A tale of two doctors...

I think I told you a couple of times that I go shooting with my Doctor when ever I can. He isn't just my Doctor, he also takes care of Joe Texan and Big Mullet. We like this guy because he is a GOOD Doctor. When he comes in the room, he sits down and actually asks you what is going on. And then he does something amazing, he listens to what you have to say!

I recently had to see a different doctor. He came into the room with a plan. It wouldn't have mattered if I told him I had fire shooting out of my ass, his plan would have been the same. Maybe this guy is good at what he does, but, in my opinion, there is more to being a good doctor than  ordering a CT Scan or MRI. The ability to communicate with and listen to patients is a big deal too. Maybe I expect too much, but for what it costs to see a doctor these days, I don't think so.

Maybe if more doctors would go shooting with their patients they would have to order a whole lot fewer expensive tests.

Sorry for the lack of posts...

Sorry for the lack of posts. I have been busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest. Work has been a little crazy lately. And I have had lots of shit to do around the house. I had to catch up on mowing. Since that piece of shit cub cadet broke down on me, I got a little behind, but the new John Deere is doing a great job. I've been working on the picnic table I picked up from my Father-in-Law. The frame was made out of square tube steel about 30 years ago. It is in good shape, but is in need of a good sanding and fresh coat of paint. I am replacing the wood top and seats. The old wood was the original redwood. It was a rotting in places and had all the corners had been chewed by the dog and probably a squirrel or two. I'll get a few pictures of the finished project.

Joe Texan asked me to put a camo paint job on his pellet rifle. I have that done and now just need to put everything back together. It turned out nice. There was one little sag in the paint that I didn't notice until I already applied the clear coat. I sanded some of it out and touched up the paint and applied more clear coat.

I'm also still working on the tree we lost in the storm a couple of weeks ago. I have one more log to cut into a few fire wood sized pieces and then try to get the stump out of the ground. I'm going to latch onto it with the Chevy Earthfucker and see what happens.

While I was mowing I also noticed that I need to trim about every tree on the property. It's amazing the amount of growth the trees have put on this year. We have a little Maple that we planted last year that has put on at least two feet so far this year. All of the new fruit trees, 4 Cherry and a Peach, have really sprung up too. We didn't have any fruit on the Peaches or Cherries. We had a late freeze while the blooms were on. It looks like we will have a bumper crop of Pears though. The Blackberry bushes are loaded down. My Bride made a nice batch of Blackberry jam last year. It turned out fantastic. I'm hoping she can put up some more this year. She has already put up some Strawberry jam this year.

Enough of all the domestic bullshit. I hope it didn't bore you too much...

Do you know what tomorrow is?

Tomorrow, June 30th, is Joe Texan's birthday. He will be really old, but not as old as he will be next June 30th.

He is exactly one year and one day older than me...

Range Day June 17th, 2011

Me, Big Mullet, Joe Texan and our Doctor all went our to the range yesterday. It was raining when we got there so we did some pistol shooting since we could fire from under cover.

I didn't write down all the different pistols we shot, but we had a good time. I do know there were 3 .38s and a .45. The Doc brought out a couple of the .38's and the other belongs to Joe Texan. And the .45 is Big Mullet's.

After the rain stopped we moved over to a 50 yard range to shoot some good old .22. I brought out the Mossberg Plinkster. I haven't fired it since I got the scope installed. Big Mullet brought out a badass CZ .22 rifle that also has a .17 HMR barrel. We only shot .22 out of it though. Joe Texan had his Ruger 10/22 and the Doc had some really cool old .22 rifle that none of us had ever seen.

We were playing around with different ammo on Big Mullet's CZ. It's funny, I never thought much about .22 ammo. It's not like you are shooting 300 yards. But at 50 yards there was a big difference between the cheap ammo from Walmart that runs $12 bucks for a box of 500 and the more expensive Remington and CCI. With some of the costlier ammo, I put 5 rounds in a spot you could cover with a dime. It was an interesting experiment.

I got the Mossberg Plinkster sighted in. And Joe Texan broke out his .308 and got it sighted in too.

I took a few pictures, I'll try to post them up soon.

As always, we had an excellent time. Any day at the range is a good day...

Joe Texan sent me an email today...

Joe Texan sent me an email today and I thought I would share it with you...

John's Chicken Farm

John was in the egg business. He had several hundred young layers (hens), called 'pullets', and ten roosters to fertilize them.

He kept records, and any rooster not performing went into the soup pot and was replaced.

This took a lot of time, so he bought some tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone, so he could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing. Now, he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report by just listening to the bells.

John's favorite rooster, Obama, was a very fine specimen, but this morning he noticed Obama's bell hadn't rung at all! When he went to investigate, he saw the other roosters were busy chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing, but the pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover. To John's amazement, Obama had thought of a way to do it without work, he had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one.

John was so proud of Obama, he entered him in the Chicago County Fair and he became an overnight sensation among the judges.

The result was the judges not only awarded Obama the No Bell Piece Prize but they also awarded him the Pulletsurprise as well.

Clearly Obama was a politician. Who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention.

Vote carefully next fall, the bells are not always audible.

A trip to the range yesterday...

Yesterday morning, Joe Texan, my Little One and I went out to the shotgun range for a while. We shot a couple of rounds of trap.

Joe Texan had never shot any flying stuff before so that was interesting. He did pretty good for his first time out. I don't think he cared much for my Mossberg 500. The first round we shot, the guy that owns the range let Joe Texan borrow his Remington 1100, but on the second round, the range guy suggested that he use my gun and I use the 1100. The reason behind this was that I shoot the pigeons much closer than Joe Texan and my Mossberg 500 will reach out a little further, because of choke differences.

I think Joe Texan is probably sporting a nice bruise today... :)

My Little One did awesome. She probably hit 17 out of her first 25 and about the same on the second round. She loves shooting the little Remington 870 Youth 20 ga.

One of the regulars at the range commented that in a year all the old guys will have to watch out for her. I was proud as I could be.

I did ok, I think I hit about 20 out of the first 25. I might have hit a couple less on the second round, and I'm not throwing the Remington 1100 under the bus, but I wasn't as familiar with it as with my Mossberg 500. There was a bit of a learning curve.

I didn't get any pictures yesterday, at the trap range things move a little too fast for much camera action.

I'm going to try to get the whole gang (me, my Bride and both girls) together with Big Mullet tomorrow for some more trap and maybe some rifle. it may be tough though, everybody has stuff going on. It might just be me and Big Mullet, that's ok too though. Any day shooting is a good day...

Obamapocalypse Bug-Out Vehicle

I acquired a new (to me) pickup the other day. The truck is a 1970 Chevy long bed. It's direly in need of a paint job, but it's not rusted out anywhere that can't be easily replaced. Some new hoses, fluids, wires, belts, filters, gaskets, brakes, tires, brake booster, bulbs, shocks, lowered coil springs, and battery, along with either a new carburetor or carb rebuild should make it reliable enough to get me anywhere I need to go. A lot of elbow grease, some paint, new fenders, trim, bumpers, mirrors, windshield, seat, and weather stripping will make it presentable. In other words, I'm going to be replacing a lot of stuff. It has some butt-ugly 15" rims on it, but I've already picked up a set of really nice 17" alloy Chevy wheels that came off a 2002 Tahoe, dirt cheap on Craigslist. Maybe I'll keep the old rims to use in the winter and put some snow tires on them. I don't think this beast is going to be the best thing in the snow without all the help it can get. If I put a tonneau cover on it, I can store a half-ton of wood pellets in it for my stove and keep the rear end weighted down in the winter, thus killing two birds with one stone.

Okay, it doesn't have four-wheel-drive, but it's got a big bed, a trailer hitch, a 350 V-8, and a TH350 tranny. With those, I ought to be able to get me and my family to BillyBob's compound, or to my in-laws, or to some of my other country kinfolks when the Obamapocalypse comes. What it really needs is a pedestal-mounted Ma Deuce to make it persuasive when people get in my way, though.

 

BillyBob has been so gracious to allow me to domicile it at his place while we work on it and get it up to snuff. He has a nice collection of '67-'72 body style Chevies and has forgotten more about them than I'll ever know.