Tea / Herb Storage.

 Making Stuff, Painting, Personal Updates, Refurbishing Stuff  No Responses »
Nov 022013
 
Freshly painted bucket

Freshly painted bucket

Well, mom was pointing out that I do not update my blog (she calls it the moth site) so I thought I’d post a few pictures.

As of late, I have been getting interested in healing herbs (Catauba, Ashwagandha, Mucuna Pruriens, etc). So I figured it was a good idea to make a storage container for them.

I picked up a few old rusted buckets from work with the plan of refurbishing them a couple of weeks ago and they seemed like a good starting point (though a bit big). After sanding them down and neutralizing the rust I gave them a coat of primer. I decided to go with some bright colors for paint and gave them a few coats.

This weekend I cut some stencils and applied the wording. Next weekend I’ll give them a clear-coat treatment and clean up the stenciling some.

I think they came out pretty good. What do you think?

When was the last time you checked your first aid kit?

 Personal Updates  No Responses »
Sep 012013
 
First Aid

First Aid

When was the last time you checked your first aid kit?

When was the last time you practiced treating a deep wound or burn?

I’m currently typing this with a bandaged up finger because of a wood shop injury. It could have been worse but fortunately, I had a good first aid kit and knew how to stop the bleeding, evaluate how bad the wound was, and treat the area.

This experience made me realize that most of the people I know probably don’t have a real first aid kit [or for my prepper friends have one cobbled together with battlefield care items they have no idea how to use].

Here’s the deal folks, while you’re spurting blood is the wrong time to learn how to use a first aid kit. You need to practice before an injury when you’re calm. Can you open the packages with one hand? Can you hold the wound closed while trying to apply a butterfly bandage? Oh, ya? How about while your eyes are all teared up, your heart is racing, your hands are shaking and blood is dripping all over?

Here is what I learned today.

1) There is too much stuff in my first aid kit.
2) It is NOT laid out for quickly locating the most important items.
3) You can not rip fabric tape with one hand.
4) You can’t fix a problem in a panic.

#1 & 2) I plan to split my first aid kits into 2 units. Major wounds and treatable wounds.

  • Major wounds is for treating an impaling or protruding fracture (big stuff that I need a trained professional to treat, I’m only trying to stop the bleeding until the EMS gets there).
  • Treatable wounds, like burns, dog bites, deep cuts, etc. will be moved into a roll-up of some sort so everything is laid out in plain sight. This addresses 1 and 2.

#3) Seems straightforward (order some pre-cut strips) but its a symptom of a bigger problem: I didn’t practice this injury or I would have known there was a problem and already had it handled. Can I apply a splint to my forearm (one-handed), can I apply an Israeli compression bandage to a gut wound, two questions I will find out the answer to by practicing.

#4) Seeing blood squirting out of your body is very unnerving and it quickly put me into a state of confusion and panic. I can’t evaluate the wound while my heart is racing, pushing more blood out. I had to sit quietly for a moment to regain composure. I was lucky that this was, all in all, very minor. I knew from classes I have taken, the very first thing they told me to do was stop, take a deep breath, and only then assess the problem. Again, regular practice would have helped quite a bit.

So before anyone asks, I’m fine, feeling kind of dumb, but fine.

But the question is will you be? Well that kind of depends on what you do right now.

Go check your kit!

Make a list of the types of injuries you may actually encounter and set times to practice them.

Remember you may be all alone, so don’t expect that someone will be there to rip the tape.

Mohawk? …are you serious?

 Personal Updates  1 Response »
Aug 032013
 

Ok, my hair got a little overgrown… well a lot overgrown so I decided to have a little fun.

So what do you think should I keep it?

Any dream readers?

 Everything Else  No Responses »
Jun 252013
 

You know how some mornings you wake up remembering an extremely vivid and detailed dream and think “wow, that must have contained some profound message my brain is trying to convey to me.”

Well, this last night I had a dream that the FBI was going door to door checking peoples hardwood floors.

They wanted to make sure homeowners had not refinished there floors to a thickness of less than X. Rather then X being a specific thickness, X was represented by samples pre-mailed out to everyone in the USA. Only one problem the samples were made in China and were all different thicknesses; mine were cut at an angle so one side was thicker than the other. The agent informed me that if I couldn’t prove that my floors were both thicknesses at the same time they would have to rip up my floors and revoke my “floor owners permit.”

Fortunately, that’s when my alarm went off.

Ok, smarty pants what the heck does this one mean?

-Brian

Visit to Hicksville Planing Mill

 Personal Updates, Wood Working  3 Responses »
Jun 152013
 

hicksville planing mill signWe first came across  Hicksville Planing Mill in March while looking for an alternative to overpriced scarps available at Woodcraft and this place looked like the most interesting option by a long shot. The first trip up there was so much fun that frankly, we forgot to snap a photo so we vowed to correct that mistake.

I’m working on a little project for the Mutts and needed some Black Walnut; no better place then Hicksville to get it.

OK, so back to the photos; I was not going to miss out on an opportunity to snap pictures of all the 4 story high stacks of lumber, no sir. I bought a camera phone, a camera, and a video camera.

There was only one problem, I kind of got excited again and forgot to take pictures. Ya, I can’t believe it either. but it gets better, much better!

See I was so excited that I forgot to take the car keys with me, yep left them in the ignition, I locked the car and went shopping. No lie, we were shopping for two hours before I realized that I didn’t have the keys.

Feeling like a fool, having locked my keys, phone, etc in the car I headed back to the office to beg for help. The Mennonites being the most helpful people on the planet offered to let me use their “car kit” to break in. Unfortunately, car thief is not on my list of expertise and I hacked away at it making little progress until the owners’ son, probably the most polite twenty-something you’ve ever met came to help.

Unfortunately, the Mennonites are not known for “grand theft auto” so he too made little progress.

Finally, we got the idea to try and push the window buttons. Is it down to open? No maybe its up to open, hmm, let’s try down again, nope nothings working. Then Jess yells over hey you put the window down. See in our excitement we did not notice that we had actually got the passenger window down and were in the process of putting it back up when she yelled… whoops… I mean YAY we are in.

I was so happy I grabbed my Mennonite partner in crime and gave him a big hug…

Holy crap you should have seen his face, I’ve never seen someone so scared and freaked out at the same time. He turned shades of white and red and you could see his fight and flight response fighting over what to do next.

It was a riot.

Well now, having access to my wood hauling chariot and having just embarrassed the heck out of my guide it was time to pay and go…

I left a big tip for him at the counter, hopefully, that will make up for the hug, lol.

Jess’s photos from the day:

Hicksville Planing Mill Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hicksville-Planing-Mill/135571949825888

What is Creeping Jenny?

 Personal Updates  No Responses »
Jun 042013
 

Well, people kept asking “what the heck is creeping jenny” so I took a couple of shots from the yard.

That’s what she said!

 Everything Else  No Responses »
Jun 032013
 

Every now and then I feel that I need to share the words of someone else. Over the last few months the following quotes were posted by me to facebook and I wanted to archive them here.

Every morning a Gazelle wakes up knowing it must outrun the fastest lion, or it will be killed and eaten. Every morning a lion wakes up knowing it must outrun the slowest Gazelle, or it will starve to death. It does not matter if you are a lion or a Gazelle…when the sun comes up each morning, you’d better be running.

– Unknown [African Proverb]

Associated with the concept of natural rights and servings as an additional buttress to the edifice of laissez-faire was the faith of Americans in the self-sufficiency of the individual. To a great extent the result of the unusually favorable economic conditions that prevailed in the United States, individualism became part and parcel of the nation’s democratic faith. Americans placed their trust not in “external government” but in the free individual, who must be kept free from restrains; and it was widely held that as individuals became more intelligent and more attuned to the moral law, there would be a decreasing need for government.

– Sidney Fine [Laissez Faire and the General-Welfare State / Michigan Press (July 15, 1956)]

In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists’ tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth.

– Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan [in his 1967 book “Gold and Economic Freedom”]

The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation.

-Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf, page 403)

“YOU are the first responders, and police are always second. You face the criminals first, in every event. Police, with all their deadly bullets, only show up later. Police are the second responders”.

– Alan Korwin

The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome will become bankrupt. People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance.

– Cicero , 55 BC

Initial layout of a small garden pathway.

 Yard Work  No Responses »
Jun 022013
 
Garden walk way

Beginnings of a garden walk way started on June 2nd 2013

We try and do a little something around the house every week to keep up with the yards insistence on turning back into a forest.

Yesterday that project was to move 12 wheelbarrows of compost over to the “hosta prison’s” entrance and make a nice little garden area.

I plan to plant some creeping jenny in that area (an invasive ground cover) to fill in around–a yet to be built–stone walkway. We always try and make use of natural components in our yard projects. Not only does it save $$ but it also makes it fit the environment better and ties everything together.

I have a tray of plugs (creeping jenny cuttings) we made last year that will start this garden off. I’ll try and snap a picture or two of one of the existing gardens that are currently being overrun with this stuff. I sometimes wonder if it wouldn’t be easier to just let it take over the lawn (no more cutting the grass for us).

Today (Sunday) was far too muggy to work, so instead, we went to home depot and picked up some cement stepping stones to fill in until I find the perfect flat rocks in the woods.

Heavy Art – Lead Bars [Photos]

 Everything Else  1 Response »
Jun 022013
 

The second shipment of lead arrived (only one left).

I just wanted to take a few shots of the dull metal since I think it’s pretty stuff.

The shots below are of a pile of about 100 pounds of lead stacked into a pyramid.

Big old pile of sniny lead bars

Shiny lead bars stacked.

Nice wallpaper shot for my cell phone.

Diagonal: Pile of lead bars

Closeup: Stack of Lead Bars

Closeup showing ripples.

100+ bars of lead stacked, photo #1

100+ bars of lead stacked
Click photos to see a larger version

PS: You can check out the post about my first shipment here:
http://brianpaonessa.com/blog/lead-the-other-silver/

My new business cards arrived.

 Personal Updates  1 Response »
Jun 022013
 
Brian Paonessa's Business -- card v2

New business cards featuring a shot of my drive to work.

My new business cards just arrived.

It’s been a while since I worked for a company that prints them and they are very handy to have. All too often I’m scribbling my name and phone number on a scrap of paper that I know will be promptly lost.

I found this image in vista print and it looks just like a farm that I pass every morning on my way to work. Unfortunately, the tools on vista print are pretty limited so I found myself working in paint.net and tweaking things until I got it just right.

The commercial offered 250 cards with free shipping for only $10 buckers so I got sucked in fast. Unfortunately for my bank account the up-sells and premium options quickly added up to ~$30 but I’d say it was worth it.

Showing notes section on back of card.

Back of Brian’s business cards showing notes section.

I ended up putting a notes area on the back so I can leave personalized messages in a more professional way.

If I end up printing the second set with less “personal” information on them I’m going to make sure to feature a headshot of myself to help people remember who they were talking to (something I wish everyone would do).

Next time your by be sure to snag one for your card file (or if you’ve made it to the 21st century ya’ can scan it with your phone…)

-Brian Paonessa

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