Where has 2 weeks gone?

    I was relaxing yesterday and thought, hell I haven't done a blog post in almost two weeks. Well, where should I start, most of you know I was in SC with the my better half, JUGM, and of course the boys were with us as well. We tried to make it a spring break trip as the kids were out of school but her dad was in the hospital and we got a 2 day late start. Once there, didn't do a whole lot, just some chores and maintenance around the place and plowed up the garden and threw some rows for JUGM to plant some stuff. Me, I want a full garden but she only wants to put low maintenance items in the ground, so we compromised a bit, only put rows in half the garden. Hey, not bad for my first time on a 1948 Farmall Cub.....

  There are a few rows of sunflowers and a few rows of yellow onions.

   Saturday rolls around, and we have had rain since Friday afternoon and as the rain clears out, we take a trip to Harbor Freight. If you have been in one of these stores, yes it is full of Chinese junk, but how many times do you use a torque wrench? Would you want to pay $21.00 for one there, or spend up to or over $100 at Sears? I'm not a full-time mechanic, so figure which one I went with. Also, you can find items that will help you out in a survival situation in there, yes the quality is not top of the line, but budget minded preppers can start here. On the way home, we stopped by our local Gander Mountain and yes, we gandered through the store and left. Prices are just too damn high!

   Today was an easy day, went to china-mart to get a few things for dinner, on the request of the kids and NW and I stroll to the sporting goods section and buy a few boxes of TUL Ammo in 7.62x39mm. At $5.47 a box, can get it cheaper from online retailers when you add shipping in. With all that is going on in the Ukraine, bet 7.62x39mm may increase in price or be part of a trade sanction.

    Once home I think, what would be more relaxing than doing some reloading. Well I had some 300 Blackout primed up so I hit the single stage and got to work. Here are two of the components. Federal small rifle primers were the other, besides the brass.

    My load call for 16.5 to 17.7 of IMR 4227, my target load was 17.1. As you see I am off by a bit but no worries.

     The final mess of Blackout rounds. it was a nice day, notice me wearing my Crocks and shorts?

 

 

     This week will be a busy week, have some work to catch up on from the spring break trip and have to get things prepped before the spring heat arrives. Also, I will be heading north for an interview with one of the top two logistic companies in the world with a chance to be placed in their management development program. Wish me luck. Have a great week everyone.

 

Senior

Relaxing, windy Sunday and thoughts from the mess about Flight 370

    As most of you know, kids baseball has kicked into swing and I have been busy. Umpired a game yesterday and had to break up a near fight, in the middle of the 1st inning between two coaches. Then had our fourth game of the year, by the time I got home, I didn't want to do anything. After we ate our dinner, I retired to the backyard with a nice fire and short wave radio time.

 

 

 

      Most of us on the east coast are bracing for rain, ours will be here tonight and last all day tomorrow. About this time of year, I start my preventative maintenance on the camper and my plan today was to climb up on top and wash and treat the rubber membrane that seals the roof to the elements and use some self leveling roof sealant around the protruding vents, TV antenna, and A/C, but before I start, I through a nice slab of pork ribs on the smoker around 11:45.

 

 

 

     So with the ribs on, I proceeded to the camper to get to work. I climbed up there with the help of a 9 foot step ladder and saw the camper shaking a bit from the wind gusts. I thought for a second, should I or not. Well I said not, I will try again during the week. Instead, I decided to give her a bath and get the winter crud off.

    Once done with the camper, I vegged for a couple of hours and then took the ribs off with a nice caramelized Sweet baby Ray's finish.

    Now for some thoughts:

     Everywhere in the news, they have been all over this Malaysia Flight 370 that has gone missing. I even let a bit out over at OLDNFO's blog so I will continue a bit, but I wont dedicate a whole hour or two like media outlets. My thoughts, the plane has been taken, but for what use? I assume for use as a delivery weapon. Now why would someone want to take a huge Boeing 777? (Rob, don't bust my balls if this isn't a Triple 7).

     Let's see, maybe it has the capability to flew a very long distance? So where is the plane? Try looking at locations where people don't like the Western world, North Korea, Indonesia, Iran, and Pakistan, to name a few. As far as a weapon, the world saw how planes were used on the twin towers and pentagon, and if a terrorist organization has taken this plane, will they use it again to fly into a building? My assumption would be "No". I assume their next big attack will be on a massive scale, possibly a high-altitude detonation of a nuke (EMP) or chemical weapon air-borne distribution. With this being said, I hope and pray that the innocent passengers on this plane will be left unharmed, but I don't think that will be the case. Just so everyone knows, this is my own assumption based on the events of the past week. If I am wrong, I guess I will be wrong, so what.

    Hope everyone has a great week.

Senior

   

Raw Vid: York Co Deputy shoots 70 Year Old Man Reaching for Cane

    How does a properly trained sheriff's deputy do this? Was he overzealous?  Well i guess I will be more careful when I go to Rock Hill, SC next time. Glad I don't have to use a cane, wait a minute, this guy was a veteran, guess I'm screwed.

Saturday bit's and pieces

   Today was a good day, the weather was nice and we really didn't have a lot to do. JUGM had taken her vehicle to the Toyota dealership on Friday for a oil change since it's cheaper for them to do it than me to go to China-Mart and buy all the stuff. As you most know, the "stealer-ships" try to tell you that you need something else, such as a cabin or air filter. Well this is the third time that they said that she needed a new battery.
    I have a vast knowledge of vehicles, I'm a damn good shade-tree mechanic, and they keep saying that the cold cranking amps are around 300-325. I told her, no they are full of crap. So as we didn't have much to do today, I went to a friend's (second dad) business and asked to borrow his battery load tester for a sec. We hooked up his SNAP-ON load tester and hit the trigger. Well by-god, there was over 600 cold cranking amps on the battery and was still in the good range. Hello Toyota, your customers are not stupid!!! We can smell BS a mile away.
     He also told me that the Snap-On NHRA Funny car driven by Cruz Pendragon was just down the road at the International Truck shop. The Gator Nationals will start up I think next week just down the road. Well we all headed down and got to see their traveling Funny Car and also the Snap-On Tool Custom chopper built by Orange County Choppers that has 255 various Snap-On tools built into the bike.

 

 

    Before I went to sleep last night, I went to a online gun trading site and found this post. Seems this guy doesn't like his Kimber Pro Raptor II and wants to trade for a Ruger SR1911 or sell for $800.00. Like I said before, do your research before you shell that kind of money out.

 

 

    Before I forget, well hell I have forgot for a week or so, I was the winner of Sandy's latest contest and wanted to post another thank you to her for picking my name out the hat. 

 

 

   Well everyone enjoy the rest of your weekend, I will busy over the next two days, have to see an attorney, so I will chime in when I get chance.

 

Senior