Sunday, December 4, 2011

Sunday 12/4/2011

Just throwin' it out there: there have been no roaches in my house since that company came out - 3 times - to get rid of them.  I had always thought the same as everyone else: once you get them, you can never get rid of them.  But it's been months now since they did the super-cleanout and after they came out the 3rd time, there has been no sightings of the foul little creatures at all.

I've been looking at 30.06 rifles.  At this point, for the fun of it.  When I was a kid, I always wanted to learn how to handle firearms and more specifically: learn how to hunt.  At young age of 47, I am finally learning how to handle firearms.  I took the .40 cal apart last night, remarkably easier than I thought it would be.  It just comes apart into 4, separate pieces.  There are more pieces to those parts, yes, but from what I read, you don't really need to disassemble those parts to clean it.  I didn't take the 12 gauge apart, but only because I was reading the instructions which seem to indicate that only the bore need be cleaned out.

I cleaned neither of the guns.  I was simply attempting to figure out how to disassemble and reassemble.  I will have to go to WalMart or somewhere and buy cleaning kits and gun oil.  Perhaps 1 cleaning kit comes with different sized brushes?  No clue.  I don't know how to hunt.  I will freely admit that.  I would have to take some sort of courses or maybe just hook up with a hunting group - with people who have the patience to teach newbies.  I would also have to have the correct gun.  I have read about 12 gauge shotguns all over the internet, though, many people swear by them for all kinds of hunting purposes.  Several claim that slugshot will kill a bear or just about any other animal.

The distinct disadvantage, however, is that you have be within 100 yards (preferably less, or so I have read), to kill the animal, while a good hunting rifle you don't quite have to get so close to it to kill it.  I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't want to be shooting at a bear within 100 yards. Bears are fast runners, a poorly placed shot would only make the animal angry.  Actually, I wouldn't want to go bear hunting at all.  I don't care anything about bagging a bear, I would want deer or elk.

Of course, killing the animal is only part 1.  Then you have to know how to field dress the thing.  I have seen them hanging up deer by the hind legs and slitting the throat to drain the blood out of it.  After that, however, I no clue.  Well, I have an idea.  All the guts would have to come out of it.  I don't really know how they field dress an elk.  How do you lift an animal up that large by the hind legs?  I'm guessing that is not how it is done with a 1,000 pound plus animal.  Of course. There are websites for everything, including a site where the guy shows - rather graphic - pictures of an elk being "boned", he called it, versus field dressing it.  They butcher the entire animal, right there, on-site where it was killed.

Makes sense.  You go hiking back into the woods to find the creature, you aren't going to just drag it out of there. But, this site shows it taking 3 people an entire day to cut the thing up and carry it out.  Yikes!  The other idea is simply carrying a block and tackle with you.  String it up on a tree, in other words and drain it.

Well, anyway.  I would find the whole process fascinating, but I don't know about spending an entire day cutting up 1 animal.  Perhaps just field dressing it and paying a butcher to do the rest for you is easier - if you can get the animal to a vehicle somehow.  I suppose a 4-wheeler would come in handy for that.  No wonder hunting is so expensive.  Pickup truck; expensive rifles and presumably not-so-cheap ammo, all the field gear you have to have? Crazy.

Changing the subject entirely, I find no small amount of peace in having Mark and Lynnette back.  The situation currently going on in this neighborhood with my neighbors?  Nice to have someone around all the time is all I can say about that.  There are plenty of thieves around here as well.  Meth users with no jobs equals thieves needing cash equals taking your stuff and selling it cheap to get their next fix money.  So, I have determined to take $100 off the rent and that will be enough.  With a couple?  I would normally add $50 to $100 to the rent, lol.

Longggggg interlude. Like, went to church, did a couple of hours of that, went to Fry's and found a roast that was less than half price.  Caveat?  Had to cook it today, today was the last day before it expired.  Well, I did the roasting bag thing with carrots, potatoes and onions and added spices, only took 2 hours to cook it.  Yummm.  Then, out of the blue, my sister-in-law calls and wants to come over and get a couple of goldfish.  Okay, no problem, I have too many.  She showed up with some dude I had never seen before - but cool anyway - I snagged 2 of them for her and that's all she wanted.

Wet outside, decided not to do anything on the yard today and anyway, the day is winding down, work in the morning and undoubtedly another busy week doing deliveries and trying to finish up with the new store.  Next paycheck should be quite nice. 

Enough for one entry.

ben

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