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

[bReTt]

My gas blower stopped working last week.  I took it apart and it was the fan impeller.  It melted round the drive nut so it wasn’t engaging with the engine shaft.  I ordered a new impeller and air filter.  Those showed up in the mail today so I put it together and ran it.  Works like a charm.

3 of us had dentist appointments this afternoon.  We all had our teeth cleaned and we all got clean reports… no cavities

[Blowpipe Sam]

Boats all day.  The water is black with tannin from all the hurricane run off and for some reason the swamp taters manatee were out "en abundance"  I drove the Government buzzard hostel Great Blue Heron.  She's got prop guards on the electric motors and no prop guard on the gasoline outboard.  The shafts are out of alignment so she wanders like a drunk pig upstream or down.  Kinda like pushing an overloaded shopping cart on an icy sidewalk.  Gotta box easy around the manatee so I ran on the electrics a lot.  I did six tours today because we are short boat captains.  Physically worn slapout from wrestling an over loaded, underpowered scow up and down the crik all day.  Beaucoup wildlife! Cocodrillo, le tricolor heron et le heron azure!

The first of the autumn birds are starting to arrive, the day was beautiful, and the manatee are coming back into the river for the winter.  It still beats working for a living.

And more of the same today.

You have to respect manatee.  The average manatee in the river weighs around 1,600 Lbs. and they are solid muscle.  I've had a big female (1,800-2,000 Lbs.) lift 4 tons of tour boat and just shove it out of her way.  Startle one and they begin thrashing their tail.  That tail is their weapon and a 1,600 lb. manatee can launch a 300 lb. alligator six feet out of the river with one swat.  Yeah I wouldn't swim with manatee or approach too closely in a kayak.

[airgunaut]

The thought did occur to me that the friendly manatee might play by rolling my kayak over. (Would not have been a disaster.) He didn’t do much except hang around us for a while, occasionally poking his head high enough that someone patted him on the snout. We have a photo of that, too.

I think mostly he was curious. He eventually just swam away, no harm done.

We saw some tourism boats actively pursuing encounters with manatees, which made them disappear from sight (GOOD!). Seen it with whales in the Pacific, too. But just silently paddling along, we had whales come close TO us without acting aggressively. The big warning was to stay away if it looked like they were bubble feeding—and to not approach them in the first place. There are laws prohibiting deliberately approaching marine mammals within a specified distance. Common sense means in certain locations, this law is often broken. For example, some bait stations in Mission Bay are loaded with sea lions who don’t give a whit that people are, by dint of the station’s location, within that distance.

[avator]

I stepped out this morning to run an errand and I heard a thump on the ground. Just over the fence not 20 yards away was an 8 point buck standing there looking at me. I began speaking to it like it was an old friend and it just stood there looking at me for what seemed to be a couple minutes. Then it slowly turned and casually walked off into the woods.
Just a few minutes ago Betty Lou said he was in the front yard eating grass and went out to take pictures.

[Madd Hatter]

D am, I am so freaking weak!!!🤬🤬🤬 I just managed to wrestle the spare tire back up on tire rack on the back of my wife's FJ cruiser. It is a 10 ply 265-75-16 mudder but it took everything I had to get it up there. A decade ago I doubt I would have had any problems. It really s@#$ to get old and weak!!!

[maraudinglizard]

D am, I am so freaking weak!!!🤬🤬🤬 I just managed to wrestle the spare tire back up on tire rack on the back of my wife's FJ cruiser. It is a 10 ply 265-75-16 mudder but it took everything I had to get it up there. A decade ago I doubt I would have had any problems. It really s@#$ to get old and weak!!!

https://spitzlift.com/receiver-hitch-crane/

[Madd Hatter]

That's for rich people 😂🤣😂 but thanks for the info.

I think the crane weighs as much as the tire and wheel.

[Sqrl Klr]

Pretty place there Brett! Pretty color in the jellyfish too.

[buellm2]

I finally finished putting in the last granite block on my driveway/parking area curb.   Now I just have a little bit of backfilling and leveling and cleanup.   Who knows how long that will take.    I need to get going on the leaf raking and other fall work.

[avator]

Propane truck showed up and topped off the tank. $200 and we're good until next fall.

[airgunaut]

I did a little shooting today, in two sessions.

In between those, I met with the guy whom I hired to install t-posts. Great balls of fire, he worked FAST! He pounded in 25 posts in only half an hour! Two of the posts hit bedrock and had to be left standing a bit higher than the others, but they were still in the ground solidly enough. The plan is merely to maintain the original fence line, without rewiring any of it. The existing fence is probably 90 years old. It is in rugged yet easily damaged terrain, so using Bobcats et al is not an option.

Now I have to buy another 20 posts to finish the job. As an unexpected bonus, he said he has equipment that can pick up and move boulders, which we want to add in another location.

I paid him for an hour. To find someone willing to do hard work is not so easy. I am delighted.

[bReTt]

Worked for the man, came home, took down the swimming pool, laid some protective paper down for the floor, ate dinner, eating a strawberry Outshine popsicle and surfing.

[Madd Hatter]

I did a little shooting today, in two sessions.

In between those, I met with the guy whom I hired to install t-posts. Great balls of fire, he worked FAST! He pounded in 25 posts in only half an hour! Two of the posts hit bedrock and had to be left standing a bit higher than the others, but they were still in the ground solidly enough. The plan is merely to maintain the original fence line, without rewiring any of it. The existing fence is probably 90 years old. It is in rugged yet easily damaged terrain, so using Bobcats et al is not an option.

Now I have to buy another 20 posts to finish the job. As an unexpected bonus, he said he has equipment that can pick up and move boulders, which we want to add in another location.

I paid him for an hour. To find someone willing to do hard work is not so easy. I am delighted.

You hit the jackpot with that guy. Is he built like a tank?

[airgunaut]

The guy is not heavily built, almost the opposite. He’s wiry and lean. I knew he was a hard worker because almost every time I had walked by where he lives I could see him loading rocks into a big trailer. His main thing is building rock walls from local rock, but he’s happy to do other jobs if possible.

We have at least two more jobs for him after this one is done, plus we gave his name to a neighbor who will need some rock work.

[bReTt]

Woikin fa a livin’

[avator]

Another one bit the dust..
I bought a laptop a few years ago at the pawn shop. It was an older unit with Windows 8.1 install. I dumped that and installed Linux and used it since then from my recliner to browse the GTA and pay the bills online.
Lately it started freezing up. It was doing it more and more often. Sooo frustrating and I don't have much patience for that kind of stuff.
After the 4th time in a row this morning Betty Lou could see the blood building in my forehead and suggested we go shop for a new one before ended up needing a new TV as well  .... yeah, I was ready to launch it. So off we went.
First we stopped at the pawn shop and didn't see anything I wanted. Then we went to Walmart and looked at what they had. I saw a nice little 14" HP with lots of Intel power, ram and space. Windows 11 for $179. The problem was... it was pink.
I asked the girl if that was the only color it came in. She looked in the lockup and found a blue one. I'LL TAKE IT !!
She rang it up and told us it was ringing up at $199.  Betty Lou cleared her throat and pointed to the sign. 
The girl rang it up at $179 and told the other kid to go change the sign.
I gave Win 11 another look and still don't like it so it will get Win 10 installed before I go through the trouble of setting it all up.

[Sqrl Klr]

Pat most guys with the stamina to work hard quickly are built like that from my experience. Hope he enjoys it while it lasts because it won't but at least he'll have the memories.

Bill what are you going to do to the laptop? Show it your appreciation with a baseball bat or sledge hammer? I'm ready to hammer, burn and repeatedly shoot my phone once I get another one.

[Blowpipe Sam]

It's my day off and I got up this a.m. expecting to make myself breakfast.  Uh oh, no eggs.  Well I grumped at the memsahib and she grumped right back.  Then the Iron Maiden arrived and she took her mother's side.  Feeling out-numbered by the distaff element I made hasty hoofbeats to the truck.  I keep the truck well stocked with iron rations and essentials so I made sure I had plenty of pellets, stopped at the Suwannee Swifty for some gas and RC Cola, and headed for the woods!

I got out to the squirrel woods early and just sat on my little camp stool and watched the forest wake up.  I saw four different squirrels within 20 minutes that would have been easy shots but opening day is still a few weeks away.  About mid morning I drove up through the national forest to Hooterville and hit the Wallymart for some eggs, new bands for some slingshots, and a couple of tins of pellets.

Back at the shack now waiting for cocktail hour.

[Back_Roads]

 I was in the mood for Smashing Pumpkins 

[avator]

Pat most guys with the stamina to work hard quickly are built like that from my experience. Hope he enjoys it while it lasts because it won't but at least he'll have the memories.

Bill what are you going to do to the laptop? Show it your appreciation with a baseball bat or sledge hammer? I'm ready to hammer, burn and repeatedly shoot my phone once I get another one.

I'll open it up and pull the HD and ram then toss it on the dump trailer.