October's colors were ramping up the farther my pickup and I traveled North.  The aspens where starting to turn as I sped up the I-75 corridor in mid-Michigan.  The kinds of trees were changing as I progressed, from venerable, old oaks in the middle of a wheat field, to these aspens, quaking in the sun, their leaves with bold hints of gold, mixed with the waning greens of summer.  I thought about the parallel situation that happens as one travels to higher elevations, almost anywhere in the world.  You might start out in a jungle, near sea level, but as you progress inland and up, the flora changes, just like it does as you head North, or South, for that matter.  At some point in your upward progress, you're going to encounter something like a quaking aspen, then pines, or other conifers, then that will give way to perhaps some scrubby pines and willows, then tundra, then barren ground with not much, then snow/ice.  Same thing with going North.  Same progressive shift in vegetation.  Pretty weird really, but logical.

Now that we've got THAT out of our way...

I was on a trip to Northern Michigan, to meet up with my brothers and some friends.  The plan was to do some bird hunting, mostly Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock, but I had also gotten prepared to hunt waterfowl by picking up that stamp as well.  It seemed like it took forever to get all my work done and get out of town.  It had already been a long drive - about 6 hours so far, with about the same still to go.

As I worked my way farther North, the solid wall of aspens was giving way to an ever more frequent smattering of conifers.  Ah, the Great White North!  I love it!  The Zilwaulkee bridge was a distant memory now, with it's floodplain and mile upon mile of grasslands.  Saginaw Bay had flown by in the bright, crisp daylight, a glimmer in the distance.  Now I was working northward toward Grayling, but struggling to keep my eyes open!

A couple days before, my brother had texted me to say, "You're not gonna believe this, but it looks like some Marine died in my cabin!"  What?!!!!  Yep, some guy had been running from the law, holed up in my brother's cabin and got himself peppered with .223 caliber ventilators.  We still aren't sure what it was all about. Sounds like a Jason Bourne film, or a Tom Clancy plot, only the "hero" got snuffed out quickly, like a candle.

My brother warned me that we were going to have to spend some of our time repairing the damage the swat team had done.  "You'd think they would have taken care of that themselves!", says I.  "Nope.  They don't do that.  It's just shoot out the windows, frames, etc., dig out the bullets, hastily clean up all the shells, and such and hit the road. Dirty dogs! 

So I'm pulling into the place, in the absolute middle of complete nowhere, tooling up the trail that leads back to the cabin, and see smoke up ahead.  There's my brother, burning a mattress.  He looks up at me, in my pickup, and warns me not to breathe the smoke, "It's that guys blood! You never know..." Wow!  Craziness, indeed.

Yeah, that guy died in one of the bunks in our dormitory in the cabin.  How?  Why?  The only information we got was of limited use, and likely incorrect.  Back to the Jason Bourne notion!  He must have heard something he wasn't supposed to know, I'm thinking.  Holy crap, things like that actually happen.  And how in the world did they find the guy?  We're talking nowhere land here!  He must have had a tracking chip hidden somewhere inside his body.

That's all for now.  I'm off to start a series of novels based roughly on this incident and make millions!

Ciao

A World of Flowers

Yep!  It's March 1, 2018!  I've been highly remiss.  But anyway, I forgive me.

I am going to document the profusion of flowers I've found on my little piece of property, last year...

Ok, so it's now April 22, 2018, and I managed to get back to this thing.  So, as promised, here are some shots from last year's flower crop, wild or otherwise, in Glendale, Ohio, USA.

Endless Hot Water in an Offgrid Scenario... or not

Here's another excellent little video that Engineer775 put together showing how he made a simple thermo-syphoning hot water heater that uses wood to do the work.

Enjoy!



Panchito

Where Has All Our Freedom Gone?

Greetings and salutations,

I just finished watching a trailer for an upcoming documentary featuring some of the best minds in freedom out there today.  I'll let you figure out who those folks are as you watch this short film.  Meanwhile, I will throw out this question to you - "Do you REALLY want to be a free person, free to make your own decisions, grow your own food, build your own dwelling, take your money where you want to, go wherever you want to go when you want to go there, talk to whomever you desire to have a conversation with? Or, are you content to let the hoard of blood-sucking politicians and government welfare recipients (government employees) force you to do their bidding, blindly walking through life like the slave you're becoming?  Huh?  Well?  Think about it!  Think through your answer carefully!  Don't brush my questions off and move on with your life...

Here's a little match to set your world on fire:



Get yourself free!

To Continue, Or Not To Continue...

I have been away from this blog for some time now, as anyone who follows me can attest to.  It's been, again, months since my last post.  The difference this time is that I have intentionally stayed away, which doesn't bode well for the popularity contest that is blogging.  "Why," you may ask, "have you refrained from your online literary persuits?"  I have my doubts as to the wisdom of publishing online, since learning of the wide-spread illegal surveillance being conducted by the US "government".  I nearly feel that calling my own government illegitimate is a completely justified position to take at this juncture.  Too much illegal activity is and has been going on for the last 40 years or so.  There have been entirely too few individuals involved in the political spectrum who can truly be called public servants, or moral individuals.

I recently finished reading a book by the name of Trance - Formation of America, which was written by someone who was deeply involved in MK-Ultra mind control, basically kidnapped by my government and used/abused in horrendous manners for many years until she managed to escape with help from a friend.  Don't read this book.  It will make you sick, and further will heavily undermine your confidence in the goodness of the US government.  But, if you want to be much more informed about the atrocious manners in which your tax dollars are being completely miss used by elected and non-elected government workers, read it, so as not to continue living in ignorance.

So, in light of the many, continuously appearing mismanaged, and/or illegal activities my government, or rather, employees of my government (which means me, I-the government of the USA) I am debating contributing ANY data to their corrupted cause.  I will keep you posted.

Over and out!

Panchito

Aquaponics in Action

Wow!  It's been awhile since I wrote anything.  I've been busy working 2 jobs. 
So what have I been doing that's interesting?  I've been building a combination green house and outbuilding for aquaponics.  The building frame is of welded dimensional steel framing, with straw bales and stucco on the exterior.  That's right, that thing is a straw-bale building, including the knee wall around the base of the greenhouse.  The system will house multiple tanks of tilapia, as well as growing towers and grow beds.  My client presently has somewhere near 2000 to 3000 tilapia in tanks, as well as several grow beds above them with various species of plants.
I've recently finished putting the polycarbonite on the greenhouse, but there are many air leaks that need to be filled with some sort of sealant.  The temperature is very low these days down in the 20's and Fahrenheit.  Snow is falling most days, though on occasion the temperature gets up to the 50s.  today we installed a propane heater and discovered that it's costing about $30 for 4-5 hours in propane costs.  That's pretty prohibitive, but we have other ways and means of heating the greenhouse, including geothermal, natural gas, and other including solar.  We may also put in a a rocket mass heater system that burns wood.  That would have pex tubing running through it and run the PEX tubing down into the knee wall that the greenhouse sits on, in the concrete floor, as well as a sump underneath the green house that has the gravel in it.  We're hoping that the gravel and something will act as a heat sink.  Eventually we will put solar water heating on the roof of the larger building.
Here are some photos of the building I've been working on, with more to come:

Having Taken The RED Pill...

Glen Jacobs does the smack-down on the political status quo, introducing his listeners to terms like Austrian School of Economics, Ron Paul, etc.

Check it out, I dare you!



Frank