Splitting Logs and Shooting Cans

Saturday morning started quite slowly with a nice big breakfast of eggs, sausages and toast after which Rob said he would help Jim finish putting up the new fence. He suggested I walk up and see Jessie which I rushed to do, fully expecting a noose to come whistling over my head, whisk me round and have a paintbrush plopped into my paw but it didn't happen. Whew! 
Jessie and I had a wonderful chin wag for a couple of hours and then I sauntered back down to the house with the boys' beer which they had requested over the radio.

They were nearly finished and only had the gate posts to install. We drank our beers and then Rob got the wood splitter out from the garage. I'd been intrigued with this machine for some time and didn't consider this method of chopping wood as a chore so I was keen to see it work. Rob showed me how and before long I had mastered it.

I had a go on my own but we worked really well as a team and together we quickly chopped up a good pile of wood.

Me on the wood pile.

Rob also showed me the red paint tin I had been using when painting his tractor equipment. It was empty! Yay! It was deftly kicked off the premises. But then retrieved as we were now going to shoot with his 22 rifle and needed a target.

Rob hung it from a tree and shot it from the house which was actually quite some way away. I had a few goes and proved to be so accurate that Rob felt I needed more of a challenge.

A soup can balanced on his head...

A carefully aimed bullet from me...

And a hole in the top of the can! Yee Hah! Just call me Calamity Jane.

Rob's nerves were steady enough that he also managed to snap a photo of me knocking a pipe over. By now Jim had wandered over and felt that my targets were too close and I needed to shoot from further away. We doubled the distance and he took the gun, firing one shot to knock a narrow bottle off the log. Respect! 

I then had a go and was rubbish until he told me to be more gentle with the trigger. Following his advice, I knocked off the bottle in the middle, the soup can, rocked the pipe and then knocked it off  with 4 bullets. I was ecstatic. I carried on shooting a little longer but the light was fading fast and the thinning air was making the shots noisy so not wanting to alarm the cows, I wrapped it up for the day.

As the sun set, Rob got the log stove working in the garage and we went to pick up pizza and wings. We sat next to the fire with our food and beers and relaxed.

I have to admit I'm getting a little obsessed with tractors as the first thing I noticed about our beer bottle caps was that they were John Deere colors so we staged a photo. Then Rob grabbed the camera and shot off some photos.

It amazes me that he can hoist the heavy 50D in the air and operate it one handed. We carried on munching, drinking and chilling and then headed for bed with me planning a trip to the next Gun Show at Dulles Expo. I think I may have to get me a gun!