Me vs. My Cat -- pt. Two

[Moke]

Last night was a Two Ratter.

I've spent the last few days doing upgrades and renovations to my Crosman 2289.
It has been brought from a .22 caliber 14" barrel, and changed out to a 16" .177 barrel. I also added a flat top valve, and, overhauled the main pumping pivot point. And,.... after years of thinking about it, I finally screw mounted the pistol grip, eliminating the electrical tape wrap.

The sun started setting, and I was becoming anxious, as the night before was a total bomb; nothing.
So, around 8:30, I pumped up, and loaded a CPHP 7.9gr, and made sure all of the patio lights were off. I sat at my blind, and, I couldn't believe my eyes,... There was a Rat already on the seed bait, and within 30 seconds of sitting, it was declared Dead on the Scene.

Then, at about 1:30am I got up to take a leak, and, looked out the window, and there was round two vacuuming up seed.
i pumped up, loaded another CPHP, and, slipped out to the blind. It was still sucking up seed, and, it was dispatched within 30 seconds of sitting.

This one presented in black and white,... because the camera went weirdly green under my red light for some reason.

The tongs? I refuse to touch this vermin. I've also recently mistakenly grabbed a nighttime Rattlesnake by the tail with them. It was not happy about that.

 

[Moke]

I ventilated another Rat last night, but it got into the Rattlesnake bushes. So it was not chased.

But, in bigger news,....
A Ground Squirrel wandered into my Whack-A-Mole Gallery yesterday afternoon.
This is huge.
I went on an eradication campaign, years ago, and this is the first Sage Rat that I've seen since then,... in like 3 years. By the time I got my Beeman Chief .22 out and loaded, it was gone. But it will be back.

 

[Moke]

over the last two nights,.... three rats.
last night, two.

two nights ago, 1:30am pee break, saw rat on bait. Went out to the blind, and, it was still there.
no pics because of 25' of noisy crunching gravel, and Sarge is asleep mere feet from the action. I whacked the backstop with a blow-through, but did not wake her up.

last night,... one rat before bed, pronounced dead at 8:45pm.
Then, at the 3am pee break, I decided to just go out onto the patio, and wing it. A Rat showed up within five minutes, or less. And at that hour, I hate to hit the backstop with a blow through because Sarge is sleeping mere feet from all of the action. But I took aim, and fired, and, plugged the rodent, and didn't hit the backstop; Sarge slept through all of it.
Its 25' of loud crunching gravel to get to the backstop, so, no pictures were taken.

 

[Moke]

I'm sort of old school. I still don't have a cellphone, and barely have a grasp on new tech. Hell, i haven't even answered a phone in like 20 years now; and have no idea how Sarges landline (digital landline thingy) works.

My old flashlight, a Minimag AA, has been running on the incandescent/halogen, "analog" bulbs, now for forty years. And it recently burned out another bulb. This left one single analog bulb in each of the handles (we have like 3 or 4 AA flashlights in the house in various locations).
So, I decided to enter the 21st century, finally, and bought one of these new fangled LED replacement bulbs.

One of these,...

I installed it yesterday, and put the flashlight aside. I tried it inside in the middle of the day, and was impressed with brightness.
Then, last night at bed:30, I decided to go out and sit at the Rat blind. I was out there for probably 20 minutes in near total darkness, and, was presented with a Rat target. I popped it, and it got into the Rattlesnake bushes. So I went to look for it, with flashlight and tongs in hand. I grabbed the flashlight, and turned it on, and, it was like a nuclear blast went off in my face, or, maybe it was a plasma cutter?
Dang,... this thing is like daylight in a palm size package now.
Is this what the 21st century is like?

 

[Bandito]

Moke welcome to the 21st century. Be Well Brother, Bandito.

 

[Moke]

eyes wide open,.....

Two rodent night last night,.... but, 8 hours apart.

Rodent #2 was just now, at 5am, a Mouse that got around behind the backstop. I nailed it, and bounced it off the backstop. By the time i got out to where it was,.. poof, gone.

Rodent #1 was a Rat, DOA at 8:45pm.
as found,.... It was on the green groundcover patch immediately below the Cat fence. I popped it right behind the right front leg w/ a .177 from my newly mod'd Crosman Backpacker (now a 16" barrel .177 & Mellon flat-topper). It did one long rolling butt-over-head flip, and, expired:

Turned over. The entry wound is behind the right front leg - a vitals shot.
Kitchen tong picker-uppers, thrower-outers, because I don't touch these vermin.

All the guts are retained, and no gaping holes.

 

[Bandito]

I don't have as many varmints as some of you guys. I won't wish for them. I do have too many fox squirrels. Soooo, DEATH TO SQUIRRELS, Bandito.

 

[Moke]

thanks, Bandito!

I had one Rat sighted multiple times at the 1:30am pee break, when on a whim, I went out and sat at the blind (most of this stuff is based around this timing regime).
It was like a rocket, in and out of the Gallery. It was running along the backstop baseboards, that I've taken to calling the Rail. It was like a blur. It would dart in from the left, on the Rail, grab a seed and in that same second of time, it would turn and exit. It did that to me 4 or 5 times, and, I gave it up, and went back to bed.
That leaves at least one more rodent for tonight, and who knows how many more.

 

[Moke]

Well now, its officially fire season here. We now have two major fires burning in the not far distance.
One of them, the Roblar fire is what they say is 5 miles away, on Camp Pendelton Marine Base, at the Zulu Impact Zone, where they launch the real powder burners from tanks and Howitzer-type canons, from miles away, as training excercise.
They started this one on a day where we had record high temps, extremely low humidity, and winds that come from the desert and head off shore when they get to the beaches - perfect.


This is a fire that is probably 20 crow miles from us, but we can see the smoke, and the last time it burned, we saw the flames.
It is in Orange County, and at the base of a mountain range called Saddleback Mountain, or, the Santa Ana Mtns., and the Cleveland Nat' Forest.
This twenty miles between this fire and us? Cleveland Nat'l Forest, State parks, and large private ranch holdings. There is nothing but wildlands between us and the fire. This one is called the Airport Fire in Trabuco Cyn.

This is the Roblar Fire on Camp Pendelton, and said to be five miles from our town, Fallbrook.
If you look to the ridgeline with the rising smoke, you see the smoke of the Roblar Fire. The ridgeline to its right, and just out of the picture, is where the Airport Fire of Trabuco Canyon is at.
The Roblar Fire is nearing 1000 acres, and, the Airport fire might surpass 10k acres by this evening, or more.

This is my view of the Roblar Fire, as of this morning.
The winds turned from desert -> ocean this morning (offshore winds), to going 180º opposite from the ocean blowing inland (onshore winds)
Everything that looks like clouds/fog is smoke, and ash. We are now getting the ash outfall with the winds coming towards us.

And, the ash "snowflakes" are thick this morning.

and, from this list, the worst of it is the Line Fire in San Bernardino County, at nearing 30k acres, that severely threatens my wild trout fly fishing stream.

Five wildfire updates; Elsinore school closures for poor air quality

Rice Fire in Fallbrook near SR 76 and Rice Canyon Road started Sunday night and burned 20 acres before firefighters made quick work of it. Forward progression was stopped after a few hours and it was contained by morning. As of Tuesday morning, the Roblar Fire is 20% contained but still throwing...

www.villagenews.com

 

[Bandito]

How is the cat scoring against your own successes today Mike? B.

 

[Moke]

@Bandito
Kitty has become a slacker. But I think this has something to do with summer and it being hot.
When I started part 1 of Me vs. My Cat, over at GTA, she was on an absolute tear. She was bringing us multiple rodents a day, or, at least a rodent a day, for months on end. Now, since it became warm/hot, she mostly stays on the patio until its time for her to come in (she is out from safe early sunrise light, until about noon'ish). At noonish, she is ready to come in and lead her life of leisure.