Just beheading the people in America that American's won't behead

Here is your link.

Just some more law abiding, hard working illegals doing the jobs that American's won't do. The difference in this case is that most American's wouldn't have done that particular job at ANY rate of pay.

This violence south of the border is kind of like African honey bees. These bees keep spreading and increasing their territory and every time some expert claims that they can't move past a certain point that expert is proven wrong.

Of course we don't need any border security and don't even broach the subject of giving up on prohibition.

If you want to stop illegal drugs then you have to go after the demand AND the source. There seems to be no way to reduce the demand for drugs and there is so much money to be made that suppliers have almost unbelievable resources at their disposal.

OK, you could go after the source by confiscating drugs, lacing them with poison, and then selling them on the street. You could use the proceeds from the sales to cover some of the costs of the confiscations. That would be very painful in the short run but it seems likely to reduce the demand one way or another. What to do with all the bodies would be a question that would require a lot of serious thought.

However, the big question is: Should we be doing this?

The so-called war on drugs has been used as an excuse to increase the power of government without any limits. Police forces with training and weapons to rival the military of all but a few nations are regularly used against US citizens.

I wasn't around when prohibition was put in place and then later repealed so I can't comment first hand on the results, but it is interesting that in that case it took an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States to prohibit the sale of alcohol and another Amendment to repeal it. Apparently, these days it doesn't take that much effort to ban substances and then allow the government to confiscate the property of anyone found with that substance without a trial.

There doesn't seem to be a way to win this. Of course with government provided healthcare controlling the substances people have access to is important. If you are paying for your neighbor's healthcare then you don't want him putting harmful substances in his body, right?

There is no end in sight as far as government expansion is concerned.

A couple of pics of deer

Here is the mule deer doe that came up and bedded down near us while we were working with the circular saw. The wasp nest I sprayed is in that tree just outside the picture to the right. The doe didn't get up when I sprayed it.



Here is a nice looking mule deer buck my dad saw when he was out there a few days ago spraying insecticide on the old blind to try and keep some of the wasps away. His antlers are a little hard to see among the tee limbs but if you look just above and outside his right ear (left side of the pic) you can see them.

Hopefully we'll be seeing this guy around in a few weeks when mule deer season opens.

Compromise, muddy water and burning houses

I was reading over My Book of Common Days and found this post.

It got me to thinking about our current political and social situation. I see this nation as a burning house. Two people are in the house. One sees that it is burning and wants to either put out the fire or get out of the house. The other denies that the house is on fire and is blocking the door so nobody can get out to call for help or get a hose. What compromise is possible in this situation? I suppose the one who realizes that the house is burning could offer to stay in the house as long as he gets to stand next to an open door or window so at least he can breath until hopefully the fire department comes before the whole house collapses on him. That isn't much of a deal. The denier feels the flames burning his feet and is choking on smoke and blames the other guy for trying to trick him and convince him the house is burning when it isn't.

Let's hope we can convince the deniers that the house is in fact burning before the roof collapses or we are overcome by smoke.

Member of ROP arrested for bomb plot

It's not like this is news. The story is sort of like "Dog Bites Mailman" or "the President Wants to Raise Taxes".

Farooque Ahmed from Pakistan wanted to kill you and tried to buy materials to do it with.

Be careful out there.

Kagan's First Vote - LOL!!!

Here is your link because you probably wouldn't believe me without it. My focus here is not on Kagan and her silly opinion, but rather on the idiocy of the appeal and the state court ruling on it.

The story, which is humorous in a sick sort of way, is that a condemned man appealed his execution by lethal injection because the state had to obtain one of the drugs that would be used to kill him from a foreign supplier and the drug might not be safe. A state court issued a stay of execution based on that nonsense. The state appealed to the Supreme Court and Kagan voted with the minority (be thankful for that) to uphold the stay of execution.

You might want to read that part in red again.

The only way the drug could not be safe is if the guy doesn't die!!

I can't believe that the judge in this state court didn't laugh at the appeal.

I am of the opinion that states should save 10 cents and skip the alcohol swap on the condemned person's arm and save another 10 cents that they would waste and just keep using the same old needle. It's not like the guy is going to get AIDS or tetanus.

Oh, and another thing about this. Want to guess who the foreign supplier was? You would think it was some 3rd world dump if the safety of the drug is an issue, right? In fact it was Britain. Now why would a socialist like Kagan think that drugs from Britain wouldn't be safe? I thought Britain had wonderful socialized medicine and everything was perfect there? How can it be that they might not have safe drugs?

If we want these creeps to go out happy why don't we just load them up on morphine until they croak? Would that be so bad?

I favor due process and a reasonable appeal to avoid the government using manufactured evidence to execute someone but this is beyond a slight stretch. The drugs that will be used to kill the guy aren't safe? What next? Maybe a guy that is going to face a firing squad in Utah will complain that the lead cores in the bullets aren't safe? Maybe a guy that is going to be hanged in Washington will complain that he is allergic to hemp? Maybe some creep will claim that he has agoraphobia so that strapping him to the gurney to perform a lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment for him?

Will this insanity never end?

A few pics

Here are a few turkey dinners.



A couple of venison burgers on the hoof.



Here are some pork chops.



More pork chops. I count 14 in that pic.




We don't know what this thing is. It moved around in a number of pics over 3 or 4 minutes and then went away. We think it was a porcupine. A squirrel probably wouldn't have stayed in the same place for so long during the day and a raccoon probably wouldn't be out during the day at all. I've never seen a skunk climb a tree but I guess it's possible. A porcupine fits all the facts, although a space alien might fit the facts as well.



I can hardly wait for hunting season.

Another weekend at the farm. We're ready for hunting season

The new blind is finished except that we didn't get it painted. I don't think the animals will care and it isn't supposed to rain this week so that's not a big deal.

We found interesting stuff this weekend.

We were using a circular saw in the carport of the old house when we looked up and saw a mule deer doe looking at us from about 50 feet away. She stood there for a while and then bedded down. We talked to here and took her picture, then went back to work. She napped for an hour or more before she got tired of the noise and then left. Mule deer aren't exactly afraid of people.

I checked out the remains of the two deer we found dead near the house. One skull was completely clean and didn't have any smell left at all so I brought it home. The other skull, from the deer that had been under the roof on the porch, was mostly clean but still smelled a little. I didn't want to leave it on the ground because I thought a pig or other critter might carry it off so I got some wire and put through the eye holes and went looking for a place to hang it up. There are several cedar trees in the yard and the mule deer bucks have have torn all the lower branches off them up to about 5 feet above the ground while scraping their antlers. I walked up to one and was reaching up to put the wire over the limb when I noticed a large wasp nest hanging from the branch. It was one of the paper wasp nests that have cells in them bigger than a #2 pencil. It was about 8 inches in diameter and covered with wasps. Wasp spray is an important part of civilization. My grandfather used to take several sheets of newspaper and fold them into a fan shape, then light the edge and run it over the nest. If you went at the right speed it would kill most of the wasps and burn the wings off the others so they couldn't fly. The larva would be ok so you could use them for fishing bait. I prefer using spray. Needless to say I found another place to hang up the skull. I hope to go back and get the nest next week.

I also found two snake skins in the grass. Both were fairly skinny snakes and over 5 feet long. Unfortunately, both were woven into the fairly tall grass and I couldn't get them out without tearing them up. I did get the head of one of them and it still had the eye lens covers, or whatever you call them.

The game cam showed a number of whitetails, all does or small bucks. They eat just fine. For every deer we got a picture of there were four or five feral pigs. That is unusual for us. I guess this year we will probably be putting pork in the freezer to go with the venison.

I forgot my camera this weekend so I'll have to wait for my dad to send me some pics to post.

I'm suffering from MDD

Motivational Deficit Disorder

At least as far as this blog is concerned. I have stuff I want to review or discuss but by the time I get everything done and the kids to bed I just don't have the motivation. Here is to hoping that a little free time during hunting season will do me good.

Another giveaway at ASR

Here is your link.

Wish me luck.

Tuned up for hunting.

The boys confirmed zeroes on their deer rifles this weekend. That was fun. I let #1 try full powered ammo in his but after a couple of rounds he decided he'd had enough, so back to the Managed Recoil for him. Maybe next year. I got to play around at the range a little myself and it was fun.

I've got to get back to the farm to put the finishing touches on the new blind.

Safe Space Magnet

My company recently had something they called a "Coming Out Celebration".

Great. As Shaggy once said "I don't know and I don't want to know."

At any rate, one of the things mentioned in the email announcing this is that managers would have a supply of "Safe Space Magnets" to give out. I'm not sure what a "Safe Space Magnet" is or what it is supposed to do. I went to my manager and told him I wanted one. He started hemming and hawing and wasn't sure what to make of that.

I told him that I wanted one that looked like this:
That is my idea of creating safe space. Maybe they could make it pink so it wouldn't offend anyone. How about with a rainbow camo pattern on it?

I never did get one of the company versions so I still don't know what that one looked like.

As far as my manager goes, while we are not far apart politically, there is a certain gap in communications. He doesn't seem to know how to take some of what passes for humor on my part.

A couple of pics

This is #1 weekend before last while he was taking a break from working on the new blind. He looks serious.




This is the blind as we left it this last weekend. We've got to put the siding on, add some bracing for the legs, add a door, build a ladder and add a couple of small shelves inside to set things like binos and flashlights on. I've also got to go back with the pole saw and chain saw and clear some more small trees and limbs. We didn't build from a set of plans, we just started putting it together, so a real carpenter would probably cringe at the sight of it. I don't think the deer, turkeys, or pigs will care. The total cost for materials might run $200. When you divide that by the amount of use we will get out of it and the amount of meat we will get out of it I think it's pretty cheap.



I hope you have good hunting this year.

Lessons Hopefully Learned

Lesson #1

#1 got to drive the pickup for the first time at the farm last weekend. It is a stick and he started it twice without stalling it, one time on a slight incline. He just drove it about a quarter of a mile down the lane towards the road. I told him to stop, put it in neutral, and put on the parking brake so we could swap places and I could turn it around before he drove it back. I guess I failed to specify that he should NOT put the brake on like his mom does i.e. barely touch the pedal as if it is going to break off. I swung my door open and started to put my foot down when I realized we were moving backwards. I yelled "Hit the brakes!!" and slammed my door. He got it stopped and I had him put the parking brake on for real, then let go of the brakes and check to see if the truck would roll or not. I always check to see if it is going to roll before I get out but I forgot to mention that to him. Hopefully he has learned the lesson. ALWAYS check to make sure that your vehicle is not going to roll away when you park it. One of my grandpas failed to check once and his truck rolled backwards down a hill in town and somehow rolled through an intersection with a traffic light without hitting anything. The road leveled out and the truck stopped itself by scrubbing the tires against the curb. No harm done but he almost learned the hard way. I'll bet he made sure the parking brake was on after that.

Lesson #2

Lesson number two came when #1 was shooting the .22. I always tell the kids that when they insert a mag they should try to pull it out again to make sure it is properly seated and locked in place, but I guess that instruction didn't stick with him. He inserted a mag, then closed the bolt, took aim, and "click". At that point the mag decided to leave the gun and start a pretty nice collection of dusty, sandy soil. No big deal, but I made sure to point out to him that if he had an 18 point buck in his sights that time instead of a can he probably would not have had venison for dinner. I didn't mention that if it was a life-or-death situation he might have really ended up with the short end of the stick.

When you insert a mag ALWAYS check to make sure it is locked in securely. Check it even if you are just plinking. You will do in real life what you do in training so start working on that habit now if you don't already have it. If you introduce someone to shooting then start them out doing this from the very first.

If you are shooting a DA revolver use version of the same rule and always make sure the cylinder is locked closed and that the cylinder is indexed and locked properly. The lint, dust, and dirt that handguns pick up when they are carried will sometimes pile up in the mechanism and may interfere with closing or latching. Sure that is a maintenance issue but it won't be a problem if you just check.

Weekend update

I went to the farm this weekend with my dad and #1 son, who is 10. We started building a new elevated blind. Rain slowed us down some but we got the posts in and the outer frame built. We have most of the material waiting for us except for paint. Now we just need to build the floor, the walls and the roof. That doesn't sound like much work, does it?

#1 spent some time with a .22 rifle and pistol. His skill is coming along nicely.

I found a good spot for the pop-up blind near a spot with a lot of deer and pig activity. Hopefully I can get squared away with the bow and get out there soon. I'm debating taking a rifle with a light in case pigs show up early. The plus side is that my probability of success on the pigs will be higher, the minus side is that I might reduce the probability of seeing deer. The sound of gunfire doesn't seem to bother mule deer but it might bother whitetails, at least older, experienced whitetails.

I brought home six five-gallon buckets of fertile and sandy soil from the farm to put in the garden. It's not enough to make a big difference by itself but if I bring home six buckets every time I drive out there then it will make a big difference over time.

Until next time.