11/13/2022 - BLOG COMMENTS are again allowed and are moderated to exclude only the bots, advertisements, racial / ethnic pejoratives, and embedded links. I'll attempt to honor Chicago's historical "Bughouse Square" concept of free-speech and open debate --- spanning the curve from the far-left to the far-right. /JZ
Blogging to you from the Northeastern Badlands of The County of Lake, in the state currently known as Fatmanistan, DEEP DEEP DEEP DEEP DEEP inside the heartland of the Banana Republic formerly known as the USA, WELCOME TO THE NEXT CHAPTER! WARNING! ALL FORMS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ARE ADDICTIVE; EXCESSIVE USE MAY LEAD TO MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS, REDUCED JOB PRODUCTIVITY, INSOMNIA, SOCIAL ALIENATION, GENITAL ULCERS, BLINDNESS, POLITICAL EROTICISM, AND / OR DEVIANT FUNAMBULISM. NOTICE: NO GUNS OR AMMUNITION ARE FOR SALE VIA THIS BLOG. (No, I will not trade my Colt Python for some lubricious adventures with your trophy wife and a future first-round draft pick.) CAVEAT: This blog is not suitable for viewing while at work, while inside a public library, while inside any public or private school, or while inside any public or private restroom. Do not view this blog while driving a motor vehicle or while piloting an aircraft. Viewing this blog may be illegal inside the EU, NYC, Chicago, Seattle, and other parts of the Third World. THIS BLOG CONTAINS (albeit often very childish) ADULT-CONTENT. DISCLAIMER: This blog is a hobby, it is not a livelihood. Even though much of what I blog about relates to firearms collecting and recreational shooting, I am not an expert (by any measure) on any facet of guns, shooting, hunting, or personal defense. Entries at this blog are akin to good old-fashioned campfire chats or post hunt bourbon-fueled barroom-bluster; I offer no opinion on what you should or should not purchase, or what you should be using or doing. What does or does not work for me could be rugged-country-miles away from your tastes and your needs. All products, places, and miscellany that I review for this blog are purchased / rented / leased at retail price by me. I do not accept payment, gifts, discounts, freebies, products on loan, distilled spirits, recreational pharmaceuticals, plea-bargains, probation, parole, Papal Blessings, Presidential Pardons, or sexual favors for doing any review or blog post. TRACKING COOKIES: Google et al stick tracking cookies on everybody. If you are online, you are being spied on via one method or another, for one reason or another; 'nuff said. You may be able to minimize your online DNA residue by using Tor and Duck Duck Go. Vive la liberté! Vive all y'all! Ante omnia armari. To each of you, thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, April 29, 2017

The MAGPUL Tejas "El Original" Gun Belt is my latest ride








Last night and this morning I tested my new 1.5'' wide version of "El Original" on a sampling of holsters.  The fit inside the fixed holster loops and inside the snap loops was tight on almost everything and required a bit of effort, but the belt and all holsters (that I tried) did marry.

Comfort wise, with or without a holster, my initial impression is favorable;  I find "El Original" to be a rather satisfying accoutrement.



Thursday, April 27, 2017

Yard and Garden Journal 4/27/2017; random photos and idle chit chat.


:
My sole surviving front yard tulip on Easter Sunday.  Many folks up here have gardens full of tulips that return each spring, some for over a decade or longer.  Other dedicated gardeners simply replant tulip beds every fall.  I am going to give up on tulips for a while; with my lack of tulip talent, they just have not been very agreeable 





The daffodils have proven to be very tenacious.




A store-bought arrangement wedged with bricks to keep it from blowing away.
The first mowing of the front yard was on 4/17/2017, prior to the application of weed-and-feed.
The grass held up very well over the winter months and greened up readily with our frequent waves of nitrogen rich spring thundershowers.



Here is what the front lawn looked like on the day before yesterday, shortly after its second mowing of this season.  It has been maybe about a week since I gave it a light application of weed-and-feed; a little goes a long way.  Our little postage-stamp sized front yard is where I put in the most effort, but honestly it only gets lawn food in the spring and that's it for the entire year; I never believed in the multi-step lawn treatments throughout the year.  Further, this twenty-year-old yard has never had core aeration; I let the worms provide that service, and they do it for free.  How often do I power de-thatch the lawn?  Never.  If an area is showing some need, a little effort with a steel rake takes care of the problem.  How often do I treat for grubs and other malevolent critters?  Never;  our area has a bounty of hungry birds that are usually very happy to oblige, although during hot and dry July and August the birds require that I give the lawn a good soaking before they will put any effort into foraging. 

EDIT:  Nope, I don't bag my clippings.  Both walk-behind power-mowers are mulchers.  Mulching mower or not, I get the best looking results with sharp blades; dull blades tend to brown the top of the  grass.  I keep my blades HIGH, around three and a half inches is as low as I go; long grass gives the lawn deeper roots.  The zero turn riding mower is not a mulcher but it gives a good looking cut as long as the blades are sharp.  HOWEVER, the zero turn is heavy and compacts the soil a bit more than I like, so I usually only use it in areas that I am not too finicky about, such as the back and side yards.  I will use the zero for the front yard if I am overwhelmed with laziness.

My yard is a hobby; if the lawn next-door or across the street is long and ragged with dandelions and other weeds, I suffer no angst whatsoever.  My Eastside next-door neighbor has a lawn that is so beautiful it makes mine look neglected.  If this was some sort of competition, we would lose to several folks in our subdivision. Our only goal is to achieve a certain level of personal happiness; nothing more; nothing less.













Monday, April 24, 2017

The NRA bumps off another competitor

Nothing personal, it's strictly business.

The NRA might want to rethink that strategy. CLICK on that flashy NRA banner below to read what David Codrea has to say.



Sunday, April 23, 2017

Is it time to declare open season on all monsters of OUR Internet?

Yes, it is time for lawmakers to dismember ALL of the multi-billion-dollar monsters of the Internet, beginning with Google.

CLICK on that big ugly monster below and read on ...


Wednesday, April 19, 2017

... and then suddenly the thing went all like BOOOOOOM!



Do you think I can maybe just put a patch on this?
Well, I supposed that the lesson for me here is to never inflate a 7-year-old tire to its rated-pressure.



So, the zeroturn gets to sit and wait for two new front tires to arrive; the lawn has been too wet to use the rider for mowing anyway; I used a regular power mower to do the front yard, the rest of the yard can wait.

The battery needed some coaxing to bring it back to life; dunno if it will make it to the end of the mowing season; this is the tractor's second battery; they only seem to last 3-years each.  After sitting all winter, the engine started without too much persuasion.

I'd really like to put a mulch kit on the mower deck ... naaah ... maybe next year.



Saturday, April 15, 2017

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Feds take down ALLEGED local ISIS terrorist chapter in Zion, Illinois.

I kinda thought something was going on with the feds around here during the past few days ... things were noticeably more bizarre than usual. Some followup by enforcement agencies may still be underway, or there may be something going on aside from this.

A righteous catch by the Feds? Offhand it looks that way, but all terrorists are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. CLICK ON the photo below to read the story.



f___book censorship? NAH!

Gee ... gosh ... golly ...

Please, f___book, tell me it isn't so.

I am so surprised ... this must be a mistake.

CLICK on the image below to read the story ...


Monday, April 3, 2017

Had the S&W 60-9 @ 5 Star Firearms Shooting Range, Zion, Il today (every Monday = special $12-hour rate for gunslingers 60 years old and over; WOOHOO!)




1st target set @ 15-feet.  10-rounds of 130-grain FMJ .38 Special (look closely at the photos because the ball ammunition does not make clean, even holes in the paper; it tears the paper instead of cutting it, and the holes often close up, which makes them very difficult to see at any distance).



This was only the second time I had this revolver at the range;  the first session was back in October of 2016; dry fire practice helped me improve a little since then.  Short barreled revolvers have been a challenge for me; they take some work and at least a modicum of dedication;  I am the laziest man to ever walk this earth so my improvement with short barreled revolvers (AKA "snubs") has been incremental, at best.

All of my revolver sessions (or nearly so) have moved away from staging the trigger;  now I am practicing that, once I am on target, the trigger is rolled straight through without pausing to correct any muzzle movement caused by "squeezing" the trigger.  Further, after each shot, I reacquire the target ASAP and repeat the firing process until the revolver is empty ("shoot until the threat is gone").   This shooting range has a policy (as with most other shooting ranges) that frowns on rapid-fire because of safety concerns.  However, they seemed to be tolerant of what I was doing; one reason may be the fact that the fastest I can go with a 5-shot revolver is relatively slow compared to someone doing Rambo-rapid-fire with a semi-auto.  The Range Officers here are ever vigilant and professional; I am seriously comfortable at this range.






2nd target set @ 21-feet.  10-rounds, same ammo as above.






3rd target set @ 30-feet.  10-rounds, same ammo as above.  NOTE:  In the above target, the 2 holes to the right of the "7" are out of the scoring area; they are misses.





4th target was just used for some different fun stuff.  Above, the yellow duct tape was my target area @ 15-feet for 5-rounds of Federal's erstwhile 110-grain .357 SJHP (I'm sure you noticed that I missed my mark low, 4 out of 5 times)  Goodness, hollow point bullets cut such pretty, easy to see holes in the targets; I wish I could afford to use hollow points all the time.  Maybe the price of ammo will keep dropping ...



55-rounds total were fired during this range session; only 5 of the rounds fired were .357 magnum.



I suppose I had better end this blog entry with my boilerplate disclaimer so I don't piss off the Lordz of the Interwebz.

As always at this here blog site, this entry is simply a good old-fashioned campfire chat; this is not an opinion on what I feel you should or should not purchase or what you should be using or doing.  What does or does not work for me could be many country miles away from your tastes and needs.  All products, places, and / or thingies that I review for this blog are purchased at retail price by me.  I do not accept payment, gifts, discounts, "freebies," products on loan, demon alcohol, drugs, probation, parole, Presidential Pardons, or sexual favors of any flavor for doing any review.  




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