Look at the Pelican Fly.....Gooo Pelican!!!

Just a video from this weekend.

Spending a Day, in the Bay. (Dont feed the pelicans)

Made an impulse decision Friday night at like 8:30 to go out Halibut fishing Saturday morning. We launched at loch lomond and headed out to the Berkley flats. When we got there, the halibut bite was really slow so we spent most of the day just messing around.

Travel too close to San Francisco, and the Pan Handlers start coming out. These pelicans or whatever they are, are actually pretty cool birds. As soon as you pull up to the oasis of boats out in the water grouping together trying to find the clear ocean water to drop lines out and drift or troll for halibut, the pelican spots a new boat and quickly makes his way over. These birds sit there and wade outside your boat waiting for a hand out. Once they feel that they are not going to receive any food, they take off looking for the next victim to try and get fed. These things will seriously try and take your hands off, if they think you are holding food.

Ended up with no halibut for the day catching only stripers and bat rays. Overall it was an awesome day on the river being the first serious hot day in the last couple weeks. I walked away with a mild sunburn and some good knowledge on setup and approach for halibut fishing.

I actually Own One of These.......Somewhere

Takin it To Another Level

Pumpkin Update 6/25/09

Pics From this last weekends NASCAR event.

Current Score: Gophers=1000+ Me=1and counting

I could write 600 blog posts on how much I hate gophers and how much they have terrorized my life. I have tried every method under the sun to try and eliminate their threat from my garden and pumpkin. Oh I can count the ways.

1. Tried to flood their holes with massive amounts of water.
2. Tried to hover over an active hole and guillotine them with a shovel.
3. Borrowed my brothers match quality pellet rifles and go on evening gopher re con missions.
4. Pulled my 4runner out back and hooked up a garden hose up and try and eliminate them with carbon monoxide poisoning (a legit technique in the annihilation of gophers).
5. Tried a very small amount of poison, because we need to be pet friendly in my yard for bubba and the deers sake.

Nothing has been more successful and more gratifying than actually doing some research online. I hit up craigslist and found people that will come out and battle the war on gophers for you , for a small fee of course. After talking with an awesome guy who basically told me that he comes out and teaches you how to do it, because it is so easy, I thought that I should hit up the poor mans cliff notes and went over to youtube. I found an awesome video that made it look like a piece of cake, and headed over to Home Depot to pick up some traps.

What happens next, is absolutely beautiful. I went home that evening and set a bet with my roommate that I will kill a gopher with the traps by the end of the weekend. I did a different re con mission keeping an eye out for recent activity by the way of gopher mounds and fresh holes. I poked and prodded, finding a gopher lane in the ground and started digging. Set traps, covered them back up and prayed.

The next day (today), rushing home for lunch so that I can check the traps, and on the first one, Whammy, One in the trap. This was the greatest feeling. Now I doubt that it was the same gopher that completely clipped the primary vine off of my pumpkin last year, but I am allowed to make believe whatever I want.

Watch out gophers, its trapping season, and it is survival of the fittest between you and my pumpkin. Although a blog post might not be created, the slayings will continue.

Pumpkin Update 6/19/09

Ooh Baaby, Do you want to get Frosty With Me?

Sushi Anyone? Saki Bombs Anyone?

I am somewhat going back and finding pictures that I have taken this year on food that I have played around with or put together. Sushi to me has been one of my personal favorites but also can be the most expensive. When I say expensive, it is not the sashimi grade fish, or the fresh vegi's, but in the equipment to prepare. I remember attempting to make sushi back when I was going to college with moderate success, but it sent me off on my venture of obtaining a really good chefs knife. I believe that your knife is the most important tool, especially when making sushi. With that being said and $600 later, I can take some pictures.

Maki rolls are Spicy Tuna, and Smokes Salmon, cream cheese, avocado, and cucumber.
Nigiri is just Smoked Salmon and Ahi Tuna.

Pumpkin Update 6/15/09

Here is the newest set of Photos for my Pumpkin. Other than that, not much to say.

Some Pics of the Garden (Late May)

Just a couple pics of the Garden out back. These are pics taken in Late May and is lacking large vegetation. We will see what this thing looks like in mid July.

As in Intro Post, I want to show off my "world record in the making" Pumpkin. I set off this year to try and beat my roommate in a Giant Pumpkin Contest because we tried to grow one last year and right when it was taking on some serious size, a gopher came up and took the whole stock off of it.
My Boss and I emailed a gentleman named Pete Glasier who is the California State Record Holder for a Pumpkin weighing 1535.5 lbs, and he replied back the same day stating to come on over and he will show us what is up in the world of growing huge pumpkins. When we came to his house, him and his awesome wife Cindi gave us the entire rundown on Growing these monsters and even sent us on our way with some seeds.

So Far this is the Result. We have a small contest going on with a couple of friends and I am hoping that at least one of us produces something big. I will start to flower a pumpkin sometime around July 4th which will be perfect because we are having our Silverado Country Club 3rd of July Firework party and hopefully BBQ'n a Pig.
Pretty soon here, I will need to rototill a little more property here because I expect these Pumpkin vines to be at least 15-20 ft in diameter. It is just starting to product branches, so I dont have much time.