Swiss K31

I've been reading about military surplus rifles on and off for a couple of years. Lately, I've come back to this again and rediscovered the rifle that I'd really like to own sometime. It's the Swiss Karabiner Model 1931 (K31) rifle chambered in 7.5x55mm.



The K31 was in use by the Swiss Armed Forces from 1933 through 1958. It is unusual in a number of respects. It is a bolt action, but unlike most bolt actions, it pulls straight back rather than rotating up and back. They have a reputation for being one of the most accurate production military rifles ever produced - often shooting groups of less than one MOA (minute of angle - 1" at 100yds). There were around 580,000 of them made and many have card under the butt plate that identifies the person to whom the rifle was issued.


In addition to the good reputation, interesting history, and affordable price (currently available from $150 - $450), one thing I find attractive about the K31 is that the ammunition is relatively cheap, fairly widely available, and the surplus Swiss stock (shown above) is all match quality. The ballistics of the 7.5x55 are very similar to the .308 Winchester so it's a good general purpose upper-mid range round.

For more info on the K31, see:

• Swiss Rifles page on the Schmidt-Rubin Series
• Wikipedia page for the K31
• Surplus Rifles section on K31

clearing around the chick's pen

Saturday, I moved the firewood pile, cleared brush, and trimmed some trees to make the chicken pen more visible. I wanted us to be able to see over there more easily. There is still more cleaning up to be done from the building of the new pen. I need to find a good use for old chicken wire... With help from Tressa and Mathias, I used some of the rotten wood from the bottom of the pile to fill up some sink holes at the bottom of the yard. Maybe that will help reduce the erosion around them. Or maybe it will just be a hole filler... :-)

let him eat cheese

Sunday evening, Lathen discovered a new use for his pacifier. It makes a great cheese eating utensil.



After the next operating system upgrade, my Blackberry 8310 will be able to shoot video in addition to taking photos. Then I won't have to make videos from 3 still images... :-)

my favorite teas

Over the last 2.5 years I've become something of a loose-leaf tea junkie (thus the title of this blog). I have sampled many varieties in my quest to find what my favorites are. I have decided that for the most part, Chinese black teas are my preference. I also like some oolong, green, and white teas and some from other areas, but I always come back to a couple of specific types as my daily tea.

The first is from the Yunnan province and generally called something like "Yunnan Gold". It has a slightly peppery and malty flavor. I've even experimented with adding a little freshly cracked black pepper as it steeps to build on that flavor - pretty good but not something I'd do every day... :-)

My second favorite is called "Golden Monkey" and comes from the Fujian province. It is picked with one leaf and one bud and supposedly the name comes from the fact that it resembles a monkey hand in its final form. It has a slightly chocolaty flavor.

I drink them both without sugar, milk, or lemon. Making tea from full leaves instead of the small pieces found in bags leads to a less bitter taste so I don't miss the sweetening at all. I tend to make them both pretty strong - they look more like coffee from a distance.

I buy most of my tea from two sources. Adagio has a good variety and a great web site. Seven Cups is more expensive but tends to higher over all quality and is more seasonal I think. Here are links to Yunnan Gold and Golden Monkey at Adagio. I have gotten "Yunnan Golden Palace" from Seven Cups before but they don't have it right now.

postcards from Old Blighty

Yesterday I received some postcards from a friend and former co-worker, Vipul, who lives in Slough (West of London near Windsor Castle). He's recently started collecting Pelikan fountain pens and joined the Fountain Pen Network's postcard swap to practice/practise penmanship and exchange interesting postcards around the world.




I thought that was pretty cool. Thanks Vip! Now if I could just read the handwriting... (just kidding I tell thee!) Look for some Oklahoma postcards coming back!

best laid plans

This has been done a while, but I while waiting on work stuff, I was looking back at my SketchUp design for the chicken tractor I built for Kendre a few weeks ago.



I am pleased with how helpful the SketchUp drawing turned out to be. There are a number of things I would do differently but overall, working through it in the model helped me figure many things out ahead of time. In fact, the things I would change were largely things that I didn't do in detail in the model...

There is a blog that I read regularly about using SketchUp for woodwork design. "Design. Click. Build." is very well written and has lots of great tips and tricks. If you are interested in chicken tractors, The City Chicken has lots of photos for reference.

playing fretless

I have been running through some songs for tomorrow morning and thinking about my bass playing. I have been playing fretless more and more lately and finally getting to the point where I almost feel comfortable with it even for sight-reading (not a big strength of mine).

I was attracted originally to fretless bass by the sound. I love the "mwahh" (that's the proper technical term amongst bassist!). And while I still love that sound, now that I've had one for about a year and a half, I am coming to appreciate other aspects as well.

Since playing a note on a fretless is more work to get in tune than a normal fretted bass, it makes you start to appreciate each note more. I doubt that listeners can hear it (especially in my haphazard playing) but it makes me feel more connected to what I am playing.

Another thing I was surprised to find is that in spite of the extra concentration it requires, playing fretless feels less strenuous in some ways. Maybe it's that I put too much finger force into normal fretting, but once I am comfortable with a song, I feel like I am somehow freer to play what I feel should be played.

Make no mistake, playing fretless is (at least for me) much harder than fretted bass. I'd never consider playing it publicly without a good monitor system - I normally play with in-ear monitors and I have plenty of piano in my mix for pitch reference. I have to pay constant attention to what I am dong and I still miss plenty of notes. But it's very rewarding for the effort.

It will never replace my fretted bass (which I love to play) but I am really enjoying my fretless now and I feel like it's bringing new dimensions to my playing. I'd highly recommend it to any bassist considering getting one.