What Did You Do Today?

[bjrogg]

I know exactly what you mean Eric. When I had a wood stove it made great fire starting material. I have a buddy that uses my shavings and scraps for cooking maple syrup.

He loves the shavings for fire starter.

It usually doesn’t take long to make another pile.

Bjrogg

[Eric Krewson]

It is time to take my summer garden down and plant my winter greens. I still have a lot of okra and jalapenos. I decided to make pepper jelly to use up some of the jalapenos, tart granny smith apples have a lot of pectin so I made apple/jalapeno jelly with lemon. I don't use sure gell and make jelly the old fashion way.

[Del the cat]

I did this yesterday! Our oven went south for the winter, so I tested the glass door with an arrow from a 65# ELB 
Very short video.
There is slow mo' at the end... the sound is spectacular
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbYEB-5uHqw
Del

[GlisGlis]

So nice Del !! Slowmo is great
It almost make me wanna try it on my perfectly ok oven door 

[Eric Krewson]

I live out in country where it is legal to shoot guns, even though I am at the end of a dead-end road and have my range where I am shooting down in a hollow, I have had too many instances when someone was shooting a long way away through the woods and their bullets came whizzing by me, bullet travel is unpredictable.

I decided to build a bullet trap to be on the safe side. I already had the structure up before I found out that a foot of sand would stop just about any bullet. My trap is a bit of over kill with 3' of sand behind the targets.

According to an online sand volume calculator my trap will hold 1.8 yards of sand or 4800#. My trailer has a 3500# axle so I thought hauling one yard (2400#) at a time would be a good idea. My trailer is 40 years old and has second hand tires, it was a relief when I pulled into the driveway with my sand and trailer intact. Even one yard was heck of a load to haul, I won't try to haul that much again.

I built my trap out of cedar posts and 2X12 repurposed lumber. I soaked the already weathered boards with used motor oil to prevent any future rot.



This is a no shovel sand project; my trailer is parked on a slope and I can rake sand into the bucket easily.



I added a thick horse stall mat to the front of the trap, they are supposed to be self-healing when you put a bullet through them.



I put up some more boards on the front to keep the mat from bulging from the weight of the sand, to reinforce the structure and for target attachment.



I unloaded half the trailer, it started to rain, our first in over a month so I put the project off for a few days. The calculator was right, I can see the load of sand I brought home will only fill the trap about 2/3 of the way.

[bjrogg]

great idea Eric

you could reclaim your lead to cast more bullets to.

Bjrogg

[WhistlingBadger]

I'm setting up a new aquarium in a used 55 gallon tank that I resealed.  It simulates a small stream flowing through a tea garden in the Himalayan foothills.  All of the fish and most of the plants are from the region.

Weather is awful--cold, wind, rain, dumping snow up on the mountains.  This makes me happy, as I have permission to hunt elk on a ranch in the foothills.  Here, elky elky elky!

[PaulN/KS]

I cleaned my gutters. In the words of Sgt. Murtaugh, "I'm getting too old for this s#@t."   

[Eric Krewson]

I get it Paul, I am surrounded by big oaks, for 15 years I used a gutter blower attachment on my leaf blower to clean gutters, I had to make a 15' extension for my Stihl gutter cleaning kit out of 3" PVC to reach my highest gutter which was 23' up.  In the fall gutter blowing was a twice a week job for my house and 28X30 shop.

I finally bit the bullet and had expensive gutter guards put on my house and later on my shop for a total of $5K, I don't regret having this work done one bit.

[Eric Krewson]

This will probably ruffle some feathers; I will be 76 in three weeks, my body is falling apart, I have worked for months to try to shoot lighter and lighter bows so I could bow hunt. If I shoot very much, I can count on a sleepless night of tossing and turning from the pain from various body parts, the worst is a hernia mesh failure that gets terribly inflamed very easily and will sometimes put me in the recliner for days.

Years ago, a friend gave me one of those funny looking things that looks like a rifle but has a bow like object on the front. I shot it a couple of times and hung it on the wall in my shop vowing never to touch it again, after all I am selfbow guy.

A few days ago, I got this strange looking object off the wall, I may hunt during bow season after all.

[WhistlingBadger]

This will probably ruffle some feathers; I will be 76 in three weeks, my body is falling apart, I have worked for months to try to shoot lighter and lighter bows so I could bow hunt. If I shoot very much, I can count on a sleepless night of tossing and turning from the pain from various body parts, the worst is a hernia mesh failure that gets terribly inflamed very easily and will sometimes put me in the recliner for days.

Years ago, a friend gave me one of those funny looking things that looks like a rifle but has a bow like object on the front. I shot it a couple of times and hung it on the wall in my shop vowing never to touch it again, after all I am selfbow guy.

A few days ago, I got this strange looking object off the wall, I may hunt during bow season after all.

That doesn't ruffle my feathers in the slightest, Eric.  Of course, it irks me that I have to compete with a bunch of guys younger than me who are carrying those bolt-slinging firearms.  Any weapon that can be shot from prone position, with a scope, at 400 fps, doesn't belong in archery season...Unless the shooter is physically unable to shoot a regular bow.  These weapons should be reserved for those situations.  Especially if said someone has a long, long history of hunting with "real" bows.   

So get out there and have some fun!  Good luck.

[Pat B]

Whatever lets you get in the woods, Eric. Happy hunting!   

[PaulN/KS]

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do Eric. No feathers ruffled here Sir.
And I'm getting new gutter estimates today...

[YosemiteBen]

Hey there ALL! Since the site lost its security rating I cant get on at work. I often forget by the time I get home or find myself busier that a one legged man..... fill in the blank. Wife and I have been canning a lot of things, getting winter garden spaces ready for planting, placing the literal ton of slate that we harvested from our highway into patios, pathways and stairways. Daughter moved back in with 4 kids and a dog in September, that keeps us real busy! I am still here! Still Rangering in Yosemite if you find yourself out this way! Working on my commuter replacing motor mounts, got to replace leaf spring on my truck. Always something to do! Stay Well!

[Pat B]

Hey, Ben. Great to see you around.