Your Backup Hobby

If an airgun is too complex or too low kill for you, then get one of those BugaSALT things. The BEST $45 I have EVER spent! Load the halo looking pump action gun with some table salt and start stalking the outside garbage cans for those little pesky plague spreaders! I'm not sure how close you need to be to kill (maybe a foot?) but even from 2-3 feet out the salt blast will stun 'em long enough to crush their helpless little carapaces, if you can find them.

I have a table next to my grill that over looks the fish pond. Leaving an almost empty glass of beer out as bait and then trying to pop the little suckers into the fish pond, "pre-seasoned" , is more fun than beer pong with a frat championship on the line.

I have not tested it on spiders, scorpions, or horseflies. Large grain kosher...er armor piercing salt may be required

I would go with the French fleur de sel or sel gris as it feels more dense then the Kosher.

I rode a century on my bike with my dad to celebrate Father’s Day while the family drove ahead to set up the campsite. Probably closer to 115, but I paused the Strava at 101 and forgot to switch it back. It was all on a rails to trails conversion, so we didn’t have to worry about ducking cars and was generally a flat and pleasant ride. Could have ridden a bit smarter as we normally rode side-by-side rather than drafting. The hardest stretch was between miles 33 and 48 as my legs were a little tight after our lunch break and we had a headwind, but I loosened up fine for the rest. Felt an awful lot better the next day than I did after my half marathon. Bottom is a little sore and right hand is weak, but that’s the worst of it.

Garden update! Starting to get a little overwhelmed. Spinach is getting ready to seed, but I can probably get another meal or two out of it first. I literally cannot eat all of my lettuce and am trying to convince my neighbor to take what she wants.

Raw beet salad tonight and their sautéed greens for dinner on Saturday. Tabbouleh with my parsley and pesto with my basil these past two days, too. It’s all been so good. There’s so much flavor without being one note and overwhelming, and the texture is better than anything at the grocery. Pretty very happy with the garden and harvest so far.

Really excited to begin harvesting snow peas and cabbage this week. Think I can fit in another round of beets and zucchini on succession planting before frost.

My wife made a water garden fountain in a huge pot she waterproofed, but in a water lily and some other other water plants... then about a week later some critter (probably raccoon) pulled out the lily and tossed it away, tore off all the arrowhead's leaves, stopped up the pump with mud from the lily,, and just generally tore the whole thing apart.

We spent the 4th at my in-laws house, who live on a very clear lake in the eastern suburbs. Yesterday afternoon before we packed everything up to come home, I took my son out for a quick paddle on the kayak--he's still small enough to sit between my feet. I was tossing a dropshot (a light tackle application on a spinning setup) along the weed edge right where the ledge is dropping from 12-ish feet quickly down to 20 or so--prime bass territory in the heat of summer, but also pike. Unfortunately the lake is now overrun by the latter, and no one is harvesting any due to the guidance about all the PFOS chemicals that 3M allowed into the groundwater in the east metro over the years. The bass seem to be getting crowded out, even though there are still good ones in there.

I hooked into a monster that had my rod doubled over and the tip in the water, pulling drag like crazy on a couple of deep runs. When it tired out and we got it to the surface, it was a pike around 30" or so, which feels like a cement block on a setup this light. I didn't have my net and wasn't wild about trying to grab it under the gill plate while it was still in the water and getting my hand cut up, so I got it right up to the edge so he could take a good look at it. Sure enough, it thrashed hard and broke me off, which is just as well (losing a tungsten weight sucks though).

He spent part of the car ride home busting my chops about not bringing my net or my phone, because we didn't technically land it or get a good picture of it.

That is a huge fish dude

I caught a pike with my bare hands once. He was two inches long.

I caught a musky when I was 10(?), out of the Ohio River, when we were fishing for catfish/carp. I remember my dad and a couple of other guys trying to figure out what it was until someone said, "Baby musky!" It was about 8" long. Word is that once you catch a musky you can't go back to normal fish. Not very many in my pond, though, so bass it is.

Airgun: My Fathers' Day/birthday money went to an Air Venturi Avenger PCP + a compressor. Its stock makes it look like the World's Cheapest Gun, but for its cost it comes with an externally adjustable regulator and hammer spring. You can tune it for max power, max shots, and anywhere in between. It doesn't seem to be picky about the pellets it shoots, and the regulator makes its shots pretty consistent. It's pretty good bang for the buck.

My hobby did give me a minor brush with fame the other day.

I was watching a teenage girl practice on the speed wall at my climbing gym. She was good, probably the best I have seen in the flesh, and she was very proud at getting her personal best of 8.01 seconds while I watched (I know that is good, but no idea if it is world class as I don't really watch speed climbing, Lead is my favourite of the 3 Olympic climbs). In between my climbs I was sitting down near her and her mother, having a bit of a chat about climbing in general and her and her mother were really nice.

3 days later I found out that was Australia's Olympic representative Oceana MacKenzie. I had seen clips of her climb because she is head and shoulders above all other female climbers in Australia, but for some reason thought she was much older, in her late 20s. I noticed she was often stumbling 3/4 of the way up and was going to offer some advice that maybe she practice that bit a touch more, but am now very glad I kept my mouth shut.

Oceana MacKenzie, stumbling on her way up at Olympic pace.

This is her run from that day when I was watching her:
Oceana Climbing

The Olympic speed climb is a grade 19 on the Australian grading system. I have been climbing for nearly 3 years, though severely interrupted by the pandemic, and while I have done a couple of 19s my best on the Olympic climb is only half way up and that took me 30 seconds. To see someone do it in 8 seconds in the flesh is amazing.

I feel the Olympics needs to get back to its martial roots. Combine rock climbing with axe throwing and skateboarding with the javelin toss and I'm IN!!

Since some of you were talking about airguns, I'll put this here:

I noticed a rat in my bird feeder the other day, and my original plan was to get some .22LR rat shot, but I tested it out for noise at my in-laws' property and it was still way too loud for a suburban neighborhood. So my father-in-law said he'd buy an air rifle and that I should use it to eliminate the rat problem. Of course, I'm actually the one looking up what to get and ordering it. Decided on a Gamo Raptor Whisper gas spring .177. Also getting some heavier pellets to keep the noise down, but I think it'll be fine.

Disgustipater wrote: Since some of you were talking about airguns, I'll put this here:

I noticed a rat in my bird feeder the other day, and my original plan was to get some .22LR rat shot, but I tested it out for noise at my in-laws' property and it was still way too loud for a suburban neighborhood. So my father-in-law said he'd buy an air rifle and that I should use it to eliminate the rat problem. Of course, I'm actually the one looking up what to get and ordering it. Decided on a Gamo Raptor Whisper gas spring .177. Also getting some heavier pellets to keep the noise down, but I think it'll be fine.

If you've already gone down this road, or are already shooting break barrel airguns, my apologies.

Break barrel airguns can be tricky, because that piston make the gun recoil backwards. A little harder than shooting a .22LR. Break barrel guns are also the death of scopes that aren't built for them, so don't stick your father-in-law's Leupold on it.

I'd recommend a PCP plus a cheap pump and scope. $400 will get you out the door. Youtube has a million videos out there for $300 PCP guns.