More on Survival Fishing (Trotlines)

One of the most common ways to run a trot line is off the bank of a river and into the water. Trot lines have multiple hooks on them -- some have as many as 25 or more -- that are hooked with bait and dropped in the water. While many fishermen who use trot lines target catfish, they potentially could hook a wide variety of fish species. Fish that anglers are not targeting generally can be released, so most fishermen who use trot lines check them at least once a day.

Difficulty:
Moderate

Instructions
Things You'll Need

Float
Weight
Bait

1

Find a spot in the river with good fish habitat. Look for features such as deep holes and pools and undercut banks. Spots where the river swings also can be good.
2

Attach one end of the trot line to a stable object on the shoreline, such as a stump or tree. If there are no natural objects, a stake driven into the ground also works as a ground anchor.
3

Grab the unstaked portion of the trot line and get into a boat. Motor straight away from the anchor and into the river. As you go toward the middle of the river, feed line out and bait hooks as you come to them. Night crawlers are good all-around baits. Strips of minnows also work well.
4

Tie a length of nylon line to a milk jug. The line length depends on the river's depth; it should be sufficiently long to suspend the hooks a foot or two above the bottom. Tie the float line to the trot line about one-quarter of the way between the end of the trot line that's onshore and the end that will be anchored in the river.
5

Drop each hook and bait into the river as you continue motoring out. Once you get to the end, tie a 2-foot piece of rope to the end of the trot line. Tie a cinder block -- or a 1-gallon milk pail filled with concrete -- to the other end of the rope. Drop the anchor and trot line to the bottom.
6

Check the trot line at least once every 24 hours.


Read more: How to Run a Trot Line | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_8671180_run-trot-line.html#ixzz1VVi4XRVy

Name That Food

I have been very negligent and not posted for a while. No excuses except that my part-time job is full-time for the next little while and I am just down-right exhausted. But this is a fun post today. Enjoy! And let me know how well you guessed. When I took this test, I didn't have the answers to choose from, but because I don't want to think to hard today, I'll give you the answers - you just have to find the right definition! ~Karin

* a. Grapes * b. Walnut * c. Ginger * d. Tomato  * e. Mushroom * f. Broccoli * g. Cheese * h. Banana *

1. _________________ Adding this to your cooking actually Improves your hearing. It is one of the few foods in our diet that contains Vitamin D. This vitamin is important for healthy bones, even the tiny ones in the ear that transmit sound to the brain.

2. _________________ Cheer yourself up and put a smile on your face by eating this. It contains a protein call tryptophan. Once digested, tryptophan then gets converted into a chemical neurotransmitter called serotonin, which is one of the most important mood-regulating chemicals in the brain and most anti-depressant drugs work by adjusting level of serotonin production. Higher levels are associated with better moods.

3. _________________ Scientists now know this disease-busting veggie can play a crucial role in preventing cancer. Last year, a team of researchers at the US National Cancer Institute found just a weekly serving was enough to reduce the risk of prostate cancer by 45%. (In Britain, prostate cancer kills one man every hour!)

4. _________________ This item commonly sold in supermarkets, aids digestion. The Chinese have been using it for over 2,000 years to calm the stomach and cure nausea, while it is also a popular remedy for motion sickness. But the benefits go much further: tests on mice at the U of Minnesota found injecting the chemical that gives this its flavor slowed down the growth rate of bowel tumors.

5. _________________ This is rich in calcium, a vital ingredient for strong bones and reducing the risk of osteoporosis. Together with phosphate, it provides the main strength in bones but also helps to "power" muscles. Getting enough of this during childhood is crucial. A study of Columbia U. showed teens who increased its intake of 800 mg - 1200 mg boosted their bone density by 5%.

 6. ________________ A diet high in this type of food as an example, has been shown to reduce the risk of lung cancer and emphysema. This seed also contains a chemical call proanthocyanidin, which appears to reduce the severity of asthma triggered by allergy.


7. ________________ This is a great source of lycopene, a plant chemical that reduces the risk of heart disease and several cancers. The Women's Health Study - an American research program which tracks the health of 40,000 women - found women with the highest blood levels of lycopene had 30% less heart disease than women who had very little lycopene. Lab experiments have also shown that lycopene helps counter the effect of unhealthy LDL cholesterol.


8. ________________ These contain significant amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. They may also help head off dementia. An American study found that this extract broke down the protein-based plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease. Researchers at Tufts U. in Boston found these reversed some signs of brain aging in rates.


1. Mushrooms
2. Bananas
3. Broccoli
4. Ginger
5. Cheese
6. Grapes
7. Tomatoes
8. Walnuts


Certain foods do amazing things for us. You'd almost think there was a divine plan, its too bad we mortals have to mess it all up.

Choosing Fruit That's Ripe

What a sensation to bite into a really ripe peach—the soft flesh, the heady aromas, the sweet juices everywhere, and that incredible flavor. This seduction of the senses is very deliberate on the part of the peach. In fact, it's a matter of survival. Fruits are the seed-bearing ovaries of plants, and their mission is to spread these seeds. When fruits ripen, they become overwhelmingly desirable to animals (man included) so that animals will carry them off, eat them, and spread the seeds.
So how can you tell if a fruit is ripe? Unfortunately, most people don't have orchards and gardens full of fruit ripe for the picking. In fact most of the fruit we buy, at the grocery store anyway, has left the garden far behind, having been picked before its prime to avoid shipping damage and storage loss. All the more reason for us to understand the ripening process and learn some tricks for telling which fruit is ripe now and which will get ripe once you take it home from the market.
As fruits ripen, they go from hard, sour, inedible, near-invisible parts of the plant to stand-out, brilliant-colored, sweet, juicy objects with enticing aromas. They change in color, size, weight, texture, flavor, and aroma (some even produce ethylene gas); these varied attributes can be good indicators of ripeness.

Color is a clue, but not a reliable one. With some fruits, you can tell they're ripe by their color. As the acidity changes, the green chlorophyll breaks down. Some fruits like bananas and apples have bright colors underneath the green chlorophyll layer; the colors show through as the chlorophyll disappears. Others, like tomatoes, make their red-orange compound at the same time that the chlorophyll breaks down. Bluish-red berries become a deeper, more intense red as they ripen. For these fruits—bananas, apples, tomatoes, red berries, cherries—color change is an excellent indication of ripeness.
Aroma hints strongly at flavor. Smell is especially important when color is not a good indicator of ripeness—for example, with most melons. Chemical changes take place in ripening fruits that cause them to produce sensuous, luscious-smelling volatile compounds. Sniff the blossom end of the fruit (the end opposite the stem) and only select fruit that has a full, fruity aroma.
Feel for a tender texture. As fruits ripen, the substances that hold the cells together (hemicelluloses and firm pectic substances) break down and convert to water-soluble pectins, which makes the fruit become softer and softer, so a gentle squeeze is a good test for ripeness. If a plum is rock hard, it isn't ripe. The squeeze test is especially useful with fruit that doesn't have a hard or thick rind, so squeeze stone fruit, pears, kiwis, and avocados. This doesn't work well with melons or pineapples, but even with these rough-coated fruits, a little give is a good sign.
Heavy is good. Weight can be a good indicator of ripe fruit. You'll often see the phrase "heavy for its size" as a positive attribute for fruit. It generally means that the fruit is at least fully mature, which is a good start on the road to ripeness. A heavy tomato or grapefruit, for example, is usually a good one.
If you have a grower nearby who allows you to pick your own or who's a conscientious producer who handles his produce well, by all means take advantage of that locally grown, just-picked ripe fruit. Your local county extension agent can help you find growers and farmers' markets. And speak up to the produce manager of your supermarket, too. Even big companies respond to consumer pressure.

How to speed-ripen fruit

When some fruits ripen (bananas and apples especially) they give off ethylene gas, which further speeds ripening. In fact, produce shippers use ethylene to ripen certain fruit (or at least to get it to change color and look ripe) when it reaches its destination.
At home you can use ethylene to speed ripening. This method works especially well with tomatoes, avocados, bananas, and cantaloupe. First warm the fruit by setting it in a sunny window or microwave it for 15 seconds on medium power. Put it in a paper bag with a couple of ripe apples and close loosely. You want the ethylene concentrated in the bag, but you also want oxygen to get in to speed ripening.

/www.finecooking.com/articles/choosing-ripe-fruit.aspx

Build this sturdy large-capacity food dehydrator

By Charles Sanders

Drying of food as a means of preservation has been around for a long time. Populations in suitably dry climates all around the globe have dried meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables in times of plenty as a way to provide for the leaner months of the year. My grandmother used to tell us of when she was a child, helping to spread apple slices on the top of a tin-shed roof for drying. An aunt once described stringing fresh young bean pods on a long heavy thread and hanging them to dry, coming up with what they called leather-britches beans. Obviously, these were simple and imperfect food drying systems, but they do show ways in which food can be dried at home.
Essentially, dehydration of food removes the moisture that provides the environment conducive to the growth of bacteria. Removal of the moisture results in a product that can be stored for months or even years. Fortunately, for those of us in the less arid climates, methods exist which enable us to dry suitable quantities of foods at home without having to spread the food out on our rooftops. In fact, a really good food dehydrator can be made easily.
For the past few years, some round plastic food dehydrators have been available at retail outlets, by mail order, and from “infomercials” on TV. These units introduced many people to food drying. The ones I examined, however, were too lightly constructed to stand up to many years of regular and heavy use. They also lacked the capacity to do much in the way of drying a large quantity of food.
Other commercially available dehydrators that I have seen used were large, high quality units. These models were mounted on rollers and resembled a portable dishwasher in size. These units could dry a considerable quantity of food at a time and were being put to heavy use by the family who owned the two of them. They were also way too expensive for me.
When I decided to begin food drying, I did so after visiting with the folks using the floor model dehydrators described above. These friends showed me containers of dried, diced carrots, onion slices, apples, and other fruits and vegetables. What impressed me the most about this method of preservation was the amount of space that was saved by drying the foods. For example, a five-gallon bucketful of carrots could be sliced, steamed, and dried and made to take up the space of a shoebox. Half of a five-gallon bucket of apples, when sliced and dried, fit nicely in a gallon-sized freezer bag.
Since building our own dehydrator, we have dried jerky, apples, strawberries, carrots, onions, green beans, bananas, fruit leathers, and several other fruits and vegetables. Some of these were experiments, but we use the dryer each year to put up several bushels of sliced apples. These treats make a healthful and tasty alternative to junk snack food for the whole family, much better to munch on than potato chips.
Below are instructions for building a food dryer similar to ours. Use your imagination, intuition, and abilities when building your own. Use what you have or what you can obtain easily and cheaply in the way of materials. Make your food dryer to suit your own circumstances. It might be nearly identical to the one described or a vastly improved version.

The dryer cabinet and the polycarbonate trays

For our dehydrator, I began by purchasing the light polycarbonate trays. I then designed and built the dryer cabinet around them. After considering various materials for constructing the trays from scratch, and after studying the effects of these materials on some foods, I decided the trays were what were needed. The acids in some foods may react unfavorably with certain metals such as aluminum screen. Wood, as used in dowel rod-type trays may absorb food tastes and odors. Fiberglass screen can leave minute fiberglass splinters sticking to the dried food. Galvanized screen is out, due to its zinc-based coating reacting with foods. One material which I have not tried, and which may warrant experimentation, is nylon screening. If stretched tightly on light wooden frames, this material might be durable enough to withstand repeated use. I do not know of any health problems posed by the use of the material on dryer trays. The trays that we used were simply better than any alternative that I could come up with at the time.
Whatever the size or material of your trays, design the cabinet size around them allowing for sufficient room below for the heat element and room to easily fit the trays within. I am providing the measurements below to serve only as a guide for your own construction process, because the type and size of trays that you come up with may vary from that which I devised. Our dryer measures 48" tall by 14¾" wide by 16" deep. The trays themselves measure 13¾" square. A slightly different size tray is available from Excalibur Dehydrators, listed at the end of this article.
In the accompanying photographs and drawing you can see some of the construction details of our dryer. I made the base of heavy one-inch particle board because that is what I had. Quarter-inch plywood made up the sides and top of the cabinet. I ripped 1 x 2s for the framing in the cabinet and for the rails which support the drying trays.
Ordinary screen wire covers the six x six-inch fan opening. Holes cut near the top of each side are covered on the inside with strips of screen and allow moisture and air to escape.
If you do not have one, a wide variety of suitable fan and motor assemblies are available from: W.W. Grainger Distribution Group, 1901 Plantside Drive, Louisville, KY 40299. Request one of their catalogs. This is an electrical supply wholesaler. You may have to have a retailer order this unit for you. Order fan-motor assembly #7C7-27. The cost was under $20. Just remember to use a relatively small fan (about four inches in diameter) to move the air rather slowly through the dryer. You want the fan to ventilate the box and move the heated air throughout, but not to cool the food on the trays.

The 600-watt ceramic heat coil [Top] screws into an ordinary porcelain lamp base. [Bottom]

The heat source is a ceramic heat coil screwed into a regular porcelain lamp base. The lamp fixture is secured to the base and either wired directly to a three-prong plug or through a thermostat. The coil was purchased from a local hardware store and is rated at 600 watts. The cost was less than $5. The lamp base cost about a dollar.
Although it isn’t absolutely necessary, I added a thermostat assembly that I had scrounged up. This addition helped to cut down on tending and tray rotation. The thermostat easily handles the appropriate 100°-150°F temperature range. If you purchase a thermostat, specify a fairly narrow temperature spread for the on-off cycle.
Old unmatched hinges for the door and hooks and eyes for the closures were scrounged from the workshop.

Dried apples

Since dried apples are so popular at our house, I will give you the simple directions for drying them as an example of how simple it is to dry foods. First, I use one of the clamp-on slicers that core, slice, and peel the apples in one operation. It takes about three to five seconds to do one apple with one of these peelers. I have looked over several models and prefer the one I purchased from Back To Basics Products, listed at the end of the article. With this peeler, a simple knife cut is all that is needed to produce a handful of neatly prepared apple rings. By the way, you can save the peelings and cores and make a nice batch of apple jelly from them later.
As I peel the fruit, I place the rings in a bowl containing a solution made from about a half-cup or so of lemon juice and about two to four cups water. This acid bath prevents the apples from turning brown as they dry. I have also heard of some folks dipping the apple rings in plain 7-Up or Sprite for the same purpose.
After dipping the apples, I drain them in a plastic colander and arrange them on the dryer trays. Let them dry to a chewy leathery consistency and they are ready to store. We have found that the 10 trays full of freshly dried apples fills up a one-gallon zip-top plastic bag. After bagging, they are stored in the freezer. They make great snacks for work, camping, hiking, or TV-munching. They make a really good apple pie as well.
Vegetables are similarly easy to dry, usually requiring a simple steaming prior to going into the dryer. My wife has also used the dryer to dry sprays of flowers such as baby’s breath, statice, and globe amaranth for use in dried bouquets and wreaths. It worked quite well for that, too, as she prepared those items for sale. Herbs can also be dried in the dehydrator.

www.backwoodshome.com