Sunday, May 20, 2012

It’s 32 Degrees !

In CUSTER, that is!! 

When I got up at 4:30 am this morning and turned my computer on, I saw that it was 32 degrees up in the Black Hills. Then I looked at our thermometer here at North Ranch in Congress, AZ. and it was already 68 degrees. The high in Custer will only be 63 degrees for the day.

I do enjoy the early mornings here in AZ.....68 degrees. and 18% humidity is perfect.  Oh, so comfortable..  It will never be that warm at 4:30 am at our place in Custer, not all summer long. We have a lot of mornings in the 30’s, even in July and August. We call that “shirt sleeve” weather.  As the sun comes up, it warms up quite quickly and is usually very comfortable. The humidity is normally fairly low there also.

But let me tell you, as the sun comes up here in AZ, it gets hotter and hotter.  By noon it is in the 90’s and the sun is boiling down.  It was in the 90’s all last week. It really makes you look for SHADE!!  If you can stay in the shade, it is bearable. If not, it's just plain, well HOT! The humidity drops to 8% or lower.  Time for us to get out of Dodge!  We are both getting real anxious but have still managed to keep our target departure date this Thursday, May 24.

By this time next week, we should be out on the road, somewhere in Wyoming, getting closer and closer to our place in Custer, South Dakota.  Another winter in Arizona under our belts and history.

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  It has been a real “Shoot ‘em Up” winter for us.   Pat began her ladies' day pistol training classes way back on January 10TH at the Wickenburg Sportsmen's Club and has attended them every Tuesday since. That is a lot of training classes but she really got into it and enjoyed it very much. Above is a picture of one of the training classes where Ms. Pat is receiving some one-on-one training from Caryl, her mentor and instructor.  We are so grateful to Caryl and Jerry for volunteering their time and effort into this project. There were about 15 ladies in attendance every Tuesday..  

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Then we both enrolled in the Security Enforcement Academy at the Ben Avery shooting Facility and spent a long day earning our Arizona Concealed Weapons Permits. Now we have a South Dakota and Arizona CCW both. My Florida permit finally expired. many states honor each others now days...


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Then every Thursday and Saturday morning they had all these many scenarios set up at the Action Shoots. It was great fun and this is where we spent almost every Thursday and Saturday morning. We both shot about 125+ rounds at each action shoot. All with our Glock 40 Cal pistols. Ms. Pat has a model 23 and I have a model 22.


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Then about that time, good friend Jerry showed me his RELOADER.  Oh Wow! That was neat!  I just had to have one!

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After a lot of shopping and searching, along with a lot of questions answered by my great buddy JRoger, my shooting mentor, it wasn’t long until there was a big box sitting in my shop from Dillon Precision ……. a new reloading press.
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I read and read, studied and studied and finally got the thing put together as to the best of my ability and then Jerry came over and helped me fine-tune it.
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It wasn’t long until I was cranking out my own bullets!!  Thanks to all the help of JRoger and Jerry! Needless to say, I spent a lot of my winter behind this machine pulling the handle, making one bullet at a time. I will soon pass the 5,000 bullet reloading mark. So a new hobby developed and it kept me quite occupied.  Even a little frustrated at times, but also quite satisfied most of the time.

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Meanwhile, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning's and Sunday afternoon's, Ms. Pat is doing another one of her favorite things “Line Dancing”.
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She even “Line Danced” the entire La Fiesta Parade.  She is waving to me as I directed traffic.
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She loves and has studied Line Dancing so much, that she was easily chosen as the favorite Instructor of the year! 

Yep, its been a busy, exciting year to say the least…… Plus, guess what I saw the other day….
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I saw this sitting on a table in Ms. Pats work room and I asked “Who’s is that?”   “Mine” she answered.  Hmmm, could we have yet another hobby in the making?  Well, around here ya' just never know…..Smile

It was a GREAT WEEK!!!!

I cannot praise our Father in Heaven enough for everything he blesses us with.  God bless you all and safe travels.

Hope to see you all back Wednesday for our last blog from the South for the summer.  We are headed North and I may have a route picked out by then.

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..

5 comments:

Sherry and Charley Dilworth said...

Well, you are almost ready to head back to the "Hills". I know you are both looking forward to being in Custer again.

Take your time on your way home, see as much as you can and be careful!!

Jim and Sandie said...

I'm sure hoping we're not going to be too far behind you in heading north to MT. This heat just keeps us trapped in the RV but like you said, the early morning hours are wonderful. You have had a busy winter - maybe you can "rest" this summer. lol

Al Bossence said...

Yep, those daytime Arizona temps are way too hot for this fella & those colder night temps in South Dakota are way to cold for this fella as well. Geeeeezzz, is there any pleasing this darn fussy Canadian. I think Pat is going to use that sewing machine to fix you up a fine pink shirt complete with 356 Arizona Rhinestones & a bullet reloaders patch on the left pocket.....:))

Kevin and Tracy (a.k.a. kcgaz) said...

Safe travels, wish we had somewhere cooler to go, but we will keep things going here in Arizona until you return.

Anonymous said...

I didn't know the temperatures could vary so much between s.e. az. & your location. We are in Cochise cty. Hasn't been over 92 yet. So comfortable I won't let my husband head north yet. He's getting a lot of Harley rides in, so he's happy. Have a safe trip.