WALTHERS AND BOND

Although a fictional character, Bond has legendary status all over the world and one thing I always thought cool about Bond was his loyalty to Walther.

The gun on top, the venerable Walther PPK in .38o caliber, also known by many as the James Bond Gun, although I believe his gun was chambered in 7.62 caliber ( or calibre, as the say in the UK). You might remember at several times in his movie career, M tried to change his handgun choice, at one point moving to a much larger 9mm Walter pistol.

The pistol on the bottom is a reletively new gun from Walther, virtually the same size as the PPK but in the more potent caliber of 9mm, and also weighing abuut 5 oz less. Many thought that Bond might morph to this latest creation, but true to tradition, at least in Quantum of Solace, he kept his PPK around.

Although I'm not much into living the James Bond lifestyle, I have always had a thing about the PPK and PPK/S. I owned a PPK/S in the seventies in the rare .22 caliber. I think it cost about $250 at the time new. Twenty years later, I got one of the stainless American made PPK's at a bargain price used from a deputy I knew. My longtime music buddy Woody Oakes HAD TO HAVE IT, along with a vintage ultra concealable shoulder rig, and would just not take no for an answer.

Here's the site for the discourse on James Bond guns. It's a neat website.

http://www.jamesbondlifestyle.com/index_articles.php?m=articles&g=art080702

I'm anxious to try the PSP and see how good it shoots. It is, however, barely smaller than the Glock G36 I have in .45 caliber, which recently showed itself to be a minimalistic recoiler with the Federal Premium Low Recoil JHP ammo I shot through it. The PSP weights about the same, and the PPK comes in at about 25 oz. but is somewhat thinner than the G36.

I do like the safety features of the PPK. Double action/Single action. Manual safety. Transfer bar safety. I always felt ok carrying this gun next to my person, particularly using an IWB holster.

In any event, check out the Bond website. It's pretty cool. And kudos to our latest Bond character for having the "cool" to use the PPK instead of the many hip guns out there.

THE ASKINS AVENGER HOLSTER STYLE: WHO MAKES THEM NOW

Rick says it better than I. Here's a short piece he wrote on this, at this link:

http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/review/bianchi_askins.htm

After his portion, I pontificate on the holster as well. It's one of my favorites.

Bianchi Askins Avenger

BY: Rick Breneman

This style of holster, with a belt loop and trailing belt slot, is so popular that almost all major manufacturers have a variation. The original holster of this type was perhaps the Milt Sparks 55BN; the BN being Bruce Nelson, who also designed the Summer Special made famous by Sparks. Called the Vertical Scabbard by Kramer, the Sport by FIST, the Avenger by Galco, Bianchi's version was developed with input from famed pistolero Charles Askins.
What makes the Askins Avenger distinctive is its fairly extreme "FBI cant". While most makers put the slot, designed to pull the butt of the gun into the body, behind the trigger guard, the Bianchi version has the slot beneath the guard, making the gun ride quite high, and (in my opinion) better-concealing a large gun.
I've been using my holster for three and a half years in IPSC Limited competition, and it is still looking good. The stitching is still tight, and the leather has not stretched or sagged out of shape. Matched to 1 3/4" Bianchi belt, the holster is tight and secure.
My one complaint is that the unlined interior has no formed sight channel, which meant that the first few dozen draws revealed a blob of leather fuzz on the front sight. With use, this trait has disappeared; but it is perhaps this problem that caused Bianchi to drop the #4 holster from the line, and continue with only the lined #4L version.
The Avenger is truly a behind-the-hip design, the cant requiring that the holster be worn over the hip pocket to maximize both concealment and draw speed. If you're looking for a high quality holster for range or concealed carry use, that comfortably and discreetly accommodates a full-size pistol, try the Bianchi Askins Avenger.

What I say:

Well, what Rick said, mostly. Although I actually didn't read his piece until after I had written mine.

The holsters pictured above are different length holsters of the same model, the now-discontinued Bianchi "Askins' Avenger" holster named after famed handgun writer Col. Charles Askins, who was also an army officer and lawman. He passed on in 1999, but led an exciting and apparently, often rough and illegal life. He was a gunfighter, and probably the last generation of that unique American creation.

Notwithstanding the controversy about his life covered quite in-depth here by veteran police officer, expert witness and handgun writer Massad Ayoob. If you've read some of the more law enforcement oriented gun magazines in the past three decades, you know well who Ayoob is. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BTT/is_143_23/ai_56221628/

The main attributes of this design, when executed properly, are thus:

1. Concealability: With a 4" barrel length semi-auto, the holster design wraps the back of the gun grip towards the back of the body, lending greatly to not having the gun "stick out" or "print" or be visible.

2. Cant: The forward cant design of this holster is what is commonly called an "FBI Cant", and means a slight forward tilt of the holster. Also, a holster of this type with a forward cant often lends itself to being "off label" used as a crossdraw holster.

He was well known as a gun writer, and I particularly remember reading lots of his articles in my teens and twenties. Like Jeff Cooper, Skeeter Skelton and Bill Jordan, the things Askins wrote about firearms and his observations of using firearms for self-defense were words to be taken seriously.

I don't recall if he designed this holster himself or if Bianchi holsters named it in his honor and designed it in his style. I have several that are nearly 30 years old, still in excellent condition despite heavy use. I now need a couple of more to go with some other guns, and although many gunmakers do market an "Askins' Avenger Style" holster, I have found out that none that I have tried come close to the originals.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: What holster makers do you know of that make a holster in this style?

I've checked all over the web. Last year, I ended up ordering a custom made holster of this type for a Glock 36. Although the holster was very well made and makes an excellent field holster, a concealment holster it is not. I won't say the name of the smaller custom holster maker I bought it from, because I don't want to disparage him. It's a great holster, and the craftsmanship and materials are second to none. I had it made from leather, with the reinforcing strap made of an exotic leather.

Problem is, the leather the fellow used to make the holster is at least twice as thick as that on the original, meaning that the holster sticks out quite a bit. Also, the fellow curved the main beltloop seriously, to where it sticks out a great deal. If you notice the botton picture above, the back loop of the holster under the gun is tight against the gun. This is where the repro holster I bought fails.

Many Askins clones fail because the crucial back loop, which also acts to pull the gun grip close to the torso and thus conceal it better, is either too far back or more commonly, is located too high. It needs to be under the trigger area of the gun and not too far back from the main belt slot in the main part of the holster.

I'm trying to find one for a Glock 36 and for a 3" compact 1911 auto (Such as a Kimber Ultra CDP) and for a S&W J frame revolver. I'd even take one that would fit a Detective Special.

I've printed pictures of several of the custom made models I've found, and the ones that come closest seem to be the Milt Sparks model. Kirkpatrick in Laredo makes a model as well. Again, looking at the one I bought in a picture on the internet, you'd think it was almost an exact match as well, but the thickness and the strange curvature of the main belt slot on the back of the holster doom it to field use or under a big jacket.

I have made holsters and knife sheaths before, and I'm seriously considering purchasing some leather making tools and building a version of this holster. Using the Bianchi as the template.

I wonder why Bianchi stopped making this holster? More importantly, I wonder who makes the most legitimate copy of this holster now?

Finally, in searching the web regarding this holster, I find that the one pictured at the top, located at http://www.holsters4guns.com/holsters/product/M12S.html is gonna be on the very short list that I have compiled thus far for my next purchase. Of course, I'm checking online auctions as well, looking for used types of holsters that interest me.

THE GIMBRI, JUSTIN ADAMS AND HEY JOE

The Gimbri is a lute type instrument, generally bearing three strings. Here's what one very informative website says about the Gimbri:

Gimbri, guimbri or sintir. The gimbri or sintir is a three stringed rectangular lute from Morocco commonly used by Gnawan musicians. The body of the gimbri is a rectangular trough covered by camel skin from which protrudes a round wooden neck with three goat-gut strings attached by cloth thongs. At the end of the neck a metal rattle is inserted to give the instrument added color. The gimbri is both a percussive and melodic instrument producing a percussive bass-like tone, and is the largest in a family of similar instruments found in Northern Africa. The knuckles of the right hand hit the skin on the body, while striking the bottom string with the index finger, or plucking the top and middle strings with the thumb. Done properly, this technique will simultaneously produce the tone of the string, a drum sound on the skin, and rattle the jingles on the end of the neck. Advanced players produce complex combinations of rhythms and melodies by varying these three elements. at http://www.asza.com/igimbri.shtml.

More on the instrument and the people who play it can be found at these wiki entries

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnawa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnawa_music

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sintir, where they mention:

As the sintir is used mainly by Gnawa (North Africans of Sub-Saharan African descent), it is likely that the instrument derives from similar skin-covered lutes of the region around Mali or other areas of the Sahel (such as the ngoni, xalam, or hoddu).

and

The sintir (Arabic: سنتير‎), also known as the Guembri (Arabic: الكمبري‎), Gimbri or Hejhouj, is a three stringed skin-covered bass plucked lute used by the Gnawa people. It is approximately the size of a guitar, with a body a carved from a log and covered on the playing side with camel. The neck is a simple stick with one short and two long goat strings that produce a percussive sound similar to a pizzicato cello or double bass.

The Gnawan musicians are another story entirely, as they are known for playing trance music with the Gimbri and other instruments and the story of their tribe(s) is quite an interesting one. An old way of nomadic life, once very nomadic, just barely holding on the modern world. But living on with marvelous music and interesting traditions.

I first heard a Gimbri in 2001 or 2002, on the inaugural CD of Robert Plant's Strange Sensation project. The immensely talented Justin Adams, British by birth but largely raised in the Middle East, does a fantastic job of merging blues, rock and roll and various middle eastern genres and styles into what really gave Plant a cutting edge on that first Strange Sensation CD.

On the much covered "Hey Joe" version on that freshman effort , Justin Adams plays the hell out of that Gimbri, particularly in the haunting introduction and in a mid-song trance type solo. After hearing this song and seeing it live on a dvd bootleg someone sent me, I had to find a gimbri.

I found that even the new age-y drum circle drum stores had no idea what I was talking about. The internet educated me greatly about the instrument, the history of the Gnawan people and how much this instrument was involved in their lives. Of course, not even exotic instrument stores sold them, at least none that were listing on the internet. There were none ever on ebay or any other music sales forum.

Most people had no idea what they were and just said "hmmmm".

I hit listserves and various african music forums. I made postings expressing an interest in getting a gimbri. After a few months, an italian fellow contacted me who had made an impulse purchase traveling through the sub-sahara, and wished to sell it. It was well packed and arrived soon, and I paid a very cheap price for it.

Mine is a bit smaller than the larger gimbri's, and the body is more rounded than square. Mine is more like a Ngoni, but they are all very similar, just differing somewhat in depth of tone. Carved from a solid log, the neck appears to be some sort of large curtain rod replete with a decorative knob on the end. It has some sort of skin, with some hair still intact, on the head of the gimbri, and uses large wooden tuning pegs to tune the strings. The bridge is a rudimentary hand carved affair.

But it has a trance-like sound. Since the only licks I really know are those from the Hey Joe cover by Plant, Mrs. El Fisho is not often entertained by my musical trance attempts.

Likewise, at least yearly I gather with a group of friends who I have been playing music Since the 1980's. For years, we gather on weekend music making and fishing trips in cabins and on ranches and farms where we can get access. We've been playing various versions of Hey Joe for many years, and after the Strange Sensation arrangement arose, I of course developed the brilliant idea that I would surprise them with it at our next gathering.

The Gimbri was not well received. Although I had mounted a vintage Electro-Harmonix microphonic pickup on it, and therefore could blast it through an amplifier, it was not as appreciated as I thought it would be.

I continue to play it around the house, however, and it's a great wall hanger for the drum room. I occasionally use it on home recordings, as I enjoy it's sound. Although no one else seems to.

FINDING A NEW YET OLD SPINNING REEL

I just found a reel as I mentioned here New American Rodsmith Rod and now I need a new spi... in the previous post. But after doing a lot of research on reels and checking out a surprisingly wide variety of what I was finding online at a nearby Walmart,

I ended up finding one online with a reel like I spoke about in the previous post, An Abu Garcia Cardinal, except this one is a 754 model, and will hold but a size larger and about 2 oz. heavier, coming in at about 9.6 oz. It's the same brand and series just a different and slightly larger model that holds 8, 10 or 12 lb line. The 752 model that I have holds 4 or 6 lb test line.

It's reportedly clean and in great shape and in the box with manuals with little wear and tear and works well. That's just the ticket. The seller emailed me some pics and the reel box had a sticker from Oshman's, a formerly great sporting goods store in Houston. I'll post more about the joy of Oshman's Sporting Goods stores in the 1960's through 1980's in a later post, but oh they had the cool stuff there when I was growing up and was a young man. You could find a Remington 870 at Carter's Country for a much better price but you probably couldn't see a selection of 1970's Mauser Lugers for sale. Man, they had great guns and fishing stuff at Oshman's.

And that reminded me of when I bought mine, at a Houston Oshmans store back in the mid-1980's. I'll have to look at the manual and see if it has a date on when it was made, but like taking digital photos of this stuff I write about on this blog (which I don't have time to do, barely having time to blog), I'd have to dig up the box from one of the second or third tier fishing supplies storage, located in large rubbermaid tubs in the garage.

Somewhere in the garage. And looking around for that reel box to find the year it was made is not likely to happen.

Anyway, after re-evaluating the fit of my new rod and of the smaller Abu Garcia Cardinal 752, which I found out is not heavy at all as previously reported by me but weighs in at 7.6 oz., once I found the wife's kitchen digital scale, used exclusively by her for the preparation and cooking of fine cuisine.

She abhors me weighing things like loaded guns or " soiled" fishing reels with Billy Ray to see what various ultralight pistols or reels actually weigh when loaded. Billy Ray and I do stuff like that and it is not generally appreciated by the wives when we are caught doing it.

So after re-evaluating the nice balance of the reel on my new rod, I set out looking for perhaps a new or used spinning reel that would really compliment it, hopefully at a bargain price. I stumbled across this one and it'll be on the way tomorrow.

The Abu Garcias Cardinal 754 reel I just bought actually weighs right at the same as the reels I've been checking out lately. There's a lot of reels by Garcia and Mitchell and Shimano and others that go for between about $30 and $60, and they all weigh in the 9.5 to 12 oz or more range for the 8-10-12 line weight.

I could spent many times more than what I'm spending, up to crazy amounts like $600, and still have a reel that weighs the same or less and works as well.
nomadic peoples that range through various parts of Africa, primarily Morroco.

So in any event the memory of when I got that reel finally came to me. I went with some friend at Oshman's who was looking for shoes or something and ended up liking the reel and the drag system and bought it and had it loaded up with line.

So that hopefully bodes well for this new as yet unseen reel. I've generally been pretty lucky getting nice stuff online.

New American Rodsmith Rod and now I need a new spinning reel

But not just any spinning reel. I need something very lightweight, as my new rod is a very lightweight rod with the rod blank though the handle. I got it at a charity raffle for a good cause, and got lots of other stuff with it. Cooler bag, a vented fishing shirt, t shirt, cooler bag, small tackle box, lures and a great Houston made American Rodsmith Rod.

It's for 8-14 test line, as I recall, so I'd like to run it with about a 10 pound test line. I happen to have some nice flourocarbon line laying about of a thin diameter but high strength, so that's an option as well. It will be perfect for salt or freshwater fishing.

SO I need a new spinning reel. Something very light. When I got the rod, I envisioned using a mint condition 70's Abu Garcia Cardinal 752 ultralight (for the seventies) spinning reel that has been sort of orphaned since it's long paired rod suffered a canoe related accident several years ago to several of the guides and has not been fixed yet.

But although tiny, it was made in Japan and is heavy and heavy duty. I recently bought a small Shimano ultralight reel that weighs two thirds less than what the Cardinal weighs. Still, the Cardinal has the uniquely located drag on the rear of the reel housing, and it's a great drag and despite it's small size, it really felt heavy and somewhat unbalanced on this lightweight rod I have added to the collection.

So a smaller and lighter reel may be in order. I'm looking for bargains, preferably new, something weighing less than 7 oz and is a high quality and durable spinning reel that has a great drag. Nice padded handle would be a plus.

Any recommendations?

MORE DEER HUNTING TALK

I know there are a lot of people who ARE NOT deer hunters. But I've known so many more of the people in my life who were avid deer hunters for all of their lives. My Father was the first in his generation off the East Texas farm, and as a child they hunted for food, not sport. A nice sized deer could feed a big family like my Dad had for many days, prepared in many different ways. Sausage was always a favorite, and I believe they rented some sort of meat locker at some place in the country to keep some of their bulk meat.

Point is, as you probably know, the deer populations in many parts of Texas have just exploded, and they've moved in a lot closer to town to forage and feed then most of us have seen deer do in the past.

Take Ranch Road 12 out of San Marcos headed west across the Devil's Backbone towards to the south of Blanco. It's a gorgeous drive, certainly one of the most pretty in the Hill Country. But at night, at certain times of the year, I recommend you drive slowly, because deer are literally everywhere.

A couple of years ago, the family and I took off to Alpine for a post Christmas vacation to Big Bend and the area. We always have a great time out there, and if there was more live water and ponds in that region of Texas, I'd be planning on retiring there. Nonetheless, there is some fishing to be had in the Rio Grande (dead shrimp, near the Langford Hot Springs) for catfish and assorted perch and gar. But the Rio Grande is a long way way from where I would want to be living if I had a place in the Alpine to Marathon area.

But while visiting Alpine as our base of operations, the town is invaded nightly by deer at sunset looking for food, the area around the town unable to contain the exploding deer populations. At the golf course, and along the attendant course side homes were just scores of deer. We stopped counting at about 200. The lovely in town area surrounding the golf course and park were full of them, as was the surrounding neighborhoods. We got really close to some, and if I can ever figure out how to download some cell pics, I could show you pictures of 6 or 7 deer munching out in front yards all through the surrounding neighborhoods. Really cool.

So I know there are people that are down on deer hunting, and often guns and hunting in general. I don't mean to offend them, but it's a part of the heritage of many Texans and other Americans. All of the people who I know who hunt eat what they kill, and if they have a banner year, they process and give the food to various other families in need or friends or charities.

Many people I know love venison. It is a great meat to many. I'm just not one of those who favor it. Give me sausage or beef brisket from one of the fine establishments in Lockhart, Texas anyday over wild game for me. But many I know thrive on eating wild game. I myself prefer freshly caught fish, so I understand the call to catch your own food every once in a while. If not psychologically programmed via our past generations, it's in our genetic code.

But part of me yearns to do some hunting. The opportunity for hog hunting is almost always present in many parts of Texas, and those rice farmer friends of mine who get attacked by hogs and sustain major crop damage often need control in that regard.

But yet, as much damage as they do agriculturally, the can be a sight behold in the wild. On the last Alpine trip, as well as seeing Big Bend, we did the McDonald Observatory and the Fort Davis area quite thoroughly, seeing several baby mountain lions casually walking the grounds of the State Park, near the Indian Lodge.

We left the Observatory and headed up toward I-10 from there, running through beautiful ranches consisting of tens of thousands of acres each. On one stretch of this road, we noticed an undulating black color that appeared to be moving through the fairly thick 3 foot tall grass. We stopped and then realized it was an enormous herd of javalina moving at a very fast clip. You'd get glimpses of them as they rushed past a slight opening in the grass, but it was almost like a flood of black running throught the waist high grasses.

We slowed, of course, and ultimately encountered a herd or passle of hogs feeding in the roadside ditches, presumably on roadkill. It was about twenty or thirty strong, and they were good sized powerful creatures. It was like driving through an animal farm for the kids and we regaled them with stories of how Texas used to be like that almost everywhere, full of game.

Not so very long ago, say 40 years ago, Texas was still a sportsman's paradise. Some places still are, and our conservation efforts on the Gulf Coast will hopefully bear fruit and restore some purity to some of our bay systems.

I remember what it was like to go fishing and having fish literally jumping onto each cast. Stringers of fish so big in South Padre that we could barely lift them from the boat. A big fish fry and frozen fish load taken back to town that provided fresh fish for several weeks. The fish caught nowadays are not quite as large or as plentiful, but there are signs that things are improving in many locations of our coastal ecosystem.

So if you're going deer hunting, have lots of fun, lots of good hunting, and be careful! One day soon, I may break out the venerable family Marlin lever action scoped .30-.30. It's been a few years since I shot it, but it was still shooting spot on back then. I've got some friends having problems up in Central Texas with the hogs doing heavy damage to their crops, and if the hogs are not gargantuan with tough meat (and many are), then they are also some good eating.

In any event, with the cold fronts coming through the air, and the smell of fall and approaching winter upon us, that favorite time of year is upon us for the Texas Hunter. Happy Hunting!

DEER SEASON MEMORIES

In Texas, November 7th is a big day for a lot of folks all over the state. And I do mean, all over the state. Deer hunting season starts that date, and if you've been watching the frenzied "gettin' ready" activities of your friends and neighbors, you know what I mean.

You've seen them driving the major highways headed toward certain deer filled parts of the state the past several months, towing truckloads of gear and campers and the like, getting ready to set up hunting camps.

I'm not a big hunter, although I have hunted in my lifetime somewhat extensively in younger years. My father was brought up as a hunter, out of necessity, and although we usually didn't eat the game we killed, my father always had friends and clients ready to take whatever live game we had from a hunting trip.

Seeing all of the hunters heading up to supply their leases or if they're lucky, their own places for hunting season. It's a ritual and a rite of passage in our State.

We had several "places" outside Houston when I was growing up. One was in Cypress, deep in Cypress and a lovely rural area. We had 40 acres, and two of my dad's friends owned the adjoining 80 acres, so there was plenty of land for roaming and shooting and the like. It was filled with large but sparsely located oaks, and tons of yupon bushes. The neighbor, a retired Houston Oiler, had a huge lake and let us fish there whenever we wanted. It was a pretty good drive to get there from where we lived in Houston, but during high school and the following years my friends and I made often use of that pond and hunted lots of quail and deer out there.

We also had a 35 acre place with a cabin located on a large creek that feeds the San Jacinto River in northern Montgomery County, and that was the place we frequented the most. An architect from Houston had built a rustic but large creekside cabin, elevated and fairly far back from the creek, sometime in the late 50's. It had been his families weekend retreat.

It became my father and my favorite place to go. The cabin had electricity and water although it was badly in need of a new well. Over the years, a variety of characters who were handymen or craftsmen that my father took a liking to and trusted to do honest work did fix up work on the cabin. Unfortunately, in the early 80's, although the cabin was still a pretty good ways from this large creek sitting on a bluff about 20 yards above the creek, a freak 100 year flood hit some years ago and undercut the bank, causing the cabin to collapse into the void underneath it and be swept partly away.

We gave a friend the remainder of the vintage cedar lumber that remained from the structure. At one time, it had been a cozy, cathedral ceiling two story cedar cabin with a cedar shingle exerior and metal roof, with a large two story rock fireplace and a total of four bedrooms. It had an extremely large communal kitchen/dining area/living room centered around the fireplace, made a Texas Hill Country stone of some sort.

We did some deer hunting there over the years. Our tract was surrounded by thousands of acres of undeveloped land on 3 sides, with no road access within miles of three sides of our property. It was as East Texas of a wilderness as there was, and my friends and I, taken to the Cabin by my dad ran wild in those days. Archery and BB Guns when we were in the sixth grade, but we were quickly deemed safety conscious enough to carry .22 rifles and pistols and a variety of shotguns or 30.30 rifles.

Those East Texas woods were full of lots of critters. One of our handyman, Charlie, actually happened to be handy with a pistol, and must have been a boy scout in his youth because he was prepared with his Ruger Single Action .22 Magnum pistol when a sizeable black cat or wild cat of somesort lept from the top of a tree next to the roof that Charlie was working on and started coming at him. He had his pistol in his tool bag after having had encountered snakes in trees around the cabin and was able to take the cat out.

Everyone who looked at it thought it looked rabid. Some neighbors came over and looked at it and later had the county health folks look at it. As I recall, it was rabid.

The attendant rattlesnakes and water moccasins and coppermouths were abundant and we had 007 license to dispatch as many of these as we could. The place was literally full of snakes, bad snakes. And often agressive snakes when I'd go fishing.

There were so many snakes that my dad and I always had a ritual in those days. When we'd arrive at the place in the truck, which required traversing two private right of way roads along the property of others, we'd part a distance from the cabin. We knew there would be snakes either around the cabin or in the creek right next to the cabin. As well as up in trees.

We'd each have a pistol and a rifle or shotgun, and we'd approach the place, dispatching any snakes that we could detect. These were aggressive East Texas snakes, and I've never been around as many water moccasins before or since. There was always three or four snakes hanging out in immediate view within about a 50 foot radius of the place. It was just damn snakey.

For that reason, my mother and sister did not frequent the Cabin. They visited it once, saw a large snake and never expressed any interest in visiting the Cabin again. We would check it frequently, often during Saturday family drives where we would eat out and go "check the place" just to make sure it was ok.

We had neighbors there who kept an eye on it, the folks we had purchased the right of ways from. But my Mother and Sister would stay in the car while we did a quick walk around to make sure it was ok.

Over the years, it got busted into only once, by a gang of ex-convicts, one of whom had visited the Cabin as a child with the original owners and needed a place to hang. The neighbors reported it to us and the local constabulary who raided the parolees, who were in possession of all kinds of drugs and guns and such, and went back off to prison assumably.

The break in and several day occupation resulted in some damage to the place, so the handymen returned to work on the place on the weekends, and we'd come out there to watch them do their stuff and help them out occasionally. Mostly, I'd bring a friend or two and we'd wander and shoot and fish. My father was always good about being adventurous and exploring his property, and the Cabin property was diverse and full of all kinds of trees and bushes and a small swamp and the creek and several neighboring lake or tanks that we had permission to fish.

The creek itself was a large one, uncontrolled and prone to flooding. My folks got the property for a real bargain at the time, based upon the creek and it's volitile nature. On several occasions the creek did flood up to the Cabin and barely into it's floorboards. But until the flood that destroyed it, we certainly got our money's worth in enjoyment from it. And of course, the land increased in value, due to far reaching development in Montgomery County in the 1980's and 1990's.

Good Times.