An afternoon at the range

 A bunch of us went up to the range on Friday afternoon for some fun. Lisa wanted to practice with my S&W .22. That's the gun she has been carrying when she goes out at night to check the sheep.

 Allen wanted to play with my Ruger .41 mag. He tried it with the scope first and thought it was a little hard to hold steady.

 So he tried it without it. That turned out to be even harder for him to hit the target. The extra weight of the scope keeps the muzzle jump down a little bit.

 Jim brought several of their rifles to use, too. Lisa's heavy barrel Winchester is visible on the bench in this picture. They wanted to check it out, too. It hasn't been in active service for a couple of years.

Jim trying to hit a tennis ball. They bounce around when you hit them. After a day on the range, you can't use them for tennis anymore.

More venison

I got another deer this afternoon, this one is a nice 6-pointer. We are going to have jerky!

Venison for the freezer!

We have venison for this year! My good luck charm (Heather) went out today, and we got one. I had 5 of them almost run over me this morning. Something spooked them and they ran towards me full speed. I stood up and they all scattered. Maybe we can get more. Heather wants some jerky.

Jersey Larry comes home

We got Jersey Larry back this morning. He went in at 900 lbs with a hanging weight of 510, much better than I was expecting. The freezer is full again!

Adding a wall to the carport

 I got started closing in the carport last week. The first cross piece is put up.

 5 of the 8 cross pieces in place. This is as far as I got before it got too dark the first day.

 I finished the crosspieces and ordered the metal from Man-Sea Metal in Winchester. It was ready the next morning. I got the first piece of metal up the day after I picked it up. Then I had to leave for work.

 I got two more pieces put up the next day before I had to leave for work. These 11-12 hr workdays just don't help with projects like this.

My 5 day weekend started this morning, so I finished it when I got up. One wall is done and two more are waiting.

The new shed arrives

 Our new shed arrived this afternoon. The driver had it backed into the driveway before I could get outside.

 It only took him a couple of minutes to have it on the ground and move the "forklift" around to the front.

 I thought they would have to drive the truck across the yard, but the little lift pulled it with no trouble.

 Set in place and leveled up in less than 15 minutes. No muss, no fuss.

We've already started to empty the storage room out. It's being closed out at the end of the month and I already have almost all of the plastic totes restacked in the shed. There is still some furniture and a few boxes left in storage that have to get put in.

Busy day

 First up for today was to lower Heather's gate in the back of the pasture. I put it where she said, but after it was hung, she wanted it lowered about 6 inches.

 Naturally, I had plenty of help. They all helped me yesterday, and again today.

 Then I took the boat out for a run on the lake. The fall colors are showing all around the lake and the water was smooth. The main reason for the trip was to run the gas stabilizer through the motor. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

 After I got back home, I started putting a storm door on the back. I had just gotten the hinges and door hung here.

I taped it closed because I was running out of daylight and didn't have the closer or a latch put on yet. If the wind were to pick up and open it, it would get damaged being flung open.

Clearing the pasture

I had tried to do this last summer, but it was raining everyday. Today was delightfully cooler and sunny. Perfect weather to get this done.

It was a lot of cutting and loading the cart. I cut the pieces smaller and split them so they will burn better.

The saw cut well, but is now in need of sharpening. It was blowing some fine dust along with the regular stuff.

Last load! All cleaned up and ready for the horses to come back over. We brought them over a little later this afternoon.

Florida road trip

 I was trying to get a shot of the rainbow I saw while heading down. It's really only half of a rainbow, from the ground up to the cloud. It's there, but you have to look closely.

 Here is the little hole-in-the-wall seafood diner we ate at on Saturday evening. By we, I mean Jay & Debbie, David & Sue and me. The food was good, the company was excellent, and we had a great view, too.

 The sunset over the water was nice. I haven't seen one of those in a long time. I enjoyed the smell of the salt air, too.

I didn't have the best camera for this shot, but Debbie is in the red shirt, and David in the white one. Jay and Sue were also there, but it was getting dark.

Scattered stuff

 This is a picture from when cousins Becky and Judy were visiting us, taken in Lisa's kitchen. We're all very glad they stopped to see us. We miss you two!

 We picked a watermelon today to see if it was ripe yet. It wasn't, but it's getting there. It still tasted like watermelon.

This is about as far as I got mowing today. The rain started up again and I parked the mower. Maybe I can get finished tomorrow.

Good times

Becky and Judy have been here for a visit for the last couple of days. They are leaving all too soon, as we have all really enjoyed seeing them again.

 I made a hay run for Heather this morning. One roll went into the barn and one in the pasture. The horses were very happy.

The moonrise from Lisa and Jim's back yard last night. We had an early 4th of July cookout with burgers, hot dogs, and corn on the cob. Great food and great company.

An enjoyable afternoon

 Today was a much nicer day to be on the lake than the last time I went out. The sun was out and the water was calm. Slightly cooler water, too. Today's water temp was 78-79, down from the low 80's last time.

The fish finder showed a lot of fish under me, but they didn't like my choice of lures. Most of them were about 40 feet down. It was a beautiful day to be out on the water.

New plum tree

 I picked up a plum tree today. We planted it in the back yard behind the garden.

 The usual planting procedure was followed. Choose the location and dig a hole.

Put the tree in and cover with dirt and water well. Not much to it. I hope it grows quickly. I like plums.

A very short day on the lake

The day on the lake only lasted about a half an hour. The storm front moving in from the right brought lightning and heavy rain with it. I got to a cove and started fishing and that's when the lightning started. Time to leave as quickly as possible. Maybe I can get out again on my next day off.

Heather's window swapped out

 Out with the old windows.

And in with the new. This time it all went a lot quicker. I had everything we needed already here and knew what needed to be done. This one took about 6 hours instead of a day and a half.

Back home again

 The view out of Mom's apartment window.

Most of the way back, the traffic wasn't that bad. Just that spot south of Atlanta when we ran into a HUGE traffic jam and lost about 3 hours getting around it.

Assembling the rabbit cages

 We finished putting the wire on the frames first. Lisa & Jim brought over their air stapler. That made the job SO much easier. A lot quicker, too.

 Heather got all the seams in the wire clipped together.

 After I showed her how easy it was to use the stapler, she had fun with it, too. Here she's fastening the center divider between the two cages.

The cages are assembled. The doors still have to cut and fitted, and the trays under the cages need to be put in. Tractor Supply usually has them, but all the ones in the area are out of them right now.