Teach a Man(Woman) to Fish.........

Blue Gill

Largemouth Bass

How does that go? Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.

I never really cared to fish in my lifetime, and never knew it was something that you needed to be taught. I thought you just put the worm on the hook and wait till one bites, then you reel him in. I found out last night that it's a little more complicated than that. I didn't mind worming my own hook, although Pop thought I needed to let him do it for me,and I guess I shouldn't have been so independent and let him do it. Men do better when you act helpless. It makes them feel needed,but I never was much at pretending to be a wimpy needy woman.

We set up our chairs on the bank of the pond, and proceeded to load our hooks and cast out our lines. That casting was a bit tricky. I think I finally got the hang of it, although I need a bit more practice before I say I know what I'm doing. That little trigger button on the reel, you know. It takes a few tries to get the hang of pressing and releasing it at just the right moment. We took two small cane poles with us, but thank goodness Pop had the ones with the reels in his truck, too. If we'd had to use those cane poles, we might still be out there trying to catch a few fish. We ended up with about a dozen small blue gill and one small bass. It's much more fun catching them and knowing you'll be throwing them back in the water at our home, then it would have been trying to scale and clean those tiny things. I hate the cleaning process. That is another job I never cared to learn. It seems, around here anyway, once you learn a job, it's yours for life. I say, "No Thanks! I don't need another job."

It'll be iffy as to whether the fish survive. Sometimes they die from the trauma of being hooked, but many times, they go on to live normal lives, although it may be a short life. Especially, once the grand kids learn there are fish in our pond. Pop says they will multiply fairly quickly, but I haven't done any research on the gestation period for fish yet. I'll be putting that on my "Need To Do" list.

The picture of the blue gill is from the Outdoor Alabama site.

The picture of the bass is from http://fish.dnr.cornell.edu/nyfish/Centrarchidae/largemouth_bass.html.

Green Eggs and Ham Anyone?

 

 

The weather is fairing up and the chickens are beginning to lay a little better. Being housed up all winter,slows things up a bit in the egg department, but warm weather brings them alive once more.Pop has debated many times as to whether we need to sell the whole flock or not. During the winter months, the cost of feeding the hens outweighs the benefits we get from keeping them year round. He and I could get by on one dozen eggs a week, most weeks,but then we would miss them so.We have always had chickens around. I think more for nostalgia than anything else, but there comes a time when even nostalgia must fall by the wayside,especially with the economy being in such a mess.If we could let them roam freely,full time, it might be different, but when you raise a garden, you need to keep that in mind. With the cost of fencing being as it is,too, that is almost out of the question.It would take a huge fenced in area to keep the chickens in grass. They tend to kill a plot of grass quickly.I guess we could fence in the garden, but then my flowers would fall prey to the chickens.It seems it's a catch twenty two no matter which way we decide to go.I love my flowers and my garden, but we love the chickens,too. For years, I had to tolerate Pop's prize beagle hounds tearing up my flowers,and now it's the chickens. Many times,over the years, I've considered throwing in the towel on my flowers,but I keep trying to find a happy medium where we can all live together and be content.You'd think after 35 years, I'd have found it,by now.I guess there's one way to look at it. 

No man lives long enough to conquer all of life's challenges.