But my man cave will now sleep seven adults...
On my way home from work today I took a detour to follow a trail of signs promising an extraordinary yard sale. The placards led me to the million dollar homes part of my neighborhood, which I didn't know existed until today. The sale was as promised.
I made two purchases, and after some rearranging of bookshelves and the recliner, my little log home will now sleep three couples and another full-sized person. There are now two queen beds (one in the bedroom, the other in the front room), a twin futon in the den, and a single day bed in the loft.
Not bad for $120 and an afternoon's labor.
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PS Still only one bath...
Not an insult, just the name of a podcast...
While working in the yard I've been binging my way through the back catalogue of the You Are Not So Smart podcast. Just finished Episode 019 – Placebo sleep and other new discoveries in placebo research. Host and interviewer David McRaney has an engaging style, does careful research, and selects interesting speakers. Mr. McRaney is also the author of two books:
McRaney eats a cookie - made from a listener's recipe, some of which sound quite tasty - at the end of each show, a schtick which may be skipped without risk, especially if you're trying to stick to a careful diet.
64 "lawn" bags of them, and counting...
Having a couple dozen Ponderosa Pines on my property means I'm treated to a thick crop of pine needles and pine cones every spring. I have an appointment to have a trailer hitch installed on the Tribeca so I can haul this all away. In the mean time I'll continue the raking and the bagging and the stacking...
This is a must see...
Wish I Were Here is gentle and kind and forgiving and funny and sad and heartfelt. Treat yourself to it.
To make a spare shotgun a little more useful...
When Erik was in middle school I awarded him a Remington 870 Express Lightweight Youth Model 20 gauge for turning a "D" in maths into an "A." I had replaced the truck tire that Remington calls a recoil pad with a Pachmayr Decelerator Sporting Clays and the front bead was removed on the advice of a wing -shooting instructor. All good. Erik promptly outgrew it. I bought him the adult sized 870 Express Lightweight Synthetic 20 gauge. It comes with Remington's marvelous R3 recoil pad on the full length stock. The little shotgun went into the safe for decade. A thread at Scoutrifle.org got me thinking setting it up as a handy little general purpose shotgun, equally suited to the use of bird shot, buck shot, and slugs.
The youth model's short (12 inch) LOP absorbs that extra inch of barrel, making it no longer overall that the 20 inch 12 bores I used to work with, so I'm not going to replace the 21 inch vent rib barrel. Still it needs sights for my purposes so I've ordered XS Express Night Sight Set Benelli, Remington Vent Rib Steel Matte Standard Dot Tritium Front, White Line Rear. Found a local smith to install them (at a price; seems dovetails are spendy here in Prescott). These sights won't be as precise as a ghost ring rear and and a square post front but it might still let a fella pot a quail without too much distraction. I aspire to seeing how far out I can reliably present a hazard to navigation using the Brenneke one ounce slugs (1392 or 1476 fps; my shoulder gets to choose). Once installed, all I have to do is determine which buckshot load it likes best with which choke tube and select which of the three rear sights in the XS kit lands Brennekes where I want them.
I attached a Weaver base to the wood fore end with brass screws to serve as a flashlight mount. I've got a spare Weaver top mount ring in the parts box somewhere. I've got a spare Surefire for a light. Presto, I have a weapon mounted light.
Onboard ammo storage means a fella can select different sorts of cartridges so a four-shot TacStar side saddle was ordered. Andy Langlois made me a four shot leather ammo holder that I screwed to the wood stock. Screws work so well I may never use the lace-up variety again. Might add another screw or two.
I replaced the plastic factory follower with an aluminum aftermarket unit from Ultimate Arms Gear. The factory safety was swapped for jumbo button from S&J Hardware; buh bye, J-lock! Finally, Uncle Mike's set me up with some sling swivel studs. The rear swivel is mounted at the bottom of the pistol grip to keep the sling out of the way while reaching for the ammo cuff underhand and it allows a higher carry position when slung in African style.
The original forend design overhangs the receiver, which can cause a variety of problems when a fella is in a hurry. From time to time I have somehow (I'm clumsy) managed to pinch prodigious quantities of my left hand between the long wood and receiver of similarly set up slide action shotguns when operating them wrong quickly. In the process of raising blood blisters and shedding blood I've come to hate pinch points and strive to extirpate them at every opportunity. I used a needle nose pliers to unscrew the forend retainer. If I were going to do this more than once I'd definitely buy the purpose built tool.
Finally the factory hardwood forend and buttstock got a dose of Rustoleum brand truck bed liner. Simple, sturdy and simple to touch up.
I'm shopping for a wall-mounted security lock so I can keep this handy little gun close at hand yet protected from the untrained and the unauthorized.
Regardless the challenge encountered - day or night, at arms length or at the 50 yard line - four rounds of buck in the magazine, four slugs in the saddle, and four rounds of shot in the cuff ought to suffice.
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