The Real Me

I always wonder if the readers of my blog ever wonder what kind of guy I am? From the different subjects in my posts, it may be hard to pinpoint exactly what I'm like. I like to feel I'm the way I am because that's what gets me through my life the best way. I love living life and doing all that I can in this life of mine. Read on for some insights into this life we're all trying to live these days.

Yes, I like the outdoors. If I didn't have a computer, I would probably be out most of the time. (But, it's hard to see a monitor in the bright sunlight!) Ever since I was a little boy, being out too long in the sun would cause my dark brown hair to get blonde streaks in it. Now, the picture above shows me as being totally blonde, but that's not because of the sun. I wanted to try something different and had my hair bleached that color. Don't be afraid to try something you want to do in your life just because you think people might laugh at you. What you think in your heart means much more than what other's think is best for you.

Sometimes, I can seem quite sarcastic, but it's only my way of laughing at life. Usually, my sarcasm is based on humor because I like to think that if people are smiling while you're talking to them, they might be more apt to listen to what you're saying. So, don't let them down. Say something important once in a while!

You know.... If I was to say that because I'm a white w.a.s.p. male and that because of that and my experiences I would be able to do things better and make more informed judgements than say.... a Latino woman, I would be branded "a racist." At least, that is the definition of "a racist" in this politically correct world we live in, so I suppose it must be right. Now that you know exactly what denotes "a racist," you'll also know why Sonia Sotomayor is too much of "a racist" to sit as a member of the Supreme Court. The members of that body are supposed to be above things like ethnicity, color, creed, race and gender and just rule on points of law as they are defined in the United States Constitution. And that is why we don't need or want somebody as racist as that deciding what we already know to be our God given rights. Am I not right on this?

Ah.... the good life. That's me yachting in the above picture. It was the first and, so far, only time I've gotten to be on an honest-to-goodness expensive yacht. (It wasn't mine, either!) I've never even been able to buy a bass boat. But, that hasn't mattered in my life. I have my family and friends, I work hard and I like to think that I live my life like it means it's worth something. I try to contribute to the human race in my own way and make it a better place when I can. Yes, that was me playing my guitar for free in a nursing home to entertain the residents the other day. Yes, that was me noticing that the clerk had given me too much change for what I had purchased and taking it back in the store to give it back and make sure she didn't come up shorthanded at the end of her workday. And, yes that was me assisting a car accident victim because nobody else was around.

What I'm mostly trying to say is that your life can be blessed with riches, but only if you decide what is worth more to you and then going after those things.

I hear so many stories about politicians who have never worked a real job in their lives and wonder just how they come up with the ridiculous laws they do. For instance.... do we, as Americans, need to allow amnesty to all the illegal aliens that are here just because politicians think it's the right thing to do? If we were in a country like North Korea or Zimbabwe, illegal aliens would be shot on sight. There's a right way and wrong way to move to a new country; and when you do so, it's with the prerequisite that, if you come to the United States to live this life, you do not bring your old life here and change us around to your way of thinking. If your old life is so good, stay in it and don't come here. That's not a racist way of looking at things, it's just the way it has to be or you won't have a viable country for very long. My ancestors were Vikings and we adjusted quite nicely since we've been here. You'll note that I don't pillage and plunder anywhere near as much as they used to! (Although, there are sure times I'd like to! Why can't I have my heritage, too? Everybody else gets to have theirs!)

Every year at Easter, I watch my favorite movie - The Ten Commandments. Which is not to say that the above picture is my statement that I feel I'm as holy as Moses. I'm not - I'm just an average, ordinary guy. But, I do believe in God and I believe that he blessed the United States of America and all the people in this great land. I am truly proud to be a free citizen of the U.S.A. and will fight anyone who tries to take that freedom away from me or my family. I served in the United States Army for the freedom to believe that way. And you can darn well bet that I'm not changing my mind on this issue even though the federal government or the state of Illinois tries to legislate otherwise. There are certain things that are right and wrong and I was raised to know the difference. Calling it the law or for safety reasons does not make something right.

No fear. Look at the above picture and you'll see me holding a branch with thousands of bees on it. I'm wearing no protective clothing except for the gloves. I didn't consider it stupidity at the time and I still don't. There are just certain things you know that if you treat them right, they'll treat you right. It's like our planet. However we treat it, it still revolves and allows life to flourish. No matter what we do, it always adjusts so that we can survive. This next phrase I'm going to say may sound quite scientific and be above some of your heads, if it is, I apologise beforehand. Global Warming is nothing but a bunch of hooey. Well, maybe it's not so hard to understand after all. All us normal people get it. Planet Earth has been through ice ages and drought spells before and has always pulled through. Let it do it's thing and stop worrying about it. All we as humans need to be concerned about is getting along with each other. It starts with you and the people you come in contact with. Put yourselves in their shoes and try to treat them like you would want to be treated and things will be a whole lot easier. Trust me on this, it works.

Hank Williams, Jr. sang years ago, "We can skin a buck, we can run a trout line, and a country boy can survive." Now, I wasn't born and raised in the country, but I've spent lots of time out there enjoying it. The above picture shows me in my "Great White Hunter" mode. When I go camping, I do it right. I carry in my tent and sleeping bag, pots and pans, hunting knife and utensils and my rifle. I have meat for supper if the hunt goes well. But, whatever I shoot, I know how to clean it, cook it and eat it. The early pioneers used to live or die while using these same techniques. They survived if they took these methods to heart and died when they didn't. True, there were Indians and other natural dangers they had to contend with, but we have just as many hazards, if not more, to contend with these days. Have you ever been stranded in your car in certain sections of Chicago? You don't want to do that. Have you ever seen a cop trying to plant drugs in your car so that he can have something to arrest you for? Not a pleasant experience. But, whatever life has to throw at you, just try to be prepared for it and your chances of survival will go up greatly. Previous posts on this blog about Survival Kits, Emergency Cooking, Disaster Preparedness and Earthquake Safety Tips can be found at the highlighted links. You can bet that me and my family will be better off than most people if anything should happen here in America. Don't let you or the ones you love down in a crisis - be prepared!

Well, there you have it. Now you know a little bit more of what I'm like. Maybe you've also learned a little something about yourself that you didn't know before. If you've learned anything, please just try to be happy and true to yourself, your family and your loved ones. They are what matter the most.

Survival Cooking

I recently heard of an interesting Boy Scout method for cooking meals during campouts. It seems like a great alternative to building a roaring campfire. What with so many forests fires burning out of control in the news these days, you can see the benefits this type of cooking can have. I have also tested this method thoroughly, so can conclusively confirm that it works. It works well! I cooked bacon and eggs and they were quite comparable to anything you'd get cooked on a campfire or in a good restaurant. Here are the step-by-step instructions so that you can try it at home and be just as amazed as I was at this ingenious method for cooking.

It starts with those things that fall in your lawn from Gumball trees and clog up your lawn mower every year. You can see one pictured above, what is commonly known as a gumball. That will be your heat source. It is also advised that you allow them to dry for awhile before you use them - they don't work when they're green. Your oven, or stove top, if you prefer, is shown below:

I used those large cans that vegetables come in, or peaches, just anything - it doesn't matter what was in the can to begin with. You remove the label and wash them up and with one end already removed, you don't need to do anything else to it. It's ready to be employed as your stove. I got mine from a local restaurant, who were more than happy to have me haul away some of their trash!

The secret to getting the gumballs to burn better and longer is you use cooking wax. Melt up some of it on your stove at home and dip the gumballs in it. I used a regular-sized can so I wouldn't have to ruin one of my good pans. Make sure you remove the paper label and wash it thoroughly before placing it on the stove. (Or your gumballs might smell like whatever was in the can once you light them!) Once dipped and allowed to cool on wax paper, they are then ready to be used as your fuel source for the Gumball Cooker, as I like to call it. I used metal salad tongs to dip the gumballs in the hot wax and then set them to dry. You have to be careful not to burn yourself, so I'll point out which steps in this whole process where it's likely and you can be prepared with gloves, pot holders or whatever you need to protect yourself with. If a method of cooking can't be safe while you're using it, it's not a very good method, if you ask me. I did up about a dozen gumballs, figuring it would be enough for my test. Now that I know it works, I'll be doing up a bunch more. You never know when your stove might stop working and you need a ready source of fuel for cooking your food. If a natural disaster should happen, or any kind of widespread catastrophe, you'll already be prepared with a good method available to you and your family.

With my gumballs all waxed up and my cans ready to go, it was now time to put my test into action. I selected a nice level place in my backyard where there wasn't any grass to catch on fire and took all my gumball cooker parts with me. A few more parts were improvised when I was on the spot and actually trying to cook, so I'll detail those for you. Another thing I had premade was a little dish made out of tinfoil. I doubled it over twice and crimped up the edges to make a border around it. It turned out that the shape I used was a good thing, as it was not round but long. This allowed two gumballs to fit in it nicely, which turned out to be the optimum amount to use for cooking. They put off just the right amount of heat to cook with, where I think 1 gumball would have taken longer and any more than 2 would have caused the fire to be too hot and burn whatever you're cooking. But, 2 worked out nicely and I placed them in my tinfoil trough, like you see pictured below:

You can see the first one in my tinfoil trough and the wax that pooled up below it when it was drying on the wax paper. It is okay to leave this wax attached to the gumballs as it doesn't affect it in any way and it saves time. Just make sure to use 2 gumballs for your heat source.

At the left edge of the picture, you can see a hole in my can. I knew the fire had to be able to "breathe," so I made four holes along the bottom edge of the can. But, once I had started cooking with this setup, I found it needed more air than these four holes would allow. I ended up making a little stand of twigs to rest the can upon, so as to get it up off the ground just slightly, and this worked great. So, the holes I made in the can weren't needed at all. You can save yourself this extra step for you won't have to do this to your cans. Another thing I found out is that if the wind is blowing, try to block it off with a log or something so it doesn't blow some of your precious heat out from underneath the open edges.

I did come up with an idea about continuous heat and it involves making a hole in your can, but I haven't tried it out yet, so it's up to you if you want to go ahead and do it yourself. But, I reasoned that if I had one hole near the bottom, (opened end) of my can that was big enough for some barbecue tongs to put a gumball through, I could always keep two gumballs burning and when one starts dying down, replace it with a fresh gumball. In this way, I figure I can keep constant heat going upward and this would allow me to cook something like stew or boil water for noodles - any number of things that have to cook longer than 10 minutes, which is all the time it took me to prepare my bacon and egg. Below you can see how I propped up my can so that the fire could get the proper air it needed: (You can also see the bacon as it starts to sizzle!)

By propping it up this way and having a lip around the tinfoil trough, (which allowed the heat to be funneled upwards towards the cooking surface), it also had the advantage of masking the fact that you're using fire to cook with. I imagine it would be next to impossible to see any light escaping from this cooker at night. This added benefit is probably a very attractive feature to some of you out there.

Above, you can see that the bacon is cooking quite nicely. After about five minutes, it ended up cooking about halfway done with the first 2 gumballs I had lit underneath it. When they began to die out, I turned the bacon over and put 2 fresh gumballs underneath and finished cooking. The bacon did tend to stick a little bit, so I had to be careful that I didn't burn myself as I was holding the can steady while turning the slices over. Good gloves or oven mitts are always welcome! Next time I'm going to try using some Pam or other cooking spray to keep my food from sticking. Be sure to use that when you do it, too, and that will make it even easier. The bacon had also begun to shrink by now, so there was room to put my egg on with it. This turned out to be just the right moment to do so, for the egg and the bacon finished cooking at the same time. Now, here's where I would have needed some gloves again, or some protection from the hot can. This method of cooking gets extremely hot, so be careful you don't burn yourself as you're taking your finished food off the cooking surface to your plate or lifting the can off to put new fuel in the tinfoil trough. That's why I think a good hole at the bottom would work well - that way you wouldn't have to keep taking the can off to put on new gumballs and losing some of the heat that you had built up for cooking. So, be sure and try putting a hole in your can for this reason.

Now, as you can see, the egg is about finished cooking, as is the bacon. The egg has those nice, crispy edges - which I like - and the bacon is getting crunchy. Of course, if you prefer it a different way, feel free to experiment and try anything you like! That's the joy of this post. Since it works, and these pictures prove that, you don't have to worry about that aspect, just go to cooking something and having a great time with it. I plan to try barbecueing some Spam and then boiling water for a rice dish I want to try on my next campout. Because, I know I can cook food on a campfire and using Sterno or canned heat - those methods are sure things. But to have an alternate method like this that's so simple and easy, it's just great knowing it's there for you. And, as they say, the proof's in the pudding. Below you can see just what my breakfast looked like once it was finished and removed from the Gumball Cooker:

Doesn't that just look tasty!? I can confirm that it was every bit as good as it looks! Taste-ee! By all means, do try this at home and feel free to post a comment with your results. Let everybody see how easy it can be done.

Keep in mind that I didn't buy any part of this great experiment at Wal-Mart. You, too can shop and get everything you need without going to Wal-Mart.

Be Prepared

Everyone is familiar with the old Boy Scout motto of "be prepared." But, in this day and age, it is especially a good idea to be prepared for emergencies. Recently, my area of Southern Illinois had a series of earthquakes that shook the area and got us all to thinking about disaster preparedness.

If you weren't aware of this, this locale was the scene of the most devastating earthquake in recorded history for the United States. Between December, 1811 and February, 1812, a series of quakes hit the town of New Madrid, Missouri, culminating with the biggest one on February 7th, 1812. This earthquake literally reshaped the North American continent. By comparison, the great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 was felt moderately over 6,000 square miles, while the New Madrid Earthquake was felt over 50,000 square miles. It even rang bell towers as far away as Boston, cracked sidewalks in Washington D.C. and toppled chimneys in Maine, it was so severe.

So, it can happen literally at any time. People in this area also have to contend with tornadoes, floods, famine and almost every other Biblical plague that can be thought of. With this in mind, I have compiled an informative Earthquake Survival Tips document and a handy list for a 72-Hour Survival Kit. To quote from the first paragraph of the 72-Hour Survival Kit:

"What will you do if disaster strikes your neighborhood: a fire, a riot, a flood, a tornado, a hurricane or an earthquake? The most critical need for help after the disaster is during the first 72 hours, yet community and government assistance will probably not be available during this period. You and your family will be on your own."

Knowing this and being prepared for it will go a long way toward your families' safety and survival. And in this day and age with so many potential threats: Economic collapse, terrorist attack (real and imagined), civil unrest, pandemic (real or imagined), or any of the natural disasters that can befall us at any time, the better you and your family are prepared to cope with these conditions in those first hours after something happens, the better your chances will be of surviving. I can't stress this enough.

And one more thing: This is the final paragraph in my 72-Hour Survival Kit:

"Your plan is like a plant. If you ignore it will die. To keep your plan healthy, you should go over it with each family member at least once every six months. One way to do this is to make a night of it. Pick one night to go over the plan, practice escape routes and contact procedures, call your out of area contact (they’d probably like to hear from you), change the batteries in your smoke detector, and cycle the food and water in your 72 hour kit. This is a fun way to ensure that your family is prepared to react in the event of a disaster."

As Bob Dylan said it so poignantly back in the 1960's, "Oh, the times they are a' changin'."

You can use these handy links to download both documents in Microsoft Word format. They are extremely small files, so the seconds it will take to get them and print them out will add potential years to your families' lifespans.

72-Hour Survival Kit

Earthquake Survival Tips

Oh, and one final word of caution. As you go shopping to purchase these life-saving supplies, do yourself and all of us a favor by not buying these things at Wal-Mart. Who knows what they may be contaminated with considering most of it will probably be a product of China!