10-Ring

ATV tires are pretty easy since they have such a big soft sidewall.  Buy yourself some tire spoons.  You can get a good set for $30 and they are well worth the money.  I started changing my own tires on my motorcycles years ago, had a shop that would do it for $15 a wheel off the bike, they doubled their prices and I bought a set of spoons for $30 and have been doing it myself every since.  I buy most of my tires online, seems that the prices fluctuate often so I check all the retailers that I normally do business with and Amazon.   As far as breaking the bead I have a couple of things I've rednecked up that work well.  The best is a scissor type car jack.  I prop the wheel up on some 2x4 scraps under the bumper of my truck, set the jack on the edge of the tire right at the rim and extend the jack, I chuck it into my cordless drill to make it faster.  Don't even try to mount tires that aren't warm, you can set them out on a sunny day, lay them on top of a warm engine and shut the hood for about 20 minutes, I've even put them in the oven at 180 degrees for 10 minutes.  Once you start to mount them up use lots of lube, I use dish soap.  I have a tradition of throwing the old tire as far away from my work area as possible because it really sucks to not be paying attention and put your old tire back on.   It will be a pain in the butt the first couple of times that you do it but once you get it figured out it's a piece of cake.

Zannies

I use the Scanner Radio app.  You can listen to about anything you want on it.  I listened to the Ferguson riots on it.  IMO it has made $100 scanners obsolete.  Living close to Highway 129 I have flipped it on when I hear sirens to listen to what tourist moron has crashed out on the Dragon many times.

I'm a bacon operator...

I can see the usefulness of Facebook, the problem is some people have no discretion about what they post for the world to see.  I have to say that it is kind of funny watching these idiots get themselves into trouble.  A friend of mine had an employee who he was friends with on Facebook, she called in sick for three days and posted pictures of herself partying it up at the beach the whole time.  Surprisingly she was shocked when she didn't have a job upon her return.

That is a good looking Blazer you have there.  I had an either '87 or '88 can't remember but it had a 350 with the TBI.  I remember that there was only one year that came in that combo.  I hate that I let it go for $1K, just needed a paint job and would have been a really nice piece. Heck of a truck.

Best of luck!

This is one of my pet peeves.  I think it's a compensation thing, usually come with an excuse like "I want to make sure I make a clean kill."  These Fudds think that shooting a 60 pound deer with a .338 Lapua makes more sense than knowing their rifle and knowing how to place their shot.  They also seem to be the same ones that throw a 30 round mag in their AR (usually with FMJs) and hunt deer.  I tried to mentor a new hunter this year who was hunting with a .300 WIN MAG, he couldn't understand why I killed so many more deer than him and I was only shooting a .270 (he shot none, surprise, huh?  I will not be taking him next year)  Of the new fad of economy rifles I've only handled the Ruger American and the Remington 770, I was actually pretty impressed with the Ruger, but the 770 felt like cheap junk to me, the action was horrible and the fit and finish of the gun just sucked.  That said the 770 is probably fine for an entry level Tennessee deer rifle, though I wouldn't hunt with one unless I had to.  It's certainly not what I would be wanting to take long range shots with.

Foster getting shot in self defense probably wouldn't help our cause at all but I sure wouldn't mind if the outcome of this resulted in him spitting some teeth out.

Didn't mean to be confusing.  The current battery is the only one that has been in the truck since I've owned it.  The other problem batteries that I was referring to were in different vehicles.  My best guess is that I have an intermittent interruption in the charging system and as a result the current battery has been sucked dry too many times and is not holding a good charge. 

I seem to have the worst luck with car batteries. I bought this truck about a year ago used and the battery has failed me several times. I have not had it checked out but it acts as if it had a very deep discharge at some point. It will be fine for weeks. All of the sudden it won't start. For example today I went into the gas station and stayed out in the truck talking on the phone for a few minutes before going inside when I came back out the truck would not start. I have bought several batteries from Batteries Plus with very poor results one was replaced within 3 months and considered defective another battery would not hold a charge and they would not admit that it was defective still another battery went bad on me 13 months after I got it and they would not replace it. I certainly do not want to do business with them. I really would not mind having to spend a little bit more money to get a good quality battery that will last a while and I will not have to worry about letting me down for a while but it seems like every brand I try is junk. I was just going for an Optima because I thought that they were the best bullet proof battery out there but after reading reviews on Amazon which has them priced quite well I am getting mixed stories. Does anybody have any certain brands of batteries that they like in particular? I'm kind of confused but I need do need to go ahead and buy a battery right now.

Good beef and medium well don't belong in the same post.

I was a good kid coming up.  Most all of my friends were good kids.  I firmly believe that you can take the most responsible, mature, well behaved kid and stick him behind the wheel of an automobile and he is going to do really stupid things for at least a year.  It's all about testing the limits of a vehicle, just curiosity.  I remember one kid I went t high school with that had been racing cars since he was big enough to sit in a go kart, he was the exception. Acting a fool in a street car meant nothing to someone who had flogged a racecar in a controlled environment.    Just for fun here's a partial list of the inappropriate things that I did, and I was one of the "good" kids. -drag racing. -jumped my truck -drove a two wheel drive truck up a big steep dirt pile, it's a miracle it didn't flip. -turned construction barrels into slalom cones. -hit the construction barrels to see how far they would go.  -donuts -burnouts -knew the top speed of every vehicle that I could get my hands on.   These activities did come with consequences.  There were crashes, thank God there were never any substantial injuries to anyone else or myself.  And yes, the stupidity went up when there were more passengers in the car.  BTW, I was forbidden to carry passengers.    Teenagers come equipped with a certain amount of stupidity.  A teen can have the ability to be a great driver, they just always have a tendency to make bad choices when they think they can get away with it.  Truth is there are just as many bad drivers on the road at any age, the public's driving skills just downright suck!

I too have noticed this.  Used to you just went and bought a bulk pack of .22, Federal 550 was my favorite flavor.  Now it seems when I find .22 it's a variety that I've never heard of and for whatever reason it is special and priced accordingly so, I just want regular old .22 again. 

Sorry for your losses.  I'm very familiar with that area.  What appears to be a nice shopping center on the surface is walking distance from the biggest trailer park in the county.  There are always nasty people hanging out around there.  The Walmart after 10 pm is downright scary.

I see no need in a laser on a mouse gun, the added expense would make this gun not worth it to me.  If I had to use a gun of this size to defend myself I would expect that the target would be so close to me that there would be no time to utilize a laser.  The flash light I could see being handy but I have an issue with lights attached to the gun because of the possibility that the perp is going to shoot towards the light, I would rather carry a good flashlight and use it.  I could see how these features could be an advantage on a HD gun but I would never use a .380 as a house gun.  The Curve is a peculiar little piece but I wouldn't discount it on it's ugly looks alone, I'm all about function and could care less what a defensive pistol looks like.  If I wanted the gun for its aesthetics I would choose a 1911 or a nice wheel gun.  This gun has already received a lot of flak but I wouldn't discount it until I got to try it out first hand.

Yeah CPS has gotten a lot more stupid in the past year or so.  I remember when I could send a camera in Tuesday night and it would be back at my door Thursday morning properly fixed for a pretty dang good price.  Those days are gone.  Anymore it seems to be wait a week, pay a lot and I've sent bodies back as many as 4 times without them being properly repaired.  I got out of doing photography full time about a year ago and just do it part time now.  Dealing with CPS can just about put a photographer out of business.

I use that 28-135mm lens for 90% of what I do.  I also own an L-series 70-200mm but it rarely gets the nod, to the point that I usually don't even pack it when going on a trip when I'm just taking the camera without a particular objective.  If this lens had the ability to shoot at 1.8 or even 2.8 I would like it a whole lot more, that's my biggest complaint about it.    Just for price reference I got my lens in a package deal a couple of years ago I gave $350 for it and two Tamron lenses that were worth maybe $150ish for both.

I have a feist that is 8.  If I could roll back the clock I would have done it.  When he was a puppy I had the mentality of "I wouldn't want that done to me."  At 8 he is pretty well behaved but slightly aggressive and will pee at every opportunity if allowed in the house.  I've also noticed that he likes to pee on things in the house out of spite and jealously, like if I'm holding something and set it on the floor he will pee on it, I think it's because I was holding that item when I could have been petting him.  He obeys pretty well but if I had it to do again I would have done two things different 1) had him snipped and 2) put him through obedience school.    I will note that when he was a puppy my justification for not having him fixed was I didn't think it was necessary because I've always kept my dogs put up so he wasn't roaming the neighborhood impregnating everything around.  Now I see that it isn't about that.

  I have it installed but go through my phones browser 90% of the time.

Sorry you are having to go through this Doug, my prayers are with you.

Auto all the way. 1911 .45ACP. What's the point of carrying a revolver? You wouldn't have anything to argue about.

Nice!  Two of my passions as well.

That is a very nice piece you have there and no doubt a quality one as well.  I think that you audience is really important.  A lot of people are going to have sticker shock at $750, but that's not to say that you are over priced.  A quick net search found me this piece http://www.hayneedle.com/product/hyrescountryhaventeakdoublebackswing.cfm, I think that yours is much nicer.  It really looks like a piece that could be handed down if taken care of, I know I'd be proud to have it on my front porch.

Agreed.  It all boils down to the riders size and experience and what you want to do.  I have a friend that has a KLR that does 500 mile days back to back on it on the interstate and swears up and down he likes it more than his Harley.  For most a KLR would be fine for fire roads but I would have no desire to get into anything remotely tight with it.  I have two DRZ400s, a street legal "E" model and a SM, the SM is pretty limited off of gravel or hard pack and the E gets really heavy really fast in tight or really rough terrain, I initially wanted a DRZ250 when I bought it and everyone told me to get the 400, I wish I would have gone with the 250.  IMO the smaller you are comfortable on in the tight woods the better.