Wondering what the poor people are eating

[Mike Hill]

Benavides, Texas

Oh Wow! Just noticed this! Heck we were almost neighbors in the 70's and early 80's. Dad and my uncles had a deer lease down near Bruni. We went through Freer to get there, so went around Benavides. Just about 50,000 acres with just 5 guns on it. Took us some time to figure out how to hunt it, but it served us well - got my biggest there - when I was 16. Needless to say - Javelina and rattlesnake country. Saw plenty of both walking the cenderas (however you spell it) to and from the blinds. But perhaps the best thing about it, other than in the middle of nowhere (which was how I liked it) was the quail. I shot 4 types - and never needed a dog. Supposedly there was a 5th on the property - Mexican Quail, but not sure and whatever they were. . I got Bobwhites, Blues, Gambels, and Scaled. Was always hoping for a Mearns, but they were generally further northwest near Del Rio

 

[Mike Hill]

Recently made cornbread and chicken livers like my mom used to make. My first time making the liver.

You lost me on the chicken livers. Gizzards yes, chicken livers - No.

 

[Mike Hill]

I still have that Mod 12 too. It had actually belonged to his dad.

Dad gave me a Ted Williams Lever Action single shot 22 (he did work for Sears by that time). Still have it and cherish it. However, my most cherished gun is a Winchester 25-35 model 1894. My grandfather bought it for my grandmother a long time ago - in the 30's. I got to use it for my deer hunting. Got a lot of deer with it even my biggest - all with iron sights. Didn't need no stinking scope!!! Gotta know your tools!!!!!

 

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

We only had Bobwhites and Blues around our place. The quail sure took a hit in recent years. We’re starting to see a few coveys in live oak county but not a huntable population. I sure miss those days to. I’d go out in the afternoon and get five or six and that made a good meal. My grandmother would fry them for breakfast with biscuits and gravy.

Alan

 

[Wildthings]

Well the SOL is over so y'all can tell your stories. I can't tell mine though

You know I couldn't figure this out at first...SOL (Shi* out of Luck) Then it came to me SOL (Statute of Limitation) Dang Game Wardens!!

 

[DLJeffs]

I have two brothers. My grandpa had a small farm / property and a big chicken coop. After kindergarden I'd go in with my grandma and collect eggs. She'd carry a sawed off broom because the little banty rooster would defend that henhouse like a demon. Grandma would smack that rooster across the henhouse. He learned that when he saw us coming, he'd run in, and get above the door and dive down on us. Pound for pound the toughest and the meanest animal I've ever known. But that's not what I came to talk about... One year Grandpa set up some pens and got three turkeys, three geese, three rabbits. He said there was one for each my brothers and I. Funny thing was every holiday one turkey, goose or rabbit mysteriously got out and disappeared. I don't know if we ever made the connection between the escape and what was served on the table that afternoon.

 

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

Reminds me of my sisters and “Stinky” the pig.

Papaw can we give the breakfast scraps to Stinky?

Stinky’s not out there any more girls.

Where is he Papaw?

Well, you just got through eating some of him when you finished that bacon!



They wouldn’t touch another bite of any kind of meat after that without asking if it was “Stinky” first.

it’s not that they liked the pig so much as it was where the pig lived in the pig sty and how it smelled.

I will say though that when it came my turn to raise hogs I kept them in a little cleaner accommodations than the traditional hog pen.

Alan

 

[trc65]

While growing up, we were all in 4-H, and raised steers to show and sell after the last fair. We all knew from a young age what was going to happen to the animals we raised. Along with our project animals, we raised and fed an additional steer that was never halter broke. That one was butchered and went into our freezer.

We never received an allowance while growing up despite all the work we did daily on the farm. Our allowance came from the calves we picked to raise as our projects, and the corn we got from the bins to feed them. When the steers sold, we kept the money although most of that went to help pay for college.

 

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

Hunting blue quail.

Ride along in the truck until we spotted them running. Bail and run after them as fast as I could until one or two would flush, slam on the brakes and shoot. A retriever would have been nice because we would find them mostly in or around prickly pear flats. They wouldn’t hold for a dog.

Oh, and there was no shame in tainting a few of I got the chance...

Alan

 

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

I got an allowance. $1/week. I think the hourly wage worked out to about $.03/hour.

i had the outside chores and I also got to mop. My sisters swept and vacuumed. Everybody had a turn at KP, and of course the fine print, “other assigned duties”. When I went off to college I was amazed at how much free time I had. Probably was not a good thing as I think about it.....

Alan

 

[vegas urban lumber]

I have two brothers. My grandpa had a small farm / property and a big chicken coop. After kindergarden I'd go in with my grandma and collect eggs. She'd carry a sawed off broom because the little banty rooster would defend that henhouse like a demon. Grandma would smack that rooster across the henhouse. He learned that when he saw us coming, he'd run in, and get above the door and dive down on us. Pound for pound the toughest and the meanest animal I've ever known. But that's not what I came to talk about... One year Grandpa set up some pens and got three turkeys, three geese, three rabbits. He said there was one for each my brothers and I. Funny thing was every holiday one turkey, goose or rabbit mysteriously got out and disappeared. I don't know if we ever made the connection between the escape and what was served on the table that afternoon.

we also had loose/wild banty's when i was a kid. unfortunately every early spring when dad would lite the burning pile (waste from the christmas tree farm) like clockwork a banty hen (on fire) would burst out from under the brush, off her nest, about 15 minutes after the fire was lit. Our cocker spaniel would always catch it and dispatch within about 25 foot on the pile.

for most of my childhood there were four banty roosters (brothers from one clutch) they didn't seem to bother us at all, but they sure gave the barn cat hell

 

[Mr. Peet]

We had one bantum that wandered off as we stopped having chickens. The good layers went to other homes and the rest were canned. That lone rooster lasted about 10 years in the wild. He'd disappear for weeks, assume he was dead, and then he was back. Some times looked real bad, but pushed on.

 

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

I had a couple of banty roosters many years ago. They were mean little fellers. One was kinda game type looking and the other was one of those with feathers on his feet. They were both mean and would fight anything except each other... They had a particularly bad habit of coming from behind in their attacks. I did find out that if I I kicked one as I could ...... it didn't hurt them at all.

I had game hens also to set eggs and a couple of game roosters. They had to be penned up all the time. A big Rhode Island Red or Barred Rock rooster was no match for one of those game roosters. If my RIR and BR hens would have set eggs I wouldn't have kept the Game chickens at all. I'm kinda glad those days are gone.

Alan

 

[Mike Hill]

Grandmom was a short feisty gal. She was about 5' 2" at the most, yet she played basketball. Apparently she was rather good at it - she played on some team in San Antonio. Just two weeks ago, my sister uncovered a photo of the team. All the members of the team were the same height. Grandmom had a penchant for banties and kept a few on their acreage on the North side of San Antonio, until she was losing more to varmints than it was worth. Chicken was cheap at the PX! She claimed she liked the eggs, but in my heart it was their feistiness. I never understood about the eggs - they're so small Little Mikey had to eat a dozen to feel full!