Tomato Time

The finished product looks something ike this, or exactly like this. I can only hope that the pursuit of the tomatoe is a lot more successful than last years run.

From the Journal of Zeke McNamara #7

Or a wet rat, it was a toss up. She crept into the cave and stopped just out of the drip from the opening.
"Well, can you talk" Zeke asked
She just stood there looking around as if she was making sure there was no one else in the cave, Zeke put away his revolver and stirred the fire. He pulled the coffee pot a little closer to the fire to let it warm a little. She just stood there, she was wearing an old wide brimmed beaver hat with a squared off crown. It had a piece of the brim tore off the front right where she could duck her head and by moving her eyes still see. Her hair was red, not the brassy kind, the almost brown kind and it looked like a bird had been living in it below the crown of the hat. She was a little over five feet tall, she wore a red flannel shirt with bib overalls and miners boots that were three sizes to big. She was dirty, her face was smudged with black and her fingernails were caked with dirt. She was carrying an old cap and ball rifle like Yankees used in the beginning of the war.
"You hungry?" Zeke asked. Again trying to get her to say something. She stood at the cave entrance, watching every move Zeke made. Her eyes darted over her shoulder and she seemed to buzz with energy. Just at the minute lightning flashed and thunder rolled overhead. She jumped inside the cave and immediately crouched and pointed the old rifle out into the darkness. Zeke chuckled and said " Might jumpy are you?" She turned on him, her face strained in anger. her first words were, " You stay out yonder in a nuff o'these storms your chances of getting hit by lightning gets greater and greater. You'd be jumpy to if'n you ever seen a body after lightning hits it. My pa had an old sway back mare that he left tied to a plow, lighting hit that ole mare and took every bit of the hair off'n her. She was as pink as a newborns bottom, dead too." Zeke laughed out loud and ask again if she was hungry. She looked off into the night and said " I can eat if'n you got extry."
Zeke put the fry pan back on the fire, cut off several pieces of bacon into the pan. He reached over and poured a cup of coffee and handed it to her. She put her old rifle down, leaving it close, and sipped on the coffee. She made a face and swallowed. Zeke smiled again and reached into his pack and tossed her a sack of sugar. She added a heaping hand full to the cup and sat back to drink it.
"You got a name?" Zeke asked?
" My daddy called me Jude most of the time, my momma called me Judy Carol till she died. Snake bit her down in Arkansas, Daddy said it was the biggest cottonmouth moccasin he'd ever kilt, Momma lived two, three days. She told me to watch out for snakes, that was the last thing she said to me."
"Good advise," Zeke commented.
The rain outside increased in volume and the entrance was now behind a thin wall of water, most of it ran off towards the river. One small rivulet came in towards where Judy Carol had sat down, she got up and moved toward Zeke. Lightning flash and thundered rolled then echoed. Each time Zeke noticed that Judy flinched when it flashed. Zeke handed her the fry pan and she took the bacon out. He reached back into his pack again to produce a sack of left over biscuits from breakfast. She placed the bacon in the biscuits . Zeke noticed that she ate with the style folks do that have not had much to eat in a while, slowly enjoying every bite. When she finished the bacon she sopped up the grease with a biscuit and ate that too. Zeke let her eat with out much conversation. When she was finished Zeke asked " You live around here?"
" I live where I want" she answered" got me a good gun and I know how to eat off the land. Momma taught me a lot about what plants you could eat and what ones you could use for medicine. I get by, Pa is gonna find them diamonds then we will move out to California and eat high off'n the hog"
"So your here treasure hunting?" Zeke inquired.
"Never thought of it as that, I reckon we are, Pa he took off last week to get more supplies, he favors his coffee."
"Where did he go?"
Said he was going to Galena, I figure he went down towards Blue-eye, cause the trader down there will take pelts for supplies, fella up in Galena he prefers cash or gold. We ain't got any of that."
Zeke thought back, there had been a stranger reported to have been seen around the trading post. About that time Zeke began to notice a foul smell filling the air. He looked around for its source. It did not take him long to figure out it was the young lady. As she dried out it was easy to tell it had been some time since she had had a bath. The odor was as nauseous as a skunk he sniffed and scrunched his nose. The motion was not lost on Judy Carol.
" Alright Mister, I know your sniffing me and I'm fixin to leave, been a while since I had me a creek bath with soap. Thanks for the meal, I'll be leaving. She got up and took her rifle and started toward the entrance. She took two steps and the lightning flashed and the thunder rolled. She ducked her head and stepped out into the rain.

Schooner Creek under the rainbow

The winter of 2009-2010 has been one of the coldest on record here in south west Missouri. The temperature hit -11 one morning in early January and other than a one day breather we had no January thaw. Its the end of March and the temperature is still having a hard time getting above 60. The James River arm of Tablerock froze over above the White River arm at point 9. Not so hard as you can walk on it, it did support snow and folks up that way said it had not happened since 1963 or 4.

I for one am very glad that by the end of this week the temp's are suppose to be in the low 70's. The grass is turning green and them bushes people put in their front yards are turning yellow. All we need now is to see the Red Buds pop and right behind them come the wild cherry and plum trees then the Bradford pears and the Dogwoods. Hot dog.....when the oak leaves get to the size of squirrels ears and the dogwoods bloom, the crappie are jumping in the boat.

The rainbow in the picture hits the dock where my boat is sitting. I took that as a good sign, The water there is too deep to dive for the gold so I hope the luck fills my live well for safe keeping.

I had a lot of folks ask me today about my blog novel, From the Journal of Deputy Issac McNamara. I'm working on that to be my Thursday entry. So thanks again for following. Keep in touch and let me know what you like and dislike.....

Off to a GREAT start

I'm passionate about my fishing, like some folks are mad about cars, golf, basketball, baseball and football. I love to go fishing. The way I look at it, I work hard 40 hours a week, pay my bills, stay out of trouble ( most of the time) and if I have a weakness ,it is fishing. Now Bass fishing is my favorite, the hours I spend just casting for the species more than pays for the price of the lures. When I catch one like the one on the right then all the money is worth it. When I'm out on the water my blood pressure drops, the idiots I have to deal with are forgotten, and everything is at peace in my world. I had a person explain to me one time that if I added the cost of the boat, license and all the tackle then every fish I catch is like $10.00 a pound. I got news for that person, I seen a new bass boat on a show room floor this past week and sticker price on it was over $41.000.00 That means that the fish I catch is like $200.00 a pound. Thank the good Lord I don't need a boat.
I walked through the lure department of my local Bass Pro Shop and readers, if I told you there were lures there that cost as much as $25.00 would you believe me? I remember when I thought spending a $1.50 on one was outrageous. Not only that but they have videos playing at the end of every isle telling you if you only buy this $25.00 piece of painted plastic you are going to catch these monster fish and be famous. I guess my age and experience saves me because much like a gambler can not help from dropping a quarter in a slot machine I have a hard time resisting the urge to grab up four or five of them high dollar lures just so I can try them in case they might catch a fish. Heavy emphasis in the word might.
I started fishing next to my dad on farm ponds and creeks near my grandparents homes in Texas County, Missouri. We used worms we dug up ourselves or grass hoppers we had to catch. We spent hours catching bluegill, small bass, and a red eyed fish called a goggle-eye. As I grew up, Dad took us to Minnesota for Pike and walleye, and later yet Lake of the Ozarks for Crappie fishing. Most of all we used natural baits we caught or trapped ourselves and caught a lot of fish.
Then when I was 18 a friend, named Don Kramer, made me into a monster. We were fishing a small creek called the Courtious (Coat-a-way) when he tied on a blue wooden bait with a couple of treble hooks hanging off it and cast it into a eddy. The thing floated there a few minutes, Don took up the slack, and the water exploded right before my eyes. A few minutes later Don lipped one of the biggest bass I had ever seen up to that point in my life. I was hooked, deep. Why if I could catch fish like that with out digging up worms, or crawling around in a chigger infested hay field catching grasshoppers, or waiting while a minnow trap does its job, then I was signing up. I did and several years later, and a whole lot of money spent, I'm still at it. I go just as often as I can and stay just as long as possible.
The first fish of the season was caught on a painted piece of plastic I paid a lot of money for....Ain't life good!

Did you think I Expired?

Folks and readers that may or may not be following me I have returned. Its been a long cold winter here on Schooner Creek. There has been a lot of water under the bridge since my last entry. Let it be said that things are almost back to normal. I can almost see out of my eye,my daughters health is good right now, my computers health needs to be worried over. I made the mistake of installing a Norton anti-virus program that slowed my computer down so much it lost a race with poured molasses.
The weather is improving here in southwest Missouri, it is finally warming up a little. Tablerock Lake, here at Schooner Creek, has a surface temperature at 47 degrees prior to the heavy rains we have received since Monday. The rain was warm and hopefully has had a positive impact. Three days of fishing produced one fish, to small to keep. My grandson Joe has not let me forget about it yet, prior to the rain. Joe and I made the 45 minute run down to Cricket Creek in search of Crappie. The water there was stained getting on to muddy. Temperature was 49-51 degrees and the crappie had lock jaw. My friend Doug and I have worked our favorite places around the Kimberling City area with nothing to report. We are going out again this afternoon to try again.
The Lake level dropped below 915 for the first time in almost a year. Due to the rains it is back up there again around 917. I was told that to find stained water now you have to get up the James River arm above point 10. Last week the White Bass was making themselves popular up above Cape Fair, and for what it is worth fisher folk on Bull Shoals at Forsyth were have a lot of fun catching them off the banks near Shadow Rock Park.
Crappie are still spotty, they are still a few warm days from getting really active. My guess the water is still to cold. The coming week has several days of 70's and nights in the 50's. That will bring up the temp pretty fast.
My thanks to everyone that takes the time to read my entries. I have missed being able to put my thoughts down. Hopefully I'm back at it again and who knows, writing this blog will do more for me than the health plan.

Back it up

I realize that with this entry, if anyone out there questioned my age, the question will be answered. I'm old enough to be very technically challenged. There was a time that I can remember that to make a phone call you first had to make sure no one else in the neighborhood was using it. If it was available you only had to dial 4 numbers. Then a few years later you had to dial seven, now everyone has become used to dialing ten, most of the time, eleven if its long distance from a land line.
Remember the days when if you were not home, and some one called, they had to call back, there were no answering machines or voice mails. Remember a thing called an address book, where you wrote down on paper using a pencil the address and phone numbers of friends, family, pharmacy and Doctor's. Some of them could be written in ink, pencil was safer if they moved around a lot. That little book stuffed with all of the papers, receipts and business cards was one of the most important books in the house! In my house there was a special place for it, and Lord help the culprit that did not put it back after it was used. Remember when you memorized all the important numbers you called so you would not have to look them up.
Today we carry our "address books" around with us, we do not have to memorize anything because it is all at the touch of a button on our cell phones. Heck half the time I have to stop and think about every call I make if I try to use my memory for the number.(especially if I call home) I have emails, phone numbers, important dates with automatic reminders, I can even search the Internet if I have to right from the palm of my hand using a cell phone. Wow, how great is that!
However, and there is always a however in life, what happens when the cell phone gets really hot in your hand, the display screen slips sideways and then goes dark? I'll tell you what happens your ability to communicate with the world goes up in electronic smoke and everything you had stored on this little battery operated nemesis is gone! All those numbers that you do not have to remember is poof! If your like some, even the silly passwords that you have to remember is kaput. In other words you have to start all over and try to remember everything you had in there including Aunt Molly's neighbors number so you can call her if Aunt Molly does not answer because she went on a cruise and did not tell anyone.
I know all of this because last week my phone, with out warning died. I buried it by putting it in a box and sending it back to whence it came with a prepaid mailing label. Now I have the task of replacing all that was in it. So far it has taken me two days and I may be one half done.
Now let me give some advise, most carriers have what is called secure backup services, which if you can subscribe that will automatically backup your devise so that should it fry to a plastic blob, your world does not have to be rebuilt. ALSO, and this is the most important part, you can get these little cards that plug into the side of your camera phone then they plug into another card that will plug into your computer so you can transfer all of those pictures you take of the fish you catch, sunsets, and grand kids. Of course most people may have already know this, I did not. I always wondered if there was a faster way of getting pictures out. I just did not want to ask. I did not want the person I asked to say, "Wow what a technically challenged" old man.

Black and Blue Friday

Hey folks we made it back, short trip to St. Louis and a great Thanksgiving meal at my daughters and back in a day and a half. My Judy had to be back so she could supervise the sale of televisions on Black Friday. I cannot wait to hear about her morning. I talked with several folks about shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving, they all say that the deals have to be great and the savings off the charts for them to get out of bed at o-dark thirty and fight the crowds to save ten dollars. However, there are millions that feel differently. Local law enforcement in southwest Missouri have made maps, synchronised traffic cameras and electric signals. They have even assigned officers to physically direct traffic. Wow, shoppers have no idea just how prepared retailers and local tax based governments are rolling out the red carpet. I am especially impressed with the efforts of Walmart. Since the incident in New York last year where in a man was trampled. They have consulted with crowd control experts and designed a means to accommodate the shoppers while maintaining some semblance of order. I really hope it works. I witnessed a mad dash for some sheets last year. One lady shopper was softly bumped while she was reaching into a bin full of sheets. By the time she surfaced the sheets were all gone and she didn't get any. My demented sense of humor caused several people to give me strange looks as I rapidly walked away. After all its not funny to get bumped into a bin full of sheets and not even get one set to keep.
Yes, last year I was asked to help my Judy and I did. Black Friday is one of those events everyone should partake of at least once. Even if you don't buy anything.