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My kids are both big into Bass fishing, but I've never got "hooked" on it myself. I like to spend time on the water. Canoeing, jet sking, pontooning. Learned to water ski in my 20s and wish i could do that more. My wife and I like to travel and hike. Basically day hikes, nothing overnight. Have hiked some fantastic places. Sedona, a glacier in AK, Yellowstone, and last summer in Banff and Glacier National Parks. Love hiking in the mountains but probably not as hard core as @SteveS ^^^. 1000' elevation over 4 hours or so is my max. My wife was very nervous about crossing the frozen waterfall on this narrow ledge. Think it took about 5 minutes for her to get up the confidence.

I’ve been camping my whole life. I never really got into hunting and I’ve only really fished when I was in the boundary waters and the alternative to eating fresh fish was freeze dried meals. Now I climb mountains. This is my favorite “feet on the beach” pic (taking a break on my way up Torreys peak).

Ice fishing has come a long way in the past 20+ years with the equipment that is available.

Agree on the insurance part. I had a large tree fall on my Sugar Grove house. It poked a hole through the roof and rained debris on my bed. State farm offered like $5000 to patch the roof and replace bedding, carpeting, etc. Luckily, I had had a roofer out who said patching wouldn't be effective. I had to hire a public adjuster. Claim ended up being near $100k including a new roof and bringing the house up to current code standards. Next house was covered by Allstate and when everyone in the neighborhood got a new roof from hail damage, I didn't. Switched to Country Companies and can happily report I was just approved for a new roof from hail damage to the house I moved into last year.

48" muskie, caught it on a week long trip to Lake of the Woods in Canada.

My wife loves hiking. Her goal is to hike the Appalachian Trail. Because of work she has to do it in sections. So far she has hiked from the starting point in Georgia to Fontana Dam, North Carolina. Hopefully this fall she can resume her quest. Her first time on the trail she hiked with her cousin and last February she went by herself. I have attached a couple pictures of her all geared up.

Growing up in Gary, Indiana. I always loved going fishing for perch with my dad in and along Lake Michigan. Loved going to the pier at Michigan City. Always caught perch. But my favorite memory is from when my dad rented a boat off of Miller Beach in the Miller section of Gary. Lake Michigan. We stopped first to get a full bucket of minnows for bait. Never far from shore, we landed in a huge school of perch. Catch one. Put another minnow on. The bucket we had for the perch became full, so we just put the perch in the boat. Ran out of minnows in short time. My dad started putting gum on his and my hook. Perch kept biting. Ran out of gum. So my dad took buttons off of his shirt. Perch hit on them as well. Boat bottom filled up with perch. Dad, said... I think we have caught enough for today. Landed the boat on the beach. Guy who ran the boat place came out for his boat. Took one look in the boat. And said...."How do you plan on getting all those fish home ? " Now... my dad was one who saw a car as nothing more than something to get from one place to another. And told the guy. Pull the boat up to my car. And " I will put them in the trunk of the car." Which we did. Car trunk had a deep lip. And we filled the trunk with Perch. Got home. Dad parked the car in the alley behind our house. Called every relative and family friend, and neighbor. Saying...." Come and get all the fresh Perch you want." And they did !

Yep, just like @mrflynn03 says, plant it deep with bottom leaves submerged. Another thing to watch for is to keep trimming the leaves that are close to the soil as it grows. I always try to make sure none of the bottom leaves are close to the soil when I water the plant, the water/soil splashing onto the leaves can cause infections. I like to keep a clean stem as it nears the soil. You are going to love tending to these guys as they grow, flower, and fruit! It's such a satisfying feeling when you start seeing results. One summer my wife came out on the terrace when I was manually pollinating some tomato flowers on some heirloom tomatoes with an electric toothbrush. That was kind of hard to explain. 😅 You can totally use mulch on top of soil. I don't, but many people do and it helps retain moisture a bit

I built this for our MI cottage but since it was underwater from the high lake levels, moved it to my backyard last year. This weekend I pressure washed it and restained it.

I have. Usually wrap meat side down with apple juice, vinegar, brown sugar and butter. I mentioned above that I’ve come around back to just 5-6 hours on grill because I like a little bite on them rather than completely falling off the bone. Also, something that I learned last year is that 3.2.1 isn’t for all ribs. Spare ribs are 3.2.1 and baby backs are 2.2.1. If anybody is interested, there’s a Facebook group that I’d recommend joining called BBQ Pitmasters Secrets. A lot of cool techniques and tips are shared by posters who range from casual smokers to chefs and restaurant owners. They’ll get into endless arguments about stuff like putting the fat side up or down on pork butts, but a good follow none the less. edit: @mrflynn03 the 1 in 3.2.1. isn’t for rest, it’s for saucing. You put back on the grill at low temp with sauce. Even if you don’t want sauce, you’ll need to dry them out a bit after the wrap.

The real question is, his beer handling skills. Can he fetch you a beer while you sit in the lazy boy and indulge in sports?😁

Made some ribs tonight, didn’t make the pulled pork. Wasn’t too bad, I’ve made better, but I was also building shelves for our unfinished basement throughout today so I didn’t prepare the ribs or do much with them.

We are a hunting and fishing family. My wife's family is originally from Wisconsin, where she grew up on the lakes. We spend most of our outdoor time now in Michigan. Fishing in Northern Michigan and Hiking in the UP.

Primarily trout in Colorado. Walking distance to Cherry Creek State Park from my house. Where the state stocks the water with trout, and walleye, at least twice a year. I like to check when the state has stocked the water. Those guys are the dumbest and easiest to catch. Over time, even though the have grown. They become smarter and harder to catch. LOL Thanks for starting this thread Justin. Beautiful family you have there.

Didn’t see an outdoor thread, so thought I would start one (sorry if there is one, didn’t see one when I searched for it). I love to fish, would like to hike more but it hard with a 3 year and 9 month old. We might go hiking tomorrow late morning after I get back from fishing lol. Where I live there are not many good places to fish, but we have a good sized pond in our subdivision. Has your typical stuff here, Bass, Crappie, and Blue Gill/Sunfish. I have caught one catfish in almost 4 years in our subdivision, which was a decent sized channel, but that’s been it. I was told catfish and crappie were fished out, but there are some good sized crapped that I catch almost every time out. Only thing that stinks is that most of the Bass are small, I’m lucky to catch one over 10 inches. I really want to get into hunting, as my in-laws are big into it. Never had much of an opportunity to, but would like to and be able to teach my kids. I love hiking in the Smokey Mountains, good waterfalls and a good variety of difficulty. I will post some pictures soon from our last trip there a couple years ago. We were supposed to go this year for vacation, but got postponed to next year because of the virus. Wasn’t worth the 8 hour drive if things were potentially going to be closed. How about everyone else?

There's always https://hdgolf.com/?msclkid=2514e763bb161afe9ee6b9ae18265fa2&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=**LP - NonTM - Golf - Professional - US&utm_term=Professional Golf Simulators&utm_content=Professional Golf Simulators but that is for another thread!

That's great! Smokies and the App Trail are on my list. There is also the Pacific Coast Trail out west. I'm not going to delusion myself in biting off too much. Would be happy to just get in some of t he more scenic sections.

Wait until you stumble on to the "remove the suckers or let them stay" debate for your tomatoes!

She did get some sun. I am going fishing in the morning. It will be the last time for a while as I am finally having hip replacement surgery on Monday.

c63 507, 2014. Bought new have since dyno'd it, added an ECU chip tune, carbon fiber rear spoiler and diffuser, and a ROW airbox -- oh yeah almost forgot also a limited slip differential. Got it as I am a naturally aspirated car guy, not big on turbos, and that was the last naturally aspirated AMG engine. It's a monster (6.2 Liter), I love it. Can't believe it's like 6 years old now (around 80K miles on it). -- I'll try and post a pic tomorrow --

Tammy and I just got back from the lake. It was a scorcher at 92 degrees. Fish were not biting but Tammy worked on her tan. We had 3 bites and I caught one small redear.

This is what I do for rib, but like TD said... the last hour for sauce.

I can notice the difference after using the Car Guys wax. I usually try and apply every 4-6 weeks between regular hand waxes. It really is as simple as spraying on, wiping off. I bought that a couple years ago when it was the new hot thing. I have several years left in that bottle. I got this one for my son because I happened upon it in a store- https://www.meguiars.com/automotive/products/meguiars-hybrid-ceramic-wax-easy-use-ceramic-wax-protection-g190526-26-oz . You don't have to wipe that one off, just hose off. Prices have come down over the time. Turtle wax has one in the stores as well. Here is one probably similar to the the Car Guys- https://www.griotsgarage.com/product/ceramic+3in1+wax.do?sortby=ourPicks&from=fn. In addition to the shine, which isn't all that noticeable on my dark grey, I like how the water and dirt roll right off.

^^ Nice! My c63 is a matte finish so I have no choice, have to hand-wash it, but also can't wax it -- can't wax a matte finish. But my Jeep needs some shine... The Car Guys product looks promising.

Don't trust twitter for your Covid news- https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/05/21/1002105/covid-bot-twitter-accounts-push-to-reopen-america/

I can definitely attest that State Farm has went downhill... Had them in Florida for 2 hurricanes and they were great...when we moved to Chicagoland, they seemed to change and try to go on the cheap...my middle daughter had a car hit while it was parked and then got hit when the other driver was clearly at fault (and he had admitted it, and the police report said so) but they assessed her at 20% of the blame. They never pursued the first lady who hit her when her car (totaled) was parked outside her apartment...just made her pay the deductible and had it fixed. I got fed up and went to USAA in 2013. They've been great...

Darn, darn, darn man. Been there before last May when storms came in. My aunt lives in an old neighborhood in Carmel and she lost 4 trees that look to be size of this one.....as well as 2 small barns with a lifetime of crap in them. Took us all summer last year to get her yard back in shape. Nickel's worth of free advice. Don't rush back into getting it back to normal. My aunt wanted her yard back quickly and besides the normal tree and debris removal....we planted grass seed over a good chunk of the damaged areas. Didn't rake up well enough and this spring half the area is great and the other half still looks like crap. Be careful with insurance as well.....some tricky language in there on what's covered and not. Roof damage. Photos of everything included damaged parts but take your time. Glad no one was hurt!

Just when the projects were about to come to an end Mother Nature says, "not so fast my friend " Storm damage from Saturday

They don't advertise at all really, so I shouldn't be surprised...word of mouth I guess... Pretty popular though...go on a Saturday morning and it probably doubles Elburn's population...

Coincidentally, 312 was what I was drinking this weekend!

I grew up surrounded by woods, so I have always loved to camp. Same with fishing, but I never got into hunting. I've taken close to 10 trips to the Quetico with my dad to go camping and fishing. Such a gorgeous place with some amazing fishing.

I've done some turtleing. And alot of frog gigging. Believe it or not, the best place to frog gig is golf courses. Biggest bullfrogs you'll ever see.

Anyone do the 3.2.1. Method 3 hrs smoke, 2 wrapped in foil, 1 hr resting.?

I remember. I was standing on the middle of my living room willing it to rim out. You can thank me for the win!

I hate grass and weeds. I've been healing from a rib injury for a month so havent been able to do anything physical until the last couple days after I recovered from that and being sick. So, me and the wife are bushhogging my yard with a push mower and weed eater. Oh, had to fix the mower first. Ugh.

Thanks to all replies. It's weird for me to understand planting the actual tomato plant (2/3 to top) with leaves still on. The videos I've watched say you can clip or not....won't make much of a difference. Going to go ahead and get these big boys going....and make sure I get cage for other pot tomorrow and assuming (from what I've watched) just put those in pot about with proper spacing for bottom?

Thanks for the share.

I don't know if people have seen the NYT cover from yesterday, but it was pretty powerful and I'm not ashamed to say it, moved me to tears. They basically scoured local papers across the US (and gave them full credit in print) for obituaries and published the name, age, hometown, and just one single detail about the person from the obituary. It was 3 full pages of the paper, including the entire front page. I love the guy from Iowa, who was an "expert builder of bonfires." Was also a Smellermaker fan on the front page - Don Whan, 67, Indiana, (no town listed for some reason) sports fan, who loved Purdue University." Also, Robert L. Crahen, 87, Waunakee, WI, nicknamed 'Boxcar Bob,' for his luck in shaking dice." I don't read obituaries as a practice, but found this incredibly sobering. All along I've been fixated on the lives behind these horrible numbers and this really hit me hard. Every person had a story, every person had something that set them a part form others. And hopefully every person was loved and missed by someone.

This is from yesterday. Limited out on panfish plus 4 nice bass. I live on a lake and have several quite close to me. Needless to say we had a fish fry last night.

I've spent most my life fishing, hunting, doing outdoors stuff. Very much into the gun hobby, reloading, shooting..ect. Here's a few Caught alot whoppers in my time. Personal best is a 54 lb flathead.

Well, after talking about it, we decided on bratwurst instead of brined pork chops (thanks @FritzIam4IU)... You can't find a butcher shop around here that sells them (don't have room with all the varieties of smoked sausages, chorizo, andouille, and boudin I guess) so Kirkland Brats will have to do... Did make up a batch of my pickled hot and sweet onions to dress them with...

Oberon is always a mark of summer for me. Love when I start seeing it in bars and stores. Big question is orange slice or no in your Oberon.

Just decided on a plan today. I’m doing a chuck roast, bbq pork chops, turkey sausage, collard greens, and corn on the cob.

Memorial Day itself is brined grilled pork chops... Last night, it was grilled Atlantic Salmon and cold boiled pink jumbo shrimp...