I didn’t really want to stir this morning, but after laying in until nearly 8 I decided it was time to throw off the slothfulness and get to it. First the coffee, and while I was enjoying the first cup of my morning drug, the landlord called. Seems his buddy’s wife needed help moving a mattress (four, it turns out, but they’re small) and would I please come help?

He was at my door a short while later, and we took off for his house to pick up a bed frame he’d offered her, then to her house to drop it off, followed by the actual mattress pick upping. Delivered to her house, she offered to buy breakfast, and since neither of us are often guilty of refusing free food, we took off for the local diner. Breakfast was over but we had great lunches.

I returned home and decided to remove the remains of a cherry tree in the back yard. It’s been sending up suckers for a couple years, but the main tree (and the treehouse in it) are pretty rickety. A half hour with the chain saw and it was in enough pieces to pile in Fireball, my 1991 Nissan King Cab pickup. About a third of it, anyway.

Naturally, the landfill closed at 1:00 p.m., so I have to save the clean up for tomorrow. I imagine I’ll get over the disappointment.

For the multitude of kindnesses that are rained down on me daily. Some seem less like kindness and more like trials, but in the end, they make us (me) better, if I let them.

I hope each and all of you have a lovely Thanksgiving Day.

It’s been pretty cold all week, culminating in -17 temps on Thursday. I’ve been moving a lot of snow, but thankfully I have machinery, warm clothes, and a little help.

The door handle on the Nissan D21 broke off this morning at the grocery store-it lasted just shy of 13 months. It’s not that it’s an expensive fix that has me in a dither, it’s the effort required, and the cold weather. I don’t relish replacing it in the cold, even in the garage. It’s also pretty hard to fit my lunch hooks inside the door panel to do it.

Last weekend I got the 6X6 stored away in the garage, and took the batteries out of it and the watercraft and stored them in the spare room. Just in time, too- it began snowing Sunday night, and turned cold at the same time.

I’m hoping to go rabbit hunting tomorrow, if the wind doesn’t blow. We’ll see.

Friday I got busy during lunch and sharpened a couple saw chains, and mounted a vise to the spare plate for the Ultramount.

I was surprised at how easy it was to countersink the holes for the bolts. I used an inexpensive Vermont brand tool from Home Despot, and new drills from Irwin. Don’t mind the scratches, I’ll get them fixed with a coat of black paint. I got pretty western with the plate while I was drilling it, and although I got most of the cuttings off the drill press, I evidently didn’t get them all.

Here’s a view of the press, set up and ready to go. Ignore the mess, I’m not finished.

And a view of the vise, mounted on the quick change plate:

It’s certainly too high for heavy work, but it’ll work fine for light jobs.I’ll use the vise in the garage for heavy stuff.

Next thing is to find a good spot to mount the powder measure. I’m thinking about mounting it to the Ultramount with a Redding clamp made for that purpose. I’m also tempted to do the same with my brass trimmer. I think the powder scale is going to reside on a shelf next to the cabinet, I’m just not sure which side yet.

Pretty nice stuff. I suggest buying a Harbor Freight or Irwin vise and its corresponding plate if you want a vise for your Ultramount, though. Unless you have a nice vise you want to use like I did.

I used the press earlier this week to deprime and neck size the brass I fired last week, But I think I’ll wait until I shoot the rest of the cartridges to reload them, so I don’t have brass that has been fired different amounts.

Went out to the range with the landlord on Sunday. We set up our targets in the wind-funny how the air was still in town, and blowing hard enough to double over the grass at our range. Naturally, we weren’t really ready to properly stake down the boards we brought to use as ranging markers. We intended to use the boards, spaced at 3′ distances- to estimate rage to our targets. After our utter failure of using them in the wind and the hassle of using stakes, we agreed that gallon milk jugs full of sand might serve better. We’ll see.

I came close this time, with four of five shots falling in an area about 14″ of windage, all within six inches of the base of my target. I was using both AMAX and Interlock bullets. We’re shooting at 844 yards, verified via the landlord’s high dollar rangefinder and my GPS.

I rewarded myself with a slice of pie at Johnny J’s and relaxed for the day. Now to reload the empties.