Tuesday Torque: The Mailbox Engine Runs!

Gary and Peggy's Crank-Up was a record setting event.  They had more than fifty guests show up; most of them came to see the finished Bessemer engine because they have been following its restoration on SmokStak.  Up until Saturday this engine had run for only a few minutes, and that was corrected with a couple of long runs that warmed it up really well.  During the second run the engine settled down and ran at a steady pace, without the hunting up and down in RPM as it did at first.  It is a hard engine to crank over.  It's a big engine, and it has good compression with the new bore and new piston rings.



Here is a second video that shows a few of the other engines Gary pulled out of his shed for the day.

Went To A Dog Show...

Pat had the pleasure of cuddling with a 4 month Schipperke pup who may one day be  a show ring champion.

Do It The Old Way

Back To The Old Grind!

Video by Steve Hogwood.

Not My Victrola: Nora Bayes

Video uploaded by RReady555.  This song was usually recorded as a dance record, so hearing the lyrics is a real treat.

Weekend Steam: Speedy Sawmilling

One of the frustrations of steamshows is watching a sawmill that is not set up right, and being pulled by an underpowered engine.  I have watched saws chew their way painfully through logs, and it is no fun.  This mill starts out with a secret.  How does this Baker engine rip through the wood so fast?  You will see when the camera swings right after a few cuts.

Mr. Completely's March 2016 E-Postal Contest

We are starting the 2016 E-Postal contests with a confidence builder.  This is a simple target requiring just ten shots, and it will sharpen your sight alignment and trigger squeezing skills for the rest of this year.  There are three circles; start with the center, shoot one to either side, return to center, shoot the other side, and return to the center.  Repeat for a total of ten shots. Everyone should have a perfect score!  Twenty five feet is recommended, but shoot whatever distance you are able to shoot at your range, or whatever distance makes you confident.  Click Here, or on the picture for the link to the pdf target.

Send scans or photos of your targets to truebluetravelinman (at) gmail (dot) com by April 4.  Use the name you want to see on this blog when scores are posted.

Beautiful Barn, Beautiful Quilt

I drive by this nice barn quilt regularly, but I am usually in a hurry, and there is usually a gray sky.  This week it had blue sky and a minute to pause for a pic.  It's a joy.

Let's Review Firearm Safety With Hickok45

Reviewing firearm safety is a good idea anytime, but since we are making changes to the firearm storage and readiness in our home it seems like an extra good idea at this time. Safety courses, concealed carry training, and lots of shooting at a range with safety officers were all important factors in safe and legal gun handling during our recent break-in. The steel shooting we do at Carmi gave us the confidence we needed to stand ready while the perpetrator was beating up our windows and doors. We have featured these videos by Hickok45 before on this blog, and Mr. Hickok's instruction is always worth watching again.

Extreme Wedging

I've been cutting trees in a campground just about every week lately.  Most of the trees have died from a combination of horned oak gall and the drought we had in 2012, and many of the trees are really big.  They require boring and cutting from both sides, plus boring out the center through the open face.  Many of them are on the edge of the woods, and we have been wedging them over into the woods when possible.  This snag was wanting to go into a roadway, and we pushed it the opposite direction.

Wedging bad back-leaners requires a systematic appoach.  This one was started with 1" wedges, then 1 1/2" wedges, then stacked wedges; first a 1" and 1 1/2" combination, then two 1 1/2" wedges stacked.  Next I placed an oak shim on the stump and wedged up with a 1", and finished with a 1" and 1 1/2" stack on the shim. You have to keep the roadway blocked off while you do trees like this, because you are always assuming that the hinge may fail and the tree will go the way gravity wants to take it.  We won all of them today.  I also turned down four trees that need to be taken down by bucket truck or track-hoe.

Ruger's Auction To Benefit The U.S.A. Shooting Team

Ruger is offering another of the U.S. marked Mk II pistols built under a contract with the U.S. Army during the 1980's.  This one was built on July 13, 1984.  It is a new gun and has not been fired more than the normal testing after it was assembled more than thirty years ago.  This pistol will sell mid-day, Wednesday, March 2, 2016.  100 % of the proceeds of this sale will go to benefit the USA Shooting Team. CLICK HERE or on the photo to place your bid.

Three Thousand, Nine Hundred Seventy Five Dollars.