Last Monday of the Year.

Too bad there's a whole bunch more in the next one.....

Gunnie Get Together.

A friend and I are attempting to get an informal gun group together.

We are planning to have monthly meetings so that we can hash out both the politics and the logistics of being a 2nd amendment supporter.

 There will also be a Gun O' the Month/Gun Tech O' the Month as well. The "Rabbi" will be the first GOM.

The first meeting is on Thursday the 9th at Bogies in Jacksonville, 6 pm.

Eventually we would like to have some range time as a group in addition to the monthly meet as well as airsoft training for the kids while the adults deal with the boring stuff.

Wish us luck!

Second Monday of the week.......

Hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas!

Classic Christmas Music

You're Welcome!!

Monday with 2 days off during the week,,,

Basically 2 of em this week.......

 

 

Merry Christmas everybody!

The Ultimate Idiots Bread Recipe.

That's right, I make bread. Its really good too, considering there's no welding involved.

If I can do it so can you and here's the recipe.

Preheat oven to 325
Mix 3 cups self rising flour 3 tablespoons sugar and 12 ounces of room temperature beer.
Dump mix into standard bread pan lightly oiled.
Bake for 1 hour.

A few quick notes: No need to let it rise. The stouter the beer the stouter the bread.
Can be made with ale or meade. Original recipe called for 350 for 45 minutes but that leaves a very heavy crust so I changed it. This a heavy bread and you may think you've successfully made a brick.

Further experimentation is needed and I will post any revelations here.

I should also add that because of this recipe I have began to drink heavily. I have had a grand total of 5 beers this year. 2 in one night, a 3rd would have put me under the table.

Cold Ass Monday Morning.

Sorry for the lack of posting. To much going on and not enough time.

I wouldn't mind adding another day to the week even if it was another Monday.

Great, Monday with snow....

What a way to start the week.

Makes me wish I drank......

72 years ago,

Many thanks to the Greatest Generation for what they accomplished. Without the sacrifices they made the world would be a much different place.

Another Monday,

Add some funk to your blues.

Holidays

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Hanukkah!

 

 

 



Just once can we start the week on Friday?

More Stevie,

If you listen close you can here the amp buzzing in the background.

Caturday Kitteh update.

Both Wash and Zoey are doing fine, they have doubled in size/noise/cuteness/trouble. Wash has made 1 grand escape to the land beyond the door, luckily for us it was rainy and cold so once we figured out that he was out, he was rather eager to rejoin us in the great indoors.

Wash is a full time snuggler and is ready willing and able to conk out in any available lap. He's gotten over the CAT scan stuff while I'm sleeping and I kinda miss it.

Zoey will snuggle when it suits her and she still hasn't figured out how to meow.

Sometime I'll explain the politics in this house and how the kittehs deal with the little doggie who rules with an iron paw. I can tell you that there are very few dull moments in this house.

Monday again.

Send a prayer or well wishes for those that weren't as lucky after yesterdays blustery blowout. We got lucky, the gusts here were only 65 MPH.

Anywho,,

Have a ball this week!

Don't feel a day past 60,,,

sux that I'm not nearly that old.

Live Long and Prosper!

Monday and its Veterans Day too,,,,

 

To all my fellow Vets, Thanks!

Forgoing the Blues today and will instead leave you with this:

Chokes me up when I hear it.

Hobbies

Every couple years I get a special project from a friend of mine that is a rural mail carrier.

Right hand drive conversions on Ford Escapes. The last few she has gotten have been hybrids, which I'm not overly fond of, however for a mail carrier to get 40+ mpg on a mail route is outstanding.

I have over the years came up with a workable system for getting the pedals on the wrong side. If it was a Jeep they make all kinds of kits for this but they make nothing for a Ford.

We ended up buying a brake pedal kit for a Jeep and modifying to work.

Well,,, Ford no longer makes the Escape hybrid and the new Escapes are on a different platform than the old ones so my system had to be modified a bunch to work.

Since these things are fly by wire on the throttle its easier to make a long bellcrank that runs across from one side to the other. On the previous models it could run straight across and had plenty of space in front of the console to put it.

The new ones are much different, first off the console sides run all the way to the firewall and are one piece from the firewall to the rear of the console and there was a lot of parts removal just to get the sides off and once I got them off the big empty space that used to be behind them is now filled with heater box.

Add in the fact that there is only one place for the throttle shaft to run thru, which is half perfect, drivers side is fine but on the passenger side it would push the pedal assembly back 5-6" further back than it needed to be.

Since I am real good friends with Rube Goldberg I added a couple of U-joints and came up with this,,,

 

 

The brakes are Hydraulic with a master cylinder and pedal on the passenger side and a slave that pushes the pedal down on the drivers side, made for a Jeep and modified long ago to work in a Ford. The throttle pedal and mount I added as well. The traction tape was added by the owners.

 

 

 

 

 

This is how it connects with the go pedal. The shaft floats in bronze bushings so its nice and smooth.



 

The slave cylinder used to mount to the floor on some rather flimsy tube mounts and thankfully the new truck has an impact tube running across the bottom of the dash and I was able to mount the slave of it and its much stronger and was a lot easier to get in place.

 



 

 

 

 

I shot a vid of how it works, its a bit dark but at least you get the idea,,,

 

 



 

Of course the entire operation was done with direct supervision as shown at the end of the vid.

 

Since I am making a Mail truck I refer to this as a sex change.........

 

 

 

 

Hope there's only one Monday this week.

 

 

 

 

So much talent on one stage, surprised it didn't collapse.

Gunnies helping Gunnies..

This is how we do it,

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1549944_I_m_Dying.html&page=1

I'm not a member there but I did donate what I could, if you can help I'm sure it would be put to good use.

Direct link to the donation:  http://www.gofundme.com/4zxjjk

If your a spiritual person send a prayer or 2 his way, if not, well wishes won't hurt.

Monday Already?

Good way to start the week.

Nothing More Helpful,,

Than a pair of kittehs when your tying your shoes.

Also Wash has taken to running Cat Scans on me a couple times a night while I'm sleeping.

First he checks reflexes by rolling/rubbing on any exposed hands, then he checks my hearing by standing on my head and purring in whichever ears happens to be available. This is followed by making sure I'm still breathing by sniffing my face and then shoving his fur/whiskers up my nose.

Haven't found a proper defensive strategy yet but am considering sleeping in a football helmet.

Monday Already?

Enjoy!

It went BANG!!!!!!

Today was the day some of us snuck off to Pops Ultra Sekrit Range and turned money into smoke and noise.


There were a few guns there,

 I shot the .22 for the first time in nearly 30 years and was very happy with it!

took a bit to get it right but I think it will be fine,

 

This was at roughly 75 yards or so,,

 

 

 

Mr. Pink shooting the Tavor above and his 45 below,

 

("Why I gotta be Mr. Pink??")

 



 

 



 

Mr. Yellow shooting his Commie Rat Bastard SKS,

and Pop's/Granpop's 357 magnum security 6, now claimed by Pop's much younger Girlfriend.

 

 

 

Mr. Pink shooting the Hebrew Hammer again, kinda natural as he's Jewish. He eats bacon though so he's not all that bad...........

 

 



Mr. Yellow shot the Tavor 3 times, gets up and says that's enough of that shit. Asked him why, he says I'm falling in love and my wife would shit if I bought that. No pix though he didn't stay down long enough for it.

He did bring his scoped .22 for a little practice though,

 

Some jerk shot my tumbling pistol target with his AR,,,



 

 

Blew a couple holes in it. I say he's a jerk cause he beat me to it. Call it karmic revenge for me blowing a hole in Pop's spinner. The big dings are from a 44 mag, there are a couple hits from the 357 and couple more from a 45. Its been hit over 1000 times with 9mm and seems to hold up pretty good. All in all that things been shot almost 1500 times.

 

We finished the day with my 20 gauge single shot, named Sucker Punch.

 



 

 

 

Harrington & Richardson Topper model. If you got any kids/grandkids you don't like much, this is the gun to get them. Looks innocent enough but it kicks like a mule and will leave a bruise after a few rounds.

 

We got the yard picked up and after the others left I put a bunch more rounds thru my Lil Friend and got reacquainted with her. Very happy with the end product and as I was packing to leave Pops says "I'm over run with squirrels" so soon I'll be taking a few tree rats out of his way and trying a couple new recipes. If they are worthy I'll post them up here with a full review.

 

Now all I gotta do is clean several guns and reload some mags. Oh well its always worth it after a day like today. Friends Family and Firearms will always make you smile.

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

Say Hello to my Lil Friend!!!!

I've been finishing up a project I started long ago, back the phones were bolted to the wall and had cords. A time when cassettes ruled and VHS and Betamax were battling it out.

Before I had a drivers license to go shooting we would duct tape our boomstix to the frames of our bicycles and ride of into the woods or down to the creek. I grew up in Hickville and it wasn't anything unusual to see a group of kids with guns going off to make noise.

On the way back from such a trip we decided to race back home, I had a 21 speed bike and had put plenty of miles on it so I was showing the rest of the group the rear reflector and hauling ass when a good sized dog misjudged my approach speed and his angle of attack. (This dog apparently was not taught physics, geometry or any of Newton's laws. If he was it didn't stick.)

I hit him full on in the side and went flying over the handlebars and the Ruger 10/22 that had been securely taped to the frame of the bike came loose on the second bounce and took a beating.

I took many more bounces and also took a beating.

The dog however seemed to be just fine, in fact he walked over gave me a kiss on the face and sauntered back home like he had just saved the world. It was a good thing for him my rifle was well beyond crawling range.......

The barrel and receiver were covered with the newest duct tape invention, Camouflage!,, Hey it was cheap, looked cool and could be removed fairly easily if I wanted.

Those parts were more or less protected and didn't get much damage, a couple light scratches and that was it. The stock and sights however took a pounding, front sight got bent and the bead pooped off, rear sight broke in half and the adjustment blade ceased to exist.

The stock got a bunch of scratches and a couple fairly deep dents.

So I took it apart to fix it, roughly in 1984. I have finally finished it.

Here's what I got done way back in the dark ages:

Sanded off most of the factory finish on the stock,

Ground/sanded the biggest dings and scratches. I also rounded off the square edges along the top of the stock along the barrel and where it meets the receiver.

 

 

There was a fairly deep scratch along the rear of the grip along with some gravel dings, when I started grinding them out I realized that I could make it look like had a purpose, that indentation makes a space for my palm and feels pretty smurfy.

 



 



Same thing here big ding and several scratches along the bottom on the grip, so grinding those out carefully gave a smaller grip radius for the pinkie.

The black marks were put on recently as a guide for what I might change or add to, some I did some I didn't.

So fast forward nearly 30 years and this is what I ended up with:

This is after the first staining btw.

Made a smaller barrel strip and shit canned the barrel band,

 

 

Bedded the barrel to hopefully improve the accuracy,

 

 

Got rid of the barrel band notch and slicked up the fore end of the stock. I also got rid of the knuckle on the top of the stock and that cleaned up the looks a bunch.



 

 

 

 

 

Added a dimple for the thumb on the fore end, disguising yet another big ding.

 

 

 

And the finished product after a couple more coats of stain and many coats of polyurethane.





 

 

 

 

 

The sights have been replaced with a set of stock takeoffs. The stain colors were Minwax "gunstock" and some "rosewood" mixed in and the poly is semigloss from a spraybomb. Its a bit blotchy but that's ok, I'm not a woodworker and high school shop was long ago.

I will be adding a trigger kit, lever style mag release, auto bolt release and a scope soon.

Just so ya know, this was the first gun I ever shot.

I don't know when Pops got it but it seems like this gun was always there. I have put more rounds thru this thing than I could ever count and while I feel a bit ashamed that it sat neglected for so long I am so happy to have it back and ready to go.

Sunday we'll get it sighted in and ready for tree rat hunting!

Welder challenge

Here's the last of the "I know a guy that can weld the edge of a razor blade" challenges.

Bead down the edge of a utility knife blade, 2 Xacto blades welded edge to edge and a bead down a Xacto blade. Once I finished the weld down the last one I had to take a file to it as it was still sharp.

Don't ask about welding aluminum cans, I've been doing that for years.

Someday I'll get good at this stuff.

Muckin Funday,,,,

 

 

Fella can sure pluck a string.

Jus Sayin

Any day you find yourself on the floor with a new knot on your head and seeping a bit of blood from the same spot is not a good day.

For those of you mechanically inclined,, even though you have the hood prop rod securely in place and your going to be hammering around the hood opening, a backup rod might not be a bad idea.

Izzzz Monday,,,,

Enjoy!

Crazy cat Lady, part 2

We has a Wash so we needs a Zoey....

 

 

She's a tortie, and she's Wash's sister. In our defense she was headed for the pound and we are stupid.

 

Overly friendly not quite as brave as Wash, but is very snuggly and very pretty. Her squeaker is broken though, try as she might it don't come out right.

 

 



Another raffle!

Same story though, Miss Squeak still has to get herself fixed. You can help and win some cool stuff while doing so. Erin has thrown up another raffle with more goodies for you to win!

http://lurkingrhythmically.blogspot.com/2013/10/squeak-or-treat.html

I'll be donating a few things to help it along and all 3 of my readers are welcome to jump in!

Yep

 

2 utility knife blades welded edge to edge. Weld is .030 wide. Not nearly as hard as welding up aluminum soda cans. Challenge was issued, I was up for it.

Lets make a MGA from scratch, or not......

Current project is a 58 MGA that looks like it was left on a shotgun range since it was new.

It was also rear ended at some point and shoved into whatever was in front of it.

Every panel on this thing needs a patch and straightened.

The customer has supplied some new patches which don't fit and a few cutoffs from another car that are only half as rusty and fucked up as the ones already on the car.

Left inner fender,

 

 

Right inner fender,

 

 





Both of which needed this patch and another along the bottom edge,

Here's some the crash damage and the replacement panel that don't fit,,

I had to cut and shrink up a new lip for the front as the one on there is off by enough that it would never fit.

The black line is the cut line for the lip, 1" back from where the lip is supposed to be. The cat is just there to make sure the panel doesn't float away. The other feline is a backup in case the other one fails.

 

And the finished patch, a bit more tuning and it'll be fine,,

 

 





 

 

Lots more to go as this thing is rusty from one end to other. Woohooo!

 

Oh yeah, those pretty primered fenders were just as screwed up as the rest of it but I already waved the magic hammer over them and issued the proper profanity stream to make them whole again.

 

 

For you spades players,,, how would you bid this hand????

 

 

 



Mondee Again

Da ol man got everything you need....

For those of you wondering, these songs in these versions are on my auditory masturbation device.

No random searches for songs to post, what you hear here I hear everyday.

Big Scary Monster

So far he's doing great.

He comes running when he hears your voice, get underfoot properly and loves to snuggle.

His purr box almost needs a muffler but no reason to complain about that. He also figured out the potty.

He sorta tolerates Miss Barksalot, AlphaBrat Terrier. She cleaned his ears for us and left him no choice.

 

Hey, that bright blindy thing is not cool

 

Yer acting like you need bit.

 

Told ya you needed teeth marks on your knuckles...

 

 

 

Gotta feeling this may turn into the crazy cat lady forum for a bit, you'll just have to suffer thru.

 





Ladies and Gentleman, Introducing,,,,,,

7 week old male free garbage kitty. We've named him Hoban "Wash" Washburne .

He seems happy so far and we'll see how he gets on with the Phantom Kitty that you will never see if you come over and has restricted my petting time to less that 45 seconds a day.

We also custom ordered a red boy Maine Coon from our friends next breeding. It just wouldn't be right in here without a Coon.

I'm fine with being the crazy cat lady down the street.......

"I was kinda liking you folks till that whole trying to drown me thing."

 

"Curse you and your inevitable betrayal"