Maxwell Siding railroad museum/display

Just got back from the Sportsmans wharehouse. Had to purchase me one of those kinetic bullet pullers since I think I have a bad batch of 45-70 that I loaded. I suspect it is bad since when I went to fire a few from that batch I had a few hang fires and one bullet didn't even have enough umph to leave the barrel (what a mess). These were a first attempt at reloading too.

Also, if you are ever in Hermiston, Oregon and like trains as a hobby or just think they are interesting come and see the equipment on display at the Maxwell Siding. It is easy to find just go south on 395 till you get to the intersection of 395 and Highland Ave. (Sharis is just beyond the intersection) take a right onto Highland Ave and cross the tracks and look to your left and you can not miss it. On display are two rotary snowplows one is a diesel the other is steam, the neat thing about the steam one is that is still in operational condition (can not be fired up because of asbestos insulation). There is also the diner car and caboose plus a bunch of other little doo dads that the volunteers can explain to you. This is an all volunteer operation most of the volunteers are railroaders themselves (including me). So come on down and say hi, Maxwell siding is open on most Saturdays from ten til three we sometimes close early so try to get there kind of early and donations are always accepted.

Long live the dog

Time for another weekend roadtrip to go home and see the folks and visit my favorite gun dealer and shoot the breeze with him so to say. Plus yesterday my mother called me and told me that she is putting my dog to sleep today because of a brain tumor that has basically made my dog a vegetable. I think she lived a long a pampered life for a dog I mean ever since she was a puppy she has lived almost her entire life indoors and has never spent a whole night outside, except once when I forgot that I had put her outside to do her "thing" and fell asleep and woke up around eleven o'clock that night remembering that I had left her outside. She was so happy to see me when I opened the door. In 1996 my mom and sisters went to the pet shop to look for a dog I said "do not get a dog yet until you all figure out who is gonna take care of it cause I want nothing to do with it at this time" (I was gearing up for the military at that time). A few hours later they came home with this little black puppy that was on sale for 29.99 evidently not a pure breed, instantly my dad hated the dog and for the next 12 years he continued to hate this dog. It lived a good full and healthy life, she was never mistreated (I cannot say the same for the owners) and was constantly taken care of by my parents since after my sisters graduated from high school the dog had no purpose or room in their life so once again I stepped in and helped to take care of the dog, I was out of the military and had time on my hands. Unknown to me, but seven years earlier the vet had found a tumor and removed it of course it came back and this time with deadly results. Parents say they are going to have her cremated. I would like to spread her ashes on a pile of cow poo since she liked to spend what ever time she could (when ever she would escape from the house) rolling in that stuff. I get a feeling that is not going to happen.

Off to see the unemployment wizard

Today is the day that I set aside for looking for a part time job since technically I am still on call for two days a week for the railroad (they never call). So I follow the yellow brick road to the unemployment office and hang out with other people in the same situation maybe even talk to the scarecrow or somebody who resembles a scarecrow like a tweaker (plenty of those around here). Should be a interesting day, just got to make sure the tin man doesn't jack my hubcaps.

Another day in paradise

Not much going on today just did the usual: take care of business around town, bug the people at the local gun shop, buy some groceries and came home and watched some classic westerns. The last thing I did got me curious about cartridge conversion kits for cap and ball revolvers since I think you can order a cap and ball revolver and it can be delivered to your house without the need for an FFL, I'll check on that to be sure. It would be neat to have something like that then again it might be cheaper to just go to the gun shop and order one from Uberti that is already set up for cartridges since I think cartridge conversion kits could be a little spendy.

Tuco is the man when shopping for a handgun.

Hobby time

Sat down after getting back from my driving adventures today to work on my FW-190 model kit, I have been tinkering with this thing for about three months due to the fact that most of the parts do not fit very well so you basically have to sand everything down or some how find a way to make the part fit right. Just finished putting the landing gear on (what a pain that is since I had to use a 2 part epoxy to glue it on since you can not use regular plastic model glue to glue these parts on cause they are made of metal ). A few more steps and it is ready to get airbrushed.

Ants in the pants

Went down to the job placing place and gave them all my information and so waiting to here back from them, can't wait to see what they come up with also waiting for one of my friends to get back to me on a job driving trucks for a farmer. All this waiting makes me want to break out and go on a road trip to somewhere today, will have to look at a map and see where I want to go and have not been before. Never know I might find a cool gun shop or pawn shop somewhere. I might just drive all the way to the folks house and check up on all my other vehicles I have stored there.

Hot lead

Gettin' ready to go to the local shooting spot and throw around some lead I think I will only take two rifles this time since I don't feel like spending the rest of the afternoon cleaning guns. Will probably take the Steyr M95 since it is my favorite to shoot just kinda of difficult to get ammo for in this town I live in (actually you can get the stuff in this town, but it has to be ordered and the gun shop usually asks for your first born as a deposit).

-That 8x56R use to be 2.50 for a box of ten and now some people are selling it for 12.50 for a box of ten and this is in a two year time frame. Thank god I stocked up.

Livin' the slow life

Did not get much done today, the scamp still has the old six cylinder in it. Got to show my friend how to clean his new Taurus 40 cal handgun and drank some brew in the process. Ice cube said "today was a good day cause I didn't have to use ma ak".

A good day

On my way out the door to go help a friend play shade tree mechanic. Needs to pull a seized up six cylinder out of a 1973 scamp to make room for the 440 big block, this car will be insane. As for my project car which is my 1966 ford f-100 4x4 it sits quietly at my folks house waiting for me to buy a house with a garage or shop down here in my new town so I can finish it. It is all painted up and looks really nice (it better since I have been tinkering with it for a decade). Who knows how today goes I might just break out the 10/22 ruger I bought a few months ago and test it out too.

Chef Pinto bean

Just devoured dinner (not the mouse, haven't heard of or seen in many hours). I got creative and decided to use what I had lying around so I took some breaded chicken patties out of deep freeze and let thaw out. Opened one can of diced tomatoes (seasoned in garlic, basil and oregano) and one tiny can of tomato paste and mixed together in bowl, then I put the chicken patties on a cooking tray and covered each one with the tomato sauce that I mixed in a bowl then topped off each one with graded Parmesan cheese. Cook for like twenty minutes and bada bing you have a decent dinner.

Full of it.

I was watching some stuff on the second amendment on you tube and noticed that you never see the Swiss talking about gun control, Hell they have as many gun ranges as we do golf courses. What I want to know is why some Congressman or senator or somebody in the government all of a sudden cares about my well being. I grew up in almost total poverty, my dad had a good paying job but they took so much out in taxes that his paycheck could not support a family of three kids and my mom had to work long hours too and to mention we could not afford a home of our own (renting sucks). Where were these do good er senators and congressman then? they couldn't get together to lower the taxes or restructure the entire tax system, but hell lets blow tons of money and time on the second amendment because we care about the well being of the public. Be cautious of a Government that says we will take care of you. And why de-arm people like me, do I scare the government.

Tom and Jerry.

Today I woke up in my usual late fashion which is around 0800 since I have no employment yet which hopefully by Monday I will hear some news on a part time job that pays well. Got on the computer and started to surf the net when I heard this noise like what my dog use to make when she was nosing through the trash. I ignored it and then I heard it again and this time when I looked up from the computer a big healthy mouse was staring right back at me from the kitchen as if to say "So, when is breakfast?" I got up and made a B line for that little turd and he just casually slid behind the fridge as I slid into the front of the fridge kinda like those tom and Jerry cartoons I spent the rest of the morning trying to provoke him to come out and sure enough he did, right across the counter top into the stove and I have not seen him again yet. Went to the Wally world and bought a sticky trap and set two of them up, but still no sign of him. I think he is stuck in the stove somewhere and the bad part is that I have to use it in a bit to start cooking dinner, mmmmm that is a tasty mouse.

The wall hanger.

Nothing to do today but hang out around the apartment and do some cleaning of the place, I even shampoo'd the carpet and trust me it really needed it judging by the color of the water that I dumped out. Then it was off to the hobby room and tinker around with a model airplane project I have been working on for three months now (they have become more complicated than I remember).

Later on in the day out came the the gun collection and of course the 303 British which I purchased blindly at a local sporting goods store. I should have done a better inspection on it and the 2 pounds of cosmoline it was covered in should have been a buyer beware type of hint, but all I saw was a piece of history (lend lease rifle produced by Savage). If I remember right I did not even take the bolt out to look down the barrel cause if I did then I would've noticed that the whole barrel was blocked with cosmoline, which would have deterred me from buying it since the condition of the barrel is important to me and also you can look for flaws too (this will be important later). I paid the money for the rifle took it home and started the long process of cleaning it which basically all I did was dismantle the rifle and soak most of the parts in diesel, cleaned the wood which turned out really beautiful (black walnut grain on this rifle is sweet), then reassembled the parts. As I was putting this rifle back together I noticed some nicks and what looked like some type of repairs in the chamber, still did not think anything of it. Finally I scrounged some surplus ammo and went to the local shootin' spot with some friends to test it out. I loaded the magazine with three rounds and proceeded to shoot the first one, it shot and hit the target but when I went to extract the spent cartridge the bolt would not open. After finally getting the bolt open and the case out I loaded and shot it a second time and the same thing happened, Now this caught my attention I inspected the two cases and what I found really made my heart sink. One side of the base of both cases was bulged out and split open, the reason for the bolt being stuck. The cause of this was their is a huge nick in the side of the chamber which allowed the cartridge to basically fire form itself the shape of the nick in the chamber. At least I did not get hurt and this served as a lesson in purchasing mil surp weapons which is basically your heart can not give a better visual inspection than your eyes and use freakin' common sense. This was the first surplus rifle I had purchased so lessons learned on this one helped me with the purchase of the other ones which were not covered in cosmoline, in very good shape and great shooters. I purchased these from SOG through a local gun dealer who gives me the scoop on good collectible rifles and when he does receive them in the mail for me he also does an inspection on them and shows me what to look for to see if they are safe to shoot.

No more sporting good store specials for me for awhile. Now I have to figure out how to fix this expensive wall hanger.

Hurry up and wait.

Today I slept in since there is nothing for me to do employment wise today. Got out of bed around 0930 to the pitter patter sound of rain which is kinda welcomed since the last few days were in the 100's. Moved really slow to the kitchen looked in the fridge for some grub, not any options since the fridge is almost or now is empty. Cooked two hamburger patties, two eggs and threw on top of some chili beans mmmm that is a tasty burger. Maybe later on today I will start pulling the gun collection out one at a time for a good cleaning starting with my M95 Steyr first.

What a day.

Today I found out that I am getting laid off for awhile due to the economy slidin' down the toilet like a turd. Keep positive I tell myself, have been saving money for this type of thing, but still that means no more gun purchases for awhile. That last thing really hurts my feelings. I guess being Laid off will give some extra time to give the gun collection I already have some much needed deep cleaning and maybe take a closer look at my 303 British Lee Enfield and see what it will take to get it back into shape.