Day 35 DP - A chill in the air, but the finish line ahead

Well, our forecast for a beautiful Sunday turned into a rainy, dreary, cold, uncomfortable May 22.  Go figure.  I had a softball game in the morning followed by. . . whoops - forgot about my radio show again.  I realized it at about 12:25 which left me with a 5 minute show.  I spoke fast and crammed a bunch of information into 5 minutes but I don't think anyone was listening - so what's the difference?  No one has given me ANY feedback on the radio show.  I did it as a trial to see if it would generate additional attention but I don't think it did.  I will do one more show at the finish just to sum everything up.

I managed to spend some time in the yard fixing up the chicken coop and
making the new one functional.  Then I took apart the old one that they kept escaping from.  Let's see the chickens escape from this one!  Not going to happen.  The neighborhood kids all like coming around to hold the chickens and see what project I'm working on next.  they especially like when I start cutting up big fish.  We put all the wood scraps from the coops into the fire pit and burned them up - kids love fire! (me too).

Apparently chickens like to swing on swings

After I cleaned these two stripers I took a bucket full of heads, scraps and guts down to the river to see if there were any crabs near the boat ramp.  I went down there with Ty, Thomas and Peter and we tied some chunks of bones to a string and tossed it out as far as we could.  While we were waiting for crabs we started seeing fish jumping out a little further.  I grabbed the fishing rods from the truck and we were able to snag a couple bunker.  There were finally bunker in the river!  How about that.  Well, as Thomas was reeling in his snagged bunker and got it to within 10 feet from the dock, a BIG bluefish swam up and attacked it - hard!  Almost immediately his line broke.

We spent the next hour trying to repeat the process with live bunker and heavier line but there were no more bites.  It was pretty exciting for the kids though.  We snagged about 4 other bunker and used them for bait until it was time to go home.  No sign of any crabs either.  I'll have to check again on Wednesday out in the river with the boat.  If it's nice out that is.

My supply of fresh fish is now completely replenished.  I got a lot out of these two.  I even gave a few nice pieces away to the neighbors.  I'll be ready for some smoked jerky on the grill again tomorrow night.  I didn't save the livers from these fish.  It was good last time and I would definitely do it again - but my spear shot right through the belly and destroyed the liver on one of these fish.  The other one didn't look so hot after my fillet job.

I'm a little worried about my remaining supply of butter.  If I cook any fish I definitely need butter.  I have been using it a lot on the eggs - omelets, scrambled, fried rice, etc - they all need a little butter.  Sushi - no butter needed.  I'm also at the bottom of my rice supply.  I think I'm 'just' going to make it on the rice and the butter.

Here are some ideas about my rations and Rewards for the next time around:
I don't need bean rations, just a gallon of brown rice.
Week 1 - solid - keep that the same (pound of butter, rice seasoning) maybe add another spice like blackening seasoning as well - spices are GREAT rewards for bland food.
Week 2 (currently a block of chocolate) - that was pretty good and I was definitely craving the sweets by then.  I think I could push this back until week 3 though.  For week 2 I would like some sushi making paraphernalia: soy sauce, vinegar, wasabi, nori.  That's it.  I would be all set with those things.
Week 3 - the chocolate bar and maybe some mayo and hot sauce for some spicy sushi.
Week 4 - I would keep megaburger as the week 4 reward.  Even though I didn't take it this time around, I REALLY looked forward to it the last time and I might miss it if it was removed.
Week 5 - pot luck.  This is a "just in case" reward and i probably won't use it this time either but it is a good safety blanket in case I am in hunger trouble.  Ha!

I have plenty of greens so a veggie reward is not necessary.  I think the addition of sushi making tools and some condiments will be perfect.  These notes are mostly for my own benefit so I can read this and remind myself prior to doing this again.

"Celebrate what you've accomplished, but raise the bar a little higher each time you succeed."