The ERJ reloading bench is back in action.
The ball bearings showed up a couple days ago. I popped them into the balance beam then verified it by weighing a 55 grain bullet. It measured out within 2% and measured high, which is safe. A load that measures 25.5 grains will actually be 25 grains, which is on the safe side.
I found some .223 Rem brass but the primers were crimped. The good news is that I found an RCBS Primer Pocket Swager-2 while looking for the powder scale.
It took a while to get the knack. It was a pain to get the anvil through the itty-bitty .223 opening. I finally figured out that rattling the press handle created the optimum wobble for the pin to find and walk into the neck of the case.
I have powder. I have primers and projectiles. Life is good.
Pasture
Belladonna helped me throw fence posts into the ground. I am breaking the pasture into six paddocks.
There are basically four-and-a-half schools of thought regarding optimum place to put the water tank in a paddock.
One theory is to not move it and let the cattle walk back through paddocks they have already grazed to get to the water.
The second is to use the shortest possible hose and have the tank as close as possible to the water source.
The third is to have the tank at an intersection of paddocks to minimize moving it.
None of these three schools of thought consider what is optimal for fertility distribution.
Water into the control volume quickly results in an equal amount of materials leaving the control volume. Those materials transport fertility.
The fourth school-of-thought is to put the tank on the baldest spot in the paddock. The deposited fertility helps the bald spot and the opportunity cost of having the bald spot pounded into mud results in less wasted grass than if it were put on the lushest part of the paddock.
The 4.5th school-of-thought is to put it in the middle of the paddock if there is not clearly delineated "bald spot".
I am going to need at least 600 feet of poly hose to pull off option four.
Covid-19
Mostly I am trying to not repeat stupid stuff. There are plenty of other people filling that niche.
The Governor of Michigan sent out a memo to doctors and pharmacists regarding off-label use of Z-packs and Chloroquinine.
One reading suggests she is threatening to jerk their licenses if they prescribe those drugs for any Covid-19 patients.
A more generous reading of the memo suggests that the Governor wants to avoid hording behaviors as seen with toilet paper. The amount of AZ and ChQ in the pipeline is finite. There might be enough to administer prophylactically to critical medical personnel and high risk Covid-19 patients. There is not enough if every entitled person demands to be on AZ and ChQ prophylactically.
I am not going to hyperventilate about an ambiguously written memo. It is difficult to believe any bureaucrat would want to take on a doctor for going "off-label" and using a therapeutic material to save a life. By the same logic, the bureaucrat would have to jerk the doc's license for giving water to somebody dying of dehydration because the FDA NEVER LABELED WATER for treating dehydration.
The only way to tell is to let it play out. If the governor of Michigan wants to practice medicine I am sure the electorate will help find the time to pursue her new career.
If the memo was to throttle ghost-demand for AZ and ChQ, well, it will probably work...mostly.
NOTE: The Gov "clarified" the poorly written document.
Since most farmers around here have to haul water for the house and the stock from the public well thank placement is where it is easiest to unload the truck. Our part of Alaska has extremely variable well depths depending where you are with relation to the river bluffs. One farm I know drilled over a thousand feet and did not get useable water at some $60 a foot!
ReplyDeleteBack in my mid teens I worked part time for a neighbor dairy farmer. He used a mid-size stock tank which he moved every couple days to where the pasture needed fertilizing and filled it with the water wagon towed by the tractor.Worked very well, ---ken
ReplyDeleteI read the letter. I did not find it ambiguous.
ReplyDeleteHowever, at least two major hospitals are ignoring it.
Sue them.
"The Forehead" or "The Woman From Michigan" is on some shaky legal ground, but many are letting her get away with it.
Speed limits.
DeleteBased on my (years ago) time on a ranch, put the tanks as close to the water source as possible. Hauling hose all over the place is counter intuitive, and cows, in their grazing of the paddock will fertilize at will. Also, do your best to get the tanks level... sigh
ReplyDelete