Range Day

Yes today was suppose to be a honey harvest day and in fact it still will be but I needed some range time this afternoon.

I got to start my early morning duties of moving the ewes from their night area into their day pasture since my mother the shepherd is off on her annual camping trip with her other insane horse Women friends. They are down two this year however as the one horse is hurt and convalescing so the rider is out, and one of the other ladies fell off her horse last year and finally saw the light. After three months of bed rest and a canceled insurance policy I think she is begging off this year.

I don't mind taking care of the sheep though because they are delicious and/or useful :)

I also got to visit our ewe (Named Seven) who is going to be the matriarch of our own edible little fuzzies soon. She is really looking good actually and even at her young age has moved into about the third ewe in the chain of command. She is one of the largest and best looking of the bunch if I do say so myself.

All in all I counted 30 sheep in that little flock which I guess counting the Rams and their paddock bitch withers brings her total number of sheep up to 34 now. Moving them to the day pasture is easy all I gotta do is fill the grain feeders, leave the gate open and then go open the gate to the night time paddock they are in.

Most importantly I need to stand out of the way because the stampede then begins.

It's actually kinda fun really.

The lead ewes make sure no one goes off in the wrong direction or lags behind but for the most part they want that grain and race to make sure they don't miss out.

After that bit of adventure I washed my spin extractor out and then had to let it dry off before I could begin harvesting the honey. It was such a nice day I decided to head out to the range and do a little shooting.

I had a couple of things I needed to do. For one thing my 1911 has a bad habit of getting rust in the barrel just inside the muzzle end. This started a few years ago when I was carrying it during the Winter months and it got cold then warm. Since I was new to carrying a sidearm full time then, my inexperience taught me a lesson. Now even when I clean this pistol frequently it still gets some rust in it very quickly so I will fire it which cleans it out and seems to keep it from reforming as fast. I really need to just break down and order a replacement barrel for it I guess.

I also had a new load of .38 special I put together this Last Winter but never fired to see how it performed. The only thing different was it was a heavier grain cast bullet with a bit different lube method. I really wanted to see if it would keep from leading the barrel up in my handy rifle as quickly.

Finally I also wanted to throw a few rounds down range with my little Nagant pistol. I have used that little revolver for those "not quite certain they will follow the rules" areas. No matter what the laws or permits may say I do not trust the LEO's in places like St. Louis to respect and honor them so when in doubt I figure if they confiscate that revolver I won't be out much. Anyway I needed to get a better feel for it and thought today would be a good day to do that.

One thing is for certain about a Nagant revolver. Don't ever plan to reload it in a timely manner.

You can definitely tell the ammo shortage is still going on in one form or another. Used to be I could casually walk around the range and pick up a bunch of fired brass to add to my stash. These days I am lucky to find one or two missed cases.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!