Weekend Blog Bleg (4) - Shooty Stuff

This feature is late this week, so,   by way of apology, a twofer is on the block.

You can use the XP 100 barrel to make a pistol -- or a rifle that will incite the BATF to tax you and Nancy Pelosi to denounce you.  It is hand-stamped  ".223."  I suppose we're talking about a  .223 Remington rechambering job, but I  actually know nothing, not even why or where I picked this thing up.

The other vintage gun iron is  a well-patina-ed old Flaubert action which actually still does everything it was designed to do. You can make a parlor rifle. Or a  super-sneaky pest gun. (Most of these things were designed for .22  caps only.) Or hang it on your wall until you're as tired of looking at it as I am.

Swaps only,  No money.  See the rules here and previous offerings by clicking on the "Swap Me"  label  below.

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It would be nice to have a set of Lyman mold handles (small)  around here, not to mention some Lee double-cavity molds for .38/.357.

Swamp Logger

Sunday afternoon. Just left of the standing cottonwood is a busy canal entrance to West Okoboji. The storm dropped another tree directly across the canal, bringing boat traffic to a halt.

Two neighborhood guys took a look and talked it over. They concluded that it would be a nice libertarian thing to do to cut it up and haul it out, saving days or weeks of bureaucratic wrangling about whose responsibility it was.

Assembling a chain saw,  a small  I/O runabout, and a length of  3/4-inch nylon, they  turned to.

Two or three hours later the tree was as you see it in the top photo (dragged out by hand over the canal sea wall ) and bottom shot -- towed trough the canal to a place where the pair could get a line on it from the pickup to drag the big stem out.

Some tourist folks were helpful from one side of the canal. On the other an  apparently healthy middle-age fellow followed the action sporadically from the patio of his impressive lake home (which had become less impressive due to the tree in his adjacent waters.)  His assistance consisted of occasionally turning from his newspaper to frown importantly and make small gestures of disapproval when some move of the two men in the water struck him as unwise. This is a fellow who should pray nightly that he never needs the help of his neighbors.

After the last of the cottonwood was high and dry, one of the perps allowed as how even without alligators, this wasn't  something he'd care to do for a living.

Playtoy Down

This isn't the worst damage that can be shown, but it is representative of what the Saturday Night Storm did on West Okoboji. Here in Terrace Park, boat, dock, and hoist claims will be in the seven figures.

Angry Gaia

One heck of a storm whacked my area about 10:30 last  evening. The general opinion is no tornado, just sustained straight-line winds approaching 100 miles per hour.

I lucked out with very minor damage, though the cleanup will  occupy the next two or three days.

Not more than a mile away, however, there is enough tree, boat, dock, and dwelling damage to keep a couple  of platoons of insurance adjusters and a regiment of carpenters, mechanics, landscape guys, and chain saw artists busy for a long time.

Which in my book proves God is better at creating your basic economic stimulus program than His Obamaness, and Chucky Schumer put together.