Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Every Day A New Adventure

A big day yesterday, my Doctor appointment. So I drove in to town, a suburb of Dallas, to see my GP Doc. Oh, when did a GP Doc change into a family practice Doc? Oh well, anyway I got there for my appointment only to find that my Doc had moved on and I had a new Doc. An odd thing was that this new Doc looked down my throat instead of feeling it from the other end. Nice change. Anyhow my official blood pressure is 110 over 80. Fresh prescriptions for the same old pills, drew blood for the usual tests, and I'm out of there.



Then came another adventure, I have a Pard that works in the family scrapyard, excuse me, metal recycling center, and I drove down there for fifty-some pounds of scrap plumber's lead. It cost me a hundred rounds of handloaded ammo. I could had have a hundred pounds, I'll pick up the other fifty pounds another day. Now I can cast bullets. It's nice having gasoline.



This morning's big adventure was digging out the fire ant nest that was built in the hole where the water meter lives. We have a leak in the plumbing of the new water heater, I get to fix that. The fun part is that to get the door off (the water heater is set in a door outside the house) I need the stepladder. So now I have to leave the water off for a few days so the ground dries off.



Oh well, I've done this before, I turn the water on twice a day, flush the toilets and refill the jugs, etc. The good news is that it's real windy today and the next couple days. This should dry the ground out sooner. I like that, Cochise' Apache Princess turns in to a mud monster every time there is a cloud in Oklahoma. Then we have to towel her off when she comes in the house. That is a battle worth the skills of Bobby Lee or Georgie Patton. And seeing as how I'm a country boy that hates shoes I always end up with the gigantic mud monster standing on my feet. With claws she inherited from her grizzly bear ancestors.



In other news I'm really enjoying watching the Clintons, who always claimed that Republicans are the biggest threat to civil rights ever, acting just like the Democrats of my youth. I keep hoping that black Americans will look at what Democrats have actually done for them, instead of what they say. Back in the sixties the Donks fought to keep blacks in the back of the bus. Due to solid work by the Donks the blacks can ride in any seat on the bus they want, they just get shot at the bus stop. The blacks should thank the Donks.Remember James Byrd? Now the Donks claim that a hate crimes law would have done something. The Republicans just gave two of those peckerwoods the death penalty. The one that rolled over got life without parole. Now the Donks are trying to abolish the death penalty. But it's all our fault, so say the Donks.

Someday black Americans will notice that the Democrats are still the Party of segregation. They just let a few house slaves sit at the feet of the white masters. The Dems let blacks have token cabinet posts, how come it was Republicans who put blacks in jobs like Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Sec. State? Democrats talk, Republicans do.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Eddie Says It's Down To Mitt


Well, Edward T. Dog is rather unhappy that Fred is out.

He has surveyed the rest of the candidates and finds something missing in each.

What he finally decided was to gaze to the days of J. Edgar Hoover. Now in his day, he would put a lot of Irish Catholics and Mormons into the FBI. Both of those groups hated Commies so much that they were safer bets in the fight against the Soviets.

Cochise's Apache Princess isn't all that into politics but she is hoping that McCain shows up. Her teeth are right at crotch level.
In other news, Linda Lou's first Social Security chex showed up. Oh, the "X" is because there is a letter button on this computer *eyboard that just quit wor*ing. We are just about as bro*e as ever but we paid the property taxes and a mess of overdue bills. We still have some bills left but we're getting there. By March we should be all caught up.

Update: I switched keyboards to an old one we had around. Then I pulled the K key out and discovered the problem. I was clipping CAP's claws amd a clw tip hit the keyboard and slipped under the K key. I can now write anything I want about Robert Byrd (Dem KKK). Too bad I don't want to. Oh well, CAP's teeth are right at crotch level if HE shows up here, too.

Another Update: I ought to explain Eddie's thinking about Mitt. I'm not at all sure about that religion. It's seems rather outlandish to me, perhaps to others. After all, it may seem odd to walk through Nebraska with all your earthly possessions in a wheelbarrow but they sure did it.

But then most religions seem weird to outsiders, Mitt doesn't seem to bother anyone else with his religion and all during his time as Governor I never heard of him going after coffee drinkers or somebody enjoying a beer. Now the Democrats...

The main thing is that Mormons, being a minority religion, are used to enjoying their rights and seem to respect the rights of others. I have stopped in a couple small towns in Utah while traveling and even in a cafe run by Mormons I never had trouble getting a cup of coffee or Linda Lou her diet soda.

So, Eddie and I agree that, of all tie crowd running, Romney would do the least damage. Durn shame that we are forced into voting for least damaging but there you are.


Sunday, January 20, 2008

Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton, A Review

The title of the book is "That Boy Packs The Truest And Fastest Guns In The Territory". It is written by a friend and partner of Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton, Eva Gillhouse. Perhaps you've heard of him, his picture is the mascot of the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

Born in Hartford Connecticut in 1860 his family went west after the War of Northern Aggression, to Osage County, Kansas. It's hard to imagine, today, but back then there were millions of acres of prime farm and ranch land given free to veterans and, sometimes, plain farmers, or would-be farmers. Being from Kansas stock myself, I understand, many don't.

Frank's father was part of the local Vigilance Committee in a time when such were needed. Aside from the ill feelings left over from the Civil War, the Santa Fe trail was right there so there were the folks robbing the wagons and then the ne'er do wells that are always on the "highways".

Frank was eight years old when outlaws murdered his father.

This book is the desktop publishing type, the pages are the size of regular typing paper, although the paper seems fairly high quality, it's not that thin stuff that won't last. The book is written in that same flat, declarative style as the old Elmer Keith gun books, the modern thing of slopping emotions all over the page hadn't come in yet.

This book recounts the adventures of a young boy learning to hunt and shoot, his hunt for the men who killed his father and the death of those men.

It describes his lifelong friendship with Rolla Goodnight, the son of Col Charles Goodnight of Goodnight-Loving Trail fame and his adventures as a Deputy US Marshall, cattle detective and ranch hand.

Reading it I could feel the sweat and taste that red Oklahoma dust. "Pistol Pete" died in 1952.

If interested one should send a check for $25.02 to Jim Huebner,

4224 Center Gate Lane

Sarasota, Florida, 34223



Jim has a simple deal, write and date the check thirty days ahead. He promises to tear up the check if the reader returns the book within 30 days.



Now, here is what took me so long to write this review. The simple fact is that Pistol Pete was probably not a gunman at all. There are no mentions of the man in any contemporary literature. No newspaper articles, no mentions in diaries and letters, nothing. Now an old west gunman was a famous fellow. I could see it if only half or so of his gunfights had ever made the news, but none? I can even see, sort of, a conspiracy among the newsies of the day to keep quiet the deeds of a Deputy Marshall who was too young to legally take the job. But those deeds would have been mentioned in letters and diaries, the blogs of the day back then. Too many of these gunfights had Frank out drawing the villain.



Now I am a (very casual) student of the old west. The only times someone outdrew another was in the saloon gunfights and those were fairly rare. Back then, as now, wearing of guns in saloons was frowned upon. Now not everyone obeyed the rules about checking your iron but most did, if for no other reason than weight. Most townies that went armed carried smaller guns, those old British Bulldogs were popular. Cowboys and ranchers tended to carry heavier iron. A feller on the range might need to kill a cow critter, to this day the most dangerous animal in America is a barnyard bull. Or a cowboy might want to kill a horse, more than a few were dragged to death when their boot got hung in a stirrup. Now a minutes though about the geometry of a cowboy shooting a horse while being dragged shows that a lot of penetration would be needed. Hence the popularity of those old Colt .45s and .38 and .44 WCF revolvers.A close range hit with any of those and the bullet will penetrate to next Tuesday.



Now a townie, of course, had a different set of needs from a gun. A man isn't all that thick and back then any solid hit was fatal, eventually. Remember, no X-ray machines and no antibiotics.



So, the book is almost certainly false. Still, if anyone enjoys the old dime novel type western, it's worth the money.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

CAP Has Her Birthday Party!










So yesterday was Cochise' Apache Princess first bithday. Odder than that, I remembered it. Well, Linda Lou had it on the calender. Anyhow a doggie birthday party was in order.

Now I have it on good authority that sweets aren't really good for dogs so I needed something different for a cake. How about corn meal muffins? With bacon and cheese? Dogs like bacon and cheese, I think I read that somewhere. So I fried up four slices of bacon and made a batch of muffin batter, the box kind. Jiffy. Oh and I made a box of Jiffy rasberry muffins for us, too. A pretty good cheap snack, one egg, one quarter cup of milk and a fifty cent box of muffin mix. Even better, I bought a bazillion Christmas cupcake and muffin cups for half price the day after Christmas, for half price.

Back to the dogs, though.I fried the bacon up, good and set it on the paper towels, mixed the muffin mix and then broke the bacon up amd stirred it into the mix, then grabbed a large handfull of sharp chedder shredded cheese and stirred it in, too. The two Pugs got caught in a cheese storm when grated cheese fell from the sky on their poor defenseless heads. They licked franticly to keep from being buried. They got away with it but will probably have nightmares for years.

So, in to the oven and fifteen minutes later, muffins, too hot to eat. I was going to frost them with liverwurst, actually Braunshweiger. I decided not to, this roll I got was a lot is real "hard". Trying to spread it would have been difficult, also I probably would have been killed trying to get down the steps.




So the eating part of the party lasted about five minutes, dogs are not much to savor every bite.
Now Eddie knows what to do with a mixing bowl.

So I finally got the muffins down the steps and the feeding frenzy, er, party began. We were unable to sing Happy Birthday, the German Shepherd seems to be crossed with Kanagroo.

She would jump up to try to get the muffins off the plate. Then she ate each muffin in two bites, The she tried to snatch what was left from the Pugs. Oh, my!

Then the party was over. The next party will be in celebration of McCain losing this next batch of primaries.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Snow In Baghdad

So we got snow in Baghdad, that has to be absolute proof of glow-ball warming. Any kind of weather at all is proof of glow-ball warming. Because there is a CONSENSUS among SCIENTISTS! Never mind that every thing they have predicted hasn't happened. Never mind that the ones screeching the loudest that I must change my life haven't changed their own. It's a consensus.

Speaking of snow in Baghdad, it seems that those Iranian EFP bombs are blowing up more often again. I wish I could visualise the terrain over there. Since about ten minutes after the invasion was over we've had nothing but trouble coming in over the borders from Iran and Syria and it seems that our entire policy was let the bad guys in, let them bring whatever they wanted with them, and then have most of our troops go out and be targets.

Now I am no great military strategist, I am a one hitch EM from forty years ago. Still, even I know how to set up an L shaped ambush. I do not understand why or how we let all these clowns into the country over there, I do not understand how they manage to smuggle this stuff in.

Are the borders over there so covered in jungle that the bad guys sneak in under the triple canopy? Are the borders all crowded cities where they just lose themselves in crowds? Or is the military forbidden to control those borders because the Washington politicians are afraid we'll then want our borders enforced?

There is something seriously wrong. We do not have much, if any, more time to get it right. I have supported our work over there since 2003, not because I trust Washington but because our troops keep reenlisting. If the military situation was as bad as the Daily Koz types say, Sgt. Hook, Greyhawk and AWTM's husband would all be civilians by now. Those folks aren't stupid and, even though they are all married men, can't ALL want to die. I knew my war was being lost because we were losing so many men after their second or third hitches, after the second hitch you're half way to the twenty year pension.

Friday, January 11, 2008

New Blog!


My big sister finally started a blog of her own. The blog is called Nothing Much. So far all she has is the traditional sucky first post. Somebody needs to get over there and explain to her that SHE got the brains in the family, I only got the cute little butt.
As usual, I can't seem to make the link work, the addy is Califnotes.blogspot.com.

Monday, January 07, 2008

Wolves, Cougars and People

The other day I got an e-mail asking for a light bullet load for a .30-06 from a feller up in British Columbia, which is one of those Yankee States north of Oklahoma, I believe. Anyhow he wanted a load that would take down wolves. Now we don't have any wolves down here in northeast Texas and so I asked him why he was mad at wolves. Well, it seems that they have been breeding heavily lately and they are starting to cause trouble.

Each individual wolf will take down seventeen to twenty three big game animals each year. In an area that derives a good part of it's income from big game hunting, that can become a problem, fast.

My corespondent did not wish to be public on this, he didn't say why I. I presume it's because of the Bambiists, I didn't ask. He did send me a news story, which I was unable to transfer here because I'm not very good with computers. A computer wizard can probably find the article on the Monday, Sept.4, 2007 issue of the Vancouver Sun. It seems that a couple of families were out with some ATVs, pulling young kids around on a toboggan when a couple of very skinny, hungry wolves showed up. Their dog, a Rottie Mix went and duked it out with the wolves who were trying to get to those kids. Well, one parent went off after his rifle, a Ruger 10-.22 if it matters, while another adult waded in with a shovel. The two wolves were driven off but they then followed these folks back to camp. The guy with the rifle managed to then shoot one of the wolves, they dragged the wolf back to their camp (or cabins?) and the next morning the wolf had been dragged off and partially eaten. They then managed to shoot the other half of this pair. With a belly full of wolf.

Now, I never have claimed to be the world's greatest authority on carnivores. I have no idea how many wolves it takes to make an area unsafe for people, nor any great idea on how many wolves an area can support before the big game gets difficult to find. (Not that big game is easy to find without wolves) Questions like that must be answered by someone smarter than me. I do know that down here in the lower 48 people are now being attacked, and sometimes killed, by Cougars, aka Mountain Lions, aka Catamounts.

Now when I was a boy lots of folks hunted Mountain Lions. We hardly ever killed them, unless we used dogs, but we killed enough of them that they avoided people. In my entire youth I saw two Mountain Lions in the wild, both times it was through binoculars, way too far for a shot, while we were examining country to see if we wanted to go try to find deer over there. Yet seeing Mountain Lion tracks was common. I would wager that lots more of those big cats saw me than I ever saw.

Those cats were afraid of people, though. They stayed out of our way because we killed enough of them to maintain that fear. Now those days are over. In many states it's illegal to pop a big cat. We are not losing a whole lot of people and it seems that most of the ones we do lose are Libs, but even so, I liked it better when the cats were afraid of us. We are losing a lot of pets.

I bring this up because we are reseeding some of the West with wolves. Okay, fine.Can someone besides the Bambiists figure out how many can live on a piece of range before the big game, livestock and people are threatened?

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Candles and Bullet Lube

I was going through a few websites looking at the recipes and supplies for my next year's supply of bullet lube for my black powder cartridges and it occurred to me that all I would have to add would be wicks and scent and I could be making candles, too. Lord knows we throw away enough jars that I would never have to buy those.

The question is could I make a few candles for small presents and home use without becoming an aged, patchouli-stinking hippie?

To make bullet lube I add a few ingredients to beeswax, this year I will also experiment with soy wax. To find these things I look at candle supply companies. It seems that the very best candles are made from beeswax and soy wax. Now Linda Lou loves Lilacs and they do not grow down here. Every year she wants me to take her up to Topeka during Lilac season, we hardly ever make it although we may make it more often now that we are retired. So, why not buy some Lilac scented oil and some wicks when I make my next bullet lube material purchase? Then I can think of other scents if this works. Hmm. Do they make a black powder smoke scent? That would be the perfect gift for Contagion.

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Borders

Can we please find someone to defeat Kay Bailey Hutchinson in the Primaries the next time she is up for election? It's time for her to go, after she killed the border fence. We elected her to the Senate in 2006, we gave a clear mandate that we want the border secure and she goes and pulls this.

Why did I bother to vote Republican? Our jobs are taken away by illegals, our people are killed on the roads by uninsured illegals, illegal immigrant gangs are making our cities unlivable and these creatures we send to Washington ignore us. What does it take? I do not care that upper middle class working women want cheap nannies. I do not care that the Chamber of Commerce types want cheap labor, you can hardly find a US citizen on a construction site anymore and housing costs go up while the quality of the homes goes down.

We have begged Washington to secure the borders, one of the constitutionally mandated duties of the Federal Government. Instead the Feds are messing around with mileage requirements for the auto fleet. Excuse me but I have read the Constitution. It is silent on automobile mileage but loud in it's requirements to defend America.

Can you Washington idiots please quit farting around and build the effing fence? Yes. Build the fence, we'll worry about what to do about the illegals already here when you stop the invasion. Build the fence!

Can someone in Washington put a bill up to build the fence and have it come up before the election and then we can vote against everyone who doesn't support it. Of course those who want the invasion to continue can support those who don't support the fence and we can then see what Americans really want.

I have supported Kay Bailey Hutchinson since she was a political rookie, it's over. It was disgusting, Kay. You KNEW the desires of Texas and America and you sided against us. I hope your legs grow together.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Christopher James









We finally got some pictures of Christopher James. These are from Thanksgiving, when he was three weeks old. He is a big strong boy at three weeks. I think I shall give him some railroad rails for his fifth birthday, he can have hours of fun tying them in knots.

The other boys are also growing nicely. Perhaps we can go see that crowd this coming Fall.

Happy New Year!





Since we don't drink anymore here our New Year celebrations have become somewhat more sedate, albeit easier to remember. This year I celebrated New Year's Eve by finally trying to cook (and eat) liver and onions, mashed potatoes and gravy.

I am pleased to report that soaking the liver in milk really works. Now the downside of the project was that I bought calf's liver from Wal Mart, the liver was sliced so thin that it kept tearing into smaller and smaller pieces at every step of the way, making the preparation somewhat difficult. The good news was that it tasted wonderful.

I started by cooking the onions in oil until they were mostly brown, they then sat on paper towels, draining the excess oil while I fried the liver. The liver tore so badly I didn't try to dredge it in flour. It tasted fine without it, though. Then I made gravy out of the milk I soaked the liver in, some flour and the oil and drippings from the skillet.

Then I ate and ate. And ate some more. All three dogs got some liver scraps, the pictures above are of Ming the Merciless getting (more than) her share. She got a couple of extra little pieces because Linda Lou was snapping pictures.

My next try will be with beef liver instead of calf, in hopes that it doesn't tear apart so easily, otherwise I'll have to shop somewhere besides Wally World for my liver.

Then at Midnight I threw out a few firecrackers and then fired six rounds of black powder shotgun shells into the ground so that I had the empty brass shells to reload with powder, shot and some cut-up pieces of sparkler. If I can make those work I should be an amazing sight at the Cowboy Actions Shoots this year. Yee-haw!