Category Archives: Miscellaneous

And here is the “catch all” category for stuff that doesn’t have its own.

Roast Wild Duck

by Woodsbum

In continuing with my wild game recipes, I have included this one for roast wild duck to the list.

Start off by plucking the feathers and cleaning it properly. The wash the duck thoroughly and dry it.

Use your favorite bread crumb dressing, but just ensure you use more onion for duck than you do for turkey. The onion brings out the flavor of the bird much more. Also it is important to note that the dressing helps to soak up a lot of the greasy texture from the meat.

Once stuffed, sew the duck up and line your roaster it is important to salt and generously pepper your duck. I also like a touch of sage. Then place some strips of bacon on the bird and cover.

Heat your oven to 300 degrees for about 30 minutes, then lower your heat to 250 and bake for about 3 hours. Continually baste to keep it moist.

I usually do between 4 to 5 wild ducks in a single roaster. Adjust your cooking time based upon how many you cook at a time.

Use the drippings to make a gravy as if you were making turkey gravy. The gravy goes quite well with red potatoes. Although I don’t like dressing, the bird seems to cook better and less greasy with the dressing so I highly recommend you don’t go without it.

Ransomware Virus Continued

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by Woodsbum

Well, we have finished finding all the virus installations and infections across our network. We got something called the Teslacrypt virus. This virus encrypts data like Cryptolocker. It then asks for a ransom to get the data back. Luckily we found it before many files were locked or it could have gotten really bad.

To combat this, we immediately shut down all our production systems and logged all our users off the network. We then used LAN Search Pro to look all over our network for files with the “_RECoVERY_” name. As we found these files in user profiles we then locked those accounts and ran both Norton Power Eraser and McAfee Stinger. Both of these programs removed the virus, but only Stinger works on servers. Power Eraser is a desktop only installation and removal program.

After we removed all the files associated with the virus and all the files that had been encrypted, we restored backup version of all the afflicted files.

We did remove the hard drive of the original system that had been infected. I plan on shooting it with either a 45-70 or a .50 BMG just to make sure it is completely dead. There is no reason to take any chances considering how much all the data on our network is worth.

This virus is nasty. The truth is that we were really lucky to have found it as quickly as we did and to have been able to mitigate the impact on our business. An infection like this can be catastrophic if you aren’t on top of things.

Keep your eyes open out there and if you see something that doesn’t look right, don’t be afraid to lock everything down until you can figure out what is causing the issue. A few hours of lost production is much better than a 6000 bitcoin ransom on your data.

Ransomware Virus

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by Woodsbum

What a hell of a day……

Somehow we ended up getting a ransomware virus on our network and I have been fighting with it all day. It seems that we probably caught it in time so the infection is isolated to just a few computers, but we are still looking.

For such a HUGE issue that is hitting the computer world today, I am surprised at the lack of data and information about it. Most other virus and malicious code have specific fixes you can download and just “click” to remove the software. Since it is such and easy program to find and delete manually, I am VERY concerned that it won’t just easily go away. My paranoia is getting the better of me.

Either way, we are fighting this out at the moment and I will be spending the night to get everything fixed. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Noreen ULR .50 BMG Field Test

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by Woodsbum

Yesterday I got a chance to take out my Noreen ULR .50 BMG and sight it in after swapping back out of the 20 MOA rail. This was the first time I really got to realize the accuracy of this rifle. The 20 MOA rail had me hitting so far above the target at 200 yards that it was really impossible to sight in. Before I get comments, I will mention that even bottomed out on the elevation and using the furthest mark on the reticle, I was still having to Kentucky windage my shots. It now is sporting the original 0 MOA rail. When I get really into distance shooting I will swap back out and get i zeroed at 500/600 yards as the rail seems to dictate…..

Since it was a beautiful day, I had some great company and I was off work for the week, I took off to the hills with about $200 worth of ammunition and a bunch of targets. The only problem that I did have was the same issue I am well known for…… Camera….

.50 BMG Setup

To start off I measured out a distance of 28 yards and set up a target. Once I was on paper at this range, I moved over to my other target set at about 225 yards. Here is the one picture I got of the target as I was sighting it in. The two low ones were as I was adjusting elevation.

Sighting in at 225 yards

As you can see, the rifle is quite accurate. The first shot I took after getting on paper at 28 yards was the hole in the white. I adjusted a touch to get on paper and really see what was going on to get the next hole up. I then set my adjustments at did the next two holes. The windage variance is due to one click right on both groups. The wind stopped so I went back left by one click to see if the wind was blowing the bullet any. This is why I have the similar two holes just above the bull.

Unfortunately, my camera guy ended up deleting all the following groups from his phone. My wife only took pictures of us firing and not the target, so this is what I have of how well we shot. I can only say that this bad boy will cut holes and is minute of beer can at 225 yards.

Another interesting thing to note about this setup is that this rifle really has no felt recoil. The springs for the stock are incredible and a lot of recoil is diminished by the compensator and heavy barrel. This is one of those rifles that you can shoot all day without your shoulder getting sore.

The only thing that I discovered about this rifle that could be considered a bad thing is that the cheap American Eagle ammo I was using requires you to lube it before you shoot it. I am not sure if I somehow didn’t clean it enough last time or it somehow it just decided to hold onto the rounds more today. If you did not use some sort of oil, the empty case seemed to stick. It was bad enough that I had to use a stick to beat the bolt handle so I could get the empty extracted on two occasions. After I sprayed the cartridges with RemOil I had no issue. The RemOil is what I had on hand so it got used.

I have quite a few firearms and between all the guns that my family owns, we really have quite the arsenal. The reality is that this rifle is the most pleasant, accurate and most fun to shoot firearm that I have ever had the pleasure of firing let alone owning. Noreen, I applaud you and am a big fan. This monster would be worth every penny at twice the price.

Clover

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by Woodsbum

Another plant that is found in the Pacific Northwest is clover. This plant can be eaten in a variety of ways. Here is a great picture of clover in bloom.

Clover

All above-ground parts can be eaten raw. It is best when cooked or dipped in saltwater to counteract bloating. The flowerheads can eaten raw, dried or cooked. They can also be dried and ground into flour. The seeds can be processed in the same manner. The sprouts actually have the best taste, but even the creeping stems and roots can be cooked.

Clover grows in all sorts of terrain, but look in disturbed soil areas. The four varieties that grow here are the red, alsike, white and springbank clovers. Each one is edible, although red clover should be avoided in fall due to alkaloids.

Just be aware that it can be difficult to digest and can cause bloating.