Hammer Handles Are Best Bought In Person...

 Order your hammer handles online and you do not get to pick and choose. Go to your local hardware stores, inspect and compare the handles. Buy only the best.

Back To The Old Grind!

Weekend Steam II: Little Case Engine At William's Grove

 Thank You, Merle. That is great stack talk!

Everybody Wants A Hawken

Jeremiah Johnson greatly increased the interest in hunting with muzzleloaders back in the 1970s. Manufacturers and importers are still benefitting from that movie. Hawken rifles evidently did not have a large role in the fur trade, but that does not make them any less desirable for enthusiasts today. A fifty caliber roundball rifle will do a number on a deer with a reasonable charge of powder, and will typically punch all the way through the heart/lungs to the hide on the other side. Modern muzzleloaders have a faster twist than the originals and can use Minie balls, saboted pistol bullets, or other "long" bullets cast of soft lead. Those projectiles will easily go completely through a deer. There is some interesting and informative history in the following videos. I need to warm up my bullet molds!

A Little Bit Of Heaven

Here we have Atlas, Poppy, Vinnie, Sophie, Mina, and Buster. Ranger is not in the photo. That is a lot of Schipperkes! Jack passed recently and is no longer with us, though we still feel like he is here. Poppy goes up to the northern Illinois border to her new home next week. Atlas and Sophie have not found their new homes yet, so we need to repost them on Midwest's F-book page.

Here's Atlas getting a pedicure. The dogs accept a grinder much easier than clippers.
 

Bur Oak ID...Still Learning

Bur oak is a tree that has not been common for me. I learned it more than 50 years ago, and it is easy to identify by the bark, stout twigs, distinctive leaves, and distinctive acorns. It is not as common as the other oaks in my life, so this dead one made me look a bit to verify what it is. I checked a live bur oak with a pocket knife, and the bark under the surface is a reddish brown with thin ivory layers. The dead one is exactly the same. It is in the utility vehicle now and will be split in the morning. The growth rings are wide, so I hope that it has dried most of the way while standing dead. Wide growth rings on oak are dense and dry slowly, so a moisture check is in order. Stay tuned!

Weekend Steam: Case 40 HP With Steerable Tender,

 and pulling a Townsend gasoline tractor!  Thank You, Merle, for the pick!

Chestnuts!

 We are picking up enough for snacks and to start a few seedlings next year. The deer are getting most of them. Deer noses must be tough!

If Soda Commercials Were Honest....

 Carbs are poison...

Another Sassafras Bites The Dust

 Here is the fourth nice sassafras tree that has gone toes up on us. Curse these imported diseases!

Watch for my mistake! Nothing bad happened, but it is a lesson to remember. A saw chain can really grab!

Tuesday Torque: Model A Ford High Wheeler

 Merle spotted this beauty. This Model A would be just the thing to deliver mail down rutted mud roads. Grinding along in first gear would be tiresome, but you hardly have to touch the steering wheel when the ruts guide you! Model As and Ts were great mudders, with lots of room around the wheels. Later models built up mud in the wheel wells. Cars with bigger engines were prone to breaking axles while fighting mud. I've visited with old oilfield hands who remembered the 30s and 40s, and winch truck drivers typically carried a  couple of extra axles on the headache rack of their trucks. Ford V-8 winch trucks could really throw the mud when digging in to winch heavy pulls, but they could also bust an axle when doing that type of work. Truck drivers were good at self rescue back then. Don't leave any bits of axle in the housing when replacing an axle. They will get in the differential and then you will be done.