Fire Watch Too close to home

So, I came home sick today. Coughing up crap. Was at home in bed asleep with the cat laying on me when the house started shaking and noise from the airboss flying circles around the fire. Next up was hearing the sirens and seeing the smoke right outside the house. It doesn't help that the smoke and soot in the air added to my having trouble breathing. So, In looking outside and listening to the radio, the fire was 3/4 mile to our west. I called misbeHaven and told her to drop everything and roll my way and started our load out plan. I called our neighbors to let them know what was happening. Emptied the document pack out of the safe and loaded meds in that BOB. Then pulled the cats travel crates and their BOB. Loaded the docs, meds and a few boxes of family pictures in the truck and then settled in for a breathing break and to try and settle the cats. By then the SEAT's (Single Engine Air Tankers) had arrived. I talked about them couple months ago when the Dyer Mill Fire was raging.
Sorry, no dramatic pictures of the flames above the trees or the smoke column, I was too busy trying to get the essentials loaded and ready to roll. Next in following the SEAT's were the HeliTankers.
The two heilcopters started making quick drops on the flame front and knocked it out very quickly. Fortunately, there is a small lake that is not completely dry right on the south edge of the fire. If needed, the Gibbons Creek Power Plant lake is just a couple miles away and the Navasota river is 5 miles out. Once the fire was knocked down to hot spots, the helicopters took off for the Walker County fire that has been going on and off for a couple months. The fire was so close, the fire Boss was making orbit outside our house and the helicopters and SEATs were turning over our house to get back to the fire.


Lessons Learned, one hole in our evac plan was the flat tires on the horse trailer. I had the absolute essentials loaded out in just a few minutes even slowed down. Adrenaline is a wonderfull thing. I am still trying to come down off it. That's why I am typing. Can't unwind enough to relax just yet. Besides, the VFD is still out there fighting hot spots. Once misbeHaven got home, we loaded some clothes and a few other valuables and sat back and looked and thought, "Damn we have a bunch of crap!" Anyway, stuff is still loaded, the cats are unloaded but weird-ed out. I am coughing up crap still and took a couple hits off the rescue inhaler so that has me a little wired too. Need to rest and unwind.

Next is to pull wheels off horse trailer to wag into town and get new shoes on it so we can evac the horse too. As it was, misbeHaven called one of her grad students who lives close and has horses to see about getting her and her trailer over for Twilight. So that is where we sit. Loaded, anxious and ready for some serious rain to happen.
Safe for now.

Buy gun parts for a good cause

In case you have been living under a rock, a major chunk of Bastrop County in Texas burned to the ground. One of the houses that burned belonged to Virgil & Shari Tripp of Tripp research and STI fame. Their shop survived but the house is gone.

My suggestion is that you go buy a part from them. Keep them so busy they don't have time to think about their house burning down. Besides, haven't you been looking for an excuse to buy a bulletproof 1911 mag?

Just to ad, While John Moses Browning designed the 1911, Virgil Tripp designed the 2011 bringing this gun into the next century. Literally. He has done quite a bit of studying of the design and created the logical extension of JMB's work. I am fortunate enough to have not only an STI but a Tripp research 2011 and am proud to have it and know the man who designed and built it. Those who live in Texas should know the extended Tripp family as Alice Tripp is the TSRA lobbyist. As well, go to ANY USPSA/IPSC match in the world and you will masses of his design either in Tripp Research, STI or SV manufacture built by them or by a custom gunsmith on the original Tripp designed frame and slide.

UPDATE: Thanks much to Uncle and HSOI and JayG and No Lawyers Only Guns and Money.

So much for High Dollar Rifles

Got to watch a Sig556 disassemble itself on the line at class today. 25 rounds into the morning and the bolt handle took a flight along with an op rod failure as well. Not a pretty sight. Student had a back up gun and continued class with that without further problem.
Had a very good class that picked up concepts well and shot very well. Scenarios in the "house" went interesting as usual. Had a number of the usual responses and a lively discussion afterwards ab0ut justifiable use of force.

Bastrop Complex Fire Happy Ending kinda

So, I have gotten word of something that will likely not make the front page news but warms my heart.

One of the horse stables in the Bastrop Complex Fire got evacuated. While they managed to get the horses out, the tack had to be left behind in the limited time available. Some of this was quite expensive including some very high end saddles ($10Kish). the tack was secured in a concrete walled tack room that survived the fire, unlike the barn and other structures in the area. When owners returned to scope out the damage once it was deemed safe, they found that the tack room had been broken into and emptied.

(/siderage)I think the persons responsible for this should be tied to a tree in the path of the fire and left to burn in it. After the horror and damage caused by the fire, to find out you have also been targeted by looters is the ultimate insult.(/siderage)

Well, one of the owners found listings on Ebay for items stolen from the barn. Calls to Ebay and the sellers information was then parsed by folks at a local high tech firm who contacted the local ISP and then passed on to the APD leading to the arrest of the perps and recovery of the stolen items. All within about 9 hours or so of the discovery. While it is still a hassle for the owners, there were people who cared enough to put out the work to make this happen. I am willing to bet that those involved with the hunt and recovery were pissed off by the act that these pieces of shit perpetrated.

Call your Congressman...

... and tell to vote against H.B. 2061. This ain't Hell has the story of Congress' latest move to diminish the honor of our military by presenting all civil servants killed in the "line of duty" with a flag.

How STUPID do you have to be

to burn trash while there is not only a burn ban but half the state is on fire?

While Bastrop county is on fire and is now the largest fire in Texas, it is just one of many. There is a fire in Leon county that has most of the Brazos Valley choking. I am contemplating sending the Mrs away because her asthma and the soot and smoke do not mix well. Smoke was so think yesterday on the drive home that we had to slow down as if the fire was right there on the roadway. There is a fire out of control along the Montgomery/Grimes/Waller county line. Call just went out for all available tankers and brush trucks in the area to report to the command post in Todd Mission for the morning attack. Followed five minutes later by a dispatch of SO and FD to an illegal burn outside Navasota!!! What kind of a moron would even contemplate doing such a thing?

Quote of the decade

I usually try to stay away from copying and quoting too much. HOWEVER<
Tam hits one out of the park with the most important question that EVERYONE should be asking themselves.

Ten years after Pearl Harbor, we had reduced Japan to a glowing pile of radioactive cinders and then rebuilt it and were buying cheap Japanese consumer goods by the shipload. Ten years after New York City was attacked by foreign enemies, all I see as evidence around Indy are a maudlin memorial being erected downtown, TSA probulators and porn-O-scans at the airport, and the occasional young man with an empty sleeve or trouser leg.

Dude, where's my country?

Where indeed?

Gingerbread Pancakes

So it wasn't breakfast at the Omletry West, but that doesn't happen any more. Couple weeks ago the Mrs found Kerby Lane Cafe Gingerbread Pancake mix at HEB. So, that's what I made for breakfast this morning. Mmmmmmm. Could have used some bacon though but couldn't everything?

Dial 911 Push HARD and FAST

ZOMG Eleventy! Everyone I've shown this too has had the same reaction. Laughter to tears.
H/T to AD

I HATE VACUUM TUBES

So, the amplifiers at work for our balance that was built in the mid 1940's are run by vacuum tubes. No big deal in that they give a decent amplification of the analog signal to the motors that drive the balance. Problem is, the tubes are getting harder and harder to find. I have a source through a music store for a couple of them that are the same as electric guitar amps. However, one in particular is only available as Russian Surplus. Add to that the fact that the motors used in this beast haven't been made for years and are no longer available. We tried to get a shop to rewind them but the answer was NO from several shops.
So part of the problem is availability of replacement tubes, part of the problem is availability of replacement motors and part of the problem is finding someone who can actually work on the amps. I am tired of dealing with them myself. the old boss was good with them but he is gone now and I am the person that has the most knowledge of them around here now. SCARY!
Sorry, just venting. Did I mention that the room the balance is in is temperature stabilized? Being Texas, it is stabilized at a "warm" temperature so any prolonged troubleshooting involves a profuse amount of sweat. I now offend myself!

Firearms Reliability Rediculousness

I am kicking myself for not bookmarking the post that started these thoughts to coagulate in the bone structure that holds my little brain thing.

Someone posted on their blog that they were thinking of getting or building an AR and wanted to get readers advice as to whether they should buy or build and why did AR's cost so dang much from name vendors.

The responses are interesting and one in particular is what set me off. The writer responded that frankenguns are garbage and the only real AR that you can trust is one made by the higher end vendors. Problem being that most users really couldn't tell how good or bad their AR was until they went through a 3 day carbine class where you had to shoot 1500 rounds a day to see if your gun would hold up. That is where you see the failures of the lesser AR's.

UTTER! BULL! SHIT!

Bear with me a moment.

In handgun reviews you will also find folks that insist your handgun must shoot flawlessly for 200 rounds without lubrication and 2000 or even 10000 rounds without cleaning.

WHO! CARES!?

If you find yourself as an armed civilian needing to fire 200 rounds in a single engagement, you need a fire team, not a more "reliable" gun. So long as the gun goes bang every time for the first 20 rounds EVERY time you draw your fresh gun from leather, you are good to go for a carry gun. That is a 2-5X factor of safety for any gunfight you might find yourself in.
Disagree? Find me an example of a real gunfight where a civilian needed 200 rounds to survive. I double dog dare you.

It just doesn't matter if the gun is tested to a safety factor of 50 100 or 1000. At some point the reliability is moot because it is no longer based in reality.

Back to the AR discussion that started this whole post. If an armed civilian is in a firefight that requires 1500 rounds in a day without a break for any maintenance, you don't need a more reliable rifle or even a fire team, you need close air support.

I would love for someone, anyone, to give an example of an armed encounter where a civilian needed to shoot their handgun 200 times without break. Or even had 200 rounds on them loaded up for this running gun battle. Or they needed a defensive rifle or carbine to fire 1500 rounds in a single engagement and had enough loaded mags on them to survive.

Anyone?

Katrina or Rita? BZZZZT
Ike? BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT
Rodney King Riots? BZZZZZZZZZT
Northeast Blackout of 2003? BBZZZZZZZTTTTT
'92 Chicago Bulls Victory Riot? BZZZT Not Even!
Any of the Stanley Cup Riots? BZZZZT

So, what about the future as opposed to lessons learned from the past and or lessons learned from events overseas? Beslan Massacre? What about this weekends murders in Norway? Could that happen here? Definite possibility of a firm maybe. Would a citizen carrying concealed need to or even have the ability to fire 200 rounds from their handgun is a single encounter? Not very bloody likely that they would have a single reload on them much less 200 rounds worth. Would an armed citizen even need to fire 200 rounds in an encounter like this? Not likely either.

As Tam is so want to point out, there all those that really wish for an armed rebellion of some kind to break out because that means they don't have to go to work tomorrow. They don't live in reality. I do.

As maybe an academic exercise, it might be interesting to see how robust a guns design and build are to extended torture testing. And that is exactly what this is. Torture testing. Nothing based in reality.

Shooting last night

So there was a family violence shooting last night in Grand Prairie. Unfortunately there were multiple casualties out of this. The money quote from this tragedy?

The shooting call came in at 7:10 p.m. The first officer arrived about 90 seconds later, he said. “It just started raining police,” Brimmer said.

Once four or five officers arrived, they went in, he said. By then, the shooting had stopped.

Highlighting mine. By the time the officers arrived, the shooting was over. there is nothing they could have done to prevent this terrible event.

This dovetails off of the shooting in Norway. That rises to the level of Horrific! A lone shooter dressed as a police officer went on a shooting spree on an island full of young communist campers. Due to their national firearms law, no one on the island was armed and there were no real police on the island to provide any sort of protection. The gunman had free reign for close to an hour before police could get a helicopter ride out to the island to engage the shooter and stop him. Reports are lots of people ran and or swam to get away while other faked being dead to avoid getting shot. NO ONE made any attempt to stop him or fight back in any way. At least there is no word of that as of yet. We are turning into a world of cowards who look to the government for everything. Protection, income, housing, healthcare, everything. A total loss of personal responsibility.


H/T to Texas Fred.

End of an Era

So, manned spaceflight by America has come to an end. I watched enraptured as the first man walked on the moon. AN AMERICAN. Before that, I had the opportunity to hold in my very little hands, an original of the rams horn Handheld Maneuvering Unit our Astronauts used to guide them on spacewalks. I followed the space program with great anticipation of what great thing we would do next. I watched skylab and the joint USSR/NASA docking mission and wondered what we as not only a nation but as a planet would do next. Of late, I was an active part of the team that helped bring STS-117 and her crew back to earth safely after suffering a torn thermal blanket on liftoff. Now, NASA is relegated to a footnote of history charged with making Muslims feel good about their contribution to science and technology. What a sad day this is indeed!

Overheard in the Truck

RADIO: Casey Anthony found not guilty....BLAH BLAH BLAH

misbeHaven: Now she just need to take up golf so she and OJ can discuss how to find the real killer.

Me: GAACK, CHOKE, CHORTLE. While trying not to run off the road laughing.

Happy Fourth !!!!!

So since we are under a burn ban as well as fireworks ban, the next best thing is to make noise and smoke. My neighbor Brass Valley Shooting was doing some tune up drills and fun shooting and I wandered over to put in my two rounds worth. It was nice to go shoot just for fun and put some lead downrange and do some transition drills with the carbine and pistol and just get out and shoot. Anyway, made noise and smoke, help a couple shooters (I Hope) and it's still mid day. Need to get misbeHaven outside on the range so she can tune up and put some rounds through her Kimber. Oh yeah, when someone asks, "Hey, you want some steel targets?" the correct answer is SURE!. I now have a stack of 3", 4" and 6" steel plates to setup as additional steel targets for the range here at the house. I may get some more and make a dueling tree for the .22, that would be a blast. HAHAHAHHA.