I have a couple of guys that write using the PM system here. We discuss all manner of things. If I've become a babbling idiot, they do not mention it. Maybe they are just being kind.

Point is, it's soooooooo obvious that the entire life blood of the forum and Barnespneumatic is frozen in ice - awaiting notification that I've started the truck to drive South. Until then, no one can shoot airguns. No one can post a picture. I had no idea that I held the strings to the entire world of airguns. Say it ain't so!

One of those discussions with my PM bud related to how the basics get forgotten by folks, when they haven't shot in some time. If there are segments of PCP function that you'd like to see reviewed, please bring it up. There are always new readers that might benefit.

We also repeatedly discuss the theory that people won't shoot my guns because they are liked by the owners. They are too costly to risk. I contend that an engraved gun can still shoot well. And, my guns are almost always priced less then the zero turn turbo diesel chrome wheeled mowers that people let their 16 year old mow rocks with. . One of my guns, carried to a bench - in a case that could be dropped from 27,000 ft. ... Is not a huge risk. I guess you might take off your Super Bowl ring to protect the stock - but the basic mechanics should survive.

Common - there is no need for me to have to start at the beginning with the forum again, once in-shopped at BPS. Conversation and friendship should be building over a year - when I've made about a thousand posts and comments which are available 24/7.

We were discussing tying flies today. My friend only had available a pond where the fish are fed well. And so he tied flies which looked like a fish food pellet!! Hahaha.

Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2013 08:53PM by barnespneumatic.

I........er..........uh........haven't been out shooting..........uh, air guns lately.




Lon

LON!

What is that .... Appendage protruding from the bottom of your rifle!! .

Well, as you can see ....

I'm wrapping up this enormous move. The puzzle pieces are in place. But - I can't move them any faster. I meet with the Realtors again soon. The house is about done. That doesn't mean I can just drive away. There's the finish staging, and the clean up of the rest of the stuff that didn't fit anywhere. There is still a punch list of odds and ends to complete projects. "The List" was probably about 30 pages of very small writing this time. That - added to all the prep over the last 18 months.

This isn't the way most people move. Now - most people don't have wood and metal shops - 33 years of stuff - and this old Hotel of a house. Add inventory from about 50 running projects - materials - supplies - all the tooling.

Factor in that I am now - and have always been a single person shop. NOT fancy or pretentious. NOT some wealthy eccentric. There was no budget to bring in the Williamsburg Craftspeople. I didn't have the contact to bring in Holmes on Holmes for a TV series restoration. These houses are "fixed". Anything built after what's called "balloon construction" and "drywall" - are just "gutted" when alterations are made. You know balloon construction. Might not know you know it. That's the 2 by 4's laid out on the flat deck - the studs are spiked together and covered by a "skin" of sheeting (plywood, black board, OSB, etc.) - then the walls are stood up and nailed in place. Repeat, repeat. Call in the drywall crew - they skin the inside. Repeat, repeat, repeat - as far as you wish to go - it's the same construction. Easily altered - skills easily learned and practiced. I was working on these crews when I was 17 - building 5 bedroom custom homes.

What we've had here - was different. So; I've massaged it back into place. A lot of work. Not making the case of it being more worthy - just completely different. And, it's finally about done.

Now - I've brought everyone along as I did it. But - most of the party decided to go next door - cause they have a pool. Hey - we could have grilled steaks, talked, and pitched horseshoes .... but they have a pool.

So; as soon as we can - we'll be out of here. After Thanksgiving.

Got reports and regular pictures from BPS. It's well. Mowed again. Everything secure and waiting. This will all make a chapter in the book. But - it will only be interesting if a hundred years from now - the log has been lost to public knowledge - and someone manages to dig up a redacted and charred copy of the forum here. Then, after careful restoration and enhancement ... the readers of the future will be able to read these posts of how we moved our entire shop and home 1,100 miles - nearly by ourselves. And then continued to make the airguns and items displayed beside the holographic experience including these pages. It will be interesting then ... trust me.

OK ... 1 am again. Fun, fun, fun. Tomorrow a bit of carpet gets installed. I completed preparation of the areas today.

Gary

Hello Gary,

Yup, guilty as charged, haven't had the airgun out of the case in way too long.

Been moving bricks inside attempting to finish up the floor before the snow flies, working on borrowed time already. While we've had a nice break from the rain and no snow yet, the clear weather means the outside temp is hovering in the teens to single digits, really chilly. All the bricks are cold soaked, can't touch them with a bare hand for a day or so even after they've been moved inside.

NEXT time I'll get a newer house that doesn't need all the work, but then I keep saying that and look what happened this time around.

Safe trip down if I don't talk with you before then.

Sean

Hi Sean,

You sound like me brother. Have folks been suggesting you should've moved those bricks in before it got "chilly". Haha. I'll bet so.

Just doesn't work that way, does it. Because you were doing fifty other things earlier. You ever knew anyone who had it marked on their calendar which Saturday to clean the leaves from their rain spouts? How about taking the Christmas Tree down the morning after Christmas (by evening - the house is back to "Better Homes" condition .... Christmas is just some files on an SD card!). Well - no ... that's not me.

Well, I suspect if you are carrying bricks for a floor - then you are going for a thermal mass warm floor system - maybe with warm water coils in sand underneath. Problem is - your thermal mass will still be cold come Spring - haha. Best of luck. Better wear slippers on the way to the boys room at night!

We are just about to close the chapter on the third floor Sean. I began this when we realized our first grand-daughter was on the way. Leah will be stopping by soon, on the way by with her fiancé - who is in the USAF. Leah is 20. Time flies when you are ... busy.

Enjoy your Winter Sean. I hope you will remain snug, warm, and content.

God Bless. Thanks for your comments. (I was only hours from sending you a PM to make sure you were well. I knew it had been some time since you dropped by).

Gary

Hi Gary,

I haven't shot anything lately but PJ has! He just got a chance to call me from boot camp at Ft Sill. He has to qualify with the M-16 at 300 yards next week but had instruction time this week. Apparently they use a target meant to simulate the 300 yard site picture at 25 yards for initial training. His instructor was shocked to find only one tiny hole in the target!

Nice to hear that all that airgun training is paying off!

Hi Jerry,

hahah. That's great. I'll bet they just don't get many recruits who can shoot in the real world.

Glad those airguns put the holes where they were pointed.

Gary

Hi Gary
If it helps, both Julie and I have just gone down with the dreaded lurgy, in sympathy for you and Kelly I guess!
You are not alone.......
Cheers
Neil

Hi Neil,

Thank you for taking one for the team!!! God bless ya both!!

That "Wall-mar-titis" is a mean one.

At least, at this time of year there ... You can sit out by the pool and warm your bones! Enjoy. Pop a Jack Rabbit for me and the hawks.

Thanks for the handshake.

Gary

Finally got the downstairs floor in, it's red clay brick on top of 1/2 inch of sand, which is on top of one inch sheets of hi-density (40psi) expanded polystyrene foam used as a thermal break from the slab. The house is already much warmer downstairs, and since we took advantage of a two-day dry spell to bring the last of the bricks inside it's dry as well, hurrah! Lisa is notoriously camera shy, and of course I'm never in these shots since I'm always the one taking the photo, but this is the last bit as we worked towards the finish line. About 4000 bricks so far, still haven't done the laundry room (I shudder to think what we'll find under there), maybe twenty bags of sand, about 11 tons of material all hauled in by hand or by wheelbarrow. Next step is to sand and seal, the sand locks them in place, the sealer makes them a lot more resistant to grease and water stains and such.

Hi Sean,

Ah ... Those floors practically install themselves - don't they.

Barn frame house. That's not typical.

Does that door go into an airlock? Hope that single glass doesn't have -50f on the other side!

Gives you such a good feeling to do these little projects - doesn't it?

Thanks for sharing!

Gary

"Not typical" seems to be the construction standard that this place was built to.

Yes, it's nice to finally have a finished floor that's not ugly concrete.

No, my back is not happy about the process. There have been many days when I have wished we had chosen something like cork instead.

I'm sure the NEXT owner will haul out the bricks and do cork!

As long as the check clears, they can do whatever they want with the place. I'm sure you feel much the same on the subject, however...a certain amount of ignorance is bliss on this subject.

Oh yeah Sean ... I want to be dumb as a box of rocks on that subject. I'm sure they will WANT a wet basement. Probably keep Coy down there. Probably put down shag carpet ...

I've found it's best not to visit a house too soon after you sell it; you have to give it a while before you go back to see what the new owners have done with it.

That way you get to avoid the worst of the egregiously ignorant off-the-cuff observations such as "you should have told us that if we left the sprinklers on continually for two weeks straight we'd get a huge water bill" or "I sure wish we'd have known that if we didn't put oil in the tank that the heater wouldn't work" and other gems of a similar type.

Not only that, but it helps tamp down the urgent need to strangle the new homeowners when you find that they've ripped out or otherwise mutilated some feature that you poured your heart and soul into restoring.

"Yeah, I suppose those immaculate, vintage tongue-and-groove solid oak floors DID look "a bit old-fashioned" after all, even though I did spend a several months of backbreaking labor and a small fortune getting them sanded and refinished. I see that you've covered it all with 12 x 12 stick-on vinyl squares in hot pink and mustard, it's quite..ahem...unique. I think I'd better go now, my doctor says that suppressing my homicidal rage is bad for my health. Raises the blood pressure, you know how it is, buh-bye now."

After they've been in the place a year or two you can convince yourself that they actually lived with it for a while and made a reasoned decision about all the tasteless garbage they've installed, instead of just kicking your stuff to the curb right away like they really did.