Cactus Jack Calder

I was told, that is how you get a 6 day Camel to last 7 days. Clap them on the hangy down part as they are drinking and they suck up the extra water. CJ

My Alias, My maternal Grandfather died when my Mother was six years old. Although my Grandmother remarried before I was born, she always told me of her “First Love”. John Calder was a pure blood Scot, born in the United States of immigrant parents. I don’t know if ever was called Jack, but he worked in a lumberyard and likely the men in the yard used nicknames for each other rather than their full name. I named our second son after ‘Grandpa Calder’ which delighted my Grandmother no end. The life and times of Cactus Jack Calder: Born in Rochester, NY of Scots immigrants, John (Jack) Calder was apprenticed to a sawyer (A man who turns trees into lumber) at a very young age. After several years of grueling labor, he decide sawdust would not make him rich and ran away at the age of fourteen. Of course at this point he was just Jack Calder, the Cactus part came later. Who knows there might be more to the story.😉 CJ

Actually I did not. I accepted the idea that it was a dovetail mount from Texas Jokers response. As I said it worked on my London Pattern Navy by Uberti. CJ

What Cypress Sun said!! I’ve done that myself to a Uberti Navy never had a problem after that. I think it is better than bending the dovetail wings down. CJ

Mom had a friend from Nursing School, Annette. We would visit her up in Connecticut. My brothers and I loved seeing her and listening to her stories. One year we visited her at her new house, a nice cottage on a lake near Old Lyme. She took me and Dad down to the basement to show us something funny. The unfinished ceiling was punctured every 4” by a nail in every direction. She had decided to lay her own subfloor and went to the lumber yard to get supplies. The counterman told her drive nails ever 4” and the floor would be “good and tight”. When she returned to the lumber yard for more nails, he asked what she had done with all the nails he had sold her. Once she explained about the pattern she had followed, on his advice, he gave her enough nails to finish the job just nailing into the beams. She was some proud of her work and happy to show off her mistake on the first quarter of the floorboards. 🙂 CJ

A freebie from NRA. Stud flip on blade works well for me. It holds a decent meat cutting edge. You would never get or want a shaving edge on it. It’s a good work tool not a fancy show piece. What a knife should be. Has a 2-7/8” blade, NC has a maximum blade limit of 3” on folders, no gravity, or automatic knives allowed. I have several knives for carving wood that live in a tool roll. So you might say I’m a knife guy, but they are not really suitable for carry. CJ

Ditto in reverse order. The older son is retired USAF. The younger one isn’t interested. NBD. Youngest got most of his Mom’s art talent and equipment. He was happy with that and the older one only wanted one item his Mom made for the nostalgia of it. Both are good men and do good in this world. Can’t ask for more! CJ

Blackwater, keep a diary of all verbal communication with Insurance Co. obviously also paperwork sent both ways. Date, time, who you talked to, what was said. I had dispute with a health insurance co years ago. I kept a diary on my computer. Eventually I had to contact the State Board of Insurance. They have ability to exert pressure on the Insurance Co. The diary was a big lever that I could hand to the Board’s Investigator. It was resolved in my favor, so well worth the effort. Cj

I worked a summer job at a chain burger joint named “Wetson”. They fried all the burgers on a large flat grill with onions placed on the grill before the meat. If you wanted no onions they scrapped them off the meat and bun. If you wanted a cheeseburger they took a burger back behind the grill and added melted cheese and rewrapped the burger with a cheeseburger wrapper. As far as I know they are long gone out of business. They actually had really good fries, made with whole fresh potatoes pealed and sliced on sight. I worked the fry station. It was a pretty good job. Though cleaning the grease trap at the end of the day, was a job few youngsters could tolerate. Since I had a cast iron stomach I got the job. CJ

Pappy’s Deer Rifle: Some time in the 1970’s my wife’s Grandfather passed away. Pappy was a hunter and I was the only relative who had an interest in guns or hunting. So I was offered his hunting guns. No question, I said YES! Pappy’s deer rifle was a Savage Model 99 chambered in 38-55. I was unfamiliar with this cartridge. Research into the cartridge revealed that it was originally a Black Powder load. The rifle barrel was clearly marked “high pressure” so I contacted a gunsmith I knew and he investigated the rifle using its serial number. The rifle was designed for modern powder, manufactured in 1910 and purchased new by Pappy. Modern loads that I found for the 38-55 had a 255 grain semi jacketed bullet. I don’t remember the powder charge. I took the 99 along on a chuck shoot to sight it in. It had a Buckhorn iron sight (wide rear sight that looks like a moose antler). I sighted it in at 100 yards with a solid rest shooting at a 4” black square on a 3’X3’ paper. The last three shots were solidly in the square. I figured in NY a 100 yards was a fairly good far limit for hunting range. My hunting buddy and I then set up on a hill to wait for the chucks to come out. Our host, a dairy farmer, had asked us to watch for an “old granddaddy” of a chuck that had a burrow in the middle of a field on a hill face opposite where we set up. He had stopped letting his cows using that field to protect them. Sure enough that old granddaddy came out and began feeding. My buddy said, “Why don’t you try that Savage on him?” That 38-55 cartridge had quite an arch to the bullet path. The range was probably closer to or more than 200 yards. I said, That’s not a shot I think I can make with this rifle.” His response is, “I have a .243 with a bipod. I’ll set up and if you miss, I’ll pop him.” So I sighted on the chuck, then raised my sights to a spot I guessed might give me enough elevation. When I pulled the trigger to our amazement the chuck dropped. We went out to check on him. It turned out that I missed. No he didn’t die of fright. About 6 feet in front of the chuck was a flat rock laying in the field with a blaze of lead across the surface. The chuck was laying there headless. A clean kill. The farmer was happy to have his field back. CJ

I’ve gotten a few with that cartridge out of a Browning Semiauto takedown carbine with a 4X scope. Line up with a steady rest, hold it firmly against the rest, pop, pop as quick as I can. Two shots usually did it, if they twitch after that I usually had time to sight carefully again for a head shot. Used the CCI mini mags also. I have an interesting story about a Savage 99 in 38-55 that I inherited from my wife’s Grandfather. It was Pappy’s deer rifle. CJ

Well that proves it! Something is wrong with the water in Florida!! CJ

Offer them a deal. You become their spokesperson, tell how you did minimal maintenance and it lasted 23 years with no repair or replacement. In return they rebuild your deck for free. The you tell folks you expect the new one will outlive you. 😀 Might work! CJ

This is the interpretation I thought was most appropriate. The idea of rubber babies, not dolls, real babies, always made me smile. To many commas? CJ