June 30, July 1-2

Since I've become chief pilot I've been busy.

I have been assigned some duties and for the most part I've been not swamped, but decently busy. I'm thinking once I've gotten a little practice with the new activities they'll wind up taking less of my time. Or more. I guess we'll see.

On the twenty-sixth I had started a new batch of mead.

That's about a gallon of water and fifteen pounds of honey I'm pouring in over raisins, oranges, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and nutmeg.

Unfortunately, I had tried to use a liquid yeast, but it arrived very warm and I figured it was probably mostly dead, but I tossed it in anyways since it'll just settle out in the end even if it doesn't ferment.

Don't you die on me!

After two days with no visible signs of fermentation I ordered another kind of (dry) yeast. However, when it arrived on the thirtieth, I checked the carboy and while I saw nothing coming out of the airlock, I smelled fermentation. Apparently the new cap I was using hadn't sealed 100%, and the CO2 was leaking around the cap. As soon as I moved the cap a little bit, it sealed the rest of the way and the airlock started bubbling. I don't think any nasties could have gotten in since the CO2 leak would have been under the lip of the cap, and with fermentation happening, it would have caused the pressure inside the carboy to be higher than outside, creating a positive flow outward (preventing bacteria and such from coming in).

Oh well, I'll save the dry yeast I bought for the next batch - I'll probably be starting two new batches as soon as I can get thirty-five pounds of honey and two gallons of fresh, ripe apricots (I already have the cherries (Bing and Montmorency) halved, pitted, and frozen waiting for those batches, just waiting for my apricots to tree ripen).

Turn into alcohol faster!

On the first we left Blanding and headed for Texas to see family and celebrate the fourth. We left fairly early, about four am so we could get a decent ways towards Abilene before Keira awoke.

Like mommy...

...Like baby.

The first stop we made was in Gallup at Cracker Barrel for breakfast, where K decided she needed to stay in her night gown.

Breakfast in her night gown. In a restaurant. Completely normal.

The next stop after that was in Ft. Sumner, NM, at the Billy the Kid Museum.

It's kind of hard to miss.

It was actually pretty cool, with an entire room of Billy the Kid stuff including the knife he was holding when he was shot and his rifle. (I thought I got a picture of the knife, but apparently I did not.)

Billy the Kid's rifle. If you look up Henry McCarty (aka William Bonney, Billy the Kid) in Wikipedia, you will find a ferrotype of him holding a rifle (you can see it in the bottom left of this pic), I think this might be the rifle in that picture.

A stone inscribed by the Kid: Billy | Kid, 7/4, 1880. He died just over a year later on July 14, 1881 at the age of twenty one. He was also allegedly a bit of a dick.

Billy the Kids hair. Admittedly, even though it's tangible history (which I love), this is kinda creepy.

The Kid's chaps and spurs.

One of the original twenty-seven wanted posters. I guess twenty-six was not enough, twenty-eight too many?

The best picture of Billy the Kid I could find, and he still looks like a tool.

Along with the Billy the Kid artifacts, they also had a bunch of cool stuff from the Ft. Sumner area as well as the fort it self.

Uniforms worn at Ft. Sumner during the Civil War. I think the top uniform jacket was an enlisted artilleryman's based on the color and style.

The sword of Captain John Chisum, the man who would later help found the Goodnight-Loving trail, help elect Pat Garret as sherrif, and tell Billy the Kid to f**k off (and live to tell about it).

Artifacts found at the old Ft. Sumner.

Personal effects of E.V. Sumner, for whom Ft. Sumner is named.

An American flag with fourty-five stars (it's displayed incorrectly though, the union is supposed to be at the top).

The plaque explaining the flag, kinda scary to think Oklahoma wasn't a state till 1907...

Spurs made for Pancho Villa and his men.

A few of the firearms caught my eye as well.

A Colt 1860 Army (Colt trivia: an "Army" revolver was one chambered in .44 cal., a "Navy" was chambered in .36 cal.). I have a reproduction at home.

Winchester Model 1894, chambered in .30-30. I also have one of these back at the house.

I think this might be a Japanese Type 38 (Or maybe a Type 97, I couldn't see the other side of the receiver to check for a scope mount, but it has the bipod). It caught my eye because A) It's Japanese (I think), B) was produced in the wrong time period for the museum, and C) was never used by the US (at least not in the Continental US). If it has an intact imperial chrysanthemum it might be worth some money...

Down the road was Billy the Kids grave (he's buried with a couple of cohorts). Next time we roll through we'll try to stop at the old Ft. Sumner museum and see what it has to offer.

The graves, the Kid's is to the right.

Billy the Kid's foot-stone.

The plaque explaining why the foot-stone has it's own cage.

We got to the Abilene area about nine pm with some daylight left. It was nice to see the family again, including my aunt and her family, who I haven't seen in roughly fifteen years. They have been between Texas and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during that time, with most if it spent in the Kingdom. I know they're sensitive about having information on the internet, so from here on we will call them A, U, C1, and C2 (aunt, uncle, oldest cousin and youngest cousin, respectively).

There's something...different...with your Saudi-bought laptop's keyboard...

The rest of the night was spent watching Stacey and K trying to catch toads and visiting with A, U, C1 and C2.

First you corner them...

...then you hold them for two seconds before they jump.

That night we decided that since we we were in a state that sold actual fireworks, we'd go ahead and use up the crappy "safe and sane" fountain pack that Stacey bought in Blanding.

After that was done we watched TV for a bit before heading to bed. Most would argue that watching TV at my grandparent's house requires moving a chair or two, but not Stacey.

Most would just turn the chair around...

But Stacey has her own way of doing things.