Alaskan Brewing Company's Heritage Coffee Brown Ale[/] paired with a Padron 4000 Maduro. It's a fall seasonal but the weather on the deck is still cool enough to fake it.

Sitting on the deck and looking up at my now snow- and ice-free roof, I think back to last Saturday when it wasn't so ice-free. I was sitting in the "office" absorbed in some 3D modeling for a new project, when all hell started breaking loose. I thought at first that a plane had crashed into...

First proper cigar of the season on the deck: a modest El Rico Habano paired with a generous pour of Michter's sour mash, sitting in my new Cabela's lounger. This thing is so comfortable, it's dangerous. The sun just went down and the temperature is dropping but I think I might make it.

I'm only a casual listener but The Wife® bought me a rather spiffy dust proof Bluetooth speaker for wood shop so I picked up a new (to me) album to break it in with: Traveller by Chris Stapleton. I like him a helluva lot more than the poppy-rappy country playing on the radio these days.

Ain't it, though? I swear, I stepped out for a smoke, came back, and damn near three years had gone by. Passed Rod Serling on my way back in, too. Yep, the mounts themselves are pretty nice. I thought the sculpted foam rocks looked pretty good, too and there are other nice touches. The...

Thanks for the kind welcome, everyone. Thanks. That was my first real commission piece and my most ambitious project to date. A coworker's husband had taken those ducks on St. Paul Island (middle.nowhere.Bering.Sea) and had them mounted but the wood base was pretty rough looking. They...

One of the things that kept me distracted in my absence was DIY remodeling our stairs from lackluster carpet to something nicer. Before and after: Click to embigify And as hinted at upthread, I've spent a lot of time in my wood shop...which is half of the 2-car garage...on other non-home...

Nothing noteworthy as of yet this season...just a couple of shorties, the last one or two being a Mehari's Ecuador natural. But the deck is now snow-free and the big-ass ice dam fell off of the roof so I'm itching to spend some time on the deck in a new lounger from Cabela's with a proper cigar...

...and what have I been doing? Good questions. What with not smoking so many cigars in winter, moderating another forum, and throwing myself into woodworking over the past couple of years, I just fell off of the radar for a while...a while that turned into 2½ years. I know, I'm a shit. I...

The rotation of open bottles includes Michter's US-1 Original Sour Mash Whiskey. I'm well into it and I quite like it. Very smooth, round, and buttery.

Not today's pic but I'm having the IPA from King St. Brewing Company:

Like MadMonk, I brined our bird using my variation on Alton Brown's brine recipe.  Filled the cavity with fresh rosemary, thyme, sage, and a quartered orange.  Spun it on the Weber's rotisserie for 3½ hours.

I've been using eWallet by Ilium Software since my Pocket PC days.  I have it on the iPhone and iPad and they sync to the PC companion software...which makes it far easier to enter all your info.  It's more of an information manager than just a password keeper.  I use it to keep information...

Yep, the round calls for a peppy powder with bulk appropriate to the reduced case volume vs .223. In addition to H110 and Win 296, Hodgdon's published data include Lil'Gun, Trail Boss, and IMR 4227. The round's developer, AAC, suggests A1680, at least for subsonic. H110 was my first choice...

  I hear ya 'bout sending what little you have downrange.  I was able to buy one brick of small rifle primers at a gun show last month and the local shops have zero on the shelves.  So, I'm torn about what to reload: .223 or .300 or both.   I had a short but successful trip to the range today...

I'll run counter to many recommendations and say that whether or not you need image stabilization depends on your skill level and the kind of shooting you do.  It's most useful at longer focal lengths and to some extent, slower shutter speeds.  If you're a wider angle, sunny scene shooter...

I'm still waiting on a bolt for my Blackout build but my reloading dies came in the mail on Friday.  I'm also still waiting on a trim die but just for fun, I decided to make a dry run on converting 5.56 x 45 brass into 7.62 x 35 rounds.   Left-to-right: a standard 5.56mm x 45 case; a case...

Sorry, duplicate post.

The big brown truck came on Friday, so I'm another step closer to finishing my Blackout build. The latest arrival was a Diamondhead V-RS "T" modular rail:     First impression: I really, really like this handguard. Installation is dead-bang simple and the rounded triangular cross section feels...

Hehe...me too. I figure this .300 AAC build will go as slow as molasses in...well, Alaska... but I've made a little progress. The extension tube came in today (but not the armorer's wrench) so I gave it a quick test assembly: Aero Precision lower with CMMG LPK Next Generation Arms upper...