JUSTUSNAK...Summer coming to an end!?

[Quail_Antwerp]

I saw my first skeeter today.

ick.

 

[justusnak]

10 March 10

So, I am feeling spring more and more every day. Here are MY signs....

1) The bats are out..and Happy!

2) skeeters...yup, those nasty little things are out already.

3) SPIDERS!! AAAAHH!!!! I have seen SEVERAL out on the front porch.

4) Robins and Bluebirds...I have seen several already!!

5) Peeper frogs...wow were they loud last night! I just LOVE peepers...at first. Then the sounds eventually can be deafening.

6) Then...IT appeared... I was walking to the barn...when I almost stepped on IT!

I can tell ya, IT was not too happy to have me messing with it either.

I have been told e get these in the yard...because we have a high water table. They dig big holes...and build what I call " mud castles" Tall pillars, sometimes 10 to 12 inches tall...as they come up from underground. Its crazy! Never in my life, have I seen crawdads, come up in a yard!! They get wicked hugh too! This is a smaller one...but we have had them close to 7 or 8 inches long! Wonder if they are good to eat? Hmmmmm, I think I will pass. LOL

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

OK, they look gross - but yep, they's good eating. I've seen people here eating steaming piles of those mini lobsters.

I personally don't like lobster, so I won't be trying the Lean Cuisine version of Lobsters either. (aka crawdads)

 

[Farmfresh]

10 March 10 Then...IT appeared... I was walking to the barn...when I almost stepped on IT!
http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/uploads/99_crawdadmarch2010.jpg
I can tell ya, IT was not too happy to have me messing with it either.
http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/uploads/99_crawdadmadmarch2010.jpg
I have been told e get these in the yard...because we have a high water table. They dig big holes...and build what I call " mud castles" Tall pillars, sometimes 10 to 12 inches tall...as they come up from underground. Its crazy! Never in my life, have I seen crawdads, come up in a yard!! They get wicked hugh too! This is a smaller one...but we have had them close to 7 or 8 inches long! Wonder if they are good to eat? Hmmmmm, I think I will pass. LOL

Don't pass them UP! They are delicious!! If you like lobster with butter then you will like crawdad. They are fresh water lobsters after all!

Gather up a bunch (not that muddy one however! ) and put them in a bucket in the freezer for a bit to stun them, then drop them in some salted boiling water for about 10 minutes till their shells turn red. I then break off and pick the meat out of the tails, removing any black bits. Use them in any dish that calls for shrimp, crab meat or lobster meat. The Cajuns LOVE them so much they eat them whole like boiled spiced shrimp. A bit much for even me. They eat the tails and suck the goo from the head end. My cousin married a Cajun chef. He called them "mud bugs" and made a wonderful saucy dish over rice called an touffe
crawfish touffe.

 

[ToLiveToLaugh]

Crawdads are excellent eating, but only ones from creeks and ponds, not mud wallows. They taste like wherever you find them. Getting them is easy enough, you can pick them up by grabbing their carapace behind their claws and then chucking them in a bucket. You can also put out traps, like crab traps, with a big hunk of fish head or something in it. As a side note, if you get a tangle of the jerks in your bucket, don't pull them apart, it ruins them. Instead, either lay them out flat on a table where they can't get away and wait, or pick one up and let all the others dangle from him. Eventually, they'll all let go.

I do have to say though, I don't eat the guts. I know that's a common practice in LA and most of the south, but I just can't do it. Course, the crawdads we get out here are so big you get plenty of meat from the rest of them, so you don't really need to do that. Down in the south, they're tiny little mud bugs. I've pulled ones out as long as my forearm. Sizes to rival some lobsters, lol. I just LOVE crawdad.

Edited to add: we cook them by dropping them in boiling water with a pickling mix made of sage and thyme and dill and some other things.... I don't remember what all is in it, it's been a while. We buy it bulk at WinCo, though. I don't know if you have them there. washington, idaho, nevada, california, oregon. Lol. Anyway, drop them in about 15 minutes til they're bright red, let them cool, then take a nut cracker and go to town! Just like with crab. Pretty much.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

I JUST SAW A SPIDER ON MY WALL!!!!!!!!!

*runs screaming for the hills*

 

[murphysranch]

I thought it was a spider too, and got all shivery.....I still think its a muddy spider......ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

 

[justusnak]

These critters come up in the yard, from holes they dig. There are no creeks or rivers near me...at least a few miles away. I was told there is an underground spring, and this is where they are coming from. Hmmmm, fishing in the yard!?? LOL I dont think I will bother with eating them..they creep me out!! I would have to be MIGHTY hungry, to eat one of those. However, the grandkids love enticeing them up from thier holes. A string with a washer tied to it...bounced up and down in the hole...they grab on, and the kids pull them up. Play with them for a few minutes, then let them go back in the hole. Heck, keeps them occupied for hours!

 

[modern_pioneer]

As a self pro claimed mudbug getter, I am gonna tell you how to fish them suckers out and make you a good meal.

Piece of lunch meat, fishing string, and a small pole made from a green branch.

Tie fishing line to branch, other end wrap and tie lunch meat on both directions, sneak up with 3-4 feet of hole, lay meat at top wait a few minutes, no activity let it go further down in the hole, when you feel a tug pull the sucker out and wahla you just caught dinner!! Hows that for SS? Good too!!!

 

[TanksHill]

Not sure how but my FIL ended up with a couple of these in his Koi pond. Maybe the original came from a seasonal creek by his house. They have multiplied and every once in a while he impresses a guest by throwing one on the bbq.

That so called spot with an underground spring sounds like a good spot for a well.

gina