I know a lot of you have said your own goodbyes to dogs and cats. I still miss my heart-dog Jasmine after nine years. I can’t imagine how it tore Commentariat member Karen up to lose three in the first half of this year.
They break your heart. Every damn time. But life without them feels … heartless.
—–
Robbie went to furrydoc today to see if she could find a physical cause for his nighttime panic attacks.
Short version: nope. Everything normal. He’s in great shape for an old guy. The only thing she discovered is that he has a urinary tract infection. (And who knows how long he’s had that? He never gave a sign.) So he’s on antibiotics.
That’s good news. Looks like no goodbyes to Robbie for a while. Still, I almost wish she’d found something … something that could be treated. Or at least understood.
She recommended melatonin and fish oil to improve his sleep, but I sure wish there was a way to get into that little bully head of his and find out what’s going on in there that has him so suddenly scared in the dark.
Robbie-Bobbie, what are you thinking? What are you feeling, my old baby boy?
That picture is three years old. He’s so much more gray now. Sigh.
—–
It was an interesting trip down memory lane to visit the archives of the old blog (2003 to 2007) looking for Jasmine’s obituary. Once again I have reason to thank Bill St. Clair for being the archive maven.
And odd how the seventeenth century keeps popping up, lately. In the archives, just a few days from Jasmine’s story, I found lessons for gulchers from that century.
I had partner bloggers back in those days. Not everything in those archives is mine. Ian’s post on tactical hand signals was pretty good, too. :-) So glad that first link still works.
Now I’ll go and pet the pooches and mourn the lost ones, including so many, so loved that I never knew but who warmed — and broke — somebody else’s heart. And even more, the ones who could have lived and loved but never got the chance.
If you haven’t visited Earthineer in a while, you might want to take a new look.
Dan Adams has recently added the long-awaited marketplace and barter sections where members can trade with each other. Though they’re still new and smallish, he’s got something quite promising there both for “rural engineers” and for foodies. Earthineer is a labor of love for Dan and it shows in the quality of the presentation.
Among other things, he’s planning to build privacy into the trades, so only the parties involved will have long-term records of their transactions.
Also, Dave Duffy has assigned me an article on Earthineer and I’d love to hear some opinions and questions other than my own.
Carl-Bear observes what he thinks may be a new trend: stockpiling building materials. He’s not sure whether this is a real thing (your opinions requested). But if it is, he’s pretty sure it’s an ominous one.
I was just about to write one of my long, rambly posts about having too much freaking stuff! Among other things, I’m tripping over the boxes of flooring sitting next to the kitchen table. And there’s an old door rescued from a Craftsman house lying smack across the center of the storeroom. The shed in my yard does contain several rolls of tarpaper. Not hoarding, though. I have Actual Uses for these things as soon as I can pull together the time and money. I expect others hereabouts could say the same
But if others are stocking up on 2x4s, insulation, and nails with no near-future plans for such, what do you think’s going on?
If you held out some tiny hope that Obama might not be as complete an economic moron as you thought him to be, read this and Lasciate ogni speranza. Yes, a raft of new federal controls will make energy cheaper!
Speaking of economic moronism: Under the inspiration of a Socialist city council member and waves and waves of trendy blueness, Seattle gone went and done it — raised the city’s minimum wage to $15/hour. For a while they may be saved by all the ifs, ands, and butts they included.
And on the other side of governmental asininity: Court official in Virginia refuses to perform a marriage because the couple aren’t Christians and therefore have no right to get married.
But wait! Governments have no monopoly on idiocy. Seems that hurricanes with female names kill more people, and it may be because people don’t think “girly” hurricanes are as dangerous, and therefore don’t flee or take as many precautions against them. (Oh, human beings, you are so very strange!)
Oh man. I didn’t realize that the latest baby-burning cops were also the preacher-killing cops from a few years back. I just love how the sheriff dismisses all this with, “Bad things can happen. That’s just the world we live in.” A fine statement from the guy who’s making the bad things happen. Tear ‘em a new one, Mr. Grigg.
This one’s already gotten around a lot, but what the heck. It deserves all the attention. Bloomberg’s “Moms” demand action at a Tulsa Chipotle — and they get it. :-)
Photos show a normal, though elderly, little house. But Annie Dodds quickly discovered why she was able to lease the place sight-unseen for just $500 per year. It had no electrical service, no plumbing (not even an outhouse), rats in the attic, a tree staving in one wall, and a host of other cold, hot, wet, dry, dirty, inconvenient problems.
It was the kind of place where, on a bad day, you might open your sock drawer, briefly think, “I don’t have any socks that color,” then realize you were looking at a rattlesnake coiled atop your footwear.
But Annie loved it.
A Widow’s Walk tells the story of how she — recently widowed, emotionally devastated, dead broke, middle-aged, and equipped only with her own resourcefulness — followed her Backwoods Home-inspired dream of living independently and off-grid.
I’ve told you before that a longtime friend of this blog is dying. Cancer. And the disease is taking its own long, harrowing time. When I’ve etalked with him, he’s seemed in good spirits, though tired. It’s much harder on his wife, he says. And in my few contacts with her, I see.
Yesterday she sent me the following and gave permission to post it. The following words are hers:
—–
I have been introspective for the past few days. I am rambling here so please forgive me. F. and I have spent a good part of our youth preparing for the future. We worked hard and saved money to insure financial security, we learned how to hunt, grow food, defend ourselves, basic first aid, make wine, soap, and many other necessary skills to be able to survive if our world as we knew it, should come crashing down.
Illness and death of a partner was one skill too hard to imagine, so we had no plan. And here we are. Over the course of two years now, I have watched a healthy, strong man grow old. I have had my heart broken a few times in my life when I thought my world was ending. Watching my life partner die is the worst pain I have ever had. My plan had always been to die first, and I did all the wrong things healthwise to ensure that. Well, the universe had other plans and here we are.
I love how my friends and family tell me to be strong. “YOU can do this” “You are a strong women.” Well I don’t want to be strong. I just want to curl up next to my man and have him hold me. One more time. That’s not going to happen.
So here’s my message. NEVER take someone you love for granted. ALWAYS tell them you love them. And show it.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t describe where the political world stands (no surprise). But it does describe a cool new website and a beautifully laid-out and informative digital magazine.
Brink of Freedom is a great place. It combines a freedomista attitude, high energy, and useful self-sufficiency how-tos.
Michael W. Dean of Freedom Feens turned me on to the site and introduced me to its founder, Josiah Wallingford. (Don’t you love that name?)
Go check it out for yourself. It’s the kind of place you could spend hours. But while you’re here, here’s a little background Q&A with Josiah, as well as links to pdfs of BoF’s January and February editions:
Oh yeah. Absolutely nothing could go wrong with this “smart” gun. And I’m sure there’s just lots and lots of consumer bureaucrat demand. (H/T PT)
Question finally answered: Is Ted Nugent an interestingly loud-mouthed a**hole? Or just a loud-mouthed a**hole? (Hey, Ted. That’s how genocides get justified.)
But it would have been perfectly okay — and the truth, too! — to call Obama and his minions lying creepazoid tyrant wannabes who, among other things are getting even creepazoidier in their cravings to control speech and the press. Yep, that would be just a-okay and probably even a service to the nation, the world, and every individual on the planet.
Free firestarter samples. Get ‘em while they last (if you don’t mind ending up on the company’s mailing list, of course). (Tip o’ hat to H)
AmericanMercenary’s pantry test with Augason Farms foods has concluded. Results mixed. Worthwhile report. (H/T JB)
Calling all Girl Scouts! Want to break cookie-selling records? Well what better place could there be to set up shop? It’s a natural.
Augason Farms is the company that’s helped turn my local Walmart into a prepper haven. They definitely make a good quality product that’s still selling strongly here two years after I discovered it disappearing healthily from Mr. Walton’s shelves. (Walmart, however, still seems unable to decide whether #10 cans of dehydrated and freeze-dried foods belong in the grocery section, the outdoor area, or someplace else altogether. It’s a hunt every time.)
Does the new CBO report put the final nail in the Obamacare coffin? That might be a tad optimistic. But the report just ain’t pretty, no matter how Big O’s flappers try to spin it.
MWD, who sent this development thinks it’s a world-altering change. Welllll … In any case, it’s a hopeful sign for privacy.
Also from Amazon: Just what every survival shelter and humble hermit home should have. (Tks, A.) (Yeah, and I put one of my Amazon links on it, even though you’ll buy one shortly after you open that ice cream stand in Hades. But hey, it does have free shipping!) (P.S. Don’t miss the reviews on this one, either!)
Why do “progressives” favor gun control? (Well, because they’re control-freaking authoritarians, that’s why. Still, it’s a pretty interesting article.)
Rand Paul: If there was a war on women … women won it. Rand may not be Ron, but he’s a pretty sharp politician. (Which may be a good or a bad thing, depending.)
Erin Palette has a new blog, Blue Collar Prepping. Being of blue collar (rather than blue blood or silver spoon) heritage myself, I look forward to learning how our prepping differs from anybody else’s. Presumably it doesn’t involve flying to our private bunkers in our private jets as our private army fends off blue-collar zombie hordes. (H/T jed from comments)
The language seems horrible. The process of inventing a language and falling in among those who traffic in such stuff — fascinating. Leave it to one of the Foer brothers to track down this interestingly obscure intellectual tale.
No survival pantry could possibly be complete without this! (H/T to A for those last two.)
Speaking of languages, here’s a cool, fun way to learn a few. There’s a phone app for this, too. First time I’ve ever regretted not having a smartphone.
