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1981 Ford f-100 302 windsor/C6/3.25/9.0 rear
Bass, walleye, catfish, and trout, im tellin you now you'd better look out! You were safe in the lakes when i was home wishin. But be on your guard cause im goin fishin!
OK - I don't know if you've ever seen "On Golden Pond" and if you haven't -you are the poorer for it- but to quote Henry Fonda in the movie-" We're practically twins..."
Also picked up a new oil cap/breather. Nice and shiny chrome, and it's a nice, tight fit. The old one was kinda loose and was letting oil leak out onto the valve cover.
And to make a good day better, I installed Ubuntu Linux (like Windows, but different...and free), and I might have fixed my virus problem. I've had a nasty couple of viruses for a couple days and I was unable to delete the infected files in Windows. In Linux though, no problem.
__________________ 1981 F-150 Custom 302/C6 9"
FORD: The Best Never Rest!
OK- I'm feeling really blessed right now- maybe I'm not but it feels like it to me.
The back story- I grew up on the west side of San Antonio, Texas, in an old and established neighborhood. Although they hadn't ever been used in my lifetime that I knew of- There were alleys in the back of the back yards that at one time were used to pick up trash. In my time -they were overgrown and impassable at points and just forgotten strips of public land between the back fences of houses. (They were about 12' wide).
Anyway the people across the alley from us had a HUGE pecan tree in their back yard. It had to be 30-40 ft. tall and the canopy was every bit that wide. Even though the edge of the canopy was several feet inside their yard, due to the huge height of it the pecans would find their way a good distance from it. I was six or seven years old and I would find pecans in my yard- and across the fence in the alley was a virtual gold mine of large papershell pecans that the tree owner could have cared less about.
So I have fond memories of spending many days munching on pecans and relaxing in the awesome south Texas climate. I could find and eat pecans year round.
I spend a lot of time roaming the woods at my grandads ranch and many years in the great outdoors after I moved to Ft. Worth at 13 years old. N ative Texas pecan trees are everywhere in the wild and even in many old neighborhood plots. Native Texas pecans are about 3/4" long and about 1/2 " wide max with a thick shell. However, they have a flavor that far surpasses the hybrid papershells that people grow from the trees obtained from the nurseries.
Also I have done a lot of gardening and a lot of hybrid plants will not grow true from the seed of the plant. In fact- those hybrid trees are usually produced from cuttings from a parent tree grafted to a hardy native rootstock. I have had many many volunteer tomato plants sprout up over the years and they are always cherry tomatoes- even when they sprout up where a hybrid plant that produced big juicy tomatoes had dropped the seeds.
SO....it's a good amount of distance to the nearest pecan tree from my backyard. Either squirrels or blue-jays buried pecans in my back yard a few years ago and I let 2 trees grow. I figured at the least if they made little native pecans, they would at least be tasty and it would be cool to have pecans in my own backyard.Last year one of the 2 put on about 9 small pecans which the squirrels ate up before they could ripen. This didn't get me too excited so I gave them no special care during last year's hot dry summer.
OK - so NOW.... Both trees put on a good crop of pecans (especially for a first crop), but they started dropping prematurely. However, they are pretty big pecans-at least double the size of natives, and pretty thin shelled as well. Anyway- I gathered up about a gallon bucket full a few days ago., (and there are many many more still on the trees). So here's the kicker and why I feel blessed- dropping early, you would expect to find a high percentage of shriveled or completely under developed pecans. I've cracked about 10 so far and not one was. On top of that- even though they are very close to the best papershell size and have almost as thin a shell as the best- they have a flavor that almost compares to native pecans and blows all the papershells away.
Needless to say, I will be watering those trees periodically through the next brutal Texas summer.
thats interesting, doug. i would rather hear about trucks, but it is still interesting. i have nice memories of texas. mostly, of austin. somewhere, in the back of my mind, i feel a call to go back. precipitated, by my recent trip to waco, i suppose. maybe, texas in winter...alaska in summer
Neat story man! Reminds me of our old house in the country. In the backyard we had over 10 different fruits growing, and we also had a walnut tree.
But my favorite tree back there was a White cherry tree. Never heard of a white cherry? Neither did i til i lived there. But let me tell you they are much sweeter than any red cherry ive ever had.
I remember always ridin around on the four wheeler, then pullin right under the tree and just munchin on some good ol white cherrys.
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1981 Ford f-100 302 windsor/C6/3.25/9.0 rear
Bass, walleye, catfish, and trout, im tellin you now you'd better look out! You were safe in the lakes when i was home wishin. But be on your guard cause im goin fishin!
A ways down the road from my grandparent's old house way out in the country, there was a wild mulberry tree that we would always go pick from. Man, the ripe ones were great off the tree, if you could get there before the birds and coyotes.
On a different topic, HAPPY HALLOWEEN all! Here's what I've been doing tonight:
thats interesting, doug. i would rather hear about trucks, but it is still interesting. i have nice memories of texas. mostly, of austin. somewhere, in the back of my mind, i feel a call to go back. precipitated, by my recent trip to waco, i suppose. maybe, texas in winter...alaska in summer
Well- First off, there's like 25 different categories devoted to trucks on this forum, I thought maybe this was the ONE thread devoted to NON-truck related banter- correct me if I'm wrong, and don't worry, because if I am, it's been know to happen before.
newrider3- I can't quite share your passion for the mulberry fruits, and I think it very much goes back to my earlier post. In my case, this seems like an unusual blessing that goes against the natural order.
As far as wild Mulberry trees go, I had one in the front yard where I used to live (across the street from where I do now) and had one in the backyard where I live now. Unfortunately, the one in my back-yard was growing right in the fence line, and I took it out. The new occupants across the street took out the old one, so no more Mulberry trees.
There is also one growing at my step-father house. The point is- that wild Mulberry trees are about as common here as native pecan trees. I can relate to the feelings of euphoria derived from sampling the ripe Mulberry fruits as I really enjoyed them during the harvest period. Probably every bit as much or more than the the pecans.
But- I think if you had the Mulberry tree in your front yard, your recollection of eating them would not be quite as slanted towards experiencing culinary ecstasy.
But that's OK and really cool because it reinforces my point about the pecans. It's the rarity of this situation that's my point- and who knows -maybe I'm wrong, but it just seems like a BLESSING to me. The fact that native Texas teeny-weenie's are everywhere, and these aren't- combined with the above average ratio of good to bad pecans.... leads me to believe I've been blessed with this harvest.
Anyway- I have enjoyed eating wild Mulberries for years. and .... Dad-gum-you......... now you are making me want to experience chowing down on a few more- and I don't have that option at my disposal at the moment,and maybe won't for years to come.
yada, yada, yada...yakity smack! ha ha...you are blessed my friend. and so is newrider. and so am i. it is great we have this forum. please, speak of pecans(love em) and Mulberries, and a host of other topics. bottom line, i like truck guys(and girls) and things related. but, i am certainly not restricted to merely mechanical musings. rant on. exhort on. its all good.
Not much, thinking how lucky this young man is to have a loving family. He needs to come down to La. and go gator hunting. I would even show him where there are some big catfish.
I know there's a Nov. chit thread- but I don't know how to move posts around-so....
I was down at the public Cancer center today, getting lined up with a new quack to replace the private one I used to have and get set-up in their system, so needless to say, I had a little time on my hands. I started to pick up a mag on Alaska fishing- but I knew that would just make me want to go where I'll probably never be able to afford to. (As it is- sometimes I dream of catching those big Halibuts). So I elected to pick up a Southern Outdoors instead. There was an article in there entitled "The best fishing spot in the world". It turned out to be Venice, La.
The article went on to say how Venice was wiped off the map by Katrina, the marina destroyed and all the boats sunk or blown away. The author had went offshore with one of the first guides to re-establish himself after the storm. The guide said that there was so much debris in the river they had to idle out to the gulf, when he first re-started. The author said they were fishing under a 4 story oil rig and he looked up and saw the railings all twisted up and said that must have been some wind to do that. The guide told him, "That weren't no wind ,son, a wave did that."
He said that there were 175 MPH winds and an 85 ft. tall storm surge wave. No wonder Venice was wiped out.
Anyway, the article went on to say the fishing is phenomenal there and sported a pic of a good 35 lb redfish. Makes me wanna go, and I may even be able to swing THAT trip someday.
I used to catch big cats about 5 mins. from my house, and if I go to the coast, (and draw a permit) I can even take a shot at gator hunting. But as a fisherman, you are indeed lucky yourself to live in La.
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