Out And About

Redivivus

 

Blue needed a flea pill and I needed to go to the range for remedial off-hand rifle practice. But how could two such very different goals meet as one? Easy, the vet's on the way to the range. So, yummy pill administered, off we went to the shooting gallery. Straight shot, as it were.

To be honest, I hadn't been there in some time, mostly because of the ammo shortage and because I've been able to shoot at JF's setup, which is far more awesome. Still, I like this little 100 yard shoot 'em up. Just you, the guns and the big Texan sky.

A Happy Blue

Blue liked it too, big time, and grinned away as I let a couple of steel turkeys know who was boss with a gas gun, aka deadly assault rifle. Take that, steel enemy. Then, after searching the shooting house for precious brass, we headed back to the Compound via a dolla cheeseburger at McDonalds. Yum, if nothing like a hamburger.

Big Sky. Note Battered Steel

That last bit's tradition. Love it, like it, scorn it, whatever, it's just the way it is. And I tell you this, readers, it felt good to get out in the clean country air of Texas and shoot. Blue agreed, as you can see.

Gun rights,

LSP

RIP Mr. McAfee

 

The infamous, yacht sailing, run from the Feds, multimillionaire tech libertarian is dead, suicided today in a Spanish prison cell following a court approving his extradition to the US for tax fraud. 

Did McAfee kill himself en lieu of spending the rest of his life in solitary supermax? Or did someone reach out and end him, Epstein style? Who knows, but the onetime tech mogul is famously on record saying he would kill himself. He even got a tattoo to prove it:

So what's the deal. Did McAfee owe too much cash to the wrong people or did he have damning evidence that'd come out in a US trial, "discovery," or both? For that matter, who else is involved, the Epstein Island flight list, the Clintons themselves? Surely not our intel agencies, that'd be unthinkable.

Hey, I don't know, being a humble serf of the New World Order, but isn't this the second suicide in so many months? Maybe you remember the guy who reported on Loretta Lynch's  meeting with Kill Clinton on the tarmac. Oops. Time to die. Go against our beneficent Millionaire Socialist rulers at your peril. 

Such Utter Racism

As we ponder this timely message, spare a thought and a prayer for John McAfee. OK, he helped author an annoying software program but made up for it by sailing around the world,  and defying it and its masters. 

I like that. He boosted the Peoples Currency too, and I like that as well.

God bless,

LSP

Life On The Range

 

It was just like the old days. Get up around first light, say Morning Prayer, drink coffee, then load up the rig with guns and head for the range. But this was different, this is JF's range with steel targets and shooting stations at 200, 600 and 1000 yards, all on his family ranch. What a great setup.

The crew were sighting in new Windham Armory AR pistols at 25 yards when I pulled in, and what solid little beasts they were! Good shooters, too. Then an AR rifle topped off with Aimpoint (nice) and a magnifier. 

JF Zeroing Some AR Pistols at 25 yards

After a few test shots to see if the weapon was on, it pretty much was, R went out to 200 yards, the furthest he'd shot, and was amazed to get his final round right in the center of the bull of a steel silhouette. I spotted, "Well done!" 

Behold big rejoicing in R's world. And fair play, not only does the rifle I built work but I can actually shoot it, sort of thing.  Next up, I got on JF's M1A, built from original parts except for the receiver, which is comparatively new and forged by wizards in some mountain fastness. Hey, it shot like a champ with .308 handloads striking gongs with regular authority. Iron sights to boot. I tell you, I want one.

Behold 1940s Awesome

Then, for kicks, a rimfire assault on our steel adversaries. I started off with a Marlin .22 WMR, compensating for an appx 100 yard zero and a moderate right to left wind. You see, at 200 yards the wind's going to blow that pokey if little bullet about, so try and shoot accordingly. 

I did, and the gun did well, with convincing shots in or around the bull. But if the power .22 performed, what about its little brother, a .22LR? With a 100 yard zeroed scope, compensate for bullet drop of around 2', wind, and squeeze the trigger. Then be amazed as the tiny round reaches its intended destination. Thanks, Ruger American.

Not A Ruger American

JF's 1940s match Winchester 52 B(?) with a Unertl scope didn't disappoint either. There it was, Browning match .22 LR filling the orange bull on a 36" plate. What a lot of fun. Would my Ruger American .17 HMR work at the 200 yard range, given the tiny, tiny bullet is liable to be taken up and gusted off target by even moderately big Texan wind? Wow. It worked and I was taken aback. Far less compensation needed than the .22 WMR.  Fast and flat. Awesome little zipper of a round.

200 Yard Line , Zoom in to See Targets on The Berm

Of course it helped to have a good spotter, thanks JF, at every level. And the moral? Get out and shoot under the big sky of Texas, preferably on a friend's land and, note, rimfire at 200 yards is good training for reading the wind at an affordable price. And it's fun, which is what it's all about.

Shoot straight,

LSP

Juke Box Mondays

Here we are, back at Juke Box Mondays with the good ole Grateful Dead. "I love the Dead!" exclaimed no girlfriend ever. And by popular demand, and it's just that, popular demand, here's Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.

But Jim wants Wanda, so here she is.

And RHT is urgent. Let's hear it for Foreigner.

But what's this?!? Hocus Pocus by Focus?!? Travel back in time and behold the fretboard glory of it all.

Then there's Heart of Glass, which we love. A Lot. Ignore the band.

Cheers, requests open,

LSP

Life Is Good

 

You never quite know what you'll find at the local country Made-in-China-Mart in these uncertain times, apart from everyone having a tattoo regardless of age. It's like some kind of convention of extras from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Buccaneers aside, I checked out the ammo aisle by force of habit. Lo and behold, there were Valu-Paks of .22LR, 20 gauge 8 shot, and a few lonesome boxes of .22 WMR; and all at normal prices. Result. I bought a box of each, per store limit, and drove back to the Compound in high spirits. 

Inspired by this not inconsiderable victory, it seemed right to clean some guns, one gun in particular, a Ruger American .17 HMR. Clean that bolt, LSP, lest the dirty little beast seizes up and fails to fire. Which is a bit of an issue with Ruger's American rimfire line because the manufacturer in its wisdom packed the bolts in grease, which solidifies over time and stops the rifle from working as it should. So sort it out; here's a helpful video, if you're interested. 

That said, let's see how the little beast performs at JF's range tomorrow. We'll be shooting from the 200 yard line, and there's nothing wrong with that. At all.

In the meanwhile, ribs are on the grill and life is good.

Your Friend,

LSP

Well Done Old Girl!

 

Behold the awesome PMK, on her way to meet the simpering, D List, wokevry no-talent Megyxn Markle. Let's zoom in.

Is that a Blackamoor? Well done, old girl! 

Your Old Friend,

LSP

Sunday Message

 

This one's via Dostoevsky to Maikov in 1870:

Exactly the same thing happened in our country: the devils went out of the Russian man and entered into a herd of swine, into the Nechaevs (nihilists)… These are drowned or will be drowned, and the healed man, from whom the devils have departed, sits at the feet of Jesus… And bear this in mind, my dear friend, that a man who loses his people and his national roots also loses faith in his fathers and his God. Well, if you really want to know – this is in essence the theme of my novel [Demons].

Note the seer-like precision of will be drowned. Take heart from that, but know, great will be the fall of it.

Cheers,

LSP

Happy Juneteenth!

 

I don't know how you celebrated Juneteenth or even Kwanza, but here at the Compound it just seemed right to clean a couple of shotguns which had cleverly swum back from their watery grave in the mighty Brazos.

And what filthy beasts they were! You see, it's all very well to have guns but if you don't clean them they don't work, they jam, seize up and fail. Just the other day I watched a friend unleash his Remington 870 on a clay. Boom, smoked it, and then what? 

A Gun

Nothing, the gun failed to extract, and all because the chamber hadn't been cleaned in a years worth of Sundays. Net result? Shell stuck in chamber, gun useless except as Zulu style club. And we all know spear chuckers can be deadly but properly functioning firearms deadlier still, so set about those guns with Juneteenth fervor. Let's see 'em shine, inside and out.

A Juneteenth Angel

And shine they did. Excited, I texted a friend in England who had been in the Army (TA) and he asked if it brought back memories. It did, of course. Weapons cleaning, running, endless shaving and ironing, a Sergeant directing our parade attention to a "Colour" ambling largely along the edge of the Square, "Look at that, boys. Too fat to F***ing fight. Get OFF MY SQUARE. YOU'RE F***ING TILTING IT." 

Another Gun!

"That story," remarked my pal, "has stuck with me, indelibly." And same here, but of course I was there, back in the mists of time. Text convo over, Eduardo tipped up on the porch, he runs a chicken operation behind the Compound and has bad English, "Mi Padre, favor?" he asked, eyeing gleaming shotguns. "Car no good, drive to liquor store?"

Yet Moar Gun

Off we went, and he bought a case of beer for Fathers Day. Well done that man. And with that, all three of you gentle readers, all was well with the world on this great, awesome, holy and wonderful holiday that is... Juneteenth. Gun rights.

Your Pal,

LSP

UFO MENACE?

 Tic-Tac

Here in Lspland we take UFOs seriously and so does the Pentagon itself, which is why the Department of Defense is briefing Congress later this month on some 120 UAP (Unexplained Aerial Phenomenon) incidents going back several decades. Why the sudden interest?

Because of a series of Pentagon verified videos from Navy pilots, showing unidentified craft maneuver with capability that's seemingly far beyond our own. Such as the famous Tic-Tac, Sphere and Acorn, as well as the Metallic Blimp and a random flying pyramid.

Acorn

Some politicians, like Senator "Rat Claw" Rubio, believe the UAPs  are a threat, "The facts are that there are things flying over our military installations. They don’t belong to us. They seem to evidence some technological advancement that we don’t have and have never seen. That would be one heck of a technological leap and a huge strategic surprise, so we have to know what this stuff is."

You might be forgiven for thinking that Rat Claw's beating up some kind of war drum hysteria with his vicious little hands. That uncomfortable image aside, what is this "stuff"? Secret US, ChiCom or Russian tech, visitors from another time or dimension? Literal space aliens? Who knows, maybe it's Space Nazis operating Tesla drive craft, Aryan Vimanas?, out of the center of our hollow earth. Or demons, some people think they're behind the mysterious UAPs.

The Blimp

For what it's worth, I'm inclined towards the US tech point of view, who knows what we've got going on out there on the far reaches of dark money and arcane science. And for goodness sake, the scamdemic's nearly over, so it's high time for another crisis to keep the serfs in order and the profits flowing. 

But the problem with this is that the Pentagon's UAP record goes back a long time, to well before our current microchip utopia, much less hypersonic, gravity defying flyers. Sure, capitalize on the phenomenon and lock the people down forever, but the things which were flying in the '70s and before can't have been ours, surely. Or the ChiCom's or the Russians'. The tech just wasn't there.

A Typical Space Nazi

So maybe it's demons except that why would evil spirits who can move at the speed of thought bother to use a Metallic Blimp for transport, or a Tic-Tac? No, not demons. Then there's Space Nazis, from Hollow Earth. Tempting. Still, we know the Fourth Reich is all about blitzkreig and conquest, and the UAPs haven't done this, fortunately.

That leaves extra dimensional visitors, time travelers or space aliens. So what's the score?

Your Call,

LSP

Midweek Message - Peace Be Still

Listen up:

The holy fathers instruct us that God is not to be found in the storm or the noise of this life, but in stillness by awareness of our thoughts and the unceasing remembrance of Christ in our minds.  When we fill that sacred space, where God should abide, with material things, worldly cares, anxieties, and distractions including television, music, or idle conversation, God’s gentle presence is masked so that we are no longer able to perceive Him working within us.  If we desire to quell bad thoughts, habitual sin, we must strive after this peace and be still.  

The world offers us distractions that temporarily anesthetize the mind and deaden the nous all the while keeping God’s presence distant from us.  As Saint Seraphim of Sarov told his spiritual children, “Acquire a peaceful spirit, and around you thousands will be saved. Where there is God, there is no evil. Everything coming from God is peaceful, healthy and leads a person to the judgment of his own imperfections and humility.”

Peace, be still,

LSP

Free Falling!

 

Free falling or what? And then there's this. 

So very awesome.

Your Pal,

LSP

Roofy

 

The Compound doesn't have a tower, sadly, but it does have several roofs, and with roofs comes, ahem, responsibility. You have to keep them in order, or else an historic Texan house becomes an historic Texan ruin. To prevent that, I climbed up on the roof.

Trees needed cutting back, gutters had to be cleaned, and a malfeasant air conditioning exhaust somehow fixed. The evil beast was leaking water all over the roof and that had to be stopped before it caused catastrophic damage. 

miserable offender

Fortunately, it was a simple blockage and easily cleared, thanks to a couple of holes cleverly cut into the PVC for just that purpose. Well done, far-sighted HVAC tech of yesteryear.

Plumbing job over, I surveyed what's fast becoming a sort of double canopy (?) forest of Pecan, Crepe Myrtle and more besides. This is good, it provides shade, and that's no small thing when our Old Enemy the Weather does its level best to imitate a blast furnace.

sylvan groves of Olde Texas

Sylvan reverie over, I cut into the invading jungle with a vengeance, clearing the green invader from the very roof it was threatening to destroy. Take that.

infographic

Next step? Clean out the gutters. This is a nasty job, especially when you haven't bothered to do it in over a year. And you should, because if you don't, the backed up gutters will send water up under the roof, into the fascia, onto the soffit, and before you know it the whole leading edge of the thing is rotted out. And that's a nightmare.

typical Texan roof scene -- sort out the downspouts, LSP

Even more of a nightmare than the job itself, which got done, mostly. And that, punters, is the story of that. It was good to get up on the top of the world and survey the wonder of sylvan Texas. 

Good, too, to get some preventative maintenance done. It beat, let me tell you, reading about the ongoing, wicked clownshow that is the governance of what used to be Christendom.

I file this, vaguely, under country life in Texas and more specifically, under "roof."

Do good every day,

LSP