Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Ruger's Auction To Benefit The Massachusets Shooters Foundation



Ruger is auctioning a real beauty for us to enjoy this week.  It is a Vaquero in .44-40, made in 1995; the second year of production of the Vaquero. This firearm shows a few rub marks and fingerprints, but is not marked used, so it may have been used at events showcasing Ruger's products.  It will sell mid-day, Wednesday, February 1, 2017, so Click Here to read the entire description and to place that winning bid.  $904.88

Valentine Song Festival! Love On The Rocks, Neil Diamond

Monday, January 30, 2017

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Ruger's Auction To Benefit The Massachusetts Shooters Foundation


Ruger is offering a 25th Anniversary .44 Magnum Carbine this week to benefit the Massachusetts Shooters Foundation. This special edition was offered in 1985, and only 1800 of this special model were produced.  This fine little rifle will sell mid-day, Wednesday, January 25, 2017.  Click Here to read the entire description and to place that winning bid.  $1625

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Call the law, and just keep walking. I learned the hard way a long time ago to not interfere directly in such situations; well, not so hard. I never got the crap beat out of me for doing the right thing, but there is a price to pay when you interact with bad people. I called in a slowly dying horse with a broken, infected leg to the Sheriff's office in Wayne County, Illinois many years ago, and within the hour the owner of that horse was in my face. That was a few Sheriffs back, but I don't call in anything to that cop shop today.

Valentine Song Festival! Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, Neil Sedaka

Shot Show Day 4 Report, From Jeff Quinn at GunBlast

Monday, January 23, 2017

Tuesday Torque: Glass Head Briggs

I have been following this project for several weeks.  805RoadKing has been overhauling an old Briggs and Stratton engine to be a very special engine at shows, and he is nearly done.  This is the twentieth video in his series on this project, so you may want to click to his YouTube channel and watch some of the history.  He is a skillful mechanic and fabricator.


Valentine Song Festival! Blue Eyes, Elton John

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Never Get Out Of The Boat: A Brutal Demonstration

Last year we had our own little experience with a nasty individual who tried to kick in our doors, broke our windows, broke into the garage, and stole our car.  We stayed in our living space (prepared in case he got in) and let the police handle the situation outside when they arrived.  This video by Colin Flaherty shows in no uncertain terms what can happen when you leave cover to confront a bad guy.  I counted five blows from the bad guy's fists, and then twenty-four with the baseball bat.  Pull the slider over to the 5:00 mark to see how it goes. The perpetrator was leaving after causing trouble, and the clerk had no good reason to leave the teller's cage.  He suffered dearly for the mistake.


Grind It Like You Mean It!



Back To The Old Grind! (Dang, I want one of these!)

Valentine Song Festival! A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody, Rudy Vallee

The American Race War Continues...

...and white women better learn not to defend themselves, because the law will get you for that!

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Ruger's Auction To Benefit The Massachusets Shooters Foundation

This week Ruger is offering a Bisley Single-Six in .32 H&R Magnum, that was used as a show gun.  This revolver is marked with a U for Used because it shows a little shop wear from being handled, but that just makes it a good shooter for you so you don't end up with a safe queen.  CLICK HERE to read the full description.  This extra-cool revolver will sell mid-day, Wednesday, January 18, 2017, so go place your bid.

910.05

Valentine Song Festival! Sway, Dean Martin

Industry Day at SHOT, by GunBlast's Jeff Quinn

Monday, January 16, 2017

Valentine Song Festival! Stardust, Performed by Nat King Cole

Tuesday Torque: Pre-Grid Electricity

I read about this engine many years ago.  The Mt. Wilson Observatory needed electric power, and in the early 1900's you had to make it yourself.  An engine collector discovered the old Fairbanks still in place and put it back in operation so it can be studied by younger generations who visit the observatory.



Bonus Video, Thanks To Merle for spotting this and contacting me!

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Friday, January 13, 2017

Valentine Song Festival! Mary Chapin Carpenter, Passionate Kisses

Weekend Steam: Overhauling A 1914 Rumely 16-48 Traction Engine

It's well worth your time to click this video over to YouTube and read the description of the work that had to be done to this engine.


Valentine Song Festival! Nellie Kelly, I Love You!

We had such a positive response(Hey, five comments on a theme over a month is pretty good here!) last year to our daily love-worn songs that we are going to do it all over again.  The list is large, so there will be many songs we did not use last year.  We are starting out with Nellie Kelly  because that's the kind of music that started this little blog.


Wednesday, January 11, 2017

No Safe Cities

Form Community Groups!  Yes, That Will Fix It!




You will see the police official lamenting that people are not coming forward with information about the murders. Witnesses know that Snitches Get Stitches! Witnesses in St. Louis have been turning up dead lately, and that is happening everywhere. You don't rat out your neighborhood gangster; not if you don't want to be beaten to death or shot.

Hollow Helpers


Overmature and damaged black oaks become hollow in spectacular fashion sometimes.  You always thump a black oak to see if it's all there when you measure it, and this is why.  Carpenter ants love to eat black oak (and other red oak species, too).


They are like big, bad termites, and boy do they tear down a tree.  The snag I dropped last weekend was riddled with them for several feet.

There is something peculiar about the red oaks that I can't figure out.  A standing snag will have damp wood when you drop it and split it, but being an open pored wood, it dries fast, and burns well within a few weeks.  However, red oak tree tops that are on the ground can be there (drying?) for several years, and when you work them up into firewood they are soppy and must dry for months before they will burn.  I can understand a log lying on the ground being soaked, but tree tops are up off the ground with air moving all around them.  If you are going to work up tree tops, do it while they are fresh so you don't waste your effort on half rotten, soppy wood. I have never found carpenter ants in wood lying on the ground...those bugs are as picky as I am.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Ruger's Auction To Benefit The Light Foundation


Ruger is offering another of their great P85 Pistols this week, so be sure to check their auction page and place a bid.  These pistols do not usually grab the interest of collectors, so it is a good opportunity for you to get a good pistol at a decent price while doing a good deed.  This one is New In Box, and is from 1990.  It will sell mid-day, January 11, 2017.  Click Here to read all about it and to place your bid. $714 <

Monday, January 9, 2017

Tuesday Torque: Big Engines At Coolspring

There is a good writeup to go with this video if you click it over to YouTube.  The first one you see running is a 1913 vintage one-of-a-kind engine with four cylinders laid out in an N pattern, and producing 300 Horsepower.


Sunday, January 8, 2017

Firewood Weekend; Here's One We Dropped Today

Don't Get Wrapped Up In Your Work This Week

Videos of screw-type log splitters keep coming up on my YouTube feed, and they look to me like a maiming or death waiting to happen.  Watch this fellow working constantly around the spinning screw.  If it ever grabs him, it's Curtains.




Watch this next video and see how easy it is to be hurt working around equipment.



Back (Safely) To The Old Grind!

Saturday, January 7, 2017

Not My Victrola: Pax41 Shares Some Music From 1917

This music doesn't seem as old to me as it should, because I have been listening to it all my life.  The percussion in Oh Johny, Oh is very typical of pre-electric recordings.  The engineers needed sound that would record well, and wooden blocks did a great job coming through, even with a worn out needle in the parlor phonograph.


"Racial Rage"

It's a real thing.


Friday, January 6, 2017

Weekend Steam: Minnesota New Giant

This is a rare engine, one of only a couple that are operable in the country.  What is really extra-neat is that it has a Clark feedwater pump just like the one on the New Giant engine that operates every Labor Day weekend at Old Threshers, in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.  That is a rare treat!



Thursday, January 5, 2017

Musical Brainstorm

Many years ago we read most of  Hank The Cowdog's adventures.  Every book has a song or two, and they are all fun.  For some reason one of the Buzzard songs came to mind the other day and I went looking on YouTube.  Here it is; great fun, and the Buzzards remind me of Da Yoopers!



We gave away our Hank books to someone who needed them, and now I am wanting to revisit the series. Here is where you can study the selection: Click

Thank Goodness It Was "Just People Ranting."...

...according to a Police Superintendent.


Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Months With An R


Time to be doing your necessary pruning.  If you don't have a good pruning blade, look them up on Forestry Suppliers or Ben Meadows.

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Ruger's Auction To Benefit The Light Foundation


Here's a rare one, and the collectors have noticed.  It is a Blackhawk Convertible fro 1989 with cylinders for .32 H&R Magnum and .32-20.  This fine revolver will sell mid-day, Wednesday, January 4, 2017.  100% of the proceeds of this auction will go to benefit the Light Foundation. Click Here to read all about it.  $1175

Inquiring Minds Want To Know; What Kind Of Wood Was It?


This story and photo were on The Blaze, and it's a good one.  This heinous perpetrator kicked in a door and was clobbered in the face by a piece of firewood.  My first thought was "It must not have been SOFT maple!"  But seriously, I would like to know what it was, and the reporter did not provide that info.  There is a nice indentation above the right eye from a bark imprint.  White oak is flaky or ridgy, so that's not it.  Hickory will have plates or narrow ridges depending on the species, so that's out.  It might have been black oak, because its bark can be blocky, and it is relatively hard.  But if I had to bet, I think it was persimmon.  Persimmon has hard little blocks of bark, and persimmon was used for making golf clubs.  Quoting a departed friend with an interesting vocabulary, "It's harder than hammered Hell!"

Photo credit: The Blaze, and Raleigh, Wake City Bureau of Identification

Sunday, January 1, 2017

No Snow In Southern Illinois Yet This Winter

And that's a good thing!  It's downright discouraging watching this, and I am glad that we are practically in the sunny South.

Back To The Old Grind!

Baby Year

It was cloudy at sunrise this morning...