This morning, we went for a walk in the mountain woods surrounding us. Some would call it a hike I guess as it was 3 miles. We thinned this three and four years ago. Most of the trees went to a timber dealer and to free firewood to those who would come and help themselves to the downed trees. The slash still needs burning, but that needs co-operative weather.
I’d rather be here than at work most days. In fact I’d rather be at work here most days than anywhere else.
Sorry about the sun glare.
The only two areas that I enjoy more than flashlights are: 1. Ecclesiastical things, and 2. People. Family and friends.
Third is Things. Of these, flashlights bring me the most happiness. After that, comes Places. I live in a normal nice residential neighborhood. I try as best as I can to enjoy my daily six mile, brisk, hilly walking routine, but loose animals are an unpredictable risk of threat of vicious attack.
Because I like big lights, my flashlightical views lean heavily toward both the extreme bright and the extreme heft.
Looks like good trail bike riding country MtnDon.
djozz quotes, "it came with chinese lettering that is chinese to me".
"My man mousehole needs one too"
old4570 said "I'm not an expert , so don't suffer from any such technical restrictions".
Old-Lumens. Highly admired and cherished member of Budget Light Forum. 11.5.2011 - 20.12.16. RIP.
Finished my new kitchen. Installed the oven, 3 fase cooktop and a Quoocker tap.
Finally extended an ethernet cable to the raspberry pi in the bedroom to gain access to content from my TVheadend/Emby server.
What do you mean you’re not supposed to solder them together?
Got frisky with the girlfriend!
You can't hide me from me.
Dirt/trail motorcycles are great for exploring. There are old logging trails, most of which are officially closed, but berms don’t slow down a bike much.
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Got accosted by a murder-hornet that pulled a knife on me.
Had to beat it into submission with a Totes folding-umbrella.
True story!
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Lightbringer you enjoyed it? I always said you are bonkers!
Hey, I brought an umbrella to a knife-fight… and won.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Are you sure you’re not Jackie Chan?!
Ahh! Well for a short run of Gigabit or less, I’m sure it won’t matter too much…
I ran Cat5E (was going to buy Cat6, but got to use “what I need” off a spool of Cat5E a friend had, for free) through parts of my house. Also have my raspberry pi setup for a pihole, a network drive, and a DLNA server. I can download content straight to the appropriate folder on the shared drive from my PC, and stream it to whatever DLNA-compatible device I please. I’m planning to do an openVPN server as well, but have not gotten around to it. My home network is a hobby but networking is also part of my job.
Old Lumens Contest 2020 - Hand-made light category
ZL SC62(w) | Jaxman E2L XP-G2 5A | Purple S2+ XPL-HI U6-3A | D4 w/ Luxeon V | RRT-01 | Purple FW3A, 4000K SST20 | Baton S1
Boruit D10 w/ Quadrupel Fet+1/Anduril | EagTac D25C Ti | DQG Slim AA Ti | Jaxman E3 | UF-T1 by CRX | Olight S15 Ti | Nitecore EX11.2
L6 XHP70.2 P2 4000K FET+7135 | Jaxman M8 | MF02 | Jaxman Z1 CULNM1.TG | Blue S2+ w/ ML Special | Thrunite T10Tv2
Supfire M6 3xXHP50.2, Sofirn C8F, Unfinished: Sofirn SP70, IYP07/Tool AAA hot-rods, Jetbeam E3S
Others: Nitecore EC23 | Nebo Twyst | Streamlight ProTac 1AA | TerraLux LightStar 100
Finally got myself a proper knife lubricant (KPL), I have been using mineral and tool oil in the past but they gunk up very fast. Disassembled and maintained 5 knives, the action on them improved quite a bit specially the ones that use bronze washers.
The bottle is tiny with just 10ml of fluid but the level hasn’t even moved after applying to 5 knives. I expect this little bottle to last for years.
USB power meter/tester thread
I hope your wife doesn’t read this.
djozz quotes, "it came with chinese lettering that is chinese to me".
"My man mousehole needs one too"
old4570 said "I'm not an expert , so don't suffer from any such technical restrictions".
Old-Lumens. Highly admired and cherished member of Budget Light Forum. 11.5.2011 - 20.12.16. RIP.
Went treasure hunting today:
Remnants of an old farm. Fireplace is still standing and whats left of a barn. Around its old fields is growing +30 year old trees, I think.
These old wells are biggest hazard around. Good thing this one was so easy to spot, but sometimes wells old wooden cover is growing plants and stuff and its almost impossible to see until you crash through. Location of wells can be surprising too. I been finding many wells right in the middle of old fields, current forests so around old farms keep your eyes peeled to the ground.
Usually this is the biggest treasure you find though. Just a nice warm spring day when you just kick back and make some food, coffee and just sit around in these old magical places listening to singing birds and time just seems to stand still. Its almost like real world problems and worries cant touch you around there.
Yeah I love outdoors and I love these old abandoned places with or without any intact buildings. Got me right into flashlights these hobbies because when it gets dark, light is your best friend. Night trips into these places are really awesome too or just coming to spend some good time without digging like a dog around.
This mmorpg called life is pretty awesome, right? Safe trips!
Exploring is great fun. Finding old remnants of past activities is a great bonus. We’ve found traces of old homesteads and sawmills. A few times we have been lucky and found a few obsidian arrow heads that would probably date back a few hundred years.
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old GIF, but did the same thing today.
the can behind the plates is the target.
It is. Too bad its almost impossible to find places untouched by humans. No matter where you go you always find some stuff that is manmade, but can I find untouched forests. Nope they are extinct. Mankind really should stop swapping nature into useless glass pebbles called money. We just aint living right.
I didn’t find it today but, my last day off I went walking the creek bed behind my house. Found an old condensing coil. About 12 inch in diameter, foot and half tall and about 14 winds. Got me thinking back to when a buddy and I made moonshine about 25 years ago. We didn’t make it to sell, just for our own consumption. I don’t drink anymore and won’t but, it sure got me thinking to all the great times him and I had just making it. We were in the woods just cutting up and goofing off like kids do. I am sure our shine was horrible but, it did the trick. We had an old pot someone gave us. 10 gallons of mash I think it held. Some copper pipe of different sizes and we were off to the races. We never did use a thumper, we probably should have, looking back on it now.
Anyway, that coil just made me think back to a different time and how much my life has changed since then. 2 years after that I had my first child, lived on a working family horse ranch outside of Haughton Louisiana, not far from the Shreveport/Bossier City area, Worked 12 hours a day 7 days a week to help keep the ranch going and loved every minute of it. I learned things living there that they don’t teach in books and schools. Now there is nothing that I can’t fix, drive, or blow up.
Sleeping one night with the windows open one spring. Louisiana only gets 2 days of spring a year mind you. My wife wakes me up screaming bloody murder. So I jump up and ask her what wrong, she says somebody is coming through the window. I grab my pistol and Maglight off the nightstand and shine it at the window, now this all happened in just a few seconds, something coming in the window alright but, it’s not human. Horses broke through a gate and were wandering around, one stuck its head right through the screen to have a look around. My heart was racing as I shined the light over there, thinking for sure I was going to have to do the one thing I hoped I never had to. I quickly lowered my pistol and burst out in laughter. For a solid minute I couldn’t stop. Cheeks and belly hurting and tears streaming down my face. The wife thought I was crazy but, the laughter must have been catching because she started laughing too.
It was a epic moment I will never forget.
All of that came rushing back to me by an old copper coil I found in an old creek long forgotten. I am keeping that copper coil til the day I die. I hope someone takes care of it when I go.
"Everywhere I go, there I am"
In the SW US one of the things that make for enjoyable exploring is searching out ancient sites such as those from the Anasazi Indians. For 1,000 years, long before Columbus, the Anasazi Indians were lords of what’s now the American Southwest. Some of their dwellings are preserved as national monuments and have visitor centers. There are hundreds more that do not appear on maps made public. Way off the beaten track. Some of the stonework is amazing. The paths to these cliff face dwellings can be daunting.
Alas, the spread of the internet has caused damage to many of the ancient sites. Twenty or thirty years ago myself and a friend did a lot of exploring (Jeeps) the SE corner of Utah. We found sites in various places on land that was national forest or BLM. Those of any significance often had a weatherproof can (ammo can) someplace with a guest register, a short story, and a “please leave as found” note. There were still often pottery shards, even dried shrunken mini corn cobs and bone fragments. Very few people visited these sites and those who did left them intact. A few years ago I revisited some and discovered the historic remnants gone. A search on the internet finds many maps and even GPS routes.
I also have a moonshine story, but will have to leave it for another time.
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Beautiful location and pictures MtnDon, luv it.
I like cutting trees, when it is to improve the forest or to make use of the trees. Today I cut a couple that had fallen on a fence. Then I repaired the fence where the fallen trees had broken gate posts, using some new and old posts, some new and old wire.
Then I loaded the small trailer up for cut logs for a friend to use as firewood.
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Great stories guys.
All that happened here on the ranch lately is hanging an old kitchen cabinet donated by a friend into the barn yesterday , was a real beetch trying to lean 3 feet off a step ladder over the work bench and lift it up onto a 2×4 shelf that I mounted to get it level and at the right height.
Should have had someone else here to help or at least to call 911 but got er done and now have more workshelf space available and a place to house things.
Also was a nice day today for PA, so took the old Mazda pickup out for a ride and delivered a rarely used extra gas grill to a buddy for use at his cabin.
So now it’s off my deck and don’t have to worry about it coming through the glass door when the never ending west wind gets her.
And last but not least the Eagle landed this morning so that was a good surprise:)
Later,
Keith
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it sometimes rhymes,” Mark Twain
…
After the Apocalypse there will be only 2 things left alive, Cockroaches and Keith Richards
Did a thorough vacuum sweep of my apartment. Left no spot untouched. Nothing better to make home feel pleasant again after the rain brought down all the drought dust and made hoovering not pointless.
went for a long ride on a Jetson Bolt. Lots of fun!
Yeah cutting trees and using falled trees aint bad if you aint doing like big corporations are doing. I aint saying that we should go hugging trees and stop everything we do, BUT clearcutting and even taking all the branches and stuff left from harvested logs away is a baad thing to do. That aint doing nothing more than also taking all nutrients away from that area which usually returns back to the soil when trees die as part of natural cycle. It also looks horrible. Like a warzone. Also all those naturally falled trees are pretty useful for ecosystem. Insects love those and those do pollination and serve as food source for birds and other small animals etc. etc. In nature nothing is ever useless.
In our country alone there is about 250 different nesting bird species and almost 100 of those are endangered, just because one of the “smartest” species is acting up and being just plain greedy.
Loving that ranch vibe that I’m getting from those pics. Being and living as a part of the surrounding nature so it would last to other generations and just stayed healthy is stuff that we should all aim for. We should serve the big natural cycle and not take too much advantage of it. Sustainable living, living for yourself and not for the man and stuff.
riding road bike 88 miles last week
just getting things done, with some unnecessary miles
learning new knots
sewing or trying to
cooking
wle
"You never have the wind with you - it's either against you, or you're having a good day."
Daniel Behrman, "The Man Who Loved Bicycles".
It never gets easy, you just go faster. -Greg Lemond.
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Today, for the first time in approximately 10 weeks, I was able to attend a community ecclesiastical function. It was absolutely blessed!
Because I like big lights, my flashlightical views lean heavily toward both the extreme bright and the extreme heft.
I cut the lawn using my riding lawnmower. It does have a modified LED headlight (Lawnmower LED Light Bulb), but that should still count, right? In the middle of winter with the cold and snow, I always think about how nice it will be again in the summer cutting the lawn. It’s very relaxing and the fresh cut grass smells so good.
It’s even more enjoyable since I used to have a walk behind lawnmower and cutting the lawn was such a chore. It’s still a lot of work every other time with trimming and blowing, but it’s so much less work and quicker now.
I’d rather use my flashlight around the house than turn on the lights.
Did a little evening trip today. Pics, I think we all like pics so here is some, maybe too many, but anyway:
So again old farmstead.
Old sauna.
Well, well, well, its a well. Pretty interesting location.
Same room at summer time. I visited here also last summer, because these places have always different feel at different seasons. Its also interesting to see when nature takes over little bit more and more every year.
There has been great view to the lake when farm was having its glory days back in the 60’s which probably was its last decade.
Also a great place to sit down and enjoy some food and coffee. Gotta say those Thermacells are one of my favourite gear all-time. No need to worry about annoying mosquitos or more nastier black flies.
Until I return again.
Thanks, MoreLumens. I enjoy seeing the pictures.
How far north are those images? What altitude? The tree size reminds me of what I might see here if I went above 10,000 feet (3000 m) altitude. I’m at about 35 degrees north. The images I posted are nearby at about 8800 feet (2680 m). Of course, the seasonal hours of sunlight difference help to confuse growth too.
Do you get much precipitation? We get an annual average of 19” (45 cm). But that seems to be becoming less over time.
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