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Spaulding Smails

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Everything posted by Spaulding Smails

  1. We spent a week in the Upper Keys a few years back. Had a blast. We stayed at Playa Largo (Marriott property). Pretty nice. Good pool. Good beach. Good restaurant on site. I second Robbie's and Loralei. Both lots of fun, but a bit touristy. Hobo's Cafe in Key Largo had great food. Loved the hogfish. Green Turtle Inn on Islamorada was some of the best breakfast I've ever had. We had fun in a big rain storm at the Tiki Bar. Typical bar experience. DM if you want a good inland fishing guide. We went with a guy that was top notch out of Tavernier. Super professional and put us on the fish.
  2. That's a dream setup. Sounds like Granzin's in New Braunfels. We have a decent setup. I welded up an A-frame with two gambrels each on cable winches. And, I snagged an 8x8 walk-in cooler off one of our restaurant jobs that is ugly, but runs like a champ with a smaller A-frame inside of it. The only pain in the ass is getting a skinned deer from big A-frame to the cooler without dragging it on the ground. Not too bad with a whitetail doe, but it's really tough with an axis buck. Before next season, I think I'm going to break down and buy a big poly cart to just wheel them in there.
  3. I've done that before with limited success. From what I've seen, as long as you have buds and not actual blooms, they're a little more freeze tolerant. Hoping that's the case this year. What really kills is a late freeze after blooms are out.
  4. Peach, plum and pear. They're too big to cover. My citrus trees are in pots, so I move them into the greenhouse for the winter. Not much I can do other than let mother nature take her course.
  5. All my fruit trees have buds on them right now. They gone next week, I'm afraid.
  6. 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.
  7. 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
  8. 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.
  9. I had been dating my GF (now my wife) for about a year when I took her down to my lease in Live Oak County for the first time. It was one of the first cool weekends of the fall and before deer season, so I knew nobody else would be up there. Just us. I think we went to a party in Austin Friday night, so we didn't head down until mid-day Saturday. It was one of those perfect South Texas fall days. Clear skies and highs in the 80s. We got there right before the evening hunt, so we dropped our bags on the porch and headed for the blind. It was a bad ass hunt at a blind we called Sleepy Hollow tucked back in a big Mesquite thicket along the banks of the creek. TONS of activity for the duration of the hunt. Whitetail, turkey, javelina, and hogs. I ended up shooting a little sow about 30 min before dusk, so we loaded her up and headed back. Picture perfect day, right? She was loving it. On the way back to camp, shit took a turn for the worse. In this tight little sendero, about 20 ft in front of my truck, a massive blue indigo decided to pass across the road. She lost her mind. I have only seen three blue indigos in the wild, and this one was a big ass snake. Had to be at least 7' and as big around as a softball. She chills out a bit by the time we're back at camp. As we pull up to the old pier & beam cabin, she says "hey, check out those birds leaving the attic!." They were bats. Before going in the cabin, we walk around to the back to turn on the water. I open up the cover to the valve and have her shine a flashlight for me. It was standard fare for me, but she flipped out again when the entire valve box was pulsating full of daddy long legs. We get our stuff off the patio and walk inside, and immediately to the right was the old gas range. Well, a coachwhip had decided to shed his skin in the range and it was threaded through the burners of the stove. At that point, I didn't even bother to warn her that she'd probably hear the mouse traps go off a few times during the night. Needless to say, the rest of my hunting trips to that lease were solo.
  10. When is someone going to finally point out Odessa to them on a map?
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. Yes. EBITDA multiple. Curious what that is for you if you can share. I am in Austin.
  15. Subscribed. Last weekend of deer season then a few more quail hunts... then my focus shifts to them big girls!
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. THAT'S the kind of spike that needs to be culled. Cool mount.
  21. 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.
  22. 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.
  23. Condensed milk FTW. My wife's favorite thing to make when we go skiing.
  24. Great pics @BabaYaga! Where are you located? We had about 6" of snow at our place. My dad was up there, but ended up getting sick, so he didn't get any pics beyond the front porch.
  25. 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.
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