How often do you see an invention, a new product or just a trick that someone shows you, and you immediately say to yourself, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Well, on a recent fishing trip to Eagle River with my buddy Dave, I encountered one of those moments.
We were sitting around the campfire with Ray, our resort owner, shooting the breeze over some cocktails. Now, you have to understand that Ray, who's a chipper 69 years old, is as close to being retired as possible. Like most folks up in “da nort woods”, he counts every penny he can to get by. I’m not sure how the subject came up, but we were talking about freezing things such as meat or fish that you may have bought or caught in bulk. Someone mentioned that having an electric, vacuum sealer was a great way to accomplish this. That’s when Ray chimed in;
“Nah, you don’t need one of those fancy-schmancy gizmos. I just put the food into a baggie, which, by the way, you can get a box of 50 of the quart sized ones at that Dollar Store down in Rhinelander for a buck. Then I just take the straw out of my cocktail, zipper the bag almost shut and insert the straw. I then start sucking until I can’t suck anymore and seal it off as quickly as I can. It works great, and if you suck long and hard enough, it gives you a pretty good head rush too.” And as Ray told us that tip, I thought to myself, “Why didn’t I think of that.”
Well, having caught a bunch of salmon this week while on a Lake Michigan charter, I thought I’d give Ray’s trick a try and prepare some of my catch for the freezer. I got out my baggies, and I pulled out my cocktail straw, and just as Ray described, the method worked “slick as water off a ducks back!” And after my 5th bag of salmon filets was done, I quickly realized I had quite the head rush going on.
Thanks for that one Ray.
G’Night G’Town!
The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people. ~Karl Marx
