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Originally Posted by szlamany

Up in Connecticut it was 20 degrees this morning.

Just south of us in New Jersey they are getting snow!

When is this going to stop?

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I grew up in New Hampshire. I remember getting snow in May, though I remember it because it was so unusual. However, having ice on the streams on April 10th was nothing surprising. The reason that date stands out is that I remember it as being the opening day of trout season. I'd go down to the brook, look at the small hole in the ice, and decide to wait another month until the brook was stocked.

So, this is only March, still. You should have several more weeks before it ends, or at least that was the case into the 80s.

As for us, we'd take all the rain/snow we can get. People were getting nervous by th end of January when the reservoirs were low and the snowpack was below 50% of normal. February brought a river of moisture off the Pacific and brought us back to around normal, but we'd take more. We only get 7-12" of precipitation a year, so being an inch or two low is a LOT.

Brook?

Creek to you.

Brook does seem to be a word that is used almost exclusively by the northeastern part of the country, though I occasionally encounter it out here, too. Outside of New England, if the term 'brook' is used at all, it is generally for a body of water so small that you can step over it, with creek being that size and larger until eventually you get to river. Creek is largely unused in New England, with everything called a brook until you get up to the larger size, which is a river. In this case, the name was Ferguson Brook, and the stream was large enough for canoeing. There was even an old, though functional, water mill on the brook downstream from our house. The mill was an old barrel factory, but still had a working overshot water wheel and a horizontal turbine which ran circular saws and a plane, though a seriously low RPM plane.

Creek?

Wait a second... you mean clean bayous don't you.

I'm just joking around. I know what a brook and a creek were. I had a girlfriend that moved up to NY that I continued the relationship with(terrible idea) and when I went visit her we went to a brook. I had no idea what it was at the time, but when I saw it I thought huh that's just a clean bayou or clean floton really. She laughed at the statement and I've called them clean bayous ever since.

This is a brook in my backyard - about 25 or so feet across. It comes from a reservoir that has a dam about 2 miles or so north. It feeds into the Farmill River - then into the Housatonic River - which comes out to Long Island sound.

During a huge storm back in 2009 or 10 - river was crazy flooded - this boat came rushing downstream and lodged between a boulder and some trees. I was able to recover it. It's beat up pretty badly - can't leave it in the water...

Based on how much water the dam lets through we can sometimes float around the brook - looking at the crayfish and trout and what not...

I've always wanted to make a bridge across this brook - thought I might try to get some old telephone poles and use those for beams. Or do some kind of crazy rope bridge...

It will freeze maybe twice a winter.

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Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker

I grew up in New Hampshire.
...So, this is only March, still. You should have several more weeks before it ends, or at least that was the case into the 80s.

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Huge difference between southern CT and NH - we have Long Island sound that gives us snow that turns to rain that turns to ice all winter long. We seem to keep getting what the weather folk call the "polar vortex" which bring unusual 0 to 20 degree days. I've spent so much on heating fuel this year...

That polar vortex was entirely east of us. We've had a fairly warm winter. It's kind of odd, since we are so far north and so much of the country got hammered. Out here in the mountains....it missed.

I hiked the Metacomet trail through CT two years ago, then on along the Metacomet-Monadnock trail across MA into souther NH, then on up the Monadnock-Sunappee Greenway into the middle of NH. It was a really nice hike. I was actually born in Hartford (lived in Danby, or something like that), though my family moved to NH before I turned 1.

You should string two cables across the brook, one above the other. That makes for an interesting bridge for everybody. I have some funny memories involving a cable bridge of that sort. I also remember considering trying to cross a very long bridge of that sort across a lake/river in Maine (I forget whether it was a really wide, slow-moving, river, or the arm of some lake). I decided that doing that crossing with a backpack was tempting fate, and the bridge wasn't on the trail.

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Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker

You should string two cables across the brook, one above the other. That makes for an interesting bridge for everybody. I have some funny memories involving a cable bridge of that sort.

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Wow - now that you mention that I can remember using some kind of cable bridge like that when I was young - up in NH (my family had a place just south on Conway).

Lol, crayfish.

You laugh at crayfish? I would have imagined you ate them based on where you live :)

These are just food for the Great Blue Herons and the Kingfishers that visit!

He calls them something else, possibly crawdads, crawfish, or even mud bugs.

Crayfish is the correct term, though. I studied them in college for a time, and even had some in an aquarium when I was growing up. They are pretty impressive escape artists.

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These are just food for the Great Blue Herons and the Kingfishers that visit!

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:O Why in the world would you waste good crawfish like that?! Right now they're going $5.99/lb already cooked which is outrageous. Last year we had record reports of how many crawfish the farmers yielded. This year we're getting record reports of how few crawfish the farmers yielded.

The crayfish in New England rarely get to the size you would bother with eating. They live longer in the north, but don't get anywhere near as large. Big ones do occur, but they are rare. In New England, the midwest, the northwest, and other cold places...think more along the lines of popcorn shrimp: Not worth the effort.

I've only seen tiny white ones among the rocks in the brook. Until I had that boat I never knew they were even in the water (floating over them you can see them).

We have river otter that I guess eat them as well.

The small ones are still good to eat, in fact while they're harder to peel I find that they taste better because they don't taste the mud as much as the bigger ones. Kind of like alligator, the bigger they are the muddier they taste.

In fact, a buddy and I went on a 'survival' trip like on one of the TV shows and we found a few crawfish that were no bigger than our pinky. We popped them over a fire and ate them. They were ok, but I wish there would've been some Tony's or something ;)

We feed our crayfish on higher quality food than you do. Ours are eating arugula and tofu with a light low-fat balsamic marinade, so they tend to be skinny, but tastier.

Actually, I have no idea how they taste. Eating crayfish is very much a Southeastern thing that is rare in the northwest and largely unheard of in the northeast. Personally, I don't want to eat something that takes more calories to shell it than what you get from eating it. That's why southerners cook with so much butter: They need to keep up the average calorie intake.

As an odd fact: There are about 500 species of crayfish in the world, with over 360 of them in the US, the VAST majority of which are only native east of the Rockies. In other words, we dominate the international crayfish scene, too. However, Australia and Japan have species that rival lobster in size. Actually, the huge Japanese crayfish are kind of like the Loch Ness Monster in that there is some debate as to whether or not they exist, but there are a lot more sightings of them than of Nessy.

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Originally Posted by szlamany

This is a brook in my backyard - about 25 or so feet across. It comes from a reservoir that has a dam about 2 miles or so north. It feeds into the Farmill River - then into the Housatonic River - which comes out to Long Island sound.

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I have grass in my backyard... Followed by another house :( I want a creek or a babbling brook

You're in southern California - right? Didn't they outlaw moving fresh water? Or is it only available on the black market?

Actually - I'm surprised to hear that you have grass!

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Originally Posted by szlamany

You're in southern California - right? Didn't they outlaw moving fresh water? Or is it only available on the black market?

Actually - I'm surprised to hear that you have grass!

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Any owner of flowing freshwater is subject to being cited every day until the flow is stopped.

As far as grass goes, its sparse, but it does exist.

Well - if it was Colorado I wouldn't be surprised if there was tons of grass :)

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Originally Posted by szlamany

Well - if it was Colorado I wouldn't be surprised if there was tons of grass :)

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Bazinga.

Also, that smiley is kinda creepy...

That's just because it's way too early for you to be posting on the forum...

I work the graveyard shift. I have no concept of time.

I'm going to have to do a good ol' fashion crawfish boil for all of VBForums. I'll ship it from everywhere from NH to ID and from the UK to India all the way to the Philippines!

Still hot?

My sister had some lobster shipped to the Seattle area from Maine. It showed up at the wrong house and sat outside for a few days before anybody found it. By then, it was hard to get close enough to the box to dispose of it.

Post Race!

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Yeah, bout that.

First day back at work after a long weekend in Vegas. Good times besides my now ex-friend being the most douche-y, a*holeish, f*ing pathetic excuse for a human I have ever met. I literally could not stand him after the weekend. I have never met anyone so full of themselves, and so racist/homophobic/machismo-ic/white supremacist. Yeah.

Attachment 112097

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Originally Posted by dclamp

First day back at work after a long weekend in Vegas. Good times besides my now ex-friend being the most douche-y, a*holeish, f*ing pathetic excuse for a human I have ever met. I literally could not stand him after the weekend. I have never met anyone so full of themselves, and so racist/homophobic/machismo-ic/white supremacist. Yeah.

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Hmmm...wonder if he would go on Stormfront and cry about it....

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Originally Posted by dclamp

I have never met anyone so full of themselves, and so racist/homophobic/machismo-ic/white supremacist. Yeah.

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you sure he is all of those above ? i've never met anyone with all those characteristics! guess you did tho:afrog:

Maybe I am being a little extreme... But I was trying to express my frustration with this particular person. I had to spend 4 days working on a team with him in Vegas and have him as a room mate. I have never wanted to hit someone so bad.

He is the type of person who will argue with you even if you both have the same opinion, as long as he is right...

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Originally Posted by dclamp

He is the type of person who will argue with you even if you both have the same opinion, as long as he is right...

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LOL
they are the perfect person to hit them in the face like 100000 times

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Originally Posted by Pc Monk

LOL
they are the perfect person to hit them in the face like 100000 times

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Unfortunately he is a larger guy than me and I guarantee I would regret it. Its ok, I can hurt him more than a fist to the face would. Fortunately for me, I know people who will ensure he does not get hired in the profession he wants. (I know people in the mafia)

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Originally Posted by dclamp

Unfortunately he is a larger guy than me and I guarantee I would regret it. Its ok, I can hurt him more than a fist to the face would. Fortunately for me, I know people who will ensure he does not get hired in the profession he wants. (I know people in the mafia)

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And it is a good thing that he wont get hired. He is a menace to society. He wants to be a police officer. Yet, he got fired from two police jobs (non-sworn). He blames the department for getting fired instead of taking a look at the source of the problem. He is not the type of person I want driving around in a police car wearing a gun.

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i've never met anyone with all those characteristics

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I don't know. I find those particular characteristics usually go hand in hand.