Gorges' Grouse

VIRUS NOTICE

2012-02-13T21:26:00.001-05:00

-
This was on Facebook. I can't say for sure that it's true; but why take the chance?

In the coming days, you should be aware..... Do not open any message with an attachment called: Invitation FACEBOOK, regardless of who sent it. It is a virus that opens an Olympic torch that burns the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone you had in your address book. That's why you should send this message to all your contacts. It is better to receive this email 25 times than to receive the virus and open it. If you receive E-MAIL called: Invitation FACEBOOK, though sent by a friend, do not open it and delete it immediately. It is the worst virus as announced by CNN
-

Nevard Blog: Dick Joins The Army

2012-02-13T19:46:00.000-05:00

-
At sixty below, "It was too cold to do anything with the horses so I went and cut a load of wood..."

Read more at the link below:

Nevard Blog: Dick Joins The Army
-

Full circle

2012-02-12T00:48:00.000-05:00

-
Native Americans believed life was a series of circles. Though they didn't understand the mechanics, they recognized the pattern of dawn, daylight, dusk, and darkness as a circle; Likewise, the phases of the moon and the passing of the seasons. Human life, too, was a circle of birth, childhood, adulthood, old age, and death, each man’s life overlapping with that of his neighbor.

Black Elk was speaking spiritually when he said there was strength in the circle. He said his people lost their power when they left the circle of the lodge to dwell in square houses like the white man. He probably wouldn't have been surprised to learn that the circle is physically strong as well. Theorists tell us his ancestors came from Asia and multiplied into a great nation before dwindling to near nothing as the white man plundered the continent. My own ancestors came from Europe and multiplied here until they were a large family with much land. But, due to death, taxes, suburban sprawl, and declining birth rates, my family and their property has also dwindled to near nothing. My little farm is the last family holding of any acreage in the valley and the my grandfather’s branch on the family tree is nearly dead.

My earliest recorded ancestor in this region came with flintlock in hand, when the land was still called the Colony of Virginia. Later generations used caplocks and repeating arms. My own first hunting arm was an auto-loading shotgun; then came a single-shot, followed by a rnuzzleloader. Today I sit here with a bow in my lap. In this age of center-fire repeaters with electronic ignition, some would say I'm regressing. I prefer to think I'm just completing the circle started by my pre-historic European ancestors.

This land, too, is making a full circle. The towering pine I'm using for my backrest is a grand-child of those felled a century-and-a-half ago when the farm was first cleared. Fifty years later, when my grandfather bought the place, pines had already reclaimed the rougher areas. They, in turn, seeded the ridge where I now sit. It's a little sad to see a century of family labor turn to nothing as the pines reclaim their own. Yet, there's also a certain comfort in knowing that, with our passing, the land will once again hear the sounds of the forest.

For many years my family has lived on the food and fiber this land has given us. As I sit here, silently thanking the Lord for His blessings through this land, the gently swaying limbs above me seem to be singing a hymn of their own. When my circle is finished, I hope my body can lie here beneath familiar soil. It seems fitting that the land which furnished so many of the nutrients to build this body should reclaim it on that day. © 2012

P.S. This article was written several years ago and was based on a rather long piece of free verse that I’d written earlier, which has never been published. The farm I spoke of then is gone now, perhaps because it was too much the center of my life then, instead of God. In death, I won’t be resting in the soil that furnished the material for my bones, but in the country cemetery ¾ of a mile down the road. My gravestone was recently ordered and paid for, but I haven’t heard from them yet about picking it up. I’ll be setting it myself. Hopefully, I won’t be needing it any time soon. If I do, I guess it won’t be my problem! ;-)
-

Everybody Love Everybody

2012-02-12T00:02:00.000-05:00

-
This kid is alright! Please watch his video and then pass it on.

http://www.godvine.com/Everybody-Love-Everybody-One-Young-Man-s-Touching-Story-1125.html
-

Simply Self Sufficiency

2012-02-11T22:18:00.000-05:00

-
The title is the name of a blog I just saw at the site of one of my followers. You may find it interesting if you're trying to become more self-sufficient. Check it out: Simply Self Sufficiency
-

Big Brother Must Live In Tennessee

2012-02-11T18:42:00.000-05:00

-
A guy down in Tennessee, called a "doomsday prepper," has been misdiagnosed as suicidal by a crackpot doctor, sent to a mental hospital for observation, then had his guns stolen by the local sheriff because he had been in that institution. This guy is rightfully angry and gives the names of the guilty parties. Listen to the videos over at Modern Day Redneck.
-

I Ain’t So Bright Sometimes

2012-02-11T01:38:00.001-05:00

-
I like to flatter myself at times and lay claim to having a fair amount of common-sense, and many folks seem to go along with that idea. Unfortunately, it seems I can’t do that when it comes to spiritual matters. Oh sure, I can see things that some folks don’t notice when it comes to broad subjects that affect us all, but I don’t do so well at figuring out just what the Lord is up to in my own life, or at knowing exactly what it is He wants me to do or to learn.

I’ve heard folks say that they have a running conversation with the Father or Jesus all the live-long day. Now some of those folks are good up-standing Christian people, but to tell you the truth, a lot of them are crazier than bedbugs when you get to know them better. Still, there’s enough of the former that I get almost a little jealous when I think that maybe the Lord’s telling them things that He seems to be leaving me in the dark about.

I’m sure that I’ve been guided by the Holy Spirit without even realizing it on many occasions, but I have to admit that, in my nearly 29 years of being a Christian, He’s spoken to me only three times. The first time was many years ago, when I was in deep turmoil because of what I considered unnecessary financial woes. It was becoming obvious that I wasn’t going to be able to stay married to my wife and continue doing the work I loved. In fact, I used those very words as I knelt in tearful prayer at the sawlog that I was using as an alter in my neighbor’s pasture field. The words were no sooner out of my mouth than I heard the still, small voice that the Bible speaks of saying, “You never promised that you’d do this line of work all your life.” The implication was obvious. I started looking for other work the next day. Even then, it was a year before I got hired at the factory.

Several years later, I once again found myself in what I considered an unnecessary money-mess, despite having a decent job. Of course, if someone else was the problem, I was still the enabler. One day as I prayed, asking the Lord what to do, He spoke again. This time, though, it wasn’t a voice, but a thought that came silently to my mind as if spoken by someone telepathically. The words were, “You got yourself into this mess; you get yourself out.” Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but I couldn’t deny the fairness of such thinking.

It was nearly a year later when I came home from work after taking a voluntary lay-off rather than work a job that I knew I wasn’t up to. With my financial problems not yet solved, and suspicious that the plant might close at any time, I had decided to do what I always swore that I would NEVER do, and sell the farm where I was raised. I was the fourth generation to work that farm, and the only thing more heart-breaking for me than making that decision was when I’d lost my father nine years earlier. Arriving home, I found my wife was upstairs and for some reason shouted my decision up to her. Once again, I heard that still, small voice—this time saying, “That’s what I meant for you to do all along.” The factory DID close two years later and that money is the only thing that has kept us going these past few years.

Three years ago this month, I started working as a telemarketer, thinking that it would put food on the table until something better came along. Unfortunately, I’m still looking for that something better. It’s been a real education just what desperate lives many people live who work in such sweat-shops. Only in the last several months have I become fully aware just how wonderfully blessed I’ve been all my life, and just how much I’ve taken those blessings for granted. (See my post for January 19th for more details.) The Bible tells us that we should be thankful, even in adversity, since even the hard times are for our improvement in some way. Sadly, it wasn’t until three days ago that I actually THANKED the Lord for sending me to that place to teach me what I needed to learn. Then the strangest thing happened. My production, which had constantly kept me on the verge of getting fired for the last year or two, improved dramatically. For the last three days, I’ve been one of their best producers!

Since I had gotten a kindly warning by my supervisor the day before, I KNOW to what THEY will attribute the improvement. However, I know the REAL reason. I realize that having made His point, I might be on the bottom of the list again next week. OR, I might continue to do well. Whatever it is, I know it will be the Lord’s will. I just hope it doesn’t take me so long to learn the next lesson! © 2012
-

Madonna Outdoes Herself

2012-02-08T02:05:00.001-05:00

-
I've always said that sports is a religion for some people. I guess I never realized just how true that is. Though most folks probably had no inkling of what it was all about, they SHOULD have had some sense of unease by what the slutty-looking super-star performed at half-time for millions of folks. I don't follow sports and, to this day, don't even know who played. Now I'm glad that I don't. Learn a bit more about Madonna's satanic performance and you may see why I say that.

If the link doesn't work properly, copy and paste the following in your browser's top line: http://worldtruth.tv/satanic-ritual-performed-at-the-nfl-half-time-show/#.TzIFHlgpSGU.facebook
-

Another Common-Sense Audio On Prepping

2012-02-07T22:39:00.000-05:00

-
The Bama Trapper has another good audio on beginning preparedness over at Butternut and Chicory.
-

Apache Indian Resistance - Geronimo and The History They Don't Teach You In School

2012-02-07T22:25:00.000-05:00

-
Daily Good: Apache Indian Resistance - Geronimo and The History They Don't Teach You In School
-

Country Side Poet: "Well I've Done It Again"

2012-02-06T22:43:00.000-05:00

-
This is a beautiful story. Please read it.

Country Side Poet: "Well I've Done It Again"
-

Homesteading At Redtail Ridge: Med Kit Staple...Grapefruit Seed Extract

2012-02-06T22:27:00.000-05:00

Homesteading At Redtail Ridge: Med Kit Staple...Grapefruit Seed Extract

Modern Medicine Murders Again

2012-02-06T20:29:00.000-05:00

-
This was written in anger several days ago, but I held off posting it for fear it would upset the family of the young woman mentioned at the end of this article. I’ve since learned that a blogger acquaintance is facing the same dilemma. Hoping to keep her from making the same mistake, I’ve decided to go ahead and post it. I hope she reads it.

A young mother, wife, sister and daughter-in-law died a couple days ago. She left behind many, many friends as well. She was one more victim of a well-planned, very profitable and legally acceptable murder for hire operation. The victims, though, are not the object of hatred or vendettas, but simply scared, well-meaning folks who allow themselves to be tortured and killed so that doctors, pharmaceutical companies and hospitals can make millions from their slaughter.

Just a few short months ago, the young woman was recovering from having the cancerous part of one lung removed. She was looking and feeling better from what I heard, until the doctors convinced her that she needed to go through chemo-therapy and radiation “just to be safe” and “so the cancer won’t come back.” The torture, hair loss and sickness that ensued are well enough known to most folks that I see no need to describe them. When they realized that she wasn’t strong enough to handle any more of their profit-making torture, they sent her home to die. And now, she’s gone; from THIS world at least. They said there was a smile on her face as she passed into the next life, probably because she saw what awaited her (I understand that she was a Christian).

Several years ago, my “cousin-in-law” had a double mastectomy and dutifully took all of the radiation and chemo that the doctors prescribed. I don’t have to tell you the suffering she went through, you’ve all seen it. Not many years later, the cancer was back with a vengeance (they said). The doctors told her that “her only hope” was MASSIVE amounts of chemo. I spoke to her the day before she went into the hospital and she was shaking like a leaf. She said that she had a bad feeling about what lay ahead of her. As a Christian, she knew her ultimate destination, but understandably didn’t relish the process. She went comatose the day after her chemo and died two weeks later.

Five years ago, after having a breast removed, they tried to convince my wife to help make them richer, too. She refused. She told them that she was a Christian and didn’t fear death. She said that if she was going to die, she preferred to go naturally, not from being tortured to death with chemo and radiation and chronic nausea. Knowing the way things affect her, I know with certainty that we would have been dead in six months if the doctors had been allowed to make their money. The anger, shock and resentment coming from those who were financially affected were amazing. She’s still alive, but the doctor who showed the most rage is gone, a victim of cancer interestingly enough. My wife may very well die next month or next year from a return of her cancer, but for now, she lives. She tells people not to sacrifice their lives before their time just to make the payments on the new cars and big homes of the medicos. Unfortunately, the victims are scared, listen to the “experts,” and soon die. I have to wonder what expression will be on the faces of those murdering medicos as THEY stare eternity in the face! © 2012

P.S. I hope my Christian blogger friends and followers will pray for the friends and family of Deanna. You may not have known her, or any of them, but the Lord does. I hope you will also pray for the lady that I mentioned at the beginning of this post who is now facing the lies and fear-mongering of the medical community.

“Welded” Soap And “Wore-Out” Washrags

2012-02-05T18:15:00.002-05:00

This post is dedicated to Budd E. Shepherd over at The Lazy Farmer blog. I’ve been talkin’ so much preparedness lately that he’s sorta gettin’ edgy. So, I thought I’d put somethin’ light and fluffy up here that wouldn’t be controversial, worrisome or have any real value whatsoever. I hope he finds it mildly entertainin’.

I’ve mentioned before that my parents were children of the Great Depression and lived through WWII, and that my grandparents had survived WWII, the Spanish-American War, and a couple economic upheavals. This, of course, gave them the old “waste not – want not” mindset so prevalent amongst older folks. It makes perfect sense, to me at least, that they didn’t just throw what was left of a bar of soap away when it got so small as to seem unusable. By carefully laying the soap sliver on a wet washrag and rubbing the other hand across it repeatedly, you could lather up the rag and use the soap right down to where it disappeared. If there was no other bar of soap handy, that’s exactly what you were expected to do.

I must have been a wee lad yet when I asked one of the older family members why there was a sliver of one color of soap stuck to a much larger bar of a different color. I remember being told that the little piece was “welded” onto the larger bar so it could be more easily used and not wasted. Though it was so long ago that I don’t remember just who told me that, I’d wager on Great Aunt Marie, who lived with my paternal grandparents. She always liked to speak using colorful (not foul) expressions and slightly warped word meanings. (Perhaps that’s where I learned my love of doing the same.) And so, I grew up in a home where we often had misshapen bars of the same color or, just as often, two-toned bars of soap. Only if we had visitors from town would there be a chance the soap was temporarily replaced with a new bar just out of the wrapper. Both sets of grandparents likewise welded their scraps to the new bar, so it was a rare thing growing up for me to use a fresh bar of soap with no lump on the side. I was sometimes shocked, when visiting city friends or relatives to see soap “nubbins” in the waste basket and fresh “unwelded” bars in the soap dish.

Moving right along - for anyone who was confused to see the term “washrag” above, it’s an old southern/country term for washcloth, and probably hearkens back to a time when pieces of worn-out clothing or the remnant ends of bolts of fabric were used for bathing. It’s not as commonly used as it once was, but I think it’s probably still alive and kicking in the South. I live only a good hour’s drive south of the Mason-Dixon and I still hear it some (and still use it some myself).

You might guess that my family didn’t throw away their washrags (actually boughten washcloths like everyone else’s) just because they were “almost wore-out.” Invariably, the centers of the rags would start showing wear first while the corners would still look like new. Human nature being as it is, there was a tendency to lather up where the knap remained the heaviest, but I don’t recall anyone ever saying anything about it. After many uses of a rag so thin that you could see through the middle, a hole would form. The rag was then “almost” wore-out, but was used a while longer, though it was never put out when company was around. Eventually, the washrag was retired from its original purpose and became a “scrub-rag.” I assume no explanation is needed for the latter term; correct me if I’m wrong.

I suppose it’s our little quirks and idiosyncrasies that largely make us who we are, so I guess there’s no harm in telling you one of mine. I never use the center of a washrag unless I’m staying in a motel or some such place. If the washrag belongs to me or any other individual, I invariably use the corners. When my wife gets a new supply of washcloths for me, the corners are used from the very first time onward, never the center. Interestingly enough, the centers still wear out first. I’ve always blamed it on little washrags and my big hands creating an overlap of wear. I know that such wear isn’t my wife’s doing, for she has her own set, since she figures that my dirt is dirtier than her dirt and wants no chance of contaminating herself. (Does that mean she’s not getting the laundry clean enough?) HOWEVER, I have gradually noticed that hers wear out in the middle a little earlier than mine.

The slight difference in washrag longevity somehow makes my efforts seem worthwhile and relieves my mind at the same time. After all, I’d hate to think that I was obsessed or something! What are you smiling at? Hey, did you hear me? LISTEN to me when I’m talkin’ to you daggone it! © 2012

Good Prepper Site

2012-02-05T08:02:00.001-05:00

-
Understand that I am NOT a survivalist. I just believe we need to get back to being better prepared for bad weather and power-outages and such, like we were when I was a kid. Still, being prepared for SHTF isn't a bad thing, either, just in case. Butternut and Chicory is a great site to help a beginner sort out his/her thoughts on the matter. I think he started out as a trapping blog and may still be that, but he seems to have switched gears for a while. I epsecially advise checking out his three-part audio series on beginning preparedness and the two on hyper-inflation. I don't normally like audio and video much, but he's worth listening to.
-

Thoughts On Preparedness – Fresh Meat

2012-02-04T18:36:00.001-05:00

I got kind-of long-winded on this one, so be sure your chair is comfortable before you start reading!

A few folks may think that they can start raising their own protein AFTER the crash (if there is one), but the likelihood of having the wherewithal to get started and in finding a source of stock at such times is next to nil. If you’re not already raising rabbits, chickens or larger stock when hard times hit, it’s probably too late for you to start. That leaves hunting in its various forms. A word of caution – it may be best to have a bag with a couple aluminum cans in it and to be seen picking up a few along the way when you’re out, so as to keep your real mission secret.

City folks are at a disadvantage here, but even they can supplement their diet if they remain open-minded. When on the verge of starving to death, many will rethink what creatures are considered edible. A few years ago in India, one city was being over-run by rats. Now, remember that there’s a temple over there where rats are worshipped. Yet, when the hungry people of the infested city were told by the government how delicious rats are, the rat population was soon greatly diminished. If those folks can eat a rat, I suspect that many folks in this country could do the same, but pigeons, muskrats, possums, coons and perhaps even snakes, dogs and cats would be more agreeable to most of them. Horses and ponies that are not being put to use otherwise, could feed a lot of people for a short while. My father said that some of the “beef” he was fed during WWII, while overseas in the army, was suspiciously stringy, but didn’t taste bad and filled a lot of bellies that might not have been filled otherwise.

I won’t go into how to hunt or trap animals; there are too many good sources of that information elsewhere. I will mention the old saying, “the trapper eats while the hunter goes hungry.” Here again, if you know nothing about trapping, you’re going to be in trouble if hard times come quickly. Learn about it now, books first, and then actually DOING it! The BEST method is to have a trapping friend teach you. Learn sets that are unnoticeable to the casual observer, so people won’t steal your traps. If you use leg-holds, use drags so the animals will get out of sight before someone steals both animal AND trap. Consider using box traps and snares set to hold, not choke, the animal. That way, the animal is still alive when you get there. The Bible teaches us not to eat an animal that hasn’t been bled out properly. There’s a spiritual reason for that, but there’s another reason not to do it, too. I cooked two muskrats once –one dead in the trap and one alive when I got there. The one that I had to whack on the head was delicious. The other one would have been edible only to someone on the verge of starvation.

It IS important to learn to hide your traps, your catches and your activities. There are thieves even in good times. In hard times, there will be many more. Plus, there will be other people out trying to do what you’re doing; there’s no need to put temptation before them. Leg-hold traps are dependable little contraptions when used properly (I’d recommend # 1-1/2’s for coons and possums), but go with double jaw if you can and you’ll have less trouble with them escaping. DO NOT use leg-holds to live-trap muskrats; they’ll break their leg in their struggle to escape and then “wring off.” Be forewarned, dogs and cats can get caught in leg-holds and raise a fuss, alerting the neighbors to your activities.

Unlike the trapper who is out for maximum fur and who may be throwing the meat away, I wouldn’t put out too many traps. In fact, two or three may be more than enough. Since it’s likely you’ll have no refrigeration available (except what nature provides in cold weather), your goal for feeding two people should probably be one animal every other day. Otherwise, you’ll waste more than you’ll use, and those animals won’t be there next week or next month when you REALLY need them. (Not that there are any guarantees, anyway.) Also, don’t dress in camo or the latest trendy outdoor attire and thus draw attention to yourself. Wear the oldest, most nondescript clothes you can, perhaps carry a burlap bag or faded military surplus rucksack or military duffel bag to carry your supplies and catch. A walking stick would be wise, since it can be used for defense against man and beast alike, plus could be used to dispatch trapped animals. Have a water-proof bag to slip your catch into so the main bag won’t get bloody. If you won’t be using the entrails or hide (Think twice about wasting the hide.), consider dressing the animal out in the field, to save weight and disposal problems. Then wash your hands VERY well (or use plastic examination gloves to start with).

You should consider using all organ meats of any animals that the Bible considers “clean.” Deer liver, heart, tongue and kidney are no different than those found in beef. The same could be said for birds. If you’ve eaten haggis, chittlins, mountain oysters and tripe, don’t overlook the possibility of the “wild” version of those foods. Also, animal heads often hold a lot of meat and are wasted by nearly everyone. What animals would I eat, personally? Nearly anything if I was starving, but I’ve heard that canines and anything in the weasel family can be unpleasant. Skunk is the exception to that I’ve heard, IF you can dispatch them without them spraying. GOOD LUCK on that! I’d think twice, though, about eating organ meats from carnivores. However, that is only my own suspicion; I’ve never read anything to back it up. Regardless, read up on wildlife diseases in your area (rabbit fever, rabies, CWD, etcetera). Bobcats and mountain lions are said to be delicious, as are bear and wild boar, though I’ve never tried them.

As for hunting, use as small a cartridge as possible that’s still big enough to do the job. A .22 long rifle will handle anything up to deer (though it’s illegal for that) if you get close enough and put the bullet where it SHOULD be. Wildlife is a valuable commodity, though, so don’t take any shot that you aren’t 100% sure of making. By using a quieter round, other wildlife won’t be aroused and neighbors are less likely to get nosey. Lastly, try not to let anyone see you at your pursuits or carrying home any game you’ve taken. Still, there may be times that you get a little more than you can reasonably use. At such times, it’s better to share it with a closed-mouthed neighbor than let it go to waste. Use your brain; that’s why God gave it to you. © 2012

Taxes Owed By Federal Employees Staggering

2012-02-04T10:56:00.000-05:00

-
Apost over at The Griper's World makes the valid point that before raising taxes, we should collect those already owed, beginning with government employees. Please check it out.
-

More On WARNING !

2012-02-04T09:11:00.001-05:00

-
Other blogs are beginning to come through as usual. I noticed that when I clicked on "ronjoewhite," advertising came on in the background and my malware alert came on. Perhaps, the regular blogs will still come through, and the bad ones can be ignored until Blogger, Google, or somebody puts a stop to the problem. I just hope someone knows how to alert the right people, because I SURE can't ever figure out how to get through to Blogger or Google, either one. They deliberately choose to be "user unfriendly," I guess to keep staffing down and profits up.
-

WARNING ! WARNING ! WARNING !

2012-02-04T03:55:00.000-05:00

-
Something calling itself "ronjoewhite" has taken over my reading list. Two attempts to check it out were blocked by my malware, thankfully. When I googled the name, the site is bogus and threw me into some sort of phishing questionaire. It passes itself off as a clipart site, seemingly specializing in bottles. I don't know anything about the little pervert, exept his/her lack of morals. In theory, it could even be a legitimate site that has been hijacked. BEWARE! If anyone knows how I can purge it from my reading list, let me know.
-

The Guru On Flashlights

2012-02-03T23:03:00.003-05:00

-
I love light-makers, and still have a couple of carbide head lights that work well and that I purchased new for pennies back in the 60s. They are as bright as a motorcycle headlight. But I am especially enamored by the long run times of BRIGHT >>> VERY BRIGHT >>> LED flashlights. I love to collect machined billet-metal LED flashlights, no longer owning any of the plastic or pressed metal ones, but my 1-2 hour burn time as-bright-as-a-car-headlight palm-size flashlights are my favorite.

The 1200 lumen one helps me back up my trailer on the darkest of nights, as does the 900 lumen one which sits on my desk in case of power outages. Nonetheless, I have a few different pocket ones that I keep in my kit, each of which uses a single AA cell and burns bright enough to blind you for 10-15 hours. I also have several that use a single AAA, and keep them in the tool boxes, etc. But the one that is truly magnificent is as bright as a 3-cell MagLite , and burns full bright for over 5 hours, gradually dimming down to nothing over the next 2 hours, is the little Nano depicted below. It uses three tiny easily available button cells (LR41/LG3 from Dollar Tree, Harbor Freight, etc. which are the cheapest). It is all-metal and waterproof, but it did cost a bit more than I would normally pay: $6 delivered from Amazon. Generally, though, the best are from dealextreme.com, which ships from China. The all anodized machined-aluminum ones will last a lifetime and several are shown in the second photo.

Below are the ones I use or carry regularly. The keychain 10 lumen Nano you can see above is on the left. Next to it is a focusable "thrower"/wide beam AA cell 300 lumen flashlight with orange "clickey" I carry on a lanyard around my neck or in my pocket late at night. You can see the lanyard quick-disconnect, just like those on a Thumb Drive, on a couple. A dunking in water won't hurt it.

The next one over is another single cell AAA that throws a nice beam, burns brightly for well over an hour, and is about as bright as "half a headlight" ... 400 lumens ... and I gave these as presents last year. Also a simple on/off "clickey". Waterproof.

The middle one, the SpyderFire is 900 lumens, brighter than a standard car headlight, and burns for a bit less than 2 hours at full brightness, roughly 4 hours at half brightness. The tail-cap "clickey" controls the brightness — one click bright, second click dim, third click off. It gets quite hot to hold at full brightness and uses an externally rechargeable 18650 lithium-ion battery (industry-common). It is waterproof, but definitely not for diving. I keep it in a belt sheath for the most part, but can use a lanyard too. The Sipk with the wrist strap is next to it and is only a bit under 400 lumens; it stays by my bedside. Not really waterproof, it recharges its 18650 internally through a socket on the side and can be kept plugged in most of the time, but burns easily for 5 hours. It's just a quality flashlight IMHO with a three-step rubber button on the side (bright, dim, strobe).

The tall one is the one I use mainly with the camper and has two 18650 batteries in it, externally rechargeable; thinner, but as long as a two-cell crappy plastic flashlight, it has 1200 lumens, approaching the brightness of two modern blue/white quartz oncoming headlights that dazzle/blind you at night and burns for about 2 hours full bright. It also gets very hot to hold, but can light up things a mile away. The five-step memory clickey allows it to be used at full bright, half bright, quarter bright, strobe, and SOS, and is waterproof (but not for diving).

Mostly purchased from dealextreme.com, the total price for all 6 of these high quality lifetime machined aluminum flashlights with batteries (and spares with rechargers) was about $75 total over the past several years. I watch for the sales and specials. Prices have JUMPED in recent months, though: the 900 lumen SpyderFire now looks to be an expensive $30-36 while the 1200 is running around $35-40 (unless you wait for the sales). But they do last a lifetime of abuse! The three largest are designed with "combat" or "assault" crowns which let you strike someone and do a lot of damage, although my favorite, the pocketable 900 lumen SpyderFire is just a bit larger than palm width so you would use it more like a yawara (a rod of metal held in the closed fist) although the one end would definitely gash and cut.

Hey. Some people smoke. Some people drink. Some people collect thimbles. I collect flashlights!

P.S. from Gorges – I’m not a big fan of flashlights for long-time survival, much preferring kerosene lamps and lanterns, candles, grease lamps or even rush lights. If you can get rechargeable batteries and a SOLAR charger, you might be onto something. They DO have a place in getting yourself found if you’re lost and, in self defense, by temporarily blinding your opponent (especially with the ones that strobe) which will possibly allow you to escape, or get in the first blow or the first shot.
-

The Moon, The Moon, The Moon…

2012-02-03T02:10:00.001-05:00

-
I awake with a full bladder a couple hours earlier than normal for my mid-sleep drain and head downstairs to correct the problem. While in the little room, I hear my wife berate our little dog for fouling the atmosphere in her TV/bedroom. Soon, the door opens a crack and a furry little creature slips in and lies at my feet as I sit on the throne waiting for the “second stage” while blowing my schnoz. I reclose the door. Before I’m yet ready to leave, she arises and stands at the far side of the door, waiting for me to open it. I oblige her and she leaves. A couple minutes later, I re-open the door to leave and find her curled beside her leash in the hallway.

As we exit the house, I note the brightness of the outside world this warm winter night. I use my big light to scan the darkness for coyotes before letting her step off the porch. As usual, there are none to be found. She acts nervous on the nights she can hear them in the distance. She seems to understand that they aren’t just dogs. No deer eyes gaze back from the neighbor’s lawn across the road where they normally lie behind his rail fence during the early night. I turn off the flashlight and we move by the glow of the three-quarter moon to the spot where she usually drops and drains. There’s plenty of natural light to do without the artificial kind this night.

Usually, after she drains, I take her to one of several other spots to see if she needs to do something more substantial. Usually, I have to wait a while and keep insisting for action before she spreads five inches of doggy-doo over a ten foot space. Tonight, she catches me off-guard and hunkers quickly and unloads right where I don’t want her to do so. I’ll have to move it come daylight, since we often walk through here.

It must be mating season for the barred-owls, for I hear them on the next ridge again. They’ve been singing their eerie song the whole time we’ve been outside. The little dog’s attention seems split between them and the dogs barking excitedly in the opposite direction, perhaps wondering what creatures of the night have stirred them up. We both stand there in the moonlight for a couple minutes, enjoying the sights and sounds of the night, then I give the leash a slight pull and we head back to the porch.

Before going inside, I’m tempted to sit in the swing a few minutes and listen to the night. She would love that. I used to talk occasionally with an old man from the West Virginia mountains who left the warm bed that he shared with his wife for an extremely wide plank he’d gotten at a local sawmill and put on his front porch. When I asked him why, he quoted Proverbs 25:24, “It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman and in a wide house.” Despite his appearance and his odiferous qualities, he was an educated and a talented fellow. He’d just grown to prefer the summer’s heat and winter’s cold to sleeping inside with his wife. He was never sick, so maybe he was onto something.

Grudgingly, we leave the moonlight and go back inside the house, where a soft bed awaits us both, but where there's no moonlight, and where we can hear no owls calling from the next ridge or listen to leaves rustling in the breeze. © 2012
-

Easy One-Month In A Box Preparedness

2012-01-31T22:21:00.000-05:00

-
My newest follower Terria Fleming over at "Daily Good" reposted a link she'd done earlier. I think some of you will find it interesting.
-

The Insurance Dilemma

2012-01-31T20:12:00.002-05:00

Most of us growl about the high cost of insurance and point our fingers at the insurance companies. There are some valid reasons for that, but that’s not the whole story. Used to be, insurance companies were more heavily regulated in how they could invest their money. As a result, they didn’t produce the same profits as potentially riskier businesses, but they were rock solid. The first problem came along when Americans started suing for even the tiniest inconvenience and idiotic juries awarded huge payments to supposedly damaged parties. Remember the idiot woman who held a cup of coffee between her legs and then sued McDonalds for millions when she spilled it? I’m sure hookers would love to sell their thighs for what she did. Morally, there’s little difference between the two.

The greed of drug companies and doctors was bad enough at causing high medical costs, but then greedy patients, urged on by greedy lawyers, sued for millions of dollars for damage both real and imagined and won, thanks to juries made up of morons. As a result, medical insurance for doctors went up drastically, and so did liability for businesses, homeowners insurance, car insurance and personal and group medical insurance.

The investment regulations for insurance companies were relaxed in part, I believe, due to the huge payouts they were being forced to make. The timing was just right to get them into the stock market just before it went insanely high. They made more money than they’d ever dreamed of on stocks, mutual funds and real estate investments. When those bubbles burst a few years down the road, they were spoiled by the huge profits and tried raising insurance premiums high enough to make up for the money they were “losing.” That’s when even folks who’d had insurance most of their lives, had to stop and ask if they could afford it any longer. Many whose insurance was furnished in whole or part by their employer, found themselves either losing it or making huge cost share payments and co-pays. Those who lost their jobs in the horrible economy lost both their insurance and their living. But time moves on.

I have some outside income, but my current job pays half what my previous one did. In fact it pays less than what I was making 30 years ago. The bulk of my outside income ends next year. I’m trying to make adjustments to make the crunch a bit easier when it comes. I dropped my homeowner’s insurance this month. Now, some scumbag can stub his toe on my porch and sue me for everything I’ve got, and probably win. Now, if my house burns down, I not only lose everything I have, but will have no way to ever rebuild on my own property.

About four years ago, my wife had a mastectomy. Medicaid paid for the first operation, but bailed out before the second. The doctors would have accepted $1100 from Medicaid as full payment. However, because we had no insurance and were paying cash, they charged us $4000 UP FRONT to do that surgery. About five percent of those who have a mastectomy eventually get a swelling of the arm on that side. You might guess that my wife is part of that five percent. The appearance of her arm bothers her, but the pain that she is beginning to have from it bothers her more.

After finally finding a doctor that would even take her with no insurance, I took my wife to her first appointment yesterday, had one test run and came back home the equivalent of a week-and-a-half’s worth of wages poorer. We’re going to try to afford the therapy, but if the doctor insists on a certain cancer test, we may have to wait until autumn to get it. Otherwise, we won’t have any money to live on this summer. If something happens after that, I have no answers. All I know is that greed is what’s causing nearly every financial problem our nation now suffers, and it’s not all at the corporate level. I wonder how many people are dying because of spilt coffee and thousands of other such catastrophes. © 2012

The Milk Raft Cometh - 1937 Flood

2012-01-30T23:04:00.000-05:00

The mail didn't get delivered in our neck of the woods during the '37 Flood, but the milk made it in to town! I guess for these guys, instead of rain, nor snow, nor dark of night, it was more like hell or high water (in THIS case, high water)! The photo was taken in the same area where the horses and wagon were stopped in a post a few days ago. You can see one of the elms and the big sycamore in the right edge of the photo.
-

Cat Got Your Tongue?

2012-01-29T08:59:00.000-05:00

-
Ed Winkle, over at Hymark High Spots, asked me recently how I got folks to comment on my blog. Other than the old advice to be sure to comment on theirs in return, I didn't have much to tell him. There doesn't seem to be any way to predict when people will comment, or what will catch their fancy. Some posts that are off the cuff draw scads of comment, while other well-thought-out and decently-written pieces draw almost nothing. Some weekends and holidays seem busy and comments take a dive, while others must be more leisurely and folks have a lot to say. Recently, the traffic to my off-beat little blog has been up considerably, yet comments are down. I can't figure it out. Any ideas? BTW, you should check out Ed's blog; he's had several good posts that caught my eye lately. I can't comment on his last one, though, since I have no experience with the matter.
-

Sorry, I Just Don’t Believe In Atheists.

2012-01-29T00:22:00.001-05:00

-
The Holy Bible says that no one, anywhere in the world, has any excuse not to know that there is a god. It says that the very world around us screams His existence (my paraphrase). Proverbs tells us that “the fool says in his heart there is no god.” So, while atheists may say that they don’t believe in God, it’s obvious that He believes in THEM. In fact, Jesus died on the cross for them the same as for anyone else. Of course, some atheists go so far as to say that Jesus never existed, either, but there is too much secular proof to the contrary for that argument to hold water.

It’s always been my opinion that those who claim to be atheists are actually just so vain that they refuse to accept the existence of any power greater than their own mind. I say this after having known a few in my time, including one fellow in my family with a genius IQ. Due to a lack of judgment in many everyday things, he’s sometimes referred to as my “idiot” cousin. (Strange, how genius and idiocy are so closely related.) I also consider it to be a sort of Freudian slip that many so-called atheists are quick to take the Lord’s name (title actually) in vain. If they don’t believe in God, isn’t taking His name in vain sort of like saying “Mickey Mouse Dammit?” I don’t see any of them rushing to do that. The only logical reasons for it, then, is a subconscious belief in a God they chose to denigrate, OR a deliberate desire to offend the believers among us. The first is sad and ironic; the second is rude and childish.

Some atheists say that the whole evolution thing is their main reason for not believing in God. All major religions claim that their god created the world while, in the atheist mind, science “proves” otherwise. Academia and the media are quick to accept Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. Strangely, they never mention that Darwin later recanted his theory, admitting that he was mistaken. That theory continues to be taught as fact in our schools, when the reality is that it remains only an unproven theory. I once saw where some odds-makers (think “bookies”) tried to figure out the odds of evolution. It was several million to one AGAINST man coming from a piece of pond scum, yet atheists and others expect us to accept that premise blindly. Even more telling is that the odds would be nearly the same for each of the many thousands of creatures on the earth, in the sea and in the air. What then would be the odds of that piece of pond scum (or thousands of separate pieces) begetting EVERY SPECIES ON EARTH? It takes far more faith and insanity to believe in that kind of “luck” than in a creator. I remember a few decades ago when Dr. Leakey was constantly discovering the “missing link” in Africa. EVERY TIME human remains were found within months that proved to be older than his latest “link.” Perhaps the apes are descended from US!

We’ve all heard people who say that they don’t believe in anything that can’t be proven scientifically. Yet, they don’t mention that the non-existence of God is just as impossible to prove as His existence. Remember, too, that “science” once insisted that the earth was the center of the solar system and that “bleeding” patients made them healthier. Most of the people reading this are old enough to remember “science” reversing itself on several issues in the past few decades. Let’s face it; science is nothing more than a system of educated guesses. Mind you, I’m not trying to dismiss science, only those people who believe it blindly.

And so, I have come to the conclusion that atheists do not exist. I believe that somewhere down deep inside of their hearts, hides the knowledge of His existence. That belief may be buried, denied and fought against from within, but it’s there. It is that uncomfortable knowledge that causes many of them to struggle against those who believe otherwise, hoping to change their mind or outlaw their religion. It is that knowledge that also causes them to mock others (including many scientists) who chose to admit their belief. That same knowledge sometimes moves those in great distress to rail against a god that they say doesn’t exist. However, it can also bring about deathbed and foxhole conversions, and often has over the years.

What, then, IS an atheist? I believe it is simply someone who has so successfully lied to himself about God’s existence, that he really believes he’s telling the truth when he shares his supposed opinions with others. Christians need to remember not to mock or be angry or mean to such people; they actually deserve our pity and need our prayers. “Atheists,” on the other hand, need to remember that God really DOES love them, whether they like it or not! © 2012
-

During The Flood

2012-01-28T22:35:00.001-05:00

My father, center, turned 12 years old on this date in 1937, while the 1937 Flood was in full swing . This picture was taken on the hill, at the home where he was born, though they were living at the house in the valley at the time. The folks in the picture were neighbors. I don't know whose dog the guy is holding. I don't know if this was taken on his birthday or not; probably not. His next-to-oldest sister may have been living in the house at the time, but I don't know that either. In 1949, he and Mom would move into the house and Dad would spend the rest of his life there, passing away in 1984 at age 59. I just happened to think - the school was about a mile up the road through flood water, and to walk the ridges to get there would be about a two or three mile hike. I doubt if the teacher could get there anyway, so the kids probably got an unplanned vacation. I doubt if many of them minded.
-

New Bushcraft Blog

2012-01-28T15:35:00.000-05:00

-
Well. new for me anyway! Check it out if you're into such things:

http://montanabushcraftandcountryliving.blogspot.com/
-

A Valid Question

2012-01-28T01:39:00.000-05:00

-
Viking Preparedness asks a valid question about leadership in survival situations. See what you think.
-

Ralph's Been Cutting Wood

2012-01-27T23:19:00.001-05:00

-
Over at Mindless Ramblings, Ralph Goff has been cutting wood with some of the neighbors. Boy does the sound of that ol' "buzz-saw" bring back the memories!
-

Another Murder Victim

2012-01-27T20:54:00.002-05:00

-
I had written a post for today, full of venom, for those in the medical field who deliberately kill their patients for filthy lucre. However, for fear of further upsetting those who said good-bye to a young cancer victim today, I'll wait. I DO ask that all my fellow bloggers and followers who Are Christians pray for the friends and family of the young woman who's passing triggered my anger. You may not know them, but the Lord does. Thank you.
-

The Guru Speaks On The Storage Life Of Food And Water

2012-01-26T23:34:00.000-05:00

-
This is to answer your questions from personal experience as well as from books I have read, as well as from current Internet sites for verification:

If packed in a nitrogen atmosphere, dried potato slices, dried beans, white rice (lasts almost forever), etc, will keep for at least 20 years; freeze dried and sealed in a cool, dry nitrogen atmosphere would also keep for 25+ years ...but they must be stored in that nitrogen atmosphere to keep that long and retain flavor.

Just sitting on the shelf, if kept in a cool DRY place (like my sealed but turned off vermin-proof freezer) and in manufacturers' original packaging, dried (but not freeze dried) items keep for about 4 years before I notice the flavor changing (rice and beans, as well as flour). Potato flakes in sealed cardboard packages (original package, placed in a large Ziploc or plastic bag) have tended to last only a year or two before taste is noticeably changed. If the item is low moisture (like raisins, dried dates or dried apricots which retain a stickiness and some moisture), I suspect in a sealed package they would keep on the shelf for a year or two, but not much longer — there is enough moisture for any biological impurities to eventually start multiplying and I have even found worms in both raisins and dates after 18 months so I avoid doing it any more. Of course, in nitrogen nothing grows, nor in foods that have been irradiated, as some now are. If you’re not worried about flavor, white rice kept dry and sealed from moisture and bugs should last a hundred or more years.

This is what both personal experience and research over the years has turned up, with the assumption foods are being stored in a cool (70° or less), dark area and with no chance of bugs or vermin getting in — like a large, sealed plastic camping cooler, unused but sealed chest freezer in the basement (like mine), sealed mud- or paint-buckets (5 gallon or more) in a basement (There are so many variables in storage conditions, containers, and product preparation that exact times cannot be guaranteed.

• Soft grains --- around 8 years

• Hard grains --- 10+ years

• White rice --- 8+ years

• Beans --- 8+ years

• Honey/White Sugar/Salt, well sealed from bugs --- decades

Self sealed and stored as above, preferably vacuumed, then dry nitrogen from a high pressure nitrogen cylinder is introduced so there is as close to zero oxygen in the containers as possible doing it yourself — I have introduced dry nitrogen slowly from the bottom of a bucket using a buried hose that is pulled out.

• Peanut butter, vacuum sealed with all O2 removed --- 5 years (but most peanut butter is not vacuum sealed and it is a mess to try)

• Dehydrated vegetables, nitrogen sealed from O2 -- 10-25+ years

• Dehydrated Dairy products, nitrogen sealed from O2 --- about 5-15 years

BTW, butter, stored in wood kegs in brine --- well, I've eaten some that was more than 14 years old (and did not like the STRONG) taste — but it was edible; I would recommend only 4-5 years though and personally would do without or make it fresh from the appropriate mammal!

• Flours, nitrogen sealed from O2 --- 5-25+ years

• Pastas, nitrogen sealed from O2 --- 10-25 years

• Dehydrated fruit, nitrogen sealed from O2 --- 5+ years

• White rice, nitrogen sealed from O2 to retain flavor --- potentially decades

• Brown rice, nitrogen sealed from O2 --- perhaps 2 years MAX

• Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) from soy beans, dried and nitrogen sealed from O2 --- easily 20 years

• Yeast, left in sealed packets, perhaps 5 years ... no longer; yeast is alive and it will eventually die.

HOWEVER, if you get food from a quality packager who does all the packing in a dry nitrogen environment, perhaps including in the cans an oxygen-absorber packet where necessary (similar to the small white packets in many bags of beef jerky), with quality control, and who uses freeze drying to virtually eliminate moisture, I would say the average keeping time is about 25 years for most all the foods, including pastas with freeze-dried meats. This would include canned in tin (actually steel) cans products from Sam Andy or Mountain House who do claim 25 year shelf lives. I am sure there are others.

AS FOR WATER: distilled water, while it might not taste that great, has nothing in it and off-the-shelf sealed gallon containers of it keep for many, many years before anything grows in it. In fact, I have never had unopened jugs of distilled water go bad; in one case I had put a gallon on a shelf to use later (2-for-1 sale, and I was topping off a couple of batteries with the other gallon) and forgot it — over ten years later it was still perfect and I recently partially used it in my deep-discharge RV "house" battery. The remaining water still had that distilled no-taste! It is my understanding that distilled and in pre-sterilized glass or thick plastic bottles, water can be stored for decades. Filtered or bottled water in the 1 gallon & 2.5 gallon jugs or water fountain carboys does not seem to keep as long. I would assume filtered bottled water in the wasteful throwaways, would keep about the same but truly do not know the life.
-

Generators - Thoughts From The Guru

2012-01-25T21:03:00.000-05:00

-
Yeah, this is one LONG post, but there's a lot of good information here. I'm glad the guru agreed to let me share it.

American society today is energy-addicted with no one thinking twice about its availability everywhere. Heck, having gone from backpacking, to car camping, and now to small trailer camping even I, who was raised for the most part without reliable electricity, have become very dependent on it. In fact, I finally broke down and purchased a QUIET, inverter-generator several years ago so I could "boondock" with no utilities in remote areas. Having that generator, while a substantial investment at the time, let me have lights, microwave, and even air conditioning if I needed it.

Moreover, that generator allows me to plug in certain house devices (furnace, fridge, and freezer) during long term power outages, as well as have some light while the neighbors remain in the dark ages. Depending on the situation, there are many times where some portable electricity would make your life better, even if it simply be at a powerless home construction site or tailgating from your car — as long as that generator is quiet (and I am a strong believer in QUIET ... I hate the loud, chainsaw racket cheap, non-inverter generators produce). There is a wide range of power generation equipment available at many prices. Hopefully these tips will help you understand how to choose the proper generator that will meet your needs.

The first step is to determine how many watts of power you will need. Remember, the higher the wattage generator, the more fuel it will use and the larger it will be. For most car camping, a 1KW (kilowatt) or 2KW luggage size and weight inverter generator will do fine. A small trailer with an air conditioner and microwave may need 3.5-4KW. A palace on wheels may require 10-25KW. If you are looking at something for your home, out back where the noise won't cause an issue, there are wonderful 6-15KW emergency backup generators that look like and are housed like an outside air conditioner unit.

Personally, I prefer the slightly more expensive inverter-generators as they are usually much quieter and provide regulated current that is safe for any and all electronic equipment, unlike the non-inverter types that can damage sensitive equipment, but work fine for furnaces, fridges, and the like. A good inverter generator takes whatever the generator/alternator component is making and up-converts it to pure sine wave through electronics and provides rock solid, clean, 120vac 60hz (here in the States; other voltages and hertz are available for countries with different standard power), exactly as your power company does. In fact, many inverter generators can be hooked together to combine power, unlike other types of generator. An example is the easily toteable, 44 pound Honda eu2000i; two of them can be ganged together to provide close to 4000 watts of peak usable power.

My generator is a Yamaha EF3000iSEB 3000 watt inverter generator with an extra 500 watts "boost" that runs on gasoline, LPG, or natural gas and was purchased almost ten years ago — it still runs and looks like new. But, in fact, it has never tasted gasoline since my wife gets migraines when she smells gasoline, and especially diesel, fumes. Running only on LPG or natural gas, this barely manageable 140 pound "portable" gem on wheels runs cleaner than your gas oven baking turkey at Thanksgiving, while your burners cook all the additional yummies. Further, it is very quiet and highly efficient, getting more power out of every drop of fuel than non-inverter generators do. And, did say it is clean, clean, clean!

US Carburetion Inc. is the authorized Yamaha dealer of hybrid (multi fuel) generators, and the one I purchased my genset from. Besides, they are located right here in my state in Summersville, West Virginia: http://www.yamaha-propane-natural-gas-generators.com/ I highly recommend them!

Enough of that. Here's the first step in finding a generator:

1. Figure out the proper wattage you will need. All electrical devices show wattage on their info sticker, but you can also find generic lists of power needs on many web sites that will help you size a generator (here's one reputable site: http://www.yamaha-motor.com/outdoor/generator/sizing.aspx ) . If all you need is something to charge batteries, it can be small. But if you want to run your fridge and furnace, you will need to take into account both running as well as starting power requirements (motors require more power to start them turning than when they are running at speed). Add up the highest wattages of the devices you plan to use. Do not try to power everything at once ... plan on using some common sense energy management — bigger generators cost MORE ... sometimes LOTS MORE. For a small home where you need to keep the fuel-fired furnace running, you could easily get away with a 3-4K unit. But if you have electric heat, you are SOL unless you have a big budget for a big generator!

You can do what I do: operate the portable generator outside, and run a couple of extension cords inside where I plug in my fridge and furnace and a light or two. But if you have a larger, more permanent system, you will need to have an electrician install a power transfer switch into your home's electrical system; this is the only way anything hard-wired into your system, like many furnaces' electronics and blower, can run but still provide protection to any lineman working on the power lines as well as prevent an overload from your neighbors whose devices may also try to suck from your generator.

2. Consider the type of engine used by the generator. I cannot recommend the cheap 2-strokes that require you to mix oil with the gasoline. They are noisy, short lived, and stink (like many gas powered garden string trimmers, only worse). Better generators, most in fact, are powered by 4-stroke engines. Like automobiles and most loud lawnmowers today, just add gasoline and once in a while change the oil. Generally, they are also air cooled so run them in an open area ... never in an enclosed space.

3. Most portable generators run on gasoline, although some like mine run on propane (also called liquefied petroleum gas or LPG) or natural gas as well. Mine is a tri-fuel unit. Also consider fuel efficiency of the unit. For example, the Yamaha EF2000iS (you can tell I like Yamaha) generator is not inexpensive, but can run about 10 hours on a gallon of gas, generates 2,000 watts, weighs just 44 pounds, and plays nicely with sensitive electronics. Personally, I prefer to run a Yamaha LPG inverter hybrid conversion since — here it comes again! — LPG burns super cleanly (and smell free).

4. Loudness/Noise: If you've ever camped near someone running a generator all night, you know the noise pollution and annoyance it causes. Some can be as loud as (or louder than) 100 decibels, which is the sound of a gas lawnmower at three feet from your ear or someone gunning a poorly-muffled motorcycle while you stand next to it. Ninety decibels is about that of a hair dryer running close to your ear, and 80 is similar to a loud vacuum cleaner next to you — do you think you could live with that all day?

My Yamaha runs between 53 and 60 decibels, which is somewhere between the noisiness of a quiet office and conversational speech in a restaurant. In fact, at half power and ten feet away on a lawn, you hardly notice it. In the trailer, with a thin wall between us and the generator, we hear nothing. It is quiet because it is an inverter generator with economy mode settings.

5. Miscellaneous: I prefer an electric start generator and, in fact, my start battery pumps an additional 500 watts into the outlet for up to a minute or so which helps with motor and A/C starting (remember, motors have higher start-current than run-current draws). However, I can also easily pull-start my generator with the integral rope starter if the battery ever goes dead — and in ten years that has happened only once. I also like auto shutoff when oil levels get too low and the ability as an option to remote start my unit with a fob. For using gasoline, my generator has a fuel gauge (but as I mentioned previously, it has never tasted gasoline and won't unless it is an emergency).

6. Permanent or semi permanent installation: You need to have an electrician install a transfer switch, either automatic or manual. Period. No balking. Do it. In fact, it is required by most city and state electrical codes. A manual switch costs around $200, and an automatic switch around $600 — both will be mounted next to your house's mains. If your generator is a package home-emergency-generator, it may come with the appropriate switch. And if that generator is going to run on natural gas or propane, you may need a licensed plumber to install the connection.

7. A multi-fuel generator, such as my Yamaha, is my recommendation. Here are some of my reasons:

· Mine will run on propane, natural gas, or gasoline — my choice; I can switch back and forth on the fly if I choose to.

· On propane there is no smell, which is outstanding when I camp and keeps my wife from getting migraines. Cleaner emissions mean cleaner environment, also.

· Personally, I think natural gas/propane is safer than liquid gasoline. Refueling is as simple as changing the propane cylinder, which takes seconds and, if I use my gas-bottle transfer before the one tank runs out, the generator does not even stop (my trailer has two LPG [propane] cylinders). I can then get the empty one refilled while the generator continues providing power.

· Run mostly on propane/natural gas, there is no carburetor gumming, and the unit starts very easily — even if I rope start it.

· There is much less maintenance and a significantly longer engine life if you use propane/natural gas instead of gasoline. The engine burns much, much cleaner!

· Propane can keep for years as it is very stable, unlike gasoline or diesel which can go bad in a short time of storage.

A generator is not for everyone, but they are very nice when RV or even car camping in remote areas with no facilities (boondocking) and they can stand in if you have an emergency power outage at home. If your area is prone to regular tornados, major snow and ice storms, or other natural causes that can leave you without power for days or even weeks, a backup-generator is almost a necessity in today's electronic world. The choice is yours as to "type", permanent installation or "portable", and to fuel used. I like the freedom a multi-fuel generator gives me, but I also love the cleanliness and virtually odor free operation of LPG or natural gas.

Too, if you're like several people I know in our neck of the woods and have "free" natural gas as part of the mineral rights deal on their property, a quality natural gas generator would be an excellent investment with rapid payback!

A Great Truth

2012-01-24T21:32:00.000-05:00

-
This is an old story. It may even be true (the Indian part). If it isn't, it SHOULD be! My neighbor posted it on Facebook and I thought I'd pass it along.

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil - It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is Good - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."
-

Waiting - 1937 Flood

2012-01-23T23:00:00.001-05:00

I suspect the men are waiting on a raft coming downstream from somewhere. Whatever is on the raft, goods or people, will probably be put on the wagon and hauled overland to town by farm roads along the ridges, bypassing flooded county roads. The horses and wagon are sitting on the same spot as the car in an earlier photo. At first, I thought there was only one horse and wondered why the wagon had a tongue instead of shafts, then I noticed that the horse had eight legs.My grandparent's home was just to the left out of sight, sitting on a bank a few few above the water. When at its highest, the water came to the back steps, lacking only four feet of elevation or so of being in the house. It's several feet lower at this point.
-

Oh Mr. President!

2012-01-22T17:27:00.002-05:00

-
Ray Stevens and "Barry Obama" sing a duet at The Griper's World!
-

Seagulls!

2012-01-22T15:02:00.001-05:00

I was waiting in the truck as my wife made an emergency stop at the mall this afternoon, when I noticed something atop nearly every light post in the area. It took me a minute before I realized that they were seagulls. I still haven’t gotten completely used to seeing them here in the Mid-Ohio Valley. It was a rare treat to see them when I was a kid—usually by ones or twos and just after a big storm. I always assumed they’d been blown down from the Great Lakes. I remember going to Lake Erie about 30 years ago and seeing one or two on each lamppost along the highway, like sentinels along the road to a military site.

They’re not a pretty bird when they’re on the ground. In fact, they’re a bit homely to my way of thinking, and their squawking and bickering when afoot reminds me of a woman from my past who shall go unnamed. In the air, though, they’re a thing of beauty. We all have our element, I guess.

As we left the mall, I noticed a flock of about 50 on the front lawn. They’re pretty common anymore, but not that far away from the river. You can hardly take a drive along the river, though, without seeing a raft of them floating somewhere. It seems to me that they float rather high in the water, for they look like bigger birds than they really are when seen from a distance. They must taste horrible, for I’ve never heard of anyone eating one. Fishy, I imagine, like some ducks.

I don’t know if those rare birds from years ago stayed and bred a resident population, a flock was blown down from the Great Lakes and stayed, or if their range has simply expanded gradually up the Mississippi and the Ohio. I would guess the latter, though. Unlike some species, they don’t seem to bring any negatives with them; at least I haven’t heard of any yet. I sort of enjoy seeing them. They seem a bit exotic to me, sort of like the pigeons that used to visit our country barn on rare occasions from their homes in town. Their presence makes it seem a tiny bit like I’m visiting the beach, but without all the bother. © 2012

Nowhere To Go - 1937

2012-01-22T00:55:00.000-05:00

This is another picture of the '37 Flood in my home valley. The car is stopped on the dirt version of the road that I was raised on. By my time, the road was paved and an aunt and uncle lived in the stone house that sits just out of sight to the right. Of the clump of three American elms and the sycamore in the creek bottom, I only remember the sycamore and the big elm to the right. The elm (much bigger by then) died and was cut down when I was in my teens. For a couple years, I jumped my horse over the log just above the fork, as it lay on the ground. The sycamore (also much bigger by then) was cut a few years later when my idiot cousin built a horse barn there. (Yes, it flooded, but he got the horses out by wading through water nearly to his waist, and he was 6'4"!)

The section of road the car sits on can be seen from the back yard of the Civil War Era hilltop home where I was raised about 175 yards at four o'clock from the car. Once the car turned around, it would only have been able to go about a mile down the road toward town before it ran into high water again. Town was another watery mile farther at that point.

Obama Strikes Again!

2012-01-21T20:05:00.002-05:00

-
No, he didn't sign the papers to layoff 1200+ American workers himself, but the dots aren't hard to connect. Are our military planes going to start being made offshore? That would be great in time of real war! Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMMfIK0YD6Y
-

Digging A Seep Well

2012-01-21T16:44:00.000-05:00

-
It's more of a survival than a preparedness thing, but SurvivaLogic has a good common-sense post on getting water in trying times. Check it out!
-

archy and mehitabel

2012-01-21T13:53:00.000-05:00

-
The guru introduced me to "archy and mehitabel" a few years ago and recently re-introduced me to them. I've never really looked into them much for lack of time, but he assures me there's a lot of wisdom in them for those who can see it. Here's part of his email on the subject with a couple links. I neglected to ask his permission first, but all things considered, I know he'll forgive me.

Mom …got hooked on Don Marquis and his columns in the paper and even purchased his signed book, "archy and mehitabel" as well as several others. I was raised on them, mom read them to me, and then I learned to read them myself and understand the allusions and meanings as a very young lad.

And here is the song of mehitabel: http://donmarquis.com/literature?pp=608, one of my favorites

Read more here at the sites root: http://donmarquis.com/

Oh, since archy is a cockroach, he can't hit the shift key on the typewriter as he writes all the stories overnight for Don to publish the next morning, so everything is in lower case without most punctuation.

The Impoverishment Of America

2012-01-21T10:10:00.000-05:00

-
I wrote this article about eight years ago, when I was still working at a factory that has since closed, and before anyone had heard of a muslim, socialist traitor named Barrack Obama. Guess I’m just psychic!

The company where I work for used to have three manufacturing plants within five miles of one another. A couple years ago the first plant was closed and the work sent to a neighboring state where labor and transportation was cheaper. The company saw no need to pass any of their cost savings on to their customers, of course. The second plant was closed about a year ago and most of the work sent to China. The remaining products are now being made in their out-of-state plant, (except for two products which are now made where I work). As you might guess, even though labor costs in China are one percent of what they pay us, the company doesn't seem to have dropped their prices on products manufactured there. They've tried finding a way to take our jobs to China as well, but, the items that we manufacture are heavy and bulky, so shipping costs eat up much of the huge profits they keep hoping for.

If our plant was losing money it would be more understandable. However, it's been a consistently generous money-maker since it first opened in the 1930's. In fact, except for the years during which my union is negotiating a new contract, the company still likes to brag about our man-hour production and gross sales. We've now been through two sieges by corporate raiders and the newest owners are making money hand over fist. Yet, all they can think about is how to cut our wages and benefits to make more money. We're now expected to churn out the same volume and quality of product with fewer workers and ever worsening materials (purchased overseas, of course). Meanwhile, they keep holding the specter of hungry Chinamen over our heads.

I'm not against fair trade; every country that pays livable wages and has few punitive tariffs should have access to the world market. However, countries where workers struggle just to make enough to cover their food cost, while that nation's government and merchants get rich, should not be allowed to compete against countries that treat their workers like human beings. The U.S. has to contend with such things as OSHA, the EPA, The Endangered Species Act and a host of other regulatory nightmares which, at least in theory, make our workers and environment safer. The countries which are undermining our economy not only lack those mind-boggling costs but, also, the expense of wage and hour laws, welfare programs, un-employment programs, Medi-care, Social Security, insurance, and other things we like to think makes our workers more than mere slaves.

I'm afraid that slavery is the reality of many of those working in third world countries. We know some of those countries use convict and child labor. We also know they often lock factory doors when the workers are inside, don't let them take restroom breaks, and won't let them leave until their quota is met. Plus, they often are not allowed to travel, even within their own country, to look for better jobs. It's certainly not fair trade to force American workers to compete against enslaved work forces. I doubt if those foreign workers see much freedom in "free-trade".

Obviously, the companies that are moving their production to those countries are the moral equivalent of the old-time slave-holders of this country. Then again, maybe they're worse. At least the old slave-holders didn't try to call slavery by the high-sounding name of "labor competition". The gravest danger from all this is not the immediate loss of a few thousand jobs here and there, but, the ever quickening downward spiral of pay-scales and purchasing power for the average worker. More and more workers have to compete for fewer and fewer jobs. Even many union workers are finding themselves making concessions unheard of in earlier days. Having forgotten the simple fact that a buying customer must first have disposable income, most corporations will someday find themselves sharing the same grave they dug for the American worker. No doubt, when that occurs, the corporations will whine and gnash their teeth before asking the government to bail them out. By that time, the government will have a hard time saving them, since there eventually won’t be enough people paying taxes to continue corporate welfare.

Years ago, I read a statement by a utopian dreamer that American industry would someday export prosperity to the far corners of the world. The truth, I fear, is that corporate America is importing third-world poverty for our children and grandchildren. © 2012
-

BEWARE!

2012-01-21T09:23:00.000-05:00

-
I've already gotten an email form someone using the supposed address "IRS.gov." REMEMBER, the IRS says that it NEVER contacts you with an initial email. If you get such a communication, delete it immediately! It is NOT the thieving government; it is some OTHER thief!
-

Why I’m A Telemarketer (I Think)

2012-01-19T20:02:00.002-05:00

Get comfortable, this is a long one by MY standards.

I’d certainly never planned to be a telemarketer. It wasn’t like I’d climbed up on my mama’s knee with my toy telephone when I was a tiny tyke, raised the receiver in the air like a Roman short sword and, looking far into the future, shouted "Veni, vidi, vici!" No, in fact, I never used to care much for telemarketers, though I tried to be polite but firm with them. Unfortunately, it seemed like they only called at the most inopportune times, so that wasn't always easy. I always swore that I’D never have a job where I had to pester people on the telephone!

Now, I was raised by Christian parents who were descended from generations of Christian ancestors, so my family was a tolerably decent bunch. Each of us had our quirks and a few had more than their share, but I guess we “averaged out” morally acceptable in a worldly sort of way. I grew up with plenty of food, plenty of love, a reasonably good roof over my head (considering that it was built in 1865) and plenty of clothes (even if some WERE hand-me-downs). I never missed one meal in my life due to lack of available food, I was never cold for any length of time (unless I’d done something really stupid like forgetting my coat) and though I got a lot of spankings (fewer than I deserved), I never got one beating in my life.

I grew up on a farm, fished and hunted pretty much when I wanted to, got my own horse when I was 14 and, at age 15, kissed the girl that I believe now that the Lord wanted me to marry. Unfortunately, I wasn’t much “into” the Lord at that age and broke up with her when I was 16. I continued to do a lot of hunting, fishing and camping over the next few years. At age 21, I married the girl I’d been fornicating with for nearly three years and stayed married to her for almost five years. She could be counted on to be “true blue” faithful when she was sober, but needed chaperoning when she wasn’t. She left because I didn’t make enough money to suit her. Four months after the divorce was final, I finally landed a decent job driving truck. It paid well enough that she would probably have stayed if I’d gotten it sooner. That may have been the first time I realized that maybe someone was looking after me.

Some guys turn to booze and broads after a divorce, but I saw how they just went from bad to worse, so I decided that THIS guy wasn’t going that route. I started reading my Bible a whole lot more, sometimes to prove that others weren’t what they were supposed to be, rather than to seek guidance for my own hell-bound soul. Still, I was reading the right book, at least. I started praying that God would send me a Christian woman and, despite the “fact” that He isn’t supposed to answer the prayers of heathens, He did MINE! We married four months after we met and I was saved four months later. She turned out to be nearly impossible to live with, but she’s true blue ALL the time, and she never gets “un-sober.” Our lives have been full of ups and downs over the years, but we’ve always had at least “just enough” of everything and, often-times, even enough to help others. Most of that time, we were faithful church attendees.

After the factory where I worked sent most of their jobs to China and the rest to Pennsylvania, I drew unemployment long enough to get associate degrees in Information Technology and Accounting. Those degrees never helped me find a job here in West Virginia, but if not for things I learned from “the guru,” who taught the IT classes there at the college, this blog probably wouldn’t even exist. I kept putting off applying at the telemarketing places due to pride and supposed scruples. Unfortunately, pride doesn’t put food on the table, so I finally applied and was accepted at one telemarketing company.

Since that time, I’ve heard stories that would bring tears to the eyes of a bronze statue. One of the first was the pregnant girl who worked there and resided with a different friend each night on a rotating basis, so she wouldn’t wear out her welcome, since she had no place to call home. Then there was the kid who had adult ADD and couldn’t keep a job or a girlfriend. All he wants is to be normal, but will be forever denied that chance. The sad thing is—he knows it. Add to that, all the stories of child abuse, of living on the streets, of going hungry, and of cheating girlfriends, boyfriends and spouses. I watch them come to work hungry, but I can’t feed them all. I watch them lose their jobs, sometimes deservedly, and sometimes not, but I have no work for them. I see them loose their apartments, but I have no extra room to lend them. And, while it’s easy to blame the company and the bosses for some of the problems, and wonder how they live with themselves, I’ve also learned that the last time there was a big lay-off, the boss-lady was red-faced and teary-eyed for days. As much as I hate my job, I wouldn’t want HERS!

During my nearly three years in this place, I’ve finally come to see just how wonderfully BLESSED my life has been. I’ve also come to realize just how blind I’ve been over the years to the problems of others. It wasn’t that I didn’t care; I was very generous with charities that helped such folks. However, I was blind to much of the need around me, and certainly took for granted the life that the Lord had allowed me to have. That’s not true anymore. I know all too well the heartbreak and the hunger that surrounds me. I know that I have been foolishly, sinfully blind to the blessing the Lord has given me from birth. And I know that only one or two catastrophes could put me where they are now.

The guy at work called “the sandwich man” brings 3-4 extra sandwiches a day to give those who have no lunch otherwise. With that angle mostly covered and with the end times perhaps knocking on our very doors, the eternal souls of those folks was what came to MY mind. I’ve been blessed spiritually just as I’ve been blessed otherwise. I want to share that with them in some way that they won’t see as pushy. So, a friend of a friend gets me little New Testaments, and a couple times a year, I pass them out to anyone who’ll accept one. I think passing out testaments and getting my eyes opened is why God put me there in that awful place. I had a meal of crow when I took such a job. I still want out as soon as possible. However, it IS a job and I have yet to find another one. Things are looking pretty shaky for me there, but I know that as long as there are still folks the Lord wants me to give testaments to, or as long as there are still spiritual things for me learn there, I’ll continue to be a telemarketer. © 2012

Looking Upstream

2012-01-18T23:37:00.000-05:00

This was taken from my grandparents yard during the '37 Flood.

Security Stash

2012-01-18T23:21:00.001-05:00

-
Another communication from the guru.

A friend just told me about how her father-in-law's dad and another neighbor's house were broken into a couple weeks apart ... and the thief went straight to where each of them had their coin collection, including some gold. Probably an inside job by a teenage relative and pal, but no one knows yet.

I told her what I had done many years ago in our old house, and thought you might find it interesting. Rather than locate it in the floor joists on the basement side, I actually had it coming out of the dirt in our quarter basement/crawlspace making the hidey-hole look very real. Here's the tip, worded in a useful way:

If you need to have a relative safe storage spot for some small valuables, one thing I (and I am sure others) have discovered is the fact that most houses have a plethora of plumbing pipes running all over the place.

If you look carefully in the basement between the joists you can follow the blackwater (toilet) waste pipe to where it leaves the house. Get yourself a piece of matching waste pipe, say 4 feet long or so (4 or 6 inch, depending on your home's plumbing) at your local home or hardware store. Glue an end cap on one end and a waste cleanout adapter with screw cap on the other end.

Place the glued-on end cap end against something to make it look like it is coming out of a wall or whatever, as though it is a part of the maze of pipes already there. Then hang or in some way attach the pipe just as the others are hung. You want it to blend in. Leave the screw cleanout end free where you can get at it.

You can also make a "tray" for the inside of the pipe using slightly smaller pipe. Unscrew the cleanout and slide your items inside on the "tray", then screw the cleanout cap back on.

No one would look for something to be in a waste pipe ... just remember which pipe is real and which is fake when you go to store or retrieve your valuables or you might be in for a surprise!
-

The ’37 Flood

2012-01-18T03:26:00.000-05:00

-
January 18—on this date in 1937, the first few homes were flooded by the waters which had just left the confines of the Ohio River that day. The three-week, “fifty-year flood” that followed would supposedly leave a million people homeless, kill 385 people and cause $500 million in property damage between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Cairo, Illinois. I suspect those estimates were conservative. Interestingly enough, In the Wikipedia article from which the above figures were taken, West Virginia isn’t even listed amongst those states affected by the flood, despite sharing the Ohio River (and owning most of its width) for its entire 256 mile border with Ohio (which IS mentioned). Considering the general misinformation and ignorance of most Americans about West Virginia, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised.

Needless to say, there was considerable damage to the state from the 1937 Flood. One Huntington paper ran a story in 2009 that estimated the damage at $18 million in 1937 dollars. Of course, most of the photos from that flood were of cities and factories, where things could be more easily appraised. I doubt if that figure included a lot of the small country homes, churches, businesses and farms that were located up tributary streams. Over the next few days, I’ll post a few pictures that my family had of the valley where they lived, five miles from the Ohio River. I may also post or link to a few photos of the cities during the deluge. I’ll let my readers decide if there was any damage in West Virginia from the 1937 Flood.

At the link below are photos and a good article about the 1937 Flood in West Virginia:

http://www.wonderfulwv.com/sub.cfm?month=jan12&fea=1

The photo below is taken from the upstream edge of my paternal grandfather's farm about five miles from the Ohio River, looking downstream over the "highway" and the neighbor's farm.

Cop Versus Military Quiz

2012-01-17T21:39:00.000-05:00

-
Try it; you WON"T like it!

http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=cop-soldier
-

Another Note From The Guru

2012-01-17T18:51:00.002-05:00

-
For those visiting this blog for the first time, "the guru" is a local college instructor who I'm blessed to have as a friend. I am not a guru. I am a "sage!" ;-)

We hardly seem to get out very much anymore except to work, so have been scrounging around and fixing up my old tent/backpack camping equipment, and getting stuff back in order ... both in-the-trailer and in-the-cars. The grandkids just might enjoy tent camping!

And, with the cost of gasoline and what I expect it to be this summer, we might have to go back to the tents ... the canvas ones of which, thank goodness, have held up well all these years (the flimsy nylon backpacking ones have not). I de rusted my old tri-fold Ames-made-in-the-USA trenching shovel and repainted it, and it is as good as new. Have also ensured my various blade tools (hatchet, axe, etc. that I camp with) are sharp. I was amazed at how much I had let go over the past 12 or so years since we stopped tent-camping and went to pop-up, then trailer.

I know I mentioned multi-tools previously, and have used the Leatherman Super-Tool for right on two decades now. All other knives have been almost exclusively Buck, using the 120 (almost a Bowie) for over 40 years (my smaller 119 of the same vintage was stolen a few years ago), as well as their lock back (very used) and pocket knife (also very used) both also in their 40s. I still have one newer but little-used Gerber tactical blade, and a couple of no names that were given to me and have not been broken or worn out.

The "problem" with the Super-Tool was that it appears to be riveted together and items were not easily replaceable (Leatherman fixed a misused blade many years ago — I could not get it apart to fix it myself). The newer incarnations, though, appear to be user rebuildable and stronger. Anyway, some time back I got wind of Leatherman's new MUT from some military relatives in Afghanistan.

The MUT is a well thought out Leatherman tool — yes, it's purposed to tactical/weapons uses but is still a true multipurpose everyday tool and better made (IMHO) than most other civilian variants. The easily replaceable blade and saw is EXCELLENT and VERY sharp, and the overall construction of this is better and totally repairable (no rivets) with everything being replaceable.

I sent my brother a photo I took of it a bit back since he is a gun person and thought you might like to see it. Obviously it is geared toward the tactical shooter but includes numerous Leatherman "flat-base" screwdriver blades (standard, Phillips, eyeglass, star, Allen, etc.) and the extended adapter that holds standard hex-base bits, as well as my Smith sharpener. Everything fits in the belt/MOLLE case shown, with the exception of the Smith sharpener. The black bar is the removable punch for weapons disassembly, the yellow soft "blade" is for cleaning carbon from weapons (firing pins, receiver, etc.) without scratching or damaging them (and those two items are what make it "tactical"), the base has a cutter, a belt snap, a lock to hold the unit closed, and the very back is a hammer ... remove the punch and hit it with the hammer to remove reluctant pins if necessary. I had considered the EOD variant, but do not intend to ever work with explosives!

Neither version, EOD or Tactical, is cheap (quality or price!), but this one was well worth it to me at the time, and remains so although the punch, wrench, and bronze carbon scraper, along with the saw, remain unused!

The Smith's sharpener works well, like others of similar build (I used to have a Fiskars one but have lost it), and I have used it to sharpen my various pocket knives to almost razor sharpness. It has a diamond hone to sharpen serrated blades, also. At 8 bucks it has been a worthwhile investment. But for general "outstanding" sharpening, I prefer my old Buck Knife small stone "kit" or my large workbench honing stones (both of which are almost half a century old and still in excellent condition).

Below is my almost 20 year old Super-Tool which I can highly recommend. Taken care of, sharpened, oiled, and polished (I use a special metal-buffing wheel on my Shop Smith) on occasion keeps it working well and looking good. Of course, the hard leather sheath (pictured) was replaced with a new one about 7 years ago. I have not carried it or used it as much since I started working at XXX in 2001, and it now lives mostly in the camper where I keep it in a leather pouch that also holds a mini-mag light (that holder, not pictured, and mini-mag were a gift from my brother).

Three Cheers For The Mud Bucket!

2012-01-16T23:14:00.000-05:00

-
This piece originally appeared a few years ago in “The Backwoodsman Magazine” in slightly different form. Since it fit in with the subject of containers which has recently been discussed here, I thought I'd post it.

I've always called them "mud buckets" for the slang term used to describe joint compound. Normal folks call them "drywall buckets." They can be gotten for free at most home construction sites although, in a desperate moment, I once paid a buck a piece for a few. My first use of them was to haul water to livestock. I've also used them to haul water for gardening and, when our well pump was on the fritz, for carrying bath water from the spring. The lids start out water-tight but get less so with use.

They can also serve as bait buckets, live-wells, creels, and tackle boxes. Being a firm believer in the conservation of energy, I always include a short board in my fishing tackle to use as a seat on top of the bucket. Due to high snapping turtle populations in my area, I’ve even used the buckets when fishing from a boat. Otherwise, my day's catch could have ended up as a stringer of fish heads. The airtight buckets will also protect gear in case of capsizing and, when lashed inside the boat, will provide extra flotation in the same event.

The mud bucket has gone deer hunting with me too. Using the lid and a hunter's cushion makes one of the plastic buckets seem luxurious compared to sitting on damp leaves. The cushion, and any other gear, can be stowed in the bucket when walking to your hunting site. My hunting model had the bail replaced with a carry strap and was given a camo job. Though I always took the seat and strap home, I often left the bucket for the next time. Maybe I was just lucky, but no one ever stole the handle-less bucket.

Of course, trappers need no introduction to the mud bucket; most "truck" trappers that I know use them instead of a pack basket. A few folks fasten one to a pack-board for their own version of a pack basket. Others fasten two together for the same purpose. They also make good cubbies in areas relatively free of trap thieves.

Where the mud bucket really shines is low-budget truck camping. A pickup bed will hold a lot of buckets, and they provide water-tight storage for food, clothing, sleeping bags, ammo, and about anything else. Plus, with all those ready-made stools, there's always room around the campfire for company. If you're afraid the buckets will blow around at interstate speeds, just pass a rope through all the bails.

We've all used a bucket as a toolbox at some point; on most jobsites you'll see several serving that purpose. Retailers have caught on and now offer all kinds of aprons and liners to fit them. I store my electrical tools in one bucket, plumbing tools in another, small masonry tools in another, etc. By putting the lids on, they stack neatly under the basement stairs. By labeling each one, when a certain type of job around the house arises, I've only got to grab the right bucket and go.

Any kind of storage is, of course, the mud bucket's forte. Without lids, they can hold apples, potatoes, turnips, and more. With lids, they can be filled with bags of flour, sugar, or other items for insect and rodent-free long term storage. Some folks store livestock feed, birdseed or dog food in them. I’ve used them to store fertilizer, deer minerals, and containers of lawn chemicals. Just don't change from one use to another or you might be asking for trouble.

There's one other thing for which I've used one of those handy plastic buckets. One winter the locks on my truck doors kept freezing up, which made me afraid to lock it. Not wanting my small toolbox to get stolen, I put it in a mud bucket and put on a lid. Laid on its side in the front of the truck bed, along with a few broken bricks and chunks of 2x4, it served as a “trashaflaged” security stash.

They say there's no such thing as a free lunch and I know it's true, but, there's a heck of a good deal to be had in the lowly mud bucket. Give it some thought and you'll probably come up with a few ideas of your own! © 2011

More From The Guru

2012-01-16T23:06:00.000-05:00

-
The friend that I call "the guru" wishes to remain anonymous, but he IS a very wise fellow (in everything but politics).

The reason I mentioned the gallon-sized parmesan cheese container storing the ice-melter was it was on my mind (just re-filled it last Monday from the 45 pound bag I keep sealed in the basement), and the fact it seals air-tight so the salt does not adsorb water from the air and clunk at the bottom in a puddle like melter-salt does if you leave it open to the air.

Reusable food-grade wide mouth screw-top sealable storage containers are also good for in-use flour, etc. (and what we use them for). Why spend money on canisters that don't seal well in the first place when you can get them free?

Also, the reason for distilled water is while it might not taste that great, it has nothing in it and off-the-shelf sealed gallon containers of it keep for many years before anything grows in it. I used to keep the milk-jug-type-distilled water that way. Filtered or bottled water in the gallon or 2.5 gallon jugs does not seem to keep as long. As for filtered bottled water in the wasteful throwaways, I do not know how long it will keep before it goes green.

Also, if you store toilet paper in a sealed paint/mud bucket (especially carefully squashed) you can store a whole lot in just one bucket, yet have dry, usable, TP when you need it.

Here's a tip that makes owning one of the vacuum sealing units worthwhile: simply take your grains directly from the store-sealed bag, put the grain(s) into the vacuseal bag, and vacuum seal it. They will keep ten times as long that way. If you do it to instant rice, oats, etc., you have a self-made longish storage and yet toteable supply. For camping years ago, I used to vacuum seal Uncle Ben's, Ricearoni, mac&cheese, potato flakes, etc. boxes (get rid of the box, pour the contents into a vacuseal bag) — they became relatively-quick-to-make, TINY, easily backpackable for camping, meal packets at a tenth the cost of the virtually instantly-made freeze dried foods (hey, to save quite a few dollars by spending a few minutes longer in preparation is well worth it).

I have even vacuum sealed a spare roll of toilet paper to get it to fit into a backpack — it works when space is at a premium!
-

A Note From The Guru

2012-01-16T21:44:00.000-05:00

I guess I learned my frugality from my Dad, who dumpster dove for perfectly good throwaways: new rugs used less than a year, radios, lamps, even all-wood chairs and tables, and recycled them. He came out of the Great Depression, and that's what they all did back then.

I keep various containers and use a few sealed 5-gallon paint pails (or mud pails) to store dry food like rice and beans and flour (as well as my empty chest freezer, which is the last stop before it gets rotated to kitchen use). We do not have a sealed supply of water but I do depend on the water heater as a reservoir here in the home (Turn the juice off first if it’s electric.) — I should probably get a few sealed distilled water containers (do have a couple left over from when the babies were on formula and we avoided the tap).

I do have a couple of unused backpackable bacteria/virus water filters that will provide several hundred gallons of good water from muddy and infested sources in an emergency. Today, though, the best bet is a relatively inexpensive "Lifestraw" since prices have gone so high so quickly (everyone preparing for 12/21/12 I guess, so there will be good prices AFTER that date when everyone divests themselves of their new and unused acquisitions). I also have some old (but still good) purification pills from Army surplus, as well as household bleach.

I use a large plastic big-mouth gallon-sized parmesan cheese container next to the door with de-icer in it for the steps and walk. That is just one of my many uses for plastic containers.

Again, all this is not for Armageddon, but is simply common sense for relatively short term disasters.

Why New York's Gun Laws Are Insane

2012-01-16T20:24:00.000-05:00

It Don't Make Sense

Boys From The 'Hood - Circa 1934

2012-01-15T20:36:00.000-05:00

Thoughts On Preparedness – Containers

2012-01-15T18:54:00.000-05:00

I grew up with two sets of grandparents who’d lived through two world wars and the Great Depression. They seemed to save everything. “You just never know when that might come in handy,” they’d say. I won’t go into all the other stuff, but containers were high on their list of items to save. Of course there were the old stone jars, ALL of which I wish I had today. But there also canning jars that no longer sealed, bottles, jugs and jars in which food products had been purchased, old-fashioned milk jugs, pop bottles from companies that they couldn’t collect deposit from, and even sturdy cardboard boxes, including the tubular Quaker Oats boxes. Any container which had come with a lid still had that lid, if it was salvageable at all. If not, there was usually a cork in the top of the bottle or jug. Extra corks were stored, of course, in an old canning jar that wouldn’t seal. Old buckets with the bottom worn or rusted out were given a fitted piece of tin and still used for non-liquid use. I used to doubt their sanity just a bit for continuing to save such things. However, I’m beginning to wish that I had one of their collections of such “trumphry,” as my Aunt Marie used to call supposedly worthless items that were kept anyway. In fact, I’m starting to build my own container collection.

After water and shelter, food is the next most important item for long-term survival. Some would put it second, but I’ll remind those folks that emergencies don’t necessarily occur only during dry, balmy weather. That said, it’s best to have some food and water already stored, but it’s also good to have containers available in which to save or transport newly acquired food and water. My maternal grandfather was a great hand to garden, but his best garden was high on the hill above the creek bottom where his house was located. Of course even his gardens in the valley needed help during hot and droughty weather. As a result, I often saw him bouncing along on his Ferguson Model 30 toward his gardens, pulling a farm trailer loaded with everything from drywall buckets to quart plastic milk jugs filled with water. Mostly, he used gallon milk jugs, though, and his collection of them was prodigious. Luckily, he had two good springs across the hollow from his house which not only supplied his own need for water, but also the needs of half the neighborhood. The neighbors, too, used different types of containers, but mostly gallon milk jugs. Why not, they’re free, plentiful and supposedly safe to use around food.

Containers can be used for storing crops, grains, dried pastas and other dried foods. They can also be used to gather and or store foraged foods such as nuts. The latter usually calls for things like drywall buckets, boxes or even crates. If you have the space, you may find it advantageous to keep a few extra containers of various sorts on hand. If space is limited, it might be easier to justify their presence if they’re full of things that can be used during an emergency, like water, dried milk and cereal, pasta, etc. You might even justify keeping a few large plastic non-food storage containers if you use them to store off-season clothes or toilet paper. (Think hard about that last one; leaves ain’t cool!)

I recently put the word in to my neighbor who works construction that I could use a few more drywall buckets with lids. I’ll probably come home from work some evening to find a pile at the end of my driveway. My wife and I buy drinking water in gallon jugs that seem much stronger than milk jugs. I’m laying back a few to store rice, orzo, plus some grains like wheat, oats and barley. I’m also saving the little plastic jars that hold the peaches and oranges that I sometimes splurge on. Incidentally, from what I read, you should probably limit food storage to containers of type 2,4 and 5 plastic. I should also get a half-dozen or more real-to-goodness burlap bags at the feed store; they can be used for a LOT of things, even to make emergency clothing!

I guess that’s about as far as I can go without getting into details, but remember, without containers you’re limited in your foraging to what you can carry in your hands and pockets. Plus, during close times in home or in camp, food storage without containers would be limited to what fits in your belly. Just thought I’d give you one more thing to think about. © 2012

Our Ancestors Had A tough Row To Hoe!

2012-01-15T18:28:00.000-05:00

-
Nevard Blog: 1908 Letter From The Homesteader
-

A LITTLE GUN CONTROL HISTORY

2012-01-15T00:11:00.000-05:00

-
I got this today in an email. From what I've read elsewhere, the numbers for Russia and China are at least 10 million low for each.

In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

------------------------------
In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

------------------------------
Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.

------------------------------
China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

------------------------------
Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

---- ------------- -------------
Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

------------------------------
Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million educated people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

-----------------------------
Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century because of gun control: 56 million.

------------------------------
You won't see this data on the US evening news, or hear politicians disseminating this information.
Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes, gun-control laws adversely affect only the law-abiding citizens.
Take note my fellow Americans, before it's too late!

The next time someone talks in favor of gun control, please remind them of this history lesson.

With guns, we are 'citizens'. Without them, we are 'subjects'.

During WW II the Japanese decided not to invade America because they knew most Americans were ARMED!

If you value your freedom, please spread this anti gun-control message to all of your friends.

***********************
The purpose of fighting is to win. There is no possible victory in defense.

The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either.

The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental.

***********************

SWITZERLAND ISSUES EVERY HOUSEHOLD A GUN!

SWITZERLAND'S GOVERNMENT TRAINS EVERY ADULT THEY ISSUE A RIFLE.

SWITZERLAND HAS THE LOWEST GUN RELATED CRIME RATE OF ANY CIVILIZED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!!!

IT'S A NO BRAINER!

DON'T LET OUR GOVERNMENT WASTE MILLIONS OF OUR TAX DOLLARS IN AN EFFORT TO MAKE ALL LAW ABIDING CITIZENS AN EASY TARGET.
-

Why I Carry a Gun

2012-01-14T23:58:00.001-05:00

-
I got this in an email today:

My old grandpa said to me 'Son, there comes a time in every man's life when he stops bustin' knuckles and starts bustin' caps and usually it's when he becomes too old to take an ass whoopin.'

I don't carry a gun to kill people. I carry a gun to keep from being killed.

I don't carry a gun to scare people. I carry a gun because sometimes this world can be a scary place.

I don't carry a gun because I'm paranoid. I carry a gun because there are real threats in the world.

I don't carry a gun because I'm evil. I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the world.

I don't carry a gun because I hate the government. I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government.

I don't carry a gun because I'm angry. I carry a gun so that I don't have to spend the rest of my life hating myself for failing to be prepared.

I don't carry a gun because I want to shoot someone. I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed, and not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon.

I don't carry a gun to make me feel like a man. I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves and the ones they love.

I don't carry a gun because I feel inadequate. I carry a gun because unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I AM inadequate.

I don't carry a gun because I love it. I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful to me.

Police protection is an oxymoron. Police do not protect you from crime, they usually just investigate the crime after it happens and then call someone in to clean up the mess. Free citizens must protect themselves.

Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take an ass whoopin'.....author unknown (but obviously brilliant)
-

My mom's going to kill me.

2012-01-14T18:02:00.000-05:00

-
It Don't Make Sense
-

Blogger Problems

2012-01-13T22:36:00.000-05:00

DeanO was asking earlier if anyone was having problems with Blogger. I told him that I had been, but it seemed to be better. I was mistaken. One thing is that if I click on your post titles, I get a blank screen. I CAN get the post by clicking on your BLOG name. Even then, I can't comment on some blogs due to getting the blank screen on the security word thing. AGGRAVATING!

Friggatriskaidekaphobia (Paraskevidekatriaphobia) And Other Foolishness

2012-01-12T21:49:00.000-05:00

-
In case you’re wondering, the above words are competing terms for the fear of Friday the thirteenth. (Google “Friday the thirteenth;” it’s interesting.) Personally, I’ve never had anything bad happen to me on any Friday the 13th that I remember. I HAVE heard of OTHER folks who’ve had ill luck on that date. Most of them got up that morning EXPECTING something bad to happen, though, while I get up on that date expecting it to be just as boring as every other day, and it always is. I’m sure we’ve all heard of the expression “self-fulfilling prophecy.” If we’re on edge about the date, we’re apt to get clumsy, act be-addled, be careless and make some bad decisions.

Over the years, I’ve walked under ladders, spilled salt, and had black cats dive across the road in front of me. Common sense must prevail in some situations, of course. I never walk under a ladder that has a man atop it with a pipe-wrench or a bucket of paint (or a hammer, crowbar, etc.). Spilled salt is only a danger if you leave it lie and slide in it later. As for cats running across the road, anecdotal evidence suggests that it’s a whole lot more dangerous for the cats than it is for the drivers. I’ve even broken a few mirrors in my time, but I’ve never noticed any bad luck coming in seven year multiples.

My wife and I have both had some relatives who are very superstitious. That may have come from early contact with Catholicism, with its unhealthy blend of Christian and pagan beliefs and traditions. Another influence may have been simple ignorance—not having enough exposure to active thinkers who might have reasoned away most silly fears. Personally, I feel that one strong, but subconscious, reason for superstition is the convenience of not having to take responsibility for our own stupid decisions. It’s so much nicer to blame our cracked elbow on “bad luck” from breaking a mirror than admit that we shouldn’t have taken up rollerblading without buying safety equipment. It was also, no doubt, easier on the ego to blame some black cat on the trail than for a person to admit that their own carelessness with a kerosene lantern was responsible for the woodshed burning down. I once knew a guy who was a “believer” after he had a tractor-trailer mounted rotary oilrig go over on a Friday the 13th. Nothing would convince him that he might have been mistaken about the stability of the soil the truck was sitting on, or that someone might have gotten in a hurry and botched a set-up procedure. From then on, he was a nervous wreck on any 13th of the month that fell on a Friday.

I got to thinking on this subject the other day when we went through the drive-in to get a soft drink for ourselves, plus a cheeseburger and bottled water for the dog. The bill came to $6.66 and my wife said, “Uh-oh, that doesn’t sound good!” I told her that as long as they didn’t write it on our foreheads, or our hands, I wasn’t going to worry about it.

I used to know a very nice Christian lady who wouldn’t buy anything that came to that amount. She’d either put something back or add something to the sale. Isn’t that sort of a lack of faith, though? “…stronger is He that is in you, than he that is in the world,” (1 John 4:4) the Good Book tells us. Should we then waste our time worrying about the total of a sale, the breaking of a piece of glass, or the travel direction of the neighborhood cats? I don’t think so! I hope you all join me and have a wonderful day, knowing that for most of us, we don’t have to go back to work for a couple days.

“This is the day the Lord hath made; rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24). That’s the spiritual version of TGIF. © 2011 (Except for the quotes)
-

A Stanley "Survival Tool?"

2012-01-11T23:41:00.005-05:00

-
No, that's not what Stanley calls it, but listen to the guru’s words: “Stanley is listing a new FUBAR on their web site, and either Pop Sci or Pop Mech had an article on it this month, but it hasn’t yet hit the shelves. They make a whole line of them, but this one is “outta sight.” When it becomes available, I will be adding it to my survival kit since it would be an excellent multi-use tool.”

Here's a link to one of several reports online:

http://toolguyd.com/stanley-fubar-demolition-bar/

And here is the Stanley page:

http://www.stanleytools.com/default.asp?CATEGORY=HT+BARS&TYPE=PRODUCT&PARTNUMBER=55-134&SDesc=FUBAR+Demolition+Bar

(If the second link won't work for you, copy and paste it into the very top line of your browser.)

Their words: "THE FUBAR, from Stanley, is a multi-function demolition bar that can strike, pull, pry, chisel and chop. It features three strikeable surfaces on the top, bottom and rear, allowing users to wedge the tool’s edges underneath or between materials by striking them with a hammer. It has a P-shaped chisel end to pry or cut through light materials such as drywall when using a chopping motion. It also has multiple nail pullers. It retails for about $20"

MY words: “Besides the many obvious uses, I can also see how the tool might be good for light digging and even defense (if kept sharp).”
-

A True Story

2012-01-10T23:43:00.002-05:00

-
I received this not long ago in an email. It checks out.

This is where we are headed if we don't stand up to the liberals who want gun control:

You're sound asleep when you hear a thump outside your bedroom door. Half-awake, and nearly paralyzed with fear, you hear muffled whispers. At least two people have broken into your house and are moving your way. With your heart pumping, you reach down beside your bed and pick up your shotgun. You rack a shell into the chamber, then inch toward the door and open it. In the darkness, you make out two shadows. One holds something that looks like a crowbar. When the intruder raises it as if to strike, you raise the shotgun and fire. The blast knocks both thugs to the floor. One writhes and screams while the second man crawls to the front door and lurches outside.

As you pick up the telephone to call police, you know you're in trouble. In your country, most guns were outlawed years before, and the few that are privately owned are so stringently regulated as to make them useless.. Yours was never registered. Police arrive and inform you that the second burglar has died. They arrest you for First Degree Murder and Illegal Possession of a Firearm. When you talk to your attorney, he tells you not to worry: authorities will probably plea the case down to manslaughter.

"What kind of sentence will I get?" you ask.

"Only ten-to-twelve years," he replies, as if that's nothing. "Behave yourself, and you'll be out in seven."

The next day, the shooting is the lead story in the local newspaper. Somehow, you're portrayed as an eccentric vigilante while the two men you shot are represented as choirboys. Their friends and relatives can't find an unkind word to say about them. Buried deep down in the article, authorities acknowledge that both "victims" have been arrested numerous times. But the next day's headline says it all: "Lovable Rogue Son Didn't Deserve to Die." The thieves have been transformed from career criminals into Robin Hood-type pranksters.. As the days wear on, the story takes wings. The national media picks it up, then the international media.

The surviving burglar has become a folk hero. Your attorney says the thief is preparing to sue you, and he'll probably win. The media publishes reports that your home has been burglarized several times in the past and that you've been critical of local police for their lack of effort in apprehending the suspects. After the last break-in, you told your neighbor that you would be prepared next time. The District Attorney uses this to allege that you were lying in wait for the burglars. A few months later, you go to trial. The charges haven't been reduced, as your lawyer had so confidently predicted. When you take the stand, your anger at the injustice of it all works against you. Prosecutors paint a picture of you as a mean, vengeful man. It doesn't take long for the jury to convict you of all charges. The judge sentences you to life in prison.

This case really happened. On August 22, 1999, Tony Martin of Emneth, Norfolk, England, killed one burglar and wounded a second. In April, 2000, he was convicted and is now serving a life term.*

How did it become a crime to defend one's own life in the once great British Empire? It started with the Pistols Act of 1903. This seemingly reasonable law forbade selling pistols to minors or felons and established that handgun sales were to be made only to those who had a license. The Firearms Act of 1920 expanded licensing to include not only handguns but all firearms except shotguns. Later laws passed in 1953 and 1967 outlawed the carrying of any weapon by private citizens and mandated the registration of all shotguns.

Momentum for total handgun confiscation began in earnest after the Hungerford mass shooting in 1987. Michael Ryan, a mentally disturbed man with a Kalashnikov rifle, walked down the streets shooting everyone he saw. When the smoke cleared, 17 people were dead. The British public, already de-sensitized by eighty years of "gun control", demanded even tougher restrictions. (The seizure of all privately owned handguns was the objective even though Ryan used a rifle.)

Nine years later, at Dunblane, Scotland, Thomas Hamilton used a semi-automatic weapon to murder 16 children and a teacher at a public school. For many years, the media had portrayed all gun owners as mentally unstable or worse, criminals. Now the press had a real kook with which to beat up law-abiding gun owners. Day after day, week after week, the media gave up all pretense of objectivity and demanded a total ban on all handguns. The Dunblane Inquiry, a few months later, sealed the fate of the few side-arms still owned by private citizens.

During the years in which the British government incrementally took away most gun rights, the notion that a citizen had the right to armed self-defense came to be seen as vigilantism. Authorities refused to grant gun licenses to people who were threatened, claiming that self-defense was no longer considered a reason to own a gun. Citizens who shot burglars or robbers or rapists were charged while the real criminals were released. Indeed, after the Martin shooting, a police spokesman was quoted as saying, "We cannot have people take the law into their own hands."

All of Martin's neighbors had been robbed numerous times, and several elderly people were severely injured in beatings by young thugs who had no fear of the consequences. Martin himself, a collector of antiques, had seen most of his collection trashed or stolen by burglars. When the Dunblane Inquiry ended, citizens who owned handguns were given three months to turn them over to local authorities. Being good British subjects, most people obeyed the law. The few who didn't were visited by police and threatened with ten-year prison sentences if they didn't comply. Police later bragged that they'd taken nearly 200,000 handguns from private citizens. How did the authorities know who had handguns? The guns had been registered and licensed. Kind of like cars. Sound familiar?

THIS IS WHY OUR FOUNDING FATHERS PUT THE SECOND AMENDMENT IN OUR CONSTITUTION.

"...It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." - Samuel Adams

If you think this is important, please forward to everyone you know. You had better wake up, because Politicians are doing this very same thing, over here, if they can get it done. And there are stupid people in congress and on the street that will go right along with them.

And remember this: When seconds count, the police are only minutes away!

*According to Wikipedia, Martin's murder conviction was later replaced by manslaughter carrying a five year sentence, and his ten year sentence for wounding the second intruder was reduced to three years.
-

Atmosphere

2012-01-09T23:30:00.000-05:00

-
My home was once called a tarpaper shack by a local woman who was actually raised in one. (It DID really have tarpaper on it until I could get the siding sawn and seasoned.) It’s been called a cabin (as opposed to a house) by many folks. I have to count the partial basement and the half-story which runs the 48 foot length of the house to say that it’s nearly 2600 square feet, but that seems a tad large for a shack, maybe even for a cabin to some folks.

The cabin idea works for me, though, and we sort of play up that theme—not hard to do, since I built it in the edge of the woods out of rough lumber that my father and I sawed ourselves. Some of our lamps have moose and pine trees on them, and the plaque by the front door has a black bear on it, and the words “Welcome to the cabin.” The living-room furniture purposely looks like it was built from shipping crates and the homemade frame around one of our art prints was made from weathered boards from the old cattle-shoot at the farm where I was raised. There’s an old hand-me-down shaker rocker next to the wood stove.

Standing in the corner at the bottom of the stairs is a pair of long, narrow cross-country skis with their accompanying poles. The poles are dark brown bamboo; the plastic (or fiberglass, or graphite) skis, however, are a vibrant medium blue. They’re quite pretty actually. I bought them many, many years ago when I was married to the first wife, along with a matching pair for her. She fell on her backside a few times and seemed to lose interest. I tried it much longer, but always with that same result. It wasn’t until I started thinking about my personal anatomy that I threw in the towel.

You see, I could never really touch my toes to speak of, but I could put the soles of my feet together and slide them clear up to my crotch (still can). I could also put my ankles behind my neck (not for twenty years, though). It was sort of like my pelvis was built like that of the apes from which some folks insist that we’re descended. That makes me duck-footed, you see. When I walk through light snow, my tracks make it look like some giant tractor tire has just rolled through the area. No wonder I couldn’t keep the skis parallel! That’s why they ended up standing in the corner.

Considering the stage of my life during which those skis were purchased, I’m surprised that my wife would never let me sell them during one of the many times when we were in dire straits. She always insisted that we keep them. They “added atmosphere” she said. I suppose they DO contribute to the cabin theme. Plus, they sort of co-ordinate with the blue curtains,…..and the blue upholstery,…..and the blue carpet,…..and the, well you get the idea. Any guesses as to what my wife’s favorite color might be? © 2012
-

More Photos

2012-01-09T20:56:00.000-05:00

-
The guru said he found those photos below on THIS SITE.
-

Fascinating Color Photos Of America 1939-1943

2012-01-09T18:59:00.000-05:00

-
The guru knows my love of history, so sent me this link to some old photos. I think most of you folks will find these as interesting as I do:

http://extras.denverpost.com/archive/captured.asp

Words Of Wisdom

2012-01-09T01:37:00.000-05:00

-
Coffee with the Hermit: Just Some Things To Consider...!
-

I Wonder Why Grass Won't Grow In My Back Yard?

2012-01-08T23:11:00.000-05:00

Interesting New Follower

2012-01-08T20:13:00.001-05:00

-
I deeply appreciate every follower that I have, though I don't tell you folks that enough. Since I HAVE been going out on a limb lately and talking a lot about preparedness, I thought I'd mention that my latest follower has four different blogs. It appears that at least two of them are for academic purposes regarding preparedness and are fairly static. The one she updates the most is mostly recipes. I haven't quite decided what to do about her yet. I'm not much into recipes, and the other three don't change much, apparently, so maybe I'll just bookmark them instead of follow. You folks might want to check her out, yourself. She's the new gal called "scifichick" down in the follower section.
-

Double Whammy

2012-01-08T19:28:00.001-05:00

-
The first part of Dedushka Vlad's post a very interesting survey done by the U.N. on healthcare.

The second shows the make-up of presidential cabinets from way back to present. It's enlightening to say the least. Please check them out.
-

Homemade Laundry Detergent

2012-01-08T19:16:00.000-05:00

-
I'd never followed Jane's blog, because I thought the font was hard for my old eyes to read. However, after her last post on Country Bumkin, I've decided to keep an eye on her even if it makes me cross-eyed. Check it out.
-

The Trouble With Utilities

2012-01-07T23:42:00.000-05:00

There’s no denying the pleasantness that the utilities have added to our lives. I dearly love my air-conditioner, though I survived just fine with electric fans. Plus, while it’s nice not to have to cut firewood anymore, when the electric goes off, my gas furnace is useless. Cell phones are nice, and a great safety tool, but I average nearly as much cost for them for a year as I do for my year’s gas bills. Cable and internet? I’d hate to lose them, but I lived just fine before I had them. City water, I think I’ll keep as long as I can.

There’s an old saying that goes, “Luxury, once tasted, becomes necessity.” Since my wife hates the extra dirt that comes with heating with wood, she’s never allowed me to go back to wood heat. Therefore, when we had a chimney fire that required the demolition of part of the chimney many years back, we never bothered to build it back. The wood stove remains in the living room for ambiance alone, useless during a power outage. That means that it would be equally useless if we lost gas pressure, too. I guess they have us where they want us. In some places, it’s illegal to save rainwater or heat with wood. It has something to do with saving the earth, I’m told.

Besides our dependence on them, the utilities keep getting more expensive, and always will. Combined, they now require about 25% of what I earn in a year on my current job. Water, gas and electric are monopolies, so there’s no competition to help to help keep prices down or increase efficiency, though corporate greed might help increase the latter. In fact, they’re pretty much guaranteed a “reasonable” profit since they would leave millions cold, miserable and in the dark should they go out of business, so the government lets them have what they “need” to continue. That is as it must be, I suppose, but it’s a system that invites constant abuse.

I won’t go into what happens to the food we have stored when utilities falter, but I will say that I remember fondly the days of cellars overflowing with food. No, let’s just look at the money angle for now. If EVERYBODY got careful about cutting their utility bills, that would cut into the company’s profits, so the utility board would let them raise their prices. We’d then have cut utility usage for absolutely no purpose but to let the company get more money for less product. Folks in my area started getting more conservative with their water usage a few years ago when the company managed to get a raise to help pay for an expansion of their service area (thus bringing them more customers). The reduced usage cut into their profits, so they got yet another raise to offset people using less water. The situation juggled back and forth a few times and I now pay three times more a month for half as much water.

The bottom line is that you can only save money on utility bills for as long as very few other folks try to do the same. The REAL bottom line is that the only way you can save money on utilities is to turn them completely off, as in go entirely off the grid. However, for most folks, luxury, once tasted, still becomes necessity. © 2012

New Blog

2012-01-07T13:30:00.000-05:00

-
This blog won't be for everyone, but I find the lady's efforts at redefining life's priorities admirable, though many folks wouldn't want to go to the lengths that she and her husband have gone. Please check it out:

Mystic Mud
-

Why I Carry - Part II

2012-01-07T13:18:00.000-05:00

-
_It Don't Make Sense
-

I Got The Corporate Buy-Out Blues, Oh…..Yeah!

2012-01-06T22:24:00.000-05:00

The regional feed store chain where I first worked “public works” was bought out by Carnation, run into the ground and then closed down within five years of my departure. Many years later, I worked nearly 12 years in a factory. That company went through three sets corporate raiders before they finally closed the doors and send the jobs to China. The telemarketing company where I work now just went through its second buy-out in the three years that I’ve worked there. Somehow the pattern doesn’t look encouraging. Frankly, I think telemarketing is a dying industry, anyway.

We DID get our new employee handbooks today, subject to change of any kind at any moment. For now, we once again have the right (privilege?) to use our cell phones in the break rooms during lunch break. That right had previously been ended by the boss lady’s over-reaction to a handful of employees abusing the right. Our “requested” (under threat of not paying commission and accumulated paid-time-off) notice of resignation has now been reduced from two weeks to three days. I suppose that’s a good thing. They, of course, reserve the right to boot us out the door at a moment’s notice. They also say that they’re going to use a schedule for sending the last paycheck that I believe is illegal under our state law. Time will tell on that matter, I guess.

I CAN now get $25,000 of life insurance for about $4 a month and vision-care insurance for about $6. I’ll probably go for both. Furthermore, if I give them every cent of all my paychecks (and kick in a few dollars extra), my wife and I can have health insurance. We’d then be homeless, of course, but at least we’d be living up to Obama’s “dream.” As “they” like to ask, “Are YOU better off today than you were at the last election?” © 2012

Enzyme Action

2012-01-04T23:27:00.000-05:00

-
It seems to me that the above words were used for a while to advertise a brand of laundry detergent. Maybe they still are. It makes sense that using a natural product intended to help digest a substance would make it easier to remove a stain from fabric and such. I don’t want to gross anyone out, but I discovered as a kid that saliva will take out fresh blood from fabric better than anything else. As for how to apply and remove the saliva when there’s no water around, use your imagination.

One strong argument for raw food is the loss of nutrition due to cooking. While some vitamins and minerals may be altered or ruined by heat, it turns out that the greatest loss may be the amino acids and enzymes destroyed by the process. Enzymes, in particular, are, needed for proper digestion. It was only recently that my chiropractor made me more aware of God’s thoughtfulness in putting the enzymes in every food that are needed to digest that food.

According to him, the enzymes required to digest each natural food (even meat) are stored within the cells of that food item. Chewing, crushing, or even cutting, opens some of those cells and starts the digestion process, whether that food is inside our stomach or not. Freshly bruised apples or peaches don’t immediately start to rot, they start to digest! The rotting comes a few hours later if the process hasn’t been completed by the innards of some animal

Since cooked foods CANNOT be properly digested unless some other source of enzymes is provided, the Lord allows the human body to “borrow” those enzymes from the body itself. As you might suspect, that isn’t a problem on an occasional basis, however, since those enzymes are supposedly borrowed straight from our immune system, a continuing deficit leaves us susceptible to sickness and disease. When you consider that most of our diets are made up of highly processed foods, it’s no wonder that we’re succumbing right and left to one disease after another. I’ve long known the healthiness of a raw food diet, but today the “why” of the matter sunk in a little better.

It makes me think of Eden. There was probably no fire there, so it follows that there would have been no cooking. It appears that Adam and Eve were vegetarians then, so they should have had no worries about cholesterol (including the genetic variety, but for another reason). The first meal of meat may have been after God clothed Adam and Eve with skins, unless He consumed the flesh entirely with fire. No one knows for sure, though some would probably argue about it. From my study of the scriptures, it appears that the first herds were kept more for sacrifice than meat, so meat-eating may have been infrequent. With no method of storage, it was shared and eaten quickly, before it became unsafe.

No doubt, cooking was an inexact system back then and the pieces of meat were likely well-done on the outside and nearly raw on the inside. As it turns out, that would be the healthiest method, enzyme-wise. That may also partly explain God’s later rules for the Jews about “clean” and “unclean” meats. Most of the unclean meats can cause disease or parasite problems if NOT cooked thoroughly. Vegatables, on the other hand, are best cooked lightly, at most. According to my chiropractor, light stir-frying is the most acceptable method.

I certainly want to consider the idea more thoroughly. For those who’d like to do likewise, The Loomis Institute may be the best place to start. © 2012
-

A Few More Tips From The Guru

2012-01-04T20:31:00.000-05:00

A MOLLE style assault backpack makes for a great and enhanceable grab-it-and-run bag, and they can be had for as little as 40-50 bucks (perhaps less at a surplus store), but virtually any bag or backpack would do. You can hang on accessories, such as first aid bags, etc, using the MOLLE attachment method (example medium sized MOLLE bag: http://www.amazon.com/40139-BLACK-MOLLE-ASSAULT-PACK/dp/B002SFV0OU/ref=sr_1_1?s=apparel&ie=UTF8&qid=1325296412&sr=1-1 ). MOLLE vests, etc., are also available.

While I have owned and still carry/use a Buck 120 knife (12" long and almost a Bowie with a 7.5" blade, but not available anymore except for HIGH prices used on eBay) that stays in my automobile ALL THE TIME, a great knife to hang on a MOLLE bag is the reasonably priced Gerber full-shank 22-41121 Prodigy Survival Knife 9.75" long with a 4.25" blade; note the metal shank-end hanging outside the molded on handle ( http://www.amazon.com/Gerber-22-41121-Prodigy-Survival-Knife/dp/B000XH5H6W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325296265&sr=8-1 )

EXCELLENT instructions (and a downloadable PDF if you register at the site) as well as photos to make paracord bracelets are at: http://www.instructables.com/id/Paracord-bracelet-with-a-side-release-buckle/ If you don't register, you have to page through everything.

REMEMBER: a "survival" kit or grab-and-run kit is something many natural disaster agencies recommend as common-sense practice. FEMA is just one of many strong proponents of maintaining handy survival/disaster kits. Obviously, none are meant for the Apocalypse, but are for common relatively short-term disasters like wilderness/off-trail crashes, tornados, earthquakes, floods, inundating snowfalls, etc. FEMA has some very good info on building a kit here: http://www.ready.gov/basic-disaster-supplies-kit

Thoughts On Preparedness – Cooking

2012-01-02T19:56:00.000-05:00

We take our utilities so for granted, that few of us have ever bothered to think what we might do if they were off for an extended period of time. Sure, we could build a little fire in the backyard and roast hotdogs on a stick for a couple days, but what if it was weeks, or even months, before we could once again count on the gas or electric to be there when we needed it? Besides, no one keeps THAT many hotdogs on hand!

Wood, of course IS the most easily procurable fuel in the suburbs and country, at least in most parts of the country. Frying and boiling are the two easiest methods of cooking for the novice, and they just happen to fit well with a wood fire. The thing to consider is whether you’re going to have an endless supply of fuel, or whether you’re going to have to travel farther each day to round it up. If you live in an area of endless wood supplies, then cooking outdoors over a campfire, or inside with a fireplace or woodstove will all be obvious options. Frying, boiling, baking and roasting are all possible with the right knowledge and/or equipment. Cast-iron cookware is the best choice for such work, and I’d strongly suggest adding a Dutch oven to your equipment.

If wood is scarce in your area, remember that the natives once burned buffalo chips as fuel. I assume that deer “patties” and cow “pies” would work as well. Complete dryness is a prerequisite! If wood is scarce, but findable in your area, keep some large tin cans around (preferably full of food), so you can use them to make hobo stoves. I’ve used one a few times and they sure beat having nothing. I’ve never tried it, but I’ve always thought that a wok would make a good cooking pan for a hobo stove. If you cut most of the top of the can out, leaving about a half-inch around the edges for strength, the wok should rest easily on the stove, plus would have direct contact with the fire. The little stoves don’t require much wood, so you could actually have 2-3 going at once if needed. You WOULD need some way to cut metal. It can be done with a knife, but a small set of tin-snips would be far better. For hobo stoves and for using cow pies, thin stainless cookware would probably be best.

If you’re in an urban setting where you can’t cook in your building and have someplace outside you can SAFELY go, I strongly recommend getting a little folding stove like those sold by Backwoods Mercantile. You might also want to consider buying or making one or more alcohol stoves and stocking up on alcohol, since the little stoves could be used inside with a touch of ventilation. You can buy a bottle for less than a dollar at many discount stores. Once again, thin stainless cookware would probably work best with them. As with hobo stoves, they could also be used in your fireplace, if you have one, thus giving you the ventilation you need and putting the cooking odors up higher where they could more quickly disperse. Remember that some folks might be willing to kill you for a single meal if things get really bad, so be careful. Keep in mind that cooking odors can travel for long distances, drawing people from outside your immediate area. Watch the wind!

Another thing to consider, disgusting though it may be to most people, is to build a methane generator which uses human waste as its raw ingredient. Water and sewer systems probably won’t be working at such times, so you’ll have to get rid of your waste some way anyhow. Why not get some use out of it first? All that’s required is an airtight drum for the digester, some inner tubes for storage and pressure, and a gas hotplate. Don’t forget solar cooking either, since you might be able to do it on a balcony, or even inside a big window. I won’t try saying anything on solar stoves, though, since I’m woefully ignorant on the matter.

There are many books on cooking outdoors and with wood. There also sites online dealing with every subject that I’ve touched on today. Learn how to do these things NOW and get some practice NOW doing what you might need to do later. That’s why they call it PREPAREdness! © 2011

Interesting!

2012-01-01T23:09:00.002-05:00

-
I think I may have mentioned that the guru has led an interesting life. If I didn't know him, I'd swear he was pulling my leg with some of his stories, but since I DO know him rather well, I believe the stories. Of course if he reads this, he'll probably tell me a big one next time just to see if I bite. These paragrphs are from a personal email and are used with his permission.

Regarding grab-it-and-run or bug-out bags ... my family lived with them for many years. Each of us kids had our Pan Am "ditty" bags at the foot of our beds with stuff we might need (change of clothes, small teddy bear or doll, soap, toothbrush, flashlight, ID and copies of important documents/passport info, etc.) and Mom and Dad had theirs, which were larger and contained our real passports and other documents, ready to grab-and-get in case of an Evacuation. Dad used his in Jordan, but he had seen it coming, what with some problems generated by strife over who was to run the country, whether the Arab Legion was loyal to Hussein, the Anglo-Jordanian Agreement, and other strife and political unrest and had sent us kids and mom to Beirut a week before the proverbial sh_t hit the fan in April of '57 — so while we used them, we never had to use our bags in a grab-it-and-run emergency (although Dad did). So I have almost always maintained one, though in recent years have been somewhat lax about a single bug-out-bag, preferring to keep the stuff in the car(s) and camper.

Oh, as a bit more info, my Pan Am ditty bag got exchanged for another slightly larger bag a few years later, in 1961 (and for other bags in later years). You see, while in Italy I had gotten Dad to buy me a twin-barrel "pirate" gun toy that used the European toy caps (actually what we would call bullet primers). I had put it into the bag, along with a couple of books and a yellow-with-red-screw-top Kodak film canister filled with about 50 of the "caps". I dropped the bag, something happened, and there was a boom ... and the end of the bag blew out, smoking heavily. Perhaps the looseness of the cap/primers in the film can had allowed them to get set off. Needless to say, the gun and remaining caps (in my bedroom) were confiscated and I was only allowed to use roll caps or green-stick-on caps (for my shootin’-shell pistol).

By the way, that pirate gun had a light tan painted double side by side pot-metal barrel with two hammers, one on each side. The "primer" caps set on top of hollow nipples that looked just like those in the cylinder of percussion Navy revolvers. It looked a lot like the American "Hubley" double barrel pistol that fired torn off role caps, but mine could have done damage if some stupid kid put powder in the muzzle (I used talcum powder for a cool effect, but was smart enough to NOT use the self-made powder I was experimenting with around that time). I am sure it would be considered VERY dangerous in today's world, but similar (now newer) pistols are/were made in Spain ... I found a detail shot on EBay of a Spanish toy pistol that uses the same kind of "primer" cap mine did, but mounted in a plastic ring (ring caps), only the nipples are not hollow and so are very safe.
-

Pretty Versus "Hot"

2012-01-01T05:34:00.000-05:00

-
Go over to RIGHTKLIK to read a good article on the subject.
-

In Case You're Wondering

2012-01-01T01:00:00.001-05:00

-
Despite appearances, this is NOT going to become a survivalist/preparedness blog. I will still be posting my normal two posts a week of personal gripes, thoughts, experiences and nostalgia. Any preparedness articles will be extra posts for those who are interested. If you're NOT interested, I hope you'll just skip those posts. However, I DO hope you'll keep checking in for my regular posts of eclectic blather. After a few weeks, things will probably return to normal. Thank you for your patience and have a happy new year!
-

Good Survivalist/Preparedness/Historical Magazine

2012-01-01T00:52:00.001-05:00

-
Though I no longer contribute articles to it, I consider The Backwoodsman to be the absolute best all-around magazine for folks wanting to live an old-time lifestyle. It isn't purposely geared to preparedness and survivalism, but let's face it, that's the life the old-timers lived. Normal times to them would be a major catastrophe to us. Learning their skills would do much to prepare us for difficult times. Google the name; they have a website.
-

A Bit Of Good News

2011-12-31T22:30:00.000-05:00

-
The young man at work who I thought had been fired a few days ago is now back at work, looking happier and healthier.Perhaps I was in error or maybe they just gave him a warning and three days off, which they do sometimes. The "sandwich man" has discovered him, too, so he always has the option of a free sandwich if he has no lunch.
-

I Grump, Therefore, I Am.

2011-12-31T22:24:00.000-05:00

No, I’m not getting philosophical, I just needed a name for this post and the above sounded as good as anything else. As a Christian, I really should try to be more positive, and I CAN be when I’m discussing things of God. Things of man give me a bit of trouble, though.

I only had a half-day of unpaid leave remaining, so I had to work last Friday morning of the year. The alternative was to work ALL day and accept the pay for the unused hours on my first paycheck of the new year, since they won’t let you carry it over. So, I worked the half-day. My mood was tolerable until about a half-hour before my time to leave, when they apparently fired one of my senior co-workers for bending a headset to better fit his head. We all do it on occasion; we have to. I don’t know what the problem was. As I pulled out of the lot, he stood forlornly across the street waiting on the bus. At age 62, he doesn’t have many options. Maybe I’m being self-righteous, but I wouldn’t want to be in those people’s shoes come judgment day.

I went home, then, and got my wife. I’d promised to take her out for a nice lunch, so we went to an Italian restaurant in a small town a few miles away. Afterwards, we drove down to one of our few remaining independent clothing stores to pick up some little New Testaments a local gentleman had left there for me. I’d wanted to reimburse him enough to get 100, but he insisted on continuing to foot the entire bill himself, but only promised me 50. I suspect the organization that he belongs to doesn’t want their members “selling” them, so he didn’t feel comfortable doing it any other way. Still, the last time I’d taken 20 of them to work, they were snatched up before I got to the front door. Many kids who missed out then have already moved on now, so I’ll never have the chance to give them one. Somehow it doesn’t seem right to limit the chances those kids have to learn the Good News.

While in that store, I looked for a good pair of casual shoes. Of course none were made in America. The better ones were made in Italy, and the slightly “less better” ones were made in China (of course). Sorry, if I’m going to pay $100 for a pair of shoes, they AIN’T gonna come from CHINA! Unfortunately, they didn’t have the Italian ones in my size. I guess I’ll just have to keep getting cheap shoes at Wally World and throwing them away every couple months, like I’ve been doing.

Next, I went to a regional sporting goods store to use the gift certificate that my wife had given me for Christmas. I’d planned to get an old name gasoline lantern for emergency use, but all they had were LED electric jobbie-doos made in China. Wanting to buy American, I looked next at the cast iron Dutch ovens. Nope! China! I wandered around a little more, but couldn’t find anything that wasn’t made in China except a couple guns that I couldn’t afford, and a bota bag that was made in Spain (which I didn’t need).

Their 10-box cases of trap and skeet shells were on sale for $20 off, and they were made in America, by golly! As I stood in line behind the teenage girl who was being waited on by the teenage boy, I gradually realized that there was more flirting going on than checking out SALEABLE merchandise. When the girl ran back into the store’s interior to exchange an item, while the cashier twiddled his thumbs (figuratively speaking), I started to move over to the other lane where the cashier had just finished his sale. Unfortunately, not seeing me coming, he hailed down a woman bringing back a return and started to wait on her. After a certain amount of banter, the cashier explained that he had to get a manager for any refund over $10. None was forthcoming after the page, so I shoved my cart to the side and left the store.

Why I Carry

2011-12-31T00:28:00.000-05:00

-
This article is one of the best I've ever read on the logic of having a firearm on your person. Please check it out.

It Don't Make Sense
-