I’m Back in Business…..

Ms. Pat shot with her Ladies class at the gun club yesterday, so my vacation ended. Here I am cleaning her gun when we got home. I have it all broken down and sprayed with cleaning solvent, ready to clean, lube and put back together. I usually do this 3 times a week with her gun and twice a week on mine. That’s a lot of gun cleaning in anybody's book. I told her that I thought she should learn to clean her own gun.  She said “Who would cook supper”?   I came right back with “I’ll clean your gun”!! I do kinda enjoy cleaning guns but don’t tell her. It is great therapy and gives me a chance to really get acquainted with all the parts and pieces of the gun and how it functions….   “Bonding” as my Friend JRoger says!



This picture was taken on Jan 25,2012. Just ONE short year ago. Long time shooter, reloader,  and Ms. Pat's instructor, Jerry,  is showing me his reloading set up and telling me that if we were going to shoot much, we should think about reloading our own ammo.  It wasn’t long after this that I purchased my reloading set up……. Unbelievable that was just a short year ago…




After a lot of looking and shopping my Reloading Press finally came. Here I am unpacking it last January..




Soon I had parts and pieces strung all over the shop and I was getting it put together. Starting with the base mount…Lets see what's next?,,




OK, it might help to read the directions...ya think?





Moving right along… Hey, it's starting to look more like Jerry’s all the time..  This is FUN, I enjoy doing stuff like this.





Lots of little parts and pieces and they all have to go together just “SO”!





Aw, now for the real precision stuff.. These are the Die’s for .40 S&W cartridges. These are what really take some careful fine tuning…





There, I have the powder die on and I’m in the process of adjusting it. This is the die that adjusts the amount of powder that goes into the bullet. A very critical step in the process. Too much powder and you may blow the gun up. Not enough powder and the bullet may not fire properly and get stuck in the barrel of your gun. Neither is a good thing to have happen. Imagine firing another bullet when you have one stuck in the barrel.  No, not good at all. I don’t want to try it…





Here it all set up and ready to roll...I think. 






Jerry, being the great helpful guy he is, agreed to come over to my shop and check out all my settings before I actually loaded any bullets. I had it set to the best of my ability but I wasn’t exactly sure about a couple things. So I welcomed Jerry’s input.  Jerry has been reloading for over 50 years!!  After checking it all out and showing me how to make a few minor adjustments, he said “Well you did Good.  Now lets load some bullets”!  I told him “You go ahead, You first”! :-)





After Jerry loaded a few, he said “OK, your turn”.  So here I am, loading my very FIRST bullet on my new Dillon RL550B press.  This was a big moment that I had been waiting for. Gosh, my heart was even beating fast, this is exciting!!





After my first bullet we checked it carefully with the calipers and it was RIGHT ON!! Hurray! Jerry then said “There ya go, I believe you're ready”!  This was on Feb, 14th., 2012.  At the same time, I knew that I was no where near “READY”. I had to be extremely careful and take it slow as I knew enough to realize this is a very serious business and could be dangerous. I certainly did not want to hurt anybody, including myself. I am still just a beginner and continue to be extremely careful and cautious as I reload bullets. I’m still learning as I continually read about it and discuss it with other experienced shooters..   Even after loading nearly 10,000 in the last year, I am by no means experienced at it. I’m just a beginner...but I love it!

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will come on back…



Have a good week!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..

Rain, Rain, Rain and I Was "Kidnapped"!

Thursday Morning Pistol Match--------------------CANCELLED due to RAIN
Saturday Morning Pistol Match--------------------CANCELLED due to RAIN

Thursday morning it was cloudy and they forecast rain in the afternoon. So at 8:30am we were at the Wickenburg Pistol Range ready to compete in the scheduled shooting match. Shortly after we arrived, it started raining…….. Whoa,  the weather forecasters missed it and the rain was early.  Everybody said, "Whoopee!! A Day Off!!!"  We all ran to our vehicles and took off, couldn’t shoot. You can shoot in freezing weather and when the wind is blowing but you can’t shoot in the RAIN.

Don’t see much rain here in Arizona at all, so it is a real treat.  This place always needs moisture, so it kinda puts everybody in a good mood.  I always said that when it is raining here, it is the only time I can sit in the house and do nothing without feeling guilty, like I should be out doing something.  I was heading home to do just that when Ms. Pat reminded me we had an appointment at the hospital!   I said, "What for?" She said, "You'll see".




As soon as I got in the door, WHAM!!, they tackled me and removed half my clothes, slammed me flat on my back and rolled me into a room.  Then this young lady began attaching all kinds of wires to me. It's tough to put up any resistance to a young, red headed lady like this, so I surrendered rather quickly. I kidded with her and asked her not to hurt me.  I told her that Ms. Pat would have to come along because she was my bodyguard!




Suddenly she started doing all kinds of fun things to me and I could hear my heart beating on the machine she was looking into. I didn’t realize it "squeaked" like that....sounded as if it needed some oil to me! I told her that if she hurt me, I was going to HOLLER and Ms. Pat would shoot her!




I was just lying back enjoying myself, having a good ole' time, when she took the wires off and turned to Ms. Pat and said “There, I’m all done with him”.  I think she was pleasantly surprised when Ms Pat asked her if she would pose for a picture.  She told us she had never been asked to have her picture taken during a procedure before!  Ms. Pat told her she would be a star on the internet.  She was a neat lady and she didn’t hurt me one bit!!




I no more than got my clothes back on and was in the hallway telling Ms Pat “Let's get out of here”!  when suddenly these two hoodlums slipped up behind me and abducted me! I was really scared this time. I remember my dad telling me when I was a boy, to always watch out if somebody in a white coat came to get you. Soon they had me flat on my back  and started removing my clothes.  AGAIN!!




Yep, you guessed it, they attached all these wires to me, except this time one guy had to take some sandpaper and sand off a spot before he attached the wires.  OUCH!!  Now that hurt!!  I get along pretty good with the gals around these places, but you can’t trust these guys! They will hurt you!!




Then they forced me up on this tread mill with all this apparatus on and told me to “get walkin”!
I thought OK.  I’ll go along with them for a while and then maybe I can make a break for it and escape.  They kept turning it up faster and faster and raising the elevation.  Man, we were going to town...."uphill fast".    I was just about to yell at Ms. Pat and tell her “OK. shoot ‘em”  when they slowed it down and said I made it through the test and they were going to turn me loose.  I can see now why Ms. Pat made me leave my gun in the truck!! 

When I finally escaped out of the Wickenburg Hospital, I strapped my gun back on and told Ms. Pat we were headed for HOME!!   She said "We probably should stop by the grocery store”.   I thought, "Hmmm, another trap!" So I just drove straight home…No Grocery Store!!

It rained all afternoon and evening.  I didn’t have any guns to clean since we didn’t shoot and I was all loaded up with bullets so I felt like I was on "vacation". Hot Dog!





Ms. Pat and Megabyte2 worked on their quilt project and had a grand ole' time…….




It rained and it rained.  I tell ya, rain is such a rarity around here, it makes you really appreciate it when it does happen. I enjoyed just watching it RAIN!! COOL. Praise the Lord..!




This place has an underground water drainage system that takes the water from the front door area…………




...it deposits all the excess rain water out here in front and directs it around to the side of the house.  I really like the way it works and it's another one of the things that impressed me about this place.

It was a GREAT WEEK!!!!



Thank you all for stopping by.  Hope you are all staying warm and dry….

God Bless..

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..

Hey THANKS!!

I want to thank everyone very much for all the fine comments on how we looked all spiffed up for our Church dinner.  I appreciate it very much. That kind of helps one keep the ole' dobber up.  I find that one of the things about old age is, it is real easy to slip into a depressive state. More and more I find myself doing that and I sure don’t like it. I have found a few ways to combat it but it gets to be a full time job fighting it.

I was never troubled with depression before in my life. However, the last few years it seems to be happening more and more. I really think one thing that adds to depression is an inactive mind. That is the main reason I try to keep as busy as possible. Things like this Blog, my guns, shooting, cleaning guns, collecting guns and loading bullets are a few of the successful ways I fight and combat it. Depression is a terrible thing and not something a lot of people will talk much about.  If you have never had to deal with it, consider yourself lucky. But don’t count your blessings too soon, because it may still be in the future. I never dreamed that “I” would have to deal with it.  It is terrible!!


Yesterday was Ms. Pat's Ladies shooting class at the Wickenburg Gun Club and was it ever a beautiful day....76 degrees I don’t know how much longer this kind of weather can last but it sure is enjoyable and appreciated by us all.  Above is a picture of the instructors, Jerry and Caryl, starting off the training as usual with a SAFETY meeting. You can’t get too much SAFETY training when it comes to firearms. Jerry and Caryl are wonderful instructors and it is so kind of them to continually volunteer their time to this program.


Jerry is a very experienced shooter and has been involved in shooting for over 50 years. He has been on hunting expeditions all over the world and has trophy heads of all kinds of different animals he has taken from different countries.  He came to Arizona from Montana and they have a little ranch with a couple of horses just west of Congress. It was Jerry that suggested that I get into reloading and he has been a great source of information and a lot of help setting up my reloading press. He even came over to my shop and checked to see if I had my Dillon RL550B reloading press set up properly and loaded my FIRST bullet.  I am extremely indebted to him…..


I go out with Ms. Pat to her gun class every Tuesday afternoon.  I can go to one of the other bays and shoot if I want or need to but most of the time I just help set up and take down the targets for the gals. This helps Jerry and Caryl some and I enjoy it and the exercise is good for me.  Plus, if I stayed home, I would probably just get (you guessed it).....”depressed”. This is better, I enjoy it.


This is my reloading press that I mentioned. I spend a lot of time behind it pulling on that handle. Each time I pull that handle down, I crank out a new bullet.  You can see the empty brass casings just to the right of the handle. Those will all soon be bullets to take to the range and shoot.


These are the bullets that I use. They are lead. The one on the left is what I am using exclusively now. It is Moly coated lead and very slick.  One of the guys that shoots at the club is a distributor for Bear Creak Moly coated bullets and supplies many of us with hundreds of these. He brings them right to the Range and saves us a lot of postage… because they are HEAVY!! 


That bullet on the left is one of my finished products. The one on the right is a factory load. We buy the factory loads and shoot them and then reload the brass casings ourselves over and over many times. This saves a bundle of bucks.. The factory bullet costs approximately 0.50 each and the reload costs about 0.18. Quite a savings as you can see. Since I have started reloading less than a year ago, I have reloaded nearly 10,000 bullets. Yes, 10 THOUSAND!! A lot of bullets I know…seems unreal doesn’t it? But it does add up..

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!!

I am happy to welcome two more followers:
Eddie
Rodney
Very glad to have you folks with us and hope to hear some comments from you. That brings the count up to 245!!


For all you RVers out there enjoying life on “batteries”, here is a chart that I always used to watch my power consumption. I taped it right along side my battery monitor. Remember, in order to maintain your batteries and make them last as long as possible, you should not take them down below 50% before they are recharged.  Happy boondocking!!


Thanks to you all for stopping by as we continue to praise our Father in Heaven for the many, many blessings He bestows upon us.

Mike

PS:  Here's a picture that I took off of Facebook of Rollie and Gina with their new twin granddaughters.  It's a little "fuzzy" but it's all I have for now.  Aren't they beautiful little girls?  Congratulations, Rollie and Gina. 

This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..

What, another Quilter in the Family?

When I came into the house from my gun shop, I was quite amused to see Megabyte2 so deeply engrossed in Ms. Pats sewing on her latest quilt project.  She just loves to watch the sewing machine work.


It's funny how she sometimes stands up and lays her ears back as if to say, “Oh No Mom, you made a mistake”!! Neither of us realized what a personality these pets can have. She has certainly become so much a part of our life that I can’t imagine what we would do without her. I continually thank God for having Scott send her to us.  Just think, I didn’t even used to like Cats very well.  I bet “Scooter” is sure smiling down upon us right now. Thank you Son.


Our Church had a big dinner Thursday evening.  It is called the "Legacy Banquet: Honoring and Serving our Widows".  It is for older folks that have lost their spouses or for some reason it is difficult for them to get out alone. They asked us be Ms Eva's chaperone and escort her to the Banquet.  Here we are with Ms Eva just before dinner was served.  Wow, I don’t get out much anymore, especially after dark.

If you think I look as if I’m not too comfortable, you would be thinking right!  But I did enjoy being out with these two "Lovely Ladies". This is the second year we have taken Ms Eva on a "dinner date". She is a great lady and a joy to be around.  She owns a beautiful home here in Wickenburg and has an RV that she leaves in Oregon, where she spends her summers.


Our friends and neighbors Paul and Nancy from North Ranch were there, too. I don’t believe Paul looks a bit more comfortable than I did. But we had fun, didn’t we Paul?


This was our table and the rest of the folks that we sat with. The Church and the tables were set up beautifully. They didn’t serve the dinner until 7 pm.  Wow, we usually eat at 5 pm and you know how us old folks get "set in our ways".  However, the dinner was great, I have to admit, but I was glad to get home.  We didn’t get home until 9pm and I haven’t driven after dark for a while but we made it safe and sound.  I went straight to bed, watched 5 minutes of the Fox news and was sound asleep....ZZZZZZZ. 

Not much exciting around here to Blog about, as you can tell. The weather did turn off beautiful and has been getting up close to the 70’s in the afternoons. We sure appreciate that!

About a year ago I made a little airplane trip with Duane. To check that blog out, click here:

"There I was at the Wickenburg AIRPORT"


A lot of folks are over at Quartzsite at all the different annual RV get togethers in that area but soon it will be time for the yearly “Boot Camp” held right here at North Ranch. A lot of them will be headed back this way and the campground will be full so if you plan on coming, better get here a few days early.  Here is the info on that and we hope you can drop by.

Escapees Boot Camp
Fri, 2/1 thru Sun, 2/3, in Activities Center.
Provides fundamentals for road safety, technical proficiency, and confidence for RVers.
Call (888)757-2582 for info.

It was a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and hurry on back anytime.

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..

Goodbye Anonymous…

I started this Blog back in early 2007 and have posted over 500 blogs during that time. For the last few years I have been plagued with “Anonymous” commenters. It got worse and worse until a couple weeks ago I said “ENOUGH”! Most of them were out and out true “spam” and many not even written in English. Others were from people that just wanted to make a “snide” remark and didn’t have the guts to identify themselves. On each one of these comments, you must either approve them or delete them. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to get ride of them but they do become a real nuisance and disgusting.  Some of them were on Blogs that I had published several years ago.  It got to the point that this one Spammer posted a comment on one of my Blogs over 100 times in one day!! Can you believe that? 

So I thought I would stop this big time spammer that always commented on the same old Blog by just deleting that particular blog. I did that and hurray success....for a few days!  Then it began on another older blog post....same thing. Over 50 in one day. That’s when I decided, OK. that’s it, I’ve had enough. So I fixed my Blog, NO MORE Anonymous comments. WOW, what a relief!! It's been a couple weeks now and NO SPAM.  What a relief!

I really didn’t want to totally get ride of Anonymous because I do get a good one once in a while from someone that doesn’t know you don’t have to join before you can make a comment.  To those folks, I'm sorry. I hope you will continue reading my Blog and try commenting using just your first name. 

What a COLD spell we are having. Unusually long time for it to stay cold this long. Last Sunday the early morning low was `22* and the high was 41* for the day. Then Monday the low was 21*, with a high of 40.  We finally had some relief Tuesday with a low of 24 and it got way up to 45 for a high.  Had a regular “heat wave”!  This morning the low is 30 and they say by Thursday it will be in the mid 60’s. Man, I can’t wait. This has been all the cold weather I want to see for this year!! 


My friend and x-boss Ron, at Custer State Park, sent me this picture he took of the Buffalo the other day. What a beautiful picture. I remember days just like this back when I was young and helping Dad feed the cattle on our ranch in the Sandhills of Nebraska.  I’ll bet these guys are ready to see some warmer weather, too! It's been right around “0” up there in Custer this winter. That helps me feel a little warmer. 


I would like to Welcome our latest Followers:
Vicki
Chuck
Thank you both for joining us, we are happy to have you aboard and hope you stop by often.
I can remember not too long ago when I didn’t think we would ever get to 50 followers.  Wow!!  Vicki and Chuck take the count to 243, and I do believe we will soon reach “250”! Hallelujah!


Oh my, do we ever have a battle on the horizon.  It may even end up being a WAR!!   Lots of strong feelings on the subject, but the fur is about to hit the fan….I am sure of that!! Hang on!!

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and stay warm!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..

Oranges anybody?

Remember all those green oranges I showed you about a month ago on our orange trees? Well they have been growing and ripening more and more so I have been doing my best to save them from the cool temps that we have been having.


I have been covering them with about everything I have to cover with for a couple weeks. Thursday evening the newscasters told everyone it was going to get “real cold” and stay that way for several days. Friday morning it got down to 27*, but only for a couple hours.  The weather people said that was just a sample of what was coming and if we had any fruit that we wanted to save we better “pick it”.


So that afternoon I uncovered the trees and asked Ms. Pat if she would help me pick oranges. So we picked and we picked. We left about 1/2 of them as they were some still a little green and we had more than we would ever need.


As you can see we picked two big boxes. Some of them are a tad green and a little small yet but you know what, they are delicious!! They are "juice" oranges and really sweet.  They have a few seeds in them but who cares.  Whether the ones we left on the trees will survive or not, we will just have to wait and see.  I know I could put light bulbs under the covers but we just covered them all back up the way they were.  We'll take our chances and let Mother Nature do as she wishes.  We have plenty of ORANGES, so if you could use a few, come and get ‘em.

Lucky we picked what we did, when we did, because Saturday morning it got down to 27* and stayed that way for quite a while. Then last night (Sat. night) by 9:00 pm it was already down to 34* and this morning as I type this it is 23* and going down. They say this is the longest cold spell Arizona has had for years and years and possibly a new record.

When we got out to the Pistol Range yesterday morning at 8:30, it was still in the  low 30’s and we all had LOTS of clothes on. But it was our monthly steel shoot and we didn’t want to miss it. Shooting steel is hard and real good practice.  You really have to take a good aim. Aiming while you are shivering makes it extra hard but everybody was at the same disadvantage so it was a challenge. We managed to fire off just over 100 rounds each and were all done with all the different scenarios by 11:30.  As we headed home, we joked at how good the electric "Seat Heaters" in our Silverado felt.

Ms. Pat had a hair appointment after lunch and I had my usual appointment with TWO PISTOLS so. I cleaned guns!    Now, when I get back from Church today, I’m going to load some more ammo while Ms. Pat goes to the clubhouse and teaches her dance class.

It's still a busy place around here but I’m ready for winter to get over. Yep, I’m a yearnin' (dreaming) for those 55* mornings and 75* days.  Oh Boy, will I ever appreciate them!!

It was a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and ya'll stay warm, ya' hear?

Mike

PS:  Some of you asked for the Shrimp and Corn recipe.  So I asked Ms Pat to put it in here.  It tastes REAL GOOD on these really cool days.

*******************

Shrimp and Corn Soup

Sauté green onions (1 batch)

2 cans cream of shrimp

2 cans cream of potato

2 cans cream of chicken

2 lbs small shrimp

1 small bag of frozen corn (I use the white corn)  (You can use canned corn but I prefer frozen.)

1 stick of butter

1 cup milk

1 pint Half and Half

Tony's Creole Seasoning (it's spicy)

Sauté onions in 1/2 stick butter

Add other ingredients

Sauté shrimp in 1/2 stick butter in another pan

Add sautéed Shrimp to the pot of other ingredients.

Add Tony's to taste (Mike likes it spicy so I keep adding until it tastes just right.)

 

Serve with hot, fresh baked bread.

NOTE:  I cut this recipe in half unless I'm having company. It is still enough for a couple of meals for Mike and I.  You really need the Tony's Creole Seasoning to make it taste right.  Gina gave me a big container of it when we were in Louisiana because it's hard to find out West.

*********************

(thanks Gina)

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..