Sad Milestone

Courtesy of Arlo, and Jimmy Johnson.

Deer Season Is Coming Up...

....You might need one of these.

 Back To The Old Grind!

Poet's Corner: A Pot of Tea, by Robert Service

A Pot of Tea

 You make it in your mess-tin by the brazier's rosy gleam;
    You watch it cloud, then settle amber clear;
You lift it with your bay'nit, and you sniff the fragrant steam;
    The very breath of it is ripe with cheer.
You're awful cold and dirty, and a-cursin' of your lot;
    You scoff the blushin' 'alf of it, so rich and rippin' 'ot;
It bucks you up like anythink, just seems to touch the spot:
    God bless the man that first discovered Tea!

Since I came out to fight in France, which ain't the other day,
    I think I've drunk enough to float a barge;
All kinds of fancy foreign dope, from caffy and doo lay,
    To rum they serves you out before a charge.
In back rooms of estaminays I've gurgled pints of cham;
    I've swilled down mugs of cider till I've felt a bloomin' dam;

But 'struth! they all ain't in it with the vintage of Assam:
    God bless the man that first invented Tea!

I think them lazy lumps o' gods wot kips on asphodel
    Swigs nectar that's a flavour of Oolong;
I only wish them sons o' guns a-grillin' down in 'ell
    Could 'ave their daily ration of Suchong.
Hurrah! I'm off to battle, which is 'ell and 'eaven too;
    And if I don't give some poor bloke a sexton's job to do,
To-night, by Fritz's campfire, won't I 'ave a gorgeous brew
    (For fightin' mustn't interfere with Tea).
To-night we'll all be tellin' of the Boches that we slew,
    As we drink the giddy victory in Tea.

Not My Victrola

Published on Nov 6, 2012 by cdbpdx

"FOR DE LAWD'S SAKE PLAY A WALTZ by Elsie Janis, recorded October 22, 1912. Elsie Janis was a singer, actress, and songwriter. In 1918, she went to France and performed for the American Expeditionary Forces in WWI and was quite popular for that. Enjoy!"

Weekend Steam: One Of The First

Uploaded by Greg Druffel on Oct 7, 2008

"Had it's origins in a simple case of neighbor helping neighbor, grew to a significant community event over next 15 years. As much social as about the technology of days gone by. At this time steam threshing was still very fresh in the minds of the people shown."

November Mr. Completely e-Postal Contest: Shoot Like Mr. Hickok

The November e-Postal contest gives us the opportunity to have a little fun like Hickok45.  If you have watched a few of his videos you know that he loves to shoot two liter soda bottles, and they always provide a good show by sending out long plumes of colored fizz.  Mr. Hickok also has a big gong ( I think is about 20" diameter.) sitting out at 80 yards, and he is pretty good at hitting it offhand with any gun he is showing to his viewers.

The rules for this contest are pretty simple.  All shooting is to be done offhand, one or two hands, at twenty feet or as close as you can get to that.  Rifles should be shot as close to fifty feet as you can get; offhand; a sling is recommended.  You are welcome to darken the lines or add color to the bottles so they are easier to see.  It is OK for you to scale the target to adjust for range distances.  If you don't have access to a copy machine that can shrink and enlarge, you can change the target from a pdf to a jpg in a photo editing program, and then scale the target to adjust for your distance.

Shoot the largest bottle one time;  the second bottle twice; the third bottle three times; the fourth bottle four times, and the fifth bottle five times.  Then, ring the gong five times.  Keep track of the number of shots and enter that on the target.  The lowest score in each category wins.  A perfect score requires twenty shots.

Click Here To Go To The PDF of the target; or click the picture of the target in this post.

Photograph or scan your targets and send them to truebluetravelinman(at)gmail(dot)com, by December 1.
Enter the name on the target that you want posted in the scores.

Mr. Completely has asked me to take over the organizing of the e-Postal contests next year, so I will soon be posting his recommendations on how to host an e-Postal contest, and soliciting for hosts.  The current hosts will have dibs, of course, but I think we will have a few slots to fill.  

Update: An Added Bonus!  Billll, of Bill's Idle Mind has filled the bottles with cola, and shared the jpg file.  Click on this pic, save to a folder, and you should be able to print it out to the correct size. 

Project Valour-IT Auction Ends Today

The hammer will fall at 12:30 PM Eastern time today, November 7,2012, on this Convertible Ruger Super Blackhawk.  This fine revolver has cylinders for both .44 Magnum and 44-40.  Only 1200 of these were manufactured in 1990 and 1991, so there will be collector interest on this one, but it is also a great gun to buy for daily use.  Click Here to check it out on GunBroker.

Ruger is donating 100% of the proceeds from this auction to Project Valour-IT, which provides voice activated laptops to wounded soldiers.

I See Dead Cars

 I run into old cars and trucks on a regular basis; it's one of the benefits of being asked to look at timber.  This old touring car body has just about returned to dust, and I am guessing that it has been sitting here for well over fifty years. 

 I don't know the brand of this one, so I took photos from a few different angles to help the experts, and see if anyone knows what this old car is.

 There is a ventilator up front, and in the lower photo you can see the cutout for the instrument cluster.  Is two gauges a cluster?  If you have a good guess, please leave a comment.

Jenga, Anyone?

Ralfy's In Love

Ralfy got a deal on an old bottle at an auction, and he shares the experience of opening it and finding first impressions.