magicgreen

opossums are soooooo gross! I trap them and those flying rat squirrels!!
Don't ask how I get rid of em', just use your imagination!

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(Started growing bananas July 2007)
(Zone 6)

damaclese

by the way and this was a was back in the thread as you may or may not know i won the prise for answering Loraxes question what was the name of the person that illustrated Oscar Wald's first Oprah he graciously offed his prise to me and i excepted it i just wanted to thank him for the beautiful Dwarf Brazilian Banana plant Dan sent it to me i received it on Thursday and it was the biggest corm with Baby attached iv ever seen thats not saying much as iv only seen a few but its wonderful and has grown a hole inch in one 12hr period thanks again
Pauly

p.s. pics to come

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mskitty38583

lorax....you need a better hobby...LOL!!!!...."but youll come back as compost", that tickled me soooooo much.

pauly....i told you dan sends good bananas. congrats on your new pup.

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lorax

Paulie - your welcome. But I'm not a dude...

mskitty38583

LOL!. pauly.. lorax is a dudette

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bananimal

Lorax,

Thanks for the possum tune. Played it for the wife and she's rolling the eyes again. LOL again and again - thanks. I once lived in NJ near Princeton U, and that area had so many possums and skunks that a ride to work in the AM was truly like running a gauntlet. One AM I will never forget was on RT 571 approaching the Princeton Jnct train station when the skunk smell went off the charts.

When I got to the bottom of a dip in the road, a momma with at least 7 to 9 pups on her back had been run over by a vehicle --and there was blood, skunk parts and stink like I never ran into before all over the place. Angie almost barfed and my eyes watered for a half hour.

Second in road mortality back then was, of course, the possum. One early AM I was headed out on RT 33 to go fishing out of Belmar. A possum appeared right in the middle of the road and I hit the horn a few times. Well ---- it caused the critter to freeze, stand up on it's hinds and look at my car as if to say, "What's that?". He ate the bumper of my '74 Chevy Nova and I will never forget the sound of his demise passing under the car -- like dribbling a basketball real hard and real fast. Lordy!

Ain't critter stories the best?

Did I ever mention the time I sat down on a mound of dirt to discover it was a scorpion nest? Or the time a rat scurried across my chest just when I was falling asleep 2 clicks from the Cambodian border?

Dan

damaclese

sorry its hard to tell wether pepol are girls or boys lol
thats why pictures help!

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bananimal

This post should be a final update to the Pavel Possum thread, I hope!.

The deal is -- Pavel Possum is kaput. Found his furry carcass in front of the house yesterday. It appears he was smacked by a car. He was intact with no flattening from tire treads. No blood or guts showing. Looks asleep. The neighborhood bobcat didn't do it as he would have been shredded and eaten.

I folded him neatly into a Rebok shoe box neatly lined with shoe packing paper. Held a brief service. Took him to the grocery store.

Holding off on the pic - it's not funny the way Lagniappe's squirrel with action figures was.

Dan

lorax

I have to ask.... Why did you take him to the grocery store? I'm assuming that it was to use their dumpster for interrment, but still....

chong

I wondered about that too??????

saltydad

One of my best friend's parents met each other while in a Japanese internment camp in the Philippines during WW2 (they were medical missionaries). They told some stories, but pertinent to this thread they loved to catch rats; they were the steak of the day. I guess when you chew shoe leather for sustenance your tastes change.

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"If by a liberal, they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind; someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions; someone who cares about the welfare of the people, their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, their civil liberties; someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicion that grips us; that is what they meant by a liberal, I am proud to be a liberal."
John F. Kennedy, September, 1960


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chong

Howard,
That was the big treat for the prisoners. My Dad was a 2nd Louie when he marched the Bataan Death March. He was fortunate because the route that they went through was where he plied his Mom's veggies and prepared foods since he was 13 until he was 18. So he was familiar with the territory. One of my uncles smuggled fish to him and his men from time to time, and some villagers along the way would toss food to them. But when they reached Camp O'Donnell, there was no food, and security was so tight, my uncle could not get them any food. The staple became the "6 O'clock lizard". It's a small lizard that comes out of hiding from a tree or building at 6 O'clock in the evening to "kiss" the ground. But a captured rat is prized because the taste is like a cross between chicken and pork. They cooked the meat until tender and eat it, then roast the bones until crisp and eat them, too.

I forget which famous movie it was, maybe "The Bridge on the River Kwai", where a couple of the Brits actually "farmed" some rats under some buildings. When they first roasted them, aroma would waft through the camp, and the other prisoners thought that someone was roasting chicken.

I saw this segment on the National Geographic Channel: in central India, to this day, there are villages where they have an annual "harvest" of thousands of field rats. They catch them and place them in gunny sacks, build a large circle of bonfire, then throw the sacks in the middle. The feast then follows when the rats are cooked.

saltydad

Chong- Yeah, my late Dad was in the Army in the Pacific theater in WW2 also. He would never talk about it though.

__________________
Men In Nursing- "A Few Good Men"

"Gardening is the purest of human pleasures." - Francis Bacon





"If by a liberal, they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind; someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions; someone who cares about the welfare of the people, their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, their civil liberties; someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicion that grips us; that is what they meant by a liberal, I am proud to be a liberal."
John F. Kennedy, September, 1960


http://flickr.com/photos/saltydad/ and
http://community.webshots.com/user/saltydad
http://s751.photobucket.com/albums/xx151/saltydad/

chong

Thanks for your come back, Howard. I'm always proud to meet other children of the greatest generation. WWII, or any war, is quite disturbing, obviously. Some people simply choose to leave that portion of their lives behind them and move on. I couldn't help learning what happened. I belong a large family. And although my Dad was the only one that served in the military, many other uncles (we consider our parents' cousins as uncles and aunts), were in the guerrilla movement in WWII, then younger ones served in the Korean War. My Dad continued in the military until he retired in 1969.

As a kid, I used to ask his contemporaries about their roles in the war. My earliest and fondest recollection as a kid was when I was 3 years old. My brother and I would be playing in the front yard of our grandfather house and a group of GI's in a Jeep would drive by and we would wave vigorously, and shout "Hello, Joe! Chocolate, Joe! Candy, Joe!" And they would stop and give us chocolates and candies. Sometimes, even K-Rations! Until I was in college, I had kept the portable can openers that came with the K-Rations, using them with key chains.

Those were the only English words I could say, because I didn't know how to speak English the. But I nagged my Mom about teaching me, since she was a 5th Grade English teacher. I would learn words from the movies which I had no idea what they meant. But I tried to say them the way Americans would say it. Little did I know that later on it would be very helpful. Though all through my school years many classmates made fun of me because I was trying to talk like an American. Then I went to high school and college that were run by Americans, and the staff treated me like I was one. Then I came to this country, and people thought that I just came from another part of the US, when they heard me speak.

Going back to the topic of this thread, the only other critter that was captured by the starving soldiers were lizards that were called "quasi-crocodile". They look like little crocodiles with smoother skins, about 16 inches long, and just under in inch wide. These were harder to come by because they have to live near bodies of water. Allegedly, they taste like chickens. We just shot them with our slingshots and let the hawks eat them.

bananimal

Lorax, Chong,

Yes, I took poor Pavel Possum to the grocery store dumpster. Ya see, I'm a fisherman and can't resist the temptation to throw out a bait and see what, or who, in your cases, takes it. Thanks for a great laugh.

The best threads in this entire forum are about critters. Found the post with the squirrel-a-pult kinda late and almost wet my pants laughing my guts out.

Referring to resorting to food available in a war setting - the most exotic things I ate in Viet Nam was fresh bamboo shoots and wild Thai peppers that my scout spotted. Went great with the friggin C-rations. Also found out that the rule of thumb in the jungle is you don't eat meat from carnivores - like spotted leopard. I nailed one with a claymore mine boobytrap that I set out every evening. We wanted to try the meat but the scout wouldn't let us. He said "you be sick beaucoup"!!!

Dan

harveyc

Dan, you sly dog you!!! Thanks for the entertainment!

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Tog Tan

Heyyy! How can I have missed this thread when you guys are talking about eating creepy crawlies! I am not being a mr. know all here but I would like to share with you guys on what actually are the animals you have to referred to with its local name.

Dan : It's very odd the Viets don't eat the Leopard. It is totally illegal here but one of the best meat around. However, preparation is lengthy and it is best stewed to soften it.

From your pretty accurate description Chong, this lizard is a water skink which most probably belongs to the Tropidophorous spp. They are the only family of water skins with size that big and have croc like skins. They are now very rare due to water pollution.

Your 6 O'clock lizard is known as the 12 O'clock lizard here! It is an Agamid from the Calotes spp. There are many of them at my nursery and they keep the insects in check. Now my stupid dog there have developed a habit of chasing them down. The gibbons here just love to chew on them, smacking away.

Here no one eats it normally (except like war you said) cos it doesn't have much meat. The Thais love the beautifully marked Butterfly Lizard, Leiolepis reevesii. It is cut just above the pelvis, skewered, and roasted like chicken thigh. The other yummy lizard is the Indo Chinese Water Dragon, Physignathus cocincinus which is 3/4 the size of the South American Iguana.

The movie you were talking about is from the novel, The King Rat by James Clavell. You know, even up till today, field rats are sold by the Thais in areas which are 40 mins from Bkk. You will find a small stall every 2 km or so selling them hung by the tail. This is a delicacy which the city folks will go all the way to buy. Damn, it cost more than chicken.

This, your 6 O'clock lizard, Chong? One of the many Calotes versicolor thermo regulating on top of my Pachypodium geayi at my nursery.

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

bananimal

Since the subject of rodential delicasies has resurfaced, let's ask lorax for an update on any new lip-smaking new Ecuadorian rodent delights she has found.

Like vizcacha en escabeche, picadillo de paca, guatusa con pana and the ever popular cuy encebollada (mskitty's favorite). Yum Yum.

Dan

Patty in Wisc

Lorax, where is your possum song?? Not there anymore

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Patty




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Patty in Wisc has sadly passed away 9/05/11. We will miss you Patty.

lorax

I had to take it down to make room for the PDF of the sponsorship thingie. But have no fear!

You can find it HERE now.

Dan: we don't do Vizcacha here, but we do do Capybara Horneado in the deep jungle; these are very tasty. Of course, there's always bunny on the highland menu along with the Cuy (although I'm not terribly fond of encebollado. I prefer spit-roasted or encocado, myself). Seco de Guatusa is good, but Seco de Guanta is better. And of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Huanchaka, which is possum. Oh, and don't forget spit-roasted tree rat. Very tasty.