Merry Christmas

Off to Asheville to visit the inlaws for Christmas hope every one has a safe and bountiful holiday.

No Venison for me

Went hunting last weekend for the last days of gun season and the pictures says it all it was an ice rink  with temps around 17 degrees and no deer to be seen. Yesterday I was bowhunting the morning in short sleves and broke a sweat on my way in with temps around 65. Both had the same out come no deer for the freezer but both were beautiful morning to be in the woods, thought I perfer the cold temps for hunting. This warm weather just make me want to get a line wet but that wont happen today with work but at least the rain makes me feel a little better about being stuck inside. Now off to get some work done we have been with out water pressure at my hotel for 4 days due to Baltimore city's crumbling infastructer and that causes me whole lot of head aches in my building.

Double Turkey

Spent last weekend in Asheville NC doing Thanksgiving with the in laws. There's nothing like a good southern turkey day. We decided to travel the week before the holiday to miss out on traffic and momma works retail and would have been busy. It turned out great since we missed all the weather and it means we get T dinner twice. It is always nice to visit the mountains I always feel at peace there. Had a great dinner with all the fix ins and talked hunting, guns, work and politics with no arguments at all we seem to all see eye to eye on such things finished the weekend out helping get some more fire wood in order for the folks and back in the car for 8 hour trip home.

view from in laws porch

 

splitting wood

 

 

Tonight I'm getting ready for dinner with my family two holiday dinner in less than 7 days not good for the waist line and I sure didn't split enough wood for what I ate. We took the turkey and ham down south but tomorrow I'm only on the hook for dessert, so because I got to work for a few in the am tonight I set about baking bread. Down east Maine pumpkin bread to be exact. Now I have baked a lot of bread but this would be a first pumpkin. I googled pumpkin bread and this recipe has the best reviews so time to prepare. Bread is a process so first you need to gather tools, my new pampered chef bowl from goodwill can opener, spoons, measuring cups and ingredients. Next get beer you simply should not bake without alcohol.

 

 

I chose to start with a nice hickory stick stout that I picked up down in NC.  Now preheat oven to 350 and grab a bowl and crack 4 eggs empty 15 ounces of pumpkin puree 1 cup vegetable oil and 2/3 cup of water. In another bowl mix 3 cups white sugar 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 1/4 teaspoon ginger. Pause drink beer. grease 3 7x3 loaf pans. Pause drink beer. Now slowly mix your dry into your wet ingredients drinking beer as you go. pour in pans and place in oven for 50 min. Mine took 60, yeah me more time to drink beer. Now pumpkin breads good but pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting well ....         so 1 stick of unsalted butter half a block or 4 ounces of cream cheese 2cups powdered sugar 1teaspoon vanilla extract. Pause drink more beer in large bowl beat   mix together (a man mixes with his hands (OK I still haven't unpacked mixer) ) butter and cream cheese then slowly mix in sugar then extract. And you guessed it drink beer. Now if you drank enough beer this will resultNow let cool grab a beer frost and try only 2 will make it until tomorrow . Now blog about it drunk cause merica.

 

Levi kept the wife busy until I cleaned up the kitchen and put tools away sorry bud some one had to take one for the team.

Proof I cleaned up now 1 more beer then bed some of us gotta work in the am.

Moving sucks... Cheers from the Beach House

The end of October and the first few weeks of November have been a blur of work moving and more moving and more moving. If you haven't figured it out by now I  moved. I like moving about as much as putting my nuts in a meat grinder but after all the work and many beers I think it was worth getting out of an apartment and being able to spread out a bit. It hasn't been a lot of fun and I had zero times in the woods or on the water though the later is painfully close I have been working 6 days a week and the seventh at the house. I think the view alone is worth it and now that I'm catching up I might just get to enjoy this.
                   

view from my porch

 

I deliberately left the kayak in storage so I would not be tempted and the ole lady would not shoot me.

needs a little work but the rents cheap

And a mans fire wood stack should not be that empty this late in the year but I will fix that in a hurry

Cheers from the Beach House

 

leatherman wingman reveiw

So sparked  by posts at Say Uncle and Ultimate Answer To Kings I realized its been a year or so since I bought my Leatherman. It wasn't a planned buy I lost my old one overboard and I was in West Marine looking for some rivets and saw it on the end cap, threw it in the basket and was on my way. Since then I have pried, hammered, cut and beat it to death and taken it just about everywhere I go (save a trip to Mexico the whole TSA bullshit ). Its still functional hasn't broken and the blade keeps a decent edge. I work as a maintenance man and it gets used just about every day it has been fishing ( I keep this one tethered) and hunting used it to fix bow sites not gut deer though I'm sure it would do just fine. I never expected it to be this tough and last as long but it has impressed me I'm sure I will break it or lose it eventually but its been a good bang for the buck I think it cost about $35.00 or so. So imho if you need a good multi tool at a decent price you wont go wrong with a Leatherman Wingman

The latest and the CBKA 2013 kayak fishing tournament

Its been about 2 weeks since my last post and there not much went on in most of that time but WORK. Boo those 4 letter words I have managed a few minutes of bow practice but still haven't been in the woods and frankly the fishing bug has me full blast right now. On my one day off I attended the Chesapeake Bay Kayak Anglers 2013 tournament. This was my second year and I had high hopes of some good catches do to recent successes at the Chesapeake bay bridge. On Friday 13 I left work at 4 pm in Baltimore and headed to pick up my gear and meet my nephew to try to make it to Camp Wright on Kent Island Maryland by 7pm. Well needless to say my nephew was late and when he arrived we still had to load camping gear and kayaks into his truck which we did in record time trying not to forget anything mission almost accomplished. We arrived at captains meeting about 20 minuets late picked up our captains bags and things slurped down some fresh oysters and headed to set up our tent. We figured out pretty quickly what we forgot with the setting sun the lantern was still at home. My nephew who was in charge of the next day lunch also informed me that he brought tuna but no mayonais or bread of bags to put sandwiches or a can opener......   So off to the store lantern check lunch check. Once back in camp we rigged up for the morning cooked deer tenderloins and onions for dinner and relaxed with a few drinks. We missed the potluck held that night and decided on sleep instead. The wind whip through out the night and in the morning the air felt more like hunting weather than fishing with temps in the low 50s, The wind was forecast for 10 mph in the morning and to lay down to 8mph in the afternoon but again they were wrong I would guess more like 15mph with gust to 20 out of the northwest. The 1.7nm paddle to the bridge where we wanted to fish was going to be directly into the wind and against the outgoing tide this was not going to be pretty. It wasn't the worst I have been in but I new my nephew had not be in conditions like this and let him make the call. He was game and we launched a little after sunrise to begin what was the hardest paddle I have had to date it took us almost two hours to reach the bridge you could not rest lest you would be blown backwards and the only reason I did not turn around was because I thought the wind might eventually lie down. The wind did not cooperate and once at the bridge I didn't have enough left in the tank to properly fish how I wanted and after about a half hour we decide to drift and fish back to the launch and find some sheltered water. We caught a of small spot and white perch on the drift back and were back at the launch in a half an hour where I was surprised to find that the many wave I took over the bow had leaked and filled my yak with more than 5 gallons of water. Drained the kayak ate our lunch and loaded up to head to the backside of the island at the Kent Narrows Bridge. Paddling was easier there but the fishing for us was more of the same and luck would not be on our side this day. In the end we had a great adventure met some good guys and gals. The night finished off with dinner raffles the winners prizes and 2 kayak raffle. I don't think I have ever been to a tournament that has given away more prizes and in the process raised a lot of money for one of my favorite charities the Make A Wish Foundation Maryland chapter. A big thanks to the guys that worked hard to put this awesome tournament together and I cant wait till next year.

wow I won something

Cool just found out I won a bass pro gift card from bowhuntingmaryland.com for a lucky guess on  an 11 pointer from last year. Im not usually one to win contest but I usually get in on things from the blogs I read and I really enjoy hunting adventures from around my way. This was a lucky guess for me Im not much of a trophy hunter and don't get into the antler scoring but my 122 guess was real close to the 121 6/8 score. Hopefully my luck will follow me to the woods when I finally get a day there. Good luck to the guys from bowhuntingmaryland.com and thank you

September off and running

It has been a busy September and it just started I have a lot of projects going on work wise. Bow season just opened I have a fishing tournament coming up, high school reunion (cant believe it's been 20 years) which I don't even care to attend but made promise to a friend. The wife and I are keeping close tabs on her father who at 70 has a abdominal aortic aneurysm and refuses to quit working (they don't make men like they used to) and  on top of that I'm looking for a new place to rent that wont cost an arm and a leg and job hunting because there is a chance that my 9 to 5 might not be around much longer. So in the few chances I get to myself what else to do but go fishing I managed to get out early to the bay bridge a few times and took an evening paddle last night. Sometimes you just gotta clear your head, life can get hectic. My nephew and I managed a couple of keepers last Saturday morning I had one more Thursday and last night we tore up croakers and white perch. Sorry don't have many pictures this time I left the camera at home Thursday and last night a my free hand was holding a cold one and taking pictures was not a priority. At one point last night I hooked something big it was literally dragging my kayak against the current it felt like a big catfish but I could not get it off the bottom the only other fish it might be is a ray but either way after a few minutes the hook pulled free and I was left with only a smile. I can only hope that at 70 they will be bitching that I wont quit kayak fishing or bow hunting because I would love to give up work now.

7 years

Meant to post this yesterday but was busy spending the day hiking with my wife and dog.  It was a beautiful day to spend in the outdoors. 7 years ago on a sunny Friday august 25 2006 I was lucky enough to marry my best Friend and for some reason beyond me she has stuck with me all these years. I think maybe she deserves an award or something for putting up with my shit for that long but she still around and when she says she loves me its still believable. I made out like a bandit she likes to hunt and shoot loves big trucks and only complains a little when I rebuild a bow, fishing rod or car part on the dinning room table. She was super excited to get a 20 gauge for Christmas and shot her first deer the next year. I say if you gotta marry get you a southern girl from the Appalachia and you can't go wrong . Now if I could just get her on a kayak (she says its not enough boat). So in the off chance you happen to read this I LOVE YOU BABY thank for sticking with me.

 

Hump day on thePatapsco river and a mixed bag

Hit the water after work with some Friends today to squeeze in some mid week  fishing.  We decided to paddle back out to white rocks and see if the big perch were still biting so we dropped lines to troll and paddled out on the mile long haul. Trolling proved ineffective ,As we reached the rocks I started to pull in my lines and promptly hook a small blue fish. My friend Chris hooked up moments later with another and besides a couple of small perch that was pretty much it. The sun was setting so we paddled back to shore and ended up in the middle of a regatta about as close as I care to get to sail boats under sail we stopped and I snapped a few pictures we were to close to get them full frame. Lightning began to flash in the distance so we figured that we fish closer to the landing in case the storm decide to crash our party. Close to the landing ended up being the right spot I immediately hooked into a nice fat perch and Chris hooked the first croaker My nephew who had only caught one fish was still having problems hooking up so some good ribbing was in order. We switch between white perch and croaker for the rest of the night and I ended it with a 19" catfish. Not much could make a work week better than a hump day fishing trip.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge Sunset

Spent the day with the wife and dog and ended it hiking at Terrapin Beach park on Kent Island. They thought it was a nice scenic walk at the park together which it was, however I was also scouting a kayak launching place. I could see birds working over bait on the western shore  and I would have loved to have paddled over there and cast a line. I did enjoy the family time and it was a beautiful evening for a hike which we topped off with some good dinner at Mission BBQ. As for  the fish I will be back soon and I will be armed lets hope my sunset pictures will be fishy..

Land of Pleasant Living

Managed to get out fishing twice in one week amazing. And the weather here has been even more amazing it has really been the land of pleasant living in the usually sweltering mid Atlantic in august. Temperatures last night were a chilly 54. Unfortunately for me the fishing cooled off a bit too however it doesn't get any nicer to be out on the water and there were a few fish cooperating. I could have gone to where I know they were biting but decided to stay close to home wet a line drink a beer and enjoy the scenery.

Severn river

Little short of dinner

                                                            White rocks on the Patapsco