Month: November 2022

November 30, 2022 – The Case For an Outdoor Cat

November 30, 2022 /

I have written about the fact that I grew up rurally. It was also the case that no animals lived inside the house. We had a dog that we would let in on a rug by the door, but she went back outside before bed. All cats were outside cats. They were kind of pets and mostly feral.

I am a big believer that cats have a job around the home. Their job is to keep vermin at bay outside the house. In the picture above, you can see Leo got himself a rat.

Growing up, we had mice and moles. I never remember having them inside the house. Here is seems like we have rats and squirrels (as well as skunks, possum and raccoon). Both like to think that they have the right to come in from time to time. I can say that our one outside cat is a pathetic excuse for a hunter. In the ten years that we have had her, we have had very little production like maybe 5 mice total. I have eliminated more than that myself.

Leo is about a year and a half. He has recently decided that he would like to spend more time outside than inside, which is fine by me. Our only true worry is that we live on a very busy road and we have had more than one cat hit by a car. At this point, it is very difficult to stop him from going out, so I guess we will leave things up to fate.

When we first got married, we got a kitten we named Spunky. Spunky was one tough dude. I one time observed him chasing a fox when we lived in South Carolina. He was a true defender of the home and he saw snakes, lizards, rabbits and bugs as well as mice as his prey. Unfortunately, he got hit by a car about fifteen years ago. Every since then, we have been searching for a cat that would take his job seriously.

I don’t know how to pick them and I don’t know the secret to getting a good cat. I will say both Spunky and Leo were obtained as kittens. But so were others that have done little to nothing. Our one shelter cat was a wreck that peed everywhere and ran off and died after about six months. He had some serious disease issues as we spent hundreds trying to get him right. I guess the secret is to keep trying.

We pay for pest service. I have followed all the advice including eliminating the compost pile. The experts say that vermin can get into a building with a whole the size of a quarter. Part of the problem is animals like squirrels create their own holes. I don’t believe that a cat is going to kill a squirrel, but I do believe that they will chase and hunt them and reduce their presence.

The best cats are the ones that go in and out in my opinion. They have confidence to have some affection like a pet and security that they are going to be OK around humans. The feral cats tend to be extremely skittish around people and will never allow themselves to be caught for things like vet care. They also seem to be relatively low on the pest elimination scale. I don’t know if it is the desire to please the owner or survival instinct that makes them behave that way.

End Your Programming Routine: I have heard that cats outside devastate the bird population as the prime argument for keeping them inside. I have seen birds killed, but I find that to be rare compared to the other animals. Around my house, there are a lot of starlings that I would also like to see killed so I am hoping to see more birds quite frankly. I guess I am not saying that they don’t have a negative impact but I think their overall good outweighs the bad. I am all for keeping the pest control outside, that is worth having a good cat.

November 29, 2022 – Learning New Things From Self Reliance Magazine

November 29, 2022 /

I have written about my interest in the Self-Reliance/Backwoods Home publishing universe. Currently, I am buying them as add-on’s when I go buy pet food at the local farm store. I very well may end up subscribing but I am still evaluating the situation because no one wants a magazine subscription where you know all the content. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised but I was when I read the Fall issue of Self-Reliance magazine I found some things that I didn’t know or wanted to pursue.

The second article was about how to save seeds from tomatoes. I literally have tomato setting on my desk that I am going to attempt to do this. If you remember from the spring, I had one plant that survived under the lights of my starting. I have planned all along trying to propagate this plant because maybe it has the secret sauce to withstand my abuse.

The fourth article was about building rain barrels. This is another thing that I want to do in the late winter or early spring next year. The reason that I want to do this is to have a water source near my greenhouse. I am hoping that by making things more convenient, it will empower these endeavors to be more productive.

About 2/3’s of the way through, there was an article about using scraps. What they were advocating were making jelly from peach or pear peels. The article also claimed that tomato paste could be made from the skins of tomatoes (after juicing or saucing). There is something called watermelon pickles where you pickle the white part of the watermelon. I had no idea, and I thought that I knew all the frugal tips.

Finally, there is an article on learning how to arc weld. I literally have my dad’s welder in my shop. It is the same model as the article and it is something that I have wanted to learn. We borrowed it work on my son’s projects and kind of muddled through it. But still, talk about being on the same page.

There were some other interesting and useful things in this issue but not to the same scale of symbiosis. So, if you recall from my last review, I was less enamored with Self-Reliance than I was with Backwoods Home. For some reason, the Fall issue of Backwoods Home never made it to the news stands. I have the Winter one that I am waiting to read in a break from Atlas Shrugged. But, this reinforced my thoughts that subscribing in a bundle is the right way to go.

End Your Programming Routine: I am really glad that I gave this title a second chance. I don’t think the information is as comprehensive as I would like, but I get it. You are probably not going to want to read a ten page article on saving tomato seeds. The basic technique is conveyed in one page. I am OK with it having a little gray area because that is how we learn. We take what we know and think about what we don’t to come up with a method that works for us.

November 28, 2022 – What Does Freedom Look Like?

November 28, 2022 /

I am taking a look at some data from the Cato Institute of Freedom‘s index. There is a state by state comparison of many different categories to make up an ultimate ranking. I found the recent decline of own state very validating.

End Your Programming Routine: This is just the beginning for this journey. I don’t really need to make a move but I definitely want to . This gives me the time to do my due diligence before just making a leap. It is hard to say where this will truly lead but I need to spend some time if it is ever going to happen.

November 24, 2022 – Land of the Pilgrims Pride

November 24, 2022 /

This is a special episode that I only did because the subject was pilgrims. I got to thinking that they came here for a reason. This is the beginning of my succession to ‘Tacticool’ Thursday.

Now, of all of the colors and symbols on the ‘Pride‘ flag, I don’t see Pilgrims as one of them… people should be thankful that they broke the law between required church attendance and citizenship otherwise there would a lot more executions abound.

November 23, 2022 – Atlas Shrugged 3:1

November 23, 2022 /

Surprise! It is a short week so I am doing Atlas Shrugged on Wednesday this week. I may or may not be working on the site during this period, but we both deserve a rest. I want to wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving. Don’t forget to be thankful, not just making turkey.

I didn’t fully get what was going on at the end of the last chapter. I even re-read some of it to try and follow but I couldn’t. Apparently, Dabny was flying a plane and it turns out following another plane. I got the part where she was flying but I missed that she was following someone else. As it turns out, John Galt was flying with Quentin Daniels. In the course of flying, she ends up crashing the plane.

The reason that she crashed was that this particular valley is covered by some sort of mirage. This is the same mirage that protects Galt’s Gulch from being seen from the air. If you haven’t read the book, Galt’s Gulch is where all of the industrialists have gone to check out from society.

This was a mistake. While the industrialists are keeping an eye on her, their modus operandi is that this move is free will. It will happen when the person is ready and not without prompting. So, Dabny has not made the full commitment but gets a preview for what is possible.

When John Galt declares that he is going to stop the motor of the world, he does. He takes his revolutionary invention of a motor that derives electricity from static and declares that this world will never have it. He did however perfect his invention to power the community of Galt’s Gulch.

Every single industrialist that left the previous world has taken residence here and has assumed a menial role in society such as grocer, farmer, plumber, handyman, etc. This is really the means to an end because whatever their true passions are are pursued for the benefit of themselves only. They work a small amount or as much as necessary but the rest of the time is leisure time.

“I swear by my life that I will never live my life for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for me”. This is the one pledge to enter or join life in Galt’s Gulch. I find it ironic that I am reading this book at this time. Maybe if I would have read the book earlier, I would have seen the parallels earlier but for some reason the time is now.

The very concept of social justice is the manifestation of what this book is trying so hard to combat. From Wikipedia “Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society”. There is something in me that just rails against the premise. Didn’t we tell ourselves in grade school that this was the land of opportunity or anything is possible? Social justice exactly contradicts this idea.

You cannot attain your vision because so and so has more power or this or that and/or the color of you skin prevents success. We must take from others to equalize this injustice. An acceptance of the principal of social justice is a denial of self-sufficiency. And that is against my grain.

Before this is taken completely out of context, I am not for poverty, racism or even inequality. I do have compassion and understand that these subjects are complicated. I do feel that these issues are largely self-inflicted. But, I reject the argument that these problems are my fault or the fact that I am a member of a socioeconomic group by your labels or how or where I was born. I am just as resistant to my stereotyping as social justice warriors are purporting that my group is labelling theirs.

End Your Programming Routine: I am a strong proponent to the concept of giving a poor man one million dollars versus making a successful man penniless. Success is always about mindset and not the assets. Sure, it is easier to make money starting with some money, but still not impossible. The answer will never be taking things in the name of equality whether it is money or respect. If it is not earned, it wont be valued and if it is not valued, it wont be kept.

November 22, 2022 – Election Fallout for AltF4.co

November 22, 2022 /

Only a fool would let his enemy teach his children. – Malcom X

I don’t always agree with Malcom, but this sure resonates with me. I will assume that you are dense and explain this a little further. We send our kids to school for seven hours a day and then we are surprised that they leave after thirteen years woke and entitled.

I wrote early on about being the ‘gray man’. This means don’t get noticed, blend in, be strategic about your permanent footprint. Every day, as I write and post I consider whether what I am producing will have negative consequences. I deliberately leave personal information obscured for those reasons.

While these two things don’t 100% correlate, I guess what I am trying to say is to not educate your enemy because they will use that against you. Don’t be surprised when I talk about a subject every week and all of the sudden I am an expert or at least a target. That is where I am at with Tacticool Thursday. With that, I am going to discontinue that segment immediately.

The truth is I am sad. I have lines of ideas that I want to write about. I have more things in the pipeline for that one weekly segment than any other. But, it is foolish to continue to broadcast even a small amount of attention for what I may or may not have.

Let’s talk about what I am and am not saying. It doesn’t mean that I am going to stop with the activity. It means that I am going to stop writing about most aspects. It doesn’t mean that I am not going to occasionally write about related subjects or even certain gear. But, firearms specifically are no longer going onto the blog and similar topics are going to be greatly reduced.

If I end up moving to a place that respects freedom more, then Tacticool Thursday will likely come back. For now, it makes no sense to continue to paint a background scene to my self portrait even if I haven’t put my picture in it.

It is very likely that a challenge to Oregon 114 will be upheld. Already magazine capacity limits in states like California and New York have been nullified by the results of Bruen v. New York State Rifle and Pistol Club Supreme Court ruling last year. The current precedent of that ruling is that magazine capacity limits are unconstitutional. But, when it comes to the comparison of right and dead or wrong and alive, which one do you want to be?

Despite the fact that these laws are getting struck down, do you want to pay the lawyers’ bill? Do you have 10 years of your life to fight this fight? Do you want to go through the hassle of arrest and bail or ticket? This is what I am saying, stay the gray man.

End Your Programming Routine: I do not deny who I am or what I like. I do not deny what I have written. But, the past is the past. I think that I am going to start investigating freedom on Thursdays. I need to start spending some time researching a better alternative to where I am currently residing and the best way to do it in my mind is to write about it.

November 21, 2022 – Holiday Hate

November 21, 2022 /

Through the years, I have grown less enamored with Christmas much preferring Thanksgiving. I am not going to give away my podcast secrets here, you will have to listen to find out what is driving this.

The name of this podcast is inspired by George Orwell’s concept of ‘Hate Week’. This is whipping everyone up into moving into the same direction. I am getting everyone ready for the holiday season with this podcast.

End Your Programming Routine: I guess my desire is to change the course of my history. I just realized that the days my family will all be home is limited. We can go back to old traditions or start new ones or let things be the way they are. But, let us feel free to make them what we want and not feel trapped by life just passing us by.

November 18, 2022 – Atlas Shrugged 2:10

November 18, 2022 /

This is the last chapter in part 2. Things seem to be no where near resolved at this point, so we will have to stay tuned for the last 400+ pages of the book.

Dabny meets a transient. He used to work at Twentieth Century Motor Company. He describes the process where the owner died and the factory was taken over by the workers. Part of the process was need based voting on wages and other issues.

“Remember that none of us may now leave this place, for each of us belongs to all others by moral law which we all accept”. One man, stood up and as he left the meeting and disappeared forever said “I will stop the motor of the world”. That man was John Galt.

After that conversation, the train stopped, the crew abandoned the train, possibly in Oklahoma or Kansas. Dabny walks with Owen Kellogg a former employee to find a telephone which is every five miles down the track. During the walk, she discovers that he is in possession of cigarettes with the dollar sign on them. He refuses to talk about the origin, but says that they can only be obtained by gold.

I suppose that these are the main two themes in the chapter. However neither is really new. This chapter is forty pages of marking time. Sure we learned the back story of John Galt and the Dollar symbol (in the book). It kind of reminds me of a podcast I heard years ago about the origin of the dollar. Apparently, the origin of the US dollar was based on the Spanish dollar when it was adopted as currency in 1792.

Kellogg draws some comparisons of the symbol, much like history or politics. There are facts and then there is how those facts are interpreted. For instance, there are those that use the dollar symbol as a weapon to mark greed and selfishness. While there are others that see it as a symbol of creativity and output.

I suspect that people that use the 1% moniker would not refuse a $100 bill if I handed them one, no strings attached. I have never heard of anyone refusing a raise solely on principal. For that matter, those same people do not work for free. So, it is not the money itself that is evil but more likely jealousy. And even more likely hypocrisy meaning who wouldn’t trade financial situations with someone in the 1% assuming that we could handle the transition?

Is everyone that rich a nice, hardworking and deserving person? I doubt it, in fact I would be willing to bet that a lot of them worked in some sort of gray area to get there. So let us look at my version of the Facebook story.

Back when MySpace was the top social media site, the internet was much more undeveloped. Because MySpace was adopted by the newest tech generation (pre-teens and teens), it drove slightly older people to Facebook. These also happened to be the population segment that had money unlike teens. Facebook used mining technology to gather information on it’s users to sell. It was a twist of fate that Facebook conquered MySpace.

As a result, Zuckerburg grew wealthy by a gray area activity. Was it legal, yes. Was it ethical, yes as long as the user agreement disclosed it. Was it proper? I dont know, I don’t use Facebook partially for this reason. Do I like Zuckerburg? No, but not for this. I don’t like the fact that Meta is in the business of manipulating speech.

Enough of that, let me remind people how you get rich. You do this by paying people less than what you make. For instance, I am not rich but I don’t pay the person that mows my grass the same wage that I make. This allows me to focus on the things that I want to do. If the price of the job ever came to my current wage level, I will quit my job right now and start mowing grass. I certainly respect and appreciate the job. They can do in one hour what takes me all day to do. But, my time is worth more to me than the cost of mowing the grass.

Whether it is the Waltons, Musk, Buffet, Gates, etc they all payed people around them less than they made so that they could use their talents in other areas. And let us not forget that there are a lot dull people employed at XMart making $18/hour that would struggle to find a replacement job that is as good. Before we get too judgmental about who did what to get where, it would be good to refresh ourselves with the the tenth commandment: ‘thou shalt not covet’.

End Your Programming Routine: I will say that I struggled today. I kept writing until something quasi-impactful emerged. It all starts with the book and this thing is starting to get a little long in the tooth. I certainly don’t regret doing this and it has definitely been worth it so far. It’s just that some of these chapters don’t add any value to the overall work. I will save the rest for when I finish.

November 17, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

November 17, 2022 /

I am a long time listener of GunTalk. One of the things that Tom Gresham says is that the first thing he does is replace the trigger in a rifle. He says that a good trigger is necessary for good accuracy.

I personally have never had an issue with the trigger on my Remington rifle. It is a little stiff, but otherwise I have felt that it is consistent. However, there was a long standing recall for faulty triggers and that got me thinking. Now that Remington is defunct, the old recall is no longer active. Given the question, I decided to try and upgrade the trigger to a Timney Trigger.

The truth is, I did it because I wanted to try it. I wanted to see if it makes me more accurate. It doesn’t hurt that it is potentially safer as well. Now, I need to resist the urge to replace all of my triggers before I get any realistic data points. At $150, it is a luxury item. I only paid $350 for the entire rifle about ten years ago anyway.

The process is pretty simple. There are two pins right above the trigger in the action. Once out, the trigger unit slides right out. The unit installs in the reverse order. If you are careful about how you do this, then this is a five minute job. I took the entire pin out which also removed the bolt release mechanism. This caused me to have to fiddle with it for twenty minutes to get the springs in the right place and put back together.

I have not shot it, nor do I have plans anytime soon. Part of me thought that I should wait out until hunting season is over just in case I get a wild hair to buy an elk tag. The realistic part of me says that I didn’t do it when I wasn’t working, why would I do it now? I have a standing invitation from my neighbors to go out with them. The season is only a week and I would have to take time off to do it. I really want to, but this is not the year. So, I changed the trigger.

I guess hunting is one of my toolbox fallacies. I always seem to be finding excuses to not do it. We are too busy, the weather is too warm, I don’t have any vacation, etc. I suspect that next year we will get our deer tags drawn. It has been three years since we did. Unless I physically cannot go, I am going next year. It might be one of the last years my dad can go, he is getting into his mid-seventies now and if we have to wait three years, he will be almost eighty the next draw.

On my dry firing, The trigger breaks a lot lighter. According to the documentation, the Timney Hunter model is supposed to be set at three pounds. From what I have read, a trigger that is too light for hunting might be a problem when wearing gloves. A heavier trigger prevents premature discharge because you cant feel as well with gloves on. I guess I have never hunted with gloves on, so I don’t think this will be a problem.

This particular rifle, I have only fired around thirty rounds out of. I haven’t shot it enough to have enough brass to reload. So, now with the new trigger it gives me an excuse to really give this rifle some exercise. It seems like something I should do anyway. So, I look at spending some quality time with this rifle in preparation for possibly the last hunt with my dad.

End Your Programming Routine: I probably should be more glass half full about this. There is no reason I can’t go with him on over the counter tags in future years. But, I guess none of us are guaranteed tomorrow. I just look at him slowing down and hobbling around a lot more. My trigger isn’t the reason I didn’t go hunting this season but it motivates me to look forward and setting plans for next year.

November 16, 2022 – Disorganization is Driving Me Nuts

November 16, 2022 /

A number of years ago, I cobbled a shelf together out of scrap material. The purpose was to organize all of the picnic materials (mostly used with the barbeque). Hence, I hung it above the barbeque in the garage. My first version worked, but it ended up sagging a lot. About three years ago I took it down and re-enforced the sagging shelf.

Something happened while we were in Barcelona. Because when I opened the garage when we got back, I saw the shelf was partially detached from the wall and over half of the items were on the floor. I hastily stacked everything on the floor and subsequently tripped over them and cursed their existence all summer long.

The failure of the old shelf appears that the back, which was nailed into the plywood shelves had separated. Hence, the shelf sort of fell apart. Now, I don’t think it just fell apart on it’s own. but regardless I would say that it wasn’t constructed properly. Any sort of shelf backing, the purpose is really to prevent racking, not necessarily hanging. I am a little surprised that it failed despite realizing the actual weaknesses.

Now that the fall is here and so is the rain, it is time to start shop projects and inside projects. It is also time to stop getting angry every time I try to maneuver in the garage (which is several times a day). I was going to build the shelf that never failed. About a day later, I decided that I was going to get this done as cheaply and quickly as possible.

I was at the local box store and I saw shelf brackets for $4 a piece. I bought four of them thinking I would hang one shelf and try them out. The worst case scenario is that I would save them for some other project later if I thought they were too wimpy. With the World Series on in the background, I set about disassembling the former shelf. I took measurements and pulled nails.

In about two hours, I had the first shelf up and loaded it up with paper plates, Solo cups, aluminum pans etc. I had determined that this was going to be far more cost and time effective to use these brackets rather than buy lumber and build my forever shelves. Over all, I bought 8 brackets (x $4) or $32 plus about four hours total of labor.

The point here is that it kind of offends my sensibilities to use the shelf brackets rather than build something. But, from a standpoint of time savings and even cost, this is no comparison to what I should do. The work is done and the stuff is off the floor after months.

End You Programming Routine: A friend of mine used this term ‘minimal viable product’. What it means is the minimal amount of effort exerted to do the job is the most efficient. This doesn’t necessarily mean do a temporary job, but it also means don’t overthink it. Variables always change in the future and the paradigms of today are not necessarily valid tomorrow. So, trying to futureproof something is often futile.