Regular Farmall/A Snake

Well, the short version of the story is this. I have the Regular ready to go except for mounting the motor. Finished Radiator and installed it Wednesday. I was promised the motor on September 1 but I was late getting into the machine shop to see Jimmy--the motor man.

Well, I show up and the door was locked tight. I walked around making inquiries and found out that during the last week in July Jimmy decided that he was going to kill a snake with his 44 magnum pistol loaded with hollow points. For some reason and I don't have the full story yet, he shot himself in the foot and about blew it off. He has been out of work since the day of the snake shooting. I hope I don't wind up putting a great big rubber band on this thing to make it work.

TW

I see a story in our local paper, a guy is in court after killing a rodent with a stick. Awhile back there was a story about a campgrounds operator, that drowned a bunch of skunks. He was charged with doing it improperly. One of his customers reported his actions. I'll bet he wishes he'd let the skunk get in that guy's tent. Myself, I figure if a guy is brave enough and smart enough to drown a skunk, that should be punishment enough.

My dad told a story, happened when he was young, His dad was working away, and his mom was concerned about the damage rabbits were doing, undermining barn foundation. He was using a 22, and the bullet hit concrete, ricocheted and came back and hit him in the thigh. He said, "it was one H@## of a quick lesson in shooting around concrete, rocks or steel. If a little 22 could do that kind of damage, folks best be careful with larger guns."

He described his wound and it was quite bad. He told this story for my benefit, as I was about to take the 22 and shoot a rat I had seen behind the barn.

I remember after my dad warned me about ricochet, standing behind a big tree, firing into rock, concrete or steel just to hear the ricochet. As young lads we'd go to this old dump site in the name of shooting rats. When our dad's found out about the sound effects senario, our use of the 22 was somewhat curtailed. Young lads have always been facinated by what they saw at movies or on televission.

My father-in-law blasted two big black snakes outside his barn. He"d have been hard-pressed to find a better pair of mousers.
Snake phobia is a fascinating thing. They can only strike to a distance about a fourth of their length. And I"ve never EVER seen a snake CHASE anybody. MAtter-of-fact, they seem to do their danged best to skedaddle in the other direction.
I"m not criticizing. And poisonous snakes are another thing. But those who are phobic usually have it usually got it bad. I"m trying to teach my kids respect, not fear.