Frugal Prosumer

Every spring we harvest suckers. This year our goal was to smoke, can, and use a hundred pounds.



Sucker fillets ready to smoke. This year we converted an old gas barbecue grill to a smoker it worked real well.



A meal of fresh batter fried suckers.

Leaves Of Three, Let It Be!    Berries White, Take Flight!
 by John David Fawcett

Humans are the only members of the animal kingdom afflicted by Rhus radicans, otherwise known as poison ivy. Although it's a nuisance to people, poison ivy is of considerable value for many animals such as deer and other small mammals which browse on the leaves, twigs and berries. A popular food for birds such as grouse, quail and turkey, especially during fall migration and in winter when other foods are scarce, the small waxy, yellowish-white berries of the poison ivy plant pass through these animals and are widely distributed throughout the forest. There is rarely enough sunlight for the plant to thrive deep in the forest, but in the damp, rich soil of clearings and the forest edge it may stand upright like a shrub, spread over the ground, or be a vine climbing up tree trunks attached with thousands of aerial rootlets. The young leaves are often reddish colored in the spring and green during the sum…

Do you have aging family members or friends? According to a MetLife survey, crimes against the elderly skyrocketed in the last year.
"If you have elderly friends or relatives, you need to stay involved in their lives. Be nosy! Visit them. To someone who is a shut in, just your presence brings them joy. It may seem dull at times, but never forget, someday you will be in those shoes."

"Be aware and be present in the financial lives of your elders.  Remember, be nosy! You don't want to find out your parents are destitute because you were looking the other way."

"Your parents were there to raise you. It's time for you to pay them back."
Read the full article here: http://www.clarkhoward.com/news/clark-howard/family-lifestyle/seniors-increasingly-being-scammed-as-population-a/nFLQ/