Duck Camp Dinners

[sweetandsour]

I'm enjoying the heck out of this thread. None of my gals care in the least and I'm looked at as an oddity by my friends because they're pure city folk. I have one friend that will take my game but only use his shotgun for skeet because he "loves animals." He's not an idiot, either, just not very good at thinking.

Regarding rabbits, your father was right. Remember when Elmer would get the spots over his eyes when he was hunting Bugs? That's rabbit fever and it can cause hallucinations. Eat them after a hard frost and not before, if you have the choice.

Great thread! And it's given me an idea for another, as well.

Regarding rabbits, I've always heard about the "after the first frost" rule. Similar to the "R rule" for oysters, and others that I don't immediately recall. I do recall however, a discussion with a biology prof in college, regarding tularemia, and the crazy as a march hare idiom, and I asked if the rabbits would be ok to eat, and he looked at me like I was completely stupid, and said, "you're going to cook it anyway".

[Hugo Drax]

I'm enjoying the heck out of this thread. None of my gals care in the least and I'm looked at as an oddity by my friends because they're pure city folk. I have one friend that will take my game but only use his shotgun for skeet because he "loves animals." He's not an idiot, either, just not very good at thinking.

Regarding rabbits, your father was right. Remember when Elmer would get the spots over his eyes when he was hunting Bugs? That's rabbit fever and it can cause hallucinations. Eat them after a hard frost and not before, if you have the choice.

Great thread! And it's given me an idea for another, as well.

Regarding rabbits, I've always heard about the "after the first frost" rule. Similar to the "R rule" for oysters, and others that I don't immediately recall. I do recall however, a discussion with a biology prof in college, regarding tularemia, and the crazy as a march hare idiom, and I asked if the rabbits would be ok to eat, and he looked at me like I was completely stupid, and said, "you're going to cook it anyway".

Not to question your prof, but I'm going to say he should be served under-cooked bear meat as a test. If he doesn't get trichinosis, his theory passes. You better chicken fry a summer rabbit, I'm thinking.

I'm so ready for small game season. I'm starting to get twitchy.

[sweetandsour]

I'm enjoying the heck out of this thread. None of my gals care in the least and I'm looked at as an oddity by my friends because they're pure city folk. I have one friend that will take my game but only use his shotgun for skeet because he "loves animals." He's not an idiot, either, just not very good at thinking.

Regarding rabbits, your father was right. Remember when Elmer would get the spots over his eyes when he was hunting Bugs? That's rabbit fever and it can cause hallucinations. Eat them after a hard frost and not before, if you have the choice.

Great thread! And it's given me an idea for another, as well.

Regarding rabbits, I've always heard about the "after the first frost" rule. Similar to the "R rule" for oysters, and others that I don't immediately recall. I do recall however, a discussion with a biology prof in college, regarding tularemia, and the crazy as a march hare idiom, and I asked if the rabbits would be ok to eat, and he looked at me like I was completely stupid, and said, "you're going to cook it anyway".

Not to question your prof, but I'm going to say he should be served under-cooked bear meat as a test. If he doesn't get trichinosis, his theory passes. You better chicken fry a summer rabbit, I'm thinking.

I'm so ready for small game season. I'm starting to get twitchy.

I didn't know, and still don't, if he was serious or just being funny. He could sometimes be both. I had him for terrestrial ecology (fall semester), and limnology the following spring semester. Lots of field trips, which were fun. My major was in the chemistry dept, but I ended up with ~28 or so hours in the biology dept. We mapped a lake one Saturday morning at a local gun club while there was a live pigeon shoot going on, with a professional columbaire, lots of side betting, big money, the real deal. There were pigeons with no tail walking around all over the place. A few of the girls wanted to protest but the prof had previously instructed the class to ignore the activity that would be going on a few hundred yards away. One of the shooters wandered over and recognized our prof. Turns out he (the shooter) was the president of the local ornithological society. "The pigeon is a dirty bird", he told our prof, to the dismay of a few of our classmates. Good times.

[Hugo Drax]

Great thread! And it's given me an idea for another, as well.

Regarding rabbits, I've always heard about the "after the first frost" rule. Similar to the "R rule" for oysters, and others that I don't immediately recall. I do recall however, a discussion with a biology prof in college, regarding tularemia, and the crazy as a march hare idiom, and I asked if the rabbits would be ok to eat, and he looked at me like I was completely stupid, and said, "you're going to cook it anyway".

Not to question your prof, but I'm going to say he should be served under-cooked bear meat as a test. If he doesn't get trichinosis, his theory passes. You better chicken fry a summer rabbit, I'm thinking.

I'm so ready for small game season. I'm starting to get twitchy.

I didn't know, and still don't, if he was serious or just being funny. He could sometimes be both. I had him for terrestrial ecology (fall semester), and limnology the following spring semester. Lots of field trips, which were fun. My major was in the chemistry dept, but I ended up with ~28 or so hours in the biology dept. We mapped a lake one Saturday morning at a local gun club while there was a live pigeon shoot going on, with a professional columbaire, lots of side betting, big money, the real deal. There were pigeons with no tail walking around all over the place. A few of the girls wanted to protest but the prof had previously instructed the class to ignore the activity that would be going on a few hundred yards away. One of the shooters wandered over and recognized our prof. Turns out he (the shooter) was the president of the local ornithological society. "The pigeon is a dirty bird", he told our prof, to the dismay of a few of our classmates. Good times.

I had a forestry prof like that. Really swell guy and a gentleman in a field of wild men.

BTW, I'm real glad you told the story because it made me actually check it out and research the issue of rabbit fever rather than just trusting local lore. Turns out everybody is right and both the hard frosters and the kill em in July folks have a point.

Kudos to your prof, though...while a hard frost will kill ticks and fleas so waiting isn't a bad idea, cold weather doesn't kill rabbit fever. Look for white spots on the liver. I've never seen white spots on a rabbit liver which probably explains why I don't have tularemia.

[sweetandsour]

I now return you to your regularly scheduled wordle

You should play Wordle with us. You know words.

Hugo does know words. I especially liked his use of "dilettante" earlier. The word for some reason makes me think of a Hayley Mills line from an old Disney movie, but I can't think of which one.

Some folks are known by their vocabulary. An German expat co-worker of mine frequently used the word "pragmatic", and I sometimes wanted to say "I don't think that word means what you think it means". One of my old managers frequently used "ameliorate", and "pedantic", in some incredible sentences, that I wish that I'd have written down. But for now I'll stick with dilettante.

[FredS]

I'm at the cabin in the mountains this weekend and plan to work from here all week. There's a tree out back I call the pee tree because the dogs and I hit it first thing in the morning to do our bidness and visually scout the woods. They chased a couple little squirrels this morning and, of course, lost them when they ran up a tree. Google tells me they're pine squirrels. Pretty small guys. It'd take a half dozen to make a meal for two.

I'm reminded of a day last fall when I went fishing and saw a dude sighting in his .22 on my hike down to the lake. He said he was from Colorado Springs (had a military haircut so I'm sure he was stationed there, not a native) and had heard there were Albert's squirrels up here. We wished each other luck and I heard him take a few shots later on. I forgot all about it until today when I went online to find out what sort of squirrels the dogs chase around here and I saw Albert's squirrels listed. They're pretty big, and very distinctive.

Of course, this Boulder County Brochure lists humans as their four leading threats. I once saw another brochure from a parks agency out here that wrote "Remember, we're visitors in their environment." As if we're not rightful participants in this deal and animals would be better off if we just stayed in the city where we belong.

[sweetandsour]

I'm at the cabin in the mountains this weekend and plan to work from here all week. There's a tree out back I call the pee tree because the dogs and I hit it first thing in the morning to do our bidness and visually scout the woods. They chased a couple little squirrels this morning and, of course, lost them when they ran up a tree. Google tells me they're pine squirrels. Pretty small guys. It'd take a half dozen to make a meal for two.

I'm reminded of a day last fall when I went fishing and saw a dude sighting in his .22 on my hike down to the lake. He said he was from Colorado Springs (had a military haircut so I'm sure he was stationed there, not a native) and had heard there were Albert's squirrels up here. We wished each other luck and I heard him take a few shots later on. I forgot all about it until today when I went online to find out what sort of squirrels the dogs chase around here and I saw Albert's squirrels listed. They're pretty big, and very distinctive.

Of course, this Boulder County Brochure lists humans as their four leading threats. I once saw another brochure from a parks agency out here that wrote "Remember, we're visitors in their environment." As if we're not rightful participants in this deal and animals would be better off if we just stayed in the city where we belong.

Those squirrels should be good to eat, if they have nuts or acorns, or pine cone kernels. The gray (cat) squirrels in our backyard are really into the pine kernels right now, mostly leaving the sunflower seeds to the doves and cardinals.

image000000 (70).jpg (531.44 KiB) Viewed 6570 times

And I hear you wrt the brochures. I was indoctrinated very early on about man's intrusion into the woods, learning to read during the '50s, my first book ever borrowed from our town's library, titled "Then Came Mr. Billy Barker". Go ahead, call me a weirdo for remembering a childhood book, but I do. Even at the age of 6, I remember thinking, "WTH"?

[Hugo Drax]

Squirrels! Man, they were talking my ears off while I was sitting waiting for the nightly attack on my father's garden last night. Trying to warn that dumb wabbit, but he wouldn't listen. They sure clammed up after the old model 12 spoke, though. Silence.

Would give my teeth for a cabin and a week to myself right about now. Not that I don't live alone in this house, though, totally surrounded by humans I just don't understand. An etiolated existence, trying to live around so much femininity.

Got one of those squirrel types talking to me right now from my garage roof, secure in the knowledge I can do eff-all about him. He's a spindly little loafer.

[sweetandsour]

Ok, one of my favorite squirrel stories. My dad caught a squirrel in a live trap in his yard, in town, and couldn't decide how to dispatch it. "So, how did you kill it?", I asked him later. "I put it to sleep", he said. He set the live trap down inside a metal garbage can, sprayed starting fluid (ether) into the can and put the lid on. Sort of a killing jar, In effect. Whether he skinned the squirrel and had it for dinner, I cannot say.

And my final squirrel hunting story. A fine memory, as a 10 or 12 yr old, I accompanied my dad and uncle into a Louisiana swamp with a .410 single shot. Dad and Uncle L.P. both carried only their .22 pistols. The lead was flying, and I would just hang back and watch, until one or both of them would yell at me to shoot, which I finally would. I think I killed 5 or 6 squirrels to their none. We must have lit 5 or 6 hollow trees on fire that morning, with moss and leaves, smoking those poor squirrels out of their hiding spots. Talk about intruding into their environment.

[FredS]

. . . We must have lit 5 or 6 hollow trees on fire that morning, with moss and leaves, smoking those poor squirrels out of their hiding spots. Talk about intruding into their environment.

I won't speak to how another man hunts, considering regional sensibilities and ones desire to put food on the table, but yeah, I wouldn't do that today. One of the first times I hunted by myself (I had my own car and license at 14 so I struck out pretty young) I shot a squirrel in the nest, secure in the knowledge there should be no babies there in the fall. Problem is the squirrel didn't drop. I spent 20 or 30 minutes throwing rocks and makeshift spears trying to dismantle the nest before I gave up and went home. I never did that again. I have, of course, had dead squirrels fall and get hung up in the forks of trees, but I've not since shot one I knew I had little chance of recovering.

[EDIT] I'm not suggesting that S&S's kin were as low down as I was, shooting a nest.