More shooting activities

I’m about to the point where I won’t be mentioning events or activities I plan to attend. A good example of why just occurred last week. I had mentioned the upcoming Bang ‘n Clang shooting activity in last week’s column and how I was hoping to participate since I had missed the last several monthly shoots. On Wednesday, one of our little dogs was acting sickly so I took her to the veterinarian. It turns out she was having problems with her anal glands and needed antibiotic treatment.

Lil’ Squirt is a rescue dachshund who has claimed me as her property. She needed to get pills twice a day and it was a two-person job to even try to give pills. Bribery worked a time or two until she figured out that I was hiding a pill in the treat. Once that happened, all hope of giving her the medication ceased, and I have bite marks on my left thumb to prove it! I ended up having to take her back to the vet on Saturday to get an antibiotic shot which would last for the duration of her necessary treatment.

She’s not happy about having to wear the “cone of shame” per the vet’s instructions, but she’s actually getting around quite well for having short legs and going up and down stairs. In a little over a week, she goes back to the vet for a follow-up visit and, hopefully, to get the cone off. She’s doing really well and has started acting like her old self. That’s always good news!

The Alaska Territorial Shoot, which is a nationally sanctioned (National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association) blackpowder shooting event, originally scheduled for next week, June 22nd through June 25th, at Fort Wick, near Talkeetna, has been extended. I’ve only recently been told the event will begin on Tuesday, June 20, and run through June 25th.

I didn’t shoot last year because I was still recovering from my left ankle replacement surgery, but I was able to attend for a couple of days and help with range safety officer firing line supervision. I had big plans to shoot this year with revised loads for several of my muzzleloaders, but again, other things kept getting in the way of developing those loads. I don’t know if I’ll even get a chance to go shooting prior to the matches to work on those loads. This may be yet another year where I’m working on loads during the actual match!

I won’t say I’ll be at the match simply because I will be meeting with my contractor on Monday, June 19th to finalize the work to be done replacing my collapsed storage building from last winter’s heavy snowfall. I don’t know when he plans to start work, so I won’t know when I will have free time, since I’m going to be his chief laborer.

I’m glad to finally get started in recovering from the building collapse. So far, the damage done to my “motorhome trunk,” my small, covered 5x10-foot trailer, has been repaired. The riverboat is sitting at the repair shop and I’m waiting for the repair estimate so I can forward it to insurance for approval. That work can’t start until the estimate is approved. My motorhome is still sitting in my yard while I wait for the call from the repair shop that they have room and time to begin working on those repairs. The estimate for this work has already been approved and the funds forwarded to the repair facility.

Two things are frustrating here: first, the fact that insurance probably won’t cover the full cost of various repairs. On the small trailer, for instance, the insurance money I received didn’t even cover half of the cost of repairs. To be fair, resealing the roof probably wouldn’t have been covered anyway, since it’s a normal, long-term maintenance item and only became known with the need to repair and replace the roof vent system, but when money is tight, it hurts.

The second frustration comes from how long it’s taking to even get repairs started. We had hoped to use both the boat and motorhome for a good part of the summer. Now, it’s looking like I’ll be lucky to have one or both back in serviceable form by August or even September. And who knows how much out-of-pocket costs will be in addition to the insurance funding.

One good thing has come from this: we’re getting rid of a lot of accumulated junk from over the years!