out of the lids, but very little water drips out.
Is there any way to get that water out?
The only thing I can think of is to pull the lids off (I think that can be done), leave the plugs open, and put the lids in a hot car on sunny days for a week or more, to sort of bake out the moisture. Afterward, I think I can reseal the lids.
I kinda hate to junk the cooler - they are $50 or more, these days, and I can definitely use it.
Thoughts?
NWS is hanging with the northeasterly or easterly breezes for us for at least 7 days. VERY unusual. Our high is forecast at 84 deg (and very humid) today (yuck!), but rain chances re-enter tomorrow, and things gradually cool off a bit through the weekend. :-)
I forgot to mention, wifey fried up some of the catfish - basically, she just cut the fish into pieces or fillets not over 3/4” thick, salted the “meat”, and fried them thoroughly in a pan with hot oil. No breading. To my surprise, the result was quite good, including the “meat” from the bullhead that was in that bag of cleaned catfish. There’s no fishy or muddy taste at all.
I guess this goes to show how much good water positively affects the taste of the catfish. Even out of pretty decent ponds, I find catfish needs to be well marinated before cooking. But, not here...
:-)
Evidently, mom went out the front door to take the covers off the hosta pots. When she came in, she just pulled the door shut, didn’t engage the deadbolt. The wind is blowing so hard, it literally blew the door open! This has happened once before - both times I was able to catch it when it happened so we didn’t end up with a house full of flies & bees. Wind is currently N11, gusts up to 20 mph.
Stinkin’ deer found my pepper plants. I had them tucked into my herb garden since they leave that alone. Of course, they chomped the two ‘different’ ones: Pantera & Gigantia. I think there’s enough left they’ll survive - I need to trim them up a bit so not so ragged. They went from 18” to about 6”.
I want to build a ‘cover’ for that raised bed that will be a mini-greenhouse, provide shade during hardening off, & keep the deer off the plants. I’m ‘noodling’ on it, especially since I would like to use existing fence panels, but no designs have yet occurred. One issue is the raised bed is 6’ & the fence panels are 5’.
I was thinking heat and the rocks might be a factor. Just pick up a house. Now’s the time they will be filling it up. Mason bees are 80% better pollinators than honey bees. No stinging. No hassle, lots of your garden gets pollinated.
“Do you still have the female pup who was being aggressive with Grover?”
Yes, ‘Midnight’ has her own Doggy Condo and is on a chain, so that way if Grover goes near her and she’s being a jerk, he can just run away. She HAS settled down quite a bit. Beau has been working with her. She’s 6 months old, now. It’s not like a baby PUPPY on a chain in one of those ASPCA sad-puppy commercials! ;)
This weekend he will probably re-introduce them to one another and see how it goes. She’ll be on a leash and will more than likely have a ‘correction’ collar on her so he can stop her in her tracks if she’s still being a jerk.
He leaves for Canada for a Spring bear hunt on the 4th, and I will have to take care of all the dogs he leaves behind (he is taking 5 of the current 15) and if she’s not, ‘over it’ the owner’s Dad will take Midnight back to his farm for me.
The reason we have the pups run loose is that they learn about life. And one of our Beagles, or one of the older hunting dogs (with tracking collar!) will take them out and show them the ropes on tracking and basic hunting of smaller game like rabbits and raccoon. You learn to hunt by...hunting! We don’t live by any roads and one or the other of us can see on the Garmin where they are at any given time. Then they move up to bigger things. It makes a HUGE difference in their socialization and their working as a TEAM with others in the pack that they will eventually be integrated into.
Sounds complicated, but it is the most natural way to raise dogs that live to HUNT. I have had SO many compliments on how friendly and ‘social’ my pups are, from their new owners. And I sure want to KEEP that reputation!
I only took on these two because their owner is a good friend of Beau’s, and he is in the middle of selling his place up by our northern cabin, moving to the Fox Valley area, changing jobs, getting married, adopting two little girls and having another baby right now. Otherwise I would have said, ‘Sorry, Charlie,’ LOL!
I have never had any problems with aggression in ANY of the 29 pups I’ve raised from scratch. I most likely won’t take in ANY pups again from someone else that I haven’t helped birth myself! This was an exception - AND these two pups did not come from the same litter, and Midnight is older than Grover, but I’ve integrated pups before that have had age differences. *SHRUG* I guess it’s just one of those things you get to deal with when raising hunting dogs for fun and little profit. ;)
On ‘The Good News’ side, Emma Jolene only needs 1 more UKC Win to be a ‘Bench Champion.’ Friend Hallie will more than likely show Emma at an upcoming UKC-sponsored Bench Show between now and the end of the year. She’ll be a Nite Champion, a Bench Champion and then she can try for one more ‘championship’ for the whole trifecta (I think it’s a Field Trial Championship?) but I fear she won’t live long enough; she’s going on 10 years and that’s old for a working Walker Dog. Unfortunately, she’s also too old to breed at this point. She’d have some talented pups with the right Baby Doggy Daddy!
Beau can put us BOTH out to pasture at the same time. Emma Jolene and I will be just fine...sittin’ on that sack of dog chow, LOL!
“Whew!”
No such problems here @ present - it’s just hot & humid, and I’m not yet acclimated, wifey less so. But, she’s not trying to work outside, and I am. I had to take a couple hour break when I realized I’d been “pushing it” a bit. I’m ok now, though: Rested, well re-hydrated, and back to it, a little less “aggressive”. :-)
The bizarre weather pattern I mentioned above is showing up in another way, too: Normally, our showers and t-storms, unless associated with the remnants of a hurricane or tropical storm, do not move to the West, especially the northwest. Yet right now, clusters of t-storms in SEMO and Western TN are moving very slowly to the northwest, without any such tropical system being involved. Some of those heavy downpours probably “feel” pretty tropical if they dump rin on you for a while, though!
I was gone today - all day - but I will look tomorrow and this weekend and see if there are any survivors. I’m assuming they should be out and about by now!
I will get a few of those Mason bee houses - or have Beau build me some. He loves it when I give him a project, LOL!
Bury that fish head next to your Opo squash, LOL!
Hi, Diana, you seem to really be “up” on dog events and such. Do you know what the event was at the West KY WMA, that ran for about a week, ending around last Friday or so? (I’m not exactly sure on dates, as I only go by there sporadically, but for sure there were plenty of people there for several days.)
Some sorts of dog trials? Curious, I detoured around a bit in the WMA (Wildlife Management Area) and different locations in the WMA appeared to be set up for different events or trials.
There seemed to be a lot of people there (and vehicles for carrying dogs.)
I hunted around on the web and found nothing - prolly wasn’t asking correctly? I find it hard to believe such an event, drawing hundreds of people, not to mention dogs, could be so “invisible” on the Internet.
Heh, I’ll have to protect the plants from being dug up. We STILL have some critter or critters about the place @ night, some nights.
And as it turns out, by coincidence, as I had 4 such nice catfish heads: I tried a couple of the smaller heads near the bottom of approx. 1-1/2 gallon pots (that stay outside!), the bigger two in closer to 3 gallon pots. I’ve never tried them (fish heads) with potted plants before.
Wifey cooks the bass and bluegill, scaled and gutted, but with the heads on, Asian style, so, those heads I don’t get for the garden. In the past I’ve saved a few bluegill that were too small to clean and cook (unless one was really desperate), from overpopulated ponds, for such Squanto-like efforts. But, again, the marauding coons and opossums can be a problem, then.
I’m trying this with “spare” tomato plants — the Opo are a bit much to risk.
I would guess it was some sort of BIRD-dog Bench Show/Field Trial based upon the breeds I see in the pictures at the link below.
Looks like they held it there in 2025 and just may not have the 2026 recent pictures and winners posted, yet? Maybe they do this a number of times throughout the year in the same location?
West Kentucky Field Trial Club
https://americanfield.com/result?result_id=1449
WEST KENTUCKY STATE WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA
https://www.stateparks.com/west_kentucky_state_wildlife_management_area_in_kentucky.html
My best guess. :)
I can see that critters would LOVE to dig up the fish heads from under your plants. My Grandpa used to ‘plant fish heads’ while trying to grow tomatoes in the ridiculously sandy soil of Washara County. Can’t beat it for drainage, though, LOL!
Not sure WHY he never imported some better soil, or composted, but it wasn’t that much of a THING back then unless you were one of those, ‘g-d@mn HIPPIES,’ LOL!
I think my Grandpa needs to come back to me now so I can show him how to grow tomatoes, LOL! (I’m sure he’s smiling down at me from above, anyway...and MAD that I’m not taking better care of his gardening tools than I do...)
Coons have dug up my Broccoli plants 3x, now. Not all twelve, but a few each evening; enough to be annoying. They seem to be over it now, and all of the plants have survived. We go through this EVERY year. JERKS!
Thanks for the info - very interesting! Sounds like you have a great system for turning out successful hunting dogs.
Hi, Diana! Thanks, yeah, I went all through the info. I could find via the link you sent me, and beyond - no luck.
The West KY WMA does have multiple dog events each year, now, but as I recall the manager once telling me, in an e-mail, the sponsoring groups vary. He has done a lot of work to bring these events in, quite successfully. I don’t know of any other State conservation area in the region that gets this much of this type activity, except MAYBE the “World Shooting and Recreation Complex” near Sparta, IL, into which the State of IL has plowed probably 20x the money, and utterly fails to promote the place properly.
I might drop an e-mail over to the manager of the West Ky WMA: I was thinking, when I saw all that activity around the WMA ponds, that I was glad I hadn’t made a trip over there to do some fishing. Maybe he can set up a sort of ping / mass e-mail to let people know in advance the dates that the WMA will be busy with dogs and their owners / handlers, enthusiasts, etc..
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