Spaulding Smails

I'm ready. Got a dove lease lined up near Geronimo plus a buddy's ranch 15 min from the house that's along a decent flyway. We've seen a few nice bucks the last few weeks at the ranch. I'll probably set out game cameras in the next few weeks as well. Love this time of year!

1. Texas BBQ 2. Tex-Mex 3. Gulf coast seafood 4. Cajun 5. Soul / Southern

I finally joined Onion Creek a few months ago. Started playing more regularly than I had in the past 15 years. First time to ever keep a handicap. Had to take about a month off during our move, but got back out yesterday. Hadn't touched a club at all. Proceeded to shoot a 62 on the front including a 14 that was the result of three straight drives OB. Followed that up with a 39 on the back for a smooth 101. I'm relatively certain a 23 stroke swing between sides is a record for me.

I'll get a part list from my plumber that installed it.

Here's my shop setup. Pretty simple. Added a T with filter and spigot for the guys to fill up their coolers. I'm going to do something smaller / simpler at the ranch in the next year or so as well.

I just installed one at the shop for my guys. I'll send pics of the setup. In the week since we've had it running, just know you're gonna see a ton of condensation runoff from the melting ice, so if it's running constantly, make sure you plan accordingly.

That series is a MI Window product. Decent builder-grade window. Should be fine for Central Texas.

Agree completely with both you and @F250. From a purely rational point, the push of capitalism towards specialization is absolutely correct. But, the emotional connection is what keeps it in check to a certain degree, at least on an individual basis. Heck, if it was purely capitalism, then we'd completely lose skills like blacksmithing, wood carving, etc. Since a teen, I've always wanted to learn as many skills as I could. Carpentry, welding, electrical, plumbing, cooking, gardening, working on equipment. I sincerely enjoy the pride of completing a project well. And, I'll admit that I like being the one that friends and family ask to help, ask to borrow tools from, and ask for advice on how to do things. I like at least knowing that I COULD do something if I wanted to. But, I've finally found myself reaching a point of beginning to defer to others for some of these tasks recently. For example, I had three relatively minor plumbing issues at my house. I brought my plumber out to take care of it. We needed a second A-frame at the ranch. I hired a welder to build it for me. Five years ago, I would have absolutely done those projects myself. But, I'm at a point in my professional and personal life where I outsource those occasionally. I try to at least do the things that are manageable and don't snowball. I like breaking a good sweat working outside and knocking some things off a list while having something productive to show for it at the end of the day. I'm not sure a purely capitalistic view can account for that sentiment.

This strategy is brilliant and so worth it. My wife, mom, MIL and sister took my kids with the cousins three years ago. I stayed back and GLADY watched the other one.

Gasoline safety cans.

I think you're smart to find someone or something other than you to validate the lack of a reimbursement. That could be the articles of incorporation or the statute that @Huckleberry referenced. Make sure this is "them vs the league" not "them vs YOU". To lighten the blow on them financially, can you issue them an 80G certificate so they can at least write off the "donation"?

I asked my master tech about this today. Cut and pasted your text. He said "$800 - $1,000". So, slightly higher that what we'd charge here, but not outlandish.

There's tons of great bass fishing lakes much closer to Dallas. I don't have any recommendations, but check out Fork, Ray Roberts, Texoma, Sam Rayburn or Toledo Bend. Should be plenty of guides to choose from on any of those lakes if you want to give it a shot before embarking on an overnight trip.

@troph I have a great referral for fly fishing out of Tavernier if you still need it. Small skiff, though. No more than two anglers. @DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt you're spot on regarding sharks. I was fishing Florida Bay in 2018 with my wife. She caught a nice little mangrove snapper. She went to pull it into the boat, and our guide reached over to help her. Just as she swung her line over the hull, a 6' bull shark crested the water and went after the fish. Our very experienced guide 'bout shit himself. To the point he had to sit down for a second. He said the sharks have started to learn that boat = easy pickins. Not surprising at all to see them near anglers, and you bring up a good point about fish that are released.

Anyone have any suggestions for taller tomato cages? I've used the standard 48" round cages, and every year about this time of year, I swear I'm going to ditch them and build something custom. My plants outgrow them every year, and they start to tip over pretty easily. Just curious to see what others have come up with.

That sounds about right, but I'd be concerned about putting them in the ground in July. Assuming your in Central Texas, I think you'll have to start them indoors. My guess is the heat will zap them that early if they're outside in July / August.

@Both Tacos This is year four of our blackberry bushes. I think it was year three before they really started to produce. They're a freaking weed, and I have to be cognizant of shoots coming up in the main garden (they're planted outside the garden in my setup). They froze back hard after the freeze in February, but came back stronger than ever. We've picked at least 20 bowls that big so far this year. Tons of cobbler, blackberry cheesecake and blackberry ice cream. We've frozen a ton and made several jars of blackberry jam.

I usually start planting my fall garden around late September. Tansplants include broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, onions, potatoes and garlic. For seeds, I'll do carrots, collard greens, spinach and lettuce. Fall gardening is awesome. Less weeds to mess with and production always seems to be more spread out over the season.

Any ideas on what this might be? My mom snapped this pic a few weeks ago at our family ranch in western Kimble County. They saw him crossing the road, and he quickly traversed to the top of this Oak tree. It was about 6' long and was green with a yellow belly. I'm fairly decent with snake identification, but this one stumped me. Only thing I was thinking of was maybe a rat snake that had recently shed his skin? I think that's the only thing common in that area of that size, but I've never seen one that color. Wish I had a better pic.

I happened to call my buddy who lives in Fargo last week to ask him a question about a project I'm working on. We were shooting the shit, and he said, "It's friggin' hot up here, doncha know." I immediately started chastising him and calling him a pussy. He said, "Bro, I looked at the national map today. You're in the 80's. It hit 104 here today. And I'm a pasty white Norwegian in North Dakota." I stood corrected.

Production in my garden is hitting on almost all cylinders. We're canning and pickling multiple times per week and still giving tons away to family, friends and neighbors. Tomatoes and melons are lagging behind this year. I'm just now picking tomatoes. I have to get 'em early because we have a serious raccoon problem, and as soon as they're ripe on the vine, they're toast. This was tonight's haul. I'm getting about the same amount as shown every other night or so. Pretty much this amount of blackberries every day over the last few weeks. Love it!

My cousin's husband owns a fence company in Boerne. He covers all over the western hill country. I just got a quote for him that was around $9/LF for 1500 LF, but that included several corners, a few H-braces and a gate. DM me if you want his info.

We called it Del Rio chili when I was a kid, but it just consisted of a big can of Hormel chili, Rotel, Ranch style beans and some Velveeta. Nuke it for 2 min in the microwave and serve over Fritos. I feed that to the kids when my wife is gone. On her side, it's Texas Hash. Total East Texas fare. Love it. Kids love it. We eat it once every two weeks or so.

@T’Boo Ted Marshall, I'm glad this thread popped back up. I'd been wondering about you too. Sounds like you're doing all the right things to set a solid foundation. I'm also intrigued about your thoughts around outside investment. I'm at a crossroads right now regarding that exact concept. On our side, I finally landed my HVAC master with an A license. He starts next Monday. Rounded out the MEP. I may hit you up offline to talk shop regarding a few things. I'm expecting this to be the 800-lb gorilla of our service arm, and I want to be prepared as we get him up to speed. We're kind of facing the opposite issues that you noted. I'm building this from the ground up, so we have NO processes in place. We've bumped our head a few times on the electrical side after a really solid start, and we've experienced higher than anticipated turnover there. The Sparkies have proven to be a different breed. But, plumbing has been solid. We were obviously bolstered by the "snowpocalypse" which essentially allowed us to self-fund our capital investments for that division. I've since hired two more master plumbers, and we're booking 3-4 weeks out. I've been skeptical of what I had to pay to get them on-board, but they've both delivered in spades so far. I'm of the mindset that, since I'm not a license holder, I pretty much need to have two license holders for each trade at all times. I can't afford to have someone get bent out of shape and jump ship with their license in tow without a plan B.

You just described me to a tee. I had played sparingly growing up and in college. After graduating and getting married, I had a good buddy become the head pro at a local course. I started playing 3-4 times / week. Got into the single digits. Then kids happened. Three of them. I still played maybe twice a month. Then, I made a huge career change, then I broke my arm, then my oldest got into select baseball. But, I'm finally getting my business into a good spot, so I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a club membership. I'm excited to be able to work consistently and enjoy the game again. Right now, everything is "off". I'll flash the occasional signs of competency, but nothing is comfortable. Looking forward to working on my game and making it fun to compete again.