Crawfish Season

 It's officially crawfish season in Louisiana.  Today, I went to the local boiler and got five pounds with potatoes and corn.  Belle and I feasted on that for lunch.

It's also competition season in the CFDA.  In March, we get started in earnest, and that means loading ammo.  One of the rules of CFDA is that the host club furnishes the ammunition for sanctioned matches. This ensures that every competitor is shooting the same ammo.

I'm taking 10K rounds of loaded ammo to Texas State in late March.  They will use my brass, reload it, and bring it to Louisiana State in late May.  Loading CFDA ammo is completely different from standard ammo.  Technically, the only tool you need for CFDA ammo is a thumb. I can load, comfortably, about 500 per day.  I loaded 650 today before my thumb got sore and I decided to call it off.  I have about another 4K to load. It'll get done.

DC DEI Spill

It appears that our nation's capital just suffered the biggest raw sewage spill in the country's history.  Fromm reports, this happened in January and it dumped millions of gallons of raw sewer into the Potomac River. That ain't good.

They are trying to figure it out.  It seems that some of the blame can be laid at the feet of the chair of the Water Board, who is neither an engineer nor a water systems operator.  No, she's a DEI hire. Instapundit lays out the case.

Dr. Unique N. Morris-Hughes is a DEI bureaucrat, non profit “educator”, grant disperser of taxpayer money, & former asst head of a boys charter school

I'm sure that Dr. Morris-Hughes is a charming, educated person, but it this who the residents of Washington DC want running their water system?  Water systems are large, complicated, dirty infrastructure that is the backbone of modern civilization. Getting clean water into a city and dirty water out is a highly technical job. Just because someone has a PhD in Some Unrelated Bullshit, doesn't mean that they are a good candidate to run a water system.

Rest In Peace, Cowboy

 I see that one of my favorite actors died today.  Robert Duvall, at age 95.

He was one of my favorite western actors.  Many know him for his role in The Godfather, and he did a great job there, but I liked him better in western movies. My absolute favorite is Broken Trail, a movie based on a true story.  Of course, many people remember his role as Gus McCrae in Lonesome Dove.

Rest in Peace, Robert.

Sunday Music

Y'all have a great Sunday.

Beignets

 Beignets (ben-yay) are a New Orleans pastry, popularized by the Cafe DuMonde in New Orleans.. Normally eaten at breakfast with a cup of hot coffee, If you can't make it to the Big Easy, you can buy the mix on store shelves or from Amazon.

Or, you can make beignets yourself with what you have in the fridge.

Get a can of whop biscuits.  You know, the kind in the cardboard roll.  The kind you whop on the counter to open.  Yeah those.  Cut then into quarters, then drop them in hit oil until they are golden brown.  Drain on a rack or a paper towel lined tray and sprinkle confectioners' sugar across them.

Serve warm.  You are welcome.

Belts

 I used to own a number of belts.  Duty belts, dress belts, gun belts, casual belts and everyday belts. This morning, I was down to two.  A dress belt I used on dressy occasions, and an everyday belt that held the Model 60 on my waist.

That dress belt was bought, as I recall, sometime around 2004.  It hasn't been worn since I retired in 2019.  All the other belts that own, (excepting the competition rig that carries my Colt holster), went away over the years.  So, I'm down to three belts.  The dressy one, the everyday rig, and the competition rig.

Today, I had to go to a funeral.  I put on slacks and got out the dress bel.  Put it on and when I went to tighten it, broke that sumbitch in half. It had dry-rotted.  Just damn.  I put on the everyday belt and went to the funeral.

I need to go buy a dress belt, something that looks better than the plain, old everyday rig I normally wear.  And that pisses me off to no end.  It's just aggravating.  Now that I think about it, my everyday belt is about five years old.  It might use an update too. I guess it's time to go down to Boot Barn or Cavender's and see what they have hanging in the racks.

And that's where I am with that.

Harbor Freight

Referencing some recent comments on the previous post. 

Harbor Freight, or as I call it, Hobo Freight, is a constant in my shop.  I buy a lot of Harbor Freight tools, because they work.

My buddy, Jay, who died in December, had his A&P license and ran a small manufacturing business where he made tools for the helicopter maintenance trade.  Jay didn't mind spending money on tools, that is how he made his living.  His machine shop had big lathes, mills, all the high-dollar stuff.  In the welding room, I happen to notice one day that every bench had a cheap, Hobo Freight angle grinder on the bench.

I asked him about it.

"They work," he said. "And when they quit, I go buy another one for $15.00."  He appreciated high quality tools but realized the value in a cheap angle grinder that would work for him for two or three years. Sometimes there is value in cheap tools.

Twenty years ago, I didn't trust battery tools.  If I could find a plug and string an extension cord, I could work all day.  Nowadays I don't care to work all day.  When the battery needs a recharge, I take a break.

I can still do a full days work, it just takes me most of the week.

Any man who is 70 and works as hard as he did when he was 35, didn't do much when he was 35.

Mini Chainsaw

 I've run a bunch of chainsaws since my teens.  McCullough, Poulan, Husky, Stihl, Echo, you name it, I've run it.  As I approach my dotage, I am loathe to crank a gas chainsaw. I'm no longer felling timber or cutting firewood, I'm pruning trash trees on my little acre.

Battery technology has improved over the past decade, and the era of plug-it-in-the-wall power tools is about over..  I have gone almost solely to batter operated tools, and I use the yellow-black brand..  All my batteries are yellow-black.

Last week, I needed to do some pruning, so I stated looking around.  As it turns out, Amazon sells chainsaws.  Little handy saws that run on batteries and don't need pull ropes.  I did a little research and bought this one.  It's a no-name Chinese knockoff and uses those familiar yellow-black batteries.

The only thing that didn't come in the box was a syringe to put bar oil into the reservoir.  A quick trip to the feed store solved that problem.  This morning I filled it with bar oil, put in a fresh battery and went out to hairlip a little tree that is in the way.  Thirty minutes later, I wondered why I had waited so long to get one. The little tree is on the burn pile, the battery is on the charger and the saw is back it its case.

This little saw is On Time.  It may not last as long as the branded saws, but it proves the concept.

Weird Weather

 I'm out in the shop right now, with no heat on.  It's the middle of February and unseasonably warm.  The weather-weenies are predicting that the temps will be in the mid-70s this weekend.

The weather is teasing us.  Winter isn't over yet. It's not yet time to put away the propane heaters.

Belle and I are going to make a run to Sam's Club in a bit.  We need entertaining supplies, like paper plates and plastic flatware.  Later today, if Amazon cooperates, I'll be working on a project that should increase the comfort in the shop.

In short, it's just a standard Tuesday around here.

Tea Leaves

 This guy is reading tea leaves and it's interesting.  Watching military air traffic across the US and world.

Signals intelligence comes in many forms, and these days, air flight data can tell you a lot about what is coming. Or, he could b all wrong.

Nationals

 The Cowboy Fast Draw Association is shooting their national championship this weekend in St. Augustine, FL.   This championship moves around, and this is the first time it has been on the east coast.  About 150 shooters from all over the country are enjoying Florida weather and testing their skills.

Belle and I didn't make it this year, for a variety oof reasons.  It just didn't fit into our schedule.  We've pared our schedule back some this year.  We'll do Texas in March, Georgia in April, and we are hosting Louisiana in May.  We plan to go to Kentucky in September.

I'm told that there is some trifling football game tomorrow.   I don't follow football as much as I used to, but the Super Bowl was one game I always watched. I met Belle at a Super Bol party in 2001.   Back then, the big game was the last Sunday in January.  Sometime since then, it has moved to February.

More currently, today is Saturday and I have things on my list.

Quandry

 So I'm hearing about this kidnapping in Arizona and I admit that it is a compelling tale. The woman who has been abducted is in her 80s, and that simple fact alone puts this outside the standard bell curve. The locals and the Feds are working the case.  From what little I've seen of the local Sheriff, he seems to be straight-arrow.

Hopefully, they will find this lady and bring her home safely.

Newspapers

 Newspapers are a relic of a bygone era.  In the 20tth century, every town had a newspaper.  It's where we got the news, weather, and sports.  Classified ads and legal notices.  My hometown paper, the Alexandria Daily Town Talk, exists as a pale shadow of its former self. The press is gone; I'm not sure if they print anything at all. At one point, it was being printed in Lafayette, but now I'm not sure at all.

Other newspapers hang on, grimly.  The news earlier this week was that the Washington Post was eliminating positions and laying off staff.  That seems to be the trend in the newspaper business these days.  However, those journalists still have employment opportunities.

That's funny, right there.

Wednesday Wondering

 There is an old saying about "death and taxes" So far I've cheated death, but once again it is time to deal with the IRS. I despise those sonsofbitches.

Some ignorant twat I've never heard of was talking shit at the Grammys last weekend.  Something about illegals and stolen land.  Turns out, her house is on stolen land.

I can take the moral high ground here.  My land isn't stolen.  When this area was first colonized, a guy named Fulton bought a huge chunk of land from the Choctaw. Land north of the river was considered worthless, fit for nothing but pine trees and brambles.  Fulton bought it and started selling homesteads. The Choctaw are still around.  They own a casino north of here. That same tribe has a small reservation near Jena, LA.  When that area went dry, they opened a package liquor store.  That pleased the Baptists to no end.

Busy Monday

 I hit the ground running this morning.  Good stuff.  Got a lot of stuff done, made progress in a number of projects.

I have our annual state shoot in four months, and it's time to get busy on that. The only problem is that we can't start promoting it until we nail down some details and we simply could not nail then down in January.

The weather was beautiful today, the best we've had in weeks.  The weather weenies tell me that we're in for another cold snap. Maybe we are about to turn the corner for spring.  I think I saw the scouts for the local purple martin flock yesterday.  On the other hand, I have heard that our friends in Florida are having "falling iguana" alerts.  So, it's cold in Florida.

Winter ain't over yet.  We still have February to live through.

Renunion

 A bunch of guys I went to high school with showed up at the shop on Saturday to renew old friendships.

Food was consumed, cigars were smoked, and they hit the whiskey.  My bottle of Stranahan's is now defunct.