alduckhunter

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How do you get 50+ days? The first missed paycheck for ATC was October 28th, less than 2 weeks ago.

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My wife is not ATC but is deemed an "essential" Federal employee. She got 1/2 of a normal (two week) paycheck one week into the shutdown. Other than that half check, she hasn't been paid in 47 days. That's obviously not quite 50 days, but it ain't far from it either. IF the shutdown ends this week and she gets paid on schedule next week, it will be 56 days since she last got a full paycheck.

We are not frivolous spenders and I'm blessed to have a good private sector job, so it has been more of an annoyance to us than a real hardship, She told me it has been a big deal for several of her co-workers though.

I know there is a LOT of fraud and wasted taxpayer money in the things the government does. There are undoubtably redundant and unnecessary Federal employees and probably whole departments. As a taxpayer myself, I want that stuff stopped! I certainly don't think any Federal employees (my wife included) should be getting $10,000 bonuses for doing their jobs. Having said that, it is remarkable to me that most of them have stuck it out. If I went out on the floor this afternoon and told all our people that they weren't going to get paid for 7-8 weeks, but I still expected them to show up and work every day, I don't think very many of them would be here tomorrow morning.

As someone who frequently flies with a shotgun, I will say this… We fly multiple times every year with my son’s shotgun. It is in a metal Americase gun case. We use 2 TSA approved keyed locks, that my son and I both have keys to. Never had a problem with these locks.

You have to declare the gun at the ticket counter. You CANNOT “check into” the flight online when flying with a shotgun. At some airports, they just accept that (after filling out a form) and send the gun on the conveyor to be loaded onto the plane. At other airports, they require us to go to a TSA office to have the contents of the case inspected by agents. Never had an issue with this either.

Where it gets tricky is with the ammo. I never try my luck with flying ammo TO the shoot since it is so much ammo. With that said, we have flown BACK multiple times with 500+ empty hulls, and on our last trip, we came back with 2 flats of factory ammo. One in his checked bag and one in mine. I told the ticket agent about the ammo and she said she would have to ask TSA. The agent came out and told us we were good to go.

What really puckers me up is that you never know how the gun is going to come out at the baggage claim. It’s about 50/50 whether it’s going to come out on the baggage carousel or if we have to pick it up at an office somewhere. I always ask, and the answer is wrong most of the time.

Also, I ALWAYS book direct flights whenever possible. I don’t worry about it so much on a hunting trip with a Winchester or Benelli, but flying with a high end competition shotgun, I worry about it until it’s back in our hands at the final destination!

Most undercounter ice makers are going to be 15” wide and around 34” tall since a standard base cabinet including the counter top is 36” tall. The crawl space under your house will definitely make the drain easier to install. Most houses in S AL are built on a slab.

I couldn’t tell from your picture what size that opening is. Maybe if the opening is too short, it could be trimmed off?

That is absolutely correct and why I mentioned we keep it inside. If OP definitely wants it outside, or he wants to fill up ice chests, then it's not a good choice. If he just needs ice for a few drinks every day, it might be a great option.

As the ice in the bucket melts, it is recycled and refrozen into new ice.

May not be what you are going for, but I got my wife one of the countertop "Sonic" ice makers about 5 years ago. I think it was about $350. We use distilled water in it because that's what was recommended to avoid well water mineral scale buildup, but it also came with an adapter to be able to connect it to a faucet to keep it filled with water continuously.

We keep it on the counter in the laundry room (directly off the kitchen) and it doesn't take up too much space.

Obviously, we won't be filling up ice chests with it, but it makes plenty of ice for drinks for the two of us.

At that age and size, whatever you buy is going to be very temporary. As you are likely aware, other than being able to clearly see the target, gun fit is THE most important factor for successful clay target shooting. Kids grow so fast that it is hard to keep them in a gun that fits properly. If his gun doesn't fit him, then he won't break very many targets and may get discouraged quickly.

My son is currently on a clay target shooting scholarship in college. His team shoots skeet, trap, and sporting clays (and so does he), but he is a skeet specialist. He started shooting in 8th grade. We knew very quickly that it was something he really loved doing and would stick with it. This is the progression of guns that we went through with him.

8th grade- 20-gauge youth model TriStar Raptor semi-auto. It was cheap and he outgrew it by the end of the season. If he didn't enjoy skeet shooting, I only had $300 invested in it.

9th-10th Grade- Browning Cynergy 12 Gauge O/U with an adjustable comb and butt plate. He got really serious about skeet shooting in 9th grade and branched out from SCTP/4H to start shooting NSSA tournaments, so we bought a set of Briley sub-gauge tubes to go in it. I highly recommend the Cynergy for a starter skeet gun because the mechanical trigger in it does not have to have any work done on it to use sub gauge tubes. The Citori 725's, on the other hand, have to have trigger work done, or you end up with a single shot .410 because the trigger won't reset between shots.

In 11th grade it was obvious that he was going to have a scholarship to college, so we went ahead and bought him a high end "competition" shotgun. It was expensive, but it will last him basically his whole life with proper care and maintenance. With the volume of shells he puts through it, it was a good investment that I would definitely make again.

For what it's worth, very, very few serious skeet shooters shoot a semi-auto. Even fewer serious trap shooters do. For him to start out, it would be fine though. I wouldn't spend $800 on something that he will quickly outgrow unless you have younger kids who may also need to use it in the future. Ask around at practice or check the board at your gun club. Another parent/member may have a gun that their child outgrew.

I have passed many of them over the years. The very first one I had in my late 20’s was too big to pass and I had to have a “basket” procedure to remove it. Since then, I have had many more that I was fortunate enough to pass on my own.

Mine are the oxylate (sp?) stones and they will break up into pieces.
That is the good news. The bad news is my last CT Scan showed 13 of them in my kidneys.

The worst part for me is when the stone is passing from my kidneys to my bladder. Once it makes it into my bladder, I usually get immediate relief from the pain. When it actually passes through my urethra, it is a quick jolt of minor pain, but that part isn’t unbearable. I can actually hear it hit the porcelain of the toilet when it passes. LOL.

Thank you for that information. We do not have USSA, but should probably look into it for more than one reason. This is more of a continuation of her career or a 2nd career for her. I don’t see this dragging out long enough to become an issue for us, but it ticks me off how it could affect younger families.

I am an “average American taxpayer. “ My wife is an “essential” Federal employee. If they shut down the government, she will continue to work without pay until the politicians finish their pissing contest. It won’t negatively affect our family unless it drags out for a long time, but I can see how it could cause immediate problems for other families. I’m as MAGA as they come, but this idea that all Federal employees are leeches on society is ridiculous.

I believe that it ought to be incredibly hard for anybody to get into the US and anybody that comes here should have to prove that they have the means to support themselves and anybody else they bring here. I definitely don’t support giving a dime of taxpayer money to ANYONE who is here illegally. For that matter, I think they give far too much of my money to people who are too sorry to work. But just because someone gets a paycheck from the “government” doesn’t mean that they are the enemy or that they don’t deserve the salary that they earn.

Had one in my HS graduating class of '94. He wore wigs, makeup, and dresses every day. He was nice to people and for the most part everybody left him alone. I don't think the teachers and administrators would have tolerated him being mistreated, but we certainly didn't have any of them trying to brainwash us into celebrating him either.

He was murdered not long after graduation. Found in a ditch shot several times in the face with a .45. No one was ever charged in the killing.