MondayNotes

 It's been a wild weekend.  Belle got home late Friday afternoon. Her brother survived surgery and is doing well in recovery.  We hosted a club practice on Saturday. One of our oldest friends was there to shoot.

Bill is a founding member of the club.  If the doors are open, he is there.  He had a scare with prostate cancer a couple of years ago, but beat it with treatment.  It slowed his draw down a lot and he has been working on his speed. On Saturday, he was showing his old style, and making hits in the high 4s.  About one o'clock he took off his revolver and went home.

Bill's wife called on Sunday morning. Saturday night, Bill had a heart attack and died.  Just like that. Gone. It's been two days and I'm still processing the news.

It was a cray weekend.  I need to take my suit to the cleaners, and I'll do that tomorrow.  I'll soon have a funeral to attend.

Execution Date Set

 I'm only going to use his name once, so listen up.  Do you remember Nidal Hassan? He was a US Army officer and psychologist who perpetrated a mass casualty event at Fort Hood in 2009.  He killed 13 people and injured 32 before he was captured.

Yeahh, this is the asshole who abrogated his oath both as an officer and as a physician and decided to go all Aloha Snackbar at the Fort Hood reediness center, a place where soldiers and dependents get ID cards and register vehicles. So, he brought a pistol and started shooting people, because Aloha.

Well, it seems that the War Department has decided to Aloha his ass by firing squad at Fort Hood on December 3rd.  Rumors are that it is going to be a public execution. We're talking livestream here.

If they are thinking about a good old-fashioned stand-him-up- and-shoot-him, that is too good for him. I'd get a bit more creative.  Maybe a couple of kneecap shots just to start the party.  Or, maybe after a quick coup de grace, feed him to a herd of hogs. They could stake him out somewhere and eh would be gone in three days.

A standard killing and burial is too good for this asshole.

Coming Ashore

 Isaias is hammering Fort Walton/Destin/Pensacola right now.  I'm watching Ryan Hall, who does a great weather channel on YouTube,

I shared texts with Termite, a frequent commenter and good personal friend, who is currently on an offshore rig riding it out.  They couldn't leave the rig yesterday at shift change, so they are drawing overtime pay until the helicopters can get out to pick them up. Probably tomorrow.  Termite is fine, eating well, and drawing overtime.  Hopefully, he will drop by next week, drink a beer, and tell me all about it.

Cooler

 Awoke this morning, got coffee started then walked outside to the patio to let the dawg get his morning constitutional.  Chilly outside, almost brisk. Checked the thermometer, 57F.  Clear skies, low humidity.

Florida and Alabama are bracing for what looks to be a major hurricane. This thing has shifted east enough that I expect no impact from it at all.  That is fine with me.  While I don't wish disaster on anyone, it is okay with me if hurricanes go somewhere else.  I've lived through mine, some worse than others.

Belle has been out of town for the past two days helping her older brother.  She is due back this afternoon, so the dawg and I have been batching it here on the acre.  The dawg has not starved, but he is a bit concerned, wondering where she went.  He will be quite excited when she pulls into the driveway. I can't say that I blame him.

Isaias

 As Thursday morning begins, all the weather watchers are focused on that unpronounceable storm in the Gulf.  It's coming ashore tomorrow, that is for sure, the question is where it will make landfall.  Current models put it making landfall at Pensacola, but that is subject to change.

The other question is how much of the SEC is it going to disrupt?  Will it take out Georgia at Alabama, will it disrupt LSU at Kentucky? The big question is timing. And power outages.  There are plenty of smaller schools in the path of the storm and many of them have games scheduled in lesser conferences.

The weather falls on everyone equally.  The rich and the poor, the strong and the feeble.  It simply seems to hurt the poor and feeble more often.  If I lived in Mobile or Pensacola, I would be considering a weekend trip.  Somewhere west and away from the coast.

Isaias?

 Yesterday while posting, I blindly asked Copilot what the next storm name might be, and it told me Cristobal.  Imagine my surprise when I awakened this morning and find that the tropical depression has been named Isaias.  So much for AI, I suppose. I need todo better research.

At any rate, we have another named storm, and this one is predicted to become a hurricane. Which means we have a cone.

That is an interesting cone, if only for the prediction that it is headed for the Gret Lakes.  It appears that this one is headed for the Mississippi coast, but as always this is subject to change.

Late Season

 This hurricane season has been mild, to say the least.  This is the first year I can remember when we have gotten into October without a hurricane.  Maybe that is about to change, as we are watching a storm that everyone is convinced will soon organize into something bigger.  The tracks I've seen has it coming ashore this weekend, somewhere between southeast Louisiana and Pensacola, FL.

At this point, everything is subject to change and we will have to keep an eye on it.    If this thing organizes, it will become Cristobal.

Weather Change

 We didn't get as much rain as expected this weekend, but it is cooling off. Overcast this morning with drizzle before daylight.

Shortly after daylight, I watched a teal make a low pass over the pond.  He decided against it and headed toward Catahoula lake. Teal are a harbinger, being the first ducks to make the trip.

The shop is cool this morning, with one A/C unit running, and it has cycled off.

A lot less hummingbird traffic around the feeders this morning. The smart ones left yesterday, riding the northerly breeze southward.

It's not time to break the flannel out, quite yet, but it won't be long.

** UPDATE TO ADD:  After a few minutes, I decided to make a test run on the propane heaters in the shop.  Both Belle's big heater and my small one passed the initial start-up.

Silly Memes

 So I was watching this meme, asking how "country" this respondent might be.

Have you ever fired a shotgun?

Have you ever waded barefoot in a creek?

Have you ever used a slingshot?

Have you ever started a vehicle with a manual choke?

Have you ever taken ashes out of a wood stove?

Have you ever carved you initials in a tree?

Have you ever siphoned gas with a hose?

Have you ever split wood with an ax?

Have you ever eaten fried bologna?

Have you ever hanged laundry on a clothesline?

Nonsense.  Those questions don't determine "country".  I did all of that before I was age 12.  I wasn't reared in the country; I was reared in a subdivision. on the edge of town.  I raised my kids in the country, deep in the woods, and they also did all that before they were 12.

Oops

 Are y'all seeing this bullshit about this woman in Tennessee who was supposed to be executed last night?  Something or someone botched the execution and she is in the hospital following the procedure.

I'm generally a proponent for the death penalty.  We have to make sure that the penalty is quick and effective.  Whatever happened last night in Tennessee was neither.  The follow-up investigation will be fun to follow.

Ain't Dogging

 In yesterday's post, I talked about the Hornady LeverEvolution bullet, and I'm not dogging on that ammunition.  It is my opinion that these new bullets did several things very well.  They split the difference between the tadeonal 150 and 170 grain load with a 160-grain bullet.  They upgraded a 19th century cartridge and brought it into the 21st century.  The big thing these newfangled bullets did was to get grandpa's old rifle out of the safe and back into the range, where it could bark the other dogs.

I bought my first lever gun in 1973, where at the tender age of 19 I walked into Howard Brothers department store and put down $87.50 on a brand-new Marlin 336.  It was on sale the week before deer season, down from $94.99 and I thought it was a pretty good deal.  I still have that rifle, though it lives at my son's house.

Junior Doughty and I played with Handi-rifles for a time in 2008-10.  As such, I loaded a bunch of ammo for the .30-30 with pointy bullets, specifically the Sierra Game King.  These bullets would be dangerous in a tube fed levergun, because pointed tips and recoil are a thing.  Junior and I put them through their paces and they performed well in the Handi-rifle, which we all know is a single shot.

The Hornady ammo is a good thing, if only for the reasons stated above.  For my shooting, and I suspect for many of us, the old ammo still suits us fine. My preferred factory load in the .30-30 is the old Remington green box load with the 170 grain round nose soft point. For deer, hogs, black bear, it is entirely sufficient as long as the range is under 125 yards and you can put the bullet in the vitals.

The cartridge is a handloaders dream.  It has a long sleek neck that is perfect for cast bullets and a moderate charge of the old IMR 3031. It can be loaded with a hand press on the kitchen table.  Crimp the bullet so that it doesn't set back in the tube magazine under recoil and you will be fine.

First Gumbo

 I wanted a seafood gumbo for lunch, so decided to make a small one.   I started with a small dutch oven and added four cups of vegetable broth, then got out a skillet and sauteed some onions and bell peppers. Added that to the broth then made a roux.  Added that to the pot, then dropped in a pound of 90/130 Gulf shrimp and a pound of Louisiana crawfish tails.  I let it all simmer while I adjusted the seasoning and made a pot of rice.

Belle said that it was pretty tasty.  I normally do a chicken and sausage gumbo and this is the first seafood gumbo I have made in a while.  Now, I have to wash the pots.

30-30 Theory

 Many of you know, I really like the .30-30 Winchester.  It is an iconic cartridge, the very first factory cartridge to be laded with smokeless powder back in 1895. The .30-30 shines with the factory 170 grain round nose bullet.  The factory loads are all about the same.  A good 170 coming out of the muzzle at about 2200 fps. Very standard, very boring.

Lever guns and the .30-30 seem to have fallen out of favor at the deer camps around the country.  It's not a new cartridge, it's not a precision rifle, but it was never meant to be. It was designed as a hunting cartridge, smiting light and handy with enough power to put down medium game at 100 yards. Winchester has built over 7 million Model 94 rifles, many of them in .30-30d. Marlin added several million more in their 336 rifle. There are millions of these guns in safes, closets and racks all over the United States.

They are not precision rifles.  But each of them are capable of 3-minute accuracy which is sufficient to put meat on the table.  Recently, I upgraded my old Winchester to include a red dot sight..  That sight has a 3MOA dot and the rifle is a 3-minute rifle, so the question becomes the proper sight in distance?

That's where the internet helps.  I found an online ballistics calculator and started feeding in data. What I found was pretty interesting.

If I do a good zero at 25 yards, that big 170 will stay i that 3MOA dot all the way out to 150 yards and fall out of the dot at 175 yards. That is well within the yardage that the vast majority of deer are killed around here.  This is just math, and field data will tell the tale, but I believe I'll sight in at 25 yards and see what happens.

Somebody will want to talk about Hornady's LeverEvolution bullet.  It's great technology, but to my way of thinning, it tries to answer a question that no one ever asked.  If you want to shoot pointy bullets (and I love them) go get a .30-06.  I have one of each.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have the season's first gumbo on the stove and need to stir it.

Moderation

 It appears in this last week of September, that the weather is about to moderate from our usual heat and humidity.  We are expecting a cooler front on Wednesday/Thursday that will bring a bit of rain and cooler temps, with highs in the 80s, Squirrel season opens this weekend in our area, and the rain should help with the hunting.  The woods are dry right now and the leaves underfoot are like walking through corn flakes.

As I type this, I have two A/C units running.  They are currently both cycled off.  That is good news for my power bill.  Belle made a runup to the Dollar Store and came back with a sack of potatoes. She's hungry for Potato Stuff.

It's a recipe that I found on Bruce Mitchell's site.  Bruce and I cook similarly, with more emphasis on flavor and using what is at hand rather than strict adherence to a recipe.  This reminds me of an old recipe that a college girlfriend cooked occasionally.  The recipe didn't have a name, so we started calling it Brenda potatoes.  Basically, potatoes and onions with a little bacon for flavor. She layered hers in a heavily buttered Dutch oven and ran it in the oven for an hour or so, until the potatoes were fork tender.

I don't mind posting recipes, but it is so much easier to put up a link, so here is the link to Potato Stuff.

Getting Fall

 Belle was mentioning today that she was ready for the weather to cool off so we could make gumbos and stews and corn maque chou. (mock chew)

Corn maque chou is a regional thing, with lots of different recipes. The only real constants are corn and cream.  Everything else is the chef's choice.  I like onion and bell pepper, while Belle might add some petit diced tomatoes.

Below is Bruce Mitchell's recipe.  You can tell that the weather is cool, because Bruce is wearing a shirt.

Bon apetit, y'all.

Jewelry

 I lost my wedding band last week.  I've been losing weight and noticed that the band was getting a bit loose, but didn't think much about it.  Until it was gone.  Doing yard work, I noticed that I was not wearing a wedding band.  Well, hell.

It was a plain gold band, 10-carat, size 9.  I think, when I got married, I paid about $50 for it.  

This morning, I went to my jeweler and ordered a new wedding band.  Yellow cold, 10-carat.  The guy didn't blush went he told me the price, but he did apologize. $500.  Yeah, really.  I'll pick it up on Tuesday. The gold spot price today s $4284.25.

I'm one of those guys who feels naked without a wedding band.

Dry Week

 I just finished a dry week, which is something I do occasionally.  For one entire calendar week, no  alcohol of any kind.  No beer, no wine, no whiskey.  It helps reset the palate, gives the liver a break, and makes sure that there are no psychological problems.  It's a good idea.

Surprisingly, I don't miss it at all when I take a dry week, which is exactly the point.

We did get a passing thunderstorm late this afternoon.  We need the rain.

Diesel Strike?

 Over Sunday lunch, I heard a rumor that truck drivers and others are planning a diesel strike  for October 1st.  What??  That don't make sense.

Yeah, I know.  Fuel prices are high. But the idea that truckers are going to turn off the engine to protest high prices sounds a bit odd.  Doing a little Google-fu tells me that the idea seems to have gotten the best legs on the Book of Face. That particular social media page has a world-wide reputation for accurate information (/sarc).  So there you have that.

More pressing concerns is what's for lunch?  I have a good tomato, a loaf of fresh bread and a pound of bacon.  I believe it's time for a good ol' bacon and 'mater sammich..  I'm going to preheat the oven and slide that bacon in there for 30 minutes or so.

Saturday Thoughts

 Climate change - This is the first summer that I can remember when we have ot had a hurricane in the Atlantic basin. I've lived here through 72 summers and can't remember a summer like this one.  NOAA bacs me up on this, and I am not complaining.

The hummingbirds are passing through and my feeders are totally engaged.  I'm going through sugar water at an enhanced rate.

Human migration - After watching Nick's video yesterday and thinking abut the lessons we can glean from it, I am wondering what the Atakapa people might think about it.  Or the Huron or Chippewa or Arisaka? The worst part is that the folks who defend illegal migration is that they probably don't know who the Chippewa or Atakapa people are.  We can learn from history.  How did hat work out for the Cherokee?

The AI Kerfuffle - Has anyone but me noticed that the AI democrats are making the same arguments that they used when trying to quell covid?  Trust the science... Flatten the curve... It's going to kill us all... My strongest argument is that Bernie Sanders hasn't been right about anything yet.  If Bernie says that it is an existential threat, we should probably ignore him. He ain't been right about anything yet.

This is Saturday and I have things to accomplish, so if you will excuse me.

Nick Freidas

 Nick Freidas is a conservative voice in the United States.  A proud veteran, he served with the US 1st Special Forces in overseas deployments.  Post military, he served in the Virginia legislature.  Now he is speaking out on a range of issues.

Nick put out a documentary on the problems of unrestricted immigration. It is a cautionary tale for US politics and social policy.

I'm simply trying to boost the signal.