Our Visit Out to Jerry and Caryl’s

Since I was getting quite interested in this reloading Ammo thing and asking Ms. Pat’s range instructor a lot of questions, he said “You're welcome to come over and see my set up”. Ah, that would be great, so the next day we headed that way.

Here we are at Jerry and Caryl’s neat little place. They have a beautiful view and down below in the back they have corrals and keep a few horses. These are quite the interesting folks that moved here from Montana. They have been here for several years and even lived at North Ranch for a while.  They wanted a place to keep horses and found this place. Jerry said they had to do a lot of work on it to get it to this point.

Both Jerry and Caryl are avid shooters, members of the Cowboy Action Shooters and several other organizations, plus both are instructors and caretakers of the Wickenburg Sportsmen’s Club. They have been on many hunting expedition's all over the World and have dozens of trophies they brought back. Note the Mountain Goat above Caryl’s head.
(click on pictures to enlarge)


Caryl is also an avid quilter.  This is some of her beautiful work that has won several awards and ribbons.  She will be entering a couple of these beauties in the State Competition.


This fellow greets you as you walk in the door..  a bobcat from Montana.

I love this Bear……

This is a Water Buffalo Jerry tagged in Africa. He has several more around.


This is Jerry's reloading set up he has in the house. He has 3 or 4 more set up out in his shop.

Jerry went over a lot of things with me, showed me a lot and answered a lot of questions. I have been reading and researching but there is nothing like a “hands on” demonstration. I watched him load a few, then he let me load a few.  WOW, I hope I can learn all this stuff. My brain is on overload, but I am learning. Jerry told me that if I get a loader, he will help me get it set up. Man. that’s wonderful!! 

We sure did enjoy our visit with these great folks and thanks very much Jerry for all your expertise and assistance in getting me started in this new interesting project.  I have an awful lot to learn about reloading but it is extremely interesting and I enjoy it, plus I’m learning everyday!  I sure wish I had paid more attention when I was at my friend JRoger's place in Florida. He has a fine set up for reloading there and could have really got me going.   Meanwhile, we are keeping the phone and emails flying with my questions…….


Yesterday, we went back out to the Wickenburg Sportsmen's Club to watch some “Action Shooting” and games. We wanted to watch all the action and see what it is all about. They have this scheduled almost every Saturday morning and get quite a few shooters. I talked to a couple people from Surprise and Sun City in Phoenix. It was fun to watch and I think Ms. Pat is just itching to get involved.  Me, I don’t know?  I’m not as eager to jump in, as I said before I really don’t care for organized stuff. But ya never know....we’ll see and play it by ear……(-:  

It was a GREAT WEEK!!!!

We’re keepin' busy, havin' fun and have lots of stuff planned. Thanks for stopping by and we do hope you will come on back……

If the folks that wrote telling me they are coming to North Ranch for the Escapee's “Boot Camp” will please look us up while you’re here, we would love to meet you.

You all be safe and God Bless..

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..

A 1958 it was!!

A whole lot of you got it right, it was a 1958 Ford Fairlane police Special edition. Thanks to all those that commented. Interesting thing was that it was one of the first Police Cars ever used on the Nebraska State Patrol that had an Automatic transmission. All the others were stick shifts. When I went through the state Patrol  6 week “Boot Camp” there were 30 other candidates applying for 13 Trooper positions available. It was highly competitive and I felt very privileged to have been one of the 13. The remaining trainee's went into a reserve pool and were on call “as needed”.   My first duty station was Grand Island. The first 6 months all new rookies were assigned to ride with an experienced officer for training. What an experience for a young country cowboy! I traded my “Cowboy Hat” for a “Smoker Bear Hat”…
All 13 of us were issued these 1958 Fords. They were Brand New! It has always been the practice before to issue the new patrol cars to officers and give the new Rookie’s their old patrol car. But this year for some unknown reason they decided to give all 13 of us the new cars. they made a big deal of it and called us all into Headquarters in Lincoln for the presentation…. I remember how happy I was to get my own car….I would have been happy with any car, but a brand New one, wow, that was even better. I remember how the older troopers were so shocked the the Fords were Automatic’s. In fact some of them were upset that the y would give them to New Rookies. They couldn’t believe it and moaned and groaned for a while. One older Trooper even told me that he thought they should cut our pay, since we don’t have to do all that shifting!! I laughed,,,well they couldn’t cut it much, top pay for a new Trooper was a whopping $350.00 per month!! Unbelievable isn’t it? Other things that will surprise a lot of you younger folks (everybody is younger than me!) is that none of the Police cars back in those days had Commercial Radio’s… None.,,,,police Radio only! Also no power steering, or brakes, or power windows and listen to this: No Air Conditioning!!  Not even the officers cars had any of these accessories. Yep, things were tough back in the “old Days”.. But you know ,,,I didn’t even miss it…mainly cause I never had it before.



I don’t know what happened to all my old pictures of my times on the Patrol, I have very few. This picture of me was taken on Christmas eve, I was on duty, but I managed to find time to stop by home and spend a little time with my boys. Actually, Christmas Eve is very quiet out on the highways,,,,and the boys were so excited to know Santa was coming….



I hated to leave them but I remember the last thing they told me was “Dad don’t stop Santa Claus”!!  I laughed and said OK, I won’t…..     Well it wasn’t but about an hour later I met this pickup truck pulling a trailer and he was Flying!!  It was cold and snow all over along the road and I had a hard time turning around, but I soon had the vehicle stopped. As I walked up to the pickup I noticed that in the trailer were,,,Sure enough…Reindeer!! Holy Cow, what was this? Then suddenly Santa Claus stepped out of the truck and came back to me, saying “I’m Sorry I was driving so fast, but I’m late! He explained that he was doing Santa at a couple of different Orphanage's and was running behind. The kids were waiting for Santa..  I remembered what the Boys had just told me,,,,,,,,so I just smiled and told him to Take Off, but be careful!!    Well, what would you have done,,,,it was Christmas Eve, and he was Santa?  Ya know!


Here it is Christmas morning and the boys are having a ball with all their gifts including the ones Santa brought……I don’t think Scott is even awake yet!LOL Wow, what memories. Like 50 years ago! They bring smiles to my face and tears at the same time…..



We had another great Tuesday at the Shooting Range yesterday……It was a cool 39* when we got up but the sky was clear as a bell. By noon when Ms. Pat’s gun class started it was  up to 65* and very nice……  I took my coat off, then my shirt off and enjoyed the T-shirt weather.  She is shooting up a lot of .40 Cal ammo. I’m about out, so I’m thinking of going into reloading. Presently I am looking for a Dillon reloader and we are going over to Jerry and Caryl’s house for a lesson and watch Jerry do some reloading…..   Dillon Reloading equipment is quite popular around here (and everywhere else) and the Factory is right in North Phoenix,,,,,i.e. Scottsdale.  Anybody have a Dillon that is excess to their needs? I could sure use it……….

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!

Thanks for stopping by and please come on back Sunday.

Meanwhile be safe and God Bless.

Mike

This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..

Talk about Skydiving

I mentioned in my last Blog that I used to Skydive.  I happened upon this picture that brought back some more good memories. This was the day of my “First” Skydive. Gregg was my jumpmaster instructor (on the left) and I don’t know who the lady is, just a photographer I guess. This was right before we climbed into the Airplane to go up and what I do remember is that it was cold as all "billy hell" that day. Temps were below freezing.  This had to have been back in the early 70’s and was at Lincoln, Nebraska.

It’s interesting to see the old skydiving equipment we were using. I had on what we called “Gutter Gear”. It's all old military gear and was called that because we carried our reserve parachute in front over our “gut”.  If you notice Gregg's gear is different than mine and the more modern type.  It had the reserve packed on the top of the main chute on your back, so he didn’t have that ugly “Gutter Gear” on his front side. I remember that I had gone through about 8-9 hours of training the day before and I wasn’t going to let a little cold weather stop my "First Jump", no way! All went well, even if I did land in a Lake……Glad it was frozen over, but it sure was HARD....and SLICK!!  Like my son “OP” always says, "If you live in that Cold Country, you have to be tough!!" He’s right!


Here we are right after the jump with our chutes gathered in our arms walking back to the Airport. That was our pilot in the center. I was so excited I wasn’t even cold….until I got on the ground and took all the gear off.... then I headed for the fire!  I remember somebody saying it was –2 deg below zero up at jump altitude. The jump master has to be trained and licensed by the USPA....United States Parachute Association.  He is in full charge, helps you get into and out of the Airplane, then he jumps out after you. 

Gregg was also my flight instructor and taught me how to fly an Airplane.  He helped me get my Private Pilot license. That’s really how I got interested in Skydiving. I always had to wait for him to make a jump or two before he would give me a flying lesson. One day he said to me “ Soon as I teach you how to fly, I’m going to teach you how to Skydive” and he did!  It ended up being an enjoyable sport for me and I had lots of fun doing it all over the country for many years.

As usual I got real interested in the equipment and went on to become a Licensed FFA Parachute Rigger.  Parachutist's can pack and jump their own main canopies but they must have a "licensed" Rigger pack their emergency reserve chutes. I could do that for them...for a fee of course! :-) Skydiving equipment was a popular item and there were changes coming fast and furious. It is totally different nowadays that it was way back then.

I've had lots of great experiences.  I've jumped into special events like Football games, Fall Festivals and even onto boats in the Gulf of Mexico. I remember we used to jump out at a high altitude way out over the Gulf and open our chutes high enough that we could make it in and land right on the beach. Some didn’t make it and landed in the water. We all had special water landing training, but I always made it onto land… I didn’t want to get salt water all over my Parachute!  We had fun! What memories! Oh, the stories I could tell ya!


WOW!!  Here is another picture that I ran across that brings back a lot of memories. If you can tell me the year of my Patrol car, then you'll know the year this picture was taken. :-)  Can you tell me what year it was???

In my last Blog, I told you we flew into Hope.  I thought we were in Hope and I even "Hoped" we were in Hope. But my good friend and North Ranch neighbors, Ron and JerrieLea who used to live in the Hope area, told me were weren’t in Hope even if we "Hoped" we were!   But we were CLOSE.   Hope is 4 miles East of the KOFA Cafe.  We were at Vicksburg junction.  Thanks Folks.  Now maybe you (or someone) can tell me what the KOFA stands for? I asked the waitress and she told me, but I believe I forgot even before I got out of town! I do remember it was funny, whatever it was! CRS!

We had to go into the BIG city Thursday, way over to Scottsdale, some 77 miles from our house in North Ranch. That is where my Oncologist is and it is a long haul over there. The traffic in the Big City is just terrible. Drives me nuts.   Man o Man!  70-80 MPH, bumper to bumper and 4 lanes of solid traffic going both directions.  We are not used to that kind of traffic and thank God we don’t have to go very often. But one good item, I did get to stop at a gun shop and look at the Kimber pistol line. WOW, what beautiful little pistols.  Take a look at the Kimber Solo. Boy, is it nice!  Ken, the gun shop owner, told me they are so popular right now that he can’t keep them in stock. He did have one in his gun safe that was sold and he let me and Ms. Pat play with it for a while.  Expensive, but nice! 

Oh Yes, it was a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Our Followers have really grown lately and we especially want to welcome the following:

Phil and Rudee
Jackie
Mountainborn.

Thanks for being a follower and we hope you stop back often. Remember give us your comments when you can, as that is what makes this all worthwhile.  You can click on their pictures and go to their Blog if they have one.              

We’re off headed to Church. You all be Safe and God Bless!

Mike



This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..

There I was at the Wickenburg AIRPORT,,,,,,,,,,

The other morning I found myself at the Wickenburg Municpal Airport. My friend Duane lives in Aguila, AZ. about 25 miles from North Ranch and has a neat little 2 place Airplane. He called one morning early and said he would like to fly me over to Hope, AZ. for lunch.  He said “I know you don’t eat much for lunch but they have great salads”.  Hey, that sounded Great!

I love to fly and I have spent a lot of time hanging out at Airports.  The smaller the Airport the better. I got my private single engine pilots license way back in about 1975 in Lincoln, Nebraska.  I flew a lot there and then when I moved to Denver, I rented an airplane and flew quite often. I used to fly over to Alliance, Nebraska to see my folks. Then when I moved to Salt Lake City, I bought a Cherokee Warrior  and spent all my spare time flying around that area and over to Wendover, Nevada.  Ah yes, I’ve spent my share of times around Airports….. brings back lots of memories.

Soon I saw Duane coming in on final approach and do a perfect “touch down” and taxi up to where I was standing. I hopped in and strapped myself down and we were back in the air.


This little Sport Aircraft is very light and it only uses about 1/4TH of the runway to get airborne. So we had a nice view as we flew over the Airport Office. See that little black spot in the parking lot? That’s my pickup. It was about 11:00am and hardly a soul was around. I love small, quiet little airport's!!


There is a nice view of Vulture Peak just south of Wickenburg, We have climbed that peak several times, but this is a better view than from the top of it!  Hey Al, there is a nice place to boondock at the base of this peak. You would love it!!


We're climbing out at about 500’ per minute, approaching 3000’ ft. flying at around 50mph and burning just 6.7 gal of fuel per hr. Nice GPS and set of electronics'.


Now we have leveled off at 4200 ft. and the speed has gone up to a cruising speed of around 120mph. The fuel meter says we are down to using just 4.5 gal per hr. No need to go any higher as the trip is only about 60 miles and I enjoy the view better at lower altitudes..


The view you see as I take a picture through the prop is Superb!! That is an irrigation water canal just below. You can see the little town of Hope dead ahead and the dirt runway is where we will land. First we will do a little fly around and look the situation over and if it's clear, we’ll come in on final and sit ‘er down.


Here we come in on final and that road on the left is the runway. We have the plane slowed down to around 50mph. Lookin' good!


There we are, safe and sound on the ground taxiing up to the parking area. Another fine touchdown Duane!


Here I am in the passenger seat about to climb out and walk over to have a nice salad. This is a neat little sport airplane,I love it!.  The engine is 4 cyl, 100hp and does a nice job. With the full electronics and intercom with headsets and microphones, you can visit and enjoy a nice ride.  It even has it's own Parachute!! Yep right in the center of the wings, behind and above the heads of the pilot and passenger, is a Parachute.  It is rated to be a big enough chute to be able to let the plane down safely in the event of an extreme emergency. Although I have done a lot of Skydiving and have over 300 jumps under my belt, I don’t want to try this one out.


This is my good friend Duane standing by his extra ordinary little Light Sport Aircraft. Duane and I have had a lot of fun experiences together over the years. He used to live at North Ranch and just a few years ago moved over to Aquila to a little Airport community where everyone that lives there has their own hanger to store their Airplanes, and listen to this.....they take off and land right out in front of their homes! How neat is that!! Signs on all streets say "Airplanes hive the Right of Way"! Isn’t it great all the wonderful interesting people we meet and get to know and enjoy in this wonderful world and life?  Again, Praise the Lord for another blessing that I thank him so dearly for..


This, my friends, is the restaurant and almost the entire extent of Hope, AZ. Let me tell you, our salad was outstanding and the other food I saw them serving looked delicious. Our waitress was a neat lady that called herself a “snow bird” and is from Michigan, living close by in an RV. She says people come from all over, far and near to experience the food at the KOFA café. Its on Hwy 60 and 72 and is right on the way to Quartzsite.Be sure to stopin  if you're ever in the area and REAL Hungry!!

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Hope you all enjoyed riding along on my little ride over to Hope at 4000 ft.! Thanks Duane ole buddy, for your thoughtfulness.....I enjoyed it very much.

Thanks for stopping by………Come on back Sunday,

Mike

This Blog is published every Wednesday and Sunday..

Visiting Prescott, AZ.

Thursday we made it to Prescott early to get the oil changed in the Silverado. Oh!  Look at the new pickups!!  My, oh my!!  I told Ms. Pat, maybe we should just trade it for a new one.  I was just kidding, but I was kinda glad when she said “No Way” this one is still new.  It didn’t take but about 30 minutes for them to have it back up front all done, washed up pretty and ready for another 8000 miles.  The whole time waiting, Ms. Pat went inside and sat down at one of their many public computers and checked out all her email, etc. I looked up ole' Bill, the salesman that sold us the truck. Bill is one fine guy and I enjoy him.....nice down to earth, country fella that has been selling Chevy's for 29 years. He really knows his Chevrolet’s!!

I wanted to ask him if he would help me re-program the front seat on my Silverado, that I couldn’t figure out how to do.  “Sure", he said, "lets go look at it”.   When I shut it off and remove the key, the seat automatically slides all the way back so you can easily get out, which is fine. However, then when you come back and unlock the doors the seat automatically slides way up forward. So far forward, that I can’t even get in.  Then I have to push a button on the dash and to move it back into my previously memorized position.  I told Bill I wanted it just to stay all the way back until I get in, then I can push the button and have it slide into my memorized "personal" position.   Bill says, “OK, we can do that”. He pushed a few buttons, turned the key switch off and on a couple times and said “There, try that”.  Awwww....perfect, that’s the way I want it.  Whew, glad to get that done. I must have tried to do that 50 times and couldn’t get it right. I knew Bill could do it.  So we were off to see Prescott....you know the usual places, Costco, Sam’s and Wal-Mart.  Then, of course, the Gun Shop!!

At the Gun Shop I wanted to put my hands on one of the new small Ruger LC9 9mm automatic Pistols that Ruger just introduced on the market. It's only been out a month or so and is getting a lot of attention and selling like hot cakes. It sure is a nice feeling little Pistol and I will look for a good deal on one to add to my collection…. just Google Ruger LC9 and take a look! Smooth action and superb trigger pull. Ruger has really gone places in the Firearm industry and has become very highly recognized and respected. They make fine guns, and right here is the USA!!

Here is another very interesting fact that you might not know....all of Ruger’s Automatic Firearms are manufactured right here in Prescott! They are in a big complex out by the airport north of town. I told the gun dealer that I thought I would go out to Ruger’s complex and take a tour. He said “Forget it.  They won’t let you near the place.  No tours or anything”!! Shucks.  I will check that out for sure, but if we can’t I will get my buddy JRoger from Florida out here.  He is a personal friend and was in the Marine Corps with one of the owner's son's or relatives of some sort and he is now high up at this plant.  Maybe he could get us in. But then again, maybe not.  Come on out JRoger, lets give it a try.  Plus, I have a zillion other things out here I want to show you…..:-)

After we spent some time looking for another little Gun shop that a friend told me about and couldn’t find, we called it a day in Prescott and headed for the Ranch....North Ranch. We got home right at 4:00 o’clock.....Happy Hour, of course....but too late to go to the Thursday afternoon Jam session at the Club House. They start playing music about 2 pm and break up at 4, so we just missed it.  Darn, I like going to the Jam sessions. We have some great musicians here in the park and up in Wickenburg. Plus there is usually always a few passing through and staying in the RV Park here.

Everybody is heading for Quartzsite nowadays and just staging here for a few days until all the festivities start over there.   It's only about 90 miles from here, just a short jaunt. Everybody is asking  if we are going and we’re not sure. Back in the late 90’s, we went almost every year and just kinda got tired of all the crowd hassle.  We went over to Bouse, AZ last year....that’s close to Qz. We mainly went because the kids were here and I always wanted to camp with our kids and finally got to.    Plus Jim and Ellie, Mike and Janna, John and Brenda and a few others were all parked in the same area way out in the desert.    I can’t come up with a good reason to go this year.  Anybody over there that can give me a good reason? Who is over there this year anyhow and where are ya? I don’t really care for big organized rallies that last a week or longer and are all structured to attend this and attend that.  My attention span is way too short for that.  It's kinda like, "Been there Done that", if ya know what I mean.   So we don’t know if we will go or not, but we’re gonna have to make up our minds soon cause it's getting close….


We were extremely pleased to have Ron and Yvonne stop and see us this week.. They are RV’ers and 4 wheelers staying in the campground here at North Ranch and heading over to Qz in the near future. They have been reading my Blog for a while and unbelievably, they are from Custer, South Dakota. They have a big ranch just south of Pringle.  It was good to meet them and I hope we get a chance to get better acquainted, here or up in SD. Sorry I forgot to get a picture, but I will next time!

We want to welcome Where’s Weaver to our followers.  I know Weaver has been around before quite often and I have always enjoyed his remarks. Hope to hear more from him and everyone else, too. I get well over 400 views for each Blog and believe me, I know how hard it is to find time to comment on everybodys.  But boy, I can sure tell you we enjoy getting them. It's hard for me to keep up the encouragement to sit down and write this stuff.  I had to take the Shout Box down because of all the Spam it received. Sorry for those of you that liked to use it....Fuzz, Chuck and Weaver especially.  Just click on the bottom of the Blog on the Comments section and leave a comment there. You can use Anonymous if you want to, then just put your name in the comment. That way you don’t have to have an account with Google..

Anyhow, hang in there with me and thanks for stopping by.

Praise the Lord for the many, many blessing he provides us. God Bless you all!!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..

More Shooting

Ms. Pat has been excited about her first class on Pistol orientation every since she attended last week. She couldn’t wait to get back this week. It’s every Tuesday and starts at 12:00 noon.  So yesterday was the "big day".  It was a little cool in the morning, but by noon it was a beautiful day.  Her Line Dancing Class is 4 days a week, but luckily Tuesday was an open day, so these Gun classes work right in.

This is Jerry and Caryl, her instructors here at the Wickenburg Sportsman's Club. All this instruction is free and they are volunteers. They are wonderful instructors and what a great opportunity for the ladies. I can think of no better way for someone to get valuable training on safety, proper gun handling and shooting techniques FREE.  We are very thankful that these folks are willing to do this. Mike and Janna this picture is for you. :-)




There are about 12 Ladies participating, so Jerry takes 6 on one bay and Caryl takes the others on a different bay. This keeps the classes nice and small, which is good and the instructors can do a lot of one on one training. Ms Pat is in Jerry’s class. The class lasts about 3 hours each Tuesday (12:00 - 3:00 pm) and consists of safety instruction, range shooting and class discussion. It is directed towards personal protection but some of the more experienced ladies shoot in competition. Several of the ladies are from North Ranch, one is even in Ms Pat's line dance class.  Ms Pat fired about 50 rounds…. great practice!!!




Meanwhile, I went over to one of the Rifle bays and set up one of my rifles so I could sight in my new scope. WOW, I couldn’t believe it. I had the entire 100 yd bay all to myself.   Wonderful...just the way I like it and such comfort! I am not used to such convenience.  Look....shooting tables, chairs and all!!  No one else was anywhere around so no worry about “Hot Range” or “Cold Range” or anything for the entire 3 hours. I was in heaven.....no distractions, no pressure, walk down the range to my target at anytime.  Believe it or not, my problems sighting in both rifles worked out perfectly. I soon had them zeroed in and was able to shoot perfect bull's eyes. Hurray!!!! I was having a hard time out at our little desert shooting spot trying to accomplish this. What a difference this place makes!




The target is way down range, you can just barely see it in the picture above this one....it's right at the end of the barrel.  I used my camera telephoto lens here to get a better picture of it.




But these scopes bring the target right up to the end of the barrel.. The scope on the rifle is a new Hawke 3-9x40.  The best price I could find was at Bowhunter Supply.  It’s kind of a new brand that came on the market recently and is getting some very good reviews. So I decided to give it a try. It's rather large for this little Ruger 10/22, but works great. Maybe someday if I get a larger gun, I can switch it over. Anyhow, I had a great time while Ms Pat was enjoying her pistol class. Now she has this big list of things she wants, like belt magazine holders, special electronic noise controlling ear protectors, etc. etc. Plus I’ll have to buy her a ton of ammo.  I have an idea she will be going through more .40 Cal bullets than we have ever used before.  Gosh, maybe I outta learn this reloading stuff?  I'll have to ask my consultant.



It's another busy week here at our place at North Ranch near Congress, AZ. Today is Ms. Pats dance class and tomorrow we are off for the City of Prescott to the Chevy dealer. It was one year ago in December when we bought this new Silverado. We have only put 8000 miles on it in over a year but now the dash light is flashing “Change oil,,,,,,,Change oil”!!!!  Plus OnStar is sending me emails telling me to get it into the dealer for an oil change.  I have always changed my own oil in all my vehicles but it gets harder and harder, so we decided we would just have them do it.  We’re getting old and retired ya' know!  Plus, there's a gun shop I want to stop at up there in good ole Prescott !


It is a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Thanks again for stopping by and checking up on us………………

Mike

This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..

It’s Christmas Again!

My friend Paul mentioned Henry rifles the other day while we were talking and showed me his Henry.  This tweaked my interest and I started researching them.  I read and studied the history of the “Henry Repeating Arms Company” and low and behold, I found a book up at the Club House all about them. The Company is quite historic and interesting. Even in a technical world such as we have today, there is something about a “Henry” rifle that is an authentic link to our past. I couldn’t wait to put my hands on one.

It wasn’t long until I found myself in a gun shop in Prescott, with the famous Henry “Golden Boy” in my hands. WOW!!!  Just putting that baby up to my shoulder and sighting down the barrel took me back and made me feel just like a Texas Ranger must have felt when he took on a band of rustlers. The smooth action along with the octagon barrel and the gleaming brass finish really took my eye. I handed the rifle to Ms. Pat and told her to look down the barrel of it and see how it felt………. All she could say was my famous word…”WOW”!....Neat rifle!.

Now I could bore you with a lot of history on the Henry Rifles, but I won’t because I’m not a history teacher and if you're interested, you’ll do a little research on your own just like I did. If not, then you can speed on through this and get on with your interests. Only thing I will say is that the history of this gun began way back in 1850 when a promising young gunsmith named Benjamin Tyler Henry was hired by Oliver Winchester of the struggling New Haven Arms Company to improve on one of it's early designs for a repeating rifle.  During the next 10 years, the “Henry” was born!!  His "Solemn Oath" was and still is that “Henry Rifles will only be made in America or they won’t be made at all”!   Interesting stuff and it's all I can do to keep from going on and on, but you check it out.....  Henry Rifle Genuine History!


I started shopping and looking for a “Henry”. I decided on a brand new one and I finally came to an agreement with a dealer way back east in Ohio. I could hardly wait for it to arrive, but finally it did and here I am as I opened it. Ms. Pat grabbed the camera. As I told you, it can be Christmas at our house anytime of the year……Today it was Christmas for me!!





Now I have one of these “pieces of the legend” all of my own. I can sit back and admire it everyday, take hold of it and put it up to my shoulder and dream. A rifle that surely has a place of distinction in history. Yes, I do have a vivid imagination!    The Indians used to chase me a lot back on the ranch when I was a kid out riding windmills! (That’s checking windmills to make sure they were pumping water for the cattle)



Well, Ms. Pat has been doing a little shopping herself! She wanted a new computer, and she picked a beauty. This new Dell consists of only a Monitor and a wireless Keyboard…  The CPU of this unit is totally contained in that BIG 23” Monitor with a “Touch Screen”! She has been busy setting it up all day. Here she sits back and admires “HER” new Christmas present.



Look at the size of that screen compared to her lap top right next to it. We thought the lap top 17” screen was huge when we got it..  This new computer is amazing, when you walk up and sit down it has "Face Recognition" and “If” it recognizes you it will turn on.  It does all kinds of neat stuff.  If Ms. Pat takes a picture with her Droid, then walks close to this computer and presses a couple of buttons,  it will show the picture or video on the screen!!  Unreal!!  You can bet your bottom dollar that it will be OFF LIMITS for me!!  I’m afraid to go near it.... probably set off an alarm or something!!

As you can see, we are plenty busy around her, but it's not all fun and no work. This year looks as if it's going to be a bumper crop year… for weeds that is!!  Already the weeds are beginning to pop up through the rocks at both of our places here at North Ranch.  It's been a little warmer than usual, so the weeds are a little early. So the other day, we loaded up the sprayers and went up to our other lot and sprayed it down good.  WOW!  What a job.  Both of our backs were killing us as we drug ourselves home. Gosh, we are really becoming a couple wimps! Whoever said “a little work won’t hurt you”?  Whew, about killed us!! Now we haven’t even started on this big lot here at home.  But we’re having fun...right? For both of us, it's just a great pleasure to even be alive and one of the few pleasures that we continually thank our Heavenly Father for.   Praise the Lord!

It was a Great Week!!!!

Thanks for stopping by………Come back anytime, we’re pleased to have ya!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday…

Deadly Home Invasion

Yep, turned on the TV this morning and heard all about another "deadly home invasion" down in Phoenix…a Mother shot and killed.  Almost every day they have this type of thing happening along with car jackings, robberies, muggings and all types of crime. Fairly normal for the larger cities anymore but it is creeping into the less populated surrounding areas.

We have noticed a great interest in the large amount of Women that are getting and planning on carrying a Gun. Every Gun shop we go into we see ladies of all ages looking and buying a gun. Now I’m not going to get into the politics of all this gun owning and carrying thing but it is happening. One thing that is very obvious from all of this is that a lot of folks end up owning guns of all types that don’t have any training on how to use them and this is not a good thing.

Ms. Pat was talking to a lady at, of all places, Line Dance Class that had recently gotten a hand gun and was interested in getting some training and she mentioned that the local Wickenburg Sportsman's Club was having Ladies Pistol orientation, training and shooting classes every Tuesday.  Ms. Pat picked up on it immediately and came home and told me about it.  I told her I thought it was a wonderful idea.  I am always interested in gun training at any level.  She has shot with me in many of my qualification courses in Florida and has had a lot of training while we were at the Custer State Park in South Dakota. But you can’t get too much..  Shooting is a perishable item and if you don’t practice, you will lose a lot of the skill.




To make a long story short, Tuesday Morning we found ourselves at the entrance to the Wickenburg Sportsman’s Club.




I was impressed with their Mail Box..




I was also impressed with their facility. It is a nice, large facility and growing by leaps and bounds.. They have just about everything to interest anyone, from Pistol to Rifle Bays, to a Shot Gun trap and skeet shooting area.


  

Ms. Pat went through all the orientation with the other ladies and was now ready to go to the Range. A lot of this training was “old hat” to her but as I said you can’t get too much training. The instructor and his wife were a very nice couple that were Rv’ers and used to live at North Ranch where we live. They still own property in our Park but a couple years ago bought a place in Congress just up the road. The instructors were Jerry and Caryl and we found out that they are good friends with our good friends  Mike and Janna. They used to attend a lot of SASS Cowboy Action Shoots together. In fact, we discovered that Caryl had even been over to our house last year while Mike and Janna were here….small world!!  Janna also quilted a "show quilt" for Caryl a few weeks ago and put a picture of it on her Blog.


Soon the Gals were shooting. They had two groups and this is the other group that Caryl was instructing.

Jerry was Ms. Pats instructor and he kindly let me sit in and listen to everything.  Again, very basic and mostly safety items and Sportsmen Club rules and regs but it didn’t hurt me a bit to hear all this stuff that I have heard hundreds of times before.  As soon as Jerry got his group to the Bay, he asked if anyone would like to shoot first.  Ms. Pat volunteered immediately and jumped up. Jerry checked her gun and told her to load and go ahead and shoot.  She aimed and squeezed on the trigger....WHAM………I think he and the others gals were a little set back when she hit the little 2”circle bull's-eye DEAD center. First shot!! HaHa.....I was as proud as a new papa……that’s my Gal…. I have trained her well.   She placed two or three more shots right in the circle and even put one shot right through the bullet hole of the first shot……   This was with her Glock model 23.  Then Jerry asked the group, “anyone want to shoot my Revolver?”   Ms. Pat jumped up again right away and said I do!  Have I told you she is not bashful? She put all the shots in an area the size of a saucer..   Jerry, told her that was very good since she was not familiar with his gun.  He now knew that this gal was not a newbie.

I have to brag a little more and tell this story about her that happened way back in Florida at the Florida Law Enforcement Training Center near Quincy, FL.  She showed an interest in Pistol shooting one time when I was going out for one of my classification and qualification classes, so I asked the instructor if she could attend the course. He said "OK...if she pays the fee".  So she sat trough the 4 hours of classroom instructions and then we went to the Pistol Range.  We told the Instructor that she had never shot a Pistol before. Lots of Rifles, but never a Pistol.  The instructor was a little shocked but he ran her through the exercises just like he did everyone else.  Well, I’m here to tell you that at the end she had a higher score than the other four active duty Policemen had....plus she came close to beating me.  Wow, I and everyone else there was impressed.  I knew right then that she had that special knack that it required. So from then on I always took her shooting with me and helped her as much as I could…..  maybe too much, cause she now beats me!!  But down deep it makes me proud!


I got a kick out of Jerry’s front license plate… I would also like to compliment these fine folks for this work that they do here at the Sportsmen's club. All Volunteer !

Needless to say we are now Members of the Wickenburg Sportsman's Club and will no doubt be seeing more of the place, especially on Tuesday mornings!! I can be over in one of the other bay's by myself while Ms Pat is shooting with these gals. I really don't much care for organized shooting,,never have. I would much rather just go over by myself and shoot all alone. I think that's the reason I enjoy the desert out behind the house... Nice and quiet and all to myself.... that's my game.

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Thank You all for stopping by……God Bless you all as we continue to thank our Father above for all He provides us..

Mike

This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..