Rabbit, mouse, crow, squirrel.

  Our girl.

  Beginning to look like a Hitchcock thriller.

  Thumper.

  Not the most flattering angle.

  Bottom of the food chain.

  The squirrels are getting corn guts.  Everyone chowing down.  The young doe is getting skinny nursing the fawn.  Not many coons, thank goodness.

Editing the LeMat

  It's hard out there for a 160 year old pistola.  I just couldn't do it justice.  Yet.  I should have had them bring me ALL the LeMats and shot them on dowel rods.

Luh-Mat or Lee-Mat?

  One of the record photos I made for the Sanders Center Firearms Museum last week.  There are some pistols that make you want to say: Slap leather, you polecat!

  Shooting the TSRA calendar for 2010.

  With this nine-shot weapon, you could shoot them off the horse....then use the (tenth shot) middle barrel to kill the horse.  If you didn't like his long face.

  Update:  A little discussion about pronunciation in the comments.  Just imagine you were a South Carolinian.   "Climb off that horse before I LeMat your Yankee ass."  So.  LeMay your ass or Lemat your ass?  I'm thinking LeMat.  It just has more poetry.

  Whichever, its a hell of a fine shootin arn.

Update II:  I edited the calendar photos so closely that the LeMat didn't make the cut.  Next year.

Like seeing Micheal Jacksons kids...

  Mom

  Mom again.

  First photo of the fawn born on the 22-23rd.  Six days old.

  Not much, but there it is.  The first fawn photo.  Just downstream 20 yards from the cam the sandbars are covered in fawn tracks.  

  I deleted this photo while flashing by the files in the editor, had to go back and dig it out.

Gun lust early and late.

  Tyler's good gun show was this weekend.  I didn't spend a dime for once, coming and going on a dealers pass.  Medium crowd.  Summer shows are usually lower attendance.  Probably just LOOKED like less people after the Obama crush.  Things might be cooling down.  Overpriced pieces just sitting.

  The organizers have made a fortune since the election.  Lots of As walking around with crazy prices.  Did see several stripped lowers for sale on tables.

  A sporterized 1903 Springfield early got my gun lust going.  It passed when I looked it over.  Gun lust late on a Krag carbine that a friend paid 400 for.  Nice rifle.

  Gotta love those old guns.  

  I dropped by Sunday afternoon with a box of fresh cupcakes from a doctors retirement party.  They went like...cupcakes.

An Army of Squirrels

  Twins doing what they need to.  Growing antlers.

  Going to be forkhorns on each side.

  Cute guys.

  The watershed is like a sponge.  The rain soaks in and it slowly drains and evaporates.  The creek this evening is just a trickle through the clay bottom of the cut.  Very dry.  Sometimes I can't cross even in rubber boots.  Today I could get across in jogging shoes, if I was dumb enough to come down here in jogging shoes.

  Squirrels are eating James tomatos and its a race.  He won't shoot them, trying electric wire and a trap instead.  I'm tempted to suppress a few with the 10/22 but so far have held off.  He moved 19 last year.

  First vine ripened tomatos to the redhead today, along with an eggplant and some onions.  My daughter got some also, along with mom.  It's what I do.  Drive around, spreading fresh produce.

  At the deercam down the way squirrels are on the corn until 8:55 pm when the raccoons take over in the dusk.

  Across the creek the twins are growing horns, still with mom.  

  A young water moccasin, probably the same, coiled up on the clay next to the water.  I've been meaning to notice whether they coil up clockwise or counterclockwise.  Forgot to look again.  He did look very organized.

We need a good rain.

Revised Deer News.

  Younger doe and Thumper

  Afterbirth butt.

  Shapeshifting.

  Cat-cut doe nearly healed.

  Posing.

  Afterbirth on the younger does flank.  Sometime on the night of the 22nd or early the 23rd.  I guess the waist "dent" was the fawn dropping or something.  Very late for a birth.  Still haven't seen the owner of the tiny fawn prints from two weeks ago.  The cat-cut doe showed up looking better than ever.  Nearly healed.

Texas Heat

  You would think you could bottle it, or store it, or use it to make steam, split atoms, et.  It's hot.  Dang hot.

  Coming out of the gunshow parking lot my outside temp meter said 109 a few minutes ago.  Feels like standing on the edge of a blast furnace.

  Texas malls are famous for being cooled down to about 62.  When you walk out into the baked shimmering heat of the parking lot for about 15 seconds you have a fairly pleasant sensation of being immune to the heat- like an ice cube in a campfire.  Kind of a Texas parking lot heat mallgasm.  Doesn't last quite as long as a real gasm and you better not let it put you to sleep either.  You'll die of heatstroke.

D.C. Stupidity.

  Another bill passed without being read by the folks voting on it.  A disastrously bad bill, in they eyes of many, but the larger point is: against the promises of Obama, it was voted on and passed before it was in a final form.

  They keep jamming this choice down our throats:  Slavery or rebellion?  So far, everyone pretty OK with slavery.

Digital Files from the Sanders Center

1850s-era revolving rifle.

  Pistol on a stick.

  Colt revolving sporting rifle.

1830 card table gun.  Hit me.

  Got the calendar into digital files.  What an incredible treasure trove at the Sanders Center at Texas A&M.  The Good Doctor was a lot of help and got paid off in being able to handle some rare and wonderful firearms.  Revolving flintlocks.  Bayonetted Sea Capitan pistols.  Colt Sporting rifles.  LeMats.  Harmonica gun.  Pepperboxes.  I barely skimmed the surface of this important collection.  Going to be one of the best calendars ever.

  All with Nikon 300D and one or two lights.  Lots of clamps, stands, reflectors, backgrounds, dowel rods sticking out of 2X8s, wax, et. 

TSRA Calendar shoot

Here's one they didn't use last year. I thought it looked a lot like.....April.

Going to be gone overnight to shoot the Texas State Rifle Association calendar for 2010. Going to the Texas A&M Sanders Collection. Trying not to shoot anything later than 1900. They have an unbelieveable collection. Multiple LeMats.

Jayne Cobb carries a revolver based on the LeMat in Firefly. Bruce Willis carried on in Twelve Monkeys. Inman uses a battlefield pick-up LeMat in Cold Mountain.

I like LeMats.

May make a video about the shoot as well.

The calendar is a big showpiece for us. I keep the shooting cost down as part of my commitment to the TSRA and gun rights. Dr. Sneed will be assisting.

Update: Stumbling around in a post-photographic overexposure stupor. We shot 14 different guns. Unbelieveable collection...especially when you can take them out and hold them. Should have booked two days instead of one. It was really hammer and tongs to get as many as we got. I'd like to have the option to throw a few out. 14 doesn't give you many options.

Oh yeah, we got to hold and point a LeMat.

Don't Tread on Me.

  They are treading on the Iranians.  This is what it looks like.

  God bless the Iranians and this young lady.  And damn the guy behind the trigger, and the men who sent him.  I hope they hang, every one.

Update:  The Angel of Iran.