Back To The Old Grind

'Snuff Said.

Not My Victrola

Mom was shopping at the discount grocery store recently, and reported that they had beaucoup cans of turnip greens. I asked her how many she bought, and she didn't buy any of them. I told her to go right back and load up. That is good eating right there. Susan and I have lived in Kentucky, and Southern Illinois, and have an appreciation for some dishes that you don't hear of in Iowa. Cornbread, pepper sauce, and greasy turnip greens; makes my mouth water to just think about it.

Lili Marlene on the Player Piano

J. Lawrence Cook recorded Lili Marlene in 1944, and Pianomn199 played it on his piano for us to enjoy.  Note that Pianomn is pumping the piano with his feet, and doing a fine job of working the expression levers as the roll plays.

Weekend Steam

Rollag, Minnesota is a long way from Southern Illinois, and I don't know if we ever will make it up north for this show. This video by EnponAlbeno sure makes me want to go.

Final Weekend For Mr. Completely's September e-Postal Match

We have just a few days until October rolls in, so GO HERE, read the rules and print your targets. Take friends and family to the range, and then send the scans or photos of your targets to truebluetravelinman (at) gmail (dot)com.

As an added incentive, you don't have to use the paper targets if you can shoot video. Set up 5 pairs of walnuts at the appropriate distance and document with your video camera the number of shots you take to clear all ten nuts. If you enter the contest this way, don't place someone with a video camera forward of the firing line; use a tripod to hold your camera for you while you shoot. I know that YOU know better, but I have to emphasize safety first. Post your video on YouTube and send me the link to make it an official entry.

Crankin' It Up: A Sentimental Double!

Elsie Baker recorded this sentimental standard on January 15, 1914. And, just because it is the end of September, we have to play this old favorite of mine.

FFA Forestry Contest

One of the many subjects that FFA students study is forestry, and I have been hosting our local FFA forestry contest for many years at Sam Dale Lake, in Wayne County, Illinois. Some of the kids have prepared well, and others are just beginning to learn. Some come as contestants,and some as alternates, to learn what it is all about. One of the alternates admitted that he didn't know a thing about compass and pacing, so I showed him very quickly how to measure the azimuth from point to point, and told him to count his steps. After he went around the course I had him count his steps between two stakes 66 feet apart, and do the math for all his points. He made a score 84/100; better than some of the students who had practiced ahead of time.

Pick Your Poison; Hickok45 Shows Two Ways To Care For Your AK

Hickok45 is always entertaining and informative. In this pair of videos he shows us the proper way to care for an AK47, and also the care level that some people provide. Way back when I bought an SKS, a good friend showed me how to tear it down and clean it. He emphasized cleaning the gas tube and piston assembly. Leave those parts dirty, and corrosion can mess up operation quickly. I think the same lesson is probably important for AK's. Mr. Hickok pays plenty of attention to that part of the rifle, and I think that everyone else should, too.

An Old Acquaintance

We posted about this 10 HP Mogul engine back in '09 and '10, but I have never made my way up to Mr. Phillip's place to see it run. I got lucky recently and found a video by RobGill2008, shot in 2011.

It's hard to believe that this old critter is 95 years old.  It sure has come a long way since Reed and I ran across it on the backroads of Johnson County, Kentucky. 

Ruger's Current Auctions For Project Valour-IT

These two guns should really make Ruger fans sit up and take notice.  The M77 rifle was manufactured in 1975, and chambered in .358 Winchester, so it is a rare beast.  The .358 is simply a necked up .308 case, so reloaders can easily load it even if they can't find .358 factory brass.  There is a good article about the .358 Winchester cartridge in the June, 2006 American Rifleman if you want to read about it.  This auction has only two days left, so CLICK HERE to visit the GunBroker page and bid! 

This Ruger MkI pistol was manufactured in 1972, and has been quietly resting in Ruger's vaults for forty years.  The suggested retail price of this gun was under $50 back then!  You have nine days left for this auction, which YOU CAN VIEW HERE. 

Ruger is donating 100% of the proceeds from these auctions to Soldiers' Angels Project Valour-IT.  Even if you do not bid on these, drop Ruger a line and thank them for their support of our wounded heroes.

You can also access these auctions by Ruger from their Facebook page.

Working Hard To Do Things The Easy Way

 

Back To The Old Grind!

Not My Victrola: This One Turned Into A Triple!

EdmundusRex just uploaded With A Song In My Heart, performed by Jack Hylton's Orchestra, and he includes a great writeup:  "Jack Hylton (July 2,1895 - Jan.29,1965) was a British band leader and impresario. He was born in Bolton and he came from a working class background. As a boy, would accompany his father on the piano when he sang in clubs. He also performed at an early age as the "Singing Mill-Boy" and as a relief pianist for various bands.

His early career was as a relief pianist in the 400 club and with the Stroud Haxton Band. After the first world war he went on to play with the Queen's Dance Orchestra where he wrote arrangements of popular songs and had them recorded under the label 'Directed by Jack Hylton'. He went on from here to form his own band.

The band started recording under Jack Hylton's name in 1923. Jack became a respected band leader and was in great demand, so much so that he had to provide bands simultaneously in various locations under his own name. In the 1920s (Babyin' You 1926) the band developed into an orchestra and had a busy schedule. It toured America and Europe and continued until the 1940s when the orchestra disbanded due to members being called up for war service.

Jack was also director of the DECCA record label. All Of Me (Decca Recording).

At this point Jack Hylton's career was already moving towards that of an impresario discovering new stars and managing radio, film and theatre productions from Ballets to Circuses. His productions dominated the London theatres.

Some of the stars he managed, appeared in his productions or discovered were Shirley Bassey, Maurice Chevalier, Ernie Wise, Eric Morecambe, Arthur Askey, the Crazy Gang, George Formby, Diana Dors, Thora Hird, Liberace, Noel Gordon, Sid James, Rosalinda Neri to name but a few.

Jack Hylton and his Orchestra - With A Song In My Heart (1930)"

Well, that information is certainly interesting.  If you have seen the James Bond movie, Goldfinger, you have heard Shirley Bassey, and I never would have guessed that she got her start with someone who was a bandleader starting in the 1920's.  Maurice Chevalier has always impressed me.  He always comes across in his songs as being a very happy person, but he was a French soldier who fought at Verdun, was wounded, and was a prisoner of war for a couple years.  It's a good thing he never heard of PTSD, or he might not have made all those great recordings and movies.  Here are a couple of his, from RReady555.

I-What?

The latest mememe going around the blogs is What's On Your I-Pod?  That's one thing I haven't jumped into, although I do have a bunch of these copied into the computers that I use on a daily basis.

I'm just a little analog.

September e-Postal; This Weekend or Next!

We are over halfway through September already, and you just have two weekends to work in a range trip to shoot the Mr. Completely e-Postal Contest for September 2012.  It's an easy contest to make a good score, but difficult to shoot a perfect score.  It's all about having fun while you get in some much needed shooting practice, so CLICK HERE for the rules and the target, and head to the range with family and friends.

Can you shoot five doubles with a .22?

Weekend Steam: Who's That Knocking?

The Peerless engine was on the Baker Fan at Pinckneyville in August. Something has a little slack in the engine and is making a pretty good knock.  I was guessing that it was in the crosshead, and you can see one of the engineers go up close for a listen.

Engine noises have always worried me, and I listen for things constantly when an engine is running.  My 1923 Model T had a bad throw on the number three cylinder, and I became skilled at dropping the pan, and adjusting the slack out of the rod bearing.  (Loose Model T rods make a very loud clatter, and you had better stay throttled down so you don't pound the babbit out of the bearing.)  Dad located a good crank and we pulled the engine out of the old truck.  Dad had that engine apart and back together in one day while I was at school, so he would have made a pretty good Model T mechanic.  He taught me to take it easy on machines, and to not be tearing them up through abuse, and I had to be retrained a bit when I was working an oil field job.  I was taking some tools into a cable rig on a muddy lease, and couldn't get the two wheel drive Chevy back to the rig.  The driller took the wheel and told me, "You've got to build a fire in that son of a .....!"  And he did, with the motor revved wide open, mud flying, and smoke boiling off the tires, he got that truck to the back of his rig.  We off-loaded the tools and he drove it back out again, just as loud and wild.  It was a good demonstration, and I always got to the rigs after that, although I don't know how the trucks held together. 

Getting back to the steam engine, the rod bearing on this engine is adjustable, but the crosshead bearing is not.  That is why I think that the crosshead is doing the clicking.  The main bearings on the crankshaft would project a deeper and less definite note.  My guess is that the Peerless is half torn down between shows now, and some newly fitted parts will have it running quietly in October.

Words of Encouragement For Patty

Physical therapy is hard, and trying to make an arm relearn how to work is not just terribly difficult, it's exasperating.  We are all pulling for you, Pat!  Here is a good story from Ernie Pyle that should encourage you a bit. 

"For nearly twenty years I had rolled my own cigarettes.  I did this because (1) I liked them better than ready-mades, and (2) people, especially in the East, admired this strange ability, and the distinction made me somewhat more of a drawing-room attraction than I would have been otherwise.  My friends all knew that I could roll a cigarette in the dark, or in the wind, or behind my back, or riding a horse, or with my eyes shut.  But that wasn't enough.  What I really wanted to do was roll 'em with one hand.  I'd rather roll a cigarette with one hand than be president.  In the West I was always watching for a cowboy who might teach me to roll 'em with one hand.  But I'd never seen a cowboy rolling a cigarette with one hand.  Most of them couldn't even do it with two hands.

One night, sitting in one of the Ketchum "clubs" watching a 21 game, I found my man.  He wasn't a cowboy; he was just a nice-looking fellow in overalls, and he had only one arm.  And I sat speechless as he laid the paper on a crease in his pants, filled it with tobacco, and twirled as neat a cigarette as you ever saw.  So I walked over to him and said, "Would you step outside a minute?  I want to talk to you."  In the East you'd probably get hit if you said that to a stranger, but this wasn't the East, so the young man said, "I certainly will," and followed me out.

"I saw you rolling that cigarette," I said.  "I've always wanted to roll them with one hand, and I thought maybe you could teach me."

"Well, " he said, "I don't know whether I can teach you, but I'll show you how I do it."

So I sat on the bumper of a car, and he squatted on the sidewalk in front of me and pulled out his tobacco sack.  "To begin with," he said, "you crease the paper way up high, like this."

I said, "Oh, I never thought of that.  How long ago did you lose your arm?"

He said, "Eight years ago.  Then you slide it down along your second and third fingers, and then joggle it with your thumb till the tobacco's even."

I said, "Did you roll your cigarettes before you lost your arm?"

He said, "No, I never smoked at all till after I'd lost my arm.  When you get it all even, then you slip your first finger over across it like this, and then press down hard."

I said, "That's where I get stuck.  My finger's too stiff.  How did you lose your arm?"

He said, "A runaway team of horses."

I said, "They must have broken your arm a dozen times, to have to have it amputated."

He said, "It got caught between the wagon tongue and the singletree and they just beat it to pieces.  There wasn't hardly anything left of it."

I said, "Are you working here in Ketchum?"

He said, "I'm not doing anything right now.  Last year I worked up at the construction job carrying water.  But they won't give me anything this year.  A big outfit like that don't give a damn for one man."

I said, "Here's my trouble.  I never can keep the edge of the paper turned under."

He said, "That's the hard part.  You have to press real hard.  It's easier with that ribbed paper you get with cans of Prince Albert.  It takes a lot of practice."

I said, "I'd think there'd be lots of jobs you could do with one arm as well as two."

He said, "Sure there is, but they won't give me nothing on account of it."

I said,  "Are you gonna stay around here if you can't find anything?"

He said, "No, I'll go down below and get a little work diggin' spuds.  After that I don't know what I'll do.  I'd like to go over close to Portland and rent a farm, but it takes a little money and I can't make any money."

I said, "I did pretty good on the first one, but this second one keeps slipping."  Then I said, "Are they just indifferent, or have thay got something against you?"

He said, "It really looks like they've got something against me.  I can't get on nowhere.  Sometimes I get so blue and disgusted I feel like gettin' me a gun and just go shootin' up and down the street.  You're gettin' onto it now, but it takes practice."

I said, "Will you be around tomorrow night?" He said, "Sure, I''ll be along here somewhere."  I said, "All right, I'll practice and let you know tomorrow how I get along."

I went back to the hotel and sat over a wastebasket and practiced.  I had to keep my right hand in my pocket, so it wouldn't always be jumping up to help my left hand.  And as I sat there it came to me that rolling a cigarette with one hand was a very trivial thing in the awful pilgrimage we were all making across the hard years to the goal of final sleep--just a little whim that didn't have to be humored at all.  And yet I sat there and tried and tried and tried, till I got so damn mad and disgusted I felt like gettin' me a gun and shootin' at the floor or something."  From: Home Country by Ernie Pyle; William Sloane Associates, New York, 1947.

And if you feel like shooting up and down the street, I bet we could help you arrange that!

The Last Day Lilies Of Summer?

The day lily gardens were pretty quiet during the depths of drought this summer, but now that we have had a few good rain events they are showing just a little color again. The roses are running wild since they have had a good soaking, and we will have color for a few more weeks.

Ruger Finishes One Series (Carrying Concealed), and Begins Another; Handgun Hunting!

Lori Petoske and Il Ling New finish up their concealed carry series in the first video, and then Ruger treats us to an entirely new topic in the second one. This is a great set of videos, Lori,  Be sure to tell Mr. Fifer that we really like what you are doing on YouTube!





Nearly forty years ago I read an article about the Thompson Center Contender. The article told about TC's .44 Magnum barrel, a removable choke, and TC's Hot Shot cartridges which were supposed to be equivalent to .410 shot shells. I lusted after one of these, and bought one in a gun shop in Pikeville, Kentucky. The Hot Shot cartridges might have been OK for using on rabbits and Midwestern fencerow squirrels, but I bagged only one Appalachian gray squirrel to figure out that this was not a good combination for little squirrels in tall trees. I popped a gray that was way up in a beech tree, which anchored him to a limb, and then I used over half the box of .44 shot shells to make him fall. I had to finish him off after he hit the ground. That .44 barrel was a light 10" octagon barrel, and I also learned that factory 240 grain .44 Magnum rounds delivered brutal punishment to the shooter. That was one reason I learned to load my own ammo.

I soon bought a 10" octagon .222 Remington barrel for the Contender frame, and scoped it with a 2.5 X Bushnell Phantom. This was a great combination, and I still shoot it today. The .222 barrel accounted for a lot of groundhogs in Kentucky, and it has dispatched several skunks down on the farm. The Contender also has a .22 LR barrel with a scope, and it is good for squirrels, possums, and coons.

My current favorite for dispatching errant wildlife around the homestead is a Ruger Mk III Target model, with a red dot scope on top. It does brain shots quite well on possums, which is no mean feat given the small brain in a possum's skull.

There has been lots of discussion about the suitability of the .357 for bagging deer over the years. Out of a rifle, there is no question that the .357 will do the job on deer sized game, but many people hesitate to recommend it for deer. It will shoot all the way through a deer at 100 yards when launched by a pistol, so I look at it more from a standpoint of the accuracy that the firearm and hunter can deliver while hunting. If I decide to go hunting for deer with a pistol, I would take my .44 Redhawk rather than my .357 Blackhawk because of the longer sighting radius, and the tighter groups I shoot with the larger gun. The bigger hole made by the .44 is a bonus, but would not be necessary if I keep my marksmanship limitations in mind.

Anyhow, watch the intro to this new Ruger series, and stay tuned here for the next video.

BONUS!!!  Actual groundhog bagged with the Thompson Center .222!  Long, Long time ago.

My Little Brother Is A Real Jewel

Back on September 5, a storm blew a bird nest out of the tree in front of my brothers jewelry shop, along with two baby doves.  Doves don't build substantial nests, and this particular nest was an old robin nest that the parents were using.  Chester didn't want them to become cat bait, so he tied a cardboard box in the tree and deposited the babies in it, along with a little padding.  The parents soon found them and moved right in.

The babies have fledged now, and here you can see them hiding behind the air conditioner compressor right after Mama kicked them out.  Well, Chester, that cardboard box won't make it through the winter, so now you're going to have to build a new dove nest for next spring.  No good deed goes unpunished.

Photo Credit: Chester

Mechanical Masterpieces

Bob Suhre goes out to his shop every day to machine parts for his mechanical masterpieces. He says that he makes a new engine from start to finish in about one year. Bob was showing his masterpieces at the American Thresherman Show in Pinckneyville, Illinois.

Weekends Are Short; And Then There's This

Back To The Old Grind!

Not My Victrola

Black and Tan Fantasy,performed by Clyde McCoy, and uploaded to YouTube by bsgs98; His Notes:

"Clyde McCoy (1903 - 1990) assembled his first band in 1920 playing in a Knoxville Tennessee resort and then took his group to New York and played along the East Coast for several years. In 1924 he relocated to California and the band toured in the Los Angeles area. He began to use a trumpet mute and developed a style that produced the "wah-wah" sound that was to become his signature. In 1930 while performing at Drake Hotel in Chicago he first performed "Sugar Blues" and it became his first hit. Within a year he signed his first record contract with Columbia Records and on January 22, 1931 he recorded "Sugar Blues" which became a huge hit and it sold several million copies.

"Black and Tan Fantasy" was written by Bubber Miley and Duke Ellington in 1927 and it featured the growling and muted trumpet of Miley. It seems obvious that McCoy used this tune to demonstrate his own muted trumpet tricks. McCoy's arrangement is quite faithful to the original Ellington version, but slower. It also omits the piano solo that's on the Ellington recording(s). While McCoy is no match to Ellington's Orchestra and Miley's trumpet, you have to give him credit for a great cover of this Ellington classic."

And Here, is how Duke Ellington recorded it, and how you would have listened to it eighty years ago, courtesy of mlaprarie.

Weekend Steam

Many years ago, at a long forgotten estate auction, the Mrs and I bought three parts catalogs in a box of books.  I know nothing about Leader steam engines and threshers, and a quick search on the internet does not turn up much.

The fellow who had these books must have been in the threshing business for many years, because the books show a progression of engines from the era of web stackers, and then larger engines that were necessary to run threshers with wind stackers.

These are good looking engines, and I think they are pretty rare today.  This link will take you to a photo on Smokstak of a Leader engine at a show fifty years ago.

A Couple of Revolver Basics

Jacqueline over at Great Satan, Inc is the lucky winner of the Single-Ten revolver donated by Ruger for Project Valour-IT. She wrote in the comments of the Minimum Ruger Requirement post, "revolver is one of my weak areas." Ruger single action revolvers are good vehicles to learn the basics of revolver shooting, and I have been around them so long that I forget others may not know how to operate them efficiently. These videos are for Jacqueline, and anyone else who is new to revolvers.

The first video shows Cowboy Action Shooter Jim Finch (NSSF video)demonstrating the basics of manipulating the hammer for quick shooting. Old western movies often showed revolvers being fanned, but that method is very inaccurate, and can damage the notches in old style single action guns, rendering them unsafe. The method Mr. Finch demonstrates is something I learned from a Skeeter Skelton article about thirty years ago, and it could be a valuable skill in a self defense situation. Skeeter wrote that he practiced this method with the butt of the pistol against his belt buckle for those times when the action was way too close for comfort.

The second video is good old Hickok45 providing a demonstration of the power of the gas that escapes the cylinder gap. New revolver shooters take note that you never want to have your fingers around the front of that cylinder.

Almost A Ghost

We are beset by strokes, it seems.  The Mrs.' father, then Toopie; the Mrs.' mother, and now Bart.  I had just returned from Iowa Monday night (Labor Day) when I heard Bart fall behind me, and I witnessed him struggling to get up as his tail twisted to the left.  I put him in a soft bed, and in about ten minutes, he was up and wobbling around.  I took Tuesday off and took him to the vet, and now every morning I pill him to keep his heart in rhythm and to thin his blood.  Pilling a cat is not something you take lightly.  I had the vet give me a good lesson, and so far, Bart takes it well.  Before I pick him up by the scruff of his neck I repeat to myself, "All Cats Are Always Loaded."  Bart is worth the risk.

Never Forget

One's Too Many....

...and a hundred's not enough.  This fellow might be just a little obsessed.  Kinda like me and my old records.  Some people would want to put us in a program.

Pocketa-Pocketa-Pocketa; Real Walter Mitty Sound Effects!

At Pinckneyville.

Who'd I Say Huh? To?

Who didn't I say it to, is more like it.  Go to the big city for a day, and this shows up in my mailbox.  Sheesh.

Another Typical Monday, Coming Right Up!

Looks Awful Familiar; Back To The Old Grind!

Not My Victrola

Well, I'll be switched! cdbpbx has a Brunswick with the three-way tonehead, just like our machine!  You see the tonehead turned over in this video to play an Edison Diamond Disc, and that works OK if no-one walks across the floor with heavy feet.  Edison discs have shallow grooves, and the Edison machines that play them have a mechanical feed that pulls the tone arm across the disc, so there is no force that would make the needle skip.  This Brunswick, however, has no feed, and the tone arm is pulled along by the groove in the disc.  It usually works.  Worn records or unlevel floors will play havoc with it, though.

The song has an interesting topic.  Blacksmiths had to adapt or starve during the 1920's, and then in the 1930's the Depression came along.  Have you seen the old hand powered gasoline pumps with the clear glass tops?  A trick used by service station owners back then was to pump up gasoline during idle times on sunny days, leaving a little room at the top.  Sunshine would warm the gas, making it expand about ten percent.  I guess on cold days they did NOT pump gas up ahead of time. 

Weekend Steam

Uploaded by SkipW on Apr 30, 2009
Hop Aboard as we witness a UP#3985 excursion grind to a halt with a Fire on the Historic Locomotive and the quick thinking Steam Crew Puts it out before the Volunteer Fire Dept gets there! then ride along side as she trys to make up lost time on a highball run into old Cheyenne WY.

Ruger Is All In To Support Soldiers' Angels

 True Blue Sam doesn't spend much time on Facebook, but I do enjoy seeing the information posted by Ruger.  Ruger has been auctioning some of the vintage guns in their vaults the last several weeks, with all of the proceeds going to Soldiers' Angels Project Valour-IT, which benefits wounded service personnel.

I have been a Ruger fan for four decades, but they have really raised my admiration to stratospheric levels with their contributions to Project Valour-IT.  Last year they sent two pistols to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, and they are repeating that kind deed this year.  Great Products, Great Folks!

Check out the auctions on Ruger's Facebook page, and don't be shy about bidding.  You can be a good-deed-doer, and receive a fine new (vintage) firearm.  Click the pics to go to their respective auction pages.

Mr. Completely Makes The News!

Photo by Justin Burnett, South Whidbey Record; used with permission

 

Mr. Completely was recently interviewed by Justin Burnett, reporter for the South Whidbey Record, the local paper on Whidbey Island.  Justin took the great picture you see here, shot some steel with Mr. C, and wrote a great article.  You can read the it on the South Whidbey Record's website HERE and read about the interview on Mr. Completely's blog RIGHT HERE.

 

Hop over to the article, and leave a positive comment while you are there.  I sure do appreciate it when a newspaper publishes positive articles about shooting, and we need to provide positive feedback. 

 

Many thanks to the South Whidbey Record and Mr. Burnett for granting permission to post their photograph and allowing linkage from this little blog to their publication.

 



Elite Seat

Not just anybody can sit in this one. More photos and a little video in days to come.

Last Call For Gun Blogger Rendezvous!

Bloggers will begin getting together in Reno on September 5, 2012.  Mr. Completely has been working overtime to make this year's Rendezvous the best ever, and it looks like he has achieved his goal.  The Sunday Quick Draw event was cancelled due to circumstances beyond Mr. C's control, and he has set up an even better activity for his band of bloggers; Cowboy Action Shooting!  Read all about it on Mr. Completely's blog; you really want to be there!  It's too late to mail in your registration, so send an e-mail to Mr. C,  and call the Silver Legacy to reserve a room. (Use GBLOG12 for the group discount when you call the hotel.) You can register with Mr. C when you get there. 

Cowboy Action Shooting is fun, not just to do, but also to watch other people competing, and you will get to do both on Sunday.  Here is a video I shot of Cowboy Action Shooting last year near Cisne, Illinois.  Yes, you really want to be there!

Take A Day Off

We All Need A Break Once In A While. 

Normal posting will resume after I get back to the farm.  Enjoy the holiday with family and friends.

True Blue Sam Steals One...

...from his cousin Tammy.  Bea's brother Bernie is one of the conductors who will punch your ticket on the Midwest Central, and here we see him with his kids Tim and Tammy.  Mom and I skipped Old Threshers this year, (and stole this picture from Tammy's Facebook post) since Bea was just a few days out of the hospital, but we didn't sit around and mope.  Mom and I spent the weekend at an Appleseed event, and got thoroughly exercised standing up and getting down for prone and sitting; then running out to change targets.  Mom is now conversant with Inches, Minutes, and Clicks, and has a thorough understanding of how we sighted in her new scope with only two three shot groups.  (We don't need no stinking laser!)  We didn't have time for video or photos during the instructional periods, but we did bring home some targets worth keeping.  The True Blue Sam Team hopes that all of our loyal readers are having as fine a holiday weekend as we are. 

Not My Victrola

We are revisiting Ben Bernie this week, because he was one of my Dad's happy memories from childhood, when he could listen to a radio.

Recorded in 1925, and posted by Warholsoup100.

And Now, For The Nairrvous Amongst You...

...a major Ralfy Celebration! Ralfy has just posted his 300th!!!! whishkey revieww, and you have to wonder, how does he do it??!! Remaining verrticalll I mean. In Num-bair 300 he is discussing and reviewing Absinthe, and then we will post Num-bair 296 just below that, in which he discusses an Islay malt that is much more in character for the Ralfsterr.





True Blue Sam does not recommend trying to keep up with Ralfy, but he is entertaining, and very knowledgable about whishhky. Stay vertical my friends!

Weekend Steam: Come Early, Stay Late

I hope that some of you are going to visit Mt. Pleasant this weekend. If you do, stay late and watch the train (and ride) after dark. There is something magical about it.