freedom to keep it local and wild (*rant warning*)

Stlhntr has been on my mind a lot. I didn’t know him personally, but he gave a lot to this website and I always admired the relationship he cultivated with his daughter, who is obviously growing up to be a great young lady. He’s not the only one we lost in '21, and i’m trying to use those folks as a reminder to be a better person and not take all this shiny 1st world distraction too seriously.

From the forest to the trees:

Seems basic to me to get in my truck, hitch up one of my boats, fuel it anywhere I want in order to get an easy pull through with low stress ice and beer fillup. then I hit the ramp and feel frustrated because it’s almost full on a wednesday in December, and 80% of the traffic is commercial of some kind most of the days. I don’t begrudge anybody their right to the access points, but it’s getting way harder and each interest group has a tendency to prioritize themselves for the resource use. still, we have the extremely good luck of being born free and privileged enough to take our happy asses down there and do what we want with our time, money, and material excess. so i use mine to go places nobody used to go and revel in the peace and quiet. except these days those same spots are being jockeyed over by 4 different charter boats who feel it’s correct behavior to slow halfway down with a 4 pack of big dudes on a flats boat. you know, 'cause slowing down halfway and waving helps. at least 5 times in my last 2 trips up a little creek, i’ve waved back while walking over to push my boat out for the wake that would otherwise toss it up on the mound and probably put some water over the transom at the same time. just hope that some of them noticed and changed their behavior next time.

I get free food out of the deal that costs other folks hundreds of dollars to buy retail. money that they get to use any way they see fit, and they’re happy to line up weeks ahead of time to pay a

One of the better posts in awhile around here. I feel ya. I’m figuring in about another 10 years or so as old money dies out and new blood gets the inheritance my “little” Walterboro will grow as land is sold out. Not looking forward to more traffic and people. I see nothing but increasing pressure on our waterways …and Charleston? I took the “back roads” to Moncks Corner last week and I can not believe how the Black Tom road area has grown so quickly. I predict it won’t be long before Moncks Corner, Goose Creek, Summerville and Charleston will all be smudged into one Metropolises’. Try to buy land pretty much anywhere for a reasonable (or what I used to consider reasonable) price. Nope.

Nice looking Oysters. This is my first year in many that I haven’t went out and picked a few bushels.

You mention the dudes slowing to half throttle and thinking they are doing you a favor. Wake is so much worse than if they would just speed on by on plain. Everyone in a hurry and too impatient to back it down to an idle and respect an anchored fisherman.

Talking about people spending a ton on Oysters, have you priced snow Crab legs?! Not sure about our local blue crab prices.

I like the sticker, it reminds me of stuff that makes me smile. Nice post, I used to feel your pain and it reminds me of stuff that too makes me smile.

I did pretty good this year on white tails. I’d be honored to share some of mine with you, I know what an off year is like, trust me.

I am coming thru your fair city Tuesday week for a couple days on my way to Estill to chase pigs and will bring it then. Lets get up one evening and I’ll tell you what I know about that sticker.

PM me your number and I will try and do the same, maybe one of them will make it thru.

Definitely everything is so busy and crowded anymore. I haven’t been on the water munch this year due to working in lovely Greenville. (Hate this place) But the times we did get to just crowded and stupid stuff.
And yeah what the hell is the deal with crab legs. I used to get a 10 lb box for 90 bucks and that’s the big ones.
NOT NO MORE!!!

Hell just post your phone number I put mine out there all the time. Worst thing somebody can do is call you.:smiley:


You find things offensive. I find things funny. That's why I'm happier than you.

22 life’s a day

side note on the caller thing. I was getting a ton of bogus calls, I installed RoboKiller a couple months ago. The best $2 a month i’ve spent in a long time. Screens pretty much all nonsense calls and sends those not in your contacts to a little screening prompt. My worst day was 58 spam calls, down to roughly 10-15 a day now. they get silenced. From what I understand is that your phone number is not necessarily hacked from you, but mostly from someone else’s phone that uses an ap that allows access to their contacts. If your number is there then it could be shared. Then if the spammer calls you and you actually talk with them, you are now considered a “live” number and subject to more b.s. calls.

Well said Barbawang. I live in Columbia so my experience boating down there involves a 2 hour tow (one way) really early in the morning if I want to use most ramps. It has always amazed me at the small number of good public ramps available down there. That area has grown and continues to do so but, I am not aware of any real efforts to add landings anywhere. You can’t have a paradise and welcome newcomers with open arms and not do anything to increase resources.

As for those oysters, my wife has been on me to get some soon. Looks like I’ll be calling Crosby’s and making a run down soon…or having my son bring some home.


"Apathy is the Glove into Which Evil Slips It's Hand", but really, who cares?

If you are towing that far you might want to consider Steamboat Landing, or even the Dawho bridge ramp ( we call it the big bridge), both are excellent midweek choices and not really that bad on most (holiday and/or shrimping season excluded) days.

Last year me and a buddy took the camper and boat and stayed at the Dawho bridge landing for two days and pretty much had the place to ourselves.

I mean… if the goal is to avoid pressured fish and have plenty of parking its worth a shot

just my 2 cents

  1. If EF and Barb meet up in Chucktown, I want in. If EF brings his pooch, Katie wants in too.

  2. DFree, you can always come and use the Pathfinder. I’ll even put it in the water for ya!


“Another poon dream splintered on the rocks of reality.” --Peepod 07-25-2017

hey man, are these hen of the woods. and if so how do I fix em? these are on a dead spot on an old live oak… Do you eat them stand alone? If these freeze this morning didn’t kill it. If so and I eat em and die, I’m coming back to haunt you.

Fred, those are chicken of the wood, not hen of the wood. Similar, but different. The chicken you found is mo-bedda. you could google it to see the difference but hens are brown looking and not as fleshy

Don’t take it all, if you harvest too close to the tree where the fungi starts getting harder and woody you have gone too far. Look in the area, up high too as there are likely more in the area (if not now there’s a good chance some will be around later)

We like pan frying it in a butter and some shallots, but you can cook it any way you would chicken, and it is excellent cubed in soup.

hey, do you happen to know what they call a blind deer in South Carolina?

No Idea… :smiley: You know what they call a dead blind deer in S.C.?

Thank you for reply, I just joined a mushroom group on face book (something I said I would never do). I’m gonna do as you suggested and just take a little and only to part that’s start’s getting hard. This Oak has a hundred cousins near it, so if I get time I’ll do as you suggested again, and look.

I really do miss this sights activity, but I can see how it got lost… and no it wasn’t because of the political section. Just too many better media outlets out there easy to navigate with tons of info…

I would agree that it wasn’t the political section at all. It was the hate and discontent that was allowed to fester for far too long,in my opinion. Added to that hate and discontent were certain personalities that wanted to take everything they could and add nothing. You only get out of something (anything really) what you are willing to put into it…case in point.

again, thats just my .02 cents

enjoy the shrooms

Barbawang, is that shiv a SOG?

“No eye deer”

and yes, truck knife. these are his big brothers.

Fred, if you like mushrooms even a little bit, you won’t be disappointed by the edges of that nice one you’ve got growing there. get them as quick as you can once they’ve grown, they start drying out when done flushing. My wife’s got family on Cooler’s Dairy, i think you mentioned it in a post quite a while back and I meant to say something. Shoot me a message if you want me go to name dropping on my kin. You’re right, I’m afraid I see progress working its way up to Neyles from 17 already.

DF, you know you’re always welcome on my boat, your boy too. if he wants to go picking with me and take the spoils to make points with Mrs. Freedom, i’d be honored.

EF and Ricky, let’s do it. I can get free most any time next week. The PM reply function just failed on me twice in a row (“bad request” and then “the page you requested cannot be found”), so i’ll just use the old pocket nanocomputer to text in a bit. Might have to play phone tree like old times.

Thanks Ricky and Barbawang. I would be honored to go fishing/oystering with either of you gents.

Barbawang, my oldest works at Trident and usually is off 4 days a week. He would probably love to go picking with you. He spends a lot of time wandering parks and nature preserves and would probably love to learn how to identify/pick mushrooms and other fungi.


"Apathy is the Glove into Which Evil Slips It's Hand", but really, who cares?
"Apathy is the Glove into Which Evil Slips It's Hand", but really, who cares?

My Grandfather used to run Coolers dairy and that was what made my Dad join the Service (I think 1948). He got tired of milking at 0200 and then still having to go to school. I can not verify this, but My Dad told me when the Coburg plant came into Walterboro they pretty much put Coolers Dairy out of business.

My GrandDad told me when I was very young not to Kick a Cow turd… It might be kin to ya. The older generation seemed to really be up on who was kin and who wasn’t. Just so much growth and new people, hard to keep up. Sadly since my one of my Older Aunt’s died, we don’t even have a family reunion any more. Towards the end it got pretty big and I actually saw some people from high school show up that I never knew were kin folk.

pm sent

Hey Barbawing, that kind of mushroom should be called chicken teeth of the woods. I’ve looked on over a hundred more live oaks near the one that had the mushroom on it and not seen another one. I’ve looked most everywhere I’ve been over the last couple of weeks and nothing else. Are they that rare?

What’s this?


“Another poon dream splintered on the rocks of reality.” --Peepod 07-25-2017