With the dearth and now stupid prices related to all things guns, many people are doing “other things”. Some are accessorizing their guns, some are buying body armor and even night vision stuff. It’s hunting season of course and I know lots of guys are now spending more time in the field…I’ve done all that and continue to hunt quite a bit…
Recently I realized that I had Eleven chainsaws…half (?) of which actually ran like they were supposed to! So, I hopped on Ebay, ordered some parts, spent a few nights in the shop tearing apart carbs and putting in new fuel lines, checking spark plugs. Got all of them but 1 running pretty well and then sold most of them on Facebook Marketplace. I have bought 3 new ones to replace what I sold along with lots of spare chains, files, spark plugs, filters etc…I was able to really cut down on the spare parts I need to keep around by consolidating on fewer models etc…
Probably something I needed to do long ago but with a bit of spare time I was able to address it.
I also ordered a 3d Printer. Going to try my hand at making a few little things. First project will be some bright orange Glock mag baseplates for my practice mags…It’s something I’ve thought about for a long time…
Anyone else working on “other things” for awhile? I still get to the range for weekly practice, shoot mostly .22 stand in trainers…but not spending nearly as much on ammo etc…as I was.
Okay really though, I save my money like an actual adult. This isn’t Barfcom where guys consoom some new bullshit or buy a new heckin OLED Widescreenerino.
As for my hobbies they remain unchanged: Stoli, Dirty Chinese Cartoons, Trannies, listening to records, upgrading my Thinkpads, sitting pensively by the lake and sipping frozen coffee while listening to Erasure,
I shot my first Antelope this year. I only had two days to hunt, I passed him up early in the hunt but decided, “Meh, first one, he looks decent”…put a good stalk on him, done.
Imagine my surprise when I took him to my processor/taxidermist. He says, “You want to book him?” and I’m like “Well, yea sure, I mean I want to be legal”- Antelope here in Texas are kinda funny, some areas you have to present them so Warden can take a tooth to age etc so I’m thinking he has to “book it in” with copy of license etc case he gets checked by the Wardens…Taxidermist laughs at me and says, “Uh, no, that’s a GOOD goat, I’m an official B&C scorer and I can tell you right now, he’ll make book”…Laughed even harder when I told him I had passed him up at first…What do I know about hunting Antelope?
I’ve been doing quite a bit more reading as well. I have a mild Thriftbooks addiction and have accumulated a pretty big pile- several bookcases full actually, of books I’ve meant to read. Got through about a half a dozen these last couple months…Progress!
That’s where I’m at. Pulled out my gear and had my guitars set up. I haven’t played for a long while, so I’m pretty rusty. Looking at building my first amp with a tweed champ kit.
Was a pretty cool hunt. All that haze in the background is from the big wild fires in Colorado…Buddy calls me on Thursday, “Hey, you want to go on an antelope hunt?” “Sure, whats the deal?” “Bought a tag for my daughter but she has exams and can’t get away”…“Ok, how much?”— Cause around here the hunts are usually $2k…“$500”…I’m thinking, THIS should be good- this buddy and I have had “adventures” before when hunting…“Ok, when?” “Well, season ends Sunday”…“You ever hunt this place?” “Nope, never seen it”…It was one of those deals…meant to be.
I’ve been expanding my home gym, been buying stuff as it comes back in stock. Recently I’ve added more rubber floor tiles, some change plates so I can continue my linear progression, a Spudd Inc cable pulley system for Lat pull downs, a weighted dip belt for chin ups and pull ups, and some new lifting straps, hard to maintain grip on the bar during deadlifts with short stubby fingers
Mainly thinking about starting a side hustle on Youporn or Only Fans with some **** vids of yours truly. The expense of the equipment would certainly be costly up front. Just can’t get the wife to commit.
Before we sent my 18 year old off to college my wife enrolled the two of us in some cooking classes- just a few hours in an evening with each class having a different theme. Classes were taught by a local “TV Chef”–good guy.
He would talk for a couple of hours about the considerations for the particular dish and then we would prepare the ingredients as a class and then cook it and eat it. It was really a lot of fun- $25 for the class and you got a meal out of it and got to meet some folks… Great bonding time with my kiddo. Anyway, one of the classes was on grilling and I learned a shit ton about preparing steaks and the different cuts etc…
I’m spending a lot more time here and in turn, ordering a LOT of upgraded AR parts. I hadn’t really even pulled mine out in a long while. I was digging through my ammo stash and found an extra 4K of 556 and said, good time to shoot some of it!!
I looked at one of those JCM 800 kits from Stewmac for a second. But at about a thousand bucks, I just went with a factory amp. I’m not a great solder gun operator.
I’ve been building tube amps, been studying and working on it all year, since about March. Something I’ve always wanted to do. Been into guitar playing and amps for the last 20 years, but really have learned a lot more this year than I ever thought was possible. It’s fun because classic amps like Fender Tweeds and Marshall Plexis are so expensive and rare now that they’re basically unobtainum, and even if you aquired one, if it still has original components, they’re likely to be out of spec, and you’d be afraid to rag it out because you might blow an original speaker or something. But I can build a replica of any of those classic circuits and even modify them to alter the tone or the power, dime it out and if I blow a speaker, who cares? Recently I built a 5F6A Bassman/MarshalI Plexi circuit, but modified it to be cathode biased and scaled down the power to use 6V6 tubes, it’s been fun and educational. Previous to all that, I took a 3 month solo travel to different parts of the world, it was pretty life changing and I’m glad that I did it before Covid hit. Been a pretty amazing year really.
My main reason is to get away from the printed circuit boards of the modern amps. My hot rod deluxe is great, but apparently the boards burn up and repairs are a pain.
