Turkey Blog to Banjo Blog

I haven't been blogging much lately, because rather than think about doing something, I've been actually doing it. I'm sure I will have more turkey related stuff after next week. I'm going out to New Mexico on Sunday and am very excited to go turkey hunting, but kind of ran out of material for continuing a turkey hunting blog. I am currently learning how to play the banjo that I borrowed from my dad. I am having a blast and look forward to getting a new instrument. I've been saving my pennies. It will take me a while, but in the mean time I'll practice using my dad's Harmony banjo from the mid seventies. It doesn't sound too bad for a plastic banjo. I've learned the words to a couple songs and can sing to a slowed down roll for those songs. Its fun and is getting me started. I also learned a couple of easy songs from tabulature. Tab is helping me learn my way around the fingerboard and a lot of fun. I have been practicing some rolls and also the basic frailing strum, but have spent most of my time on learning to sing while chording and the tab.

Banjo Decisions

So I got my dad's banjo and I am starting to lean towards frailing now. I'm thinking that my musical ability doesn't fit with my musical ambitions. When I look at the Scruggs (Bluegrass) style of banjo picking, it seems like a long road of practicing rolls and learning how to fit licks and rolls together in a kind of seemingly magical way to then play a song. Combine that with the speed that Bluegrass guys play and you have the recipe for years and years of practice before you can play any kind of recognizable song. Of course there are those guys out there that have a natural musical aptitude to make that kind of practice pay eventually. Unfortunately I have to be realistic and I've realized that my goal of playing for my friends and family may mean trying to get in faster at the ground level. Of course I haven't made the effort to start to learn how to frail yet, so I may run into more trouble. Either way, my commitment to practicing every day should pay off some time, if not immediately. In the end I imagine that I will eventually learn a little bit of both Scruggs style and frailing. Here is a video of a guy my dad's friend referred me to. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo0cy0REMY8

Banjo

I've been in a flurry of activity lately learning about the banjo. I'm looking to take up the instrument and am very excited about it. My dad played when I was young and I have always enjoyed the sound. I played guitar in high school, albeit poorly, and want to have another crack at a musical instrument. I want to make some music and the banjo seems very appropriate for the turkey woods once the gobblers have all gone to sleep. Who knows maybe with the banjo I'll finally have a shock call that works. I'm going to try to borrow my dad's old banjo to get me started until I can make a good decision about what kind of instrument that I want to get. One thing that is giving me a lot of angst is the bluegrass vs. open backed banjo dilemma. Here are some of the pros and cons for each. I love bluegrass music. Ever since I got XM radio I listen to the Bluegrass Track 14 a lot. I really like the hard driving banjo in bluegrass songs. The down side is a lot of bluegrass is very fast paced and will be hard for a beginner. As for the open backed banjo, there is a lot going for it. It is the instrument of choice for folk music. Folk music is great for singing around the camp fire, especially with kids. The instrument is lighter and cheaper. The problem is that it doesn't seem like as much fun to me. The open back lends itself to a technique called frailing, which I was less than interested in until my dad's friend shared a link with me to an artist/teacher named Patrick Costello. He can really make frailing look fun. It seems to me like a fellow ought to make a choice about what style he goes for at the beginning as both frailing and finger picking take a year or more to become proficient. Right now I'm leaning towards bluegrass. Before I talked to my dad's friend I was sure I wanted to do bluegrass, but now I'm not so sure. The downside of all this wonderful information on the internet is that every time you answer a question you find three more you need to answer.

Friends Don't Let Friends Hunt Unarmed

A lot of friends of mine have told me they'd like to come hunting sometime, except not take a gun and just bring a camera. I have heard of some old timers who do this on a regular basis and I have nothing against it. For some reason when my non-hunting friends suggest that they want to go out with me gun less it rubs me the wrong way. There may be someone reading this that is a friend of mine and has made this very statement. If so don't get bent out of shape, I not judging anyone. The biggest problem I have with this is it seems like something someone wants to do so they can feel the coolness of hunting and not have to feel bad for killing the animal. This life and death struggle, prey predator relationship is what makes your pulse rise and your body shake uncontrollably with excitement. If you hunt without the intent to kill it’s just not hunting. So now you've heard my take on this, here is what I would like you, my non-hunting friends to do about your camera hunt. Come out with me! I would love to have you at my camp. The food is good and the scenery is better. If you want grill me on how I can justify killing animals the whole time, be my guest. If your a friend of mine just come on out, just make sure you get a hunting license. I'll bring along an extra shotgun or you can use mine if you want;)

Morning

Cold and silent, Morning stirs

Eyes still closed, beginning to think about opening

A cold wind blows down the hill and then fades.

In the stillness a deeper chill sets in, her eyes begin to open/

The big pines cut through the dim sky,

dark, still, black sentinals silently suggest she is near.

An owl speaks to the night asking that dark mistress to stay.

A woodpecker shatters the owls plea and all the forest knows she will soon come./

Then she opens her eyes.

A coyote rushes to find a dark hole to crowd into.

A chipmunk chirps again and again in his impatience for her embrace.

Her fiery gaze lights the tops of the tall pines on fire./

All the creatures of the day come to meet her.

An elk barges through the forest following his harem

His crown lit with orange flame.

Aloof in his glorious realm ./

Then she kisses me.

Warm at first on my cheek and then on my lips.

She cozies up to me and whispers coyly,"I want to show you something".

And then she kisses me again./

Then she is passed

and day appears

Morning is gone./

Cooking My Wild Turkey

So once I had everything in the freezer, I was able to think about what I wanted to do with my bird. I had already decided to cook the bird without disguising it too much. When I butchered him it was pretty clear to me that it was fine meat that would taste good. I had left the meat in the freezer for a couple of months waiting for an opportunity to share my bird with the family. My mother in law was very interested in trying it out, since she'd never had wild turkey before. I defrosted the turkey in the fridge over a couple of days. The first dish that I wanted to make was a boned drumstick wrapped in bacon and stuffed with turkey stuffing. This effort turned out to be a disaster. Here's what I did. I cut the meat of the drumstick down at the tendons and then worked the meat off of the bone so that I had a small rectangular slab of meat. Then using a knife I picked out all the tendons and fine bones in the meat. This job was very time consuming and I missed one of the tendons while doing this. I whipped up a little turkey stuffing from a pre-seasoned box that I bought at the store. Then laying some of the stuffing on the meat, I rolled up the meat with the stuffing inside. After that, I took some turkey bacon and wrapped the whole thing in bacon. Once it was all wrapped up, I secured the roll with toothpicks. I took the two wraps and put them in the oven. When it came out, the turkey meat was gray and dry and shriveled, the bacon wasn't crispy, the toothpicks had popped out and the stuffing had squirted out of the rolls. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy with this result. I'm not sure I will do this again, but if I do, I'll pre-cook the bacon some so that it ends up crispier. Also, I used turkey bacon for my bacon, which was a mistake. Next time I will use real bacon. Second I would use butcher's string to tie my rolls shut instead of the tooth picks. In addition, I might use a higher temperature in the oven to sear the bacon on the outside without over-cooking the turkey meat. After this failed experiment I was a little worried about cooking the rest of the bird. I loaded the rest of the meat in a cooler and went over to the in laws to cook the rest of it. I decided to cut everything into strips coat it in seasoned breading and fry it in olive oil. The thighs felt a little tough from the freezing so I de-boned them and pounded them with a meat hammer before cutting them into strips. I took a couple of strips along with the wings and put them on the BBQ to see what would happen. The wings turned out very tough and the strips on the BBQ were dry. The rest of the bird was fried up and the result was very good. My niece had never had wild game food before and is a very picky eater. She ate more than I've ever seen her eat, without complaining. It always really pleases me to see how the kids go after the game meat I bring home. It is a special treat for them, as it should be, and it makes me proud to bring it home and share it with them. There is no ick factor like with a lot of adults that have never had game meat. There was plenty for everyone with four adults and four kids. The thigh meat was a little tougher, but not bad. Also, I think the thigh meat had a fuller flavor, which was very nice. The breast meat was very tender and tasty. I had left overs to share with some of my co-workers who expressed an interest in trying it. They weren't as receptive as the family, but none of them failed to finish what they took. I asked a guy I work with what he thought of it just now and he said it was ok, but that he was surprised and a little let down by the ordinariness of it.

Funny Map

I like looking at maps and think that its funny when someone messes up. Of all things maps should be as accurate as possible. Here's a funny one that I found online recently.