The Second Amendment Foundation has announced that January 19 is Gun Appreciation Day!  You can read all about it on Second Amendment Foundation's website Here and Here.  Blog about it, talk about it, and contact your legislators in the week leading up to this pro-rights day.

*A .22 pistol that matches your centerfire pistol is a perfect practice companion.  The .357 Blackhawk has been accompanying me around the farm for thirty years; the Single-Six is a more recent acquisition.  The .22 has been my main gun for shooting Mr. Completely's e-Postal matches, and the regular trips to our shooting range behind the barn have greatly improved my pistol shooting ability.

Ruger has donated a pile of money to Project Valour-IT from the auctions of rare guns in their collection, and they are now going to sell more to benefit Honored American Veterans Afield.  The first one is this U.S. Marked Mk II pistol.  Click Here, or click the photo to go to GunBroker and read a complete description and to place a bid.  This fine pistol will sell at 12:300 P.M., Wedneday, January 16, 2013.

Skidder bridges like this one sometimes have to be built for crossing streams. This is where a grapple skidder really comes in handy. A grapple skidder can pick up a log and place it where you want it. Here we see Jason use that capability to place a log with a couple others for dragging out.

Ruger is making it easy for you to tell your would-be masters to back off and respect your rights. CLICK HERE to tell your legislators, from the President on down to respect and obey the Constitution.

This "Coffee Mill" gun is used in Civil War reenactments, and burns propane and oxygen. 

Pianmn199 has posted The Kitchen Stove Rag, and it's a good tune.   I wish he had moved the camera in a little closer to the lyrics.

The Second Amendment Foundation has announced that January 19 is Gun Appreciation Day!

 RCDon's writeup on this beautiful project: "See more of this project at WWW.RCDON.COM !!! This video demonstrates the operation of a small horizontal steam engine power plant running on compressed air. The engine was built from a casting kit supplied by PM Research Inc. out of Wellsville NY. IT took 75 hours to machine the castings and construct the 32 pound, ¼ HP engine. You can see the entire build article and over 600 photos of the project at WWW.RCDON.COM !!!"

Today we are listening to the other side of last week's record.  Ted Lewis recorded "While We Danced Til Dawn," a waltz, to back up the fox-trot that we heard last week.  Brat is really getting into helping with the records now that I don't make him hold still.  This video also features the Mystery Lady of the Old Brunswick, a photo that came with this old record player.

Little Skip is a joy to have in our home. We have been twenty years without a Schipperke, and it is great to have one of these little dynamos in our lives again.

Ruger has a highly desirable .44 Carbine on the auction block this week.  This auction is scheduled to end on Wednesday, January 9 at 2:56 PM EST.  100% of the proceeds of this auction will be donated to Soldiers' Angels Project Valour-IT, to benefit wounded service personnel, so bid generously.

Ruger is doing more good with this campaign than we can imagine, so even if you can't afford to buy one of their classic rarities, click over to the Ruger website  (Look under News and Resources) and drop a Thank-You to CEO Mike Fifer.

These smooth running engines made a happy display last October at the show over at Boonville, Indiana. Note the fine tuning adjuster at the end of this video, for setting the ignition timing. These intricate little details were all worked out on paper, when designers had to create images in their minds, without the benefit of a computer screen. I wonder if we still have people with adequate imaginations in our modern age.

...and never worried about torquing down the lug nuts. I've used impact wrenches, tire tools, and breakover bars, and never had a problem; but times have changed. I grew up with steel wheels, and they have quite a bit of give if you overtorque the lug nuts. The nuts may be hard to remove, but no real harm is done. Cast wheels are a different animal, though. There is no give in cast wheels if you crank the nuts down too tight, and over-tightening stretches the studs, rather than bending the center of the wheel. The importance of torquing your lug nuts came home to us recently, when I had a tire repaired. One of the wheel studs spun and fell out, and this is how it looks:





The arcs across the back end of this bolt show the progression as the bolt pulled apart as we drove around in blissful ignorance.  We thought about how this could have happened, and we have figured out that the damage was caused at a tire shop in Mt. Vernon, IL.  We needed a flat fixed last summer; had to replace the tire, and had both changed on that axle.  We were back the next day, because the new tires didn't match the diameter of the tires on the other axle, and the 4WD was kicking in.  So...all four tires had been run down by an impact wrench, instead of being hand tightened the last bit.  What would you do?

We don't want the wheels to fall off of our buggy while we motor down the road, so it is in Ford Square's garage now to have all of the wheel studs changed.  We are also getting new lug nuts as long as we are doing this much.  A torque wrench will be going in the back end of the car, just in case we need tire service in a garage where the workers don't have one of their own.   If you have cast wheels on your car, buy a torque wrench, use it when you change a tire, and keep it in the jack compartment.  Watch the guy who takes your wheels off and on; insist they use a torque wrench to tighten the lug nuts.

Back To The Old Grind!

BachScholar just uploaded The Strenuous Life, by Scott Joplin, and it's a good rendition.

 AceJackalope posted this brief, beautiful video on YouTube: "Union Pacific Challenger class steam locomotive # 3985 pulls the Missouri River Eagle along the Missouri River in Boonville, Missouri at 12:31 PM on October 4, 2010."

I've been wrestling with Brat Cat for years when I crank up the old Brunswick for the weekly old record. If he bumps the microphone sitting in front of the megaphone it means that I have to start over, but I finally figured out that he can't reach a video cam that is perched on a tripod. This is actually easier than recording a sound file, converting to mp3, and combining it with a photo of the record, so I will probably keep doing the records this way. "Just Around The Corner" is a delightful little fox-trot by Ted Lewis and his band, and now that I have it in the hopper I realize that I need to do it over as an mp3 so I can play it when I'm on the road.

 The dozer cleared trees that had grown up in the old barnyard, and the last time I drove by there was a track-hoe sitting next to the dozer.

It's probably all over by now.  Barns like this were outdated technology fifty years ago, and the families who used them are long-gone.  The Mrs. and I have been patching on our barn for more than thirty years, and we will never be done, although we are gaining little by little.  We have big plans for 2013; ripping out old wood, fitting new pieces, bolting and nailing.  Dilapidated old buildings like this old dairy barn give me a sense of urgency to get back to work on our ongoing project.

...and win a very fine firearm!


Ruger is offering a really rare treat for patriotic, soldier-supporting Americans this week.  This Security Six has been hiding in Ruger's vaults for more than thirty years, and now it can be yours, if you will only take a few minutes to set up your bids on GunBroker.  Here is part of Ruger's writeup:  "This week’s auction is a 6-shot, .357 Magnum caliber, Security-Six double-action revolver. The serial number is 158-13427 and has a testfire date of December 2, 1981. This revolver is stainless steel with a brushed satin finish. Features include a 4” heavy barrel; checkered walnut grip panels with silver-colored Ruger® Eagle medallions inlaid in the panels; a square butt; windage and elevation adjustable, white outline notch rear sight; and a red ramp front sight. “CSP X2” is stamped on the left-side of the frame right behind the cylinder. No records were found as to what the “CSP” stands for. The “X2” refers to “Example 2” which tells us this was likely an example revolver for either a police or park department."

This revolver might have been made for California, Colorado, Connecticut, or any city in the U.S. that is spelled with a capital C.  The GP-100 has replaced the Security Six, and this may well be your last chance to buy a factory new example of this fine .357 handgun.  Click the picture, OR HERE, to make your bid.  

The loggers moved out the last of their logs on New Year's Day, and have only to truck away the skidder.  We are very pleased with the work these fellows have done.  They cut the trees we wanted cut, with a minimal amount of collateral damage.  The white oaks scattered through the timber came through unscathed, and they should be ready for sale about the time I turn 110.


We shot this little video a few weeks back, and it is fascinating to watch the ease with which the truck driver booms down his load. I especially like the way he flips over the slack in his chains. Note how he uses a cheater on his boomers. He sets up the boomers so they are at the tension he wants, and he could break them over center without the cheater, but that is a good way to bang your knuckles. He uses the cheater, not to over-tension the chains, but to make the breakover easy and painless to his hands.

Ralfy sends out a very nice new year's greeting from the Irish Sea.

We had 5 to 6 inches of snow last week before Jason could move the last of his logs out.  He bladed off the landing with his skidder so the ground could freeze, then we had another 5 inches.  Oh Well, or words to that effect.  Forecasters say we have more snow coming on New Year's Eve, and I bet Jason is out early in the morning to see what he can do.  The truck with the knuckleboom on it has big ag tires, and they can move logs to the road to load a semi-trailer.  Most of the wood has already been moved, but our loggers would like to get this job finished so they don't have to come back next spring.  They have already moved the Timbco to their next job, and they need to move the rest of their equipment.