Flyer's diary

[alligatorob]

all i remember is that we first stopped at the market and picked up some fish scraps... heads were great. then we went to a place there was a pier going out about 30 feet into a backwater channel... i'm not sure if it was on the bay or the ocean side.

using regular heavy fishing line and just tying the head to the end, we could actually see down to the shallow bottom and when a crab started to feed, pulling it up gently, it would often hold on until we could net them from below. pretty simple method, but far from an easy catch. most of them were very quick and it took a gentle touch.

Yep, more or less the same way I did it. We more often used chicken necks than fish heads, but I have done it with both. My guess is it was the bay side, I don't know Cape Cod, but most places the crabbing is better in brackish water bays than full saltwater.

My grandmother in particular loved to crab, every time we saw her we'd have to go crabbing. She lived in Louisiana and the crabbing there was great. When they came to Florida to visit us we also went crabbing, though Florida crabbing never seemed as productive as Louisiana. Some of my earliest memories are crabbing. Until we moved to Utah a couple of years ago I still did some blue crabbing, but my wife is not a fan of blue crabs, she prefers stone. Caught a lot of blue crabs that way. In later years I went to traps, kind of the lazy way, but more productive. You can't catch stone crabs using the line method, not that I know of anyway.

Never lived anywhere that clamming was done.

 

[overlandflyer]

heat wave? ... apparently we didn't get the word...



cool as a ... ?
vegifact... even in hot weather, the inside of cucumbers are approximately 20° cooler than the outside air.

 

[overlandflyer]

peppers are looking good this year...


Habanero...


Jalapeno, Poblano, Anaheim ...

aside from the Habaneros, i still haven't figured out which might turn colors besides the basic green. i have another bush with about 2 dozen Serranos that i'm sure will turn red so i plan on leaving those be for now.

cleaning up the basement yesterday, came across a box of these and had a little smile...



any seniors out there remember this debacle?

 

[overlandflyer]

wordplay... fun stuff.

13 Breakfast Foods That Are Also Verbs

 

[overlandflyer]

i’m glad 25 July is the anniversary of my dad’s birthday (106 years), for if not, i would only remember this day 29 years ago when i was at the ballpark where Rosanne assaulted the National Anthem in front of a stunned crowd. yup, i was there... a daytime double header... you don’t get a chance to see those very often.

strangely enough... i’d have to rate this as the 2nd most Twilight Zone moment i ever experienced at a Padre game. the other one had a much funnier ending. it was a game where they gave away a souvenir signed baseball... before the game started.... and the visiting team was the Cubs... and perhaps a few more than 1/2 the fans that day were Cubs fans... and they had a baseball in their hands they didn’t much care about. ...maybe you can figure out the rest.

 

[alligatorob]

i’m glad 25 July is the anniversary of my dad’s birthday (106 years), for if not, i would only remember this day 29 years ago when i was at the ballpark where Rosanne assaulted the National Anthem in front of a stunned crowd. yup, i was there.

I remember that, one of Rosanne's many stunts.

I have only been to a handful of big league games, never really lived close to where it was easy to do. Growing up in Florida however I was able to go to spring training games more often. Its hard to beat a good baseball game on a warm summer afternoon, beer and relaxing.

 

[overlandflyer]

before i moved to San Diego i worked for the Army in the NYC area. to get to a Mets or a Yankees game it was typically an all day affair with tickets purchased months in advance. San Diego is a whole different story. the Padres rarely even come close to selling out and i could decide in the morning whether i wanted to go to a daytime game taking all of maybe 15 minutes to drive out to the stadium, buy a ticket pretty much anywhere you want to sit and enjoy the afternoon. they moved the staduim downtown... now a trolley ride to get there... probably better, but i've yet to figure out the new park (ok... maybe the new 14 year old park... lol).

i had a stressful week this past week and for a few days it was a pretty minimal intermittent fast... probably 14/10 at best... and, although it was nutritious food... i probably overshopped a bit and it was a matter of eat it or throw it out. i don't really consider it too bad and even better, i caught my changed mood in time to not let it get carried away and count that as a bit of a victory.

 

[overlandflyer]

well i believe i've ID'ed another pepper plant...

these look like pre-red bhut jolokia peppers. also apparently called ghost peppers, these are supposedly HOT...!

here is a picture i pulled up with the mature versions. i have been leaving peppers i believe should turn red (Cayenne, Anaheim red, ...) but so far there is no sign of anything but green. perhaps it will come as a function of the equinox...?

best part about growing them is the immediate availability & about as fresh as you can get. they do ok in pots on my porch, but i'm sure they would do much better in the ground. i've got 13 plants with 7 different types now... very easy. i do spray for caterpillars anyway, but they do not seem to attract any pests.

 

[alligatorob]

Like your pepper plants!

When we lived in Florida I grew lots of different kinds of peppers, the tabascos were my favorites. We got the original seeds from the gift shop at the Tabasco company headquarters Avery Island, Louisiana. The plants has no trouble overwintering in Florida so we had some really nice pepper "trees". Only problem was they became kind of invasive, it was impossible to pick all the little tabasco peppers and the seeds spread all over.

I know San Diego is as good or better climate to grow things than Florida, I envy you that. We do have some peppers in our garden here, but just bell peppers and sweet peppers, nothing so as exotic as yours.

 

[overlandflyer]

been thinking about getting some outdoor lighting for my patio/ porch and living in SoCal, having some emergency lighting on hand is never a bad idea, so ... two birds ...

... speaking of birds...

they're getting more used to me sitting about 10 feet away.

 

[Cate]

Those lights look like a good investment for us too. We look out on a very active birdbath from our living room. They love it when I give it a good scrub & refill with fresh water. Do you get many different species in your birdbath?
Do you upload your photos straight from your phone Flyer & if so what do you resize them to? Mine only worked for one day!

 

[overlandflyer]

fyi... those lanterns are both from the 70's; one is a Model 220F (1971) and the other is a Model J (1979). i'm not really an expert, but i did a little research and the consensus seems to be that older models were built better. these two were in pretty good shape cosmetically and the only maintenance i needed to do was to replace the mantles (they are quite fragile after they are lit for the first time, so never expect one to survive shipping) but they are still available at most outdoors-type stores & oil the pump which is usually dried out if out of use for a while. their light output is rated at 1500 lumens which is about a 100 watt bulb. two of them really light up my whole patio/ porch well.

should probably add that together i got them for less than a brand new Coleman is going for and A LOT less than their 2019 limited edition (holy cow!!) collectors model.

i get mostly finches to my bird baths... i'm really not a birder, though. when i see something different i usually ask my nephew who is a National Park Ranger and an active bird watcher. the only other ones i can recognize are a few morning doves. i do get a visit from hummingbirds occasionally. they are pretty funny to watch. they hover over the water and just bob down into the bath a few times then take off.

 

[overlandflyer]

i notice that pictures i post here seem to look larger than on most sites so i have been knocking down the size to ~500 pixels for the longest side.

again, here are the steps i now have to go through to have a picture appear inline....

1) upload the picture by just dropping it on the response or using the "Attach files" button. it will "look" like the picture is there, but it isn't really.
2) right click on the icon for the new picture and open it up in a new window.
3) copy the URL.
4) now go back to the response and delete the picture you see in your response.
5) go up to the menu bar and click on the "Insert image (ctl-p)" button.
6) choose "By URL" and paste the copied link.

now your picture will be visible in the response and not just the link.

 

[Cate]

Thanks for letting me know re the pics. I wouldn't do all that! I'll keep an eye out for those lamps. I think I know a store that will have some.

 

[overlandflyer]

this past week or so has been an interesting journey. it definitely started when i overshopped and wound up with way too much food. and as well as intermittent fasting works, you still really can't eat more in a day than you can burn off and not expect to store something. so i have been in the low 170's for about a week now. this morning things look like they might be back under control...

still 5-6 hours before breakfast. next shopping trip ... real soon... i'll have to do some better planning.

 

[overlandflyer]

i have a feeling August will be a very corny month... mmmmm ... !

 

[overlandflyer]

...

again, here are the steps i now have to go through to have a picture appear inline....

oh well... cancel those instructions as attaching files/ photos seems to be back the way it was a few weeks ago.

 

[overlandflyer]

International Cat Day...



Rodney the Cat... "I tell you, ...I get no respect!"

 

[overlandflyer]

well i believe i've ID'ed another pepper plant...

these look like pre-red bhut jolokia peppers. also apparently called ghost peppers, these are supposedly HOT...!

here is a picture i pulled up with the mature versions. i have been leaving peppers i believe should turn red (Cayenne, Anaheim red, ...) but so far there is no sign of anything but green. perhaps it will come as a function of the equinox...?

best part about growing them is the immediate availability & about as fresh as you can get. they do ok in pots on my porch, but i'm sure they would do much better in the ground. i've got 13 plants with 7 different types now... very easy. i do spray for caterpillars anyway, but they do not seem to attract any pests.

this is a warning... a serious warning.

i picked one of these this morning and tried a little piece...


that was it.... about an 1/8" section out of the middle. notice this is not even a mature red pepper, but reading that they were hot, i had to try one.

wow... it's about 1/2 hour later and the burning sensation has finally left my mouth. i have tried hot peppers before and a lot of what is termed 5-alarm and higher chili, but this was well above anything i have ever bitten into. i'm not sure if this sort of hotness can do any permanent damage, but right now i'm sitting here looking at this picture and thinking about what might have happened had i really bitten into this pepper.

 

[overlandflyer]

new snacks... impulse shopping, but .... something about these little guys that says... eat me!

one serving (1/6 package) ... 140 kcal... 45 from fat. 1 or less gm sugar.
5g/ 20g/ 3g ... fat/ carb/ prot


all 3 pretty much the same nutrition-wise...


Parmesan...


Pizza!! ... my favorite ...

things are going to change a bit, though... new rule... OBEY THE RULES. this practice started off as one-a-day AT MOST... many days i skipped. recently i have been talking myself out of following that guideline ... no more. this should be easy... 18 bags... 18 days left in August. the Sept 1 inventory had better show a bag or two.