So if you didn't do anything airgun related what did you do today?

[anti-squirrel]

Good on you for improving your lifestyle, Bill!  We often contemplate a cocktail or brew, but it often never quite materializes.  There's nothing wrong with that!


Since it is still early-ish today, I'll cover yesterday...

Drove to our property a couple hours west.  We just fired our concrete contractor....   Luckily our electrical contractor is a GC, not just an electrician, and it turns out he owns a cattle farm less than a mile from the property as the crow flies.

We spent several hours deep in the brush clearing ancient brambles of greenbriar and blackberry- the former to eradicate, the latter to prune, and we're talking arm thick blackberry "branches" so the blackberry is definitely worth keeping.

I took down one of the scariest "hanger" widow-makers trees I've ever attempted- an 18" diameter honey locust with calf-thick poison ivy vines twisted up in another dead honey locust and 2 dead cedars.  I should say I took down all 4, but I still have 2 hangers that will require another trip and some strap/chain work.  I honestly never thought I'd be using my experiences part-timing with a tree farmer back in the mid-90s (while at shore duty) now, nearly 30 years later.  We're doing things slow and safe but some items require brute force.

My wife spent most of the time operating the Billy Goat brush mower with occasional jaunts using the Ego Polesaw.  We've been turning an overgrown section of brush mixed with seemingly half-dead trees into a lovely park-like "woods" and those trees are doing far better without all the vines and brambles outcompeting them.  We also checked out the James River (property has over 200 yards of frontage on the river and we noted the lower James in Richmond was at flood stage.  The water was beautiful but moving FAST, about 3 feet higher than normal.   

Side Note: the property has a lot of bow-making wood.  Osage Orange aplenty, we also have a lot of honey/yellow locust.  Honey locust is one of the craziest types of wood to manage.  More twisted than red gum, tougher than cedar heartwood, and branches covered with inch-long-or-greater thorns... and a proclivity for attracting poison ivy.  I'm fairly competent with edged tools, and a pencil-thick twig off a branch can stop a less-than-perfect swing of a parang machete- a parang kept shaving sharp.   I ended up using a shorter kukri-style machete for delimbing the small branches while using the 18" Ego chainsaw with a semi-chisel grind for bigger limbs. 

We should see concrete poured in the next 2 weeks finally, and after it cures, things should start moving along nicely with the Quonset Hut.

[Madd Hatter]

Just got back from helping our new neighbor move a sliding glass window assembly that he's going to install in place of his back door. Dang that thing is heavy.

Neighbor, he lives a half a mile from me on the other side of the valley.

[Sqrl Klr]

Had a couple old round door knobs giving me trouble so I bought two handle knobs and installed them after one of the old ones gave me all hades when trying to remove it but I got it done and they look and perform much better. Should've done that a long time ago. Got the trap mended and set to catch the shrub wizzing wild critter that wreaks me out watering my bushes as I've had enough of that. A scat ton of woods around yet the shmuck has to walk out of them to water bushes by my home before it walks back to the woods. Just hoping I don't catch a bobcat as I don't want to kill one and don't want it mauling me either after letting it out.

[Blowpipe Sam]

Driving boats today.  4th tour of the day the electronic ignition module on the big Honda outboard died. Stranding me and 30 passengers half a mile from the dock.  The idiots hadn't replaced the anchor on this boat since the last time I got stranded by this same motor.  I called for help on the radio and steered the old scow into the bank.  Then I did a little stand up for the passengers until the rescue boat arrived.  The passengers considered the extra thirty minutes on the water to be a bonus so it all worked out.  

[Insanity]

I think its high time you have the Gilligan's Island theme song loaded and at the ready Capt.

[Back_Roads]

 Some reason that was the first thing in my mind also

[A.K.A. Tommy Boy]

I had a few days of mild spring like weather but now it is back to serious winter.
So today...I made preparations again for the Next coming winter storm/blizzard. We have already gotten 53 inches of snow.
The forecast is for sure, 12 inches of snow and a 48 % probability of up to 18 or 20 inches of snow.
It snowed today and will snow tomorrow and tomorrow night but the Big Snow will hit Wednesday and continue all night and on all day Thursday.
We could be seeing strong wind gusts in the 40 mph range all Wednesday night and all of Thursday.
The winds will very gradually decrease Thursday night.
All three on my snow removing machines are ready to go.
I expect plenty of drifting snow and a good chance of roads being closed.
The temp today was around 32 F. There will be gradually falling temps. The high Thursday will be 15 F and the low Thursday night will be -10 F.
Thursday night the snow stops but the wind will continue for quite a while. Friday's high is forecasted to be 9F.
With the strong winds the windchills will be crazy low.
Then... Shazam...Saturday & Sunday everything gradually warms up into the mid thirties buy Monday. 

Best Wishes - Tom

[Madd Hatter]

We're suppose to starting our 5 days of snow and rain tonight with high winds with gusts to 55 mph.

[Blowpipe Sam]

I think its high time you have the Gilligan's Island theme song loaded and at the ready Capt.

LOL!  Several of the passengers made that joke.

Next time I'll have a sing along!

[Rabbit\Squirrel Killer]

I mowed about 1/3 of the 5 acres, the highest stuff. I had done that last time too so, it was mostly just what didn't get mowed last time. It is currently 65 and the wind is 6 mph and picking up.  We have 12-25 mph winds forecast for the rest of the day.

 I don't like the wind, OH well!

  I didn't finish my coffee yet, so I am working on that now,      .... and thinking about lunch!

[Sqrl Klr]

Got rid of a couple round door knobs on the pool house and installed handle knobs which makes it way easier to grab the knobs and open the doors from the outside as it's always been cramped trying to grab the round knobs due to the screen door latches sticking out by them. Also installed a new dead bolt lock and rekeyed them all so that I'd no longer have to use two keys to open the doors.

Oh I almost caught the bobcat in the trap last night but I saw him coming thanks to the trail cam and scared him off. It took me twice to do it as he was bold the first time coming right back to the trap after I fired the shotgun to scare him away and my bright spot light didn't scare him away the first time either.

[2A Georgia]

Jarred up the 'happy pie' this morning. I got 10 and 1/2 beautiful qt. out of the mix. I have enough 104 proof left to make another 5.. 1/2 jar batch. 6 qts. are spoken for, the rest will be well pie for the bar. Might even have a pint of 104 proof left for sippn'. 
It's a nice sweet corn run. That's rare around here, most is wheat or rye. I've also found that the sooner you can get it in glass, the better it 'keeps'. Plastic tends to take something away from it after time. Store it in a cool dark place.

So we both like AG and small batch, single cask, cask strength...lol

[Madd Hatter]

Just got home from taking my wife to the Toyota dealership. She just bought a 2014 Toyota FJ cruiser. I wonder how long she'll be happy with it?

[oldnamvet]

Delivered and stacked 4 truck loads and one trailer load of firewood for a cancer patient. He lives in a falling down trailer and heats with wood. With the storm coming here we wanted to be sure he would have enough wood. He had only 6 sticks of wood left when we arrived and was concerned about having no heat during the bad weather coming. Arthritis in my hands is showing itself now.

[Madd Hatter]

I'm watching the snow blow almost horizontal right now.

[bReTt]

Delivered and stacked 4 truck loads and one trailer load of firewood for a cancer patient. He lives in a falling down trailer and heats with wood. With the storm coming here we wanted to be sure he would have enough wood. He had only 6 sticks of wood left when we arrived and was concerned about having no heat during the bad weather coming. Arthritis in my hands is showing itself now.

Nice work Tom! 💥

[oldnamvet]

Good thing we did. We are getting clobbered with snow and wind. Almost as bad as Minnesota --- almost. Tomorrow the snowblower will get a workout.

[Spacebus]

A friend of mine gave me a frozen roadkill fox at work yesterday. I let it thaw and skinned it after work today. Turns out, it was shot in the hindquarters and the bullet went through the guts and into the boiler room. I didn't gut the carcass, but I think it was hit with some kind of explosive round because there was no exit hole. Most of the bones were broken so I think it stumbled out into the road before getting hit and picked up. Whatever the case, it's a beautiful hide and I'm going to tan it and make a stole.

[Blowpipe Sam]

A friend of mine gave me a frozen roadkill fox at work yesterday. I let it thaw and skinned it after work today. Turns out, it was shot in the hindquarters and the bullet went through the guts and into the boiler room. I didn't gut the carcass, but I think it was hit with some kind of explosive round because there was no exit hole. Most of the bones were broken so I think it stumbled out into the road before getting hit and picked up. Whatever the case, it's a beautiful hide and I'm going to tan it and make a stole.

I've got a couple of River otter skins rolled up in the freezer that I picked up off the side of the road.  
Got a white squirrel in there too.  Used to have a couple of rattle snakes til I tanned them for a hatband and a belt.  The hatband came out fine.  The belt not so fine.  Sometimes critters in the freezer can cause friction with the memsahib.

Do you ever have that problem?

[Spacebus]

A friend of mine gave me a frozen roadkill fox at work yesterday. I let it thaw and skinned it after work today. Turns out, it was shot in the hindquarters and the bullet went through the guts and into the boiler room. I didn't gut the carcass, but I think it was hit with some kind of explosive round because there was no exit hole. Most of the bones were broken so I think it stumbled out into the road before getting hit and picked up. Whatever the case, it's a beautiful hide and I'm going to tan it and make a stole.

I've got a couple of River otter skins rolled up in the freezer that I picked up off the side of the road.  
Got a white squirrel in there too.  Used to have a couple of rattle snakes til I tanned them for a hatband and a belt.  The hatband came out fine.  The belt not so fine.  Sometimes critters in the freezer can cause friction with the memsahib.

Do you ever have that problem?

She has more issues with me prepping animals in the kitchen  she's excited about the fox hide tho. I'll salt it this weekend and maybe start tanning next weekend.