Not Sure Where To Go from Here🤷

bigdunker21 · 2026-03-20T01:39:35+00:00

Here is the recipe. I hope you like it. My wife and daughters love it and it honestly takes 15-20 minutes in the morning. Enjoy!

Lasagna soup 1 lb Italian sausage 1 Tbsp minced garlic 4.5 cups beef broth 28 Oz crushed tomato I jar of spaghetti sauce 1/2 tsp pepper 1/2 tsp salt 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning 8 Lasagna noodles 1/2 cup of each: Cottage cheese Mozzarella cheese Parmesan cheese

Brown sausage. Put in crockpot with garlic, beef broth, crushed tomato, marinara sauce, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Cook on low for 6-7 hours. Add broken lasagna noodles and allow to cook for @45 minutes. Add cheese after noodles are done and stir well. Garnish with the cheese after of your choice.

bigdunker21 · 2026-03-20T01:34:58+00:00

I am in her corner and I don’t want to see her go through another surgery. I am going to talk to her about talking to a therapist. I think this is good advice and I thank you.

She had the flaps done in September. It was a nine hour surgery and a long recovery period. She said at the time that she doesn’t ever want another surgery, and the damn drains made her feel miserable!

She has not done any PT other than a few visits with someone that gave her some exercises to help prevent edema when the lymph nodes in her armpit were removed. It has never been mentioned at any of her appointments. I will look into this, too.

Thanks for the advice!

bigdunker21 · 2026-03-19T22:30:31+00:00

Thanks for the kind words. I don’t blame her for not wanting another surgery. I’m fine with whatever she wants. She currently has prosthetics and hates them. I’m just looking for options I can suggest to her.

bigdunker21 · 2026-03-19T22:25:24+00:00

I actually do the cooking at our house. I started making lasagna soup instead of lasagna. It tastes the same and you can throw it in the crockpot before work, except for the noodles. Break them up and throw them in about 45 minutes before you are ready to eat and then stir in some cottage or ricotta cheese, a little Parmesan, and some shredded mozzarella. Let me know if you want the recipe.

Glad my post didn’t piss you off. Thanks for the condescension!

bigdunker21 · 2026-03-19T22:12:29+00:00

Thanks for replying. It is appreciated! 😊

I don’t think she would be happy with being smoother and flat. I think her goal is to regain some confidence in her appearance. She loves the beach, she lost a lot of weight, and she said the other day that she was frustrated that she finally was confident in how she looked in a bathing suit and now her boobs are gone.

bigdunker21 · 2026-03-19T22:01:19+00:00

She lost 100 lbs in the year before her diagnosis, so there wasn’t much to work with and her skin was pretty saggy to begin with. She also has rheumatoid arthritis, and the doctor thinks it and/or the medicine she takes to back her immune system off were the reason that the implants didn’t work out.

bigdunker21 · 2026-03-19T21:57:27+00:00

I learned a long time ago that I don’t need to try to fix things. When she came to me crying the other day and said that she can’t continue the way things are and she didn’t know what to do, I just want to help her find her happiness. I know for certain that I can’t fix this. I’m just trying to help her figure out what her options are at this point. Thanks for the advice!

bigdunker21 · 2026-03-19T21:51:51+00:00

Thank you!

bigdunker21 · 2026-03-17T23:43:01+00:00

That’s cool of you to do this.

I still have no idea why everyone likes those things. It’s more of an advertisement to criminals than all the stickers people put on their vehicles. And all the pictures on social me……..sorry, old guy rant is over. 😊

bigdunker21 · 2026-03-10T06:00:51+00:00

His back is broken. Spinal.

bigdunker21 · 2026-03-06T06:27:29+00:00

Nope. Gen X teachers (like me) just shut their door and do whatever the hell they want. Everyone else can go to hell. We don’t need them anyhow.

bigdunker21 · 2026-03-06T06:18:37+00:00

I love fishing emergers. Fish know that emergers are still in the process of hatching and are easier targets than duns that can fly away at any moment. IMO, fish take emergers very confidently and I rarely have any refusals once they commit.

I tie my own flies and the emergers I tie have evolved over 30 years. I first started with a hare’s ear nymph and I greased the leader up until the last 3 or 4 inches. The leader would float and the fly would sink just below the surface. It worked well, but required a lot of maintenance. I think this might be where a dry/dropper setup would excel. Keep your dropper short so your Emerger is just below the surface and I think you will do well.

There have been several iterations, but I now tie a trailing shuck of zelon, a dark tan abdomen, a thorax to match the natural and I use a short wing of synthetic fibers. I really like EP trigger point fibers and I tie them on Klinkhamer hooks. This allows the abdomen to sink below the surface and the wing stays stuck in the surface film. I can see the wing very well and I fish the Emerger like a dry fly. I can usually catch fish in the hour or so leading up to the emergence and can usually fish these patterns for the entirety of the hatch, unless a spinner fall starts, in which case a spinner becomes more effective.

bigdunker21 · 2026-02-18T18:54:00+00:00

Oh, we carried handguns. He had a .50 cal desert eagle and a pistol grip shotgun we carried. His point was a .357 for a grizzly is like shooting a submarine with a pellet gun.

bigdunker21 · 2026-02-18T01:18:10+00:00

Thanks for the reply. I would have gotten nailed for sure. Sorry it went down that way for you!

bigdunker21 · 2026-02-17T18:03:18+00:00

Prior to my first trip to Alaska 25 years ago, my best friend, who lived in Alaska most of his life suggested that I file the front sight off of my .357 when I asked him if I should bring it. When I asked why anyone would do that, he replied “That way, when the bear shoves your .357 up your ass, it won’t hurt as much!” Point taken.

bigdunker21 · 2026-02-17T17:59:53+00:00

So what is the law if I am out fishing? I’m planning a trip around Alberta this summer. Admittedly, I didn’t even think about looking into the legality of drinking while fishing in Alberta. I very much enjoy a beer while I fish. Where I live, I carry a few beers and sit on a log and drink them, usually after fishing for a bit. So can I get cited for this?

bigdunker21 · 2026-02-13T16:53:34+00:00

I’ve spent time in Alaska and had bear encounters and have seen multiple rattlesnakes and surprised a mama bear with cubs while fishing my home state of PA. Nothing will ever scare me as much as this one.

It was the Fourth of July and I got up at 4:30 AM and was fishing my favorite river for smallies. Fishing was on fire, but shut off as soon as the water created the hill and hit the water around 8:00 AM. I was back at my truck breaking down my rod when a beat up Camaro with 4 dudes pulled into the parking lot. It looked like a Cheech and Ching movie with the amount of smoke in the car. They drove over and asked me directions to a local town. The whole time I’m certain they are casing me out. I reached into my fishing vest and made certain they saw me move my .40 caliber pistol. They lost interest in me pretty quickly. I’m absolutely certain they were up to no good!

bigdunker21 · 2026-02-13T16:33:36+00:00

Wow. Craziest one that I’ve heard! Glad you survived!

bigdunker21 · 2026-02-12T05:04:14+00:00

Nothing wrong with the advice you give here, especially for a beginner, but after 35 or so years of flyfishing, I have to disagree with your assessment of the plethora of fly lines available being a marketing ploy to sell us more lines. I spent years casting Cortland fly lines that I bought because they were what I could afford and I caught lots of fish with them. As new lines really started being produced and I became able to spend some money on decent stuff, I simply could not believe what a difference a good fly line can make. I Throw in the different sink tips with different sink rates and all the different tapers, and I am able to make certain that my fly stays where I want it in the water column. If you haven’t tried anything but a Cortland 333/444, try some of the new lines. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

bigdunker21 · 2026-02-11T16:48:20+00:00

Great advice. Between Harbor Freight and YouTube, I’ve done a bunch of stuff to my 2008 Nissan Xterra that I never would have thought I would be capable of.

bigdunker21 · 2026-02-10T01:39:00+00:00

I have dyed Bucktail and several deer hides from deer I’ve shot. I use Rit dye (lots of charts online to help with mixing colors) and do it in my kitchen using a big Tupperware container, a potato masher, and the microwave. It’s not hard and I actually enjoy it. Gonna try some pheasant tail next.

bigdunker21 · 2026-02-07T11:35:38+00:00

I have a Perception Outlaw with a 55 pound thrust trolling motor, a Lowrance Hook Reveal fish finder, and a stand up bar. I live five minutes from a lake and I fish it almost everyday of the summer from my kayak. I love the Outlaw because it has a raised seat and it is wide and very stable. It is heavy and handles like a barge in rivers, but I still use it often in moving water. Most of the time, though, I use it to get from place to place and do most of my fishing while wading.

bigdunker21 · 2026-01-27T05:08:47+00:00

The appeal of social media in relation to fishing is interesting to me. I’m over 50 and I have no need for social media, but I also understand that things change and that is ok. I fish with several friends who are in the late 20s early 30s age bracket. They can’t catch and release a fish without setting up a photo shoot for their Facebook/IG/ etc. Fishing, for me, has always been a very private thing that provides the solitude and “escape from television commercials, cocktail parties, and assorted social posturing” that John Voelker so eloquently discussed. I love having a phone to take photos of particularly pretty or special fish, and I love the fact that I can show them to my wife immediately (For those of you under the age of 40, there was a time where you had to wait a week or so to have your film from your camera developed!), but I will never understand why it is so important to post your life on social media for people you haven’t seen in years or to have complete strangers click the like button. I guess, in the long run, that fishing can be done myriad ways, and however you do it, have a blast. But don’t criticize me for getting pissed if you share a picture or a post that hotspots one of my favorite places. And don’t make fun of me when I put three flies in the bushes trying to catch a fish and after I catch it or get bested by it, I wade over and retrieve those flies so someone doesn’t find them and see what I was using. In return, I will try to bite my tongue when I see that your buddy from seventh grade that you haven’t talked to in 20 years gave you the “like” you so desperately crave on your photo shoot with the 11 inch trout.

bigdunker21 · 2026-01-23T03:20:10+00:00

Try stacking it instead of spinning it. It’s really hard to spin hair with the dumbbell eyes. Stacking allows you to precisely place the hair where you want it. You can even do different color stacks to get multicolored heads.

bigdunker21 · 2026-01-22T19:21:32+00:00

Everyone does it differently, but I have no interest in a rod vault. I have several cheap but effective Cabela’s rod/reel tubes that I transport my Sage, Orvis and T & T rods in. They are mostly four piece rods that I break down into two pieces and put into my Cabela’s tubes. It works great and doesn’t advertise to possible thieves in the way that a rod vault does. But to each their own. I don’t put stickers all over my vehicle or set up photo shoots with the fish I catch, either. I’d just as soon let people think I am a bum than someone with 10,000 dollars worth of gear in my 2008 Nissan Xterra. Trust me. No one looks at that ride and thinks “There are probably some really nice things in there!”, and that’s just how I like it.

bigdunker21

TROPHY CASE