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Spitfires on a Mission

2012-02-09T13:23:00.000-08:00

The creativity of front line troops has always be an inspiration to me.

Example, free beer has been offered to troops by the British brewey, Heneger and Constable. The men are delighted to avail themselves of this generous gift. But sometimes it's difficult for a product to reach eager consumers.

It seems the priority of supplies being shipped to the troops in France following the D-Day Invasion was not universally accepted. Beer was low on the list. Leave it to a bunch of fun loving but thirsty fighter pilots to find a solution.

The Aircraft pictured here is a Mk. IX Spitfire. The protrusions on the bottom of the wings are pylons intended to attach 'external stores' to the aircraft. Supermarine and the RAF had envisioned extra fuel tanks (drop tanks) and bombs.

Yes dear readers, this one is carrying beer kegs.

It is unclear whether the kegs could be jettisoned in case of emergency, but you could be sure any pilot who arrived without them would have an emergency on the ground. There was one unintended advantage to moving beer this way, colder tempters at higher altitudes meant the beer was properly chilled on landing.

So Spitfires were making trips back to England for 'Maintenance' or 'liaision duties' and returning with joy. It ddn't take long for someone to come up with a special 'drop tank' for carrying beer. These were marked XXX to avoid problems. According to some sources these sometimes gave the beer a metallic taste.

Of course with photos like this one you know the good times had to come to an end. The tax man called on the brewery to have a little talk. It seems free beer for troops in England is one thing, but duties had to be paid on beer going to France.

So, did the beer lift stop? Get real! I would be willing to bet it continued but they just got sneakier.

You Make Due With What You Have

2012-02-07T08:56:00.000-08:00

I came across this photograph a few days ago and was delighted by the odd mix of equipment. It is a close up of a holster and revolver being worn by a man in World War Two cold weather flight gear.

The holster is a 'Mexican Loop' style that would be much more at home on the belt of a Cowboy or Western Lawman. It is intended to carry a Colt Single Action Army revolver like the one pictured here.

According to the caption this weapon is a .38 and a lanyard ring can just be made out. There isn't enough detail to determine if it is a Colt, or a Smith and Wesson like the one below.

Note that this holster can not properly seat this weapon. The trigger guard should be in closed inside the bulge below it. This won't be a problem in an aircraft, but can disarming on horseback.

Ask me how I know.

So who would have such mismatched equipment? Truth be told making due with what you have wasn't restricted to any one service or unit within, but one orgination was known for it.

Pictured above is a Civil Air Patrol preparing to go out on Anti-Submarine patrol. Their ride is the Fairchild 24R behind them. To be sure there were military versions of this aircraft, but this one belongs to one of the civilian members of the Civil Air Patrol Wing.

The only man in the photograph of military age is the guy standing to the far left, the one holding the bomb. That bomb will be mounted under the 24R.

Was the Fairchild 24R ever intended to be a bomber? Ah, NO! That didn't slow these folks down much.

So, you might ask, did old men with civilian aircraft ever do any damage with these bombs? The Civil Air Patrol is credited with sinking at least one U-boat.

The Civil Air Patrol perf0rmed vital missions that military aircraft and crews would have had to fly had they not been there. Some of them gave their lives in the process.

When I was growing up two of the best kept secrets of the Second World War were the WASP and the Tuskegee Airmen. In one of my college history courses only the instructor had ever heard of them. The Civil Air Patrols war time activitys were a third.

Their stories makes for great reading, if you can find them.

I Had To!

2012-02-05T03:06:00.000-08:00

I found this on Facebook and fell out of my chair laughing. The only thing lacking is the address and phone number of that person we all know who really needs a bad day.

I'm not sure who'se work this is. I will take it down if the artist objects.

Now for Something Completely Different - Full Metal Jousting

2012-01-31T18:16:00.000-08:00

Update 02/01/2012

I just saw the first TV ad for this series that showed more than the Logo. It looks good.

All of us have an image from childhood of a knight in shining armor. They tend to be the embodiment of courage, strength and justice. Everyone has wondered what it would be like. History Channel is following that dream with a new reality show titled FULL METAL JOUSTING. The show will follow a survivor format pitting sixteen contestants against each other in a winner take all competition. I expect this to be flagged Viewer Discretion Advised. Take it seriously. Jousting as a sport has never really stopped since the days such men at arms were the cutting edge. There are currently Jousting Societies in the United States, Canada and England. I know the English Society is at least one hundred years old. Injuries are common and deaths are not uncommon. I doubt if we will see anyone killed on screen, but from the previews I know there will be injuries.

As folks who have been here before know I am not a great fan of the survival style programs. "Reality" programs aren't much better. That doesn't keep me from checking out the ones on History and Discovery channel. They still make me nuts on occasion.

Is there any chance the next season of TOP SHOTS will recruit grownups that know they will be expected to use anything capable of sending a projectile, or being thrown down range? When they are whining about I didn't expect - fill in the blank - is when I usually change channels.

How could the gun savvy folks on SONS OF GUNS not know there were a number of fighter planes with machine guns that fired through the propeller in World War Two? The Me.109 and P - 39 to name two.

I will be watching Full Metal Jousting. After all, the plottings and back biting in this one will be historically correct.

We Went To The Movies Last Night

2012-01-28T17:56:00.000-08:00

We went to the movies last night, ONE FOR THE MONEY, but no one who reads this Blog will be surprised by that. Helene and I went with her friend Maggie. So I don't keep folks waiting, the movie was great!

Helene and I have read all of Janet Evanovich's books and have been looking forward to this film for years. The ladies books are so funny; we have BOTH read everything she has written, even the romances. This Movie was the first Evanovich offering Maggie has ever been exposed to. A good time was had by all of us.

I normally hate standing in lines, but was delighted to see there was a line for ONE FOR THE MONEY. There were no lines for any other films.

The great majority of the folks in line with us were women. Of the men I was in the minority, having read the books, but all of us were interested based on the trailers we had been seeing on TV.

I will not include spoilers here. For those of you that have read ONE FOR THE MONEY there is plenty about this movie to like. I am on record as having enjoyed it compeletly.

For folks looking for a reason not to like the movie, you can probably find something. There are a couple of reasons for this.

The biggest reason is the time they have to tell the story. This is true with any book. In this case the audio book is eight hours and thirty two minutes long. For a movie to include everything it would have to be about the same. A eight and a half hour movie is going to die on the vine.

The target length for both film makers and theater operators is ninety minutes. ONE FOR THE MONEY is one hundred and six minutes, which will allow for five or six showings a day.

This means the characters can not be developed as fully as they can in the book where a chapter can be devoted to introducing someone new. Sadly, a lot of favorite scenes will be shortened, combined or lost compeletly. Does the movie keep the feel, pacing and flavor of ONE FOR THE MONEY? Oh Yeah!!

There are a couple of delightful moments that aren't in the book. One I will discuss is shown in a trailer.

Stephanie is looking out the window when a car explodes. Both she and Joe hit the deck and she say's "They blew up our car!"

"Who's car?" Joe demands!

"Your car," Stephanie answers. "Do you want it back?"

Old time fans know that's not the way it happened in the book. But it's a great movie line. As for how it did happen in the book, READ IT! I'm not spoiling it either.

There are folks posting negative reviews. There were folks that didn't like Indiana Jones or Star Wars. Think what you would have missed out on if you had taken those fools seriously!

Last, I have been hearing that ONE FOR THE MONEY isn't the top box office winner so far. To that I say, hide and watch. Plum fans are not near done promoting this film. We want to see more of the books made into movies.

Katherine and Jason Plug One For The Money

2012-01-22T01:08:00.000-08:00

Tonight at 7:00PM TV Guide Channel will be running Two If By Sea staring Sandra Bullock and Denis Leary. So what you might ask? (Meaning no disrespect to Sandra Bullock) The movie will be hosted by Katherine Heigl and Jason O'Mara.

According to the spot I watched earlier a great deal of time will be devoted to discussions about One For The Money. They are intending to run the trailers of course, but also clips from the film. The more I see of it, the better I expect it to be.

One For The Money will be released this coming Friday, January 27. Helene and I have had our plans made for months and will be there. Personally, I expect the movie to be big hit!

Of course, the results could be interesting. At the moment Stephanie Plum merchandise is only available on Janet Evanovich's web site and a handful of enlightened book stores that cater to the mystery crowd. After the movie who knows.

A line of exploding or disappearing cars would attract collectors. Who could be the first on their block to collect all of Stephanie's cars?

Action figures are another natural. Stephanie of course, but there would have to be Joe AND Ranger. Anyone who has a Stephanie action figure would need Lula as well. Who could forget Grandma Mazur?

Dare I say it, there could even be a Stephanie Plub Barbie.

There is talk of making additional films depending on the success of this one. There could be dangers in that depending on how far into the series they get.

Is the world ready for Sally Sweet Barbie?

Car Tags

2012-01-20T20:13:00.000-08:00

UPDATE!

It seems I took the bait on this one. I had heard about the problem from a Re-enactor friend and thought it worth passing along. When I logged in today there was an E-mail from the gentleman telling me the warning was a Hox.

I wish also to thank Texasgungeek for kindly leaving a comment with the same information. If Texasgungeek reads this, please know the reason I have not posted comments lately is beacuse your system won't let me for what ever reason.

This one struck home because I have had my vehicle targeted by people who followed me from a gun shop in the past.

I will make more effort to check stories in the future.

X X X X X

Take a good look at the picture of the tire. Do you see the spot? It took me some looking to see it. Now I check my vehicles at least once a day. Look at the license plate and bumpers too.

A re-enactor buddy of mine sent this heads-up to the shooting community.

Gangs have started doing this on cars parked at shootings ranges, gun shows and shooting events. There is a good chance cars parked at such places have firearms inside, or will later on. The problem is such parking lots are watched to keep folks from breaking into the cars. So what's a thief to do?

Mark the interesting vehicles with some sort of spot, something that won't attract attention. Later their associates can cruise parking lots of restaurants, hotels or other locations where security is only tight enough to keep theft and break-ins within acceptable limits for their insurance company. The spots tell them which veichles are worth breaking into.

I would love to say this sort of thing was restricted to places like Los Angles, but it has started happening in Texas. A shooting event in San Antonio had cars tagged for later harvesting last summer.

So, look over your car, truck or motor home for markings you didn't put there. It could be a painted dot, mark, check or some sort of symbol. It could be paint, a sticker, magic marker or even scratched into the paint. They are thieves, remember? They couldn't care less about your stuff.

Spotting this early can save you from a nasty surprise later on.

The Horseman Has Come And Gone

2012-01-13T09:38:00.000-08:00

The Horseman visited last night. He came in darkness, and did not leave alone. Most of you who read this Blog will not know I was not Helene’s first husband, no need for you to. The son and daughter I sometimes refer to were from her first marriage. As far as I am concerned they are mine and I have no complaints, a statement I’m sure will be quoted back to me endlessly in the coming years.

Anyone who has ever gone through a divorce, or even watched one from the sidelines, knows there is drama. Everyone says things when they are angry. It wasn’t my place to add to the drama as long as Helene was safe. To Number One’s credit as loud as things got I was always able to stay in the background.

He didn’t like me much. I know - big surprise. The closest we ever came to conflict was when Helene and I would pick Matt up for weekend visits. It always followed the same routine. Number One would come to the workshop door and glair at me. I would smile and wave. Real grownup behavior on both sides. For the most part we made a point of avoiding each other. That worked for years.

Finally came a time that wouldn’t work. Tammy was graduating from Para-legal school. She bearded me in my den (literally) and told me her father would be at the ceremony and didn’t want a scene. I believe she came to me because she knew how well that would go over with her Dad. I told her I would behave as well as he did.

“What’s that suppose to mean?” she demanded.

“It means” I repeated “that I will behave Precisely as well as he does.”

It wasn’t the answer Tammy wanted but she knew it was the best she was going to get. The two families did not mix (Number One had remarried as well) at the ceremony. It concluded with both sets of parents watching her graduate, and without embarrassing Tammy.

The next occasion for us to be in the same place was the first birthday of Tammy’s daughter. Tammy and I had the same exchange, on the phone this time because Helene and I had left Houston for Central Texas.

As I remember it forty plus people gathered to watch an infant that had no idea what was happening smear birthday cake all over herself and everything she could reach. A tower of gifts that dwarfed the child was opened with the assistance of excited adults. As I am never without a knife I got the job of freeing the loot from its shipping crates.

It was Number One who came up with screw drivers and wire cutters for the more stubborn packing. It was the first and only time in the years we had “known” each other that we talked. The time passed pleasantly and ended cordially. That afternoon was the best friendship we could ever have expected to have. I would never see him again.

Health does not fail overnight. A few years ago my Grandmother passed in her sleep after losing ground for more than a year. A couple of years later my mother was taken by a slow cruel cancer. I spent a week watching her die by inches after she was no longer responsive. I will say without shame that in the end I was grateful to God for ending her suffering, while at the same time asking the almighty why it had to take so damn long when there was no way she would ever get better.

I will not go into details, but for Number One it was much worse. The kids can’t be helped through the grief process anymore than I could. Family helps by being there, but it is a wilderness everyone walks alone.

When we got the call Helene and I lit a candle for Number One. It was at the same time the least, and the most, we could do.

God’s speed Number One

The "One For The Money" Trailer On TV!!!

2011-12-27T03:23:00.001-08:00

At long last, Lions Gate has starting running a version of the "ONE FOR THE MONEY" trailer on TV.

So far I have only caught it when watching late shows on Lifetime. (Cut me some slack - I like sappy Christmas movies).

After a year plus of keeping the movie "Top Secret" this is a milestone!

Now I need to find out who is running a sneak preview in Bryan or College Station.

97 Years Ago Tonight - The Christmas Truce

2011-12-24T15:56:00.000-08:00

I want to offer a special thanks to my friend, James "Hangman" Hale for requesting this story.

One of my favorite stories is the Christmas Truce of 1914. I believe it was at an evening Christmas Eve church service when I was a little boy that I first heard this wonderful story. The story told by the Reverend sounded like something from a TV show. I have since discovered that most of the strangest, and best, stories are true.

For the best part of fifty years I have collected versions of the Christmas Truce Story and learned another universal truth - when an event is attended by hundreds, maybe thousands of individuals details vary. Having said that, I don't think one can do better than the account of someone who was there.

I am indebted to Mr. Tom Morgan for providing not only an excellent article about the event, but also several first hand accounts.

Captain Sir Edward Hulse, Bart., 2nd Scots Guards

"At 8.30 a.m. I was looking out and saw four Germans leave their trenches and come towards us. I told two of my men to go and meet them, unarmed, as the Germans were unarmed, and to see that they did not pass the half-way line. We were 350 - 400 yards apart at this point. My fellows were not very keen, not knowing what was up, so I went out alone and met Barry, one of our ensigns, also coming out from another part of the line. By the time we got to them, they were
three-quarters of the way over, and much too near our barbed wire, so I moved them back. They were three private soldiers and a stretcher-bearer, and their spokesman started off by saying that he thought it only right to come over and wish us a Happy Christmas, and trusted us implicitly to keep the truce.

He came from Suffolk, where he had left his best girl and a three-and-a-half horsepower motor-bike. He told me that he could not get a letter to the girl, and wanted to send one through me. I made him write out a post card, in English, in front of me, and I sent it off that night. I told him that she probably would not be a bit keen to see him again.

We then entered on a long discussion on every sort of thing. I was dressed in an old stocking-cap and a man's overcoat, and they took me for a corporal, a thing which I did not discourage, as I had an eye to going as near their lines as possible. I asked them what orders they had from their officers as to coming over to us, and they said none; they had just come over out of goodwill.

I kept it up for half-an-hour and then escorted them back as far as their barbed wire, having a jolly good look round all the time, and picking up various little bits of information which I had not had an opportunity of doing under fire.

I left instructions with them that if any of them came out later they must not come over the half-way line, and appointed a ditch as the meeting-place. We parted after an exchange of Albany cigarettes and German cigars, and I went straight to HQ to report.

On my return at 10.00 a.m. I was surprised to hear a hell of a din going on, and not a single man in my trenches; they were completely denuded (against my orders) and nothing lived. I head strains of "Tipperary" floating down the breeze, swiftly follwed by a tremendous burst of "Deutschland Uber Alles," and, as I got to my own Company HQ dugout, I saw, to my amazement, not only a crowd of about 150 British and Germans, at the halfway house which I
had appointed opposite my lines, but six or seven such crowds, all the way down our lines, extending towards the 8th Division on our right.

I hustled out and asked if there were any German officers in my crowd, and the noise died down. (At this time I was myself in my own cap and badges of rank.) I found two, but had to speak to them through an interpreter, as they could talk neither English nor French. I explained to them that strict orders must be maintained as to meeting half-way, and everyone unarmed; and we both agreed not to fire until the other did, thereby creating a complete deadlock and armistice (if
strictly observed.)

Meanwhile, Scots and Huns were fraternizing in the most genuine possible manner. Every sort of souvenir was exchanged, addresses given and received, photos of families shown etc. One of our fellow offered a German a cigarette; the German said, "Virginian?" Our fellow said, "Aye, straight-cut." The German said, "No thanks, I only smoke Turkish!" (Sort of 10 shillings a hundred man, me. It gave us all a good laugh.)

The Border Regiment was occupying this section on Christmas Day and Giles Loder, our Adjutant, went down there with a party that morning on hearing of the friendly demonstrations in front of my Company, to see if he could come to an agreement about our dead, who were still lying out between the trenches. The trenches are so close at this point, that of course each side had to be far stricter. Well, he found an extremely pleasant and superior stamp of German officer who arranged to bring all our dead to the half-way line. We took them over there, and buried 29
exactly half-way between the two lines. Giles collected all personal effects, pay-books and identity discs, but was stopped by the Germans when he told some men to bring in the rifles; all rifles lying on their side they had kept carefully.

They apparently treated our prisoners well, and did all they could for our wounded.
this officer kept on pointing to our dead and saying, "Les braves, c'est bien dommage." When George heard of it he went down to that section and talked to the nice officer and gave him a scarf. That same evening a German orderly came to the half-way line, and brought a pair of warm, wooly gloves as a present in return for George."

I would like to think of Captain Hulse sharing this story with his grandchildren years after the war, but I believe this was his last Christmas.

There are many British views of the Christmas Truce, but Mr. Morgan also perserved this account from a German participant.

Leutnant Johannes Niemann, 133rd Royal Saxon Regiment

"We came up to take over the trenches on the front between Frelinghien and Houplines, where our Regiment and the Scottish Seaforth Highlanders were face to face. It was a cold, starry night and the Scots were a hundred or so metres in front of us in their trenches where, as we discovered, like us they were up to their knees in mud. My Company Commander and I, savouring the unaccustomed calm, sat with our orderlies round a Christmas tree we had put up in our dugout.

Suddenly, for no apparent reason, our enemies began to fire on our lines. Our soldiers
had hung little Christmas trees covered with candles above the trenches and our enemies, seeing the lights, thought we were about to launch a surprise attack.

But, by midnight it was calm once more. Next morning the mist was slow to clear and suddenly my orderly threw himself into my dugout to say that both the German and Scottish soldiers had come out of their trenches and were fraternising along the front. I grabbed my binoculars and
looking cautiously over the parapet saw the incredible sight of our soldiers exchanging cigarettes, schnapps and chocolate with the enemy.

Later a Scottish soldier appeared with a football which seemed to come from nowhere and a few
minutes later a real football match got underway. The Scots marked their goal mouth with their strange caps and we did the same with ours. It was far from easy to play on the frozen ground, but we continued, keeping rigorously to the rules, despite the fact that it only lasted an hour and that we had no referee. A great many of the passes went wide, but all the amateur footballers, although they must have been very tired, played with huge enthusiasm.

Us Germans really roared when a gust of wind revealed that the Scots wore no drawers under their kilts - and hooted and whistled every time they caught an impudent glimpse of one posterior belonging to one of "yesterday's enemies."

But after an hour's play, when our Commanding Officer heard about it, he sent an order that we must put a stop to it. A little later we drifted back to our trenches and the fraternisation ended.
The game finished with a score of three goals to two in favour of Fritz against Tommy."

There are many other eye witness accounts in Mr. Morgans excellent article at the following link.

http://www.fylde.demon.co.uk/xmas.htm

Tips for Visiting Santa

2011-12-15T17:45:00.000-08:00

For many of us Christmas isn’t complete without visit with Santa, and a picture with him with the kids.

I spent a number of years as Santa at a mall here in Texas and had a wonderful time, and I would like to share some of my experiences.

To start with there’s a good chance the little ones are going to be scared, and for good reason. From the time they can comprehend language we warn them about strangers and read them stories about Big Bad Wolves. The little’s known good and well they’ve never seen anyone like me before. They also figure anything with that much hair on its face just might be a wolf!

If they are nervous, one of the best things to do is just stand near Santa’s stage and let them watch for a bit.

The worse thing to do is force then. The result is a screaming, hysterical child. I would think no one would want a picture of a terrified, crying baby begging its parents to save it from Santa. You would be surprised how many of them I posed in.

Another problem is that crying is contagious. You can watch the ripple effect in Santa’s line as one child after another starts crying. Santa doesn’t get upset with a frightened child, but its coal and switches for those parents.

Everyone knows Santa is magic. He see’s all, knows all, and never forgets a face, and then there’s me. I believe the slowest day I ever had, I saw one thousand children. There are those who stand out, but for the most part it a blur.

Most of the time Santa listens to a kid’s wish list, gives them a candy cane, and sends them on their way. Other times it’s a fact finding mission, and that’s fine, but tell us first. A father once asked me after his daughter left the stage what she wanted for Christmas. The only thing I could remember what that she liked horses.

Santa has posed with his share of high school foot players and cheer leaders. Personally, I never objected to teenagers visiting with me, provided they kept things respectful and didn’t spoil the fun for the little’s.

Last, please understand sometimes, visiting Santa takes a little longer. There was the little boy who wanted his father to come home from prison. There was the little girl who wanted her late grandmother back. Both of these were young enough to think I could actually help. You don’t shove a candy cane in their hand and kick them off the stage after that. Santa also needed a moment, folks shouldn’t see him cry either.

...And The World As We Knew It Came To An End.

2011-12-07T01:10:00.000-08:00

As I look at the clock it occurs to me it was almost exactly seventy years ago that the Japanese Fleet launched the first wave of warplanes to attack Pearl Harbor. The largest air armada to ever hit American soil climbed into the dark pre-dawn sky and made their way to a small cluster of islands more than two hundred miles away.

In fairness, the Japanese had not intended the attack to be a complete surprise. The plan had been to declare war when it was too late to do anything about it. It was problems at the Japanese embassy in Washington D.C. that delayed the formal presentation.

The War was old news to Europe and China. Our government was giving as much aid to England as possible, and China under the table. With that attack the United States was not just in sprite, but in fact in World War Two.

The Generals and Polications made no grand claims, like "The War To End All Wars". The world knew better by then.

Still, there was a profound change that came over people all over the world. The generation that survived it knew "The World as we knew it came to an end." If you were five years old or seventy five, your live was split into two parts - before and after World War Two.

You might find my eariler post on this subject interesting.
http://homeplace-artsstuff.blogspot.com/2010/12/tuesday-night-at-movies-tora-tora-tora.html

What We Are Thankful For

2011-11-28T23:20:00.000-08:00

Thanks Giving has come and gone, and as usual this is late. We had our good friends the Hale's come and spend a couple of days with us. Lot's of catching up to do. Part of it was about their middle son, Tommy, who spent this Thanks Giving over seas as a medic with the Army. Our prayers went out to him as well as the men and women he is serving with.

Thanks Giving it's self was hosted by our son Matt and his family at their house in Calvert. In addition to Turkey, we provided a couple of rabbits. One of the highlights was the hog our Grand Daughter Ali shot at HomePlacce not to long ago. Matt made a ham from one of the leg quarters, and it was great.

Part of the Thanks Givings adventures was working on our truck. Matt, his friend Steve and Hangman put in three days worth of hard work and head scratching. I helped for the most part by staying out of the way and fetching what was needed.

In the end we got the gaskets were changed out, the timing reset, and it actually started without starter fluid.

I am thankful for many things, but family and friends that would spend three days of Thanks Giving Weekend working on our truck, and call it 'part of the fun' are at the top of my list.

Big Things Happening With Stephanie Plum

2011-11-20T22:49:00.000-08:00

This is a busy time for Stephanie Plum, and her fans.

In June of this year SMOKIN' SEVETEED was released. The bond office had moved into 'The Mooners' RV temporally after...for that you need to read SIZZLING SIXTEEN. I don't want to ruin it for you.

In SMOKIN' SEVETEED Stephanie ends up with several bad guys trying to get her. Ranger and Joe Morelli are franticly trying to keep her safe, but you won't believe who finally takes the villains out. It's been a busy year and it ain't over yet.

The next book will be EXPLOSIVE EIGHTEEN. It was hinted that either Joe or Ranger would be coming to Hawaii with Stephanie, but we don't know which.
The next book opens with a grumbling Stephanie coming home after a disastrous vacation. Getting on the plane in Hawaii alone for the return trip is the highlight of the next few days.

So when is the new book coming out? I believe that depends on how you're going to get it. The release date is Novemer 22, 2011 - Tuesday of this week. Unlike the Harry Potter Novels, there are no midnight release parties for Stephanie Plum.

Or Are There?

More and more of us have started using electric media. The release for the Nook and Kendal versions are also listed as November 22, 2011 but I am guessing that will mean after midnight Monday. Its possble night owls could be reading EXPOLSIVE EIGHTEEN tomorrow night!

For years Helene and I have gotten the Plum books in audio format. It prevents fisticuffs over who will read it first. Then there is the "have you gotten to the part - DON'TTELLMEDON'TTELLME!DON'TTELLME!" With the audio books we hear it together.

So are we out of luck? I don't think so.

Audible.com has all the Stephanie Plum books available to date. I'm pretty sure EXPLOSIVE EIGHTEEN will be available at 00:01 AM Tuesday morning. We have already started gathering the pop corn, pizza, wine, cheese and crackers and enough tuna and raw meat to keep the cats off our food.

Along with EXPLOSIVE EIGHTEEN a movie tie-in edition of ONE FOR THE MONEY is being released on November 22. There is an electronic version of this as well. We may pick up a copy next time we are in town, but we won't be reading it until January.

January 27, 2012 is the long awaited release date of the Stephanie Plum Movie adaption of ONE FOR THE MONEY. You may find Plum fans a bit 'Testy' over the wait we've had. The date was changed so often the faithful were gathering torches and pitchforks. Now we have a trailer and several sites have stills from the movie. I posted some eariler in the year.

One Site I can highly recommend is STEPHANIE'S OBSESSION. Her listing for the trailer is a September 23, 2011 entry. If the link doesn't work cut and paste it into your search bar. In addition this site has lots of articles and interviews related to the movie.

http://stephaniesobsession.blogspot.com/

The tralier can be found on U-Tube as well. The pictures can be located with most search engines.

My Favorite Part Of Halloween

2011-11-01T14:44:00.000-07:00

Trick 'er Treating was a bust at HomePlace last night. Helene and I had our bonfire and stood by with Chocolate Treats and roasting marshmallows.

Bear is a champion Trick 'er Treater. Sadly (in his eyes) he never gets chocolate, and very few marshmallows. The dog treats, however, are all his.

The only thing missing was the undersized monsters. Then again, as we live three miles out of Bremond, I wasn't really expecting any. There havn't been any goblins in the last ten years.

So it was just Helene and I, and Bear, and the outside cats drifting in and out, and the chocolate and marshmallows. Not bad, not bad at all!

And today my favorite part of Halloween begins -

the Halloween Candy Sales!

Shades of Star Wars

2011-10-25T04:59:00.000-07:00

I was beginning to think I had imagined this.

In the 1960's I saw a brief article about a 'Walker Truck' being developed by the army for use on rough terrain. The article went on to say the beastie could be mastered after "A few hours training" and was doing well in field trials.

I think I must have been the only person in the Texas Panhandle who read that article. No one else knew what I was talking about and I couldn't find the article again. Tonight on a whim I googled Prototype US Army Walking Truck and there it was!

The beastie was built by GE. The good news is that the engineers got it to work after fashion. The bad news is the description of training and handling was a bit exaggerated.

The driver controlled the front legs with their hands, and the rear legs with their feet. The speed was estimated at five miles an hour, but the operation was exhausting. The designer said about fifteen minutes was the usual limit.

Stability also left something to be desired. When being texted indoors it was hooked up to an overhead crane to make sure it stayed upright. Outdoors it had 'outriggers' to keep it from falling.

Cargo was a quarter ton, give or take. The beast also burned about fifty gallons and hour. All told, it was more trouble than it was worth.

One of the articles I read made an interesting point. 'Driving the walking truck was so taxing becase in the 1960's everything was manual. Today computers could correct a lot of the problems that made the walking truck such a bear.

So could computers make a walking truck managable? Consider the 'Big Dog' cargo robot. Would the walking truck be viable if the control problems were tamed?

I don't think so.

Lions and Tigers and Bears...in Ohio!

2011-10-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

A few days ago James at hellinahandbasket had a post that awakened memories and nightmares.

When I was a kid Walt Disney made a movie called A TIGER WALKS. It was about a circus tiger that escapes from its transport truck enroute to the next show. In the process the tiger killed its abusive handler, but truth be told every kid in the audience was cheering for the tiger. Problem is now there was a tiger loose in the woods of Middle America.

The hero of the movie was the local Sheriff, played by Brian Keith. The Governor complicates matters by sending in the National Guard. While seeking the tiger in a heavy fog one of the soldiers accidently shots a civilian, wounding him thank goodness. The Governor is persuaded to call off the National Guard and give Keith a crack at bringing down the tiger with a tranquilizer gun.

The plan didn’t come off without a hitch. There is a delay between hitting the tiger with the tranquilizer gun and the tiger going to sleep. Keith was raked on one arm before the tiger ran out of steam, but it was ‘just a flesh wound Ma’am.’ There have been dozens of such movies, but this one was my first.

Sadly, things go a lot smother in the movies than in real life.

A couple of days ago an Ohio man named Terry Thompson set in motion a nightmare scenario the wildest Hollywood director would never have dreamed of. For reasons best known to himself Thompson released his considerable collection of exotic animals into the woods around his ranch near Zanesville, Ohio before he took his own life. The net is overflowing with theories as to why. I never knew Mr. Thompson and will not pretend to be qualified to understand his motives.

Hats off to the Ohio authorities who sprang into action as soon as they were alerted to the dangerous situation. School was canceled and folks who were home in the danger area were advised to stay inside. If you were away from home, don’t hurry back! The animals were tracked down and dealt with by the safest and most efficient means. You must remember that Thompson’s collection was not tame pets. They were wild animals that spent their lives in cages. That makes them more dangerous than their counterparts in the wild – they had no fear of humans. So what did Thompson release and what was their fate? The numbers and sprcies of the animals vary from source to source. What follows is my best information at this writing. Read on;
There was one Baboon in the collection. It was killed. Why you might ask? Take a good look at this picture.
There were also three monkeys but I haven’t found a listing of species. Two were captured and one may have been killed, or is still at large. It looks like one of the cats may have gotten that one.
The collection had also included at least two wolves. Both were taken down by hunters.

I have had the privilege of seeing Grizzly Bears in the wild and have always been delighted there were no wild ones running free in Texas. The thought of a Grizzly running loose even in the countryside of Ohio is horrifying. Thompson released two!I was glad to learn one of them was captured unharmed. The second was not so fortunate.
There were three Cougars in the collection. All of them had to be put down. Before any of you express outrage, remember the jogger in California a few
years ago. Being a child of the 50’s I grew up with stories of hunters tracking man-eaters. Leopards figured prominently in these tales. I was stunned that three of them had been released, and pleasantly surprised to learn all three had been re-captured. Of all the animals released I didn’t expect a happy end for these. A Tiger Walks dealt with the panic and mayhem of one escaped tiger. Thompson released EIGHTEEN of them. This could have been a disaster. For the tigers it was, none of them survived.
There were six Black Bears in the mass release. Unlike the Grizzlies, all were put down by authorities.
Last but not least were the African Lions. Again I get different numbers, but I think there were nine males, and eight lionesses. As near as I can tell they were all destroyed. I know a lot of you are saying "with tranquilizer guns these creatures could have been saved."

Part of the problem is time and place. If a dangerious animal is spotted it has to be dealt with then. I don't know about where you live, but the Police and Sheriff's Department in Falls County, Texas don't have tranquilizer guns in their cars. By the time someone gets to your location with a dart gun the Lion or Black Bear you've spotted could be long gone - doing God knows what.

The other problem is darts are not universal. A dart that will work on a Tiger for example will kill a Wolf, but only make a Grizzly Bear very angery. Even if you have the right dose, the drugs are not instantious. It can take as much as twenty minutes for an animal to pass out. A lot of that will be spent in a killing rage.

Tranquilizer guns are a practical solution in zoos where you prepair for each animal, but less than perfect in the field.

I have referred to 'A Tiger Walks' several times in this piece. In one case real life was better than the movie. Other than Terry Thompson, no people were killed or injured.

Mixed Thoughts on 'Harry's Law'

2011-10-16T17:03:00.000-07:00

Helene and I missed 'Harry's Law' this week, but caught the rebroadcast Saturday night. The story was about cyber bullying / suicide. Harry, to be fair, did not defend the actions of the teenage bloger, but got her acquitted. I don't think she came down on the right side of this one. That being said isn't my biggest problem with the series. One of my guilty pleasures last year was Harry's Law. It features a sixtyish patent lawyer who is fired by her firm and ends up hanging her shingle on an abandoned shoe store. She was followed by her old secretary, the shoe mad Jenna and her associate is Adam, the young lawyer who hit her with his car. It sounds crazy, but they made it work.

Harry is a delightful character. She is rude, ill tempered and abrasive. No one is safe you would think, until she shows her human side. When her people are attacked she lashes out with a razor sharp tongue. When the local 'protection racket' showed up Harry cooled his jets with a Smith & Wesson Model 27. She pays no money but trades legal fees for protection. It's not the last time we see the .357 though. I love crazy old ladies with guns. Anyone who thinks Jenna is just the token blonde has missed the point. She provides humor to be sure, but in many ways was the heart of the show first season. Jenna both cared about and took care of the people around her. Helpless fluff? In a way Jenna is like the toy poodle that doesn't realize how big the great dane is. She has backed down some scarie people in that office. On more than one occasions she sticks up for herself against Harry no less. Adam is seen as a kid early on, but very soon is also standing his ground and doing well in court. He also has his battles with Harry, and with Harry's image. On more than one occasion he deals with clients who want "the old lady" instead of him. He changes their mind.
One of their first clients is Malcolm, an inner city kid facing trial, I believe a drug charge. Not only do Harry and Adam get him off, but he became a law clerk in their firm.
Tommy Jefferson is the lawyer made to hate. He starts out as an opponent, and before you know it he's also on the team. Watching him and Adam go after each other gives you new respect for the younger, more grown up associate.

All told Helene and I were looking forward to the next season. Well, it's here.

The premier was worth the wait, a three part murder mystery with a vicious twist ending I never saw coming. I was disappointed in other ways.

The first scene opens on the new law office. They have taken over the second floor, leaving Jenna and the shoes downstairs. There is lots of new personal. Tommy Jefferson now has his office there. By the end of the three part murder trial the guy who fired Harry from her old firm has moved in as well. Somewhere in between the first and second season the store-front office law office and shoe store died.

Malcolm has been 'off to school' this season. Understandable, but he could have gone to school locally. Jenna has had walk on's the last few weeks, almost as an after thought. Tonight she finally got some lines. She announced she had been offered a new job, and was shuffled off the series.

There are lots of lawyer / law firm TV shows. Now Harry's law is another one of them.

That's it for Water Melon

2011-10-05T20:58:00.000-07:00

We have had a hard summer this year at HomePlace. I've lost track of the number of days we've had over one hundred degrees. Over the last few months we have put thousands of gallons of water our gardens. This has been met with mixed results.

Okra seems to like the heat. Cherry tomatoes are OK with it. Swiss Chard, not so much. Big tomatoes don't seem to like it. Both have been stunted this year.

My personal disappointment has been the water melons. I love water melons and have since I was a little kid. We planted several 'hills' and Helene calls them and added bunny pooh and water.

The vines came pretty quick and spread. There is a thrill to spotting your first water melon, don't' let anyone tell you different. The problem is they grew slowly. There were other problems as well.

Like me, critters love water melon. I'm not sure if it's the drought or love of water melon, but it seems like we discover another melon messed up every day or so. The result is, of the melons that have ripened this summer, we got two. The rest were damaged or got end rot and were fed to the rabbits and chickens.

So today we collected the melons, pulled up the vines, and carted it all to the feeding area.

Better luck next year.

What's Wrong With This Picture

2011-09-28T13:30:00.000-07:00

Some years ago I had the privilege of talking to a B-24 pilot about his experiences with the Eight Air Force in World War Two Europe. One of his stories concerned a return trip to England after a raid on Germany.

With flack and fighters the bomber formations had been scattered far and wide. Small groups of planes were making their way home. Individual aircraft would join up with them now and then. Their guns added to the defense of the group, and the new comers received protection from the others as well. There were still pockets of flack, but before the gun crews could get the altitude and speed right they were usually out of range.

A lone B-24 approaching them wasn't unusual. It didn't respond to their radio calls, but radios went down sometimes. What was odd about this Liberator was that it didn't get into formation with the rest of the planes. The lone B-24 took up their same heading and altitude, but stayed out of machinegun range. All of a sudden the flack batteries they passed got much more accurate.

This continued until they got to the English Channel. The Gentleman told me when his collection of planes crossed the coast the lone B-24 peeled off and went back into Europe.

This picture probably explains everything.

Throughout the war the Germans had an impressive collection of allied aircraft. With the fall of France fast moving German units managed to capture just about everything in British and French inventory.I was shocked when I first saw pictures of American trainers in German Markings. Some were sold to the French.
Others were built by the French under license. Is this an AT-6 or a French built NA-64 trainer. They had both.
I swear, when we get to Mars they will find a Piper Cub there! This one was 'drafted' when the Germans overran Denmark in 1940.

I wouldn't be surprised to find a DC-3 parked somewhere on the moon either! The things are everywhere! Like today, American airliners were sold all over the world. Lufthansa had a bunch of them.

There were no Spitfires in the France prior to Dunkirk. Often damaged planes crash landed in occupied in Europe. That's where this one came from.
I have heard talk of a dogfight between an American P-51 and a captured Mustang flown by a German Pilot. I havn't been able to track down any details, but the Germans had P-51's for this kind of thing.

In one case, an aircraft was brought to the Germans by a traitor. After Pearl Harbor Martin James Monti enlisted in the Army Air Force as an aviation cadet. After flight school he was commissioned as a flight officer. After qualifying on P-39 Aircorbras and P-38 Lightings he was posted to 126 Replacement Depot in Karachi, India (now in Pakistan).

For reasons unknown, newly minted Second Lt. Monti was displeased with his lot in life and set out in search of other adventures. He boarded a C-46 and hitched a ride to Cairo and proceeded to make his way toward Italy.

At Foggia, Italy he stopped in at the 82 Fighter Group and then to the 354 Air Service Squadron at Pomigliano Air Field north of Naples. The 354th. prepared aircraft for assignment to line squadrons. There was a steady stream of pilots coming and going. Lt. Monti was all but invisible.

It isn't clear at what point in his travels Lt. Monti decided to buy his way into the Third Reich, but that was now his plan. He studied the aircraft being worked on and found an F-5 (a photo reconnaissance version of the P-38) that needed work and would need a test flight after the repairs were completed.

The morning it was ready he showed up before the real test pilot and headed for the German airfield outside Milan. On exiting the plane he told the German personal surrounding him he was there to defect.

The above photo is of the plane Lt. Monti flew to Milan.

After that Monti, now an Untersturmfuhere (an SS second lieutenant), worked in propaganda in one form or another until the end of the war. One project that would come back to haunt him was a 'microphone test' he made as "Martin Wiethaupt".

By the end of the war Monti had joined the George Washington Division of the SS Foreign Legions. This unit was made up of Americans who wanted to fight for Germany. There were two of them.

Monti was still in Italy when the war ended and surrendered to American forces. He was proudly wearing his SS uniform at the time.

Screwball Warning.

Now, for me this is where the story looses touch with reality. In 1946 Martin James Monti was sentenced to fifteen years for desertion? Not only that, he was pardoned within a year on condition he join the Army? Why did they want him in the army with his track record? They made him a sergeant!

In 1948 the FBI caught up with Sgt. Monti and arrested him for treason this time based on his recording as Martin Weinhaupt.

Perhaps there is someone out there that can explain to me why stealing a P-38 to give the Germans and joining the SS of all things is "desertion", but making tape recordings is treason. It makes no sense to me.

This time Monti was sentenced to twenty five years in prison. He was paroled in 1960 after serving twelve years.

Martin James Monti lived to see the new millennium. He passed away on September 11, 2000 of all days. As I said before, whats wrong with this picture?

Sneak Theives

2011-09-19T14:22:00.000-07:00

I had intended to wax poetic about the rain we had last night. One and five eighths inches worth, the first we have had in months. It's not enough to break the drought, but it's a start.

That idea went on the back burner when the phone bill came.

In and of its self the phone bill isn't a big deal. This time however, the dreaded third party billing scam again reared its ugly head. It took the form of a charge from ENHANCED BILLING SER on behalf of BUSINESS VALUES ONLINE. The phone company was kind enough to provide their contact number, but would have no part of dealing with the situation.

So, I called.

I began the call by asking the rep what the h#l* Enhanced Billing Ser (that's how it appears on the bill) was. He recovered quickly and explained they handled billing for an enhanced online listing service.

I should explain here that I follow a standard routine when I get sales calls, or calls offering any free service. I start by asking "Is this going to cost me money now or at any time in the future?" You would be surprised how quickly that question cools their enthusiasm. If they say yes, as they usually do, I tell them I'm not interested and want no further contact.

Sometimes they say no and that they just want to update their data base. I tell them I don't want to be in their data base. Sometimes they say it's the yellow pages and there has to be a listing. I don't think there has to be a listing, but tell them nothing has changed. I avoid answering any question in the affirmative.

Sometimes they bill you anyway. That's what happened here. It is a crooked but time tested practice to send a bill to people or companies for goods and services they didn't request and / or never received, and hope they pay without checking. You might be surprised how often it works. Not all sneak thieves take physical goods or funds from you. Sometimes they ask you to send them yourself.

When confronted the charges were immediately dropped. They assured me they would not be relisted and that I would not be contacted again. We will see.

I should point out here to keep an eye out for this sort of thing. I have had the same company put their charges back onto my phone bill (in this case a website I never wanted) two and three times. Also, If memory serves me correctly, you can only be reimbursed for ninety days. Anything more than three months old they can keep because you didn't challenge them.

I hate sneak thieves. If I can keep one person from being ripped off by these scams, it is a good day.

Galloping Ghost

2011-09-17T00:56:00.000-07:00

I was heartbroken this evening to hear of a tragic accident at the Reno Air Races. A P-51 named Galloping Ghost crashed into the edge of the seating area. At least three are dead not counting the pilot and so far I haven't seen the same number of injured listed on any two places yet. No one is taking any bets on all the injured recovering.

At this writting no one is really sure what caused the crash. The pilot, Jimmy Leeward, was highly skilled with years of experience. To the best of my knowledge I never had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Leeward. I had known the Galloping Ghost for years.
There are probably more P-51s surviving today than any other World War Two combat plane. Having said that, there aren't that many Mustangs around, especially not flying. So when attending airshows and fly-ins you start recognizing the Mustangs, B-17s and P-38s like old friends. The loss of human life is tragic, but so is the loss of these historic aircraft.
A few months ago a B-17 called Liberty Bell crashed in a field durring a routine flight. No one was killed, or even seriously injured, but the plane was a total loss. The scene bore a spooky resemblance to World War Two crash sites. There are folks who will ask if the planes are so rare and valuable why risk flying them? Just about any World War Two combat Plane flying these days is valued in six figures. B-17s and P-51s are in the millions. The truth is, if you have to ask, you will never understand.

In 1973 for the first time I stood on the ramp in Harlingen, Texas and watch a P-51 Mustang sputter, then growl to life. A crowd of us watched as it taxied out to the runway. A few minutes later she started to move, faster as she came up on her main gear, and then sprang into the air at a speed and angles I found shocking based on my light plane experience. A second later I recovered my voice and was commenting that the numbers in the books didn't do this justice when an F8F Bearcat caught and pasted the Mustang like it was dragging a plow.

I knew then that the hours of research, and hundreds of pages I had read were baseless without this experience to put them into perspective.

It is a sad truth that planes like this cannot be operated without bending one from time to time. With the weight and speed of these War Birds the results are often deadly. But parking them is unacceptable. The pilots and investors are all too aware of the risk, and they agree.

I Wouldn't Mind Having This One

2011-09-16T01:50:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has watched Pawn Stars has seen Sean Rich from Tortuga Trading Company come in and tell the guys about firearms and simular antiques that come into the shop. It's the best part of the show for me.

It will come as no surprise that Tortuga Trading Company has a website. I visit it a lot! Someday I need to see if Pawn Stars has one.

About a week ago I was looking at their firearms listing and found one I would love to own.

The folks at Tortuga describe her as a percussion Axe gun. The barrel is 28.5 inches. The weapons overall length is 45 inches. She takes a .75 Caliber ball. The butt stock ends in a very functional axe head. We have all seen museum displays and photographs of firearms with axes as part of the design intended as weapons. I have no doubt this could put a world of hurt on somebody, but its main function seems to be as a tool.This is no pampered show piece. The stock has the polish that only comes from years of handling. The beastie shows countless repairs, speaking both to the fact it saw hard use and was considered worth the effort to repair and keep in service.
Not really sure how you would hold it to chop wood, but I think the axe head would lend its self quite well to a shoulder stock. The best part is the folks at Tortuga consider it to be in working order.In every collection there is that one piece you wish you could make talk for an evening to learn its story. This is one of them.

Great Stills from Stephanie Plum Movie

2011-08-31T19:28:00.000-07:00

There is joy tonight!

I clicked on Stephanie's Obsession and discovered a series of official photos from One From The Money. Where did they come from? A movie site in Russia of course! I will never pretend to understand how the Hollywood mindset works.

This is our first look at material that will be in the movie. Some of them are easy to place. Others don't seem to be sticking exactly to the book. Not really a surprise, but nothing negative I can see so far.

Being a gun fancier I was especially interested in the firearms releated views. The first one up was worth the wait!

In the book Eddie Gazarra takes Stephanie to the range. I don't really know whats going on with Ranger and the Desert Eagle, but I love it! I mean, the look on Stephanie's face is priceless. This one appears to be the .44 magnum, so wait until she hears it go of off!

Why do the nickel Desert Eagles always look so much bigger than the blued ones?

Debbie Reynolds is going to make a great Grandma Mazur. Of course, if you talking about Grandma Mazur and guns, you have to talk about shooting the chicken in the 'Gumphy'. They did not disappoint.

"Think about this for a moment Steff. Your gun and ammunition in your purse - next to your Grandmother! What were you thinking?"

This last photo puzzles me. The obvious explanation is Stephanie shooting Jimmy Alpha. If that's the case they are changing the scene quite a bit from the book. Again, big surprise.

Perhaps they didn't think Stephanie could actually hit Alpha with her gun still in her purse.

I did!

Follow the Stephanie Plum link in my sidebar to a post titled Could They...?

If any of you have never visited Stephanie's Obsession, by all means check it out. For what ever reason I can't cut and paste a link at the moment, but the site is worth goggling.

So, what's next? Helene and I are going to see the last Harry Potter movie tomorrow. Wouldn't it be great if there was a trailer for One for the Money!

On The Road Again!

2011-08-28T21:20:00.000-07:00

It was around Christmas that I pulled out of Sam's Club in the little blue S-10 and it...stopped running. As luck would have it I had speed and the timing to coast into the Cinemark Theater parking lot next door to Sam's. Our son Matt came with the trailer and brought us, the S-10 and me, home.

Fire was not getting to the spark plugs. Why was the $64,000.00 dollar question, and we thought it was going to cost that much before we were done. I had the truck dropped at a local garage I have used in the past and it sat for more than a month without being touched. So, we were on our own.

Tracking the problem has been a hassle. The details lead me to break out in profanity, so I won't go into them here. In the mean time we have been using a Big White Truck built for towing heavy loads.

Short Trips Only!

The gas mileage is as low as gas prices have been high. It's been fun. A trip into Bryan means borrowing a vehicle from Matt.

I was back on the road with the S-10 yesterday. The only problem I encountered was overheating. Of course the 110 degree heat of the day may have had something to do with it.

Stopping the way it did still has me spooked. For the next few days I will be making short runs until I build up my trust S-10 again. One thing is clear; the difference in mileage between the two is going a long way toward winning me over.

Update!

I got one trip to Marlin Saturday.

Nothing yesterday.

This afternoon I went to the post office. At the house I had to let the truck 'crank' longer than usual. Once it started it drove to the post office with no problem. I parked, went inside, and came back out. The truck cranked

and cranked

and cranked!

Nothing.

This is exactly the way it acted in December. The only difference is it refused to start rather than dying as I drove down the road.

At least Helene and I kept the white truck, and she was able to come pick me up. We will fetch the S-10 from the Post Office in the morning. We will decide what to do once it's home.

As if offering a footnote, while waiting for Helene to pick me up a single rain drop hit my shoulder. I waited for more, but there was just the one.

Updated Update!!!

This morning Helene and I loaded up a tow strap and headed to the post office to retrieve the S-10. After checking the PO Box, I climbed into the little blue beast and cranked the engine. After much protesting it struggled to life. Waisting no time I drove it home.

Did I mention 'Spooked' earlier? For a while I will use it for short trips by my self. I don't want to risk it stranding Helene and I both anywhere. Someone has to drive the big white truck to the rescue.

Triple Cross Disappointment

2011-08-19T16:01:00.000-07:00

Let me start by saying I'm not throwing rocks at Netflix. It's a matter of simple math.

60 mile round trip to so/s0 movie rental store

High gasoline prices

Netflix!

Their inventory is much greater than local movie outlets, when they can keep their doors open. The Movie Gallery in Marlin, Texas closed last year.

We aren't sure how long we can justify Satellite TV.

New FCC regulations make antennas all but useless. I can't help but think money must have changed hands.

Buying DVD's just isn't in the budget anymore.

Even with their much publicized rate hikes, Netflix is getting to be a better deal all the time.

That is not to say there are not moments of great disappointment. Sometimes we have problem disk, but Netflix is quick to send replacements. Other problems are unforeseen.

Example

Not long ago I thought of an old favorite movie, Triple Cross, starring Christopher Plummer. This is a wonderful spy story based on the true adventures (give or take) of Eddie Chapman.

Eddie was a bank robber, bugler and opportunist who was in jail in the channel island when they were occupied by the Germans. Cutting to the chase, Eddie became a spy for both the Germans and the British.

I have always loved that movie and wanted to watch it with Helene. A quick check of Netflix showed they had Triple Cross in their inventory. Great, I put it in the queue and sent it to the front of the list. It came in a couple of days later and we setteled down to watch ... a train wreak!

This was a gangster based night mare I had to force myself to stay with for twenty minutes. It didn't get better!

I can't throw rocks at Netflix. Had I looked at the description I would have known at once this was a different film. It never occured to me more than one movie would have that title.

The thing is, even if this Triple Cross isn't my kind of movie, I know there are folks who like this sort of film.

So, one of these days I will find my Triple Cross.

But you know what, there are enough fans of both kinds of film out there to justify stocking both movies. I think Netflix is missing out.

An Unwelcome Intruder

2011-08-17T02:12:00.000-07:00

There was an unwelcome intruder at our son Matt's Calvert, Texas home this afternoon. The first indication of a problem was our Granddaughter, Ali, screaming SNAKE! SNAKE! SNAKE! at the top of her lungs.

Matt responded to find a Copperhead trying to get under the TV set. When chopping it in half with a machete failed to achieve the desired level of "dead" he shot it in the head with a 22.

Ali told us she had thought the cats were playing with a piece of rope that had been kicked under the coffee table - until the piece of rope started moving across the floor toward the TV set on its own. She didn't know what kind of snake it was and didn't care. She summoned help, really loud.

The heroic cats were trying to assist, until the snake started hissing and striking. At that point they decided Matt could handle it on his own, and joined Ali on top of the couch to watch the action.

In the end the beastie turned out to be an 18 inch (give or take) Southern Banded Copperhead. How did it get into the house? Your guess is as good as ours.

Emergency Backup

2011-08-09T16:28:00.000-07:00

The heat wave gripping HomePlace seems to have spread far beyond the borders of Falls County, or even Texas. It seems just about the entire country is 'one hundred degree hell'. My friends in Oklahoma have been suffering with one hundred and ten degree highs within the last week. It's amazing what folks will do to beat Texas at something!

This has many people gathered around an appliance even more popular these days than the fabled Television Set. I speak of none other than that hero, beloved by millions, the Air Conditioner.

Sadly, AC's popularity is in its self a problem. With millions of folks across the country taking refuge from the summer heat in near frostbite splendor the power companies just can't take the drain. That in its self can cause power grids to fail.

Storms are another cause of massive power outages. The combination can be a disaster. Both my friend Zack at "The Next Chapter" and HomePlace have suffered power outages that lasted several days in the last year. If you're caught off guard these can be deadly. Preparation and planning makes all the difference in the world.

There are all kinds of preparations. Candles and matches, flash lights and batteries, and emergency supply of food and water should things we already have on hand. You may need another way to cook. A detailed list would be another blog.

The first, most obvious fall back tool for a power failure is a gas powered generator. With this you can restore power in minutes, or even seconds!

Friends in Houston have the deluxe emergency plan. With their house came a huge generator that runs on propane. It automatically comes on as soon as the power goes out. The generator is large enough to run everything in the house with power to spare. If it weren't for blinking clocks and microwaves they might never know they had a power outage.

Our system isn't that elaborate.

Our generator can handle 6560 watts of surge power and 5250 watts of continues power. We got it to run power tools on parts of the ranch where there were no electric lines. It comes in real handy when the power company drops the ball. But it would take a generator of 8000 to 10,000 watts range to power house, refrigerator, freezers, AC and all the little things that make up a home. Depending on the size of your generator, you're going to need to pick and choose.

If you can make do without the AC, use a fan. Move the contents of the refrigerator to ice chest. Freezers do a pretty good job of 'holding their cool' but you can help them with that.

We use a lot of two liter soda bottles here. Wash them out and fill them with water. A drop or two of iodine will keep anything interesting from growing in the bottles and won't affect the taste. I always mark the treated bottles with a "D" on the cap. We also have frozen bottles just to keep things cool. The difference is, when the "D" bottles thaw, we can drink them.

Even if we lived somewhere we could depend on the power provider I would keep frozen bottles. Nothing is more expensive to run than an empty refrigerator or freezer. As groceries come out we fill the empty space with water bottles and vice versa after a shopping trip. The practice saved a bunch of food when we were without power for the better part of a week. They will thaw, but it takes days to weeks depending on the outside temperature.

Even the best generators are going to have a short life if run non-stop. We tend to run ours in four hour stretches. Then we go to a battery backup system.

We have a couple out buildings it just isn't cost effective to run power lines to. To light them I use a battery and inverter. This will easily run a fan, tape player and some small tools. If I need more power, that's what the generator is for. That's also how I recharge the batteries.

My house system is a self contained cart I got from Sportsman's Guide a few years back. It is no longer in production, the good Lord only knows why. The good news is you can assemble your own.

An inverter system isn't complicated (or doesn't have to be) and can be tailored to pretty much any budget. You can find inverters ranging from as small as 75 Watts to as large as my generator. The thing to remember is the more power you draw; the faster your batteries are drained. Inverters can be found lots of places. I have seen them at Lowes, Wal-Mart and Harbor Freight. They may have them at Sam's Club.

I prefer marine deep cycle batteries for my power storage. They are available from Wal-Mart so finding them is no problem. Regular car and truck batteries can be used if you would rather.

To make your power last longer / be able to run more items on the inverter you add more batteries. I started with one in my workshop and added one every month or so until I had a total of six. I have gone from needing to recharge twice a week to getting more than a month between charges.

I won't get into the 'parallel or series' debate on what method works best to run multiple batteries. Goggle them and make your own choice.

My cart has the battery charger built in. You will need one to recharge your system. There are chargers that will tell you the level of charge the battery / batteries. That feature is worth the extra money in my opinion.

So I run the generator for four hours, then three to four hours on the inverter system while the generator cools. Once I start the generator again I plug in the battery charger and get ready to repeat the process.

We can't run as much on the inverter system as the generator. We do without the AC for a couple of hours but we have lights, fan, telephone, TV and the computer.

But you know what, it beats the heck out of candles.

The Apache Pinfire Revolver

2011-07-23T14:40:00.000-07:00

Of late I have been watching the first season of Man From U.N.C.L.E. courtesy of Netflix. Half the fun is the gadgets and enhanced weapons used by the lead characters, Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin. While making notes my mind wandered to a vicious weapon I was once sure U.N.C.L.E. would never allow their agents to carry, the Apache pin fire revolver.

I first encountered this murderous creation of L. Doine Invor when my Grandfather took me to the PANHANDLE PLAINS MUSEUM in Canyon, Texas. He explained to me that it was actually three weapons in one.

In its 'carrying configuration' it was a set of brass knuckles capable of pounding one's opponent into a bloody pulp.

There was a knife as well. When this double edged ribbon of steal was deployed a man could be sliced to pieces.

If neither of these weapons was equal to the task the brass knuckles unfolded to make the grip for a revolver. Unfold the trigger and your enemies could be annihilated in a hailstorm of bullets.

I shuttered, realizing this deadly device was mere inches from me behind a thin sheet of glass.

I was six at the time.

In the, shall we say numerous, years since I have gained a more realistic understanding of the Apache. Still, they are neat beasties.

Production started sometime around 1869. I'm not sure how long they were made. Depending on when they were made, or the grade, the features change a bit. Being French, some are very fancy.

Others are, is functional the right word?

A few years ago I encountered one at Collectors Firearms in Houston, Texas. The clerk on duty was kind enough to take it out of the case and let me examine it.

I still think the little beastie would make a creditable set of brass knuckles. In fact, the knuckles are the heavest built part of it.

The knife changed on some models from a strait blade to a kriss style wavy blade on the one I was able to examine. After close inspection I'm not sure it would survive determined letter opening. This is not a knife I would want to make anyone made at me with.

This brings us to the firearm portion of the Apache. Depending on who you ask, it was available in 6mm or 7mm pin fire, perhaps both.

Pin fire cartridges seem to were in production in France longer than in the United States. Reloading equipment and components for pin fire cartridges are available in Europe. Be warned, they ain't cheap! It would take a very determined owner to be able to fire one.

Having said that, the pinfire cartridge seems to have a good track record. It only complaint I got on them when I made an inquire a while back was moisture coming in through the pin channel. If they are dry, they usually work.

In the case of the Apache my big complaint would have been the small caliber. Be it a 6 or 7mm black powder cartridge, you would get more punch out of a 22. This is something else I wouldn't want to get anyone mad at me with.

Still and all, I first saw one of these at a museum with my Grandfather. As of 2007 it was still there. The only reason I left 'Collectors' without it was the $2,600.00 price tag.

Clay Allison's Practical Joke

2011-07-18T02:37:00.000-07:00

Curious Events in Dodge City

Clay Allison's Practical Joke

It was in my school days that I first came across the curious tales surrounding a visit the notorious Clay Allison made to Dodge City, Kansas in 1878. In the 130 + years since the events transpired the tale has been told, retold, and so embellished with each telling as such tales are, that the truth of the events are probably lost forever. The facts we can be sure of are as follows.

Clay Allison visited Dodge City, Kansas in September of 1878. The noted gunmen Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp were lawmen at the time.

Wyatt Earp was employed by the City of Dodge and Bat Masterson was Sheriff of Ford County. The friends were not bothered by jurisdiction and watched each others backs.

City law of the day stated visitors to Dodge (read cowboys from trail drives) were not allowed to wear guns in town. At the time firearms were turned over to the bartender at the first saloon they would visit and returned when they were ready to leave town.

During his visit to Dodge city Clay Allison did not surrender his guns and did not behave well at all!

During his rapage Clay was never confrounted by Bat, Wyatt or any other lawman.

Now, if you know anything about either Bat Masterson or Wyatt Earp this makes no sense at all. Bat was a professional lawman that took his job serioiusly and tried not to use excessive force doing so. Wyatt was a professional lawman who never retreated beyond "the air at his back" and didn't consider much any kind of force excessive.

In old news paper accounts and memoirs of people who were there are dozens of conflicting accounts of the day. Clay is protrayed riding up and down the streets of Dodge "looking for a lawman to kill." Some accounts have him shooting up store signs and windows, street lamps, and making a general nuisance of himself. One account has him riding his horse into saloons wearing nothing between his hat and boots but his gunbelt!

Several accounts have Clay stairing down either Bat or Wyatt, or both. Other stories have him being backed down by one of the two famious lawmen. One fanciful tale has Bat watching Clay from his hotel window with his old Sharps Buffalo Rifle ready to drop him if he went too far.

If you know anything about the men involved this is nonsense. In short, had Clay met Bat or Wyatt that day, someone's story would have come to an end.

The question becomes why didn't they meet? The mystery lasted so long because no one was entirely sure of the exact date it happened.

The answer came in the 1950's when a western historian was rereading Charlie Sidingo's tales of his days as a young cowboy titled RIADA AND SPURS.

This time he spotted something he had never picked out before. When Charlie and his cowboy friend heard about Clay's rampage whey were at the train station reading the latest details on Chief Dull Knife's raid.

Dull Knife had jumped the reservation and led a war party across the Kansas frontier. Several settlers had been killed in and around Meade, Kansas on Sepetmber 16, 1878. News of the outbreak and raids reached Dodge the next day, September 17, 1878. This was also the date of Clay ride. Now everything clicked into place.

Fort Dodge was only a short ride from Dodge City. One of the first things the commander did when informed about Dull Knifes outbreak was round up he could get his hands on. These were a couple of ex-buffalo hunters who had worked for the army as scouts before. They were none other than Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp. When Clay was having his 'lawdog hunt' they were miles away helping to round up Dull Knife's band.

There is one last part of the story, but it is pure spectulation on my part. Clay Allison has been accused of being many things, a drunk, a viscous killer, a bully, but I don't think anyone ever called him stupid. I think he knew the two noted lawmen were out of town before he ever started acting up.

I believe, where ever he is today, he is still laughting about it.

The Guns of U.N.C.L.E.

2011-07-14T23:27:00.000-07:00

I have recently had a chance to reconnect with a childhood classic through Netflix, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. To be sure this has been an enlighting experience on several levels.

Originally I came into the series in the second season so many things I took for granted. By that point they had gone through many of the 'growing pains' all new series suffer. Starting with season one this time I watched them struggle to get their footing. For example, to most folks the iconic image is Robert Vaughn telling his fountain pen to "Open channel D." I had not realized in the early days he talked to a very unconvincing pack of cigarettes.

From what I understand the producers had always wanted to have a special UNCLE gun, but early on they tended to use whatever was in the prop room. This led to an early goof that was quickly corrected.

In the pilot our hero, Napoleon Solo, shoots down two bad guys with a Luger. Now, the P-08 Luger has been the stereotyplical villain gun since the 1920's. In 1964 World War Two had been over nineteen short years. This promotion photo probably gave the PR department a collective heart attack. I mean look at him. That doesn't say 'hero to the rescue.' He looks like some city slicker that's come to steal your granny's egg money! They took that Luger away from him right then! To date the only other time I've seen him with one was when he pulled it from a shoulder holster and used the butt to hammer through a plastered up wall. When it came time to shoot he had something else.

The U.N.C.L.E. carbine showed up in the pilot, but even it went through several prototypes. To be sure the weapon everyone identifies with the series is the modified P-38, but there were others. One was built up from a Mauser pistol. Illya Kuryakin is seen with one in this photo. This little beastie from the 1930's was quite functional, but it just didn't have the flair of the P-38.

I have heard that in the pilot episode Illya used a U.N.C.L.E. carbine built up from a 1911, but I haven't been able to spot it. This is the weapon I would build up were I to do so, but I wouldn't bother with the scope. I seem to recall most scopes need to be sighted in every time they are fitted to a weapon. I don't know where to get the special pre-sighted U.N.C.L.E. scopes.

Another development is a leather pad that would strap to the small of your back under your jacket to hold all the carbine parts. Even when I watched the show as a kid my reaction was "Yeah - Right!" It would take an entire entry to list the, admittedly percived, problems with this beastie.

As a kid I was amazed at the cool moves and slick gun handling Napoleon and Illya displayed. As an adult I was amazed they didn't have a gun coach on the set. In one situation Napoleon almost gets himself swamped or shot while trying to assemble his carbine for a firefight inside an apartment. In another, I believe it's Illya, is on a hillside with an assembled carbine but shoots it from the hip like a pistol at a couple of bad guys at least fifty yards away.

In another scene Napoleon had his hand over the slide of the carbine while blazing away. I shoot a P-38 regularly and remember thinking the hot brass was going to burn the daylights out of his hand. When I backed it up and reran the scene I realized he was doing that to keep the viewers noticing the slide wasn't moving. I'm interested to see if they get better in later seasons, or if I just thought they did when I watched them when I was younger.

I will close with two bits of information.

First, if you're anything like me, you spent Friday nights watching these shows and wishing you had an U.N.C.L.E. carbine. Well, you just might be in luck!

A gentleman in Amarillo, Texas runs THE UNCLE GUN website. He has very faithful replicas of the U.N.C.L.E. carbines and just about any accessories you can think of. He has a real, firing U.N.C.L.E. carbine in the works. In fact, many of the photos I used here tonight came from his site. (Hi Brad, if you object to this drop me a line and I will take them down).

So pay him a visit but be warned, you can kill hours brousing this site.

Second, there is talk of a new Man From U.N.C.L.E. Movie. This may or may not happen but I have my fingers crossed. I can only hope they will employ folks who actually saw the original series. We don't need another Fifteen years later affair.

Bacardi Gold Reserve and Triple Sec - If you ever wondered

2011-07-07T21:26:00.000-07:00

I have been "allowed" to assist with Helene and Maggie's garage sale. One of the items we found was my old travel bar from my Science Fiction Convention Days.

My personal drink was always Chivas Regal, but that's a story for another time. When I checked the inside of the bar case it contained a bottle of Bacardi Gold Reserve and a bottle of DeKuyper Triple Sec. I don't know the legal stand on selling them with the portable bar, so they came out.

Party Time!

No.

The problem is I had not remembered they were in the portable bar. They had been stored in a hot shipping container since May of 2000. So some of you may be wondering what condition the booze is in after being stored in bad conditions. Inquiring minds want to know! Who knows, I might need this for a story someday.

This led to my experiment in two parts. Part one - how do they taste? Personally, I don't really care for either. Even so they were horrible!

Part two - what about the alcohol? Will alcohol cook off in ten plus years?

NO!

Booze stored in a hot shipping container for ten plus years still makes a (two) wonderful Molotov Cocktail.

In case you ever wondered.

Simi Thompson - Fireworks HomePlace Style

2011-07-04T22:12:00.000-07:00

Still no rain at HomePlace, but that didn't mean no fireworks. At least not for me. Due to the days heat Helene and the cats chose to observe the day with air conditioning. I headed for the range by myself, which is why I am using old and stock photos for this post.

As I had suggested a few days ago, I headed for the range. I took with me one of my favorite firearms of all time, my Simi Thompson. When these were introduced years ago I was appalled by that silly sixteen inch barrel. It destroyed the classic looks of the weapon. A couple of years ago I decided what the hell, and bought one off Auction Arms. I discovered something the first time I took it to the range. If I had fired it back in the 1970's when I first saw one I would have bought it, even if the barrel had been a yard long.

Would I prefer a "real" Thompson? Who wouldn't?! I have used a very convincing replica in my lectures for years. But economics raises its ugly head. I will settle for going the short barrel rifle route. I have the ten and a half inch barrel - stored at the home of a friend who does not own a Simi Thompson - to keep everything legle. Once I free up the funds for the tax I will have the barrels swapped. Until then 'Cyrano' and I will defend HomePlace quite well.

Today I packed two thirty and two twenty round magazines. In a rock'n roll Thompson operating on spray and pray ground rules they wouldn't last long. When working with a Simi Thompson, picking your targets and making your shots count, a thirty round Magazine seems to last forever. That's one of the things I love about this weapon. Once you've made friends with it you can put those thirty rounds pretty much anywhere you want them. You might not center punch bull's eyes at one hundred yards, but a man size target is no challenge.

As I write this it is five after one A.M. on July fifth. When I'm done I will go back out for awhile. So far I haven't heard so much as a firecracker, and I am proud of the folks who are restraining from fireworks this Fourth of July. As Helene says, New Years is coming. It should be plenty wet by then. When I log off Bear, Cyrano and I will go back out for a couple of hours. It's a nice night, and I feel like a walk with friends.

Life Is Good

2011-07-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

Treats, Catnip and watching TV with Dad. It doesn't get any better than this.

A Question For Those Who Understand Blogger

2011-07-02T13:06:00.000-07:00

Friends and neighbors, I need some assistance here. For reasons I do not pretend to understand I can no longer paste links, addresses or text into my blog.

If there is a way to contact Blogger to ask about it, I can't find it. There may be a solution in the Q&A section, but I'm not having any luck there either.

If anyone has any ideas I would be grateful. I am not aware of any problem with my comment function, but if it doesn't work Email me at P47f6f@aol.com.

I would be grateful for any assistance.

No Fireworks This 4th. Of July We Can Live With That!

2011-06-30T21:52:00.000-07:00

The Governor has spoken; there will be no fireworks this year in Falls County, or anywhere within a couple hundred miles of us. I don't know if the ban covers all of Texas but it wouldn't be out of line. That means city displays as well as individuals. This year if you want to see a fireworks display in central Texas you will have to go to Waco, or Ft. Hood.

HomePlace has had two rains this summer and we are dry as a powder keg. Every day Helene and I put a couple hundred gallons of water on our gardens. Tomatoes did will, and Swiss chard was a good crop. We got some squash, lettuce and peppers. We also planted onions, peas and beans. What do we have to show for them? The fattest grasshoppers in Texas! If it weren't for the Rabbits and Chickens we would have a hard time justifying our farm exemption this year. Things could be a lot worse, a fire could wipe us out.

We have always been careful with fire here at HomePlace, but we have had two bad ones. The first I'm really not sure how it started, but it totaled our greenhouse and all the tools and supplies stored inside. The local volunteer Fire Department kept it from being any worse.

The second fire came to Homeplace after crossing a neighbor's pasture. I have no idea where, or how it started. Again the local Fire Departments - lots of them - saved the day. We didn't lose any structures this time, but a couple of the firemen wanted to know where I stored my ammunition and reloading supplies. That was the safest building in Falls County that day!

I love fireworks as much as anyone, even though amatures with explosives scare the hell out of me. That's a story for another time.

I understand folks who live in town can't shoot their fireworks where they live. They don't want to be fined or go to jail. So, they go to the country, where my neighbors and I make our homes. The problem with that is it doesn't matter how careful we are if someone on a gravel road a quarter of a mile up wind isn't. Remember the second fire that came out of no where?

The best analogy I can come up with is a kid in an apartment complex playing with matches. The kid didn't mean to start a fire. Everyone knows he feels terrible about it, but the folks that live in the apartments still watch their homes go up in smoke and flames.

Every year I watch sky rocks go up all around us, some launched by our neighbors, most not. Every year I stay up most of the night watching for any sign of fire in the woods or fields around us. So will I take a break this year and get some sleep?

Get Real!

Kids all know they aren't suppose to play with matches. It hasn't slowed them down yet. As for not having fireworks this year, there are all kinds of fireworks.

I shoot mine off at the range. Saddly, the picture isn't my collection. Thankfully the guy in it isn't me.

Well Done Green Lantern

2011-06-28T17:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Helene and I drove to Bryan with her teaching buddy Maggie. We had a number of errands to run, had a nice lunch, and ended the day with a movie - The Green Lantern.

The Green Lantern, at that time his secret identity was Alan Scott, made his appearance in 1940. That incarnation lasted less than ten years.

By the time I got into comics The Green Lantern had a radical makeover and came back as Hal Jordon, hotshot test pilot. Like the rest of the Justice League, he fought endless battles against impossible odds and won - but not without taking his lumps along the way. Like the other super heroes, he had one simple message, never give up! Kids could have worst role models.

In this film The Green Lantern is brought to life by Ryan Reynolds. I can't say the character was exactly what I expected but I was not disappointed. I was delighted to see the folks the folks involved in making the film had actually read the comics. Rare these days! We left the theater hoping they will make more.

And now our childhood heroes - Superman, Batman, Spiderman and the Green Lantern star in big budget blockbuster films. And who fills the theaters? Kids of course. Kids of all ages.

Good By Gloria Winters

2011-06-01T02:21:00.000-07:00

As a kid I never missed Sky King. The formula of a modern cowboy hero flying from his ranch to battle evil in a twin engine Cessna was magic.

He started with a wartime Cessna T-50 'Bobcat' that really was Kirby Grant's personal plane. When the first Songbird developed problems with its wooden airframe (the most common reason for them to end up on the scrap heap) Cessna stepped up with a sleek new Cessna 310. It was a beautiful plane, but I always preferred the T-50.

Long after I should have 'outgrown' Sky King I kept tuning in. Like every other American male I had a thing for Sky's niece Penny, played by Gloria Winters. Sky King planted the seed that made me want to fly, but Penny and the 50's flying rancher setting kept me watching. She had a magic all her own. If you ever saw the show, you know what I'm talking about.

After Sky King Gloria's career in front of the camera pretty much ended. She married the sound man from the series (who she confessed in an interview once she 'didn't know was alive' during the show) and worked off camera for years afterwards.

I was heartbroken yesterday to learn that Gloria Winters had passed away last August. I'm sure it was in the news, but I missed it somehow.

Go with God Gloria, we will never forget you.

Memorial Day 2011

2011-05-30T22:36:00.001-07:00

In Falls County, Texas the Memorial Day celebration takes place on the Court House Square. In past years I have sometimes been the Keynote Speaker. It is a great honor to be asked (not to mention the ego boost), but I have always preferred to have veterans on Memorial Day. This year we hit the jackpot.

Colonel Ralph Hodge of the United States Air Force, retired, did a wonderful job of reminding us why we were there. Hopefully he will be back.

My part this year was "The Ringing of the Bell". After the speakers finish, and before the laying of the wreath, folks line up near the bell on the Court House Square. One by one they take the lanyard, and remember a service man who is no longer with us.

Some keep the names in their hearts. Others whisper, or shout the names to the heavens. One man rang the bell five times for uncles who fell in three wars. I've had elderly ladies ask me to ring for them, saying the clapper is too heavy for them. I always assure them that with their help I can make it ring.

When everyone else is finished I rang the bell. First for my father, Dub Burnett, then uncles. Jack Burnett and Thurman Fisher. Next for my step father, William Crawford. The list gets longer every year. This year I added Richard Winters. I ended with Roy Penny, the grandson of a friend who fell in Afghanistan last year.

To quote an Admiral in an old movie, "Where do we find such men?"

The Rain Came

2011-05-23T01:38:00.000-07:00

This has been a very dry year in all of Texas. Wild fires have not so much come and gone, as changed location for a couple of months. At one point fires literally spanned the state.

What rain has come has been a cruel joke. I've lost count of how many times rainfall came with-in a mile of HomePlace and either shifted directions, or stopped. Fires have been inside Falls County lines several times, but they have also given us a pass, thank God.

HomePlace is a tinderbox and our gardens show it. Vegetable production is way down compared to last year. Between the drought and the electric company the dew berry crop never happened.

But Friday night last (May 20, 2011) the rain came. I would love to say it was a slow soaking rain that lasted all night, but that wasn't the case. It was in fits and starts, never longer than an hour and sometimes as little as fifteen minutes. It varied from brutal hard to sprinkling, It continued into the night. When I checked the rain gage Saturday morning I was shocked to find three and one eighth inches!

For the rest of the weekend we have gotten a little rain here and there, but nothing like that first night. I would love to say we were out of the woods, but not quite yet. The rain helped, and things are looking better, but none of the counties around here have canceled their burn bands just yet.

But you know what, it finally rained.

The Legend of the Ghost Bomber is Born

2011-04-26T04:13:00.000-07:00

(If anyone can tell me why blogger dose this weird spacing from time to time I would be grateful)

By early 1959 the wreaked B-24 had been spotted by a second D'Arcy Oil Company aircraft, and the two locations plotted were fairly close to each other. To the GPS generation this sounds sloppy, but these were the days of dead reckoning.

Most of you will know dead reckoning from story problems on a math test. "If a train leaves the station traveling at X MPH how long will it take..."

The crash site was on a featureless gravel plain near the edge of the Sea of Calanscio, north of the Kufra Oasis. Fact is, once she was located, the Lady Be Good was the best fixed navigation point for over 100 miles in any direction.

The US Air Force had been informed, but visiting yet another World War two wreak in the desert wasn't a high priority. D'Arcy Oil personal were interested, but no one was going to make a special trip. Having said that, exploring war time aircraft wreaks is interesting. In late February of 1959 a D'Arcy ground crew found themselves in the area of the crash.

Gordon Bowerman was the first to spot the bomber in the distance. He and his co-workers, John Martin and Don Sheridan, decided it was break time. The above photograph was taken by Gordon Bowerman on February 27, 1959 as they approached the plane. The tracks in the foreground were made by their vehicle.

They were the first people to visit the plane since 1943.

Approaching the plane was like stepping back in time. Other than the fuselage breaking in half just aft of the wings, the plane was in remarkable condition. She looked like the crew had left moments before.

At least one of the radios still worked. There was food and water stored stored on board that was still good, and a thermos of tea still drinkable. Articles of clothing and equipment were still in place and some had crewmen's names. Some of the planes logs were in place. Even the machine guns and ammunition, usually the first things removed by scavengers, were in place. The only things missing were the parachutes and the Mae West life preservers.

The three oilmen left with a haunting mystery. How had this plane gotten so far inland, and what happened to the crew? The Letter Gordon Bowerman wrote to Col. Kolbus (USAF) explains it best.

Private & Confidential

Lt. Col. Kolbus,

U.S.A.A.F.,

Wheelus Air Base,

Tripoli

2-4-59 (in this case read Mar. 2, 59)

Dear Sir,

During a recent survey trip in the desert north of the Kufra Oasis, my friends and I found a United States Liberator bomber that is almost complete and would appear to have crashed without any members of the crew being aboard. As the plane is so far from any operational airfield that was being used during March/April 1943 period, we would be very interested to know whether there are any records to show whether the crew were saved, or not.

From the maintenance inspection records (form 41-B) the details of the plane are: Squadron Airplane No. 64; Organization: 514 Sq. Bomb Gp.; last (indecipherable): 3rd. April 1943; A.C. Airplane No.: R-1830-43; Serial No.: 24301.

Also there are a few of the crew names that were on pieces of personal and other equipment:

Lt. Hatton

Lt. Woravka

Lt. D.P. Hayes (Computer - See Below ###)

M/SGT. Shea

Lt. Toner

Ripslinger

I had hoped to see you personally when I was last in Tripoli, but my leave was curtailed and you were not at home on the occasions that I did call.

If any information can be found we would be very interested in it, for this is the most complete plane we saw and the absence of evidence of the crew landing with it makes it very strange that a plane should be that distance from the coast.

If there is any other information you would like, I may be able to assist you, but apart from giving you the Maintenance Log (41-B) and a few of the navigators jottings, I cannot see that I have any useful information to disclose. Should you wish to contact me, please write to the address above, and I will reply as soon as possible; but owing to the post being weekly there may be a long delay. The post for me has to be in D'Arcy Office by Wednesday lunch-time to be put on the aircraft.

I hope you, your wife and daughter are all well, and have a very happy and Blessed Easter.

Yours sincerely,

Gordon Bowerman.

In this day of Cell phones and E-mail it's difficult it imagine people ever depended on mail that came once a week.

### For those readers without gray hair, the computer referred to in Bowermans letter was an Army Aircorp AN-5835-1 like in the picture above. Private Pilots were still using the civilian version of this when I learned to fly in the 1970's. Think of it as a round slide rule. As for what a slide rule is, you'er on your own - try Google.

Complicated

2011-04-19T22:18:00.000-07:00

Please bare with me friends and neighbors. I have some issues to deal with. I will start posting again by the weekend.

I hate it when life interfers with blogging!

68 Years Ago Tonight The Lady Be Good

2011-04-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

Shortly after 15:00 ( 3:00 PM) on April 04, 1943 a flight of 25 B-24 bombers took off from the Soluch airfield near the coast of Libya. The target was port of Naples, Italy just across the Mediterranean Sea. This was the first mission for both Bomber #64, the Lady Be Good, and her crew.

The mission went badly from the start. High winds and the sandstorm that resulted caused nine of the thirteen planes in the second formation to abort early on. The remaining planes continued on, arriving over Naples about 1950 (7:50 PM) at an altitude of 25,000 feet. By this point the Lady Be Good may have already turned back.

Due to poor visibility over the target the planes chose not to bomb the port due to civilians in the area. The planes dropped their bombs into the sea to reduce weight and fuel consumption. We know "The Lady" was alone on the return trip.

At 0012 (12:12 AM) "The Lady's" pilot, Lt. William J. Hatton broke radio silence to say his automatic direction finder was not working and asked for a heading to a base. It is unclear if he heard the response. If he transmitted again after that it was not picked up.

I am writing this about 01:00 the morning of April 05, 2011. The Lady Be Good was literally trying to find her way home 68 years ago tonight as I write this. They never made it.

A little while later a plane was heard over Soluce Field. The Air Corps wasn't only ones operating aircraft in the area. Not everyone was friendly, so calling them on the radio to say they were over head wasn't a good idea. Flairs were launched but either they were not seen or were ignored. Was it 'The Lady"? No one knows.

The 376 Bomb Group assumed she went down in the Mediterranean Sea. Air / Sea rescue searched, but as they say, there was a war on. Fighters, Bombers and Transports were shot down, or just failed to return from missions, every day. In time The Lady Be Good became another foot note, remembered only by those who knew, or loved, someone who was on her crew.

That changed, starting in 1958.

On November 09, 1958 a British Oil exploration team conducting an aerial survey spotted aircraft crash site. They shot a couple of pictures and plotted the location on their charts. British Oil contacted Wheelus Air Force Base at Tripoli, Libya with the information.

One must remember that in 1958 there were hundreds of aircraft wreak sites in the North African Desert. It was hard to get excited about another one. All reported crash sites were investigated as soon as possible and logged. By that time most of the calls were about wreaks they had known about for years. Still, the Air Force took down the information and made plans to investigate when they had a crew free.

Things changed in May of 1959 when the Air Force got boots on the ground at the crash site. Overnight the Lady Be Good became the most famous B-24 in history.

Next The Crash Site

Fun And Games With The Light Company

2011-03-30T22:26:00.000-07:00

Monday we paid the light bill. I really don't know why I'm surprised that the call came in Tuesday morning.

"We are going to turn off power in your area in less than an hour to do equipment repairs. The power will be down for about six hours." There was more, mainly a recording of someone I've never met telling me how sorry she was for something she had nothing to do with. The last part they could have left off. And here I was thinking they might make it through March without going down.

Maybe next year.

OK, at least they called. It was annoying, but no big deal. It was the middle of the day, and Helene and I both had lots to keep us busy that didn't depend on house current. I didn't even have to fire up the generator.

It wasn't the middle of the night on the coldest night we have had in years - like the last time. That time only lasted three hours, but those three hours made an impression I'm here to tell you. We are blessed with electric heat!

As it turns out, they actually got the power on fifteen minutes early. Good for them.

This morning I was sleeping in a bit when Helene called to me saying the Electric Company Tree Killers were back!

Now, a couple of weeks ago they came through. This time the foreman talked to me about what their tree thugs were going to be doing. We agreed how much would be cut off the trees they would cut, and which ones they would not touch. That part was respected, but no one said anything about the herbicide I caught them spraying on my dew berries. They insisted they were only spraying the small trees growing up in the right of way.

They Stopped.

I must have made an impression on both the crew and the folks I talked to at the company. Insted of the three to five business days they first offered for a call back, the foreman was back in person about two hours later. We agreed that dew berries didn't grow high enough to bother their wires. We also agreed they could cut the small trees out with branch cutters.

No more poison!

The guys today had walked onto the property so we wouldn't hear their truck, but 'Bear da dog' let us know they were there. I caught them with a pole saw working on the plum tree the company foreman had agreed not to touch. They assured me they didn't know anything about that, it was all a misunderstanding. You would have thought they had never seen an irate fat man in a bath robe before!

I will close with one question. Has anyone else found Tent Caterpillars in a tree you gave the electric company a hard time about cutting?

A Suggested release date for One For The Money

2011-03-25T05:22:00.000-07:00

Not long age I posted a joyful article that the Stepanie Plum movie, One For The Money, was scheduled to be released July 08, 2011. There was a great rejoicing among the masses of fans that will flock to theathers across the country.

A couple of weeks later I heard Lionsgate had decided to move the date up to June 03 of this year. Before I got around to posting an update One For The Money was taken off the release list. I have a suggestion for what I think will be the perfect release date, but more on that later.

Before I could post the idea there was a new release date - January 27, 2012. I won't say I screamed myself horse, or threw and kicked things around the house, but the cats were hiding under the bed for hours. The problem is I have seen this before.

Some years back two movies , Capote and Infamous, were in production at the same time. Both were concerning the grizzly murders that inspired Truman Capote's best seller, In Cold Blood. They were filmed in a blizzard of publicity. I have no idea where Capote was shot but part of Infamous was filmed in Marlin, Texas - about 26 miles from HomePlace. To date it's the only time I was ever on screen with Sandra Bullock.

Other than bragging (Look at me - I'm in a movie!) the point is the race to finish the filming and post production was won by Capote. Infamous didn't want to go head to head or in Capote's recent wake. They delayed until the next year and may as well have gone straite to DVD, if they didn't. I never saw it in a theater.

Truth be told, I expect Stephanie Plum fans will come out in droves no matter when the movie is released. Delaying, for what ever reason, is pointless. Pallets of the new Stephanie Plum book are shipped to book stores all over the world each year for the release of the new adventure, serval per city. They not only fly off the shelves the day of release, but all the books sell well the rest of the year.

Helene and I always make a point of getting the Audio book. It cuts down on fisty cuffs over who reads the book first and elimates exchanges like "Have you got to the part ... DONTTELLMEDONTTELLMEDONTTELLME!"

So what could go wrong? Lionsgate could have dropped the ball and made a pitiful excuse of a movie. It has happened before with movies and TV shows.

In the 1980's fans of the comic series Jon Sable - Freelance were thrilled to hear a TV series based on those stories was planned. By the end of the first episode we knew the only requirement to work on the show was to have never read any of the comics. Imagine a politically correct mercenary who defends the weak and helpless - but doesn't want to shoot anybody. The comic book Jon Sable wasn't laughing I'm sure.

More recently the Dresden Files had a stab at being a TV show. While this series was certainly handled better there were departures from the books, both good and bad. The casting of Paul Blackthornne as Harry Dresden and Valerie Cruz as Murphy was not what many of us expected, but the actors did their parts well.

Bob the Skull became Terrance Mann whenever he spoke. At first I was livid, but being a person rather than a talking skull actually worked better for TV. I didn't recall Morgan being black in the books, but Conrad Coats made the part his own. I personally got a kick out of the Blue Beatle being replaced by the M-38 Willys Jeep.

On the other hand they had Harry living in a storefront that was also his office. This didn't have the feel of the basement apartment in the books. The story lines either went completly off the reservation or were crammed into a TV show time frame. Storm Front, one attempt to follow a book, suffered from the time allotted to tell the story. Harry's staff and blasting rod were replaced by a hockey stick and a drum stick? That's what you get when you cheap out and film in Canada. Hey - American who works in the film industry from time to time and doesn't have a sag card. I have issues!

I feel both Jon Sable and the Dresden Files would have transfered better to a movie formate. Saddly I don't think that is going to happen since the TV shows didn't work, either from poor execution or not being given a chance. Someone tell the genius that cancelled Firefly about Star Trek.

Well, climbing down from my soapbox, I will close by saying I don't think Lionsgate dropped the ball and made a pitiful movie. Even with the poor judgement refected in delaying the release date of One For The Money they have a good record. The cast they assembled are pros.

When One For The Money is finally released into movie theaters Stephanie Plum fans will come for miles. I expect there will be numerious repeat viewings, not unlike Star Wars, - if a touch less fanatic and with less body paint. Those sad souls who don't know who Stephanie Plum is will come alone if only to find out what all the ruckus is about. I am always shocked to see how many rabid Harry Potter fans have never read even one of the books.

In the beginning I said I had a suggested release date for Lionsgate. How about One For The Money coming to theaters on June 21, 2011? This is the same day Stephanie Plum's new adventure, Smokin' Seventeen, hits the bookstores.

So how about it Lionsgate? Ask your PR department if they could make anything out of that.

Goodby Elizabeth Taylor

2011-03-24T01:18:00.000-07:00

The news program Helene and I were watching yesterday was interupted with a special announcement: Elizabeth Taylor was dead. It is strange how news that dose not surprise a person can still leave them numb.

She was a special lady who carried herself with a nobelity that is rare in this age. Due to health she hasn't been seen much the last few years.

I will always keep the image of her as she was, and I have asked Netflix to send me THE TAMING OF THE SHREW and ELEPHANT WALK. These are not the movies most folks think of, but they are the ones that spoke to me. I'll let other folks watch CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF and WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOLFE.

God's speed Elizabeth, you will be missed.

Machine Gun Packing John Deere’s

2011-03-21T02:02:00.000-07:00

I've always loved old vehicles, but the 'green machines' are my favorites. That causes some confusion among classic tractor enthusiast. By green machines I mean military vehicles. There is a stark utilitarianism about old military vehicles that appeals to me.

When I left home in the 70's, if anyone told me I would ever buy a tractor I don't know if I would have laughed in their face or decked them. Today I am the proud owner of a 1945 Farmall H. The older tractors have their appeal as well, but I never realized John Deere built an armored combat vehicle durring World War Two. While watching Classic Tractors on the RFD channel the other night I saw a segment on the John Deere Armored A vehicles. I had never heard of these.

There were only two prototypes made, both based on the John Deere A. These tractors are common at tractor shows and parades, but a large number of them still do farm work even today.

The Armored A's were the brain child of a great grandson of John Deere, C.D. Wiman, in 1940. He felt that these small armored tractors cold be produced in mass quickly to provide cover fire for troops in the field.

The Armored A1 had the narrow tricycle front wheels of it's civilian conterpart. Anyone who has driven a tractor with this front wheel arangement (like our Farmall H) knows they can be unstable on uneven ground. They also tend to bog down in sand and mud. If this is true with the civilian tractors imagine the 9,500 Lb. Armored A. These had a top speed of 13 MPH on a hard surface road.

In addition to armor plate the Armored A had two machine gun turrets, one on each side of the vehicle. These were cramped boxes intended to house one gunner and a .30 caliber M1919 machine gun. Unfortunly John Deere's engineers had no experience with the M1919 and the turret didn't have room to mount it's ammo box. This lead to feed problems.

The turrets were manually rotated and had very poor visiblity. At first at least the guns had no travel stops, which allowed to gunners to shoot their own vehicle on occasion. Both the turrets and the drivers compartment were ice boxes in the winter and ovens in the summer, but that was in not uncommon in armored vehicles.

After the first test in January of 1941 the Army asked for a second test vehicle, the Armored A2. The most noticable were wide front wheels. Even with these improvements the Armored A's were slow moving, high profile beast any enemy gunner would have considered a birthday present. The Army also requested a third prototype without the machine gun turrets to act as a front line prime mover, but it too was rejected.

The orginal Armored A's were scraped years ago and no effort was made to preserve documentation. What remained were a handful of old photographs. The armored John Deere's were doomed to be a footnote in history until some Iowa Antique Tractor collectors got on their trail. Since nothing was left the beasties had to be replicated.

Brian Anderson tackled the job of recreating the Armored A1. Les Milleman and Curt Clark took on the A2, The result are working examples of the two 'Gun Tractors' as faithful as they can be made to the nine photos that have been located to date.

Today these two odd beasties are popular crowd pleasers in parades and vehicle shows. Since they don't belong completly to the Classic Tractor hobby or Military Vehicle hobby, they are welcomed by both.

57 Years Ago Tonight - Dien Bien Phu

2011-03-13T21:06:00.000-07:00

History is full of heroic battles no one has ever heard of. Dien Bien Phu took place in a world tired of war, and in a little country most folks had never heard of unless they had been there. That would change, but at the time those in power called it French Indochina. The locals called it Viet Nam.

Dien Bien Phu was a French Strong Hold built in the Moung Thanh Vally basin surrounded by mountains. Several of the mountains had fortifications built on their peaks as well. The purpose was to provide a base of operation against the Viet Minh who opposed French rule. No real opposition had been encountered, or expected. The French considered their fortress complex unassailable. At 5:00PM March 13, 1954 that changed with the launching of a massive artillery barrage.

For the rest of the day Viet Minh guns, the French didn't even know were there, hammered Dien Bien Phu, but when night fell they weren't finished. The 13th. of March was chosen because of a new moon which allowed for an infantry attack under the cover of darkness. The butchers bill was still being tallied.

Under the French noses the Viet Minh had made a detailed study of Beatrice, a hilltop fortification to the north of the main camp. Members of the 312th. Viet Minh division had been slipping up every night, cutting barbed wire and removing landmines in prepration for their attack. They were able to clear obstacles and defenses to within 200 yards of the camp.

The infantry assault was as compete a surprise as the the artillery barrage. French guns in other positions, unsure of the enemies location, held fire so as not to drop rounds on their own people. What followed was a vicious fire fight that ended in hand to hand. A little after midnight Beatrice fell to the Viet Minh. Some of the 500 French legionnaires may have been wounded, but most were killed outright. This action alone cost the Viet Minh 600 dead and 1,200 wounded.

The French launched a counter-attack on Beatrice at first light on March 14, 1954 but were driven back by Viet Minh artillery. These were the opening exchanges of a siege that lasted 55 days.

Technical Problems

2011-03-11T15:16:00.000-08:00

Please bare with me folks. I'm having some technical problems.

Question, is anyone else having trouble droping text and links into their blogs?

The Girandoni

2011-03-10T14:19:00.000-08:00

One of the great stories of in United States history is Lewis and Clarks trek to the Pacific Ocean. Among the oddities and wonders of that journey is the Girandoni air rifle.

My experience with air rifles has been limited to the spring powered BB gun I had as a child. The Sherlock Holmes stories speak of compressed air weapons being used by big game hunters, but I never looked into them. The fact that such a weapon was on the Lewis and Clark Expedition pretty much exhusted my knowledge of the subject.

A couple of days ago our son, Matt, sent me the following link.

It seems my handwritten link is not working. If you do a goggle search under "Lewis and Clark air rifle" several links will come up. This will include a couple of videos, including the one I was trying to send you to.

Sorry, still working bugs out.

The Girandoni held abilities not obvious to the untrained eye. The shoulder stock was a reservoir that held enough pressure for about fourty shots. A tubular magazine on the side of the barrel held 22 .46 caliber lead balls.

They were loaded by way of a spring loaded, sliding block with a single cavity. When the block was pressed the cavity would move from the breach to the magazine where a single ball would drop in, then back to the breach and the weapon was ready to fire. Imagine a 22 round, .46 caliber rifle that could be emptied in less than a minute.

The Girandoni used a different set of tool than gunpowder weapons, carried in this case. It included a bullet mold, spare parts, and a 'bicycle pump' for charging the reservoir. It took about 1500 strokes for a full charge.

Meriwether Lewis was impressed enough with this weapon to purchase it out of pocket. He used it in a most effective manner on the Expedition to the Pacific. I found this U-tube video to be most interesting and very enlighting. It's well worth the time to look, and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

That Which Goes Bump In The Night

2011-02-26T03:27:00.000-08:00

Bear da’ Dog is the head of security here at HomePlace. He is very enthusiastic and makes sure I know he’s on the job. He barks.

He barks at big trucks on the road half a mile in front of the house. He barks at trains two miles behind us. Helicopters make him nuts. He barks at the porch cats, strange cats, armadillos’, squirrels and birdies.

If you’ve heard a dog barking often enough you pick up on the different tones. For example, I can tell ‘stray dogs’ barking in the distance from someone’s coming. Be it the UPS driver, our son or strangers Bear lets us know we aren’t alone.

I often work on writing projects late into the night if I’m on a roll. Bear keeps up a running comment on the comings and goings of the night life. A deep growling ‘Going to war / gonna eat your face off’ isn’t usually part of the playlist. Having said that, about 03:30 AM his vocals took on the tone of someone holding his ground against a Grizzly Bear! With that I took up the 1911 and a flashlight and went to see what he had found.

Bear was near the corner of the trailer, swelled to twice his normal size with all hackles up tracking something in the dark. I unsnapped the chain from his collar incase whatever he saw closed in. And it did.

Part of Bear’s dinner tonight had been some hen pecked eggs. Slowly, the intruder came into the light, sniffing the egg shells Bear had left in his dish. My blood ran cold when I saw the skunk.

At once Bear advanced, growling his challenge. The skunk lifted its tail, but didn’t spray – Thank God! I didn’t know how long that was going to last, however. They were circling and sparing with each other. They were too close and moving too erectly to risk a shot. I figured I had one chance to keep this from ending badly. When I called Bear he came to me on the porch. I put him into his travel cage for the rest of the night and left the skunk to clean up the egg shells.

There are two things on my ‘to do’ for tomorrow. First is to dig out and set the live trap in case the skunk stays in the area. The second is to add about five gallons of Tomato Juice to the shopping list, incase Bear get’s to the ‘intruder’ first.

For Lack of Cartridges

2011-02-24T05:49:00.000-08:00

Is ‘America’s Dumbest’ holding auditions? If so, I believe there may be a couple of contenders in Kansas City. Not only did these guys try to rob a gun store, they lost money in the process.

Last week a young man entered GUNS UNLIMITED in Kansas City, Missouri wanting to buy a box of .357 Magnum Cartridges. When told the price would be in the fifty dollar range he said he lacked the full amount would have to return at another time.

A little before five the same day the young man returned with a friend and was served by the same clerk he had seen earlier. After checking the young gentleman’s identification to confirm his age, early twenties, the clerk tallied price plus tax and informed the pair the cartridges would be $50.19 all told. The customer promptly produced two twenty dollar bills.

When it was clear no other funds were going to be offered, the clerk prompted, “Your $10.19 short.” That’s when things got…stupid.

Rather than getting more money, the punk pulled a .357 revolver from his waistband and ordered the clerk, “Give me your money!”

Now, less think about this for a second. They’re in a gun store, and the clerk knows guns. With the revolver pointed strait at his face it was easy to see that the chambers for the cylinder were empty. You may recall they are in the store to buy ammunition for this handgun. Humm.

The clerk was wearing a semi-auto in plain sight, and it was loaded! The smile on his face as he reached for his weapon must have spoken volumes.

The two punk’s eyes got big as dinner plates and they ran from the store, hitting the door so hard folks thought they would break the glass. The twenty dollar bills, with their finger prints, were still sitting on the counter. If my experiences buying ammunition are anything to go on, the name and address of the gunman was also recorded.

The clerk said he didn’t even have the weapon pointed at them before they were gone. When the police are done with the two twenty dollar bills he wants them back.

“I think I’ve earned them.”

Shooting Arrows isn’t a new Idea

2011-02-18T05:03:00.000-08:00

Last week Steve at ‘The Firearms Blog’ wrote about a new product based on a very old idea. Texas based LaRue Tactical is preparing to market an interesting modification kit for the ever popular ruger 10-22. This is a special barrel that can be swapped out to allow the rifle to shoot special arrows.

The arrows will be propelled by a .22 blank cartridge at something over 400 FPS. and should have a range of at least 50 yards. It seems that even some states will allow them to be used for hunting, but in the regular firearms, not archery season. At a price of over $400.00 I doubt one will every join the HomePlace inventory, but the idea has some merit.

Arrows propelled by gunpowder are nothing new; in fact they go back to the early days of cannon and firearms. This Illustration is based on experiments with a ‘Springel’, an arrow designed to be fired from a cannon in the middle ages. Springels were also used in matchlocks early on but I was not able locate an illustration.

From all reports they did a great deal of damage if and when they connect with an enemy soldier or horse. On the down side springels, or sprites in some writings, were not terribly accurate. Their range was more limited than regular shot. Due to the weight of the springel when compared to shot the recoil was brutal. Their poor performance did not justify the expense of the springels so they soon disappeared from the battlefield.

The idea didn’t die there however. Firearms went to sea early on, both on military and commercial vessels. Merchant vessels had to chose between cannon and cargo, but most at least had swivel guns to protect them from boarders. Men with a lot of time on their hands tend to get ideas. Does anyone have any trouble figuring out where this idea came from?

Over time harpoon guns got bigger and more lethal. Monsters like this could throw a much heavier projectile further and eliminated the dangerous step of taking to the small boats.

Now, before the politically correct come to the conclusion this idea has never had a positive application I would direct your attention to the last illustration. This is a line casting rifle. The purpose is to throw a light weight line from one ship to another. The light line can be tied to a heavy rope or cable to allow transfer of cargo or personal. These are still in use and saving lives today.

Just In Case

2011-02-11T03:48:00.000-08:00

I have always loved candles, ever since I was a kid. I keep a supply on hand, and not just to look at. Candle light adds a warm glow to a room. I prefer unscented candles, but the sometimes a pine scent is alright providing it isn't over powering. When Helene and I started seeing each other I was delighted to discover she felt the same way.

Since moving to HomePlace the candles have become much more practical due to our hit and miss electrical service. It isn't that we will lose power every week, or even every month. You can rest assured the power will go down without warning, and with a frenquency we have not encountered anywhere else we've lived. Sometimes for days at a time. So, as a precaution, every evening we light a candle when we first turn on the lights.

This way, rather than fumbling around in the dark trying to remember where the flashlight was used last, we are greeted by a candle's warm glow. Losing power is still annoying, but we skip the initial inconvenient transition back to light. It's a matter of starting the generator and running a cord to a power strip I already have set up for such events.

I know there are systems that come on automatically. That would mean buying a second generator (I use mine all over the property) and an expensive installation.

We'll just light a candle.

M18A1...Early Recoilless Rifle

2011-02-08T00:31:00.000-08:00

While visiting The Firearms Blog today I found a great article on the M18A1 Recoilless Rifle. Steve linked to Jay at Marooned http://stuckinmassachusetts.blogspot.com/2011/02/friday-gun-pr0n-200.html, who acknowledges Wally as his ‘go-to’ guy in this intriguing weapon.

It took me about a minute into Wally’s excellent article to figure out I didn’t know near as much about Recoilless Rifles as I thought I did, and nothing about this one. My experience with these weapons was the 75mm and 106mm versions that were mounted on the M-38 Jeeps or the M274 Mechanical Mules. The early roots of the weapon I knew nothing about.

The M18 was developed by Firestone Tire and Rubber of all unlikely sources, and was the first recoilless rifle system to see volume production. They entered service in 1945, reaching the battle fields near the end of World War Two. The object was to develop man portable artillery to deal with tanks and other hard targets.

(Note, I first wrote Goodyear Tire and Rubber, but Wally was kind enough to point out the error.)

At forty five plus pounds this was something of a stretch, but do-able. The ammunition was also heavy, five pounds a round. The length of the beast, combined with the weight made it acquired carry. The M18 was intended to be shoulder fired, as seen in this photo. This could be done, but the squads soon decided the tripod was worth the extra blood, sweat and tears. The thing is, the M18 could throw a two and a half pound projectile a mile with a good deal of accuracy. It was worth it!

Now lots of folks (like me) have been confused as to how a recoilless rifle works. I mean – what’s with all the holes in the casings. I know there are lots of GI’s out there with this bar that are laughing their heads off, but bear with me. I doubt I’m the only person on the net that didn’t know this stuff.

Unlike most firearms, the chamber of a recoilless rifle isn’t a tight fit around the case below the neck. A plastic or paper sleeve is set inside the case to hold the powder in place. When fired the gas blows through the sleeve and expands into the bell and pushes the projectile down range.

This chart shows the venting out the back to counter the thrust of the projectile. That is both why there is no kick (to speak of) and the reason you don’t want anybody who owes you any money standing behind it! All kidding aside, the back blast is deadly AT LEAST 100 feet back. From what I’ve heard you can hear one of these go off in the next county.

So, can these be fired? Yes and no. Casings and projectiles for these weapons are hard to find and expensive when you do. But if you’re looking to reload the original ammo you won’t be worried about the price. These are considered destructive devices. If I recall correctly, the tax on those is five thousand dollars.

Then again, Uncle Sam was worried about the cost of training thousands of soldiers and marines, so they developed a “sub-caliber training device”. And what is that you might ask? The most common were .30-06 barrels that could be fitted inside the weapon. That’s the way most folks fire them today.

As much fun as I could have with the 57mm, I think it would be a ball to try out one of the sub-caliber versions one of these days.

Top Shots is Back

2011-02-05T13:46:00.000-08:00

Jason, over at Jason's Blog, posted that Top Shot's Season Two will start next week.

I personally found 'Top Shots' to be a mixed bag. I enjoyed the weapons, and would love to try out some of the challenges. I mean, how cool would it be to slide down that wire blazing away at a target? I could have done with a little less "Survivor" however.

What do I mean by that? The drama and back biting. I have been thrown lots of curve balls when shoting. There have been guns I wasn't familur with. Great, now I am and I was grateful for the experience!

In one of our Cowboy Action Shoots we were required to shoot the stage with the single action in our left, or weak, hand. I couldn't hit the ground with my hat that day, but I also learned with practice I could do it. Have any of us not watched Roy Rogers blazing away with a single action in each hand, and dropping about a hundred bad guys without reloading? I can still only get six shots out of mine, and hit the targets about half the time. But I feel like a million bucks living the dream!

The voting people out by shooting their target with a handgun was a bit much, but it goes with the theme. My biggest problem with the first season of Top Shots was the whining. It seemed like all of them were howling at one point or another about having to use something odd. One was having to use a bow and arrow. Let me assure you anyone who can use a rifle, and can step out of the box so to speak, can make friends with a bow. Did you know a Kukri can be used as a throwing knife. I actually got pretty good at it.

Sometimes the whining took the form of bad sportsmanship. The bickering and endfighting was boring, and disgusting. I hate to think how much of the nonshooting world is forming their openion of us based on the behavior of some of these individuals.

Frankly, if I ever had the chance to compete on the show I would go for broke and have a ball with it. I'm saddened the competitors never thought of that.

Having said all this, will I be watching this year. Absolutely! It's shooting, on a great variety of stages, with all manor of neat guns. Even the non firearms look to be fun, but then I have always enjoyed archery, tomahawks and throwing knives. I think they should try atl atl's and the bolas.

And Tonight There Will Be Snow

2011-02-03T21:31:00.000-08:00

The rabbits water bottles have been freezing solid, so I have been switching them out every twelve hours. I bring the frozen bottles into the house to thaw. While I was outside doing the last switch we were getting a light frozen rain. There is suppose to be snow between two and three in the morning.

I am having pleasent memories of hundred degree plus days in July!

Update

I stepped out about midnight to have one last look at the animals and gear before turning in for the night. Snow is already covering the ground, and building.

Another Update

Water in the bathroom sink had stopped completly. The cold water is now running again. Keep the good thoughs friends and neighbors!

I Thought I Had Left This Sort Of Thing In The Panhandle

2011-02-02T01:41:00.000-08:00

The running joke has been that when friends in Amarillo told me it didn't snow in Houston I went home and started packing. All kidding aside, I left the worst of the winter horrors in Dumas and Amarillo.

Granny Burnett had talked about pipes freezing up, and having to heat water for dishes on the stove. She had also advised dripping faucets to keep the water flowing. Helene did the same in Wisconsin.

Folks here in Falls County, Texas say burring pipes and wrapping the others isn't necessary. Most of the time it isn't. This winter storm front is setting cold weather records.

So how cold is it you might ask? The pipes left dripping have frozen up. Stay tuned. This is going to be fun.

Well, as they say, what doesn't kill you makes for good blog post. Stay tuned friends and neighbors. I'll tell you how it all turns out.

Then Again, Maybe It Was

2011-01-30T20:31:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I talked about the Taurus 28 Gauge Revolver that died on the vine due to BATF ruling it to be a short barreled shotgun. It seems the jury is still out on that decision. Taurus may be building this new age 'Howdah Pistol' after all.

The finial ruling is still a ways off, but as soon as I know I'll post the results here.

Quiet Day at Home

2011-01-29T15:54:00.000-08:00

Today I celebrate my birthday with a quite day at home. The weather is nice, not too hot or cold. Looks like we can expect rain for the next couple of days, but not freezing thank goodness.

Helene and I have been indulging in an audio book, S.M. Stirling's Protector's War. This is an old favorite, but the audio book is new and we can enjoy it together. For anyone who hasn't read "The Change" series I recommend it highly.

I am breaking one rule this evening. Rather than a cake I am allowing my self an early Cherry Cream Pudding. For those not familar with Cherry Cream Pudding, check my December listing for an explaination and the reciepe.

I remember large, loud parties and friends that tried desperately to throw a surprise party I didn't find out about in years past. I didn't try to spoil the surprise, really. I just kept stumbling into the plans. Helene was successful once in Houston. That day I hadn't a clue.

As nice as big parties are, it's hard to beat a quite day at home with my wonderful wife.

Sons Of Guns

2011-01-26T19:05:00.001-08:00

Tonight Discovery premiered a new series, Sons Of Guns. The show is based on Will Hayden's weapon shop, Red Jackets. What do they do at Red Jackets? You name it!

It started with a man who wanted a suppressed shotgun he saw in a movie. He had to have one.

While they were still figuring out how to do that a truck pulls in with a Church bell Cannon on a trailer - an original from the Civil War! The guys want to shoot it.

My favorite is the 'Master Key' requested by the local SWAT Team. If it weren't for the paperwork I would want one of these myself.

One of Will's challenges is getting this stuff past his daughter, Stephanie, who runs the business end of the shop. Things like the M-203 he had to buy "Due to the tottle inability to continue life without it". I have written down several such lines for 'debates' with my wife.

Red Jacket deals with a combination of cutting edge weapons and antiques, sometimes restored and sometimes built from scratch. If follow up episodes are as good as what I saw tonight I will be watching Sons Of Guns for a while.

Stephanie Plum Comes To A Theater Near You...

2011-01-25T11:26:00.000-08:00

I have just learned that the long awaited Stephanie Plum movie, One For The Money, is scheduled to be released this summer.

Expect to see ONE FOR THE MONEY in a theater near you starting July 08, 2011. Helene and I will be there.

Fans of Janet Evanovich have been waiting since the 1990's for her improbable bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, to come to the big screen. Over the years a parade of talented actresses have been suggested for the part, but Katherine Heigl has landed the role. There has been a lot of heated controversy over this choice, but I would advise folks to have some faith.

I screamed bloody murder years back when I learned my childhood hero, Batman, was to be played by "Mr. Mom". I was wrong to doubt Michale Keaton's ability. Based on Katherine's past performances I am expecting a great movie.

No less controversal choice to many fans was the casting of Grandma Mazur. A lot of folks have wanted to see Betty White in the role. At first I was shocked to learn Debbie Reynolds got the nod.

In my case it was the mind's eye not keeping up with current day. I still think of Debbie Reynolds as the stunning actress I had a serious crush on growing up. She doesn't look bad today, but is no longer a 'spring chicken' as Grandma Mazur would say. To those with reservations I have one question?

Have you ever seen Debbie Reynolds turn in a bad performance in anything?

This is going to be a great movie.

Note

Back in 2009 I addressed one of the frequently debated question about ONE FOR THE MONEY. For more click on the "Stephanie Plum" lable in the sidebar and scroll down to COULD THEY...

Alas, It Wasn't Ment To Be

2011-01-24T14:52:00.001-08:00

I have got to get to the Shot Show one of these days. Steve at Firearms Blog is having a ball and finding the neastest things.

The above is the Taurus Judge big brother. This sucker is a 28 gauge revolver. Imagine Clint Eastwood leveling this at your face saying "Are you feeling lucky, punk!"

The heart break of it is that Imagining is as far as it will go. The BATF has decided this is not a handgun but is a Short Barreled Shotgun (SBS). The weapon has been withdrawn from the sales line.

Rossie may be offering a revolving shotgun version sometime in the future.

Will There Be a Semi-Auto .22 MP-40

2011-01-22T01:12:00.000-08:00

In the early 1970's Auto Ordinance introduced, or I should say reintroduced, a semi-auto Thompson. I loved the very idea until I saw the long barrel that destroyed the lines of the classic weapon. At the time I didn't know about the Short Barreled Rifle option. I didn't have a chance to fire one of the semi auto Thompsons for years.

Not long ago I found a semi Thompson at a price I couldn't pass up and have to say, had I fired one of these in the 1970's I would have gotten it, no matter how long the barrel was. There was also a .22 version released at the same time. I remember thinking, if they have these, it won't take long for someone to come out with a semi-auto MP-40. I am amazed it took almost forth years for that to happen.

A couple of years ago lots of us were tickled to death to see there were plans to market a semi-auto MP-40 at long last. Perhaps there would be a .22 version. I was like a kid at Christmas as I searched for details. Then I discovered the price was between $2000.00 and $4000.00 depending on the source. The sales a realistic price could have fetched were reduced to a trickle. My visions of adding a firing MP-40, be it a semi, to the writers demo lineup vanished.

But there is joy tonight dear readers. Steve at The Firearms Blog announced early in the week that ATI is expecting to import a .22 version of the semi-auto MP-40 starting 2012. What they are going to do about barrel length is not clear at this writing.

I can only hope rather than pricing them out of reach they will offer this long overdue icon at a price that will give it a fighting chance in this market.

Swapping Cylinders in Cap and Ball Revolvers

2011-01-16T23:30:00.000-08:00

Recently James over at hellinahandbasket has been running an interesting series of post on increased firepower in the days of cap and ball revolvers. Much of the discussion has been on swapping preloaded cylinders in these handguns. Like in so many other things, the devil is in the details.

Most folks think there were two types of cap and ball revolvers in the civil war era. In truth there were dozens, but the Colt and the Remington were the most popular and best known, so we will discuss those.

These are the two weapons in question, the Colt 1860 and the Remington 1858. In operation they are identical. Both are single action. Both cylinders are loaded with rams mounted under the barrels. Both have percussion caps on nipples at the rear of the cylinder. The difference comes when the cylinder is removed. We will start with the Colt.

All Colt cap and ball revolvers (I can think of at the moment) are of an open top, or open frame design. This means to break it down you have to remove a wedge that holds the barrel and the frame portion of the weapon together. The wedge can be backed out using a screw set above the wedge slot, but I usually prefer a rawhide mallet. Once the wedge has been backed out the barrel can be moved forward until it clears the cylinder pin. I often use the loading ram to assist with this.

You end up with something looking like this. Keeping track of all these pieces in your hands won’t be any problem, to anyone that can juggle nine balls at once. To us common humans the potential for dropping one or more parts is pretty high. Move us to the back of a horse already freaked out and you will spend the next half hour looking for gun parts. Taking all this into account, switching to a preloaded cylinder on this sort of weapon isn’t really practical.

Next we have the Remington 1858. This is a closed frame revolver of the type Clint Eastwood used in the movie The Pale Rider. So, you might ask, how do you remove the cylinder from the Remington?

Drop the ram lever far enough to clear the cylinder pin. Pull the cylinder pin forward until it clears the cylinder. Pull the hammer back far enough to disengage the locking cam that holds the cylinder in battery with the barrel. The cylinder will roll out into your hand. Replace the second cylinder (or the same one for sake of the demo). Push the cylinder rod back into place, and lock the ram lever back under the barrel. You’re ready to shoot again!

With my wife timing me it took fifteen seconds. In my experiments the hardest part is getting the cylinder and rod aligned since you are doing it blind.

There are three other parts of the Pale Rider story. The first is how Clint prepared his loaded cylinders. After the cylinders were loaded and capped his character would run a string through the cylinder rod hole and lower it into a pan of hot was. With a thin layer of wax over the surface the caps were sealed in place and the entire cylinder was protected from moisture.

Would this work? I’m guessing it would but I don’t know. I’ve never tried it. I would be grateful for anyone who could shed light on the subject.

The second part question is did anyone ever carry preloaded cylinders for the Remington? Well, how would they be transported? One of James readers left a comment about the danger of dropping a handful of loose, capped cylinders into your coat pocket, or a saddle bag. The very thought scares the hell out of me. They would need to be kept separated.

Which brings us to the third part of the question; did anyone make belts with pouches for extra loaded cylinders before the movie The Pale Rider? We know dozens have been made since. The answer is, perhaps.

For anyone interested in old west gun leather there is a wonderful book called Packing Iron. It is the best photo collection of authentic western gun leather I have ever seen. Not having an example of this belt in Packing Iron wouldn’t mean they never existed. On the other hand, if there were such belts in the day, there’s a good chance one is pictured and described here.

Now, a well prepared blogger, that had his act together, would consult the book and determine if there was an example of such a belt in the cap and ball chapter. Sadly, my copy is packed away at this time.

So, if anyone out there has a copy of this most excellent book, I would be grateful if you could consult it and let me know what you find.

Update

I got into the storage unit and found my copy of Packing Iron. I did not find a belt with cylinder pouches on it. Again, that's not to say no one ever had such a belt in "the day" but it isn't lister in this book.

Good By Richard Winters

2011-01-10T22:58:00.000-08:00

I was saddened earlier today to learn that Richard Winters had passed away January 02, 2011 near his home in centeral Pennsylvania. Mr. Winters had asked the announcement of his death be delayed until after his funural.

This modest man was made famous by the book BAND OF BROTHERS, and more so by the mini series by the same title. On screen the young Dick Winters was brought to life by the English Actor, Damian Lewis.

Known as Major Winters to the millions who have learned his story he represented what was best in the Greatest Generation. In the words he borrowed from one of his men, "I wasn't a hero, but I served in a company of hero's."

I never had the honor of meeting this man, but feel like I have known him for years. I think all of us did. He will be missed.

Extras and Re-enactors

2011-01-10T16:00:00.000-08:00

My wife had asked me a question about the Safari Re-enactment in my last post. She was warning me to be careful about inexperienced re-enactors. Truth be told, 99.9999 percent of the re-enactors don't worry me due to the nature of the beast.

Re-enactors strive to relive a point in time. This involves not just learning the history involved but having the proper weapons, clothing and support gear. That can run the gambit from a proper shooting bag and boots to a saddle, tent and other camp gear available in the period. Even cannons get into the game. Some do it better than others, but safety with firearms is paramount to everyone.

Some years ago a gentleman, saddly no longer with us, started providing producers of period films with re-enactors. The advantages were obvious. We would arrive on location with the correct clothing or uniforms, accessories and weapons. As re-enactors we were old hands at camping on location, and didn't have to travel back and forth. Often our camps could be used as part of the set dressing.

Our folks already knew how to march and the manual of arms for the time period. In addition to infantry this gentleman also supplied cavalry and artillery. Counting a scene where I stood in as a gun captain, I worked as all three. With a trip through hair and makeup each morning and we were ready to work.

In addition hair and make up extras had to be issued everything we brought with us. Being ready to work took them three times a long.

The difference between re-enactors and extras without this background showed up when filming THE ROUGH RIDERS a few years ago. Lord knows accidents happen, but they are much more common when handling unfimular equipment. Example - during a battle scene an extra carrying a Spanish Rile with fixed bayonet tripped and put said bayonet through the leg of a re-enactor.

There was no permanent damage. The re-enactor recovered and the extra got away.

Re-Enactment Safari

2011-01-06T21:49:00.000-08:00

I recieved this from a re-enactment group this evening. It's not your normal fare. As this is an invation event I have eddited the location and peoples names.

Rather than shooting up Yankees or Germans these folks want to relive the days of the great walking Safaris of Africa 100 + - years ago. Does this sound like fun to anyone else?

Read the following and see what you think. If there is enough interest I'm sure there will be other such events.

Dear Ladies and Gentlmen,

You are cordially invited to attend an opportunaty of a life time by joining a few fellow hunters to take part in a winter safari. This safari will be hosted by XX of X, Texas. The property is a wonderful site for a big game hunt with semi-wooded hills, wet weather creeks and a great camping site.

This will not be just a set around the camp and shoot at a few targets in the open. This will be a walking safari over open ground, into rocky and sandy creek beds, tall grass, and thickets. The targets will be of big African game at verying ranges under verying conditions. You will be guided as a group on this treck and given many opportunaties to shoot at these targets. The firearms shall be of the proper type as used in the period of you choosen time period prior the year of 1940.

In addition, late in the day Saturday you will be given a chance to hunt live wild boar/hog. These maybe taken with your choose of period firearm.

The camp opens xxx xx, xxxx. The site will be close to the most up to date modern coveniences possible if needed. You may unload you equipment of you choosen period on site and move your transport to a safe area nearby.

The large wall tent may be used for quarters. In additon an A frame tent may be used for storage. XX will setup a fire pit and we will have at least two camp stoves for general use. As well as a few other camp items such as tables and chairs will be on site but, more equipment is welcome. You may set up what ever quarters you wish to fit your impression.

Your impression shall be correct for the period of your choose. However, this safari is for the most part based on the 1930's in a cooler area of Africa. The weather could be below 0 deg. or well into the 70 deg. range, damp or very dry. At this time there is a fire ban.

If in the event of heavy rainy weather the event will be canceled due to the possible poor conditions of the roads and grounds.

The county road is an improved hard top with one low water crossing, X and there are a few cattle guards along the way. There is a large two story stone house with a few barns on the left side of the road. The event enterance is a hard to see dirt driveway just past the next cattle guard. There is an address sign X with an old cow skull mounted on the post. You will turn just before the sign.

What The New Year Holds

2011-01-01T21:44:00.000-08:00

Last evening we had a number of friends gather here at HomePlace for fireworks in a safe and controlled area. It's best for all involved.

I loved fireworks as a kid. Let us just say the 'Adventures of a Mis-spent Youth' made me uneasy around amateurs with explosives. Out here the kids are able to set off the little stuff in a controlled area under watchful eyes. No one got hurt and there were no fires. Later in the night our son Matt and a couple of his friends put on a better display of aerial fireworks than most small towns in the area can offer.

Later that night Helene and I had our 'Black Eyed Peas' (it's a Southern thing) and turned in around 01:00 AM. Before turning in I reviewed this blog for the last year. I don't complain, things didn't go exactly to plan but lots of folks had a really bad year. Having said that, there is room for improvement.

I gave up on New Years Resolutions some years ago, but I think it's time to try for three.

1. In the past I had tried to say I was going to shoot every day. That isn't practical when one travels, which I am hoping to do this year. So I will settle for shooting every day I am home. I won't bore you folks with all the details, but will mention the high points.

2. I am losing a lot of time looking for things. I need to get both my library and props and wardrobe organized in the next couple of months.

3. I will write every day. I have been neglecting my writing, not just here. I have not submitted an article to a magazine all last year. Thre is no excuse for that and an article will be submitted for publication before the end of January.

So, wish me luck. I'll tell you how it goes.

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T23:20:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to one and all from all of us at HomePlace.

Merry Christmas To All!

2010-12-24T02:19:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow evening Helene and I will travel to the home of our Son, Mathew, for Christmas Eve Dinner and the gift exchange. Also in attendance will be friends and in-laws from out of state.

We sent the Turkey home with Matt a few days ago to avoid it getting chilled in transport. I will make the Cherry Cream Pudding in the morning. I'm not really sure what else will be there, but Matt knows how to feed a crowd and I think they have already started cooking. Ask me how hard wife and I fought to have this at our house.

Part of the entertainment will be the movie "How to Train Your Dragon". I have made a point of watching it here first. I love our grandchildren, but they are not capable of watching a movie in a manner that will allow anyone else to keep track of what is on the screen.

After that Helene and I will return home for our own gift exchange, attended by Bear Dog and the Cats. Everyone has their special Christmas Movie, ours is Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol.

The evening will finish up with Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas Live by candle light. Bear will be in my lap (still thinks he's a puppy) while Helene will be buried under Cats. Both will expect their fair share of what snacks we might have intended for our selves.

Santa still drops little things for us to find in the morning. Do I believe it's Santa? Yes I do.

In the words of Helene's father, "If you don't believe, you don't find any presents!"

So I will close by wishing a Merry Christmas, both to family and friends we have known for years and to the ones who visit us here.

New York Remembers the Victims of the 1960 Airline Crash

2010-12-19T22:02:00.000-08:00

Last week New York remembered a tragedy of its past. A United DC-8, Flight 826, collided with a TWA Super Constellation, Flight 260, over Staten Island. One hundred and twenty eight souls on the two planes perished that day. Ten buildings in the Park Slope neighborhood were destroyed by the falling DC-8 and six more souls were claimed on the ground.

A young boy survived the crash, but that was almost a cruel joke. He died the next day of injuries. I pray his passing was easy.

All crash victims were recovered and remains returned to their loved ones for burial at their homes. But we must remember that the science of identfying crash victims in 1960 wasn't what it was today.

One man, killed on the ground, was identified by the unique way he tied his boots. That's all that could be used.

When all was said and done there were three coffins of remains that could not be identified. United Airlines bought a plot at

Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn and the unknown were laid to rest there.

No one ever forgets a tragedy like this, but they drift to the back of our minds as life goes on. This was the case until September of this year when a Green-Wood employee discovered the grave of the unknowns.

This grave wasn't marked, not unusual with unknown's. There had been talk of a memorial to the victims of the crash, but it never got beyond that. With the 'take charge' approach we have come to expect from New Yorkers, the folks at Green-Wood decided it was time.

So on December 16 of this year, fifty years later to the day, an eight foot granite Memorial was erected. Green-Wood had informed all the families they could locate. They didn't really expect a large number to come, but some did.

They said it opened old wounds, but it also gave closure. I am one of the people grateful for this act of kindness, even if my connection to it is once removed. I was seven at the time of the crash but have heard about it all my life.

In a small Texas town lives and older relative who has been very important to me. I prefer not to mention names, but this man sat next to me at my father's funeral. He taught me to ride a horse, and was the first to take me hunting. He sat me on the straight and narrow more than once because my father couldn't. In 1960 he was he was a young man in love, and engaged to one of the stewardesses who died in this crash. He has never forgotten her.

Every year on or near Christmas he has a special mass done for her, starting the year of the crash. At least two Texans want to add their thanks to the folks at Green-Wood. Had my relation known about this beforehand it wouldn't have surprised me a bit if he had attended. For him as well, it has provided some closure.

There's no place like Home

2010-12-14T14:35:00.000-08:00

My brother-in-law lives in Wisconsin. He some times visits us during the summer, and suffers greatly in the heat. I have advised him to come during the winter, but he insist winter in Wisconsin is the best time of the year.

I know winter. I was born in Dumas, up in the Texas panhandle. There are two windmills and a barbed wire fence between us and the North Pole. Hell, for me, would be standing in a long line in a blizzard. When friends told me it didn't snow in Houston I went home and started packing.

We are now one hundred and eighty plus miles north of Houston and I am horrified to say we have snow that stays on the ground over night here. It has happened twice in ten years, but it's worth it to live in the country.

I have been suffering (loudly) with over night lows in the twenties the last couple of weeks. The above photograph is of Don's thermoneter in Wisconsin. He is bragging!

There's really no place like home.

Wo Fat is Back!

2010-12-13T23:08:00.000-08:00

As a kid I watched the original Hawaii Five O every week. McGarrett and the crew were great, it was their show. But my favorite episode's were the one's with the Chinese Super Spy - Wo Fat!

When I heard they were redoing the series I wasn't happy. Very seldom do the re pops show proper respect to the original series. Mark Troy, a friend of ours in Brazos Writers, was very excited and looking forward to the new Hawaii Five O series. When we talked, my first question for him was "Are they bringing back Wo Fat?"

Wo Fat was brought to life by the character actor, Khigh Dheigh (pictured above). I'm not really sure how much he worked outside of this series, but this character is an entertainment Icon. Sadly, Dheigh passed away in 1991.

Tonight I got my answer in the last minute of the episode. The evil Irish terrorist who had killed MaGarrett's father had a visitor in prison. None other than Mark Dacascos, the new Wo Fat.

In that short piece he was chilling. If he lives up to the introduction things are going to start getting more interesting.

A Wide Open City In Texas

2010-12-12T21:52:00.000-08:00

In the days of the Old West a Wide Open City was a city or town with no law. For better or worse those days have returned to Calvert Texas. Over the weekend the entire Calvert Police Force, consisting of the chief and two or three officers depending on the source, quit.

So, Calvert is a town without law? Not quite.

The theory is that the Robinson County Sheriff's department and Constables are going to take up the slack, in all that spair time they have? They are estimating a responce time of 15 minutes due to distance. Too bad betting it Texas is against the law, I would take some of that action. This will be an instresting social experiment to watch from a distance.

Truth be told, problems with the Calvert PD are nothing new. Without going into the sort of details that would come back to haunt me, they have "parted ways" with a number of excellent officers over the years because they were doing the job they were hired to do.

Make of it what you will.

A P-39 comes full circle

2010-12-09T09:52:00.000-08:00

This story came in an email from a fellow Warbird fan this morning. It was too good not to pass on. Follow the link below for a story you couldn't make up.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid34757272001?bclid=0&bctid=87804472001

The P-39 had an odd configuration for a World War Two Fighter Plane. For those not familiar, she had tricycle landing gear. The engine was placed behind the pilot with the crankshaft running through the cockpit. There were automobile style doors on each side of the cockpit, with windows that rolled down.

These were one of the aircraft Mrs. Florence Watson used to deliver for the Ferry Command as a WASP. She told me many of the planes came from the factory in Russian markings and with instruments marked in Russian. A mechanic would get up on the wing while the ferry pilots settled in and mark the instruments with a grease pencil to show the safe operating ranges.

From the Bell Factory they would take the planes to an airfield in Montana built near the Canadian Border. For reasons I have never understood the Russians were not allowed to take possession of the planes in the United States. Furthermore, the ferry pilots could not fly the planes into Canada. The planes could not be taxied across the border (which was clearly marked) into Canada. They could not even be towed with a tractor or gas powered tug. Tow bars were attached and the planes were hauled into Canada with horses or oxen. If any of my readers know the reasoning for this I would be grateful if you would clue me in.

Mrs. Watson told me often getting the planes from the Bell Factory to Russia was an ‘all girl operation’. A large number of the Russian ferry pilots who took the planes after they had been towed into Canada were women.

It seems that there was no middle ground when it came to pilots feelings toward the P-39’s. Chuck Yeager speaks fondly of them in his autobiography. My friend, Mrs. Watson, does not have pleasant memories. Love them or hate them, it’s nice to know a few survived.

Tuesday Night at the Movies Tora Tora Tora

2010-12-07T14:53:00.000-08:00

I know this illustration probably isn't of Pearl Harbor, but captures the mood.

Tonight I will drag out my VSH tape of Tora Tora Tora for my annual viewing. I watch it to honor the men and women who served in the Second World War.

I remember the men I have interviewed who where there, as well as the ground swell of young men who swamped recruiting stations, court houses, and in smaller communities the post offices to volunteer for service. I toast the ones who are no longer here and treasure the few that are.

Blackie Wheeler who was too young to join the Marines in World War One, but did anyway. He commanded a photo recon squadron in North Africe, then France in World War Two.

Walt Eddy, who fought as an infantry man in North Africa and Sicily before being wounded at Anzio. His life was saved by a German Medic.

Florine Miller, latter Mrs. Florine Watson, who flew just about everything in Army Aircorps inventory. She ended up with the WASP but is quick to correct you that she was a WAFS.

My Uncle Jack Burnett, who served as an aircraft mechanic stateside. He also made a name for himself on his squardron baseball team as a gifted short stop.

My Uncle Thurman Fisher's war was in the Pacific. Trained as a tank driver, he somehow ended up in the Army's postal system. Ask anyone who served in any theater how important mail was to morale.

Last but not least was my father, Wilson Berry (Dub) Burnett. Dad was eleven when the war started but he fought the battle of the home front. My grandparents were farmers and ranchers in the Texas panhandle.

There is a story about a running battle between my Grandfather and the local Sheriff. Durring harvest Dad would be found driving a grain truck to the elevator. The Sheriff pulled him over and took him to Granddad.

"He's too young to drive that truck," the Sheriff would say. "Put someone else in it."

"There isn't anyone else," Granddad would say. "All the men are in the service. There's lots of things I would rather have him doing but he needs to drive that truck."

"Well he can't. You need to find someone else," the Sheriff would counter.

"How about you Sheriff," my Grandfather would ask? "You're not doing anything useful."

It ended the same way every harvest until the end of the war. The Sheriff would get on the radio and tell his deputies to leave Dad alone. "The boy knows how to drive, and dealing with Old Man Burnett isn't worth it!"

Which Handgun to Carry?

2010-12-06T21:38:00.000-08:00

A few days ago James at Hellinahandbasket had a post about making the choice of a conceal carry handgun. The discussion revolved around the ammo capacity of the weapons and overall size. I realize the key word is conceal.

With or without the permit if a person flashes their firearm, accidently or otherwise, there is hell to pay - at least in Texas. My position has always been, if I'm going to carry a weapon it will be something I can actually defend myself with. I mean, if not - why bother.

As some of you will know from an earlier post, the Smith & Wesson Model 10 here was a constant companion for years. My early training was on revolvers and still consider them a good choice for folks who are not experienced shooters. These are simple to use and reliable as the day is long. I know of one case of one binding or jamming, and I think that was due to some really nasty range reloads. The .38 special cartridge is large enough to do the job.

On the other hand we have this wonderful little Colt 1908 in .25 caliber. These are historic, well made and just as cute as they grow them. In my humble opinion, for self defense it's completely useless. Blazing Saddles fans will remember the line "bullets make Mongo angry." Bullets from this would make Pee Wee Herman angry.

That's not to say they were never carried for self defense. They were small and light and women loved them. Sometimes the just pointing a gun, any gun, is enough. These things are really loud indoors. Feel free to bet your life on something like this, but I won't. This is the gun you throw at people.

Again, folks who have followed me for a while, know I am in love with the Colt 1911 .45 Automatic. It is my personal choice for a carry weapon. The 1911 is reliable and hard hitting. It isn't a small weapon by any means, but being a 'full sized American' I don't have any trouble concealing it.

One of the attractions of the 1911 is that they aren't real expensive. They aren't the only choice for the budget minded. I throw no rocks at folks who need to save money but do your homework.

The picture below is a 1911 with a Cz. 52. The Czech pistol is an excellent military sidearm. The cartridge is hard hitting and they are fairly reliable.

The thing to know is that the 1911 has three safeties built into the weapon. I suppose it's possible the Colt will discharge when dropped, but I have never heard of it. I know for a fact that the Cz 52 will. I wrote about it back in February. Follow the link below to see the results.

HomePlace - Art's Stuff: It Only Takes One

Even Gunfighters Love Cherry Cream Pie

2010-12-02T23:39:00.000-08:00

Childhood is a magic time, but there are high points. Birthdays of course, best if it’s yours, but any ones birthday is good for a party. The fourth of July, especially is Texas, is breathtaking. The last few months of the year things ramp up.

I loved Halloween and Trick-or-Treating. Dressing up in costumes and collecting candy! Can it get any better than that?

YES!

Next came Thanksgiving. The gathering of the family, and the feast that followed seemed to get better every year. We would start the day gathered around the TV to watch the Macys Thanksgiving Day parade. The meal was a late lunch. As much as I loved the Thanksgiving meal, I always saved room for desert. Thanksgiving and Christmas were the only two time of the year my Mom and Grandmother would make Cherry Cream Pie.

This was not your standard Cherry Cream Pie. The Cherries are suspended in a sweet cream filling. It isn’t cooked; the cream solution is set up in a chemical reaction. It was one of Mom’s favorites when she was a little girl. If memory serves me correctly Ma Moo got the instructions off a can of Eagle Brand Condensed Milk in the 1930’s. Sadly, neither of them are available to call and ask anymore.

I’m not a Pie guy, but I learned how to make this one for myself while I was in Junior High. Like Mom and Ma Moo (my Grandmother’s nick name) I make it between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Why? If I made it any more often I would weigh 1,000 pounds. When folks would ask me about it I would refer them to the Eagle Brand people. I can’t always recall everything off the top of my head. Recently I got a call asking me, “Did your pie have cream cheese in it?”

A quick check of the web site confirmed they had “improved” my favorite childhood desert. I hate to suggest people that make such wonderful products are stupid, but what were they thinking?

To serve Humanity and preserve Cherry Cream Pie I am listing the original instructions. You will need;
1 can of Eagle Brand Condensed Milk
1 can of water packed Tart Pitted Cherries
¼ cup of Lemon Juice
1 teaspoon of Vanilla
1/8 teaspoon of Almond Extract

Combine the Eagle Brand Condensed Milk, Lemon Juice, Vanilla and Almond Extract in a mixing bowl. Drain the cherries and add them to the contents of the mixing bowl, then pour the mixture into a chilled pie shell. I still lick the bowl.

To be fair, I also make changes. First, I serve the Cherry Cream as a pudding. After a couple of hours pie shells get soggy, and I hate that. Second, I always make a double batch. A single batch isn’t enough to go around our family gatherings.

Cub's and Flattops

2010-11-22T21:20:00.000-08:00

I got an E-mail from a friend a few days ago asking about the Piper L-4 being launched off the USS Ranger. He had read that L-4s were launched from LST's that were converter to carriers for them.

Which of us was right?

Both!

Captain Allcorn didn't get very far with his first flight during Operation Torch, but the other two cubs did.

Fighters of the day carried four to six machine guns. Bombers carried a couple of tons of bombs early in the war. But the L-4 Pilot and Radio Operator directed the guns of one battle ship, to an entire task force. When spotting for the Army the could call fire from over 100 + guns at times down on a target.

After their combat trial in North Africa the Army wanted more of the liaison planes as 'eyes in the sky' for future invasions.

The L-4 next became the only plane in history that had an aircraft carrier designed just for it. The Navy needed it's carriers for their own aircraft, so LST's were converted with a plywood deck laid the length of the ship. There were six slanted parking ramps, three on each side, to store planes prior to launch. I believe the plan was to keep four planes lashed down to the rear of the flight deck, figuring they would still have room to take off.

Officers who didn't fly, and weren't flying in the cubs, were sure they could crowed six and still get off OK. The best I can say to that logic is that cubs take care of their people. No one seems to be sure how many LSTs were converted in this manner.

The biggest drawback to the LST carriers is that the L-4s were on a one way trip. The little planes had no arresting gear and the LSTs had no cable system. They could not land back on the LST after launching. In fact, after the last plane was off, the plywood deck was torn apart and pushed overboard in most cases.

Below is a photograph from the National Archives taken aboard one of the converted LSTs, #906, in the harbor of Naples, Italy. It shows the liaison plane crews gathered in front of an L-4. I treasure this photo because the names of the men are listed.

In the Pacific there were places the L-birds had no choice but to return to the ship. My friends, you ain't gonna believe the answer they came up with!

Note: I found these photos on the net. If the owners object to my use of them, drop me an E-mail and I will take them down.