Spaulding Smails

My business partner is a member out there and made an albatross on #1 a few months ago. He proceeded to shoot a 34 on the front. Sent me the scorecard where he mis-added and wrote a 35 in absolute chicken scratch. I still give him shit for that. If I had a freaking 2 on a par 5 with a 34 for 9 holes, it would be in my best penmanship and I'd make damn sure the total was accurate.

My master plumber on staff is team no-drip. We install frost-free spigots on all new construction, but he still recommends protecting those. What he does suggest dripping when it gets down into the single digits or stays below freezing for more than 48 hours is hot water through any interior fixture mounted on an exterior wall and opening up cabinets beneath them where possible. I didn't have any burst pipes in '21, but I did have three bathrooms where water wouldn't run because the pipes were frozen solid. And that's with 1" insulation on all PEX plus spray-foam insulation on 2x6 exterior walls. Neither of that matters when you're 4+ days with no power and the temperature inside the house gets down to the mid-40s. The reason we had such carnage in '21 was compounded by the power outages. Exterior mounted tankless water heaters don't do very well when they don't have power to keep from freezing. And, once they're frozen, it's cost prohibitive to make repairs, so that means a full replacement.

If you get bored, go back and look at the original list of items prohibited from being sold on certain days. The one that always stuck out to me was pots and pans. WTF? How did that ever get passed into law? Is there such thing as a kitchen implement teetotaler? The two big ones that I think are still in place are alcohol on Sundays / holidays and car dealerships not being open on both a Saturday and a Sunday. Unless that last one has been repealed. I got shot down by a convenience store clerk September 1. Forgot to load my cooler the night before, and tried to buy a sixer of Lone Star at 6 AM on the way to the field for opening day of dove season. Nope.

I've been to the ranch ONCE since hunting season started. Was absolutely slammed at work throughout November. Follow that up with a nasty staph infection for my middle son that's lead to now week 3 in the hospital for him. Hoping to get there over New Years' weekend. Even though the freezer is full from an axis this spring and an elk this fall, I'm Jonesing bad.

First opportunity to check the freeze tolerance of the new house. I'm extremely happy that I ran a separate loop for water to the hose bibs. Turn a valve, let them drain, and I'm done. No more spigot covers. I just need to hang a heat lamp next to my water pump and softener, and I should be good to go. Hopefully...

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First cold snap of the year, my wife always makes pot roast with a side of green beans, mashed potatoes and homemade rolls. Night two, we have leftovers via an open-faced roast sandwich over toasted white bread with melted provolone and white sauce (bechamel) drizzled over the top. I equate both to "old-school American comfort food". The other night, my son said that would be his last meal if he had a choice.

When I was in my mid 20s (circa 2006), I went with a buddy to his deer lease out near Sonora. On the way out there, we stopped and picked up beer. And, we decided to grab some 4Loko. Like three each. We cracked them open when we turned off paved road for the 30 min drive to the camp. I don't think either of us finished drinking the first one. Dumped them out and went back to beer. Fast forward to the next evening, and I remember going to the cooler to grab a beer after the evening hunt and noticed the remaining four 4Lokos were gone. Come to find out, one of the other hunter's 16 year old kid had raided our cooler, snagged all four, and proceeded to get absolutely obliterated while we were all out hunting. I thought we were going to have to take that poor bastard to the ER. He was speaking in tongues, ripping off clothes, etc. Had I not known, I would've sworn he was on PCP.

I wear Ariat most days. I think I've cycled through these about every 18 months. Rubber sole which works well given that I'm in construction. https://www.ariat.com/SPORT_HERDSMAN_M_FOO.html?dwvar_SPORT__HERDSMAN__M__FOO_width=D_Medium And, I can now vouch for Alvie's. Got my first pair a few weeks ago. Good price. Great service. Good looking boots. Owner is a super solid guy and a Texas State grad. https://www.alvies.com/

I usually skin and hang my meat for 3-5 days. We're fortunate that we have a walk-in at the ranch. After deboning, I vacuum seal everything in the 15"x18" bags and throw it in the freezer. The WT was from last January, Axis was from April and Elk was from October. All the meat was great. No freezer burn. I pull everything out and let it get just barely thawed before we start cutting the muscles apart, removing silverskin and cubing. And, I make sure it stays super cold throughout the whole process. Like @Reagan1k said, I think you can leave it for a pretty good chunk of time if kept cold and dry. So, if you shoot a deer and you're going to process two weekends later, I think you're good. I'd freeze it in vacuum seal bags if you're going to wait any longer than that.

@Anastasis put together a really nice summary. This hits close to home as we just did over 300 lb of whitetail, axis and elk sausages this weekend (and still have some elk left over). A few tips that I've learned over the years in addition to what @Anastasis noted. -Get a group of people. Kind of like making tamales, it's a lot more fun when you turn it into a social event. If you're doing it solo, keep it manageable. 300 lb between my wife and I sucked and took all day Saturday, all day Sunday, and most of the evenings Monday and Tuesday to get everything packaged and vacuum sealed. -Buy the good shit. Spend as much as you can on the grinder. Get lots of lug tubs. You'll need more than you think. -Be diligent with trimming silverskin, removing tendons, etc. IMO, it makes a huge difference on the quality of the sausage. So much better when you don't have a big chunk of gristle or a wad of silverskin ruining a bite. I think I'm going to buy one of these before next year. https://www.lemproducts.com/product/silverskin-knife-kit/meat-slicers -Keep everything VERY cold. It's safer and the meat grinds so much better when it's almost frozen. Clean your grinder parts between grinds, dry it and throw it in the freezer. The friction will heat it up quickly, and when the fat gets warm it will start to gum up the grinder blade. -Add ice water when you stuff into casings. We do one cup per 5 lb and that seems to be about right. It'll make it slide through the casing much easier. -Try different seasonings to dial in the flavor. Keep a skillet nearby and make a little patty to try before you call it done. We tweaked damn near every run in some form or fashion. More salt here. More pepper, there. -Vary the sausage you make. This year we did pan, Italian, Greek and chorizo (pic below). We'll do boudain, andouille, regular smoked and jalapeno cheddar smoked later this winter. We did nothing but smoked sausage at first, and got tired of it after a while. We bought half a steer as well this summer, so we're set for at least a year on hamburger and sausage. We won't have to buy a single link of sausage or a single pound of ground. It's nice to get some variety out of the same meat. -Make sure you have a system set up to hang the links. Cold smoking is awesome, but if you do the other varieties, you need to have a rack to hang them cold so the casings can dry out some. We use our garage beer fridge and I rigged up some S-hooks to hang them in there.

I bought a similar bore sight laser setup after the first snafu with the mount. Got it dialed in and torqued down with very repeatable accuracy. To your point about that consistency, I've been shooting the same Savage 270 with a Leopold 3.5x10 and Winchester 130 grain rounds for WT hunting since 1998, and I've had to re-sight the scope exactly zero times. Always drives tacks. I (incorrectly) assumed that would be the case here. The guides seemed apathetic about shooting the day we arrived, so I didn't press the issue to check my zero before we hunted, but should have.

I bought a rifle and scope specifically for this hunt. I was shooting a Browning X-Bolt 300 WinMag with a Swarovski X5i 5-25x56 scope and Federal 180 grain Nosler AccuBond rounds. Here's the scoop on the scope. I bought it at Cabela's and had them mount it. The first time I took it to the range, I couldn't even get it on the paper at 50 yds. I had it dialed all the way to the left and was still right of the target. I took it back, and the "head gunsmith" there told me the first guy put it on the wrong rings. After that, it was driving tacks. I shot it at the range twice and at the ranch twice. Had the elevation turret dialed in with the pre-set markers at 100/200/300. I chalked the miss up originally to the elevation turret. I had it set at 300 yds and didn't adjust it down for the 240 yd shot, and even though that should've only adjusted a few inches, it was my only guess. And, I had it back to my 100 yd zero for the cow shot. Now, after being off by 18" at 120 yds, I'm thinking there's something else going on. MAYBE, I hit it while hunting early in the trip. But, the rifle was secure in a good case during our travels, and I don't recall anything out of the ordinary from an impact standpoint. If I find out it's something with the mounts, I'll be pretty pissed at Cabela's and sternly worded letter will ensue. I should have some time this weekend to dig into it further.

PVC is a great choice. Also consider Windsor One. We've used it for fascia and soffits, and it's a really nice product. https://windsorone.com/

Well, still no resolution on the scope fiasco after the elk hunt. I got super busy this weekend and didn't have a chance to re-bore sight or shoot the rifle. But, I had a conference call cancel this afternoon, so I did have a chance to upload photos. As alluded earlier, it was an amazing trip. Absolute bucket list. Weather was perfect, and the hunting was a 9 out of 10. Huge change from my Hill Country and South Texas experiences. We drove to Santa Fe Thursday in time to enjoy a great dinner and a few beers. Had to be in Chama by 11 AM the next morning, so we had plenty of time to get situated and enjoy a big breakfast at the Elk Horn Cafe. We met the outfitter and the other two groups (six hunters total, 2:1 hunter:guide ratio). So, three guides, all unique and all great plus the camp cook. BTW, the cook was amazing. She was a blast and cooked some phenomenal meals. The drive from Chama was 90 minutes up and over the mountains through the Jicarilla Reservation. Stunning country across what the guides called the "yellow brick road". We unloaded our gear at the cabin. Super comfortable. Three bedrooms with pot-belly stoves in each room plus the living room and a cool wood-burning oven. Propane for hot water and stove burners and a generator that they ran for an hour or two a day for lights and to charge electronics. The cabin was right at 10,200' elevation with an incredible view across the Rio Brazos valley. We had access to 6,500 acres straddling the river and elevations ranging from 9,000' to 11,500'. We had a five day hunt. The morning hunts were mostly spot and stalk. We were week 5 of 5 (2 archery + 3 rifle). So, the elk were timid but present. According to the guides, the hunting pressure on adjacent public land had tapered off some. Bugling was happening, but not as much as we'd hoped. We targeted pastures interspersed in the timber. If the elk were in the valleys it was pre-dawn or right before dusk. DAY 1: We hunted the far end of the ranch where they had seen a few good bulls in recent weeks. We saw several cow herds but no bulls. It was the warmest day of the trip and we hiked our asses off. That evening, we split up. The guide went with my buddy to a spot closer to the cabin where they had seen a nice herd bull earlier in the week. I hunted solo in an adjacent pasture tucked back in a little spruce grove. I saw a large group of cows at about 1000 yds, but nothing more. Right before dusk, I heard what I thought was a buffalo stampede. Four cows and a calf came hauling ass down the mountain and out of the timber DIRECTLY at me. I legit thought they were going to run over me. The cow with the calf finally spotted me at about 20 yds and slammed on the brakes. The other three cows spooked and ran across the pasture, but I had a nice 30 second stare down with the single cow and her calf. Shortly before that encounter, I heard a shot nearby. Sure enough, my buddy shot a nice 5x4 bull. 315 yd shot right through the heart. We skinned and quartered it there. I'm guessing it was about 700 lbs on the hoof. Lots of bourbon that night to celebrate. DAY 2: We hunted a spot where they had success bow hunting in the morning. It was some VERY thick timber with quite a few fallen timber areas. A few more cows that morning, but not much more. Lots of up and down hiking, and I think we did 6+ miles that morning. That evening, we went to the far east side of the property to hunt a little draw that fed down to the river. Sidebar... This property is surrounded by the reservation, the national forest and one other 10,000+ acre ranch... and a 350 acre parcel right in between which was about a 1/2 mile from where we were hunting. At about 5 PM, the property owner on that little tract decided to start target practice. Rifles, pistols, ARs. More power to them, but boy did it fuck up our hunt. My buddy was scouting near the river valley, and when the shooting started, he saw 3 bulls and about 40 cows come down out of the timber we were hunting. We hunted the spot anyways and saw two cows plus that big group at over 1000 yds away. Bummer. DAY 3: More of the same. Thick timber, but this time it was right after the first hard freeze. The aspen leaves were falling so fast that it sounded like rain. Stalking was difficult, and we saw a few cows, but nothing more. That evening, I went with the guide to a spot they called "The Horseshoe". It was a cool draw with timber on three sides that fed down to the river. We had a lone cow come out early and work her way down to the river. About 20 min before shooting light was over, three cows came out followed by a nice bull. They were at 370 yds and working away from us towards another draw that tied in with our draw and fed down to the river. The guide decided we should work closer and try to hoof it down the draw to see if we could get a clear shot inside of 200 yds. We got within about 240 yds when a cow spotted us. She didn't bolt, but made an about-face and headed back into the timber. The bull followed. I hurriedly set up the shooting sticks, and when he stopped, I squeezed off a round. I felt good about the shot, but wasn't as comfortable as I would've liked. I still had my scope set at 300 yds, and I know I shot right over his back. He didn't flinch, but headed into the timber before I could fire another round. I was devastated. We looked around, but didn't see any blood and called it a clean miss (which it was). I chalked it up to rushing the shot and not dialing the scope down to 200 yds. DAY 4: This morning was the most amazing hunt. We were hunting the highest point of the ranch. Just after daybreak, we had a big bugle very close by. I set up the sticks, and the guide got about 60 yds behind me and started a cow call. The bull was just on the other side of the ridge, but never showed through the timber. In hindsight, I should've moved another 40 yds to the right, and I think I could've seen him at about 150 yds. I set up too quick and obstructed some of my view lanes. Two cows finally showed, and we never heard another bugle. The rest of the morning was hard hiking. We stumbled on some big rubs and bedding areas and caught a flashing glimpse of a bull running up the mountain. Holy crap, they can move! Fun hunt with lots of action. We hunted the same spot in the evening and didn't see squat. DAY 5: The final day. We hunted our asses off that morning and didn't shut it down until well after noon. Had six bull encounters. Two decent ones on the move and four smaller ones. I had a nice look at 140 yds at a small bull, but didn't take it. He wasn't big enough to justify hiking out. We were in some nasty terrain and it would've been a beast to haul it out. That evening, I went back to "The Horseshoe"... the same spot where I missed. Walking in to the pasture, we came across a good group of cows and calves and just watched them for almost an hour, waiting to see if a bull joined. They retreated into the timber but came back out about and hour before dusk. I waited until last light (literally 5 min before shooting light was over) and decided to take a cow that was presumably dry and didn't have a calf nearby. I shot her at 120 yds. Right through the spine. I fired twice more. Same spot all three times, then finally walked up and dispatched her at 20 yds. I was 18" high at 120 yds. Unreal. Then, I was really bummed about the previous miss. I blew out big holes in both backstraps and obliterated on tenderloin completely. But, I still came home with a ton of meat and a great memory. And, Murphy was a happy dog once I had a chance to debone everything. I'm going back in 2024 for sure.

@Hornbeliever year one went well. We really didn't do much. We check the hives once a month or so. We're fortunate to have a creek about 100 yds from the hives (on a neighbor's property), but we supplement with a little water trough nearby as well. The beekeeper was adamant that we needed water nearby. The hives seem to be building, and we see TONS of bees milling around the lantana by our house. Much more than before the hives were there, so that's a good sign. The beekeeper said maybe honey next year. Probably year three before we see good production. @High Plains Drifter it wasn't cheap. I think around $6K for 8 hives and 8 colonies (which is the minimum we needed to qualify for ag exemption). Year two is like $1,000. Much cheaper than what the property tax bill would've been (Hays County). The other, less involved options, were a bit cheaper, but we didn't want to risk it. Our property is a new tract carved out of a larger tract that had full ag exemption for cattle and hay, so we were able to put bees on immediately and avoid any waiting period before taking advantage of the exemption.

Posted primarily so I can follow. Didn't realize this thread existed. Thanks @Hornbeliever. We got our bees this spring for Ag exempt purposes. We looked at a few different options, and went with this one. Year one, bees are delivered and maintained by the supplier. They're basically "under warranty". Year two, they teach us how to maintain the bees. Year three, we're on our own.

Equally as bad is when someone DOES NOT reply all when it's inferred or even requested. There's an architect we work with who is notorious for this. It's actually gotten us into a bind before regarding updated plan sets. <Project Manager copies whole team plus the owner plus the designer plus the engineer> Mr. Smith- Great meeting today! Please send over the updated plans to the group when the revisions are made. Thanks! -Project Manager Next day, he sends the plans to my PM and nobody else "here you go!". If the PM notices it wasn't a "reply all", he'll forward them to the group. But, there's been times where it's assumed that Mr. Smith is a normally functioning adult and has mastered the art of disseminating information via the reply all feature. Nope. Every damn time. Even if "please reply all" is noted in the email. It's insane.

Yup. Unfortunately, it's true. I was driving tacks at 300 yds before I left. Shot and missed a 240 yd shot. Shooting circumstances were less than ideal, so I chalked it up to the Indian not the arrow. The last night of the hunt, I shot the cow at 120 yds. Spine shot her. Thrice. Finally walked up and put one in the head to get her down. First three shots were all within a 6" radius through the spine. I was aiming for the lungs. I was 18" high at 120 yds, so 3' high on the 240 yd shot. To add insult to injury, I blew big holes in both backstraps. I need to do some forensics this week. Either the scope got bumped somehow, or I have something up with the mounts. Regardless, it suuuuuuuckkkkked and I'm still kicking myself. More details when I can upload pictures and post them.

Will post an elk hunt recap later this week or over the weekend, but here's the Cliffs Notes: -Northern New Mexico is stunning. -Free range elk hunting is bad ass, and I will be back. -Check your zero before you hunt so you don't shoot and miss at a bull. Oof. -A cow tastes the same as a bull. -Deboning and prepping elk meat takes much longer than a whitetail.

After several years of traditional amp setup with a combo of in-wall / bookshelf / outdoor speakers all controlled via Control 4, I'm officially on the Sonos train. Ditched DirecTV as well for YouTubeTV / Netflix / Amazon Prime Video. Only downfall there is no Astros during the regular season. We're almost roughed in at our new house. Just had to run power for a few locations and two short runs for the wired speakers from the amp. Otherwise, all wireless / WiFi. Going with: LIVING: Arc + Sub + (2) Five KITCHEN: Wired in-ceiling + Amp in attic GAME ROOM: Arc + Sub BACK PATIO: (2) Outdoor FRONT PATIO: (2) Outdoor OFFICE: Move GYM: Move GARAGE: Move GUEST HOUSE: Move MASTER: Move

Yep. It was Rita. That storm was on a bee line for Houston. We were in Hawaii on vacation and started watching it bear down on Texas. We were supposed to fly home that Friday through IAH on Continental. All the flights were cancelled. Ended up flying American through Dallas on the red eye and went straight to a good friend's wedding in Austin that Saturday evening. It was hot, the wind was blowing 30+ MPH and it was dusty. Perfect for an outdoor wedding. Then, I had to haul ass to East Texas to help my wife's family recover from the aftermath of Rita for a week. I went from a bad ass, low-key vacation to a sweaty outdoor wedding directly to no sleep for a week busting ass to cut downed trees, patch roofs and clean flooded houses. Good times.

About 15 years ago, I was hunting at my lease in South Texas. We didn't have any game cameras, but my uncle had seen a big mainframe 10 with matching kickers on his G2s right before the rut. He was out filling feeders and came across him mid-day. I hadn't shot a "trophy" buck on that place in a few years, so the following weekend I went and sat in a stand nearby. Got in the stand on Saturday morning and it was super foggy. I knew I had deer in the sendero, and when the fog finally started to burned off around 9:00, I saw the buck my uncle had seen at about 80 yards. I dropped him in his tracks, let him lay for a bit, and got out of the stand. It was a 10 with matching kickers... but he was only about 18" wide and not super heavy. It wasn't the same deer. I shot a 3-1/2 y/o with TONS of potential. Needless to say, I take my time to be 100% sure on my shot now. We've all screwed up at some point.

I love this strategy. We always try to take our doe early in the season and definitely pre-rut. I hunted on a great lease in Live Oak County for 10+ years. It was 1700 acres and low fenced, but not much pressure on the ranches surrounding it. We never had a biologist out, but by taking old culls and doe early in the season and waiting on the right deer to mature, we started to see a good balance in the doe / buck ratio and started to get some 160+ deer with some really cool antler traits. That's without any supplemental feeding. Just five like-minded guys who paid attention and were honest and smart about what we shot. Damn, I miss that place. If you're truly working to manage a herd, it just seems logical to shoot your doe before they've been bred.

No aerial surveys. It's way too small to justify that. We're in far western Kimble County. It's beautiful country, but pretty rugged and poor soil for any sustainable food plots. There's one location where I may put a small tank eventually. If nothing else, I'd like to have a little better dove activity. Other than that, we do try to leave the northern side of the property alone for the deer. That's where the water troughs are and where we set up the protein feeder. "Prisoner's Dilemma" is the perfect description. Heck, we even tried to buy the place next door last year to double our acreage but the guy wouldn't even entertain an offer. I wish we did have the soil to do some sort of food plot. I'd love to tackle a project like that. Good luck and post some pics when you do it.