BobT

Using the vacuum sealer really pulls the flavor into the meat. Enjoy!

Dale's Steak Seasoning is very good! I use it on just about everything including beef, pork, venison, chicken, fish, and vegetables. I also use it as my primary liquid for jerky. Here's my recipe if you'd like to give it a try. ½ C. Dale's Steak Seasoning 1 t. Onion Powder ½ t. Garlic Powder ½ t. Black Pepper ¼ t. Cayenne Pepper 2 - 3 lbs. sliced meat 1/4" thick Thoroughly mix all ingredients except meat. Stir to blend well. Pour into vacuum pack bag along with the meat and vacuum seal it. Knead the bag to mix the ingredients well. Place in the refrigerator kneading and turning the bag over periodically. Let soak overnight for best penetration. Sprinkle extra fresh ground black pepper after placing on drying racks. Dry until desired dryness.

Using LP to ignite the coals, I can light it and be grilling in about 20 minutes.

I have a Weber Performer and love it. Includes... Work table. Lockable casters so its easy to move around. LP ignition so you don't have to use lighter fluid. One touch cleaning system with removable ash catcher. Hinged cooking grate works nice for adding coals when indirect heating. Built-in lid thermometer. Tuck-away lid holder. Coal storage basket to keep coal dry and easily accessible

Thanks. It seems my question is about as bad as the Covid-19 questions. I find almost as many references claiming it is good for the garden as I find references claiming it is not good for the garden. So far I've found only one study that was conducted by Oregon State University Extension and they said used coffee grounds are pH neutral.

I find that I prefer coffee made without using paper filters. It seems the paper filters out more than just grounds but also flavor. So I have been using a screen type filter. I also find that I like using a French press with my fresh ground coffee which also employs a micro screen. This creates a small challenge - what to do with the spent grounds, especially those left from the press. Too moist for the trash. For a while I have been just rinsing the screens and sending the grounds down our sink drain. We live on a farm and have our own septic system. I have been reading that it is not recommended to dispose of coffee grounds down the drain because doing so can result in the acid from the coffee lowering the pH of the septic system which could kill the needed bacteria. Today, I searched for the question, "What to do with used coffee grounds" and one common solution is to sprinkle them as fertilizer for the garden or potted plants. But, if adding coffee grounds to the septic system could potentially lower pH, wouldn't it do the same for garden soil and potentially rendering it too acidic over time? I also found quite a few articles stating that the acid in coffee is water soluble and ends up in the coffee and the used grounds are pretty much neutral between 6.0-6.5. Other articles I read say they can continue brewing in the septic system which can extract more acid. I'm spinning in circles. Anybody have any knowledge of this chemistry?

Report from Walleye Retreat. Fished Saturday and Sunday. They had us set up in about 29' of water. Caught quite a few sauger in the 10" - 12" range and a few walleyes. A handful of the eyes were in the 14" - 15" range. Managed to put together a fish fry and bring home a meal or two per guy. Best fishing was early morning and late day.

Heading up to Walleye Retreat tomorrow for the weekend. This will be our third trip in as many years. We are going about 3 weeks earlier than usual so we are hoping to get into a little better bite. They do not have a restaurant/bar so you need to be self-sufficient. Back in the late 90's I was with a group of 6 that stayed at Cyrus resort for a few years but again we usually went in late February when fishing was probably the toughest. Cyrus had a nice restaurant/bar so they offered a meal plan that we liked. Can check their websites for pricing. Both places have treated us well, the cabins were nice, and prices were competitive.

We've been hunting the same area around Mt. Iron, MN for the past 50 years. In all that time I could probably count on one hand the number of timberwolves I've seen while deer hunting, grouse hunting, camping, berry picking, 8 years of logging, etc. Wolves are elusive and not easily seen. That is until 2019. Last year our group of seven hunters counted six wolves. I watched two walk past my deer stand, two guys saw two wolves while walking out in the evening from their stands together, and two other times single wolves were spotted. Could we have been seeing the same pair multiple times or six different wolves? Either way it was a lot of sightings. This past Friday evening around 4:00 I watched four wolves walk past my deer stand. The next morning, my nephew saw one near his stand, one of our other hunters saw two wolves near his stand, and his brother counted seven at one time near his stand. My nephew was talking with a guy he knows that works for USX steel and he indicated that he knew of at least three different packs in that area. We definitely see fewer deer these days compared to what we've seen in past hunts.

I check the electrolyte to make sure it is optimum (add distilled water if it is low), make sure the boat key is turned off, and leave my batteries in the boat stored in unheated lean-to. I just plug the charger in about once a month for about a day to make sure they are topped off. As an added safety precaution, you can disconnect the boat wires from the starting battery because some boats have electronics that may use a small amount of power from the battery even when the key is off. Even so, batteries will lose some charge over time and as they do they become more susceptible to freezing. Please note that a battery at 50% charge can freeze at temperatures right about -10 F give or take. Keeping them topped off will protect them. Here's a chart showing the freezing points of batteries at various charge levels that I found from Trojan Batteries.

I would like to know if there is a way to use plastics with greater confidence for walleyes so any tips would be much appreciated. One concern that has crossed my mind is the question of whether or not the plastics are edible. If a fish bites it off and swallows it, can it harm the fish?

I have yet to find plastics to be very effective. I've tried everything from finesse to snap jigging and trolling and found nothing plastic will out fish live bait. It could be that I just don't fish them properly though.

Actually you did start with the batteries but testing showed them to be in good condition. Like quoting Bible scriptures, one cannot build a theology on one verse but must take the whole of Scripture into account, troubleshooting batteries can require multiple tests and some are difficult to perform. Glad you found the problem no go and fish away!

Bulging suggests that battery was frozen at least once, which also indicates it was not fully charged at some point while in subzero temperatures.

I never remove my boat batteries for the winter and always leave them in my boat for the same reasons your coworker shared. I don't just charge them and forget about them though. Stored batteries will lose charge over time and this can dramatically raise the freezing point. According to Trojan Battery, the freezing point for fully charged electrolyte is -92 F. However, that freezing point increases dramatically as the electrolyte loses charge. Electrolyte at 62% charge has a freezing point of about -16 F., which is not uncommon in MN. At 40% charge the freezing point raises to about +5 F. Here's a link to the data; https://www.trojanbattery.com/pdf/WP_DeepCycleBatteryStorage_0512.pdf I would also agree and suggest that the battery(s) could be the likely source of the problem. If the electrolyte has been low one or more times, exposing the lead plates, they could have become contaminated and the battery(s) may have lost some capacity. They will anyway as they age and now that they are over four years old,..... You can improve the life of new batteries by always maintaining the electrolyte level so the plates are never exposed using distilled water. Never leave the batteries sit at partial charge so always recharge them as soon as possible using a 15A or 20A charger after each use. Smart charge technology is the best way to go if you have a smart charger. Most new on-board chargers use this technology.