Damn fine. At least no one is throwing dirt in my face as of yet.

UH OH…things have gone all quiet again…it’s either hunting season or Nuts are sleeping in.

Been quiet around here as well, although yesterday being Mothers Day over here, things were a bit hectic around the house with daughters and Grandaughters here to celebrate with my 97 year old Mother In Law and my wife Patricia. A good day was had by all, and I did something right with Tricia telling me I got her the perfect gift…$200 worth of Clarins beauty treatments.

I’ve also been a bit active around the house, pulling off sliding security doors and replacing bottom rollers and fitting locking catches. Mongrel of a job, especially since I have a crook back, can’t spend much time bending over and can’t kneel because of crook knees (can’t kneel on the knee replacement, too painful) means I have to lay on the ground to do much of it. I’m also in the process of making a lattice arbor/archway for her Wisteria and Bougainvillea to grow over. I had previously bought a nice metal Arch, but it didn’t last and rusted out to nothing. Unfortunately it’s been raining off and on over the past couple of weeks, so I can’t use power tools out in the backyard, plus, being pine, once the timber is wet it is a pain to work. I’ll get it done, hopefully this week.

This morning is taken up with a medical appointment for a Bilateral Carotid Artery ultrasound to exclude Arteriosclerosis and a Blockage plus a CAT Scan to see if I have a brain, although I’m sure there’s something in me head apart from air, the Dr wants to see if I have Vertigo…had a few unexplained falls. So that’s me for today. I might look at doing some reloading this afternoon depending on how things go with the Dr.

I have two other projects in the wings…my son-in-law rewired my quad for me, so I have to get a battery into it and connect up the headlights etc, plus work out if I can put a connector in for a spotlight (not sure if the alternator has the power to charge the battery and run a 100 watt halogen light. I’d like to get a side by side quad (Polaris or similar), but they are far too expensive for me.
I also want to “freshen” up the motor in one of my trail bikes, a 1974 Bultaco 350cc Alpina, replace bearings, bushes etc, fix a couple of pinpoint leaks in the fibreglass fuel tank (put a quality sealant inside the tank) then a splash of paint. I’ve got to replace the front wheel and front brakes…the alloy wheel is developing cracks around the spokes in the rim and the brake pads are full of oil and don’t work properly plus the brake drum is worn out. I’ll also pull the front forks down and replace some of the internals and seals. Put new tires on the bike and it will be ready to go, although this bike didn’t come with a battery as part of the electric system, so I’m looking at fitting these parts if possible (will save on light globes - they always blow because the higher the engine revs, the more power goes to the globes…ppfffttt pop). I’ll look around for a cheap Honda postman’s bike and rob the electrics from that.

Anybody awake yet, or have I bored you all to death and you’ve gone back to bed? Anyway, best get ready to go up form the Dr visit. Catch ya all later.

Vince, have you looked at a voltage regulator or Zener diode to protect the lights on the bike?

Just piddling around here. I was doing a long neglected cleaning of my desk and found mail from 2013...

Adding to my collection of stuff I'm not shooting... I'm assembling an AR upper in .338 ARC. It's a "pistol" with a 14" barrel. The cartridge looks like it'll be pretty neat. 307 grain subsonic loads and 175 grain supersonic loads. The characteristics that attracted me to it were: 1 - the pressure for both sub and super sonic loads is about the same, so you don't have to fiddle with the gas port when changing loads. 2 - the powder charges for both sub and super sonic loads don't leave a lot of extra room in the case, so should be insensitive to position and more consistent velocities.

Handloader wrote:

Vince, this site has 2,393 members. There seems to be a whole bunch of lurkers and voyeurs out there! Its hard to imagine that among those fellow users of this site that there aren't some subjects of interest that could be posted.

How about women ????

Women Sounds good...

Been planting my tomatos.

”Punkin” wrote:

Vince, have you looked at a voltage regulator or Zener diode to protect the lights on the bike?…

I’ll definitely need a Zener Diode and regulator mate as the magneto coil only puts out a nominal 6 Volts AC and is rev dependant. I’ve been told that charging a 12 volt battery shouldn’t be a problem for the magneto so long as I have the Zener Diode and a Regulator…hence my idea of “taxing” the system off a “postie” bike. The only other problem I can see is I may have to rewind the magneto lighting coil to produce 12 volts, again AC, not DC. Whichever way, I’ll look at running LED globes in the headlight and taillight.

Just been trying to keep up with everything around home, inside and out. SWMBO has had four appointments at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN and will finally get surgery on on the 28th of May. Hopefully this surgery will fix most of her problems.

The new job is going OK, it's kind of boring but that just means the simulators aren't broken. I still have a hard time remembering what all the knobs and buttons do but I have taught myself to take off and fly it around. I'm pretty rough on the landings yet, thank God for the magic reset button.

I smelted all my lead down and ended up with only 500 pounds left. However I do have seven of the extra large Folgers coffee cans filled with bullets ready to size and lube. Plus around 500 of each caliber already sized and lubed. Time to do some shooting so I can spend next winter reloading. I still have plenty of 5.56 and 45 ACP that I can reload.

It just seems like everything takes so much longer then it used to. I guess I must be starting to get old. At least that's what my body is telling me.

I’m in a similar boat mate…my body is yelling at me, telling me to take it easier and remember my age. When I try to do anything now, it says, “guess what pal, cop this…OW OW OW OUCHIES OUCHIES HURTIES”, OK already, I got the message!

I planned on doing some reloading the other day, but things got in the way and I didn’t get a chance to even look at my reloading bench. Maybe in the next few days. I have enough primers to get through for a little while, and I have plenty of bullets…powder is my only concern. Finding the right powders is becoming difficult, even for Aussie made powders. I’m going to hazard a guess at saying IMR and Hogdon are taking most of it, leaving very little for the Aussie market, and what is left is f@#k off expensive when you can find it. Oh well, I’ll load up what I have and shoot less when I can get to the range. I’m thinking that we will all be following Elvis’s lead in making our own black so we can continue shooting if things don’t improve.

I've had last week off and done stuff all.catching up on lost sleep. Put 3x 40lb pigs in freezer so sorted for pork for a while.might just go look for some venison tomorrow.

Elvis wrote:

I've had last week off and done stuff all.catching up on lost sleep. Put 3x 40lb pigs in freezer so sorted for pork for a while.might just go look for some venison tomorrow.

Half ya luck mate…I keep sorta planning an outing, but life gets in the way. Physio this morning, then Dentist later in the day to rip out an errant fang. I have an average of three medical appointments a week…and my bod isn’t getting any better

Oh well, shouldn’t be too long and I’ll be able to get out for a shot, although chasing deer won’t happen…don’t have access to a property with deer.

This year's big change is the roegame in my garden... I occasionally had a doe with 2 buckkittens from last year and her buck visiting. Last year's buckkittens are gone and the doe gave birth to new kittens last week (looking at the change in size of her belly). Hope she shows her kittens in the near future... it's so nice to spot them out of my kitchen at about 50-60m distance.
Roebuckseason is open now, but I've never shot roegame in my own garden... everything should be allowed to have a save place and seeing them so often now in my own garden they are almost like family (joining my Eastern hare and my house cock-pheasant... who says hunting is always killing game?)

Did I already mention that I love roegame? The more you learn to know it, the more you start to love them (and not only their venison!)

"who says hunting is always killing game"

Well said Aloysius. I have 5 Whitetail does that transverse my 7 acres about twice a week. All within pistol shot.

I'm always hunting ------ Saturday nights.

Women...HUH!

Tremblay wrote:

I'm always hunting ------ Saturday nights.