Happy New Year

Just arrived back home from a delicious meal with Cherry Pie and one of our friends. We had Italian at a local place called Gino's. We always have great food there. No, really we have NEVER had a bad meal or bad service. We had a great time and got home before the crazies hit the roads.
To all my blog friends and followers...Have a safe evening and a happy New Year!

It's A Big Ol' Truck

While at our Son's house, we got the opportunity to drive his newest ride, a 'bobbed" 2 1/2 ton M-35 "Deuce". I got to take it wheelin' at the local mud hole and it was GREAT! Below you can see Cherry getting ready to take it for a drive. She drove to the end of the street and decided that was enough for her, Son drove it back and went around the house and went to cross the deep ditch in front and, well, the mud was softer than expected . So he got stuck, IN HIS FRONT YARD.

The big ol' front bumper plowed into the road base and brought the rig to a sudden stop. In deference to his better half, he stopped there and asked a neighbor to pull him out.

The neighbor came down in his Dodge 4x4 and kindly pulled him out. Now the Bobber is over 10, 000 pounds, the Dodge, I don't know, 4,000 or so. He didn't even slip a tire pulling the Bigun out. No harm was done and the neighbors had a good time to boot. Son weathered the expected jibbing well. He has crossed the ditch before but from the road to the yard not the yard to the road. I may be going back to attend a military vehicle off road adventure in North Carolina with him.

The Glory Of Travel

On our journey from Missouri to Virginia via Texas, we saw all the usual sights that can be found during travel by air. As for me I saw many things that made me realise the glory that can be found when traveling. I just want to thank all the women that had their bouncy bits shelved and on display this weekend. My oh my, what nature has provided to some of the fairer sex is truly remarkable.

And They Ate

Finished with the little seminar Ron and I conducted. In general, I think it went very well. the men that joined us showed a definite interest in the products and everyone was pleased with the food we prepared for them. We'll see how things shake out from here. We are talking of doing another event after the new year. With the interest this small group showed a larger group may result in some customers. To the men who showed up tonight, it was great meeting you all. And thanks for your interest in these amazing products. Have a great evening and as I'm not sure of my next installment in the life of a Midwest Rebel, Have a Merry Christmas!

Now We're Cookin'

I'm sure by now you have seen the link to Shelf Reliance on my bloglist. Well, another dealer and I set up a mens night to show demonstrate the uses of the various foods. We had a very low RSVP so we cancelled it. Now the woman that owns the business where we were going to do the demonstration said she had 5 men come in and sign up. So after all we will be cooking for a small group of men tonight. I had some great items planned for the bigger event but after cancelling I didn't get the ingredients I needed. So, making do with what we already had, I will be serving a spicy chicken salad on toasted crustini's and Taco TVP quesadillas. The other party to this event is making some desert items. We'll see how it all turns out. I'm confident in my culinary skills I hope the other guy carries his end. I 'm sure he'll make a stellar performance.

Model 94 Update

Still no pictures. Cherry has not uploaded the camera program to the new computer. She's worried that adding ANTHING will slow the new one to the speed of the old one.

Here we go. I have all the internal bits polished on their wear spots. The barrel and magazine tube is polished. I stripped and sanded the buttstock and fore end. The wood is smoothly blended into the metal. Smoothly hell, some of it looks like it grew out of the wood . I took the wood to 600 grit and finished with 0000 steel wool with 3 dewhiskerings thrown in. Any way things were looking towards blueing and staining. Until.....I decided that the factory finish on the receiver would not match the blue going on everything else. So... I started to sand the blue off and found the receiver is dished in the center on both sides. Time to break out the files again. I have one side filed and sanded to 600 grit and it needs to go to 800 or 1000 grit. I wanted to have everything ready for blueing and finishing before we leave for Virginia. I don't know if will happen. I may have to finish the receiver when we get back.

How Hard It Is

I've got his short term work, ringing a bell for the Salvation Army. It's quite the gig. Stand there and ring a bell. That's all it is. Stand there and ring a bell. Last week a lady quit. I guess it was too freaking hard for her. This week a guy got fired, caught him on video doing something. He also was removed from another location by the stores request a couple weeks ago. Removed as in "don't ever send him back here". Ring a bell and be nice. Ring a bell and be honest. Ring a bell and do the right thing. I guess it's beyond some folks ability. Any hoo, I've suddenly got more hours.

Bbbbbblogger. GRRRRRR!

Is anyone else that is using Blogger having problems with the new save/publish/edit function? I'm not liking it very much at this point. I never had to "save a post before publishing it. No I have to save, then select to publish. If I publish and then find an error and go back to the edit function, usually the confounded thing will not save the corrections. GRRRRRR!

What A Quandary

Very soon Cherry and I will board a plane and travel during the peak of the holiday travel season to Virginia. In Virginia I will see my new grand-daughter for the very first time. I'm very excited about this! Next in line will be my wonderful daughter-in-law and then will be My Pride, my son. Then will come the new vehicle in their lives. More on that later.

My quandary is, we are flying with no checked luggage, carry on only. So, I will not be checking a gun case and going through the TSA procedure. That means I will be traveling ungunned and unknived. Now, I can ship the knives but not the guns. I don't see the need to do a dealer to dealer transfer and all that entails. So, I'm thinking the boy might have to lend me a piece while we're there. Further trips East will have to be TSA chaperoned or made by wheeled vehicle. It's been a long time since I was with out a gun or a knife on me.

On to the new vehicle. I've wanted one for some time now. Son has upstaged me. Look at this monster that is his new daily driver. While we are out there I'll get a better picture. It's a 1969? M35 2.5 ton "Deuce" that's been bobbed. He loves it!

I've Been Remiss

Now that things have settled down a little, I need to rectify a wrong. I want to welcome my new blog friends.

Emitt1 over at Standing Outside Looking In, got me to resume regular posting, visiting and friending other bloggers. I owe him a big 'ole THANKS! Please take a trip to his place and follow along on his adventures in life.

Oh, The History

I forgot to mention, if it even matters, the location I normally ring a bell at is right across the road from the cemetery that Jesse James is buried in. The James Family Farm, now a county park, is right down the road. The site of the first daylight bank robbery, committed by the James brothers, is down the highway about 10 miles. Lots of history around here.

I worked for about a year with some good guys that are from the deep south. They kept telling me that Missouri was not really a Southern or Confederate state. They didn't understand when I told them Missouri was fighting the civil war before it ever started. Actually the Missouri delegation DID vote to secede and join the Confederacy and the Confederacy voted to allow Missouri to join. The only thing that no one counted on was a Federal Army moving in to arrest the Missouri Assembly. The elected officials scattered to avoid arrest and a group favoring the North was seated in their place.

As a pre-teen and early teen, my grandfather used to take me to a genuine Civil War era Grecian mansion located in Platte County Missouri. The structure was still standing and down the hill near the creek you could see the foundations of the slave quarters. As he had permission to remove wood from the building, occasionally we would go there for the salvaging of the wood. Everything was walnut, the trim, the floors, the stairs and banisters, everything. Once you entered through the front double doors you were greeted by a huge room with a 16-18 foot ceiling. Across the room was a semi-circular stair case descending from the upper rooms. The parlor had plaster coat of arms, once done in gold leaf, used as crown molding. The upper rooms all had their own fireplaces and dumbwaiters. Upon entering the "staff" area the finishes all got quite a bit more rough. The inside kitchen had a set of stair going to the upper floor that was so narrow that as a teenager, I had to turn sideways to use it. This place even had a "dungeon". The basement, on one side, had three rooms that had iron doors with iron rings and chains set into the stones of the foundation. Grandpa and I were careful about what we removed, unlike the "others" that came there. The midnight pillaging and wanton damage got so bad the owners finally had it bulldozed. Had we know at that time it was going to happen we could have gotten more of the fine wood out of that place. Once while there I was wondering around, hoping to find a child's toy or something. Looking the place over I found a huge stump off from the house a little bit. Inspiration struck and I started to sift through the fine dirt at the base of the stump and lo and behold I found a marble! Another time I was looking around and found a loaf of bees wax. It was about 10-12 inches in diameter and about 6-8 inches tall. I later found out that bees wax, at one time in Missouri, could be used to pay your taxes, so this may have been a tax loaf. I kept that bees wax for years and don't know where it ever got to. Any way, Grandpa used that walnut to make jewelry boxes for all his daughters. Many plaques and candle holders came from it as well as a beautiful grandfather clock. When Grandpa died I got quite a bit of the wood left over from that fine old mansion.

The Week End

Yesterday Cherry and I travelled to the Big City to celebrate and early Christmas dinner with my mother as we will not be around during the actual Christmas season. We had a good time and ate lotsa tasty food. We made it back home with plenty of time to relax with an adult beverage. My drink lately has been Wild Turkey. Mmm, mmm good.

Today Computer Tech Friend and his girl friend(woman friend?) were in town for the weekend and came over for breakfast . I made breakfast for all of us, pancakes and bacon,then we had some good conversation with the friends we haven't seen for a while . CTF worked on the new unit and took the old laptop and the desktop with him. While he was working and looking at the computers I took his pocket knife, cleaned and adjusted it and then gave it a razor sharp edge. His lady friend was amazed that I did all the cooking and cleaning around here. She gave CTF several sharp looks when this was discussed. Any how, we all had a good time and after the first of the year we will go to his house about 160 miles away for another visit and pick up the repaired(hopefully) and updated machines. I polished a few more small parts for the 94 later and I think for the rest of the day very little will be done except for maybe a little Turkey hunting, if you catch my drift.

Try It, You'll Like It

You may have noticed under the heading of blog list I have listed Shelf Reliance. This will link you to my wifes website with Shelf Reliance. The goal of Shelf reliance and ourselves is to provide people with high quality freeze dried food and reasonable prices.

We have received our first shipments of various foods that we ordered and have been trying them out for a couple of weeks now. Let me say, the fruits are disappearing very rapidly. I have had a hard time keeping my hands off the freeze dried peaches and strawberries. My wife likes the pineapple so much that she quickly finished a pantry can of 5.3 ounces. Now that might not seem like a lot but you have to consider, there is no water at all in this stuff. Those 5.3 ounces when re- hydrated would make about a whole pineapple.

We have been using in our everyday cooking, the onions and peppers. They have great flavor and aroma.

One afternoon, I made a light lunch for the two of us. I used a package of Knorr Sides, chicken flavor, and 1/4 cup of re- hydrated freeze dried chopped chicken. The first thing we both noticed was the flavor of the chicken. It was great. Then we noticed that a quarter cup was too much meat for that package of noodles. Here's the best thing, you can generally find the Knorr product on sale 10 for 10 bucks or a buck apiece. The 1/4 cup of chicken ended up costing us eight five cents. That's 85 cents. So for a buck eighty five we made a light lunch that would have feed 3 in a pinch and it fed the two of us nicely with a little left over. If we had used our noodles and some bouillon we could have got the price down a little but no so much that it would make a huge difference.

We continue to work the freeze dried food into our everyday lifestyle and use it for storage food as well. This stuff has a shelf life that can be up to 25 years and some items are longer. Please, visit her site and try a sample or two and see what you think. If you are interested you can order through her site or we can sign you up as another distributor. Think of it, you can get the food cheaper and maybe make a little money on top of it.

Let It Snow Or Not

I finally got hired as a bell ringer for the Salvation Army. I've been picking up 2-6 hours every day. I would have liked to ring for the whole season but there were some typical (for the Salvation Army) snafu's with my application. Anyway, I'm getting to work a little. I got all geared up for the snow that was to come in last night. I put the garden tractor in the garage, ready to drive out and plow the drive way. Filled it with gas and put fuel drier in it. Then I went to ring in front of the Wal Mart, ready to ring in the snow. I saw a lot of new snow shovels leaving the store. But no snow ever came. When I got home I turned on the news and the weather guessers were giddy with the news that no snow was coming. Oh well, at least they helped good old wally world increase their sales.

Model 94 ...Some More

Call me obsessive but I went and finished the barrel and magazine tube to a 600 grit. They look really good too. I also started on the visible small parts. With some of the curves I'll have to get some accessories for the Dremel tool as I'm not getting the same look on the flats as I am the curves doing it be hand. I'll also polish all wear surfaces. That is all for now tired and aching from my stint as a bell ringer today.

Model 94 II

Last night I got the magazine tube polished out to 400 grit. This may be as far as I'll take it. It is much smother than the factory machined finish and I can see my reflection in it.

The goal for today is to get the barrel to the same finish. This takes more time as I have to avoid the sweated on front sight ramp and I have to avoid rubbing out the lettering on the barrel.

I was wrong in stating that this was a pre-64 gun. I found better information that indicates this gun was made in 1974 and extrapolating the numbers gives me a guesstimation manufacture month of November or December. This gun has a prefix number of 401 and 1975 guns started with 411.

Model 94 Project

I got tired of watching the boob tube yesterday so I went to my improvised work bench( we are in the process of rehabbing this house and I don't have an actual work area yet) and dived into the Model 94 project I took on. I got the rifle taken down to bits and pieces and did a lot of filing to remove the pitting on the magazine tube and a little on the barrel. When I took the forend wood off I found a lot more rust and pitting there so I ended up filing the entire magazine tube. Then I did the patches on the barrel and filed the whole thing to bring it back to a smooth contour.All in all I probable took a tablespoon of filings off the gun. As I don't have a buffing machine I do my polishing the old fashioned way. By hand. With various grades of sand paper and a lot of elbow grease. So now the real work starts. Pics will follow as soon as I can get the old laptop repaired. Pictures have been taken but Cherry doesn't want to install the camera program into the new laptop. Computer Tech Buddy is coming to town next week and says he'll fix the old laptop then and take the tower of the desk top computer with him.

It's A Beee You Tif UUUL Day

Awoke this morning to a grey , overcast sky, weeping icy drizzles on parched, brown earth. Wind adds a bone cracking chill to the soul. In my world it's a beautiful day.

You Do The Math

The jobs report came out yesterday. Lots of number being thrown around. and to me they still don't add up. Here's how they stand.

Official Unemployment is 8.6 % down from 9%. New Unemployment Claims are once again over 400K. 402,000 is the number this week. The US Government dropped 4 thousand jobs with state and local government shedding 16,000 jobs. The construction industry fired another 12,000 folks. Government speculation says that another 315,000 people just quit looking for jobs.There are something like 13 Million people out of work. But new payroll only climbed to 120,000. So you do the math. The 120,000 comes from retail and shipping. Can you say Seasonal Jobs? What 'll happen to those jobs in a couple of months?

Day Four

Here we are, four days from the start of the fast. Do I feel hungry? No. Am I continuing? No. Could I continue? Yes. I feel good. I'm not hungry at all. The only thing I have noticed is I'm cold. That in it self is very strange as I always run HOT. I sweat all the time. I'm usually comfortable with temperatures in the 20's. Yesterday I was outside putting the snow plow on the yard tractor. With the temperature right at 50 and the wind blowing about 20 mph I took a chill. Very strange for that to happen to me. I mean I am the guy that used to ride my Harley 11 months a year as long as there was no snow or ice. I have ridden when the temperature was 15 degrees. Sure I dressed for it but I was comfortable. So, today I start eating again and judging from the silence of my stomach I won't be eating much.

Fasting Notes

Day One

Drank alot of water and other liquids today. I did feel pretty hungry in the morning and in the evening.

Day Two

Once again I drank alot of liquids. I was not really hungry except in the evening. Drinking water does get old real quick. In order to keep myself supplied with vitamins and minerals during this fast I made a couple of different drinks. One is just stirring a peach flavored drink mix that came with our first shipment from Shelf Reliance. Man is it tasty! It has several minerals in it and unlike I posted earlier it does have sugar, 28 mg per 8oz serving. The other drink I made twice today was to put 1 cup of chicken broth in a pan and add 1 teaspoon of Dr. Jensens Vegetable Seasoning. It has a ton of nutrients in it. It is really good. I don't know or really care if that is not included in a fast. it;s liquid and has nutrients is all I care about at this time. I gave Cherry Pie a drink of it and she want me to make add noodles and some other stuff late on. With all the liquids and the diuretic I take I have a path beat to the toilet. I bet I have pissed 20 times today. Oh, I weighed. I started the Thanksgiving season at 275. Tonight I weigh 266.

Day 3

Do I continue for another day? I feel good, not very hungry. I realise now that eating takes up a lot of my day. Not eating leaves a lot of day available to me. I told Cherry Pie that I would eat dinner with her. Maybe not. She wanted to go get something for our Daughter-In-Law tonight and then go to Five Brothers Hamburgers for dinner. I told I really didn't want to come off a fast at a greasy burger place. This morning I realised that fasting also prepares you for a time when you might HAVE to go with out food for a while. I know of a man here in town that fasted for 30 days with no health issues from that. In all reality today will probably be my last day. Three days at 3,000 or more calories a day is a loss of 6,000 calories from my usual diet. With my intake of vitamins and nutrients I should not have any health issue as my mother the RN is telling me I WILL have.

Some New Stuff,

It seems winter is reminding us it's on the way. Temps are getting into the low 20's and highs barely make it to 50. I know, it's still nice, but it is a reminder.

A friend of ours has a store called Healthy Life Choices and recently she expanded the services offered and took in some nice folks to provide these services. So, Cherry and I have been having foot detox therapy. Very interesting. You would not believe the crap that comes out of your feet during this ionized water foot bath. Actually it's pretty disgusting yet still interesting. Now I have known this woman for several years and she has claimed my wife as her daughter. We trust her. We welcome her into our family, I have absolute belief that she is NOT pulling some sort of scam on us. Yet I have a friend that has known her for much longer than we have and he is sure that it's a scam of some sort. all because some time ago he saw a report on the TV (of course) that said treatments of this kind are scams. So he throws all he knows about his "friend" and calls bullshit over this treatment. I don't feel any different after this experience but after seeing all the crud that was extracted from my feet I don't think it's doing me any harm and in the end may actually be doing me some good.

And speaking of doing me some good. All my life I have struggle with my weight. when I was younger I could run and do all kinds of stuff that helped to keep my weight in check. Now after all the sports, exercises, surgeries, running and all the miles I have walked while hunting and all the stuff I have done for years while working as a laborer have taken their toll and I can can no longer do any of that. One completely junk knee and one slightly marginal knee. And no insurance any more. The junk one has so much bone loss that my pelvis is tilted and that in turn has my left hip slightly displaced and also puts a V shape into my lower spine causing a disc to bulge. So with all that weight control is really an issue. The lighter I am the less stress on my knees and maybe even my blood pressure will go down a little. I have cut my eating down drastically but that is just maintaining my weight just south of the 300 mark. In years past I have fasted for spiritual reasons and general health. So in light of all above I started a fast yesterday. This morning I feel good and I am, surprisingly, not hungry. I drink ionized water sometime with a natural fruit mix with vitamins and minerals and NO sugar. I also make a broth out of a vegetable seasoning powder that has tons of good stuff in it. So we'll see how this works out for the next day or two.

Testing, Testing. This Is Only A Test.

Ahhhhh, the first post from the new laptop. What a huge change! The old laptop was really giving us fits today. I deleted the browsing history and temporary internet files, compressed the file in c drive and defragged. All to no avail. The dang was so slow it appeared to be locked up. I went to a meeting tonight and Cherry Pie managed to get some orders placed on the old one and then termitated use of it and set up all the miscellaneous stuff on the new one. Praise Be!

Thanksgiving Dinner Two

Today is the anniversary of the day I took the most marvelous person to be my Bride. Twenty Nine years ago we were wed before God and all our families. It has not always been an easy row to hoe but we always ended up with a good crop of love. We are still going strong!

Today our neighbor auctioned off all her and her deceased husbands belongings. We attended and bought a few things. Hopefully she made enough money to help defray the cost of the nursing home but, the day turned out cold, rainy and windy. The crowd was small and items went cheap. It seems like I've seen this before.

Tomorrow we will travel to my Dads' for a belated Thanksgiving dinner with with him and the rest of my "step" family. We are bringing coleslaw (just because it's so damn good), baked beans (tasty as well), a terrific pecan pie and one of my favorite desserts, angel delight. this one is easy. Take one angel food cake and tear it to bits of around a teaspoon size or slightly larger to nearly fill a 9x13 cake pan. Pour vanilla pudding over it and gently spread it to work it into the nooks and crannies. Spread whipped cream over the whole thing and refrigerate over night. MMM, MMM good.

The Pie

We made it back from the Black Friday ordeal. It turns out that everyone was very patient and friendly in a really tired of this sort of way. It turns out that the boyfriend and I were the professional line standers. The girls first stop was the local Wally World. There was a laptop coming on sale at freakin' MIDNIGHT so Boyfriend and I stood in line for two hours while Cherry Pie and Niece/Daughter shopped their little hearts away. So, after we install the program for our Internet provider I'll be posting from the very first NEW computer we have ever had. Boyfriend and I got dropped off while the ladies went to other stores to finish their DNA driven shopping activities.
It's good we scored the computer 'cause I've had my belly full of this POS. I've put a serious dent in a jar of sweet pickles while waiting on different sites to open up tonight.

Yesterday we had pecan pie and pumpkin pie. We were going to have an apple crisp but Niece/Daughter decided not to make it. Usually we have my favorite pie but with the limited number of folks in attendance we managed with the two. The pie I love the best is a Jeff Davis Pie. We will have one at my Dad's place on Sunday so Ill make it to Christmas when the next JD pie will be made. I get them on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Jeff Davis's birthday (June 3rd). I love it, Cherry doesn't.
Here's the recipe from my Grandma Carder.

Jeff Davis Pie

Pre-heat oven to 325
1 stick butter (of course)
5 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 heaping tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Have butter at room temperature before starting.
Cream the butter with the flour and sugar
Add eggs and milk, beat well
Add vanilla
Pour into unbaked pie crust
Bake at 325 degrees until brown/gold and center is still shaky (app 45 mins.)
Makes one 11 inch pie or two 9 inch pies not deep dish.
This does come out best in a regular depth pie crust

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving And Then The Rush

I trust all had a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving. I know we sure did. We started this morning with a whirlwind of the final cleaning of the house and then ourselves. I made coleslaw, baked beans and a tasty deep fried turkey. Cherry Pie made 3 of her fantastic pecan pies and also mashed potatoes. Other family and guests provided various veggies and such. All ate until we were comfortably bloated. I did get one request for the recipe for my coleslaw. Cherry and our beautiful niece/daughter are going shopping this evening and have asked me to go as the strong arm. Uh, OK? Actually a long time ago, when Black Friday was on, ya know, Friday, Cherry and I always went as a team. She's a little slip of a thing so I was responsible for getting her where she wanted to be, making sure she got what she wanted and then getting her out. We worked that way at bike shows too. When things got to rowdy she would put her hands through the back of my belt and I would go dozing our way out, sometimes with fists a flyin'. The stores never required the use of force just determination. but a good time was usually had. Usually. I gave up on the whole BF shopping ordeal when her sister and others started going with her.
Sleep well my friends!

Notes Of The Morning

I've got quite a few errands to run today. With the coolness and the rain I've got several joints that are screaming for attention so I'm already hittin' the vicodin. We'll see how the rest of the day shapes up.
One short comment, Thanks for all the recent comments. I will see if this particular computer can handle the Kodak camera program. We were once computer rich and now suddenly we are computer poor. I spoke to a friend last night that is in the business of computer maintenance and repair and he's agreed to work on the darn things for us.

One Ringy Ding, Two Ringy Dingy

About 4 weeks ago I went to the local Salvation Army office to get an application to be a bell ringer. I filled out the freakin' 23 page app and had it back to them the next morning. It goes from there to the Northland office and somehow between there and the KC headquarters the application was lost. After I'm told about this 3 weeks later, I go back to the local office for another 23 page application. I am told that 1. their printer is broke and can't print another app and 2. their computers are locked up. So here we are heading to the end of November and I get a call from the local office saying they have an app for me. So...............tonight I will fill out another freakin' 23 page application to ring a damn bell. All this so I can work for maybe 3.5 weeks at 4 hours a day. It takes less paper work to be a gun dealer

A Redo In The Makin's

We went to my Dads house for a dinner to celebrate his 67th bithday. One of my brothers made some tacos with shrimp, chicken and beef. Way good too. We sat around and shot the breeze for a few hours, nothing big. Every body had a good time.
I had mentioned earlier that I was going to something for Dad for his birthday. I can say, or rather, write what it is now. He had acquired a Winchester 30/30 some time ago. It was a nice pre-64 Winchester with the really bright and shiny bluing on the receiver and a real jen- you- wine walnut stock. Some how the gun ended up under a bed, near a window and the window was left open during a rain storm. Uh hu.That's right water and steel don't mix real well. The gun ended up with a rather large patch of rust on the barrel and magazine tube. I checked it out last night when I got home and the rust has already started some pitting. So here's the deal. I'm going to re-blue the barrel, magazine tube and lever. The receiver is still bright and shiny and I don't have the ability to produce that kind of shine or color of blue. I'll also refinish the wood as it is sticky with something or other. Nicotine is most likely the culprit but who knows. I do a really nice job on wood refinishing so I'm gonna do that too.
So after getting it home last night I removed the rust and coated everything in Rem Oil until I can get time to work un-interrupted on it. It'll be lookin' good when I get it done.

New Venture Update

OK, for some reason Blogger added blogger to the URL of our website for the Thrive products. It's fixed now. Sorry for the issue and THANKS!

A New Venture

With the job situation as it is, particularly me being out of work for nearly 3 years now, my wife and I have started a new venture.
With the ever rising cost of food and the uncertainty of the political scene around the world, we decided to become distributors of the products offered by Shelf Reliance. This fine organization produces high quality freeze dried and dehydrated food. We looked at our household grocery expenses and found that we were actually throwing away at least 15 percent of what we bought. Uneaten left overs, spoiled food and out of date products all take a toll on our grocery budget. With the freeze dried products we can use only what we need at the moment. And no more worry about shelf life. An unopened can of freeze dried food is good for 25 years or even more. Once opened they have a shelf life of a year. We have our first personal order on it's way now. I will be giving reports on how our life changes after we start using this food every day.
We have been to 3 Shelf Reliance Thrive parties where we got a chance to taste dishes made from their food, such as salsas, chicken quesadilla's and tacos. We also got to try some of the food that has not been rehydrated. The sweet corn is like eating candy. My wife is really sold on the pineapple chunks and strawberries. I like the raspberries and black berries.

I also look at is as excellent preparedness food. Great tasting, high nutritional content and a long shelf life. Please take the time to look at our web page and check out some of the products. I'm sure you will be as impressed with the food as we are.
www.TempyCarder.shelfreliance.com

The Water, The Tractor and The Dad

Today I went and did some shopping for some basics and then off to Healthy Life Choices for a few gallons of Kangen water. If you have not heard of the benefits of Kangen water, ask around. I have seen several locals that had cancer. After changing their diet and drinking Kangen water they defeated their cancer. One lady had stage 3 breast cancer. She did the diet change and started using Kangen water, one year later she is cancer free. Her doctor is amazed. So, at our house all we drink, well mostly as I still like some bourbon now and again, is Kangen water.

I got to try out the new to me lawn tractor today. Yesterday, I installed the mower deck and charged the battery overnight. Today I mowed up all the leaves. I was very impressed with my new tractor. It's a Cub cadet 2185. In a couple days I'll take the mower off and put the snow blade on as most of the leaves have fallen and the grass ain't growin' no more this year.

Dad's birthday is this week and I'm going to do something special for him but, as he is reader I can't let the cat out of the bag.

A Cut Above

As we all know, times are getting very difficult for many of us. Prices are up for nearly every thing we need to continue our very survival. I can handle most of these increases but some seem way out of line. Things like the announced Jiff peanut butter increase of 60 percent. Or even the little things like razors.
The razor issue is what has been setting me off lately. I have a Gillette that uses 3 blade cartridges. It does give a nice shave. The problem is when I go to buy new cartridges. 3 or 4 packs are 12-25 dollars. That's right. A large chunk of money for razor refills.
I friend and I were discussing this and I commented that I was going to start using an old style safety razor. He said he had just started and got his razor and blades at Walgreens. So, off I go. Walgreens just had a reset. They no longer carry the safety razors. They have the blades but not the actual razor body. I went to Wally World, no luck but I did meet another guy tht was angry at the cartidge price and he too was looking to go old school in the shaving department. We went to Kansas City to a larger Walgreens, no luck there either. At these large drug store I saw shaving brushes, shaving soaps, stypic pencils, bump stoppers but not a razor to be found. I'm looking, I'm thinking, the wheels are turning, the gears are grinding. We made it home later that evening and off I went to dig through my fairly large collection of knives. AH AH! I found it, an antique straight razor. Wow, and it's still sharp too. I then watched online videos of people using a weapon such as this to shave their face the "manly way". In the end I'm ordering a strop and some strop treatment. If I can get pictures to load on this laptop I'll show the equipment. So, wish my face some luck.

THANKS!

I would be remiss if I didn't thank the new followers of this little blog. Thanks folks!

Bad Child, baad!

Ok, I've got the sheet rock hung and the chimney re-gooped. We'll see what happens with the next rain.

This morning I signed up for another gun give away. Maybe one day I'll get that magic email. I don't have high hopes for that though. The last time I actually won anything I was in preschool. I used to watch this local kiddy show on TV in the mornings. They had a contest and my good mother signed me up for it. I won! The prize was a giant cardboard tootsie roll filled with little tootsie rolls and other candies as well as .......a battery operated boat. I was happily gorging on candy and playing with my boat in the bathtub when my little rat bastard brother came in and sank the boat. It no workee no more. Mad as hell. That was the last time I won anything. My brother broke that particular thread in my life. Thanks bro. One day maybe I'll forgive him for that. HAHHAHA! We're both well over the age of forty and that has been forgiven for a long time.
We lived in the country at that time, off of Route O in Ray county. My folks got us a dog, a Border Collie. The folks told me they were used to herd sheep so I named him Baba since sheep make that sound. I loved Baba and Baba loved me. I was, shall we say, a very active little boy. I remember doing something that I wasn't supposed to do and mom came outside to whip me for it. As soon as she touched me, that dog o'mine growled, bared his teeth and advanced on mom. Mom retreated to the house and I laid there with that dog just smiling. I learned a very valuable lesson that day. After that mom had to get real creative on how she lured me into the house for any whippin's I had coming. And I had a lot coming. And by a lot I mean a whole bunch of 'em.

The Moose Is On The Loose

Cherries mom passed early this morning. She was up all night with her mother and is sleeping now. Please keep her in your thoughts.

While she was spending time with her family I worked on some cooking and several computer issues. I got the chocolate mousse done and made some raspberry chocolate sauce to put in the bottom of the dish and drizzle over the top. It tastes like a slice of heaven. Light, fluffy and chocolaty. It will definitely be on the Thanksgiving menu.

I did not get the sheet rock hung as planned. It started to actually rain and the damn roof started leaking again. So I placed buckets and containers at all the drips and sat and pondered my situation. This morning I went to to the Super Duper Home Improvement Center and picked up a five gallon can of roof sealer. I hurried home and put about 3 gallons of goop around the chimney before today's rain moves in. So, I sit here with fingers crossed and a ladder waiting. One of these days I'll get around to posting some shit that matters, but 'til then this is what you get.

Busy Morning

I got up to be greeted by a dreary sky with a promise of rain, one of my favorite kind of days. I called Cherry Pie and found that she diverted to her mothers today instead of going to work. Her mother is in bad shape with cancer and the overnight nurse called her. The nurse says 12-24 hours for her. So that's how her day has been so far. As for me, I have moved the desk top computer off the table we're using for a desk at this time, then moved the laptop to the desk and hooked up the peripherals. The desk top had a fan quit and the mother board over heated. The CPU will only come on for about 15 seconds now. Great. I have years of information stored on that machine. Then I did the daily housekeeping while running a couple of different cleaning style programs on the laptop. Had a meatloaf sandwich for lunch and have started making some chocolate mousse for an epicurean experiment that may become a Thanksgiving dessert. Next I need to hang some sheet rock. Gotta go for now.

Whatchu Talkin' 'Bout?

So we have 14 freakin' meeellion folks out of work, the last week of October saw another 397,000 new unemployment claims and only 80,000 new jobs were created. Yet the .gov and news outlets say that unemployment dropped from 9.1 percent to 9 percent. Now I'm not a mathmatical wizard but it seems to me these numbers don't add up. By the way that 397K is only the 2nd time in 5 months that the number has been below 400K. Forgive me for being pessimistic but something doesn't smell right....

What kind Of Interface? Or A Tale of Two Leaks

After Yesterday's cold front passed and the rain moved on we have a cool, clear blue sky morning.
We are living in a house that we bought at foreclosure. It needed a lot of work but I'm pretty handy and the price was CHEAP. The two main concerns with a house that needs a lot of work are the foundation and the roof. Both are big money items that can cause a large dent in the account. With the exception of a small place on the roof both items appeared good. We had several rains last spring and summer and they revealed a roof leak that terminated in the houses entry. Great. We spent quite a while chasing the leak and finally found a roof vent that had a really crappy installation. Last Sunday I pulled some shingles off, tore out the roof vent, replaced some roof decking, installed a new roof vent and re-shingled the area. Good to go. Last night the rains moved in, light sprinkles followed by a drizzle of several hours. The repairs I made proved rain tight, however, the rain revealed other leaks. Now we had several rains earlier in the year and these places showed up but we applied some roofing tar to the roof/chimney interface (how do you like that phrase) and that leak stopped. So last night the rci started leaking again. Like it has never done before. Towels, buckets and tubs were all employed in catching the intruding rain water. So, here we are in the first week of November. There won't be many good roofing days to come. So, the first warm day we have, I'm climbing back up on the roof with a 5 gallon bucket of sealant and plastering the living shit out of the that damn thing. If that gets us through the winter( remember that song " If We Make It Through December") I'll tear off everything around the chimney and start fresh. Oh, to add fuel to my internal fire, after my ride yesterday morning I found that the base gaskets supplied with the cylinders I installed on my Harley are CRAP. So this winter I get to remove the top end of the motor and install new base gaskets. A blown base gasket is what started this whole rebuild in the first place. Of course, I wasn't in the best of moods last night, but we have a whole new day before us.

Cold and Wet, Hot and Buttery

I got up this morning to see a cloudy 60 degrees. Got dressed, fired up the Harley and headed out. It was a beautiful ride. I got about 40 miles north of home and hit a wall, a wall of wind and cold. I crossed over to the interstate and high tailed it back home. The rain finally hit and the temperature is dropping slowly. A Northwest wind of about 25 is driving cold rain. What to do? Break out the makin's and crank out a pot of hot, buttery potato soup. Fry up some smoked bacon, ya know, for crumblin' in the soup and to give me bacon grease to, all you doctors cover your eyes now, pour into the soup. Only 2 or 3 tablespoons. It's the little things that make the difference.
And you know what? I was packing heat the whole time. You should too.

All Saints Evening and The Holy Grail

Well, we survived another All Saints Night or Halloween. The new neighborhood has 6 kids residing here or rather, 6 kids get on the bus in front of my house each morning. 'Course, I was at a meeting and Cherry Pie was at her mothers tending her and attending a family meeting. So with us gone and the dog in the front yard we have no idea of how many trick or treaters even walked by.

I've been going once a month to listen to a knowledgeable man speak about alternative health care. The first meeting I attended was about a new product hitting the market called Product B. This is a blend of natural ingredients that stimulates your body to produce more of it's own stem cells. If you have been paying attention to the health news for the last several years, stem cells have been the Holy Grail of the medical industry. This product is based on the research the two woman did and received a Nobel Prize for. Right now there are 31 ingredients in this pill. As their research continues there may be more ingredient added to it. The stories of it's efficacy are astounding. Cherry and I are going to sign up to be dealers and I am going to be the guinea pig for all the folks I know.

TSA and Tennesee

So now that all the rumblings over getting a quasi sexual groping to board a plane are quieted, the TSA has now moved to the surface streets. Tennessee has become the first state to start TSA check points on highways. It's not enough that they have to subject every flying passenger to a Fourth Amendment violating search and/or feel up. Now they want to impede your right to travel freely without being subject to illegal warrantless searches. The pictures I've seen also show a couple of very fit men wearing ACU combat fatigue uniforms. Uniforms that have no visible identifying patches or insignia. They are also sporting the ever so popular black wraparound sunglasses to complement their desert sand boots. So the question is... are these Fourth Amendment violation also violating Posse Comitatus too? See for yourself.




See all the nice TSA rat bastards in their blue and black uniforms? See the two military appearing dudes on the left? They appear to be standing "at ease". Feet a shoulder width apart. Hands clasped behind their backs. Where have we seen this pose before other than the Boy Scouts and the Royal Rangers. Who are they? Will they becoming to a "theatre near you" soon? Keep your eyes peeled. If you do a tiny bit of looking online, you can find the video of an actual search that shows one of these mystery men taking part in a vehicle check point.

It's Lookin' Good?

After doing some looking around the good ol' www it seems thing are not looking so great...still.
The One Acting As President has finally decided that he should try and do something about the jobs issue. I mean since it's time for electioneering and all that. So he rolls out a jobs campaign. Then Senate killed the dang thang as there were to many onerous, or should I say, odoriferous parts to it. So the blame game and finger pointing continues.

I see that jobless claims are over 400,000 for the umpteenth month in a row. Supposedly employers have added 72,000 jobs (i don't know where) a month over the last 5 months. The country needs something like 100,000 jobs created every month just to keep up with population growth. So the unemployment still hovers at 9.1 percent.
Then I found that there are over 26 MILLION people that are under employed or actively seeking work. I have seen no numbers for the long term unemployed though I'm sure it's high.
The next thing I found was that the misery index is at it's highest since 1983. How the hell you measure misery , I don't know, but they claim to be able to. Anyway they say it's at 13. What ever.
All I know is that even though I haven't had meaningful employment in 3 years I have enough stuff to keep me busy. We live in a paid for home(it still needs a little work), my truck is paid for, my Harley is paid for, we have food in the pantry and in the basement. My wife works in an industry that seemingly will never fail. We have not always made the best decisions in life but we made the good ones that count at this time. A roof over our head and a deep larder with plenty of beans, bullets and band-aids. And so, we just keep on keepin' on.

The HD Is Up And Runnin'!

FINALLY! My Harley is up and runnin'! I'm going though that ever so dull break-in process right now. The urge to twist the wick is greater every day. But to ensure a good, long life motor I gotta take is easy for the first 500 miles, then I can go a little harder for the next 500 then it it's full on. I can't express how good it is to be back on two wheels. Right now all indications are that it will be a real good engine with a shit load of torque. I believe that next spring I'll make a run to the east coast to see the new grand daughter. Right now though, it's slow and easy. A few more miles every day.
Here's all we did to my ride:

• Bore cases to accept bigger jugs taking it to 88 inches



• Install Truett and Osbourne TorqueMonster flywheels connected with S&S shafts



• Recondition the old rods



• Balance and true the rotating assembly



• Take .o45" off the heads resulting in a compression ratio real close to 10:1



• Install 1.6 inch intake valve



• Install heavy weight valve springs by Isky



• Install an Andrews model 59 cam with .560 inch of lift



• Install an Ultima ignition

Machine work was done by Larson Machine...816-877-1909

Parts from Hyatt's Custom Cycle...816-699-2434

Parts and assembly by KC Cycle Service ...816-591-1731

If you are in the Kansas City region and need work done on your scoot give these folks a call.

Jeep Hope is Closer

Yesterday I had expressed a hope that Chrysler would start building the prototype JT compact truck or the modern version of the Scrambler. Well, last night I got my newest copy of 4wheel and Off Road magazine and while perusing it's pages found a snippet that had a picture of something similar to the JT. Apparently you can use your 4 door Wrangler unlimited or buy one then buy this $5,499 dollar kit to create what Jeep dubs as the JK8. If your not real handy with tools your dealer can perform the transformation. No telling what that would cost. So, shell out 12 to 30 thousand dollars for a used Wrangler Unlimited. Tack on 5,500 for the kit and most likely an astronomical amount for the dealer to install the kit. Woohoo, what a deal. NOT!

There is another way of doing a JT/Scrambler build. Cough up around 13,000 bucks for a Brute kit that actually lengthens the frame of the vehicle. So once again we are looking a very expensive conversion. Using it though, you or your fabricator can end up with something like this.

I like the Brute kit better but it does take a lot more fabrication skills than most people posses. Using purchased skilled labor will send the cost through the roof and that goes for the JK8 too. So, we are back to spending what today amounts to a small fortune to create a compact 2 door 4x4 truck.
If there is enough demand for these kits, both the JK8 and the Brute, isn't that enough demand for Chrysler/Jeep to bring the JT to fruition and deliver a factory made fully warranted vehicle?

Vacations. On who's Dime?

After a lawsuit to get the information we now know that the First Ladies trip to Africa cost over 432,000 dollars. She listed her children as senior staff. With her mother and their rest of her entourage, 21 people went to Africa on our dime. The 432, 000 is only the cost of the plane and bulk food bought for the trip.
You and I can scarcely leave town yet She can take her kids to freakin' Africa, make couple of speeches and then take a safari. And we have to pay for this? Hey, do you remember that infamous date night when Obungler took his wife to New York via Air Force One? Did they ever reimburse us for that jaunt? I don't remember the past president and wives taking as many trips as these two do. Maybe I'm wrong. Or maybe the Press is reporting it more...right we know how the press treats this couple. Look at all the concerts that have been held at the White House, add up all the trips. WE are paying for this! This reminds me, we have republican Presidential Candidate that refuses to take part in the congressional retirement program. Do you think he and his wife would abuse the tax payers the way the First Couple are doing?

These Times

So now that I have my rant over with, on with the show.
I just read that Jiff brand peanut butter is going to hike the price of peanut butter by 30 percent. Smuckers announced a 4 percent increase in the cost of their jellies. Will the other makers follow with their own price hikes? This one of the cheapest ways to feed a family, start your food storage with or take care of sudden influx of your children's friends. PB&J is always good at our house. Who hasn't sat with a jar of peanut butter eating it right out the jar with a spoon? Hmmm? I know I've done it many times, how 'bout you? The modest increase of the jelly isn't so bad. Four percent? We can live with that but adding a buck or more to the PB is a wee bit much. So, stock up now before November gets here and these increases take effect.

Daddy Made Me Do It

It took my fathers prompting me to get on the computer and update this blog. I have not had the desire or energy to do anything that resembles creative. I am sick of being poorer than I have ever been in my entire life. I'm sick of not being able to secure work with an outstanding resume. I am tired of hurtin all the f'n time. I am tired of this poor excuse of a democratic government that has taken the place of the proud republic we once had. At least I've got a lot of guns, ammo and food. Hey, I've got a functional Harley sitting in the garage! It's sitting 'cause I don't have the 75-100 bucks to get a new battery to give it the required voltage. Maybe next week I'll be able to swing that.



Speaking of the Harley, I did some trading for the final parts to get it put together and I got a little cash to boot. Then I had to turn around and hand that cash to a guy I ran into the day before. CRAP! The funny thing about though is the guy knows most of the maternal side of my family, has met my brother, ran around with my sisters husband years ago AND dated my aunt for a while. It's a small world after all, eh? I've got insurance BUT, my wallet was stolen the week before and I hadn't replaced my drivers license or insurance card. So I didn't want the cops involved. The other party didn't want them there either. I don't know what his reason was. So in the end it was a cash deal.



I do have hope though. I hope the Chrysler Corporation makes these:

This vehicle is a one off by Chrysler's R&D team known as the SkunkWerks. They used all off the shelf parts to build this capable little truck. Dana 44 axles, 4.10 gears, locking diff's, a 3.8 V6 under the hood, and an OD auto tranny are stuffed into this beast. Dubbed the JT, it never made it to production. With the downfall of the economy and the concurrent downfall of the auto industry maybe this is the time to introduce an all new compact truck. As other manufacturers are selling fewer compact trucks and leaning more toward full size or even giant size trucks is this the time to bring this gem to market? This exercise was done in 2007 so maybe it's a futile hope. But still, hope springs eternal as they say. If you're a Jeep fan or even just a fan of compact trucks, contact Chrysler about the need for this beauty to enter the market at and a reasonable price too.

I have another hope. I hope, if this truck does come out, I can afford one.

Hey, while I'm hopin' and all that I can hope that GM builds a modern El Camino based on the current style Monte Carlo. Now that would be something to hope for.

OK, I'll play

After seeing it here, here and here. I'll show ya mine. A Cold Steel Voyager XL. Basically a folding bowie knife. I like it alot. I bought it at an estate sale for a whopping 8 bucks! This razor sharp beast has become my go to knife for everyday carry.

I Get Along With A Little Help From My Friends

This morning I got all my household work done and got all my errands ran and showed up at the door to KC Cycle Service about 10ish. After a couple parts runs/searches I've got a Harley with a transmission, engine and inner primary installed. F'n AY! This time next week I'll actually be riding this bike. Finally. Parts have been a real bitch. I took the bike apart over a year ago. bagged and label all the parts. Boxed all them up. Then moved...with a lot of help. Somehow, some of the little things have failed to appear when needed. So, I search the new house, the old house and the storage unit. Some times I search every stinkin' dealer and private shop in the KC metro area. But we are seeing real progress now!

On to a different subject. Say, how about that jobs report? A big fat ZERO jobs created coupled with ANOTHER 400,000 new unemployment claims. That makes something like 18 weeks over 400K. And we're just looking a recession? I know a recession isn't figured by jobs but by consecutive poor economic performances. But still..........

HEY! HAPPY LABOR DAY!

The Hold Up. Riding The Storm Out.

After getting off to a running start on the Harley rebuild, I have come to an abrupt stop. It seems the machinist used high quality S&S shafts when he built the crank assembly. S&S uses the older style of the stronger Shovelhead shaft design. Needless to say, I didn't have any Shovelhead parts laying around. And neither do any of the several Harley shops in the KC region. I finally contacted my machinist, lo and behold, he has the part I need. A hundred miles later the missing link was laying next to the motor. I managed to get the rest of the parts from a catalog company called J&P Cycles. So after being shot down for the last several days I will resume the build on Monday. More to come on this subject.

______________________________________________________

Riding The Storm Out.....

My son and daughter- in- law live in the coastal Virginia area. They are looking at their yard filling with water at this time. Most all of their neighbors elected to ride out the storm. Thankfully the storm has been downgraded to a catagory 1 with winds of 85 mph. That's quite a bit better than the one hundred mph winds they were expecting as late as yesterday. I spoke with my son a couple days ago about steps they needed to take. They have done very well. In a short time their storm supplies grew to include spare water, 3 types of light, propane, a generator hooked to the existing transfer switch, many more canned goods , tarps for the roof and many other things. They have put all important papers in a .30 caliber ammo can and filled all the cars and gas cans. They also have cash on hand. All good and wise steps to take. Now as long as his wife doesn't go into labor during the storm all will be well.

Freeze Dried Food

Last night my wife and I went to meeting that was hosted by a friend of ours. The meeting was led by a couple of very nice ladies who represent Shelf Reliance. The focus of this get together was to introduce folks to freeze dried food as a viable everyday alternative to the usual crap you get from the grocery store. Shelf Reliance has a huge assortment of freeze dried foods and if you look through all the papers that were given you also see they sell a wide array of ......preparedness items! Any way, we had the opportunity to try several items such as tacos made from FD(freeze dried) peppers, onions and taco flavor TVP (textured vegetable protein). Very good but even better were the chicken quesadillas. These were made using FD shredded chicken breast, onions, peppers and....mozzarella cheese all layered in organic tortillas. Very tasty! Hosts had prepared a couple different salsa's using reconstituted corn, onions, peppers and organic tomatoes. This was an interesting dish. Not that it wasn't good but I have very definite ideas of what salsa is. We got to try FD fruits and veggies straight from the can. The fruits were fantastic. And the sweet corn? I could eat it like candy.
My wife and I listened to the presentation and looked at the amount of food we waste every week and have decided we will start ordering this outstanding, high quality food. Now if you are wondering where to put all the cans of freeze dried food, Shelf Reliance has a very intelligent set of rotational storage shelf units. The units allow you to use the concept of first in, first out with out even trying. If those are out of your budget try this DIY set that I have been using for years. Look for a distributor in your area or even become a distributor that way not only do you have access to all the products you can even make a little money.

New Shooter Day 3 and a Field Trip

Yesterday, Saturday that is, I picked up my nephew for another round of shooting class. Once again the young fella is doing OK. He cleared the swinging target 5 for 5. Round II he went 6 for 5. When he started falling off on the swingers we took a little break and tried a some paper targets at a little longer range of 25 yards. He did OK but does need to work on this some more. We discussed holding the rifle steady and using his elbows on his knees to create a solid platform, we covered breathing, you know, take a breath and let it half out and fire. For the next session we might start with 1 round of swingers and then transition to the paper and back to swingers of even some stationary clay targets with give a nice visual confirmation of a hit. we cut this session short so we could take a trip to a gun store. When we arrived I was flabbergasted. The gun shop, Great Guns, is next to a large outdoor retailer call Rogers Lures. It seems Rogers was sponsoring the Grand National Waterfowl Calling Competition. The parking was spilling over into the grass lots next door. The sounds of the competitors and shoppers trying out the bevy of calls for sale filled the air. Flocks of the latest decoys were placed all around us. Vendors lined the edges of the parking lot. Needless to say the gun shop was filled. The gunslingers behind the counter however, did treat my nephew with courtesy and listened to him. We then made our way to Rogers to check out the sale there. Decoys of geese and ducks abounded. I guess the price was right as I saw many dozens carried out the front door. The cases of shotgun shells could have filled a couple of semi trailers. Camouflage clothing abounded, all on sale course. We looked and walked and talked and gawked. We had a good time especially since we just started out to see the gun store.

The Rumble, The Roar, The Tick Tock?

I ride a motorcycle. Some would say I'm a biker. Some have felt my generosity and other have felt my wraith. All I know is when I get on the bike everything is better. No more worries, no headaches, nothin' but the wind in my face. I use a bike for enjoyment, vacations and commuting. I know if I leave at a certain time I will arrive someplace at the same time I would if I had been in a 4 wheel vehicle. If I leave for a run or a trip I don't give a rat's ass what time it is or when I have to be back.
So, I'm perusing the latest J&P catalog today and what do I see but two whole pages of clocks to put on your motorcycle. Fifteen different manufacturers, each with 2-10 specific models. Now what the fuck is up with that? Is there that many people that while riding down the road have a sudden urge to know what time it is? Pretty much everyone I know is connected these days. Connected as in has a cell phone or smart phone. Both of those have a time telling function if you really need to know the time. I ride a really nice Harley. It's got some age on it now and quite few mile too. It's got lotsa chrome on it. I know, chrome don't get ya home. But it sure looks good. I can't for the life of me though, understand why anyone would want a clock on a symbol of a life free of life's usual encumbrances.

Disgusted Again

Well the American people are well and truly fucked again. The budget bill has been passed and signed by the Chosen One. Supposedly there are 2 trillion in cuts to be made over 10 years. A freakin' decade! The ass hat in charge said there will be two trillion in cuts immediately. Immediately is certainly not a decade.
As an added benefit to the passage of this heinous act, we now have a "super congress" a bi-partisan panel of thirteen of our duly elected liars that have fast tracked this bill through congress. The big question is, will they limit themselves to this one piece of legislation or will they take on any major bill presented to congress? I'm betting they don't disassemble now that the budget "crisis" has been avoided. And speaking of a crisis. Was there ever any real budget crisis? Sooooo, I don't know if we are any better than defaulting would have been. We are just putting off the inevitable. No country that has invested it's future in fiat paper currency has ever withstood the test of time. Economists say when the debt ratio gets to 250% collapse is inevitable well, we are at 300 percent.
I do believe it's time for the American voters to give up on the Big Two political parties. Neither one has done anything worth a rat's ass for the country as a whole. Or start thinking about which box they prefer. The ballot box or the cartridge box. The soap box has failed. The ballot box is suspect so................................

Summer time in the city

I'm a winter sort of guy. I like cold weather, no, I love cold weather. Give me a drizzly, cold fall day over a sunny spring day anytime. I like to hunt, shoot, ride in the cold. I just like it cold.
But after coming home from the grocery store, I realized that I did like summer for a few reasons.
Things I like about summer. Come on guys, you know what I'm talking about.

• women in shorts


• women in short shorts


• women in t-shirts


• women in halter tops


• women in swim suits

Ya' know what I don't like about summer?

• the oppressive heat


• the oppressive humidity


• the glaring sun

So , with all the positives I guess I can't bitch to much, I mean the scenery is better in the summer time.

Broadcasting Your Preps or How to Blow Your OPSEC

Have you seen the Nation Geographic Channel show called "Doomsday Preppers"? I caught an episode today. Let me start by saying everyone has their own idea of preparedness. OK? So, this show profiled 3 different preppers. All of them started out on the prepper road pretty much the same way. What I saw, what I see, what I read about event X got me (them) started. Whether event X is a solar ejection, a "nukular" crisis, a financial collapse or a 2012 end of the world situation they all let that thought drive their determined logistical acquisition of food, supplies, meds, arms, techniques and tactics. The only one I had a real problem with is the 2 family group in South Carolina. First off the one non land owner family says if it gets too bad to stay where they are they plan to retreat to the farm of their landowner buddy. 20 minutes away. Once they are ensconced in the safety of the remote farm 20 minutes away, the two families intend to hold on to their 50+ acre farm/retreat with 4 adults and about 4 kids under the age of 16 or so. A couple of the kids are under 12 I would guess. The owner has the ability to plant fields in crops and has cattle and chickens for the protein factor. If things get real bad they intend to cut their protected acreage to 5 acres, using small perimeter trip wire alarms that emit a local buzzing sound that could barely be heard on the TV. They have 1 or two LP/OP (listening post/observation posts). So with 4 adults and 2 teenage kids they are going to plant and harvest crops, preserve foods, tend to and butcher livestock, provide security for the retreat and man up to two LP/OP's 24 hours a day with this small group. ??? The "expert panel" recommended that they get more families to join them. The group poo pooed this idea. They have a tractor to farm with but no mention was made of stored fuel. Now maybe this was OPSEC "that's a military term" but I doubt it. I really believe a well set up retreat group or single family would poo poo the idea of broadcasting their names, general locations and level of preparations. Now that's real OPSEC.

New Shooter range day II

Back from the second range day with my nephew. Things went very well with the little guy hitting his first 5 targets with 6 shots. On the second round he cleared the swingers with the required 5 shots. After that little start up, I broke out the .410 shotgun. This is a big jump in felt recoil but he did great with it. I set out some stationary clay targets at 25 feet and he dusted all but 2 on the first shot. He was a little shaken by that round and didn't connect at all with the next set of swinging targets using the Chipmunk .22. So, we took a break and found out he really likes orange cream soda. After sitting in the shade a while we went back to the .22 rifle and he cleared the set with no problems. Of course he the asked if I had brought any pistols. Did I bring pistols? What do you think? I loaded up 3 mags for the Ruger MKII, 2 mags for the S&W 422, a cylinders worth in the Ruger Single Six. Threw out some plastic bottles and few tin items and he went to town. Later we were looking at the damage done and I commented that I had a pocket pistol( Taurus PT22 ) I wanted to shoot. Of course had to try this one out, about 3 mags worth. The temperature was about a hundred by then so we cleaned up the mess, packed the small guns and I broke out the SIG 1911. This is the first time I have shot this brand new gun. I shot 3 mags at semi rapid fire at 7 yards. The group would easily pass the Missouri concealed carry test. I can't wait to put some good lube in this and give it a real test later. I dug some of the slugs out to show him and he had to take them home as well as a spent .410 hull. And a bottleof A&W orange cream soda to show his folks.

The shootin, The heat, The Harley

We finally got some rain. After a couple of weeks in the high nineties and low 100's it's a nice break.

I plan on taking my nephew out shooting this afternoon. Hopefully we won't sweat like we did last week. I think I lost 5 ponds that morning. The wife may also come along. She wants to get her CCW. She's working on .22's for now. I have suggested that she get someone else to coach her. 'Nuff said about that.

I have begun rebuilding my Harley. Last summer the rear cylinder base gasket gave out and I didn't have the funds to make the repairs. Thinking about it I recalled I had a big bore kit left over from my shop that I closed. I started tearing the motor down and that's as far as it got. No money will do that for ya. So it sat. And sat. And sat. My wife came to me a couple months ago and said she wanted to go riding. Riding? The f'n bike is tore down. She handed me a credit card and said "get it fixed". Now, I loathe credit cards but in this situation, Hell Yeah! Off to the machine shop I went. The cases got opened up to accept the larger cylinders that will increase displacement to 88 inches. I also wanted the crank rebuilt, balanced and trued. This is when the problem was revealed. The crank had one bad shaft and with this style of factory crank the machine shop couldn't repair and it would have to be sent out, more time, money, yada, yada, yada. Any way, I now have Truett and Osbourne Tourqemonster fly wheels with S&S pins in the case. I had the heads worked on too. They opened up the intake valve to 1.60 inches, milled .045 inches off the heads and intalled heavy duty springs with titanium retainers. I am installing a very nice cam from Andrews with a 550 lift. With the Thunder header I run, I should get 100-115 horse power out of this motor. It'll be very smooth with the heavy flywheels in it. A polished aluminum six speed transmission will put the power to the ground. I am adding a 31 tooth transmission pulley to bring the final ratio closer to 1:1. I need to get it all wrapped up soon so I can break in the motor and take a 3 day trip over Memorial Day weekend.

The carcass

The project The transmission
My wife is ready to ride and I can hardly wait to twist the wick on this thang.

New shooter. A kid at that.

Earlier this year my nephew asked me to teach him to hunt. I suggested that I teach him to shoot before the hunting began. As you can tell by my lack of postings I have been very busy. I finally got the opportunity last weekend to to take the little guy to one of my shooting places.
I took an Oregon Arms "Chipmunk" .22 for him and a few .22 pistols for me later.
The Chipmunk was a Christmas present to my son when he was five. He took very good care of this little rifle. 19 years later it looks brand new.


This little gun is 31.5 inches long and is a single shot bolt action with peep sights. It only weighs something like 3 pounds.

I took a resettable swinging target for him to shoot at. First things first, we went over the safety rules of handling firearms. He like the part about keeping your booger hook off the trigger.Then came a lesson on how to use the sights. He must have been listening as his first three shots were on the money. The fourth grazed the plate and the fifth connected solidly. To hit the reset plate took two shots. This first grade kid has never had any experience with guns and took to it like a duck to water. After a few round with the iron plates , we set up a target board at double the distance(25 feet) I asked him to shoot one time at each of the five orange spots. Five shots later he had 3 targets with a hole in them and the others had very close holes. We kept up with the plates and orange spots for a while then took a break for some root beer. His grandmother called and wanted to take some pictures of him shooting so we extended the break and I took the opportunity to shoot a couple of the pistols, a Ruger MK II with a 5.5 inch bull barrel and 4inch Smith and Wesson 422. All I can say is once the pistols came out my nephew forgot all about the rifle. When Granny showed up he was making plastic root beer bottles dance all around using the Ruger. Granny was very excited about that. Later she put a few round down range and did pretty good herself. We all had a great time and will soon do it again. I'll have to bring some different targets to keep things interesting for him.

Back from the hinterlands with gun pics!

Sorry for the lack of postings. We have gotten moved into the new digs (mostly) and settled in somewhat. We moved a whole two miles from our old house and found in this remote, desolate area (across from the library and and a multitude of stores and shops) we could not use our email service (ATT) as they don't have the "infrastructure in place". So after trying all our limited options and most of them were crap service or extremely expensive, we settled on using a Verizon 5spot device . Then the fun began. Issue after issue with the laptop as well as the desktop. Finally most of the problems have been resolved.

As promised here are some pics of the Sig Sauer 1911 my son gifted me. All I can say is THANKS!

Nitron finish with Siglite sights, external extractor, rail and nice factory grips.

Motto of his squadron

Logo of his squadron.

As you can see it's a very nice gift. I have yet to shoot it but I have high expectations for this fine firearm.
This a great overall package. It came in a plastic case with 3(!) magazines and the government aproved cable lock. He also got a great price as the Navy did the actual ordering. It retails for a little less than 1300 buck but I won't say what his price was on it.

Have a great day and remember, shooting is the only sport endorsed by the Constitution.

Moving....uggh!

Even though we aren't done with the other house yet we have commenced moving so that we may at least shut off ONE set of utilities and save some bucks. I moved the contents of my armory and decided to make an updated inventory list including make, model, serial number and a general description as well as info on any original parts or accessories. I will later take a picture of all of them and print out a page for each firearm, put that info into a binder and place that in the safe. An electronic version will be loaded onto a thumb drive and stored elsewhere. Turns out this was a good move as I have added, traded or sold several guns since the last list was made. I really need to get the gun room done so I can have a proper place for all my little jewels. Speaking of jewels, I got a new 1911 and it is SMOKIN'! My son got the firearm from SIG through the Navy. The last few cruises he and his wife have made, their squadron commanders cut a deal with SIG to get a pistol and other goodies at a discounted rate. They also laser engrave the squadron logo on the slide. So........ as my boy is a Glock man and I'm a 1911 guy, guess who has the new gun? I'll get a picture of it later and post it so every one can drool over it. Now it just needs a really nice holster maybe with some snake skin or maybe even ray skin. We'll see.

Now she's proud?

While going to college, while getting her legal career going, while backing her man for President she was not nor had ever been proud of this country. Now after living the really high life, a beautiful private mansion, multiple taxpayer funded vacations, a private jet, private helicopter, a wardrobe by up and coming designers, private chefs, a world at her beck and call and now she's ready to embrace the country she loves? What f'n country would that be? I guess it's the one that has enough suckers to pay for the life that gives her love for this country.How two faced can a shallow indidual be?

Oldies but Goodies

Some time a go I returned the Ranger 103-2 that I had refinished for a neighbor. A couple days ago I was visiting with him and he commented that the gun still didn't work. I had originally gotten it because the magazine would not release unless you removed the action from the stock. I had checked the magazine function very well before returning the rifle to him. Now he said it wouldn't work, so I took it home pondered on it over night and the next morning delved in to the guts so this trim little .22. Mag function? OK. Bolt operation? OK. Feeding operation? Not OK. Examination of the bolt showed both extractors missing, one extractor plunger missing and both plunger springs gone. So much for working. I took it back to him and explained the problem and he's not sure if the value of the gun is worth the value of the parts it needs. It sure looks good though. Maybe when things are better I'll get the chance to make this little jewel actually shoot. This episode made me think of the twenty-two's of mine that I have refinished. So, naturally I had to go look at 'em. I took one out of the safe just 'cause it's so nice and does shoot. I have claimed several tree rats with this oldie. It's a Savage 53d single shot bolt action in a large, full size walnut stock. These guns were made from 1937 to 1945. This particular one has a cast aluminium trigger guard so I'm thinking it may be pre-war as aluminum was very scarce during and immediately after WWII. On this one I had re-blued the barrel and action and gave the walnut stock a stain job and multiple coats of linseed oil topped with paste wax. Somebody in the past had installed a plate aluminum butt plate. They did a nice job of it so I saved the 15 bucks and left it on. Eventually I want to remove the trigger and strip the peeling corroded chrome and either blue it or Dura Coat it. The trigger guard will get black Dura Coat to match the original black paint. I'll try to get a picture of it to post later.

The Fun Show!

Well I scraped up the 9 bucks for the entry fee(I had a dollar off coupon) and made my way to the Fun Show. The place was f'n packed! The lots were full, the sides of the streets were full, the adjacent fields were full, the median strip was full. I lucked out and found a spot in the median strip straight across from the front door. Once inside, I was confronted with a crowd I haven't seen in years. Making my way up and down the crowded aisles I found gun prices to be higher than I think they should be. I mean a Chinese copy of the M1A for well over a grand? WTF? A Jen-u-wine M1A was selling new for just a tad over 1300, which is still high but in the grand scheme alright, I guess. I have been wanting to start collecting break top revolvers for some time and it seems like those little jewels are coming down a bit. I saw several by different makers ranging from 135 to 265 dollars. Not in the best condition but OK for a start. I just don't have the bucks now as I STILL don't have a job. Even though things are getting better, right? anyway, all I came out the door with was a bag of the obligitory beef jerky. And I think it was spoiled. So much for the Fun Show.

Bloomberg Redux

In the recent undercover firearms purchases made by Bloomberg operatives at an Arizona gun show, a lot has been said by the left and unfortunately some actual firearms owners. But what is not being said by many is, were the operatives citizens of Arizona. According to federal gun laws you must be a citizen of the state the purchase is made in to legally buy a handgun. So if indeed the Bloomberg operatives actually bought a handgun at this gun show then they are guilty of violating federal gun laws. When is a prosecutor going to grab this and run with it? Most likely never and few politicians have the balls to take on gun laws in general and when a tiny bigshot as Bloomberg is involved the odds go even further down. If you or I crossed a state line and bought a handgun and it was in the news as this has been, you or I would very quickly have a visit from those fine boys and girls from the ATF. So, does this lack of response by the USG mean that our government is too timid to take on the City of New York? This whole thing reeks. Were the filmed transactions made by an individual or a Federally regulated dealer? Were the "buyers" citizens of Arizona? Will any one call out Bloomberg over his illegal, out of jurisdiction, violation of federal laws, show boat act? Will Arizona? Maybe. Will the USG? What do you think? If the USG does get involved it will result in another violation of the Second Amendment and another nail in the coffin of freedom.

A Shoveling We Will Go...Again

I am now in the midst of another snow storm. This one is set to pound central Missouri. Currently we are near white out conditions and the temperature is in the 10 degree range and the wind is blowing 25 mph and up. The area I live in is on the border between those that are going to get 12-18 inches and those that are going to get 6-8 inches of powdery, wind driven snow. I can't imagine what the drifts are going to look like in the country. I have just completed round one of shoveling. I haven't even considered doing the shoveling at the other house yet. The city says with the expected snowfall they will be plowing a 4 freakin' feet high berm along the roads.....and the end of my driveways. Bastards! I applaud their snow removal efforts but since they claim to have the authority to fine me for pushing the snow back into the street, can't they at least clean out the ends of the thousands of driveways they fill with compacted snow? I mean I'm johnny on the spot when it comes to shoveling my drives and walks and I throw the snow back on my own property so can't they at least clear out the snow they place in my drive way? I usually end up clearing the end of my drive 3-4 times for one storm. I'm talkin' tons of compacted snow. The bastards.

Bloombergs Rats

As if Michael Bloomberg didn't have enough to do, he has now sent undercover detectives to a gun show in......Arizona! Where does he get off thinking he has any jurisdiction in Arizona? That's well out of his bailiwick. These rats are armed with concealed cameras and are baiting people into selling them guns after telling them they may not be able to pass a background check. The boys and girls at the ATF have asked Bloomie not to do this as it may interfere with ongoing investigations as well as reminding him of that whole jurisdiction thing. As a result of this and previous quasi illegal investigations by the Bloomies, many gun shows have a permit required stance. This pretty well cuts out the face to face citizen to citizen sales. Well let's see, what can we do about this? Here's an idea, keep your eyes peeled when at a gun show. If you see anyone that appears to be surreptitiously filming transactions call them out loudly, bust them on the spot. If they turn out to be reporters or even those wonderful folks at ATF, so what. Take what comes and get on with life. Just be sure to ruin their day and bring the rat bastards into the light. Oh, and this comes to mind now. Some folks think Bloomberg needs to be the freakin' President! What kind of juju are they smokin'?

Whew! For the last month and a half I have had an actual JOB! I was working as the bell ringer coordinator for the Salvation Army office in the town I live in. It was a short term gig that ended the week after Christmas. As I have been saying, it was the easiest job I have ever had thankfully it didn't pay much! I found out I have a contact in the Salvation Army and he is working to get me an actual full time position if possible. This little job kept me jumping from 9 in the morning until 9 in the evening 6 days a week. Thankfully they claim they are going to pay me mileage. I was putting on 350-500 miles a week in the two little towns I was servicing. I say claim to pay as I have not seen a dime of that money yet. I do have my fingers crossed though.





No Fourth Amendment in Kalifornia

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I recent court ruling now allows Kalifornia Kops to seize and search the cellphone or PDA you are carrying at the time of a search. If I recall correctly the Fourth amendment to the US Constitution says we all have the right to be free in our person and papers. Modern times have shown the computers and such are the 20th century version of papers. Of course Kalifornia is claiming all is good. I can't wait for the lawsuits to climb their way up to the US Supreme Court. I say it all the time, GET OUT OF KALIFORNIA! RUN! FLEE! Leave that broken state to the illegal that are flooding in and the Liberals that support them.



A New Bargain
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A while back I posted about a knife I got at an estate sale, a Cold Steel Voyager XL. An 80 plus dollar knife, I got it for a whopping 4 bucks. Well, yesterday I was perusing the local flee market and spotted what appeared to be an SOG knife in a dimly lit case. I got the attendant to open the case and lo and behold it was an SOG Pentagon Elite folder. New. Never used, factory edge still sharp and no trace of pocket lint. The retail on this gem is, from online sources, 69 to 95 dollars. If you go direct to SOG they want a whopping 155 dollars! My price from the flee market? Another 4 dollars! What a sweet deal! This knife is solid and sharp. It has a very unique arc lock that locks the blade open. It is very secure and easy to use. All in all I'd say it was a great find.