Post # 1000

[TCBF]

If you get a really cute goat, you well could find that they are multi-purpose creatures.

Come to think of it, they used to hang my ancestors for things like that.

Hmmmm........

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- Mine were mostly saloon keepers and horse thieves, judging by the tales of one side of the familily in reference to the other. Back when those tales were passed on to me, they were probably too polite to factor the goats into the history - me being but a wee lad and all.

 

[Andy]

My great grandfather is in that pic of the three guys, and brought that gun home from the war. I am an expert on that gun because I surf lots on the Internet and I also know a guy who has a friend who's brother knows a guy who told him that the Maxim is a great bear defence gun except that the corrosive ammo will turn the bore to dust unless its washed with pure windex within five minutes. The headspace needs to be checked by a qualified gunsmith between shots, but not if it is rechambered to 338-06 since thats the best round ever designed. I know another guy who did that and he shot a moose at 786 lasered feet in the 1950's. My mom is telling me to get off the computer, so I guess I'll go study for my RPAL. Once I get it, I'll be able to use it for ID because it's official, and I can also use it to impress girls who kind of scare me.

 

[smellie]

A Maxim as bear defence could be a great idea. Only thing you would have to worry about would be cartridge overall length. Adjusting the fusee spring will compensate for weak modern US-type loads and still keep your rate of fire up, but the thing is very sensitive to cartridge OAL issues: the feed-block has to cam the sideways-moving cartridge rearward in the belt so the Gib can take hold of the rim, pull it out of the belt, lower it to the chamber and insert it. If the cartridge is too short, the case doesn't come back far enough and you have a Failure to Feed. Cure? Immediate Action Number 1: rock the crank handle forward and snatch the belt 1 click to the left, let the crank handle go, repeat once and press the trigger.

As to ancestors, mine actually were in the Insurance business for several centuries. If you paid them enough, they wouldn't steal your cattle or burn your place of business down. If you paid them more, they would even assure that the Elliots didn't attack you! But if you were a Graham, you were dead meat. Johnsons, too.

But as to those cute goats, now.....
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[enefgee]

My God, Smellie's a Border Reiver. That explains a lot. My father's side Reivers, mom's side Vikings - and people wonder why I have a fascination with weapons.

 

[smellie]

Believe it or not but my middle name is "Howard". It's Old Teutonic: "a keeper of weapons"!

'Way back when, there's supposed to be some Norse in there, too. Likely part of the reason I don't have a lot good to say about King Harald Fairhair in the last couple of stories I wrote.

We're ALL mixed up for one reason or another. Show me a man who claims to be a "pure" anything and it's quite likely that I can show you a fool or a liar. There have been too many armies raping and pillaging through the millennia for anyone to be 100% certain. That's why fora such as this one are so much fun: we are united by our interests and our samenesses rather than fractured by ancestry with all its taboos..... and political fools who want us all at each other's throats so that we can't unite against them.

Check out a book called "Blood of the Isles" by Dr. Brian Sykes. It's available through Oxford Ancestors, a private company (owned by and funding Oxford University) doing mDNA and nDNA matching for individual citizens. This is about as positive as it can be ascertained with our present state of technology.

BTW, anyone see "Casino Royale"? No, NOT the current version: the original spoof, late 1960s with David Niven (!) as the original Sir James Bond.... "every evenng at sunset he takes out his intestines and washes them, an art he was taught by a holy monk in Tibet". He drives a Red Label Bentley, of all things. Just utterly demolishes our guid Scots culture in the funniest fashion possible. You owe it to yourselves, believe me.
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[enefgee]

Mind you, I was actually born in Hexham, my father was born in Blaydon, my mother in Alnwick - I guess we never travelled too far. I think Mom's back to 1769 on her side, all within 200 miles, Dad's gone back to the 1640's with similar results.

 

[smellie]

Start getting back that far, people were settled down a lot more. For one thing, many of them were tied to the land: serfs. You didn't buy a serf, you bought the land he was on. The serf came free. At least the descendants of slaves can look back and know that their ancestors were worth money!

Western society was based on Free Men until into the11th Century. It was only then, and down the line from there, that millions of Free Men were downgraded to Serfdom, where they stayed, some of them, until relatively recently. Russia only freed its Serfs in 1863; the Glorious People showed their everlasting gratitude to the Tsar by murdering him.

This downgrading of millions of human beings to the status of productive cattle suited the rulers of Mediaeval Europe very well. The really ugly part is that the Church colluded in the effort.

Today when we are tourists we see the palaces and castles and the lovely churches that came out of this period, but nobody shows us the filthy, disease-ridden hovels in which most of our ancesors eked out a bare living, for centuries, to make the fantastic contributions it took to raise these edifices.

But most people didn't move very far before the 19th Century, even if they were allowed to (and many were not). My grandmother was born in a cottage in the New Forest in 1891, at which time her family had been living in that same cottage for 400 years. Today, it belongs to my cousin, an archeologist and historian. Thing is, the New Forest was created by William the Bastard as a hunting preserve for him and his buddies, just shortly after the Conquest. SOME of the people living in the area were allowed to stay, but nobody was allowed to move INTO the New Forest for centuries. Likely, my grandmother's family has been there since the time of King Harold Godwinsson or even earlier.

We have come a very long way indeed since the power of the Church to RULE was broken, only five centuries ago.
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[buffdog]

The goat award

Unfortunately, when I made my first posts, the Goat Award had not been instituted, and since is not retroactive, or you can be Grandfathered, I am not eligible for this Award.

SMELLIE, on the other hand, was quite disappointed that he no longer qualified, because in his own words, he wanted "A CUTE ONE." One of the downsides of being old farts on this forum, no Goat Awards! Goats are for younger Newby members apparently.

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Here is a picture of a Newbie who had just made his 10th. post and received his goat, thus upgrading his GunNutz status. His friends and co-workers have turned out to help him celebrate the event.

Upon seeing this, SMELLIE has gone to the sock drawer, and has been sulking there for two days.

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