Alternate Energy at Mittersill.

Sounds better than just stacking firewood doesn't it. Here we have a full cord dumped on the lawn. I could have paid K&K Brooks, my wood supplier, to stack it, but I'm cheap, and the exercise is good for me.




Here we are half way done. I can hear the grass rejoicing as each piece of firewood is lifted off, allowing the grass to straighten up and see the sun. For all that work, the pile doesn't look much smaller does it?



All done. Only took me three days, counting Sunday which rained all day so I didn't stack much. That will keep the fireplace burning for the next two winters. It's green, but it has the rest of the year to season, it will burn OK by Christmas and burn really well next winter.
By the way, Blogger kinda sucks at placing photos and text. It insists on putting the text next to the wrong photographs. Sorry about that.

The world oil market is a futures market.

We have countless democratic pundits on the air, in the media, claiming that increased oil drilling in the US won't bring down gasoline prices. They say it will take too long to bring new production on line, and there won't be enough of it, and oh dear oh dear we will just have to tough out $4 a gallon gasoline.
This is all malarkey. The oil market is a futures market. Users of oil (refiners mostly) sign deals to take delivery of oil from producers. The price they agree upon is based on what they think the price will be in the future. If they think prices are going up, they will pay a little more to get their needed crude. If they think prices might be going down, they will postpone signing a deal, hoping for a better price next week.
Should the market become convinced that the Americans are serious about bringing new oil to market, the price will fall. Obama made a speech the other day promising to increase production. Trouble is, nobody really believes him. The market figures Obama is just talking to make political points. They think Obama is too deep in hock to the greenies, who hate production of damn near anything, to actually do anything to increase oil production.
As for timely, the industry could get production from the "Alaska National Wildlife Refuge" (ANWR) flowing down the Alaska pipeline in less than 12 months. The much ballyhooed ANWR is just another piece of frozen tundra above the Arctic circle. There is a zillion square miles of tundra up there. We will never run out of frozen tundra.

Morning at the shooting range

Finally got out to shoot my new rifle. Put the Marlin 30-30, targets, ammunition, tape measure, patching tape and binoculars into the car and drove out to the range. Weather was flaky, threatening rain, but it didn't. I set the target up 100 yards out. Doesn't seem like very far, but upon returning to the firing position, that target looked awfully small.
The Marlin, a classic from the 1950's, has an action smooth as glass, and a beautiful even trigger pull. This is the first time I've shot centerfire rifle since training for Viet Nam back in 1967. I squeezed off a string and then peered down range thru the binoculars. No luck, my eyes cannot see bullet holes at 100 yards even with 7 power binoculars. So I walk down range and take a look. Not too shabby. All the rounds are high, but inside the target, grouped inside a 7 inch circle. So I adjust the sights one notch and try again. Must have been the wrong way, the string goes clean over the target. Zero holes. So, I adjust the sight one notch the other way, try again, and I get a 4 inch group, a little high, a little right, but inside the target. And this with iron sights.
The Marlin has impressive report and a solid recoil. 30-30 is clearly enough cartridge to deal with anything I'm ever going to encounter in New Hampshire. The gun buffs don't say much about 30-30, 'cause it is so established, and what's to say about it? I looked up the ballistics, 30-30 isn't as powerful as the WWII rifle cartridges like 30-06, but it is a good deal more powerful than the ammo used by modern assault rifles like the M16 and the AK47.
After burning thru $30 worth of brand new 30-30 ammunition I switched guns, tried out my Ruger 10/22 on same target. My first try gets a 9 inch group and my second a 13 inch group. Net result, I can shoot the heavier 30-30 somewhat better than I can 22. Might be the shorter barrel on the Ruger, might be the heavier trigger pull on the Ruger. The Ruger trigger is smooth but heavier than it might be. Might also be after a couple of hours on the range I'm getting tired.
So, better luck next time. I still have two rifles, lying on the kitchen table, needing cleaning.

Words of the Weasel Part XVII

Subsidy. Sen Chuckie Schumer uses subsidy where he should say "tax break". There is a difference. A subsidy is a cash payment from Uncle Sam to a favored industry. It can be spent, on inventory, wages, rent, tooling. It's real money. A tax break is different. It only pays off after the industry makes money. You cannot buy stuff with a tax break, you have to earn real money first.
Of course Chuckie knows this, he uses subsidy because it sounds worse. He's manufacturing a sound bite.

Global Warming caused Mississippi floods

At least that's what NPR was pushing this afternoon. This isn't true, the Mississippi has been flooding in springtime since the end of the last ice age. This one river drains the entire center of North America, of course it's going to flood from the spring snowmelt. This year's floods are much worse than usual, about as bad as 1937. The floods work terrible hardships upon the people living along the river.
I find it distasteful to hear NPR pundits using this disaster to push their narrow political agenda. After blaming global warming they moved on to blame federal funding cuts, something about a single weather satellite not getting replaced on schedule. Talk about single issue politics.

Are we back on the air?

And, my last, terrible witty post seems to have vanished, at least for now.

The OBL raid according to Aviation Week

The helicopter that crashed was a previously undisclosed stealth chopper, a heavily modified Sikorsky H-60 Blackhawk. The one chopper to crash was brought down by a miscalculation of air temperature in and outside the compound. The Blackhawk ran into lift trouble due to a 15F difference inside the courtyard said Rep. Buck McKeon(R-Calif). "They couldn't hold the hover."
Two Blackhawks and two Chinooks carried the raiding party in. Four choppers is plenty of lift for only 40 raiders. Even after the loss of a chopper they had plenty of seats to get everyone out.