And Now We Come Down To The Wire

If this isn't the Last Rose of Summer at our place, it's awful darn close.  It seems to glow, even in the evening shade.

The Drys Are At It Again

I saw in the news that the do-gooders are saying bad things about alcohol again.  Do-gooders are either wanting you to do everything their way, or they are looking for excuses to tax you so they can spread your money to others more deserving than you.  I am guessing that taxes are the driving force behind the latest reports.  Of course, the researchers will need more government grants to do studies so they can make recommendations...it's almost like global warming.  Anyway, when I saw the news hacks comparing alcohol to the hardest of illicit drugs, I was reminded of one of my favorite poems.


The horse and mule, live 30 years, and know nothing of Wines and Beers…
The goat and sheep, at 20 die, and never taste of Scotch and Rye…
The cow drinks water by the ton, and at 18, is mostly done…
The dog at 15, cashes in, without the aid of Rum and Gin…
The cat in milk and water soaks, and then in 12 short years, he croaks…
The modest, sober, bone-dry hen, lays eggs for nogs, then dies at 10…
All animals are strictly dry, they sinless live, and swiftly die…
But sinful, ginful, rum-soaked men, survive for three score years and ten…

And some of us, tho' mighty few, stay sozzled till we’re 92!

Hunting Season Is Upon Us...

 ...and some of the deer hunters invading the timber will be using steps like these to climb to their deer stand.
Sometimes they take their screw-in steps home with them, but I see lots of them left in trees.

Others will be using homemade spikes which obviously will never be removed.  If you hunt from an elevated deer stand, think of the timber owner and the people who may process the trees into products at some time in the future.  Spikes and screw-in steps render a tree worthless, and if the metal evenually is completely grown over, it is dangerous to timber and mill workers.

I never have been a fan of deer stands, and have always hunted on the ground, but of course, I have never been a trophy hunter.  Every year about this time we will hear of hunters in our area who fall out of their deer stands, and the injuries usually wreck them for life.  If you use a deer stand, please follow common sense safety rules and use a safety strap to prevent falls.

Rough Mondays?

Back To The Old Grind!

Not A Victrola Halloween Special

"Graveyard Love," a Cemetery Moan, posted by pianosyncrazy.



"Dance Macabre" by Saint-Saens, and performed by Horowitz in 1928.  Posted by AeolianHall1.

Bonus Halloween Crankin' It Up!

I always like to pull out Moran and Mack's performance of "Two Black Crows In Hades" for Halloween to put me in the spirit of the holiday.

Crankin' It Up

Lyman's California Ambassador Hotel Orchestra performs a nice Fox-Trot for your dancing pleasure. Brunswick disc number 2504-A; recorded on October 23, 1923.

October e-Postal: Final Weekend

US Citizen needs your October e-Postal targets by midnight on October 31, so if you haven't done so already, GET OUT AND SHOOT!  If you can't make it to a range, set up a BB gun range in your garage and shoot.  US Citizen will score your target if you shoot it!  This is a difficult target, but that makes for more fun and is better at building your skill than an easy target.  The circles are 1" diameter, and you shoot it at 21' with a pistol.  Touch the circle for 1 point, and the dot in the middle for 3 points.  I made 10 points out of a possible 60, and I had only a couple of bad misses.  You are not expected to shoot like an Olympian athlete, we just want you to have fun and improve your shooting skills.  Every target you enter gives you a chance in the $50 Cheaper Than Dirt drawing, so take more than one gun to the range with your stack of targets.

Disappearing Acts

I can think of half a dozen old barns/and or houses that have been torn down and burned around us in recent months.  I drove by this place on nearly a daily basis, and it is down to just a small pile of lumber that will soon be burned.  The top photo was taken two years ago, and I took the one below just yesterday. (Photo Credit for the first picture goes to JimH.)

The face of farm country is changing fast, and the family farms we like to envision really do not exist anymore, except  in the Amish and Mennonite communities.  One of the things that bothers me is that the barns I see being knocked down and burned are usually better than the one I am working on.  This barn is over 100 years old, and raising it up out of the termites is a never-ending task.

Our current focus is on the southwest corner, which had no sound wood holding up the roof.  The footer was poured during the early 1950's, and for some reason it has a kink in it.  The south wall leaned out to meet the rafters, and we poured a new foot for the corner, which we think is lined up pretty well.  Lining things up is sort of a relative thing in a building with no parallel lines or right angles.  As we put new wood back into our barn we are mainly shooting for less whopperjawed-ness.

Throttle Governed Massey Harris Engine

Massey Harris tractors are fairly common at the engine shows, but gas engines by Massey are none too plentiful. There were several at Pinckneyville this year, and this one was putting along at the fall show last week. Note that this is a throttle governed engine, not a hit-and-miss.