I started several posts for this weekend. I even finished a couple. But I did not publish them. Puzzling.
I am finding myself more attached to the characters in the Cumberland saga than to the short-stories. Consequently, it is unlikely that a short-story will drop on Monday.
Mrs ERJ has several errands tomorrow that are not-negotiable so I will be watching Quicksilver.
On the positive side, I got the cows moved to a new paddock. I have 24 cow-weeks of forage standing in the pasture and three cows. The bottom line is that I need to depopulate at least two of the beasts and turn them into meat. The bottleneck is the coupling between needing a trailer and needing to secure a slaughter date(s). Each is contingent upon the other.
The go-to-hell plan is to turn at least one of the beeves into a hanging carcass about Nov 10. By then, it should be cool enough to hang as quarters and then whittle away into freezer meat. Frankly, this is stressing me.
College sports
Father Dwight, pastor of where I attend church, is a University of Michigan fan. I went to Michigan State University. They competed in football yesterday.
"So, Father Dwight, do you know what MSU and U-of-M have in common?" I asked him this morning.
"Hard to say, Joe" he ventured, warily. (It is not like this is the first time we have had these kinds of exchanges).
"They both have perfect records in the Big Ten" I replied. MSU has a perfect record of all losses while U-of-M has a perfect record of wins.
Father Dwight nodded sagely. "Good way to look at it" he agreed.
Coleslaw
The first recipe we tried, 50:50 oil:vinegar and two teaspoons of sugar per cup of O:V, plus a bit of garlic and dill leaf was a home-run.
The cabbage was Deadon savoy cabbage. Carrots and a tart apple were also shredded and added to the mix.
Being a glutton, I will manfully try the other submissions.
Pear trees
I transplanted six pear rootstock on Friday. Five of them went into the food-hedge to be grafted over. One went into the "serious orchard".
I convinced Mrs ERJ to eat Asian Pears for her breakfast fruit so I can collect the seed. The downside of grafting for a food-hedge is that the plants take a beating and revert back to the rootstock.
One of the rabbit-holes I went down involved SSR DNA investigations of Asian Pears. It comes as no surprise that the DNA contradicts what the breeders claimed were the parents of many varieties. Chojuro and Niitaka pears are much more highly represented in fact than in the published records. Plant breeding is highly competitive and breeders have been known to be misleading in which parents have been most productive for them.
In my orchard I have both Chojuro and Korean Giant which has Chojuro as a parent. One of my Korean Giants is surrounded by European Pear Potomac which might be an interesting pollen donor. A bunch of Korean Giant X Potomac seedlings might be great trees to have in a food-hedge.
I like late-ripening Asian Pears. They are extremely productive, precocious and trouble-free. They are almost the perfect home-orchard fruit.
.177 Pellet guns
My Beeman pellet gun has shown a very marked preference for RWS Meisterkugeln 8.2 grain pellets.
I thought there was something wrong with the weapon or my technique. I just could not get it to "hit".
I finally worked my way around to these pellets and it was as if a light-switch was flipped. Shooting chipmunks at 15 yards sounds pretty mundane but it is a big deal if you went from shooting patterns to whacking three-out-of-four.
For the record, a 8.2 grain, .177" pellet launched at 1000 fps is enough to smoke a Fox Squirrel at 10 yards. In my humble opinion, a Fox Squirrel is at least three times harder to kill than a full-grown Cottontail Rabbit.
Tags
One of the bits of advice I was given by Alma Boykin was to consider using a few more words to picture-frame my dialog to lead the reader and to help provide frame-of-context and a mental picture.
I am playing with that and it has been hard.
The writer jargon for that picture-frame is called "tags". Instead of "Blah, blah, blah" ERJ said. it could be something like "Blah, blah, blah" ERJ trumped while pirouetting atop the obelisk as lasers slashed downward from each of his lightening fast hands upon the infidels below.
Yeah...be gentle. I am new at this.
ERJ, the Cumberland Saga is fascinating to me (As is Old AF Sarge's new story as well) because it a very different view on something that people often write about. I like the mystery behind how whatever situation seems to be going on arrived.
ReplyDeleteGood luck on the getting the cattle situation worked out. I imagine things can be quite booked this time of year.
I am diggin the Cumberland saga. Keep on keepin on.
ReplyDeleteFitty
Love all your stories...anyway, I have an RWS m34 1990 ish. It's only rated 1000 fps with the very lightest pellets. Unfortunately, they shed velocity (energy) quickly. I've only killed So. Cal. ground squirrels (bushy tailed rats) and crows (not ravens). I ended up with heavy, domed pellets around 9-10 grains. Longest kill shot on a squirrel was 55+ yards (I got lots of practice). Pellet stopped on far side under the skin, just behind shoulders, barely deformed. They were a danger to my horse, they make ankle breaker holes.
ReplyDeleteNow I need to drag out both of my air guns and tune up. Thanks for the reminder.
My Gamo .177 will shoot 2 inch groups at 40 yds. It is pretty happy with all pellets. Not that expensive, either. If the best you can do is 20 yards, then yer missing out on a lot of shots.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to vermin control - hunting with air guns, the common advice is ".177 for feathers, .22 for fur" But the .177 has a better pellet drop arc than .22. If targets are close, I don't imagine it makes that much of a difference.
DeleteBe sure and check your state's regulations on using air guns on animals. Some states prohibit it, others allow for only vermin while others say just play safe and don't hurt anyone.
I used to shoot my spring piston air rifles in my backyard, but have grow to fear that a neighbor may report 'man with a gun' to the police. I sure do wish I lived 'beyond the sidewalks', where I didn't have this worry. You are a lucky man EJ !
ERJ, I for one enjoy your writing style. Too many free flowing flouncey flantabilous wordsmithery wordie thingies scramble the few remaining neurons I have left to work with.
ReplyDeleteNeck
Those tags could turn into Tom Swifties. Those can be fun, but maybe not in a serious story.
ReplyDeleteDescribe some quality about the environment that the scene is taking place in.
ReplyDeleteInject a sound into the scene. Temperature, wind, smells, etc.
Relate one characters mannerism or actions to another character.
Human to human contact is rare in our modern world, when it happens its electric. (Smart people know and use this, ever clasp 2 hands or grab the elbow when shaking hands?)
Patterns and colors from childhood will hit me like a 2x4 sometimes.
Its the details, the littleest things, that make it more poignant, human, real.
ERJ keep on keeping on. I very much enjoy & look forward to your stories & commentary of life in general.
ReplyDeleteSNfoilhat
To Mr. Anonymous worried about what the neighbors say....move Now I once heard a man say if you can't pee in your front yard you need to move.
ReplyDeleteI'm lucky, I can only see trees from each side of my house.
When it's warm enough we have "naked coffee" in our front porch.