Gulf coast, between Ft. Myers and Tampa. The "Non-Touristy part of the state," as I like to call it.

I spent a month one week visiting relatives in Haines City .   .   .   

Ugh,  more lumberjack work sawing up big chunks of trees.   I'll  definitely not be taking large trunk pieces ever again.  Too much hassle to deal with.   

Also,  the splitting wedges from Harbor Freight are garbage.   The one I got is pretty soft and it's already getting deformed after not too many whacks with the 8lb sledge hammer.   

I spent a month one week visiting relatives in Haines City .   .   .   

Which immediately reminded me of this:

"Cleveland. What a lovely city. I spent a year there one day."

So, what is it about cities in Ohio, eh?

I try to stay away from such "exciting" cities.  Of the three listed, I've managed to avoid all three.  Been to DC three times, but only to the touristy stuff while visiting one of the kids.  LA is the one I've seen most, and I hate it.  But, two kids went to school there, and one lives there again after leaving for a few years.

A couple of months ago my father gave me his very first rifle, purchased new in 1947, a Remington 511.  The bad news is that he left it in the attic for the last 32 years.   It had a wee bit of surface rust.   I used some 0000 steel wool with a little machine oil, and pretty much all of it came off without any pitting.   So that's the bad, and the good news.  Now, the next bad/good news is that I'm on the downhill side of 50, so I can't see iron sights very well anymore.  So, after much deliberation, I'm having bases and rings put on the 511, as well as on a 514 I've had for several years that I also can't shoot very well for the same reason - iron sights.

Being the cheap illegitimate offspring frugal fellow that I am, I pulled the scope off of my .17 HMR to go on the 511.  And a good friend offered me a surplus 6x for the 514.  But what to do for the .17 HMR?  That's where all the above backstory comes in, what I did this weekend. 

Yesterday morning I pulled the scope off my AR, and put it on the .17 HMR.  And earlier last week I picked up a 4-12 x 40 with an illuminated reticle at Cabela's for about a third off, so I put that on my .30-06.  For now the 3-9 that was on the .30-06 is back in the original box.  I'm hoping to offload my AR in favor of a new Mini-14 (but that's another story) and put that 3-9 on the Mini.  Or it may end up back on the AR.  We'll see.  This evening I bore-sighted the .17 and -06, so when I get the .22s back in a couple of weeks I'll take all four out and have a nice, long sighting-in session.

made a burnt offering
venison backstrap stuffed jalapenos

checked off one of my musical bucket list last night.............
Emmylou

   excuse the crappy cellphone pic from the lawn




edit------------what's with the upside down 

When we bought this place 20+ years ago it had an "economy grade" cedar fence on three sides, with the fence boards on our side of the rails and posts.  Painted light baby-poop brown.     We're on a wedge lot of a cul-de-sac, so the back fence is over 100' long, and what we can see out our living room window.     When we moved in there were three pine trees along the back fence, which provided some shade and blocked the view of a fair amount of the fence.  The pines were also economy grade when planted 40+ years ago.  One flat-out died (huh-that tree's gotten quite brown, but that one's green), one was leaning over the back fence and then lost it's counterbalancing main branch in a freeze so it got removed before the occasional high wind blew it over, and the other was slowly dying of bugs/fungus and/or basic ugly, so all three are now gone.  A couple of weeks ago one of the neighbor's chickens got into our yard where the uppermost section of the south fence met the back fence.  My wife shushed it back over the fence, then propped the fence back in place, but the replacement of that fence moved up in the do-it-now project priority.

So for the last several weekends we've been fence building.  Rails and boards only, as the posts are still solid (plus set in concrete).  The project has been made more interesting by the fact that there is a large metal shed (think quonset hut without the ends) right next to the fence (not allowed by code), erected four owners ago (they were some "fun" neighbors to have - NOT!).  They did it over a weekend when we weren't home, and attached to the fence.  Morons.  They did try to prevent leaves from our maple and cherry trees from accumulating on the fence rails on their side by attaching chicken wire to the edges of the roof where it overhung the fence.  Uh, no.  That just ended up holding the leaves and moisture against the fence rails and sped up the decay process.  Did I mention the cherry trees?  Yeah.  Right next to the fence.  Planted in clay soil.  Where's a root to go, eh?  Yeah, along the fence, so we've got one post that has been tilted way out of plumb, toward said shed.  And there is a shed post about 18" from the fence post, right in the path where a new rail needs to go.  So we cut the post off about 18" from the ground, made a thin wedge shim from a previous 4x4 cutoff, and reattached the post with waterproof glue and metal plates. That brought the top of the post somewhat back in line with the rest of the fence.  Oh!  And we're putting the fence boards on the other side of the rails.  Which means for the length of the metal shed, we're screwing them on starting on our side through the rail and into the fence board, because less than 2" of space on the other side.  Different. 

It's definitely been an interesting project.  Two sections left to go.  And hopefully they will be more boring, without having to engineer solutions on the fly.

Sorry for the crappy pics.  Not all will attach, and those that do are stretching, but hopefully they'll give an idea of what I'm writing about.

I applaud your grit and ingenuity.  Dealing with the fence is a problem with finite parameters - dealing with the neighbor(s) on the other side of the fence - not so much.  Good luck and thanks for the update. 

Meanwhile in Arizona, we are nearing the end of our fifth consecutive day of measurable rainfall.  Tomorrow looks to be a tossup - maybe wet, maybe not.     So far we have received about four inches or so of rainfall over the period in question and, thus, have begun to rethink our plans for re-roofing the humble abode.  Nothing terribly serious yet but its better to not wait until you need a truckload of those handy 5 gallon plastic buckets.  IMO.  The local creek - normally dry at this time of year - has crested at 8.75 feet, a mere 3 feet above flood stage.  Roads and bridges across it are closed until Mother Nature relents.