In my post-covid world, I work from home as I have for the past two years. We timed building a house perfectly as we were three months in it when the world went into lockdown, and housing prices have skyrocketed since to the point that people trying to build a house like ours in the neighborhood are now paying $70,000 more than our purchase price. We drove down one of the new construction streets yesterday and only one of the new builds was still up for grabs, and it's barely half-way done. With just over 245 houses completed, there will be over 600 once the new houses are done, so I'm looking forward to the time when our HOA fees will cover the costs to turn an old neglected pond near my house into a much nicer, deeper, larger and fully stocked one.
Aside from the drawbacks of the past two years, my garage (a.k.a. the man cave) has been a refuge for me during this time. I've learned more about building and repairing stuff, woodworking, electrical wiring, and boat upgrades due to an abundance of free time, and a wife that's willing to let me buy tools till my hearts content. A lot of that time has been working on the boat and trailer I've been "tricking out" since I got it back after it was stolen. I've recently purchased a new Garmin fish finder and livescope, which required me to complete a DIY transducer pole (average cost to buy about $300 and I did it with spare PVC and $12 in paint) and built a deck on the front of the boat to make it convenient to mount both units to. I carpeted the deck and installed some DIY rod holders on the underside of the deck as my two person boat means space is at a premium. When I purchased the trailer, it came in a box and with the help of a friend, we put it together and I spent several months deciding how I wanted to customize it specifically for my boat and convenience when loading and unloading it. I finally copied a design I found online which required me to install a plywood base, track rollers, and shelf brackets with carpeted wooden bumpers on the sides. It's light enough with the boat that I can haul it behind my car, and unload and load it back on the trailer by myself.
The excitement and angst I had to endure during the winter knowing I had this high-end fishing electronics package just waiting to be unleashed on the private lake I've fished these past six years was finally released last month when I took it out for a test run with a senior friend and fishing cohort. Livescope shows you fish swimming in real time and by turning the transducer pole, I can point the 20 degree cone it emits in a 360 degree radius and realistically locate fish as far away as 100 feet from the boat. Within minutes of deploying it I had spotted three fish within 25 feet of the boat and at a depth of about six feet. I told my friend how far away and deep they were from our location and proceeded to catch all three within a matter of minutes. He shook his head in disbelief but still didn't seem to realize the potential of this new weapon in our arsenal. At the end of our trip, he had one fish and I had 11. Since then, I have used it to catch 19 crappie over 2 lbs and numerous bass, and that alone makes it worth what I paid for it, but where it really amazes me is watching their behavior. I have debunked most of the knowledge I had of crappie fishing from years of trial and error coupled with watching hours of video from "experts" across the country.
This past Saturday, fishing conditions were optimal as could be expected for windy Oklahoma, so I took the day off and went alone. I spent nearly seven hours on the water stalking the large female crappie that migrate from deep water to shallow when the water temperature gets between 60-65 degrees. I was fortunate as when I got there, the water temperature was 57 and after several hours, it had risen to 63, so in the last two hours, I revisited a spot that I had caught males on early in the day and found the females coming in to spawn as sunset neared. I was mesmerized seeing these big females showing up on the scope 30 yards off shore. Often either alone or paired with another large female, they appeared on the scope and I observed how they headed for that one small stretch of shallow water where the males waited after a day of nest building in three feet or water or less. They were easy targets for my other secret weapon, a 1/4 ounce shad colored Megabass Uoze Swimjig. All I had to do was keep the boat steady, get within 25 feet of them, toss my jig about 10 feet past them, and observe it on the scope as it began to sink, and then reel it so that it went about two feet over their heads. More often than not, I would see them in hot pursuit of it, and within a few feet, I would feel that wonderful "thump" signally she had indeed fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker. After a quick hook set, and a few heart thumping moments of man vs. fish, I would net the object of my desire and quickly practice CPR (catch-photo-release) on her. Most fisherman would pursue this fish with a much more diminutive lure, but I've discovered they are more aggressive than I had previously presumed and the shad they are eating this time of the year are fully grown.
Aside from fishing, its that time of year to practice gardening and having the best flower bed on the street. I don't think it's even been close any year since we moved in. I put out some lavender plants yesterday for a bit of a change, and also transplanted a variety of coleus plants for their vibrant colors. I deep-watered our Chinese elm also to get it to start budding. It's always the last tree on the street to bud out, but it's easily one of most prolific once it gets started. If only the ice storm two years ago didn't break off the main trunk, I'd also have the tallest tree on the street. Call me competitive and I'll own up to it. I have to have something to motivate me.
My wife bought a sewing machine a couple of years back and I've used it a few times for minor projects such as shortening the legs on a jumpsuit she bought knowing it was too long. I admit it was fun measuring, cutting, and hemming her garment and see her wearing it around afterwards with nobody being the wiser that her country boy husband wasn't scared to use a sewing machine. Actually, it's kind of nostalgic for me. I remember standing next to my grandma and watching her sew on an old black Singer back in the mid 1970s, as she sewed nearly everyday, but on one particular day, she was making me a new pillow, as I had let mine fall in front of heater one morning on the way to breakfast and returned to find it scorched and almost useless. She salvaged what stuffing she could and made me a new one. Less than a decade ago, my late aunt in Florida gave me some uncompleted quilt tops that my grandma had made during that same period and I was delighted to find some of the same fabric in the quilt tops that she made my pillow out of that day. Hopefully one day, I'll find a group of quilters that will help me complete these quilts that a stroke she suffered in 1978 prevented her from doing so.