Happy New Year to all, Stereo install in the Fouled XJ, New Hennessy Hammock, and review of De Santis Mad Max IWB Holster

    Happy New Year to everyone out there in Blogger land. I thought I would take a break from posting part III of the survival buckets and write up a post. I was in much need of a break from work so with the Christmas and New Year holiday, I took 4 days off to get 10 days off with weekends and observed Federal holidays. Let me tell you I really enjoyed the time off and I need to hurry up and pay stuff off so I can make this a more permanent lifestyle.

    A little over 2 months ago I went out to the XJ on my lunch break to listen to talk radio and eat lunch. I turned the radio on and I have no FM, and AM would play for 3 seconds or so, then cut out and come back on. The previous owner had installed a DUAL brand stereo and it had finally started to die. Christmas day comes around and I had a new Pioneer stereo with Bluetooth and remote under the tree. Later Christmas day, the install took place

Old Stereo

I was lucky because the previous install used Crutchfield's mounting and wiring harnesses

Factory wiring harness with old stereo harness. Also, my Connex 10 meter died so I have a Cobra CB w/ kicker now

New stereo harness and Crutchfield factory harness. Just match the colored wires up and you are good to go.

Stereo installed. Notice Bluetooth mic on top of dash.

     This Christmas I also upgraded to the Hennessy Hammock with side zipper entry and camouflage rain-fly. I felt I may need a new one as my bottom entry Hennessy hammock is pushing 10 years old. Worst case, I don't have to move my "Get-Home Bag" from different vehicles, I can just build another bag. This year, Hennessy Hammock had good deals on hammocks, including free-shipping, snake skins, water collection/Rain Fly tension system and a free "Leaf" day hammock.

     For many years, I have carried my Glock 23 in a De Santis Mad Max IWB holster. I had two Kydex based holsters prior to purchasing my first Mad Max holster and I started to notice wear on the finish so that's when I switched to strictly leather holsters. This holster has been through a lot over the past 8 years, specifically 5 years of dirt, sand, rain, and sweat in the Florida heat when I had my landscaping business. I have been really pleased with the comfort and condition after all this time. One of the features I like the most is this holster, like many others, as it accepts other Glock models, so my 17 will also fit. I have placed JUGM's 26 in the holster and it fits good but barrel length doesn't quit reach the bottom of the holster. There is also plastic clips included for those who want to carry without a belt. I will continue to wear the old one only when I do work around the house. Here are some photo's

23 in Black (New), 17 in natural (old)

Notice wear on backside.

 

     I figure 8 years is long enough to do a review of my De Santis Mad Max holster. I am not the type who will purchase an item, drop, kick, pour water over it, turn it on/off a few times and then write a review, that's not me. I also do this with no compensation from any company which is fine by me, I don't have to do a good write up for a piece of shit to make good graces. Would I recommend De Santis holsters from my experience? YES!!!!  

    Well as we start a new year, I hope with the change that is coming in the executive office will turn out to be good, I am praying that it does. Look at it this way, can it be any worse that the last 8 years. I'm sure Obummer will be a pain in the side of everyone as he takes his "Russian hack" message nationwide on his 2017 community organizer tour. I hope everyone has a great year and more to follow at a later time.

Senior 

Took some time off for spring break, and some other stuff around the homestead part two

    Picking up where I left off from the last post. Saturday, I had the boys break out their Hennessy Hammocks to let them air out and also to give them some more time to hone their skills in setting them up. I am really proud of them both wanting to learn stuff and I am very confident on where they are at with their knowledge at 9 and 10 years old, hell it's more that some grown men. Once the cool mornings are over, we may all, including JUGM and yes she has one too, camp out in our woods and make our own tent city. I haven't taught them the tricks to 4 season camping in these hammock tents yet.

NW hooking to the tree

NW testing his set-up

NW and ND all set-up and relaxing

    Earlier that day and we had made our way to town and found some of these. I love these peppers and since I have so much room left, why not buy a four pack. They will go good with the other peppers when I pickle Okra.

     Sunday, we slept in and had a day to ourselves before we go our separate ways on Monday. Later that day, we decided to do some burgers and I wanted to make me a Mushroom and Swiss burger. For some reason the thought popped in my head, "you know, why not cook the mushrooms on the rocket stove". It's been over 2 years since I have used it and I have a enormous supply of fuel for it with all the trees on the property.

My $38.70 Rocket Stove that I made, not bought off Amazon.com

Here is the link to my post building it.

http://seniorsmess.blogspot.com/2014/02/seniors-rocket-stove.html 

Sticks loaded up

Pine Cones ready to light and drop in

getting started

nice fast flame coming out before all the smoke died off

     After dinner we sat around the porch and wait for the Space Station to fly over at 2121 this past Sunday. Prior to the viewing, caught a great shot of the moon and Jupiter to the left.

    Well that's enough for tonight. I plan do do a post on my daily driver, my 1997 Jeep Cherokee Sport with 213508 miles on it. It makes a daily trip of 142 miles 5 days a week. More to follow. 

    Senior

Where has the past year gone????

    Here we are, its been over one year since we made the move to SC and what a test of patience and discipline we have endured. As most of you may have known, I experienced the job hunting nightmare that many Americans faced under the Obama economy. It was well over 6 months after moving up here that I found a job here in SC with the USPS, and let me tell you this, what a fucked-up organization. They cant even hire people with benefits because of the career postal employees sucking up all the money, yes I was a Postal Support Employee (PSE) as a Mail clerk. The five weeks I was there, I did more than the other two mail clerks who had been there for a combined 45 years. What a shame that this great American institution has been destroyed by the Postal Workers Union. I tell you, I was glad the day I got the call. This call was what I was looking for. My current place of employment is so much better and I take great enjoyment in who I serve and talk to on a daily basis, except the drive I make everyday.
    
     So with the stress myself and my family endured, we had additional stress with one modular home contract falling through because the VA now appraises modular home the same as mobile homes. So when the appraisal came back, it was $20,000 short of what the appraisal was, so let's say I am not coming out of pocket for that. I had the money, but no doing it. JUGM and I regrouped and found a custom home builder that was actually cheaper than a modular home with what we wanted in a house. STAY AWAY FROM MODULAR HOMES, banks are starting to shy away from them. Got pre-approved and had the ball rolling until another road block popped up, a property owner who had a wife who was resistant on us getting a easement document signed by her husband who was the actual property owner. What he didn't realize was the property he had bought was a tract that my grand-father once owned. Also, my father had been using the easement for over 43 years, which the statue of limitation for easement use in SC is 20 yrs, well he had that doubled. I had been using the easement for over 28 yrs and JUGM has been using it for 20 years.
    
     Well we went to our family attorney here in town and he told JUGM that he couldn't help us because he was the closing attorney for the other property, but we did get a one hour free consultation from him and he said he would send him a letter. Well, by god he did as it was hand delivered. He basically told the property owner that you better sign the document because you are about to be lit up with a lawsuit, which you will loose and if they seek damages, this is something you don't want to spend money on. I was so pissed off, I had it already in my head to do a counter suit seeking no less than $500,000. Well after a month of multiple attempts from myself and JUGM and using all available means to show a judge our attempts, we finally got the document signed, but now we are a month behind schedule. I still have something up my sleeve for those MF's. More to follow.
   
     This past Saturday, the family I took of for a day together. We went to our new Cabelas and did some browsing. I managed to pick up a 500 round brick of Federal Champion .22lr. My Ruger 10/22 is smiling. Ask Stephen and Duke, that's all I shot through my 10/22.

     Next, we went to a REI located in a town near us. We are making another addition to the Hennessy Hammock Family, yes JUGM is getting her own hammock. If you get one, order it straight from them, you get extra stuff with it. These Back Diamond caribiners and omega rappelling rings make set-up so much easier. If it comes to the day that we have to bug out, we all can light weight and leave a minimal foot print in our travel.

 One of the good things we have up here is a very large garden. Saturday night we had some of our harvest from the spring garden.

Fresh green bans and fried okra

    Today, our neighbor came up to visit. This neighbor has done so much for me and his best friend, my dad over the years, we gave him 5 dozen eggs for him and his family. While he was here, he was able to watch me and NW do a review of the Survival Bush craft cook set. I was happy with the construction as it is made in Germany, but I do have issues with it. I purchased the smaller version and now I wish I had purchased the large version. It does the job with using twigs and pine cones for fuel, but I find the air flow to the tinder a bit to constrictive and the effort to boil water did have some human intervention. I will probably purchase the larger one and give it a try. I felt it took too long to boil water. See, when you actually purchase products to try out, you can be honest about their functionality without the bias of a company sending it to you and kissing their ass. There are to many sites out there that do this. 

   Well it is getting along into the night, I have to do my rounds of the property before heading off to bed. I know that I sit at a computer for 8 hours a day and the last thing I want to do is jump on and add to my keystrokes for the day, but I will make a honest attempt to let everyone know how things are going. Next up on my plate, going to my first amateur radio club meeting this week. With my extensive background using every available communication the U.S.Navy has to offer, I feel it should take me no time to get my technician license. Harry, Matt, Kymber, get ready because I will be talking your ears off.

Senior
    

Odds and ends. Request from a friend.

    Things are slowing down a bit here. As most of you know, my boys and baseball are an important part of my life, and the bond that we have is real strong. I must say I am very very proud of NW and ND this year as JUGM has reported earlier, the boy's team had an undefeated season, made it through to the county championship game, but one error changed the outcome and they ended up finishing 2nd. I will say neither NW or ND made the error. NW was fortunate enough to make the county All-Star team as catcher. ND didn't make it and it was not because of his effort or skill, see ND is 8 and playing on a 9-10 yr old division team. We had to explain to him that he didn't make it because of the cheating little league team from Illinois has caused a serious crack down on age and local rules. Go figure, someone from Illinois cheating.......

     The garden is going great, although the weeds are out of control and we are letting it go as we have our crops for the fall garden in seed starters and as soon as the corn is all picked, I will be down there tilling it up with the tractor. So far we have picked corn twice so far and have almost 90 ears of corn, and we haven't gotten through a quarter of the corn. Also we have been in kind of a drought here and I have drawn up a irrigation system for the rows and cant wait to start the construction.

    Been following world events lately? I suggest everyone pay attention to what is going on in Greece and come up with your own lessons-learned when their financial collapse happens. I still am trying to figure out what Greece actually produces besides a dependent nanny-state.

    Work has been going good as I have been fully trained up and had my first 90 performance appraisal this week and as normal, I was rated excellent and above my peers with several at-a-boy's from two other departments.

    I received a request from a friend I met last fathers day when I went to a firearms training course up in NC. He administers the site                          and was solicited by a group in his area to advertise and put the word out about a networking opportunity with other like minded people to share world and intellectual thoughts about current events, prepping, and all that other stuff. Here is the link to meetup.com page.





    Well I just wanted to get on here and say, Hey, I'm still vertical and breathing. Now I must go as today is NW's 10th birthday. He will be excited for his big-boy gift.

Senior


   

I'm back, now time to jump on my soap box and promote a Survival/Bug out product.

After a nice trip up to the house in SC, and dealing with some "DEATHLY SMELLS", yes, I had to remove a dead possum from under the house. He or she had been there for some time and must have climbed underneath after I left from a two day trip up to check the property a couple of weeks ago. I wont go into graphic details of how far I had to crawl underneath, but all that was left was bones, some skin and hair and a whole bunch of maggots. Yes, dry heaving in a confined space was in full effect. Hey, it builds character right?



Ok, as you seen in my last post about the Goal Zero Guide 10 solar kit, I am getting back in the mood to do some more reviews on bug-out/survival equipment. Now, before I start on the soap box, I have used this product numerous times. It has been put through cold temperatures, rain, tears in netting caused by shoe lace shackles on hiking shoes, and micro-bursts from thunderstorms and I can still use it today. Hell, it fared better than a pop-up camper. The item I am jumping on the soap box for is the Hennessey Hammock.

    This is my Hennessy Hammock Explorer Deluxe with the expanded rain fly. This picture is from our groups 2009 MLK trip to the river. I have found a video on YouTube that had a great review on the hammock, and trust me, this is strong advise from a person who is over 40 years old, you will never sleep in the ground again. This product is very easy to set-up and you have more options with the terrain that you encounter if you were in a bug-out type situation or even on a camping trip on uneven terrain. There are many videos out there on the web, so search them out and learn more about this product.



     When I had a tear in the netting, I emailed them to ask their advice and/or repair options, this company recommended a fix and wanted me to provide feedback on how the repair went. I went to China-Mart and bought some nylon thread and sewed the hole up and haven't been bitten by a bug yet. If you find a product that stands behind their product and wants your input, I don't know about you, but that says a lot to me.



   Well here is the video, if you have any questions that are not answered in the video, just ask me. I have experience in this hammock.



     Stay vigilant and safe out there.



Senior