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One of the real treats in my life is a heated shop. I have a lovely collection of tools and workspaces enabling me to putter with woodwork, metalwork and a bit of mechanical maintenance. I am not great at any of it, but pretty darn good at solving the little challenges and opportunities life sends my way. I have spent some time turning my Jack-of-all-Trades persona into a way to make an honest living, but only at the wrong place at the wrong time. The Fixer business did not blossom, but my website The Fixer.biz is still kicking around […]
By the time you have purchased the equipment required to load your own ammunition, then bought primers, powder, brass and bullets, you will not have saved any money over purchasing commercial factory loaded ammunition.
Trained snipers use commercial high-end ammunition made specifically for that task. Cost per round doesn’t matter, but repeatability, reliability and lethality mean everything.
Hunters only take a few shots per year per rifle. They cannot make handloading pay off for them. Your typical handloader is a guy who shoots in competition. We shoot a lot. The cost-per round must be on par […]
For the last few days, the wildfire smoke around here has been rated “UNHEALTHY”. I use the site AirNow to verify. Click the link to see any city. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality and relatives offer this advice: People with heart or lung disease, older adults, children and teens – take any of these steps to reduce your exposure: Avoid strenuous outdoor activities. Keep outdoor activities short. Consider moving physical activities indoors or rescheduling them.
Everyone else – take any of these steps to reduce your exposure: Choose less strenuous activities (like walking instead of running) so […]
We have muck boots for ourselves, family, friends and guests – anyone who happens by to work or play in our chicken yard, creek, snow or mud. Mostly the collection has been standing in the alley between our house and garage.
One such friend recently discovered a mouse nest in one of the boots we were loaning out. Turns out more than one boot was thusly violated. Fortunately this particular guest is an earthy guy who was not put off by this violation, but the ICK-factor was something we could not tolerate.
My wife sent me links to […]
I have made several versions of this. My new one is based on heavy-gauge steel hog panels, also known as livestock panels. I had, have some scraps kicking around that needed repurposing.
The photographs are actually celebrating my moving the tool rack from the “Tool Port” to the adjacent “Car Port”. Since my diminutive Honda CRX is occupying a full-sized parking space, there is plenty of room for the tools which were contributing to the overcrowding in my tool shed.
Last year I repurposed a plastic strip door, but snow blew in and made a hash of […]
The End Of The World As We Know It began early this year. You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet. The S*** will probably Hit The Fan before this year is out. Economic collapse, food supply collapse, world war, cultural breakdown, civil war, attempts to force DNA-altering vaccines on many who will resist to the death, physical manifestations of disgust with career politicians … if you have been studying at this website and linked resources, you know a “Perfect Storm” of designed attacks on our way of life are coming our way very soon.
Most serious scholars of the […]
This a repeat of my previous announcement. There is one more day of online registration for Darby Adult Ed classes. We stand ONE STUDENT SHORT of having enough to make it happen.
I am bringing another amateur radio operator licensing class to Darby, Montana via the Darby Adult Education program in its Spring 2020 schedule. I have not keept track, but think I have personally assisted 40 or 50 people to earning their FCC licenses through my study groups in the Darby library.
The snide saying goes, “Those who CAN, DO. Those who cannot, TEACH”. I’m okay wearing […]
Far and away the most popular rifle caliber on Earth is the .22 Long Rifle (.22LR). Ammo.com has numerous listings for under 4-cents per round, and as they correctly describe, “Easily the most prolific and well known firearm cartridge in the world, the .22 Long Rifle (LR) is great for plinking and small-game hunting. The .22 LR is also considered the best choice for introducing new people to the sport of shooting, due to its lack of recoil and low noise.” I will add the intuitive: inexpensive, wonderful training tool from cost of gear through expense to operate. You […]
We bought our first new vehicle in 13 years, a Polaris Sportsman 570 with plow. It teamed up with our snow blower to make dealing with a yard full of snow possible. See snow shoveling for old men for a more thorough coverage of that.
Other benefits of this particular tool include a lot of brush clearing on my agenda that by itself did not justify this micro-tractor.
Yesterday I was getting around to installing its license plate and the sticker proclaiming we paid the US Forest Service for the privelege of traveling in our own forests. But where […]
I measure, speak, write and calculate in inch-foot as well as metric. Of course when I am purchasing materials at the hardware and building supply stores I have to use feet, inches and fractions thereof. But when it comes to working on my own, metric is typically easier to use.
Finding the middle of a piece three feet eight and a quarter inches long is not as easy as dividing 112 centimeters in half. Millimeters handsomely split centimeters into tenths. 52.5 is easy to remember, repeat and work with compared to 1 foot 8 and 3/16 inches. I am […]
In response to what I have experienced as a chicken rancher, I just built my third semi-auto mousetrap.
The first one had to be inside a chicken coop that had baby chicks along with adult chickens and roosters. I had to study up to figure out a way to eliminate a major community of mice who were eating chicken feed, drinking their water and, most importantly depositing mouse poop all over everything.
The odds on their creating an unhealthy environment were very high.
While the essence of this device came from other people, I adapted, adjust […]
I feel like it has been a long time coming. But when I really think about it, we moved into a trashed homestead 7 months ago. We have made tremendous progress on numerous fronts.
Nevertheless, today’s big success is the proper lighting and wiring of my studio.
I have had a solar-recharged 12-volt grid-independent electrical system for about 5 years. The primary motivation was for my short and long range 2-way radios; my HAM gear. All of these radios run on 12-volts.
You either run them on automotive-compatible systems, or you buy separate power inverters to turn you […]
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