Books, keys, scopes and budgets

It came to my attention that my hunting and fishing buddy "Shotgun" never read a book by Robert Heinlein. I plan to fix that deficiency.

Shotgun informed me that he thinks Louis L'Amour's book "Last of the Breed" might be the finest book ever written. Do any of you have any opinions as to WHICH of Heinlein's many books is the best "first" book? If that is too broad of a question, then which of his books is the most like Louis L'Amour's book "Last of the Breed"?

Keys

One of my brothers bought a Kawasaki murder-cycle. It only has one key. The dealer told him to have a second one cut at a lock-smith's. The best lock-smith in town told him to get it from the dealer.

Photos of the business end of the key

My brother found a firm in the U.K. that will cut a new key if he has the key-code or if he sends them a picture !! 8-) !!!.

Do any of my readers know of sources in the US who can provide this service?

Thermal scopes

Scopes that help shooters make ethical shots in low-light conditions are HUGE force multipliers. Short video here that compares several models from one supplier.

There are countless varmints that only come out at night. Raccoons, 'possum, hogs, coyotes and so on. Having some kind of thermal scope also helps identify items that might be lurking in the background.

There are two key-words used to describe scopes that are sold for low-light conditions. 

The older technology is "night vision" which relies on an infrared "flood-light" and video technology that can sense IR light. Actually, nearly all digital camera technology can see short-wave IR; commercial cameras require an IR filter to remove short-wave end the IR spectrum to ensure that IR sources like hot pavement and heating elements on stoves don't show up as light sources. 

The down-sides of the old "night vision" technology is that it gobbles batteries and is a huge beacon for anybody looking for IR.

The newer technology is "thermal" which is passive and senses the difference in temperature between your target and the background. For example, a 'coon in a tree is warm while the tree is cool and the sky in the background is near absolute zero. That is an easy "find". A 'possum moseying along in front of a stone fence that has been baking in the afternoon and evening sun is a much more difficult "discrimination" problem.

Low-end "thermal" scopes with coarse image resolution are available in the $700 range. Very functional (in my uneducated opinion) with 300x400 pixel resolution can be had in the $1400-$1700 range.

I don't see value in putting thermal on every rifle and air-gun in the safe but I can see that having one on a general purpose firearm. If shooting varmints that took refuge in a tree is on your menu, then you need to be hyper-vigilant about where your bullet will land...and you should strongly consider mounting the scope on a stout, nitro-spring pellet-gun or a low-recoiling shotgun (like a 20-gauge, semi-automatic). 

Noo Yawk take notice

Most cities in Germany are on the brink of bankruptcy

Their cash-burn is accelerating by the month. Budgets that were made last year are hundreds of millions of Euros in the red this year. Most of the black-hole is related to immigrants "pulling" benefits they are not paying into.

 

Wardrobe malfunctions

***Disclosure: This post is not appropriate for people with refined sensibilities nor should it be read by women who are subject to fainting spells or are cursed with vivid imaginations.

For those of you who still harbor the tiniest bit of respect for my skills as an outdoors-man, you might want to skip this post, too.***

---PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK--- 

Having learned my lesson the last time I sat in the Orchard stand, I was prepared this time. The wind-chill was 38F which was almost identical to the last, cold sit I had in the stand.

I upgraded to a quilted shirt, quilted bibs and an honest-to-goodness parka.

But let me back up a bit in this story....

As a frugal family who did not want our kids to feel left-out or "poor", it was our habit to "pad" the number of presents beneath the Christmas tree by wrapping packages of underwear and socks.

I am tough to shop for. My needs are very simple. If I have Mrs ERJ, a warm place to sleep and adequate food then I am a happy guy. Throw in a truck that starts when I turn the key and I am filled with ecstacy!

So, my supply of undies and socks is also replenished on Christmas. Often, they are the only gifts I get. It is all good.

I do my laundry every week. That means I need a minimum of 8 pairs of undershorts in the fleet to make it to the next laundry-day. A few more is better in case my laundry-day is delayed.

If you do the math, there are 49 weeks between the end of regular, firearms Deer Season in Michigan and the previous Christmas. For the senior-undershorts there have been 101 weeks have elapsed from the Christmas before that and the last week of Deer Season.

Back to the story

I had been piddling around the orchard for a couple of hours before adding the warmer clothes. My plan was to sit from 4:00 p.m. until the end of legal light.

I waddled from my truck to the Orchard stand and started to climb the ladder to reach the stand.

As I started climbing the ladder, my undershorts shinnied down the rump-roast of my butt and continued heading for my knees. I went up. My shorts went down.

Curses!

I climbed back down the two steps I had taken to get back on to solid ground. There was no way I was going to let go of the sides of the ladder to fish-around and try and yank my shorts back into position.

I unzipped my parka and reached through the slits in the sides of the bibs. I had to worm my hands through the folds of the quilted shirt and snake them over the waistband of my jeans and down the legs before I was able to find the flaccid waistband of my undershorts. Then, through an aerobic sequence of dance gyrations and manly "come-hither" evolutions with my hands I convinced them to return to their appointed position north of my privates. 

I started back up the ladder, assuming I had handled the problem. I was wrong. The bibs, insulated shirt and my carpenter jeans interacted with my shorts and down-they-went.

(Lather. Rinse. Repeat the previous three paragraphs) X 3

Resigned to the inevitable, I waddled up the ladder with my knees splayed as far outboard as I could manage. Miraculously, the undershorts only slid MOST of the way down. That worked great until I got to the door of the blind which is about 20" wide. I had to squeeze my knees together to get inside and yes, the undershorts slide beneath the waves like the submarine in the movie Das Boot avoiding an airplane.

By now, that pair of shorts had acquired sentience and they hated me. 

More dance gyrations were performed in the confined space of the deer blind. It may have been my imagination, but I thought I heard deer down in the pucker-brush chortling.

 Of course, it could have just been the Fruit-of-the-Looms jeering.

The only deer I saw last night were as I drove home. The deer were grazing in the alfalfa field south of my stand. They stopped eating and started pointing at me as I drove by. Word gets around quickly.

A quick re-visit on Seven Year Mortgages

I am not going to die on the hill of "Seven Year Mortgages", but I will point out a few advantages:

I agree that it is totally unrealistic for nearly everybody when we are talking about the median house price in the US of $400k or of a typical new-construction of about $600k, it is not beyond the imagination when talking about a $150k house in a medium-sized, mid-western city like Lansing, Michigan.

With 10%, the financing payment (not including property-taxes and insurance) is about $1900 a month. That is well within the reach of many two-income families.

Regarding the "crime" issue: It would vaporize all of the airy-fantasy, criminal justice tripe they were force-fed in college. Crime is bad in cities because well-to-do liberals in safe suburbs elect soft-on-crime judges and prosecutors. If more newly minted liberals lived in the areas impacted by crime, they would start demanding that city and county "justice systems" start doing their jobs. 

Regarding "lack of asset appreciation": I subscribe to the "rational market" theory where every seller is demanding a price whereby future appreciation is boiled into the price they are asking.

Regarding crappy schools: They are all crappy schools now, regardless of where you move. You either home-school or send them to private schools (good luck finding a solid one). Or, you can sell out when your oldest kid turns five and move to what you think is a "decent" school district. And, may I point out that if you waited a year before you tried to make a baby, you oldest kid turns five about...seven years after you got married. 

Regarding crappy construction: Yes, there are some crappy houses in legacy cities. There are also houses built with real, oak trim, fine plaster work and hardwood floors. Survivor bias means that the IKEA, throw-away construction houses are gone.

Regarding crappy neighborhoods: Pick a house that is very close to a church you are willing to be active in. Eat out at the closest pedestrian-friendly restaurant. Join the local bowling team. Walk your dog and chat-it-up with the other dog-walkers. Stay in your house after dark. Don't flaunt your wealth. Give every appearance of sinking roots rather than being a snooty tourist.

Longevity in a community and "pests"

Yesterday, as I was dropping Quicksilver off at her play-date, I approached one of the young lasses who is the mother of one of the tots who Quicksilver has taken a shine to.

"I think I met you about seven years ago" I started out.

Recognition flashed across her face.

"Oh! You are Kubota's dad" she finished my sentence for me.

"And Quicksilver is his niece" I added. 

"I LOVE Kubota. He is so funny. I follow him on social media" she gushed.

I expect Quicksilver's aristocratic connections (to Prince Kubota) to make the rounds with the moms of the other kids a play-date. I know the young lass is friends with several of the other moms, so I expect that they went to high school together and they all know Kubota.

Musk oxen closing ranks to protect the calves

Southern Belle left Eaton Rapids in early 2009 and didn't move back until the middle of 2023. Most of the moms at the play-date were in second grade when she graduated from high school. 

Eaton Rapids is a small town. It can seem close-minded and rigid if you are an outsider. The view from the inside is very different. On Wednesday, Quicksilver was just another, anonymous kid. On Thursday she became "real" to the rest of the moms. As a sprout from a multi-generational Eaton Rapids family, she is safe to invest in emotionally because she probably won't move away in a year or two.

Cool-amp

Back in my days in the factory, we used a product called Cool-Amp to silver-plate the ends of copper welding bus-bars and jumper cables.

Copper oxide has a high resistance. Silver oxide has relatively low resistance.

The powder is silver nitrate combined with a pH buffer and a mild abrasive. The copper ions are more reactive and rip the nitrate anions away from the silver cations. That deposits elemental silver on the surface of the copper.

Zinc is even more reactive than copper, so it would be very easy to apply a thin wash of silver metal on top of the zinc-copper alloy used by Rocky Mountain bullets.

Since the bullets don't need to be solid silver to kill juvenile were-wolves and other common, paranormal varmints, the thin wash of silver should be sufficient for most of your pest-control needs.

Speaking of pests

We have mice in the attic.

I am catching one-a-day and am not sure that I am keeping up with their reproductive capacity.

It is odd that I am catching so many with foot and tail catches. I am not sure what is with that. I have been euthanizing them by dropping the trap into a bucket of very cold, soapy water. They only struggle for about a half minute.

I may have to resort to placing several adhesive traps out to get ahead of Malthus. 

More pests

A black walnut root sitting on a 2-by-4 for scale.

I was cleaning out a nursery row and planted a couple of pear rootstock in the Hill Orchard. I hit this root three inches down. The flap of bark sticking out on the left side of the root is where my shovel hit it.

I excavated three feet in each direction and cut the root out. I removed it so it wouldn't leach toxins into the soil beneath the pear as it decayed. 

Seven-year mortgages

If the average marriage only lasts seven years, wouldn't it make sense to offer seven-year mortgages as the default? 

A leopard cannot change its spots

 

A-a-r on the funeral and a short, palate-cleanser video

 

 

I went to the funeral of the 102.4 year-old man today.

There were about 80 people attending, which is a really good show for somebody who has outlived nearly all of his peers.

I was surprised to learn that the man was baptized at the age of 84. Please note that I am NOT recommending that you put it off that long if you feel called to get baptized. 

 

Job categories that will shrink during hard-times

Jobs that won't fare well during hard times:

Personal Fitness Trainer

Reason: People will be walking six or more miles a day. We won't need the gym to get exercise. We will not need a "cheer-leader" to motivate us.

Exception: Massage specialists. There will be boatloads of people with sore muscles.

Internet Influencers

Internet Influencers exist to goad people in to spending more and consuming resources that the viewer didn't know existed. The tide will be running in the opposite direction during hard-times.

Event Planners

Events to commemorate rites-of-passage in our lives will no longer be a competitive sport. Weddings might be a handful of friends and a few family members from each side. Graduation parties might be playing disc golf in the park.

Lawncare specialists

Large lawns that are professionally cared-for are a historical anomaly. Some of the lawns will likely be turned into gardens or orchards. Some will be abandoned and allowed to revert back to native scrub or prairie. 

Please feel free to add to the list.