Cactus Jack Calder

Death from the Ankles Down!

As a transplanted Yankee there is one condiment (?) used here in North Carolina that I just don’t understand. They put COLESLAW on just about everything. I can not eat Cabbage of any variety without gastronomic discomfort so I never eat the COLESLAW, but I have to order everything “NO SLAW” or it is buried. And they look at me funny, as if I am a Martian or something. Who in their right mind thinks COLESLAW belongs on a Burger. For me it is Burger, Cheese and a Bun, that’s it. Otherwise you can’t taste the meat. If the meat is that bad I don’t want it anyway. CJ

Squirrel in the Toilet: My family and I went to Alabama from New York State to see my folks. Our next door neighbor, a widow, asked if she might use our house to allow her Daughter and Son in Law to sleep there while visiting her during our absence. Our family was very close to her and she had been ‘adopted’ by our children as “Grandma Jo”, so we said it was okay. When we returned the house was fine, just as we had expected. The next morning Grandma Jo told my wife, ‘You will not believe what happened while you were gone’. It seems that during the night her SIL went into the

Aw come on Hardpan, You could serialize it. We’d read it. CJ

WK, dualist1954 [Mike Belavue (sp?)] has a video on YouTube titled “Modifying the Pietta 1851 Navy Grip Frame” where he states that the Pietta does have a flare at the rear base of the grip that is not pro typical of the Colt Navy. He shows how to rework the frame to make it more conventional. Sorry I can’t post the web address, but you can type the title into your search engine and it should find it for you. CJ

Not a practical joke but Injun Ryder reminded me of one time. We had a ski tow boat that we used on weekends. We were at a camp ground where we were not able to berth it at a dock, so I pulled it out of the lake every Sunday afternoon. One weekend as we were headed to the ramp my wife volunteered to go to our camp site and get the trailer down to the ramp area as I brought the boat in. She did a great job and actually had the trailer backed down the ramp ready to load the boat. I ran the boat up on the end of the trailer, got out and hooked the cable on, winched the boat up on the

Hardpan, Carving is fun! Don’t wait! I started when I was 73, three years ago. I never thought to try it then I watched a YouTube video (Sharon my Art) on how to carve a little figure. It is charactiture (sp?) but it was fun. I started making changes to the basic design to try out different ideas. Once I got going I made different things for family and friends. Christmas of 2019 I made 18 Santa ornaments for the tree. I gave them away and everybody seemed to love them. Many sent me pictures this year of the ornament on their tree. Just watch some videos on YouTube and ‘try i

In 1960 a #2 pencil jabbed at my face. I held up a book to shield my eyes. Right at the root of my nail. “Doc Adams” (my father) dug out the chunk of graphite but the dust remains. That is my left hand ring finger. I’ve got another chunk in my right palm that has pretty well disappeared. I believe my body has absorbed it. Does that mean I’m a pencil at heart? CJ

Cooould Bee! CJ

You guys all need to accept the fact! The IT People are “In Charge” and there’s nothing you can do about it! CJ

Cyrus, Thank you I needed to see that. My lineage: Calder = Campbell of Cawdor. John Calder is my Maternal Grandfather. I married a Leslie. My sons are half Scotts, the other half is German/English. CJ

Around here we have pickup three days a week. What? You ask! Three days a week! How much trash can you make in a week? Monday - Household trash (i.e.. kitchen waste) Wednesday - Yard trash (leaves, pine cones, pine straw, grass clippings, etc.) Thursday - Recycling trash (very selective, no glass it weighs too much, no black plastic, no styrofoam) If there is a holiday on Monday Household trash is picked up on Wednesday and there is no Yard trash pickup that week. This can be a catastrophe, we might be buried in pine needles by the next week.

I live on the north side of a lake on Shadow Lane. There is a house on the south side of the lake on Shadow Drive with the same street number. You know what happens a lot. I just call them on their cell and they stop by on the way home from work to pick it up. The strange thing is I’ve never had to go retrieve a package Miss delivered to their house, and I’m not missing any deliveries either. I wonder why UPS, FEDEX and USPS can find my house but can’t find the one across the lake? Their house is newer than mine (3 years vs 17 years) but come on! Three years and they still can’t tell the di