Brian D. Bray

[Sparky]

Wow!!! it is nice to know you are well Cindi. Ive missed reading your ramblings. You will have to write a few chicken stories for us.

[Robo]

You don't need an assault weapon..."You'll shoot your eye out, kid."   

Funny, that at the time, no one told me that my 22lr that I got as a kid was an assault weapon.    For all these years I just thought it was for plinking and squirrels. 

[Intheswamp]

Good to hear from you Cindi and glad you're doing well.  Take care of those chickens...do you have an indoor yard for them in the winter?  Moisture issues?   Have you ever read Woods "Fresh-Air Poultry Houses"?  It's an interesting  read.

I hear ya, Robo, on the plinking.   Time changes lots of things...sometimes the changes are good...sometimes bad.  That 22lr when you were a kid was seen as a plinking gun or something to hunt small game with...lots of kids learned to shoot with them...nobody thought anything ominous about them.  Today some people scream that it is a weapon of mass destruction or something...and some people would actually use it as such.  What has changed?...the gun is the same gun as it was so many years ago...maybe a little more polished and worn...but it still operates the same.  The only thing that has changed in the equation are the people. 

Ed

[Michael Bush]

Times have certainly changed.  My dad and his brother, because my grandpa was an engineer, got to ride the train for free, so they would climb on the train with their shotguns draped over their arms and ride up to Kansas and hunt pheasants and quail, and then hop back on the train with dead birds hanging all over them and shotguns on their arms again and ride home.  No one was the least bit worried.

When I was a kid, we inherited an old Japanese Arisaka that my Grandpa brought back as a war trophy.  He broke off the firing pin and gave it to my dad to play with when he was a kid and when we came along we inherited it.  I do remember once an adult looking worried when the saw us hauling it around the yard and playing with it (it was much taller than me).  We told them the firing pin was broken off and they smiled and waved and moved on down the sidewalk.

Either of these two perfectly normal situations would involve a SWAT team today...

When I wanted a BB gun as a kid, my dad wouldn't let me have one because they were too dangerous and too quiet.  My first gun was a .410.  Most kids first gun was a .22.  I can't remember many of my friends who didn't have one.  By the time they were 12 they had a .30-06 or equivelant...

[lazy shooter]

My first gun was a Stevens single shot .210 from Sears Roebuck and Company.  I was nine years old that Christmas.  Many a squirrel and quail fell to that shotgun.  My dad has several .22 rifles and he would let me use a Remington bolt action rifle in that caliber.  We were raised around guns and until I graduated from high school I only knew of two shooting accidents.  One was fatal.  Most of us farm and ranch kids had daily chores, and we grew into responsibility sooner than todays video game children.

[DayValleyDahlias]

Seems like "Old Home Week" for me, Cindi, Annette, JP, and all...looks like I'll bee knee deep in bees this year as I have retired from Acute Care Nursing...Now time to focus on my flower farm, birds, family and bees too...

Nice to see you all here!

I'll be installing 3 packages April 20th, I am sure to have questions as it has been a while!

[annette]

Hi Sharon

So nice to hear from you. I feel badly because the beautiful dahlias you sent me, didn't make it in storage.

Happy to have you back as well. I don't post as much as I used to because life has gotten so hectic and I need to stay focused on other things. But I check in and read all the posts and try to stay up on things.

It has been a bad year. I am down to 1 bee hive right now. Lost a couple this winter.

Take care
annette