Burn My Time
~Josh Houghtelin
Rodale’s New Shelter - A Magazine published in 1983
My Grandma is cleaning out a spare bedroom this week to house some family for a 4th of July party and she ran across this magazine. It’s Rodale’s New Shelter, May/June issue 1983. She gave it to Zippy and I because it has some great information in it. Both Zippy and I read it and are almost completely stunned by how pathetic America (and the world in general) really is. I scanned the Magazine to a low quality PDF so you can download it here.
This magazine is 25 years old yet completely full of Solar inovations & energy creating/saving tips. I’m not just talking about photovaltic panels either. This covers solar heat exchangers, solar hot water heaters, and the United States Vs. Japans program for photovaltics just to get started. There is even an ad in there for Ford stating they hit a new personal best for MPG in a pickup truck. What happened to this trend? I know I shouldn’t consider it astonishing but this is just one random magazine from 1983. All the technology was already there and the need to get away from fossil fuel is more then obvious. Just glancing through it makes me wonder if we are making steps forward as an intelligent civilization or if we are just destroying the spinning rock we live on.
Roadle’s New Shelter May/June issue 1983 (Right Click, Save As) It’s 12 megs.
I bought a Glock 19!
Zippy and I own a few long guns, a shotgun and one pistol. The handgun is a Glock 23C that Zippy’s dad bought for her. I really enjoy shooting it a lot. It’s a .40 caliber compensated (ported) model. It’s a bit noisy (as if any gun isn’t) but it is really great to shoot. The only real downfall of the Glock 23C in my virtually worthless opinion about guns is the price of ammo. Whether you buy those .40 cal bullets by the case (1,000) or box (50) it dents the pocket book for as much as I’d like to shoot. My buddy Shawn knew how much I like to shoot the .40 and I help him out a lot with purchasing gun parts over the net so he recently bought Zippy and I a 29 round magazine for the beast. It hangs waaaaaay out of the bottom of the pistol grip and adds quite a bit of weight to the gun but it definitely lets you shoot longer without reloading.
Here is Zippy’s Glock 23C with an empty 29 round mag in it.
Since I have been shooting Zippy’s glock I’ve really grown fond of how it functions, how it field strips & cleans, the size and how fits/feels in my hand. I’ve had a few friends come over with their guns to shoot on our makeshift shooting range in my yard and I just haven’t been impressed with them. A lot of people seem to dislike discharging ammunition from a piece plastic. I find it more comfortable than holding a piece of metal. Although it’s half plastic, the Glock still feels very sturdy and comfortable. With all that in mind I decided to purchase the Glock 19. It’s darn near exactly the same gun as Zippy’s (Minus being ported) but the 9mm ammo is much cheaper, especially in bulk. The 19 is a little lighter than the 23C and the standard mag holds two more bullets (15 rounds vs 13).
Taken right before I put the first round through it.
Still before the first shot. The targets are actually a bunch of turkey targets a few inches square stapled right next to each other.
Zippys on the right (G23C), mine on the left (G19).
G19 on the right G23C on the left.
Now it seems everyone that doesn’t own some guns, shoot for fun or have some overwhelming paranoia of pending doom always asks me, “Why do you need a gun?” or “Why do you need a hand gun?”. I have yet to “need” any guns. I do however like and want them. All the guns we have can be used for hunting or self protection. I personally & very simply like guns because I find shooting them to be an extremely enjoyable hobby. I’m not a naturally good shot and I really like watching, reflecting on & feeling the progress I make as I get better at shooting. I spend 99% of my time shooting still targets and I love it. I really can’t think of too many friends of mine who don’t enjoy shooting with me. Zippy and I intend on going to a weapons training course on July 19th so we can learn everything the state of Missouri wants us to know about carrying & using a weapon. After which we will promptly apply for our Missouri (and/or Utah) conceal & carry permit. Since we have guns to use, enjoy & protect our self with then why would we not want to be ‘officially’ trained on their proper use? Whether we actually carry a concealed weapon or not has no bearing on the fact that we legally do not have the choice to do so if we don’t have the permit.
I will follow up with some pictures of both the Glocks. I haven’t even taken a picture of just the gun itself yet but everyone knows what a glock looks like. Work has kept both Zippy and I pretty busy so we haven’t had much time for extracurricular activities. Work during the day, code at night & work on the homestead on the weekends.
What’s next? I’m interested in adding a nice compound bow to our collection.
[edit] I’ve put ~400 rounds through it now. I don’t know if it’s just in my head or not but it already feels like it’s shooting better although I still seem to pull down and to the side a little at the point the trigger clicks to release the pin. I have to work on pulling the trigger with the tip of my finger while maintaining a straight shot.
Zippy & I visited Steve & Crystal in Florida!
Zippy & I took a short vacation to Florida to hang out with a friend Zippy has known for a long time over the net (I think ~10 years) but never had the opportunity to meet.
We had a freaking great time down there. We both were feeling really good the whole time we were down there. We spent most of our outdoors time at one of two beaches. I don’t remember the first (where most of the pictures stem from) but the second beach was Cocoa Beach. Since Steve has been a long time resident of Florida he drove all of us in our rental car everywhere we wanted to go. I think he even figured out how to get the darn car to turn on every time you pressed the power button. I never did quite understand it although having a vehicle that was really nice on fuel (42+mpg) was quite convenient.
I’ve never had the opportunity to try surfing and have always wanted to so we had Steve drive us to the beach a couple times. Sadly the waves weren’t quite what we needed but regardless of that the beach was a heck of a nice place to hang out.
Our shadows.
Steve & Zippy…
Crystal, Steve & I
And of course.. Zippy & I.
Steve & Crystal are two very awesome individuals. We enjoyed every minute of our vacation at their place and definitely want them to visit us when they can. If all goes well they will hopefully get a chance to visit us within a year or two and quite possibly join Zippy & I on a trip to Europe in November 2009. I’m really excited about it.
We bought an electric golf cart.
Zippy and I have been looking for the right deal on a golf cart since we moved into the sticks. We finally found the deal we were looking for. We purchased a used 2000 Yamaha G16 Electric Golf Cart w/charger.
We have a ton of landscaping, trail blazing, planting & tending to do over a good amount of space. We figured an electric golf cart would be the perfect tool for moving people, tools, and supplies around the property. The two straps on the back of the golf cart normally used for holding two golf club bags work great for carting around all our garden & landscaping tools.
We have been working on a few nice walking / cart trails that go pretty much everywhere. We even borrowed the neighbors bobcat loader to get a lot of the hard earth moving done. Cutting nice wide walking trails through steep hills of rock and clay is a a bit difficult to say the least. But the feeling of accomplishment and knowing we made what we have makes it well worth it. Now we have nice trails leading around the pond, horse pasture, and a good start on a trail going back through the hills down to the water. It’s definitely time consuming and seems like we’ve barely started but it will be well worth it when we are done.
How we are building trials:
- Build Culverts - Since we have lots of hills and tend to get crazy amounts of rain when it falls I have a relatively labor intensive method of creating inexpensive culverts so water doesn’t destroy the paths
- Dig out & flatten the existing ravine a little bit
- Bolt two (or three) used/waste car tires together and place them on one hill/edge of the ravine & do the same on the other side
- Place one or two pieces of field tile, PVC drainage pipe, or metal culvert at the lowest point in the ravine. There will be a set of tires bolted together on both sides of the field tile.
- Pack the tires with earth to create a rammed earth brick just as they use in Earthship home construction. [video] This is the hardest part because the tires have to be rammed completely full of dirt so they retain their shape. This protects the field tile from being crushed if you drive a vehicle over it and also acts as a dam since the tires are nearly void of any weakness to erosion.
- Cover the tires and culvert with as much dirt as necessary to build the makeshift bridge as level as possible to the ground surrounding it using dirt cut from the side walls of the ravine if nothing else. We generally take dirt from another hill.
- Make the Trail - Level off the ground through the whole trail as much as possible with the loader/Bobcat. It can take a while to break up and/or move all the big rocks we’ve run into but this is where the trails really start to come together. All the big hills, bumps, and ravines have been leveled off. In some spots, such as the edge of a hill that goes down to the lake, we can’t (or don’t want to) drive the bobcat in fear of getting it stuck, rolling it, or otherwise damaging it so I have a pickaxe, shovels, hoes, rakes & a bunch of other tools for manually tearing into the side of a hill and leveling off a flat surface for a trail.
- Smooth it out - The bobcat does a great job of tearing through hills, flattening bumps and building culverts but doesn’t quite leave a perfectly smooth finish on the hard clay ground we have here. For this step I use a hoe & a rake to rough up the ground a little bit and smooth everything out as best I can.
- Grass! - Zippy and I want the trails to blend back in with the rest of the yard and landscape so we are re-seeding it with grass. This should also help prevent erosion when our torrential rain comes. To get started I Just bought a 50lb bag of tall fescue, spread it around with a walk behind spreader & covered it with loose hay. Since our ground is mostly clay I try and loosen it up a little if I can with a rake before throwing the seed on it. In less than a couple months we should see some good results.
I will try & remember to get some pictures & video of the trail building progress thus far this weekend. We have a lot of work left to do as we want trails down the ridge of the hills in our back yard, between the hills down to the boat dock & a connecting path that goes around the far side of the horse pasture along their fence.
Grandpa Darcy (Dutch) Moran Passed.
Darcy (Dutch) Moran passed away last weekend. Grandma Moran, Mom, Dale, Chris, and I all tried to make it to Craigs house where Grandpa was staying when we heard the news that he was in bad shape. We all arrived a few hours too late but the nurse said he knew it was his time and told the nurse to “Tell my family I love them” before he left.
For the past few years he was fighting cancer that had spread throughout his entire body.
I never really got the chance to get to know my Grandpa Moran since we always lived so far a part but he’ll be with me forever. Since quite a bit of family spent the weekend at Craigs house in Cherry Valley, Illinois I learned a lot about Grandpa listening to the stories everyone had to share. I’m glad I got to be there as everyone talked about his attitude and personality. I also heard a lot about what he thought of me. I was his first grandson and the idea appalled him untill the day I was born. For almost the first whole year of my life I was the world to him. A year after I was born my mom moved to Minnesota with my dad. Sadly, I only had the oportunity to visit him a few times after that. Lots of stories and memories were created in that first year.
I learned a lot and absorbed good values last weekend that will stay with me forever.
