Scrap Iron, Grease, and Grain

The last three days.

2012-01-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

This blog isn't all dead, just MOSTLY dead. I have had a pretty stressful time the last few weeks. Family stuff and all that. I'll spare you the details. But it did cause me to put in a job application for a deputies position in Bozeman MT.

For one reason or another they let me come up and compete for the chance at an interview. This is how their selection process works. Your resume gets a point value assigned to it. Meet a set value and you get invited to the next step. The next step in this case is a standardized law enforcement written exam. Again another point value is assigned and if your combined score is a good enough, you get to move on to round three. I don't know what my scores where, but I made it to round three. Round three consists of a standardized physical readiness assessment. The MPAT( you can look it up on youtube) looks like its kids play, but it will kick your butt if you don't pace yourself. I did get my score on that one and I managed to max out my point value on the test with a 4:18 time. You have a max time limit of 5:30.
Now at this point, they tell us that they already have their sixteen applicants picked out of the seventy that started out, so unless something drastic changed, we probably would be going home at this point. It was no sweat off of my back, but I stuck around for a few hours waiting to check the advancement list, just in case. When it was released I checked it three times to make sure that I wasn't on there. I wasn't so I drove the 6 hrs home, just beating a big cold snap and snow storm home. (Its pushing -20 tonight.)
When I arrived home, I checked the web page to see who else made it, and wouldn't you know it, there was my name at the top off the list for advancement to the interview stage. Boy did I feel like a heel. I sent an email out immediately letting them know that I wouldn't be making it because of my apparent inability to read. Then the next morning I called to let them know for sure and to apologize for the inconvenience I had caused. They let me know that it was okay, and to watch their site, as they would likely be hiring again within the next year, and oh by the way you had made the top five in points out of the seventy applicants. Thank you and good bye.
Now I felt like an really large ass. But what do you do. Whats done is done. That, and it would seem that while I was gone, we have come closer to being able to communicate among family members. So it was easier to decline the invitation when Bozeman called back later today and asked if I could possibly come back and interview. You can't when for losing I tell you.

Ballistic tips and velocity, you decide.

2011-11-10T17:45:00.000-07:00

I have a couple hundred rounds of 22-250 loaded up with 55 grain BT rounds. They are the orange tipped ones. Lately I have not been impressed with their performance. I've shot a coyote and a raccoon, both solid hits at roughly 125 yards. They both got up after being knocked down and ran quite a ways(1 mile for the coyote and 300 yards for the coon) before tipping over. At that range and with this rifle caliber, they should be D-E-A-D, dead at that range. My experience with these bullets is that they enter and then explode. But they do not exit at all. I believe that some of the problem lies with the powder load. I don't have the specific recipe sitting in front of me, but I do know that they are loaded up at the extreme upper edge of safe. I have no doubt that has something to do with those bullets poor performance. I have shoot soft points for years with great success and I may go back to them. They seem to hold up better at higher velocities.
On a flip side I have a .257 Roberts that pushes 25-06 velocities with 110 accubonds and have had great success with that particular bullet. It all falls into bullet design. I must learn to load to bullet design and not to my desires for trajectory.

The importance of photograghs.

2011-10-28T19:41:00.000-06:00

Through most of my life I rarely took photos of the things I did or of the people I had the pleasure to meet. I was satisfied with the memories in my head. The problem with this is that you can never really share those memories with other people as well as you could with photos. Now there are exceptions. Some people have a gift of word that can paint a more complete picture than any photo. I'm not one of those people.

It really wasn't until I was married to my beautiful wife that I began to really appreciate photos. She has a natural eye and takes tons of photographs. One of the things that she has shown me, is that its the everyday things that we cherish the most when we go through that pile of photographs. Oh sure we all have those vacation photos that are fun, but we'll sit and talk, argue, and wonder over one photo of grandpa feeding some cows. It just has more significance to us.

I've tried to be better about taking pictures, but sometimes I just forget to take my camera. And I forever miss those moments that hold some significance for me. This last weekend when I went to Miles City for some training. I was able to join the Fire Department for a ride to put out a small bale fire that was part of a autumn display. I spent that night picking the brains of the Fire Crew about EMS procedures and trying to soak up some of their experience. I could see a dozen picture opportunities but I didn't take them. The following day I went out with one of my friends from the Fire Department and spent the afternoon doing equipment checks and practicing search patterns with our dive equipment. I took one picture. I planned on taking more, but I kept getting sidetracked.

On Monday two of the Fire Crew came out and went hunting. One of them was my dive partner and the other was one who tried to impart wisdom into my thick skull on Saturday night. Both are really good guys. We spent the day hunting and bagged two animals. Again I didn't think to take pictures. There is always tomorrow.

Tomorrow has come and gone. I received word this morning that my friend Tim McGlothlin, a Miles City Fire Fighter, and a good friend, died last night, Oct. 27, as a result from accident while riding a mountain bike on a trail that he has rode many times this summer. I only have one photo of the last time we spent hanging out together, and that's a shame. Its not even a good picture, but its what I have.

Rest in Peace Tim, we will miss you. You lived a life that anyone would have been proud of.

What a week and more to come.

2011-10-26T07:23:00.000-06:00

This last week was fairly busy. The chill is in the air. Woke up to the mid-20's temps this morning. This has made us shuffle our priority work schedule a bit. Some things you just don't like to do when its freezing out. Like pouring cement or washing equipment.

Everyone in the country is busy shipping calves. The highways are full of trucks headed to feedlots all over. We ship the first week of November, so right now we're busy prepping our corrals, shifting cattle around, and helping the neighbors ship.

It hasn't been all work and no play though. Last Saturday I went into Miles city and spent the night with the Miles City Fire Department in order to get some training and field experience with their ambulance crew. But it was a slow night and we didn't get any call outs for the ambulance. I did spend quite a bit of time discussing equipment and looking at how they do things. Good training. Then on Sunday Tim(one of the firefighters) and I went out to a local pond and did some dive training. The new neck seal that I put in my dry suit worked very nicely without any leaks and all other equipment checked out well. 20 minutes in the water carrying full gear and a 30 cu. pony bottle for drag made me realize once again how out of shape I really am. Visibility was a glorious 6 inches and I found numerous soda cans and dog toys while doing search patterns. It was a good day breathing canned air. Gotta love it.

On Monday two of the firefighters, Tim and Tyson, came out to the ranch and we spent the day hunting. We had a slight sprinkle all day, but it wasn't bad at all for hunting. Tyson filled his antelope tag with a nice buck in the morning and then filled a mule deer doe tag later in the afternoon. He jerky's(?) everything and he shared some of what he made last year. He does a great job and doesn't bake it tell its crunchy, but still has some moisture in it.

It was good to get out with some friends. But its time to get back to the grind and get some work done. I have a water tank to repair and some new corral to build in the next few days. If I can come up with enough post material. Number 1 railroad ties are getting hard to find. And a bunk of number 2 ties will get you about 8 ties that are good, 5 that are so-so, and the rest are junk that you can take back for more.

School is just past its halfway point for me. Current discussions in the government class are about bureaucracy and the agencies created to manage all the bureaucracy. In Criminal Justice we are discussing our prison systems and alternative forms of punishment. Radio collars for the masses.

Have a good rest of the week and we'll see you some time........soon...ish.

A gun post.....of sorts.

2011-10-05T21:18:00.001-06:00

I'm an AR novice of the worst sort. I've shot lots a bolt and lever action rifle, shotguns of every variety, and just about every kind of handgun out there. But when it comes to the AR I've sort of stayed away. Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore the AR style rifle. But I've successfully avoided them for many years, just to keep from developing an unhealthy lust for one.

When I started as Reserve Deputy, (which actually hasn't happened in nearly 2 months) I was issued a Patrol Rifle. A Rock River carbine. A no frills workhorse. My training was basically I went out with the Highway Patrol who happens to be an instructor for AR, and shot fifty rounds at a target at a distance of 75 yards, while leaning over the hood of the patrol pickup and also while standing. All 50 rounds where accounted for and that sums up that training.

About 2 months ago, I took out the rifle and ran few steel case training rounds through it, roughly thirty rounds, and put it back dirty. An experiment of sorts. Well last week I finally got around to doing some more training with it. This time I decided to do some night time drills. I need a better flashlight is the first thing I learned. I couldn't light up the target enough to silhouette the sights over the target at a range greater than 30 yards.   But here comes the fun part. Still using the steel cased training rounds, I fired off about 30 rounds. Round 31 jams going into the chamber. Tight. As in no forward assist is going to move that sucker. I try manually cycling the weapon, uhmmmm not happening either. I also went so far as to use the grasp the charging handle and slam the butt on the ground method. Still stuck.

   So there I sat, live round partially in the chamber, and no good knowledge on how to remove it. Thankfully a net search turn up some practical tips on how to 1) Remove the upper from the lower without the bolt being fully forward(I had actually figured that one out on my own, but it was good to see that I was on the right tract. 2) Pour plenty of wd-40 or some other penetrating liquid down the barrel in order to loosen the seized round. 3)how to gently apply pressure with a brass rod to the bolt and presto it was out. Upon a thorough cleaning and inspection this is what was determined to be the issue.

   The steel training rounds have a lacquer coating on them. When fast cycling heats up the chamber, some of that lacquer will transfer to the chamber. Causing tolerances to be exceeded as will as adding a very sticky finish to the chamber. This in turn will cause your AR to jam and essentially leave you without a rifle. Bad thing if it happens on the range. End of your life if it happens in a combat situation.

My lessons learned. 1) The AR is not a bolt gun and requires frequent cleaning, especially after non brass cartridges are fired through it. 2) I was really surprised to see how much carbon build up gets into the firing pin area even after only 60 rounds. 3) An AR specific cleaning kit makes things a lot easier when it comes to cleaning this rifle. 4) The platform itself is very easy to operate and is very accurate. 5) What was acceptable as a light for handgun use didn't cut it well with the extended range of the AR. 6) My gun course has a dip in it that will swallow you whole in the dark and cause you to think, where the hell did that come from! Right after you swear a lot. 6) And finally, I'm scheduling more training time with this platform.

Its been almost 3 months since I've shot any real quantity of .45 acp. I've got 300 rounds waiting in the cupboard and a whole mess of targets waiting to be perforated. I feel a trip down the hill is in order. Where is my other flashlight?

Stay safe out there.

Ranch work

2011-09-28T21:32:00.000-06:00

We finished with our preconditioning vaccination shots on all of our calves today. Took several days of shifting cattle around and running them ALL through the chute, but we are done and ready to ship Nov. 4.
We had no major accidents; with myself being the only one sustaining any injury. A rather shifty acting hole in the ground reached out and grabbed my front tire on my ATV. Causing first, the left handle bar to snap past my now jammed wrist and second, make the handle bar insult me with a medium velocity impact of my rib cage, then toss me from the wheeler. Very little bruising, but I'm still finding it hard to take a full breath without some discomfort from me rib cage. Nothing a little Motrin can't take care off. I'm not sure what was worse, getting thrown from the wheeler onto the ground like a big sack of spuds, or having my wife watch me do it. I would have to say that she did an admiral job of keeping her laughter on the inside.

School is progressing nicely. I took a little too long of a break this week and I am now playing catch up. I've got a court observation date to set, 5 chapter quizzes to take, one Representative of Government to contact, 1 essay to write on the Bias of Media in politics, and two more discussions to take part in. I need a class in time management.

Well I wish you all a good week and stay safe.

Question of the week.

2011-09-11T11:51:00.000-06:00

Federalism is defined as shared government between a central government and regional units of government. Our discussion will be centered around what areas should the Federal and State governments have more or less powers over. IE- environment, healthcare, education, welfare, money, etc....

This discussion is going to be a hot topic. We are already getting into these issues as we looked at constitutions and where we would add or remove amendments to set limitations in a federal government. With forty students participating, the soapbox is getting pretty crowded.

I'm going to stick to one issue here and that will be Environmental regulations. Its my opinion that the federal government needs to have the means to set the minimum standards emissions controls, pollutant levels, etc.... .
The reason I say this has to deal with the fact that many of these pollutants effect more than just a State in general. Emissions from a chemical plant put in a water way, can effect people several states away.

Now that doesn't mean that a State can't impose greater restrictions on those Industries located within its borders, but an individual state should not be able to enforce those same restrictions on a State that is meeting Federal standards, but is "upstream" from a state. This should also include air and possibly aquifers.

I think where we get into trouble is when a Federal Government instills standards regarding environmental impact within a state that are based on science gathered from sources outside of a state and don't truly reflect actual impact. Alaska is a prime example of this. Many times it has been argued that pipelines and oil drilling adversely effects polar bear or moose habitat. Yet no real effects can be noted. People unfamiliar with the regions will have you believe like wise. It has less to do with actual impact than it does with politics against oil.

Here in Montana we see it with wolf populations. Our wolf population is in a specific region and has grown to the point where nature can't meet its feed requirements. So the wolves turn to livestock as an easy food source. This has significant economic impact in those regions. Here is a place where State should be able to set environmental controls. It does not effect the surrounding states, but can be of vital importance to a states economy.

I'm starting to get off track and up on my soapbox. So I'll leave you with this question, What service should your State have authority over that Federal government should not?

Two Photos of a summer evening.

2011-09-01T21:24:00.002-06:00

Same old tired look, new fresh taste.

2011-09-01T14:04:00.001-06:00

Lets hope it doesn't turn out like Coke II.

Quick review of the last few months.
1)Haying done. We had a fair hay crop and feel ready for the winter.
2)Harvest done. Crops were so-so in nature. We'll take what we got and be glad we got it.
3)Family vacation was taken- Thank goodness that's over. Mother and Daughter continue to butt heads or be butt heads to each other. Take your pick.
4)Summer is over and dang that was fast.- Kids are starting school and we're looking at the next couple of months trying to get ready for snow.

Now we can get onto the new part of this blog. We'll be making some changes around here. Slowly at first. Then we'll go a little slower as we get used to it.

I've started a new path in my life. I'm am now officially taking two college level courses online, for a total of 6 credits. In retrospect I should have started out with just one to begin with. My age-ed brain is having a hard time getting going learning the new material. They are both intro classes, but they are still challenging for me. One is, Intro to American Government and the other is Intro to Criminal Justice. So far I'm pushing through the criminal justice chapters and will try to take the first quiz by Monday. I haven't even looked at American Government yet and I keep stalling off on it. I have participated in a discussion to a limited degree, but due to a lack of a real debatable idea, I've been holding back. My knowledge in our own government is lacking and hopefully this class will be a good start in fixing that.

So from time to time I'll throw out some of our discussions from the class on this blog and get your ungraded input. Sometimes I wonder about the honesty of peoples choices when they are being graded.

The first discussion-

Who would you consider to be your favorite influential political leader?

This is where I get in trouble. I'd say 80% of the class picked the most notable ones out there. FDR, Martin Luther King Jr, JFK, and so on. One gentleman(a well educated fellow at that) picked Allen Greenspan, and was able to give really good arguments for his choice.

The separatist in me wanted to pick someone less well known, problem is, I couldn't really pick someone out and give a good solid argument toward them as my choice. This was the first time I have had to really acknowledge my lack of knowledge in our own government.

I'm tempted to go with Calvin Coolidge. Why him? A guy that lived to maintain the Status Quo(source White House.gov) I think it was a mere 5 years later that the Great Depression Set in. And it makes me wonder while we all hate big government and the influence they force into our every day lives, Would have the depression been lessened if the Government had been more proactive in monitoring business and the farming practices of the time, possibly encouraging a sustainable level of growth and production, while keeping direct control at a minimum.

Maybe I should have taken a economics class instead. I still have a hard time agreeing that having high home prices is good for economy. If you have to put less income into purchasing a home, doesn't the money that's left over have a better chance of going back into the system more evenly spread out? Again, Maybe I need a economics 101 class as well. Quantitative easing just sounds like a bad idea in the long term. What ever Quantitative Easing really is. A YouTube video can't portray it well.

Later, and have a good one.

Haying begins

2011-06-30T20:07:00.000-06:00

Going Hawaiian for the swather.

She's ready to go for some test cutting.

The smell of fresh cut hay is awesome.

These fields will be ready to cut for in a few weeks.

We are usually putting in thew FINAL push of haying on the 4th of July weekend.

And we are just getting started. Its going to be a late year.

The Chalet. A.K.A Grandma's playhouse

2011-06-30T19:44:00.000-06:00

How do you move a house? with a really big forklift and some homemade teeth extensions.

Moved out of the garage and ready to move.

Set down in position. Looks pretty fancy.

Tucked in next to the playground.

View from the window.

That's not my finger.

It has since been retrofitted with a complete kitchen(non working of course). I'm not sure theres any room for more than one grandma... I mean kid in there to play. But hey, who cares.

A photo blog in Lieu of commentary.

2011-06-14T19:52:00.000-06:00

When I left you last, we had been branding calves and planting. We finished planting before the big rains hit. It hasn't stopped raining it feels like for a stinking month. The crops look pitiful and are infected with rust and fungus which reduces yield and quality. We're lucky, at least our crops are in. A lot of people have little to nothing planted. Many area towns are fighting flooding problems.

We've been busy trying to catch up on fencing and cow work in between rains. So without further delay, photos from the last month, condensed of course.

We threw a party for the retiring school teachers at our one room school house.

Its not a party without Sombrero's.

Grandma built her dream house for Maggie.

Siding added.

A view of the deck.

More photos later of the finished product.

Maggie has helped us move cows. Sometimes I let her take a break to climb the nearest hill.

Catching a ride with mom

Picking flowers for mom.

Gathered out of a seven section pasture. Takes a couple of hours.

The "Boss" and Dixie conferring.

Lining out and heading out to the new pasture. They know where they are going.

Big old girls fighting for who knows what. It took another three miles to get it figured out though.

Looking east down a small coulee. Can't have green without the rain I guess.

Looking west. Trees? Must be a house nearby.

Good fertilizer.

Another conference? I'm missing something important.

Johnny handsome. Soon to be out with the ladies.

Can you identify this fungus? Its yellow with a textured surface. Grows in clumps the size of golf balls to tennis ball size. Usually found several in an area. The most I've seen in one area is 15 globs.

It has the consistency of thick coolwhip, and is very slimy.

We made our annual Fathers day trip to Fort Peck Dam, a week early. I'm working patrol on Fathers day for the Match Bronc Ride in Jordan.

They have cool visitors center at the dam with a dinosaur theme.

Looking at turtles.

These are casts found from finds in our area. Some very important finds have come from Garfield county.

Just a cool pic Mary took with my camera.

Maggie looking at the fish.

I've always thought they could make a cool aquarium with lake fish. More people stop and watch the catfish and carp than the Dinosaur exhibits.

Whiskers of the catfish.

I've built my own Zombie Land Range.

I have 20 reactive targets, 17 paper targets, and 5 fixed barriers. I want to add a couple of moving targets and a couple of movable barriers. Its a work in progress. I'll leave it like this this summer, note some changes I'd like to make, and start a more permanent structure next year.

Well thank you for stopping by. Have a good week and don't work to hard.

Coyotes: The Unforgotten Predator Northern Ag Network

2011-06-06T19:15:00.000-06:00

Coyotes: The Unforgotten Predator Northern Ag Network

A neighbor shares the reality of predators to those that live outside the agriculture business.

Duck, Duck, Goose.

2011-05-21T14:43:00.000-06:00

We had a pause in the rain on Thursday. We hurried up and worked 75 head of cows and branded the calves. The corral was a mess, but I'm glad we did work cows.
On Thursday night it started to rain and it hasn't stopped. We're looking at 2 1/2" of rain and its Sat. noon. The Ducks and Geese are the only ones who are holding up. And I'm not sure they are going to stick around. They even like to have some dry ground to waddle around on.

While On the rainy day note, I did some home shop diagnostics on the Trailblazer, looking for the source of the non-discript noise. Turns out it IS in the transfer case. This can only mean a couple of things. Bearings out, chain loose, or some other major component out of alignment or having damage. Not happy stuff. We'll make it work.

The grandparents have taken the time to start building the playhouse grandma er.... I mean Maggie has always wanted. Its pretty stinking big. I think i could move in and make a nice man cave out of it. Mostly built out of material on hand, but they did go a buy some siding for it. I'll get pictures for you.

I pulled apart the SR9 last night after 200 rounds break in. I see some slight barrel peening. Polished the peening off and smoothed the mating area on the slide. I don't expect to see any more peening. Icouldn't stand the trigger, so I have some trigger parts coming in the mail. This trigger has to be in to 9-10 # area. When I'm through it should be in the 4-6# area. Total cost will be in the 50$ range for the upgraded components. I've also removed the magazine disconnect. I did this so that the end of day, unloading and storing procedure is the same as my XD. I have a mental block of having to have the magazine in place to dry fire my weapon. I'm not against the mag out safety for any other reason than it is different from the XD and dry firing the SR9 without a mag in can cause permanent damage the the striker. Turns out I like my procedures to be the same.

I have more to say but a bowl of ice cream with strawberries went floating by a second ago. Further investigation is required. Have a good one.

Rain Delay

2011-05-18T21:04:00.000-06:00

Its been raining for two days. We're pushing the 2 inch mark with more in our near future. Our brandings are on hold. The corrals resemble a swamp. Not cool for working cows in.

Took a rain day and went to town for a few groceries. While there I could here a "noise" coming from somewhere on the car. One of those could be anything from mud in the rims to a wheel bearing type of sounds. I swung by the dealership to have it looked at while I borrowed a car from them and finished some shopping.
The results are as follows. The bottom front ball joints are bad.(knew that), rear braked pads are shot(no surprise) and 3 wheel rims have developed cracks at the outside edge.(the bead area.) And we still don't know whats making the damn sound. At this point I would be surprised if its coming from the transfer case.
Out of morbid curiosity I priced OEM rims at the dealership. Get this, they want 600.00 a rim. The parts guy about blew a gasket when he saw the price. I just laughed and asked if that included a set of steak knives.
A decent set of chrome after market rims I priced run about 200.00 apiece. Needless to say i'll be hitting the junk yards and discount shops in search of something a bit more reasonably priced. I have 150k on this car and I was hoping to go at least another year before I'd need to look at something newer. This had been for the most part a pretty good car. We'll see how this all plays out.
Until I've got something new to report. Have a good one.

First Branding 2011 (Photo Intensive)

2011-05-13T19:08:00.000-06:00

The Morning Gather

Its green outside. Isn't it awesome.

Here is where I give the camera to Angus for awhile. Yeah he's almost five, but he likes the pictures.

When your 3ft. tall, everything takes on a different look.

It gets busy up at the chute. A vaccination, some dewormer, and a fly control tag.

The Pop-Pops tell the crew how to get the work done right.

The crew pretending to listen.

Bringing them up the alley.

Traffic jam at the walk through.

You better not be taking my picture.

Caught Ya.

A hair. A kid eating Hair. Get it off.

Can you believe they gave me a camera.

Thats the momma.

Treasures are sure to be found in here.

I'll be trading this water for Mountain Dew when nobody's looking.

The Dad takes the camera back.

I'm on my break, not to disturbed.

We're farmers, we use electric branding irons and a cradle.

Calves coming in to get their brand.

Maggie takes the camera and snaps a pic of the guys.

Heading back out to pasture after getting our shots and a brand.

SR9 100 RDS down range.

2011-05-12T06:55:00.000-06:00

Got some ammo and found some time to fling some lead in the general direction of a target. 100 rounds isn't much to run through so Laverne still has that new gun smell. The trigger still has some to be desired but is workable. Accuracy is subjective, but at 7-10 yards, I can keep inside it of three inches if I do my part. I've had no feed issues with the American Eagle brand ammo that I'm shooting. Price at about $12 a 50 rd box.
I have another 100 rds on hand to run through it. Then I'll Strip it down and and look for unusual wear and give it a good cleaning. I don't believe the trigger will get much better, but I do think it will smoothen out some with time.
Thats all I've got for trigger time for now. Have a good one.

Ruger SR9- A table top review.

2011-05-08T19:25:00.000-06:00

It comes in a simple plastic box with the bare essentials. A mag loader, 2 magazines, and the gun.

Left side view. You have the slide stop, trigger, mag release, and a safety. One of the biggest web complaints on this gun is the safety. Pretty much everyone thinks having the safety is a hazard. They don't want to have it accidentally trip on safe when they are shooting or some other similiar argument. I can tell you this. They haven't tried to activate this safety. You HAVE to apply this safety with some real effort. But to take it off, a simple brush of it and its off. Its easily done so with the first joint below your Thumb nail. Its a training issue. nothing more nothing less. The slide release is smallish. I don't use one 98% of the time. I'm from the school of gross motor skills during combat will be all you have, so train like you fight. Rack the slide every time.

Ambidextrous mag release and safety. Extractor and dust cover pic rail.

Top view. Loaded chamber indicator and some decent white dot sights. I like the chamber indicator. Similar to the one on my XD. I like the tactile feel. I've used it before in the dark.

An interchangeable rubber back strap and lanyard leash. Using that 12 gauge slug for reference you can see that is a very slim grip for 17+1 capacity of 9mm paper punching bliss.

Breakdown isn't as easy as my XD, but its still a relatively easy. Slide back and locked. Press down on the ejector mechanism internally, and remove cross pin shown above. Release slide and move forward off the frame.

Field stripped to major components. Fit and finish is a bit rough. But it is a budget firearm and I didn't find anything that won't polish up after 500 or so rounds. A couple of days shooting should tell what kind of beast she is. I gave her a good cleaning and a proper lube job. I have a tendency to over lube during break in.

Lots of tooling marks on the barrel. Rough enough to snag the bore patch while wiping it down with oil. That will polish of easy enough.

Down the barrel looks a bit roughish too. I don't suspect that this will really effect the performance.

Magazine comes apart easily for cleaning of debris picked up when you drop it on the dirt during combat reload drills.

The trigger leaves a lot to be desired. Long, rough, and hard to squeeze. I suspect that will smooth up some with use. If it doesn't, you can buy a drop in trigger bar that will fix all of that for under 30$.

Overall impression: Its a budget shooter. Proper care will take care of most of what ails it, as well as a good old fashioned breaking in. It fits smaller hands well. It has some features that some people want and some that others don't. Decide what you'll live with and move on.

Oh her name is, Laverne. You'll find out later why.

Planting

2011-05-08T18:24:00.000-06:00

We're done for the most part. Just in time to. Supposed to go to raining this week. We planted Haybet hay Barley, a grain barley, And Vida spring wheat. Glad to have it done. Have a good week.

A quick photo blog a ranch activities

2011-05-01T21:09:00.000-06:00

I'll apologize for the short narratives right now. I'm flat out bushed. The wind has been brutal the last couple of days and it really sucks the energy out of you. But I thought you might like to see some of whats been going on this spring.

Babies. Lots of them. This little bull calf was not impressed with his new tag.

Its starting to green up, and warm up. We've still had a couple of snowstorms and nasty weather since this photo, but they have been short lived.

My wife(in blue covey's) and our spring help Dixie. We are giving our yearling heifers their pre-breeding vaccinations and some dewormer. They have ganged up on me and I can no longer throw fits. But I'm still not a "FUN" person to work cows with.

Almost done and just in time for diner.

A pile of bulls waiting for their feed. Right after this photo a brawl commenced over who knows what. They really don't need a reason.

Fresh from the oven. He's probably less than 3 minutes old here. I would have taken pics of the birth, but I completely forgot that I had a camera with me.

Found the soft spot with the trailer AND the tractor. I had to get dad to come over with a large 4wheel drive tractor to pull me out.

It was right after this the cross shaft in the front diff. broke on the tractor. Its going to be a 10k fix or we might trade for a new to us tractor. This one has close to 9000 hrs on it. Which is a lot for tractors of this type. But I'm having a hard time justifying paying the 90-100k its going to take to get a good used replacement. Equipment costs and maint. have gone through the roof.

We had a dwarf calf this spring. He seems to be doing well. we'll see how he makes it through the summer.

A wild Turkey came through my dads yard the other day. Dad was pretty excited. Made me go and get some pics. Although I've remembered why I was going to get a camera with some real zoom to it. Wild life photos are next to impossible to get with 5x zoom.

The week looks to be busy with trying to get some spraying done, Barley seed in the ground, cows moved to fresher pastures, grain seed sold to other farmers, and several other side ventures.

Be safe out there.

Just heard, Bin Laden is dead and The USA has the body. Very good. Next.

Natural Night Vision and Night Shooting

2011-04-24T21:44:00.000-06:00

  There was a recent mini discussion over at Corn and Beans Blog about shooting a firearm at night and how it might effect your night adjusted vision. The general consensus was that it doesn't really. Now my two cent comment said something that in my own experience(limited) that it didn't seem to bother. But that at a training there had been a lady with a ported XD, and that it DID seem to bother her. In her words she couldn't see shit for several minutes.
  Another reader commented that they had personnel experience with a ported Glock and they had no problems with night blindness after shooting in the dark. They did offer up the suggestion that perhaps it was more the shooter than the gun.
  I would have to say that may be the best explanation. Because when talking about something like night blindness, its going to be completely subjective. Not everyone reacts the same way to a stimulus. I know people who have a terrible time driving at night because the lights from the oncoming cars screw with their eyes so badly, they have a hard time telling where they are at on the road.
  And at what level are we talking about being affected by. Are we talking "I can still see well enough to maneuver to my next cover position and place a shot" or are we talking about " I can maneuver, but I can't tell you if thats the same person or if they are holding a knife or a cell phone. This would be in the case of using the available ambient light.
  Now again, in my limited experience, while shooting on a well moonlight night, before shooting I was able to see the target, and give you some pretty good details about that target. I then placed several shots on target and moved to the other side of my cover (a honda muv) and prepared to shoot again. 1) I still could see the target well. 2) I still had some flares shining in my eyes(after glow?). 3) It was dang sure harder to pick out details on the target, but I didn't notice any difference in my ability to maneuver. But I had a short walk.
   Change the night conditions to total blackout and it doesn't matter, because you can't see your target well enough to clearly identify threat or no.
   This is where, and I believe she called it rule #4,(from Zombieland?) comes into play. Pack a damn flashlight and the whole night blindness thing really becomes nothing at all. Wither it is a light on your weapon or one in your hand, a good source of white light, used sparingly, to maneuver and to identify your targets as threats, will negate most of the problems if there are any to begin with.
   IMO: 1) Its hard to see in the dark. 2) After 20 or 30 minutes in the dark without light exposure, you shoot your weapon, which will produce a rather bright flash(variable on type of weapon, ammo used, etc...) Your night vision will be affected. To what degree and for how long is really going to depend on the individual.(OTC drugs are notorious effectors of the eyes and how well they operate.) 3) Lights are our friends. If used properly.

I say properly, because when I go out to check my heifers late at night, I'll turn on my flashlight and while inside the building, the glare can be painful until my eyes can adjust to the new light.

If you can, practice in low light conditions occasionally. If there are any flaws in your game. They will show up then.
Have a good week. Sorry no new photos. My camera was left at the main place. Have a good one.

The range is HOT.

2011-04-16T20:19:00.000-06:00

  First- I bought a new camera. Nothing special, but I now have something to add to my posts for awhile.

   Its has been a long winter and I have not been very vigilant in getting out and practicing with my firearms. So this afternoon I managed to get out and get some practice with my XD .45 and the patrol rifle. A Rock River AR .223 . Equipped with standard post and ghost ring sights.

  I set up some photo realistic targets at various ranges and went to work. Since it has been so long, I kept it to the basics. No motion drills today. All stationary standing supported and unsupported shooting. Here are the results.

Redneck with a sawed off. 45 yards approx. standing unsupported rapid fire,(about a round/sec) with the AR. I have a tendency to aim low with the rifle.

Hostage target. Supported over the hood of the patrol pickup. Rapid fire. 31 yards approx. Again the sights are aiming correctly, I'm just holding low.

I need my prunes sonny. 19 yards unsupported. .45 acp. I'm pushing to the left when I squeeze the trigger. Reflexive squeezing with the entire hand.

Supported over the hood of the patrol with .45 acp. 21 yards approx. Notice the extreme flyer right side just above waistline. Anticipating the shot and bracing for recoil is a bitch and will get you killed.

.45 acp, supported, 31 yards approx. 3 to the head and ten to the chest. Better trigger control here.

From the back so the holes are visible. Supported 45 yards. .45 acp

I also ran a mag of duty ammo through the .45. I alternated between targets approx. 15 feet apart. Using double taps. I had 1 go somewhat wide, (a jacket edge) on prune dude, and I completely was off target on Betty with two shots. Just above the flyer from the supported shoot. I fired before I had sight alignment or rather slide alignment on target. I got all excited like and had premature ...... well you get the idea.

Nothing like shooting for therapy. So what are my lessons learned today.
1) Don't bring a pistol to a gun fight if you have a rifle at hand.
2) Trigger control, trigger control, trigger control.
3) More practice of the basics. I need to find my list of web sites with the gun control drills and the targets that go with them, and start training.

Cease fire, cease fire, cease fire.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

2011-04-11T06:52:00.000-06:00

  I have finished  the local EMT-B training. All I have left is the written exam(computerized multiple choice) to take. I don't have a schedule for that yet. That has to be taken at a testing facility in Billings MT. I'm not looking for to the trip to Billings. I forgot what a hassle that trip is. I was just there for my 12hr ER observation. I don't really get why you observe at an ER. I would think you'd get WAY more experience by riding as an observer in a ambulance. Hopefully I can get some rides with the Miles City crew this summer.
  Of the ten students that tested on Saturday for our practical exams, three of us passed all of them the first time through. Apparently its been awhile since that has happened. One of our instructors was the last one to pass all the exams first time through. Typically its the simple steps that you miss, like verifying the scene safe, or verbalizing something you are observing. The new testing procedures require you to do a lot of pretending. You don't actually get to do some of the interventions because you don't have anyone to help you. It can be hard to remember some of your steps without those visual cues.
  But I am done with all of that and thank goodness. I'm glad that I had the distraction from this long winter but I was soooooooo tired of spending time a few nights a week in Jordan. I shouldn't have to hear anymore whining from the boss about me being gone all the time either. The only thing I have left to worry about is the reserve deputy thing. And hopefully the regular deputy gets cleared for duty this week so that I can pull back off of that for awhile also. I may need to go in for a couple of evenings this week. I don't that yet.
   Calving has been going surprisingly well. Even with the nasty snow storms blowing through every few days. Those have been fun. We are probably 65% calved out at this time.
   We are starting to load out some Barley seed. But everyone is a long ways off from actual planting. Its going to be a late year as far as planting goes. Not much you can do about that.
   My wife had an author friend come out for a visit from Boston. Her first JEW. And I guess Mary was the friends first rancher. They had t-shirts made that stated so. Mary's friend comes from an extreme liberal area that is rabid about gun control. She apparently is not so much. She wanted to see some guns and I had her shoot the rimfire. She is so going back to take some lessons and try on some guns for size. Good for her. Glad I could help spread the joy that is firearm owner ship.
  Thats all for now. Have a most excellent week.

And the weather man says........

2011-03-23T06:19:00.000-06:00

Its going to snow, NO wait! Its going to be okay. NO wait! Its going to snow. Ah...... maybe its going to do something......nasty-ish sort of.

Well here's what did happen. Its in the mid thirties with about 4" of wet snow on the ground. The EMT class was let out early last night because everyone just wanted to be home. The roads are snow covered, snow packed, and icey for a good mix. I have a few old cows in the corrals, so I got up every two ours last night to check them to make sure they didn't have any calves in the slushy, muddy mess that is now my corral. I will be out at a little after daylight to go around the cows out in the hills. One gentleman said it best last night, " I'll go out in the morning and count the dead." A new born calf can't survive outside in the we snow for very long without someplace dry and out of the wind. Hopefully we didn't have many calves last night, or they had them early this morning and I can't get them back to a calf warmer, get them dry and then back to their mother without getting them all messed up. Its going to be a busy day.

Hope yours is a nicer day than mine.

True Fiction pt.2

2011-03-14T21:09:00.000-06:00

I remember when we found grandpa's little ruger pistol. A Black Mark II. We thought it looked like a german luger pistol with its long tapering barrel. The perfect amount of danger for little boys. We took it out back and shot pop cans until someone came along and made us put it away before we shot something useful, like us.
That little pistol moved around the families for awhile until it ended up with me. It was still as fun to shoot as ever. But it still wasn't quite right for me yet. I wouldn't take it out to shoot for month's at a time. But one day while surfing the Internet I stumbled across a little company in Idaho that made replacement barrels for my pistol. Tactical Solutions. After some research a purchase was made. A 4.5" , bull barrel, with fluting. A beautiful dark green metallic.
The installaton of that barrel was like a magical transformation. It achieved a perfect balance in my hand. I love this gun. I shoot it several time a week. At targets by my house, or when the urge hits me I'll stop while I'm heading feeding somewhere and shoot an offensive cow turd.
The less you clean this gun the better it shoots. Bullets are cheap in companion to other forms of entertainment. Its a perfect companion, cheap to use, very low maint. , and always handy. I love this gun.

Its been a long time since I wrote this post. I still have Vicki with me most of the time. Right now she's riding on the dash, wearing a sturdy, non nonsense, black holster. She's still sexy and she can still out shoot me. Sometimes things just work out for better with a little change.

I AM INSULTED. Updated

2011-03-14T13:15:00.000-06:00

I was saving this update until after Tuesday, seems to be a school board meeting going to happen over this thing, finally. But....
Seems I've ruffled some feathers with this post. Something about spreading rumors. I did state I had no actual confirmation. Nor did I use any names, because well, because. As the part of one of the kids being related to a school board member, again unable to confirm. Not to mention, until about 20 minutes ago, I couldn't tell you who was on the board. See ruffled feathers. I did run across some facebook pics of the supposed incident. Nice. I hope for that persons sake, they took those pics down.

But I've been "invited" to attend. A personal invite so to speak. I'll will try to make it. If only to get my ass chewing. Whoopee.

And I am seriously pissed off. I found out this evening that three young lads from Garfield County High School in Jordan MT, took it upon themselves to act in a manner that was beyond excuse.

  While on a senior trip to the state capital, this last weekend, they*(note 1) flipped the bird to all of the security cameras, humped a bear mount(on security camera camera), and caused damage to a couple of displays. And because of their actions, WE, being Garfield County High School, are no longer welcome at the capital, EVER. The end.

  Now what adds insult to injury is it would appear that not much is being done about it. Which I'm having a hard time with. There is some blame being pushed onto the chaperons, and they should have dealt with the matter no doubt. But these are 17 and 18 yr old *note 2, young men. They damn well better be able to act in a fashion acceptable to the people and school they represent.  The school board and the high school superintendent seem to be trying to make light of a grave situation. Of course one of the kids involved is related to a board member(closely, REALLY closely). Although no official word has come out about disciplinary action that may be taking place, the community waits impatiently.

  I'm beyond insulted at this point, I'm embarrassed to say I'm from Jordan. And thats a damn shame.

Note 1- I am unable to confirm, with any certainty, at this time, the actual nature of the events that took place.

Note 2- F@#$ing little sh%ts.

New additions to the blog role.

2011-03-13T21:31:00.001-06:00

I've been killing time this evening between studying avulsion and degloving, with looking at food blogs.

I'm not a food-ey. But I have been interested in native plants as food sources for along time. We live in an area where wild plants that have great nutritional value are in abundance. I've been sticking mostly with mushrooms and wild onions, but I'd like to expand my horizons.

So I stumbled upon some new blogs this evening. Most deal with food gathered on the land, raised in the backyard, and harvested by pole or gun. In no particular order we have.
http://fat-of-the-land.blogspot.com/
http://honest-food.net/2011/03/13/my-wild-garden/
http://fromforesttofork.com/

We'll see how this works out for me. The Honest food site has some more excellent links on it.

Have a nice week. Our weathers promises to be enjoyable.

True Fiction Pt.1(Repost) with new edits

2011-03-05T22:04:00.000-07:00

This is one of the first stories I wrote on this blog. Its really rough and hard to read.
The inspiration behind the story was covered in PT. 2 and I will repost that in a few days.
Enjoy and have a nice weekend.

The names of persons involved have been changed to protect the innocent.

It all started innocently enough. "Vicki" was an old friend. We used to play together as kids. She was long, skinny and plain. And I was just a clumsy boy.
As we got into our teens our paths took different directions. We would meet up every now again. Say our how does, have a few drinks, and wander back to our lives, not really comfortable with our feelings.

Then one day last spring "Vicki" showed up unexpectedly.
"Hey, Whats the funny look about?"
"You've cut your hair and dyed it"
"Ya, you like it?"
"A ya, uhmm, want to come in?"
I'll spare you the rest of the details, but we've been spending alot of time together. It turns out with the new hair came a whole new look and attitude. She went from a skinny and plain girl, to a beautiful and very sexy woman. One that you can't wait to get your hands on, and one that likes to be held.
She's also, as it turns out, as close to the perfect woman as most men can figure. She doesn't require much maintenance, at all. You don't call her for a month, no big deal. You can call her on the spur of the moment to go out to town, go for a hike, a ride on the wheeler, and she's got no complaints. She's a cheap date to.(the hamburger, fries, and a cool one kind). Wanna pull over to the side of the road for a quickie, she's good to go. It's an open relationship to. She knows there are "others", but its okay with her. I'm telling you, she's just about perfect.
I tried to introduce her to "Mary", but Mary would have nothing of it. I believe there is a law written somewhere that states you must despise the "other" woman.
All well, "Mary" would probably just want to dominate the conversation anyway.

You know, its been a month or so since I've been out with "Vicki". I'm thinking we need to go out dancing this weekend.

Maggie and her camera

2011-03-02T18:21:00.000-07:00

As promised, I bring you, a girl and her camera.

Its hard to get a good self pic.

Turns out taking a closeup isn't easy either.

Spit bubbles. Boys are gross.

Kittens take up no less than 65 pics on the card.

I remember riding the bus and looking at that same sky wishing I wasn't going to school.

Ultra Close up apparently still a big hit with the kids.

Momma kitty is not amused.

MAGGIE, MAGGIE, Take my picture. This has brought hours of entertainment for the kids.

Anybody still reading this thing.

2011-02-28T20:32:00.000-07:00

  I've been dismal about posting lately. No excuses really, just lazy mostly. So I'm going to give you a quick run down of the past couple of weeks.

  We sold a large portion of our two year old bred heifers. 53 to be exact. They went for $1475 each. The good portion of this. It put some much needed buffer in our financial statement. The weather is still miserable to crappy and the Heifers we sold we lesson our load until the weather straightens out. The bad part. These are our replacements for the old cows that will be sold later this fall. That will mean a reduction in overall numbers, which translates into less cash flow later on. It takes time to build numbers back up. As much as five years if things don't work well. We do have a couple of things working for us though. When we split the family corporation up a few years back we didn't get any of the younger cattle. So we won't have those cows to sell next year and so our numbers will remain flatish if we don't suffer to many losses.
  We are still trying to figure out a better plan for our long term. My parents wish to retire, but nobody is sure how to accomplish that. Apparently that wasn't a big thing to plan for back in the day and now they are paying for it, or am I.

  EMT class is still progressing, but I'm not sure for how long. My schedule on the ranch is getting tight. We still have a few heifers to calve and the old cows will start towards the end of the month. I did mange to hire a girl to help for the spring. She has worked out here before and is a good hand. We are looking forward to having her here. I'm not killing as many patients anymore during the practicums, which is a decided improvement. Getting out and stretching my brain has been good for my health.

  I'm starting to make a few patrols off and on as a Reserve Deputy. Mostly as an on-call basis. Something like 12 hrs total. Not a money maker by far. Things I've learned so far. When you get a call to respond to a certain house on a certain street, good luck. Streets signs and house numbers are more of a suggestion really. I'll be spending some time updating my knowledge of where people live. It has had some fun moments also. I went out with a MHP Officer the other afternoon and received some AR-15 training. First time around one of those. I did okay for 2 minutes instruction. All fifty rounds accounted for. Last grouping while leaning on the side of the patrol and bracing down the hood had fifteen inside a large coffee cup at fifty yards. I was satisfied for a first attempt. I also learned that the roof rack for the rifle is non-op. It has a tendency to spontaneously eject the magazine and then bash you in the back of the head riding down country roads. I'll need to fix that. Its OJT by self, out here. Things I'll be in the market for if I keep this up. 1) A non-expired ballistic vest. 2) A better clip board. 3) Some sort of less lethal response. Lethal I have covered in spades. But there are times you need to respond without lethal force and we don't have much to work with. I know I'm Barney, but dang, this isn't Mayberry.

  On the blog front. I received a stylish blogger nod from Home on the Range. Thanks Brigid. She introduced herself in an email a while back, that was in a manner that you really only see from people the grew up in rural parts. I consider it an honor. I'm one of fifteen other nominees. The rules state I have to nominate 15 other blogs and list 7 things you didn't know about me. The blog list on my side bar will have to do for the 15 blogs. I'll give special mention to,
Home on The Range- She often writes from her heart, and its always fun to read.
Way Up North- Smart and Stylish.
Cohagen Chronicles- Smart-check, Stylish -check, Sexy-double check
BlackFive- I like to stay current on the military front and opinions
Beat and Release- He's had a big year. But sounds like he'll pull it through.

Now the 7 things you didn't know about me,

1) Haven't had a beer in 3 weeks. Its going to KILL me if I continue, going without that is.
2)I hate conflict. Will avoid it like the plague.
3)I love Poppy Seed filled Kalachie?(Kah-law-chee) A sweet dough pastry with a poppy seed filling. Filling is ground poppy seed(about 3 Tbl spoons) cream, butter, sugar, some walnuts, mixed together into a dry paste. Drooling on myself thinking about them.
4)Just about can't walk by a puppy.
5)I can't stand tomatoes. I like salsa, sweet relish, and other tomato products. But I can't choke down a fresh tomato.
6)I take pleasure in doing the jobs most people can't or won't do.
7)I want a sail boat. A big one. I don't even need to sail. I just like them.
8) I think a gyro copter would be the bomb.

Oh wait one to many, all well, such as it is, it well be good enough.

I plan on republishing some of my older posts, just for the thrill of it. So bear with me. Also I gave my 6 yr. old, my old camera. It still takes fair pictures up close and she has taken some real winners. I'll try to get some of those put up also. As soon as I get a real paycheck from the deputy thing I'm buying a new camera. Spring is coming and there will be glorious nature happening everywhere.

Thanks for coming by. Have a nice night.

2400 hrs.

2011-02-18T00:15:00.000-07:00

2400- Weather conditions are as follows: Party cloudy with a full moon. Very bright out. Temp is 9 degrees. Winds are slight and from the NW. Nothing extraordinary to report.

Tonight was my first night of actually having to do some patrolling for the sheriffs dept. There where two cars parked in front of the local bars. I think they belonged to the bartenders. I made a tour out on Highway 59 for 30 miles and only met one car. So yeah it was quite out. we'll see if the phone rings tonight at all. It shouldn't phone is still routed to the sheriffs first. The only reason mine would go off if they can't get a hold of him first.

Emt class is still going. I'm getting better at my practiciles. I didn't kill anybody tonight.

We consigned 50 hd of two year old heifers for sale this week on the video auction. I was able to convince the Pres. of the corporation to keep 20 hd of replacements. And the he tried to sell them later when he thought I wasn't paying attention. I managed to put the stop to that. I just have to assume the weather will get better. We did manage to hire some help for the spring. A good hand thats has worked out here before. She'll make a nice addition.

Have a good night and a good weekend. Spend you time wisely. You can't get it back.

Free Form Fluid Art

2011-02-14T18:51:00.000-07:00

Angus is painting a picture. That boy loves to paint. The fun thing is not looking at his pictures, but sitting somewhere and listening to him narrate his picture as he paints. He'll spend 40 minutes on one piece of paper.
He'll start off by drawing the scene,( a ocean with a pirate ship). Then he'll progress into a great battle.(sound effects and dialog of characters included). A ship will usually be sunk and treasure lost. Sea monsters will attack......and the story and painting goes. Until you have a very wet(water colors) piece of paper that is a mass of color. And if you have been listening in you can pick out various bits of action. Its fun to be apart of.

Maggie is a detail girl. She doesn't stop with the ends of the paper. The story will just sort of flow off into the future. She has a great ability to show depth in her pictures. One of her teachers is an accomplished artist and can't help but admire her. She has a excellent grasp of certain concepts of art that is difficult to teach. With some teaching she could really do wonderfully. Thats a while in the future.

Enough bragging about my kids. Well not enough. But I'll stop anyway.

Oh wait!! Maggie is now riding her bicycle without training wheels. She is extremely pleased with herself.

Later. How a good night.

Week in review.

2011-02-13T20:22:00.000-07:00

  Its been one for the blog rolls anyway. I don't even know where to start. So I'll just sort of start from the middle and work my way around to the crust. Sort of the way a kid eats toast.

My lovely bride is on holiday. She went to Denver to see a friend for a few days. She's eating adult food and doing things you wouldn't even attempt with children in tow. And she is having a great time. I'm glad. Winer has been tough on her. This is a mental health break and one that is much deserved.

With the cattle markets as high as they are, we are looking at off loading some cattle and paying some loans off. This is the sort of stuff that can help and hurt your long term ranch operations. These plans aren't made lightly.We'll need to decide in the next few days what we'll do. Until then its feed, feed, and feed some more.

  EMT class is progressing nicely. I'm going to have to get serious about studying though. I'm still passing my quiz's, but it will catch up with me eventually. I do find this to be a nice distraction though.

  I now have a sheriffs vehicle parked in my shed. Later this week I'll be doing some patrols part time. After doing a clean out and inventory today, I see that I need some items to function properly. Things like shotgun, patrol rifle, citations, oxygen regulator for the jump kit, some resupply of bandages in the jump kit, O-rings for the oxygen bottle, more air freshener ( I found the source of the smell, but I can't get rid of it.), a front radar sensor( or switch the back to the front) and numerous other small vehicle repairs or general service items. (Like the brake warning light not going out) sort of things. Other than that, we're ready, well sort of. This is a limited time thing. For a couple of months, or until the regular deputy can return to full duty. Wish me luck.

The weather was nice today. We hit the mid forties and had mid- forties in the wind too. That took a bunch of snow off. Looks like the wind is going to leave us starting Monday but the temps should stay nice this upcoming week. Hope it melts lots of snow.

Hope everyone has a good week and be safe out there.

Bi Polar disorder.

2011-02-04T19:16:00.000-07:00

  This is the best description of our weather I can come up with. We get a few days of nice weather.(mid 20's and light winds) followed by a few days of just nasty stuff. Last weekend we got hit with 10 inches of new snow and -40 and -50 degree wind chills. Not a fun time. Then we had a slow warm up to today, where we reached into the mid 40's. Currently at 7:00 p.m. MST it is 36 degrees and raining. And not a light rain either. But a real splasher. Sometime late tonight the temps are to plummet. Rain will turn to ice and then snow. We will have highs in the negative teens range with 30mph winds for the weekend. YET AGAIN.

  I can't speak for everyone, but the general consensus is people are tired of the crazy weather and would just like to get into some normal routine. Wunderground says our average temps should be in the mid teens to upper twenties this time of year. Wouldn't that be nice.

  Sometime in the near future I will post some cow numbers and we'll have a contest of some sort. Something along the lines of first calf, first steer or heifer, closest weight, and so forth.
  We should start calving the second week of March. We have lots to do to prepare in the next few weeks. Our corrals are level full with snow. I haven't even looked in the barn. Scared to.

  EMT class is progressing nicely. I've had to find alternative routes to get to town for class a couple of times. The roads are all blown in. The numbers are kicking my but. But I'm slowly picking up on them. We did some practiceles last night. Unfortunately I killed my patient, after I paralyzed her. Failed to continue to monitor her breathing. I was trying to get her strapped to the back board and was distracted for a short period of time. I wont even get into how I paralyzed her. This is why we PRACTICE. In life, dead is dead.

  I manage to get a couple of Reserve Deputy trainings in. I need more but time OJT. Weather, EMT class, and other things not directly related to me keep getting in the way. I will get this done, I will get this done, I will.

What I need from my readers is a couple of funny acronyms. EMT related for the term SAMPLE. Which would typical stand for---S, symptoms-A,allergies-M,medications-P,prior history-L,last oral intake-E, events leading to the problem. I'm sure there a some fun ones out there. Please share.

Hope your days a pleasant.

Just say NO!

2011-01-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

  I may have taken on more than I can handle. With calving season coming on strong in just a few short weeks, I'm taking a EMT basic course, and I'm getting some reserve deputy training on the side. So that in a few weeks when the regular deputy needs to take some time off, I can fill in part time.

  We still need to work out the schedule, but I think we can come to some sort of schedule that can fit in every bodies schedule with some liking for everyone.

  I was able to do some deputy ride rounds this evening. I'll need to do some boning up on my laws. Good thing I've got some followers and people on my blog roll that have loads of experience to draw from.

  We've had good weather but some snow predicted for the weekend. We are planing to attend Bobby Burns this weekend. Hope to make it. What a good time. You can google Bobby Burns to find out what it might be about.

  I'm off to get kids to bed, so have a great evening. I'll try to get better about posts. Later.

Right to defend vs. Right to Flee and ranchy stuff.

2011-01-18T23:52:00.000-07:00

After three cups of late night coffee, I'm awake and my brain is in overdrive. I'm just back from my third night of EMT basic class. The first two nights we did provider level CPR and AED. You get those first because if you can't pass that, there's no sense in going any farther. Tonight we covered the, "Why you need to wear protective gear and you'll get sued for that" portion of the class. It brought up some lively conversation. One area we sort of touched base on, but didn't get too far into was team safety against a violent/aggressive patient. Essentially, since we are not law enforcement, we are not supposed to restrain. We can offer them the door or we can flee, until law enforcement can arrive and help resolve the situation. The problem with being in a rural area, in the winter, is that fleeing or kicking the combative person out, is well, unsafe and negligent. Just because a person is combative, doesn't mean they are always that way. Drug interactions can cause these problems. Restraint for crew and patient safety may BE the only option available. Its a tough call,but one that I feel would be defensible in court. Of course they have to teach within the scope of the law, and the law says, you can't do that. The other thing the didn't cover and maybe we'll get to it, is the possession of weapons(gun, knife, pepper spray, etc...) on crew members. I guarantee its against the law, but I'd still like to know what it actually says about that.

On the ranch side of things,
It just keeps snowing. Every time a cloud blows by we get another dumping of snow. We've received an additional 10 inches over the weekend. Its really staring to weigh heavy on people. WE are having to expend way more resources than we would typically be looking at this time of year.

There was some good news on the tractor that was broke down. We decided to do the work ourselves and discovered to problem was a broken head gasket, likely the result of a loose head bolt. We had it apart and back together in three days. Most of that time was waiting for parts. We had it apart in less than two hours and back together in 6, counting prep work. You know cleaning old gaskets off, scrubbing the grease off of everything.

My cows are getting board. They're limited to the field grounds and the bladed trails for entertainment. I swear a couple of them have started taking turns standing on the loose strings from the bales, so I can't get it picked up. It's like some cow version of keep away.

Please let January get over with so we can get closer to spring.

Have a good one.

A wind study.

2011-01-14T19:36:00.001-07:00

   The National Weather Service has just completed a 3 year, 2.7 million dollar study of the forces involved with wind. For the last 3 years, they hired grad students to assume a horizontal position on a carefully selected piece of country side, to observe water vapor as it traveled along the lower atmosphere. It was noted that a gentle slope and some sort of vegetation that allowed for the disruption of solar glare provide the best observation point. This study has proved conclusively that the wind does indeed BLOW.

   The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency has also just concluded their own 2 year, 3.6 million dollar study of the wind. They provided their own scientists and constructed 16x80 test facility. They took precise measurements and made careful observations of the tidal effects in a porcelain test vessel, a Kohler type 2, that was housed within this facility.  They have also proved conclusively that the wind SUCKS.

  Both agencies have agreed that a joint 5 year, 200 million dollar study will need to be done to see how two opposing forces can exist at the same time, from the same source. DARPA will oversee the joint study, just in case dark matter is involved.

Now thats a work out.

2011-01-07T20:29:00.000-07:00

  I'm treadmill challenged. As in I hate to use the dang thing. I've tried everything to break up the boredom of using that evil machine. Movies, mp3's, books, you name it. They sort of help, but not much. In the summer the answer is easy, go outside and hike. But in the winter my options are less. I tried x-country skiing but between bad snow and bad technique I have a terrible time getting motivated to use them. so early this week I bit the bullet and order a set of snow shoes. They are the Tubbs Flex NRG. YOu can see hem at the Tubbs web site HERE. I was surprised at how natural I can walk in them. I put them to their first real test tonight. I went out on a short after dark stroll. The snow conditions are crusty with crunchy underneath. I would break through occasionally. this didn't surprise me as I was marching right along and I have a heavy step. I like these WAY better the x-country ski's. I only put in a 1/2 mile, but found it to be FUN, and a workout. I'll be feeling that in the back of my legs tomorrow.

   My snow plow tractor has taken a fall. I haven't got into the heart of the matter yet, but I think I may have lost a ring on a piston. Not a cheap or easy fix for that. Not what I needed. But we'll roll with it. No use in losing sleep over something you can't do anything about.

  I'll be starting an EMT class next week. Like I need some more things to do. But it should be fun.

See you next week. Have a good one.

A reader emailed question.

2010-12-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

I recieved an email a short while ago about a item in my blog header photo. They had a question about the cross that's in the center and the meaning of the lettering contained on its face. We'll get to that in a moment. First a brief history about the item in question.

I made the cross for my wife a few Christmas's ago. It is cut from a piece of 1/4 steel plate and then hammer forged for some textured effect. Even though its steel it has always had a warm feel to it and the texturing "dimples" have a rosary bead feel to them. Its very comforting to hold and has a nice feel to it. It feels good to hold in the hand and "worry" on the dimples.

The lettering in the dimples represents the people in our family with J-Jesus watching over all. W- me on the left, M- my wife on the right, M-our daughter, A-the boy, and then M,R,D for the names of our pets who are also members of the family. I need to add a T- for the name of our newest dog. On the back are the letters of all the closest relatives of our family. The letters by themselves don't really mean anything to anyone but us.

But here is the funny part and the reason for the question from the reader. The lettering on the bottom of the cross seemed odd and out of place to the reader. A quick check of the urban dictionary showed me why. MAMRD is a slang word in Czech. That seems to have made it into our urban culture. Its a combination of two words, MA for Mother, and MRD for F**K, and you can see why it seemed really out of place.

I'd like to thank the reader for stopping by and being observant enough to spot that. Its completely unintentional and by no means meant to be disrespectable. I hope this might answer anybodys questions regarding this matter.
Thank you again.

Drifted In, Cabin Fever, Freakin' Snow, AGAIN!

2010-12-30T16:24:00.000-07:00

We are coming off the heels of a doesy of a snow storm this evening. Its hard to tell how much snow we actually got, but I'm guessing in the range of 6-8 inches. Its hard to tell how much it snowed because the wind had blown in the high 20's for the last 24 hrs. We have drifts the size of large Winnebago's behind every stationary object in the country.

   I did manage to get down to the cows close to my house and get them fed. I went back down this afternoon and shoveled a path/tunnel to the water tank. Water is hugely important for cows. They need it to effectively digest their feed. If you give them too much hay and no water they can become serious compacted and this can cause death.

The drift in front of the tank was a good 4ft. deep and I had to shovel a path about 4 ft. wide by 15 ft. long, so they could get at the water. They was some happy cows.

The fighting and bickering has reached a high point in the house, and that's just the adults. They children have been banished to their rooms on several occasions today. The adults are taking turns fighting for the privilege of going out to "shovel". 10 minutes of breathing room has saved a life on more than one occasion today.

    Its not that cold out if your out of the wind. Outside temp is 0.1 degrees with a 15-20 mph wind. The Wind chill is brutal. Although the kids went out on their own accord for some fresh air also. When it becomes to much for the pets, they abandoned ship also.

I have a feeling it will be an early bed time for the kids and the adults will hit the booze early tonight. I've taken to internet shopping to stave off the crazies. I haven't bought any guns, yet, but I'd did score a pair of Tubbs snowshoes. The crusty snow makes it miserable to use the X-country ski's, so maybe these babies will give me a chance to walk to town. They have ice cleats all over them. They are not made for deep powder but more for crusty nasty snow and 6-8 inches of fluff. Exactly what we have. And its also what we usually have, so I think they'll be fun. I'm already thinking about my daypack and how I'm going to sling a rifle with it on these shoes. I've got a Win 70 in .223 that should fit the bill nicely. An Axiom stock or maybe a cheap folding Choate would make it even more compact. Not important at all right now. Current goal is to drop some money on a .260 barrel to fit the Rem. 700 that is currently chambered 25-06. Why? Because I guess.

   Take care everyone. Have fun on New Years, but don't have more than you can handle. Unless of course your hosting, then by all means handle more than you can. We'll lock the door on the way out.

A loss for friends and neighbors.

2010-12-27T17:26:00.001-07:00

I've attached an web address for the obituary of a local man and soldier who is no longer standing guard. Please take a moment to visit. The Montana flag will be flying at half staff as by order of the Governor.

http://www.stevensonandsons.com/Miles%20City/2010,%20Obits/Obit,%20Lawrence,%20Reginald.htm

http://www.ktvq.com/news/jordan-soldier-dies-gov-orders-flags-flown-at-half-staff/

He was in school the same time I was. I'm good friends with his brother and know the family well. This is a tough blow to a good family. The last few days has been very hard for the family. Your prayers are greatly appreciated.

Christmas gift update.

2010-12-25T17:54:00.000-07:00

Maggie- Girly stuff from everyone. From daddy she got a hydration pack and some adventure essentials. (compass, space blanket, first aid kit, etc...) Her qoute, "BEST CHRISTMAS EVER".

Angus- Loads of badguys(G.I. Joe, Star Wars, etc...) and just general boy gifts. He's so easy to shop for.

Mom- A pair of pants. I didn't know pants came with bling these days. I do now. She worked hard for those pants. She deserved them. Along with the trip to Denver to see a friend in Feb.

Dad- Laser Bore Sighter, Bulk pack of Bullets, and a knife. Oh yeah.

Now a few days rest and up again for New Years. I'll try to come up with a legitimate Resolution.

Now I'll think I go in search of another beer and some pickled fish.

Christmas wishes.

2010-12-24T23:10:00.000-07:00

Thank you everyone for your Christmas wishes. I sincerely hope everyone has a peaseful holiday.

Its 11:00 p.m. and I just finished wrappimg gifts. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. We attended services at a church in Miles City tonight. In a town of 13,000 Ther is like 20 churches of various types. Ours is a bible church. It was standing room only. Somewhere in the 600 range. The second service usually has that or more also.

Had a primerib with my wife's sisters family tonight, and then primerib again tomorrow at my folks house. Nothing like living in beef country.

Its time for bed. I have a feeling it will be an early start tomorrow. Good night and have a wonderful Christmas. Be safe and remember your never alone. Companionship and comfort is only a prayer away.

What once was broke, is now not broke. Sorta

2010-12-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

   If you remember, a few months back I started at DIY gunsmithing project on a Ruger 10/22. These are good little guns to practice on. If you screw something up you can find literally hundreds of replacement parts to fix it with. They will range from the inexpensive to the obscene in price. Depending on what you want.
   I started out with the intention of building a sub-moa rifle at 100 yards. This is do able for not a lot of money, if you shop wisely. Well I was doing my own trigger and bolt work. The trigger was coming along nicely and I started in on the bolt. Well I made a slight error in measurement and removed too much of the bolt face. The result was that when you released the bolt on a live round, it would slam fire. The was cause b the bolt being able to pinch the rimfire round between the bolt face and the barrel breech. Couple that with a light trigger pull and what you have is a full auto 10/22. This is how the process went. Pull bolt, release, blttttttttt, empty. That sucked.
  Well I threw the parts in the back of the cabinet with the intent of buying a new bolt. Thats been awhile back. Money was spent else where and the need to tinker with the gun has waned. But I ran across it today. I had some time and I couldn't make it any worse. So I took a dremel to the bolt recess and made it more, well recessed. And surprisingly it worked. No more slam fire. And the trigger works like its spotta. One pull, one shot. Better, much better. I'm going to run a few dozen rounds through it to make sure its fixed. Then I'll probably put it back in the safe. Until the next time I feel the urge to do some DIY gun smithing.

  On the ranch front, I need to buy a pair of snow tires. I'm running one pair of bald tires on the front of my feed pickup and a pair of fair ones on the back. I still have surprising traction on the rear, but steering is getting to be an issue. This morning I just about took out the gate coming into my yard. Mostly my fault. Speed and ice don't mix, but still. Its getting ridiculous.
   My tire selection is dismal right now. I'm looking at a pair of Goodyear Duratrac or a set of Nokian HY---------- LT. The price is close at $195 or $210. I'll get a set of cheap rims to put them on so I don't ruin a set of snow tires on the gravel this summer. They don't make the tire I like anymore, which is typical.

   We went to my daughters Christmas play last night. She quite the little actress. And she can sing. But I'm not biased or anything. You can catch pics and a better description over at the cohagenchronicles.blogspot.com

Putting on the farmer hat for a couple of days.

2010-12-19T20:04:00.000-07:00

   Well the cow situation has remained the same for the last week or so. Feed the cows, water the cows, feed the cow, and etc...... . Not much to report on that front. Oh wait, forgot that we bangs vaccinated the heifer calves last week. We actually had a nice day to do it on, so that was a bonus. I think we got into the high teens for temps and very little wind that day. So it was a very pleasant day to be working cows outside.

  Yesterday I saw 2 coyotes and 1 fox at different times during the day. I completely shanked a gimme shot at one of the coyotes. 150 yards at the most and a standing shot. I so missed him. I couldn't call the shot as it went into the snow behind him and I just couldn't see it. My big problem was that I was unsteady as you can get. Flopping around like a fish on the creek bank kind of unsteady. Why is that? I don't have my truck rifle set up for a truck rifle. 90% of my shooting with my truck rifle is from a sitting position, and in this weather, wearing a few layers of clothing. Well it is currently set up as a prone gun(I really lean in when lying on the ground), wearing summer weight clothing. I had to hook the stock in my elbow to be able to get a clear enough view through the scope. Why I don't have the scope slid back a couple of inches I don't know. But the problem will be fixed directly. I also seem to have a problem with the trigger. Now its not that its that heavy, but I seem to want to jerk the trigger like a pin on a hand grenade, every time I shoot it. Its a mental thing. And I seem to only do it with this rifle. I just need to spend some quality time with her to get the rough spots worked out and some understanding built up between us.

   The grain cleaner showed up on Saturday with the intention of cleaning seed Saturday and Monday.But due to a pending change in the weather( 8+ inches of snow and 20 mph winds) for Monday, we decided to work until 11:30 p.m. Saturday and got going again 4:30 on Sunday morning. We finished today at about 2:00 p.m. It nice to have it out of the way, but my backside is dragging. I'm hoping the storm situation is overblown and we get very little snow an only slight wind.

  We made it through the first of the Christmas celebrations. The much talked about Cookie day. Where my wifes family gets together to decorate cookies to box up for gifts for friends and family. I made it in time to decorate one cookie( which I ended up dropping on the floor, dang it.) and eating my weight in crackers and cheese.
Then pretty much the whole works of us loaded up and went down to the tree bottoms by Mary's dads and cut three pickup loads of firewood as a Christmas gift for Mary's grandma. All I can say is don't trust me with a chainsaw. I've seen too many movies where the saw is used as a weapon and not a tool. Apparently that has rubbed off on me. Don't worry, I have all my appendages, just barely. We finished up in the dark, but we had a fire going with the left over branches and the kids had a big time. So it was time well spent. Two more stops on the party train and we can call it quits until New Years. Yipee.

  I think one of the reasons I'm not in the spirit this year, is that I haven't been able to go Christmas shopping. I've done some online this year, which takes care of the big stuff, but I like to go to the downtown shops and wonder up and down the shops and pick up stocking stuffers for the wife and kids. Its probably the ONE time a year I don't mind wandering aimlessly just looking for something to catch my eye. Unfortunately time won't allow that to happen this year, but Mary did very good with the gifts that she snagged for the kids, so I don't feel TOO bad.

  Hoping everyone feels the Christmas Spirit and has a wonderful holiday.

Endless cycle

2010-12-05T18:51:00.001-07:00

  We've entered a period of time on the ranch where one day rolls into the next without much variation. Get up, eat breakfast, feed cows, plow snow, repair pickup/tractor, go home, eat supper, sleep, repeat.

  I dread this type of time period. Its easy for me to get depressed. Which in turns causes me to want to drink beer. And its EASY for me to drink beer. I like it. A lot. Could it get to the point of a serious problem. If I had unlimited access to it, yeah. Been there, done that. Don't wish to go back.

  One of the ways I have found to curb this problem is to get involved in things outside the home. Community plays, dive training, or anything that requires you to use your brain.

  This year I've signed up to take an EMT basic class in Jordan. I know that it will prove to be challenging and thats just what the doctor ordered to keep my head straight. Classes start in January, which isn't far away. So I think I can keep it together until then.

  We have had our challenges on the Ranch this last couple of weeks. I finally was able to get my feed pickup to town to have the transmission checked. I just made it. I had to keep the engine at 1800 rpm +/- 100 rpm to keep it from kicking out of drive and in neutral. The official report isn't back yet, but the prognosis can't be good. Lets see what else, the bolts fell out that held the inside front dual of the 4 wheel drive tractor, causing the wheel to flop and cause minor damage to the rim. I was able to steal some bolts from a hub from another set of duals on a different tractor that we are not using now. Fixed and back in business. A subsequent check of the other tires showed the inside front dual on the opposite side were finger tight also. Apparently when somebody had them off before we bought it, they didn't get them tight enough. It happens. We've also had a sucker rod break on a windmill that we are using to water cows. Luckily we have a submersible on the bottom of the well also. So instead of having a well repair guy come out in freezing weather and play in the water, we hooked up a generator and start it every couple of days to keep the cows watered.
   I'm driving my fathers pickup for a feed rig right now. IT and I are having issues of sorts. The first one being, I have to learn to drive a dang six speed. I can't seem to get it into first from second under power while trying to get through that nasty snow drift. Its a spacing issue. I'm used to driving a slopped out five speed, and the the six speed is tight and the gears are close together. The second issue I'm having, has to do with the tires. They are pathetic snow tires. No grip what so ever. I'm having a terrible time finding that sweet spot between tire traction and engine torque. The way the snow is right now, the first time you spin the tires your stuck. I've been stuck more in the last two days than I have been in five years. I went to fix that little problem by putting on a set of tire chains. One of the things I dislike about the newer vehicles, they keep going to bigger and bigger tires. I built my chains to fit 235r/16 tires of various makes. This pickup has wide rims, which are standard, and require a wider tire. This required me to have to add some chain links and curse a lot to get the dang things put on my tires. But they helped enormously with traction. As they should. By the time I get it figured all out, my pickup should be done.

  My cows have discovered they can walk the stock gate at the county road. I now have to put a rope across it to keep the old girls from being a danger to drivers on the road. Once they figure something out like that, its almost impossible to keep them from doing it. Kind of like the fact they found out they can get in my yard also and that my car shed is a cozy place to sleep. For some reason they take great pains to lick the windows on Mary's car. I don't know if you have ever tried to get cow slobber off of glass before, but let me tell you, is not easy or pleasant.

  On a fun note, we got to SKYPE with the Dykstra family last night. Getting to see the people while your visiting with them is the bomb. You miss a lot when you can't see facial expressions or body language. This adds a whole new dimension to phone conversions.

  I hope everyone is safe and well. I pray that the holidays are a pleasant time for you and yours. Until next time....Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Surviving the holidays

2010-11-27T18:38:00.000-07:00

  Well we made it through Thanksgiving. My darling wife only broke down in tears once. I think thats some sort of record for her. She only got into the wine once before noon this year too. I think it helped that she had a friend that called that has the same hard time with holidays. They were able to share horror stories and give each other some comic relief.
   We have a sort of tradition here that we DON"T spend thanksgiving with family. We save that special sort of ~~torture~~ family togetherness for Christmas. So far spending Thanksgiving with friends has worked out fairly well. One year we had to cross the state in the WORST ice storm we've seen in many, many years. I think that was the same year Mary had turkey poisoning for the trip home.(turns out she was pregnant with the boy) This year we had Thanksgiving at our house. 6 adults and 4 children in a 16 x 80 trailer house(those are outside dimensions). It was a "cozy" fit, but we had a great time. The food was most excellent as always. This year Mary cooked a Hutterite turkey. I could care less about it being free range but it was a locally raised bird, and I can always support that. It was a good eating bird.
   I have many things to be thankful for. But they all seem so trivial compared to some that I've read about in the last week. A fine example can be found here at http://lifeintheinfantry.blogspot.com/2010/11/what-am-i-thankful-for-quite-bit.html. It can be quite humbling.
   We are not far from Christmas. The children's Christmas gifts are well on their way to be overdone. We have a cookie day tradition to get through and a Christmas Eve and Day gathering. When did things get so complicated, I don't know.
   The weather the last couple of days have been a wonderful reprieve from the nastiness that was last week. We've had temps in the mid-20's and light winds. We are still trying to get the hay yards cleaned out so I can get in them with the pickup. There is some snow showers predicted for later tomorrow, but I don't think it will end up to be much.

  I hope everyone had a fine holiday and that your well rested for the coming weeks before Christmas. My wife has reminded me that Sunday is the first day of Advent, so its time to break out the candles and the readings. It makes for some nice evenings before bed with the kids. I hope it creates some good memories for the kids.

Somebody pee'd

2010-11-23T20:46:00.000-07:00

Somebody pee'd in Old Man Winters oatmeal and he isn't happy about it. Naw Tat' all.
Winter has showed up here in a big way. We are somewhere in the 10"-12" of snow with more piling as we speak. The wind has picked up tonight to a brisk 20-30 mph and its a balmy -4 below with and expected -20 below tonight. Thats been the story the last few days and its not looking to change any time soon.

For those of you that are not in the cattle business, this is a bad thing. A very bad thing. This is WAY to early for this kind of weather to start. We are going to go through a lot of feed again this winter. Not to mention the wear and tear on equipment. Already I need a new starter selinoid, possibly an automatic transmission, and a power steering pump is in the future. Oh the joy.

To add to the doom and gloom, we had our annual fiscal review with the banker today. Not much has changed. If we can make it one more year then we just might be able to make it through the next year after that. But only if this year isn't a bad one. Thats farming for you.

I'm thankful this year that we aren't going to travel this year for Thanksgiving. See above for the reason.

Today the weather was hard for the brain to wrap itself around. It was that sort of dismall gray, where you couldn't tell where the sky ended and the ground started. It was very difficult to drive in. You couldn't see the tracks you'd made earlier because everything just blended into itself. Like driving on a white sheet towards a white wall and having to follow a white line. Only don't stray to far or you'll get stuck.

I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving as gets to spend it with family and friends. Be safe out there folks.

5.11 tactical clothing and boots.

2010-11-15T19:04:00.000-07:00

For the past couple of years I've been a fan of 5.11 tactical gear. I've owned 2 pair of boots, 4 pair of pants, 2 shirts, and numerous socks and belts. The clothes are put together well and stylish enough that you can wear cargo's without looking like a mall ninja but still have plenty of pockets. Their socks are great. Probably the best cheap socks you can get. The elastic holds up well and a the wear is longer than most athletic socks.

I get most of my 5.11 tactical gear from L.A. Police gear. They have great closeout specials every month. Its really the boots that I like most. I have weird feet. Meaning its hard to find boots that fit well without buying different insoles to make a better fit. Now the 5.11 have fit out of the box every time. Plus as an added bonus, I've bought two different styles and the sizes have carried through well. I've bought shoes from the same manufacture before that I swear are two sizes different between shoes in the same box. I still have the first pair of ATAC 6" and they show no sign of wearing down. The second pair was a day hiker style that made me about 7 months. Considering they only cost $60.00 at the time, I'm pretty happy. My new pair hasn't showed yet so I'm still wearing the day hikers, but the soles are just about to fall off. They held up well considering they aren't made for ranch wear. Cow manure, welding, post hole digging, oil, and barbwire can play heck on shoes. The high end work boots typically only last me about 10 months, and at twice or three times the cost it just don't work for me.

The one thing I like about LA Police gear is all the freebies they pitch in when you buy boots. I know it doesn't cost them anything but it still is nice. With this order they sent me three pair of socks and a boot knife. To get the shipping for free I added another closeout knife and some 5 shot tuff strips in .38 special. I think I also had a promo code for being on a mailing list. When ordering pants in the past I received some nice belts for free also. Their gun belts are good quality. I have one shirt that is also of good quality and I'm thinking of getting one of they're concealed carry shirts to see how they fit.

And there you have it, my unsolicited review of 5.11 tactical gear.

Fire King

2010-11-13T17:33:00.000-07:00

Part 3 (Part 1-Fire Bow, Part 2-Alcohol Stove)of my ongoing series "Questing for Fire" has brought me to this next project. A Fire Piston. Wikipedia defines it as-A fire piston consists of a hollow cylinder ranging in length from about 7.5 cm to 15 cm (3 to 6 inches), having a bore 6-7 mm (about 0.25 inch) in diameter, sealed at one end and open at the other. A piston with an airtight circular seal is fitted into the cylinder. The piston has a handle on the end to allow a firm grip to be applied to it, or a large enough surface area to strike it sharply without causing pain while the cylinder is braced against a hard surface, and it can be completely withdrawn from the cylinder. The piston generally has a notch or recess on or in its face, into which a piece of tinder is placed.

The compression of the air when the piston is quickly rammed into the cylinder causes the interior temperature to rise sharply to 260°C (500°F) . This is hot enough for the tinder on or in the piston face to ignite with a visible flash that can be seen if the cylinder is made of translucent or transparent material. The piston is then quickly withdrawn, before the now-burning tinder depletes the available oxygen inside the cylinder. The smoldering tinder can then be removed from the face of the piston and transferred to a larger nest of fine wiktionary:kindlingmaterial, such as hemp rope fibres, birch shavings, etc. The ember is then fanned or blown upon vigorously to create a flame, at which time various stages of larger kindling can be added until built into a proper fire.

Ancient and modern versions of fire pistons have been made from wood, animal horns, antlers, bamboo, or lead. Other metals have also been used in modern versions.

Now there are several different versions available for sale on the internet. Most are really works of art. The one I made is not. In fact I'd say its really rather crude and ugly, but it DOES work. Which is cool, because I wasn't all that sure it was going to. My cylinder is a piece of salvaged 1/4" ID steel brake line tubing and a piece of scrape 1/4" brass rod for a piston. The seal is a rubber o-ring for a kit I have on hand. I used a couple of old wood dresser knobs for the handle and base.

Now the tinder used to make the ember with the piston is pretty limited. You can use Chaga, a fungus found growing on birch trees, punky wood, or Char cloth. Char cloth is usually made from 100% cotton cloth or cord. You place the cotton material in a sealed metal container with a small vent hole, heat it with a open flame until it quicks smoking. What you have remaining is a material that will catch a spark VERY easy. This is the material I chose to use. It easy to make and I don't have any birch trees even remotely close.

This was a fun project. And one that will be played with some more.

Trick or Treat country style

2010-11-01T13:09:00.000-06:00

  Today is the day after Halloween. When all little children are coming off of sugar highs and are in THE best moods. The youngest is in his bed right now sleeping off a crying fit. Ah the fun.

  Last night WAS fun. We had some friends come over for supper and then afterwards we dressed the kids up and made a tour of the country roads for some trick or treating. Most kids now make a trip to one of the local towns to go trick or treating. They are really missing out. It took us around 3 hrs to make 7 houses. Now we didn't actually have to drive that far, maybe 40 miles round trip. But unlike in town, when you knock on the door in the country, its an event. You go inside, there's ooohhhing and awwwing over the costumes. There's lots of laughter and conversation. You'll spend at least 20 minutes at each stop. And the TREATS. We got more from those 7 houses than we would have walking all over town. And sure there was the packaged stuff like the kids in town HAVE to get, but since we know everyone out here, we also get the luxury of huge amounts of homemade goodies. Caramel corn, popcorn balls, cookies, carameled apples, other wonderful things, that the kids in town only wish they could have.

  Plus there was treats for the adults to. And its fun to get to stop and visit the neighbors. Its so informal and relaxed, everyone just has a good time. We started a bit late this year and missed out on 4 or 5 house that we normally go to. The kids simply played out.

It was a nice evening also. We have had halloweens that where in the 0-5 degree mark with wind and snow. Not very pleasant at all. In the past when it was that cold, some of the businesses in Miles City rented rooms at a hotel so the kids could still trick or treat in their costumes with freezing to death.

I hope everyone had an enjoyable time last night and don't let the sugar get you down for the rest of the week.
Later.

Field expedient ATV tire inflation.

2010-10-31T15:11:00.000-06:00

  I went over to the neighbors to help gather cattle and ship calves on Friday. They supplied me with a trailer and four wheeler.

  They had their high school aged kids load the wheeler in back of the trailer at 0 dark 30 in the morning. When I went to go get it out of the trailer we found out that the young lads failed to check the air in ALL of the tires. And as such is the law of Murphy, the left front one was flat. Now I tried to gather a small bunch with the flat tire(it was in need of replacement anyway) but having the ability to turn real well one way and not the other proved to be to much for me to stand. So I went back to the trailers and decided to wait for the rest to finish the gather.

  As I was sitting there fiddling with the vent hose on the fuel tank, it dawned on me that I had all the tools necessary to inflate the tire. ATV tires only require 4-5 psi air. The vent hose would handle the pressure. Removing the vent hose, I found a couple of pieces of wire(a single strand of barbed wire) and placed them in each end of the tube. This would allow me to depress the valve cores in the valve stems. Then it was a simple matter of getting a spare tire(I used the spare in case I damaged the valve core, I wouldn't flatten the pickup tire) and placing it next to the flat wheeler tire. Transfer a few pounds of air and we were in business.

   I left the piece of wire in the vent tube in the event that this should happen again. So there you have it. A quick and dirty tire inflation tool made with materials easily found in the field. With the exception being the spare truck tire. In a pinch you might be able to siphon off the other wheeler tires just enough to get you home. Most wheelers have a tool kit in them somewhere that would allow you to remove one tire and take it to the other three to siphon off the small amounts of air. Its just a thought anyway.

God, Guns and Grits: Bad questions and bad advice from across the gun shop counter

2010-10-29T11:52:00.001-06:00

A funny post over at---You'll want to check it out.

God, Guns and Grits: Bad questions and bad advice from across the gun shop counter

Up before 6:00 a.m.

2010-10-26T05:46:00.000-06:00

  I'm not an early riser. I'm the type who will lay in bed until the very last second, jump up, inhale my breakfast, stumble out the door at 7:30 and get to work.

  I'm up at 5:00 this morning. That can only mean one of two things. I'm going scuba diving or its shipping season. Well I'm not going to get to breath any canned air today, so it must be the latter. The boss and myself are headed over to the neighbors (an hour drive away) to help sort, weigh, and put on trucks, this years calf crop. The next week will be like this pretty much full time. Ours go the first weekend of November. And true to the nature of shipping weather its cold, windy, and dare I say.....snowy, or at a minimum wet.

  On the bonus side, this is where the ranch wives break out the big guns and there will be caramel rolls, coffee, and other goodies galore for the next couple of weeks. Mary made two pans of caramel rolls last night. She got a good "do" on them. I'd have to say they are as good as my grandma's are. And that takes a lot.

  I'm missing my camera something fierce. Took it to the camera store for repairs. They took one look and said, "buy another one." These are good folks and they aren't trying to rip me off. They said with the cheaper models the cost of shipping and labor, it wold be within a few dollars of buying a new comparable camera. I'll probably upgrade though. Looking at a Pentax Luminox(?). I don't remember the model right now but it comes recommended by the camera store. And they are Cannon people. Its another pocket model, but it had a 10X zoom and some other nice features. If anyone knows about these or has any other good recommendations let me know.

   Off to eat the first caramel roll of the day and a GOOD cup of coffee. Have a pleasant week.

Back to basics

2010-10-17T18:05:00.000-06:00

  Grip(check), Sight picture(check), Breathing(check), Trigger control(DANG! Shot the hostage). This summer I spent most of my trigger time on the XD .45 doing combat style drills on large silhouette targets. I had acceptable combat accuracy, but it came with a price. When it came to precision shooting or should I say more precise shooting like I tried today, I have developed some bad trigger practices. Trigger slap, excessive squeeze, pushing, pulling, you name it, I was doing it. I even had some anticipation flinch going on.
   My targets were clay pigeons set up in mismatched color pairs, ranging from 25 paces out to 45 paces. I was laying prone, slightly(not really noticeable) declined head first, resting over a 6x6 timber, mag well as the rest. When I say pairs, the first target(hostage) was six inches in front of the second target(bad guy) and maybe an 1/2" overlap(view) from firing position. Twice, TWICE I say, I had clear sight picture and I pushed to the left and hit the hostage. That was in the first two mags. By the time I got to the end of 100 rounds I was WAY more consistent and when I followed the basics I could go 6 for 6 most of the time, guessing about 80%. I will need to to do this more often to keep some skills, plus I'll need to go off hand, how often do you get a rest when you need one.
   A thought on ammo. I fired some factory defense loads(Golden Sabre) and some home brew practice hand loads. I couldn't tell a huge difference in recoil, but the handloaded brass landed about 2-4 feet away while the factory loads landed 6-10 feet with some that caught some particularly good air, rode the wind and went 15 feet away. Oh yeah, we had a 20 mph cross wind at times. Rose hell with the shotgun. Who would of thought that the added side profile caused by the magazine tube extension would catch that much more air. I should have known better. The guys who shoot coyotes from moving aircraft all say the extra ammo isn't worth the added wind resistance.

  I did some similar shooting with the twelve gauge also. Just single pigeons in holders. Blast I'm getting sloppy. I flinched horribly twice that I was aware of. And these weren't combat loads either. We're talking 2 3/4" clay pigeon loads from Wally World. I've had hell shooting skunks and coons this summer with it. I've blamed it on the wrong loads and the short 18" Barrel. Now these did have some effect,(trap loads on coons and skunks at 50-60 yards just piss them off and the short barrel causes excessive spread on heavier loads at longer ranges.) but mostly I'm anticipating recoil and pushing low and to the left. When I do my job I could make consistent hits out to 50 paces no problem. Well I take that back. The factory rifle type sights or next to impossible to see, Like looking at the end of a needle. New front sight is called for, even the cheapy Tru-glo tape on ones would be an improvement. The rear sight needs some lovin' also. It has a gloss finish. And at one point the sun glared off of it so bad that it was painful and I couldn't see anything. A little file work will take care of that. I also need to finish the grip tape job I started on it last year. Right now I've removed the stamped diamond pattern grip and we're down to racing slicks on the grip and fore end. Not for wet conditions tat all.

On the ranch life front we've been busy as usual. The boss has been helping the county haul gravel on the local road for last the seven days. Our road will be mostly an all weather road now. The spots that won't get graveled this year usually stay fairly passable under normal conditions. I've been busy winterizing wells, cleaning and storing equipment, mowing roads so that they don't blow shut with snow as fast this winter, and numerous other busy work type jobs. I still need to build scads of fence, but that goes so much better with two or more people doing the work.

Antelope hunting season is entering week two. We've had a total of 10 hunters(not all with tags, but following along for fun) and 8 antelope harvested so far.

This week promises another day of gravel hauling, staging of cattle in anticipation of shipping and helping neighbors with the same thing. At some time I need to get down to my grandmothers and wire in a new breaker set up on her refrigerator. One little old lady and she has Two large freezers and 3 refrigerators all stocked with food of some sort or another.

The weather has turned noticeably cooler. Lows have been averaging in the 30's and the highs in the 50's and 60's. Fall is diffidently here and winter is just around the corner. I'm not ready.

Updated! Now we're cooking with gas, errrrr, alcohol rather

2010-10-10T22:08:00.001-06:00

   Switched to methyl alcohol(yellow heet) and had a much hotter flame. Start up to boil on 8 oz of water was under 4 min. It also seems to work better with a moderate amount of fuel. 1 oz of fuel will burn for 6 min. with a faster start up time. I think it has to do with the heating up of the alcohol. i also built a small aluminum wind shield for the stove. Worked well in the first test.
   I switched to a flint striker for light up for a test. The Ozark Trail flint is a Wally World cheapy. You would be likely to spend a cold night if you are planning on that to light your fire. Sparks are weak and short lived. Diffidently spend the money and buy a quality unit like a Fire Steel brand.
  I purchased a coleman solo camp cook pot and pan set. It had a four inch and a six inch set. The four inch set holds my stove, alcohol 3oz, soup mix, spoon, and a mre condiment/accouterments pack, and windscreen. A little better packing and I could fit just a hair more food if I needed to. This set is really meant only for a one to two day MAX use.
  I plan on repacking my bag for day trip only and then having a separate throw in bag  for the planed over nighter type trips. Currently I have a first aid kit, rain kit, extra hat,mittens, socks, fire starting kit,compass, knife, reflector tape, emergeny blanket, light, and a couple of other token items. A planned over nighter would include a bivy or some other type shelter, more food/fuel, and possible food getting kit(fish tackle, snare etc..) a small water filter(already have chemical treat in med. kit), and a more comprehensive med kit. Possibly to replace the crappy one I have.

And so begins my adventure in building ultralight camp stoves. As you may remember I spent some time last spring leaning the trick of starting fire with two sticks and a string.(need to practice that again. degradable skill). While I was doing research on that, I ran across these little stoves made from pop cans and that burned alcohol.
I was most intrigued. So this summer I spent some time researching them and decided on two designs to try. The first was from the site www.instructables.com . A double wall design made from aluminum beer bottles. The second design I found on www.youtube.com . Another double wall design and again mad from aluminum beer bottles. A search for Alcohol Stove on either site will get you several hits. Here are the results of my trials and lessons learned.

On the left we have the instructables version, and the right is the youtube version. The instructables had a build time in the 3+ hrs with a lot of custom fitting of components. It requires 3 alum. bottles to build. All compression fit and no epoxy. The youtube version took about 30 min. to build. You fit it together with a wood block on a hammer. I also rolled the inside lip over the outside lip for seal, removing the need for epoxy.

Top view, same placement.

Interior jets of the Instructable and you can just see the exterior jets of the youtube one.

Burn test of the instructable. Soup can pot with 1 cup of water. 3 oz. of 99% isopropyl Alc. 50 degrees outside temp., slight breeze. I had to prime this stove by pouring alcohol at the base and igniting it. This preheated the stove and alcohol which allowed for proper ignition. Some stoves use a fiberglass wick attached at the base of the stove to allow for preheating.

From ignition of interior jets(almost immediately from preheat flame) until rolling boil was a hair over 6 min. Total burn time was 11 min.

Youtube version. This one ignited really easily. Same amount of alcohol and same amount of new water. It took 2 1/2 minutes for the jets to ignite. Again a hair over 6 minutes to a rolling boil on the water. Total time at this point has been a hair under 9 minutes. flamed out at the 15 min 30 second mark.

Boil and bubble, toil and trouble.

Both designs worked fairly well. The use of a wind screen would have greatly decreased the start time for both of them. The addition of a wick for preheating or some other preheating device would also greatly help them. A pot stand/ wind screen may also be a some use. Methyl alcohol is supposed to work better in these units.

Overall, I'd have to use the rule of K.I.S.S.(keep it simple stupid). My vote goes for the youtube stove. A short and easy build time, with effective operation makes it a winner. And has earned it a place in my go bag.
This was a fun project. I learned some new things. I may want to build some more. There is a design using V-8 cans and sink strainers that looks really neat.

Well enough play, this week promises to be busy with cattle work, so until next time.......

Ten things you can say to your wife, to NOT get laid.

2010-09-29T20:20:00.000-06:00

In no particular order,
1) Anyone with a digital camera can be an "artist".
2) Does that dress make you look fat? Does a marshmallow tied up with a rubber band mean anything?
3) I've kissed your sister.
4) You are the thumb. No, the other one. (In reference to the number of girls I've dated.)
5) Her-I think all this running is really helping my butt. Me- Thats my second favorite part of you. Her- The first being my brain? Me-Yes, and its convenient that they are usually in close proximity to one another.
6) We're supposed to eat this?
7) Did you do anything today?
8) You're acting just like your mother.
9) Thats not the way mom/grandma made it.
10) You're pregnant! Crap! They said 15% chance. 15% chance of rain, not a cloud to be seen. (On finding out about child #1.)

The closed mouth, tastes not the foot.

My wife was telling a mutual guy friend the other day one of the not so smart things I'd said, and his response was, "Wow, that won't get you laid." Hence the title of the blog. (alternate title: Did I say that out loud?)

My wife is a friend and companion. And I love her dearly. But I sometimes forget she's not one of the guys. Women (and Mary is not the sensitive type) take things more personal than guys do. You can pay a guy a compliment by calling him a dumb shit. A woman not so much.

Anyone who thinks marriage isn't work, is kidding themselves. Its very rewarding, but work. Its not always easy, nor fun, but it never is with the best things life has to offer. But it can be easier if you remember, its not funny if you're the only one laughing.

Guns II- A love child is born

2010-09-27T22:27:00.001-06:00

Before we get started, in response to Alaskan Geeks comment about looking at a Kel-Tec to carry when away, while his Kimber languishes at home, you will not be happy. It would be like getting out of a Cadillac and getting into a Datsun. Oh sure it will get you around, but you wouldn't trust it to go across the state. Now if you owned a Yugo and stepped up to a Datsun, well then, ignorance is bliss.

Now, all day I've been designing a gun in my head. I just wish I could translate the design onto paper. The inspiration for this particular piece of hardware comes from this gun.

The Marbles Game getter. A 1908 original with folding stock. It inspired many different guns with similar abilities over the years. I see they are now making a third edition, available sometime 2010/11. A cool $1500.00 will get you a fine gun.

Now I have a couple of problems with the old girl. She's only gives you one shot of each caliber. Which should be enough, but my shooting taint the best. And the Ammo is stored separate from the gun, and thats a minor thing, but one that can be easily fixed by marrying the butt stock from the

Springfield M6 scout, which has this handy ammo storage compartment. And is designed to fold in a fashion similar to the game getter. Well that fixes one part of the problem, but what about the part about multiple rounds. Now we add in the new

Taurus/Rossi Circuit Judge. Chambered for the .410/.45 colt. But wait you say, there is no chamber for the .22lr. We fix that by dropping one large caliber round off from 5 to 4 rounds. Now we have space to add extra chambers for a .22lr, .22mwr, or .22 hornet. Yeah I snubbed the .17wmr. The barrel for these new small caliber rounds? Offset diagonally and to the right, placed so that the sights will keep you in the x ring from 25-75 yards. The trigger for the .410/.45 colt will be SA/DA(single action/or double action) with a spurred hammer for that chamber. Then you'll be able to use a selector switch on the side(similar to the one on a savage 24) to fire the minor caliber. That will be a DAO(double action only) spur less hammer. Set to the side of the major hammer. Yo'll use the same trigger for both calibers.

So we have a compact rifle, with folding stock. The stock has the ability to hold one reload of the major caliber(.410 or .45 colt) and four reloads of the minor caliber(.22wmr for argument). Capable of switching between a major and minor caliber without swapping parts on the gun, and is capable of providing protection from all but the largest of the predators, and take small game. We also have the ability to have quick follow up shots due to a capacity of 4 major/4 minor calibers. Thats 8 if you need help with the math. Now would someone please build this so I can buy one. This would be one handy little rifle.

Guns

2010-09-26T22:05:00.000-06:00

Like opinions and a**holes, if you don't have one, something just ain't right with you.

I'm researching guns again. I keep going back to the Kel-Tec PF-9. I just wish they were reliable out of the box, instead of needing to do 6 hrs. of fluff and buff, to make them run right. They do have a devoted following though. I'm also looking at Kahr, S&W, Ruger, and then a bottom shelf 1911, (the manufacture escapes me) a local dealer has one in stock. For a cheap 1911 its got a nice trigger. The others have quality but the dang price goes up fast. One reason I keep going back to the PF-9 is the reasonable cost. And some DIY gun smithing can go a long ways to making these good little guns. No money right now to buy, but when I do get it scraped up, I want the decision on what to get already made.

On a similar topic I posted a comment some time ago on another blog in regards to "survival" type guns. The question dealt more with the use of AR type carbines. Now I don't have a problem with AR's. Really rather like'm, but for survival I don't see the benefit of them. Of course I don't live in Detroit either. I see having a double gun,( one having a barrel of one type/cal. and a second barrel of another type/cal) as having a more practical use of providing food and protection. Common caliber choices are .410/22lr, 12ga./ .243, 20ga./.223 and so forth. These have been produced in various quantities and qualities for many years. Very popular in Europe. You can get these for $400 for a okay one,

all the way up to $5,000, for one you'd leave in the safe, rather than take the chance of scratching it.

CZ used to make one for Springfield Armory called the M6 scout rifle. It was a .410/.22lr designed with survival in mind. It was a small, no frills, reliable piece of hardware. Ugly as all get out too.

They are no longer manufactured, but I wouldn't be surprised to see someone pick back up on their production given the recent rise in backwoods survival interest. You used to be able to pick them up NIB for under $200. I see two used ones on Gunbroker for over $400, with multiple bidders. Now, many would argue that that simply is not enough gun. And if I lived in, say, Northern Canada or Alaska, I'd have to agree. I live in Eastern Montana. It would be more than adequate in providing food, mostly abundant small game, and provide fair protection against dangerous beasts I might encounter for the surrounding 400 miles. Now thats considering that I'm alone. Why would I do that? I prefer companionship. In which case someone can have larger firearms for protection against say, bear, or ones more suited for the zombie hordes waiting at the grocery store. Really it just makes for interesting conversation.

My XD has sat idol for far to long. The excuse I'm using is that my range is currently inhabited by cows. Cows are kinda expensive critters to be shooting around. But really, I could drive up the road a ways to shoot, just lazy I guess.

Over at Mausers and Muffins(Home on the Range) Brigid had a nice post about the usefulness of a chronograph for reloading. I recently had to fun of using one when I got some help from a local gun smith when working up a load for my .257 Roberts. We used 110 gr. Nosler accubonds and H4350 powder. We stated at 44 gr. of powder and worked up 47 gr. powder. We started to see pressure signs at 47gr, but nothing to blow your skirt up over. What we did see in my rifle was a huge difference in accuracy. 47gr. had groups over 2"@100 yards and the 44gr. groups where 1"@100 yards. Velocity when comparable to most factory loaded 25-06 loads at a little over 3000 fps. Plenty fast. When I got home I ended up using some 90gr. Barnes X bullets(old style) and the same 44gr. H4350 powder charge. Groups tightened up enough at 100 yards that I could cover a three shot group with a dime. I plan on doing some more shooting with this load to see if this can be consistent or if it was just a fluke. Again, waiting on the cows.

My finger itches, I've got powder to burn, and bullets to send down range. Its time to have some fun.

Preconditioning

2010-09-22T20:07:00.000-06:00

  Its that time of year again folks. Weaning and shipping are but 45 or so days away. So in anticipation of this event, we run ALL the cattle through the chutes. The cows get a dose of dewormer and we cut out any fly tags that we may have put in, in the spring. The young cows will also get a booster type of vaccination that the old cows don't get in the fall.
  The calves will get a dewormer and a series of four vaccines that cover pretty much anything that they might be exposed to during the stress of weaning and when the steer calves get shipped off to the feed yards.

  There are many different types(brands) of vaccines out there and not everybody vaccinates, but the vast majority do, and the vast majority have some sort of program that has been tailored to their herds needs. We've been using the same basic program for about ten years and its time to have it reviewed. I think some of the shots we are giving have been combined into a single shot. Less needle pokes means a less of a chance of problems from infections or other things being passed along between cattle.

  On Sunday we preg-checked the yearling heifers. A vet from Baker MT. comes out to do it. He uses a ultra sound machine to check the heifers, in lieu of just a manual palpitation like you'd use on an older cow. With the ultra sound we get the approximate age and sex of the calf. This helps us immensely in the spring during calving time. I also spent the afternoon at the neighbors helping them precondition a small bunch.

  Monday Dad went to Moccasin MT, and picked up a new variety winter wheat thats out. I believe the name is Decade. I haven't read up on it yet, so I can't tell you much about it.  I hauled a load of open heifers into Miles City for the Tuesday sale. And then helped a trucker load the last batch of open heifers later in the afternoon. He had a part load, so he was able to save me two trips to town, if I had to haul them myself. The heifers didn't test as well a they usually do, but I'm not going to guess at why. these things happen.
   Tuesday we preconditioned two batches of cows and ran the bulls through the chute just for good measure.

   Wednesday(today) we ran one bunch of cows through, and moved three bunches of cows around, staging them or putting them back out to fall pasture until weaning time.

   Thursday we will work one bunch of cows and hopefully get the last batch moved home so we can work them Friday or Saturday.

   I have yet to get a kernel of wheat into the ground. Its just now getting dry enough to get into the field with the planter. So there isn't much I could be doing about it anyway. But it is getting late to be planting winter wheat in these parts.

   Speaking of getting late, it is, and I'm T-I-R-E-D, tired. Its off two bed with my sore self. Hope you have a wonderful rest of the week.

Mother Nature, pickup maint., and book review

2010-09-17T16:02:00.000-06:00

  We woke up this morning to rain, which isn't bad. But there has been several times today that it has SNOWED! Now its not the kind that accumulates, but its snow none the less. If it keeps it up tonight we'll have accumulation. Not cool. In any case it will be wet and sloppy on Sunday morning when we'll be ultrasounding the heifers. Only about 80 head to check so it won't take long to run them through. We'll cut out the fly tags and give them shots at this time also.

   On the way back to work after lunch today I noticed a piece of metal on the county road. Stopping to investigate, it proves to be a chunk of spring leaf. I washed to underside of my pickup and sure enough, I'm missing a piece of main leaf on the drivers side. Its going to have to wait until the mud quits dripping off of it. It also needs an oil change, transmission flush and an injector. I'll probably take it somewhere to get the injector and transmission work done. The transmission is about done for anyway. That would be transmission #4. Did I mention I'm hard on equipment.

   I just finished the book, "WAR" by Sebastian Junger. Its a companion novel to the documentary "Restrepo". I'll try to get a copy of the movie this winter. The book is a five star reader. If your are looking for a book about the politics involved in war, then this ISN'T your book. If you want to get a glimpse into the heads of combat soldiers and how they deal or don't deal with stress. Then this IS your book.

Copy of my guest post.

2010-09-10T06:51:00.001-06:00

Thrill of the Kill

Guest Post by The Farmer

It’s cold, painfully so. We received a skiff of snow last night. The sky is still grey, dismal in the rays of the first light. There is a sharp wind blowing, forcing the cold past my layers of clothes.

I’m laying in the debris of a sandstone wall, the remains of a long forgotten homesteader’s house. I’m waiting for it to get light enough to see if the herd of antelope I saw on the hayfields last night is still there.

I check my rifle, a sporterized Mauser, chambered for the .257 Roberts. A gun well suited for the open grasslands of Eastern Montana and the Pronghorn Antelope that reside there. I’ve checked it twice already, but I’m trying to ignore the cold.

As it begins to lighten up I take my binoculars and carefully glass the area. I spend about 15 minutes glassing the fields before I decide that the antelope have moved on during the night. They may have “spooked” at the sound of my approach in the dark.

I’ll have to alter my original plans if I’m going to take a “goat” today. I get up and hike off to the west into the wind, hopefully giving me one less thing the thing to alert my quarry of my hunt. I walk for two hours, stopping every few minutes to carefully glass the hills and basins in front of me, hoping to see any antelope before they see me. They have excellent vision and will take flight at the slightest indication there are hunters in the area.

I pause to catch my breath. In the distance I hear a gunshot; maybe only a mile away, on the neighbors place. I wait to hear the distinctive “whack” of a bullet hitting flesh, but it never comes. This signifies a miss. I’m glad I don’t hear a barrage of gunshots, as this would mean the hunter is trying to make shots on the run, which rarely ends well. We don’t welcome back hunters that hunt in this fashion.

Just as I’m about to take off again in a new direction, quartering the wind this time, a small of batch of about 10 head of goats crest the ridge in front of me. Crossing my path left to right. They’re only about 25 yards away from me. I can smell their strong pungent odor. It defies description nor is it mistakable for anything else. I can hear the huff, huff, huff, of their breathing. They are oblivious of me, focused only on speed, and man can they run. It doesn’t take them long to disappear over the next rise.

I’ve hunted since I was old enough to keep up walking with my father. Learning how to find, stalk, and make a clean kill on all sorts of game animals. I learned a lot of things from those outings. Many of which had nothing to do with hunting, but more to do with life. One of the things I did learn was that there is a difference between hunting for sport and hunting to provide. Both are acceptable in their own ways if done properly. I have almost always hunted to provide. Trophies were never a big deal in my family. I get satisfaction from knowing that I can provide for my family or others if the need should arise with the skills I’ve acquired through hunting. And I’m looking forward to teaching my children those same skills when they are old enough.

I’m sitting here on a little butte, eating my PB&J, and I can’t help but notice how beautiful the day has become. The wind has relaxed, the sun is shining through the broken clouds, and it has warmed up enough that much of last night’s snow has gone away. It doesn’t hurt that I’ve been watching a batch of twenty head of antelope graze their way up a wide flat bottomed coulee. After watching them for the last few minutes I know which one I’ll be trying for. There is a dry (no fawns) doe in the bunch. I know from experience that she’ll be the fattest, not having nursed a couple of fawns all summer long.

I move quickly, quietly, and out of sight to position myself where I can get a clear shot in range of my rifle and shooting abilities. It takes them nearly twenty minutes for them to graze their way close to my position. I carefully find the doe I had picked out earlier. I wait until she turns broadside to me, I align the crosshairs just behind her front shoulders and a little below center. I take a breath, release some, and squeeze the trigger….and squeeze the trigger…., CRAP! (under my breath). In my haste to get into position, I forgot to chamber a round. I try to quietly work the bolt of my rifle. I’m 130 yards away and she hears the metallic sound of the round making contact with the chamber. Her head snaps up and looks at what feels like directly at me. She doesn’t see me past the sagebrush I’m hiding behind, but she heard a unfamiliar sound and she is on high alert. The others have noticed her alarm and are pacing, waiting for the cue to run. I can’t move or it’s all over. A young buck wanders over in front of her blocking any shot, if I try to shoot him I know at this range the bullet will likely go through him and wound her, it’s a shot I’m not willing to take. It’s another few minutes before they start to settle back down. A stray fawn distracts the doe (who is still watching me) long enough for me to close the bolt. It’s another few minutes before the buck moves and I can make a shot. It’s over quickly. She drops where she was standing. The others bolt at the sound of the gunshot, disappearing from sight.

This is where the “thrill” hits. Relief, gratitude, excitement all hit at once. Relief, that you made a clean shot, gratitude that you live where you can experience nature anytime you want, and at a level few get to experience, and the excitement of being able to share this with family and friends. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a job to attend to, and my antelope won’t wait...

Cool and rainy

2010-09-05T21:03:00.000-06:00

For those of us who are lucky enough to be done combining, we have had glorious weather. In the 70's and rain showers, somewhere around 2 inches this week. For those trying to get their spring wheat cut, its the shits. No way around it. Its a late year. You try not to be happy about the rain when they are around, could get you thunked on the head.

I'll be laboring on labor day, just like a good laborer should.

I'm sorry for the lack of photos as of late. I still haven't sent my camera in for repairs. I'm sort of looking at a Panasonic super zoom for an upgrade. Keep the little one for everyday stuff, and the super zoom for planned outings. Anyone been around one?

I wrote a post as a guest author today. It should be up sometime this week over at Texas Ghostrider. I typed on our new computer and the new word program. Its a bossy program. It also hates my nearly illiterate writing. At one point I swear it called me a damn redneck. I had some help editing from my wife. She didn't bother calling me a redneck, she just said I was pathetic.

Playing on the rocks early this summer.

Have a wonderful week.

Vacation

2010-08-27T20:28:00.000-06:00

We took a whole week and went on that dreaded excursion, called a family vacation. It had Griswald written all over it. I'll give you a run down of events. sadly I have no pictures to post as my camera has decided it will no longer take a clear picture(one two many four-wheeler rides).

My parents own a time share condo at Gregson Hotsprings Fairmont. These are located just outside of Anaconda MT. They have had this condo for about ten years now. They have really enjoyed it and have done "trades" several times to go to different places. This year they bought another condo the week prior to they're normal time. They hope to have some more trading power or just more flexibility in they're staying time. So we where able to stay in the new condo this year, since the time happened to fall right before Maggie goes to school. and so begins our journey......

10:00 p.m. Friday- Angus develops fever 12 hrs. before departure.
12:00 p.m. Sat.- Angus vomits off and on until 4:00 a.m.
10:00 a.m. Sat.- Fever is under control, no more vomiting, we load up and head out on the 9hr. dive for Anaconda.
7:30 p.m. Sat- We arrive at the condo, we are still speaking to each other, but its looking dicey.
8:00 a.m. Sun- We decide to spend the day in the pool. They have a indoor and outdoor heated pool, average temps are 97 degrees. and two hot pools 102-103 degrees. Everyone is in a better mood.
8:00 a.m. Mon- Load up and travel 1 1/2 hrs. back to Bozeangles(Bozeman MT) to visit the Museum of the Rockies. I went for the DaVinci exhibit. It was a hands on exhibit about some of his inventions. The kids loved it.
8:00 a.m. Tues- Headed out for Philipsburg MT. They have one of those candy stores with a selection of candy to die for. A lot of it is hand made right there. We bought $75.00 worth. In order to run some of the sugar off the kids, we took them to a newly built playground at the Philipsburg grade school. Probably the best playground design I've ever scene. Built like a small village. You could put 75 kids on there easy and still have room. The flow of play was very natural. When the kids had just about hit bottom we took them to the Doe Brothers old Fashioned Soda Fountain and Restaurant. www.doebrothers.net . They deal mostly with Montana food. The burgers are awesome. The only place you'll find better are at home. The Huckle Berry milkshakes are nothing to sneeze at either.
8:00 a.m. Weds.- We were off again. This time to Lewis and Clark Caverns. I went there when I was just about Maggies age. 6 or 7. Not much has changed, the tour was almost verbatim to what I remember. Maggie thought it was really neat. Angus not so much. But to his credit he didn't complain the entire time underground. When we came out he told me in confidence that he was scared the entire time. I'd go again just to get a better look. Maybe we'll go to the caves in the Black Hills of SD sometime. Then we came back for more pool time.
8:00 a.m. Thurs- We took an easy day and went a few miles up to Georgetown lake outside of Anaconda. The kids had a ball just puddling around. The water is super clear and you can see the trout just hanging out. Angus spent most of his time throwing progressively bigger rocks into the water, and Maggie collected water "samples" to bring home. Later in the afternoon some friends drove over from Belgrade, MT and joined us at the pool for a couple of hours. The kids had a great time playing with their friends, and we had somebody else to talk to, other than each other. WE're still talking much to out amazement.
8:00 a.m. Fri- Load up and get for home. Met the parents on the highway between Grassrange and Lewistown, give them some of our groceries and get any last minute directions for the ranch.
4:30 p.m Fri-We are home. Kids are playing with ALL of their toys and mom is cleaning the kitchen. If you are not glad to be home after a vacation, then your not doing it right.

On a side note, pools are great places to people watch. Its all just hanging out there for everyone to see. The most memorable "couple" of the week. Two 60 something gay men with 1970's hair and matching flamed speedos. Grrrrrrrr.

A SlickRob625 pop-up target stand. From youtube.

2010-08-15T19:44:00.001-06:00

Built a new target stand today. I need to make a few adjustments before I make 2 or 3 more. I'd also like to make a few more of his other stands. He has a side to side mover and a charging stand that look really slick.

It breaks down for easy transport or storage. It could be made to break down even more. parts labeling would be needed for people not familiar with its construction.

Placing arm piece in proper order.

Attaching target carrier.

Target in place.

When in the lock and loaded position.

Fully raised position. Note: It will return to lowered position automatically unless you add a down stop.

Side view showing release mechanism and tube weight that acts as the counter balance. When released the tube causes the arms to lift, then the tube rolls off and the arms return to ready position.

I used all 2x4 material because its what I had on had. I'd go to 1x4 on the arms to save weight requiring less counter balance and a smother operation. I used a cardboard tube instead of a PVC pipe because I had it. PVC would work better. The target brackets are made from 1x2 channel. I used some plywood braces for proper spacing but 1x6 will last longer. The rooster tails I added to give it more hang time. Not sure they would be needed if I had less of a counter balance weight and lighter arms. I like this design because of its ease of build and available parts. Everything you need can be bought at a hardware store. All you need for tools are a saw of some sort, a power drill, a tape measure, and appropriate screws or nails. You might have trouble getting the 1x2 channel at a hardware, but any metal supplier will have it. If that is not available you could use some 2" 120 psi PVC. Screwed on it would crush to meet 1x2 lathe material quite well.

I recommend watching some of the videos on you tube on these stands. He has some very good ideas. The second video can be found here.

The time just screams by.

2010-08-14T20:26:00.000-06:00

We are finished with harvest. It was nothing special. Crops were mediocre for for the weather that we had. I'll place blame where it lies. We didn't didn't do everything we should have done. It falls under the category of save a dollar, lose ten. It wasn't as bad as that, but feels like it. I've got a ~~small~~ dismal selection of pictures of the harvest.

Its hard to see in this image, but this field had severe Hopper damage. Where it is shiny, the hoppers haven't eaten.

The Haybet Hay Barley did fair. Around 45 bu./acre. Haybarley is not a grain producer under good conditions, let alone under hopper damage. The only thing that eats barley more than hoppers is whitetailed deer.

Get it in the bin. Thats the name of the game.

I hate bugs. Really I do.

I was going to put up a post about the problem with the hoppers crawling on me. They where quite invasive. They had a uncanny ability to find openings in your clothes and crawl around inside. I had a title and everything. "A Party in my pants." At one point I had no less than 103 that I could see crawling on me, and 10 inside my clothes. Did I mention I hate bugs. I may look calm on the outside, but I'm screaming like a ten year old girl on the inside when those buggers are crawling all over me. It reminded me of a scene from the movie "The Mummy", when the scarabs crawl under that guys skin. I'm freakin out thinking about it.

I actually missed the last day of harvest. I spent the day helping judge inside 4-H AG projects at the county fair. It never ceases to amaze me the good things that this organization teaches kids. You can still run into the condition of the having to judge on a curve. But I try to do so fairly. Some kids simply do not have the resources that other kids do. And I mean not just money, but materials, tools, or supervision, that can really be used. This is the second year I've judged. I was really surprised in a good way, to see the improvement in some of the younger kids projects from the year before. Although I'd like to see some of the older kids stretch themselves a bit more in some areas. I think they'd be surprised. I received some good constructive feed back from some parents that I hope to be able to incorporate next year.

A bit of humor for you. A future contender for people of walmart.

If you are looking for some humorous reading I'd suggest......

A classic from the wedding gift book selection.

He's playing hard to get.

I don't know, works for me.

The book, "Bed Manners" and "Better Bed Manners" , How to bring sunshine to your nights.
by Dr. Ralph Hopton and Anne Balliol
"Even the kindest people are savage at night"
-Sir Walter Scott

I see you, and your little house too.

2010-07-29T21:57:00.000-06:00

  So this evening I went sight seeing. To June of last year. I never left the chair, but I flew around all over the country side. What did I see?

  I saw what fields I hayed and how many bales I got off of them. I saw which pastures I had been grazing and to some extent how hard they had been grazed. I could see which fields had crop in them, and what type of crop was there. Not only could I see that on my place, but my neighbors as well, or the place 80 miles from here. It was hard to pick out at first, but I soon was able to count cows also.

  The magic that is Google Earth. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Do I really need the ability to count the cows in my neighbors pasture. I don't think so. Its rude. On the flip side I do use it occasionally when I travel. If I'm going to Billings, MT and I know some of the main streets, I can visualize the route I need to take to get to my destination. Which is a good thing.

  I can't help of thinking of the saying, and I think it was Ben Franklin, but I'm probably wrong here, " To give up freedom, for the sake of protection, you'll get neither". I know I quoted that incorrectly but you get the idea. We have given up much in privacy, just for the sake of convenience and cool factor.

  The Wikileaks thing is just appalling. I just can't get over 1) How the owner of the site cannot be put to some of trial. He will/has caused the deaths of many good people through his ignorance. 2) How that same person can call the person who gave him the classified/secret material a hero. A hero they are not. They have a different name for these people in other countries. A TARGET. If you haven't read much on the subject, the people over at Blackfive have some very good articles on the subject. You can also read the newest TIME magazine for some more reasons to be appalled at the ignorance of Wikileaks.

  On a personal note, we are done hauling hay(until we make more). We are now pulling bulls out of the cows. If they aren't bred by now, there is probably a reason. We are also prepping the combine for harvest, cleaning trucks/bins/augers, and watching the hoppers eat all they can. We've sprayed a couple of times, but at 10$-15$ an acre, you lose money fast. "There's a hole in my bucket dear Lizzea, dear Lizzea, there's a hole."

  I've also started exercising again, sorta. Okay once. But I hope to go again tomorrow. I'm so out of shape. Rule #1- Cardio. I walked out 5/10 of a mile this morning and jogged 4/10 back. I had to crawl the last 1/10 back, almost. I think to keep my interest up, and to help with handgun training, I'll set up some targets and leave my gun on my shooting bench at the bottom of the hill. On my way back, and my heart rate is pounding, I'll make a few shots. In Lt. Col. David Grossman's book "On Combat" he talks about how your fine motor skills go to crap when your heart rate gets in the 130-140 bpm range. Leaving you with gross motor skills to deal with any threats. My heart rate was fairly close to that this morning. Okay WAY over that, in fact we were approaching the area right before you blackout. Its one thing to hit targets when you're calm and ready, its quite another when you wheezing and having chest pains. Its something to try anyway.

Have a nice weekend. I hope to. Diving on Tuesday evening. Want to learn some line tending or just to check out what this whole diving thing is about. Call me.

Pics for the patient

2010-07-25T21:04:00.000-06:00

I've been hauling a load of water a day over to a small bunch of cows. I don't have much tank capacity in that pasture and my windmill isn't very good, so I have to supplement their supply daily. This won't last much longer as they are about out of good grass and we'll move them to fresh pasture. Lately I have a pet skunk that likes to hang out next to the cool water tank. He's funny to watch. He could care less that I'm even around.

We have managed to get out camping(in the yard) once this year. The kids had a ball.

We've finished with most of the baling for the year. We rolled up in the ballpark of 1700 bales. The Willow Creek Winter Wheat was the success story of the year. Most people averaged over four 1300# bales to the acre, and some went as high as 6 bales per acre. On dry land farming. I don't think you could get through it with a swather on irrigation.

Currently we are hauling as much of the hay into our hay yards before we start combining the seed crops. We are about 10-15 days off from cutting. Looks like the Hay Barley will be the first to get cut. We won't have a huge harvest of that. Some operational decisions didn't work as planned and the crop isn't as good as it should have been. Lesson learned.

This photo is for Jake. A truck driver will spot it quickly.

Angus preparing for his starring role on the people of Walmart.

I have also been very busy getting some training dives in as we need to re-certify this summer. This is T. McGlothlin from Miles City Fire and Rescue.

Myself and S. Moore discussing weed issues and how to avoid them. The glare from my forehead is awesome.

We've had some good storms this summer, that have given some funky sunsets.

So far things having been going pretty normal. We've had some bull issues. Some missing, Some extras showing up(neighbors), and lots of moving cattle because of grasshoppers. They have stayed out of the crops for the most part, because of the green grass, but that has left some pasture used up before we where ready. We'll be pulling bulls here in a few days and that is never boring. We will also be gearing up for combining. That means pre harvest cleanup on the combine, cleaning grain bins, and cleaning trucks. I still need a couple of more dives in before the 15th of Aug. to meet cert. requirements, and I will be judging at the fair again this year, in a couple of weeks actually. We'll slow down maybe around the 1st of Sept. Long enough to do some more things with the kiddos. This summer is flying by.

quick update, blink and you'll miss it. Sort of like my home town.

2010-07-12T21:35:00.000-06:00

Busy. I've been dive training. Baling hay. Hauling Hay. Moving cows. And helping the missus entertain famous people. Someday I'll actually get pics up. Until then you can check out the cohagenchronicles.blogspot.com . She has been keeping current.

See you later.

Episode 1. Patrolman Bob and the case of the Rock Water Rowdies.

2010-07-02T22:04:00.001-06:00

Patrolman Bob was Ex-corp. The hard corp at that. Raised the son of a copier repair man, he grew up watching shows like Starsky and Hutch, T.J. Hooker, and The Jeffersons. It was to shape him into the man he would become. He joined the corp at the early age of 22. He never looked back. Always moving on up was his motto. After four glorious years of slinging hash and pounding taters he accepted his honorable discharge.
With nowhere to go and needing a scratch for his itch he joined the patrol. He felt like it was his destiny. His corp training mixed with his new law training, he would be a one man wrecking crew.

Until he got his first assignment.
Rock Water MT. Population 64. He was devastated. It was out in the middle of nowhere. A little research showed that the town had been founded by eastern bloc immigrants. The housing would reflect that. All the same. How was he going to bust them heads if all they ever did raise cows and kids? Oh little did he know about the people of Rock Water!

It was his second week on the job in this hick town. He was walking out of Traci Lee's Diner,

with his morning coffee and and blueberry cupcake, extra sprinkles. Her coffee was pure poison, but her pastries...a man couldn't argue with a women with pastries like that.

So far the only thing that had happened in this town was a late night shooting of a stray cat, and he had been the one to shoot it. No, the people of this town where just plain ordinary. He set his breakfast down on the back of his cruiser, took a big breath, and surveyed the town.
On the north end of the street was Kayleen's Hair Salon and Smokers Depot.

On the South end we had Dykstra's Mortuary.

Across the street and to the south we had the church.

(sigh) This town was about as exciting as a case of jock itch. Maybe the morning paper would have something interesting in it.

" Lets see".
Front page headline-Birth Rate up 4% since last year.
"Boring."
Local Government-Dykstra Family Industries awarded heating contract for City Hall.
"Who cares."
Legal notices-Local couple sues pharmacist for replacing their birth control pills with fertility medication. Twice.
"Huh! Fool me once...... how stupid can you be."
Obituaries-8 of 10 people choosing cremation of burial, "thats odd."
Maybe something in Sports-Results from last nights Baseball Tourney.
Team Miller, two first base runs, no errors. Team Downs gets shut out when Team Tiger Lily's pitches a no hitter. Team Hanna makes it to third base before an error causes a delay in game.
"They have weird rules here"
"crackle" Bob? you got a copy?,' came Annie the dispatcher, over the radio in his car. He had only met Annie for the first time 14 days ago and he already knew her life's ambition. To be a logger. And not just any logger, but a swamp logger. She had been training pretty hard the last 16 months. She could sharpen the chain, tune the carb, and juggle just about any saw they made. Heck she even built her own log house to hone her cutting skills. She was just waiting for her husband to come home. See, he was a top FBI sniper, and he was at Fort Leavenworth for top secret training. It all came about when he broke the national record for the most pulled shots resulting in impressive amounts of collateral damage. She wasn't sure what all that meant, but she sure was proud of him.
"You should have seen the stir it caused at the All Class Reunion", was what she told him.

This better not be another cow on the road.
"What do you have for me dispatch?"
" We have a domestic down at the Tiger Lily massage parlor. It seems that Clint wants his girlfriend Tammy Sue to come home, only Tammy Sue is no longer his girlfriend. They broke up when...."
"I've got it" Bob called back over the radio.
Finally, something better than listening to the cows eat grass. The nice thing about small towns, the Tiger Lily was across the street so he would not have to go far.

He'd run the plates on the mini-van later. They read GSTRIDR or something similar.
The Tiger Lily was a place he had a feeling he would get to know real well. Off Duty AND on.

But first things first; he reached into the car and pulled up their files on the cruiser's computer. Whoa! Clint had a long history of public drunkenness and resisting arrest. Tammy Sue had arrests for felony shoplifting of haircare products, to indecent Southern exposure at the All Class reunion last year. Seems she was in an argument with a Mary Jane Somebody about who had stolen whose boyfriend in high school. Things went "south" when Tammy Sue got up on the table and in front of God and the class of '89, showed Mary Jane her "Kiss My... well you get the idea" tattoo. Plus numerous other misdemeanor arrests. This could prove to be interesting.
As he was walking across the street he could hear the argument starting to pick up inside the Tiger Lily.

  It was at this time he noticed that there was a horse parked in the handicap spot at the side entrance. A horse! So it would seem Clint was a cowboy. Bob hated cowboys. And the following moments would just cement that feeling.
   He had no sooner hit the sidewalk on the other side, when the door to the Lily burst open. Out came Clint dragging Tammy by her hair. Tammy was using language that could make a sailor wince, and Clint was all too happy to return the commentary.
   Bob in a loud and authoritative voice called out,"Drop the female, or I'll drop you, Cowboy."  And much to Bob's surprise Clint dropped her like you'd drop a wet towel on a locker room floor.

"You've got no business here Smokey," slurred Clint. and with that he took a swing at Bob. Now Bob was no cat, but his reflexes still where finely honed from hours in the kitchen. He was able to easily side step the the punch, and grabbed Clint by the wrist and putting him in an arm bar, put him on the ground. He started to put the cuffs on when 120 pounds of Tammy Sue landed on his back, screaming "LET GO'A MY BABY!"

This caught Bob by surprise and he fell down and released Clint. While Bob was busy wrestling Tammy off of himself, Clint wasted no time in taking off on his horse at a high gallop.

"Run Baby, Run" called out Tammy Sue
.
"Not today, cowboy," thought Bob.
Now it was Bob's turn to grab Tammy by the hair. He dragged her to the car, threw her in the back and took after Clint in a squeal of tires.

(Bob would learn about camera phones in court)

Bob caught up with Clint just as he was turning the corner at Kayleen's Hair Salon and headed out into Farmer Scott's pasture. Bob skidded around the corner in hot pursuit, with Tammy protesting loudly the whole time. It was at this time Bob remembered his breakfast had been sitting on the back of his cruiser. He could kiss that $3.00 goodbye. And that was the last cupcake with sprinkles. Oh Clint was going to pay!

Just as Bob made the corner he saw the dirt pile, but it was too late to try to go around, so he punched the accelerator on the Crown Vic and took it dead center. There was a glorious explosion of dirt, most of it landing on the hood of the cruiser.

The sound of the cruiser plowing dirt was to much for Clint's horse, and he promptly bucked his drunk rider off on his head.

Bob seized the opportunity. He jumped out of the car, Grabbed Clint by the back of his trousers and threw him as hard as he could against the hood of the cruiser. "EAT GRILL COWBOY!" in his best Will Smith voice.

Tammy managed to get out of the back seat of the car, but this time she remained on the side lines, verbally defending her baby with threats of violence to Bob's nether regions. He would have to deal with her in a minute. Right now he was enjoying the moment of his first big arrest.

Yeah, a job well done. Bob was going to enjoy working at this town. It had more characters in it than a Broadway play of the Lion King, and he would get to know them all.

Fathers day to present time.

2010-06-25T21:03:00.000-06:00

Time to put a lid on the pergola.

Lots of 2x4's and nails aplenty.

A bigger hammer=a fully smashed thumb.

Finished product being inspected by the crew.

Its going to provide nice shade. This pic was taken about 2:00 p.m.

Say.... a couple sheets of plywood and I'd have a nice snipers hide.

We've started haying this week. Meaning I'm going to get a lot a butt time in the tractor. This usually helps get the brain into a creative mood. I WAS going to do a post about the backup singer on a popular rock song that has been played to death, brought back to life and has refused to go away. But I've drank one to many beers and the notion has left me.

Its bad enough that I have to walk around the yard picking up dog bombs, but I'll give you just one guess what the BOY just did on the lawn. I thought we had the concept of using the restroom figured out.

I'm going to do some S&R dive training this next week(read yeah sure I am.) with the Miles City FD. I'm looking forward to the guy time.

Wife and girl child are at a musical tonight. I'll be up late making sure they make it home.

WE are also getting ready to rogue grain. We've had an outbreak of Wild Rye in our Willow Creek wheat. We haven't had Rye for fifteen years. This may be a problem.

Have a good weekend .

The numbers are in!

2010-06-18T21:20:00.000-06:00

And they don't lie. I'm a .99 ct walking, talking, heart attack, on two left feet. Okay the numbers aren't all bad. Just MOSTLY. Here is a break down.
TSH(thyroid stimulating hormone) 1.42 Normal is 0.34-5.76
ALT(liver enzyme) 55 Normal is 30-65
GFR(glomerular filtration rate) 60 which is normal
Serum Glucose(indicator of diabetes) 88 normal is 70-100

Cholesterol is the big downer at 263. This should be less that 200.
Triglycerides 150 Should be less than 150
LDL 177 Should be less than120 and less than 100 would be better
HDL 56 Should be 40 or higher.

Vitamin D 27 Should be 30-100

So my doctor has made the following recommendation. More like orders really.
Fish oil 1000mg twice daily.
Vitamin D3 2000 iu's once daily
Simvastatin 20mg or 40mg Pravastatin once daily.

I'm not sure what the fish oil does for me except lubricates my insides so nothing can stay in there long enough for me to absorb the fat. And the simvastatin acts like liquid draino for your veins. I have a hard time believe I'm Vitamin D deficient, because I live in the sun, and I eat a lot of leafy greens. All well. I needed to get my butt back on the treadmill anyway.

I see I have a new follower. I find this surprising. I shall investigate and see who this interesting person may be. I'm always looking for a new blog to follow.

I'm also looking forward to the return of my wife who has been gone on a training. I'm a poor stay at home dad and the kids miss the mother something fierce. I did manage to do the laundry, wash the dishes, mop the floors, and clean the guest bathroom, before the mother in law showed up to babysit today.

Thats all for now. Than k you for stopping in. Have a nice Day/Evening/Morning.

In remission

2010-06-13T20:45:00.000-06:00

I've been having a hard time with this blog thing lately. Pretty much I've been completely uninspired by ANYTHING. Nothing has really change, but the two readers I have left deserve something. So here it is.

We've finished branding, started moving cows here and there, and we are now starting to pt the bulls out with the cows. We've also been getting haying equipment ready. It won't be long. We've gotten some nice and timely rains lately. We've been blessed that way.

Here we are prepping the site for the future pergola that Mary requested two years ago. Bob the builder would probably get kicked off the build sight if he showed up in his underwear. Maggie checked the depth of the hole and found it to be adequate.

An above grade view of the sight. Posts are set, squared and tops are leveled. We will lay landscaping fabric all around it, then fill with gravel, which Mary will slowly remove ad replace with vegetation of one sort or another.

This is the metal frame that I built for the over head support. I applied a stain and waterproofer to the 2x4 top this evening. I would have applied sealer to our deck awning also but I didn't have enough to do the whole thing, so I opted to wait.

Most of this week was spent repairing fence between us and the neighbors prior to us putting cows in our pasture. Good fences make for good neighbors. This is the view looking north westerly into the neighbors.

After cleaning up staining the the 2x4's, I gathered up some armament and did some shooting. Left to Right. Springfield XD tactical .45 ACP, Smith and Wesson Model 40 .38 special(Mary's), and Ruger Mark II .22 lr, Tactical Solutions barrel.

I set up the range for standard square range work and some minor movement drills. I shot 150 of .45, 100 .38, and 190 .22lr. What can I say at the XD. It shoots nice for me. Controlled fire, double taps, rapid fire, it all works with acceptable accuracy for me. The .38 is a little more difficult for me. Since its Mary's gun I haven't shot it much, maybe 200 rounds. 100 of those today. I can do fairly well up close,(7 strides or under) but if I push it out more than that, The shots really spread. The rimfire is just awesome to shoot. It will ruin a guy.

A new addition to my practice. Those are clay pigeons placed randomly from about 14 paces out to 40 paces. I set out 6 pigeons. I gave myself 12 rounds to clear the stage.

One pigeon left unharmed.(40 pace one) The other one has the top knocked off. I never did complete the stage. I had the hardest time with the 3rd from the left. Not sure why. I count the 40 pace one as luck win I nailed it.

I've thought about ordering a Tyler T-grip for the .38. Its the polished silver finger grip on the front strap of the grip in this image. They are inexpensive($25.00) require no modification the the gun, and are easy to install. Just slip a couple of copper tangs under the existing grips. I've heard good things about it. But The gun shots fair without it, so not sure if its needed. What I DO need is a good holster that fits it. I've tried a bianchi that fits a small J-frame, but the fit isn't quite right. A bianchi for a Ruger LCR fit better. So if anyone knows of a good holster(of any type) that will fit the Mod 40 like a fine glove let me know.

That pretty much does it for me for a while, Have a good week.

Thoughts on parenting

2010-06-05T06:54:00.000-06:00

Todays youth are in crisis. We parents have taught them that the value of a days work doesn't lie in what you can achieve but solely how much money its worth. We've done them such a disservice.

As a parent, one of my jobs is to teach my children to taste the ash of the words, I could have, I should have, and I would have. And show them the power in the words, I did, I can, and I will. Its in these words that any difficulty can be overcome. It won't be easy or fun at times, but at the end of the day, when others are standing there toeing the ground, ashamed to look you in the eye, waiting for the next handout, the ones who know the power of the words (can, did, and will) won't need to feel the shame. They will stand proud, ready for the next challenge. And the challenges will be many.

My children will be prepared. Of course I say this as one child is crying because he is living with a poor choice he made. He'll be okay. I think.

Homework

2010-05-31T19:13:00.000-06:00

I've managed two days, in a row, to take care of some much needed work around the homestead. Saturday afternoon from about 1 p.m. until 7 p.m. was spent doing yard maint. I mowed and weed whacked. That took about 5 hrs. I'm seriously thinking about down sizing my yard and gun range. Okay maybe just my yard. Then I had to remove the mower deck and clean it. It had showered off and on while I mowed and had completely plugged the mover with scum. Since i had the mower off I put the tiller on and tilled my shelter belt. That took about 45 minutes. But its done and looks nice.
Today I started the prep work for erecting the pergola that my wife unit requested some time ago. I dug one post hole by hand. It was easy digging but it was still for the birds. I then went and mounted the post hole digger on the little tractor and finished the other three holes in record time. After lunch I repaired a couple of sections of rail fence around the yard, and did some minor dirt work in front of the yard gate. After I got done with that I prepped the posts for the pergola and did some minor welded on the pergola frame. Then I brought it home, where it presently sits waiting erection. I'll try to drum up some crew later this week or next so I can get this project finished.
Presently I'm sore and tired and wish to go to bed. Have a nice week.

Issues of the computer kind

2010-05-25T18:51:00.000-06:00

I'm still having trouble with log ins and photo downloads. Part of it comes from the wildblue router. As all of the computers do the same thing-It takes multiple reloads to open a webpage. I keep getting the Web page has moved or is down page, but we know it is not.
The other problem is part of my computer. Some pages I can't gain access to. Case in point, any blog with an adult content disclaimer, like Chicago cops blog, just loads the disclaimer page, repeatably. Its kind of annoying.
Facebook works some days and then not. I was able to leave a response for the first time in three days today.
I have know idea how to fix the issue. Nothing I've tried(cookie settings, java, etc...)seems to help.

Ranch stuff goes as follows. We are being held up due to rain. HOORAY rain. We received nearly 2" of the liquid refreshment in the last two days. We are now officially behind in branding. We have one bunch left and we hope to get it done later this week. I'm supposed to go to the neighbors tomorrow and brand, but I don't now if that will happen.

I spent part of today going through the clothes in the closet. My wife jokingly gave me one shelf for my clothes. I just might be able to get it done. I was ruthless in the paring down of clothes. WE loaded 6 thirty gallon garbage bags up to take to the thrift store.

Thats about it for now. Take care.

Quotes out of Range Magazine

2010-05-20T16:54:00.000-06:00

"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak be weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves."
Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

Brief update. New and improved. Now with content

2010-05-19T19:32:00.007-06:00

   Okay we branded a bunch of calves on Tuesday morning, did cementer cleanup on Tuesday afternoon, finally semen tested the bulls Today, and we got a small amount of rain.

  I'll try to give a better update later this week, but tonight I'm not into it. Later.

Tuesday morning we branded about 96 head of calves and worked the cows. A couple of our neighbors came over and helped. We'll be going over there in a couple of weeks to help them in trade of time. Everything went smoothly and we were done right at noon. After a big lunch we trailed the cows back out to a small pasture so they could water, rest, and pair back up.
Then we got the riding mower, weed eater, and other yard tools gathered up for the annual community cemetery clean up. There was 12 or 15 people that showed. Everyone pitched in and in about two hours we had everything mowed, trimmed and looking spot on. We took some extra time and fixed a couple of older cement  covers that had broke when the dirt had settled underneath them. We lifted them and releveled the dirt and then set them down. We'll put some sterilent  on them later to keep the grass from growing in the cracks.
Wednesday we semen tested the bulls finally and we had one test bad. We have another one of our new bulls show up hurt. It would appear he lost a fight and received a ruptured right testicle for his trouble. The Bull breeder will likely replace him for little or nothing since we didn't get any use from him. Testing went without incident with exception to being rained out twice. We received a total of 1/2 inch. But that was very spotty.
Today we cleaned up the seed grain bins and put away the augers. Then this afternoon we moved some cows home in preparation for branding again in the morning. The wind is currently blowing briskly and we are receiving some light thunder showers.

Mondays branding, a little late.

2010-05-15T22:03:00.000-06:00

Get the cows in from the pasture and sort calves from cows.

Mary sorting off a calf.

Cows sorted off, we run them thru the chute and give them a prebreeding shot and deworm/delouse them with Ivermectin pour on.

Branding crew shows up. "That shirt come with batteries"

Rest of the crew.

We use a calf cradle to brand. Brings the calf up so they are easy to work on. They get three shots, banded if a bull, branded, and a RFID tag.

A look at our brand from the upside down. It reads a reverse S lazy H.

Supervising the cooler and cookie operations.

verified beef RFID tracking sheet Every number corresponds with a specific animal.(plus Maggie kept a tally. she wasn't far off.)

The crew at the end of the day having a cold one and making a plan for next week.

We've spent most of this week spraying crop and shuffling cows around in prep for branding again on Monday. Today I spent the morning in Jordan MT, mowing my maternal grandmothers lawn and doing some general maint. stuff. Then I came home and spent four hours mowing and weed whacking my own yard. looks pretty good right now, but I've got some serious yard work left to do. I've been given the look about getting the long overdue landscaping finished.

Mary spent the day in at the Miles City Bucking Horse Sale. She caught the parade in the morning and then did some of the fun stuff at the park early in the afternoon. She was home in time to help with some of the yard work.

I even went down to the range and did some mowing. Makes finding spent brass easier. I put fifty rounds through the XD at Sat. evening. I had one failure to feed. My fault. Limp wristed it. It was all square range work. I think I'm going down and set up some shotgun targets later. I still need to work the .45 over for a few hundred more rounds. But i'll mix it up with some shotgun work. I luv the pump gun, but I have a new barrel and the sights are giving me fits. I need to learn to use them or get something different. I'd like a set of XS big dot sights for it, but will wait for x-mas.

Been a long day, so I'm off to bed. Supposed to go and help brand at some neighbors tomorrow. The cowboy way. JOY.

P.O.D. 11MAY2010

2010-05-11T06:49:00.000-06:00

Branding our first bunch of calves today. I spent much of yesterday getting corrals ready and setting up the calf cradle. The cradle is a smallish chute that you put the calf into and then it tips over on its side, bringing the calf up to the operators waist level. Many people still use the rope and drag method on horse back. If you have a large crew, you can roll through a lot of calves in a short while. The problem is getting a crew together. We find it simpler to use a chute. We can brand small bunches with three people or if we are going to be doing a larger bunch we like to use a minimum of four. Much easier to find a couple of extra people as compared ten or twelve. Plus the cook doesn't have to work as hard.

As far as the farming is concerned, the boss started spraying summer fallow yesterday. We didn't plant any peas this year so we'll have more fallow to manage, but we had some cheat grass issues that we'll be able to get control of now, where we wouldn't have been able to in the peas.

If I haven't posted a comment on your blog lately, or posted on mine lately, I apologize. I'm having logging on issues. Anything that requires a password, requires me to reload the page five or six times before it will work, and then I usually only get the text and not the photos. This morning it seems to be working some better.

Have a good day and the rest of the week.
Work hard, play hard, and be safe.

Investments in Arizona

2010-05-06T20:38:00.000-06:00

  So far I've heard on the radio that at least five cities are removing their investments from Arizona in protest of their new immigration ENFORCEMENT law.

  Me thinks there should be some cities SENDING some investment capital down there to show their support for a state under siege by illegal immigrants. The border area is a war zone. You don't see much reported on that now do you.

   Arizona is trying to get some control over the criminal element that is invading its borders. I don't know a lot of cops, but the ones I do, I seriously doubt that they would not use some discretion when it comes to asking about a persons legal entry status. And then encourage the ones who ARE productive to get of their butts and become citizens, or make plans to leave.

  You want the good(work, school, food, and medicine) Then you need to be prepared to put up with the bad.(taxes, permits, and laws)

My Grandparents did. Its part of being a NATION.
I'll stop here. My blood is beginning to bubble.

We had rain!

2010-05-03T07:03:00.000-06:00

This last 5days has been interesting weather wise. The wind has blown(no surprise there), and it has snowed, but more important, we got a little over an inch of rain. you can't see it in this picture very well, but its raining and the wind is blowing 35mph. Its hard on cattle. We have little in the way of natural wind protection. So while the weather was like this we put up temporary wind shelters. What happens in conditions like this the cattle drift in the wind until the come to a fence, and then pile up. If your dealing with adult cows they will either hump up and take it or push and shove until they get the fence down and drift to the next fence. Not that big of deal adult cows. Its the calves that are the problem. When they get piled up like that calves can get stomped. not a good thing. So in an effort to curb this we put up shelters. Low wind breaks for the cow and short sheds for the calves. The sheds are short enough that the cows can't get in and the calves can crawl in and lay down. It works pretty good considering.
Today(Monday the 3rd) The wind has stopped and the sun is shining. Supposed to be in the mid-fifties. A real nice day. Tomorrow we'll see the return of the wind, 30-40mph with 50 mph gusts. How fun will that be.
Before all that happened I took the boy out to inspect the cows and put out some salt. We were driving by a big hill and he insisted we climb to the top. Not being one to turn down a good outing I relented.

I'm at the top dad!

It was a long climb, but the view was worth it. Took the pic with my little camera on a normal setting.

This week promises to be busy, the grass is popping, the calves are growing, and there is work to be done.

Thanks for stopping by.

Ranching update

2010-04-27T20:11:00.000-06:00

For those of you that might follow because I ranch.

We finished planting. All we put in the ground this spring was Haybet Hay Barley. We didn't put in any spring wheat and pretty sure we are forgoing planting peas as well. Thats a good news bad news thing. Good news is that I only have to clean the combine a couple of times between varieties. Bad news, sort of have all our eggs in one basket so to speak.

We are desperate for moisture. It is dry, dry, dry. And the wind just keeps blowing. 15-20 mph wings are the norm, with many 30mph days. Tomorrow we are supposed to see 45mph off and on all day, then we'll throw a little snow in there to make it miserable, but not enough to help with the moisture.

We are down to 25 head of cows left to calve. Wish they would hurry up. We are also gearing up to start branding in a couple of weeks. We might do a small bunch towards the end of next week. But first we have to vaccinate the yearling heifers so they'll be ready for breeding season fast approaching.
We will also be semen testing the bulls on the 5th of May. we haven't done this in a couple of years and we paid for it this year with a fair number of prime cows not being bred. Semen testing bulls is NOT fun for anybody. It involves a probe, a rectum, and some electricity. Government contractors don't even go there.

I've been doing fence repair in between other jobs. We have many miles of fence and we had a bad snow drift season last winter. Meaning I have lots of fence torn out. You start on the outside, where you have cows and then move to the inside where you have cows. You worry about the rest of the fence when the time comes. Most of our neighbors are pretty good about getting their fences taken care of, so that helps. But I did say MOST didn't I. There's one in every crowd.

Later.

That Nagging Voice.

2010-04-27T19:50:00.000-06:00

  And no I don't mean my wife's. Although there is plenty of that about unfinished landscaping projects from two years ago.

  I mean that voice in the back of your head that keeps picking at you from time to time. Wanting you to do something in particular, but you keep putting it off for some reason or another. Mine stated about 8 years ago. My Dad had won an award and got to go to MSU Bozeman to receive it during halftime at a home football game. We took a tour of the campus while we were there. This would be my FIRST real tour of a college campus. I was enthralled. After high school I had no interest in attending more school. Mostly at the time it had to do with not really knowing in what direction I wanted to take my life. I felt military was a good choice, I wanted to be a Marine. Mother......not so much. I went Navy and Submarines instead. Not a bad fit, but my first duty station was probably not the best. I did my four and moved on. I put serious thought into underwater welding school, but was side tracked by guilt at home. The only son and a ranch to be mine someday sort of thing.

  Well I've found an area in scuba that feels right for me as an SAR diver, although I need WAY more training and practice. But the voice......

  A couple of years ago I was approached by the then County Sheriff to be a reserve deputy. It would require some classroom time at a small community college not far from here on some weekends. Not much really. It was a pain, time wise, but I found that I really liked it. All of it. I liked the Law Enforcement aspect of it, I liked the learning process of it as well. I was interested in the reasons for some of the laws, the political structures and so on. It was so interesting. There would be people sitting beside me saying, "If I have to listen to this guy for ten more minutes about mentally ill people, I'm going to be goofy." and I'm thinking, This stuff's cool. Then we did some hands on stuff. Icing on the cake I tell you.

I've started out twice to take some online courses for an law enforcement degree of sorts. Filled out the paperwork, made the appropriate contacts and so forth. But I let life and doubt keep getting in the way. But the voice will pop up from time to time, nagging me to look at it again. So what if it doesn't apply to agriculture, thats not really the point is it.

As for now the voice will be doing nothing more than be a nagging itch, but maybe I'll get something done yet. I'm a pretty compulsive person, and if I can let something go long enough the feeling will go away and not come back. This feeling has been around for awhile and doesn't seem to go away. I may have to do something drastic, like get a college education.

Thanks for listening to the ramble.

ON a side note I just found out this evening that the sheriff's office is having another three way battle for the sheriff's position in June. The now serving sheriff, a former sheriff(the one who got me into this mess) and a former deputy. I'm going to have to make some phone calls and find out what alls going on. Nobody campaigns in this dang county, and if you do, people think your desperate and won't vote for you half of the time.

(Note to self: When moving cattle with your wife, and there is a possibility that tempers may flare, not give her the four-wheeler with the firearm in it. I'm just saying.)

Bad Dreams and Home Defense

2010-04-15T22:25:00.000-06:00

I was going to do a post on one of the dreams I've been having lately, but my wife reads this thing and she wouldn't sleep ever again if she read about it. But I will share some thoughts I've had about this dream and some lessons I'm taking away from it.

I've been buying these little coleman flashlights at Walmart. They are cheap, tough, and bright. Advertised at 100 lumens. I usually keep one in my night stand. Which is okay until you NEED it, then its not there. I WILL get another one, and I WILL put it in the gun safe next to my first choice home defense gun. That will be its only purpose in life. It WILL be available, always, with the gun. It comes with a wrist lanyard. I WILL leave it on there. The flashlight does you no good as a defensive tool(blinding light or impact weapon) if you drop it and it rolls under the couch. The coleman model also has some grooves around the head of the flashlight that would allow me to epoxy some steel points on the head to greatly improve its use as an impact weapon. I also slip and o-ring in a groove just below the head of the light. This improves the grip of the light when using a cigar type hold on the light.

On the subject of lanyards, I don't sleep in jeans or a gun belt. And I probably won't think to put a pair on to investigate that "suspicious" noise. What are you supposed to do when your searching the house and a child comes up to you half awake and wondering what your doing and demands that you pick them up. Stuff that .45 in your boxers. Sorry to say, it won't stay there for long. Your hands my be full, or you may need to open a door. Or you could be in a wrestling match with JOE bad guy. That defensive pistol does you no good skidding across the kitchen floor. Pistol lanyards are nothing new. Its a string that goes over your head, over one shoulder and under the opposite arm. If you should drop, or momentarily need to release your weapon, it stays with you. Where it should be. Again they're cheap and don't take up must space. Leave it attached to your gun when its in the safe. So you don't have to think about putting it on in the middle of the night. The lanyard can also be handy place to store a reload for your gun. A grab and go feature. A rifle or shotgun use a sling. With a lanyard or sling, ALWAYS practice with their use.

Ahhhhh practice. Go to a range. IF its a public range, go to the range master and request some night time shoots. Its very practical and a real eye opener. Most shootings happen in low light situations. Evil likes the dark. Be better than him in his environment. Bad guys practice, so should you.

A folding knife with a belt clip will stay clipped to your boxers, any old Wally World cheapy will do. It does need to be sharp and open smoothly one handed, but other than that, not much else matters. Keep it with the gun and flashlight. If you do suspect an intruder, call 911 first, before you go out snooping around.(You may want to leave the knife with your spouse, or the gun if the case warrants it, but take a weapon.) They(cops) won't be mad if it turns out to be your drunk neighbor who had a flat tire and was looking for a couch to crash on. They(cops) would rather be called to a false alarm , rather than a double homicide. ANY DAY.

On the subject of calling. Don't throw away your old cell phone. If it works and will hold a charge, by law the 911 feature will stay active on it. If your gun safe has enough room, keep it there. Or at a MINIMUM close to your bed where it can be found easily. A lot of land lines can be disabled easily. Assuming you have cell service.

Do walk a through of your home and property with the eyes of JOE bad guy. In the daytime and at night. Many home invasions are happening in broad daylight. Where would you hide, how would you enter the house from any entry point. Know these places and plan accordingly. They do.

If you haven't taken a CPR/first aid course in a while. DO. I'll be taking my refresher this summer. First SAT. of every month, Miles City Fire and Rescue will be putting on a class. Its cheap and can save a life.
You can't get much better than that.

Have a nice night and sleep tight.

How to change the starter on a 97 ford Diesel in 35 minutes.

2010-04-14T21:36:00.000-06:00

Sorry, no pictures this time, camera was at home. My Starter has been getting weaker in the last month and it was time to replace it before I wore more stuff out. I thought I'd give you a tutorial on how its done. Or how I do it anyway. So here it goes.

Skip steps 2 and 3. That will save you an hour at least.
Wash the under side of your truck free of dirt,oil, and grime. Let dry.
Park your truck in a smooth working environment and let engine and exhaust components cool.
Open your hood and stare at engine. Make mental note to someday change the air filter.
Using vise grips* remove the negative battery cables. Remember there are two batt. on a diesel. *You'll use vise grips because someone has already rounded off the nuts with a cresent wrench during previous maint.
Remove the positive cables with vise grips also. Some people will tell you that removing the negative post is enough, but I still have managed to arc a wrench on a hot wire that way. I say better safe than sorry.
Crawl under the passenger side of the vehicle. Take note of the position of the stabilizer arm support.
Clean some dirt from the starter, sprinkling it liberally into your eyes and all over your clothes. Guess at wrenches needed to remove the starter and associated wiring.
Slide out from under the truck. Remember after you bash your head, the position of the stabilizer support. Swear.
Return with 16 wrenches of varies sizes, ranging from 5/16 to 17mm.
Using a 5/8 wrench remove the source power wire from the starter.
Using a 5/16 wrench attempt to remove the switch wire from the starter. Burn back of hand on hot exhaust manifold. Reflexively jerk head. Bash head on stabilizer arm support. Swear. Twice.
Once you've managed to loosen the switch wire, drop the tiny nut. Note its final resting place, if you can.
Using a wrench of undetermined size, just grab one out of the pile until you find on that fits relatively close, loosen two bottom bolts that hold starter in position, but do not remove.
Finding a 1/2 drive shallow well socket of close size to match the bolt heads(17mm?) a 1 inch extension, a 4 inch extension and a ratchet, carefully remove top bolt from starter by feel only. Sprinkle eyes with dirt again.
Remove remaining bolts and careful remove the starter. Remember the stabilizer arm support this time.(note, if your female you'll smash a boob on the stabilizer arm more often than you will your head. I hear chain mail bras are recommended.)
Get the replacement starter and remove the 5/16 nut for the switch wire. Easier here than under the vehicle.
Install starter and reinstall bolts in reverse order.
Attempt to install switch wire. Drop small nut three times.(exhaust manifold is only annoyingly hot now.) Lose it the fourth time. Remember location of nut from original stater. Install wire with used nut. (A short handled nut driver works well in this application.)(Note: buy new nut driver to replace the one you just cut the handle off of.)
Install Hot source wire with new nut and tighten with 5/8 wrench.
Your done under the truck, come out with most of your tools. Bash head. Swear. LOUDLY. Throw wrench.
Replace positive battery cable with new nuts. Go find wrench you threw so that you may tighten the nuts on the cable.
Replace ground cable. Reuse old nuts. Tighten with vise grips.
Close hood.
Open hood, retrieve wrench, close hood.

Your done. You have now replaced a starter on a ford truck in under 40 minutes. Its that easy.
I hope this guide has been helpful.

Planting update

2010-04-12T20:21:00.000-06:00

Not much to update. Everyone is planting and we're not. Not because we don't want to be, we're just busy. We are down to the last string of cows to calve, maybe a 100 left, so it won't be long. Our big problem lies in to pre-planting preparations. We are trying to be in the no-till or minimum till category. Which means we need to put down a chemical herbicide before we plant to get rid of weeds. Usually Round-Up. But the spring is proving to be windy, and its not a good practice to apply this stuff in high winds. We've had a week straight of 25+ winds. Its dang sure drying the soil out. We did manage to get the air seeder out today and got it ready to go. We'll start planting hay barley first. We may not even plant any spring wheat this year, but thats still up in the air. We loaded 5 trucks today with seed grain. 2 loads of spring wheat, 2 loads of hay barley and 1 load of forage peas. This can be very time consuming. You see farmers are a terrible bunch of gossips. It takes 30 minutes to load a truck and 45 minutes of "discussion". You times that by 5 and no wonder I'm behind in my work.

We've got some company company this weekend , so that will be a nice break from the drudgery. We are supposed to get some cold wet weather for the next few days, so maybe we can get caught up on some other farm business. I was supposed to go to an super put on by a animal vaccine supplier. But me thinks I be home taking care of more important stuff. Instead of listening to why their product is better than the rest. I use their product anyway.

I need to get the camping stuff put back together, get my scuba gear back in dive condition, and finish the other 47 projects I started this winter.

Until next week,
Pluhar

Fever, Cabin that is

2010-04-06T07:01:00.000-06:00

  Warmer weather, greening grass, it all leads to a common illness this time of year. Cabin fever. And everyone is feeling it. we want to be outside doing fun things. We've been all business for the last couple of months and now we want O-U-T out. We are sick of looking at each other.

  We had our last heifer calve on Sunday. So no more night calving. That takes a small load off. Maggie wanted to watch as we pulled the calf as the cow was having some difficulty. Turns out the calf was dead. What a heart breaker for Maggie. She was attached before he was even out. But we had a set of twins in the old cows so we are trying to graft a calf onto the heifer. We have a 50/50 success rate on those. Mostly we just don't like messing with it to much.

  If your wondering about the lack of pictures, its mostly because its pics of the same stuff. I did get some pics of my success at firestarting with a fire bow. This time outside. Still pretty controlled conditions. Maggie is in Survivor man heaven right now. She goes around the yard building shelters and fire pits. not making the mother happy with all the rocks on the "lawn". She has built some very good shelters. She is actually paying attention to what she's watching on the show. We will be going camping this summer. Thats the beauty of having your own property. We don't have to go far or make a big production of it to enjoy the outdoors.

  I haven't been to the big city in a couple of months and I'm feeling the urge. I'm putting together the shopping list. 1)5 aluminum beer bottles. 2) 2 one pound propane bottles. 3) two part epoxy. 4)denatured alcohol. 5)batteries. 6)steel wool. 7)brass wire. 8)etc... etc.... and no, I'm not building a bmob. although i could throw in some glycerin and some potassium  manganade?(thats not even remotely close, but thats kind of the point) and we'd have all the components.

  WE've got the field sprayer in working order this week and the first warm day we go to spraying in prep for planting. We are planting very little spring wheat this year. Mostly Hay Barley as we have used up almost all of our hay with the long winter. We're even going to break up an additional 30 acres or so to plant into. The prediction is for a hard grasshopper year. Many people are talking about haying most of their wheat unless the price goes way up or the hoppers don't show. Hay is in high demand this year. Nobody has anything left over.

Well thats about all for this week or last week rather. Stay tuned for more edge of your seat excitement. We've got branding season coming up and a full 2 weeks of planting yet to go through. Oh the excitement.

Something a little different

2010-03-28T20:01:00.001-06:00

The Song

Down went the gunner, a bullet was his fate
Down went the gunner, then the gunners mate
Up jumped the sky pilot, gave the boys a look
And manned the gun himself as he laid aside The Book, shouting
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition and we'll all stay free!

Praise the Lord and swing into position!
Can't afford to sit around and wishin'
Praise the Lord we're all between perdition
and the deep blue sea!

Yes the sky pilot said it
You've got to give him credit
for a son - of - gun - of - a - gunner was he,
Shouting;
Praise the Lord we're on a mighty mission!
All aboard, we're not a - goin' fishin;
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition and we'll all stay free!

"I heard a voice behind me saying, Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. I turned and saw Chaplain Forgy walking toward me along the line of men. He was patting the men on the back and making that remark to cheer them and keep them going. I know it helped me a lot, too", he said.

The hole story hear..http://my.execpc.com/~dschaaf/praise.html

http://www.navychief.com

Honda MUV Review 9 months later

2010-03-21T19:06:00.000-06:00

I've had my Honda Big Red for about 9 months now. Before I start my review I'd like to state two things. I like it over all, and this is my first muv, so I have nothing to compare it to. I'll focus mostly on my dislikes of it. They are the easiest to explain. First a little background. I've used my MUV for......

Moving cows and teaching my niece how to do baja.

Taking the kids out to check cows and put out salt and mineral.

and taking the family on winter outings.

I feel that I have a pretty good background on this piece of equipment. Its really solid, rides nice, and runs very well. Now on to the dislikes.

1)From the word go it has squeaks. Its the latch that holds the dump box down and the door latches. I've done some temporary fixes but the squeaks keep coming back.

2)It does not come with an odometer or hour meter. These are available as a add on, but come on. Would you buy that car that had the FM radio optional. For 11,000 clams that should be standard.

3)You NEED to change the oil every 600-700 miles. The engine and transmission use the same oil sump, and the oil wears out fast. As in it doesn't shift for junk.

4)This brings us to cold weather operations. Need to use it in weather below 30 degrees. Start it(it starts easy) and walk away. For at least 15-20 minutes. Otherwise you'll start down the road and in about 40 feet, it bring itself to a halt. It will not run until its up to operating temp. Now I've switched to an full synthetic oil and this cuts warm up time in half, but at a price. Quite literally a price. At the tune of $45 dollars an oil change. Remember that oil change interval of 600-700 miles. In the summer I put somewhere in the range of 100 miles a week on it.

5)Speaking of oil changes. This unit use a paper cartridge filter, not a spin on filter. This is a big deal because access to the filter is...., well...., okay....., somebody screwed to pooch on this one. You have to remove no less than 10 screws, 3 bolts, the passenger seat, and your patience. And access is still limited to touch and feel. It takes me a solid hour to service it.

6)Accessories are limited compared to the other MUV's out there.

Remember, most of this stuff is really trivial. The unit itself is a solid performer. Time will tell on how it holds up. The other popular option out there is the Polaris Ranger. You get a lot for your money, and if I was a sportsman only, this would probably be the option I'd go with. But as a rancher you use them more and for longer periods than your typical sportsman, and the Polaris Ranger have had some serious mechanical issues after prolonged heavy duty use. We'll see how the Honda holds up. If its anything like the 4-wheelers, that will be a long, long time.

Loss of a Farm Shop

2010-03-14T18:22:00.000-06:00

Its been quite a week. We are hitting calving at full stride. We are getting about 6 calves a day with a couple at night. The old cows are starting to calve out in the hills. This means for at least two hours in the morning and in the evening I'll be out on four wheelers, finding and tagging calves. When the old cows hit their stride we'll be seeing 15 to 20 calves on the ground each day, sometimes more. It keeps you on your toes.

Early this week my Uncles farm shop burned down. It was a total loss. 100 years worth of tools and repair parts to numerous to list were lost. Two pickup trucks and a Polaris Ranger was also lost. There is really no way to carry enough insurance to cover everything. Hopefully they will get enough to build a new building and replace the minimum amount of tools to operate. This is especially hard on me. Up until about four years ago we were a family corporation. I grew up in that shop. Its where I learned to mechanic, weld, and cuss. I built my first art metal work there, and probably had my first drink of alcohol there, from Grandpa's hidden stash.I'm oping my Uncle can recover from this loss. It was already a tough winter on them.

No major plans in the foreseeable future. Just more of the same thing. Calves, calves, and more calves. Hope you all have an enjoyable week and I'll let you know when things change.

This is an old pic showing the east end of the shop.

Looking at the west end. The flame and black smoke are from many car and implement tires stored there.

The silver tank at far left is a full waste oil tank. It didn't burn. The flames are the new oil barrels burning. At least 8 50 gallon drums of different oils used on the farm.

Paint storage flaming up.

A look at the east end. Far left is a metal lathe. The paint storage is still burning.

Front door There is nothing left of the large overhead door. Far left is what remains of the Polaris Ranger.

Grandma's house is a stone throws away from the shop. She grabbed a few important items. Her purse, Her financial portfolio, her family history book, and her autographed picture of her and Daniel O'Donnell. You have to have your priorities you know.

Tuesday! What happened to Sunday and Monday.

2010-03-09T07:21:00.000-07:00

As a farmer and rancher, I often can days or weeks without looking at a calendar. I might know what day of the week it is, but man times I have know idea what day of the month it is. I get busy and the next thing I know I missed an entire week. Right now we are busy into heifer calving, and I don't really need to know what day it is.

Yesterday, we had to pull two calves. Assist really. Once we fixed the problem the heifers could have had the calves on their own, but once your there, you might as well just finish the job. The calves each had a front foot back. An older cow might have been able to push 'em through but a young heifer just doesn't have the room. Its a pretty easy fix, you just push the calf back in a ways, reach in find the missing foot, bring it back up, and your good to go.

If you've been following me on facebook, you'll know I've been watching a lot of Survivor Man on Netflix. The girl and I snuggle down in the chair to watch. She loves that he eats bugs and does crazy things. She wants to try eating the grubs someday. It got me thinking, I've always wanted to be able to start a fire using primitive methods. What boy hasn't? So after some internet searching and youtube watching, I gathered the required materials to make a bow drill and other fire making components. Here are the results.

The tools. A Dykstra long bow, a cedar fire bowl, a deer horn bearing, and a caved cedar drill. It helps if the fire bowl and drill are of the same material. I had to carve the drill so that it would be easy to spin. Its about 3/4 inch in diameter.

The first step is to make a hole with in your board to be the bowl, using your drill. Your not looking for smoke at this point, but the fine fluffy, lightly charred wood dust.

Using the bow with light pressure and a rapid motion I was able to catch the char dust to an ember. At this point you have time to work.

This is my ember burning along nicely.

I wasn't thinking I was going to get this far, so I didn't have a proper fire bundle ready. So I didn't get a fire going the first night. Preparation is the key here.

I finally had success on the second night. Now to get good enough to do it outside.

1st calf- Just some quick pics.

2010-03-04T19:33:00.000-07:00

Heifer calf 5 minutes old. Time to start moving.

On our way up.

Almost got it.

Drats!

She got up right after that. Had a big drink, soaked up some sun, and was jumping and bucking at about the 30 minute mark. When the weather is nice, calving is easy. I'm hoping for no late spring snowstorms this year. Yeah right.