Thanksgiving Gunny Shoot

We do a little shooting every Thanksgiving, after lunch.  Some pictures from today's festivities.

Grandson Jeffrey on the shotgun, grandson Michael on the trap.

Son Barrett cleaning a clay pigeon.  If you look closely at the upper left corner you can see pieces of the orange flyer.

Sister Patricia on a .38 Special.  She hasn't shot in years, yet fell right back into the routine

Nephew Adam on a 9mm pistol.  Adam has a PhD in some esoteric field and works for the Army at the facility near Huntsville.  He told me over lunch that he's working with aluminum as it relates to solid rocket fuel.  He's trying to reduce the smoke in the exhaust plume that a rocket makes when it fires.  Very important work.

A view of the firing line.  You'll notice that one shooter is up at a time, normally with a coach.  The other folks waiting to fire stand behind the equipment table.  Safety first on PawPaw's range.

Grandson Elyas helping to police spent brass.  Notice the hearing protection.  Everybody wears hearing protection on PawPaw's firing line.  We had a great time and folks are napping now, or snacking across the dessert line.  Another Thanksgiving family shoot is in the books.

Thanksgiving

Time for reflection on a beautiful Thanksgiving morning for all my blessings.  I am probably the luckiest, happiest man on the planet.  Not only for having won, but for having lost.  Not only for the triumph, but for the struggle.  For my family, for my church, for the benefits of living in the greatest country in the world.  For the love of a good woman, for laughter and sorrow, I am thankful.



More later, after the meal.  We'll have shooting pictures, which is something to be especially thankful for.

Prepping

It's already been a busy day at PawPaw's House prepping for Thanksgiving.  All the chairs are up on tables, the kitchen/dining area is swept and mopped.  The carcass of a turkey is boiling for broth.  When the floor is dry I'll start cutting up sausage for Pastalaya.  It's a recipe that has many variations, and PawPaw will make his own variety.

We have the family over here for the Wednesday night meal.  It keeps Momma from having to serve a meal the night before Thanksgiving.  She does the big feast at her place on Thursday, a traditional sit-down Thanksgiving.

Jambalaya is a cajun specialty, cooked normally in big pots to feed lots of people.  Like most cajun dishes, it's rice based and easily prepared to feed a bunch of people.  This other version uses pasta instead of rice and covers it all with a milk sauce, heavy on the cream and cheese.  I'll be using most of a turkey and a big box of sausage for the meat, along with the cajun trinity of onions, bell peppers, and celery.

Oh, hell, I may as well tell you the recipe.

Pastalaya

One turkey carcass, boiled for broth
Four pounds of sausage
4 cans rotel tomatoes
4 cans cream of mushroom soup
32 oz velveeta cheese
Quart of half & half.
4 cups onion, chopped
4 cups bell pepper, chopped.
some chopped celery, for flavor
3 lbs pasta.  I'm using penne noodles

Peel the remaining meat off that turkey carcass, set it aside.  Save the broth for later.  That's too much flavor to throw away.  Chop your sausage.  In a big pot, sautee your vegetables in a little oil.  When they're done the onion will be translucent and sweet.  Add cream of mushroom soup, rotel tomatoes.  slice the velveeta and add it to the mix.  Stir frequently so it doesn't stick.

Boil your pasta to the al-dente stage and drain it.  Fry your sausage.  I like to put sausage in a big black pot, and cook it all together until it starts to brown.  Sausage is already cooked, but this takes some of the grease out of it.   Drain your sausage.

About this time, add that quart of half to your sauce mixture.

Put your pasta in a big roaster pan. (I use steam-table trays) Add turkey and sausage.  Pour the sauce mixture over the whole shebang, give it a quick stir, and run it into a 350 oven for about 20 minutes, until everything firms up.  You want it a little wet, but not runny.

Tonight we're serving it with a big salad and yeast rolls, but garlic bread would go with it as well.    That recipe ought to serve about 30 people.  It's easy enough to halve, or quarter, but this is not a recipe you want to cook for two people.  You'll eat it for a week.  However, this is a good recipe to take to a church social.

Football

I see that Rutgers and Maryland are joining something called the Big Ten, which is purportedly a football conference. I see that there is another purported conference called the Big East? Whatever the hell that is.

Rutgers is joining the Big Ten, leaving the Big East behind and cashing in on the school’s investment in a football program that only 10 years ago seemed incapable of competing at the highest level…Rutgers has been competing in the Big East since 1991. But the league has been picked apart by conference realignment, and the Scarlet Knights were looking for a way out…The move follows Maryland’s announcement Monday that it was joining the Big Ten in 2014.

Okay, so by my count that makes fourteen teams in an ersatz conference called the Big Ten. Can't those bastards even count? I mean, c'mon, if it is named the Big Ten, how can you have fourteen teams? The mind boggles.

Yes, there are other colleges and universities that have football teams, but you can't expect anyone to take them seriously?  Even here in Louisiana we have teams in something called the Southland Conference, but those are teams that are second-tier at best.  Now, you're telling me that there are actual conferences called Big Ten (with 14 teams) and Big East?

There is only one conference worth following in college football.  The SEC.  Really, y'all should know that by now.  If it isn't SEC, it isn't actually football.  Here in the Deep South, the SEC conference championship is more important that the BCS championship, because we know where real football is played, and that's the SEC.

On Rice and Racism

I'm following this whole Benghazi thing, from the Petraeus debacle to the Ambassador Rice telling everyone it was a problem with a bad video. Turns out the Director of National Security, James Clapper or his office was the one who put out the bad talking points. I'm also watching folks jump on the racism bandwagon because we simply cannot criticize a black woman who does what the administration tells her to do.

But, I'm thinking about the middle-aged white man whose office gave her those bad talking points for her to parrot on the morning talk shows. Is it racist to set up a black woman to look like she's lying to the nation? Clapper is an Obama appointee, isn't he? Looks like he might be a closet racist.

And, we haven't heard any more about Harry Reid's penchant for pederasty either. What is going on with the Democrats?

Wing Shooting

We hunters understand wing shooting.  Many of us suck at it, but we like to practice, either at skeet on our ranges and pastures, or at clubs set up to take our money and give us a chance for fellowship and competition.  There are some shooters who shoot at live pigeons.  There are other folks who want to shut down live pigeon shoots that have begun using little aircraft fitted with cameras to record the events at live pigeon shoots.  Predictably, those little airborne devices flown over places where people shoot targets from the air, receive attention that is detrimental to the device.

The drone, nicknamed “Angel,” was recording a live pigeon shoot on Sunday around 3 p.m. when investigators say it was suddenly struck by gunfire.

Imagine that! You're flying a device over private property, an area known for shooting things out of the sky, and your device is hit by gunfire! The mind reels at such a possibility.

State Police are investigating the incident. SHARK claims this is the fourth time the drone has been shot at while trying to spy on what they claim are inhumane pigeon shoots.

You've lost four of those things over the shooting line? Incredible! I can't imagine what would be causing that.

Monday Morning

PawPaw's watching the Boy-o this morning.  We just finished helping a friend cut up firewood, now we're at home getting a snack before we get into the next project.  At noon I need to leave here to go work a basketball tourney at the high school, and won't be home until about 9:00 tonight.  Not much time for blogging today, we're happy, busy and fully engaged.

Sunday Song

Sundeay Morning Dawg

It's a beautiful Sunday morning, pre-Thanksgiving, and visitors are starting to arrive for the festivities on Thursday.  The dog is enjoying the sun, playing on the back deck where it's warm.

He has a visitor too, a sweet little dog named Trickie.  She lives with the daughter-in-law and loves taking naps in the kitchen.

It's just another Sunday, in the South.

On the Trail Camera

I went down to the trail camera today while I was in the woods and swapped SD cards.  The logging activity  on the lease has screwed the deer patterns, but I enjoy looking at pictures on the trail camera.

This big ole fox squirrel is a constant visitor.  Of course, my camera is near my feeder and sits in an oak flat that is full of acorns.  Perfect squirrel habitat.

Another shot of that goofy squirrel.  He seems to like that particular tree.

Two pretty little yearling does cam out about noon-time.  I don't think I'd have pulled the trigger on these.  Give them another couple of years and they'll start producing.  I am thankful that I got no pictures of hogs this time.  Maybe they've moved on.

Bulletproof Research

The quest for better ballistic protection is ever on-going and promising results are coming out of laboratories.

Bulletproofing for soldiers and law enforcement officers has lightened up considerably in recent years, but it promises to get insanely thin with new nanotechnology coming out of MIT and Rice University.

I was a veteran cop when Kevlar was first built into ballistic vests and I've worn Kevlar ever since. It's great stuff, but it's heavy and it doesn't breathe well. Wearing a Kevlar vest on a summertime Louisiana day is akin to dehydration and heat exhaustion.  I don't know how our fighters in the desert regions carry all the ballistic armor that they carry every day, walking in that heat and environment.  Anything lighter and thinner that still provides good protection would have uses in both personal protection and vehicle protection applications.

As Instapundit might say, Faster, please.

California Rising!

California begins a great new experiment in green economy this week by auctioning greenhouse gas emission credits. There are two possible outcomes, mutually exclusive.

Mary Nichols, who chairs the Air Resources Board, and other advocates of cap and trade contend that in the long run, the business costs will be mitigated by savings from greater operational efficiencies, and that an entirely new green economy base will be created to the ultimate benefit of the state.

Uh, yeah, that's pie in the sky. The state of California is basically auctioning unicorn farts. This following an election where California became the most taxed state in the nation. The other possible outcome?

an equally valid theory is that the state, which is already suffering from a stagnant economy and very high unemployment, will hamstring itself in the global competition for investment capital.

That's probably closer to the truth. It'll be interesting to see which scenario is more valid as this plays out.

This, from the state that gave us Ronald Reagan.

Letters to Congress

I wrote a letter to my Senator this afternoon. Senator Mary Landieu, (D) of Louisiana. I periodically write letters to my Congress-critters. They need adult supervision, and since I'm not there personally to supervise, we accomplish this via email. My letter to Senator Landrieu.

Senator Landrieu

I'm reading reports that the Senate hasn't passed a budget since 2009.

That is distressing. I have to have a budget in my household and the idea that the US Government is operating without a budget is madness.

With the Fiscal Cliff approaching, the government needs to have a budget so that it can figure out where to cut. That's how millions of Americans do it.

Thanks in advance.

I'm sure that she'll get right on that.

Toughest Bridge in the World

Video footage of trucks trying to go under a bridge that's 11'8".

We've got a breezeway at the school that's 12'4" and I've had two trucks get stuck under it in 8 years. Both trucks had good insurance, fortunately.

 Hat tip to The Gun Counter forums.

Petraeus To Testify

Fox News is reporting that General David Petraeus has agreed to testify before Congress.

The logistics of Petraeus' appearance are still being worked out. But a source close to Petraeus said the former four-star general has contacted the CIA, as well as committees in both the House and Senate, to offer his testimony as the former CIA director.

Good for him. Perhaps he can regain some of his honor. I know that the media has been having a field day with him and the salacious tidbits from his affair, but the real questions is what happened in Libya that fateful day. Four parents need answers and a nation needs to know who to hold accountable.

The Money Votes

I don't know if you've been watching the Dow averages, but it has been steadily sliding since the election.
Nov 6 close 13245.68
Nov 7 close 12932.73
Nov 8 close 12811.32
Nov 9 close 12815.39
Nov 12 close 12815.08
Nov 12 close 12756.18
Nov 14 now 12570.95

The country voted on Tuesday, the money is voting now.  Gold is currently trading at 1725.90 per ounce. You might notice that the administration is pushing for higher taxes on the wealthy.

Obama has been pressing to let the George W. Bush-era tax cuts expire at the end of the year for the wealthiest 2 percent of the nation’s households, a tax hike adamantly opposed by Republicans. But Carney suggested that even the revenue generated by letting those tax cuts end would not be enough to tame the national debt and reenergize the economy.

It is refreshing to see Carney saying that the letting the Bush tax cuts expire won't be enough to tame the debt and energize the economy. The only way to do that is to cut spending. Drastically, to the bone. Entitlement cuts by the bushel. No, he wants 1.6 trillion in new taxes. The money folks can see which way this debate is going, and they're dumping stocks.

Best Product Review Ever!

I've been busy at work today, but I stumbled upon this product review on Amazon.  It's for a men's hair removal product.

At first there was a gentle warmth which in a matter of seconds was replaced by an intense burning and a feeling I can only describe as like being given a barbed wire wedgie by two people intent on hitting the ceiling with my head. Religion hadn't featured much in my life until that night but I suddenly became willing to convert to any religion to stop the violent burning

That's enough for the PG audience, the rest of it gets pretty graphic, but before he was finished, tears were flowing from my eyes and my ribs were hurting.  One grandkid said he'd never heard me laugh so hard.

Hat tip Curmudgeonly and Skeptical.

Mediorcrity

On Veteran's Day, it's important to remember the troops who served and the troops who are still serving.  It's also important to give them the very best leadership we can provide for them.  Unfortunately, there's a growing concern that the current crop of General Officers is mediocre or inept, or maybe just merely incompetent.   

A culture of mediocrity has taken hold within the Army’s leadership rank—if it is not uprooted, the country’s next war is unlikely to unfold any better than the last two.

Thomas Ricks makes the case over at the Atlantic.  Go read.  Our soldiers deserve better.

Petraeus, again

After spending yesterday reading all I could about this dirty little scandal, I'm convinced that I'm not really impressed with the General's explanation.  It just seems too mea culpa  to me.  It's easy to resign and retire.  Why air your dirty laundry on the way out the door?

I'm hoping that the General shows up in Congress next week and tells the committee everything they want to know, answers fully all their questions, then says, "But guys, here's some stuff that you have no clue about", then regales them for an hour or so with tales of felonious intent from the first term.

If he doesn't show in Congress next week, then he's just another asshole general officer who has no honor.  It's his choice, he can choose.

Sunday Morning Dawg

I came in late Saturday night after all day at the high school to find the dog taking his leisure on an easy chair.

He looked up just long enough for me to snap a picture then went back to doing whatever dogs do on a Saturday night.  I swear, that dog is a Democrat.  He doesn't work, expects me to take care of him, and as long as there is food in his bowl and scratching behind his ear, he's happy as he can be.