Fishing for Newbs

             Hey folks! Maybe it was just how we were both raised, but for my husband, John, and I, no summer is complete without fishing. Besides enjoying nature, relaxing, and (hopefully) catching some tasty fish to cook up at home, it's a pretty cheap pastime! I have a special guest post from John today for those of you who may have never been fishing before because you've never had a chance or just didn't know where to begin!


Basic fishing:

Gear:
Fishing pole - I recommend the Dock Demon by Zebco. It's small and portable, relatively cheap, and good quality. You can get cheaper poles, but they are harder to use. They also are light enough to feel the small fish biting the hook.
Hooks - Small panfish/cricket hooks are a great general hook.
Sinkers - Small but heavy, about pea sized.
Bobber - Optional, but whatever you like best.
Bait - I like old fashioned live bait: Worms and Crickets.
Fishing license - Some states have discounts/free for veterans and old/young. Do not skip this - they do not mess around with game/fishing laws.

            Pole should come pre-strung with fishing line. Feed line through pole guides and tie on hook. I recommend the Palomar knot - easy to tie and very strong. Feed line through hook eye then back out eye so you have a loop. Tie a standard knot in the loop around hook, feed hook through loop and tighten. Trim excess line. Place sinker about 1-2 ft away from hook. Place bobber above this (3-4 ft from hook is a good general size.) Bait your hook and have fun.
            Cast for shady areas, where you see fish, or just wherever. Best fishing times are generally early morning/sunrise till 10-11am and again at sunset, but fish will feed throughout the day often "starting back up" every 1-2 hr.
            I prefer casting with no bobber and I place the bait to cover the sharp hook end to prevent snags. You will lose a lot of hooks if there is a lot of debris on the water bottom. Just reel slowly and pause every now and then from reeling.
            Experiment with the depth of the line using bobbers, Sometimes fish are near the surface, sometimes they are deep. It depends on time of day/time of year and water temp.
            When you feel a bite (a tug on the line or you see the bobber or tip of pole go down) jerk hard back/up on the pole while reeling. This "sets the hook". Reel in your fish. Be quick, but don't try to rip them out of the water either.
            Follow whatever rules/regulations are in place for your fishing area/state/lake etc.. For fish size/type/limit.


            As far as preparing and eating fish goes, my favorite is panfish (bluegill, sunfish, etc..) Filet them, take skin off. Rinse fillets well and check for bones.
            Soak in saltwater (milk for catfish) for an hour or so in fridge (gets rid of any bad fishy taste). In a gallon bag, place several cups of yellow cornmeal with salt and pepper to taste. Fry in peanut oil at 350-400 degrees Fahrenheit. Pieces are done when they float and are flaky when broken open.
            Optional way:  Place fillets in baking dish. Liberally drizzle with melted butter. Sprinkle with fresh lemon juice and a light dusting of creole seasoning. (I prefer Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning.)

Helpful Links:

Knot
Same Knot
Creole
Pole
Hooks
Sinkers
Bobbers 

 

 

Homeschool Preschool Update: Birds & Bugs, Oh My!

             Hey folks! It's been a long time since I've done a school update for two reasons. 1) I was really slacking there for awhile, but hey. This was kind of my trial year for the real deal coming sooner than I will know it. 2) Other than the alphabet learning stuff I print from various homeschooling blogs I follow and some other workbook-type things I have at home, I mostly use the “A Child's World” curriculum. (You can learn more and order this curriculum for yourself HERE.) Obviously, I didn't want to give everything away about it before so people would purchase it for themselves and help a fellow blogger out, but now that I'm a program ambassador I can! (Well, not everything. ;) )

             I finally got smart and have been letting Myka choose from two or three of the themes which one is most interesting to her when we are getting ready to start a new one. She's really into birds lately, so I wasn't surprised that she chose that one the time before this. Here are some highlights (read: Activities I actually got pictures of!) from the bird theme below.

Myka loves “beading” so the Cheerio “caterpillar” bird treats were a big hit. The birds didn't seem to notice them or enjoy them all that much. Perhaps they don't like Honey Nut Cheerios, which is all we had. Lol

We also practiced numbers 1-5 with this bird egg and “nest” activity. We kind of ran with this one. First, I asked her to put the corresponding egg in the correct numbered nest. Then we practiced some more by putting the correct amount of beads in each egg...Then we put the correct number of beads directly into the “nests”. And so on and so forth. Ha ha She was really into and I try to expand upon things when she's extra interested, especially because her attention span still isn't great, to say the least. I really think the math activities in the curriculum have helped her get a lot better with numbers lately because they make it fun to learn them, plus that's one of the main things she's been interested in learning-wise lately: counting.

We've taken a few nature walks lately, but not nearly enough. We actually got to play in the creek for a decent amount of time this day because it wasn't as buggy! Daddy found some really cool geode rocks, one of which he cracked open, that I forgot to include in today's pictures. We saw our fair share of bugs, too, including lots of damselflies (which are similar to dragonflies), which was good because we started the...

Bug theme next! A lot of people in the old Facebook group for this theme did bugs back in the fall, but I decided to wait until the spring/summer when the “nice bugs” were out. Lol Plus I wanted the weather to be nice so we could release our butterflies after studying them. This was just a swallowtail we found on the way back from playing in the creek. I can't believe it let me get that close! I wasn't zoomed in or anything!

Speaking of butterflies, we got our caterpillars last week and I think I was just as excited about them as Myka was! Lol They take about 5-10 days to make their chysallides and we've had them for 6, so we're eagerly awaiting that. (Btw, it's hard to get a 3 year old to understand that we can't pick the cup up and move it around a bunch so the caterpillars will do their thing and turn into butterflies. You've been warned. Lol)

We did a little flyswatter painting one day, which was entertaining. Two words of advice: 1) Making smacking noises while swatting the flyswatters makes it more fun, evidently. 2) Do yourself a favor and get a 3 pack of flyswatters at the Dollar Store for a buck!

             I was kind of surprised to find our library had a plethora of books on bugs. (Plus it's summer reading program time. Bonus!) I've been trying to get better about reading more in general to the kids. When all else fails, I'll read to Ripley and that usually gets the Jelly Monster interested. Ha ha Whatever works, right? But yah. I also found some fun bug related books that we already have at home, including The Very Hungry Caterpillar. They're actually reading that at our storytime tomorrow too, so hopefully she'll remember and maybe pay better attention too!

             Other than that, we've worked on letter “Q” a little bit more with dot marker pages, colored a caterpillar and ladybug coloring page, and did some scissor practice sheets as well...And we're only about halfway done with all of the bug-related stuff we have! I have more insect learning activities and workbook-type sheets than I can shake a stick bug at! Needless to say, we probably won't do all of them, and that's ok. There will always be more things we can expand upon next year!

             What have your homeschoolers been up to lately? Are you taking a summer break?

You can find this post on Tot School Gathering Place and

Hike of the Week: Creek Trail at Home

             Hey folks! I have to admit: I totally cheated this week. I know. Already? Really? It's only the second week! In my defense, my knee was giving me trouble, but it's feeling a lot better now! Evidently it's National Trails Day this Saturday (June 4^th) and there is something going on for it at Griffy Lake, so hopefully we'll make it for that and do a new trail this time.

             I say I cheated because we just did one of our trails at home. We just walked down to the creek, but at least it's kind of steep so I still got a decent workout?

We haven't taken Myka to play in the creek in a very long time, so she enjoyed that. We would have stayed longer, but it was super buggy and we were getting eaten up by mosquitos!

Can you tell someone was tired and it wasn't me? (Well, I was too, but ya know.) Lol So grumpy!

             Have you done any hiking lately?

Hike of the Week: Griffy Lake Nature Preserve

             Hey folks! As I've been mentioning lately, I really enjoy hiking, though I haven't been doing nearly as much of it as I would like to. You might think it's because I have a new baby (which is definitely another reason!), but to be honest, I've been letting my snake phobia get the better of me lately. We have plenty of space to go for a nature walk at home, but I've just been too damn afraid of snakes to go by myself with the kids. They are EVERYWHERE this time of year. But, that's a whole other story...

             I've decided to give a new series of sorts a go here on the blog to keep me motivated to go hiking more. I made a summer bucket list of nearby places I would like to visit and go hiking at and it's definitely nice enough to go now. Thing is, John has been busy on his days off helping his parents get their new house move in ready. I would love to host more hike and picnic lunch playdates for our group but honestly, even though Ripley is four months old now, I still cannot get to most places on time. It's kind of embarrassing. I feel like I should have my shit a little more together by now. That's also a whole other can of worms...

             Anyways, I'm hoping writing about our adventures on here will give me the inspiration to get out there more, even if I don't have a hiking buddy. After all, I used to go hiking by myself with Myka all the time and there were a lot more venomous snakes in Arkansas than Indiana. ;) Plus, it will hopefully give me a chance to hang out with an old friend I just “reunited” with recently because she likes hiking too.

             Sunday, May 22^nd, I took the kids hiking with my aforementioned friend at Griffy Lake Nature Preserve in Bloomington. I've only been there twice before back in the fall, but I really like it. I got some great pictures of Myka from a playdate there when the leaves were changing. Here's one of my faves below.

             I also hosted a laid back hike and picnic lunch last November as well for our playdate group there. It was a lot of fun! I got to meet some new people and it was fun letting the kids run around and explore at their own pace. We did a nice, flat trail next to the creek which this 6 months pregnant mama was very thankful for at the time!

             I was hoping to go on a new trail this time, especially since I was feeling more adventurous since I had my friend and her dog with us...but I couldn't find my map. And, shocker, I was already running late, so no time to print a new one. So, we did the one next to the creek again and ended up going on another short one I had been dragged on at the playdate pictured above. Oh well. It was just nice to get some fresh air and have some adult company for a change. :D

I was (unsuccessfully) trying to get a picture of those swallowtail butterflies over there on the right. They wouldn't hold still. Imagine that. :D

Someone always has to fight the good fight with the sleepies while I'm wearing her...but she always caves eventually...Usually five minutes before we're getting ready to leave wherever we are.

             Oh. And I would just like to say that I saw TWO freaking snakes and didn't have a panic attack, so bully for me! But seriously, TWO?! The first one we had literally been walking for like a minute and both were right next to the trail...and there were tons of people there! “They're more afraid of us than we are of them.” Right...

13 Tips for Hiking With Kids

             Hey folks! Hiking is one of my favorite pastimes. We haven't done it as much as I would like since we've moved back to Indiana, but I'm hoping to change that soon. However, having two children now instead of just one has definitely presented some new and unique challenges. In spite of the struggles now, I wanted to share some valuable tips if you would like to start getting outdoors/hiking with your little ones too!