Spaulding Smails

I've already thought about this. Probably headed to the ranch (Kimble County) and going to Airbnb my house for a jillion dollars. Not a huge astronomy nerd, but I am definitely looking forward to this.

This is what I've used. Works great and is easy to replace. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Vigoro-14-ft-x-14-ft-Polypropylene-Bird-Block-Netting-and-Barrier-NMVBB1414/310977979

Crappy pic. Only one I took before putting it in my safe. Will take more once it has glass on it. I'm in the same boat on not sharing rifles with my son. He's a lefty but right-eye dominant so shoots right-handed.

We'll be using a rangefinder on this hunt. I'd like to spend some time this summer once I have the scope on working on shooting at varying distances.

I'm no engineer and I'm about as Libertarian as they come, but that saying that "future wars will be fought over water" is probably pretty darn true. As a voter, I would never vote for an interstate highway system. But, despite its maintenance flaws and all the issues it created (segregation, corruption, environmental impacts), it is one of our country's bright spots and we all benefit from it. Seems like affordable desalination and significant water pipeline infrastructure is something that could turn the tables.

After four months of searching, I finally found a left-handed Browning X-Bolt 300 Win-Mag. Will post pics when I get the glass on it. Still trying to figure out which scope I go with. Leaning towards Swarovski Z5 3.5-18x44. This will be used for elk hunting and potentially a pronghorn hunt in the next few years. Any thoughts?

I believe that's Paula Abdul smack dab in the middle, isn't it?

When we bought our place in Kimble County four years ago, we put in two 10' concrete cisterns. I think they hold about 1000 gal each. We put one just down the hill from the house and a second about 500 yds away. It suuuuucked running the rock saw and PVC for that second tank, but we got it done in one weekend. And, at least we did it when PVC was affordable. Put float valves in each and had cages fabbed to go around the floats so the raccoons and hogs don't mess them up. So much better than hauling water. It's crazy how much having those cisterns on the property has kept the wildlife close.

I played in a buddy's member-guest last weekend. First time in one of those events. Very well organized. Calcutta was HUGE ($123K total in the pot). We finished day 1 T-27 in windy conditions. It was an adjusted Stableford format with quotas and adjustments daily. We were 76-77 net (definitely not gross). Day 2 we absolutely shit the bed. Like abysmal. 88-85 were the net scores. Finished the day in 71st place out of 79. Day 3, we got our shit together. 73-71 net. Won some day money and ended up right in the middle at 41st place. I learned a lot. Really looking forward to playing in another one now that I'm able to play quasi regularly and not out there embarrassing myself.

Call me shocked as well. I thought no way would a Mule hold that. I've had to haul water to my new property while building my house (c'mon PEC, get your shit together so I can turn on my well, dammit!). I started by hauling a single 250g tank in the back of my F350. It squats a bit and I found it easier to fill it completely to the brim to prevent the sloshing. It was kind of a pain to unload it every time with the backhoe, so I ended up getting a second tank and hauling them on my tandem axle trailer.

Rain Bird makes a DIY friendly system available at Home Depot. Super easy to use and install. I had an in-line battery powered timer valve on mine, so it was pretty fool proof. I had a mix of sprayers and drip. I had a big garden (~1200 SF) at my last house, so I had three "zones" that I would control manually with shut-off valves. Because I was coming off a 3/4" water line, I didn't have enough pressure for all three simultaneously, but if you went pure drip, I think you'd get a ton more capacity.

I had a painter that worked for me for a few years. Good guy. Had a few screws loose, though. Too much lacquer I suppose. Before he came to work for me, he had his own painting business. He told me a story about painting the exterior of this really nice craftsman style two-story house in Pemberton Heights. Lots of sanding. Hand painted. He said they were there for weeks. He had a group of Honduran brothers working for him. Anyhow, he said that one of the Hondurans had bubble guts and couldn't make it to the convenience store. Homeowners weren't home, so he dropped trou in the far corner of the backyard and sprayed some party mud. Crisis averted and he went back to work. Evidently, the same dude's up at the very top of the roof sanding the chimney and sees the family dog come sauntering out of the doggie door into the backyard. The dog's sniffing around in the same back corner and ends up rolling around in the Honduran dude's mud pile. Before the guy can slide over the roof and get back down the ladder, the dog's already back through the doggie door and in the house and doing the dog move where they rub up against the wall and the carpet and the furniture. Except the dog's covered in human shit. And smearing it all over the white walls, cream colored carpet and antique furniture. And the door's locked. And the Honduran dude is freaking out. He calls his boss (the guy telling me this story), and he hauls ass over there. Long story longer, he has to wait for the homeowners to get home and explain to them what happened. He said they were surprisingly cool, but he paid to have everything downstairs in the house steam cleaned. Not my story, so no clue how true or accurate it is. But, it's pretty damn funny. And, from this day forward, no matter how small the job, I ALWAYS put a line item in the budget for a portable toilet.

Any tips for processing? Do you have a mechanical plucker? We had a hen get broody a few years back. Had an employee give me about a dozen fertilized eggs. We ended up butchering the half dozen roosters from that hatch. It was manageable, but kind of a pain. Would've been a real chore with 45 birds. And, they were by no means broilers, so the yield wasn't much, but damn they sure were tasty.

Someone made the comment in the rain thread, but this year looks "different" as if we're in the midst of a big drought. Seems like wildflowers are late and few and far between. Native grasses and trees haven't started budding out yet. Everything just looks brown and shiny. Kinda like Mother Nature knows we're going into a nasty drought.

Awesome. That was one of the brands I was looking at. I'm in Dripping Springs. Probably not pulling the trigger until this coming winter. If I do, and if that's close enough to qualify, I'm happy to mention your referral.

Buttoning up the coop at our new property. Still need to run power and water to it, add some battens and trim on the exterior and finish up the nesting boxes inside, then add decomposed granite on the ground. But, the ladies are out of the elements now, so my wife is happy. We only had two left after the move and are holding off until we have power to buy another round of chicks. I think we'll be able to keep 20+ in there comfortably. We'll let the free range during the day while we're home, but I made sure to make the screen area plenty large so we can leave for a long weekend without them being too cramped. I'll post more pics when 100% completed.

Can you send a link and pics when it arrives? Are you assembling yourself or having it put together by someone else? I'm scoping them out now for my new property. That's almost the exact same size I'm considering. Running power and water out to the chicken coop that will be adjacent to the garden and greenhouse in a few weeks. Trying to plan ahead for adding those later this year.

This is a great point. Things change in business, and it's hard enough to deal with changes on the business side, let alone throw in the real estate aspect. In our case, we brought in an additional partner (buddy who is a real estate attorney) on the land deal. It helped us secure the deal on the front end, and it's been good for both parties. We'll probably start looking for dirt in the next 24 months or so for the next venture, and we'll most likely bring in a different partner for that endeavor. If RE isn't your core business, and you're looking for something beyond a 100% owner occupied space, having someone with more expertise in that space can be very valuable. In this next round, we're talking to someone who has more of a developer mindset and much deeper pockets that can really help slingshot a larger play.

Yep. We did it the exact same way for multiple reasons. Keeps your costs consistent, and you think about it from the a landlord perspective when you have a separate LLC. My thought has always been that, if I sold the business, keeping the real estate would be a must. And, to follow up on what I said earlier, the only way I'd sell what I have now would be to upgrade a land ownership stake. Seems like a no-brainer to have steady commercial rental income as part of a retirement income stream.

I have both right now. Own my original office that we still use, and just signed a lease for our second office. We've owned the space for five years now. Had a tenant for a few years as well. I can make an argument for both. It really depends on the situation and the type of business. Obviously, the increase in equity and the freedom / flexibility to do what I want is a huge plus. The biggest downside is being stuck if your needs change. You end up making sacrifices for the sake of staying at your own space that may cost you profitability. I liked having a tenant, especially one right next door that I could keep an eye on. But, the random BS was tiresome, and towards the end, we were having to chase them down for rent. Ultimately, their lease expired and they moved on. Which was a good thing because I believe they're out of business due in large part to Covid. On the rental side, it sure is nice to have a tenant to call when something is wrong. Love the flexibility piece to be able to move around if needed. But, beyond paying the rent, you do feel like you're throwing money away when you try to make the space your own, especially if it's a shorter term. Ultimately, I think we'll end up selling the property we own when our lease is up on the new space (5 years from now) and trying to roll it all into one consolidated space with us as an anchor tenant and other tenants alongside.

My shitting apprehensions have drastically waned over the years. From refusing to shit in a public restroom to no-holds-barred shitting in porta potties and convenience store. A nasty porta potty is about as bad as it gets for me from an actual location standpoint. But, I did encounter some gastric distress while training for a marathon at the midway point of an out-and-back 16 mile run several years ago. I tried the run-walk-run-walk interval strategy, but the contractions were getting stronger and closer together. I was less than a mile from home when I couldn't take it any more. Ended up shitting inside a 48" culvert under a busy farm to market road and wiping with my running socks. Sidebar... while in outside sales many moons ago, my colleagues and I coined the term "Hampton Inn Pitstop". Walk into a Hampton Inn or other mid-range hotel, and calmly walk by the front desk to the lobby shitter. Almost always immaculate and rarely occupied. Because, who shits in the lobby of a hotel when you have a room there? Walk right back out like you own the joint.

Correct. Background checks only show convictions. Not arrests. He was arrested and held, but didn't go to trial and wasn't ever convicted. Otherwise, he had a spotless record.

One of those four burnouts that were falsely accused worked for me for about 3 years. Decent guy. Hard worker. Just kind of kept to himself. Clean background check when we hired him. I didn't arrive in Austin until my stint on the 40 acres in the late 90s, so I wasn't super familiar with the murders. I read the book "Who Killed These Girls?" about a year after I hired him. I'll never forget reading that book, and getting to the spot where they mentioned his name. It's not a super common name, so my jaw immediately dropped. I happened to be on a flight at the time with no WiFi. Couldn't wait to get to the internet to search a picture of him from 25 years ago. Sure as shit, it was him. I never brought it up during his tenure with me and neither did he.

I don't think I've ever clicked on this thread, but the one time I do and speed scroll through the last page, and holy shit, this is me. Always been a good sleeper. Quick to sleep, can sleep anywhere, any time, no insomnia. I'll be damned if the last year hasn't been full of the 3-AM-wide-awake-crazy-anxiety-and-random-thoughts deal. Usually lasts about an hour. I'll eventually fall back to sleep, and right as rain at 5 AM when the alarm goes off, but damn, it sucks and really puts me in a funk the next day. Anyhow, I clicked on the link to bitch about my elbow tendinitis. I'm a lefty and it's my right elbow, but what a pain in the ass. It's odd because my strength is still fine, but it's weird angles that kill me. I can't pick my coffee mug up out of the cup holder in my truck without wincing in pain. I have to reach with my left hand. It hurts to hold it straight, so I'm walking with my arm subconsciously slightly flexed, so I'm running into door jambs and banging my elbow which compounds the pain. It sucks. Time to go see a doctor, I suppose.

I freed a skunk from a Have-A-Heart trap once. It was after dispatching a .22 to his head, but I removed him from the trap, nonetheless. @crimsonlonghorn why on earth did you even tempt fate by trying to let him out? Nice job, but damn. I wouldn't have thought twice about perforating a skunk.