It's the Pirate life for me!

  Anyone notice that shipping in international waters off Somalia is another one of those safe GUN-FREE zones?  So why isn't it safe?  And what could possibly be the answer to piracy?  

  I know!  Let's Ban Guns!  

  Idiots!  That's the progressive/liberal thought that got us here.  Multi-million dollar high-tech ships full of multi-million dollar cargoes cruising defenselessly through waters teeming with armed amatures who have the WILL to take them.  But let's don't put any GUNS on board!  That would be.....uncivilized!  Expecting a crew to defend a ship?  How un-modern!

  Oh yeah, water cannons, sound cannons, heat cannons.  Anything but a simple locker with six Garands in it.

  I'd match even the most modernized bunch of union (that ain't in my contract!) crewman against Somali pirates in little boats 300 miles out to sea.  Shoot the first up the ladder in the face and see who else is game if you even got to that point.  

  Disgusting to watch civilization prostrate itself before criminals.  We taught them that we wouldn't "resist" and they certainly learned.

  Only modern civilized people are stupid enough to go about on the High Seas unarmed.  No wonder pirates are playing Who Wants to be a Millionaire!

Update:  Wonder when the order "break open the arms locker and prepare to repel boarders" was last given?

Update II:  Great.  Several warships and highly trained US Navy Seals manage to kill three pirates and spring the hostage capitan.  Good, but did we have to get to that point?  How much did we spend per dead pirate?  And is the situation solved?  Nope, millions and nope.

Update III:  You can't make this stuff up.  Here's an article that actually refers to Somalia's "gun-plagued shores."  It's not the piracy, it ain't the criminal mindset, it's not even poverty...it's the GUNZ!!!!!  If Somalia didn't have those dang "gun-plagued shores", supertankers could burble by the beach in unicorn and rainbow paint jobs with the crews blowing bubbles and flying kites off the decks.  I bet there are even Somali GUNSHOWS on those dang "gun-plagued shores" where people buy assault weapons without going through a background check!!!

  The pirates are vowing revenge.  Want those Garands or not?

Update IV:  Seals sniped them at 25-30 yards from the fantail of the destroyer that was towing them.  Yeeouch.  I bet that left a mess.

Update V:  What exactly do you do with dead pirates?  Leave them in the boat and cut it loose?  Burial at sea?  Hang them in a cage at the harbor entrance?  I don't think anyone has yet claimed the bodies of the 9/11 terrorists.

Update VI: Well, they didn't have to suffer through the hellhole of Guantanamo, did they?  It's worse, I hear, since Obama took over.

Happy Easter

  Happy Easter Sunday to all believers on the web.

Amon Carter Museum

  This isn't it.  This is another tree.  There is no charge.

  I sing, I dance, I cook.  I stink, therefore I am.  You think I  just wander around in the creek bottom pestering God's gentle creatures while toting vintage firearms?  No.   I'm also a man of refined and educated tastes and sensibilities.  Prove it?  Heck yeah!

  Amon Carter just wrote me a personal letter informing the same of the exhibition of one of my prints they happen to hold in their permanent collection.  Take THAT, you common vulgarians!  I'm packed in there right with (Big) Al Stieglitz and the others. ( Georgia Okeefe's hubby)  Heavily armed AND an artist!  Ha!

  For a few months my "Moon leaving a tree" will be exhibited for the just and the unjust to view and be enlightened by, but don't be grabbing at the hem of my garment.  It wasn't just any tree and it wasn't just any moon but instead a fusion of vision, discernment, imagination   and....and........and.....

  I can't talk about it.

  Crack open another merlot, bubba, and lets toast un vie artiste!

  After exhibition, it goes back in the vault for at least four years, so look quick.

  Update:  Can you imagine how satisfying it must be to be shot by me?  The deer are going: Hey, not only is it a legacy firearm...he's an ARTIST!"

Oklahoma Eagle Cam

  I'm pushover for sites showing the sublime beauty and power of nature.  Like this.  For active predators, they sure do spend a lot of time just standing around.  Go fish!  KILL something, dang it!

  Update:  We are digging the Eaglecam.  They just fed the chick and are settling in for Friday night.  Got to see both parents at once.

Deer tracks, Turtle lures and Beaver traps

  Yesterday at the site I reset the motion cam over some fresh deer tracks.  Third time for tracks at this location.  I'm going to bait it with a little corn and get coons, mostly, but eventually a deer.  Also sunk a minnow trap, (4.99) with a pound of ground venison (29.00), into a pond to try and localize the big snappers.  Had to place the trap in shallow water so I wouldn't drown a snake.  They go in after the minnows and little fish and can't get out.

  The stream has a constant flow.  I'm sure the scent trail is all the way down into the big lake below the property by now.  Be interesting to see if they make their way up to check out the source.  My bet is: yes.

  The snake was in his regular location this morning.  He might be shedding.

  Downstream neighborhood subdivision has a beaver trapper working.  It's lethal, so pobably the end of some or most of the beavers.  Mixed emotions.  No Lake Robert it looks like.  He's going to phone my cell when he gets a hit on the traps.

Update:  No turtles.  Snake in usual place.  15 photos on the deercam of nothing.  Beaver traps still sitting.  Dam holding.  

Update II:  Day two.  Snake in place: check.  Trap still baited: check.  Not even a dang minnow stirring.

Daily Deercam

  This is in the dark, but not so dark that they can't keep some track of each other.

  The back left corner shows a little interaction, plus the animal on the right is stamping a front hoof....never a good sign.

  Across the creek.

Daily Deercam

  Rhynard chances by.

  Buck with shed antlers.

  Bobcat butt.

  Singing canid in the mid-morning.

  Hawk and crow.  Go figure.

  The usual suspects.  Also had a dog taking a dump on cam.  Charming.  Coons by the caseload.  Squirrels.  The coyote, fox and bobcat probably all have litters to feed.

  Single mosquito came and sang in my ear.  10 trillion in waiting.

BWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

  Get thee back, oh cursed Obamacles!  Back into The Darkness, gun controllers!  I.  Yes, I.  I, have sent firesticks across the fruited plain by common carrier to spread knowlege and power among the faithful!  No only so but I have used the vector of the US Postal Sevice and its grey and blue clad henchmen to deliver accessories, enbloc clips, instructions and even the sacred fire of the Garand to a postal address!  Verily the heavily armed faithful shall assemble on the banks of the Great Lake and light up the eight, nine, ten and even the X ring!

  BWWWWWaaahahahahahahahah!

  Translation:  I sent Mike and the deadly librarian antique rifles to entice them to shoot at Camp Perry with me this year.  Very satisfying prospect!

Ten-Thing Sunday

  We ate, read the paper, shopped.  I retrieved a couple of items from Mary Burton's estate.  The bigger deal was firing up the mower and having at the side yard.  The first cut of the year here.  April.  End of the wildflowers and local Azalea trails.  An event like the Vernal Snakequinox or the swallows coming back to Capistrano.  Tough to understand why we waste the valuable precious natural resources in the pursuit of something that will have to be done again in a couple of weeks.   I'm talking about my time, energy and attention, not the mower gas.

  Grass growing reminds you of the relentless dam-building of the beavers.  You just can't talk them out of it.

  Makes the robins happy.  They are hunting bugs before I complete the first couple of quick swaths.

  I'd rather be reloading or sneaking up on a snake or a southern.

Update:  Mowing, pay bills, tighten gas system on Garand, computer work for jobs....well, SEEMED like ten things.  Also reloaded a little, washed clothes and dishes and read a book.  So there.

New York Shooting, Mexico....the answer is the same.

  Another mass murderer trapping helpless unarmed victims.  And helpless unarmed Mexicans terrorized and murdered by Drug Cartels.  Good golly, WHAT could the answer be? 

  I know!  We need a ban on ammunition that isn't GREEN!

  Maybe the BATFU will help!  Ok, the LYING BATFU.

  Hillary speaking truth to power!  Ok, speaking LIES to power.

  At least we know one thing:  It's all about the power.

Update:  Galling to see this ignorant man bowing to those criminals.

Update II: One of the comments is dense enough to store nuclear waste in.  Olympic grade.  If you read it, let me know and I will forward the guy's Russian novel to you.   

Update III:  This comment is 31 feet long as I scroll it down the computer.  I'll put this comment up against anyone.

Doesn't LOOK like much...

  But that shadow along the edge of the pool is a submerged Southern Snapping Turtle.

  That matte grey snake is a Water Moccasin that needs to shed.

  This fresh new leafing plant is Poison Ivy.

  And this writhing Raccoon has distemper.

  I spotted the turtle while looking for turtles.  The snake was in his same spot.  (Three times now.)  He left and was back in place after animal control came and went with the coon.  Poison Ivy is leafing out all over.

  It's hard out there.  It is also about ten minutes until the mosquitos start hatching and drive everyone nuts in that particular tangle.

  Animal Control sent the same folks who grabbed the previous coon.  They said he died that night of distemper.

  I cut the dam again.  The beavers are running out of dredge material  It has to come from the bottom of the lagoon and upstream.  Sooner or later I've got to let it go and become Lake Robert but lots of fun to pull the plug. 

  Going to add a minnow trap and catch some little fish to photograph.  Might throw in a frozen chunk of ground venison and see if I get a pool-full of Southern Snappers.  Just might.

Dam-busting Snake-a-thon!

  I bust the dam.  Note the water level.

  It keeps draining and the engineers show up to take a look.

  They start to work.

  Using native organc materials.

  Meanwhile, the other gentle woodland creatures sleep it off.

  To windy to do much outside.  Sunny too.  Non-photographic weather.  Went out to check the beaves and walked down to take a look at the moccasin tangle.  He was in it.  I'm assuming this is his home spot.  I approached him very quietly and used an indirect line.  He finally spooked.  I don't think he smelled me with his tongue but could have.  He certainly saw me.

  Wonder how big a range a snake like this has?  Gotta move around some to hunt.