Can't believe we are at the longest days of the year day light wise. In Winter I run out of day light with things to still get done. Now I run out of me and day light still beckons.
With the cast bullet match looming on the near horizon with my first shooter asking if it was okay if he arrived Wednesday, I am scrambling to get ready. My honey is off with her cousin to go hiking and look at waterfalls. They used to do this with their Mothers and since their Mom's passing have continued the tradition. So not only don't I have her able assistance, I have most of the day to day work she normally handles, and it is a lot. That woman is apiece of work in a good way.
One thing the guys and I like to do is sit around a campfire like we used to do in hunting camps or rendezvous. Gonna get a little late waitin' for dark now. Anyway, I hate to burn up my Winter stove wood for camp fires. I had an eye on a small downed Red Elm maybe 40' long and a foot in diameter at the butt. I snagged yesterday afternoon after Sue left. Only trouble was it was 84° already. In the fullness of time, I got the bucket off the tractor, the forks put on. I have a gizmo I can clamp on a fork with a grab hook mounted on it. Got a short length of small chain and eventually the Elm was laying next to the fire pit. I brought the splitter to the tree and limbed it, saving everything right down to the 1" branches. Hard and dry as can be but not brittle, yet with no bark on it. Finish blocking up the trunk and it is getting really warm out. Saw a plastic bottle of water sittin' in the Ranger in the shed and though tepid to almost warm I drank it with relish.
Okay, splitter has a very soft tire. Go turn on the air compressor and air that tire up. Huh, the hydraulics seem really slow. Go find hydro oil, a Crescent wrench, a funnel and top up the reservoir. That helped a little but my next guess is it needs a new filter. By the time I got everything split, stacked next to the fire ring, and all of the equipment put away, I was soaking wet, even through my leather gloves and had a pounding headache. Darn, it's only 2:30 pm and I want to cut some brush and poison the stumps, but now it's 90° and I just aint got the gee whizz to get 'er done.
Had some pickle juice, a couple of vitamin I, and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and felt froggy enough to go for a MC ride to dry the sweat. Put on 88 miles and had an uneventful ride. I rarely, very rarely get to ride solo, and Sue is such a good passenger that I hardly notice her. That said, I did notice the bike felt remarkably lively and nimble ridden solo.
After Supper I scrounged around to find enough pieces and parts to load some .44 mag mild plinking loads for the weekend. It is mostly a rifle shoot but as these things tend to drift also I wanted some steel clanking handgun fodder on hand. I assembled a couple dozen before I decided I'd had enough fun for the day and headed to bed. With everything set up in the Lee Classic 4 hole press I can throw together some more this evening. Magma 240 grain old fashioned round nose bullets cast of mystery lead and pushed with 6.4 grains of Promo. I'll run them through a 1950 something Ruger Flat Top. How in the hell guys shot that with original factory hell for leather MAGNUM loads is beyond me. It is a nice light revolver that I only wish had two inches less barrel length.
