Mountaineer Chronicles

Do you have an excess of fresh cucumbers? Refrigerator pickles are a very simple and quite quick way to preserve them.  The process is very simple. Fresh cucumbers cut how you'd like them packed into clean jars and pour over a hot brine. hot brine and some jars.  To boost the flavor of your soon to be pickles, add some pickling spice or other favorites to your jars. My choice of flavors is quite simple: some black peppercorns, smashed garlic, and some fresh dill.  Another important component is to add a crisping agent, and I've had great luck with Mrs Wages Xtra Crunch . These newer crisping agents are simply calcium chloride rather than the alum used heavily by our parents and grandparents. The FDA doesn't recommend using alum any longer and this option seems to work well without the need for additional chemicals. Pack your jars. Bring the brine to a boil, pour the hot brine over the cucumbers, put on a lid, stash them in the fridge for a day (or few), then enj

So, despite my best effort to convince Brooke to let me thin the cucumbers to a more manageable number for our small garden, we are quickly becoming overrun with cucumbers. Luckily, I convinced her to plant small, pickling cucumbers, so it is no big deal. The cucumber vines on the left, have nearly shaded out our peppers. For those looking for some abomination of a sweet "pickle" recipe, keep moving. Sweet pickles do not touch my lips, and I consider it false advertising when restaurants don't distinguish that the pickles they serve are in fact horrible sweet monstrosities. So anyway, I've been wanting to try making my own pickles for a while. The real thing, dill pickles. So after quick bit of research, it is easy to find out that there are a couple main ways to make pickles. The first way utilizes vinegar solution, and is similar to the pickles packed on most grocery store shelves. The other way involves a simple brine solution and a little patience. These

We are a little more than half way through the year. Here is my update of how I've done on my goals so far. Fishing Goals: Catch a fish in every month of the year  Unfulfilled -- cold temps in Jan, Feb, and March put a damper on this.  April - July I've done well though. REVISED goal is to fish at least once in each of the remaining months. In WV, catch one new species of fish (northern pike, hybrid striper, tiger musky), and/or a species I haven't caught in a few years at least (flathead catfish, musky, freshwater drum, eel, or yellow perch). Currently unfulfilled Catch a 15"+ smallmouth bass on a fly FULFILLED -  Big smallmouth on the fly I have also caught two 18+" smallmouth bass this summer on conventional tackle Big smallmouth in the summer on conventional tackle Catch a trout over 17" on a fly Currently unfulfilled Float a new stretch of water FULFILLED x 3. Floated 2 new sections of the Cheat River. Floated

Most all of us make resolutions or goals at each New Year. Some think it is silly, but our human nature sees the New Year as a time of renewal, and as such I feel it is a good time to refocus our personal efforts, whether or not you want to call them "resolutions". I, along with my wife, have made a list of some things we want to accomplish in our personal and spiritual lives, but those goals are personal, and wouldn't be all that interesting to share anyway. That said, I'm going to share a handful of outdoor activity related goals down here. I know most of these are of little real consequence, but are things I want to accomplish this year nonetheless. Here goes: Fishing Goals: Catch a fish in every month of the year (this is usually tough for me because I get so focused on hunting in the fall). In WV, catch one new species of fish (northern pike, hybrid striper, tiger musky), and/or a species I haven't caught in a few years at least (flathead catfish, m

Dew droplets on a leaf of kale Fine coating of dew on a sugar snap pea leaf Baby cucumber plants popped up over the last day or two These were the first green bean spouts to break the surface Sage has quite showy purple flowers The thyme (right) is covered with hundreds of tiny white blooms right now

Well it's mid-January. When I leave for work in the morning, its dark. When I get home from work its dark. This is the time of year when cabin fever can set in. Big time. Here in WV, the winters certainly aren't cold enough to preclude all outdoor recreation, but the conditions certainly aren't optimal. Given my limited time to "do" outdoorsy stuff because of other commitments, limited finances, and limited vacation time, I've been opting to save a lot of my excursions for when weather conditions are more optimal. Sometimes regardless of the weather, a hike through the snow can be fun! That gives me lots of indoor time this time of year. Traditional flyfishing wisdom says I should be tying flies to stock up for the upcoming spring hatches. I do tie some of my own flies, but I'm not good enough or efficient enough to tie all of what I need. Maybe I need to just get back at the tying bench and rekindle my desire to pump out some flies. A few asso

For those that may not know, I'm fairly infatuated with weather, and I will likely throw around some weather terms from time to time. My wife calls me a weather geek/nerd, and I proudly accept that title. I've always kept a fairly close eye on the weather, as many of my favorite activities (fishing, hunting, softball, etc) are all done outside and weather is integrally tied to when I'm able to enjoy each different activity. My observations of predicted weather has turned into a "need-to-know" type of inquiry as to why certain weather features produce certain types of weather. Now, I can tell you why we had so much cold, snowy weather two winters ago for example. (That would be a weather phenomena called a Greenland Block - a strong, immovable high pressure system that sets up over Greenland and causes the jet stream to dip dramatically southward over the middle and eastern US, which in turn causes colder temps there and sets up the winds for continued lake-e

This will be a blog about different activities I enjoy, and others may find interesting: fishing, hunting, foraging, gardening, cooking and sports, among others. All of these activities are enjoyable to me and could be classified as recreation, but a few have really become a way of life for me, and my passion for them I hope to convey to others. I have a strong commitment to my God, family, church, and country, and as such, those convictions will be conveyed through many of my posts as well. I look forward to sharing some of my favorite things with others through this blog.