Smartie's Bar & Grill #75

Looked similar to this, black bristly beast...

 

Hopefully you wouldn't shoot if piglets were close. Assuming you knew.

 

No, there were two large hogs (the other looked like a sow too) I shot twice and missed, the gun shoots high. They did not move the first2 shots, shot #3 I aimed at the ground under it's belly.

It ran 15ft and dropped, shot was broadside, high behind the shoulder. Ball went thru a rib bone and punctured both lungs. I still havethe spent projectile, lodged under the hide on the far side. Hog #2 kept running into the bushes, away from me (fortunately)

They often run in large sounders numbering over 20. Bet many more were somewhat closeby. Hard to be certain in dense woods.

 

In this country, hunters are required to shoot from an elevated position to ensure that stray shots go harmlessly into the ground.
Often they will carry a step ladder for this purpose, especially around here where the landscape is very flat. There are also restrictions on the bore and minimum charge allowed according to the size of the prey. It's an unwritten rule that you don't take the shot unless you can guarantee it's a kill shot. Hunting with bows or spears is completely illegal.

 

The rules are carefully laid out and penalties can include imprisonment.
They are there for safety and animal welfare.
https://www.theukrules.co.uk/rules/legal/environment/hunting/index.html

 

Here in Alabama and throughout the southeast wild hogs are a real problem. I am pretty sure you can take them at just about any time. Harvesting a wild hog is good for the environment. One in ten boars will have what is called boar taint. It is prominent in Duroc hog descendents mostly. You can take a red hot piece of metal and sizzle the fat. Then you can smell the boar taint. Sows rarely have any taint at all. A lot of wild hogs just go to sausage.

 

Yes the rules for pest species here are slightly less restrictive. Mainly to do with having no season.
Safety and animal welfare are not compromised. Shooting pests from a helicopter would be frowned on.

 

There is a bit of a distinction between the Norse and the Normans. The Normans are the Langue d'oil-speaking descendants of the Norse who settled in northern France and intermingled with the natives in the region and adopted their culture and language, and it is this intermingling with the Franks, et al, and their loyalty to the French crown that made them distinct from their Scandinavian ancestors.

As far as the Irish are concerned, including the part where my father's family comes from, they were invaded first by the Norse and then later by the Normans, i.e., the Viking and Norman invasions were two distinctly different events that occurred at different times in history. The same thing can be said for the island to the east across the Irish Sea.

Given his response, it's possible that our friend politicalcenter is a descendant of the Norman Irish, but maybe not...

Normans in Ireland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normans_in_Ireland

 

My mother's side of the family is Germanic. High German but they are also kin to another of the 14 tribes. Since I believe there is only one race it is just for fun and curiosity.

 

Isn't the intermingling of different cultures a wonderful thing. A mixture of Norse, Frankish and Gaelic peoples has brought us Guinness, great literature and some of the friendliest people on the planet.
Not to mention, some beautiful castles.

 

It is a wonderful thing.

I've been reading a lot about the Middle Ages recently, which is how William of Ockham wound up as my avatar, and the Normans are a particularly fascinating people. Not only do you have their Norse history and settlement in France, there's the conquest of England you mentioned earlier as well as much of Ireland, their military campaigns in Sicily and Italy, the Crusades and participation in other conflicts such as the Reconquista in Spain. What's not as well known is that their campaigns in Sicily and Italy are what helped make the Medieval Commercial Revolution and many of the good things that came from it possible - the rise of the middle class and rebirth of democracy in the boroughs/communes that gained their enfranchisement and a measure of freedom from the rapacious feudal overlords who had once preyed on their people and trade. Had the Normans not opened the shipping lanes of the Western Mediterranean and enabled the armies of William I of Provence and Arduin of Turin to destroy the Umayyad frontier state at Fraxinet that had blocked the Alpine trade routes between Northern and Southern Europe none of that could have happened. For such a small nation, what the Normans accomplished is nothing short of amazing. They have to rank near the top of the list of History's greatest over-achievers.

 

So how was it?

I love Shepherd's Pie. It's one of the things I've been wanting to teach myself to cook lately.

The other thing was pot pies, which I learned to make from Guy Fieri. Some time ago he made a video called "Bird in a Pie" and I've been following his recipe ever since. It's awesome.

I'll see if I can find it...

 

My mom used to make it with the mashed potatoes on top, then a layer of sliced carrots and finally a layer of ground beef on the bottom. Simple but delicious.

Ya gotta love comfort food...

 

Agreed. Race realists, or whatever they are calling themselves these days, always point to the Anglo-Saxon roots of British and other European nations' culture often ignoring the equal if not greater influence of the Normans.
A lot of the folklore, language, martial, bureaucratic and legal systems developed in Britain stem from Norman rule which in turn go back to their Norse roots.
Also, did I mention the fantastic castles already?

 

I found it - Guy Fieri's Bird in a Pie recipe

Bird in a Pie
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/guy-fieri/bird-in-a-pie-recipe-2014094

Guy's Big Bite - Comfort Replay
https://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/guys-big-bite/episodes/comfort-replay

This is SOOOO good - I'm going to make a couple this weekend - and it's not an enormous amount of work. I replace the rotisserie chicken with a couple boneless chicken breast and it's just as yummy.

Perhaps, his greatest tip is putting thyme and sage in the crust. That takes the pies to another level.

For teaching me how to make pot pies Guy Fieri will always hold a special place in my heart (and my belly)...

 

I've often wondered this, is pot pie just the American name for savoury meat pies as pie usually refers to a dessert?
Here pie refers to anything baked in pastry in a pie dish.

 

I'm sorry to hear that. My siblings and I had to make that decision about our dad about 12 years ago. Very painful.

 

Boar Hogs ain't to be messed with.Nor was Tugboat Annie.
Like a Grissly they need to be shot straight in the middle of their
head.A heart shot tends to only git their adrenaline flowing.
I wonder what it'd be like to watch a Big Mountain Grissly go up
against a monster mad Wild Boar.

 

It was thoroughly delicious. The 22 year old and his girlfriend got stoned and ate most of it on our behalf, so my husband and I had one portion yesterday and a little portion for lunch today. It's all gone. Bleepin' stoners.

Ok - I'm going to try this recipe, but it needs some modification. Step by step instructions to create your own crust, but frozen carrots & peas? Nah - it's either from scratch or it's not. So, that aside, it seems like a solid recipe.

Yes, I believe that is the case. Meat pie isn't a term used here.

What a fantastic story!

 

Fantastic, indeed.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't William of Normandy build the original Tower of London?

Castles are one of the cool things about the Old World that we just don't get here in the New. The closest I've come to one here in the States are fortresses like the late 17th Century Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida (Fatback and Daisy have probably been there, too), but they don't compare to the castles in Europe or the Krak des Chevaliers in the Levant.

I've got a book How the West Won: The Neglected Story of the Triumph of Modernity, where the author, sociologist turned historian Rodney Stark, takes considerable issue with how historians have treated and neglected the Norse and their enormous accomplishments and contributions. They certainly don't get a lot of attention here in the States, despite the fact they "discovered" America, and of course neither do the Normans. On top of the contributions you mentioned, this is particularly interesting and somewhat disappointing because some very knowledgable and insightful historians such as François Guizot (author of the classic The History of Civilization in Europe), believe that the Vikings are largely responsible for inculcating the spirit of individualism and independence into the Anglo-American ethos and to a degree the West in general.

 

I get how that works.
Here Pie ... here Pie.Come here ... Now Pie.Or i'll
tell Lambie pie.

 

I've also been to Castillo de San Marcos. Have you been to Fort De Soto?

St Augustine is one of my favorite cities in the state. I spent a lot of time with my mom, there, shopping down St George Street. It's not like it was 20 years ago; it was something really special, then.

We may not have castles, but we have grand estates. Monticello was fun, as was Mount Vernon. (Jefferson & Washington's estates.)

 

" Inculcating " ?.Who said anything about dat.I never heard nuthin' bout knowed
inculcatin'.If'n someone had a notion to inculcate wouldn't it be common
knowledge around town.Even if the Town was square.Some Towns are like
that.Full of squares. Like I dunno ... Mayberry.Or Hooterville.Where they celebrate
St.Patricks Day after Easter.Just to be different.

 

Wild boars do keep growing.