Signs of Spring

kshultz · Apr 13, 2016

Kraig,
Yeah, they camped right next to us. Pretty cool.

kmcconaughey · Apr 13, 2016

Oh, the fun you could have with a de-scented pet skunk...

pbell · Apr 13, 2016

Kraig,
My wife bought a de-scented pet skunk and a kitten, not long after we got married. Watching those two play(skunk and kitten, not wife and skunk) was more fun than watching "Looney Toons", but as "stinky" got older she became more trouble to take care of. We both worked and were gone all day which didn't help matters, so Stinky went to live with some one else even though the kitten missed her playmate.

sblunier · Apr 13, 2016

Kraig, Is there anything about a 10/22 that doesn't bring a smile to your face??

They are kind of the quintessential 22..........I have several, all set up differently.....only thing more customizable is an AR!!!!!

kmcconaughey · Apr 13, 2016

Paul,

Steve, I have two Ruger 10/22s. One I switched the wood stock out for a Tapco stock. It needs a better scope as it just has a cheap Gander Mountain scope on it. The other one is my favorite. It has a bull barrel, custom stock and a nice Nikon scope. This one is a tack driver. And with a 40 round magazine...

aaytay · Apr 13, 2016

Jeeze! Don't mess around with Kraig!

I'm more of a 77/22 guy anyway....

sblunier · Apr 13, 2016

Randy at Connecticut Precision Chambering (CPC) http://www.ct-precision.com/ will work over a 10/22 trigger/bolt/barrel to exceptional standards. 2# trigger, min. headspace, action job, match chamber, new crown......makes them Perfect!!!!

My son has one very similar to your top pic, but with a Hogue stock and red dot.

I ended up with a 22" barrel version "rifle" version that wears a set of Tech Sights apperature sights......very fun and insane accurate (for iron sights) with a 27" sight radius.....lots of fun! An of course you have to have a bull barrel version too.....

sblunier · Apr 13, 2016

77/22's are fun too, but the CZ 452/455 are a better rifle.....easier to get accurate from the factory IMHO....but hasn't stopped me from owning both either

kmcconaughey · Apr 18, 2016

Blood Roots are up.

sblunier · Apr 23, 2016

1486 (with only 2900 hrs!) pulling 22' #45 IH Vibra Shank field cultivator and 24' harrow cart.......nice way to spend a beautiful Saturday in the spring.

sblunier · Apr 23, 2016

Also got to spend a couple hours on a 185 Cub Lo-Boy with 60" Woods belly mower today. Grass was tall, but Big Steve has the RPM's turned to the little 4 cylinder, so it hacked it in 2nd gear pretty well (but used most of the governor range doing it!!!).

jchamberlin · Mar 15, 2017

Well, its a new year, and spring has indeed sprung down Carolina way. Starting with the Bradford pear tree in my neighbor's yard (that's my truck & the rear of my Mercury Grand Marquis in the foreground (taken February 19th at 3:21 PM):

You might notice the bare shrub to the right of the Bradford pear in the picture above, on February 28 it bloomed and proved itself to be a Tulip Tree:

I was really taken by the Tulip Trees this year, in fact, I don't recall ever noticing them before. Here is wonderful example, snapped on March 1st:

About a block from the second Tulip Tree I noticed what I think was a Rhododendron, but I could be mistaken. I am many things, but a horticulturist is not one of them. Snapped the same day 3/1/17:

Finally, a sure sign of spring that appears every year here in eastern North Carolina, and this is exactly how I like to see it -- washing down the drain. Snapped yesterday, 3/13/17:

If you don't recognize the object depicted, it is pollen from pine trees: it blows in clouds that obscure the vision some years, and it ALWAYS kicks up my allergies. The rain takes it out of the air and out of harm's way.

The temperature is hovering around 45 now (which is considered cold around these parts), and we had frost just the other day --it actually snowed last Sunday 3/12/17, but the cold weather can't hold out much longer.
There is hope Charlie.

jchamberlin · Apr 19, 2018

Posting to give hope to all the folks from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and other points in the Midwest suffering from blizzards, thundersnow and other calamitous winter precipitation in the later part of the month of April (what did you guys do to piss off Mother Nature so?), I thought I would contribute a sign of spring from my front yard. One of my two dogwood trees really filled out quite nicely this year. Outside my yard, the azaleas are blooming brilliantly, as always. Sometimes their color is so bright it almost hurts my eyes to look at them.

I really like living in North Carolina this time of year. Enjoy

kmcconaughey · Apr 19, 2018

Jeremiah, THANK YOU! I needed that little bit of hope for Spring.

That's one beautiful Dogwood!

I wish I could grow more varieties of Dogwood up here. All that'll grow here are Redosier aka Red Twig Dogwood (Cornus sericea) and Pagoda Dogwood (Cornus alternifolia) and of course Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis) which is in the Dogwood family but isn't a tree or shrub it's more of a ground cover.