David,<br><br>A lot of things are changing. We still own the ranch where I grew up, but the area is now heavily developed. As a boy, if I wanted to go hunting on the farms on other side of the road from our ranch, I had to walk 1/4 mile down the road to cross a bridge to over an agricultural canal. I routinely carried my shotgun resting on my shoulder as I walked down the road with traffic uneventfully passing me. Now the canal is filled; the other farms have become a giant block factory; and if I were to nostalgically carry my shotgun on my shoulder as I walked down the road in a quest for a rabbit stew, I'm sure I would be beseiged by at least 2 helicopter borne SWAT teams before I covered the 1/4 mile, with several news copters orbitting as they transmit live video feed shown real time on televisions nationwide while "newscasters" gravely comment on the need to ban assault weapons and stop my murderous swath across the countryside. ;-(<br><br>Oh, well, enjoy what you have while you have it.<br><br>John

talking about fish, I have been told that you can eat small fish as a whole. Just cut it up in pieces and bowl it. Is this true, and is it safe?

Not for the fish ;O) There are parasites adapted to everything from insects to whales. Some are harmfull and some are not. If you can catch the fish you can cook them many ways over a fire to kill the parasites.

I remember seeing this done on a survival show several years back. I didn't see the entire show but it was interesting. He caught small finger sized fish/minnows, cut off the heads and tails, and boiled the rest in a soup he concocted with some roots and mushrooms.<br><br>I was irked that he chose mushrooms as that's a very dangerous food to select under any circumstances, but more so in a survival situation when there's no help available if you misidentified the mushroom, which ven experts do from time to time.<br><br>

The show is called Ray Mear's Extreme survival and that's what I saw but coundn't remeber it fully so I asked it here.

I only saw the very end and have never seen the show other than that episode. Besides the mushrooms and whole fish, I remember that he used an empty pop can as a fish reel and that he had a backpacker pot to cook. Does anyone know if there was more thqan one episode?

billvann,<br>yes there was more then one episode. A few more series as well. I'm a big fan of ray mears and his show. I like his books as well. <br>as for picking mushrooms, I seem to remeber he did say as he picked them "but don't mess with these babys unless you know what you doing". <br>-james<br><br>