Take heed

July 31st, 2010

You thought it had been hot so far this Summer? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. NOAA warns us that it’s about to get ugly.

HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FOR MOST OF WEST TENNESSEE FROM 11 AM SATURDAY THROUGH 8 PM SUNDAY…

.STRONG HIGH PRESSURE IN THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE WILL BUILD INTO THE
MIDSOUTH FROM THE WEST OVER THE WEEKEND…AND REMAIN SITUATED OVER
THE REGION INTO AT LEAST THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK. HIGH
TEMPERATURES WILL INCREASE A LITTLE EACH DAY PEAKING NEAR OR
SLIGHTLY ABOVE 100 DEGREES FOR THE FIRST HALF OF NEXT WEEK.
OVERNIGHT LOWS WILL NOT DROP BELOW 80 DEGREES ACROSS PARTS OF THE
REGION. PROPER PRECAUTIONS SHOULD BE TAKEN FOR THIS EXTENDED HEAT
WAVE. MAKE SURE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO STAY COOL.

HEAT INDEX READINGS WILL CLIMB TO BETWEEN 105 AND 109 DEGREES
TODAY AND SUNDAY. BY MONDAY…IF NOT SOONER…IT IS POSSIBLE THAT
HEAT INDEX READINGS WILL REACH 110 DEGREES OR HIGHER ACROSS PARTS
OF THE AREA MAKING EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNINGS NECESSARY.

Hydrate early, long before you have to go out. Check on people you care about and those you know might be suffering in the heat. Above all, don’t ignore this threat. It’ll kill you.

Gulf Coast Wetlands

July 30th, 2010

If you are alarmed by the threat posed to migratory birds and other wildlife by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, here is a way of taking action that has pretty broad appeal. Ducks Unlimited, the world leader in waterfowl conservation, has gotten on the situation in a big way. LINK

Ducks Unlimited has been working to restore Gulf Coast wetlands for more than 20 years. During that time, we’ve conserved more than 250,000 acres in the gulf coastal zone. Unfortunately, this region continues to lose an area about the size of one football field every 30 minutes.

Scary stuff!

Zombies!

July 29th, 2010

Tonight I was fortunate enough to be the guest on a call-in podcast show, B&B & Guns. You can take a listen at the link  there. The topic was disaster preparation. I am a big fan of that and practice it as a hobby, but I also operate as a member of the Zombie Squad organization. Give it a listen, and let me have some feedback.

Do I have a voice and diction that is annoying enough to host a shooting show on The Outdoor Channel?

After action

July 27th, 2010

Last night we had a line of thunderstorms move through the area. You’ll get no complaint from me because we needed the rain. One hitch was that we lost electrical power just before sunset. Fortunately, I am a disaster preparation geek and my wife has caught the bug so we were ready.

The emergency lighting came on, the weather radio alerted us dutifully. We got out emergency kits out, along with some weather appropriate gear just in case then sat down to watch a movie on my laptop.

The big item was my uninterruptible power supply. It worked great with one small problem. It kept our telephones, computers, some LED lights and internet hardware running as it  should, but the device that shifts the load from the electrical grid to the batteries has an audible alarm to let everyone know that the unit is working when the power goes out. That alarm can’t be silenced. Annoying. Yes, I will be replacing that bit when time and budget allows.

Dinner was cooked on the grill before the storm to avoid heating up the house. I’m doubly happy because when the power went out the AC was off. Although the sun was down when things got interesting the outside temperature was 85F. The temp inside was 72F. We couldn’t open the windows because of the driving rain, so at bedtime the house had heated up to 78F. Some of you may know what a delicate flower I am, what with that pesky inability to tolerate heat, so sleep was looking unlikely. I could always have fled to the relative cool of my parents’ house, but that would be sacrificing another kind of cool. Instead, I connected a small electric fan to the battery array and pointed it at myself. It was a decent solution.

The power came back on a few hours later thank to the tireless efforts of our local utility company, peace be upon them. If that had not been the case, I’d have looked at using the generator to fire up some AC, a plan that I need to hammer out with an electrician.

All-in-all, it was a good shake out of the power loss plan.

Well, it was bliss while it lasted

July 27th, 2010

We finally got a carpenter to come finish the greenhouse project. “Finish” isn’t the right word though. “Re-Boot” is more accurate. His crew is going to un-do most of what we, the unwashed, had tried to accomplish. In another time I might find that somewhat insulting or at least disheartening . At this point I just want it done so we can have everything lined up to go this Fall. Our guy is a pro in every sense, and this thing will be most excellent when he’s done.

Besides, I’ve fixed more than a few computer problems that were compounded by the user’s efforts to DIY.

Good news / Bad News

July 26th, 2010

My main internet crush, Mixed Martial Arts fighter Roxanne Modafferi, made it onto ESPN Sportcenter‘s “Plays of the Week” segment in the #4 position. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the play in question was her getting dropped on her head and knocked cold by her opponent, Sarah Kaufman, Friday night in the Strikeforce Women’s 135lb title fight. Still, it’s good exposure  for Roxy, Sarah and women’s MMA. In my opinion it was the best fight of the night.

Oh, and WAR ROXY!

Compost

July 26th, 2010

One of my tasks for the day, completed before the heat really set in, was to consolidate our various compost piles. We now have one active pile where we dump our scraps and manure and a mature pile that has percolated sufficiently that it can be used to grow things. It never ceases to amaze me how huge piles of decaying vegetable matter can, by merely turning it over, virtually disappear. Before I scooped them together with the front loader the individual piles were four feet tall. Now the one usable pile is barely two. Ah, the circle of life.

Why go to the trouble of moving the compost? It needed to be closer to the hose. We are getting so little rain that it was drying out, killing the process, so we have to water it.

Farm Film Report

July 25th, 2010

Today when I got up it looked like stormy weather. It was cloudy and spitting rain, so quick like a bunny, I decided to get some grain crops planted. I had the idea to grow some cereal crops and pasture grasses to supplement the feed we give the chickens and horses. Earlier in the season I had plowed a small plot of ground, approximately 20ft x100ft, used the disc to break it up and left it fora few weeks.

While it was exposed it became a source of great amusement for the local wildlife. I found both wild turkeys and deer visiting the turned earth to see what they could find. The novelty must have worn off because this time I saw no sign of animal activity.

Since it looked like rain I turned the soil and distributed some fertilizer and lime, then tilled that in so it could soak in the drizzle. Unfortunately, by the time I finished the prep work the rain clouds had passed me by and it was sunny and ninety-three degrees. Alas.

I had some mixed seed that required only broadcasting, so I put down a couple of passes. That should produce white clover, rapeseed and rye grass. The turkey and deer may come back and decimate it, but that’s OK. I like having them on the farm. Whatever thrives will be harvested for our livestock.

If it ever rains I will plant some millet, sorghum and oats on the rest of the plot.

Allow myself to introduce …myself.

July 25th, 2010

It’s been a very long time since I’ve done any blogging.  It’s also been a while since anyone I have known less that three years looked at this nuthouse. That given, I’m going to try and re-booth the blogging enterprise, and a flashback bio might just be the way to start the ball rolling.

Born in the sixties, I am a child of the eighties. You will see me wantonly toss around movie quotes and pop culture references. I figure there is very little I can say that hasn’t been said better by Mel Brooks or Morris Day.

My blog has a lot on the topic of firearms and shooting. My family is a part of the gun culture that you’ve no doubt heard of. My dad and grandfather taught me to shoot when I was five, and I’ve actually owned a rifle since I was a teenager. I like to shoot, I have some degree of talent, and over the years through law enforcement training I have developed some skill at it. The farm I live on has enough room and a swell location for one, so I built my own firing range that can handle pistols, rifles and shotguns.

You won’t see any advertising on my website as long as I can afford to keep it going. That way the reader will know that my bizarro opinions are strictly mine and not supported by a sponsor. For example, I hate Beretta and Taurus handguns, but I love GLOCK pistols and Saiga rifles. There ya’ go.

Speaking of the farm, my wife and I are experimenting with subsistence farming and sustainable agriculture. We focus our efforts on heirloom species of livestock, chickens and horses, as well as our fruits and vegetables. The goal isn’t to make money even though we do participate in Farmers’ Markets. We want to eat healthy food, minimize our impact on the environment, and help other people get access to good eats regardless of their ability to pay the premium costs the market demands. The farm is called the Cluck-n-Neigh. If you don’t get it I may not want to be your friend. Unless of course you are secure enough to ask about the joke.

The Michael tying this is version 2.0. The latest version is cynical, snarky, gimpy and overweight. Version 1.0 was painfully thin, active but not athletic, and into outdoor pursuits. That included things like hiking, backpacking, biking and martial arts. He had jobs that allowed him to be outdoors more than not. A prolonged serious illness left the world with Michael 2.0. He doesn’t get out as much and his hobbies are more sessile for the most part. Curiously, 2.0 seems more popular than 1.0, making me wonder what that says about society.

My nom de guerre, Xspectre8, goes way back to the days when online first-person-shooter video games were cool. It stuck in a “LOLWUT”   fashion.

Questions? Comments?

perspective

June 10th, 2010

Truly, I am cynical, but if I seem depressed or obsessed with death and chaos, it may simply be that, many years ago, I developed an outlook on life that is unusual by Western standards.

“The Way of the Samurai is found in death. Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily. Every day when one’s body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears and swords, being carried away by surging waves, being thrown into the midst of a great fire, being struck by lightning, being shaken to death by a great earthquake, falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of disease or committing seppuku at the death of one’s master. And every day without fail one should consider himself as dead. This is the substance of the way of the samurai.” – “Hagakure,” by Tsunetomo

I am no warrior-scholar, but it does seem to me that the end of life and the strife leading to it is really something one should come to terms with early.