Hoosier farmers are hurtin', as you know if you read Farmer Frank's post. Even non-farming Hoosiers are getting disgruntled with the fact that the weather has been positively Seattle-like around here for over a month. I don't think we've had more than two dry days in a row here at Roseholme Cottage since the end of March.
Last night we finally got around to joining up down at Marion County Fish & Game. Thanks to the ongoing contretemps at the public range at Eagle Creek Park, there were about 50 people there for the new member orientation and safety briefing, including friend Jack of blogmeet fame.
MCF&G is a nice facility; it's the place that holds the bowling pin matches we used to shoot (and need to shoot again.) Its only real downsides are related to its fairly urban location which result in a justifiable paranoia of rounds launched over the berm and a 'pistols, pistol-caliber carbines, and shotguns only' policy. (The permitted rounds are on a list. Oddly, .455 Webley Auto is already listed, but I'll need to petition to get .22 Remington Jet, .32 S&W, .38 ACP and 7.62x38 Nagant added.)
Eagle Creek, which normally wends placidly along the boundary of MCF&G, was swollen by the ongoing monsoon season into a whitewater torrent that rated somewhere between Class II and III on the International Scale. Meanwhile, the club safety officer was in constant danger of being swallowed by the marsh that was forming near the new pistol bays.
Hopefully we can get a dry day or two in a row so we can go try the new place out.
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12 comments:
Glad you joined. Hope to see you there.
Does MCF&G have other celebrity members?
All I have to do to get to the range is go through half a mile of cornfields, down a badly washed out road running parallel to the river (now about 2 feet higher than said road). But better days are coming.
In a week, the river will be down, and the week after that the town will start putting gravel in all the washouts. Then 'skeeter season starts. Ever shoot a highpower match with mosquitos literally walking across your eyeball?
Along about July the skeeters (oddly enough, the Norwegian word for shooters) go someplace else, and we cram in as much highpower and smallbore rifle, bullseye and bowling pin pistol, black powder rifle, running deer, and trap as we can before early snow and mud season turns the road back into gumbo and washouts. But from July to November it kicks.
With all the old and mostly abandoned 19th century mill buildings along the Connecticut river, you'd think somebody would set up an indoor 100 yard highpower range for the November through May shooters, or the guys who work 7:00a.m. to 5:30p.m. (typical hours here in New England) and just want to pop off a few with the old Springfield for half an hour after work. The indoor pistol ranges around here are cleaning up, especially on ammo sales.
Tam, down here in Houston, TX, we would love to take some of that rain off your hands. We're about 8 inches behind average rainfall, the whole state of Texas is in drought conditions with more than half in severe drought. There are many grass fires through out the state. More than half of the rain came in January with less than 0.25 inches in April. If you can find a way to move some of the rain down here, we'd appreciate it! Stay dry and stay safe!
Steve,
Our spring rains are headed in your general direction; they may get as close as to you as Morgan City, LA, despite the best efforts of the Corps of Engineers.
I'm just waiting for it to be above freezing at night and for the snow to knock it off around here. Thankfully the weather forcast looks to be leaning in that direction. Need to get the kayaks out!
You'll be happy to know that this is an aberation. Thanks to global warming, Indiana will be a desert just like the rest of the planet. Except for the bits that get swallowed up in floods. Or covered with snow.
How can I write this, you ask? Because there's (drum roll, please) NEW EVIDENCE. There's even a (more drum roll and trumpet fanfare) A REPORT!
Arctic melting faster, could raise sea 5 feet by 2100
Arctic ice is melting faster than expected and could raise the average global sea level by as much as five feet this century, an authoritative new report suggests.
The study by the international Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, or AMAP, is one of the most comprehensive updates on climate change in the Arctic, and builds on a similar assessment in 2005.
And this is an AUTHORITATIVE report. So, you can take it to the bank.
So, enjoy the rain. You'll NEVER SEE IT AGAIN!
BWAH-HAH-HAH!
/ sarc
(No, I don't actually believe in "global warming". However, I have to give credit to the gorebots: they don't give up, do they? And after the winter we had...)
So at what point do farmers say, 'This crop isn't working here anymore, time to switch to that one"?
Noah D,
At this point, I know they have to be considering rice in southern Indiana.
I wish I _could_ send you our rain. And the chilly, crappy, cloudy that goes with it too.
We haven't had a really great summer here since about 2006ish.
Yeah, Well we could also use some 'heat'. This 40-ish degree temperature (F-scale) every morning isn't getting it any better than the non-stop showers.
Global warming, My Ass...
All The Best,
Frank W. James
@Steve: You can have some of the rain from here in PA too if you want it. The river here was four feet over flood stage at one point while I was at the NRA meetings and it has done little other than rain on and off (gently for a change) since I got home. By the look of the fields here, if you have a bunch of buckets I'm sure the farmers here would let you have all the water you want for free!
The big bummer is that our Winter/Spring machinegun shoot looks to be happening in June at the earliest due to the conditions of the site...which has been teetering between lake/bog conditions for almost two months now.
Welcome to the club! There also my favorite, Friday Night Steel!! I really think all the new members and the young board leadership has been great for the club for the couple of years I been a member. I'm glad the new gate and bays are there now too.
Yeah it does suck not having centerfire rifle but it has made me actually save some money (or at least that's what I tell myself) by buying and shooting more .22 rifles :D But I think once you get past that, it has a lot to offer!
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