June in Idaho, almost sizzling Summer...

  Two day Appleseed calls for my participation, and I have to get away from the computer and cable, find real people and firearms and some story telling... so I drive away from home at eight in the evening all night to get there, five hours and twenty minutes plus stopping for food, fuel and sleep.

  Twenty-five shooters on the line, wow! I loved it, how do they get such large groups, well, they do bring the children, come as couples, and are the only Appleseed until 2017 in Northern Idaho. That is how that happens, the Shoot Boss is on top of the event long before the gate opened in the morning, using email to keep the shooters in contact and aware.

Junior Patriots

  Large number of Red Hat instructors, makes almost certain we will do fine, opening introductions and briefing, safety. Then they bring rifles to the line and uncase them. First Redcoat targets tell everyone that there is a lot of improvement ahead. Several of our shooters are on their second Appleseed, since we teach so much in such a short time a second Appleseed is a great way to solidify the shooting skills and ask those questions you didn't know you needed to ask at the first one.

  If there was only one detractor, it was the HEAT. I didn't notice it the first day but I didn't sweat which meant I had no excess water to cool off, should have drunk some more. The butterflies, bees and other flying insects thought our spilling excess water from the well was wonderful, they spent a long time cooling down in the puddles on the damp earth. Only one unscored AQT on the first day, and only the First Strike told, but lots of marksmanship instruction for groups and individuals given.  Reinforce and repeat, make them know what the four safety rules are, the six steps to make the rifle safe, the six steps for making the shot. Over and over, trying the young people, finding out what will make this work.  By the time of the final Redcoat we are ready to pack up, now how well did they do on that last thirteen rounds? Well, they did just fine, thank you very much. Just fine.

  Instructors dinner is good, lots of sharing of ideas for the morrow and what we saw and thought about the day, then off to a shower and some very solid sleeping.

   The second day was the day I earned the big bucks for being there. Being a volunteer means all my payment comes in the smiles and improved performance of the shooters and listeners to our stories about our heritage. I had been fighting a cough for about ten days before I showed up, so it was slowing me down and I am ancient so I walk funny, enough excuses.  Quick reviews, checks of grouping, sight settings and more reviews and the first AQT of the day before lunch. Ah, there are people that know very well what they are about. By this time some of the shooters were shooting everything from the prone with a rest, the rifles do tend to get heavier for those still growing.



   Riley, a fine young lady much noted the evening before, came over to me and asked me to look at her target and score it. She really wanted to know why on Stage one she had only one bullet hole on the target and all the other rounds hadn't touched it. So, it began, I analyzed her shooting from what I saw on the target and gave her one idea for each thing I noticed. Her first score was really not much, less than 129, which means unqualified.   That bullet hole was on the V in the center of that 100 yd target, and nine were surrounding it consistantly... she had been looking at her bullet holes.

  Lunch and a Second Strike, then the Third Strike as the afternoon AQT grind began, walked the line, talked a little to the shooters about steady hold factors, making the shot, and watching for follow through and Rifleman's cadence. When scoring the AQTs I would show the shooters where their NPOA had really been, why changing mental focus to the next target would get them a bullet hole between targets. Little things started getting clearer, and the improvement was constant and amazing.

  I was drinking more, sweating and hanging in there between bouts of coughing.  Riley kept bringing me her target to score and tell her what I saw, the biggest thing I noticed was the improvement in groups, the improving scores and steady progress.  So it was like 140, then 172 or so, and then the third, her best, of 184. The last AQT was less, but still good for being at the end of a long hot day. The group had a chance to fire the last Redcoat, and then circled up in the far shade as I watched the line.  The announcement of the new Riflemen, and their pictures taken, Huzzah, Huzzah, HUZZAH! That echoes so well in the forested hills of Idaho.

   Back to pack up rifles and start the clean up, many hands make light and quick the work. I was on the road heading West as soon as I said some congratulations and good-byes.  Such a fine Appleseed is its own reward, great shooters, and instructor crew...

What me worry?

  I have thought about the Federal Government debt, and what the folks think they have to pay out, and then watching my own money movements I realize that cheap interest rates for banks convert immediately to real bonds upon the masses of consumer borrowers  Go from the bank getting money made from air at two percent (doesn't matter what the rate is, no one is going to pay it back) to lending it out at three to thirteen percent to little guys without anything except a sense that they should pay it back.  As long as everyone plays along and keeps the money in motion it will never slow down to where it could be counted and accounted for....

   I redeem some investments, pay my taxes and await the paper check. When it arrives I go to the bank and deposit it, and am told I can't use the whole amount since they haven't confirmed it as being a real number. I would bet their books made it a real number and that it was immediately put to use for loaning overnight, just to make money.  By the close of business on Monday the whole amount should be mine, again. Lesson learned have the money electronically deposited because banks don't love paper anymore.

  Money was invented by people in charge to make commerce easier and taxable. Really, go to more primitive cultures and there will be some money, but much is paid for by barter or the success of the crops and herds at harvest.  Things moved slower in the old days.  How far back was that, still happens across the world, in either the underground economy or in the cashless hard working folks that have enough to survive but no time for cable.

  I found my annual escrow letter in the mail yesterday and think about just paying the account after the Mortgage is done,,, or be subject to hundreds of offers for refinancing, reverse mortgages and other stuff.

  The primary problem with money being invented by the folks in charge, is they get greedy want more and will devalue their money by changing the metal content, or inflation.  Both work for a bit of time, but sooner or later adjustments will have to be made, the only thing our government has going for it - no one seriously wants an accounting nor a solid value upon the dollar.

Memorial Day recovering from minor congestion and cough...

  So I was watching TCM in HD and enjoying them, and then I started questioning the technical aspects for weapons, tactics and truth in the world of entertainment illusions about History as we would have liked it. When you start to wonder what the Marines were armed with in the Boxer Rebellion, or should they have eliminated the anti-inversion skirt on the parachute in Bridge too Far, or why Charles Bronson rowed all the way to that port with the modern loading overheads, that weren't around in 1944, way too picky am I.

  But the story is also part of the problem, today we are honoring war dead, and looking at Hollywood heroes - internally pretending we would be that brave, cool, comical or deadly. I was never that cool, brave, comical and my deadly was all about weapons systems and effect on target. And sure enough, when I was most withdrawn from civilization I couldn't even get up enough nerve to say hello to some beauty pageant young ladies being escorted around to the deprived depraved for someone's happiness. Had lost my tongue when they made me wear a shirt to protect the ladies' innocence.

  The wars, their history, and even the men that went and served all betrayed by media exploitation. Remembering what one of my college professors told me about the television coverage of the Gulf War, they were using the sports reporting, instant replay, color analysis and little human interest stories. All we had seemed to be an Arab king and kingdom, the best the Soviet could sell to the Iraqis and the wonder about what their Republican Guard could come up with.  There are many first person views about the wars, worth more than the Historians that change why a new super weapon was used on the Japanese, like we were trying to eliminate a race... but we were just trying to find a solution to the problem of invading the Japanese homeland, we had survived invading Germany, but they had similar beliefs to the rest of Western Civilization, the Asians had population and an entirely different way at looking at their lives.

  Things that really aren't as true as Hollywood wants you to believe: everyone is a little bit evil, pain and coercion will make anyone do what you want them to do, money can always buy friends... the only truth I like is the one in one movie, which says "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

Remembering is worth a day or even the weekend...

  Memorial Day weekend... and I remember Rim Dungey, whom I don't know, except he was about two years older than I, and died in Vietnam. So I remember him but y'all may know many others to remember for your own reasons, do so, say a little prayer for them.

I don't know if the links still work, will check them after I post. Bow tie makes me think it was a prom picture, or he was really that different than I am, although I have had a bow tie or two.

My wife is worried about my congestion and cough, but I am almost human again after two days down, so I will go easy and just remember that there was a Rim Dungey that never made it to retirement although he paid into Social Security. Take care out there, God loves you and we will try and remember you after you are gone.

attention span deficit is the norm, hardly a disorder...

  Don't know if the speed of information transfer causes the decrease in attention span, just no ability to stick around and finish the sentence, thought or essay.  If you text, you shorten everything with little stuff, light stuff, not really serious stuff and it is gone not to be remembered by posterity.

   Does seem to be a bigger problem than I have words and space to analyze and convince you since you are already tired reading along to see if I am going anywhere with this.  Think I will sneak off to read a book.  Remember reading all night? Spent a lot of college time reading everything except my course books, which were dull.

   Testing is multiple choice, was that an indication that we don't develop minds to think in large concepts and block and blocks of logical reason? 

Well, back to normal - awake in my own bed and not having to get up...

  I have had a great Appleseed weekend, at Port Townsend, teaching marksmanship, history of April 19, 1775 and helping America gain two more Riflemen qualified citizens...

  My Facebook account shows me a memory posted from 2010, same time in May, but it is at Wade's DAR in 2010, look at the people, no shade nor popups, equipment line right behind the firing line, lots of shooters lots of fun. But HOT!

  And when I posted it, I did mention that I hadn't cooled off until arriving home to the shades of those tall trees behind our home. This weekend was cooler, I had forgotten to bring my sweatshirt or shooting jacket or sweater (travel light, freeze at night) , also seems I hadn't had enough water to stay healthy.

  During in processing, there wasn't enough effort to putting name tapes on the shooters, day two we fixed that.  All instruction presented, one AQT on Saturday, about five on Sunday. Two Riflemen patches earned and presented. All shooters progressed very well. I was really proud of how far Dylan had come from his first to last AQT, steady upward progress, as he grows into his rifle he will make a mark. Gabe did well, but he was distracted his concern for his son and still learning that all his body parts affect his shot, when he got off that support foot toe gravity steadied the position very well. I expect his next Appleseed will be the one he earns a Rifleman patch. I did forget to mention video taping your shooting positions and techniques for later review.

  Lucas had a coach and competition, Lisa providing an excellent opportunity for the crew to find out if we were reaching the shooters, she was listening and practicing exactly what we presented and enjoying the events and the people. Our second Rifleman patch was earned on the second day, but she hadn't been with us on Saturday much, so I think everything she knew and practiced was all from Appleseeds and instructors in her past and just the desire to show Dad what she could do, and she could do, definitely.

  It is always a bit unsettling to hear your name mentioned as being some how responsible for someone's start in the Revolutionary War Veterans Association or Appleseed Project, but I did hear it. Seems I am remembered, and I always think reputation becomes bigger than the reality if embellished enough. When they mentioned the You Tube video I almost blushed. Still I am happy that I have been a member, off and now steady on, since 2005.  And that I can continue to make a small contribution to making America the very best it can be, in Liberty under the LORD.

  No pictures at the range, although long before lawyers there are some old Appleseed pictures and links on the left side of my Blogger site: Earl's View, focus on the front sight. So I give you a picture of the Marina where three of the crew and a shooter slept on a boat.  Everyone helps out in many ways, to promote the program, make coffee and danish happen by breakfast and to just speak well of the efforts, I am so thankful there are so many that Seventh Step so well with such great results. Hope to see y'all on the trail or another Appleseed, one day.

So 'they' aren't covering the conservative view much...

  Silly, herd mentality isn't a free thinking independent liberty lover of the LORD weakness.  Group think, fads and fashions and foolishness abound in the lost - cause everyone does it, everyone sees it, and everyone knows it - so it trends.  Pet Rocks, trolls, and beanie babies? Not in many homes, because they weren't really a common value just a trend. I would think, that media and politicians want you to be part of the everyone - and only for exploitation and their power.

   Conservatives are those quiet folks on your street, that don't bother you, mow their yard and teach their children to be polite.   If there are as many conservative, quiet folks as I think, Donald Trump will have difficulty being elected by them. One on one maybe Ben Carson sees something the media hasn't found, but Mr. Trump isn't coming to the YMCA nor the rifle range nor my church to meet me - I will never know, and I have seen enough poor manners and bad behavior to know that is not the person I want for America's President, but then I think America hasn't figured out how wrong they have made their own world, yet. So who is elected might not matter...

  Conservatives will work to keep their neighborhood safe, clean and happy - but not with loud noises from overwhelming technology. Just by kind quiet Hello, please and thank you. I am sure there are more good conservative folks that don't want labeled that enjoy Facebook for its real value and there is never a trend among them, they keep moving and talking and posting and their friends enjoy and like here and there, but no surges nor purges needed. These are good folks.