Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Welcome

Thanks to That Guy for hitting the follow button. I try to answer all comments. Stop by, put in your 2 cents.

Compound Security

I thought that I would introduce everyone to our compound security unit. They are a wild, loud-mouthed crazy bunch. They are very loyal to the cause. They fear nothing. Well, maybe that's not a correct statement. Actually to put it more correctly, the fear nothing on the other side of the fence!

First there is Captain Dinka (more affectionately known as Tank). Part Golden Retriever, part Yellow Lab. 8 1/2 years old. Naturally born leader. Bravely leads the group from her camouflaged position she has dug into Carol's favorite flower bed.
Here she is getting ready to interrogate extremist quail. Can't be to careful these days. She was explaining the hazards of trying to escape.


Whenever Captain Dinka is tied up in important meetings or taking a nap, (which is usually the case), she turns things over to the "Sarge", Annie. Annie is a 7 1/2 year old cross between a yellow lab and a doberman. Annie is in charge of the "bunny" squad. She is on constant patrol on the perimeter fence making sure there are no breaches. A fearless dog, until a storm comes up and then it is anxiety attack time. In the house, behind the chair or bed, shaking like a leaf.


Next in line is Private Bella. Bella is part chocolate lab, black lab, and whatever else happened up the alley. 1 1/2 years old. She is still in training at the moment. Her specialty now is anything that moves. Anything blowing through the yard is fair game. She is pretty deadly with reflections of light from doors, windows, etc. She has a real hi-pitched voice, so she is the danger, alert sounder. When she sounds off, the others have to roll. Danger abounds. This picture is of Bella cooling of in the sprinkler after a hot day of keeping everyone safe.


This picture is of all three, heads together, trying to decide if water-boarding will be necessary on the suspected terrorist quail. They travel without luggage, they live in hiding in the wild. They are pretty secretive. All indications of a terrorist cell. Could be others in the area. Waterboarding may be needed to discover the main bunch!


All kidding aside, these dogs have been our "kids at home" for the past 8 years. The have been great companions and protectors. I spent a few years working in juvenile justice system as an intake officer, surveillance and transport office. I was gone a lot at night, so it was a comfort to me to know that they were there with Carol.(The pistol on the lampstand was too).
The love that a dog shows for its master is the greatest love that can be shown. They are there for you 24/7. Agape love. They will give there life to protect.
We bought Dinka from a litter of nine, I believe. Annie was a pound puppy. Bell was a birthday gift to Carol from a Grandson. They are a great source of entertainment. They each have there little quirks, and routines that they go through each day. Dinka is starting to show her years. She sleeps a lot. Has to have medicine daily for achy joints. She has had two knee surgeries. They are house dogs. We have almost 1/2 an acre fenced off that they run in. They never have been penned up. They are the greatest!

God Bless all--johnnyb

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Tis the season

First it was Black Friday. I don't know if there was a name for Saturday and Sunday. Then comes Cyber Monday. I received an email from one e-cataloge calling today Tremendous Tuesday. Then what--Wicked Wednesday-prices so low there are just plain evil. Let's see--how about Thirsty Thursday. By now it is beerthirty. Enough with the commercialism. What happened to all the traditions of Christmas. What's wrong with a Christmas that is based on what the real meaning of Christmas is. I understand that the Magi bore expensive gifts to the baby Jesus. They were bearing gifts for a "King". I know there is those out there that think they deserve all the expensive things, but I don't think there is anyone out there that deserves the gifts that the baby Jesus received.

It seems that kids today want Transformers, all the fancy games, etc. What is wrong with a plain old fashioned Christmas with a few gifts that are hand-made, either by you or someone you know. Craft fairs are a good place for this. Nothing fancy, just something that means something. "It's the thought that counts" doesn't seem to come into play like it used to. Kids will tear through the packages, paper, bows and tape flying everywhere. No "thanks Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Dad". You might hear "but Billy got more than I did." That one really gets me. No concept whatever. I suppose you can point a finger at parents, and rightfully so. We have tendency to spoil them. It is our right, especially as Grandparents. But we need to be teaching them, not spoiling them quite as much. TV doesn't help. Schools would like to take the Christ out of the season. Big business looks at Christmas as to how profitable it was to them.
It all comes back to us as parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, just plain sensible adults to try to bring back a little sense to the season.
No Happy Holidays from here, but plenty of --MERRY CHRISTMAS, MERRY CHRISTMAS.

God bless--johnnyb

Monday, November 28, 2011

The Pack Rat Saga

A pack rat decided to take up residence in what will be my little workshop. I hadn't really had time to mess with him while doing the sleeping cabin. I would see it from time to time. It even got so bold as to sit up in the rafters and watch me. Got to be kind of amusing, (only for me, I might add). Last week it was time to put an end to his adventures. Picked up a rat trap at the hardware store, set it with a nice bit of peanut butter. Next morning it was over. John 1, rat 0! Yesterday I started cleaning its nest or whatever you call it. It had got into the insulation when I was insulating the cabin area. There was a trash bag full.(I had to re-insulate part of one wall). The insulation was what became its swapping material. There were pipe fittings, screws, pvc pipe connections, nuts and bolts, etc. In each box where it had gotten something out of, there was insulation left as trade. If the size of the nest was any indication of the winter ahead, we are in deep doo-doo(or snow)! I hope not, but can't do much about it, if it is. As long as we can get to the library every two weeks it's bring it on.

Another month is about all but a memory. Seems like it really zipped by. It can't go fast enough for me. Seed catalogs are coming now and I can't wait for spring to get here. Should be a law against mailing seed catalogs before the first of the year!

Quote for the day--"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office."-- Aesop

Everybody have a safe and prosperous week. God Bless--johnnyb

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Welcome

Welcome 45er over at Barrel Smoke. Thanks for hitting the button. I will always try to answer comments as soon as possible,so please put in your 2 cents.

God Bless---johnnyb

Friday, November 25, 2011

Dumb butt study of the day

The following article was found on WEBMD:

Bacteria Flourish in Public Restrooms
Study Shows Many Strains of Bacteria Are Common on Surfaces in Public Restrooms


We needed this study, why? There must be more people living under a rock than I thought!

Hope everyone had a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving. We had an enjoyable day with family.

Quote for the day--" Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner."-- James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

Have a good one--God Bless all--johnnyb

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving

I want to wish all my friends out there a very Happy Thanksgiving. I hope everyone can share the day with family or friends. To my friends in other parts of the world I still say Happy Thanksgiving. It doesn't have to be just a day or a holiday. I would hope that everyone gives thanks daily for what we have, be it little or small.
We are spending the day with family about 100 miles away. Won't be able to spend a long day there, but will be able to see most of the grandkids, and that is always good. We usually don't stay away from home for too long. We have a friend who will look in on the dogs and make sure they haven't excavated the house and moved it next door! Once again--a Happy thanksgiving to all.
God Bless--johnnyb

Monday, November 21, 2011

Tools Explained

I received this from a friend and thought I would pass it on. I'm sure a lot of you can relate--johnnyb

Tools Explained –


DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.

WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light . Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, 'Oh sh--!'

CUTOFF SAW: A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.

PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.

BELT SANDER: An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.

HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle ... It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.

VICE-GRIPS: Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

OXY-ACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.

TABLE SAW: A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes , trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.

BAND SAW: A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.

TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.

STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER: A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws and butchering your palms.

CROWBAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.

HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to make hoses too short.

HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit.

UTILITY KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.

SON-OF-A-BITCH TOOL: (A personal favorite!!) Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling 'Son of a BITCH!' at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need.

Guard Dogs and Lampshades

Here is a picture of two of our dogs in their daily routine of protecting the property. They diligently check every little thing to make sure that all is well. Here they are checking the inside of their eyelids.
Boy I feel safe!


As I stated before, we repurposed a lot of stuff for the cabin. Lamps and lampshades among them. We had these old fixtures we were going to use, but the lampshade weren't in the best condition. So the artist and craftsman came out in Carol and she took care of that situation. She hot-glued sticks to the frame of the shades. Took a lot of sticks to do the two shades. I think they came out real good and kept with our theme of "rustic". I didn't escape the project entirely. I was the stick gatherer and all around "gofer' for the project.It is always fun to do things like this, especially when they are a success. In the back ground of the second pic, you can see the dogs are still on duty. Dinka is making sure the ceiling is ok. Nothing is going to intrude from that direction! Bella is just bored.







Cold this morning. 10 above. Should warm into the 40's today. Almost 70 on Friday and then the weekend turned to doo-doo. 30's all weekend.
Time to go for now. I should really do something besides drink coffee all morning.

Quote for today--"No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session".-- Mark Twain (1866)
God Bless all--johnnyb

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Cabin pics

Finally, the inside of the cabin is done. It has been quite a process, but fun to do. Next year we will build a porch. As you can see we have a "faux" (pallet) porch for now. Need to replenish the wood supplies. The first picture is right after we bought the place. I think there is some other pics on some older posts that show the "mess" we bought. When the second pic was taken, I wondered how it was going to work. Nothing was square, or plumb. But oh well here goes! The electrical, insulation, sheet rock for the ceiling, front door.and 2 X 6's for the floor joist were new materials. Everything else was repurposed, beg, borrowed or stolen. Just joking. Nothing stolen. The walls are old house and barn siding. Most of the wood was bare from the elements. Just took a little scraping and cleaning and they were ready to paint. They soaked up a lot of paint. Not all of the siding was the same type. The house siding was a different width than the barn siding. Didn't pay any attention to it. Didn't care. Gives it the look we were after. The back door was an old door I found lying around. The hardware was from the old house I am tearing down. The latch and door knob are the old flush mount type. That is all that was in the old house on the doors. I think most of them work. Some of the lumber was dimension lumber, so I had to plan accordingly. The floor is from pallets. One sanding, stain,and polyurethane and it was good to go. It is done and ready for occupancy the first of December.
Quote for today--"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."-- Mark Twain

Have a good weekend, be safe and God Bless--johnnyb

Friday, November 18, 2011

Headline of the day!!!!

Since 1978, at least 37 people have died as a result of shaking vending machines in an attempt to get free merchandise. More than 100 have been injured.

Does anybody even care? Actually not a headline from anything, just from a list of useless information. Didn't really have a lot to say this morning,so I just put that in. Actually I do have a lot I could say this morning, but I don't know where to start. I'll just let others say it and I will comment. Some are much better at putting it down than I am. Sometimes it is hard to be objective and make good sense when everything just pisses me off.
Quote for today--"The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
-- Ronald Reagan
Everybody have a good one and keep the faith. God Bless--johnnyb

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Snowfall


Nice wet snow this morning. Only a couple of inches, but the moisture is needed. Big snow flakes now and no wind. Unusual to see snow falling straight down here. Usually is horizontal because of the wind. Nothing to stop it except barb wire fence and a thistle here and there. Wind is supposed to come up later in the day, so it will pile all the snow up where it isn't needed.
Pretty well have the cabin done. A little touch-up painting to do. Got the back door hung yesterday. Went in ok. We were surprised. Never know when using "recycled" materials how things will fit. We started moving some of the stuff in yesterday afternoon. We have been collecting and storing things in the house, which isn't all that big, so it is nice to get that stuff out. I will include pics when I get them taken.

Quote for today-"I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."
-- Winston Churchill
God Bless all and have a good one wherever you are and whatever you are doing.--johnnyb

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Hunting Season

Beautiful fall weather. A little dry, but nice temps. Been good weather to just be out doing something. Pheasant season opened this week-end. Will run through the end of January. Sounded like a war zone around the countryside yesterday. There are some friends coming in Wednesday from Colorado to do some hunting. They are son's of a very good friend who has a house near us. Then in December he will be here with a bunch of guys to hunt for a few days. A couple of them will stay in our cabin, so will need to get it finished up. I enjoy pheasant hunting, but don't care much for the meat. I'll eat it, but would rather leave it for others. Besides that I don't have a shotgun. Authorities frown on me using my 54 cal muzzle loader. No sense of humor there. There seems to be a lot of birds in this area. East of us the weather was a little harsher this past spring and summer, killing a lot of the birds. Deer season will start next month. Quite a few deer also. There has been some wasting disease infecting the white-tail population. I understand the mule deer aren't infected. Plenty of both.
People come a long ways to hunt the game around here. They traipse around the weeds, snow, cold, sit in tree stands, and love every minute of it. The funny part of it is, I can sit in my yard and daily see deer, pheasants, turkeys come within rock throwing distance. I must be getting lazy in my old age. I have always enjoyed hunting, but unless I have to, I am just happy to let others try to keep the wild population in check.
Quote for the day--"I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." Winston Churchill.

God Bless all and have a good day--johnnyb

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Hunting season


What can I add to this!!God Bless--johnnyb

Friday, November 11, 2011

Veterans Day


Enough Said. God Bless---johnnyb

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Good morning USA


Another of my winter projects. Hope to be able to fire it soon. Nice sunny day today. Storm never developed. Could have used the moisture. I think we will continue work on the cabin today. Ceiling paint will be next. There is one door to hang, then trim and it should be ready. Next spring we will put a porch on it. Need to get more wood for that. We will stay with the recycled wood if possible. I have stated this before, but this has been fun project.
Quote for today from Dwight D. Eisenhower--"In preparing for battle I have always found that plans were useless, but planning is indispensable."

God Bless--johnnyb

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Dreary day

Cold, cloudy ,misty, snowy, and the wind is supposed to be on the way. All the ingredients for a crappy day. We could get a few inches of snow. They keep changing the forecast, so we don't know what is coming. Hope everyone has missed earthquakes, tornadoes the past few days. We didn't feel any shaking in NW Kansas,but farther east they did. Bad weather was southeast of us yesterday. Had a few drops of rain was about all.
For everyone living south of here, there are a bunch of geese headed your way. They usually have gone through by now, but yesterday they had it in road gear, south bound and glory. After about 3 circles, I heard the lead goose holler at the ends of the V to "put their butts on suck and hang on, 'cause it might get rough!"
Thought for the day from Thomas Jefferson--" A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have."

God Bless all today---johnnyb

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Where I have and have not been

I have been in many places, but I've never been in Cahoots.
Apparently, you can't go alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone.

I've also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there.

I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport; you have
to be driven there. I have made several trips there, thanks to my
friends, family and work.

I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and I'm not
too much on physical activity anymore.

I have also been in Doubt. That is a sad place to go, and I try not
to visit there too often.

I've been in Flexible, but only when it was very important to stand firm.

Sometimes I'm in Capable, and I go there more often as I'm getting older.

One of my favorite places to be is in Suspense! It really gets the
adrenalin flowing and pumps up the old heart! At my age I need all
the stimuli I can get!

Author Unknown

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Cabin pics





Just a couple of pics of the inside of the sleeping cabin we have been working the past few months. The floor is recycled from 2X4 pallets, each 32" long. Went over them once with a commercial sander, stained, and we have put two coats of polyurethane as a top coat. The walls are old house and barn siding from an old house that I am tearing down, sanded and repainted. Only thing left is one door to hand, trim around windows and walls, and paint the ceiling. We have pheasant hunters staying in it the first of December, so everything is going ok.

MDR--I did't recycle nails or screws either. The nails were the old square nails. I've kept a lot of them, just because. Funny story--One day I was in the hardware store and I showed a square nail to the person waiting on me and jokingly asked if they had anything like that. She said she didn't think they did, but they could probably order some. (She was serious!) I told her I would just use what they had on the shelf. I hope she doesn't try to order some.

The other picture is an early morning in NW Kansas. God Bless all and keep up a smile. It will make others wonder what you are up to.---johnnyb

Friday, November 4, 2011

Good morning

Can't think of anything of extreme interest to talk about this morning. I woke up breathing this morning, so I guess that is a good sign. Would not have been a good start to the day had I not.
Anyway I just want to say good morning, or evening, depending on where you are located, to all my friends out there. God Bless and have a good one!--johnnyb