Cold Camp

It has turned cold here today, and I don't feel too well, still getting over the 'bug' I had last weekend. I thought about going over to Stephens place and sharing the love but he would kick me out.
For those who have been following the story of my Mother in Law who was beaten, she had to go back into hospital with some stomach problems, doesn't appear too serious but she keeps getting set-backs.
Stay safe friends.

Not Good # 16

Not a good time to let your guard down.

28 1445 Zulu Nov 11

I got back into town late last night , had a good weekend (although I was very sick Sat night) I will write more about it later. I was scanning the blogs early this morning and came across a good read on  Survival Blog about AR-15's It discusses the brand name AR's as compared to no name brands, I agree with his reasoning and it has been my experience as well....anyway worth checking out if you haven't seen it.

Thanksgiving Holiday

Hi to all, I'm out of town, shooting, eating, playing with high explosives etc. (typical American holiday) I plan to be back in a day or two. Be safe, talk later.......Duke out.

Happy Thanksgiving

All the best to all my friends, hope you enjoy time with family and friends.

Remember the troops away from home this holiday season

Not Good # 14

I am not sure whats happening here, kissing the pole????

I'm Starting To Hate Christmas

OK maybe hate is too strong a word but seriously, I am starting to really resent this time of year. A day or so ago Rev. Paul had a blog about different ways to give gifts this year to support local, American, home grown businesses. It got me to thinking maybe some of you can think of different ways to celebrate the season as well. A couple of years ago we decided to do a few days of short trips to different things with close family in lieu of gifts like a day at Disney,  an evening at a dinner theater with a Christmas play, Church events, a day visiting different attractions in St Augustine etc. I enjoyed it as did some other family but some not so much.
I really despise how we are suckered into thinking we must spend money on things we don't need and many times won't be appreciated the next day or will be trash in a month or so.
I am serious, I would be happy getting a card (and giving others a card also) and just enjoying a good meal much like Thanksgiving. In fact Thanksgiving is now my favorite holiday by far. I want to go to sleep Christmas Eve and wake up Dec 26th and forget about Christmas. This society has sucked all the joy out of Christmas. I want to enjoy the real meaning of the season but with kids and grand kids we feel trapped. I am about at the stage to just tell them all forget it........hate me but I'm done.
If I sound bitter I am......in fact the more I think about it the more ticked off I get.
PTSD kickin' in again.

There are troops in harms way who would think the best gift of all would be holding their families and feeling safe for just a few hours.

What a Weekend.

For those who are following the saga of my Mother in Law who was severely beaten in her home, I believe we have good news. She is supposedly coming home tomorrow.  There were quite a few complications from the beating, fluid around the lungs, bruised and swollen kidney, stomach problems, fractured skull and hip etc. She still has to use a walker to get around and will need a hip replacement but for now she seems to be doing better. Thank you for all the prayers and kind words of support.

My stepdaughter's car (well actually my car but I never drive it) broke down last Thursday night, its a Ford Focus. I am not a mechanic nor do I play one on TV but I have a pretty good grasp on mechanical things. I do not have money to throw at it so I decided to fix it myself. I determined the fuel pump was not working after much troubleshooting. I bought a new one, when the old pump was removed it did bench test OK but the screen around the pump was clogged so I decided to replace the pump anyway seeing as I had gone this far. I installed the new pump but the car failed to run.
The pump is in the tank and not a lot of fun to change. I pulled the new pump back out and bench tested it.....it worked. I put it back in...still not running. I tested all the circuits and everything was fine, I took the pump back out, it still bench tested fine. I determined it was not working when submerged in fuel so out of desperation I reinstalled the old pump and screen after it was thoroughly cleaned, I put it all back together and it ran like a top. The bright side of it was I took the pump back to the parts store and they refunded my money.
I do have a car lift in my shop (that picks up the whole car and you can walk under it) but it is still not a fun job. I have better things to do with my weekends.

Welcome New Friend

I would like to extend a welcome to Shelia. I appreciate all followers, I welcome all comments and will strive to reply to all of them.

Not Good # 13

Not a good way to hit home plate.

Mountain Coaster

Check out this Mountain Coaster, looks like fun.

TEOTWAWKI, what maybe to expect.

I had not seen this before...wish I had, Very interesting, you should watch the first 5 or so minutes of this video. It gives you something to think about if we encounter TEOTWAWKI.

 

If you are interested the rest of the show is on youtube.

Welcome in Order

 Welcome to Bama Cherokee and Julz , glad to have you here. As always I try and respond to all comments and welcome any feedback thanks.
Please check out their site and say hello.

10 Important Engineering Laws

A couple of days ago Hillbilly did a story on what a man really needs to know. He included a flow chart which really summed up all you need to know to fix stuff.
Being a engineer and tinkerer myself I have always liked to take stuff apart and fix them or make them better. In my years of experience I have discovered some Undeniable Laws of Engineering  I thought I would share them here.
10 Laws of Engineering
1- Interchangeable Parts-wont, any interchangeable part will have to be modified to fit correctly
2- If it jams, force it. If it breaks it needed replacing anyway. Applies to almost any part that has been on the car since gas was under a dollar a gallon
3- Any tool dropped while repairing a car will roll underneath to the exact center, if it is not in the   center of the car it will be inside the engine or some other equally hard place to get to and will require hours
to retrieve.
4- If you fool around with something for a long time you will screw it up, if it's fixed stop working on it  unless you are willing to sacrifice it to potentially make it better.
5- Every Job will take twice as long as you expect. Ignore this rule at your peril, don't start on a 4 hour job when you need the car in 5 hours to take your wife out for your anniversary
6- If everything seems to be going together perfectly you obviously don't know what is going on.      sooner or later you will realize you forgot an important clip or pin and have to take it apart again, usually        this is discovered at the end of the job with leftover parts. Thus the reason for rule # 5
7- Leak-proof seals, will trust me on this one, nothing is leak proof. It may be leak resistant but not             leak-proof. You can make it leak. Also see rule # 4
8- There's never time to do it right but there's always time to do it over. This is probably one the          most important rules. Do it right the first time just keep in mind rule # 5
9- A short cut is the longest distance between two points. Rarely will a short cut save you any time.      Also see rule # 8
10- A $300 radiator will protect a $4 hose by bursting first. The most expensive parts fail before the cheep ones

All American Muslim

Last night I watched the show All American Muslim, it was a pretty dull show. As I thought it was meant to show them as all normal. Interestingly enough I don't think it will be a big hit with Muslims either because some of the people on the show would  be better suited to the Jerry Springer Show. There was one looser guy he was a Irish Catholic and was converting to Muslim in order to marry a Muslim girl. As I also thought there was NOTHING American about any of them, it was a total waste of time but my main purpose was to see who would advertise on the show. Below I have listed them. There may have been one or two others but they were local or obscure companys I did not know of.
The show set out to show how tolerant they were of others, at one point they joked about some of them converting to Jewish. If they wanted to pull that off they should have shown one of them converting to Christianity and how the rest of the family would embrace that but we all know that would not happen. Instead they had a Catholic converting and how his family had problems dealing with it. Anyway I wont watch again, just wanted you to know the Anti-American  advertisers.
Show Advertisers
Kayak (online) Travel Site
Walmart
Pet Smart
Dyson Vacuum Cleaners
Kettle Chips
Ruby Tuesday's
John Fredi hair color
Clinique makeup remover
Centrum Vitamin
T-Mobile
Kahula Rum
Trumoo chocolate drink
K Mart
Home Depot
Chase Bank
Sonic
Blue dog food
Airborne chewable tablets
Amway
Sweet and Low sweeteners
X-Box 360
Cystex cranberry
Pet Meds

Interestingly enough, Walmart and K Mart were advertising Christmas sales.

Thanks and Welcome

Welcome two new followers, RobertM and DaddyBear , good to have you along. I try and respond to all comments. It's a pleasure to have you as a new friend.
I have linked their site here, check them out.

Not Good # 12

• Not a good time to remember you forgot to install the retainer on the axle.

Old "666"

 This is an amazing story of  Old "666"

Old 666

In June of 1943 in the Pacific, a B-17 named Old 666 was attacked by 17 Japanese Zero fighters. Most Dog Fights last about 1 minute, this one lasted over 40 minutes . For their courage and bravery, the entire crew was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross while her captain and another crew member received the country’s highest award, The Congressional Medal of Honor. It was the most decorated flight for a B-17 in WWII. Click link "Old"666" above for video story.

Jefferson County Alabama to file for bankruptcy

The Honorable Mayor William A. Bell

Who would have seen this coming, Jefferson County, Alabama to file for biggest municipal bankruptcy   I know Birmingham has a high percentage of welfare recipients but who would have thought this could happen. I guess the moochers outnumber the achievers and money makers. Maybe they didn't tax them enough, I'm sure there is a reason this happens.  Could this be just the beginning.
Kind of makes you glad we have such a bright bunch running things in Washington doesn't it. 

Dutch Bakery

A couple of days ago I did this story of a restaurant in a Mennonite community in North Alabama. It was so refreshing to visit and be reminded of a more simple time and slower pace. These people are very family orientated, all the kids, parents, grand parents etc help out. 

Just a few miles away was a Dutch Bakery run by the same community. It is a metal building out in the middle of farm country and is all family run. 

I took this picture through an open door of teenagers putting dough on a baking sheet, they seemed content not having an IPod stuck in their ear.

There was many types of fresh bread for sale, some I had never seen before

Here is a section of fresh cakes and cookies, I don't think this was the low calorie section.

Many Jars of homemade jams and preserves.

The check out area, notice all the workers dress in same manor.














This looked like an interesting section, all bags of fresh ground herbs and spices.
The whole store smelled like a country kitchen baking bread, cakes and cookies at Christmas. We did buy a few loaves of bread and some spices and jams.
As I walked around inside the bakery I felt I was back in time 50 years. Nobody had their pants down below  their butt, or had nose rings or spiked hair. Made me feel good.

Give Me A Break

This should be the opening scene of the show

I was sitting enjoying a quite few minutes watching TV when I saw an ad for a new TV show "All American Muslim" I almost spat out my drink. Talk about liberal bed wetters trying to shove political correctness down our throats. From what I gathered watching the preview it is supposed to show us how peace loving, freedom loving and mainstream they all are and we are the weirdos. I am sure it will be a short lived series so I will suggest other topics they could make a show about. How about "Muslims 9-11 Memorial" or "Muslims Against Sharia Law" or maybe "The Muslim-Jewish Holocaust Museum" or on a different note maybe a show called "Virgin Hookers" or "How Al Gore Invented the Internet" all of these topics make as much sense as "All American Muslim"
From what I see the only thing Muslims gave to this country was 3000 dead Americans.
Does this tick off anyone else..... I could say more but I will refrain. 


                                                                                                  

Like To Eat ? Try This.

A little over a week or so I was visiting family in North Alabama. Around lunch my brother told me he wanted to take us to a good place to eat. We rode out in the country for about 20 minutes and turned down a dirt road out in the middle of farm country. The only sign marking the location was the one you see here.





We rode down the dirt road about half a mile and turned into a small gravel drive way and into an unpaved parking lot, all carved out of a wooded area.












Turns out the restaurant and small shop inside is run  by a family in the local Mennonite community

 

As we walked up the small gardens had rocks with messages printed on them

The front porch had hand made rocking chairs for sale  












 We walked in and sat down at one of the large country style dining tables and waited for someone to take out drink order.





As we waited I saw shelves with home made jams and crafts for sale as well as hand made quilts

It was buffet style, as I walked up it was like going back in time, all farm fresh vegetables, field peas cooked with ham, butter beans, greens, squash etc. all cooked in a country kitchen.
Fresh cream style corn was sooo good.





 For meat there was fried chicken, smoked ham and meatloaf.
mashed potatoes, gravely, rice
Fresh bread was also available and a good salad bar.

 During the meal at one point all the staff stopped serving and sang a old hymn acapella, it was beautiful with excellent harmony.

After I had ate till I was about to burst I discovered the desert table. Notice the ice cream  churn in the counter, it was fresh churned vanilla to go with home made cobbler, peach and blueberry also was banana pudding, bread pudding and all kinds of fresh fruit toppings and preserves. I thought I was going to die.

As I was about to leave I thought about asking for a rain check for the other half of my meal, it was so good. I have NEVER eaten at a restaurant like this before. All the food is farm fresh  and fresh cooked. It feels so good to patronize such places where you get good service and food. They are only open Thur, Fri, and Sat (best I remember) and only for lunch and supper.  It was excellent value, under $10 a meal. I for sure want to visit again.

Welcome New Friends

I would like to welcome 3 new friends, Mary, Corey and Turkey Oak. I hope you stick around, good to have you all here. I try and respond to all comments, especially personal ones.
Thanks, Duke.

Wall Escort

Police Brief before ride

 Last week was a real mess, for those who are following the story of my MIL who was almost killed in her home by a sub-human species, she had to go back to the hospital with compilations, we hope it's not too bad, she was sent to rehab too early what with the fractured hip and skull and throwing up a lot. Her daughter was able to be in town this weekend and I decided to take a little time and clear my head Saturday and go on a motorcycle ride with the Combat Vets Association along with other riding groups. Every year or so the Vietnam moving wall travels through this area and is escorted by veterans and other patriot Americans, I have done it in the past and did not want to miss honoring fallen brethren. This year we were traveling from Daytona to St. Augustine.

 I left home at 0700, it was dark and 56 degrees outside and threatening to mist rain, it was starting to get daylight as I arrived in St Augustine and met up with a few of the CVMA brothers, we rode to a little restaurant outside of Daytona and ate breakfast.

2 CVMA brothers, Darkman and Doc Reaper.

After a good breakfast we rode into Daytona and was met by over 200 other riders geared up for the ride. A few minutes before 10 we had briefing from the police who were going to escort us to St. Augustine, they went over the ride rules and what to expect. They would block all intersections for us so we would not stop for any traffic or lights. The ride would be about 60 miles. It was KSU (kick stands up) at 1000 and we rolled out on US1. There was a few people who lined up along the route and the little towns to wave as we rolled through with the wall. It is refreshing to see people showing pride in their country. We rode 2 wide, slightly staggered and arrived in St Augustine beach around 1130. First stop Elks lodge where they had, hot coffee, cold drinks and pizza courtesy of Papa Johns, we enjoyed about an hour of eats and drinks before riding a few blocks to the Anastasia Baptist Church where the wall was going to be set up for a special POW MIA event the following day.
Over all it was a good day, a chance to get away and show respect to those who gave all for our country.

Waiting to leave Daytona

Papa Johns supplied all the pizza we could eat.

Elks lodge had hot coffee and cold drinks

It's good to see a company support the troops. Way to go Papa Johns.

Bikes in Parking Lot at Elks Lodge, St Augustine Beach.

Hope the rest of you had a good weekend, I certainly hope and pray this next week is better for me. 

Welcome Friends

Welcome to 4 news friends, SiFiChick, Tom, Jatico and Dave

As my friend Stephen says, we appreciate people kind enough to hit the follow button and if any of you do have a blog I want to let others know. I am proud to be associated with this group of people.
I'm hoping to spend a little time getting my mind right this weekend.
Duke out.

Rant, 11-4-11

Thanks again to all who have voiced their support and prayers, I am sorry I have not wrote about much else lately but all this has been very time consuming and weighs heavy on the mind.
I have good news, my MIL has been moved to a rehab facility. She seems stable as far as injuries and will start rehab.  I thought I would post a picture of her, this was taken about a month ago at my son's wedding. At 80 years old she is still a beautiful lady and so sharp as I wrote about earlier.
I did not mention that during the assault the animal took $20 from her wallet and stole her car. The car was recovered and appears OK. I picked it up at impound and apart from the 'gangster lean' on the 2 front seats it seemed normal.
Quick story, A few weeks ago she had borrowed a wheel chair from a friend (who had one collecting dust) for a relative who was visiting, to use. The wheel chair was in the back of her car waiting to be returned when the car was stolen. The first day when she was in the emergency room she was worried about the wheel chair when she found out her car was stolen in the assault. Later when the car was found the first thing she wanted to know was the wheel chair in the car....it was not. The detective told her he was amazed at her being through so much and being in such pain and she was concerned about the chair (it is just a cheap chair, not motorized) I heard her tell him that she always returned stuff in the same condition as she got it. The police were so touched by her concern they searched dumpsters in the area and found the wheel chair and brought it to my home. She is pleased she can now return it to her friend.
I hope this shows the kind of person she is and the class she has. You don't see that much anymore.