by John Howle

"I told my dentist my teeth are going yellow. He said wear a brown tie." — Rodney Dangerfield

Hopefully, this May finds you with plenty of hay to cut and left over time to fish and relax. The weather is becoming more reliable for warm days and chances for outdoor recreation when the work is done.

Baking Soda

 Rodney Dangerfield joked about having yellow teeth and there are hundreds of marketing campaigns designed to sell the idea of whiter, brighter teeth. For years, baking soda has been a reliable tooth cleaner and brightener. Simply shake a little baking soda on top of your normal toothpaste and you can feel the clean.

Baking soda is also helpful to remove pine sap from your hands. Just shake the powder into your hands and wash with warm water. This will help remove the sticky sap.

Finally, baking soda is an ideal cleaning agent for corroded battery terminals. With nothing more than baking soda and water, you can remove the corrosive buildup from the terminals with a toothbrush. Just make sure you don’t use the same brush on your teeth.

Any time you are disking up ground for planting whether it be food plots or pastureland, it can be tough to cut through existing grass and thatch. If you are trying to cut through dense fescue, it can be a greater challenge. One way to cut your disking time in half is to alternate your disking pattern.

Typically, we will go around and around until we see the soil begin to get a loose tilth. To get to this ideal soil consistently faster, disk in one direction, then cross that direction. When you cut across a row of disking, the blades will cut through grass and thatch quicker and cut your disking time in half.

Farm Pond Fishing

 There are a few tricks for snagging largemouth bass from farm ponds if the pond is fed by a small stream. Using a Texas-rigged or Carolina-rigged rubber worm, slowly drag the bait across the current on the pond bottom. The current of the stream, flowing into the pond, often brings in tadpoles, insects and other food for bass.

This underwater channel is an ideal place to get a strike from a bass. Simply drag the bait across the channel in a slow, jerking motion and, as the bass cruise across this channel, they are likely to strike.

Hat Hint 

A felt, Western hat can easily be shaped with nothing more than steam. The hot steam allows the hat brim and crown to become pliable and worked into any shape. If you don’t have a commercial steamer, a kettle with a spout works great to project steam in a stream onto the hat. Even a boiling pan of water can be used to create enough steam to shape your hat.

Turner Hat Company (www.turnerhatcompany.com) is an Alabama company producing a fine line of 100 percent premium wool felt and straw hats. I especially like their Texas Brown with the 3½-inch brim. If you drive and wear a hat, this is an ideal hat that you can wear comfortably without the brim continually hitting the headrest. Most Western hats have a 4-inch brim, but the 3½-inch brim gives more driving and riding comfort. It is easily shaped with steam and the hat retails for only $29.99. Turner Hats are available at your local Quality Co-op, so check them out.

Browntop millet is a great warm-season choice for your food plots. Turkeys, quails and doves love the small, low-profile plants that produce multiple, protein-rich seed heads. Millet is easy to germinate and it provides food throughout the summer months. When the hens hatch their poults, millet patches provide ideal bugging areas and seeds for the young poults, hens and gobblers.

Browntop millet is also a great choice when you need growth in the middle of the summer. If you construct a farm pond and need quick grass growth to prevent erosion on the dam, add browntop millet to the seeds you are planting. The quick germination will help hold the soil in place.

Sorghum is also a great warm-season choice for your food plots. The sorghum stalks grow high enough to provide ideal cover and travel for wildlife, and the rich seed heads provide food late in the season. You can plant sorghum in strips and allow the low profile growth in between. The stalks of sorghum will remain standing even after the plant has matured providing late-season cover for wildlife as well.

This is the time to prevent fly problems in your herd before they become a problem. Once you’ve set up your back rubs, face flyps and insecticide (all of which can be purchased from your local Co-op), protect your investment when the back rub is outdoors.

Rain can wash the insecticide from the backrub causing you to lose money. In gaps where you’ve put up a back rub, connect a long pole between the gap posts and cover the pole with the liner of an old feed bin. This will allow rain to shed off the back rub and keep your fly chemicals potent.

May means hay in Alabama, but save some time to unwind after the hay is in the barn. This will have you smiling whether your teeth are brown, white, false or absent.

John Howle is a freelance writer from Heflin.