Another random public massacre

A mall in Omaha, NE. My condolences to the families of those he killed or injured.

Rick, a fellow bowhunter and BB from Nebraska, was talking to a group of well-doers about it yesterday. They were wondering why a good boy turned bad, blaming McDonalds for firing him, blaming guns, maybe if someone hadn't made fun of him back when he was 12, how could this happen in a gun-free zone, et al. Rick said, "My solution would have been to shoot the perp as soon as he started firing and make Christmas not suck for 5 families."

Late Thanksgiving double from Spike & Co.

We had a cold, windy snap around Thanksgiving. Deer were hunkered down for the most part. The day afterwards I went out about 4PM. The wind was down to a small breeze and it was from the right direction. Not 5 minutes after I was in stealth-mode Spike showed up. He was in a hurry and I was afraid he'd run right by me so I bleated, he stopped, and gave me the shot I was waiting for.

Since it was so early I tagged him & continued hunting. About 45 minutes later this other one came in from the opposite direction and gave me a broadside. He took off hard but made it only about 30 yards before expiring midstride.

Below are the two post-Thanksgiving gifts. Since it was so cool I left them hanging overnight after gutting & skinning; not often we can do that in TX. Spent another 7 hours Saturday processing both into meal-sized portions & I've still got another hour worth of work left tonight; gotta grind and wrap everything. I figure about 4 1/2 hours per animal from the time they're on the ground to the time they're in the freezer. That's about 1 1/2 football games each if you're into that sort of thing.

Spike

Tues AM I was in a tree again. Cold breeze, great hunting weather. The spike showed up on my lefthand side, which is the natural shooting side for a right-hander. I drew & let down 3 times without him giving me a ethical shot. On the 4th draw he was quartering away so I let the arrow loose from just under 25 yards. Damned if he didn't jump the string, again. Clean miss. Bowhunting is frustrating sometimes.

Good stuff: Got a cool package from RainBlow yesterday (thanks!), should have the new Glock this week, work project is looking good, NV stock is supposed to be mid-50's early 08, oil broke $95/bbl.

Archery Season Ends (almost)

Today was the 30th day and I haven't put a sharp stick through anything. One more week left and then I have to compete with the rifle hunters. This morning I actually came close, missed a spike at 25yds. I normally shoot baseball-size groups at that distance and I shot right over him. Buck fever sux but I hope it never goes away.

Wicked Itch turned 50 today. Here the home-defense tool I built for her B-day:


The specs are an 870 express mag, 12ga, 18.5" bbl, collapseable stock, 3-rail forearm with a light.

Almost got a buck last night...

A 1 1/2 year old 4-pt ran out in front of me about 5 miles from home. Someone else probably nailed him after me. Haven't even seen any deer yet from the stand. It's been so damn warm I'm sweating profusely and the rain and yotes have them scattered all over hell. Great sunset last night though.

Had brunch with Wicked's family Sunday at Green Pastures. It was her mom's b-day. They put on an awesome spread. Lotsa good deadstuff. Almost ate some snails by accident; it looked like spinach dip. The frog legs were good but they don't make you run trail any faster. A couple hours later at the hash my nose let me down. I righted when I should have lefted and went about a mile out of my way. The trail was short so I couldn't make up the time and was DFL for the first time in prolly a year yesterday.

New Rules:

New Rule: Stop giving me that pop-up ad for classmates.com! Maybe here's a reason I don't talk to people for 25 years. Because you don't particularly like them!? Besides, I already know what the captain of the football team is doing these days--mowing my lawn.
New Rule: Don't eat anything that's served to you out a window unless you're a seagull. People are acting all shocked that a human finger was found in a bowl of Wendy's chili. Hey, it cost less than a dollar. What did you expect it to contain?? Trout?
New Rule: Ladies, leave your eyebrows alone. Here's how much men care about your eyebrows: do you have two of them? Okay, we're done.
New Rule: There's no such thing as flavored water. There's a whole aisle of this crap at the supermarket, water, but without that watery taste. Sorry, but flavored water is called a soft drink. You want flavored water? Pour some scotch over ice and let it melt. That's your flavored water.
New Rule: Stop screwing with old people. Target is introducing a redesigned pill bottle that's square, with a bigger label. And the top is now the bottom. And by the time grandpa figures out how to open it, his ass will be in the morgue. Congratulations, Target, you just solved the Social Security crisis.
New Rule: The more complicated the Starbucks order, the bigger the asshole. If you walk into a Starbucks and order a "decaf grande half-soy, half-low fat, iced vanilla, double-shot, gingerbread cappuccino, extra dry, light ice, with one sweet-n'-Low, and one NutraSweet," ooh, you're a huge asshole.
New Rule: I'm not the cashier! By the time I look up from sliding my card, entering my PIN number, pressing "Enter," verifying the amount, deciding no, I don't want cash back, and pressing "Enter" again, the kid who is supposed to be ringing me up is standing there eating my Almond Joy.
New Rule: Just because your tattoo has Chinese characters in it doesn't make you spiritual. It's right above the crack of your ass. And it translates to "beef with broccoli." The last time you did anything spiritual, you were praying to God you weren't pregnant. You're not spiritual. You're just stoned.
New Rule: Competitive eating isn't a sport. It's one of the seven deadly sins. ESPN recently televised the U.S. Open of Competitive Eating, because watching those athletes at the poker table was just too damned exciting. What's next, competitive farting??? Oh wait!? They're already doing that. It's called "The Howard Stern Show."
New Rule: I don't need a bigger mega M&Ms. If I'm extra hungry for M&Ms, I'll go nuts and eat two.
New Rule: No more gift registries. You know, it used to be just for weddings. Now it's for babies and new homes and graduations from rehab. Picking out the stuff you want and having other people buy it for you isn't gift giving, it's the white people version of looting.
New Rule: and this one is long overdue: No more bathroom attendants. After I zip up, some guy is offering me a towel and a mint like I just had sex with George Michael. I can't even tell if he's supposed to be there, or just some freak with a fetish. I don't want to be on your web cam, dude. I just want to wash my hands.
New Rule: When I ask how old your toddler is, I don't need to know in months. "27 Months." "He's two," will do just fine. He's not a cheese. And I didn't really care in the first place.
New Rule: If you ever hope to be a credible adult and want a job that pays better than minimum wage, then for God's sake don't pierce or tattoo every available piece of flesh. If so, then plan your future around saying, "Do you want fries with that?"

Another Hillary Story

Hillary Clinton, the lead Presidential Democratic Party candidate is for banning all guns in America. She is considered by those who have dealt with her as a little more than just a little self-righteous.

At a recent rural elementary school meeting in north Florida she asked the kids audience for total quiet. Then, in the silence, she started to slowly clap her hands, once every few seconds. Holding the audience in total silence, she said into the microphone, "Every time I clap my hands, a child in America dies from gun violence."

A young voice with a proud southern accent from the front of the crowd pierced the quiet! .... "Well, just stop clappin, ya evil bitch!"

Irrefutable Facts

Blatently plagerized from http://www.wacotrib.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/nugent/08262007_wac_nugent.html

• Water is wet. Venison is food. Tobacco use kills more Americans than anything. Drinking and driving is self-inflicted terrorism.
• God gave us life and the right to defend it from those who would take it from us.
• Tofu production kills more living things than any other activity on earth.
• Paul McCartney took too much acid.
• Trapping bans don't work. Hunting bans don't work. Gun bans don't work. Gun-free zones are a recipe for innocent slaughter.
• Guns are harmless, inanimate objects. Blaming guns for murders is like blaming a spoon for making Rosie Odonnel a bloated whale.
• Pathetic people not willing to defend themselves cannot dictate such soulless policy upon those of us who know we must.
• American education fails to teach many children to read, write, spell, balance a checkbook or talk.
• The Internal Revenue Service is horrendously wasteful, unaccountable and unconstitutional.
• Dope destroys lives. Meth users are American terrorists.
• The No. 1 threat to a black American's life is a black American.
• Kids that don't do chores are a liability to family and America.
• People who don't care about their health don't deserve health care.
• Good is superior to evil. Smart is better than dumb. Activism is the duty of anyone claiming to be part of an experiment in self-government. A work ethic is far superior to laziness.
• Barbecued dead animals are perfect, natural and delicious.
• Love conquers hate. Patience teaches much more than immediate gratification. Clean is better than dirty.
• War is the answer against terror and evil. In WWII, America was the good guy, the Japanese and Nazis were the bad guys. You cannot negotiate with evil.
• The war on poverty is a joke. Those who live in poverty in the US choose to do so.
• Trees produce wood for many quality and proper uses.
• There are more deer, bear, mountain lion, geese, wild hogs and wild turkey in North America than at any time in recorded history.
• Child molesters cannot be fixed.
• The government gets more profit from gasoline taxes than the oil corporations do per gallon.
• It's better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it.
• People who can't speak clear English or mumble and carry themselves badly will have a hard time achieving the American Dream.
• Hippies stink.
• People who litter are rude pigs.

Sunday

Had tyrannosaurus dump (sorry no pix), went to a gun-show a week early (oops), FRB'd a 10-mile hash, dashed to my 6:30 softball game (we won), returned in time for circle, went to work and killed a water-moccasin w/bare hands. Does all this make it okay for me to whine about my big toe?

Bohemian Rhapsody revisited

I found another youtube video of a guy (Edgar Cruz) playing this here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHSmjrjpoaI. So I'm trying to learn it again. Last time around I was trying to compose it from the piano sheet music and there's some stuff that just ain't possible on a guitar. You can only hack so much stuff out until it sound like crap. I found his sheet music so I've got something more to start with this time.

He uses some unfamiliar chords, so if nothing else I'll know them afterwards. The other cool thing he does is use artificial harmonics to hit the high notes. I've seen a video of Freddie playing it on a piano and he does a crossover (left over right) to hit the high note. The harmonics Edgar uses is a variation on the 12th fret natural harmonic. You fret whatever note you want, touch the string lightly 12 frets up from where you're fretting it, and pluck it. The result is an octive higher than the fretted note.

Here's another video of him doing Dream On: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoQ8tdzJ_Y8. Impressive work but damn this guy needs to spend some practice time with a metronome.

More Backstraps!

I noticed a doe bed down behind the house this morning. She took off when we opened the door. After Cindy left I noticed the fawn about 10 yards from where mom was bedding. This is almost a month after we saw the first ones. Guess this was the 2nd rutt and mom didn't get any the first go-round. I was mowing later and jumped another one. He ran accross the driveway onto the neighbor's place, at least 50 yards away from where he was hiding. Hope it's maw finds it.

Fred's response to Michael Moore's debate challenge

Gotta love this guy: http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=611

Fresh Backstraps!

Found this little guy just north of the house this morning. They're actually fawning a little early this year, maybe they're dropping early because the abundant feed from all the rain we've had. I had to shrink the pics for blogger but if you click on them a little better version will open up.

BTW, if you ever find a newborn fawn and want to make sure it's mother will never take care of it so it slowly starves, here's what you do:

New Axe

It's a used Dean ZX. It's got Zebra humbucker pickups, tune o matic bridge, and grover tuners, and a busted selector switch tip. Whoever tuned this had no clue what they were doing; I fixed that and now it sounds pretty good.

Electrics are sure easier to play than acoustics, but the amp really amplifies mistakes. I've found that if you crank up the distortion enough (ala metal settings), the mistakes are almost undetectable.

Leg Cramp

Did zero running for 2 weeks. Then on Sunday did 6+ mile hash plus 2-mile hump back to the start so I could make my 7:30 softball game. On my 3rd at-bat I'm on first and our first baseman hit's a shot down the rightfield line. I jumped over it, took one step, and the calf said enough of this shit. I hopped to 2nd and almost got thrown out. Getting old sux.

Hitlerifick
After 4 years we finally got Shadow to bark on command. He rarely barks so this was quite a trick. Cindy accidently found out that word's with the 'ka' sound get him excited for some reason. It started with "Kitty Cat", then "Coo-Coo Clock". He gets riled up, starts whining, and will and eventually bark. "KKK" even works. Hitler wasn't such a bad name for him afterall.

Wild Boar Hunting

Went to Harper, TX this weekend to cull some ferral hogs. Here's my bloodbrother John & I with our pigs. I whacked the smaller one first with the bow. I was closer than I thought so the shot went high into the spine. Squeeeeellll!!! I stuck him through the heart and he shut up pretty quickly.

John's pig gave us a workout. His lever-action shoots a 45 Colt but the rounds he was using sucked; I think he said they were MagnaTech??? The didn't have enough velocity t0 expand properly so he ended up shooting it full of holes w/o killing it. One of the rounds went through the lungs and another hit the shoulder but it didn't really even slow down. After he'd shot it about 6 times and was down to his last round I took a couple of pot-shots at it with the bow. The first one he was running at about 75 yards and I aimed a little high - had to climb the tree to get my arrow back. The next time, with my last good arrow, was about 45 yards but I was guessing 35 so it went right under him and drilled a tree. (I had to saw my broadhead out with a multitool later...) That shot was enough to get him to move where John had a clean shot. With his last round he wacked him between the eyes & dropped him in his tracks.

Katemcy

Went rock crawling at Katemcy on Sat with the black CJ. My old 4x4 club, FWD-FWD (Ft Worth-Dallas 4WD) , had their annual run. It's 800 acres of nasty granite. There were probably a half-dozen rolloevers but I only saw two. No major carnage like last year so we moved along pretty well. I was really pleased with how well my CJ got around. It was definatly one of the lesser rigs there but I was able to follow them on all but the worst of obsticals. The biggest thing was my tire size; I've got 33" tires and most were running 37" or better. That equates to 2" of ground clearance at the diffs which is a huge difference. I took it pretty easy cause I didn't feel like fixin anything. Brought my digital camera and of course left it in the truck at camp. Shadow didn't like wheeling at all. There were about a half dozen kids there so he got to do some herding. He wore the kids so they went to bed early and the parents love us.

This morning I gave it the once over and the only real damage was the rear bumber which looks like it was made of sheet metal. The slave unit on the hydrolic clutch seems to have died so getting it off the trailer was "intersting" (no clutch). I think I've got a spare slave, somewhere...

The trailer really gave me fits though. I re-wired the whole thing, re-welded the fenders, and fixed the wheel bearing last week. I had 2 good tires and 4 dry-rotted ones for the 110 mile trip. 20 miles down the road I blew the first tire. I also aired everything up again until my tire pump quit. Ya just can't buy a good $5 airpump anymore... I found a tire store in Betram and bought a good used tire for $20. About 40 miles later another tire was getting warm so I swapped out the new (used) tire. When I was done wheeling for the day another tire was flat so I swapped it out. I left around 10PM and aired everything up in Mason, 100m from home. 20m later the new used) blows. I pulled into the ditch and the tire had trashed the fender & taillight. With a little muscle and a lot of foul language bent the fender back and put on the best dry-rot spare I had left. After it's on I see it's low, only 18lbs. The other one was at 28. They both had 35lbs only 20 minutes earlier. Uh-oh... So I swapped them again, all by moonlight. I'm getting pretty good at changing trailer tires now. Then I moved the jeep as far forward as possible so most of the weight was on the good tires (the front ones) and on the Zeburban. It was 40mph the rest of the way to Llano, stopping every 5m to check the tire wasn't getting hot. I found some stop-leak and put half in both spares that were left. I alway thought that shit was snake-oil at best and I know it ruins the inside of the tire but I was desparate. The rest of the way home I stopped every 10 miles & checked pressure & temp. No more blowouts. The tire-goo sealed it well enough for the last 60m.

I need better springs & axles anyway, guess this is a good excuse to rebuild the trailer right. Then everyone will want to barrow it. :( Lucky for me it's only got an 11' bed so nothin but a CJ5 will fit on it.

Explaination of Tax Cuts

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20." Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 "windfall" so that everyone would get his "fair share?" They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink
for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right", exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!"
"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

Another hunt story

We had over 3 inches of rain last night and for some reason the deer are getting active. I saw 15 in one pack last night, not a single one with horns. The "real hunters" are killing anything with a rack. (Don't get me started...)

I left work early because some corn that got spilled on the ground needed to be guarded. My post is in a tree about 25 yards from the yellow gold. I've got a bent nail tied to some twine that I use to pull my bow up once I get about 25 feet up. It's a helluvalot easier than climbing up & down with the bow. Well tonight when I started pulling the bow up the twine broke and the bow hit the ground - hard. BAD! Down I go, nothing broken or bent (I hope), so we try it again.

Since I got winded last time I doused in scent killer. The wind picked up and shifted to the SW and then to the south. The deer normally come in from the north so I figured they'll wind me again tonight, even with the scent killer. I stuck it out anyway. I brought my camera tonight - here's the sunset I enjoyed:



About 15 minutes after sunset a small doe appeared. I move ultra-slowly & quietly into shooting position and waited a good 5 minutes before she turned slightly away. She was about 25 yards and I've shot many, many arrows from this tree at targets right where she was standing. I drew and focused on the point right behind the shoulder. When she dropper her head I released and watched the arrow arc and hit the pumpstation. She jumped sideways, rolled, and took off hard. It looked like the arrow was stuck in the ground right behind where she was standing, but I couldn't tell for sure. An arrow can be hard to see from the end. I waited until after dark before climbing down and checking for the arrow, but it wasn't there. Since I was now less-sure about the shot I gave her time to expire before tracking. You don't want to push an animal if it's a paunch shot. Good excuse to cook dinner: wild boar combo w/hash browns, tomatoes, maga-garlic, & carrots.

After supper I found her about 75 yards away under a tree. When I last I saw her she was running full stride, which is how she died. Couldn't have been more than 10 seconds after I shot her. Is bowhunting cool or what?!?

Here's a pic of the arrow entrance wound and another with the entrance & exit. It would have passed through but it hit the bone far upper leg.




I tagged her, skinned & gutter her. Then I heard a pack of coyotes howling, which they do after a kill. I've seen what coyotes do to a deer - brutal. Anyway, here's the last pic, her heart. I used a 4-blade magnus stinger, which has the standard 2-bladed arrowhead plus a 2 bleeder blades. They're tough, fly true, and really do the job. This same broadhead has now been in 3 hogs and 2 whitetail, and will be ready to go again after re-sharpening.



My boner really got a workout tonight. The edible meat is in the fridge and all that's left of her is hide, bones, & a gutpile. Forgot to get a gutpile pic. Next time...

Defenseless Deer

We've got several days of rain on the way so I'm predicting the deer will be active today. I climbed a tree this morning about an hour before dawn in hopes of collecting backstrap. After about 15 minutes one walked right under me and another walked by just out of range, but it was still too dark. When shootable light arrived I saw three more but they stayed just behind the trees. I dropped my buttpad to the ground but surpisingly it didn't spook them. But then the wind shifted to the SW and when they got about 40 yards SW of my tree I heard snorting and stomping - they winded me. A spike came closest, about 5 more yards and he'd have got an arrow but he also smelt me. I'm not sure what they picked up on... I've left the buttpad and pullovers I wear hanging in the tree for several days and I was wearing activated charcole pants & jacket underneath. They're not scent-loks but I figured they'd help.

Whoever claims that deer are defenseless has never bowhunted. They get stupid sometimes and let their guard down and some yahoo collects and easy deer. But this is not the norm. Their sense of smell and level of awareness are incredible. On a positive note this was the most movement I've seen all year. Deer season ends on Sunday in Williamson county so hopefully the stars will align again and I'll get another one.

Here's a pic a fellow hunter sent. I saw a similar sunset last weekend albeit minus the snow and deer.