I can send ya' a few wild half domesticated Bob-Cats if ya' need.....they're affluent out here, will take on any snake, often come out the victor too. Nope, on 2nd thought, they'd eat your cats too, my bad....! BTW-59, how often do you see or find snakes out there in God's Land...? How is your Garden growing BTW????
The most accurate, and favorite rifle I have shot since I was a kid, was purchased out of a Sears Catalog, by my GrandPa in 1937. It's by far the most accurate long rifle Remington (or any other brand, model, or caliber) single action rifle I have ever shot. I've often heard, like most products, those built prior to WWII, had better quality metals, were built tighter, better, more precision in each build. I belive it to. I have yet to find a rifle of any caliber as accurate as the old 37 Remington. altho'- the 100th anniversary Colt 22 Magnum Six shooter, is damn near as accurate. A beauty too, as its a limited edition pistol, of which only 5,000 were built. I have no problem picking off field mice with the pistol at 50 feet in the dark, and 100 feet with ease using the Remington Rifle. Take many products, what is now built with pearl or plastic once was built with Ivory, aluminum often replaced Brass, or other better metals. Take guitars for example, any pre-WWII Acoustic Guitar is made of materials never used after WWII. Same with Guns, and many many other products. Kinda like trying to buy an all metal car, or 90% metal car, in lieu of 80% plastic most cars are made out of today.....the glory years of cars seemed to of departed after 1969.....I'd much rather own any 1930s-1969 vehicle than pay as much for a new modern day POS....!!! I never should of sold my 49 Bel-Air, or my Fastback 69 Mustang, Hi-Performance Test Bed, a very rare car, moreso than Shelby's 68s...!
You know Tote, in Southern Luzianna, Cajuns address each other (No Kidding) as coon ass...! The meaning behind their sociological habits, goes beyond in-breeding, as they're all cou-zans or so they also call each other. The old "coon-ass" term goes way back to the Migration of Acadians into southern La. When they would eat anything as the saying goes, including a racoons ass...! NO shit, .....!
...we don't see bobcats and foxes all that often because they are so elusive but every now and then one will show up. Snakes, on the other hand, are very common and being outside as often as I am, you really gotta watch where you step. The rattler in the pic was a timber back and along with copperheads, are the most common. Diamond backs and cotton mouths, not so much. And of course, I won't bother a non-poisonous snake because they're actually helpful. ...the garden is doing well. I harvest about 20 pods of okra each day and the plants are only about 1/2 grown. Most of them I blanch and put up in freezer bags. But for the last week I have been picking them small and young and yesterday, my wife and I put up 8 canning jars of our own recipe of pickled okra...(boil equal parts of vinegar and water, ...add sugar, salt, red pepper, sprig of dill, and a clove of garlic) ...let 'em pickle for a month or more...good stuff. ...the only tomatoes I've had any luck with are the Roma variety and the cherry tomatoes...(the big tomatoes just don't do well in my area)...evidently, the Romas are cross pollenating with the cherry Romas tomatoes because the cherry Romas are about 3 times bigger than normal...great to eat fresh or freeze in bags, ...very meaty, fewer seeds, and make great salsa too. ...I also decided to grow some jalapeños this year...those I just save in the freezer and will add them along with some crab boil for cajun boiled peanuts which will become available in the next couple of weeks till mid September. (I put up about 50 quart bags each year)...take 'em out of the freezer, nuke 'em, and then eat a belly full. ...I'll take some pics in a few minutes and will post them for you.
...you can usually pick up a jar of pickled okra in the supermarket...pretty much tastes like anything else that's been pickled...we also fry it, and put some in with out fresh beans/peas as they are boiling.
The only one on that list worth shooting Iif you feel the need to kill em MO is the coyote... I would trap & relocate all the others but the bobcat & fox which I would leave the hell alone.
...trap and relocate?...no, I'll leave that to the DNR. ...if they're eating my food in my garden, I'll shoot them...if I see a poisonous snake, I'll shoot him...if I see animals that are known to carry rabies and/or kill pets in my yard, I'll shoot them. ...and I won't lose a minute's sleep over it. No offense hammer, but unless you actually live where I live, you can't know what it's like out here.
Actually hammer, the coyotes can be quite beneficial. We had female that would wait for my wife and I to come up the trail on horseback and she'd follow us around as we brush popped and broke trail. We would always strip up a squirrel or jack rabbit...that she would hunt and bring back to her pups. One day a local avacado grower hired a couple of guys to snipe his squirrel infestation and these 2 yahoos ended up killing our yote. I could up with those guys one day and threw them a both a beating they didn't forget. Dumbass grower made this problem when he decided to put up chain link fence rather than the old split rail and barbed wire. By keeping the predators out of his grove, his rodent problem bloomed. He lost more crop to them than the human theft he was trying to thwart. I have no tolerance for idiots in the wild, lol! I have no need to hunt for meat, so I don't. The only thing I'd take on trail is if it were hunting me or presenting an acute danger. As 59 says, its a different story when protecting your spread from nuisance animals. Those that become dependent on human activity to survival, well they have naturally selected themselves for destruction, one way or another.
I wonder if you could patent the hybrid Roma-to-cherry tomatoes....that is very cool. I'd of never guessed to try as much. My wife's roses cross hybrid simply over the years of being in close proximity. So, I can see how the same could apply to your unique tomatoes. You could be on to something, if you chose to mass grow cherry Roma's. Of course you'd have to buy a few hundred acres of cherry roma tomato land, for it to pay off. Tho'- The high costs of mass production is often not worth the effort, or headaches. Especially if your producing enough to appease your own produce needs. Sounds like your pickled Okra is exceptional. You could probably make a 2nd fortune growing and packing your personal signature pickled Okra. Now that's a true Southern Tradition I miss alot. When i was a kid, I couldn't believe how many people sat outdoors on weekends, with a brown bag full of fresh baked peanuts, and a cold glass of Lemonade. From La. to Ga. Seemed like every block had a few porches of peeps enjoying the southern specialty of: bags of warm roasted peanuts. The Jalapeno crab boil peanut touch sounds perfect...... another festivity I miss from the south, crawfish boils.......and the parties that are inherent with them....!!! Bring your own accordion, washboard, spoons, kazoo, anything that can play a note....in my case NOT. It's good to see, your garden's doing very well. Especially with the brutal winter ya'll had, and around the nation. So many gardener's I've known, even some small farmers, did not bother to plant, due to late frosts. Or-planted late, planted less, and expect a smaller yield. Those gardeners who are doing well, did like you did, began their seedlings indoors. do you grow cilantro for your salsa? Basically Coriander plants. I found when making salsa, adding Lime and Salt to be more than sufficient for preserving Salsa, indefinitely, (well, for a season-not til Armageddon). When I do make salsa, I also make a hot spicy Creole Sauce. I read an article about a Dr. in Hawaii, who grows coffee beans for a hobby. He uses vine wire to get his coffee trees, to get more sun inside the tree, and allow the tree to grow outward, like vines. The end result is: he gets alot more yield of beans, which are bigger/heartier; even tastier (more pronounced unique flavor) full bodied, fruitier; aromatic Kona beans. He gets more per lb. for his beans, than any other Kona grower. He's getting approx. $135-150$ per lb. for his beans, about what a grower would get for Jamaica Blue Mt. coffee beans. I love to stuff Jalapeno's and Okra too, make poppers, nuke, bake or deep fry 'em..... all this talk is making me: Thanx for the update 59....!!!
Couldn't patent it without a full genome sequence and a genetic hybridization process. Otherwise its a natural variation, nothing invented. God isn't too jazzed when we take credit for his inventions, lol!
...matts, to answer your question, I have a small herb garden, but no cilantro. ...as far as making salsa, I found this stuff at the grocery store a few years ago. It works great and so simple and has all the herbs and seasoning you need...I use my own tomatoes when I have them but you can also use a can of diced tomatoes and just add a packet of this stuff, stir, and let stand in the fridge for an hour, and it's pretty damned good. I usually get the "mild" and then add jalapenos for my own desired degree of "hotness".
..there you go with that "gene" thing again...I'll have you know my Roma's gender preference were not predetermined by some strand of DNA...they alone decided that and was determined between the time they first sprouted and the time they were harvested.
Sounds good 59, I'll be right over and fry you some Chimichangas, with Salsa of course.... I've become addicted to Cilantro, I'd eat it in my Wheaties, but refrain....LOL... Yet, I'm not much a fan of Coriander seed, other than using it in homeade South American Impenadas.....( a recipe I got from a good Venezuelan buddy)....!
Does that mean I'm going to hell for creating my own hybrid Kushmar Mango plants???? Wait, I'm also "imagining there is no hell".....LOL....Or will he strike me down with Odin's bolt.....I was born with EMP hardness.....!!! "See ya' in Heaven if you make the list, yeah yeah yeah yeah".......
