Spaulding Smails

Just as "temporary taxes" like passing a bond never seem to return to their previous levels, I'm afraid we're going to see the same thing with restaurant prices. And, I completely agree that restaurants are grossly understaffed right now for all the above mentioned reasons. My son had a baseball tourney this weekend, so dinner plans for Mothers Day were up in the air. If he lost early, he and I were going to cook something for the family at home. If they kept winning, he and I would grab fast food and my wife and other two would fend for themselves. They won the first, then lost the second, so we decided to call in a to-go order. We called three local restaurants multiple times and nobody picked up. Finally got the fourth restaurant to answer. When we got there, they had us come in rather than have curbside because they were short-staffed. I don't mind walking in at all, but it was just a curious observation of the shortage for labor in that industry.

Awesome. Paddle north a bit from your put-in at Del Norte. Not the biggest fish, but I always catch a ton of both largemouth and smallies just up river from the Del Norte campsite. If you're doing 30 miles, you may be going all the way to Rough Hollow. I've only done the run south of Big Satan once. The first stretch is awesome and some of the least fished areas of that river. But, watch out for those headwinds about five miles south of the Big Satan takeout. It's wide open and choppy from there to Rough Hollow.

Good for you. Enjoy! What are your put-in and take-out spots? I've now done the Devlis 20+ times. My son's been with me a few times, but we did our first multi-night trip last year, and we had the same headwind situation. I ended up being "The Mule" that carried the gear and paddled hard on open water. It sucked. Bad. Big rain last week. You should be golden. Lots of good fish being caught over the last few weeks. Enjoy!

@4th and 5. We-Ko-Pa seconded.

We need to meet up for a beer one day. I'm on Creek Rd near Camp Lucy. That Loop 165 is a cool little stretch. I was looking at 5 acres that is on the market there. The east side that fronts the creek is gorgeous with beautiful homes. The west side of the road was hit and miss.

Correct. There should have been some little black screws that keep the horizontal brackets in place. You should be able to use any machine screw in place of those. Good idea on the 1x6 behind it. That will probably give you more flexibility on where you actually mount them. Like I mentioned earlier, I have them loaded down, so I beefed up the lag screws from the little ones they sent in the kit. No issues since then.

I knew we were close to you. This was actually off Loop 165 near Longhorn River Ranch.

My go-to recipe is chicken fried breast. I've tried to roast a whole wild turkey and even tried to smoke one. Both were pretty tough. From my experience, the breast is good, but the thighs and legs aren't worth doing anything special. The last time I harvested a wild turkey, we actually used the wings, thighs and legs in gumbo. That was probably the best use I've found so far. Would love to hear if anyone has any whole bird recipes.

Took my boy out Easter weekend to our place in Kimble County. Didn't see any turkey the first two years, but my mom put out a turkey feeder, and we actually started to see them this last fall. We saw a big group of hens, but no toms. He did shoot the big boar (220 lb or so) that we've seen on the game cam. Which was nice... The following weekend, I was cruising around looking at property in Hays Co with a big mug of coffee on an early Sunday morning and came upon THREE groups of big toms within a mile of each other along a little side road head the headwaters of Onion Creek. I'll post pics when I can download them. Any sound I made from 100 yds away in my truck had them blowing up. Rios will come to a dog barking if they're chasing hens. We used to have a tom that lived in the creek behind our old house. We'd hand feed him. During the spring, he'd gobble back at a fart once you got him interested.

Good choice. The Islander is nice. Given your group, Islamorada is a great spot. Plenty of restaurants in Islamorada and Key Lago. The drive is manageable from Miami. Robbie's is fun and has decent food. Lorelei's and the Sand Bar are great spots for a drink. Hit up the Green Turtle Inn for breakfast one day.

That was going to be my thought as well. Too much water. Those little biodegradable containers are awesome, but they tend to hold moisture more than the plastic ones.

Got my suppressor ordered today. Just 8-10 months until it arrives! And, after three months of back-and-forth bullshit, I FINALLY got confirmation that my two-stage trigger shipped yesterday. Should be able to finally assemble my left-handed AR this weekend. Which, coincidentally, is perfect timing. I'm taking it with me tuna fishing next week. You know. To finish off those pesky tuna. Forecast calls for spotty squalls. I hope it doesn't fall overboard via a rogue wave or something silly like that.

Quarter size hail this morning in Western Kimble County.

A pool. Technically, we started right before the pandemic, but we put water in it Mother's Day, so we had all summer to swim. Worth every damn penny.

Not sure if this counts for this thread, but I've also found a TON of fossils at the creek behind my house. Lots of common deer hearts but also a few gastropod fossils as well.

I found this at our place as well. Not an arrowhead, but pretty cool nonetheless. Very limited production time and the ranger at Ft McKavett helped me identify it. My mom put together the shadow box and we have it displayed in the house at the ranch. yed

Found my first one at our ranch last summer. Not the prettiest and not fully intact, but still fun to find on your own land. Haven't really gone searching, but happened upon it when trailing a little sow my buddy's son shot.

After a multi-year quasi hiatus (averaged maybe 3-5 rounds / year over the last six or so years), I'm actually pretty damn focused on getting back into golf. I've played a few times this year. I finally got a few BIG work projects in my rearview mirror, so my schedule is much more flexible. And, I'm looking forward to entertaining clients on the golf course as well. I live in Dripping Springs, so local options are fairly limited (Vaaler Creek is actually the closest to my house). But, my office is in Southeast Austin, and I'm < 10 min from Onion Creek. It's always been one of my favorites in this area. And, honestly, it's easier for me to play during the week than on a weekend at this stage in my life. I went there with a new set of eyes last week for a tour, and I'm strongly considering joining. Anyone a member out there? Any general feedback on joining a club? It's non-equity, and the initiation fee and monthly dues are reasonable. No monthly minimum for food & beverage. Decent range. Nice practice area. 27 holes, so it'll be nice to get some variety. They have over 500 golf members (more if you count tennis only and social members), which at a glance, seems like a bunch. But, the cap in their bylaws is 750, so they feel like it's a manageable amount. They were purchased by Arcis Golf who appears to be putting some decent money into the course and they recently renovated the pro shop, club house and fitness center. They also reciprocate with Twin Creeks, River Place and The Dominion in SA. I'm optimistic that I can play 2-3 times per week, so I feel like the value is there. I'm also digging the fact that I can hit the fitness center in the morning and shower before going to the office. Or hit the range for an hour at lunch. With the recent boom in golf interest after the pandemic, tee times seem harder than ever to come by. So, that's part of the allure as well. I'll hang up and listen. Thanks.

Good start to the thread! I'm pretty much done planting for the spring. I'll do a late round of maters around May 1. I'll plant okra, eggplant and melons around that time too. This spring, we have tomatoes, jalapenos, bell peppers, yellow squash, zucchini, carrots, potatoes, cucumbers and green beans. Believe it or not, my garlic, onions and strawberries survived "snowpocalypse". Garlic and onions are doing great and should be ready for harvest in about 30 days, but strawberries appear to be stunted somewhat.

This is good insight. I fish the surf maybe once a year. I have a Penn Battle with an inexpensive Shimano spinning reel that I use for chunking bait. And, I take a 7' moderate fast rod with a spinning reel for fishing the gut. I don't throw a baitcaster because I've dunked more than one reel in the surf.

@Onboard 2.0 @RMac5 @McFly https://www.amazon.com/ECOTRIC-Steel-Lumber-Storage-Wall-Mounted/dp/B07BY5F99V I have three sets of these in my shop. They're awesome. The only criticism I have is that the lag bolts that come with them seemed a bit undersized. I used larger ones for the one rack that I store my steel on to be safe. I have every one of them loaded down.

The heavy duty shelves at Home Depot are actually pretty damn good. I have these in the garage. Only modification I made was to put a sheet of plywood in one section where I store smaller things that are prone to not sit evenly on the wire. I'm also a huge fan of these for lumber, pipe, etc. Save tons of space by having them wall-mounted. Cheap and easy to install.

Agreed. But the greens were the least of my concern. Even if you can't control that, you can control the customer experience, interaction and perceived value.

Played Wolfdancer yesterday. Won't be back any time soon. Which is a shame. That course always kicks my ass, but I still love the layout. Range balls were old / slick. The whole course just looked disheveled. Greens were average at best. Bumpy, uneven and full of weeds in spots. We teed off at 10:10 and got stuck behind two sloooooow groups. Ended up playing a 5-1/2 hour round. Bev cart girl disappeared on the back 9. Never saw a Marshal once. Bar / Restaurant was closed. So, we couldn't even sit at the 19th hole and settle up bets. We had to do that on the tailgate in the parking lot. Oh, and green fees were $175. To add insult to it all, it was $12 to park that you have to pay before you can leave the property. From a pure value standpoint, it may have been one of the worst golf experiences of my life. For $175, it better be an "experience". It was far, far from that.

Ahhhh. Good idea with the adjoining rooms. I may go that route. Thanks for the idea.