The sad state of the American male!

Time for a rant. I warned you way back in the beginning of this blog I wouldn't always be Mr nice guy. Sorry if some are offended, but, I need to say it! Keep in mind this is partially tongue in cheek. Several days ago I had the opportunity to over hear a conversation between three men. Well two talked and the third just sat there and nodded. It seems guy #1 (using the term guy loosely here) was tired of hearing his wife complain about the cost of their lawn service. Which was just over $100 a month and included snow plowing in winter. Guy #2 said the cost of a mower was too much to justify doing it yourself. The cost of a tractor alone was over $1500. Guy #1 replied that their fathers mowed the same size lots with push mowers and they cost about what one months of the service does. The problem for guy #1 was he couldn't figure out how to mow along the fence. Guy 2 mentioned a string trimmer. Guy 1 replied that string trimmer scared him and just mowing his city lot was getting too complicated. It all scared guy 2, that's why he pays a service. Yes people, scared and complicated were their words, not mine. We wonder why our country is failing. Yet, how can we manufacture products and have a strong economy when most of our population is afraid of basic objects. A task as simple as cutting grass is viewed as complicated? If the crap ever does really hit the fan bad, we are in deep doo doo. I don't have time to be changing these guys diapers for them. My advice for those guys! Turn off the TV idiot box. Get away from your computer. Make your wife do her own pedicure. Get a mower and mow your lawn. Let the grass grow a little next to the fence, the guy next door is too busy giving his wife a pedicure to care. Break the mower, get grease and oil under your pretty nails and fix it. Next you'll want to change the oil in the car, do it! Before you know it, you'll know what those thing hanging there are, reach down and grab them. The only thing I think you're really afraid of is something called testosterone. Stop eating so much soy, go get yourself a proper piece of meat for dinner and you might have some more of it! It's really not that scary of a thing. Sign this one. Woods, the unreformed male!

Thinking and eating outside the box

Here's a post about one of my favorite things, Eating! Like every red blooded American male I love cooking on the barbeque. Well we just gave away our grill. We found a better way. Actually I should give Pelenaka her due and tell you it was her discovery. Several years ago my darling wife decided the frugal thing to do was to can our food on a wood stove. So, we went shopping and found an old laundry stove in the weeds out behind a antique shop. Spent a bit over $100.00 to get it. We (well mostly she) have used it for three years now for food preservation and it does an excellent job. It also runs for almost free, something that can't be said for our vintage electric stove. A trip around the nieghborhood with a wagon after a wind storm yields plenty of free firewood. Maple mostly, with the occasional piece of walnut, oak or cherry thrown in. Well here is the big discovery. Maple and cherry twigs and sticks beat briquets or lump charcoal all day long. For one thing they are free rather than costing $5.00 for a 10 pound bag. Second they don't require expensive starter either. A strip of brown paper bag or news paper is all it takes. One of those square black grills with the round holes meant for veggies or seafood replaces the wire grill. Pictured above is yours truly roasting hot dogs and goat chops. The goat was the last of a young buck purchased from a friend last spring for $40.00. It lasted so long because I'm the only one that will eat it. The girls had hots and burgers. The jar in the background with the red lid is my home made hot/barbeque sauce. The sauce might just become a source of income. I took a bottle to work and stuck it in the fridge. I had it once. Today one of my coworkers asked when I was bringing in more. The bottle was in the fridge almost empty. The store bought equivilent cost almost four bucks for a ten ounce bottle. It costs me three to make half a gallon of it. Maybe I'll start charging my coworkers for hot sauce. You may recognize that bit of white to my right under the tarp in the picture, as a old fashioned claw foot tub. Yup! You guessed it. In the summer when the girls go to Texas to visit dad, we turn off the hot water heater and bathe behind a screen in the back yard. We just use the old stove for what it was designed to do, heating water. Sure beats having a gas bill! Last month our expensive new fangled front load washing machine broke. I have a strange feeling one of these days, I'm going to come home and find my wife boiling the clothes on top of this stove. Imagine that! Woods

I'm a rocklock man!

It's now official. A rock makes my gun go bang. Last weeks gun show turned up this Traditions flintlock PA rifle. This wasn't my first choice. I really wanted a .45 caliber to save on lead and powder expenses. This .50 caliber gun came along at a price I couldn't refuse. Actually I missed a 20 yr old unfired Navy Arms KY rifle for half the money by minutes. It was a .45 too. That seller was parting out his brothers estate at bargain basement prices. By the time I got there though all his flintlocks were gone. I am happy with what I have though. I've found a complete set of spare lock parts for less than $30.00. That includes two mainsprings and two frizzens. This gun isn't likely to end up out of action in my lifetime. There is only one problem. This gun is 5 inches longer than my gunsafe is tall! That's OK, I've been looking for an excuse to go safe shopping! If I like this gun at the range, I may just have to scrounge up the smallbore version too. It was pointed out to me today, that I'm not posting often enough for one of my fans. Be patient my friends, a couple minor health issues have been keeping me off line. I should be back in a few weeks.