Friday Frivolity

Do you see this pine cone (click to enlarge)?  I've never seen one like it in my entire life.  And I can't find it on Google Images either (at least after going through 30+ pages of images).  Any ideas?

One of my brothers and I were looking at a remote property yesterday, and across the dirt road was some sort of pine tree with these monster cones.  This thing is fully closed up.  It has these curved, spike-like tines at the end of each "petal".

Here's another look-see -

All I can tell you is that the tree was some sort of pine/conifer, it was very tall, and the wood was white-ish in color.  The cone is about 8 inches long and very heavy for its size.
---

This property is very remote.  The last 6 miles in are on dirt/gravel roads, and the last 2 miles are horrible.  There's no power, no public water.  But it is 20 acres very near a large body of fresh water, is about 50% covered with mostly oaks, and the other half is fairly flat meadow.

It is perfect (although my wife would likely disagree with that)!

We're looking into what it would cost to run power to the parcel.  We know it will be very, very expensive.  There is one guy living on a nearby parcel.  No power, but he built a "shed".  It was the nicest shed I'd ever seen.  It's huge.  He's got 3 propane tanks and what looks to be a pretty nice set-up.  The next time we head up there, we'll try and talk with the guy and see if he has any interest in sharing the cost of bringing in power.

The body of water has tons of fish, and we damned near ran over a group of young mule deer.  There were some indications of hogs (that's good and bad, I guess), possibly elk and an outside chance that one pile of poo we saw was bear.

The site definitely has possibilities...
---

I was chatting with Guns about some tactical training, and I ran across this IDPA/Glock pistol video.  This guy is fast as hell, but I noted a number of times where he was right on the edge of breaking the "180 degree rule" - the barrel of the gun breaking the invisible barrier at your sides so that the barrel points behind you.  He never breaks it, but it was close.



When I'm shooting IDPA, I really focus on doing magazine insertions with just a twist of my wrist to bring the grips parallel to the ground - the muzzle stays pointed down-range. Break this rule during a match, and you're disqualified.

I really liked his technique and speed in going from the holster to the single-hand, weak-side shot. Like butta.... Gotta add that to my routine at the Action Pistol range.
---

I'm going to live forever!

People who ate one serving of chocolate per week were 22 percent less likely to have a stroke than those who ate no chocolate, according to a research analysis released at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting Thursday.

So, if I'm doing the math right, if I eat chocolate 5 times a week, I'll be 110% less likely to have a stroke.  That sounds like imortality, to me.

Ah, if only it worked that way.  I guess I stocked up on all of that chocolate for nothing...

Happy Early Valentines Day.

---
Click our advertiser links. They pay us so you don't have to!

Copyright 2009 Bison Risk Management Associates. All rights reserved. You are encouraged to repost this information so long as it is credited to Bison Risk Management Associates. www.BisonRMA.com