Smut Land

Huntmaster

2011-06-20T17:07:00.002-05:00

Last weekend I completed the huntmaster workshop. I'm now certified to put on one of the youth hunts (www.tyhp.org). They put on hunts for 8-17 year old's throughout Texas. About 75% are for deer; mostly does on MLD ranches. The hunts are typically weekend hunts from Friday evening to Sunday noon-ish. The youths have to be accompanied by a parent at all times. It's heavily geared for entry-level hunters and they really drill in the safety:

Everyone wears the orange all weekend.
Only one round in the gun.
Youth carries the gun, parent carries the ammo.
Hunter safety education certificate is required before
Almost all hunting is done from a ground blind over feeders.

I've been to a couple of the superhunts where SCI Austin was providing the Saturday evening meal. These had about 70 youths but the typical hunts are from 5-10 youths. The superhunt is held on the last weekend of the season which is open to youths-only anyway.

The hunts only cost $110 per parent & youth pair. That includes the hunt, food, and processing. The youth has to provide the hunting license, gun, ammo, bedding, clothes, etc. If they can't afford the $110 there are scholarships available. Here's me getting my certification:

I'll post more after my first hunt.

Toy Update

2011-06-20T16:42:00.004-05:00

Since the last post I hit a deer on the way home from work. It smashed the drivers fender back into the door (again) so I had to fix that (again). And no, the deer didn't survive. Another car hit her before I did. I drug her out of the roadway and put her down for good with 165 gr. through the heart.

Another day, the clutch linkage quit. It's a hydraulic linkage and was out of fluid. The way they route the line is awful; it's got a spot that is actually higher than the reservoir so it's not self-bleeding.

I've been chasing that damned miss in the engine since I got it. I took the intake plenum off several times to work on the injectors, which takes a couple hours by itself. I rechecked the injectors several times, cleaned the fuel rails, replaced the vacuum lines, plug wires, did another leak-down test, monkeyed with the fuel pressure, etc. It did seem that the miss moved from #6 to #1 to #5 when I was working on it. This was determined by pulling plug wires and by looking at the plugs.

The injector wires were in bad shape; the insulation was hard, had cracked, and was missing in some places. So I ordered 6 off eBay. I pulled it apart again last weekend and replaced the connectors and wiring on 4 of the 6 cylinders. I had enough connectors for all 6 but 2 were fine. I also rechecked every injector. I made a point to swap the injectors on the left and right bank.

On restarting it, it wasn't missing but after warming up the miss reoccurred. Before I took it apart the last time the miss was on cylinder #5; now it was on #6. I had swapped the injectors on those two cylinders so I was pretty sure it was the injector. I couldn't probe it with my stethoscope when it was in #5 because the plenum was in the way #6 is accessible. However it sounded like it was firing with the stethoscope.

So I grabbed one of the used injectors I had bought and re-checked that it seemed good. Then I pulled it apart again and put this other injector in, and reassembled everything. It seems to have fixed it - yeah!!!

My best guess that injector was plugging up when it got hot. This problem would probably have taken a seasoned Toyota technician a good while to diagnose correctly and fix, so i don't feel too bad. Out of the 6 original injectors, only one is still in the truck and working. Wish I'd have known that from the start; I'd have just replaced them and been done with it.

1st road trip

2011-05-02T23:57:00.003-05:00

It's starting reliably and running so-so, so I took it on a road trip to Texas Interhash which was on lake Summerville (100m). Engine was missing the whole way there. I think it's cylinders 1 and 3 based on pulling plug-wires. #1 injector sounds like it's firing; can't probe #3. I'm starting to think this may be a mechanical problem that shows up when the motor is hot rather than an electrical or fuel issue. Could be a bad vacuum leak, valve issue, or rings. I digress...

Texas Interhash 2011

Brenham did a really good job again (they hosted in 95 too). This is a small hash so they all did a lot of work.
Over 300 people; these are getting HUGE. I suspect it'll get harder and harder to find venues capable of handling the numbers.
The crowd is defineatly getting much lazier; I think a good 1/3 never left camp. There were only 18 on the ballbuster. I can remember much smaller hashes having 30-50.
Seems like every time I saw Yard Ralph she was picking up trash; use to be hashers didn't litter. So much for tree-hugging liberals caring about the environment. Only the guilty need feel guilty...
They only had a band on Friday night. This was a good thing as trying to do skits, Mr/Ms TXIH, plus a band plus the midnight hash on Sat night is too much. FWIW, we only started having bands in the last 10 years or so. The first paid band I remember was SA (at Corpus) in 2002. Maybe SA did in 97, I can't remember for sure...
Food was okay. I got enough to eat but I sure miss Hash Potato's grubs.
Hash drama - if you can't leave it at home, stay home. Nuff said.
Skits were quite good this year. TiteBox probably had the best one.
Ft Worthless in 2012; Wicked Itch and I are already signed up.

More CSI trouble

2011-04-21T08:56:00.004-05:00

It wouldn't start again yesterday morning. I knew it was CSI related so I pulled it out and put it in a catch-cup while I cranked it - no fuel. I pulled the fuel source to it and verified that it was getting gas, so my assumptions from yesterday were all wrong. I put a test light on the connector and verified power while cranking. (That's the "STA" wire above.) Then I removed the CSI, filled it with carb cleaner, put power to it, and verified it was working. The only thing left is that it isn't getting ground, which would complete the power.

The circuit to ground is supplied by the start injector time switch. It's mounted in the engine block where coolant can get to it. What's supposed to happen is when the engine is cold, the STJ signal is connected to ground. (The contact by the arrow moves to the right.) When the switch warms up, the contact moves to the left. The resistance of the two coils are both about 80 ohms, so in the "warm" state there's about 160 ohms between the CSI and ground so it won't fire. It's supposed to switch states around 80F. The coils also heat up the switch so if you crank it while cold for a while it will switch to the warm state. This is to keep you from putting too much fuel into the engine and flooding it.

Mine is is the "warm" state mine is in at room temperature. I could only get it to the "cold" state if I put it in icewater. I found one for $20 on eBay so hopefully I'll get this finished this weekend. If the problem persists I'll add a manual switch in parallel to the automatic one so I can shoot a little extra fuel in if it doesn't want to crank.

Cold Start Injector

2011-04-19T22:15:00.002-05:00

The used injectors showed up in Saturday, 2 days after I bought them on eBay. Spent all day Saturday cleaning the shop, including pressure washing the floor so I didn't get back on the 4runner until Sunday morning. I checked the used injectors all worked. installed one in place of the plugged one, and put it back together. The miss was gone. Took it for a test run and it ran like a top, pulling like it should up the long hill. Parked it, started it a 1/2 hour later, and it was missing again!

Back in the shop. Pulled the plugs, it looks like #3 isn't firing. Before yanking the intake chamber off again to get to the injectors (2 hour job) I decided to jumper the fuel pump ON and let it run for a long time, which would cycle the fuel through the fuel filter and the fuel system. The idea was to knock whatever crap is in there loose.

I put the plugs back in this morning and it wouldn't start. Sounded like no fuel. I verified it had fire, shot some carb cleaner into the intake and it fired a little but wouldn't catch. I kept doing this and was able to get it started, and it actually ran pretty good. Then it just died and I was unable to get it restarted. I knew it was fuel related, but what? Electrical problem on the injectors because of some sensor (crank, temp, fuel pres?), or low fuel pressure, or low flow, or plugged something??? I checked everything electrical and my vacuum lines - nothing. Then I pulled the return line off the regulator, started the fuel pump, and verified there was fuel flow.

Then I unhooked the cold start injector feed line and there was no fuel that sprayed out. Normally when you unhook something on the high-pressure side there's enough residual pressure that fuel will shoot out, even after several hours. So the pressure at the CSI was low. Hmmm. I pulled the fuel filter thinking it may be plugged from the garbage in the tank (even though it's new) - it was okay. I tried up-ing the pressure by clamping off the return line hose with some vice grips; pressure should must higher now. Still wouldn't fire. Next I completely unhooked the CSI feed line, started the pump, and let about 1/2 cup go into a catch pan. I hooked it back up and it started! My theory is I had some crap plug up the CSI line and unhooking it was enough to flush it out. It ran the one time because I put enough carb cleaner in the intake to get it fired to where the normal fuel injectors could feed the engine. Whew!

Tonight I bought 5 gal of gas because the tank was almost dry, which meant it was sucking more crap into the system. Before I put it in I pulled the pump to inspect the tank. It's pretty clean but I could have done a better job with the pressure washer. If it gunks something up again I'll try to find a radiator shop to vat it out (they're getting hard to find anymore). I called one yesterday and they said it'd be at least $90. I can get a new tank for $180, shipped.

Taxes: Got my last K1 today. Now I can do this for real...

United States of Zimbabwe: I don't think a lot of people get how serious it is that the US credit rating my drop. Once confidence drops our dollar isn't worth as much, which means it'll take more dollars to buy things from other countries, i.e. oil, clothes, autos, etc. Oil is the big one; I predict gas will be $5/gal by next summer. That means anything requiring transportation will also go way up in price, i.e. food, electricity, etc. It all means massive inflation. If you want proof, next time you see me ask to see the Zimbabwe money I have in my wallet.

Found the miss

2011-04-14T00:22:00.002-05:00

When I pulled the plugs, cylinder #1 was black. Leakdown was 98% for #1, the rest were 91-98%. I focused on the #1 cylinder... I bit the bullet and pulled the air chamber again so I could get to that injector. I was thinking maybe it was stuck open, causing the plug to foul. I got the injector out and it looks like it's plugged. That's one of the 3 that the guy in Pflugerville said he was able to clean (the other 3 he couldn't clean).

To test it I filled the top with carb cleaner, hooked 12V to the pins, and tried to blow the fluid through. It's definately plugged. You can hear it click when applying voltage, sometimes, and it's weak. The ones he marked "bad" DO flow correctly. I'm guessing they just flowed weak. He said one was stuck open; I assume it wasn't stuck open, just leaking. In any event, I'm not reusing the bad ones.

I can get one for $45 + $15 core locally, or mail order from RockAuto.com for about $37 each with core & shipping. I found another outfit called Fuel Injector Wharehouse (fuelinjectorwhse.com) that has them for $40 with core, shipped so I might try them. Also found some on eBay for $19 shipped but they're not rebuilt. They could be from a truck that has sat like mine and be screwed.

In other news, I sent the IRS a HUGE check today. I had to estimate my taxes since one of my investments does not send out their K1's until April 15! Joy...

Inflation

2011-04-10T09:23:00.002-05:00

FWIW, car batteries are $5 more than they were 2 months ago. (Bought one for the 4runner.)

I road tested it and it's still missing to where it has a hard time pulling itself up a long hill at 60mph in 5th. It's hard to narrow down to the cylinder by pulling plug wires. The coil is hot enough that it'll jump a 1" gap so it's very hard to pull the wires one at a time while it's running without getting shocked. I think I'll try pulling the computer codes; that may tell me more...

So the fed govt didn't shutdown and everyone is claiming they're a hero for avoiding it.

Democraps in the senate & whitehouse didn't bother passing a budget last year when they controlled both houses. The only thing they can brag about to their voters is that they didn't give the right anywhere near the cuts they wanted ($38 out of $100 billion).
Republicans caved in. They promised to cut spending, and they did, but they didn't ask for near enough in the beginning and they caved in instead of shutting the fed govt down. As part of the deal they will do an up/down vote on fed spending for abortions and obamacare in the senate.

I'm thinking they traded the billions on this bill just so they would force each liberal senator to g on record voting for these issues, which will be used against them in the 2012 and 2014 elections as they attempt to recapture the senate & whitehouse. Issues aside, the bean-counters on the right has always impressed me with their ability to model elections and put the assets where needed to win elections. There's a hell of a lot of money involved in the elections and 100x in the outcome. It'll be interesting to see if Bammi, his teleprompter, and his $1 billion can sway the sheeple again by flooding them with slogans.

Gas tastes worse than I remember

2011-04-08T09:21:00.003-05:00

I hooked the battery up this morning and it cranked right up. No missing, even after it warmed up. It's running on fumes so I siphoned some more fuel into the tank, got a BIG mouthful of gas. I've had this happen before albeit I don't think I've ever got that much in my mouth before. It seems to taste much worse than I remember, and the worse part is that the taste lingers. Now I know what it must feel like to have voted for Obama.

ToDo:

Get a battery (I've been using my CJ5's battery until now
Get insurance
Get another charcoal canister
State inspection

More plugged stuff

2011-04-07T22:48:00.000-05:00

I traced the line from the charcoal canister back to the tank. There's about a foot of 3/8" hose at the tank and the rest is hardline. I pulled the hose and it was plugged, but I got the hardline breathing. There was a hard obstruction in the line so I cut it open with a knife just to see what it was. It's actually a plastic tube about 3/4" long that's definitely supposed to be there. At first I thought it might be a one-way check valve, but whatever it was it was plugged. I jammed a scribe through the middle of it and knocked out whatever the obstruction was. Now there's just a hole in the center about 1/10" in diameter. Me thinks this is just a choke to restrict the flow of fuel/fumes to a reasonable level. That should be plenty big to bleed of the fumes but small enough that fuel shouldn't splash through it. There's no mention of this in the factory service manual.

The charcoal canister is plugged and I can't get it unplugged, so I'll either have to find another one or bypass it.

My 3 new (rebuilt) injectors arrived today from RockAuto.com and I reassembled everything tonight. There has to be over 20 items to connect on the air chamber. I missed one; a coolant line that's under the throttle body. I wouldn't have noticed had I put the antifreeze back in. I fixed that and cleaned up the mess. Benny (my renter) is asleep so I'll try to fire it up in the morning. Hope it works; I'm tired of fussing with it.

It'd be good to have another running vehicle since the world is going to explode tomorrow when we have to survive without the fed govt.

Ghosts in the Toy

2011-04-04T22:59:00.004-05:00

Sunday afternoon I opened up the shop doors and it was pretty warm out. I'm behind the 4runner and I hear what sounds like a pump running. I've got the fuel injection all torn apart so there's no battery in it, so it's impossible for anything to be non-static. So I thought... I walk around front and gasoline starts shooting out of a hose on the air chamber, which goes on top of the intake. I stopped it by loosening the gas tank cap.

To explain what happened I need to describe the fuel system. The fuel is pumped from the tank to the fuel rails, which connects to the injectors. The injectors need a constant 40 lbs of pressure so they use a fuel pump that will put out well over 40 lbs and have a fuel pressure regulator that bleeds off anything over 40 lbs. The excess is returned through the return line to the fuel tank. The return line actually runs to the bottom of the tank rather than dumping it in at the top to minimize splashing.

When the fuel in the tank sloshes around or gets warm, it releases vapors. These need to be vented before the pressure builds and causes something in the fuel system (like the tank) to rupture. It used to be they just had a breather line that vented this into the atmosphere. But this is an emissions vehicle so it's a closed fuel system. The vapors are vented through a 3rd line at the top of the tank (where vapors are highest) back to a charcoal canister which can store the fumes. When the motor is running it sucks the fuel vapors out of the charcoal canister and burns them in the engine. You may save a teaspoon of fuel per tank; it's more for keeping emissions out of the atmosphere (or your garage).

I had noticed when I removed the fill cap that air hissed out; there was pressure in the fuel tank. This means the venting wasn't working properly. My guess is it was also plugged from sitting so long. So when I opened the shop doors letting hot air in, the tank warmed up and the vapor pressure built up with so much pressure that it forced the gasoline through the return line to the air chamber. It was shooting out because I had a line unhooked between the air chamber and the pressure regulator. (I had to remove it to take the air chamber off.)

I started checking things tonight. The charcoal canister is almost plugged; may not be able to unplug it. Damn thing is over $300, so I'm REALLY going to try to bring it back to life. There's a rubber hose that comes off the tank that's got an obstruction in it that's so hard I couldn't break it with a screwdriver. A foot of 3/8 line is only a buck so I'll replace that. The rest of the lines seem okay.

Injectors:
I got those back today. He said they were the dirtiest he'd ever seen. Normally he cleans them within a day but he worked on these 4 days and couldn't get 3 of them cleaned. Said one was stuck open? He charged me full price ($15/ea); not sure that was fair since he technically didn't clean them... I hooked power to them and could hear them clicking so I don't know how bad they really are. I did verify I could blast some carb cleaner through the 3 "good" ones when they were energized. I ordered 3 more through rockauto.com, $123 shipped with the core charge.

Injectors

2011-03-31T23:34:00.002-05:00

I pulled the "air chamber" off and got the injectors out. The air chamber is this big aluminum thingy with a jillion hoses going to it that's between the throttle-body and the intake manifold. You have to remove it to get the injectors out.

I got it out and the only casualty (so far) was I broke the line going to the PCV valve. It was old and had gotten brittle. Easy enough to replace with a 6" piece of 5/16 hose. I had to cut the one end of the busted line off the PCV valve and when I did this my jackknife slipped and I put a deep slash in my thumb. If I was a liberal I'd demand a purple-heart, take a month of sick days, and sue Toyota & the knife maker for a jillion dollars. It really is a deep cut though, was still bleeding tonight about9 hours later.

I found a guy in Pflugerville that cleans injectors. I debated doing it myself. I've got some REAL carb cleaner but I'm afraid it might eat the plastic parts of the injectors and ruin them. They're expensive, $50-75 each, so I don't want to muck them up. He only charges $15 each. We'll see how it goes...

So what's up with Bammie invading Libya? Not really vital to our national interests. Perhaps he knows he's going to be ousted in 1212 and doesn't want to be known as a prez who didn't invade another country. Now he's arming the al queda rebels. Weren't those the bad guys? I miss GWB.

4runner

2011-03-27T20:07:00.002-05:00

I found a 89 4runner off a chick on Craigslist 3 weeks ago. 200K+ miles and she said she quit driving it because she could pull it out of first gear without putting in the clutch (So???) They said it hadn't been started in 2-3 years so the battery was dead and I would not be able to start it much less test-drive it. Every body panel on it has some dings with the worse being the driver's front fender; the neighbor backed into it, knocking it into the door so it wouldn't open more than 1/3. They hadn't pried it open with a tire-iron like most morons do; all that does is create more bodywork. Interior was better than average for the age. It's the SR5 model, 4wd, V6, and 5-speed. It had obviously never been off-roaded as it was clean and straight underneath. Tires were very good. Looked completely stock except for green shag carpet and a cheap equalizer. I got it for $800.

I trailered it home and pulled it off the trailer with the tractor. It almost yanked the rear bumper loose, the damn thing was about to fall off and it had a 2" ball!

I parked it in the shed and the first thing was to drop the fuel. These things actually have a drain-plug in the fuel tank - sweet! The tank had about 8 gallons of green-funk in it. Next I pulled the tank, which wasn't much work either. The in-tank fuel pump and fuel-level sending unit were caked in rust. The pump was locked up from the grunt so I ordered a new one online for about $25. I cleaned the sending unit and got it working again. The tank looked pretty bad inside. I hit it with the pressure washer and it cleaned it up surprisingly well. The only crap still in it is on the top of the tank where I couldn't hit it with the washer.

She had some service records in the glove box that I went through. She got raped on a master cylinder, $288! (I can get them for $50.) The last time it was worked on was 2002 so I assume
it was parked in 2002. There were no tags or registration to tell me otherwise.

I put a battery in to check the lights. The highbeams weren't working. I took the switch apart and it buzzed out okay but when I put it back together still no workie. Hmmm... Apart again for a better look; it had enough continuity to turn on the buzzer in my meter but there was about 25 ohms across the contacts. I pulled the switch apart and they looked a little burned. After a little time with a points file and a cleanup with contact cleaner and they were reading close to 0 ohms closed. Put it back together and the lights work correctly, except for the back license-plate light. I cranked the key and the motor turned over! That's a good sign; I know it isn't locked and the starter works.

I checked out the rear bumper and it's mounted to 2 sheet-metal points either side on the body. 3 bolts total (1 was missing) and all the mounts were ripped on the body. They also had some 20ga angle-iron going to the frame, which did no good. It was about to fall off on it's own and they actually towed something with it. Criminal!

I got the new pump in a few days, reassembled everything, and put a battery in. Then I jumpered the fuel pump and let it run for a few minutes to cycle some new gas through the system before trying to crank it. It took a minute or so of cranking but it slowly started firing. Sound like it's hitting on 3-4 cylinders, not bad!

I did a compression test which showed a couple cylinders a little weak. Next I ran a leakdown test which is much better. Cylinders 2, 3, and 6 were leaking pretty bad through the intake. #3 was the worst at 50% leakdown. Sounds like it needs a valve job.

I started tearing it apart in prep to remove the motor. Looks like a big job. Then I got to researching and there's a product called "SeaFoam" that's supposed to clean sticking intake valves. I figured I'd give it a try; $10 crap-shot against doing a valve job. You put 1/3 of the can in the tank and let it warm up and then pour it into the intake through a vacuum line. After the can is empty you let it sit 15-30min and then start it up. It'll smoke like hell for a while as it knocks the crap loose. It didn't seem to stop the missing but it was running a little better. I took the plugs back out, did a leakdown again and the valves had sealed! 2 cyl's were a little low, 91% and 86% but leaking through the rings this time. (I could hear air coming out the crankcase vent.) I stuck my stethascope on the lifters to listen for them clicking. $6 sounded real good, #2 and #4 were weak, and #1 wasn't doing anything. I couldn't get to #3 and #5 because they're under the intake thingy. I got another can of SeaFoam and treated it again, hoping it would help the injectors. Also put in a new set of platinum plugs because it had some cheap ones that were shot.

The next morning I started it up cold and it was running pretty smooth; didn't seem to be missing. But after it warmed up it started missing again. I let it cool down, restarted it (ran fine) and it started missing as it warmed up. Hmmm... I change out the fuel filter and cursed those Toy engineers for putting it in such a crappy place. It's on top of the crossmember so it's hard to get to but there's an open spot on the frame 8" forward; wouldn't have cost any more to locate it there. I digress... Must have taken an hour to swap out the filter. Good thing I did; the old one was almost competely clogged. I fired it up again; same symptoms. #1 and #3 don't seem to be firing at all and #2 and #4 are weak. The injectors on #2 and #4 don't sound near as strong as #6 but #1 sounds really good even though that cylinder doesn't seem to be firing. I shot some carb cleaner into a vacuum line and the engine sped up some, so I think some cylinders are starving for fuel. Most of the problems I've found have been fuel-related. I was hoping that driving it would clean out the injectors but I'm staring to think I'm going to have to pull the injectors and clean them manually. There's a couple of places I found that will clean them for a little over $100 or I can do it myself for under $20, but I've never done it before. Either way I have to remove them which is quite a job on the V6 because there's a lot of crap in the way.

Other stuff: The rear pinion seal is leaking; common but it takes a 30mm or 1 3/16 socket to remove remove the yoke on the pinion. Will have to purchase one as I have a 1 1/8, which won't fit, and 1 1/4, which is too loose.

Miss Me Yet?

2011-03-22T23:01:00.003-05:00

Password Security

2011-02-22T17:49:00.005-06:00

I went to a seminar at lunch today over at National Instruments. Some group called "OWASP" that had me on their mailing list. It was free, about hacking passwords using the GPU, so I gave it a shot.

The speaker, Rick Redman of Korelogic, is a professional hacker who is hired by companies to try to break into their systems.

How passwords are stored: Typically when you sign up to some internet site (facebook, blogger, paypal, etc.) you have to enter a username (or email) and password. They store the password on their servers. Usually they run the password through some encryption and store the encrypted password. An example of a simple (crappy) encryption algorithm would be to increase every entry by one. Make every 'a' a 'b', every 'b' a 'c', every 'S' a 'T', every '6' a '7', etc. Here's some examples:

Un-encrypted password		Pencil		Number1Hasher
Encrypted Password		Qfodjm		Ovncfs2Ibtifs

When you enter your password "Pencil" the first time they store the encrypted password "Qfodjm" in their password file. Then everytime you log in and enter your password it runs it through the same encryption algorithm and verifies it matches. "Pencil" will yield "Qfodjm" and match while "Pancil" will yield "Qbodjm" and fail.

There are less than a dozen common encryption algorithms. Some are fairly simple (not nearly as bad as mine) and some are quite complex but the algorithms are all known and readily available. Usually the more simple algorithms are used because it takes more CPU cycles to execute them or the implementer is just lazy.

A couple years ago a company called "RockYou!" wrote a plug-in for facebook. They asked for you facebook password so they could link in with your facebook friends, interests, etc., and said they would never store the password. Well it turns out they actually did store it and they didn't even bother encrypting them. They had horrible security on their own server and someone hacked it using an old, well-known hack (SQL injection?) and got full access. They snooped around and found a file called something like "passwords.txt" which contained 32 million un-encrypted text format. The hacker posted the file on the net and hackers around the world downloaded it and went to town. The entries looked something like this:

username	email	password
johnsmith	jsmith@aol.com	pencil
janedoe	janedoe1@myspace.com	123456
superhasher	hasher1@yahoo.com	onon

So now you could hack anyone's facebook account that used "RockYou!". Not really a big deal in itself, but the password file was gold. Turns out most people love to reuse passwords, so the hackers simply went to paypal and tried to log in using these email accounts and passwords. Most didn't work but a whole bunch of them did work and then it was just a simple matter to tell paypal to transfer money from these user's accounts to themselves. After paypal they tried the same idea on a few of the major banks and mutual fund companies next and, well you get the idea... Yikes!!!

Not done yet... Before this the hacker community had a "dictionary" of what they thought were the most common passwords they'd use when trying to hack into an encrypted system. An amazing number of people use things like "password", "password1", "pencil", their favorite sports team or college, etc. So there was a dictionary of about 500 words that were tried against every account. The list wasn't that good so their success rate of cracking the passwords were low. But now they had a list of 32 million actual passwords that people used. They piped this into a spreadsheet and found the most common ones, and then updated and vastly improved their dictionary. To illustrate how poor of passwords are commonly used, here's the top 10:

123456
12345
123456789
password
iloveyou
princess
1234567
rockyou (hacked website was "rockyou")
12345678
abc123

By having this huge database they vastly improved their knowledge of what people commonly use for passwords, so they can had a better dictionary and were able to write smarter algorithms for hacking passwords.

There's a couple of free tools they recommended: John The Ripper, hushcat, and oclhushcat. John is open source, the other two aren't. oclhushcat is valuable because it uses the GPU instead of the CPU, which is at least 2 orders of magnitude faster. You feed these tools an encrypted password, some parameters like the dictionary and what to check for, and it uses brute force to tries every combination of password you specified to find a matching solution.

What I came away with:

Never use the same passwords for goof-off accounts (facebook, blogger, etc) as I do for ones with data I need to protect, i.e. online banking.
Verify that my "strong" passwords weren't on the list.
Avoid using any site that has access to your money that forces weak passwords. For instance, RockYou! would not allow special characters.
Have a better idea of what people commonly do and avoid it:

Mix lower and upper case letters, and don't just capitalize the first letter, i.e. "Password"
Add numbers and not just at the front or back, i.e. "password123"
They know all the tricks for substituting numbers/special characters for letters, i.e. '3" for 'E', '$' for 'S', 'I' for '1", etc.
Horizontal keyboard patterns like "qwertyuiop" (top row) are well known and checked for
Vertical keyboard patterns like "NHY^6yhn" are known too. (Up in caps, down in lower case)
People love putting in dates, i.e. "2011", "Feb2011". These are used especially when they have to change their passwords monthly.
Common and uncommon names of people, places, sports teams, etc are known.

Last of all he said the best hash encryption algorithm was bcrypt, MD5 the worst. They may have to try several million passwords to find a match, each time running through the encryption algorithm. It takes a couple seconds to compute bcrypt, which kills their brute-force methods whereas MD5 takes a few milliseconds.

There was a guy last year at defcon who built a machine with 6 high-end GPU cards. It could crack any 8-character MD5 password in 2 minutes (or something along those lines...) This is by using brute-force, i.e. checking every possibility of every character combination (6.6 quadrillion) instead of using intelligent search patterns. A longer password stored with bcrypt would take much longer but could still eventually be cracked. The idea is to make it so time-consuming (in terms of CPU cycles) that they'll give up and find easier prey.

You may be a muzlim...

2010-11-22T21:13:00.002-06:00

If you refine heroin for a living, but you have a moral objection to liquor...
You may be a Muslim
You own a $3,000 machine gun and $5,000 rocket launcher, but you can't afford shoes...
You may be a Muslim
You have more wives than teeth. ..
You may be a Muslim
You wipe your butt with your bare hand, but consider bacon unclean...
You may be a Muslim
You think vests come in two styles: bullet-proof and suicide...
You may be a Muslim
You can't think of anyone you haven't declared Jihad against...
You may be a Muslim
You consider television dangerous, but routinely carry explosives in your clothing...
You may be a Muslim
You were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses other than setting off roadside bombs...
You may be a Muslim
You have nothing against women and think every man should own at least four...
You may be a Muslim
Your cousin is president of the United States...
You may be a Muslim
You find this offensive or racist...
You may be a Muslim

I'm a Happy Camper

2010-08-18T21:09:00.004-05:00

I won this at a benefit banquet the Austin Friends of the NRA put on last night. Red's Gun Range was kind enough to donate this fine weapon. It's a Browning Composite Stalker in 30.06. It came with the Redfield 3-9x50 scope, matching case, and bore-snake.

Country Music

2010-08-06T13:56:00.001-05:00

Nice

2010-08-02T10:40:00.003-05:00

The Resolute Desk was built from the timbers of the HMS Resolute and was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880. Many presidents since Rutherford Hayes have used the desk at various locations in the White House, but it was Jackie Kennedy who first brought the desk into the Oval Office in 1960 for President Kennedy. It was removed from the White House for only one time, and this was after the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, when President Johnson allowed the desk to go on a traveling exhibition with the Kennedy Presidential Library. After this it was on display in the Smithsonian. President Jimmy Carter brought the desk back to the Oval Office, where President Ronald Reagan, President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush and now President Barack Obama have used it in this, its most famous location. It is considered a national treasure and icon of the presidency.

Right again

2010-05-04T16:49:00.004-05:00

Re: My 4/16/2009 post with the poster below... Some laughed at me then, called me crazy, etc etc. The numbers from the National Shooting Sports Foundation are in.

	2008	2009
Jobs	166,200	183,424
Wages	$6,361,205,400	$8,210,881,000
Econ Impact	$19,199,634,700	$27,846,304,300

Delaware Upgrades

2010-02-23T18:19:00.001-06:00

Governor Jack Markell (D) has signed House Bill 258 into law. (Right to carry reform bill)

Definition

2010-02-01T11:51:00.002-06:00

Obamaville

2009-12-13T12:31:00.003-06:00

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Someone has put a lot of thought into a welcome sign that may surprise you, it's in front of a homeless camp off I-25 in Colorado Springs.

Its message, "Welcome to Obamaville, Colorado's fastest growing community." Despite repeated calls no one could answer the question, who put up the sign?

To some homeless the sign's message says enough. Mark Limonez, a homeless man living in "tent city", says the sign doesn't make him feel good about trying to get back on his feet. "Guys are trying to work but there's not enough work out there, so they go pan handling or flag a sign" Limonez says, "I've never seen so many camps since I've been out in the streets - there's no money."

There are no logos on the front of the sign and no clues to where it comes from.

An argument for gun control

2009-10-24T11:14:00.002-05:00

Poor Home Invaders

2009-10-22T15:25:00.005-05:00

Last night’s disturbance, in the 700 block of Oscar Smith Dr., comes on the heels of another break-in Tuesday night at a San Marcos apartment complex. The San Marcos Police Department’s Commander Penny Dunn says this time, the 21-year-old intruder got a surprise. “When he came in through a back door, one of the residents shot the suspect who was armed with what we have recovered as a BB gun that resembles a real pistol.”

Commander Dunn says the intruder, whose name has not been released, was shot three times. She says he made his way to Central Texas Medical Center and was later transferred to University Medical Center at Brackenridge in Austin. She says he’s in stable condition, but so far, no charges or arrests have been made.

Tuesday night, two men from San Antonio broke into the apartment of a man living at University Heights Apartments on North I-35 in San Marcos. The resident was allegedly shot by one of the intruders and later hospitalized. The two men were arrested in the apartment complex.

Damn bugs!

2009-09-22T13:01:00.004-05:00

Saturday night one of these guys was walking across the living room. I found the one in the pictures below outside 3 years ago. It's not a photoshop hack - they really are that big. The latest one was even bigger, so big I was afraid to pick him up with needle-nose pliers so I sucked him up with the vacuum. I've got one of those whole-house vacuum systems. I checked the canister the next morning and it wasn't in there so it's in the pipes in the walls ... somewhere.

Killed 2 scorpions in the house last night. Ugh!

Home at last

2009-09-14T13:39:00.003-05:00

I just got this back from my taxidermist on Sunday. I think it was 4 years ago with my bow when I killed him. It was my first nice buck with a bow and I thought he was majestic enough to warrant preserving so I had him mounted.

Savannah Mugging

2009-09-08T16:40:00.003-05:00

This ad was supposedly posted on Craig's List 05-27-09, 1:43 AM EST:

To the guy who tried to mug me in downtown Savannah night before last.

I was the guy wearing the black Burberry jacket that you demanded that I hand over, shortly after you pulled the knife on my girlfriend and me, threatening our lives. You also asked for my girlfriend's purse and earrings.

I can only hope that you somehow come across this rather important message.

First, I'd like to apologize for your embarrassment when I drew my pistol after you took my jacket. The evening was not that cold, and I was wearing the jacket for a reason. My girlfriend had just bought me that Kimber Model 1911 .45 ACP pistol for my birthday and we had picked up a shoulder holster for it that very evening.

Obviously you agree that it is a very intimidating weapon when pointed at your head, wasn't it?

I know it probably wasn't fun walking back to wherever you'd come from bare footed since I made you leave your shoes, cell phone, and wallet with me. After I called your mother or "Momma" as you had her listed in your cell, I explained the entire episode of what you'd done. Then I went and filled up my gas tank as well as four other peoples in the gas station on your credit card. The guy with the big motor home took 150 gallons and was extremely grateful! I gave your shoes to a homeless guy outside Vinnie Van Go Go's, along with all the cash in your wallet. (This made his day!)

I then threw your wallet into the big pink "pimp mobile" that was parked by the curb — after I broke the windshield and side window and keyed the entire driver's side of the car.

Later, I called a bunch of people from your cell phone. Ma Bell just now shut down the line, although I only used the phone for a little over a day now, so what's going on with that?

Earlier, I managed to get in two threatening phone calls to the DA's office and one to the FBI, while mentioning the president as my possible target. The FBI guy seemed really intense and we had a nice long chat (I guess it was long enough for them to have traced your number).

In a way, perhaps I should apologize for not killing you, but I feel this type of retribution is a far more appropriate punishment for your crime. I wish you well as you try to sort through some of these rather immediate “pressing issues” and can only hope that you have the opportunity to reflect upon and perhaps reconsider the career path you've chosen to pursue in life.

Remember, next time you might not be so lucky.

Have a good day!

Thoughtfully yours,
Alex

P.S. Remember this motto — “An armed society makes for a more civil society!”

Bottle Openers

2009-07-20T18:06:00.004-05:00

Made from gemsbok (aka oryx) horns we found while stalking same. Required because sometimes they really put the caps on tight & you need extra leverage...

Houston H3 30th Highlights

2009-05-18T21:49:00.005-05:00

Good times albeit I've never had a bad time with H4.
~50 hashers total, only 5 from Austin
Great seeing folks again after many years.
Funny seeing HooterBill get pissed cause he got there 5 minutes after Friday's trail started so he had to do it solo. Took him 1:15 to do a 1-mile trail, came back raising hell about how f'kd up it was so he did it again and it still took him over an hour. Gave the rest of us a good laugh.
Drunken ranch hand at Fri campfire kept telling me to turn it up. Retard: It's an acoustic guitar!
Good trail Sat but no BallBuster (wimps!) Welcome cold front during trail.
I'm wondering how long it will take before someone shows up with a "tippy cup champion" tattoo (latest drinking-game fad.) Before that it was 3-man, then beer-pong, et al.
Keg-stand is a bad way to cure hicups.
Hog Stradler loves being reminded of...
Perfect Sunday trail but that was the 1st time I was ever expected to shovel shit for the privlege of hashing. WTF?

Apples

2009-05-07T20:18:00.002-05:00

The family apple orchard had always produced an abundance of super quality, firm, sweet, scrumptious apples due to the dedicated diligence, work ethic and attention to detail of the owner/operator Apple family. Of course, Mother Nature was helpful some years, and a real problem others. On bumper crop years, the Apple family could hire extra workers because the crop demanded so. Others, not so much.

At some point, a union organizer entered the scene, demanding a guaranteed wage for a guaranteed number of workers. Logic dictated that the fluctuation in productivity would ultimately determine profit and the capability to hire workers. But somehow, logic was abandoned by this new unionized workforce, and more horrifically, negotiations always seemed to insist on worker benefits but not quality, efficient productivity.

As fate would have it, following a particularly cold, dry spring, apple production fell off, but the workers insisted on being paid based on past, higher productivity. The Apple family simply couldn't pay what was not produced, and the union workers took over the orchard. Demanding more money than was coming in, and paying little heed to quality control, the bloodsucking whiners virtually guaranteed the ruination of the once great orchard, and ended up cutting down the trees to sell for firewood. Welcome to the Obama AF of L See I'm Sleeping America, or Zimbabwe, I can't tell.

Producers and parasites. Assets or liabilities. Can there really be a question?

2009-04-16T16:36:00.003-05:00

Federal Deficit (Bush vs Obama)

2009-03-25T18:42:00.013-05:00

There's approximately 300 US citizens of which only 60% pay taxes. For those that can apply 2nd-grade arithmetic that means there's 180 million taxpayers that must pay for this. This yields an average extra debt of $10,000 per taxpayer.

Since I don't want any of the extra crap B. Hussain Obama is blowing this on, can someone who does think this is a good idea send me a check to cover my share?

AM

2009-03-16T21:34:00.002-05:00

Finished butchering the feral sow I arrowed on Saturday, chopped up some spuds and fried them in a little olive oil with mega garlic salt & pepper until they were sizzlin & browned, added sow's t-loins, more garlic, then 5 scrambled eggs, salsa, and enjoyed the breakfast of a king. Farted all day but blamed them on Shadow. Plan to bring one porky butt to TXIH again.

Dallas Trip

2009-01-11T18:50:00.005-06:00

Wicked, Shadow, and I went to Dallas this past weekend. We left Shadow at Pussy Tail's Friday morning and did the Dallas Safari Club had their hunting convention. I was able to get through it in less than a day this time, even though it grew. The difference was I wasn't actively looking to book a hunt. Last year I was there 2 days and didn't see it all. Here's some pix of the taxidermy:

Another reason we went was to take my PH (Mare') and his wife Elma to the Medievil Times. (http://www.medievaltimes.com/) This place has an arena where they put on a medieval show where some prince is captured, a knight from another kingdom infiltrates their show, and they must sort it out. The cool thing is they have a jousting tournament and end up swordfighting to the death. The swordfights are about as real as pro wrestling but the jousting and horsemanship are impressive. They also give demonstations on the training of their horses and another part is on falconry. (Cursed bird swooped withing a couple feet of my head.) A wench also feeds you while this is going on; dragon blood soup, 1/2 a falcon, a dragon toe, and a dragon egg. (Veg soup, chicken, BBQ rib, & a spud) It's a bit expensive and they keep trying to wring more money out of you selling trinkets, but it's worth seeing once if you're in Dallas or one of the other cities they have these in. Mare' and Elma, being from the 3rd world nation of Namibia, were quite impressed. He videotaped everything and wanted pictures with everything - total tourist. He said he was acting like I did. I hope I wasn't THAT bad!

We stayed at Tail's place Friday night and hit the Big Town gun show in Mesquite on Saturday. It was the busiest I'd ever seen it. Wicked bought 500 rounds of ammo while Tail & I somehow managed not to buy a new gun or 10K rnds of ammo each. It's good to go to these and see how the threat of the incomming dems have adjusted prices on the EBRs and hi cap mags. I was surprised that even the high-end EBRs have gone up 30-50% in the last 6 months.

We stopped at George's in Waco on the way back. Their chicken fried steak dinner is the best for 100 miles.

Whitetail Season Ends

2009-01-06T13:34:00.003-06:00

That's a view from one of trees I hunted out of. The season ended in Williamson county on Jan 4. I probably hunted 30 times and only killed one doe. So much for deer hunting being easy...

We've got antler restrictions that really worked against me. The restriction is deer are off limits if they've got a forked antler and a spread under 13". The intention was to allow younger bucks to grow before allowing them to be killed. However in this area that means big-antlered bucks (about 2% of our deer), spike bucks, and does are legal. Few of our deer don't have the genetics to grow bigger racks, so they'll get killed while the smaller-racked deer pass on their genetics. I DID go to the TX Parks & Wildlife meeting and spoke against this but my concerns fell on deaf ears.

There were two small 4-pointers who came around regularly. Neither was afraid of me and I knew they saw me. I shot one of them 3 different times in the butt with a judo point, just out of spite. Does however were on full alert. Didn't matter if I was 25 feet up in a tree 35 yards away, full cammo'd, and motionless as a hippy when you offer them work; they busted me very time.

I only saw one legal buck all season. He walked through the front yard while I wasn't hunting but was gone before I could sneak out there.

Deer hunting ain't fair. The deer cheat.

Buglary Commercial

2008-12-16T23:32:00.001-06:00

Warning: Not for the faint of heart

Deer Season Status

2008-12-14T17:49:00.002-06:00

I've only got one doe this year so far. It's my fault - I haven't been putting in enough tree-time. My bowsight was in pretty poor shape from crawling around through the hookthorns in Namibia but I got that replaced last week. It's shooting good again.

Last night I was getting cold from the wind so I made a quick dash to the house for more clothes. Of course when I reached the back door a buck and I made eye-contact. He had a really nice rack. Damn! After that I only saw one shit-buck. By that I mean he's got a small rack and isn't legal to shoot because of our antler restrictions. You basically can't kill anything with less than a 13" spread unless it's a spike. I think he winded me anyway as he was acting goofy and took off before he got close. There used to be a pair of them but I'm guessing the other one got poached.

The hashmas party was last night and I drank entirely too much. The flying saucer has great beer and I've got an achillies heal for good stouts. They sneeked one of my African hunt videos in with the hash photos. It was the one where I arrowed a warthog. I think most people were impressed by it but a couple harriets were offended. Their complaints were more than offset by those thanking me watching the demeanor of said harriets.

This was good education as far too many don't wish to believe that for every chicken mcnugget, hamburger, and fish fillet there is a gutpile.

Rules for Survival

2008-12-08T16:14:00.004-06:00

Liberals:

Have no personal possessions, and for God's sake don't carry money or credit cards.
Whenever possible, stay locked at home, and never venture out.
When at home, have a can of hairspray, a whistle, and be ready to dial 911.
Appeasement has worked so well for Europe over the last 500 years, try preemptively giving them what they want before you are attacked.
During the attack, try and figure out what you have done wrong to deserve the attack, and try and avoid similar behavior in the future. Consider the first attack a polite reminder to help out the city's less fortunate.
If the punk starts shooting, try and get away from the bullets.
A few community pride projects, like a playground cleanup, will probably do more to protect you than any self-defense measure.
Suggest to the criminal that he participate in a gun buy-back program as a more legitimate source of revenue in the future.
Since these encounters are about control and ego, show that you are terrified and will submit meekly to the punk's every whim. If possible, try to urinate in your pants. Predators respect fear and weakness.

Alternate suggestions by Drill Sargent Joe B. Fricks:

Forget about knives, bats and fists. Bring a gun. Preferably, bring at least two guns. Bring all of your friends who have guns. Bring four times the ammunition you think you could ever need.
Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammunition is cheap - life is expensive. If you shoot inside, buckshot is your friend. A new wall is cheap - funerals are expensive.
Only hits count. The only thing worse than a miss is a slow miss.
If your shooting stance is good, you're probably not moving fast enough or using cover correctly.
Move away from your attacker and go to cover. Distance is your friend. (Bulletproof cover and diagonal or lateral movement are preferred.)
If you can choose what to bring to a gunfight, bring a semi or full-automatic long gun and a friend with a long gun.
In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived.
If you are not shooting, you should be communicating, reloading, and running.
Accuracy is relative: most combat shooting standards will be more dependent on "pucker factor" than the inherent accuracy of the gun.
Someday someone may kill you with your own gun, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.
Always cheat, always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.
Have a plan.
Have a back-up plan, because the first one won't work. "No battle plan ever survives 10 seconds past first contact with an enemy."
Use cover or concealment as much as possible, but remember, sheetrock walls and the like stop nothing but your pulse when bullets tear through them.
Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours.
Don't drop your guard.
Always tactical load and threat scan 360 degrees. Practice reloading one-handed and off-hand shooting. That's how you live if hit in your "good" side.
Watch their hands. Hands kill. Smiles, frowns and other facial expressions don't (In God we trust. Everyone else keep your hands where I can see them.)
Decide NOW to always be aggressive ENOUGH, quickly ENOUGH.
The faster you finish the fight, the less shot you will get.
Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet if necessary, because they may want to kill you.
Be courteous to everyone, overly friendly to no one.
Your number one option for personal security is a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation.
Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun, the caliber of which does not start with anything smaller than "4".
Use a gun that works EVERY TIME. "All skill is in vain when an Angel blows the powder from the flintlock of your musket." At a practice session, throw you gun into the mud, then make sure it still works. You can clean it later.
Practice shooting in the dark, with someone shouting at you, when out of breath, etc. Regardless of whether justified of not, you will feel sad about killing another human being. It is better to be sad than to be room temperature.
The only thing you EVER say afterwards is, "He said he was going to kill me. I beleived him. I'm sorry, Officer, but I'm very upset now. I can't say anything more. Please speak with my attorney."
Rules for un-armed combat: Never be unarmed.

Old Tom Quotes

2008-12-04T16:02:00.002-06:00

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

-Thomas Jefferson

Kalifornia

2008-11-26T19:37:00.003-06:00

Work sent me to CA for 10 days, including Thanksgiving. I did get 3 invites for Thanksgiving day, but of course I'd much rather be home. Then yesterday (Tuesday before Thanksgiving) I find out they're not working Thurs & Fri. WTF? It's not that I'm not willing to work holidays but I don't expect to be the only one.

Flights are crowded today so I'm heading back Thanksgiving day. Guess I'll have Thanksgiving dinner in the Phoenix airport, although I'm not complaining. Many have it much worse. Take 2 seconds tomorrow before you choke down way too much food to give thanks for how good we have it.

I did manage to hash twice, in Cuppertino last Thursday night and Mountain View on Saturday. On the first hash the cool weather & low altitude made for great running. I had one of those runs you only have every few years where you're just flying and never get tired. 4m trail but I prolly did almost double that zenning and didn't come in last. The next day I was actually sore from going so hard. Need the exercise with all the shit food I'm eating...

Namibia Safari

2008-11-03T16:15:00.000-06:00

Details with pix are here: https://sites.google.com/site/ahansennamibia2008/Home

Happy Ruttoween!

2008-10-30T16:33:00.006-05:00

The bucks were horny & chasing the does this morning. This doe finally let down her guard and I was able to get an arrow into her. She was under 20 yards and I forgot to aim low with the 25yd pin so the shot went a lttle high. It got the spine going in, the top of one lung, and broke off in the far shoulder. She was still very alive when I got to her so I choked her out. Then I field-dressed, skinned, and butchered her before breakfast. To be honest, it was a late breakfast. This is actually the first time I've killed a whitetail in the morning; all the rest have been in the afternoon or evening.

I'm still working on everything I did in Namibia. There's so much that I think it's best that I put in on it's own web page. I'm a little over halfway done with the writeup; so much happened...

Chuck gets it

2008-10-29T13:17:00.004-05:00

Morning hunt

2008-10-01T11:42:00.004-05:00

This morning at first light I got my lazy ass up a tree. A doe almost came in but she was nervous (think she winded me). She was almost over it when a squirrel jumped from one tree to another and spooked her.

I had a couple of limb-rats entertain me. I thought one might climb right over me. He knew I was something but not sure what. He got close enough to sniff my boot before going back to acorn hunting.

Got down about 9, so I could fletch some arrows, and then about 10 I went to swap flash cards in the trailcam. Turned around and there were 2 bucks on the north side of the house eating acorns, and here I am without so much as a broomstick! I slowly sneaked behind a tree, waited for them to settle, and made my way back to the house w/o spooking them. I grabbed the bow, some head camo, got within 25yds, and had enough cover to draw. However both were shit 4-pointers, which aren't legal to kill. I hate these cursed antler restrictions!

Here's a 5AM trailcam pic which I call "Doe Eating & Crapping". Enjoy:

I found a bow appropriate for Brownie (click on to enlarge):

Popeye (1st shot at YouTube)

2008-09-16T20:11:00.002-05:00

Gun Control

2008-09-13T11:01:00.006-05:00

Finally a couple of factual documentaries that Brownie can rally behind:
Home Invasions
Carjacking

Democrats on an Escalator

2008-09-10T13:16:00.006-05:00

Hands-on Grocery Shopping

2008-09-05T15:51:00.001-05:00

Observations from the Dem & Rep conventions so far:

2008-08-29T18:12:00.009-05:00

I take the cheers of the crowd with a grain of salt as they're preaching to the choir. These are delegates and other wannabes who went to the trouble of getting elected/appointed so they could attend these conventions (at their own expense).
Hillary's place taken by another woman -- again. Perhaps Ted Kennedy will give you a lift home?...
To those soulless, masked pieces of shit who were looting, vandalizing, and attacking news reporters; What species are you from? Planet of the retarded apes? You're not protestors, you're criminals. If I'm attacked by anyone wearing a mask someone will be calling 911 afterwards to clean up the mess.
Rudi was on a roll last night. Heard it caused Obama to start his period early again.
MSDN reporter vs Newt - reporter quickly retreated like a frenchman
I despise telepromptors. They tell me you don't know or don't give a shit in what you're talking about. Appropriate for evening news anchors who are reporting the news (as it happens) but for speaches it's basically "Let me read to you what someone else wrote". Ditch them for power-point and present your case like the rest of the working world.
White folks can't dance
Sarah Palin sounds like Ted Nugent with a uterus

Shall Not Be Infringed

2008-06-26T22:51:00.002-05:00

Though I never needed confirmation of the self-evident truth and God given individual right to keep an bear arms, the US Supreme Court finally addressed and confirmed today that the 2nd Amendment means what it says. Our founding fathers were so certain that God gave each of us the individual gift of life and that we have the right and moral obligation to protect this precious gift from tyranny, that they found it prudent to put these truths to paper for future reference in the Bill of Rights. The bastardization of these truths by the cult of feel-good liberals in the form of anti-American, anti-Constitutional, "gun-free zones" was a violent criminal's dream environment where innocent, law-abiding citizens are forced into unarmed helplessness resulting in the highest body count stacked up by evil perpetrators on the helpless sheep to slaughter. For shame.

The result will not be widespread shootouts in the streets; we heard those fantasies about concealed carry laws and they never happened. Next...

The decision confirms that the right to own arms is an individual right. Furthermore it confirms the right to bear arms, that is, an individual may not be required to lock up their arms in safe or store them at a gun club. It also confirms the right of the state to regulate arms, which is keeping them from felons and mental patients. Basically in line with the NRA and opposite of the democratic party's position.

So I celebrate this gun victory by buying bow. Go figure...

Heatstroke

2008-06-25T21:36:00.002-05:00

... almost killed Shadow on Sunday. He's hashed with me though 5 summers now on much longer runs than Sunday's w/o a problem. 2nd half of the hash was only about 3 miles but it was 100 degrees with no shade. He started the classic "drunken walk" and collapsed. I got him to shade and gave him what water I had. Then I carried him to a water hydrant & got his core temp down. Glad I remembered what I read in that old SOF article - it saved his life.

After about 20 minutes he quit panting but his hind legs were extended and stiff, and they hurt like hell if I touched them. We got him into some AC and he was coming around but couldn't use his back legs so we got him to the ER. They started some phys therapy on him and I know it hurt like hell cause we could hear him howling. He apparantly had enough of that shit & got up on his own; much to our relief. They kept him overnight. The vet bill was pretty steep; wiped out the donation I'd been saving for B. Hussain Obama.

In other news I got a new (old) bow, Mathews Switchback. Gotta get another cam for it because the draw length's too long but I shot it anyway last night. Quite a bit different feel from my Browning, not better or worse, just different. It's wicked accurate and quiet. I predict it will be involved in the deaths of many animals.

Normandy Invasion

2008-06-06T17:49:00.002-05:00

64 years ago today was the start of "Operation Overload", now known as D-Day. In the preparation leading up to it in April & May, 12,000 men were lost. On June 6, 150,000 allied troops stormed the beaches, about 1/2 American and there were 10,000 casualties the first day. Freedom isn't free. Celebrate it.

San Antonio 21 and My 45

2008-05-12T14:48:00.004-05:00

Good party this weekend at the dog pound. I prefer these low-key bring-yer-own-everything events to the "we'll pamper yer arse" ones. Highlights:

1st campout in a long time w/o loosers that everyone avoids.
The hash sucked.
Wicked calling me out for B-Day down-down. How the hell does one drink with that PVC pipe on your arm?
Float trip down the Guadalupe was mostly uneventfull (relative to years with high-water), although many kept running into felled trees due to zero level-of-awarness. What were those all those turd-looking things in the water?
Dinner was bring-yer-own dead animal carcass BBQ (burp).
Jammed with with TiteBoxx by the bonfire. FUKnave thought he could out-redneck me - poser!
Padre burned his flipper attempting to jump said bonfire.
Annoying illegals blasting their Tejano/rave at us until wee hours of the morning. FknAnnoyin' correctly suggested a few homemade pyro devices tossed in the river would have corrected issue but I came ill-prepared. Need to add a couple items to my camping list.

Big thanx to SA hash!

Stud Test

2008-05-06T14:09:00.000-05:00

http://www.oink.com/studtest/

Chuck Heston

2008-04-08T19:23:00.003-05:00

I learned yesterday of his passing on Saturday at 84. Condolences to his wife Lydia of 64 years and son Fraser. The NRA show had a 3-hour tribute to him last night with many of those who knew him telling their personal experiences with this most honerable man. A bunch of his speaches are archived at http://www.nranews.com/ under "browse archives", then under the middle tab find "speaches".

Judge strikes down Texas strip club fee

2008-03-28T16:39:00.003-05:00

"3/28/2008 - A state district judge has ruled that Texas may not collect a $5-per-customer strip club fee that went into effect in January. Judge Scott Jenkins wrote in an opinion Friday that the fee, while furthering laudable goals, violates First Amendment free speech rights so it's invalid. The Texas Legislature created the fee last year to pay for sexual assault prevention programs and health insurance for low-income Texans. The Texas Entertainment Association Inc., which is a group of topless clubs, and Karpod Inc., the owner of an Amarillo club, sued the state over the fee. Attorneys for the state could appeal the ruling."

Help the topless: report_on_discrimination_of_topless_women

Easter Supper

2008-03-23T19:11:00.004-05:00

Hone shooting and stalking skills
Locate, stalk, miss, stalk again, kill, skin, gut, clean, and cut wild boar into meal-sized portions
Clean & cube 1/2 backstrap; give scraps to spoiled dogs
Thoroughly cook boar in olive or peanut oil with g-salt & g-pepper
Add can Bush's beans, rotel tomatoes, hominy, more garlic, & simmer 1/2 hr
Plop over biscuits or indian fry bread, eat like king, blame farts on dog

Black Hog Down

2008-03-19T13:35:00.005-05:00

Here's Reap and I with our feral hogs. We bellycrawled to 30 yards from a group of them. He brainshot his with a 32-cal flintlock. They jumped up but were confused to what had just happened and were oblivious to where we were. One gave me a broadside and I put an arrow through her, and a huge crimson spot immediately appeared. Reap's hog was down but still kicking, so he reloaded and we approached it. Then it got back to it's feet & things got real exciting. He shoots from 5 feet away and misses it completely. The shot spooked a BIG hog that we didn't see about 10 feet away behind a log. It leaps to it's feet and took off before I could get an arrow off. We were now 10 feet from a mad, wounded hog w/o a loaded firearm ... Think Mark Sullivan w/o his double rifle. It takes a couple minutes for Reap to reload so I put an arrow through it's vitals. Blood & air gushed out like the aftermath of a good texican dinner and the boar quickly went down for good. Then we bloodtrailed mine about 50 yards to where she expired.

Robin Hood

2008-03-13T15:10:00.003-05:00

Heard the 2nd arrow hit the first & thought I just nicked another one and broke the knock.

Ruined a perfectly good carbon arrow ($10-sniffle).

Going feral hawg-hunting this weekend, should be fun.

Troubles at Walmart

2008-03-05T15:00:00.003-06:00

Good read reinforcing the importance of a heightened level of awareness. (link)

Plan B: Cower into the fetal position and hope for the best.

Salt Lake

2008-02-12T13:52:00.000-06:00

Wicked and I were in Salt Lake City last week for some much needed R&R. I generally take about one weekend day off every other week so I got 9 consecutive days w/o any work contact. (Really needed that!) I got 6 days of boarding in at 5 resorts, she did 5 days. Show was better than average this year so boarding was very good. The Beams watched Shadow while I was gone and I'm sure they spoiled the crap out of him because he pouted after we left.

One day we hit the hunter's convention at the Salt Palace. I was somewhat concerned that Wicked would be bored to death but there enough stuffed kitties and guns to keep her attention. This convention was geared more towards N. America and taxidermy while the Dallas show was more for world-wide hunting. There was a cute pink gun that Brownie might like (to match his Wrangler).

There were a several furriers and one had a gorgeous men's coat that really cought my eye. It was made from about 5 different kinds of critters, maybe a little overboard there... They guy told me it was designed for Kid Rock (no I'm not a big fan) and they made several variations of it. $8K (yikes!). This are a couple of pix I found:

Before I left I talked to a couple of hearing aid vendors. If anyone has experience with these, I'd be interested in their thoughts. Need to know about things like feedback, reliability, comfort, battery life, maintenance, background noise, features you want/don't want, etc.

Safari

2008-01-14T19:16:00.000-06:00

Hit the Hunter's Convention hosted by the Dallas Safari Club last weekend. My goal was to book a safari in S. Africa or Namibia. Spent Friday night jamming with an old bud, each showing the other different riffs.

The show was awesome. Craig Poddington was there but I didn't get the chance to vist with him. Fondled lotsa nice hunting-related equipment. Looked through some $1700 binoculars - you really DO get what you pay for. Many furriers had their gorgous garments - nothing man-made approaches real fur.

I met with a bunch of PHs and it was hard choosing which one to go with as they all lived to hunt and had great operations. There were a couple of times where I'd be walking around and someone would stop me and say they saw me talking to so-and-so and recommend them to me. Saturday afternoon I finally pulled the trigger & handed a check to an outfit in Namibia. I'll be there for 10 days in late October trying to poke critters that bite back with sharp sticks. Hope to return with a few trophies, many pictures, and a few lies about the ones that got away.

Another random public massacre

2007-12-06T22:51:00.000-06:00

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.

2007-11-25T17:47:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-07T22:53:00.000-06:00

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)

2007-10-28T22:26:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-10-08T23:23:00.000-05:00

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:

2007-09-30T20:41:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-18T21:48:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-27T12:47:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-15T21:46:00.000-05:00

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

2007-06-28T00:06:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-06-09T19:11:00.001-05:00

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

2007-05-15T19:01:00.000-05:00

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

Fresh Backstraps!

2007-05-15T12:33:00.000-05:00

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

2007-04-09T15:34:00.000-05:00

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

2007-03-19T23:05:00.000-05:00

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

2007-03-12T11:36:00.000-05:00

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

2007-03-04T23:25:00.000-06:00

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

2007-02-19T21:13:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-04T23:19:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-03T14:49:00.000-06:00

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.

Long Live the Beast

2006-12-22T14:15:00.000-06:00

Last night I climbed a tree for about the 25th time this season in hopes of flinging a sharp stick through the vitals of a whitetail. It's been really tough hunting this year. We've got a bumper acorn crop so they've got much more feed than normal. Plus they've been doing heavy construction on N. Parmer and don't quit until almost dark. The noise pretty much keeps the deer bedded. From the tree I was in last night I've got about a 30 degree shooting window to a creek where they often pass between their bedding and feeding areas.

About 10 minutes before legal shooting time ended the construction noise subsided. The noise ruins not only the hunting but the tranquility of watching the sunset. It was almost dark when I saw a couple deer behind me. They sometimes come from that direction but they stopped to feed. If I waited for them to quit feeding and reach my shooting it'd be too dark. The nearest one was broadside and I had a small hole to shoot through. However the setup was far from optimal. My bow was pointing the wrong way and there was no foliage behind me so I was silhouetted against the sky. Since the shooting lane was so small I hadn't planned on ever taking a shot so I didn't know the yardage and have never flung a practice arrow that way. The arrow shows it was standing.

The far deer was facing me dead-on so I figured she was wise to me, but I tried anyway. Though exaggerated slow movement I was able to the bow turned around without getting busted. I drew, anchored, aimed, and released. It was too dark to see the arrow in flight but I heard the telltale "thwack" of a solid hit. The button-buck dropped in his tracks - spine shot. I climbed down, put another arrow through the vitals, and choked him out.

Since it was cool last night I just tagged, gutted, and skinned it, and left it hanging so it could age a little before I butchered it this morning. I'll try to jerk some of it tomorrow & send a care package to RainBlow. 3 tags & 2 weeks left...

Whackin & Stackin

2006-11-14T17:34:00.000-06:00

Hunted feral hogs last weekend near Harper, TX. This is a high-fenced ranch with exotics but the hogs find their way though the fence and cause havoc. On Saturday the dogs got out and chased the pigs all over hell. They had one hunkered down and the guide told me to shoot it, so got about 20 yards away, waited for the dogs to clear, and release an arrow. The shot was dead-on, right through the heart. She got up and ran about 15 yards and collapsed, probably died 10 seconds after she was hit. It was one of those bow-kills every bowhunter loves to see. It'd have been great to have that one on video!

Back at the skinnin-shack I butchered her. She had 2 bullets in her, actually one that had separated. It had to have hit her in the vitals but she survived. It was all abcessed (sp?) and pussey around the wounds so they told me I could get another one. We BBQ'd her backstraps anyway - great stuff.

Sunday morning we chased them around again w/o the dogs. The pasture is a couple hundred acres with lotsa cover so the animals have ample opportunity to get away - definatly not fishing in a barrel. We spotted a group of about 25 about 300 yards away and the guide turned me loose for a stalk. I kept in the shadows and crawled the last 200 yards to them. The shits bedded down just as I got withing bow-range so I had not shot. Pigs like pile up on one another and you have to be careful about pass-throughs. They finally got up and moved 50 yards so I belly-crawled after them. Just as I got to them they moved another 50 yards so I continued crawling, all the time dragging my bow along side me. Over rocks, leaves, cactus, thorns, et al. There was a decient breeze and I was down-wind, but almost no cover and lotsa dry leaves to go through (noisy) so it was a tough, slow stalk.

I got about 20 yards from where they beded. Every few minutes a few would get up. I thought for sure I was busted but they'd grub a little and settle back down. This had gone on for well over an hour. The damn fire-ants were getting to me and I was growing impatient. A big black boar on the far side of the group got up and then laid down broadside with noone behind the front half of him. There was a pile of pigs about 5 feet in front of him though. To hit him I'd have to shoot over the near pile of pigs and hope they didn't jump while the arrow was in flight, I missed, mis-judged the distance, et al. I knocked an arrow (for about the 20th time), aimed a little high so I wouldn't hit the other pigs, and released. Fred Bear guided another one home, YOWSA! Since this one was an old boar it had a pretty solid plate (cartilage under the hide around his vitals). The broadhead penetrated to the far shoulder but no pass through. They all got up and took off, one with an arrow sticking out like a flag. I got our guide and we tracked for about 1/4 mile. Even though it was a double-lung shot this old boar was tough and not giving up. I was afraid if they took off hard that he might separate and die somewhere we couldn't find him so I told him to go ahead and shoot him if he got the chance. He put 2 243 rounds into him before he went down and I stuck another shaft though his heart to finish the job. He weighed in at 130#. The teeth were well worn so he was old. This was probably my best stalk yet so I was elated afterwards. I'm so alive!!!

The spotted one on the left is the first one I killed:

#2. He reminds me of like Michael Moore without the hat and body odor...

Bohemian Rhapsody

2006-09-23T12:34:00.000-05:00

I've always liked this Queen tune so I've been trying to learn this lately. Started with piano sheet music and tried to convert to guitar. This is going to be a tough one. It's in Eb or Bb; I'm not sure which because of all the weird chords. Not a single open cowboy-chord in it. Weds night I made it all the way through; it took an hour and a half. Stairway & Hotel California were tough at first too but I don't remember them being this hard. Hopefully I'll get it before I give up.

Here's a link to one impressive version of it to see what I'm shooting for: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGs5mn-rM5k&search=Bohemian%20Rhapsody

Centisorus!

2006-09-13T01:28:00.000-05:00

Found this above the front porch this morning. This is NOT a photoshop hack!

That post below it is a 4x4.

Bandits Caught Red-Handed

2006-08-13T14:24:00.000-05:00

My neighbors were out of town for a few days so they had me care for their critters; 3 cats and 2 guineas. The guineas are ferocious bug-eaters and also provide eggs, albeit small eggs. They’ve got a little coop for them which I need to lock up at night to keep the predators out.

So last night I was locking the door and Cindy noticed a small raccoon inside climbing up the wall after the guineas. (They roost in the rafters.) So I ventilated him with my .45 (along with the east wall of the coop – oops!) The hens were upset so I wasn’t going to be able to get the dead coon out without them taking off so I shut the door and left them to settle down. About an hour later I checked on them again and they were all upset. There were 2 more coons locked in the coop with them. 2 more corbons fixed that. I’m really surprised they didn’t catch the guineas; guess they were upset about their sibling lying dead in front of them.

Here my ever faithfull coondawg checking out the guilty trio. Smallish, but the meat will be really tender. Can't decide where to jerk the meat or just grind it and make lasagna again.

Pantera

2006-06-02T01:56:00.000-05:00

There was a pretty good documentary on Pantera on VH1 that I finally got around to watching. Most of it focused on Darrell. He was a huge KISS fan, which I knew because they got into a "KISS" mode one Thursday night at MetalWorks (little club in Arlington). He took it so far as to join the KISS Army. A few days after he got his first guitart (age 7) he had the whole Ace Freeley makeup on and was jamming. Anyway, they buried him in a KISS casket. The funeral was a who's-who of the hard-rock world. EVH put his guitar in the casket with him. It wasn't just a random axe he had either, it was the one he toured with. Prolly worth well into 6 figures, although it's not like Eddie can play anymore... A bunch of his buds put bottles of Crown in the casket for "the trip". Hopefully he's jamming now with Hendrix and Randi.

The other main focus was on Phil. I never was that crazy about him, although his voice and style fit Pantera like a glove. The massive substance abuse kicked his ass like it always does. He blamed the heroine use on his back problems. HorseShit! There are effective prescription pain-killers for that, although it's still possible to get addicted to them too (ala Rush). He's just another fkn doper and, like all others, will always be a liability to those around him. In the end he tried to paint himself as Dime's brother but everyone else pretty well called him on that lie.

Vinnie started his own recording company, I give him a good chance at making it profitable. He's got decient business sense and knows the music biz too.

Download's are done, gotta go. Nite.