Tag Archives: USTrip

Mason Dixon Stampede 2016

Posted on by kathousekelli70

Arriving into Thurmont last week, did the tourist trips to Gettysburg, Thursday was the start of the match with Wild Bunch and Speed Events.

It had turned to light misty rain, compared to the previous weeks, enough to be annoying but nothing real drastic.

The three stage Wild Bunch match saw some very interesting little targets (6″X6″) being used which made for an exciting day. Good fun!

 

We had a couple of run throughs on the speed events, rifle, pistol and shotgun. Rifle I got down to 3.83sec's and was extremely pleased as the week before the best I could do was 4.56. Jack ripped out an awesome 3.30secs! We had a crack at the shotgun and pistol events as well before packing up for the day.

 

Friday, main match, Day 1, same drizzly rain. We had an awesome Posse! Posse 6 – Annabelle Bransford, Rowdy Bill, Tom Payne, James Samuel Pike, Yukon Mike, Silas Highland, Travis Spencer, Spinning Sally, Cold Brook Kid, Belle Evans, Marshal Jacobey John, Dirty Dingus Diggs, Geronimo Jim, Wild Bill Diamond, Ziggedy Zag, Jackaroo and myself.

 

They were awesome and it was like listening to or being in a movie with all the New York and Jersey accents. (I think and hope I got that right)

They are as entertaining as always! Tom regaled us with the National Anthem played on his harmonica before we kicked off for the day.

We shot Stages 6-10 on Day 1, clean for me and a couple misses for Jack.

 

Day 2 and we complete Stages 1-5. Jack had a much better day than the previous and I'm clean again!

 

Saturday night was the banquet in the big tent and the “Reel” West restaurant. The stages were based on different cowboy movies. Wild Bunch and Side Match Awards were handed out with Top 16 and Sweet Sixteen being announced.

After dinner in the club house, was the gambling night, raising funds for the SASS Scholarship. Try your hand at Chuck-A-Luck, Faro, and Roulette or you could just buy tickets for the raffle.

 

Sunday morning you could try your hand at an informal man on man stage and a 3 team event before the awards commenced.

Jack came second in Silver Senior. Congratulations to all Silver Senior's. 1st Place Dirt Rider, Jackaroo, and unfortunately the rest I do not have names and the scores aren't up yet, my apologies.

 

Congratulations to fellow Lady Wrangler 2nd place Calamity Jill.

 

Overall Divisional Champions for 2016 went to Sunshine Marcie and James Samuel Pike!

 

Top Overall Cowboy and Cowgirl – James Samuel Pike and Kathouse Kelli! Yee Haa! (I finished 8th overall from 154 shooters, very pleased indeed)

 

The Top 16 and Sweet Sixteen received a really neat Lone Star badge and then it was on to the shootout. Winners for the shootout were Sunshine Marcie and Indiana Loose Cannon.

 

A big thank you to Chuckaroo and his team, in particular Dog Meat Dadd who ran proceedings while Chuckaroo was not well again. All the ladies who assisted and many other hands of the Thurmont Rangers who put this match together, thank you!

Kat xo

 

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Posted on by kathousekelli70

We are now in Thurmont, Maryland.

Taking a short trip up into Pennsylvania, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent at the Gettysburg National Military Park. Sensational! To say the very least!

The first thing we did was bought tickets to the Film, Cyclorama and Museum.

The film was narrated by Morgan Freeman (love his voice) and there was so much to see on the big curved screen, my eyes were darting everywhere trying to take it all in.

It was pure genius, a visual sensation, beautifully done by the History channel, the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. The Civil War battle that took place over July1-3 of 1863.

Total casualties for the three days (killed, wounded, captured, missing) of fighting were 23,000 Union, 28,000 Confederates.Incredible numbers fought, lost and won during that 3 day campaign with Robert E. Lee as the Confederate commander and George Gordon Meade, the Union commander. 70,000 Confederates went up against a Union army of 93,000 on that 1st day in July.

 

Next when you exit the theatre you are taken up into the viewing room of the cyclorama. (Cycloramas – a 360deg view panoramic painting of a scene, viewed from the centre, often with music or narration, first developed in 1787 – popular in the early 19th century)

A spectacular vision of sound and light, as if you were standing behind Union lines. It is the largest oil painting in America. Painted in 1884 by Paul Dominique Philippoteaux, it came to Gettysburg in 1913.

The 377ft painting debuted in Boston 132 years ago and in 2008 restoration began for this project.

 

It truly is magnificent and the detail incredible. The artist has even included himself in the painting as his signature. See the picture below of the bearded officer leaning against a tree with sword over his leg,

 

The Museum section has many artefacts, beautifully displayed with excerpts of speeches, letters and legislation surrounding the walls. Timber plaques have also been printed or etched with pictures and text,

 

A number of interactive displays run through the 3 years of the war on screens of varying size throughout the museum.

 

It is an exceptional place full of history and if you ever get to this region it is not to be missed! A very comprehensive display. They weren't wrong when saying you would easily need a couple of hours for the Museum alone.

The weather was divine on Tuesday but turned a little overcast and on the cool side on the Wednesday.

 

However that did not deter us from making our way back to Gettysburg and taking the 24mile auto tour of the battlefield.

 

There are 16 tour stops along the way and instead of purchasing a cd at gift store we found an app that ran off the GPS and would talk to us once we reached the spot on the map. Relaying information regarding the battle for the point we were at, we could then get out and view the magnificent monuments, fields and take in the terrain that would have been encountered by so many on foot back in the day.

 

An extremely humbling experience.

Kat xo

Sept 28, 2016

This is only a small sampling of pictures taken. So, so much to see. Loved it.

 

25th Anniversary, Appalachian Showdown

Posted on by kathousekelli70

The CASS Inc. held their Appalachian Showdown Silver Jubilee (SASS West Virginia State Championships) this past weekend at Singing Hills Ranch, Largent, West Virginia.

Photos are from their display they had to celebrate their 25 years, they had a great lot of memorabilia.

Just outside Berkeley Springs, is this beautiful tree covered property with 8 shooting bays. Traversing the range is a workout in itself, but it's very well laid out with decks built in to set your gun carts on.

Friday the shoot kicked off with Wild Bunch in the morning. Four fun stages with about 17 Wild Bunch shooters taking on the challenge. In the afternoon we had a couple of runs at the side matches – Speed Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun, Derringer, Pocket Pistol and a one stage run.

 

Into main match day on Saturday, again the weather is just perfect for shooting, cool in the morning and warm during the day. Not a particularly good day for Jack but I was surprisingly clean! The targets seem somewhat smaller than we have been used to but mostly I think they are just out there a little further, I guess that means I must have been using my front sights better?!?

 

That night the banquet was on in Berkeley Springs at the American Legion. Great food! Side match awards were handed out and a great bluegrass band got some of the ladies up dancing and later the Class of '61 came through from next door in a Congo line!

 

Sunday was much cooler and took until after lunch to warm up some! Jack was clean for the day and I remained clean with a couple of hang ups. A neat little shootout with a Texas star, knockdowns and clays rounded out the match.

Awards were held with Jack finishing 2nd in Senior and 1st Place in Lady Wrangler for me.

 

Cody Walker was 1st Mens overall, West Virginia State Champion 1st overall went to Twin (who I might add, did it with one foot in a boot, he is one focused cowboy!) and a huge congratulations to Sunshine Marcie for being West Virginia State Champion and 1st Lady overall AND she got me in the shootout! Well played Cowgirl! There were only 3 rank points and 2.42secs between us. Also congratulations must go to Cody Maverick for winning Mens shootout. (My apologies, I didn't get any pics of the winners this time)

To Lady Benson and Texas Tom, for their amazing hospitality and property for the help they received from Black Orchid and Bobwire Brenice, Match Director – Punch and all the CASS Rangers, thanks for having us!

Kat xo

 

Streaking Through Kentucky

Posted on by kathousekelli70

That got your attention didn't it! Lol!

No streaking, drive on, drive on.

Springfield, KY – est. 1797, Lincoln Legacy Museum, closed Wednesday's, quick picture of the Lincoln Statue and some nice old buildings.

 

Perryville, KY – steeped in civil war history, we visited the Perryville Battlefield State Historical site. Great little museum and 30minute film about the battle in October of 1862. The story unfolds with Braxton Bragg's Confederate Army of Mississippi and Don Carlos Buell's Union Army of Ohio.

 

The museum is very informative and has a great collection of artefacts and uniforms. The cannon or “Six-Pound Smoothbore Field Gun” are always spectacular to look at! The ammunition case beside it was cool and now I know where the meaning of 'shrapnel' came from. The 6pound spherical case shot was invented by one Henry Shrapnel.

 

The soldiers on both sides suffered greatly as Kentucky experienced drought through this time. Many suffered heat stroke and died of dehydration as well as any injuries received during the battles that ensued.

 

When you look at the grounds surrounding Perryville, I try to imagine the some 70,000 odd troops that would have been in and around here. Great lines of men fighting each other.

 

The Bottom House is quite small and still it is hard to fathom hundreds of bodies littering the yard and porch as it was made a makeshift hospital. Many houses during that time were commandeered for such purposes.

 

Some stats from the brochure.

  • 55,396 Union and 16,800 Confederate soldiers.
  • 203 cannons located in Perryville, 90 were used in the battle
  • At least 21 states were represented in the Battle of Perryville – Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisianna, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania,Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.
  • 1,431 soldiers were killed (890 Union, 532 Confederate)
  • 5,618 were wounded (2,966 Union, 2,652 Confederate)
  • 669 missing or captured (433 Union, 236 Confederate)

So in fact looking at those figures for total casualties 7,718 (4,298 Union, 3,420 Confederate) that's 1/5th of the Confederate force and only 1/12th of the Union. Like most of the Civil War period Union forces definitely outnumbered the Confederates.

All things considered, that's a huge victory for the Confederates.

Winchester, KY – est. 1792, didn't see much through here as we sort of bypassed the historic downtown, oh well.

Onward through rolling hills and the green trees of Kentucky. Fall is starting to show her signs of change, as reds and yellows creep through the forest.

We have now entered into West Virginia! A new state for us, staying somewhere around Charleston tonight, then a dash to the very northern section of the state to Berkeley Springs tomorrow.

 

Signing off with a bit of John Denver ……almost heaven, West Virginia….blue ridge mountains…..

Kat xo

 

Gunfight in Dixie XIV, done!

Posted on by kathousekelli70

What a great shoot!

We had a ball. Great stages, great range, awesome hosts! The shoot was based on Quigley Down Under. Yep, Tom Selleck, Australia, perfect really!

Besides the rain making everything a little soggy, this is a great range. Permanent facades with a lot of detail and thought adorns this neat little range.

 

There are signs and different bits and pieces that make the inside of the facades look like you walked back into time. Apparently the hotel has previously held poker games etc in it during the later evenings. It has lights and fans inside and tables can be set up in there.

 

Every stage had some cover, 5 have permanent cover and all have fans in them and at the loading tables.

 

Saturday night was dinner and side match awards, sitting listening, talking with different folks and drinking some of the purest white lightning I've seen or tasted at 95 proof.

 

Thanks to Hot Lead Lefty, Tennessee Whiskers, Cherokee Sergeant, Dew R Dye and all the Memphis Gunslingers and help, for hosting a great match!

We had a great Posse, with Cumberland Drifter, C W Knight, Tombstone John, our Posse Marshall Randy Saint Eagle, Dode City Dixie, Reno Mustang, Cullen Bohannon, Little JB, Ginderella, Jailbreak Jake, Johnny Tennessee, Mud Puppy, Silas Armas Aubrey, Tomme Gunz, Tennessee Pencil Pusher, Jack and myself.

 

Their top gun shoot off went well with a 10 plate knockdown rack for rifle, Texas star and dump plate for pistol and shotgun. I haven't got any pictures or video from that though.

Koda Joe and I won best dressed cowboy and cowgirl for the weekend. Congratulations to all the category winners and placers. Jack finished 1st in Senior and I was 1st in Lady Wrangler.

 

Top cowboy at the shootout was Slick Mclade with Dew R Dye taking Top cowgirl. Good fun!

The overall winners for this years Gunfight in Dixie was Blackfish Kid (cowboy) and Slick's Sharpshooter (cowgirl), congratulations!

Cheers

Kat xo

 

My Old Kentucky Home, Goodnight!

Posted on by kathousekelli70

Still in Bardstown, we went to the 'My Old Kentucky Home' , preserved in time and history as a State Park since 1923.

 

The Federal-style mansion was originally named 'Federal Hill' but was later renamed after the song 'My Old Kentucky Home, Goodnight!'

Stephen Foster (who wrote the song) was a cousin of John Rowan's (owner of said property). There are many famous songs we know by Stephen Foster, he wrote 200 during his short life, passing away at age 37. He composed two that became state songs, this and one for Florida.

We had a beautiful rendition of 'My Old Kentucky Home' by our first tour guide Miss Kelby. Miss Jillian took us around the upstairs portion of the house.

 

No photos were allowed inside the mansion unfortunately. The home is decorated to what would have been 'pleasing to the eye' in the early 1800's. Gorgeous rich in colour and pattern carpets, wallpapers, drapes and furnishings. All reproduced and updated every 30 years, the carpet that is, and possibly the wallpaper, didn't quite catch whether they re-did that as well but assume they may so it matches in.

They had rooms done as winter rooms and summer rooms, difference being curtains and bedding, on your four poster!

Seventy five percent of the furniture and items in the house are original to the house. They are currently restoring other furniture to have placed in the home as well. Notable pieces – the sugar cutting implement and sugar cabinet, the cigar storage box, the decanter box, the side table with hidden door for the bourbon – it was not cool to have your liquor on display then – the chamber pot chair, sewing box, the twins crib and so much more!

The mansion and its surrounding acreage was owned by Judge and US Congressman John Rowan and subsequent family members thereafter.

He was known to like whiskey, gambling and a good argument. One 'out of court' argument over a card game with the towns doctor almost ended his life. The doctor had challenged John to a duel. They took it out to the city limits and actually had a duel, the first shots missed each other, the second round the doctors missed Rowan but Rowans hit the doctor in the chest and two hours later the doctor was dead.

The property behind the mansion once had around 39 other cabins and homes on it, for hired help and slaves etc. John Jr. was later part of the abolishment of slavery and disengaged them from Federal Hill.

 

Onward South to Hodgenville to check out more Lincoln Heritage. A quick stop to look at Lincolnshire boyhood home at Knob Creek.

 

In downtown Hodgenville is the Lincoln Heritage Museum. A really good setup with all the history and their much claim to fame in the town plaza is THE first memorial statue of Lincoln before anything in the east.

 

It was about now that we are realising we don't have time to see any more of Lincoln – it just dawned on us it's Thursday! We need to be in Arlington, TN – TOnight!

On the road again quick!

Kat xo

P.S. We made it! 😉

 

Kentucky Gold!

Posted on by kathousekelli70

After we finished in Dayton yesterday, we headed South and took a slight diversion through Carrollton and onto an intersection on the highway at Clermont and Bardstown, Kentucky.

Heading East to Bardstown (totally not knowing where we were going at the time) we happened into Bardstown only to realise we were destined to be in this spot!!!

Bardstown, after all, is the heart of Bourbon country, we are right in the midst of the Bourbon trail, including Jim Beam, Four Roses, Barton 1792, Heaven Hill, Willett and Makers Mark distilleries. With other famous ones further away.

Staying at the Bardstown Parkview Motel for the night, caught up on the blog from the past few days, worked out adjustments for patterns for a certain town suit (Crossdraw Jac), pinned some corsets ready for stitching and started writing a couple of articles.

This morning we headed 'downtown' to the Visitors Centre, seeing some amazing old buildings, this area has been here since 1780!

 

We first went up to the Civil War Museum, a beautifully displayed collection according to civil war eras. They have so many fantastic prices from this period it is incredible. This rivals the one we saw in Baxter Springs a couple of years ago.

 

The Bardstown Village, a recreation using original buildings from the surrounding area is amazing, just didn't get to see in all the buildings as it was raining!!

 

Back up the hill to see the 'Women of the Civil War' Museum and War Memorial Museum, both with much interest and artefacts as well.

 

From here it was back down through town (we had walked about 2 blocks and usually a block is a mile), heading to the car and to the tavern. Well it was lunchtime!?!

The Old Talbott Tavern is amazing! 125 varieties of bourbon is there claim to fame, however this beautiful old building and the tavern have been in existence since 1797.

 

We tried the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale which is spectacular at 8.2%abv and coupled with their signature BBQ pulled pork sandwich is divine. Christie was amazing, sharing some history with us.

 

The Jesse James bourbon was only named and brought to the tavern because Jesse James once stayed here. There are also bullet holes in the walls upstairs where he fired off his gun.

Some bourbons may have catchy names but really only for naming and if less than two years are not actually a bourbon anyways.

We took a quick trip up the stairs of the tavern and there it was, bullet holes from Jesse James gun after a loss or feud during cards into the now, very charred murals.

 

We hit the road and headed out to the Four Roses distillery. Why did we pick this one you may ask? Well, as far as we knew, it wasn't that commercialised, we liked the look of the bottles and….we just had to try something different. For $5 each for the tour, it was very interesting and well worth the stop.

Our tour guide was Debbie, last run for the day, so really we had a personalised tour with only the two of us on it.

The Four Roses brand came about in the 1880's (or some time thereafter) so named after the southern belle he married when she turned up to a ball with four roses on her corsage. (That's the story in a nutshell, there's more too it and more romantic than my account)

 

Apparently around 1958 it was purchased by an overseas company, however in 2003 and later years it was repurchased. Now all labels are made and bottled in the US again.

The distillery is in Lawrenceburg, the distillate is sent here for barreling and bottling. Before its trucked out, the sampling there is confirmed with the original before sent here, sampled again here to confirm. It is barrelled at 120 proof. Barrel aging occurs for 5 years. The white oak barrels are used once only.

 

The nozzles are where the distillate is put into the barrel. It takes 45 secs to fill and a poplar wood bung put in. Poplar, provides no weight or colour to the bourbon. It is then stencilled with barrel head information. Ie: their brand name, tax number, county number etc. Two tankers, 280 barrels a day. Then out into the rick houses for ageing.

The charred inside of the barrels are from a 1 to 4 level. Once used, some barrels get shipped off overseas for whiskey to be aged in. The barrels are made in Lebanon, Kentucky and Missouri.

Chill filtering occurs for the yellow label and single barrel where the fatty acids are filtered out. 66% of flavour will come from barrel and 100% of the colour will come out but you will lose colour when filtered, so to avoid losing too much colour they soak the filters in bourbon and ash also! Smells bloody divine.

Bottling now is mostly automated but the single barrel bottles are still finely labeled (by hand) with the 'mapping your barrel' markings. Like a latitude and longitude marking of where the barrel was stored in the rick house.

As the Japanese market is still number one, different labelling is provided for the 80 and 86 proof that is shipped out to them.

 

They try and bottle out, same as quantity in. Approx 200 bottles from ea barrel, 280 barrels a day!!

There are 20 rick houses, 4 new ones coming, hold 24,000 barrels, each sits on 1 acre of land. The moats are so if one was to catch fire and roll out, it will only go into the moat, same reason for having buildings set so far apart. Single level 6-7 degree difference in natural or ambient temperature, if taller than they can get a 37 degree difference. Mother Nature is the only thing governing the barrel control on ageing.

Ahhhhhh, the smell as you walk into the rick house! Look down the walkway, yes it's a walkway! 69 barrels in length.

 

Yes, the barrel handler guys, actually walk this narrow walkway down the rick and make sure they are bung side up.

 

We had 3 samples of bourbon at the end of the tour, you get to keep the glass and of course we bought a couple different bottles and souvenirs.

 

From here we did a quick trip to the Jim Beam factory, took some pics and I know his would be a sensational tour too but we've done the Jack Daniels one and really wanted to do something different. No offence, as we do drink it often.

 

Here's cheers! With whatever you're drinking!

Kat xo

 

 

http://fourrosesbourbon.com

Http://jimbeam.com

 

Dayton, Ohio – National Museum of the US Air Force

Posted on by kathousekelli70

Wow! Just wow!

Booked in for a 3pm Fighter Pilot 3D movie in the IMAX style theatre. Grabbed a map of the hangars and just in total bewilderment already.

 

What an amazing museum!

First into the Early Years exhibition with everything from first ballooning to the most famous Wright Brothers and their flying machines, paving the way for many aircraft to come in the years since.

 

Three hours later, we have only completed the first gallery and viewed the art exhibit, Holocaust Memorial display and tribute to Bob Hope and his years of entertaining troops.

 

Picked up our souvenir photo, had a coffee and then headed to the souvenir shop while waiting for the movie.

 

We will be back tomorrow because there are technically 9 more galleries to see and we aren't missing out on this!

So yesterday we went back and checked out the massive display of WWII. Finished in Hangar 1 we looked at the Hall of Fame and into Hangar 2 for the Southeast Asia and Korean War galleries.

 

There is a lot of photography and artefacts throughout with just a staggering amount of aircraft and equipment. In fact through all the exhibits this is the same. Many of which have been donated or, as in the case of the vehicles and aircraft, when they have been decommissioned from service.

 

Of course the museum IS the National Museum of The U.S. Air Force but throughout there is mention and records of service men and women from other Allied Nations including Australia, Britain, Canada to name but a very few.

 

Sunday I mentioned we were going to see the 3D movie – Fighter Pilot, Project Red Flag. An amazing view of the top pilots training at Nellis Air Force base in Nevada (just outside of Las Vegas, we saw the base when we were there last year). Yesterday we watched Aircraft Carriers, 3D, ALSO an exercise involving military from around the world. Both films were about 25mins long and if you find anything online about them they are definitely worth the watch.

 

The rain had cleared in the afternoon again so we took advantage to see the Memorial Park as well.

 

This morning we got there early – doors ready to open early – heading to the 3rd hangar with the Cold War Gallery and current Air Force Operations.

 

We passed through the Berlin Airlift Exhibit and the Missile hall and on to the final new fourth hangar that houses research and development, space, global reach and presidential displays.

 

We were told you needed at least a full day if not more and that certainly proved to be true. It has taken us essentially 2 full days. It was most definitely worth it. It's free, but food and drinks, souvenir's, photos, theatre and the simulators are basically your donation to the museum. Prices were more than reasonable and photography is allowed in every part of the museum. (She says, some 500 odd photos later)

Kat xo

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/#_=_

 

Guns Of August 2016

Posted on by kathousekelli70

What a great weekend, done and dusted!

The weather was hot and humid, like, really humid, dripping is more precise! The shade and trees really only kept the sun off us, nothing else!

Bug spray kept mozzies and other bugs away so that was something.

Thursday was the side match day. Mini warm up, side matches, felt pretty good! Only 1 rifle miss. Rest of the day, clean and reasonable, feeling sensational!

Friday, Day 1 of main match, clean! Six stages and going awesomely. Jack had a couple of undesirables but is shooting really well! I might add that the opening ceremonies were pretty spectacular with Lady Lopez playing the Canadian, AUSTRALIAN and US anthems!! Impressive, indeed.

 

Friday night at the clubhouse was a ribs and corn dinner and damn fine it was! Thanks to Doc Eells and others!

Got to sit and talk to RJ Gatling and Paden Emmett Cobb only to find out they knew Mary-Lou June and Mary-Lou July! RJ Gatling showed me a picture of him wih the Deere Sista's and turns out Paden was one of the judges for the Daggers and Derringers saloon contest in 2013 when the girls visited End of Trail. Haa Haa Haa!

 

Saturday, Day 2 started off okay and then a couple mistakes with shotgun made for two not so pleasant stages for me. Jack still went really good.

 

Done and dusted, we did the shoot off Friday afternoon with rain expected on the Saturday. The awards and banquet were held and all in all we finished up well. I won Lady Wrangler, a few side matches and best dressed saloon girl. Jack came 2nd in Silver Senior. We finished 32nd and 36th overall.

A huge congratulations to Sage Chick finishing not only 1st lady overall but 1st overall! For 1st man overall, a big congratulations to Duke Skywalker!

 

We had a great Posse led by Two Bit Drifter, consisting of Clementine Valentine, Darby, Darby Belle, J K Tadpole, Bad Bad Beth, Don Jorge, Taco Belle, Billy The Avenger, Deuce Stevens, Drover Dean, R J Gatling, Paden Emmett Cobb, Crazy Mingo, Shell Stuffer, Lady Viper, Jackaroo and myself.

Thanks for having us Lassiter and the Big Irons team!

Kat xo

http://www.bigirons.com