Back from New Zealand today. Fantastic trip, great people, wonderful weather and absolutely beautiful. Flew in to Auckland, spent three days there. Went to Waiheke Island and bounced around for a day drinking wine and gin, seeing the sights. Eden Park for a rugby match was very fun. Stayed at the Park Hyatt (kids are good for some things, in this case Hyatt points!) overlooking the harbor. Then flew to Queenstown, stayed in an AirBnB townhome west of town with a patio overlooking Lake Wakatipu. Did the Milford Sound cruise, drove to Glenorchy and cruised the lake on the TSS Earnslaw, an old coal fired steamer. Moved on to Mount Cook National Park. Hiking was limited due to my knee issues and my son spraining his ankle playing basketball five days before we left. Hiked the Hooker Valley Track. Weather was clear as we could have hoped and the mountain and glaciers were spectacular. Spent the night in Tekapo and did a star gazing event with a professional astronomer. No light pollution made the Milky Way and constellations really pop. Over to Christchurch for a couple of days. Nice town and very friendly people. Spent our last two nights in New Zealand on a farmstead in North Canterbury. Great spot, the Waipura River runs through the property. A working farm, they have 6,000 sheep on hand. Popped over to Kaikura one afternoon for whale watching. Saw a 15 meter sperm whale and a pod of hundreds of Dusky Dolphins. Visited a few wineries in the area, had a great lunch at Pegasus Bay Vineyard. The grounds were beautiful, simple lunch of cheese, smoked salmon, bread and grapes was perfect for the day. Final morning drove to the Christchurch airport, flew to Auckland on to LAX and finished at MSP. The flights were a grind but we got upgraded to Delta One LAX to AKL, Premium Select on the way back. Definitely a better way to fly than main cabin.

Thanks to all who gave advice on the itinerary. Squeezed of out the Australia leg due to time constraints and my bum knee. Enjoyed the experience enough that I will definitely make the effort to go back, add in some fishing and make it to Sydney.

Highbeeze24 wrote:

Unfortunately, the two maples on my quarter acre plot in the cul-de-sac sure aren’t going to put out enough sap for me to make it worth the money for the equipment.

I live in a first ring suburb with a single maple in the yard. Neighbors all say yes when asked to tap their trees. I run 15 taps, get five gallons or so using aa wood fired barrel stove. Likely not cost effective but fun and tastes fantastic.

More a blues and southern rock guy. Allman Brothers Blue Sky, Ain’t Wasting Time No More, Jessica; Clapton Let It Rain, After Midnight, Sunshine of Your Love; Chicago’s first five albums. All are still on my playlist.

Jimmy Jones wrote:

I quit in 1991 after more than 25 years of smoking. Now of course the reality of having smoked is coming to light. COPD and other lung issues that were not told to us back when I started now are limiting factors in my life today. I just thank God I never chewed as an alternative when I stopped with the smoke. Regardless, having smoked is going to literally be the death of me.

Mom is in the same situation. She’s 87, has COPD and emphysema and gasps walking around her apartment. Said to see an independent strong willed woman fade after raising three kids on her own, going back to college in her 40s and managing her life on her own for 60 years. I anticipate the same experience as you had with your Mom.

mxskeeter wrote:

l of you who have quit the habit. High 5!!
Cigarettes are allowed to be sold because the government takes i

And because tobacco companies spend huge amounts of money on lobbying and disinformation campaigns to protect their mega-billions in profits.

Steve – Did you teach Sharon to play cribbage?

Ripjiggen wrote:

m

mark-bruzek wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Upnorth85 wrote:</div>
I’m actually putting together the tribal harvest totals for the last decade now. It’s not much usually between 1000-2000 pounds.

So we are supposed to believe your numbers when you claim the tribal harvest totals are only 1,000 to 2,000 pounds???
What a crock of $HIT!!!

No need to be a d!ck. Ripjiggen engaged in a civil and interesting conversation with Upnorth85. No need to take it off the rails just because you disagree with the information provided. Go play on Facebook or X.

Hobbs is definitely a slot corner. May be high priced compared to last year’s contracts but CB contracts are scaling up fast.

WR help is a dim hope but needed. Too bad Watson couldn’t stay on the field, had that history in college as well.

stjoeguy wrote:

I did get 2 personal bests, however: 14.5″ <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>perch and a 4′ stick through an 8″ hole.

You can catch wierd stuff on Devils Lake. Kid pulled up a 6 foot chunk of barbed wire from deep water – 36′

I was in Eau Claire the last two Fridays. Two weeks ago spent most of our time chasing down buckets that blew off. Not much fun. Last Friday things were flowing, ran 75 gallons through the reverse osmosis system. He ended up with five gallons that day using sap previously run through the RO system.

mxskeeter wrote:

And what about the cheater steroid users. How many game outcomes were changed because of those players??

By and large they’ve been excluded from the HoF.

Rose was a helluva player but knew the risks. He may get pardoned by the President but won’t get reinstated by MLB. Pretty stupid on his part, MLB is hypocritical since they’ve jumped in bed with casinos and online sports books.

My Springers (3 over the years) were all counter surfers. Cure was to put a couple of mousetraps on the counter. Came home, found a sprung trap and no more counter surfing. FW didn’t take to the idea with the first dog but we weren’t living together at the time. I stuck my finger in the trap in front of her with no harm done and she grudgingly agreed to go along. She was fine with it for dogs 2 and 3.

Our night predator hunts are usually on moonlit nights with snow on the ground. That provides sufficient light for shooting.

suzuki wrote:

was heavy as well but I haven’t shot it in this gun. My 18in 1/8 twist 223 wylde shoots it fi

It’s been a while but we usually hunt in pairs at night, one with a 12 gauge with #4 or 00 buckshot and on with a rifle. Buckshot works well 40 yards and in where it’s hard to pick up the coyote with a scope even dialed down to 2 1/2 power.

Good success with the 50 grain V-Max. Boiler room shots kill them dead. If you don’t use a .50 BMG, poor shot placement results in run-offs.

.

Careful with the pliers. If the hook is in a tendon you can tear the tendon when ripping the hook out. That becomes a bigger issue.

Dan wrote:

I typically keep mine closed by bending one of the wires on the end to sort of make a latch but you could use anything really to secure it.

I use hook and loop cable wraps to secure fencing to posts. It gets brittle after a couple of years but is cheap and easy to replace.

Jon Jordan wrote:

I also keep a skunk kit in the truck for the dog. (Hydrogen peroxide, Dawn dish soap and baking soda) Refresh the kit every year or so, Also keep a muzzle handy in case you need to remove a hook from a dog that can get nippy.

-J.

Multitool with pliers for hooks and porky spines.

After using the pressure bandage in the kit in the middle of nowhere and asking where we could find a pharmacy with one nearby, an ER doc told us to use maxi-pads. Sterile, very absorbent, readily available virtually everywhere and cheaper than medical grade bandages.

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

If I was going to stop and eat anywhere in Duluth, I’d stop at Northern Waters Smokehaus.

Duluth Grill is a good choice as well

Moose Lake Agate and Geological Center in Moose Lake State Park (right off I-35 40 miles south of Duluth) i sinteresting.

A buddy in Eau Claire tapped over the weekend, they are dripping. I won’t tap this year due to travel plans. Going to miss it.

Steve Root wrote:

Randy, in case you haven’t heard this enough….you’re a good man and deserve a lot of respect for doing the right thing even though it’s tremendously difficult at times.

SR

Absolutely agree. Went through this with my MIL, my wife took most of the burden. You do what you must for those you love. Don’t be afraid to seek more help. Seen too many hurt their own health by taking on too much care for a loved one.

Got married sooner. Knew my wife for ten years before we got married. Only had one child. He’s fantastic but we would have loved more. Some health issues that may have been mitigated by starting younger. Still, we’ve been married 37 years and my life is good.

munchy wrote:

e is waste, cut it. But not everything is a wasteful program. Spacex has some of the smallest contracts in government. Why? Because Elon looks for waste in every single part of his businesses and removes it. Why do you think it only costs millions to send a Space

Elon has more than $20B in contracts with NASA, not small potatoes.

gim wrote:

Clinton conducted the largest purge of the federal budget in the modern era during his 8 years in office in the 90’s. But he did it the correct, legal way. Almost none of it ended up in court and when he was done, there was a budget surplus for 3 years afterwards. That’s the route to take. Not this one, just my opinion.

When all these actions end up in court (which they are), it costs us, the taxpayers money. Lawyers and court fees are very expensive.

Agreed. Trump ruling by executive decree is a losing approach. He loses nearly every time he he ends up in court, be it election challenges, executive order challenges or civil suits. Getting Congress aligned with his agenda is a troublesome approach but it is the legal and appropriate way to do business.

Out on a small lake west of Tonka on Friday. Eater size crappies were around but mobile. Catch a couple out of each hole and the school moved on. Could also tell when a northern showed up, fish on the flasher then suddenly nothing. Caught a few snakes and took home limits of crappies.

gim wrote:

Most of the crude oil in the Midwest comes from Canada. Gas prices will be going up for the foreseeable future. Luckily, only a 10% tariff was placed on imported Canadian crude.

Some parts of the country will see no change because their crude is supplied elsewhere.

True in the short term. Longer term since the crude oil market is global and buyers will pursue lower cost crude from other suppliers the price in the world market will increase. Crude pumped in Texas won’t remain local if someone in Europe offers a higher price.

Pushing Mexico and Canada to stop fentanyl and illegal immigration does nothing to address the demand for drugs and cheap labor in the U.S. Expecting other countries to fix our domestic issues doesn’t seem to be a reasonable approach.

Not a fan of early season tomatoes – Early Girl, Big Early, etc. Mid-season have done well with Champion and Better Boy. Love heirlooms for late season – Boxcar Willie (one slice covers the entire BLT sandwich), Brandywine and Big Beef are favorites.