Weekend Update

We had a family range day this weekend. Lot's of fun. Lot's of .22 LR ammo was used. My oldest has adopted an old Mossberg M44 US from the CMP. It is one that originally sold for <$100 if I recall and I never really appreciated it. After everyone else got hot and tired and went back to the A/C I stayed out and burned up some more ammo with the M44. I appreciate that little gem a lot more now. Did I mention that it was hot? It was hot enough that the wax on the bullets was getting sticky and they were sitting in the shade. I was hitting a 2" diameter steel plate at 25 yards offhand 90% of the time or better. That's not too bad for me using aperture sights and shooting at a mottled gray plate against a mottle gray and brown backstop using aperture sights. By offhand I don't mean the position that Service Rifle shooters use with their support elbow resting on their hip but rather the kind of offhand you would use in the woods when you see a deer or rabbit and you want to shoot it before it decides to depart. I need to spend time at the range like this more often. It's good for the mind, the body, and the soul.

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

We had 3 chicks hatch Sunday and we have 3 more that have poked little holes in their eggshells but haven't broken out, yet. One of the chicks was having trouble getting out of the shell and I had to chip the shell off and tear the outer membrane. It still couldn't get out after another hour or two so when we decided that the chick was going to die if we didn't do something I took a small pair of scissors and snipped the inner membrane and got it out. That was about 8:00pm Sunday and it was wobbling around on it's own this morning so I guess I'll call that a successful operation.

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

We seem to have plenty of plum and blueberry jelly and peach preserves. I like that.

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

When I was a kid I sharpened knives with Arkansas stones. I had several that I got from my dad including a very fine black stone and a translucent ultra-fine stone. They were small for sharpening pocket knives and it took a lot of care to sharpen a larger hunting knife. I still have them somewhere but I can't seem to locate them at the moment. I'll discover them again one of these days. Some years ago I started using a Spyderco Sharpmaker, which uses triangle shaped ceramic rods. I like that because it is quick and easy. However, my impression is that it won't put the same kind of edge on a knife that good Arkansas stones can, so I ordered some larger (6" long) Arkansas stones. I'll keep the Sharpmaker because it is so quick and easy and can make a dull knife sharp enough to use in just a few minutes but I can't wait for the new stones to arrive. Sharpening a knife is like shooting - it is good for the mind, the body and the soul.