CountryboyinDC

I've never considered a full on electric car, but I did consider a hybrid when I bought our last car (Highlander). I took the amount of estimated fuel savings at $4/gal gas (trying to give the hybrid an advantage) at 10,000 miles per year over 10 years (when most hybrid batteries need replacement) assuming identical values at the end of 10 years. The cost savings of the internal combustion engine was right at 3 grand, by my estimates. I don't need to go 0-60 in 3 seconds, but a Tesla would probably be a relatively cheap way to go about it. And a Leaf (about the cheapest plug in I can think of) retails around $35k, plus you're probably doing some significant wiring work in your house. A Sentra equipped about the same is maybe 22 grand. I think I can financially give the advantage to the petroleum burner, unless the credits are over $10k.

The best part is I don't have to worry about anybody stealing it. Even at the garages they can't drive it. I went to get an inspection in January, and the mechanic stalled 3 times trying to get it up on the rack. Growing up, about every farmer had a #4onthefloor, and a fifth (or quart, or half) under the seat. Probably caused as many accidents as texting. There's a guy that I volunteer with that got a car with a manual for his daughter to circumvent her texting while driving. She figured out how to steer with her knees so she could still use her phone...until she hit a Jersey barrier on the beltway. People are going to figure out how to wreck a car. Your shift pattern has reverse to the right, mine's to the left (it's the G56, yours may be the NVG 6 speed). I will say you have impeccable taste in old pickup trucks.

Say it ain't so. Guess I'll have to keep my truck another 13 years. I honestly don't know why they put synchronized gears in these thing. If you can't double clutch, what business do you have operating a horseless carriage anyway? I live in an area (DC metro region), and the electric vehicle seems viable for most people. You see a lot of Teslas, Leafs, and plug-in Priuses. They're expensive, and we've known for a while that their production/maintenance/disposal isn't exactly easy on Mother Earth. But with CAFE standards driving development, we're likely to see their prevalence grow. Learning how to fix these things might be a good career for a young person starting out....

So are y'all saying I might want to call about this bone Vixen? I've been waiting for it to show up any day now.

That helicopter looks a lot like a MH-6. Some of the most exhilarating helicopter rides I've taken have been in those. I'll bet that's a fun job, all said.

https://www.walb.com/2021/05/21/tifton-native-nominated-medal-honor/?outputType=amp This is a real-life hero I know. I'm honestly happy to know he's still with us and about to receive the military's highest honor. He was the Regiment's honorary colonel when I served, and he would be at practically every function - Ranger Rendezvous, Ranger Ball, etc. and would come the the deployment outposts. He was a true inspiration, quite approachable, and always had a kind word for the wives. I don't know why one (or both) of those DSCs weren't MOHs in the first place. RLTW!

I was tying on a new bait in a little cove on the river when a dog comes up letting me know to stay in the water. Then his partner in crime, a potbellied pig, comes down to join in. I think it was trying to bark too, but the sound that came out was hilarious. I wish I had gotten the audio, so much better than the picture.

I finally got to fish my Victory (7'1 MH/F) enough to have some opinions on it. 1. Definitely less powerful than my 7' MH/F and 7'MH/XF Avids. Today's fish seemed to only want 1 bait, a 3.3 Keitech Fat Impact on a keel weighted hook. This is still on the light side for this rod. I use a Falcon Finese Jig rod (6'10 MH/F) that loads much better for this, as do several rated medium power. The power may be appreciated if I actually hooked a fish that challenged it, but I didn't. The one here is my largest caught on the Victory (I got one slightly bigger, 15" on a finese jig that I missed with the Keitech, but 12-14" fish were on the menu today). I have limited time dragging a Carolina rig with a 3/4 oz sinker on another outing, and that seemed right at this rod's limits. 2. The 2 piece reel seat didn't bother me today. Then again, I wasn't reeling a crankbait for hours, dragging a C-rig across a grid, or anything like that. You have to pick up your paddle often where I was today, so you are constantly putting the rod down for that. The EVA may look kind of cheesy, but it seems functional. 3. The guides, which I thought would be crappy (they're some aluminum oxide ring), didn't bother me in the least. So maybe Alconite (and definitely Torzite) are wasted on me. 4. Sensitivity - I had high expectations for this rod, particularly given it's weight. Not NRX sensitive, but noticeably more so than the Avids. I didn't find that to be the case. In fact I missed several fish that anecdotally I feel I would have realized were bites with other rods. Maybe it's me getting used to wearing sun gloves, the EVA around the reel seat, or my imagination. But I was getting frustrated at one point about it, then I started landing a few. No giants, just some respectable smallies living the hard life in the riffles of the South Fork of the Shenandoah.

You may find that to be the case. Cover it with a bicycle inner tube - that's what I use as a drag to slow my kayak in river currents. You might also want a winder - the Anchor Wizards work well for me, but others have good luck with retractable dog leashes and other less expensive approaches.

I guess I don't realize the misery of it, because most of my fishing has been for bass that live among the shoals of shallow rivers. I used canoes from childhood up to about a decade and a half ago, everything from fiberglass tandems to whitewater OC1 banana boats. Compared to canoes, kayaks are far easier to fish from - they are less susceptible to the wind, they have a layout that makes it easier to stay organized, and a double bladed paddle is far easier to make corrections with one hand than a canoe. I now have a pedal drive kayak for small reservoirs and deeper rivers, and both kayaks have a variety of anchoring options. I have rod holders, places to secure Plano boxes, and even cup holders. So unless the wind is howling or the river is way up, I don't get run off easily. I like the exercise part of it too. And one place that the shine has largely worn off of kayak fishing is the solitude it affords. The places I fished were impractical for all motorboats, save a tunnel hull jet boat, and so you would rarely see anyone. Now the electric-only reservoirs and rivers are full of kayaks, paddle boarders, and craft of every type. I have had friends that fished from boats or the bank only, and their first few times convinced them that kayaks weren't their bag. I don't think I would prefer anything else, so long as I can still paddle.

They later fashioned a fuel oil drum into a smoker of sorts, but the process was largely the same. The coals were made in a chimney, then transferred by shovel to beneath the pig. There was a grill on which the pig was laid, rather than between a couple of pieces of woven wire. The end product in both cases was something that I can't approach with shoulders on my smoker. Up at the hunting cabin, we cooked a button buck I shot on a fuel oil drum cooker. We had some pretty good cooks with us, and we all agreed afterwards that there are better ways to cook venison. I've never had a whole calf, but considering what brisket is like cooked low and slow, I would like to taste it. I don't know where the cooking style goes from low and slow to high and fast, but I try to cook pork shoulders and brisket at around 190 (at least until the stall is over), and ribs and turkey at around 250. I've done crown roasts and other things at higher temperatures, and even though I use my smoker, I don't consider it barbeque.

LIL Oxygen Sensor Thread Chaser - I don't think this always works out?

I do what passes for barbeque here in the land of the suburban yuppie, but when I think barbeque, I always think of the first barbeque I had as a kid. After we finished helping our eastern North Carolina family strip tobacco, the night before we went home, they would literally cook a pig in the ground. They'd mop it every so often the while it was cooking, and then at the end you had a wonderful plate of the best tasting meat I'd tasted (and we were beef farmers). I've had the barbeque in the famous joints in Memphis, Kansas City, and Austin. They're all making incredible food, but I would take the NC pulled pork over all of it. Makes the fare I'm smoking tonight a pretty poor showing in comparison.

I've seen the hatches with the Noqua battery hangers - I think they're the Vikings you referenced. With 1 10ah Noqua, I can run a 7" Lowerance HDS Carbon with a Totalscan transducer all day (8+ hours). As for the phone and lights you'll have to figure your draw for them. I know the LEDs don't draw much. 2 AA batteries power my little Yak attack flag/light combo overnight for a couple of nights. The hatch replacement/dual Noquas would be a tidy way to go about it, maybe not the least expensive.

Those things are good for drawing blood when they pinch, that's for sure. At least you can rip a crawdad's pinchers off if they get to rowdy. I'd rather fish with a spear than a live helgrammite.

A quiet line is Tuf Line Domin8. It also gets a little more distance, and I've been using the yellow on my spinning setups. I feel the louder lines cut through grass better. If your fishing spatterdock or even hydrilla I'd go with Power Pro or Tuf Line XP.

For the seat adjustability, you may find you want to add some padding after you sit for a while. My pedal kayak doesn't have as comfortable a seat as my paddle kayak, and I realize that mostly when I go 3 miles or so without stopping (which hasn't been that many times). Dry storage, particularly for your phone, is a ziplock bag, and the a pocket in your PFD. You're definitely going to see something you want to take a picture of pretty quickly. There are also a number of floating (important) and waterproof phone cases that you can take photos while they're on. I haven't personally used any of them, so I won't recommend any. I got one for my wife, but she got a new phone that's waterproof, and never used it.

At one time, repurposing was a way of life for those of us that fished from a kayak. YakAttack, YakGear, etc. had not come into existence, and so using something developed for another purpose was the only way to go about it. I could probably spend a few weeks posting projects over the last 14 years or so, but that would get boring fast. Here's the crate and dollies I use for my kayaks.

.I use the Rod Sox Pros. The ones I used before used to hang up on a lot of guides putting them on, especially the spinning rods. https://www.rodsox.com/product/pro-series-casting-rod-sox/

I use the Trokar dropshot hooks and really like them, and actually use an Owner CPS to connect the bait to the hook, maintained in place by a piece of shrink wrap tubing bent over on either side of the CPS (got the idea off this forum, I believe). The hooks seem to be sold out everywhere, if anyone has any experience so far, I'd be interested to know. This seems like a good way to go about rigging a dropshot bait, although I like the screw lock keepers. https://www.eagleclaw.com/tk25-trokar-axs-drop-shot

www.12newsnow.com/amp/article/news/local/angler-dies-at-fishing-competition-mlf-says/502-40b3a84f-d835-4663-ab05-d4d8d7f898df Evidently he was a pro football player with a Super Bowl Championship ring.

You're a tolerant lot, I'll say that. And I thought I was too. There was only one person that I ever told he had to change to get on the boat. It was a friend of mine who rode horses with me and showed up to some of my rodeo events, and he was joining a friend and I who jointly owned a boat at Buggs Island for some fishing, skiing, and beer drinking. He asked what to bring, and I said to make sure you bring a bathing suit. He said he didn't own one, but he would be sure to buy one for the trip. The second day after we fished and cooked some breakfast, we told him he needed to change into his bathing suit. He went in the tent and came out in a red Speedo-type bathing suit. He was still wearing the straw Stetson and cowboy boots, and I'm pretty sure those hairy legs had never seen the light of day. The rest of us looked at each other and shook our heads. We insisted that he cut off the only pair of Wranglers that he had with him. These get ups would be slightly better, but everybody's got to draw their own lines.

Try the Swindle Double Shindo, Over-the-Creek, Beside-the-Barn, Foothold knot. I do think with flurocarbon, going 2X through the eye is key. There are a couple of other knots (I was using the 'Shaw Grigsby'), but that seems to be key for me for terminal knots not failing.

The 4 wheeled one does good with my heavier pedal kayak. It doesn't break down, though. It is still no joy to get the kayak on and off fully rigged, but definitely pulling it is no issue.

I think you may need a new reel to make that ensemble complete.