On vacation a couple weeks ago.  Getting mom sit up in assisted living (hopefully temporary).  Celebrating tenth anniversary of my heart attack (last Friday, weather sucked so I didn't do anything).

Got to visit my favorite state in the USA....Wyoming, twice this year.  Family vacation for the first trip and prairie dog population control for the second.  Killed a metric shit-ton of the little rodents too!

Had a great Saturday last month.  Spent a long afternoon with Kalahnikid and Compass chatting about retro M16/AR15's.  We were all chaperoned by Booger-Hooker of course.  Even though it was raining we got to spend some quality time sending some full auto goodness downrange.  GOOD TIMES!

Headed back to the CCA shop next week to help Michael with some AK builds.  It'll probably take me the first day to get my bench cleaned off and organized!

Life is good.

My company decided I looked too warm and moved me up to MN... to the big city, no less.

A great afternoon! That was most of the ammo Ive shot all year, unfortunately. I finally joined a range here in Iowa earlier this year and think Ive been twice.

Hopefully you learn to like it? I looked for jobs up there when I was single, I really like MN other than the politics.

Bucs fan ehh? I used to be a big Lancers fan before they moved to Ralston. Now that I live in Boone, I could give 2 shits less about them.

I haven't done much this year. Got married last month. Haven't traveled at all this year. Been busy with work and fishing in my free time. My dad is coming up this weekend and we will be going to Brushy Creek to shoot a butt load of guns so that ought to be a fun time.

Working at my new job. Love it compared to where I was at before.

Congrats

Started traveling for work in May and have been to Californiastan 3 times, Mississippi, and now Missouri.

Time spent at home has basically been locked in the house with the wife and kids trying to soak up all the quality time I l've miss out on.

Bought a few guns for the the first time in 8yrs, but still haven't spent much ch time shooting for the aforementioned reasons.

Alas, it'll be cold soon and I'll be wishing for warm weather to hopefully do something with the fam yet another summer.

All work no play. The business I am in has been booming and what seems like non stop growth this year. o well I guess it is a good problem to have.
I will be taking Thanksgiving through the new year off though to make up for lost time.

@booger-hooker - What area are the Iowa properties? Not necessarily looking but the right opportunity in the right place at the right time always deserves look.

Edit: I guess I fail at reading comprehension... I read right past the word "Keeping" .

I started a new job in September so had to cancel my yearly elk hunting trip that really stung also have part of my house gutted so between that and new job I've had zero time for treestand therapy hopefully this weekend I can get out

well let's see...  i had to listen to dave bawl like a bottle calf about his bench being dirty each time he came through for a week.  that took several weeks in and of itself.  i had to listen to booger whine like a mule about dave bitching about his bench being dirty.  that took another several weeks.

took 3 weeks and went to our colorado house with family, church family, and friends in july.  did a pretty fair big of herb gardening this year.  daughter (10) is doing a ton of cooking and culinary work (see the recipes, successes, and failures on the CCA facebook page - we post that stuff on saturdays).  son (5) is a holy terror, but too much fun to get in a twist over...  docs said his hearing degraded again, so he got a second hearing aid.  they don't know if his hearing will eventually leave him or not, so that was kind of a sucker punch, but the truth is there are a lot of families far worse off than us, so we'll make do just fine.  who knows, it might improve too.  you never can tell.  the november mizzou deer hunt at the family farms in NW MO is coming up.  daughter is pretty stoked.  she's been watching "Meat Eater" on netflix nonstop over and over.  for whatever reason, she seems to really enjoy that stuff, so i'm glad.

been a year with some ups and downs here in the shop.  had some setbacks that really hurt.  a monster distributor filed bankruptcy on all us little guys out here so i doubt i'll ever see any of that $ from them.  but we'll make it through.  was contacted by net based firearms periodical you all know, and they're dangling in front of me a writing position with them in my spare time.  that might work.  you never know.  they'll need to like me, and me them, but it could work if my content is what they're looking for.  so that's kind of exciting and flattering.

been really busy with IFC stuff.  lots going on there.  i wish like hell we had more volunteers to do things.  it's a big strain on a few people to keep the ball bouncing, but every now and then someone special comes along and gets plugged in and it makes a world of difference.

doing quite a bit more with church.  i'm seriously considering some sort of youth ministry, even if it is just a quick kid sermon before the adult sermon on sundays.  i'll need to come up with a plan that i like and can adhere to and present it to the church elders for approval, but i'm pretty stoked to do something like that.  i grew up in a church that had the kids gather around before service and offer them a quick message.  i'm there anyway, and searching for biblical context to offer others is good for me and the people i hope to reach alike, so i'm thinking i'll chase that rabbit a bit.

we did a couple of 'men's breakfast' events this year.  first saturday of each month the men get together and church and cook a big breakfast and have a quick lesson.  we did the biblical case for self defense in april and did an outdoor breakfast and shoot at my place in august.  both were much fun.  maybe those will grow some legs.  you never know.

extended family has had some scrapes and rubs, but nothing that time and a few doc visits won't heal.  all in all, we're pretty good.

added some machinery to the shop.  snagged a really kick ass tig welder i'd been wanting for a long time.  got me a miller.  ;)  building up a 2x72 variable speed belt grinder (if you know why i need one of those, bonus points to you!).  made some fixtures for various weapon and mag modifications.  got the DROs fixed for both the mini mill and lathe.  decided not to put a DRO on the big mill for now, but snagged a really kick ass rotary table for it i can mount vertical or horizontal.  the big air compressor shot craps on me, but i lucked into one bigger on a bargain that is twice as fast and twice as tough, so that was fortunate.  the kiln i built years ago let go and nearly burned up, so i rewired it, all new controls and elements.  works great.

now i just have to knock out the backlog of work i let stack up.  'sall good.  ;)

yeah, things are pretty normal around here.  ups and downs, but making it work.

This is how I found my bench when I walked in last Monday..........you be the judge.

Attached File

And I would know RIGHT where that doorknob was, so long as no one moved it.

What part of Colorado? We've been going out ther camping for 20 years started going to a ranch in Jackson County a few years ago  camp shoot prairie dogs and ground squirrels have a blast

Michael says I should quit whining about such minor things.  OK, I guess it really wasn't that bad .  But I refuse to understand why he continually leaves that slimy drain snake on my bench .

about half way between westcliffe and cotopaxi not far from the royal gorge.  you're way up north in the medicine bow.  we used to come down from laramie on 230,dip into colorado a bit, and head back up NW from there into WY.  we'd stay in the medicine bow and shoot pdogs all around riverside and encampment.  did that for a decade.  i never spent much time down around cowdrey or walden, but it's really nice there.  we rode four wheelers one year from hog park nearly all the way to big creek lake and back in one day.  it was a ton of fun, but we kept a really high average speed and had to haul a lot of gas for that trip.  i won't do it again.  it was kind of a rush going that fast that long on little ranger roads and backwoods stuff, and there were hours that went by without seeing another living person, but it was a full 14hr day and no rest.  i was sore and tired when we were done with that trip.  i don't care for colorado politics much, so i've always wanted to have a place in medicine bow on the WY side, but this is where the family wanted to build a house, so we did it.

Just work, work, work here.  A few weekend trips for family events.  A little trap shooting at the local gun club.  .... and I now play a little amateur airsoft on the weekend, with a small bunch of kids that are 1/2 my age.  We're lucky to be able to play on county park timber property, as long as our orange identifiers are left on.  It's been interesting to get used to shooting biodegradeable bbs that only travel 400fps.  The guns can also be finicky enough that I would have already sold them had they been real.  There are actually a few people still out there that aren't glued to a video game screen.  It's glorious!  

If anyone is free Sunday this is always a good time.  Plus cheap drinks.

Nice!  
I've been working, working and oh, working (we've been in the news way to often).  Have city council meetings every other Monday, 911 board every 3rd Wed in Creston, FD meetings 1st Friday of the month (Casino night, our major fund raiser, is this Saturday night).  Finishing up on remodeling the dining room so then I can start on remodeling our bathroom, joy...

I've just been missing my friends Michael, Dave, and Kevin.

It sounds like I should be inviting myself along on a few of their trips though.

ready when you are.  be prepared to set some shit on fire, typically kevin, and for dave to sexually harass you to the point of tears, and me?  well, i'll turn hollis on you when least expect it.  then video that shit.  ;)