From the comments: When you get visitors who expect charity

From the comments: I’m checking stock to make sure I have more of whatever. Also had thoughts what do we do if he/she/they show up expecting us to help or take them in. Who do you turn away? Can’t help everyone.

You are the Chief Executive (along with your spouse) of your domain. Who you "hire" and who you "fire" is a key role of management.

In a factory, the role of management is to ensure the smooth, efficient and economical operation of the enterprise by minimizing waste and maximizing the production of the highest-value products within the constraints of the facility and inputs. Management's role is to create harmony.

For starters, turn away quarrelsome people. Not just for your benefit but for the benefit of everybody who you extend the privilege of being your guests. Figuring out who is quarrelsome is not rocket-science. They announce themselves. They demand.

Proverbs 21:9 "It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop than in a mansion with a quarrelsome woman" but let's be honest here, men can be every bit as quarrelsome as women. People who hold on to grudges and who argue until the other party submits destroy harmony. 

Don't let them in the door, even if they are your child. They might be "good" for a short period but will regress to their true nature. People regress to their ingrained behaviors that they are most comfortable with when they are stressed. They are EXTREMELY unlikely to embrace discomfort and rise to the needs of austere living.

 

People who stir-the-pot are destroyers of harmony and value their own power and status more than the success of the group. People who raise legitimate questions are not stirring-the-pot but ask the question to ensure they don't fail the organization.

Turn away people with a history of gossiping. Loose lips sink ships...and destroy cohesiveness. It isn't that "you hate them", it is that your life-boat cannot afford to have them on the premises. You are not acting as a person. You are acting in the role of Chief Executive (or Captain) of the life-boat.

With respect to neighbors and tools..."You asked to borrow my chainsaw. The deal is that if I loan out my chainsaw then I also loan-out my labor running it. You get me AND my chainsaw." At that point, you might start dickering about what three hours of your time + chainsaw are worth. If you don't have firewood, you might do it on shares. If you don't have a bicycle but the neighbor has extras, it might get you a bicycle. If you are running short of gasoline, maybe you can siphon five gallons out of the old lady's Suburu.

Courtesy of Google: Grocery stores in Kent County, Michigan. It is 23 miles as-the-crow-flies from the upper-right corner to the closest major grocery store.

Contrary to what you will read in fiction, most refugees will flee to the cities, that is, to where the "services" are. They will be camping (sleeping in their cars) in the Kroger's and Walmart parking lots long before they think to show up at your front door. If government intervenes (and they will because they cannot resist) they will inject "help" through the largest, existing infrastructure, and that won't be through Frank's Party Store in the middle of BF nowhere.

People who shop every day (even if it is buying a coffee or a bagel) or get two Grub-hub deliveries a day cannot imagine living eight miles from a store and having to walk or ride a bike to get there.

Throw in the fact that power and internet are likely to be more intermittent in the boonies than in the city and things will have to be totally Mad Max before your little bit of heaven is attractive to most people. 

During famines in India, people leave the countryside and go to the big cities looking for work.

During the ending days of WWII, people stayed in Berlin until the Soviets were within just a few miles of the city limits.

So, my gut-feel is that almost all of the people you DON'T want as "guests" will self-select to stay away from your life-boat (especially if you have the foresight to turn off the internet router during the daylight hours when they are most likely to show up).

The power of language

I need a better word than "guest". The word "guest" implies hospitality and the life-boat can only afford about three days per person of hospitality. After than, the relationship has to change. The person who is living on your property must become a value-producing part of the domestic ecosystem. They have to earn their keep.

I am open to suggestions regarding a better noun than "guest". 

Zero verification at deer-camp

Today was deer-camp's designated "verify your zero" day.

12 mph wind from left-to-right.

Targets were 0.9" diameter "dots" with the colored region being 0.8".

Range was 100 yards and shooting from a bench.

First shooter

1.6", three shot group. Centered about 2" high at 100 yards. The shooter elected to call it good.

Due to the small size of the dot, he was aiming "sun over the yard-arm and to the left of the mast" because the thickness of the cross-hairs of the reticle completely covered the dot. 

Second shooter

 1.5" group. Dead-nuts or slightly high for elevation (remember, the sun/yard-arm/mast has the center of the aimpoint about an an inch below and to the right of the center of the dot) and impact about an inch to the right of the real point-of-aim.

That shooter elected to not adjust his scope.

My turn

I was curious to see how I would do with the 5.56mm NATO, bolt-action carbine that I might use during antlerless season. I speculated that I would print a 2" group centered about 2" above the circle.

Political BS and Kettlebells

I don't have a lot of gas in the tank with regard to things to blog about.

After two years of abandoning core, conservative principles in the Senate and Executive Branch, Republicans are baffled by the shellacking they took in the mid-term elections. I don't want to play the blame-game. It was a team-failure although the House was able to move the ball down the mid-field...the special teams refused to punch it into the end-zone.

The stock markets woke-up to the probable effects of Democrats' plans to goose the economy by printing debt (which they conflate with money). The crowd now sees inflation on the horizon. The Democrats announced all through the election cycle that they are going to freeze permitting of AI data centers and speculation in that sector is the only thing holding up "the market". Kick down the tent-poles and the tent collapses.

The limousine liberals are about to watch their 401-k and 457-b balances shit-the-bed. Frankly, it was going to happen anyway. It just needed a proximal cause to prick the balloon.

Coffee is good.
Aspirin is a miracle.
Ibuprofen is the breakfast of champions.
Acetaminophen is hard to pronounce.
People are crazy. 
God is Great, and so is being on the green-side-of-the-sod.

A bag of concrete costs about $5

I can fit about 100 pounds of concrete into a retired, 5 gallon gas jug. I would flip it upside-down and cut a hole in the bottom so I can pour the mixed concrete into it and have it fill the blow-molded handle with concrete.

 

I need two of them for bilateral Farmer's Carries

I need to fiddle around with the ones at the gym for a couple of weeks to figure out what my "baseline" weight needs to be. At this instant in time, it looks like it will be something north of 70 pounds.

The picture in my head is that I can carry them up-and-down the length of my driveway.

The only real downside to making kettlebells out of concrete is that they won't clang when I walk. 

Schrödinger's box of screws

I have a box of screws that I can only find when I am not looking for it. 

Sometimes it is on the fifth shelf on the shelving in front of where Mrs ERJ parks her minivan. I will need the screws later today but I don't need them RIGHT NOW. So this is a good time to see if they popped out of whatever parallel universe they often inhabit. 

Sighting-in a Savage Rascal .22LR with iron sights

The rear sight of the Rascal is adjustable for up/down and the front sight is dove-tailed for left/right.

The rear sight pivots round the front screw and you adjust the sight up/down and tighten the rear screw to secure it.

I was using Armscor .22LR ammo and shooting from the prone position. 

It is worth your time to improvise some shims. This is not something you can eyeball. I used 3 x 5" index cards and was able to move the point-of-impact up-or-down in incremental jumps.

It took 14 3 x 5" cards and one 3 x 5" insert made from copy paper to get a reasonable (but not perfect) zero at 20 paces. That measured out to 0.108" thick.

I am still 3/8" high at 20 yards but the sight is fussy and I am not sure that I am going to get much closer than that. I cannot imagine that a woodchuck or rabbit will notice that 3/8" difference at any range I am likely to attempt a shot. 

***Added later: I accessed an on-line ballistics calculator to see what the trajectory is likely to be farther down-range. Because the top of the front sight is only 0.75" above the center-of-bore, the "second zero" is closer than I expected. The second zero is at 50 yards and the bullet drops to about -1.0 inch below line-of-sight by 60 yards.*** 

The front sight did not require any adjustment. 

Every rifle and every shooter is slightly different. The shim-pack that worked for me is no more than a good starting point for the next guy or gal. It should be good enough to "get you on the paper" as you dial in. 

Might be AI

 

What do you guys think?

I was wrong

I was informed via email that burning wood is permitted in the EU.

It is part of the culture in many areas.

North Rhine-Westphalia has approximately 800kg of biomass/capita, roughly evenly divided between forestry products, agricultural waste and industrial waste. Source

Even the most urban areas have wood resources. For example, Germany's most urbanized state, North Rhine-Westphalia has the equivalent of 1-1/2 face-cords of firewood in biomass per capita.

Unlike North America, even the tops and stumps and "trash" trunks are used. They are typically shredded into chips for ease of transporation. Many of the wood-stoves sold in Europe have a grate to accommodate this fuel source.

And, as might be expected, the quality, amount and location of nearly all biomass resources are precisely documented.

My apologies to my European readers. Thanks for putting up with me. 

When Quicksilver spends time with Grandpa

Posted for no particular reason

Reading to children

Quicksilver, who is 4 years-old, has taken quite an interest in my new book on snaring.

She was identifying the animals in the illustrations (which are all top-notch and one of the strong points of this book) when we got to the illustration of the skunk and porcupine.

She pointed at the porcupine and said "Pokey-pine" which was close enough for government work. 

Then I pointed at the animal on the opposite page and asked "What about that one?"

She replied "Pokey-pine" with great confidence. 

"No that is not correct. Try again" I said.

"Pokey-pine" she repeated.

I decided to give her a clue. "What does you mom say when you are riding in the car with her and then it starts to stink inside?"

"Who tooted?" Quicksilver replied. 

That cracked me up. It was not the answer I was fishing for. 

In the interest of science, we made a practice snare from the wire used to hang pictures. I then demonstrated how it worked by pretending my fist and wrist were an animal's head-and-neck.

Mrs ERJ informs me that kids crave learning real skills. They can tell the difference between "toys" and "real", "play" and "practical".

Based on Quicksilver's interest in snaring, I second Mrs ERJ's information. 

Bonus image

And now his friends are warned, too. Grenades, the original "Inclusive ammo choice".