First Frost

I love New England. We had our first frost in my area this morning, and there is not a cloud in the sky. The sky is the color of your childhood, that pristine blue that you won't find on a color pallet.

The first frost is pretty much right on the average for this area. Scraping the car this morning sucked. We have a ritual in New England where we are late to work the first frost because everyone needs to hunt through the house, garage, and shed for the ice scraper. You figure after all these years we would plan ahead for this occurrence, but my elderly neighbors were doing the same thing.

Another bit of good news, my unofficial diet has me skinnier than I have been in a while. I got 1 notch left in my belt before I have to go and add more. I have not been following anything in particular, matter of fact I had ice cream this weekend, but rather cutting down on my portions, and trying to eat a little healthier.

Last night I experimented with my preps to make sure I would eat what I was storing. The beans are no problem, I love baked beans. I took a can of sauce and made my own sauce by jazzing it up some. Lots of garlic and fresh onion sauteed in EVOO. Add the sauce from the can with a can of tomato paste, and water to thin it out. Oregano and fresh basil, salt and onion powder. Not too shabby, actually, quite yummy.

Mind you, I have been begging, threatening,cajoling, etc. my Mum for her spaghetti sauce recipe for thirty years, with no luck. Time to make my own. Next trip to the grocery store I need to grab some crushed tomatoes in cans so the sauce is a little thicker. Next time I'm at BJ's I need to grab some more oregano, basil, etc. They have big canisters for $5 a pop. Need to store extra in case I'm eating my preps.

I have been buying buckshot left and right. It sucks at $1 a round, but it is the best home defense round you can buy. I also bought an extra mag for my Sig, only $25! It is not as nice as the factory, but it was $10 cheaper. It feeds ammo fine, which is what I bought it for.

If anyone has experience with shotgun shell reloading please take a look at this loader. I've been shooting Skeet to hone my reflexes and to get out of my man-cave. I shoot an average of 3 boxes of shells a week, but this will go up as I'm in a winter league now. From what I've been told you save about $1 a box if you reload it yourself. Now if I take my empty hulls and load buckshot, then I'll save about $18 per 25 rounds... Granted, it's only a 2 3/4" hull so that's 9 OO buck instead of the 15 in a 3" hull. But it's better than nothing!

The reviews on that loader are good, but the guys at the gun club were saying to buy a $250 one. Regardless, I need more than just the press. You need a scale, all the materials, etc. I suspect it will still be worth the cash. But let me know if that looks like the right idea, I'll do some more research before I buy, that is for certain! I got to start saving my hulls, the guy I give them to at the club is going to be pissed :P