Happy Birthday ssgross

[ssgross]

Trust photos to follow.

you bet. Then again my pictures backlog has grown to exceed the work backlog now. I had a long term kitchen restoration project this past year that resulted from one of the plastic hoses on my dishwasher disintegrating. It flooded the kitchen, down into the basement ceiling. The affected area overlaps with the shop ceiling, and the water damage extended to just a few feet short of where my work area is, including the rack containing my in-progress rifles. I was happy about that, but then the shop was filled with all the things from the kitchen and basement that needed stored while it was sorted out, along with all the supplies for restoring it.
Kitchen et. al. was finally finished Christmas Eve, and yet I'm still trying to get the shop back in order. I was able to wade through the mess over the holidays to clear out enough room to make a dent in the bluing backlog. I'm also taking the mandatory re-organization as an opportunity to make some upgrades -- roll out shelves under the bench (which is ~30 ft. long mounted against the house foundation), a strong island bench with plenty tool storage underneath...maybe space for a lathe and mill. Will need to be bench top models. nothing too serious, just enough for basic work and making odd bits or tools, and to further develop my craft. It's all still in my head as the day job seems to interfere whenever I finally get the motivation and time to tackle something.

As a BDAY gift, the kids promised to spend a whole weekend with me in the shop, so I made a point to clear out the reloading area last night. My supply of ready-made 30-06 has dwindled to unfathomable levels - to the point where I can't go shooting even when I have the time. Let's face it 22lr and 5.56 are fun and all...but it get's old and cannot at all be compared to dialing in an old milsurp I've tuned myself, and shooting tighter groups then all the expensive black rifles in the other lanes - often at half the cost of their rifles too!