All About Pocket Knives

At the park Sunday, made some bacon and dogs......and saw 2 hawks, too far away to identify!

Looks like good times Scott! Good weather to. We have had heavy rain and down trees. Avalanches and mud slides!


These were taken about two miles below my cabin. I walk the trail down to the lake every day!





All of this rain has brought out one of my favorite wild mushrooms, The black saddle fungus! All rinsed and strung up to dry! Careful with these ones, they can upset your stomach if you don't prep em' right!

I'd love to learn about mushrooms here in FLA.....I rarely see any though. Oh well.

I did learn about pine burls last weekend when I tossed one in my fire and watched it burn fora couple hours
I was like, oh man, I gotta have me some more of these for future bonfires! So I went on a solo mission and picked up 3 today.
They are these balls on the branches.....

If you already knew, please forgive my excitement for learning!

I remember my dad gathering those when we went camping. He called them lighted pitch knots. As I recall they burn hot and long! Haven't been out the wilderness in years due to having multiple surgeries done over the last several years. Gonna get out this year and light me up some pitch knots! Scott your enthusiasm is contagious!

Good bunny day.. Dogs ran 13 and between 4 of us we got 8.. John

I don't know if this helps or not. Maybe someone will come along that can identify them from those fuzzy blobs.
Scott, are what I've circled the Pine Burls your talking about?

Some fine photos Scott and some fine enhancements Jerry. I would guess the hawks are ospreys and that is just from the amount white on their breast, as said to far away to see any identifying marking. I got some friends that live in dade county and I've got fat wood and some of those knots from them over the years.hot stuff. edit: I saw some fatwood at Academy sports the other day in tins pretty expensive imho .

I am confident bighomer is correct. They be ospreys.

Why thank you Jerry....Very kind of ya!

Because they birds are do far away it is hard to distinguish from the bright sun on their breasts and the golden light brown their chests actually are.
They are fairly common here in FL.
I love to hear them fly by. I just taught the boys about their noise...Hear that? Know what it is? It's a hawk!! Edu-mah-cation!!

So here's a pic of me yesterday with 3 of the 7 kids (also had 2 adults accompanying me) on a new trail we found......AND.....AND a pic of the pine burls I grabbed!

You look like your having fun out on the trail Scott. Hiking and bring those kids into a closer look at nature! I don't see much of that around here. Mostly middle age folks like my self. The only "kids" here are 17-20 years crank freeks who "camp" in the woods around me. The bulk of the homeless here fall into this category. We have about 700 acres of urban forest. I go for a hike almost every day. I see lots of "stuff". But don't see many burls out where I live. If you come across a nice burl that would ship easy, I'd love have one. Slice it up and dip it into some stabilizer and make some pretty knife scales! Man I wished I lived closer. I would love to tag along on one of your missions. Or if you ever get the chance to get out this way with some of your kids I would be happy to take all of you out gold panning and hiking! Good work bro!

#goldpan wrote:You look like your having fun out on the trail Scott. Hiking and bring those kids into a closer look at nature! I don't see much of that around here. Mostly middle age folks like my self. The only "kids" here are 17-20 years crank freeks who "camp" in the woods around me. The bulk of the homeless here fall into this category. We have about 700 acres of urban forest. I go for a hike almost every day. I see lots of "stuff". But don't see many burls out where I live. If you come across a nice burl that would ship easy, I'd love have one. Slice it up and dip it into some stabilizer and make some pretty knife scales! Man I wished I lived closer. I would love to tag along on one of your missions. Or if you ever get the chance to get out this way with some of your kids I would be happy to take all of you out gold panning and hiking! Good work bro!

Awe dude, I hear ya....would love to have you join us! Or us with you!!

Todays rabbit report.. Dogs ran 6.. We shot 3.. We hunt heavily hunted public land so the bunnies are few and far between.. This was a good day for 4 hrs of hunting!! Thank You and back to knife talk!! John

jmh58 wrote:Todays rabbit report.. Dogs ran 6.. We shot 3.. We hunt heavily hunted public land so the bunnies are few and far between.. This was a good day for 4 hrs of hunting!! Thank You and back to knife talk!! John

Knice!!!
How do you prepare them? Fried? Stew?

Cook them in a crock pot till the meat falls off bone .. Them we do soup or stew.. Carrots, onions, celery etc!! We got a pile this yr so we are having a bunny feast with every one that has hunted with us this yr.. The season ends in 2 wks.. Beer and bunnies!!! John

jmh58 wrote:Cook them in a crock pot till the meat falls off bone .. Them we do soup or stew.. Carrots, onions, celery etc!! We got a pile this yr so we are having a bunny feast with every one that has hunted with us this yr.. The season ends in 2 wks.. Beer and bunnies!!! John

Sounds mighty tasty. ....hope you'll show pics of finished product!

Speaking of bacon.... Here's a LOT of bacon.

If you're squeamish about watching kill shots.... Do not watch this video.

I've been researching thermal rifle scopes. Here is a video of a Texas farmer defending his crops using thermal night vision on an AR-10. I've heard we have a feral hog problem in the southern states but folks! this is ridiculous how many hogs are on this farm. Wish I was there! I'd help him out, free of charge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvLRmp_7ktw

Saw these Turkeys on the way to work, then the next day saw a Eagle in the same field.

Larry

CheckSix wrote:Speaking of bacon.... Here's a LOT of bacon.

If you're squeamish about watching kill shots.... Do not watch this video.

I've been researching thermal rifle scopes. Here is a video of a Texas farmer defending his crops using thermal night vision on an AR-10. I've heard we have a feral hog problem in the southern states but folks! this is ridiculous how many hogs are on this farm. Wish I was there! I'd help him out, free of charge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvLRmp_7ktw

Good stufff Dave! Definitely a problem here in FL too!

TripleF wrote: Good stufff Dave! Definitely a problem here in FL too!

Scott,
I used to live in south Florida many Moons ago... and we used to hunt hogs in the Indiantown area. At that time, the hog population wasn't anywhere near the epidemic level it is at now. It's REALLY gotten out of control. I was just reading that in Texas, 750,000 hogs are taken per year and that is just keeping the hog population level. If the hunting were stopped, the hog population would triple in 5 years.

Dang hogs are out here as well. Tough buggers too. I have seen footage of hog hunts in Texas done from helicopters using automatic rifles! Hogs, copters and autos! Sounds like fun Turkeys are starting to show here as well as the temps start to rise. Love this time of the year! Saw an eagle out here too!

Randy,
Are you out in California? Just wondering.

Chris,
That video shows 93 hogs down in one night and there were plenty more. I was wondering about that too! I've field dressed quite a few animals. Can't imagine doing 93 by myself. Even if you had 3 other volunteers to help dress them out, each one would have to dress 23 hogs each. Like I said... that's a lot of bacon! Back in the day, I would sometimes get extra doe tags and when my freezer was full, I would donate the meat to folks in need. Hopefully this farmer is doing something similar.

By the way, that thermal night vision scope is pretty awesome. Works in pitch dark and works in the fog and rain too.

I've never eaten wild hog but I'm guessing they taste kind of rank.

Jerry, it depends on their diet. Before they became such a pest folks used to catch them with dogs and pen 'em up and feed them to produce a better tasting pork. Some of the hogs would taste like fish that came off the St. Johns River marsh , a few weeks of shelled corn soaked in water would "clean 'em up" .

Y'all, on the Outdoor channel, the hog hunt with the helicopters and rifles, they had several crews picking up the dead hogs and taking them to be processed and then donated.
Treefarmer

treefarmer wrote:Jerry, it depends on their diet. Before they became such a pest folks used to catch them with dogs and pen 'em up and feed them to produce a better tasting pork. Some of the hogs would taste like fish that came off the St. Johns River marsh , a few weeks of shelled corn soaked in water would "clean 'em up" .

Y'all, on the Outdoor channel, the hog hunt with the helicopters and rifles, they had several crews picking up the dead hogs and taking them to be processed and then donated.
Treefarmer

I've had some feral hog meat that was tasty and then some that was inedible. Their diet is the key, as you noted. I would imagine the ones feeding on a farm are pretty darn good.

Funny you mentioned the dogs. My hunt buddy in FL had 3 Pitbulls for this purpose. They were named Nitro, TNT & Dynamite. They were absolutely fearless and boy howdy! Did they love to hunt! Unfortunately, Nitro was killed by a Boar during a hunt. He had been gored by one of its tusks and bled out. He had latched on to the Boar's neck and never let go.