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USofA Constitution, Amendment IV The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Of course these protections are long gone. (Sorry Ben)
Warrantless searches of homes, often by violent teams of men above the law number in the thousands every year, and continue to rise.
Heavily armed checkpoints on public roads are regularly […]
I have recently been looking into subsonic rifle loads for full-sized bullets. By full-size I mean enough power to be considered adequate for hunting and defensive purposes. Less recoil and less noise are attractive, but I have found that sub-sonic rimfire (.22LR) can’t even clean-kill whistle pigs. One way to go, of course, would be to just get a carbine that shoots pistol ammunition for the purpose. The popular handgun loads all come with subsonic options or, as in .45, never do go supersonic.
The speed of sound is about 1,130 feet per second. That varies a bit […]
On their first day in the new legislative session in Lansing, a group of state lawmakers introduced a bill to end Daylight Saving Time in Michigan. The bill would make Eastern Standard Time the official time zone for the entire state and eliminate setting the clocks backward or forward.
The article from CBS-Detroit includes a poll which indicates about 2/3rds of us would love to see it gone. As with most online polls, you have to vote to see the results.
Of all the meddling legislators do in each session, undoing stupid stuff rarely gets much consideration. It […]
The Bitterroot Mushers put on another fun and interesting dog sledding and skijorning event last weekend (Jan 14-15, 2017).
Brandi and Nicki do an impressive job of pulling this event together and making it run smoothly and efficiently.
I was happily able to provide radio communications to and from workers spread out over 30 miles of mountain trails.
My hero on the comms side is Rick who both days hitched a ride on a snowmobile to the COLD mountain top where he set up the radio repeater that enabled signals from hand-held radios reach to and […]
In N. Calif. I heated exclusively with wood for 19 years in a 1900-sq-ft home I had built with no alternative to wood heat (and passive solar). I was always able to find places to cut. I burned 1-2–year-old oak primarily, but also other local wood with excellent heat value.
Fir was bottom-end stuff there, and pine not worth the bother. Those did not put out enough heat, burned up too fast and left a lot of ash.
I didn’t understand the value of splitting mauls. I bought one to see it magically split wood with a single […]
Shortly after I switched from a ’63 Porsche hardtop to a topless ’56 Porsche Speedster, I tripped over a street merchant in San Francisco who was hawking his hand-made caps. It was a bit more than I could justify spending, but an elk-hide Greek fisherman’s cap fit my head, needs and desires so well that it went home with me.
It became “The Speedster Hat”. It lived in The Speedster and rode on my head summer, winter, rain and shine. That was 20 years of fitting my head, and everything else I could want in a hat.
I sold […]
You probably thought I meant to write “absolutely not”. Nope.
We like to think there are more absolutes in our world than really exist. We are particularly easy to suck in when unusual, distinct numbers or those with decimal places are thrown in. 96.7% of statistics are made up on the spot That sounds much more researched and nuanced than “More often than not …”.
People talk and write about the weather a lot (72.3% of conversations include such discussions 😉 ). This is particularly a hot topic when we are in the midst of a record cold snap, […]
I have spent the last half-dozen years improving my ability to support community communications.
Well, more accurately, I spent a tiny fraction of my time and brain power learning 2-way radio … As I do with nearly everything else in my life: Jack of all trades; master of none.
This morning I was guided to an excellent overview article with links covering what SOMEONE in every community needs to know before we can consider comms covered.
Crumb! I have a long ways to go, yet I want it all NOW.
That leaves me three choices: 1) Get […]
Lots of deep cold, plenty of snow, followed by some warm, throw in some precipitation and you have a recipe for ice dams breaking.
That, of course includes the possibility of flooding.
We are coming up on that exact situation during the next week.
Last month I recorded the first event like that I have witnessed in several winters here.
Amazingly I was inspired to take a short video clip of The Bitterroot freezing over in our front yard on December 9th.
Okay, by itself, that event isn’t amazing, but what I recorded the very next day is […]
It is foolhardy for people to think they will survive a major upheaval alone, with their immediate family, by retreating to a cave in the woods or other macho-man ideas I have heard voiced. We aren’t mountain lions in a place where game is plentiful for our population.
Realistically, we humans need a huge variety of specializations, strengths and personalities that come from a fairly large tribe … not to mention significant genetic diversity for long-term survival of our offspring.
Any plan that does not take survival of the community into account falls short of good by a wide […]
At 0030 last night Beagle Brain went off as if the zombie apocalypse had begun at our door.
In a flash I had my robe on and was in the front room.
The motion-detector flood lights were on, but everywhere I looked was vacant of mammalian beings… or anything at all visible but the snow, river and trees that normally occupy our riverside yard.
Yet Beagle Brain was barking at extreme pitch, far more so than the normal ‘won’t shut up cuz there is a deer walking in the woods’.
I continue investigating, then see a flash of a […]
I am again offering to teach two-way radio communications to my neighbors in the Darby area.
I have formatted the classes differently, and added significantly to the offerings.
There is a sequence to these classes, from easiest to acquire to more challenging.
The first class is strictly about GMRS radios. This license has no training, knowledge or testing requirement. You send 70 bucks to the FCC and get their permission for your whole family to use the frequencies for the next 5 years. The class I am offering for these only takes 2 hours out of a Saturday mid-morning. […]
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