Life is good

[WhistlingBadger]

Working hides outside in January.  You live in a different world, my friend.  We're below 0F for the next couple weeks, if the forecasters are to be believed.  I've got an elk hide bark tanning, but I don't think I'll be stretching it before March or April.

I sure do enjoy seeing all the stuff you guys do.  Especially this time of year.   

[Pappy]

Ya working outside even for us can be challenging this time of year, but once you get out in it and stay in it all day you seem to get use to it. Starting About Saturday here is isn't supposed to get above freezing for over a week with highs in the teens and lows below 0, we usually get a few weeks like that ever year, next week will be tough and require a big fire  Been busy getting stuff ready for the cold, got my girls house all strawed up and a heat lamp in it yesterday and also my out side fish tank set up with straw bails around it and a cover so I can put a heat lamp under it, it won't hurt my fish for the top several inches to freeze but can't let it freeze solid and it will in this kind of weather coming.Also have a lot of prep work to do around the old cabin to keep stuff from freezing, I pretty much have a system now after many years of doing it so it don't take that long and usually works out pretty good, always have a few surprises every year when it dose this but just have to work through them and fix and clean up any mess that the weather leaves behind. Got an ear doc. app. today in Nashville and jury duty tomorrow  so will really have to get busy Saturday to be ready. Yall stay warm. Life is Good.
 Pappy

[Stoker]

Working hides outside in January.  You live in a different world, my friend.  We're below 0F for the next couple weeks, if the forecasters are to be believed.  I've got an elk hide bark tanning, but I don't think I'll be stretching it before March or April.

I sure do enjoy seeing all the stuff you guys do.  Especially this time of year.   

I'm with you on this. -40C or F they are the same, this is what we are expecting on Saturday. At least we will have Pappy's pictures on Monday to look forward to. I'll probably cut my goose feathers into fletching, shop is heated.
Thanks Leroy

[Pappy]

Great weekend, kind of nasty and cold but had a lot of fun anyway. Got a late start Friday, had jury duty , they sent me home after a few hours when they found out I couldn't hear and 71 to boot so they let me off and man was I glad, I didn't really want to have to deal with that the next 2 weeks. Spent Friday evening getting my fish and girls fixed up for this up coming week, lows 0 and single digits and highs in the teens, now that's cold for Tennessee, also laid out about 8 lbs of burger to make jerky, I prefer muscle jerky but made out of venison burger ant bad and will get you by in a pinch. 
 Pappy

[Pappy]

My Jerky mix. Worked on 2 hides once the rain stopped, got them almost dry and ready to smoke, also worked on Margaret Ann's new arrows. She will love these.
 Pappy

[Pappy]

We had our club annual squirrel hunt Saturday, it was windy and cold and the hunting was slow but as always lots of fun. I took out my 32 flint lock, missed a couple and had 1 miss fire, flint got loose  Came back in and shot some and really don't know how I missed a 15/17 yard shots, but I did.   Big A using our squirrel skinning rack, get ask a lot " WHAT IS THAT"  it works great but I still prefer to do in by hand myself. 
 Pappy

[Pappy]

Their was 13 squirrels killed ,we score it by 5 points for head shot 3 for body 2 if using a shot gun and 10 for any with a bow. Fun and friendly competition. I think their was 9 head shots and 4 body, none with a bow or shotgun.  Mark showed up for some knife work, he laid it out and I  helped in the cutting , going to be a nice knife when it is finished i think. 
 Pappy

[Pappy]

Big A won the event with 6 , 5 were head shots. Got my Jerky mixed and ready to dehydrate.  Beautiful crescent moon to finish off a fine day.  prefect tiller on that one. 
 Pappy

[Pappy]

Then a big fire while waiting on the jerky to get ready, great weekend !! got about 4 lbs of jerky from 8 lbs of burger, not to bad. Hope yall had a good one also. Life is Good.
 Pappy

[JW_Halverson]

I'm fletching three dozen arrows in this batch. Caught a nice sale on #2 turkey primaries from the folks at Custom Feather in Chillicothe MO, these had the quills clipped, so they were even more discounted! Then the folks at 3Rivers are blowing out the TrueFlight full length left wing flu-flu's. The quills are ground down close to the web so they wrap around the shaft more easily than the regular grind. But I find they work absolutely great with my Bohning fletching jig, so I picked up a bunch.

I am using water based polyurethane cut 50/50 with distilled water for dipping the arrows and nitrocellulose fletching adhesive to attach the feathers. The two are compatible and FINALLY I am fletching at warp speed.

These three dozen arrows will be going to a movie props company and are generic upper Great Plains arrows. Short, 24 and 25 inches long, six-inch-long fletching cut low. About half will have white turkey feathers for the cock feather, but I will be daubing on black dye at the back 1/3 of the feather to mimic juvenile bald eagle tail feathers. This is the same props company that armed the Sioux war party in the prequel to Yellowstone, "1883". And for those of you that watched that series, yes, the fateful arrow was made by me. I wasn't aware that my stuff was in the show until it was already released for streaming. I was pretty excited to be watching until the "fateful arrow" turned the story upside down. I came up off the couch cussing a blue streak at the TV! (If you have seen this, do not make any comments that are spoilers for those that are still going to be watching!)

Seventeen below zero here this morning. I am aching to get out to do some "hard water fishing", but at these temps I can tell you that my time spent fletching is the better part of valor. I really want to catch a mess of northern pike this winter and get it smoked up. I would love to offer smoked pike and trout for folks if I can make it down to the Tennessee Classic in May. So far, plans are working out.

[chamookman]

-4 this Morning in mid-Michigan, BRRRRRRR ! Hope to get out on some safe ice and catch a mess of Bluegills ! Sounds like a great Weekend Pappy ! Thanks  Bob.

[Pappy]

Sounds like you are staying busy JW and hope your plan works out for the Classic. Bob it is about 5 here and snow, about 3 inches so far and still coming down high of 15 today, I know that ant much for my up north and west buddies but pretty good for us, pretty much going to stay that way all week, I talked to Rocky and Matt Saturday and they have hope to have safe ice this week, no ice fishing here unless I do it on my little fish pond on the porch  I will have some fun scouting and wandering around in it all the same. Stay warm.
 Pappy

[BrianS]

Pappy,
Looks like a great time! Stay warm.
Brian

[bjrogg]

Thanks for taking us along Pappy

Bjrogg

[Pappy]

Trying to Brian, I guess if it would just stay this way you would kind of get use to it and be better prepared but we usually only get a week or 2 each year and it is quite the challenge to take care of stuff when it's this cold, about 3 this morning with wind chill well below 0 ,15 for a high today, so far as of yesterday evening all is good, fish pond only froze a couple of inches yesterday and the girls warm in their house and no pipes frozen yet , we will see what today holds. 
 Pappy