Wednesday, November 27, 2013

It's Coming

With the runway debt of this nation, the illegal alien in the White House, the massive purging of the leadership in the military and the looming collapse of the economy how can this country not break out in a civil war?  As the linked article says the sides are forming up.

"What is going on today in America is all about choosing sides. There are clear lines being formed in the United States. The recruiting pool consists of the Department of Homeland Security, the American military, local law enforcement, the Russian troops pouring into the United States, the trickle of Chinese troops coming into the country through Hawaii and, of course, the poor, the middle class and elite. This is the recruiting pool which will form the chess pieces of the coming American Civil War." Read more here.

Me? At this point I'm on my own side and that of similar minded folks. I have no crew and most folks I know, like me are bearing health issue that will cost many thousands of dollars to repair. I still have some basic preps in place but still need to beef up on many other items to survive in the event of a collapse. I have a solid little house, with a vacant lot attached that will support a very large garden if needed. I will begin amending the sandy soil for that purpose. Unfortunately I am in Kansas City proper. In the East bottoms exactly, located in a heavy commercial area, surrounded by rail roads and neighbors who are mostly low income with no idea of prepping or survival. I do have a back door neighbor that I am cultivating. An ex-marine that is very handy, is familiar with the neighbor hood, and has his compound wired for video via 10 cameras. He too has a large collection of bangsticks. But he has some children in their teens who seem to have no purpose other than fighting with each other. We'll see how this relationship develops. Eventually I will have my property surrounded with a tall chain link fence. The body shop down the street does have a Ferret though. Hmm. Maybe I need to speak with him.
Any way, the point is this, we are heading into strange waters. Water that will carry us over a precipitous fall that end in a pool of guerilla warfare, class warfare, anarchy, and governmental abuses of the common man.
 Brace for it, be ready for it and prepare yourself to do things your never dreamed of doing. Just to survive.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Someone Is Coming To See Me

Here's my granddaughter, my little Diamond. I am anxiously awaiting her arrival this coming week. I've gotta make some changes to my life so I can move to her locale. As a bonus I would also get to do things with my son and his wonderful wife. Man, I miss this little girl!

It's Sunday

It IS Sunday after all.






Saturday, November 23, 2013

Uncle John

I found another picture of my great, great, great uncle John McCorkle, the scout and sniper that rode with William Quantrill and the Missouri Partisan Rangers. The picture is copyrighted so the site will not let me copy the image. Here is a link to a picture of good 'ol Uncle John. My family hero, that rode under a black flag of no quarter. He and his companions adopted the black flag after Johns sister, my great, great, great aunt was killed in the infamous Kansas City Jail Collapse in which Charity McCorkle was killed. This was also the impetus for the Lawrence Kansas raid. The man body of the preceding link is from my uncle's book "Three Years With Quantrill".

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

A Dream

Early this morning I awoke from a dream. I was dreaming about pain. And I was talking about it with my dead father. I said, Pop, I don't know if I can take this any more. As he passed through a door he said, sure ya can boy. I'm sure I can.

Friday, November 15, 2013

A Camillus USMC Knife

Take a gander at this knife. It's a modern day interpretation of the WWII KaBar. This one is done in stainless steel  but still utilizes the traditional stacked leather grip. It also has a stainless pommel and guard. This is a big knife, running to an overall length of 12 inches with a 7 inch blade. I have put a matte finish on the blade and sharpened the clip. I got this gem at a small town gun show, new, for 40 bucks. It has a heavy black leather sheath to which I have added black nylon 3/16" leg ties.


Thursday, November 14, 2013

Another Crosscut Blade

Here is another knife I made from that crosscut saw blade. This section was so pitted I had it bead blasted which left a frosty looking finish. After 12-15 years it is just now starting to get some dark places on the blade. The scales are made from a wood called purpleheart. It is a very nice looking dense variety of wood. Again, the pins are nickel silver. The sheath is made from a piece of heavy leather I found somewhere and is not my best effort.



Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Marauders

I was flipping through the channels tonight and saw that NatGeo's show Doomsday Preppers was on. I went ahead and clicked the remote and got a revelation and a  surprise. Tonight's Prepper Idiot was a man and his friends who are not really preppers but call themselves marauders. Tyler and his friends stated that in the event of a calamity they intend to raid actual preppers. This guy is a total asshat. He carries about 150 extra pounds of blubber and about 25 pounds of shit in head. Here's an idea, since he announced his intention to raid preppers in his area, why don't the preppers in his AO make a punitive strike and punish those that have every intention of stealing from them and committing violence upon them. I have said it before, you have to be a little off to put your preps and plans on TV. This just proves my point. This guy fabbed up some home made body armor out of bath tile, fiberglass matte, duct tape, roofing tar and some scrap metal. Claiming it would protect him from rifle fire. He then proceeded to test it by being shot with a 12 gauge that was obviously firing a light load of something as there was very little impact to him after being shot from a distance of about 3 feet. At that range the shot would still be in the cup and he would have been struck with, oh say, an ounce and a quarter of lead traveling at a decent velocity. Let's see him try that test with a .308 at 50 yards or even a hundred. Hmm, how about it tough guy?

Friday, November 8, 2013

A Little Cutter

A several years ago I made this little knife. Some would call it a patch knife, others a caping knife. I just call it my little knife.
   It's made out of a small piece of a crosscut saw blade, am antler tine from a deer I shot and some nickel silver pins. That steel is quite hard, I spent many hours sanding and polishing that diminutive blade and it still has pits in it. To pin the handle on it I annealed the tang in two spots, drilled the antler, squirted in a little of epoxy and inserted the tang. After the epoxy hardened and locked the tang in position, I drilled the tang and tine as a unit. Then inserted the pins and hammered them to a tight fit. I think it came out looking quite nice. I made the sheath out of an old leather purse my ex was going to through away. I stitched it with some artificial sinew.
Here's the little knife now...


Thursday, November 7, 2013

It's Done

The body shop called last night and my truck is done. I will pick it up this afternoon on the way to an evening of very little work.
This weekend I will begin working on a house my mother owns. It is the house I grew up in and my sister and her family now live there. They had a small fire a couple of weeks ago. Between the fire, the smoke and the water damage there was a lot of work to do. Then the contractor that the insurance agency recommended did a lot of shoddy, substandard work. I will try to make things right and get a bunch of stuff the insurance company requires to be done before the claim is settled.
How does this sound for a contractor? When the dumpster was filled up he did not contact the insurance company and request a second one so the debris just accumulated. The painter was drinking on the job, the "plumber told us that he just went to class the night before and learned how to move a water line and someone else took the test for him. The GC convinced my mother to use OSB to save some money and now it is costing her hundreds of dollars more. And he cannot explain why. He cannot explain why it costs over five hundred dollars to cut a water heater loose and take it out side. He thinks a hole in the wall that shows daylight and flows air and is next to some waterlines is just fine. If you live in a cold zone you know this is a recipe for frozen, burst water lines. Oh and here is one of the best, the gas line to the new water heater is surface mounted and crosses the wall at a diagonal. And he thinks that's fine. Mom paid for a bunch of plywood and there were several sheets left over. Those have disappeared and a bunch of remnants showed up. Mom has fired him obviously but I sure hope he shows up while I'm there. I cannot stand folks that call themselves contractors, remodelers or home improvement companies when in fact all they are is scam artists that haven't the slightest clue about what it takes to be a craftsman.
On another note, I sure hate to turn in the Volkswagen Passat I've been driving. I give it high marks for comfort, gas mileage, braking and performance. It looks pretty good to.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

The Next Whammy

So the love of my life walked out on me, my Father died, the ex got my house, I'm paying for things that she has and I don't, a tree banged up my truck, now the bastion if home improvement, my employer is cutting my hours. What a year this has been. I work part time for Home Depot. I have been getting 24-27 hours a week which lets me pay my bills. I printed off my schedule last night and this coming week I am scheduled for 20 hours and the next week I'm scheduled for 15 freaking hours of work. What is their saying? More savings, more doing, that's the power of home depot. Well if you work for them there isn't any saving. In addition to short hours, the hours you do get jump around all over the place, mornings, mid-day, closing. That in itself makes it very hard to get another part time job. And I don't care what BHO says, jobs in this area are very hard to find and get. Especially if you are graying and limping.
   The situation at work is very irritating, I have more accumulated knowledge than 99 percent of the folks at this store. You pull me out of my department and plunk me into any other except for paint(color blindness) and appliances and I can do the job. Co-workers and customers are amazed at the depth of my knowledge. HD keeps teasing me with lines like, "if full time was offered to you would you take it?" Yet the actual offer has never been made. I have outstanding customer service and will do what ever is asked of me and then some. I am usually a see it do it kind of guy but at this place that will get you in trouble. We are left with a weekly work list and will get in a crack if it is not done, yet we are only allowed to do any of the work list or shelf maintenance the first and last two hours of the day. Needless to say, I stayed up late last night scouring the job boards for gainful employment. I am racking my brain for a home based business I can do to earn some cash. I do have a few ideas but they all require a varying amounts of start up funds. And there are no start up funds in my budget. This is getting very wearisome.