During our unpacking, we come across our numerous boxes of books and uncover this one.
Now, I was told by a former fellow group member here in SC, and I EXPRESS FORMER, the kind of guy who thinks he is a "Survival Expert" one who cant even tie knots or understand that you have to put wax on your bow string" that his writings are "Poetic Gibberish". Really, are you serious? Now I know that this book has been required reading for both the Naval Academy and Westpoint in the past, and I am sure it is still is, including operators in the Special warfare community but it is gibberish. You know, this is what happens when arm-chair "Survival-experts" who think by reading fiction survival magazines and daydreaming of being a soldier/sailor/marine/airman wake up to reality and find out that you are not a soldier/sailor/marine or airman and just a lonely minion in the real world. I dealt with something similar in Florida early back in 2000 learning survivalism and prepping with Stephen. There was a former group member who was a marine and who served as a disbursing clerk, only serving one tour at a embassy thinking he had fought in Infantry. We both found that out who he was when he was shooting flare's into the night and bouncing off the ground as he went prone. You had to be there, trust me on this one.
As I continue, it is that time of the year again when the "Boys of Summer" start practicing and getting ready for opening day. Yes, the boys have started and we had practice Saturday and Sunday. The kids having been practicing during the winter and I personally think they have a leg up on the other players. Both boys are starting their second year in their league and they are both considered veterans as the played in the same division last year. First practice went well with fielding and both tried out as a pitcher, and I have to report they did pretty good on their first look. NW looked like he didn't miss anything during the off season as catcher, except now he has an adult-sized catcher's glove. He took all his Christmas money and put it all toward it. Today they did some fielding, but as we had to leave early because JUGM's uncle came over for dinner, they went on to batting practice. OMG, NW was smacking the crap out of the ball, at 10 yrs old he was hitting the ball over half-way in the air to the outfield. ND being a lefty actually listened to me in the off season and was hitting the ball to third base side, giving him more time to get to first making it a longer and harder throw for the 3rd baseman and shortstop to get him out. If you could see me, I had a big smile on my face today, very proud of them.
Saturday, I started getting the garden going for the spring garden. We recently did a big clean-out of the chicken coops and moved all the "Poo" down to the garden.
With chicken "Poo" being so potent, I plan to dilute it with some sand. As you can see the disc harrow off in the distance the garden has bee broken up. Today, I hooked the 5' tiller up to the tractor and started tilling one side of the garden up. Current plan is to put yellow onions and cabbage out by March 1st.
Then I took the cultivator and configured it with plows to make some rows. The 1948 IH Farm-all Cub is currently CAT 3 Casrep'd with a fuel bowl leak and just haven't had the time to fix her to properly make some nice looking rows.
It's after 2300 and I need to go. The morning arrives early. Stay safe everyone and if you ever dream of having your own retreat, grow some balls and put your foot down with your wife and sell you house and move. Pretty easy for most men.......
Senior
hey Senior - glad to see you blogging and i am sure that JUGM has told you about the going ons in our community - which is much like a group, and from the sounds of things, like your group. being that you are a Senior Chief and served time on a variety of deployments, i am pretty confident that you are FAFFE trained (fire and fire fighting equipment trained). as am i. we joined the vfd when we got here and it took only the first meeting for me to understand that i was the highest-trained fire-fighter of the whole group. no wait, i quickly learned i was the only person in the group who had ever had any training! arghghghghgh! it's 4yrs later, the only thing our vfd does is bingo, and a variety of other gambling games for the community and not once have jam and i, nor anyone else has ever received any actual training except for first aid. i kept hoping that things would get better, i tried to implement the most basic form of policies and procedures - to which one 20-yr member said "we never had them before. why do we need them now?". rich, eh. we left that meeting early! but i really did keep trying, jam tried to implement a schedule for checking the truck at the fire hall and that went nowhere. and finally at last month's meeting when we are STILL talking about maybe/someday/whatever getting actual breathing apparatuses (can you even freakin' believe that we don't have any??? and they never did - arghghghghgh!), well finally after that meeting jam said no more. we are not wasting our time on this any longer. so i understand about the group thing...you are just more fast-acting than me and have less patience for fools.
ReplyDeletei'm very glad that you guys have moved into your beautiful new house and glad that you are out getting the garden ready. i can't wait for spring and will be starting seeds (indoors) in the middle of march.
are you coaching the boys' ball team? and i am sure that you were grinning from ear to ear with pride! you had every right to be!
oh well, hogged your comment section for long enough. sending much love to you, my Gurlie and the boys, as always! your friend,
kymber
Kymber, yes I trained for over 15 years for fighting fires on the ship, whether actual or personal fires and damage control to include flooding. Out at sea, you can't pick up and call 911 for help. In disciplined environments, you don't have complacency like you do in the civilian world. I actually prefer to be around veterans in a group setting, but this time I feel I was stabbed in the back by two, but that's OK, they will be the ones getting waxed because of irrational thoughts and decision making from social media and internet narcissist. No, not coaching the boys on the team, basically as an advisor to the other coach's. I am still on suspension from the commissioner.
DeleteGlad it's coming together. And you'll be unpacking for the next three months, trust me... AND finding boxes in the oddest places!
ReplyDeleteYes sir, it is slowly coming together. I am actually getting my two storage buildings back and can now setup my reloading presses and get back to making some fun stuff.
DeleteSenior,
ReplyDeleteCongrats on moving into your new home!!! Bulldog Man and I totally understand about moving and getting older. After going through my parents estate, donating and selling stuff we've realized it's not necessary to hang on to everything. Right now we've started to go through our garage and home in preparation for our future.
You and JUGM should be very proud parents, your boys are great kids. They both may surprise you and become eventually pro ball players?? Give them both a big hug from your OKIE friends!!!
As for growing balls.....hubby and I will be paying off our debt this month (in a couple of days). At which point we are starting to look for several acres out in the country. We don't know exactly where.....have a few ideas were throwing around.
Sending love to you, JUGM, and your boys.
Sandy
Hey Sandy, yeah there is so much stuff my dad had and I say to myself, why did you keep this. There is bank statements from as early at 1990. We are starting to just throw stuff in my trailer and then take it to the dump.
ReplyDeleteJust cleared $18822 out from under me and once I see where I am after my first house payment, I plan on paying another $11000 off. I am so happy that my entire family is in the same mindset, just like you and Bulldog man is. I am fortunate that I have a wife who takes the current state of our country serious and has a desire to take care of her family if things get bad. Years ago, I should have listened to my dad and never built in a HOA community. Well I am out of that crap now.