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.