Why should we?

I mean really.  I’m trying not to use profanity, because I don’t know you folks and someone shouldn’t write anything on the Internet that they wouldn’t say to their mother or sister.

Anyways…did you see that federal buildings are vulnerable to attack? The Government Accountability Office (”GAO”) sent undercover ops carrying bomb making supplies into federal buildings.  Once the agents made it past security and metal detectors they assembled the make believe bombs and carried them all over the buildings.  The GAO attempted to penetrate 10 buildings and they were successful 100% of the time.  One of the security (ahem) professionals was sleeping and another was found using a government computer to run a porn website.  Talk about double dipping.

Which reminds me of another older story I saw, GAO: Investigators pass security at 19 airports with bomb parts.

So it’s pretty apparent to me that our Government is as ineffective at securing our airports and buildings as it was responding to hurricanes, or getting to some victim when they are getting their head kicked in and 911 is called.  The Government can’t do it.

Also, anyone who has spent time in a correctional facility will tell you that the guards can’t keep drugs out of prisons.  Why should they when their is so much money to be made by guards smuggling drugs into prisons.  So the Government can’t even keep drugs out of a walled, concertina wired fortress like a prison either.

We’ve been giving up our privacy ever since 9/11.  We’ve been forced to take off our shoes and subject strangers to our dirty, stinky feet.  There are cameras on almost every street corner or traffic light.  We get stopped at roadblocks, and our free movement as US citizens is limited.  It’s getting harder and harder to exercise our Second Amendment rights.  Even protesters are locked into Free Speech Zones.  (I thought the whole US of A was a Free Speech Zone.) They’ve been tapping into our email, Internet browsing, blogging, telephone calls and banking activity.  Think about that, every time any of your info is sent electronically, it is sifted and sorted and compiled and filed by Big G Government.

WHAT FOR!?!?!  All of these Big G Government trespasses into our private affairs obviously don’t have the desired effect of making us safe.

Why do we stand for it!?!?  They search my pockets to make me safe and people still smuggle bomb making materials into protected buildings and box cutters onto planes.  I get stopped for having a Swiss Army Knife on my key chain.

The reason Big G Government is spying on us and limiting our privacy and civil liberties isn’t to make us safe, IT’S TO TRACK US, ANALYZE US AND FIGURE OUT WHO MAY BE A THREAT – POLITICAL OR OTHERWISE.

and my digital camera is back so I can share with you, beg of you and plead with you to GET OUTSIDE EVERY DAY!!! I used to work with one of the best attorneys in the state.  She went to all of the best private schools, high school, undergrad and law school.  This particular attorney had no idea that bees had to pollinate flowers for her to eat an apple, peach, pear or orange.  So I know some reading this may have 1,000 acres in corn, but some other people might not know where corn comes from.   The corn around me is about five feet tall.  This is the male cornflower.  It spews pollen.

Hopefully a lot of the pollen falls down and lands on the female parts…

The pollen then fertilizers each little kernel of corn.  If you ever get an ear that has the kernels all messed up it’s most likely due to some sort of problem with when the flower was pollinated.  Because corn is wind pollinated (not insect pollinated) you have to plant more than a few plants in order to get good pollination.  So the next time you sit down to have an ear of buttered corn stop and take a second to thank the farmer who grew it for your table and the miracle of nature.

Night vision

If the first thing that you thought of when you read the title was night vision goggles or sights (it was wasn’t it?) then, IMHO, you may be relying too much on technology and not enough on developing your own skills and body.  No it’s not what you think, Gen 25.4 thermal infrared high-tech, big military contractor big bucks stuff.  Night vision for us po’ boys is what happens after you’ve been out in the woods under the stars for a few minutes.  It’s the natural adjustment of your eyes to limited light.  It’s great if you can afford the big ticket battery operated stuff, but seeing how I can’t, this entry will be about the free night vision.  This isn’t to disparage the high tech, but batteries die, goggles get lost or left behind and equipment breaks.  Sure it’s great to have a GPS unit, but you should also have a compass, be able to find direction with an analog watch or by tracking the sun.  Get my drift?  Learn to rely on your body’s natural responses.

When you get out from under artificial lighting at night your eyes will start to adjust to the darkness so that you can see better.  It takes a couple of minutes to start the process and after about 25 minutes your eyes will be fully adjusted.  Even on real dark moonless nights your eyes will adjust as best they can.

The first thing you need to do if you find yourself outside at night is to stop.  Stop walking.  Stop moving.  Stop and give your eyes 2-3 minutes to adjust to the darkness.

If the lights ever go out due to EMP, solar flares or more pedestrian causes like equipment failure or thunderstorms you should be used to moving around in the darkness.  If you spend all of your life, 24/7, under artificial lights and sitting in front of a TV or computer screen then if you find yourself in drowning in the dark you may feel uncomfortably blind, or worse, maybe even freak out.  You should spend enough time in the dark, that you are used to the dark, both physically and psychologically.   Just like exercise makes a body strong, spending time in the dark will make the darkness your friend.

One of the best ways to do this is to get out and walk at night.  You also need to practice walking in woods at night without lights, because if you can do that under a dark sky and be comfortable, then you can walk on a street or sidewalk in the dark too.  When is the last time you made a point of getting out at night? Now it is summer now.  It’s a great time to get out and ramble the woods and meadows. Get out and listen to the creatures of the night.  Get used to finding your way at night without light.  Learn to embrace the dark.  Your world is dark for half of your life so get used to it and use it to your advantage.

When I ski in the woods at night, very rarely do I put my headlamp on.  If there is snow on the ground it helps to reflect the ambient light.  With a moon and snow on the ground sometimes it is so bright that I cast a shadow.

As long as you walk with the aid of lights your eyes will never adjust to the darkness and you’ll miss seeing the world around you.

One problem with using lights at night is that it sets your night vision right back to zero.   Another problem is that a flashlight or headlamp will light you up at night like a Christmas tree.  If you are walking at night and using a flashlight, I’m also out walking, but I won’t be using a flashlight.  I’ll be able to see you walking with your artificial cone of light from hundreds of yards away.  You might as well be wearing a glow in the dark bullseye.  Even better if you have a headlamp on, then all someone need do is aim two feet down from that and….

If you are out walking at night using your flashlight and you come upon someone else walking don’t shine light in other peoples’ eyes.  It will ruin their night vision and piss them off.  If I’m out doing my own thing, minding my business, enjoying the woods, of course I won’t be using a flashlight to light my way.  I’ll have one (or many more) just in case, but I won’t have it on.  Please if you come upon me don’t shine your stinking bright light in my eyes.  Don’t be rude, either shut your light off or point in down at the ground while we pass each other.  Most likely I’ll see you coming from far away because of your cone of light and I’ll step off the trail into the woods.  I’ll be quiet and just allow you to pass right on by.  You’ll never even see me.

I can’t count the times I’ve been in the woods at night and seen and heard bright and loud people coming my way and I have just ducked off the trail a couple of feet and laugh silently as they obliviously walk right on past me. You’ll never even know that I’m there watching you, unless I choose to let myself be known.  Don’t be ignorant of your surroundings.  Keep those flashlights and headlamps off while walking at night. So get out and practice.  Get used to walking in the dark without the use of battery powered technology.

GET OUTSIDE EVERY NIGHT!!!

Okay, the digital camera is MIA so we got some old night pictures to post.  Here is Running Bear taking a breather while SKIING AT NIGHT SANS LIGHT.

And here is another buddy with Green Eyed Dog getting ready to take the downhill WITHOUT ARTIFICIAL LIGHT.  The only light is the flash from the camera.  Trust me this grade is much steeper than it looks, and it’s on cross country skis, at night, without flashlight.

Just do it.  Get out there at night without headlamp or flashlight.  Wait a minute or two for your eyes to adjust and learn to be as comfortable walking around in darkness as you are during the day.

Sorrel or clover

Wood sorrel is a tasty wild edible.  It’s so common too that I thought I’d do a post about it.  Many people think wood sorrel is clover.  It’s not.  This is clover.  A useful plant in it’s own right.  You know what clover looks like.  See the round, globe like flower and the oval leaves.

And another picture of clover.

See the round flower and oval leaves in groups of three.

Now here is wood sorrel.

You see the heart shaped leaves on wood sorrel.  The yellow things are the closed flowers.  When open the flower is simple five or six petaled.  Now look at the middle picture of the clover.  To the left of the clover is some wood sorrel growing.  You can see the heart shaped leaves.

The leaves of wood sorrel are sour tasting kind of citrusy.  I like them as a trail munch when I’m walking or hiking.  If you have a dry mouth a small handful of leaves will temporarily quench your thirst.  You can make a tea by steeping the leaves in some hot water.   The leaf tea is also good for fevers and UTIs.  A small handful or two of the leaves added to a salad will lend some freshness and zing.  Never over do it when eating wild edibles.  Only eat small amounts of anything you find foraging.  Chewing the leaves is also good for sore throats, mouth sores and nausea.

But don’t believe me, get your own field guides and GET OUTSIDE EVERYDAY!!

Deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed

Surfing up in Maine for the weekend so I figured I’d let some other people do the writing for me.

READ IT.  READ IT. READ IT.  READ IT AGAIN. You owe it to every person who has died in the name of the United States.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present [FILL IN THE BLANK] King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Get outside everyday!!

Have you seen these before?  They’re Indian Pipes.  It’s also called the Ghost Plant. Boo!!

It’s a saprophytic plant, which means that it feeds on dead organic matter. Boo!!  Because it doessn’t have chlorophyl it doesn’t photosynthesize and that’s why it’s white and not green like most plants.  The Native Americans made some powerful potions from the root tea.  It was used for such things as: convulsion, fits and epilepsy.

Light Pollution

The noise post from a while back got me to thinking about how the light each of us makes impacts others.   As you can infer from my blog’s tagline, “Suburban survival for the stupid“, I live in the suburbs, so there is a lot of light around here.   To see the Milky Way I need to get into the woods, beach or up to the great north.

If your neighbor has a big motion activated metal halide, that’s going to impact your space.  Your neighbor’s light will prevent you from seeing the night sky like you otherwise could if he didn’t have the gulag light blaring down on you.  Light can even make someone lose sleep.

At night light travels for a real far distance.   So a little light can have a great impact.  If you have a floodlight outside try to have some respect for your neighbors and how your floodlight can impact them.  If you are driving towards people walking at night dim your lights.

When you leave a room shut off the lights.  Shut off any unnecessary lights anytime you can.

This picture above is the night sky looking at Orion from dark skies and from the Orem/Provo, Utah area. (Courtesy of Light Pollution, Wikipedia.)  You can see how much light interferes with the environment.

Shutting off unnecessary lights also saves energy.  Which saves $.  You look at a picture of a city at night and you know that most of the offices with lights still burning in them are now empty.  The worker bees having left the hive hours ago.

As civilization and urbanization continue to spread the problem has definitely and will continue to get worse.  I wonder if the day may come when our kids’, kids’, kids may not even be able to see the stars at night. 

This is a picture of the continental United States at night.  You can see the cities and highways all lit up.  And just because you don’t see your neck of the woods lit up, doesn’t mean that light pollution is not a problem around you. I can’t help but wonder how much of the light is necessary and being used right at the moment this picture was taken.  How much light is the on at dusk off at dawn variety.

This picture is just over the top.  Chances are fossils fuels were burned to light up this city like that.  And you can be sure that you can’t see s single star at night.

Okay, that was all the neighborly stuff, now for the Suburban Survival stuff.  The other thing about light is that, like water, it will find small opening to seep through.  Light travels out of windows and cracks under doors.  At night people going by your house will be able to see light leaking through small openings.   Light also lets others look into your house and if you look out you won’t be able to see them in the darkness.     Be careful of making yourself a silhouette.  Don’t make yourself a silhouette.  In other words be aware when there is a light behind you.  If the lights ever go out for a long period you best be careful to seal up all the cracks and hang thick blankets over the windows.  Through a towel under the door.  Being the only one in town with lights burning could turn out to be a dangerous thing.  Nothing wrong with having some extra stuff on hand to reduce the amount of light you emit: plywood for windows, duct tape, tarps, maybe some black paint, caulking.  Don’t forget over flat treeless terrain a lighted house can be seen for a very far distance.  And to someone hungry, cold or hurt light means the end to all of their suffering.   You can also use it to your advantage because light will draw people like moths to a flame.

This last picture was taken during and after a large east coast power outage.  You can see how much of the night sky is visible when the power is off, and how much is hidden whan the floodlights and house lights come back on.   If someone were standing in front of the window in that house, you’d be able to see them standing there plain as day.

GET OUTSIDE EVERYDAY!!

This bunny was even too small to eat.  Then again maybe I just wasn’t hungry enough.  I bet I got within ten feet of him.  What works for me is to not look at an animal as I’m approaching it.  Also, just like when fighting never approach straight direct, move at angles.

Summer Solstice

I’m not a fan of the Summer Solstice.  The summer solstice traditionally falls on June 21st.   That is the longest day of the year.  From here until the shortest day of the year, on December 21, every day is a minute or two shorter than the day before .  Then, thankfully, each day gets a minute or two longer.    I call the time after summer solstice the long decline into darkness.  I don’t like when the sun sets at 4:00pm.   I start work pretty early.  I try to be there by 7.  If I work till after 4pm that means I can go days without seeing the sun.  That’s not natural.  Humans need sunlight both physiologically and psychologically.  I don’t need a doctor to tell me that.  And that is why although summer is my favorite season that the summer solstice bums me out.  Because I recognize it’s the changing of the seasons.

People have been celebrating the solstice ever since we began to track the sun and celestial bodies.  Stonehenge is aligned to mark the solstice.   To herald in the beginning of summer the ancients used to build bonfires, get drunk, sing and dance.

How in tune are you with the seasons?  It’s not too late.  Make a resolution to sit by more campfires.  Go swimming in a lake or the ocean.  Go camping.  Ride your bike.  Play tennis.  Have a barbecue.  Rent a kayak.  Walk barefoot.  Eat watermelon and spit the seeds.  Plant some flowers or veggies.  Walk your dog or your kids.

No matter what season you are celebrating…GET OUTSIDE EVERYDAY! I thought that this Robin’s egg was a good picture to go along with the one about the shortening days.

Robin Redbreast
By: William Allingham

Good-bye, good-bye to Summer!
For Summer’s nearly done;
The garden smiling faintly,
Cool breezes in the sun;
Our Thrushes now are silent,
Our Swallows flown away,–
But Robin’s here, in coat of brown,
With ruddy breast-knot gay.
Robin, Robin Redbreast,
O Robin dear!
Robin singing sweetly
In the falling of the year.

Bright yellow, red, and orange,
The leaves come down in hosts;
The trees are Indian Princes,
But soon they’ll turn to Ghosts;
The scanty pears and apples
Hang russet on the bough,
It’s Autumn, Autumn, Autumn late,
‘Twill soon be Winter now.
Robin, Robin Redbreast,
O Robin dear!
And welaway! my Robin,
For pinching times are near.

The fireside for the Cricket,
The wheatstack for the Mouse,
When trembling night-winds whistle
And moan all round the house;
The frosty ways like iron,
The branches plumed with snow,–
Alas! in Winter, dead and dark,
Where can poor Robin go?
Robin, Robin Redbreast,
O Robin dear!
And a crumb of bread for Robin,
His little heart to cheer.

Deflation my ass

Deflation my ass.  Yeah, I’ve heard how much the stock market and real estate and oil prices have fallen.  It’s all nonsense.  The value of what I may have in my 401k doesn’t matter until I go to sell it.  Sure, there may be a psychological shock when I see my holdings lose 30, 40 or 50% like last fall.  And no one likes to see the value of their house fall.

The way the Government measures inflation is a lie.  I don’t need the Government’s number crunchers and statistics to tell me what’s going on.  I know what’s going on.  I got the pocket book metric.  The prices of what I buy weekly though is not falling.  My grocery bill keeps going up.  The price of gas has increased every day for the past month or two.  Insurance is out of control. Even worse my property taxes seem to be increasing faster than bacteria in gelatin.

With the job market the way it is anyone is lucky to hold onto their present job.  I have three jobs now.  Seriously three jobs.  I know lots and lots of people who have been laid off.  I also know that many of them are having a real difficult time finding new work.  Some have been out of work for well over six months.  (Once their unemployment benefits expire they are no longer considered as unemployed in the eyes of the gubmint.)

So with things the way they are there are not too many employers that are increasing salaries.  Lots and lots of people have taken pay cuts in order to keep their jobs.  With such staples as food, gas and insurance going up every day it’s getting damn near impossible to keep up, forget about getting ahead.

The large fall in gas and oil prices since last summer is hiding the true inflation rate.  My checking account can’t be fooled though.

And the conventional wisdom is that within the next six to 18 months inflation is going to come ROARING back. Prepare accordingly.  The days of buy and hold are over. IMHO tangibles are the way to go.  Over the past two years a can of soup, razors, TP have all been better investments than market indexed funds.  I think the same will hold true in the coming few years.

GET OUTSIDE EVERYDAY!

This is the crown of a burdock plant.  If you or your dog has come home with little burrs stuck to your clothes or your dog’s fur this is where they came from.

I think that this is a first year plant.  Oh, burdock is a biennial, which means the plant’s lifecycle last two years.  The first year of life it establishes itself with a big fat edible root and edible young leaves and the next year it sends up a huge flowerstock that makes those little burrs/seeds.  Pretty ingenious aye.  Those little seeds stick to creatures walking by and that is how burdock spreads itself.   Burdock also has a ton of medicinal uses and is greatly used in traditional Asian medicines.

If you don’t recognize this plant you are way behind where you should be.  This is obviously sassafras.  You can take the young leaves, dry them and crush them up and use it as a soup thickener.  This powder is known down in mosquito land as file (fillay) powder.  My swamp brothers use it to thicken their gumbos.  You can also take the roots, boil them and make a tasty tea.  I love cold, sweetened sassafras tea during the summer.  It really has a great taste.  You should try some.  Sassafras tea is also medicinally used for many things like gout, arthritis, colds, kidenys and fever.  The sassafras plant is easy to spot because of the shape of its leaves.  They look like mittens.

Be vewy, vewy quiet

In general I think the human race, and the world which holds us, would be a far better place if the human species was to do a lot less talking and a lot more listening.  My dog speaks very little, but when he speaks he really means what he says.   Being a man of few words he seems to do just fine.

Just like when you take martial arts or yoga you learn how to breath deeply, you also need to train your senses to take in all that they can.  Maybe you watch, but don’t see, or listen, but don’t hear.  One of the best ways of opening your senses is by laying still.  Just stop.  Stop it.  You can’t listen when you’re making noise.

A refrigerator running all the time adds a constant din to your environment.  And I bet that because you are so used to your refrigerator yelling at you 24/7 that you don’t even notice it.  Try to sit at home without running a TV or radio.  Instead of welcoming or accepting unnecessary noise into your life, be aware of it and at least make a conscious decision whether to have the noise join you.  Don’t let noise be a home invader.  Invite it into your life, or keep it off.

Life in the 21st century is already fast enough without constantly being surrounded by noise.  Civilization emits a loud hum.  Unneeded noise adds stress to your environment.

The next time you are walking outside no talking on the cellphone.  Put away your Blackberry.  If you run or ride your bike listening to music try to keep the tunes off for a while.  Take that stupid Blue Tooth thing out of your ear.  It makes you look like an idiot anyways.  Hey, friends are honest with each other, right? No texting either.

Think what noise you are subjecting others to.  I know you listen to the most awesomest, bestest rap music ever, but please keep it below 80 decibels.   Sunday morning at 07:30 probably isn’t the best time to weed whack your lawn.  And I know you are proud of your custom Sportster, but your neighbor may be trying to put their sick kid to bed.

Listening more will greatly improve your situational awareness.  Next time you’re outside just stop everything and listen to the birds.  How many different bird calls do you hear?  Listen and than try to watch where the sound is coming from.  See the bird?  Listen to the neighbors yell at their kids to turn down the music.  Listen to what your neighbors are watching on TV.  What are the people in line in front of you talking about.  You’ll be amazed what you hear once you start listening.

I’m not saying that you need to take a vow of silence like some monk.  The next time you speak, pause before you do so and really think about what you are about to say.  Ask yourself is each word necessary.  Is it really what you mean to say.  Be deliberate with your words.  Choose your words carefully.

When someone is speaking with you, you know having a conversation just listen as deeply as you can.  Breath in what they are saying and stop your mind’s racing thoughts of everything other than what the speaker is saying.

Pass it on, shhhh.  Really, please shhhh.

G E T  O U T S I D E  E V E R Y   D A Y!!

So headed back to the ocean this past weekend.  The waves were good.  I’m trying surfing.  So we have some ocean pictures.

Here you gots your standard beach pea.  These things grow in the sandiest beach sand imaginable.  And this is the fruit of the beach pea.

I’ve never eaten them, but I understand that you can boil them and eat them while still hot.  They don’t look very good to me.  I’d have to be pretty hungry to try these peas.

And here is a beach rose, rosa rugosa.  And the fruit of the beach rose is a beach plum.  Also known as rose hips.

These beach plums are super high in vitamin c.  They’ll ripen to a nice rich red color.  You can make a tea from them.  I’ve known people to make a cordial by stuffing a mason jar full of rose hips, adding a lot of sugar and topping it all off with good vodka or grain alcohol.  You turn it over every day for three weeks and then drink it down yum.  I bet homemade beach plum cordial would be good for a cold or sore throat.  Folks also make beach plum jelly.

Pee and Poo

No one likes talking about them……….. except for seven year old boys and me.  We had termites.  The termites liked our bathroom so we had to rip everything out.  When is the last time you’ve been without a bathroom for more than a week?  Using buckets and bags sucks. Think you could get your wife or SO to squat outside for a week or more?

You best start thinking about how to make life easier for the females in your life should the SHTF and you are having a tough time getting rid of your own.  Because if you don’t make life easy for the females in your life, they won’t make life easy for you.  What are your preps for the brown and yellow stuff?

When we used to go canoeing on the Saco River in Maine it was beautiful and we were able to drink the untreated river water.  Not so much any longer.  Last time I went, all along the river banks were piles of toilet paper in various stages of decomposition.  Don’t be like that.  It’s dirty, nasty and puts others at risk of illness.  Dig your own hole for your own crap.  Dispose of your waste responsibly.

It got me to thinking that my preps in the liquid and solid waste disposal areas has something to be desired.  How about you, what is your plan and backup plan for bathroom needs? You need to take this seriously as it can develop into a major problem.  Crapping outside in the winter isn’t a plan.  Your butt needs to be cleaned a lot more frequently then your firearms.  Plan accordingly.  If you are spending more time in the gun department of Wal-Mart then the toilet paper department, IMHO, your priorities are reversed.

You need to be careful where you go to the bathroom.   Pee and Poo attracts flies and insects and animals and vermin.  Then you got disease and have to be careful where to plant your garden.

You can use a bucket with a toilet seat attached to the top or make a seat out of some scrap lumber.  This is probably the cheapest solution next to a plain bucket and bags.

Then you need to dispose of your stuff there are generally two ways water or burying.  We’re fortunate in the Northeast.  We have so much water around here that even if the town’s pumping station is down we can pour water into the toilet tank and flush.  Water also keeps the smell drowned out.

There are different ways to bury it too.  Some composting toilets use sawdust.  You go to the bathroom in a fancy bucket and then cover it with a cup of sawdust.  The sawdust is carbon for the nitrogen in your stinky stuff and when Poo and Pee are mixed with sawdust the three are supposed to compost quickly.   So the theory is that you keep layering everything into some sort of disgusting lasagna and then you empty the bucket into a compost heap.  Layering some regular garden lime in there too would be a good idea too.

You can also dig a latrine far away from where your pad is.  Stay downstream from your source of water.  You basically dig a hole, cover it with some sort of bench/seat and you are in business to do your business.  When it gets kinda full, you top it off with soil and dig a new hole and move the bench/seat to the new spot.

You can buy a camping toilet too.  They’re obviously more comfortable than buckets and bags,but you still need a solution for where to dump the holding tank.

This Coleman unit seems pretty good and Coleman usually makes a decent product. The Coleman unit pictured above also has a fresh water tank for flushing.

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People seem to love this one available at Amazon.  It holds five gallons of waste and around three gallons of fresh water for flushing!!  You still need somewhere safe to dump the holding tank once it’s full.

TP, chemicals, lime, sawdust, TP, TP, TP, bags, bags, bleach, shovels, sawdust, soil, so don’t be caught with your pants down.  Don’t run out of toilet paper.  As long as you protect TP from rodents and wet it will last a long time.  You also can’t have too many plastic bags in different sizes and shapes.  And no matter what the Big Gee Government says it ain’t getting any cheaper.  Deflation my Ass!

And this guy earns an honorable mention with his Bumper Dumper.  It connects to the trailer hitch.

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Anytime you can sit outside, take a crap and shoot a bird is fine in my book.

GET OUTSIDE EVERYDAY!!! Even if only to take a dump and shoot a turkey.

Some wild berries.  You can spot em by their thorns and strange colored branches.  They really stand out.  Make a mark in your memory where they are.  Then the race is on between you and the birds.  Try to come back for them when they are ripe, but wait too long and the wildlife will get them.  Mash some of them up with some red wine or Chambord and put it on pound cake.  Maybe add some fresh mint.  Make a cordial by soaking berries and vodka for a while.

This is a typical New England trail.  Narrow and overgrown.  You can see how thick the woods are around here.  No shortage of water.  You could probably dig a well ten feet deep and hit water.  You obviously aren’t taking any 200 or 300 yard shots at some mule deer or mountain goat.  When the woods are fresh this time of year you can feel all of the plants breathing.  The air is as clean as it is after a thunderstorm.  Come the fall all the leaves will be brown and down and the woods will be open, only separated by bare naked trees.

Bug Out Vehicle (BOV)

Someone sent me an email with pictures of a great BOV.  Check it out.

It reminds me of a Unimog.

Looks rugged.  I wonder how the mileage is.

Even load a bike on it.

Now check out the inside.  It’s plusher than my house.

See the coffee maker built in over the sink?

This has to be German or Swedish engineering.  It’s so organized.

Get Outside Everyday!!

Just a little waterfall near me house.  Do you know the places in your AO that are nice to walk?  Do you know all the paths and trails within a few miles of your house?  You know where berries grow wild?

Termites Part Dos

Got termites?  I hate those little evahl white bastards.  Well what was supposed to be a simple tile change out, you know rip out the old and cement in the new, turned into a major rehab.

It may be tough to see without clicking on the picture, but in the lower right hand corner you see that stud closest to the right?  No not me that wooden piece of crap hanging from the ceiling.   All the way to the right.  It’s gone.   Imagine our surprise when we ripped out that old vinyl bath liner.   We started at 8AM Sunday and the plan was to rip out everything and rebuild what we needed to all before quitting time that day.  Well the bathroom wall spilled into the drywall in the living room, then the living room floor.  We stopped at 8PM and we were still only 90% done with the demo and didn’t even start reframing.

You see kind of in the middle of the picture by that single blue tile, so you see all of that chewed up wood that those little evahl white bastards made?  Those studs were like dry newspaper.  You could literally put your finger through the studs.  I’m also happy to get that black mould out of the house.  That can’t be good for you.

So we obviously had to keep ripping out in every direction until we found no more little evahl white bastards.   So now we had the exterminator guy out – cha ching.   Another trip to Big Sucky Orange Store – cha ching.  The plumber – cha ching.  Big Sucky Orange Store – Cha Ching.    Debris disposal – cha ching.  All the tradespeople I know hate the fixtures and supplies that Big Orange Sucky sells.

If you haven’t done the Gee-See thing, general contractor thing that is, then you don’t know how tough it is to coordinate things.   People show up before materials or with the wrong tools.  Surprises come up. E can’t be done until A, B, C and D are finished.

So if you think you have termites, don’t mess around call in a professional.  The little evahl white bastards can wreck your house.

We didn’t get any swarms.  They also say that you can see termites mud tunnels outside of your house.  Termites don’t come for wood; they come for wo0d and water.  So if you have a water leak, or suspect a leak, fix it before the wood frame gets wet and becomes a target for termites.  Make sure there are no wood products like firewood or wood mulch right up against your house.

The exterminator is going to use termite baits dug into the ground.  There are wooden disks made from wood pulp and a insect growth regulator that keeps the little evahl white bastards from reproducing.  The bug killer will also use spray in some areas and drill some holes through the bathroom floor and inject poisons down there too.  The liquid insecticide they use he said was the same as is in Frontline that some folks put on their dogs and cats.  He said the Frontline was at least ten times stronger than what he uses.

The positive thing is that now I’ll have a nice new bathroom.  Plus I was able to take out all of the old fiberglass insulation and replace it with nice new fluffy thick insulation and also get rid of all that black mould.

So this used to be the wall between the bathroom and the living room.

So it all had to go.  Also had to rip up a wood laminate floor – Pergo by Manning.  Pergo sucks.  Pergo sucks. Pergo sucks.  Don’t buy Pergo.

Then you got the wall all framed out.  Is it me or has l umber gotten real expensive?

Which reminds me, going to the bathroom outside sucks.  Plastic bags and buckets suck.  Not having a hot shower sucks.  Think about how your preps are in the bathroom, bucket and shower department.  Maybe you need to plan for these critical areas.  A dirty ass doesn’t only stink; it’s also unhealthy.

Get Outside Everday!!!

If you had your own field guides you would know that the multitudes of green berries on this plan don’t make it a greenberry plant.  You would know that this is a blueberry with gobs of immature blueberries.  Go ahead and click on the picture to expand it.  Quite a few berries, huh?  Once they ripen and turn blue you can pick them and dry them in the summer sun.   Should be next month when they start to get pickable.  I used to make wild mountain blueberry wine.  It was a deliciously sweet syrupy concoction.  Then you got ya blueberry pancakes, fritters, waffles, crepes, cookies, muffins with duck breast or pork or in a salad.

Termites

Well we wanted to redo the bathroom a bit so the other day my buddy came over to help.  We got going and discovered termites.  I’ll have a post soon about surviving termites.  Until then it’s twelve hour days, ripping, tearing, measuring, sawing, cementing, grouting, cutting, etc.

Assembly Required

This blog has to do with suburban survival so I sometimes deal with boring things, like BEING ABLE TO READ AND FOLLOW DIRECTIONS.

Have you ever put a gas grill together?  I bought a relatively cheap gas grill that cost under $100.   The last time I put a grill together I screwed up one of the left legs and one of the right legs and ended up having to take almost the whole thing apart before I put it back together with left and right legs in the appropriate places.   I wasn’t going to let them happen again.

Here I have everything laid out on the picnic table.  The label on the box said it would take 35-45 minutes to put the grill together.  It took me 20 minutes to unpack and organize everything.

The other thing that helps me when I do some assembly project is to turn the thing the same way as the drawing in the direction.  It makes it easier to make sure that I am putting left where left is and right where right is and front to front and back to back.  Got that?

I also find it helps to  slow down and move deliberately.   The old adage measure twice cut once, holds true.  Read the instructions slowly and carefully.   Then read them again.  You almost want to cross things off as you do them to make sure that you don’t miss anything.

The fasteners were well organized.  I took a break to go to Home Depot for something else.  Altogether I would say it probably took me between three and four hours from beginning to end.  And you’ll be happy to know that it works fine.

So remember -

1.) Before you start to assemble something new make sure that you take everything out of the packaging, organize the parts and familiarize yourself with them.

2.) As you assemble the thing orient it so that it is turned the same way as the drawing/pictures in the assembly instructions.

3.) Slow down and move deliberately.

4.) Read the instructions slowly and carefully

Get Outside everyday!

You have to know what this is -

You may notice that it’s starting to look a little dark out in the picture.  Please don’t be afraid to go out walking in the woods at night.  The woods are another world at night.

I don’t do the religion thing.  I don’t care what you do or whether you do anything at all.  But this dandelion flower to me is like Proof of God.  I don’t even like the word “God” because it is too limiting.  But looking at this perfectly symmetrical flower you just know that there has to be a Major Force at play.    It’s like a perfect geodesic dome.  Then you think that it is a way for the plant to propagate.  And in order to do all that it had to look nice enough to attract bees and other buzzies to pollinate it.  Amazing.  There is your Proof.

And since we are on the subject of dandelions you do know that the dandelion is mighty yummy.    The flowers make a brightly colored dandelion wine.  Imagine cracking a bottle of dandelion wine during a cold January day.   I like the young leaves added to salad.  People say dandelion leaves can be bitter, but they’re not as bitter as arugula.  If they’re too bitter for you just boil them a bit.  Some folks dip the flowers in batter and fritter them up.  Root tea has a ton of medicinal uses, but you would know that if you read my entry on field guides and had your own field guides.  And I’ve read that you can roast the root till brown, grind it and use it as a coffee substitute.

Dow Jones Industrial Average

If you’re curious enough to be reading my little blog, then you know that GM was dropped from the Dow Jones Industrial Average (”DJIA”) and replaced with Cisco Systems, Inc.  Well at least one company that made something is being replaced by another company that makes stuff.  Another component of the DJIA was dropped, Citigroup, Inc. and replaced by Travelers Insurance Co.  Replacing one money shuffling leech with another money shuffling leech.

So it got me to thinking how the makeup of the DJIA may have changed over the years so I did some light research.  October 1, 1928 is the first time that the DJIA was made up of thirty (30) companies.  Here they are:

October 1, 1928

Allied Chemical	General Railway Signal *	Sears Roebuck & Company
American Can	Goodrich *	Standard Oil (NJ) *
American Smelting	International Harvester	Texas Company
American Sugar	International Nickel *	Texas Gulf Sulphur *
American Tobacco B	Mack Truck	Union Carbide *
Atlantic Refining *	Nash Motors *	U.S. Steel
Bethlehem Steel *	North American *	Victor Talking Machine *
Chrysler *	Paramount Publix (formerly Paramount Famous Lasky)	Westinghouse Electric *
General Electric Company	Postum Incorporated *	Woolworth
General Motors Corporation	Radio Corporation *	Wright Aeronautical *

Look at what we got here – manufacturers, auto and truck manufacturers (3),  steel companies, GE, railways, rubber, commodities and an aircraft manufacturer.  Then you have three, what I would consider, consumer driven retail outlets – Sears, Woolworth and Victrola.  I don’t see one bank or insurance company.  All in all, the DJ Industrial Average, looks, well, Industrial.  95% of these companies seem like they made something.

Then as of the latest reshuffling:

June 1, 2009

3M Company	Dupont	Kraft Foods Inc.*
Alcoa Incorporated	Exxon Mobil Corporation	McDonald’s Corporation
American Express Company	General Electric Company	Merck & Company, Incorporated
AT&T Incorporated	Cisco Systems, Inc.	Microsoft Corporation
Bank of America Corporation	Hewlett-Packard Company	Pfizer Incorporated
Boeing Corporation	Home Depot Incorporated	Procter & Gamble Company
Caterpillar Incorporated	Intel Corporation	United Technologies Corporation
Chevron Corporation	International Business Machines	Verizon Communications Inc.
Travelers Insurance Co.	Johnson & Johnson	Wal-Mart Stores Incorporated
Coca-Cola Company	J.P. Morgan Chase & Company	Walt Disney Company

Now let’s look at what makes up the DJIA.  Well the first thing I notice is that auto/truck manufacturing is no longer represented.  The banks/insurers/money changers are well represented however with AmEx, BofA, J.P. Morgan and Travelers.  Then as far as consumer retail types I’d say we have Coke, Home Depot, McDonalds, Wal-Mart and Walt Disney and maybe even Johnson & Johnson, Kraft and Proctor & Gamble.  A couple of telecomms and electronic manufacturers.  It seems like a lot more useless junk in the latest DJIA then the original in 1928.  Now I only count seven companies that actually make something. And no, I don’t count Coca Cola as making anything other than cavities and obesity.

It’s no longer Industrial. So what’s it say about our country and what we’re making now.  We don’t seem to be making much now.  What’s that saying I heard about paying each other to do each other’s laundry.  To use the newest hyped vocabulary – It’s unsustainable.

I may be wrong, probably am, but I expect another leg down in the economy.  I don’t think nearly enough malls, stores, office parks, restaurants, mattress stores, cell phone stores and auto dealers need to close. I think we have many more great adjustments to suffer through.  Don’t let your guard down.

I live in the suburbs with the two lane divided roadway that is plastered with junky stores, big box stores, strip malls and restaurants.  It’s my belief, and I may be wrong, that one third of these will be closing over the coming years.  Next time you are driving around imagine one third of the crappy, little junk stores that get by on consumers spending their money closing.  Consumers are tightening their purses like a frog’s ass, and a frog’s ass is watertight.

GET OUTSIDE EVERYDAY!!

Pretty cool picture, huh.  Unless you have allergies.  The reason you can see the web so well, and the reason the web looks kind of fuzzy, is because it is totally covered by a thick layer of pollen.  You can see Spidey waiting in the center for her next visitor.  Yum!

Fire steels

I just bought some firesteels off the Internet.  I got them from  Firesteel.com.  If you don’t know what a firesteel is, it’s basically a piece of a metal rod that when scraped makes a shower of sparks.  You take the edge or back of your knife or a scraper of some sort and kind of scrape it hard along the side of the firesteel at an angle and you’ll get some sparks.  The more practice the easier it is for you.  With one of these you can always get a fire going.  You know that you want to have multiple ways to start a fire.   A firesteel can be another tool in your fire starting kit.

Another good thing about firesteels is that they work even when wet.

I bought a set of five for I think $15.  One will go in the Get Home Bag, one in the camping Rubbermaids and I sewed one to my knife sheath.  Check it out.

I had some cordura cloth that I sewed into a little pocket just large enough to hold the firesteel firmly and I attached it to the sheath.  Pretty slick, huh?  I hope I never need to, but if I do need to desperately start a fire, the firesteel will make it easier than a fire bow.  I have been successful using firesteels to start fires.  You really need to use a different type of tinder when using a firestell though.  Lint, the stuff from a dryer, milkweed fluff, steel wool, cotton balls or something else that is light and fluffy will usually do the trick.

Like most guys, I like to start fires.  There is something very satisfying about starting a fire without using matches or a lighter.

If you buy some firesteels, like everything else, you need to practice using them before you depend on them.  So get some firesteels, put me in your tackle box, tool box, hunting kit or GHB and practice.

GET OUTSIDE EVERYDAY!! Some of the reasons this is my favorite time of year, the days are still getting longer, flowers a blooming and the air is heavy with the sweet scent of flowers. Do you recognize this plant?  Maybe you have mallow growing in your garden.

These are nice pictures of a Musk Mallow.  The leaves are edible and nutritious.  Like okra the plant contains a mucus that can thicken soups.  Leaf and root teas are used for coughs, bronchitis and as an anti-inflammatory.    A poultice can be put on wounds.

Have you bought your own field guides yet?  What are you waiting for?  I just picked up a new one that someone recommended; thank you M.D. Creekmore.

Border fence

The “Virtual Border Fence” is another example of corporate, Military-Industrial Complex welfare.  I am all for protecting our borders.  I think that we need to shut our borders down.

“In announcing the resumption of a “virtual fence” on the U.S.-Mexican border yesterday, the Obama administration sent a powerful message of continuity with President George W. Bush..described a five-year, multibillion-dollar plan…“

Originally as envisioned by Bush 43 the project was to cost $7,600,000,000 (Billion), but its been (ahem) cut to $6,700,000,000.  That kind of money seems like it would help a lot of homeowners, pay for healthcare and hire a ton of border agents.  These are HUGE numbers so we need to lend a little perspective here – so let’s say we want to pay border agents $100,000 a year including benefits, that means that $6.7 Billion would hire 67,000 border agents.   We could hire 67,000 border agents at $100 grand each!! Got that?  67,000 agents!!  Think that would help the economy?

This is corporate welfare of the worst kind at a time when our country can’t afford it.  Of course Boeing has its hand out.

V.1 of the border fence was a complete failure; “Between 1998 and 2005, the government spent $429 million on two border surveillance efforts that were so unreliable that only 1 percent of alarms led to arrests.”    Uncle Sugar not being one to allow military contractors to go away empty handed though is willing to spend another $6,700,000,000 on V.2.

Why is there always enough money for high-tech gadgetry, but not enough money for the simple things?  We blow hundreds of millions on Halliburton contracts, but can’t buy enough armored humvees.    Blow billions on high-tech unproven, unnecessary jet fighters, but can’t give our troops clean water and safe showers. “A third U.S. service member has been determined to have been electrocuted in a shower in Iraq…“

Our guys and gals in overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan shouldn’t have to equip themselves from a Brigade Quartermaster catalog or rely on the kindness of friends and family. If you know someone that has served, than you know that they all have a wish list of what they need from ceramic plates for their vest to knives and shoes and food.  My cousin had his stuff stolen and the government freaking billed him!!

How about employing a low cost, low tech solution that works or once.  Ahh, but then there wouldn’t be so much money for the Boeings, Lorals and General Dynamics of the world now would there.

Have no doubt about it, this has more to do with corporate giveaways to the military-industrial complex than it does with border security.  The Naval War College performed a study, “Time to Put the Military on the Border.“  Some of the study’s conclusions are that “it is well documented that the U.S. Border Patrol is undermanned, under-equipped, and under-trained…”

So what do we do, do we hire more border agents, equip them better or train them more comprehensively?  Of course not, the leaders of both political parties, Democrats and Republicans, Corporatists both to be sure, figure out a way to pad military contractors like Boeing.

And since we’re on the subject of military contractors ripping off taxpayers with the assistance of government tools, that shower story above, the contractor was KBR.  How do you think KBR was punished?  They weren’t.  They were rewarded!!!  “Military contractor KBR Inc. was paid $83.4 million in bonuses for electrical work in Iraq — much of it after the military’s contract management agency recognized the contractor was doing shoddy electrical work…“

Does that piss you off!?!?!? IT PISSES ME OFF TO NO END.

• We have banks that screwed up, that rape borrowers with bogus fees and what should be illegal interest rates and the taxpayers have to bail them out.

• We have car companies that screwed up, built cars no one wants to buy and the taxpayers end up giving them huge bailouts too.  I think the taxpayer spoke when we didn’t buy enough of their cars.

• We have military contractors that can’t build a safe shower and they get bonuses.

• We have more military contractors who coudn’t build an effective border fence so they get more taxpayer money.

It makes me feel like checking out of the system altogether.  We have to stop feeding that beast called government. I hate how my hard-earned money is being wasted by this beastly government.

Our goverment is out of control and unresponsive to the citizens that empower it to serve their interests!!

When in the course of human events….

Get outside everyday!!

I hope that you have a garden.  You don’t need much space.  These are some of the radishes that I grew.  I also grew white radishes.   You can get twice this amount of radishes from a four foot square area (2 * 2).  You could even try to grow veggies in a container if you are so inclined.

Bore snakes

Away camping this weekend so short post.  Is it camping if you have a refrigerator, cable and a bathroom, but also have campfires, smores, cook over the fire and still kind of rough it?  Hope to go surfing later today.

I like bore snakes.  They make cleaning my firearms easier.  The problem is that you need a different size bore snake for each caliber you have.   I slide a wet patch through a couple of times, then a clean patch and then the bore snake. You can see from this nicely labeled picture that I found on the Internet…

that is has a two floss areas, a brass bore brush built right in, a weight to help it slide through the barrel.  They fit good and snug too.  If you haven’t tried a bore snake, give it a go.  You should be able to pick one up for about 15 bucks.

Get Outside Everyday!!

This is Jack in the Pulpit.  Pretty distinctive, aye?

Water filter review

I bought a water filter called  the Pure Easy Camper’s Micro-Ceramic Filter.  The reason that I bought it was because of its diminutive size.    The filter only weighs three ounces and measures about 5 1/2″ * 1″ * 2 1/2″.  It will fit inside of a hardcase for sunglasses.  That’s pretty small. I wanted something that I could use when I want to travel really light.  I thought that a filter like this would be ideal for those one or two night solo camping trips.  When you don’t have a buddy to split the load with, you really need to pay attention to the weight of what you carry.

The other nice thing about this filter is that it filters down to .1 microns.  That’s about as an effective filter as I’ve seen.  The MSRs and Katadyns go down to maybe .2 microns.    I also thought it would be good in the Get Home or Bug Out Bag.   I paid $65.00 for it, which isn’t too bad for a filter.  It’s made from some sort of polymer.

So of course I had to try it out at home before depending upon it for a camping trip.  It was easy to assemble.  Not much to it really, just snap the tubes on.  The tubes are smaller than all of the other water filters that I’ve used.  The tubes are pretty much the same size as aquarium tubing, so you can’t pump a lot of water through them.

Here’s a shot of the filter with the tubes attached.  I should have placed a ruler next to it for scale, but remember it’s about the size of a pair of sunglasses. The intake tube has a little screen pre-filter on it.  It’s that little green triangular thing in the bottom left of the picture and it also has a float that you can slide up and down the tube to keep the pre-filter off of the bottom of the source of water that you are filtering.  It’s that kind of charcoal colored thing in the right side of the picture.

My first crack at filtering didn’t work out so well.  No matter how I tried I couldn’t get it to develop any suction.  I disassembled it, applied some silicon sealant and tried to prime it.  All to no avail.

I ended up sending it back to the manufacturer – Middleboro Water, LLC.  These folks were very responsive.  They said that they never had a manufacturing failure before.  They replaced it free of charge and FedExed the new filter to me free of charge.  Middleboro Water is a great company with great service.  Like I said no hassles (other than having to pay for postage there), no questions and I had the replacement filter within days.

Lesson here though, like I always say – is to try everything out before you depend on it.  Whether it’s ammo, a sleeping bag, stove, flashlight, firearm or a water filter.  You can’t depend on something if you haven’t tried it.

I tried the replacement filter in some stream water.   The  stream really wasn’t that dirty and I would consider drinking it untreated if need be – either let it settle in a container or dig a hole next to the stream and let the water perc up.  It did an adequate job, but I didn’t think the water tasted as “sweet” as an MSR filter.  This may improve with usage and time.  It also took an enormous amount of effort to get a glass of water, probably three minutes of pumping.  The pre-filter also clogs up pretty easily.  Next time I use it I think that I would tie a bandana around the pre-filter to act as a pre-pre-filter.  Strange enough, the collar that screws down to hold the pump handle in place kept coming loose while I was pumping.  Also, with just a little bit of use I could tell that the ceramic element was starting to get clogged i.e. it became increasingly more difficult to pump.

As you might expect due to this filter’s small bore and stroke, you have to pump a lot for the amount of water you get.  Not good for a group of thirsty people.  You have to pump maybe 200 times (although I wasn’t counting) to fill up a one liter bottle.  You have to pump much more with this filter than with other larger filters.  I’m thinking of replacing the aquarium type tubing with some wider surgical tubing with the hope of getting a better flow rate.

The filter also came with a nice little storage bag with pull ties on it, a little bit of sandpaper to clean the ceramic element with, some special silicone sealant and simple, easy to follow directions.

It does disassemble very easily.  You just unscrew the collars and can pull up the pump handle and the ceramic element.  You can see how dirty the element got with minimal usage.  This is crap that you don’t want to drink.

All in all, the filter was a bit of a disappointment.  It will  get the job done, but it’s small size isn’t a big enough benefit to make up for its shortcomings.  I think that you are better off sticking to a normal size filter.  I like the concept and the company seems like a good company, but I would wait for the second generation to come out.  There are still a few kinks that need ironing out.  The company, Middleboro Water, LLC, did back up their product 100% so I would not hesitate to buy another of their products. Their service was also great.  I just think this particular filter needs a few more design improvements.

However, if you need to travel fast, light and solo the Pur Easy Camper may be the ticket for you, but make sure that you have a back up means to clean water too.

In summary, it’s a good filter for specialized purposes, (light and fast solo on foot travel) otherwise carry a larger filter.

Get outside everyday!

This little tree is a survivor.  Look at it growing through a crack in this rock.

And this was just a cool looking root that was all worn down.  It reminded me of a topo map.

My favorite field guides

You gotta have a bunch of field guides.  There are field guides available on just about every subject of nature that you can imagine.  I have ones on: bats, animals, rocks and gems, birds, edible plants, medicinal plants, forests, different regions, plants and flowers and wildflowers. The Internet is also a huge resource.  I don’t know how we got by before The Googles were born.

When I walk in the fields and woods I’m always looking around, looking up and down.  If I see something that looks interesting to me and I don’t know what it is I’ll break off a branch or some leaves and bring it home to identify it.  If you do this too then you know that you need to have at least three or four field guides in order to be sure that you identified your subject correctly.

Some field guides will only show a plant when it’s flowering and many plants only flower for a week or two so if you want to identify it the other 50 weeks a year you may be out of luck.  Different field guides have different pictures or drawing and different descriptions.  That’s why it’s good to have a bunch of field guides, so you can cross reference.

One of my readers, (Yeah, I do have a few.) I thank each and everyone of you,  readership is the greatest form of flattery and I don’t ask you to buy my crap either.   Someone asked me to tell you what field guides I use so here it comes…

Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants is by Wildman Steve Brill.  Mr. Brill is the guy that forages and gives classes how to forage Central Park, NYC.    Amazing how much wild food there is growing free and wild in Central Park.  There aren’t any color pictures in this book.  Heck, there aren’t any pictures at all, BUT there are good drawings.  This might not be a good first field guide to get, but it is large and the descriptions and uses of plants are great.  This guide is organized by season.  Mr. Brill is very straightforward he will tell you if a wild plant isn’t worth harvesting.  I particularly like some of the history of the plants that he tells the reader about.  There is even a section with recipes.  It’s 317 pages long and a big book maybe 8 1/2 * 11.

Angiers Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants doesn’t have any pcitures either, but the drawings are in color.  This guide is organized alphabetically, which isn’t a lot of help in identifying things, but that’s why you have have to familiarize yourself with all of your field guides, because then when you are walking you will see something that you recognize.  There are good descriptions in this book.  It is 255 pages long and small enough to put in a pack.

Guide to Northeastern Wild Edibles by Kavasch has great color photos.  I think it’s out of print, but you can get used copies off of the Internet.  It is organized by season.  It has a handy feature, a ruler markings inside the back cover, not a big deal, but still a great addition.  It’s really a good guide.  This book is 64 pages and small enough to carry in a pack.

This isn’t so much a field guide on edible plants as it is a general guide to different types of forests in the Eastern US of A, like Boreal, Transition, Deciduous, Oak-Hickory, etc.  It’s by the Audubon Society so it’s well written and the many, many color pictures are great.  For example, in the tree section there are color pictures of the trees and also drawings of the entire tree outline and the critter section has color pictures and maps to show where the critters reside to help ID them.  It’s 635 pages long and kind of big to carry backpacking for a distance.  Great for a day pack though because you can really have fun with it because all of the bases are covered: trees, birds, mammals, snakes, insects and spiders, mushrooms, wildflowers, butterflies and moths and amphibians.

Field Guide to New  England is another Audubon book.   This is a more specialized field guide as it is only for New England.  Although, I’m certain that many of the plants also grow near you too.  You can really learn alot about your natural surroundings from this book.  This book at 447 pages is small enough to pack with you.  Not a whole lot of info on edible stuff, but it’s a great all purpose field guide.  The pictures are great and there are multiple pictures on every page.  it’s broken up by: geology, habitats, conservation and ecology, weather (IDing clouds is pretty cool), the night sky (once again pretty cool), flora, invertebrates, vertebrates, park and preserves of the region.

The two coming up are probably the most useful to me.

Peterson field guides are good stuff.   In this one of Edible Wild Plants there is only a small section with color pictures, but there are a ton of very good black and white drawings.   If you don’t know what it is you’re looking at and you are trying to ID it the Peterson books make it easiest.  This one on edible plants is organized by: flowering plants, woody plants, miscellaneous plants, finding plants where and when they occur and food uses. The flower section is broken up by flower color and the woody plant section by type of leaf.  It also obviously tells you what parts of each plant is edible and how to prepare it.  If you need to forage this is definitely one book that you want to have. Each description also has symbols which makes it easy to tell a plant’s uses at a glance.  It’s 300 pages and small enough to pack.

The Peterson Field Guide of Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants and Herbs has multiple color pictures on every page.  This Medicinal Plant field guide is organized by flower color, shrubs, trees, vines, ferns and grasses.   The good pictures make it easy to ID the plants.   Like the previous Peterson guide this one also uses symbols next to the descriptions to make it easy to see the uses.  The best part of this guide is the index to medical topics at the back of the book.  So if you have an ailment you can look it up and find a plant that may ease your symptoms.  The index by medical topic lists things like: abrasion, analgesic, anemia, anticancer, bites, dog, bleeding, blood purifier, carbuncles, cirrhosis, colds and you get the idea.  This book is another MUST HAVE.  It is 411 pages long and small enough to pack.

Get Outside Everyday and put your books into use.  I think the following two pictures are two types of wintergreen.  If you know for sure please let me know.

This I’m pretty sure is Wintergreen.  The next time I see it I’ll have to smell it.  It may be Pipsissiwa too.

I looked this one up and I came up with Chickweed Wintergreen, but I’m not convinced.  It looked like Star of Bethlehem, but I know that’s not right.

Why our country is sucking…

That useless walking pile of skin, bones and hair Nancy Pelosi (Moron – CA) said “The CIA gave me inaccurate information” about waterboarding, and she added that the CIA “misled the Congress.“

She went on to say that the CIA misleads Congress all of the time. Pelosi said, “They mislead us all the time…“  You get that, the esteemed speaker of the house said that the CIA misleads, err lies, to Congress all of the time?

What did Bush Chimp use to say, “There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” —President George W. Bush, Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

So Pelosi is damn fool.  She claims that the CIA lies to her all of the time and yet she falls for it all of the time.  With folks like her in Congress is it any wonder that our futures are spinning down the drain like a teenage boy’s love?

It makes me want to puke.  Really, it makes me ill.  Shouldn’t she be exercising some oversight, rather than allowing herself to be lied to and used as a pawn.  It’s called the balance of power.  Maybe she should look it up. Hey, Madam Speaker pay a bit more attention to the people’s business and a little bit less attention to your hubbie’s land deals.  Useless.

Then John Boehner (Moron – OH), said that he can’t imagine that the CIA would ever mislead a member of Congress.  “It’s hard for me to imagine that anyone in our intelligence area would ever mislead a member of Congress. They come to the [Capitol] Hill to brief us because they’re required to, under the law,” Boehner said. “I don’t know what motivation they would have to mislead anyone. And I don’t believe — and don’t feel — that in the briefings that I’ve had that I’ve been misled at any one point in time.”

Boehner is also a moron.  He is either lying or dull as a teaspoon.  Who in their right mind can’t imagine the CIA lying to Congress? Of course the CIA lies.  If they didn’t they wouldn’t be doing their job.  They lie, cheat, overthrow elected heads of state, make exploding cigars, foment unrest, specialize in false flag attacks and so on.

So not only did Boehner receive $3 Million in campaign contributions from the Robber Barons and Banks that he voted to bail out, he is also a dullard to boot.

We need to wrestle our country back from these people that we elected.  They are looting our Treasury, encumbering our futures and wagering our lives at the track.

With leadership like this is it any wonder why our country is sucking?

Short post today.  I’m not home so no Getting Outside Pics for this post, but still GET OUTSIDE EVERYDAY, commune with the ENTS.

Back to survival stuff tomorrow.  In the coming days I’m going to do posts on: a water filter I bought, bore snakes and field guides.