whiskey

OK, this post if for your information and is only to help you make a choice between the available options. I don't promise that my recipe will not cause skin cancer or turn you into a zombie after prolonged use. Do the research for yourself, or use a commercial mix. Always follow the manufacture's instructions and precautions. Permethrin is a popular and well known treatment for ticks, chiggers, mites and other biting insects. It is often marketed as a mosquito repellent, but it doesn't actually repel any insect. What it does do is kill insects that come into contact with the treated fabric. IT IS NOT APPROVED TO PUT ON YOUR SKIN! This is intended to be applied to your clothes or gear prior to use and allowed to fully dry before contacting your skin. There are several commercially available options that are directly marketed towards outdoor sportsmen. Here are the most popular options: REPEL brand sold "Permanone Tick Repellent" aerosol for year in an orange and blue can. Now they sell it as "Mosquito Stop", but it is basically the same stuff. Coulston's Duranon Tick Repellent is a similar aerosol spray with the same percentage of permethrin. This can often be found at your local Co-Op or hunting supply store. Sawyer's Tick Repellent is a newer popular option. It is available at some Wal-Marts and some Dick's and other big box stores. It is supposed to be FDA approved for use on clothing for human. The first "Homemade Permethrin" recipe I tried was using DurationTM 10% Permethrin mixed with water to make a .5% concentration which I poured into spray bottles. This was a much cheaper option than the 3 listed above. However, Duration got more expensive and harder to find so I moved to my current brand. It used to claim to be the "ONLY" FDA approved 10% concentrate approved for use on clothing for humans. Currently, and for the past 2 years I have used Martin's 10% Permethrin to mix with water and make a spray treatment for my hunting and hiking clothes. I buy Martin's online. Usually it is available on Amazon for a decent price. Martin's is not FDA approved for a clothing treatment for humans. DID YOU READ THAT STATEMENT? With that said, I have done quite a bit of research into the various permethrin mixtures available. Most are marketed toward treatment of ticks and mites on Cattle, Dogs and other Livestock. Many of these are not suitable for clothing treatments because they contain a percentage of petroleum to aid in the sticking on cattle and other livestock. This is the same for the permethrin lawn treatment products that are available at Home Depot and Lowes. Lot's of people have used these, but from what I have read it's safer to avoid the products that list petroleum in the ingredients. I buy the 16oz bottle of Martin's 10% Permethrin and mix it with 2.5 gallons of water in a 5 gallon bucket. The mix to get to .5% is 6.4 ounces per gallon of water or 1oz to 20 oz of water. Lots of folks use 1oz to 15oz of water, that gives you .625% and is stronger than needed, but fits nicely in a 16oz spray bottle. My mix makes it just less than .5%, but I can tell you from experience that it is completely effective at killing ticks. I have found many dead ticks on my treated clothing. After I mix up a bucket, I dip my clothes in, wearing gloves, I wring out the clothes back into the bucket. I dipped 5 pairs of pants, 5 shirts and a couple sets of base layers this years. I still had enough left in the bucket to fill 3 16oz spray bottles for reapplications. In the past 3 years I have had ZERO tick bites. I have found a few on me, both dead and alive. No seed tick attacks, no chigger attacks, and it does kill mosquitoes if they stay in contact with the fabric. I also use Martin's to mix up a tick dip for my dogs. I follow the instructions provided with the bottle to make the dog dip. I used it on both my dogs and have not seen any sign of skin irritation. I left a tick on my dog and sprayed it with the dog dip and the next day the tick had fallen off. I assume it died. There are no fleas or ticks on my dogs so I am a believer that the dip works. BTW, the dog dip mix is many times weaker than the .5% that I use for clothing. Don't use the .5% mix on your dogs and don't use it in any mixture on cats. Please remember this is a poison. Do not use the mix bucket for any other purpose. Do not use the spray bottles for any other purpose. Make sure you take care to prevent contamination to unintended areas. Do a little research and you will find that Permethrin is a very versatile insecticide and has lots of useful applications around the house and farm.

I make my own clothing treatment, but it is similar to Sawyer's Permethrin treatment, which can be found at Wal-Mart and Dick's and other outdoor supply stores. I order mine online and mix it up, it's a little cheaper, but if your aren't comfortable with that stuff then stick to the commercially available treatments. I dip my clothes and hang them to dry. I keep spray bottles of the mix to reapply to my clothes after each time I wear or wash them. There is a lot of information on the web, but not all of it is good or safe. I will make up a post for homemade permethrin with my recipe.

Congrats H-101 on the bird. Closest I've gotten was running of our neighborhood gobbler this evening. Every day he gets more and more tempting....

Congrats!

Got skunked this morning. Heard one gobble all morning. Had some hens come by early, but no toms. Oh well, back at them tomorrow morning early.

I was planning to bow hunt for a turkey for the last 3 years. However, my self imposed rule is that I hunt the first two with a gun, then go for #3 with a bow. I can't seem to get to #2....

I am turning into a tree hugger. I just call the turkey, someone has to do the killing. (that's how it seems anyway). I hope to correct that soon. Not that I don't like it when I call one in for someone else, I just want to feel my shoulder throbbing from the joy of a 3.5" turkey terminating grenade.

She has anger issues and possible bipolar disorder. Most disturbing is when I wake up at 3am and she is standing next to the bed holding a hammer and an ice pick.

Nice

The picture above was right after this picture:

I have been considering a back country, pack in turkey hunt this year. Big south fork would be a great place to backpack in, set up camp and hunt for a weekend. I just have to figure out how to store and pack-out a 25 pound bird. Warmer weather would be easier, less layers and sleep gear to pack. I could probably get down to around 20 pounds plus gun and ammo.

You need me to shoot while you call? Nice to have confirmation huh? Good luck next weekend.

Kohana is probably the most popular in Clarksville. Fujiama (exit 4) and Kori (exit 11) are both pretty good. Shogun and Hananoki are Japanese steakhouses that also have sushi, but I would rate their sushi below the other 3 places. Ken's is really good too.

My daughter busted a longbeard this morning on the TN youth turkey hunt. She killed her first bird last year out of a blind. This year we were running and gunning. We heard gobbles as soon as we stepped in the woods, got set up less than 100 yards from the birds. Gobblers came right to us when they flew down, but were downhill on a lower shelf and even though they were only 40 yards away, there was no shot. The hens flew down and took the gobblers to the bottom of the hill to a green pasture. We waited and let them get out in the field then we moved down the hill and set up, about 50 yards inside the woods. Something spooked the birds in the field and I thought the hunt was over, but the hens went left and the gobblers went right. I could hear the gobblers a good hundred yards out so I broke out the box call, gave a few loud yelps and some cutting and this big boy came trotting back down the hill towards us. He strutted in the field for a few minutes and then committed to us. He crossed a fence and covered about 10 yards when I told my daughter, "Take him when your ready." She barely got "OK" out of her mouth before dropping the hammer on him. 40 stepped yards and he was DRT. That little Mossberg 20ga with HeviShot Magnum Blends has turned out to be a great combination. Luckily we were the only folks in the woods this morning, cause we had a hootin' and hollerin' celebration after I sprinted over and rang his neck for good measure. Shot at 8:15am, 21 pounds, almost 10 inches of beard and 7/8" spurs. A really nice 2 year old gobbler. This one was a good bit bigger than her bird last year, so she was stoked. She helped me clean it when we got home. She said, "What a way to start Spring Break!" We had a wonderful hunt with very vocal birds. We never went more than 15 minutes without hearing a gobble. Two exciting hours in the woods this morning. Can't wait for regular season to open now.

I have exterminated them with a pellet gun, but I don't recommend it. I think the traps needs to be more enticing like WD-40 suggested.

Congrats Miss.Boy. I have lots of great memories in the woods with my daughter. I was fortunate that she took my not-so-gentle pushing shooting and hunting on her. She enjoys turkey hunting the most. I wish for you, a child that's eager to take up the tradition.

I found two more longbeards this evening. I am all eat up with turkey fever. I can't make up my mind where I want to take my daughter Saturday morning. I decided to take tomorrow off work and see if I can roost a bird tomorrow evening. I just have to decide which area I want to go to roost one. I am trying to decide if I want to get up early to listen for gobblers tomorrow morning. I'm a wreck....

Anyway, what I typed last weekend was... We cut the breast out for human consumption. The legs and thighs go into a crock pot for the dogs. We cut the breast in strips, soak it in milk for few hours, roll it in flour and pan fry it. Then we make gravy from the pan drippings. A little salt and pepper is about all the seasonings I put on it. Fried wild turkey fingers with gravy is a traditional camping meal for us. Each year we do a weekend long family/friends camping trip that includes a supper of fried fish and fried turkey breast and all the fixins. Makes my mouth water just thinking of it.

I know I posted about recipes....They seem to have disappeared....

I got my gun zero'd. I got my daughter's gun ready. I got all my camo dipped in permethrin. I scouted today and found 3 flocks on 3 different pieces of public land. Found one big boss gobbler. I am hopeful I can get my daughter on a gobbler for the youth hunt next weekend. As turkey hunters know, nothing is a given when turkey hunting, but I am hopeful.

K-bug doesn't have any desire to hunt them? Lana has a 20ga turkey gun she can use. We will probably hunt on Saturday of the youth hunt, but your welcome to it till well after opening weekend. Lana will be out of town for spring break.

I have had lots of mullet roe pan fried. I like it ok, but not crazy over it. I tried to eat a porcupine that my buddy shot in Alaska. It tasted like pine-sol. I have had chit'lins a few times and I like them. SO LONG AS THEY ARE CLEAN and FRIED. I won't eat them stewed. That is just nasty...

You have to smoke them a little differently than domestic pig. I smoke them to 160-170 degrees and then slice the meat. I tried one to smoke it to 190-200 degrees and pull it like domestic shoulders, but it was way too dry. Our trick is to ice the quartered hog for a few days in a cooler. Drain the bloody water off every day till it runs clear. This gets most of the gamey taste out of even big hogs. Once the water runs clear we liked to rinse the meat and cooler, refill with ice, grapefruit juice, orange juice, sliced oranges, lemons, limes and a few jars of MOJO seasoning marinade. You could buy it at Publix in south Florida, but not sure about here. http://www.badia-spices.com/cooking/cooking_prod_detail.cfm?id=131

Personally, I am not one for supporting something based on "tradition". Let's take a minute and look back at all the "traditions" that are no longer socially or legally acceptable. I don't mind the killing of the two eagles. I have lived in Alaska and seen a glacier flat creek, lined, shoulder to shoulder, as far as I could see, with bald eagles. There are enough that killing two won't hurt the population anymore than bear hunters taking their limits in Tennessee, or Elk Hunters taking their limits in Kentucky. I just don't like the inconsistent "rules" our government establishes. You can't kill whales or seals or eagles. Wait, ok, you can kill them if your a native American. You can't discriminate based on race or religion. Wait, ok, you can if you are doing it to ensure a state college is diverse enough.

Be careful not to eat too much fried roe, especially if you have to venture out in public after eating. I had a buddy that ate them for breakfast and wore white pants to school (it was the 80's, think Don Johnson). Well he paid dearly for the morning choices.