Mark A

  I was really close to building my 308 pistol like that. I've decided to go all fan boy and paint it an urban digital...

The thing is... as much as we despair about what is happening to our country, the behavior in this movie is 100% accurate. At least in fly over country.    Good folks just know. They will stop, pause, straighten up their posture and basically be at attention during their moment of interaction. They don't think about it, they just know, in their gut, to do it.     Folks that don't - I usually look at them like they are an alien from another world because basically they are.   Mark

The white will be useful when you set your sniper hide up in the snow...   Other than that, I like the grey better.

Engraved a couple for me. Did a great job. Send him a message. If he says it can be done then he can do it.

There are some 4-1 dwarf trees out there if you want variety. Keep in mind dwarf trees while easy to prune are a bit more prone to disease. The multi fruit are expensive but if space is limited (typical house) they can be worth it.   Pecans, no love for about 15 years unless you can buy big bucks trees.   Self pollinating trees bear more fruit with other varieties nearby.   There are ways to deal with bugs and worms without going crazy with spraying   Pruning is your friend in all things fruit trees.   A lot of trees grow well from seed. Buy some good organic fruit that you like and read up on stratification. Plant a ton of seeds. They are cheap. The ones that survive will be hardy and well adapted to your soil/ environment. Cool thing about trees from seed is that  they will catch up to most grafted trees in about 3 years.   Funny thing about apples is the seed you plant is probably not the kind of apple you will get.   Good on you for planting fruit trees. If we had more people planting fruit in stead of decorative trees people would be healthier and food would be cheaper...

It just seemed like all the tolerances were just a bit off. Like you I had to polish take down pins. I don't like how the mag release fits. I pulled the trigger group out 3 times before I could get the selector to fit. Once it was all in I couldn't figure out why it didn't fit the first time. I'm sure my judgement was skewed by the fact that the previous 3 AR's that I put together including a 308 were from CMT. The CMT stuff fit together perfectly. My CMT 308 is as tight or tighter than the Aero but was easier to assemble. But, I like my M5 and have suggested it to others. I certainly liked the price... I now have an M&P 10 (who knew it was going to be a gateway drug to other 308 goodness), the CMT with a 20" barrel & the M5 which I built as a pistol. When it finally gets out of jail I think it will be the main host for my suppressor. I meant to ask, what glass is yours wearing? I have a 3x9 on the CMT, a 1.5 x4 on the M&P and currently have a H1 on the M5. The M5 will mostly be a close in gun so unmagnified is probably ok but it isn't 100% settled in my mind yet. Mark

Smith, what was your M5 building experience like? I bought one of the first ones out and it was by far the hardest AR pattern I've had to put together. After it was done it looked pretty nice but I had to fiddle and finagle a lot to get things to go in the right spot.   I'm curious if they've fined tuned their receivers or not.   Can't beat the value though...   Thanks, Mark

I really want one of these one day

No coffee drinkers here but my wife is a hot tea fiend... However, as much as my wife likes it if it breaks and you can only buy the 2.0 version it will be the only one we own. She's just too frugal to buy only Kreurig brand tea...

Joe Nobody has one out he "co-wrote" with P.A. Troit. It is pretty good. I thought there was already a sequel out and found out just now that there isn't. Sucks to be on the road with nothing to read...

Limited storage space is where dehydration shines. You end up a bit limited on what you can do with it but you can pack a lot of dehydrated veggies in a very small space.

Well, while I am reviving older threads... I had a blast putting around at like 3 mph this summer. It was a fair amount of work but we planted a ton of trees, dug out some stumps, spread winter rye, cut swales and spread a bunch of chirt. I'm not the fastest tractor guy in the world but I'm learning a ton ( proving my wife wrong that the old dog can learn something still). I'm pretty good at using the backhoe to dig a trench but really bad at scraping a shallow area, just need more seat time. Added a tooth bar and also bought a quick connect plate that has a hay spear and forklift attachments. Having the forklift capability is really helpful when getting to the farm with a bunch of seed etc in the back of the truck. I stick stuff on pallets at work and load them in the truck and then fork them right off when I get to the farm. We finished our 30 x 40 building, smoothed a place for our camper, and cut a path through the woods from the front pasture to the back pasture. And now, I am completely broke... This winter will mainly be continuing to knock down trees, especially where the house will be built. I know a pro could come in and do it in just a few days but I have a couple of years to get it done and my wife thinks I'm out working hard so as long a she doesn't read this post I'm going to keep on keeping on... In the next few weekends I have to mark out where the house goes so the soil guy can come in and perk our soil. Then we can get the septic tank in. Going to run a branch line over to the camper. Don't mind carrying water to use and easy to load the generator for power but hauling icky stuff back is not any fun. So, septic tank time... We've saved for this for 20 years and sometimes it seemed like this day would never come but it is here and I love it. In the next year or so we will get the well dug and then we can start a garden up there. I can't wait to have a serious garden to grow stuff in. Mark.

I know this is an odd time to renew this thread but I did very little canning this summer. Over the last couple of years I built our pantry up to a pretty decent level. There is only 2 of us so we can only eat so much. This year I spent every spare moment at our new property working on land so canning went to the back seat. We still bought stuff in quantity from the farmers market but we either dehydrated or (mostly) blanched and froze stuff to deal with when it cooled off and I was less excited about being outside. This weekend was chicken stock weekend. We beer can a lot of whole chickens on the smoker so I had a ton of carcasses to make stock out of. Put it all on Friday evening and cooked it until this morning. Chilled it to separate the fat (keep the fat in the freezer for making cornbread) and then started canning. It looks like I'm going to get around 32 quarts which is good as I used the last of our stock last weekend to make white bean chicken chili for Halloween dinner. Next weekend I will do the rest of the carcasses and can pints of chicken stock. We use a lot of stock. If a recipe calls for water we almost always use some type of stock instead. Healthier and just adds an extra layer of flavor. We have a bunch of stuff still to can including a ton of what will be diced tomatoes. Major bonus of not making the house hot by canning in August. When we get to build our retirement home on the farm I'm getting a simple outdoor canning kitchen. Life will be good when the old wifey isn't giving me stink eye for heating up the house. Mark.

Not all of the stores carry canning supplies. Most of the smaller footprint locations do not.   I quit trying to keep track of number of reuses on tattler seals. It is kind of like  reloading brass. I use them until they fail and inspect each time. I mostly keep my tattlers for emergency use when metal lids might not be available. I know I got at least 5 re-uses out of one set of seals before my wife mixed them back in with the unused ones and only one failed and I really think we nicked it with the lid opener.   The instructions used to say to flip the seal each time yadda yadda yadda... I just use them and expect them to work and so far they have... If the sun goes out/comet strikes/ zombies attack/ giant earthworms begin eating people,  I will start paying close attention to rotation etc. Until then I have other things to worry about.    Mark

I was glad for the opportunity to get some late season cover crop seeding in. I figure if I can spend the day on the tractor this time of year and be comfortable why not...

If by prepared do you mean enough food and water to hole up for a few months and enough ammo to discourage visitors then yes. I have masks and gloves in the car to help get home. Other than that I don't really need anything else. Once home we will become the definition of hermits for a while. Mark

Does that also mean you could select a heavier weight bullet? Not that 250 gr is light but if we are going to push lead towards someone/ something we might as well go all out... I've always been in the fast and light club but for some reason lately the quiet as a mouse/ hit like a Mack truck equation has occupied my thoughts. An 8-10" barrel with a can on the end spitting out something around 300gr would be a wonderful tool to solve some of life's vexing problems.

  How about a 338 whisper? I'm still pondering this... I just wish it was based on 308 brass   I think a 250 gr cast by Caster and polished like you did the slugs would be cool... Mark

    I started doing this when I finally started canning meat. Then I realized that I like the thought off all of my jars getting that treatment so even jams and other fruit stuff get the vinegar treatment now   Mark

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Hammer drill holes in a circle. Knock out with mini sledge. As Mike said, pretty up with metal flashing

I have a 2 burner camp stove that I use when canning in the summer. Anything to keep the heat out of the house. If you want to start cheaper get a fish cooker. Plenty of heat in that burner. All American is the only way to go with pressure canners. I would not buy a dedicated water bath canner. Get a stock pot big enough for canning and you will have a pot big enough to cook those large batches of soups etc... I use the rack out of our pressure canner for water bath canning. Flour is pretty much a no go when canning so cream of anything will be canned with no flour and the flour will be added later when reheating. I would suggest sticking with standard recipes for a year or so until you are comfortable with canning. Then you can decide to trust your mom or the lady down the street or whomever you want. There are a lot of master canners out there that can guide you if you need to branch out in the future. We really enjoy canning. We only have enough room to grow food to supplement our meals. We watch farmers markets and buy in bulk a few weeks after each item gets in season. We ask for bulk discounts on "canning grade" food. It seems to work pretty well for us. Have fun, Mark

Well, I'm sorry you are having issues but I am learning some cool little tricks to keep in my back pocket...   Maybe you could download a video of someone shooting an AR at a PC and let your computer digest it for a moment. Maybe it will straighten up...   Mark

I was thinking a spray on tan might be a little less permanent but who am I to judge... I have one of those kits with slightly different stencils waiting on me to finish my 308 sbr build. I need to get that thing done and clean up my work area for a while... I think it looks great, Mark

waaaayyyyyy to much info...