Good morning!!!!

   / Good morning!!!! #161,151  
Having to stretch my memory a bit,
I know the M14 could accept "stripper clips", with the bolt locked back you could take a stripper clip of rounds slide the clip into a dovetail in the receiver and shove 10 rounds down and into the magazine, two strippers and the mag was fully loaded.
The magazine could also be removed from the rifle and a loaded mag latched in as well, and the empty mag loaded from loose rounds.
I don't believe the M16 had that ability.
Previous to the M14 the Garand M1 was loaded with an 8 round stripper clip that ejected from the rifle when empty.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #161,152  
Good morning to all! Low was a balmy 32° this morning.... not too bad. Heading to a high of 48°. No precip expected, breezy.

BEF, any time you want to head out with the camper, you are welcome here. I even have RV power, water, and sewer dump setups.

Fritz, some pics, as promised. There were some other scenic places to get a pic... but wifey was tired of me stopping... she wanted to "get there already".
These were just after leaving our house:
BFEB2B84-A6F0-4A23-BC74-2F501E3DB7CA.jpeg8C6F544A-5A7E-419F-8379-B7CA2D75ECD0.jpegDE73D2AC-CD19-4A54-B2CC-6C9ACFDD54A4.jpeg

And these were in an old mining town that is now a tourist gift shop town called Madrid, about 1/2 hour from us. They filmed the restaurant scene from "Wild Hogs" there.

981B1035-B2C0-4C6F-B5B2-DDE8E8954E8B.jpegFB466711-93C7-46B4-A33B-6C1CE5A918AE.jpeg

These are around the same area as the mining town:

32998BA6-7153-4A97-8B08-2D8CB03E8593.jpegD204BCCD-E865-4F26-B812-590AE6B92FAA.jpeg

These are around the Abiquiu area, neat rock formations:

BD48B835-B49B-463B-A722-FBF96B429460.jpegD0DF236D-344B-43D5-82F5-8618F737F3D1.jpegE9F8E2EA-DBA1-479E-95A8-68A049FC45DB.jpeg
 
   / Good morning!!!! #161,153  
This is my former company wishing merry Christmas. Some of you may find it interesting what they get involved with. They are actively trying to get me out of retirement but no chance!

Bechtel colleagues and alumni,
Bechtel continued to make news and to contribute to the communities we serve in the final months of 2022. Following are highlights of some important milestones and megaproject wins you may have missed since the last edition of Alumni Update.
There are currently more than 10,000 active job listings on the Bechtel Alumni Network website. If you haven't done so recently, we encourage you to visit the website to view the many open positions we are aggressively seeking to fill, learn about job fairs (virtual and in person) and update your profile with your latest skills and experience.
Wishing you happy holidays and a happy 2023.
Sincerely,
 
   / Good morning!!!! #161,156  
32F and sunny @ 13:30, heading up to a high of around 35F for the day.

Garage seems to be holding temps nicely: only dropped to 37F (from 39F) over the past several days when overnight lows were in the 20's. It's now up to 38F.

Emptied out the whole house vac and got all the trash and recyclables gathered up and loaded in the car yesterday including the bags from the basement.

Was going to take the paper products down to the recycling bins at a local place but their containers were all still full.

Since we were more than 2/3rds of the way to the grocery store, we headed over there to pick up an item they were out of the other day when The Woman went shopping. They had told her they were due to get a truck later that day, but unfortunately the item(s) She was looking for did not come in. Still think She managed to grab a few items though.

Dropped off all the trash and recyclables up at the road, including all the paper and cardboard.

Fed fish.

Vacuumed south wall and adjacent floor back in utility room.

Got one of the 2" foam board panels glued up and placed and braced against that south wall in the utility room. Used a 5 gallon bucket of gravel and a 2 x 4 along the bottom, a couple of pieces of 3/4 plywood leaning in towards the middle, and a pair of HF clamps flipped to act as spreaders at the top.

Also got a second panel moved back into the utility room and trimmed to length (89")

Removed the staples holding an alarm system wire from the sill plate and moved the wire out of the way.

Also discovered that there is cold air flowing into the utility room from a 2" gap in between a HVAC duct (that goes into the family room) and the exterior concrete wall, where the duct passes through an interior concrete block wall (part of the central chimney system)

Was going to fill that up with Great Stuff ... but not really sure I can get to it without removing the ductwork ... 🤬

At any rate, that begs the question: where is all this cold air coming from exactly ?

I suspect the interior wall in the family room, which is paneling, has only 1x furring strips and no insulation whatsoever. May also have air leaks where wiring passes through the exterior wall.

At any rate will not know for sure until I get into that room and get the paneling torn out. But there is a whole set of built-in cabinets that will need to be torn out before I can even get to the paneling. That won't likely happen until later, maybe around Spring.

Woman heading out shortly to do a little shopping.

Agenda for today:

Refill hopper feeder.

Haul more tools downstairs from the garage.

Feed fish.

Wipe down the next panel and get it glued up and braced.

Trim the next one after that.

Some more sanding and staining.

Plus whatever else comes up.

Hope everyone is having a good Tuesday ... (y)
 
   / Good morning!!!! #161,157  
   / Good morning!!!! #161,159  
Chilling out this morning, didn't sleep well while away.... big difference between a 10" memory foam mattress and a pull out sofa-bed. Then there was the marshmallow pillows. Fought with them all night....

No place like home!...... We had an enjoyable trip despite the sleeping issues.

Only got a couple hours to see our daughter though. The clinics are super busy and she's picked up some extra shifts. Then, after working 6 days this week, she just got notified that the clinic will be open on New Years Day.... and she will be the only provider for the day. She is not happy about it!

Need to go to the grocery store again....
....and pick up a few last minute items

Got to get moving....
 

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