Born again Born Boots & Angell's Freshwater Shrimp Farm

I purchased these Born boots that retailed for $189 on ebay still new with tags on them for $89. I think that's what I paid for them, I have had them for about 3-4 years.
I about had the big heart attack due to excitement when I saw the UPS truck pull in my driveway the day he delivered these. You know the day that you could hug his neck but you know better because he still has to deliver to your house again in the future!!!

Only to realize that they didn't fit.......bummer! Well I could get them on but they are made with a very straight shaft and I do not have a straight calf.....get my drift. So after 3ish years of wanting to reconstruct them I finally got the nerve to do so. Afterall if they don't fit well enough to wear them they are worthless to me. If infact I ruined them while trying to reconstruct them they would also be worthless to me. However if it was infact a good idea and worked then there ya go.

So there I went and grabbed the kitchen shears, ya know the heavy duty ones cause this is good leather that was to be cut thru. Are you getting nervous now? Well I was a shaking in my boots let me tell ya!

A few holes punched and a leather lace run thru later the end result was perfect! I am so pleased with myself for getting up the courage to cut into a very expensive pair of leather boots. I am trying to decide which pair of shoes or boots in my closet needs a makeover next ;-)

We have some lifelong friends who have a shrimp farm 1 1/2 hours away from us that we visited on Saturday. They were draining their ponds to harvest the shrimp that day. You can read about them here. Here you see a couple of their hands in the ponds watching to make sure that none of the shrimp get stuck in the mud.

If you click to enlarge and have a really good imagination you can see the shrimp jumping out of the water. They don't want to go thru that pipe to meet their demise. Can you blame them?

A crowd gathered around the pipe as they are caught.

Sharon Angell is in the orange tshirt answering some of the millions of questions of the day! I mean how many people even knew that shrimp can be grown in a fresh water pond? I didn't.

This is an amish gentleman who traveled about 3 1/2 hours to partake in the harvest and learn from Sharon all the ins and outs of shrimp farming. His family has a cow dairy farm and with the declining prices of milk they are also looking for another way to use their land for a profit. The Angell's were tobacco farmers for years and you know how that industry has declined.

The shrimp were taken from the drain pipe placed in baskets and rinsed well in clean water and then they are immerssed in ice water for about 1 minute to freeze kill them. What a way to go!!! Ouch!!

These shrimp are just lovely and delicious!!! It takes about 12-13 to make a pound. Big ones!!! We purchased 10 lbs of these babies. Came home flash froze them and then vacuum packed them with the foodsaver. They will really be handy to have around don't ya think? I feel really good about this deal because it is helping out our local farmers and also we know what they put in their ponds. Good clean food!!!