Veterans Day

      As we pause to remember our Veterans today, please reflect on what they have done for this great country. As we wait so anxiously for our President to give this years Veterans Day address, uhhh, well he is not around. Is it shocking, no but typical. So searching this morning, I have found a past video of an former President that did not read off a tele-prompter, nor did he have a uh or um in every 5th word.

Senior

Happy 20th to my beautiful wife

   I want to announce to the world that I am the luckiest man to have the greatest wife. I have been fortunate and blessed to have you by my side for 20 years supporting me through the ups and downs in both our lives. It has been hard and tough at times, but there is not a perfect marriage, but we made it work and every time i looked over my shoulder, you were there. I love you with all my heart and look forward to the rest of our lives together.

Since we met in Jacksonville, FL, why not have Jacksonville's own Shinedown and one of my favorite band to sing a song.

Senior

Happy Hallows Eve

I know, its sick, but how many of you have thought of doing this. Thanks to a friend for sending this to me. I might put something like this at the end of my driveway next year.

Senior

Nice and relaxing weekend so far, airing some gear out, cooking some wings, and conferencing on a project.

    Today was a beautiful day here in the upstate of South Carolina. The sun was out in all its brightness, and the temps warmed up to a real nice 75 degrees here at the house. I have been wanting to do this for the past couple of weeks so today was the perfect day. I broke out the Cabelas 6-man geodesic tent and a smaller 2-man that I let the boys play in from time to time, to let them air out. After we were done setting them both up, I think they are getting in the mood for a camp out one night, so I think I will plan something out for them. So the boys and I locate the tents in the storage building and commence to setting it up.

From bag to this in 15 min (1 adult, 2 Kids)

35 min's total time (1 adult, kids quit)

    Once this one was setup, I let the boys put the smaller one together, with some guidance from me of course.

   So after they were done, they got in the tent and became camping kids. This is one of the best things to occupy their time. You should have heard some of the ideas they were generating. I, on the other hand decided to relax a bit in a hammock.

     I was just about out, when JUGM was calling for me, as she was about to head to town for some shopping, which meant fresh chicken wings from our local meat shop. After she left, I got out of the hammock and grabbed a chair and slid up next to the boys in the tent and had a good time chatting with them. Of course, later this afternoon, I like cooking, and I like chicken wings.

Yes, I know, I should be cooking them on the ground.

     This afternoon, I had a discussion via text with John over at MSO about a project I was working on. I am always looking for cost savings, as he is as well. Looks like we both will be doing our own versions of this product and trying them out with panel of judges. Stay tuned, hopefully I will receive all my materials this week and have them ready for next weekend. Not like this project is new, but I will publish my results in a future post.


     Well gonna sign off, SEC football is on and my team is playing. Stay safe, carry often, and don't ride public transportation with a bunch of sneezing riders.

  Senior


     

Few notes to pass on, new resident here, views of recent news events and some group stuff.

    Hello everyone, things are moving right along here in rural South Carolina. As you may have seen at my better half's blog, JUGM has been busy being a mom again with 18 chickens, and she is doing a great job at it. Soon, the oldest pullets will be providing me with fresh eggs, god I love cheddar cheese omelets, yum!!!!

    Went to the county complex to find out why I haven't received my property tax bill and they stated they were a couple of weeks behind in closing the books. Go figure right? Well I am pleased to announce my property taxes for the year is $222.37. Gas here as of today was $2.70 a gallon.

     Been doing some work each evening on the tractor. I want to get my gun range up before the ground freezes. I haven't had a chance to go to SCDOT and put my name on the list to receive free fill dirt from their jobs. I probably wouldn't get any right now, they have had several roads around here that washed out within the last month from 8" of rain in a 3 hour period, so fill dirt is at a premium.

    We have a new resident that is starting to pass through the garden. I have had a few of his friends running around properties adjacent to us and along the state road we live off of,  I will look for him this weekend as I am in the stand.

 

     Well seems the latest crisis that we are seeing is EBOLA. Well, like we didn't see this coming. I mean, really, we have bumbling IDIOT as President, the head of the CDC and Prevention is a MORON, "We will make things worse if we restrict travel from West Africa"? AYFKM!!!!! Lets put is a clear as possible, if your body has this virus and you step foot on my property,

     This is what will happen.

    Then....

   Can I be any clearer than this? I will not risk infection of my family, PERIOD!

    All eyes are the upcoming mid-term elections, and I have been asked, do you think the Republicans will take the Senate? Yes, it is possible, I am optimistic, but my main concern is, will they wont do anything to fix what is "F"d up with the country. Probably not, face it, all these politicians are all about power, plain an simple.

     Saw the First lady, Michelle Obama was dancing with a turnip? Uh, Really.

     Are you that desperate for attention? Pretty pathetic for a first lady, but typical for someone who have never been proud of her country.

    Debates in Florida are underway, here is the next Florida Governor.....

    Sorry, but when you cry like a baby about a fan during a debate, then you are labeled a cry-baby. Whats next, glass of water? Paper to take notes?

     I copied this from a website, and I quote "Southern Oregon University students claim university officials threatened to call the police and take disciplinary action against them last week after they passed out free copies of the U.S. Constitution and asked other students to sign a petition to end limitations on areas where students can demonstrate."

solution: exercise your second amendment rights, that will take the heat off. 

     This weekend will be a busy weekend, we have a large gun show in Charlotte to attend on Saturday, and I mean large, helluva lot larger than anything in Jacksonville and Sunday, we have another group meeting at one of the members houses. He has chickens too, so it will be good to see his set-up. I guess I can say I some seniority now, we now have a new member. I have brought along from the group in Florida that you need to have members that have a specific skill set. I agree with this whole-hardheartedly. The new member is a certified EMT in several states, pediatric care, and may not make it back for the meeting as he is on a wilderness EMT certification course for trauma care and extractions from the wilderness.
     I really like how this group is well structured with a combination of military veterans and regular everyday people. Yes, we have military specialties and have a good combination with USAF, USA, and USN, but I really like the ideas of the members who haven't served. Hey, everyone chooses their path in life, that's what makes us the United States of America, we have the freedom to choose. With myself and many career veterans, we sometimes think we have all the answers, yes we do, in a military environment, but as retired members, we have to adapt to our new commands in the real world and who else to look to than everyday professionals. Looking forward to hosting here at the house in the coming weeks for a cookout, maybe I will have the range somewhat done by then.

     Well its getting close to bed-time. I will try to do another post in the coming days. Stay safe out there and look out for the Ebola Zombies. Carry Often!!!!

Senior

Odds and Ends since my last post.

     Well we are almost done with the month of September and the weather is starting to turn more nicer here in Carolina, I'm sure Warlock will agree. It wont be long before all the leaves start turning and then everything will shift to picking them up. Things have been going great up here, except for the excessive rain we have had over the past 2 weeks, but it could be worse.
     JUGM and I have been throwing the idea around about getting rid of the ATV and going with a Honda Pioneer 700-4.

    I like them, they would be a good get out of dodge vehicle for a family of 4, but we thought about it and decided to go with this.

 

    We ended up getting a Mahindra 22HST 4WD Diesel tractor. I have two more implements coming this week, a 5 foot PTO tiller for the garden and a 5 foot blade for grading the drive way, but I did do some repair work from the 8" of rain we got in 3 hours last week on the driveway, and even with the front loader, it did great. Our family friend, the Farmer has 2 different sized auger's that will work this tractor and already has offered to loan me them whenever I need them. Yesterday, we spent most of the day working here on the hill, and I will tell you, I think this is one of the best things I have invested in. Yes, I have a 1948 IH Farm-all cub as well, but this thing does a hell of a lot more. I will still use the Cub in the garden, but not for the heavier work.

    Deer have been all around the property, but for the past few weeks I have had to deal with some pesky Raccoon's in my deer feeder.

    

    Early in the week, I caught my second raccoon in the trap. This one was going to some "Colored" folks, but when the farmer, myself and NW went to their house, they were all excited about a meal, until they found out that it was still alive, and I heard the record scratch off the turn table. The farmer even told them, "It doesn't get any fresher than this". Never seen someone so scared of a little raccoon. Well we left and took it a local cemetery and let him go, he took off like a bat leaving hell.

     Also late in the week, I received a package from Amazon.com. I have pretty much equipped my AR pistol with its last accessory, a Sig Sauer SB15 Pistol brace, and let me tell you, it does the job. 

 

      Well I had my first meeting with the new group here in SC and I am pleased to report that it went well. I was amazed at how many projects they have going on, which these projects are very essential. They all are working toward HAM licenses, which I have been wanting to do for awhile. They have also enlisted the help of some local HAM operators for training. They were also in the process of placing a large group order with Emergency Essentials to save costs on shipping, so I jumped in on the order. I have plans on making my own "Mountain House" meals with smaller Mylar bags that are similar to their bags, minus the labeling. One thing I received was a broken down schedule of discussion topics for 9 months so at each meeting there are items and areas of concern to discuss as a group and hear every one's opinions on that particular subject. I have also been invited to lunch this next week to assist in vetting a new group member, this should be fun.

   Its getting late, so I will sign off. Hope everyone battles evil Muslim extremist in their dreams and wake up victorious.

Senior
    

Life is just trucking along, and meeting new friends

    Well its been a few weeks since I have done a post, so I thought I would drop a quick post to let everyone know that I am still breathing, sorry no pictures in this one. As the title states, life is just trucking along. Work has been ok, except last Sunday when I got a tentative job offer with Department of the Navy at NAS Jacksonville. Yes, USAJOBS continues to be a pain in my ass. Here, I accept a job and move 5 hours away and after being here one month, I get a job offer for a job I applied for in March, yes March. It took them 6 months to find someone to fill that position. How F*$&#*G!!! ridiculous is that. Of course I thought I could make it work, and accepted the position, but after sitting down and looking at the logistical expenses of me living in Florida by myself and the the expense I would face and time away from the family, I rescinded my acceptance and told the HR guy. "If the decision was 3-4 months earlier this wouldn't be an issue". So life continues on.....

     Since I have been here in SC, I have been searching for a group of like-minded individuals that think like me and recognize that we are at a sad state in this country and think of self reliance and force protection principles to sustain us into the future, basically what I had in Florida with Stephen, Duke, and the others. This past Tuesday, I met with two gentleman, one (John) was at that past training event I attended, the other I have never met. I have kept in contact with him since the training and didn't realize he is a member of a group in my area. I met them at a eatery and had lunch with them. I guess you can say it was somewhat a "vetting" process, that's what I took from it. This afternoon, I received and email inviting me to their group meeting this Sunday afternoon. We'll see where this goes. The initial impression is that this group is made up of numerous backgrounds and skill-sets so it will be interesting to see how many members there are and how everyone personalities are. Will keep you posted.

      This afternoon, I had some roof repairs to do. Tuesday night we had some bad storms come though and dumped a S*(&)*&D! of rain on us and have a good leak. So this afternoon I was on the roof with a 3.5 gallon pail of Wet-Dry placing a new layer down around the chimney enclosure that my dad did years ago. I could tell its been awhile since it was last done as there were cracks in the previous layer and one specifically that had water in it. Of course, while I was up there, JUGM starts screaming, one of the chicks decided he was big and bold and took flight out of the make shift brooder. My natural reaction was what happened, but then I heard foul language coming out her mouth, of course directed at the chick, so I went back to what I was doing. So over dinner, I get a item added to my check list which consists of constructing a new brooder. It never ends here.

     Well I shall get back to watching T.V. Hope everyone has a great rest of your week.

Senior