With K now gone, I feel an era has passed in the blog world, as seen from my perch. Yes, that era really ended a couple of years ago when her failing health made it impossible for her to comment here regularly anymore, nor post regularly at her own site. But her passing back at the end of August marks the final stake.

There used to be a cluster of bloggers that regularly cross-commented at each others sites, maybe six or eight or ten of us, plus a dozen occasionals. Of those, only one ever comments here anymore, and he keeps threatening to die on me too!

I've taken the occasion to review my blogroll and have deleted those who have not posted in six months or more. Most have moved on. Facebook. Twitter. Life. Boredom. Frustration. Who knows? A handful have died, and those I knew and loved are memorialized in their own section.

Then there is also the fact that I stopped paying close attention to partisan politics a few years ago. Fed up with the inability of so many to see how they are locked into a limiting way of perceiving the world, I tuned out. Many of these are still blogging, but...I don't care anymore.

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When I started this blog, lo those many years ago, I said I was writing for myself, not necessarily to garner a large audience. Everyone said that at the time. Many were lying, really, hoping to be the next Instapundit. But boy have I succeeded in a big way! I have precisely one regular reader (not counting pseudonyms), and maybe five or six of you that stop by every couple weeks. Not even family reads here anymore, except that Daisycat uses this page to access the comics on the sidebar. If she reads my posts, it is only accidental and in passing.

I'm not likely to quit any time soon. I am still doing exactly what I wanted to do with this blog. Progress pics, political commentary, tracking some conspiracy stuff and eschatological thinking, personal musings, "art appreciation", vacation photos and the occasional odd nugget. I am still in the company of a few who are still doing what they love, rather than what they hope will garner them fame and fortune: Vox, SondraK (Headmistress, Our Lady of the Blessed Bottomside), Velociman (the Erudite), Rodger (the Photoshop King), to name a few.

If I had a point to this post, I've forgotten what it was. Except to say that I very much enjoyed the years of interacting with K, and I miss her a lot. The hands on the clock never go backwards in this world though.

I know I don't normally post on health issues, but this is diet-related.  Dermatitis herpetiformis is caused by gluten intolerance:  What Your Skin Says About Your Health | Persistent Rash | Caring.com

I need to do a test of this once I am done with the hCG phase of my diet, to see if this is the cause of my occasional, recurrent rash near my knees.  Actually this phase can be part of the test, as I am almost completely gluten-free on this phase.  Thanksgiving stuffing will be the next gluten I see in quantity. 

K is gone. As of two months ago. Her nephew was finally able to post to let us know.

I officially moved her blog link to the new category this morning. This makes four now.
ksquest

Y'all stop dying on me, hear?

Whatever you do, don't go without giving instructions to someone about making a final post (or comment at least!) letting your readers know.

Door painted...


...hung...


...and trimmed.


Not much else. But that was more work than it appears.

I'm on the hCG cycle of my diet and that is slowing me down noticeably. That, and I started on an antibiotic for a recurrence of the damn sinus infection I had last month. Plugging away is the best I can do.

While this project was a continuation of the shop project from late this summer, it was prompted by some security concerns. Seems the ever-deepening recession/depression is getting some people desperate enough to seek handouts from neighbors. Considering that one of the said neighbors is an ex-con, we've taken the prudent step of locking our shit down, lest he help himself when/if voluntary assistance is not forthcoming. Yeah, even out here. The nice thing is, we know who is who down here, unlike in the city where any stranger could be hazardous.

It is hard to miss the correlation between Hurricane Sandy turning suddenly inland since yesterday...

...and forecast to make landfall...

...right where the HAARP detection array has been seeing screaming white hot signals for the last week plus...


Yeah. Tinfoil.

Update: Bullseye!



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Update: There are claims out there that the haarpstatus.com website is just some guy in his mother's basement generating "updates". Take it all with a grain of salt.

Pearl Django Live version:

Labels: art appreciation

Working on a workshop door.

Working on? Not finished? That's all?

Pretty much. It was one of those weekends again...

I shouldn't be so harsh. Last time I got a ton of work done, it was a four day weekend. I worked Friday morning again this week, and didn't arrive here until Friday afternoon. Then Saturday became my "day of rest" instead of Friday, and only by Sunday was I putting serious progress on.  Sunday evening snuck up on me like a nasty virus...

I could use a couple weeks just to be left alone out here to do stuff.

12-Year-Old Girl Shoots Intruder During Home Invasion - News9.com - Oklahoma City, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports |

Update: Karl's take.  I fully agree, hence the category label for this post. 

Labels: armed citizen

I had to LOL.

I see a lot of spam and other solicitations in my email and in the comments regarding "link exchanges" and other nonsense.  It invariably goes straight to the round file.

This time, however the clever approach won me over.  Here, for your TEOTWAWKI planning purposes is an ad for a pole barn company dressed up with a topic we can all relate to:

The Comprehensive Plan For Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse From Your Pole Barn | CB Structures, Inc

Arthur DeVany -- 75 years old and could pass for 50.  A very healthy and fit 50 at that.

He follows a variation of the Paleo diet.

I received some flack from disbelieving commenters at Vox's site a while back, after I mentioned the jet-powered Predator drone test flights I had noticed on a couple of occasions over my remote valley. The notion should not be so unbelievable, given our proximity to a major air base, but in addition to military flights, civilian UAV training is being pushed for this area, allegedly because of the sparse population:

Proctor: Benson site ideal for UAS test, development site - San Pedro Valley News-Sun: News
Too many questions remain on UAS project - San Pedro Valley News-Sun: Letters To Editor
UAS test range good for airport, Benson
More on proposed FAA national test - San Pedro Valley News-Sun: Editorials
UAS: What are‘unintended consequences?’ - San Pedro Valley News-Sun: Editorials

My eyes do not lie. How much remote viewing and videotaped invasion of my privacy will this result in?

Bastards.

Not being content to learn bass and lead guitar as well as the accordion, I've been looking into getting and learning to play a poontangophone.

Combining elements of a guitar, six-string bass guitar, dual bank mouth organs, and the sounds of a clarinet, trumpet and sousaphone, this is truly a one-man band instrument, and a challenge worthy of yours truly!

I'm having a heck of a time finding a used model on eBay though...

Faber Warns 'Everything Will Collapse'

"We found an identical pattern in our debt, total credit market, and money supply that guarantees they're going to fail," Martenson said. "This pattern is nearly the same as in any pyramid scheme, one that escalates exponentially fast before it collapses. Governments around the globe are chiefly responsible." "And what's really disturbing about these findings is that the pattern isn't limited to our economy. We found the same catastrophic pattern in our energy, food, and water systems as well." According to Martenson, these systems could all implode at the same time. "Food, water, energy, money. Everything."

Unless you are prepared to weather an "all systems down" event, you are not prepared. Terrifying to contemplate, and yet beginning to look rather inevitable...

...I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day." 2 Timothy 1:12

Daisycat was asking about the Carrington Event this evening.  Here is a link:
Solar storm of 1859 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An event like this happening today would wipe out civilization in the first and second world.  They are not all that very uncommon on a geological time scale.  So if you see my solar activity monitor (right sidebar) read "Mega Flare", well, th-th-that's all folks!

The title of this post at Zero Hedge caught my eye:

There Could Be Weeks When Decades Happen | ZeroHedge:

It turns out that it is part of a quote from Lenin:
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

This became true in 1989 when Lenin's Evil Empire came crumbling to the ground.  We may be entering such a time again.

The article is about Europe and the delusional fantasy that her leaders appear to be living in, but Europe is part of a bigger picture that is coming to a head from many directions.

Major progress! It is interesting to me how week after week can go by and it seems like I get less done than I want to, then one weekend I really kick butt and move the goal forward in a big way. This was one of those weeks.


This is a leftover image from two weeks ago. Here the conductor bundles for the west half of the main spine are laid out, ready to be pulled into the conduit.


This weekend, I made up the last wire sets required to take the whole nine yards up into the load center, then bundled them all together and pulled them through. Here is the whole bundle as it appeared taped to the pull wire.


The same shot, with the tape and pull wire removed.


Directly beneath the load center, this is the central junction box on the spine. Two circuits will be spliced in this box, the remaining seven circuits pass straight through into the conduit that leads to the load center.


Splices made and stuffed into the box, then box closed up.


These are mostly record-keeping pics. I do, in fact, go back to these sometimes to refresh my memory about things. These are the boxes along the spine as they are wired up and closed. As of this morning, the last box on the spine is finished!






Finally today, I spent most of the day landing the circuits in the load center.


Cover installed,


...aaand, Done!

Hooray! Now I have a couple dozen boxes with wires sticking out around the house, that need outlets and switches installed, to make the system fully functional. But the worst part is officially complete.

Also arriving last weekend were six solar panels that I ordered in order to upgrade my system to it's full input capacity. These are waiting in the workshop for a future weekend to install. I have a pile of aluminum angle stock ordered, that I will use to fabricate the mounting brackets. This ought to arrive next week some time. My next goal I am saving $ for is to buy the upgraded nickel-iron battery bank I need to make the whole system complete. With that, I am good for 25 to 50 years.

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In the garden, the tilled and seeded beds have a green sheen. Vetch and rye is coming up nicely.


Fat cobs are ripening in the corn field.


The Tohono blackeye peas are setting pods.


The Bisbee Black are also beginning to set pods.

The other two varieties, not so much. This makes Tohono and Bisbee Black the winners so far.

The meadow patch is still huzzing and buzzing with activity. Hard to see in this photo, but there were literally dozens of bees working this little patch of flowers.

On over the southwest US again, as of yesterday.  Of interest in the commentary yesterday, is that I am not the only one who noticed the chemtrails in the area recently.

HAARP Status and Real-Time Network Detection

Biff! kPow! Ding!!

Even Jon Stewart poked fun at the President's performance.

Ace has more.

This is where Rodger got his gun girl animated gif:

ROFLTV.RU Девушка очень сексуально стреляет =) - YouTube

Jigga jigga! Jigga jigga!