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.