Another Oldie But Goodie, Crabbing on the Chesapeake Bay...

Originally posted on December 26, 2006

Have you ever been crabbing on the Chesapeake.....

Maryland Blue Crabs, oh yeah

Steamed and ready to eat

Now you folks know that us southern boys know about fishing and hunting, but crabbing is not something a farm boy from northwest Georgia knows how to do. Well I learned that there are commercial folks that set traps and catch crabs, that is not what I am talking about. Miss Bee taught me a Maryland Tradition.............

Catching a crab with a chicken or turkey neck on a string..........

Get a bucket full or...........

A bushel basket full, just get crabs......

Miss Bee and I bought a boat while we were in Maryland and we took up a Maryland tradition, crabbing and crab feasts in the back yard.

There is no need to be stupid............

Steaming crabs in steam pot..............

Things needed for crabbing, a couple of 5 gallon buckets, string, a dip net, and a turkey neck. Talk about fun, it must be what Huck Finn felt like floating down the Mississippi. You go out into the shallow flats of the Chesapeake, tie a turkey neck on to the end of your string and the other end to you big toe, drop it over and let it lie on the bottom. Pretty soon you will feel something pulling on your string, you slowly pull the string up and lo and behold, a blue crab is trying to eat the turkey neck. You slip the dip net under him and you got yourself a crab. First you check to make sure it is not a female, no real Marylander would take a female crab. The female has a large triangular flap on its belly, the male has a long thin flap, you cannot mistake one for the other. Each female could have a hundred or so eggs, take them and there will be no crabs for next year. They also should be about 6 inches point to point, drop it into your bucket. You will need to have a cover on the bucket or you will wind up with a boat full of crabs. It is simple then, just repeat the process until you have a couple of buckets full of crabs, about a bushel or so. Now you are off to the dock and the fun is about to start.

Backyard Crab Feast, Crabs, Corn, Tomatoes, and Beer

Home you go with your bounty, you will also need to pick up a couple dozen ears of fresh corn, some nice tomatoes, and a couple of cases of cold beer. If you are soft hearted you may not want to know that you steam live crabs, you put a little water, some vinegar, a couple bottles of beer into the steamer. Then you dump the live crabs into the top of your steamer and cover them with "Old Bay Seasoning" and rock salt, then put them onto the burner and steam the crabs about 30 minutes. The crabs should never touch the water. Make sure you put the cover on the steamer, otherwise the crabs will be trying to climb out. A crab feast just would not be the same without fresh corn and tomatoes.

A pile of Steamed Crabs.........

By now you need a couple of picnic tables covered with lots of old news papers and a back yard full of people, let the feast began. Now eating steamed crabs is another story, cause there is good meat in all kind of places inside the crab, you open up the crab, clean the lungs out and go for that wonderful crab meat, the best part is the back fins, but there is good eating in the claws and all the legs. Miss Bee likes the mustard but this hill billy has to pass on that. Eating crabs is not a quick meal, it will take about two hours, you will know when you are done, the table will be piled up with empty shells and corn cobs. All you have to do is roll up the newspaper and cleanup is done.

More Crabs..................

Having fun with your neighbors, kinda’ like the fish fry back on the Piney Woods Farm, having fun with your neighbors how unique......

Another pile of crabs........Oh Maryland, My Maryland

The end..........................

Now folks, you know the rules, if you like this truthful little fish story leave me a little note and I will make up some more stuff..........

Here we are again

We are having a great time on the Carnival Valor

 

And yes, there is cake, just so you know

An Oldie but goodie, Cruising the Danube River

Origanially post on January 09, 2007

Cruising the Danube River

Well now folks, you know I have been stuck here in Germany with my blog for the past week or so. The fact is that my tour in Europe was 1961-1963, pre Miss Bee. The best I can figure she would have been about the 9th grade in high school at that time. Well July, 2004 I ventured back into Germany, with Miss Bee. If you know Miss Bee, you know all you have to say is cruise and she is up for it.



Well we flew into Munich and then a shuttle flight to
Nuremberg. There we took a River Barge, a floating hotel on a trip down the Danube River, Nuremberg to Budapest.

During out 7-night journey along the celebrated Danube River, you call on grand cities and quaint villages along the way. Explore both sides of Hungary’s capital, traditional “Buda” and modern “Pest,” and see how the river divides the city from atop Fishermen’s Bastion. Discover the imperial architecture and time-honored culture of Vienna, see hilltop castles, and tour riverside towns in Austria’s picturesque Wachau Valley. And in Germany, you explore baroque abbeys, magnificent cathedrals and stroll narrow cobbled streets lined with half-timbered houses. Savor the tastes of authentic dishes, learn the legends of this unique part of the world, and you’ll understand why Strauss immortalized the romantic Danube in his famous Blue Danube waltz.


Nuremberg, Germany, a historic old city made famous by the War Crime Trials after WWII.


The Danube Gorge has both a gentle and a strange beauty. Between Kelheim and Weltenburg a remarkable rocky panorama opens up where the river Danube has carved its course through hard limestone rock.

The Franciscan Church is home to a collection of historical organs that are still played at times, there is also a brewery that has been brewing beer for over 1000 years..........



Could the river carve the face in this stone?


There is beauty and history all along the Danube River.


This little beauty is in Slovakia, the map of the river dose not show Slovakia, it was part of the Czech Republic.


Passau, here we were treated to an Organ Concert


A beautiful old church in Weltenburg



Linz, Austria, another church....most of the city tours included a church.



The beauty of a river cruise, there is always something to see.


The river front in Regensberg, Austria.


Melk Austria, the Abbey


Another view of the Benedictine Abbey, Melk, Austria


Medieval ruins in Vine, Austria, Danube River Valley


Wachau Valley, Danube River, Medieval Castle


Vienna, Austria on the Blue Danube, wow, we had a great schnitzel here


Hungary’s capital, traditional "Buda" and modern "Pest," you see the river Danube divides the two cities.


Pest, who knew it was two cities?



Well folks, Miss Bee and I have been a few places, this was the very best vacation trip of our lives.

Now folks, you surely know the rules by now..............if you liked going on this little vacation with Miss Bee and me, leave a little note and I will make up some more stuff.

With a stroke of the pen........

With a stroke of the pen enhanced interragation is no longer legal. Hey you CIA folks need to pick up an Army Field Manual so you know how to ask some one that would cut your head off what he knows that will save the lives of soldiers in the field.

I hope no one has plans to attack the White House or the Capitol Building, we would not be able to learn the information to stop the attack. Oh, maybe we can say please often enough, maybe even give them a hug and they will like us and tell us what we need to know.

Holy crap folks, there is people out there who want to kill us, and we are going to become such wimps that they will be successful...........

From the land of fruits and nuts

 

Nancy Pelosi: “Every Month… 500 Million Americans Lose Their Jobs”

Let me see, our population is around 300 million, if you have 200 million slip across our border this month, and then everyone, man, woman, and child becomes unemployed then Nancy is correct.  Oh, you gotta do it all over next month, holy crap……

UPDATE, “Salute To Heroes Inaugural Ball” did not make the cut………….

 

As I told you when I responded to Mr. Bond’s comment their was no press coverage of the FACT that Mr Obama snubbed the Heroes Ball, the first president since Eisenhower who failed to appear for the Medal of Honor Winners.  I also told you the American Legion had killed press releases.  Leave it to bloggers to press for the truth, the following letter from the American Legion is a response to a blogger inquiry….

In answer to your inquiry:

The American Legion, as it has on every inauguration evening since 1953, hosted the Salute to Heroes Inaugural Banquet & Ball on January 20th. The quadrennial event is co-sponsored with fourteen veterans service and military service organizations and honors recipients of the Medal of Honor. Forty-seven of these heroes attended this year’s event which was held in the Renaissance Washington DC Hotel.

President Obama was invited but did not attend. Vice-President Joe Biden did appear, however, and was very warmly received. The new President’s absence was understandable considering the unprecedented logistical challenges presented by the vastly increased number of visitors to this inauguration and the necessary attendant security measures. The American Legion, as an organization, does not feel offended or “snubbed.”

Thank you,

Craig

Craig Roberts
Media Relations Manager
The American Legion
1608 K Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006

It is obvious to the Old Sarge that the American Legion is downplaying the fact that President Obama ended a 58 year tradition of attendance to this ball, yes, it pisses me off, just so you know…..

Added just for fun….

You just gotta love Sheriff Joe

 

Sheriff Joe Arpaio: Close Gitmo, I’ll Take ‘em!  Sheriff of Maricopa County,  Arizona, stated that he’d be happy to take the inmates of Gitmo and provide them “appropriate and hospitable accommodations.”

The ACLU was further infuriated that no copies of the Koran would be provided to the detainees, but rather replaced by copies of The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama.

The Carnival Valor

YOU PHOTO HUNTERS THAT STOP BY, I HAVE TAKEN THE EMPRESS BEE OF THE HIGH SEA ON ANOTHER CRUISE

I do have some post scheduled for next week, please stop by

This is our solid gold, plastic, ship on a stick, from the last time we were on the Valor. It is my favorite ship in the Carnival Fleet because………..

The decor is real Americana, you know the old Sarge bleeds Red White and Blue, this ship is tits…………

Dick and Sandy, the Traveling Bells just warmed the ship up for us, they were on board last week, drats….

I will be forced to deal with the invasion of the towel Monkey, wish me luck…

If you cannot find me for the next few days, this is where I will be…….

Look out for America, the Old Sarge is not on guard duty

Some stuff is just unbelievable

 

Beam me up Scotty……………

The following photos were taken by Aigar Truhins with a standard digital camera.

These stunning images show mysterious columns of light streaming into the sky above the town of Sigulda in Latvia at the end of last month.

Scientists left baffled as mysterious columns of colored light appear in the night skies

'My son exclaimed, 'The aliens are coming!'' Truhins was quoted as saying.

'It certainly looked that way,' Aigar added.

But experts are agreed there may be a more prosaic explanation - ice crystals in the air.

The air above the town was notably cold and filled with suspended ice crystals.

It is believed that the columns were formed by those reflecting light from the bright streetlamps and other lights on the ground - beaming it back downwards again.

Skies all over Europe have been filled with such natural phenomena during the cold snap of recent weeks.

The old Sarge has to agree with the son, the Aliens are coming……

Responding to a comment

My very good liberal friend, Mr Bond has taken exception to my post about the new President snubbing the SALUTE TO HEROES INAUGURAL BALL he said………

Bond said...

By the way Sir...At the CiC Ball the MoH winners were in attendance
Just an FYI - see HERE

January 22, 2009 2:15 PM

At inaugural ball, Obama pledges to serve troops

President, first lady outshine entertainment stars at the military’s inaugural celebration

By Kevin Baron, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, January 22, 2009

Medal of Honor recipients line up for a photo during the inaugural ball.

THAT IS THE END OF THE STORY

My friend is most likely correct, at least Stars and Stripes had this photo of the Commander In Chief Ball but I copied and pasted the entire article, the American Legion also killed the story about the snub of the Heroes ball, don’t ask me why, they just did……. I do wonder why the news is blacked out??

Salute To Heroes Inaugural Ball was not one of them. For the first time in 56 years, a newly-inaugurated president has not attended the ball begun by President Eisenhower. 14 presidents later, a snub.

FORTY-EIGHT MoH recipients were in attendance, that's HALF of the recipients that are still alive, and darn well nearly all that are physically able to attend events.

5 Republicans said yes to a tax cheat

 

But 5 Republicans said no to a tax cheat

TAX CHEAT

NOW WILL HEAD UP IRS??????

WHAT THE………..

Senator Grassley

Senator Kyl

Senator Bunning

Senator Pat Roberts

Senator Mike Enzi

There were some Republicans that did support tax evasion today:

Senator Hatch

Senator Snowe

Senator Crapo

Senator Cornyn

Senator Ensign