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Spaulding Smails

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Posts posted by Spaulding Smails

  1. 22 hours ago, bolverk said:

    Went for a breakfast taco run earlier this morning and noticed a green tinge along the bare branches of some trees in the neighborhood. I left my glasses at home and couldn't make them out precisely but am pretty sure those were the first green shoots of budding trees.

    All my fruit trees have buds on them right now.  They gone next week, I'm afraid.  

  2. Just now, troph said:

    What’s your analogy - I don’t get Mathis to LT - I mean I have ideas but what do you mean? Flat vs cliffs? 

    Ha.  Yep.  Mathis is dumpy and flat with mesquite trees and murky water.  Same as Falcon.  Travis and Amistad are gorgeous with big cliffs and clear water.  

  3. 20 hours ago, Cajun said:

    Anyone ever boated on Lake Amistad?  I have this unshakable urge to trailer over there and see what’s what.

    It's a great lake.  Absolutely gorgeous.  As long as you stay on the east side.  The Devils River arm that @CHIEF referred to is legit.  Huge bluffs and flowing springs when the water table is up.  Watch the lake level, though.  Currently at 63% of capacity.  So, 40'+ below full pool.  I'd wait until you had more water in the lake to make a run down there.  

    Falcon, while great fishing, is more South Texas than West Texas. 

    Falcon Reservoir : Lake Amistad :: Lake Mathis : Lake Travis

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  4. 9 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

    We leave no food in the trailer. Nothing. Not even chips in a bag.  It’s also cleaned like crazy before we leave.  Best thing I can think of is get a few barn cats.  We didn’t have anything to do with bringing them there but at night I’ll see a cat or two around.  Never see them during the day tho.  I’m sure that helps.  

    Removal of food is the way to go for sure, and I definitely second the barn cat recommendation.  We had one that hung around our Llano lease, and we never had any mice problems.  The rancher we leased it from would feed him a few times a week, and make sure he had water, and he said the key to that was to feed him just enough food to keep him hanging around but not enough to let him stop chasing rodents.  

  5. 6 minutes ago, CHIEF said:

    How long and at what temperature do most of you cook the Wagyu brisket?

    CHIEF

    I try to run my pit from 225 - 275, but occasionally let it creep up near 300.  I use the 1 hr/lb ratio as a baseline when determining a start time.  That usually ensures it's ready ahead of my target serving time.  I usually wrap it or move it off to the vertical chamber to keep it warm if it's done early.  Ultimately, I use internal temp as my gauge for pulling it off the pit.  Total cook time is similar to a normal brisket, but the stall seems like it lasts longer which I'm assuming is tied to the fact that there's higher intramuscular fat content.  

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  6. On 1/20/2021 at 11:34 PM, fattyflattie said:

    That’s pure meat or after it was mixed?  I only get 15# or so out of my does once I take out the gristle. When I’m cubing down to pure cuts (no gristle or silver).  I don’t take the ribs but do take the neck.  700# animal has a lot of bones and head and hoof. 

    Damn near the exact same for me.  My son shot a doe Sunday.  124 lb on the hoof.  I quartered it and took the neck meat, but I don't mess with the ribs.  After deboning and cubing, we had 18 lb of meat (excluding straps and tenders).  My wife is a ninja with the knife and handles the gristle and silver skin removal.  She's a lot more patient than me.  That was our second doe this season, so we have right at 35 lb of venison cubed and in vacuum sealed bags in the freezer.  Next chilly weekend, and we're making our first ever batch of sausage.  

    Anyone have any tips / recipes for sausage?  My Christmas present this year was a grinder and stuffer.  I have a good buddy on speed dial who's got it down to a science, but I'm open for additional advice.  We're planning on doing 1/3 of it ground, 1/3 into pan sausage and 1/3 into links.  50/50 venison/pork on the pan and link.  I need to run to Johnny G's in Manchaca this week to pick up the casings.  

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  7. 1 hour ago, kevwun said:

    The full size HEB wagyu briskets are around $80 or $90 and damn good.  I would also recommend them.  You can also get amazing briskets from Creekstone Farms for around $200.  They are natural prime angus.  It's not wagyu, but the one me and buddy got from their and smoked was the best brisket I have ever made.  They just had a buy 1 get 1 free sale, so I got 2 more.  It still may be going on.

    Agreed.  For the price, the HEB Wagyu from Snake River is excellent.  Costco's prime briskets are usually very good as well.  One thing to watch out for is how damn rich the Wagyu briskets are.  The flat has the marbling of the point and the point is other-worldly.  I almost made myself sick just from the trimmings prior to serving.  Serious meat sweats.  But worth every bite.  

  8. Fajitas would be tough to beat.  

    But, I think I'd still go with an ice cold chop salad with tons of blue cheese, followed up by a cup of lobster bisque, then a medium rare Wagyu ribeye with a dollop of garlic butter melting on top with a redfish on the half shell fillet on the side, loaded mashed potatoes, and prosciutto wrapped asparagus.  Then, for dessert, chocolate bread pudding with fresh whipped cream, homemade vanilla ice cream and a warm rum sauce drizzled over the top.  

  9. I don't dislike grass fed.  But it's definitely different.  It's definitely earthier and grainier.  Sometimes, it just sounds good, so we'll stray from the standard Prime / or Snake River Wagyu ribeye or strip.  I was solo a the weekend after Thanksgiving at the ranch and did a great grass fed strip over an oak fire in the fire pit.  Just seemed to work.  

  10. On 1/6/2021 at 2:35 PM, deadshank said:

    Which manufacturer's are you a dealer for?  

    How are you to ensure that the master license holder stays onboard? What are your plans if he doesn't?

     

    The manufacturer piece seems to be super critical for HVAC.  TONS of benefit to alignment with a vendor from a pricing and consistency standpoint.

    I stewed over the licensing aspect for a long time and opted for a plan similar to @T’Boo Ted Marshall for my electrician and my plumber.  Though, I think HVAC licensed techs may be easier to find as field workers from what I've seen.  Ultimately it boils down to three things:

    -Make sure they're a good fit

    -Treat them well

    -Have more than one

    We're paying for continuing education for one of our journeymen electricians (including his masters test) simply so that we can have a second master just in case.  If you're not the license holder as the business owner, I think it's smart to have two if you need one from a licensing standpoint.

  11. Congrats, man.  That's awesome.  You're gonna kill it.

    Not sure if you can divulge, but I'd love to see the multipliers used for that calculation.  I just brought on a master electrician and I have a master plumber starting Feb 1.  Trying to figure out our strategy for HVAC to round out the MEP offering. 

  12. Shitty pic through binoculars taken by my wife from the porch of the cabin this weekend while I was in the blind with my son, but this axis buck is going to be legit.  That's a fairly mature whitetail doe in front of him.  I saw him again the next morning, and he's a bruiser.  He's still in velvet and his antlers are still growing (I'm guessing another 45 days of growth remaining), but super wide and fat bases.  I restarted the game cams to see if I can get a better look at him next weekend.  

    Since we're low fence and on a small property, I'm hoping he doesn't roam too much.  At least buck season is over, so that should mean less hunters in blinds on adjacent properties as well.  

    spacer.png

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  13. 59 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

    Classic "prisoners dilemma".  

    "They" are not going to abide by the rules, so I have to get mine first.  

    What you can look at doing is create a sanctuary as best you can.  Feed as much as you can, manage the habitat, and reduce pressure as best you can.  We have the same issues on larger tracts of land surrounding us (600-1000 acres), but the problem is the same.  Our hunters also bow hunt, so they can get out earlier in the season before rifle season kicks off.  Something to think about.  As well, bow hunters are quiet, putting less pressure on the rest.  I'm very much a stick/string novice, but I've taken deer and had the others just still standing around the feeder, oblivious.

    If you can feed and put out food plots, and harvest older bucks earlier in the season, you might have something there.  Then harvest does later in the season if you have any MLD tags.  

    Axis?  You have consistent axis on a low fenced property?  Do they not jump, or do they just come and go?

    Great insight.  Thank you.  I don't bow hunt, and we missed the youth weekend this year.  But, that's a great suggestion to get out there early.

    We have tons of axis very consistently.  Some of the same tend to stick around, and they ebb and flow.  But, pretty much year round which is awesome.  They jump and move around, but I think the herd in that area is very strong.  Maybe even too strong.  

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  14. 2 hours ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

    Yep, substitute  a cup of condensed milk for regular milk, for an old Eastern Va. Tidewater recipe.  The old wives tale was you never make snow cream from the first snow cause the sky is dirty, and the first snow cleans it......

    Condensed milk FTW.  My wife's favorite thing to make when we go skiing.

  15. 1 hour ago, Winona's Big Orange Bevo said:

    This is who I'm really looking for.....

    IMG_4615.thumb.jpg.531c97a5cec4b07e265728f0366fb9cf.jpg

    That would be a bad ass trophy.  Don't give away your spot, but are you in Central Texas?  I know there's some melanistic deer in the gene pool west of Austin.   

  16. 2 hours ago, deadshank said:

    You’re in a difficult position.  Working small places surrounded by other small places and neighbors that don’t care about management will always be a problem.   It’s hard enough with big places and neighbors that aren’t mature hunters.  
     

    Keep doing what you can and try your best to convey the message to your neighbors.  
     

    Scorched earth policy is to high fence the border you share with the 200 acre meatheads.  

    Yep.  And I agree with everything you said.  The silver lining is that we've already seen at least some improvement.  And, if we can snag the 200 acres, then we eliminate some of that pressure and insulate ourselves even more.  Just takes time and money, I suppose!

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  17. Great thread.  Great insight.  And great pics of great bucks!  All of this is so encouraging for my place.  We purchased it three years ago.  250 acres in far western Kimble County.  Low fence.  It had been pretty heavily hunted without much though on conservation from the previous owner.  From a property management standpoint, we have not done a deer survey, but we did add two cisterns plumbed from the well.  We feed protein spring / summer along with alfalfa here and there in the summer.  This summer we added a turkey feeder.  We have whitetail, axis and turkey.  Hogs are sporadic.  

    From a hunting standpoint, we saw a few smallish bucks in year 1.  And a decent amount of doe.  We harvested two whitetail that season.  My son shot a cull buck (4.5 year old 4-pt, his first buck) in year 1, and my BIL shot a doe.  Year 2, we started seeing better deer and more of them.  I shot a decent 30" axis buck that summer, and my wife shot a doe.  That was it.  This year, my BIL shot an axis doe, and I shot a doe.  We may take one more doe next weekend.  As a whole, the deer herd seems to be plentiful.  The last hunt we were on, we counted 22 whitetail and 7 axis.  Honestly, we probably need to shoot more doe.  We were seeing some much improved bucks before the season, and started to see some irregular points here and there which was fun.  Based on game cams and what we saw from the stand, I would guess that our buck to doe ratio was probably 30/70 this summer.  So, not ideal.  And, once the season started, we see probably 90% doe.  Which leads me to my question...

    What's the thought on impact of adjacent properties for a smaller place like ours?  We have three neighbors total.  Mostly decent sized (600+ acre) ranches, with some hunting pressure from what we can see.  The smaller place (200 acres) next to us is pretty heavily hunted.  And the guy's a dick.  We've talked to him and the two other landowners sparingly.  One leases it to hunters, the other doesn't but said he and his family hunt quite a bit.  No conversations about conservation, but my guess is, based on the disappearance of bucks (both on cameras and from the stand), that they're probably shooting immature bucks without any regard for longterm herd improvement.  

    Also, any idea what the target deer population per 100 acres is in that area?

    Ultimately, we're seeing wildlife improvements, and I'm optimistic that we'll continue that trend in coming years.  I'm going to upgrade our protein feeder situation this spring.  We're early in the process.  And, we're going to talk to the neighbor this spring about potentially purchasing his property.  We bought the 250 acres from him, and he indicated when we bought that he'd be willing to sell.  That would mitigate some of the conservation issues if we can pull it off.

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  18. 10 hours ago, troph said:

    Good to know. We’ve only driven ridgway (not paying attention) to telluride then to the village and Rico area and then back to telluride and then home through Durango area and New Mexico.  Never went west to placerville. I hope to be all over that area next summer.  

    just spent the time BJ was on the bench on a deep dive on water rights, diversion rights, right to build ponds (fly fishing in a stock pond sounds heretical but amazing too) and right to subdivide.  The county (San Miguel) has a master plan, but exemptions for at least 35 acre subdivides. Interesting there are a number of 35-40 acre parcels for sale.  All of that is near placerville not much for sale near Rico. At least not in the filters I was using (raw land 500-1.5M). River runs right along the road near Rico and that area maybe that’s a more pricey spot. 

    I didn't get all of the details, but a buddy of mine was looking at similar property sizes (20-50 acres) near Telluride a few years ago.  Property was relatively affordable, but according to him, there's some funky stuff that you have to look out for with regards to water rights.  Between that and construction costs, it was a deal-breaker for him.  

    But, yeah.  Telluride is at the top of the list for us.  We have a beach house on the docket within the next year or so, but once we get that under our belt, Telluride may be next.

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