Desert up date, or A funny thing happened on the way to Spring.

We had one of the most prolonged cold spells here this winter, that we have had so far, but then it was crappy all over. So much for Global warming, but then again I guess that is the way that it manifests itself, according to Gore. We were mostly prepared, probably better than most, with this house having 18 inch thick stone walls. There were times however when I thought the stove was not working, and threatened to get a new one. That is until I looked around, and found that the one I had was at least as good as the new ones. I think we burned twice as much wood this year than last. It was a toss up for a while as to which would last the longest, the wood pile or the cold. Things are looking up however, and we might finish out the year with a stick or two left.

Of course all that prolonged cold manage to burst the pipe that supplies water to the out buildings. I had decided to get a new Sump pump to assist in emptying the hot tub and the pool. My last one had finally bit the dust, and the hot tub was getting a bit hard to control. The day that the new pump arrived, the pipe burst and flooded the cool room. Karen tried to get a drink of water before bed, and found that there was no pressure. I went down to the cool room where the pump lives, and found packages of toilet paper floating around the room like rubber duckies in a bath tub. The new pump emptied the room in 4 minutes. So for the rest of the winter, I had to fill up plastic buckets in the bath tub to water the Chickens and Pigeons.

Some poor hay hauler lost six large bales of Alfalfa on the road just below the turn off to the house. Two of them were intact, so Karen and I salvaged them with my car trailer and the winch on the quad. The bales weigh about 800 or more pounds each, so there was a lot of expensive hay for ole Ezra to fatten up on. Well it of course came with a price. -- Deer! They can apparently smell Alfalfa hay for miles. They drove us crazy until I fenced the hay stack with a hot wire. Of course the rabbits went under the wires, but then again, I didn't mind them. We had somewhere around 60 or so Jacks and Bunnies feeding off the hay. They are not anywhere near as destructive as a bunch of Deer, and they will be the mamma's and papa's of this years hunting supplies. They also had another side? benefit. They drew every Bobcat in the country to "Cottrell's fast food resturant". Since raw Bobcat hides were selling for about $525.00 each, it made it bearable. However the ranch yard looks like the bottom of a rabbit cage. The ground is covered with processed hay, otherwise known as shit.

Richard Yturriondobeitia, (A good old Basque name, I just had to spell that out for you. ) runs a trap line each fall. I always shoot a few Coyotes that are forgetful enough to cross the pasture ? below the house. I hate to waste anything, so I started taking them to him. He insisted that he would give me half of what they brought for sale at the end of the year. Well, who am I to blow against the wind? When the Bobcats began showing up, I got pretty happy at the thought. Then he wanted me to start skinning the Coyotes, well it isn't as hard as it seems, but I wouldn't call myself an expert yet. I took the cats to him to skin, because I didn't want to screw them up. I did take one of the cats back to have it tanned. It was worth more to me that way than money. It is now hanging in the living room.

I decided that I would splurge and buy a varmint rifle, since I was having fun with all this. I bought a Savage package rifle, model 11-111. It came with a 3-9 Nikon scope, and it was fairly reasonable. Not actually what I wanted, but in 22-250 cal. was just right for desert shooting. I was actually quite hesitant to buy a Savage. When I was growing up they produced mostly junk for guns. I was told by several people that they were under new management and their guns were some of the most accurate available on the market today. As you may be aware, guns of any type or ammo for that matter are very hard to get. Obama sure has caused a run on guns and ammo.

I managed to buy the last one that Cabela's in Boise had in stock. I had to go to another store to get the ammo for it. It had a synthetic stock on it, but I didn't mind that since I could tape bullet drop charts on it and not hurt the stock at all. It did shoot well, and I killed a running Coyote at 204 yards with my first shot. I later shot a group at 100 yards to see how it grouped and shot a 1/2 inch 3 shot group. Outstanding to say the least.

Then last Thursday Cabela's got in a shipment of powder, and I made a special trip to Boise just to get the type that I wanted for loading. That same evening the varmint bullets that I had ordered came in, so the next morning I planned to work up a hand load for the gun that would be my varmint load.

I have been doing this since the 70's and am well equipped for it. The powder was H380, which is supposed to be one of the best for the 22-250. The powder can label recommended 41 grains of powder for the 50 grain bullet that I intended to shoot. My loading manual showed 36.9 as a minimum and 39.6 as a max for that size bullet. I choose to load 37 grains of powder and work up to more to get the grouping that I wanted. I loaded 3 rounds, and the first one blew out the primer. I thought that it was a faulty shell case, and shot another one. That one was hard to remove from the gun after it was fired. I foolishly shot the last one, and it stuck in the barrel. This shouldn't have happened as I was four grains below what the company recommended. I checked the scales and every thing, but it was all correct and as I had intended. I decided to cut the amount down to 35 grains. When I fired the gun the next time, it blew apart in my hands.

I was quite lucky. The only thing that came in my direction was the chip that hit my glasses and made the little star in them. I would have lost my eye for sure if I had not been wearing them.

I have of course been in contact with Hodgdon powder company, and will be sending them bullets loaded with the powder. It was made in Jan of this year, so it was new. Savage Arms is sending me boxes to send the gun to them to check. I have no clue as to what they intend to do about the gun, but I know that I made no mistake in my loading process.

Tree's giving birth, and flying Squirrels.

Karen and I were in the hot tub the other night, and she asked if the fence was shorted out. With the electric fence that keeps Ezra from doing a "walk about" running around the field sometimes manages to get close enough to a post that it will short out and you can hear it Snap. Well, I listened hard, but the sound even though it could be called a "Snap", it was a bit too low in pitch. I got out of the tub any way and went out in the dark to watch and see if I could see the spark. I could not, so the next morning I made a trip around the fence and could find no visible problems. Then yesterday afternoon was nice enough that we were sitting out on the deck in the sunshine reading. I could hear the snap again, so I went to check around the "Cat house" for a possible short there. Nothing! Today I was out by the tub, and I heard it again. I went by the front of the house to listen, and it was coming from the Pine tree. The cones were opening and the seeds were being scattered with the snap. :-/ New one for me. The Pines at our other house were so tall that you couldn't hear them doing it.

I opened the dining room window today to let Frank (Cat ) in the house. As I was closing the window I heard a bang on the roof and a Antelope Ground Squirrel came to rest in the side yard. It was quite dead. I craned out of the window and saw the resident Red Tail Hawk circling around the house. It landed in the tree by the cat house.

I tried to toss it in the front yard for him, but they cannot see anything that does not move, so he eventually flew off to try his luck elsewhere. I am not sure why the hawk dropped him, he obviously did not intend to do so. I am also not sure whether the hawk or the fall killed the Squirrel. Food is hard to come by, I hope he does better in the future. Puddy Tat enjoyed the Squirrel.

Frank and Josie.

Josie just loves the cats, and Frank loves her right back. With the good weather the cats are enjoying the outdoors very much. Frank, for whatever reason likes to dig. He made quite a hole in the garden, and played in there most of an afternoon. Yesterday he started digging out by the weathering area, and dug up a "Matchbook" Car. Quite a nice one too.

One of Josie's favorite things are Mice. When I find one that has been caught in one of the buckets, I toss it out for her and she spends a long time tormenting it to death. She turns them loose and then catches them again. I gave her one this afternoon and noticed Frank following her around, hoping that she would screw up. Of course she never did, but hope springs eternal I guess. The hole that Josie is standing in was dug by Frank.

I spent the afternoon fixing the broken pipe. It had been spliced so many times that I had to build a new one. It fed the far pens, and the sprinkler system as well as the Cat house, as I later found out. I tested it and none of the new stuff leaked, but the pressure was a bit lower than I thought it should be. Later I discovered that it was broken where it went into the cat house. Sigh!