The Cajun Microwave

I was telling my brother-in-law about a Cajun Microwave and he had never seen one.  It's a wooden box lined with sheet metal.  You put the meat inside and build a fire on top.  Some use firewood, I always started with charcoal, but whatever works.

It's hard to explain, but a video works, so here goes.

I haven't owned on in20 years, but I'm no longer in the habit of cooking 60-pound hogs.  But if I wanted one, some 1X6 and roof flashing, and I could build a working one in an afternoon.

Once,  near Houston, I saw a fellow who had made something similar out of a wheelbarrow.  He basically put a piece of sheet metal atop a wheelbarrow and used it to cook.  Again, whatever works.

About That Turkey

 Comment response.

And share your injection recipe and stuffing recipe!

My injector recipe is simple.  Tony's Butter recipe.  I buy it at the store.  We don't use stuffing in a fried turkey.  Cornbread dressing.

Buy a couple packages of fresh cranberries and make your own

Belle starts with fresh cranberries in lieu of the canned indignity.  No one gets between her and her cranberry relish.

After discussion we will be doing a ham this year.

We'll do a ham, too.  I'll get a spiral cut when Igoto Sam's Club next week.

Belle is already lining out the children.  Daughter-in-law #2 is bringing yams.  Daughter is brining cornbread dressing.  Belle's sister is bringing something-or-other.  Guests are tasked with desserts.  I'll probably feed 20 people that day.  That's what I built this shop for.  Family and friends.

Turkey Day

 Belle and I were talking late yesterday afternoon and she asked me how I was going to cook the Thanksgiving turkey.  That question gave me one bit of information.  I was going to cook the Thanksgiving turkey.  She had already delegated that task.  I told her that I had not decided whether to smoke, roast or fry the bird.  She allowed that she really liked the way I fry turkeys.  

Well, okay.  Now I have two bits of information.  First, I am on the hook to cook the bird. Second, I am frying it. That is leadership.  She delegated the bird by asking one question, then professing a preference.  Well done!  I have my orders, now it is time to complete the implied tasks

This morning I dragged out my turkey cookers and fired them up successfully.  They both work fine.  Now I need to dig out the pot and give it a good scrubbing.  Thence to the store, buy peanut oil and seasonings.  Find the injector, and break down some boxes for when I take the turkey out of the oil and let it drip.

Today is the 12th.  Thanksgiving is the 26th.  That is two weeks. My pot will handle a 12-pound bird.  Do I need one, or two?   How many guests are we expecting? I will make discrete inquiries.

Veterans Day

 Veterans Day.  Yippee.  Originally Armistice Day, to commemorate the end of the Great War, it morphed over the years as a time to celebrate living veterans.  Not to be confused with Memorial Day, which celebrates deceased veterans.

As for myself, I intend to celebrate Veterans Day by staying on my own acre, tending to daily chores.

I am watching the news, and it seems that the newly elected Democrats in Congress want to follow an agenda of retribution rather than the agenda of affordability that they ran on.  Retribution is a poor political motive because the pendulum tends to swing and those in the majority inevitably  find themselves in the minority. What goes around, comes around. I simply believe that the next year will be interesting.

As for myself, I intend to purchase a rifle suppressor fairly quickly.  The window of opportunity has presented itself and may soon close under the new political landscape. Reasonable people may reach the same conclusion.  I may not speak of this again, as silence may help me avoid a tragic boating accident in coming years.

Y'all have a happy Veterans Day.

Battery

 Today Belle's sister came over with her husband and we went to lunch.  We took them to a Mongolian Grill in town and had a nice lunch.  We were in my Honda Odyssey.

My Odyssey is a 2020 model.  It has more bells, whistles and gee-gaws than any vehicle needs.  We got through with lunch and headed for the vehicle.  Climbed aboard, the ladies in the middle row seats.  They  pressed the buttons to close the sliding doors.  The doors closed halfway and stopped.  I got a waring light on the dashboard and then everything went dark.  Deader than Het.

We tried jumping it with a jump-pack and with jumper cables.  Two deputies from a sister parish tried to help to no avail.  Luckily, Grandson Zach was at home, so we called him to come pick up his grandmother while I assessed the situation.  He took his grandma and his aunt home, then returned with tools.  We snatched the battery, went to a parts house, paid the toll and installed the new battery.

I'm home now, poorer, but I have a ne battery in the Odyssey, so I should be good for this winter.  I bought that vehicle in April 2020 and this is the first battery I put in it.

Once the new battery was installed and the car started, I did have to go through some opening ceremonies. For example, it wanted to know if I wanted miles per hour or kilometers per hour.  I opted for mph, because that is consistent with my experience.  One thing that I did learn is that when the battery dies, nothing, absolutely nothing n the car works.  Not the sliding doors, not the tailgate. Those locks are electric. You can't put the vehicle in neutral, the transmission is electric.

That's how I spent my Tuesday afternoon.  How was y'all's?

Water Heater, Redux

 Y'all might recall a couple of weeks ago, the water heater in the shop went out.  It was a small 4-gallon tank heater.  White I was cussing and fretting, Belle went to Amazon and started searching.  We went with a small on demand heater.  I admit that I didn't do the research.  After it was installed, it gave hot water, but it would trip te breaker when I pulled on it hard.  After a couple or resets, I pulled out the specs and learned that it needed a 30-amp breaker.  The circuit it wired with a 20-amp breaker.  Well hell.

I checked with my electrician, and he wasn't sure if we had installed 10-gauge or 12-gauge wiring on that circuit.  So, not wanting to burn the shop down I did some more research.  I spent the money and bought another 4-gallon thank heater from Amazon.  This one.  It will give me four gallons of hot water and only draws 12 amps., which is okay on a 20-amp circuit.

Installation was easy.  It took me 45 minutes, but a good plumber could have done it in 10.  It sits under the sin, plugs into a 120v outlet and gives me hot water for the dishes. If it lasts as long as the first one, it will be a win.

Running Errandds

 I went to Holloway this morning.  Holloway is and unincorporated crossroads down the road from the house.  There is a barber shop there.  An old style, single chair barber shop.  A haircut is $20.  This morning, the conversation was politics, weather, and Houston, TX.  Go figure.  They were trying to figure out if Houston was the 4th largest metro in the US, or if it had been surpassed by DFW?

No one brought out a cell phone, no one tried to Google.  No one in there was under 65 years old.  Just a bunch of old men on a sunny Thursday morning.

After the barber sup, into town to the grocers to try and figure out what we're doing or lunch.  I'll fry a mixed bag for lunch, some taquitos, some chicken strips and some egg rolls.  This time of year is my favorite for cooking.  The cool temps let me do things that the hot August weather forbids.  Tomorrow it will be a beef stew.  Basic, with potatoes and carrots.

The politics of the midterms don't bother me, as most Presidents get a shellacking during the midterms.  I've seen this before.  The pendulum is always swinging.  Sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right, but always moving.  Life goes on.

Wow

 Congress changed hands last night, and not by a small margin.  Come January, the Democrats will be fully in charge.  Michigan elected a socialist and Texas turned purple.  That seems to be the over-arching result.

Louisiana elected Julia Letlow to replace Bill Cassidy.  It was not a forgone conclusion as Democrat Jamie Davis ran a credible race, getting within two points of Letlow. It was a near thing.

The House races are another thing entirely.  Predictably, Democrat Troy Carter won his race out of New Orleans.  That was no surprise.  Republicans Mike Hohnson, Steve Scalise, and Cla y Higgins won easily.  Two House districts are in a runoff situation.  Both the 5th and 6th districts will have final elections in December.  I live in the 5th District, which is trying to flip from D to R.  Generally, December elections in Louisiana are low turnout, so the candidates will have to have a good ground game to get their voters to the polls.  

The next two years are going to be interesting and the 2028 Presidential race starts today.

Election Time

 Tomorrow is a state holiday in Louisiana.  The schools are closed and the mail won't run. The polls will be open, though. Tomorrow is the last day for voting in Louisiana.  Early voting was several weeks ago and mail-in ballots are due no later than COB today.  

The Democrats are hoping for a blue wave that will flip the House and the Senate.  We'll see. They have the history of the midterms, but several of their candidates are batshit crazy.  Here in Louisiana we have a machine Republican that not a lot of people are happy with, versus an old-style Democrat.  The Democrat is a farmer from North Louisiana.  The Republican is a white woman; the Democrat is a black man. It is an interesting conjunction, and many people say that the race is close. 

I voted early, which is a lot easier than going to the poll on voting day. I'll be watching tomorrow, paying attention to Michigan, Texas, Alaska and Louisiana. Will Congress change hands tomorrow?

Opening Day

 Hereabouts it is opening day for the rifle season for whitetail deer.  Most deer clubs have one iron-clad rule.  If you see a hog, you put it down.  Feral hogs are an invasive species that we have to control.  Grandson Lucas was on the stand this morning and had a hog walk out on him.  Bang, flop.

Hid Dad tells me that it is 135 pounds.  It will be used, mainly as filler for ground venison unless the hog has been eating pinecones.  Hogs that eat pinecones taste like turpentine.  If the meat is edible, they will use it.

For the record, the rifle is a commercial Mauser 98 that I picked up in 2024.  This is his third season with it, and it has accounted for several whitetail deer.  Today, it accounted for pork.  The caliber?  6.5 Swede, of course.

Vehicles

 Grandson Lucas has been asking me about military vehicles I was familiar with, so I thought it would be a good time to put together some links that he could review when he had questions. My military service spanned from 1973-1998, post-Vietnam and Cold War with one very exhilarating time during Desert Storm.  So, lets talk about some of the vehicles we used.  My list will be those that I am intimately familiar with.

Transport.

M151, Truck, Utility, 1/4 Ton. - This was the "Jeep" of my era. Ubiquitous to the Army, this little vehicle went everywhere. Fun to drive, rugged, dangerous.  The driver sat on the gasoline tank and the vehicle was known for rolling over in a turn.  Produced until 1988, it was supplanted by the HMMWV.

M998, HMMWV.  The Hummer.  Both beloved and despised by my generation, it serves the Army today. I was issued one in 1996 and kept it until I retired in 98.  Mine would run down the road at 55 mph and was as nimble as a mountain goat.   We never stuck it, although we took it into some sketchy places.  Mine was the soft-top with no armor.  Canvas doors and a radio. It got me where I needed to go, and always brought me home.

M39 series, 5 ton, 6x6 truck.  Also known as the M54, this beast was the prime mover for the Army the entire time I was in service. This thing hauled troops, food, medicine, ammo, and fuel. It was the primary hauler between the logistics base and the troops in the field.

Armored Vehicles

M113 Armored Personnel Carrier. If you were in the Army during Vietnam or the Cold War, you knew what these were. It carried a squad of infantry. They were everywhere. I spent many a miserable hour in these damned things. The suspension was terrible. The seats were uncomfortable and the back ramp would fall on you and kill you. 'Nuff said.  It beat walking.

M60 series tank.  My first tank was an M60A1.  I got it in 1975 when I was assigned to Charlie Company, 4th Battalion, 37th Armor at Fort Knox, KY. According to the log boo, that tank was built by the Chrysler Corporation in 1963. It had a 105mm rifled tube, no stabilization and a coincidence range finder. Everything on it was purely mechanical.  The night-vision was the old style infare that required a light source. I kept that tank for fourteen months when I moved from platoon leader to an XO slot in the 4th Brigade.

The last tank I took downrange was an M60A3.  This was a much-improved version, with better suspension, a laser range finder, GPS system, improved optics and true thermal night sights. The M60A3 was a great tank, one that I truly favored.

M577 Command Post Carrier.  This thing was a variant of the M113, designed to accommodate a tactical command post. Generally, you would find four of these in a battalion, one or each of the staff functions.  (Personnel, Intelligence, Operations and Logistics).  They would park together and form a command post.

M551 Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle.  The "Sheridan".  This thing was not a tank, but OhMyGod, it was a lot of fun. Nimble, fast, lightweight, it was just a joy to drive and command. It was designed around the Shillelagh missile system, which frankly never worked and was a bad idea from start to finish, but the vehicle was just a lot of fun to operate. The missiles never worked, but the gun would fire a HEP charge that was effective against bunkers and vehicles.  Of course, it had two machine guns, the 7.62 coax and the big 50 atop the turret. The vehicle was supposed to be "air-droppable" and sure enough, it was.  But only once. After it hit the ground, it became a machine gun emplacement.

We won't talk about the M1 Abrams, simply because I know little about it.  My last unit, 1/156 was an M1 unit, but I was a staff-rat and never took one downrange.  It's a great tank, but not one that I have any experience with.

Thursday Thoughts

 I have not been ignoring y'all, I just haven't found anything that piques my interest enough to write about.  This morning, though, I found an email from Jacob at Wideners.  They have done a deep dive on the .300 Blackout.  For those of you unaware, the .300 Blackout is a niche cartridge designed to run through a standard AR platform.  Some folks really like it.

For those interested, the link is here. It looks fairly interesting, and there is a lot of information there.

In other shooting mews, I'm having trouble with the Winchester 94 I mounted the red dot sight on.  Mainly, having trouble scheduling range time.  Life keeps getting in the way of range time.

Fr those of you, who like me, are not particularly interested in watching the clock, I am reminded that once again this weekend, we are going to do the whole "Fall Back" thing on Sunday morning. I don't recall when this foolishness started, but I would not be averse to seeing it end.  Pick one and stick with it, but don't make me change my clock twice a year.

Water Heater

 I built this shop during the winter of 16-17 and installed the kitchen during the spring f 2017.  I installed a small 4-gallon water heater under the sink so that we could wash dishes. I came in from the range yesterday and found that it was leaking.  Well, hell.

Went online to Lowe's and Stine's and didn't see anything there I liked.  Belle searched Amazon and found a small on-demand heater for less than $100.  Overnight shipping, it came in this morning. I snatched the old one out from under the sink, made a trip to the hardware store, came back and installed the new one. It's different, but it works.  Plug and play. The temperature of the water is dependent on how fast the flow.  Wide open, it's just over body temp, but if you throttle the flow down to a trickle, it gets hot enough that you don't want your hand under it.

We'll try this out and see how it works. There may be a learning curve, but if we don't like it, it is easy enough to snatch out of there.

About That Core-Lokt

 A commenter notes:

Ah, another person who finds that the tried and true Core-Lokt is still a very good round, and quite capable of taking care of any problem that the more modern, computer designed bullets can take care of.

I came to the Core-Lokt in 1974 when I bought my first centerfire rile. Up until then, I had been a shotgunner, hutting squirrels, rabbits, ducks and geese.  I came to deer hunting in college and decided that I needed a rifle, rather than shooting them with buckshot.  So, I saved my pennies and bought a Marlin Model 336 in .35 Remington.  Quite a purchase, it cost me ~$100, which represented a week's pay for a pore, starvin' college student who was living in his first apartment.

For ammo, I picked up a box o Remington's 200 grain ammo and never looked back.  I hand been reading all the literature and knew that deer run away when shot.  When I got my chance a month later at a middling buck, I was a bit surprised when he dropped straight down. He was Dead Right There, in the middle f the trail where I spotted him. I hunted with that rifle for the next 15 years and never had to track a deer.  They all flopped.

In 1991 I decided that I needed a new rifle.  While brewing the used gun racks, I found a Remington Model 7 in 7mm-08.  It had a Leupold scope and the tag said $400.  I bought it and the counter guy threw in a box of Remington's 140 grain load. (As I think about it, that rifle also represented a week's pay.) That rile shot that ammo like a laser beam, throwing those Core-Lokt bullets into the same hole with boring regularity. I made some great shots with that rifle.  I lost it during a financial crisis stemming from the Great Divorce. Truth be told, I mourned the loss of the rifle more than the loss of the woman.  Funny how that worked out.  I never bought another 7mm-08.  Too many old memories, I guess.

Don't get me wrong, I have used other bullets.  I'm a big fam of Sierra's whole line, and I like the Nosler Ballistic Tip.  I've used the Barned Triple-Shock  And, I have a load in .243 Winchester that uses the Hornady VLD.  Bullet technology is amazing these days.  But for sub-3000 fps and under 200 yards, it is hard to beat the Core-Lokt.  It just works.

Tuesday Tidbit

 Watching the news while sipping coffee, I notice that the French are continuing their ancient tradition of being overrun by foreign powers. One would think that they had learned their lesson during the first half of the 20th century, but from what I'm seeing, they learned nothing.

I, for one, am not interested in another French intervention.  Belle's father was in the Army during the first French invasion, and I had uncles who served during the second French occupation. They need to save themselves this time.

On a related note, I reckon that anyone who advocates for open borders should at least be morally consistent and leave their hones unlocked which they leave for the day. Consistency, like charity, starts at home.

Now, though, on a more local note, I need to spend some time studying ballistics charts. I need to review the ballistics of the .30 cal, 170 grain round nose Core-Lokt.  Fpr the record, the ballistic calculator I use is here..  You need to know the muzzle velocity, the ballistic coefficient of the bullet, and the sight height.

Sunday Reflections

 We buried Bill yesterday. It was a pretty good crowd.  Bill was a man o many parts, all o them good, steadfast parts.  He was an Eagle Scout, a basketball coach, a competitive shooter, a retired educator. His widow asked the shooting club to wear our regalia and serve as "honorary pallbearers".  Of course, we were honored to do so.

I am a decrepit old man.  A lifelong smoker with a body wrecked by years of service on armored vehicles, along with the attendant bad habits that characterizes cavalry service. Yet, when it came time to bear the pall, there were not six o his healthy friends who could lift a casket. I was pressed into service as a pall bearer.

Later that afternoon, stirring a roux, I was struck by the irony that I have recently carried three healthy men to their grave. I'm not complaining, you understand, simply stuck by the irony that "healthy" friends are dyeing off. The last two did it right.  They had a good day, enjoyed a pleasant evening, kissed their wives good night, then rolled over and went to sleep. No lingering, no drama, just went to sleep. That is the way to do it.

I hope, when my time comes, that is the way I'll go.  I also hope that I have enough chain-smoking, semi-alcoholic friends to carry me to the hearse.  Those "healthy" folks can't seem to carry the burden.

Resource Officers

 In the post below, where I said that every school should have a dedicated Resource Officer, one commenter made a common mistake.  

 If a bank can pay one or more individuals to be present during business hours, a public school with resources vastly more precious should be under protections as well.

The public school system should not pay one red cent for Resource Officers.  The funding should come 100% from the police agency.  There are several good reasons for this.

First, school administrators have no idea what cops do for a living, and frankly, most of what a Resource Officer does is sit on his ass. The good ones are moving most of the time, learning the school and keeping watch.  Wandering through the parking lots, or judging the fencing around the perimeter.  But, there is a lot of sitting on your ass.  Administrators hate this and will try to put the Resource Officer on duties that are not related to law enforcement.

Second, administrators hate bad press.  When a cop does his job, it generates reports.  Administrators don't like it when the cop assigned to the school actually makes an arrest in the building or on the school grounds. They think it reflects poorly on the school.

The Resource Officer needs the authority to make arrests in accordance with the law.  I worked in a high school and my basic yardstick was that if any other person could be arrested for the crime at Wal Mart, they could also be arrested for the same crime at the school. I did not arrest for every school yard tussle, but I had broad discretion to do so. The students knew this, and so did the faculty.

My assignment was in a high school.  I normally wrote 110 reports each year, and made 25-30 arrests per year.  Sometimes the principal like it, sometimes he didn't.  I always worked well with my principals, but they knew that I worked WITH then, not FOR them.

Third, cops cost more than teachers, at least locally. If the administrators had the option of hiring an additional cop, or an additional teacher, what might they do? We estimated that it cost the Sheriff's Office $75K per year to put an officer in a school. At that time, they could get a new teacher, fresh out of college, for about $45K per year.

Our Sheriff was smart about funding.  He asked the people for a 1-cemt sales tax to fund the Resource Officers. The voters approved it in a parish-wide ballot.  The school administrators didn't want it.  They were aghast at the idea. But the voters approved it and the school-house folks knew better than to resist. 

Casual Violence

 The news is buzzing with reports of a school shooting in Band, Oregon yesterday.  Three students and a teacher are dead, along with the suspected shooter.  This is a tragedy, but one that might have been amplified if not for the courageous action of a community member.  According to CNN:

A community member who saw the teenager entering Silver Rail Elementary School at about 1 p.m. followed him in before engaging him in gunfire, killing him before responding officers arrived, Krantz said.

Well Done, community member.  What we have here is a "good guy with a gun".  My thoughts and prayers are with the victims, along with deep respect to that "community member". Without that intervention, this could hae been much worse.

I spent the last 15 years f my career as a School Resource Officer.  It is my considered opinion that every school in the nation needs at least one Resource Officer, trained in this very demanding specialty of law enforcement.

Ruger Discontinues

 Belle clued me in to a rumor today that Ruger is going to discontinue a big part of their product line.

Guns.com has the skinny ,but if true, then the revolvers are gone, the 77 series rifles, the Ruger No 1, many of their carbines, and some others.  They list the Ruger Vaquero as gone, and those of us who play Cowboy games are wondering if the New Model Vaquero is also on the chopping block?

Wow.  It looks as if Ruger's catalog can now be printed on a leaflet.  What's left?  A few pistols and ARs? I guess we will have to wait and see.

UPDATE:  The American Rifleman says this about that.

Effective immediately, Ruger is ceasing production of its LCR, SP101, GP100 and Bearcat revolvers. The company plans to complete its final production runs of the following models for 2026: SR1911, LC Carbine, PC Charger, PC Carbine, LC Charger, Redhawk, Super Redhawk, Blackhawk, Super Blackhawk, Single-Series revolvers, Vaquero, No. 1, 77-Series rifles, Hawkeye and Ruger Precision Rifle.

That is two sources.

Eley Target

 I was ordering some cleaning brushes and decided to go see what was available in .22LR.  I found some Eley Target at a pretty fair price. It's about a third the price of Tenex.  What the hell, I dropped a brick in the cart and checked out.

When it came in yesterday, I was a bit surprised at the packaging.  I've bought a lot of .22 ammo over the years and bicks o .22 generally come in cardboard boxes.  Not this stuff.

Next time I take the .22 out, I'll give this stuff a whirl.  If it groups well through by barrel, I have a winner.  IF not, it will serve r plinking ammo.  I just thought it was weird, wrapped in plastic rather than cardboard.

Anyone have any experience with this stuff?

As a young Dad, raising sons and cattle, I remember buying Peters .22LR at the farmers Co-op for $10.00 a brick.  With three young sons, I bought a lot of that stuff.  It shot well enough for taking squirrels, rabbits, and the occasional stray cat.  That is a story my boys tell and we will leave that one for later.

UPS, Please

 I get packages, just like everyone else.  Sometimes UPS, sometimes FedEx, sometimes Amazon.

UPS is problematic.  Their drivers are lazy, ignorant, or both.

Today, for example.  I ordered some ammo and some cleaning brushes from MidwayUSA.  UPS sent me a delivery notice. "ON THE PORCH".  I have two porches, so I went out to the front porch.  The one by the front door.  No package.  I went out to the back porch. No package.  Honestly, I doubted that the driver would have left it on the back porch, because that requires opening a gate. Still, no luck.

Belle and I started looking, and she found it leaning against the garage door. Which is not a porch, nor is it near a porch, nor is it where they said they left it. So, the driver is either lazy, ignorant, or both.

When I picked up the package, I found a hole in the box.  Luckily, nothing had spilled out, but I doubt that Midway shipped it with a hole in the box.

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.

Cycling

 I have three big AC units in the shop, and since June I have left one of them running even when we aren't in the shop  I have the thermostat set and it seems to help keep the place cooler, with a shorter cool-down time.

This mooring we awoke to milder temps, drier air, and the coffee on the patio was very pleasant.  When the dog and I walked out to the shop, I was pleased to see that the AC unit was cycled off.  It's cooler in here than it has been sine last May.

We still have a lot of summer left in subtropical Louisiana and we are in a drought with no relief in sight for the next week or so.  But, this morning gives me reassurance that milder temps are on the way. In another month, I might be able to make a gumbo.

Very soon, I'll be hauling propane bottles to the feed store to heat the place.

Gloom and Doom

 It's a popular meme in science fiction, dramatized by Arnold Schwartzenegger about the day that Skynet became self-aware.  Great movie and scary gloom and doom about computers are going to kill us all.

Now in an Orwellian twist, I see that the tech giants on the forefront of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are asking government to regulate them. That is the most bizarre thig I have ever heard.  Huge companies asking government to get involved in their business.

The huge fallacy here is that government is capable of intelligently regulating technology that so few of us understand.  My congressman, for example, is incapable of regulating himself.  He's an idiot. Come November, he will be out of work, but I don't hold out much hope for his replacement, at least in any technical field.  Congress is the last body I want to see regulating AI.

As for these tech giants, are they incapable of regulating themselves?  They need Big Brother to keep the genie locked in the bottle?

Lets note the timing.  We are less than two months away from the mid-term elections.  I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but both the subject matter and timing are suspicious.  This whole idea is so bizarre as to beg for conspiracy theories.  What is the real play?

Something is afoot and all we are seeing is the smokescreen.

New Frontier

 Talking with a friend last week, he told me that our local gun shop, Bulletproof Outfitters, had some old Colt revolvers on consignment.  I was intrigued.

I dropped in this morning and asked about Colt revolvers.  I found nothing that was suitable fr Cowboy Fast Draw, but they did have some interesting Colt New Frontier revolvers.  The New Frontier was introduced in 1961 to compete with the Ruger Blackhawk.  Basically, the New Frontier is the old SAA with adjustable sights.

The tag says .44 Mag, but the barrel is plainly marked 44 Spc.  It's a nice revolver, but I have mine.  Mine is a Lipsey's Blackhawk in .44 Special.  We call it the Poor Man's #5, in tribute to Elmer Keiths revolver.

They also had an over priced Ruger #1 in the rack, but I wasn't interested in .308 and didn't feel like dickering.

Trail Cam

 Brother in Law came over yesterday to eat lunch.  He shard a photo from his trail camera.  He has a small deer lease near Trout, LA and like many of us, has trail cameras set out to watch wildlife.  Trail cam resolution is what it is and he had a photo on it that needs opinions.

Some sort of cat.  Larger than your garden variety tabby, but bigger than the bobcats we normally see in the area.  Maybe a small panther.  I took the photo and ran it through the computer.  Came up with this image.

I'm voting bobcat, based on the stripes we see on the cats leg. I don't think it is a panther.  But I could be wrong.  However, based on what I know about local bobcat, that is a big-ass bobcat.

Wha say ye?

Trigger-monetry

 Someone asked recently about Cowboy Fast Draw shooting, what is the degree of angle that the muzzle has to fall in to hit the target.   We know several things and the rest of it is just basic trigonometry.

Width of the base (target) is 17.1875 inches

Distance to target is 180 inches (15 feet).

So, it's a matter of doing the trig, or using a suitable calculator.  By plugging in values, we learn that the apex angle of such a triangle is 5.47 degrees.

And now we know, mathematically.  The muzzle of the revolver has to be within an arc of 5.47 degrees to hit the target.

Contrails

 It was a mental game I'd play at the turn of the century.  My porch in Natchitoches Parish had a good view of the sky and I'd look at the contrails crossing the sky.  Southwest to est northeast?  Probably the Houston - Atlanta route.  Southeast to Northwest, probably New Orleans to Dallas.   It was just a mental game, wondering where all those people were going.

On the afternoon of 9/11 I went back to work, doing a night shift before a couple of days off.   Getting off work on Wednesday morning, I stopped by Wal Mart to buy an American flag, but they were sold out.   I headed home, ready for a nap, and when I got out of the truck, I looked up at the sky.  Nothing.  No contrails at all. The FAA had closed all the airspace on the United States.

Growing up in central Louisiana, there was always something in the sky.  Commercial air, military traffic, general aviation.  Even little crop dusters buzzing around. For the first time in my life I was looking at a sky without aviation.  It was decidedly odd, and quiet. 

Anniversary

 Today is the 25th anniversary of 9/11,  The most successful terrorist attack on the US mainland.  Many living Americans don't remember it, simply because they had not been born yet.

Today is a good day to reflect and to remember the chaos.

Lest we forget.

Lovebug

 The lovebug is a pest that came up from Central  America.  From the wiki:

The lovebug (Plecia nearctica) is a species of march fly found in parts of Central America and the southeastern United States, especially along the Gulf Coast.[2] It is also known as the honeymoon fly or double-headed bug. During and after mating, mature pairs remain together, even in flight, for up to several days.[3]

They neither sting nor bite, they simply aggravate other creatures. We are in an infestation right now, with probably a thousand mated pairs between the house and the shop.  When killed, their innards are acidic to the point that the acid from their innards will eat the paint off your car.  If you are driving down the highway and encounter a swarm, your windshield turns green and the wipers smear the slime.  Oh, they are nasty

I know that all of God's creatures have a purpose, but I can't figure out the lovebug.  We hates them, we does.

Distracted

 I've been distracted the last several days with piddling chores that kept me away from the blog. Noting major, just piddling distractions that crop up from time to time.

I'm sure by now you have heard of the 21 Air crash in Miami, when this freight company ran a Boeing 767 off the end or the runway after a botched landing.  Quite a mess, it looks like they put it in a parking lot, killed a bunch of folks and injured others.  Very tacky.

From what I'm seeing online, 21 Air needs to rethink their whole flying program. Matt Walsh, a guy not known for aviation safety content, giving the ism the what-for.  It's interesting to see him take them apart.

I don't blame Amazon.  They contract freight companies, and I'm sure that the contracts specify standard safety concerns. And, to be totally honest, I had never considered how my Amazon package gets to me.  Nor my UPS or FedEx package.  I don't know much about air safety, but I will hazard a guess that running a big Boeing into a car park and killing people is considered a disqualifier.

Juries

 Have y'all been paying attention to the trial going on?  The one where the woman murdered her three children and the jury is hung up?

I'm reminded of Mark Twain's observation in his work, Roughing It.

The jury system puts a ban upon intelligence and honesty, and a premium upon ignorance, stupidity and perjury. It is a shame that we must continue to use a worthless system because it was good a thousand years ago. In this age, when a gentleman of high social standing, intelligence and probity, swears that testimony given under solemn oath will outweigh, with him, street talk and newspaper reports based upon mere hearsay, he is worth a hundred jurymen who will swear to their own ignorance and stupidity, and justice would be far safer in his hands than in theirs. Why could not the jury law be so altered as to give men of brains and honesty and equal chance with fools and miscreants? Is it right to show the present favoritism to one class of men and inflict a disability on another, in a land whose boast is that all its citizens are free and equal? I am a candidate for the legislature. I desire to tamper with the jury law. I wish to so alter it as to put a premium on intelligence and character, and close the jury box against idiots, blacklegs, and people who do not read newspapers. But no doubt I shall be defeated-- every effort I make to save the country "misses fire." 

Not much has changed.

Stranded

 Reminiscing about 9/11.

My Dad was 67 years old, recently retired, and wanted to see the great American Southwest.  The Painted Desert, Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon.   He and Mom planned a trip and decided that Los Vegas would serve nicely as a hub for this adventure.  They booked the trip and in early September 2001 got on a plane.

Early afternoon of 9/11 the phone rang.  It was my sister.  "Dad and Mom are stranded in Los Vegas."

I considered that information briefly, weighed options, said "Okey", and hung up the phone.

She called back immediately.  "Did you hear me? Dad and Mom are stranded in Los Vegas!  They got on the plane this mourning, but it didn't take off.  They are back at the hotel. Stranded in Vegas."

I softened my tone. "Sweetheart, do you hearer what you are saying? If I had to make a list of places to be stranded in, Vegas would be at the top. I'm sure that the Old Man has a clean, comfortable room with a TV and a cafe on the first floor."  I continued. "If they were stranded in Jasper, Texas I would get in the car and head west.   They are not, they are stranded in Los Vegas. They'll be fine."

Mom and Dad got home four or five days later. The only thing Dad was upset about was that they would not let him board the flight with his pocket knife. They took his little 3-blade stockman knife that he carried everywhere and he was mightily offended.

Thursday, Again

 Its Thursday morning and not much happening on PawPaw's acre.  What's left of Edouard is dumping rain on east Texas.  We're getting a bit here in central Louisiana and we needed it.

Belle is running errands.  The dawg and I are out in the shop.  Belle has been hungry for chicken pot pie and that is her recipe.  She told me to take out some chicken thighs and she would make a pot pie when she finished her errands.

I'm thinking about the anniversary of 9/11.  It's been 25 years.

Belle and I had been dating for eight months.  I had worked a night shift at the Natchitoches Parish Detention Center, got off work at 5;00 am, went home and fell into bed. Shortly after 8:00 CDT the phone rang.  it was a friend telling me to get up and turn on the TV.

I saw the North tower burning and thought "what the helll?", then watched the second plane hit the other tower.  "That was no accident."  I stumbled into the kitchen, put on a pot of coffee and  spent the  rest of the day curled up on the couch watching television. I had calls from friends and family and got no sleep that day.  At 5:00 pm I reported back to work for another night shift, tired, grumpy and in no mood for standard inmate bullshit. The others on shift felt the same way. It was a quiet night.

Where were you when the world stopped turning?

TS Edouard

 It looks like Tropical Storm Edouard (ain't that cute) has finally been named.

As storms go, Ed is pretty piddling, but he will bring wind and rain to Texas.  It looks like he is heading toward Dallas, which is in the throes of a drought, having had no rain in August. The Houston/Galveston/Beaumont area is no stranger to tropical weather and I wish them no ill will, but if you are going to be hit by a storm, this one is the one you want.  If this thing goes as forecast, DFW will get a little rain, which they need.

Watching the Tropics

 On the last day of August, we are watching the tropics.  There is a blob of unsettled weather just south of New Orleans that everyone is expecting to become tropical storm Edouard.    For whatever that is worth.  it is expected to organize, gain strength and come ashore somewhere near the Louisiana/Texas line.  Maybe closer to Beaumont.  who knows.

They are also watching the remnants of Dolly.   It has been a slow season for tropical storms, and I am okay with that.

Pecan Island

 Governor Jeff Landry and Elon Musk made the announcement this week, Elon and SpaceX are going to build a launch facility near Pecan Island, LA.    There are lots of good reasons to build a spaceport on the coast and Musk chose Pecan Island as the place he wanted to build.

Termite sent me this graphic, which deserves wide distribution.

We wish Musk and SpaceX good things and we hope that Louisiana serves his needs and the needs of the broader community for years to come.

Gravel

 We built this shop during the winter of 2017-18 and put down gravel during that winter.  That has been eight years.  Around here, crushed limestone is the preferred driveway material  The limestone dust packs well between the stones and makes a firm driveway that needs very little maintenance.

That is Belle's parking spot, immediately adjacent to the main entrance door. I wanted to get this done before the winter rains set in. My gal is a diehard country girl but at this stage of her life objects to walking through mud.

Filters

 Sometime about the middle of May, we had to buy a new fridge for the house. Belle went online to the Lowe's site and picked out a fridge.  A nice Frigidaire on sale.  Had it delivered.  The fellow who delivered it and set it up was a nice fellow, very professional, did a great job setting it up, connecting the ice maker and walking me through the process.

Couple of days ago, the fridge threw a code on the door panel, telling me that it needs an air filter.

What?  An air filter?  Seriously?  So, we went to Amazon and ordered some air filters. They will be in tomorrow.  Today, I came in and it is throwing another code.  It wants a water filter.  Hence, we have ordered some water filters.

My old fridge stood there for almost 20 years and when Lowes hauled it off it had the same filter in it that the manufacturer had installed.

It is a nice fridge, but it is needy.

Wednesday

 It's hot outside.  Belle is puttering in the kitchen.  Lunch will soon be upon us.  Just another Wednesday in the piney woods of central Louisiana.

I'm being worthless today.  As is my right as an old retired curmudgeon.  I will haul off some trash later, but that is about the extent of my ambition today.  As I scroll through my news feeds I note that it is all Dolly, all the time. That is to be expected, I guess.

The tropics are quiet, almost spooky quiet.  Looking at the list of names for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, I note that the name Dolly is on the list.  Strange coincidence.

Rest In Peace, Dolly

 After a busy morning, I turned on the computer and learned that Dolly parton has died at age 80.

Dolly/s music has been a constant in mu life.  She was truly a superstar in the music industry, and her music has reached across genres.  She will be sorely missed.

Hot

We are in the mid-August heat wave.  It hasn't rained in a couple of weeks and the sun is a constant tormentor. The grass is "crunchy", dry and coarse.  In short, it is hot. Humidity is only at 36%, but the heat feels like a blanket.

 There is a chance of a passing thunderstorm tonight, but it is well under 50%.  Any rain would help but I'm not holding out for a deluge.

Oath of Office

During this election cycle we have become aware of candidates who purport to be Democratic Socialists.

Go to their website, or even listen to them and they will tell you what they want.  Abolish the Senate, change the President into a Prime Minister,  expand or abolish the Supreme Court.  That is Article I, II, and III.

Yet, they are seeking election to the US House, which requires an Oath of Office.

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”

A Democratic Socialist cannot take that oath without a purpose of evasion. They cannot bear true faith and allegiance.

I'm just saying.

Cougars

 Cougars  (catamount, panthers, whatever) are in lots of places where the Wildlife Weenies don't seem to want to admit that they have cougars.  Like in Michigan for example. Good for Michigan for admitting what landowners and hunters have known for years.

When I lived in Natchitoches Parish in the early 80s, I had panthers on my property.  i would hear then occasionally and saw them twice.  Ours were dark brown, almost chocolate and would appear black in certain light conditions.  The neighbors would talk about sightings, but the wildlife weenies would not admit that we had then in the area.  okay, fine. In 2002 I wrote about it on Castbullet.

If you want to stir up some crap around a campfire, tell then that there is no such thing as a black panther.  In certain low-light conditions a brown panther will look black. That is what people see and that is what they report.  If you go back to the little video linked above, one of the photos looks black.

I'm just glad that they are out there.

Dog Days

 On this 19th day of August we are officially in the dog days of summer.  The local weather weenies tell us that our afternoon temps will flirt with triple digits, if not surpass it. As we approach the typical peak of the hurricane season, the tropics are unusually quiet. Thus far we have had only three named storms, and I had to verify that  It is quiet.

The national weather weenies tell us that fall teps are just around the corner.  That is well and good for the rest of you, but I am aware that I live in Deep South Louisiana and.  We are two months away from taking out the flannel shirts.

This is the first day in a while that Belle and I have nothing scheduled.  No appointments, no obligations. the only problem with doing nothing is that you are never sure when you have finished. As such, I pulled some fish from the freezer, and it is thawing in the sink.  I'll make a run up to the Dollar Store in a bit to pick up some french fries.

Mechanics and Medicine

 I took my Honda to the dealer today to get it serviced. It's a 2020 Odyssey with ~60K miles.  It needed an oil change and a tire rotation.  when the dealer finished and we were settling up, she told me that my vehicle has two safety recalls.  One for the rearview camera and one for an air bag. The only problem is that they don't have the parts for the recall.

For one of the recalls (I forget which) they will order the part and it will be in by next Tuesday, when we'll do the recall work.  Thor the other, the dealer can only order one (1) per day, and they have thousands of customers on that list.

I recently realized that I had lost the appointment for my primary care doc.  I called the office, but that was a no-go, so while I was in town today, I went to the doc's office to check. It's next month.  While I was there, I registered a complaint on behalf of Belle's brother who is in the hospital.  It seems that the coms lines between the hospital and the primary care doc are inop.  No message traffic.  One hand has no clue what the other is doing.  That is the nature of medical practice today.

Friday Editorial

 Back in the day when I got a daily newspaper, I enjoyed reading the editorial page..  I would get a cup of coffee and sit before the fireplace. Sometimes I would agree, sometimes I would disagree and other times I would throw the paper into the fireplace in disgust.

These days, my editorial is on the intertubes and one of the folks I like listening to is victor Davis Hanson. He has a podcast that I enjoy with wide-ranging topics.  Sometimes history, other times current events.  In the one embedded below, one of the topis is the rise of the Democratic Socialists in American politics. The whole podcast is over an hour, but if you skip forward to 25:30 you can get his take on them.  Agree or disagree but he has studied the movement and I have not.

While listening to VDH, I got out the Winchester and started futzing with the new reflex sight. Playing with reticles and brightness.  Learning the sight. I now own precisely two red dot sights. A Vortex tube sight that sits on an AR and this new one on that sits atop the Winchester. At some point I will compare and contrast.

This new sight uses a CR1632 battery, so I'll have to pick up a spare. The Vortex uses a Triple A battery and those are always on hand.

Purists

 Back in the day of The Frugal Outdoorsman, Junior and I were playing with the old .30 WCF cartridge and I bought a Winchester 94 simply because I didn't have one and I  saw one sitting forlornly in a used gun rack.  Mine is nothing special.  It was built in 1965, right after Winchester changed everything, and they called it the Antique Model.  Purists said that this was Winchester's attempt at putting lipstick on a pig.  I thought the price was right and bought it.

I immediately tapped out that execrable buckhorn sight and added a Williams peep. I added a saddle-ring to the left side of the receiver. I shot that rifle for several years as a test bed for castbullet.com, playing with cast bullet loads.  I never made venison with it.

After Junior died, and my eyesight went to hell, that little rifle became a safe queen. I had changed shooting pursuits and didn't do much rifle work for about fifteen years.  Last week, I was digging through the safe and found this little rifle and though how nice it would be to put an optic on it. The purists would howl, but it sure would make this a nice little rifle again.

If you know anything about gun restoration, you have heard of Turnbull Restoration.  Turns out, they make an optics mount for the Winchester 94.  If Turnbull is okay with it, the purists can kick rocks.   This little mount uses the barrel dovetail to mount an optic.  I ordered the mount pronto,  then went over about bought a Burris FastFire4 optic. It has the Docter footprint that the Turnbull mount requires.

The sight has four reticles and I'll have to figure out which is more useful.

Installation was straight forward. Tiny screws and follow the directions.

I think it looks good.  The purists may scoff, but that is their right.

Physics Wins

 Physics wins, every time.

A FRT (Forced Reset Trigger) seems like a lot of fun, and I'm sure that they are.  An FRT simulates full-auto fire in a weapon that is perfectly legal to own and use. And it is dangerous,  simply because automatic weapons require a different mind-set than semiauto weapons.  Because physics wins, every time.

Colion breaks it down for you.  The whole video is worth watching because physics does not often lend itself to simplistic explanations.

I have been blessed in my life to shoot plenty of full auto weapons.  From the M3 to the M2 and everything between. And I know what happens when a bullet gets out of the range fan. You are responsible for every bullet you fire, from the time the bullet starts moving until it stops moving.

Have fun with these things, but please be careful. Because physics always wins.

CMP

 There was some talk at the club this weekend about the M14s the CMP is going to release.  Talk is that the price is going to be sub-$2000 range, and no fun switch.  I carried an M14 in training and it was an okay rifle. I don't hate it, but I'm not a fan, either. It is what it is.

I also heard today that CMP is going to get a supply of M1897 trench shotguns.  That might be interesting.

Well, Damn

 For the first time in 21 years, the old Ford F150 failed to fire when I twisted the key. It cranked over fine, but it would not start. It started two weeks ago when I needed to move it to mow Today, it failed to fire.  We will have to figure that out. I don't run ethanol in this truck because it us used so infrequently.  It hasn't been filled with ethanol for five years.

I find it amusing that folks are freaking out about those Flock cameras because of security and privacy concerns. Those same folks carry a cell phone with them everywhere, and if you think those things aren't collecting data, your naivete is surpassed only by your lack of situational awareness.  Apple, Samsung, Motorola AT&T and Verizon all collect data. Why do you think that meta is building data centers everywhere?

A couple of years ago, I bought a smart garage door opener.  It's real convenient.  If you think it is not collecting data, then wake up and smell the biscuits. Likewise, your vehicle. If it is not old enough to have an ashtray, it is collecting data. If you want to go dark on data, dump you cell phone in the nearest creek, along with your computer, and drive a car that has a carburetor.  Disconnect the cable and internet and watch an old TV that uses an antennae.

You can do it, but you'll be the only one. Flock cameras are the least of your worries.

Old Friend

 Moon came by today.  He's an old friend that we used to shoot Cowboy Fast Draw with.   He's retired from cowboy shooting due to health problems, but he stays active. He had some things he wanted to sell, stuff that the club could use, so we made a deal.

He was carrying an old Colt, a US Army 1911AA1 that was in very nice condition with matching numbers.  It had the half-moon front sight. Very nice piece with matching numbers that is now his EDC.  

More importantly, we got to visit with an old friend. He and his wife live on the Ouachita River, about 20 minutes south of Monroe, LA.  He spends part of each day running trot lines in the river, where he harvests catfish and gar.  Last week, he took 40 pounds of filet catfish to the church for a fish fry.  Last year we wanted to do a fish fry for the club, so we called Moon and he brought 30 pounds for the club.  All he wanted  for his trouble was to sit and eat with us.

We did agree that getting old ain't for sissies.

Cast Iron

 I love cast iron, cook on it every day. We have probably eight or nine skillets.

Several years ago I was at an auction and bought three cast iron skillets, simply because no one was bidding on them. One was a BSR one was a Lodge,  and the one on the bottom was unmarked.  I gave $20 for the stack. Got them home and understood why.  That bottom skillet was a disaster. Rusty, warped and pitted.  It looked like it was used as a dog bowl in someone's back yard.

I cleaned it up and seasoned it.  Began using it on those occasions where I would not normally use good cast iron. Highly acidic food with lots of seasoning, stiff like that.  And, like all my good cast iron, I treat it right. Clean it after every use, dry it over moderate heat, then re-season with good oil.  It still has its pits, it is still warped, but I noticed a week or so ago that Belle made corn bread in it. Today I used it to sauté highly seasoned shrimp in butter.

Then I realized that old pitted, warped dog skillet gets more use than my highly seasoned "good" skillets. When I'm doing something sketchy, it's the skillet I grab, because I can't hurt it.  And Belle's apt to grab it to make cornbread.

There is a metaphor for life in that skillet, if I can just figure it out.

LARPing

 Termite sent me this, and I had to look it up. LARPing is "Live Action Role Play".

So, that explains that.

Which reminds me, I need to order something for arifle.

Quiet

 It's quiet in the tropics for the first week of August.  So far, we have had only two named storms in the Atlantic basin August is normally the month when the Atlantic storms crank up, notably in 2005.  That was a busy year.  A little research tells us that the least active hurricane season on record was 1914 when only one known tropical storm was recorded.

We had a little dry cold front move through over the weekend.  No rain and the temps are not notably lower, but the humidity is down, which is a good thing.

Belle mentioned that she would like a chimichanga for lunch, and I happen to have a recipe. I'll go to the grocers in a bit and see if I can find some tortillas.  

Installed

 Done and done. The new AC unit is in the wall.  I used a long sawsall blade to get between the chassis and cabinet. When the crew arrived (one son, two grandsons), we slid out the old chassis and slid the new AC unit into the hole. Plugged it in and adjusted for max cooling.

Now, it's Happy Hour.