by J.C.M.

There's a black man with a black cat livin' in a black neighborhood
He's got an interstate runnin' through his front yard
You know he thinks that he's got it so good
And there's a woman in the kitchen cleanin' up the evenin' slop
And he looks at her and says, "Hey darlin', I can remember when
You could stop a clock."

CHORUS:
Oh but ain't that America for you and me
Ain't that America somethin' to see baby
Ain't that America home of the free
Little pink houses for you and me

There's a young man in a t-shirt
Listenin' to a rockin' rollin' station
He's got greasy hair, greasy smile
He says, "Lord this must be my destination."
'Cause they told me when I was younger
"Boy you're gonna be president."
But just like everything else those old crazy dreams
Just kinda came and went

CHORUS

Well there's people and more people
What do they know know know
Go to work in some high rise
And vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico
Ooh yeah
And there's winners and there's losers
But they ain't no big deal
'Cause the simple man baby pays for the thrills, the bills,
The pills that kill

Wallowa/Grande Ronde Part 2

Good evening readers, now is part 2 of the float...........

Rachel and I woke to beautiful sunny skies Wednesday morning.  We made coffee and packed out camp.  Within 2 hours we were floating down pristine water enjoying the sunshine and occasional wind gusts.  After about 13 miles we found our next camp.  Big landing area, spacious kitchen site and a few spots of sand to get our vitamin D (not to mention a great spot for poopin' with a view).  We popped a bottle of champagne and unloaded the raft.  After getting camp set up (as well as the BB gun course), I made round of margaritas and was given yet another lesson on how to put BB's into empty beer cans.  Did I ever get a 'thank you' for emptying those cans..............NOPE!  Not once!  More wine, cheese, fishless days and great grilled dinners came the next 2 days (not to mention more sunshine).  Pure relaxation.  We woke Friday morning and floated out the final 10 miles, packed up the gear and had margaritas and tacos in Hood River on the way home.  All in all, a good vacation!

Done.

Wallowa/Grande Ronde Rivers Trip Part 1

Hello lucky readers of the H7HT Blog.  Well, late last night I got back from a beautiful 5 day river adventure with my friend Rachel.  It all started last Sunday when we drove out to eastern Oregon and car camped at the Minam State Park.  We woke Monday morning to early rain showers.  By the time we unloaded the truck and started blowing up the raft, we were in gale force winds and it was dumping!  The first 10 miles of the trip was on the Wallowa River before it joins the Grande Ronde for the final 30 miles.  We did the first 10 miles in 1 hour and 15 minutes.  The water was cookin!  After 3 hours of being in the cold weather, we pulled out at a nice little sheltered campsite just across from Clear Creek.  It took a few hours of setting up, but then we were golden for the next 2 days.  Shortly after getting my stove set up, I noticed my hand kept reaching for the bottle of Cazadores.  The hand was right, it was time for margaritas and................did someone bring the BB gun? Damn straight, and Rachel schooled me!   That's right folks.  Not only do I get beat by H7HT members, but by girls too!  We ate risotto for dinner to heat our bodies up and went to bed.


  Tuesday morning we were pleasantly surprised with more black clouds and more of an all day BB gun ass whoopin!  Hey, I took her in cribbage though!  We had good coffee, bloody mary's, a pooper with a view, nice cheeses with grilled bread and fruits (with wine to suit).  Dinner was grilled Albacore tuna and eggplant with saffroned farro.  Wednesday to come!................... 

   

Stage 3 of the truck remodel is nearing completion.  I had just enough nice weather to get some painting done on the exterior and spray in some bedliner material.  Just like in the Detroit factory from which it came, I used a household roller and brush to do my work.  I think the duck boat green works much better than the former light blue color scheme.  Remember, there is no light blue duck in nature.  At least not one that I want to shoot.

Stay tuned for the next installment when I attempt to bolt all the parts and pieces back together and hope it all fits.  In honor of Detroit in the 80's I will be disgruntled and drinking when I work.

U.S.A. !

U.S.A. !

BTW

Did anyone notice we have 20,000 views?  I guess I account for 19,999.  But who is the other one?

Hey, I got a new truck! (kind of)

This weekend I decided to work on the new little truck that Ole' Big Betty was good enough to sacrifice herself for.  After looking at the marginal paint job it possessed I thought that the time was right to do a makeover in the image of the duck boat that it will pull all season long.  Not knowing if Fred G. was actually able to make it here this spring for some R&R ( meaning helping me with yet another project) I started the job yesterday.

First up was sanding down the nearly gone old paint that was on the roof and hood.  It took some time.  Then I started in on the blue paint on the body of the truck when I realized the amount of effort it would take to sand all the paint to metal was not worth it.  See, the primer should cover most of the body without being bare metal. Call it laziness but I think it's more like using my time wisely.  A Macco paint job costs thousands of dollars and takes years to complete, so I cut corners.  I just sanded the old paint down to primer or metal depending on how thick it was to start.  Good thinking,I think.

Day 2 was spent finishing the sanding job and then taping off all the 'brightwork' and glass.  After that a good spray down with self etching primer, in black, was completed in the second half of the day.  The result is a truck ready to paint any way I see fit. I know that there will be call to go full camo but I want to see the same base color to match the boat, a nice flat olive green.  Time will tell.
GBCH



On a non-related note:  Jenny X.  Sorry ole friend, I will never again reveal your secrets.

Clayton the Soverign Citizen

Seems like old friend of the H7HT Clayton, has been up to 'Upgrade Camp'. Knowing full well that his aim may be compromised by zombies or homeless guys rushing his SR-71 Outback, he has upgraded the fleet.  He tells me that all his short range weapons now have the extra accuracy powers of laser sighting.  Laser sighting!  Just like the secret service or Captain Kirk, Clayton now uses lasers to take out bad guys.  Lets just hope that we stay in the 'good guy' category.
Also, the last time I checked he only had 1 sidearm. But now I see how, much like the homeless guy on the corner of 39th and Sandy, I have underestimated him. Multiple sidearms are protecting him from the inherent dangers of the big city.  Go Clayton!  Maybe you should invest in a nice Benelli Nova pump in case some of the threats coming your way just so happen to be of the Greenie variety.  Just sayin'.
GBCH

Yesterday was the day.  The first trip on the water for the H7HT duck slaying machine known as 'The Boat'.

All this for 1 Big Betty

Bright sunshine was on order for the morning as my neighbor, and secret agent of SEAL Team .5, Chris and I headed off to Killarney Lake to see if all the effort was worth it.  Short version: it floats!  This was really a shakedown run for everything.  Would the new truck pull the boat up the hills at highway speed?  Would the boat leak?  Is a 2hp motor big enough to push the boat?  Do you have to drink beer whenever you are in a boat?  Well, the answer is Yes, and No. 
I was pleasantly surprised at how easily the truck pulled the boat.  See, the truck is best described as questionable.   When you buy a 26 year old leaky, oil dripping, valve clanging, smoke emitting truck, you never know how it's going to perform pulling a boat. So far so good.  We put the boat in the water and although the drain plug leaked a bit, the rest of the boat was just fine.  It even had a more shallow draft than I expected.  No worry's about loading it down with gear and wikki.  Chris fired up the motor and headed up wind on the lake.  Good thing too because the motor immediately died and we rowed back to shore, proving that the oars work too.  After a quick refueling we were off.

We motored around the lake for a few minutes and then headed out into the river.  The water level is very high right now but the current is still not all that swift, walking speed or maybe a little faster.  We pointed the boat upriver and the little motor propelled us against the current at a slow pace.  Chris suggested a 10 or 15hp motor would be the ticket for proper motivation of the boat on this river with all the gear load I suspect we'll have.  (make you checks out to H7HT motor fund, c/o B. DaFolder, North Idaho chapter.)  After a few minutes we had to crack a beer and toast the good fortune of not sinking, proving that yes, you do need to drink beer whenever you are in a boat.
I practiced docking and beaching the boat on the shore and Chris taught me a few useful knots and tying up tricks as we putted around the river.  We then tied up to a pylon on the lake and had a snack and another ice cold beer, Chris is a good teacher.  Without his help I surely would be still out there trying to figure how back the trailer up to retrieve the boat out of the water. Practice needed I say.
Well, there it is.  The first duck boat trip of what I'm sure will be many.  Keep those checks rolling in!

GBCH

What Did You Do Today?

Did any of you climb the Empire State Building today?  I did.  In the rain.  Well not really but kind of.  A punishing task of 16 and a half sets of stairs was accomplished today at Mt. Tabor.  Being the Expert you have to stay in tip top shape, cause everyone I mean everyone is gunning for ya.  It's like the Hatfields and the McHoys.  If I don't one of you little bastards might want to stick a knife in my leg, and if you did it would break once it hit the steel belts.  Some fun facts about the Empire State Building:  King Kong once climbed to the top of the building using no ropes.  The 1573 stairs were climbed in a record 9 minutes in 2003.  And a scale model of the building was built with legos using 12,000 bricks and over seven feet tall, it took 2 six year olds over 250 hours to finish.  And some facts about Tabor: It's 653 feet in elevation, that's about half the size of the Empire State Building.  Mt. Tabor is only one of three extinct volcanos in the country within city limits.  Bend Oregon being another and Jackson Mississippi the third.  So there you have it, next time you sit down with a rack of oreo's remember this story.

.22 mag Champ too

Today I felt the need to do some shootin after watching our man Chet perform well in the History Channel docudrama about the Hatfields  and McCoys  .  I took out my old Winchester model 94 (the gun that won the West) to the shootin range and had my way with some Hatfield targets.  Suffice to say that if the Hatfields were made of targets consisting of old cereal boxes I would have destroyed them.
After a short sighting in session I put these groupings together from 50 yards.  Of course Jenny X would have done better but I think that I had some respectable groupings.
Take that Devil Anse!