Slowing down to enjoy life

Every issue I gear up mentally to write the editorial for the magazine by studying the political and economic issues facing the country. Each issue it gets harder and harder as I get madder and madder at the politicians of both major parties, the ineptness of our government on both the national and local levels, and the seeming depth of the death spiral I envision America as being on. This issue, as I put myself through the same mental torture by trying to write about the many different ways our government lies to us using things like rigged unemployment numbers and phony inflation statistics, I suddenly extended my arm over my desk like a big windshield wiper and swept all the accumulated paperwork onto the floor. I spared my computer. I went out onto my front deck and hit golf balls into the woods for about an hour, then retrieved my Remington 870 shotgun from a rack and disassembled it so I could install a new LED light assembly on the forend. Then I walked my property with two of my five cats following. We visited the big rock that is the grave marker for Molly, my old black lab who recently died, and went on up the 300-yard winding path to the spring that is the source of water for the house. It was one of those Pacific Northwest days when the ocean is still but the storm is gathering. I could see across about 50 miles of awe-inspiring ocean glass. On the way back I visited the chicken house, retrieving several eggs by reaching under an angry hen who pecked my hand. I like being pecked by an angry hen and have tried to persuade my eight-year-old granddaughter, Olga, that she too should not be afraid to reach under the hen when retrieving eggs. When I got back to the house, I called my wife, Lenie, who is the business manager for the magazine, and suggested I take her to dinner. She was delighted. Life can be pleasurable and rewarding if you don't let yourself get overwhelmed by the disturbing news of the day. Sometimes you have to calm down, slow down, and refocus on what is important. It's not a corrupt government that is important, although we must keep an eye on the rascals within it, but our personal world and our families. You cannot spend all your time battling dragons. I've always had a tendency to dwell too much on things. Since my daughter, Annie, took over the editorial side of Backwoods Home Magazine three years ago, she gave me the time to step back and do some fishing, golfing, shooting, and reading. She also gave me my third grandchild, Clara, who has become my good buddy at the office. It can be hard to change an old dog, especially when there are so many dragons that need slaying. But by golly, at age 67 I'm going to try and calm down and enjoy all the pleasant things in my corner of the world. Maybe there's a lesson here for all of us.

Source:
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/duffy135.html



 

The Bloody Truth About Serbia's Vampire

Following a recent scare, experts shed light on the enduring myth of the undead.

Garlic sales are up. Wooden crosses are a hot commodity. That can only mean one thing: Vampire on the loose!
But this isn't part of a movie script or book. It's a real-life event in the Serbian town of Zarozje (map), where last month the local council issued a public health warning that the resident vampire, Sava Savanovic, may be on the prowl. (See "Pictures: Toothless 'Vampire' Skeleton Unearthed in Bulgaria.")
The vampire scare was sparked by reports that an old mill where the vampire allegedly lived has collapsed. According to ABC News, the town's mayor, Miodrag Vujetic, said: "People are worried, everybody knows the legend of this vampire and the thought that he is now homeless and looking for somewhere else [to live] and possibly other victims is terrifying ... "
Then again, how frightened should you be of a vampire who, as the story goes, can turn into a butterfly? To find out, we spoke with Mark Collins Jenkins, the author of Vampire Forensics, and forensic archeologist and anthropologist Matteo Borrini.
Is this vampire alert an effort to draw tourists or a modern-day manifestation of ancient superstitions?
MCJ: I have no idea, but I would suspect the former. I would approach the story very warily. Vampire belief might be deeply rooted in the Balkans, but I doubt you'll find any "ancient superstition" even there that hasn't been thoroughly tainted by modern vampire lore. Fangs and blood-drinking are generally not present in the old stories. Victims were usually beaten up or suffocated.
Is it crazy that the town council issued a public health warning?
MCJ: Historically speaking, it's not that crazy. In past centuries, outbreaks of vampire hysteria, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, often coincided with outbreaks of tuberculosis and deadly plagues. Peasants had no other way of explaining why everyone was dropping dead but by blaming it on witches and vampires or other supernatural creatures. In 19th-century New England, tuberculosis wasted entire families, one after another. Superstitious people believed that the first to die was somehow feeding on his surviving family members. (Related: "'Vampire of Venice' Unmasked: Plague Victim & Witch?")
Why did people begin believing in vampires?
MB: Especially between the 16th and 18th centuries, little was known about what happens to the body after death. During plagues and epidemics, mass graves were continually reopened to bury new dead. People sometimes exhumed the bodies of the diseased to look for possible causes. Reports about vampires describe exhumations weeks or months after death, during the body's decay.
MCJ: Bodies weren't embalmed back then. They rot, to be quite frank, in grossly different ways. If a bunch of people in the village started dying in mysterious ways, they'd dig up the first one to die, see that his corpse didn't look quite right, assume that was blood flowing down those cheeks (it's called purge fluid in modern forensics, a natural byproduct of decomposition, but it's not blood), and generally burn the body. End of vampire.
Savanovic supposedly survived in spirit as a butterfly. Are there other twists on the classic vampire story?
MB: Sometimes it was thought that the body turned into a wolf or dog because near the grave of the vampire, there were footsteps of these animals. Actually, the earth had been disturbed by stray and hungry dogs attracted by the smell of the decomposing body.
Why is garlic anathema to vampires?
MCJ: People used to believe that strong-smelling stuff like garlic was apotropaic, meaning able to ward off evil spirits. But the specific garlic-vampire connection was popularized by 19th and 20th century novels and movies. A kind of [Romany] vampire, for example, is instead deterred by burning turmeric. Garlic won't bother them.
How do modern interpretations of vampires differ from older ones?
MB: Ancient reports speak about vampires as bloated corpses of ordinary people with blood around the mouth. In the movies, the dead are charming, seductive, often aristocratic, or with superhuman powers.
MCJ: The modern fascination with vampires is fueled by books and movies. Since the early 19th century, that has turned on illicit romance. Forbidden love. It was somehow thrilling to cross the line and love a vampire, or to be seduced by one. Hardly any of that is in the folklore, though. (See: "Vampire Expert Digs His Fangs Into 'True Blood,' 'Twilight.'")
Has there ever been any proof that a vampire existed?
MB: No. All the old reports about vampires talk about real events and real exhumation of bodies of suspected vampires. But they are misinterpretations of the transformative phenomena of corpses: Every exhumed vampire was actually a normal, decomposing body.
Why does this belief in vampires hang on?
MCJ: Fear of the dead. The same reason that people, deep down, are still afraid of ghosts. A vampire is a dead body brought back to life, so to speak, perhaps by the devil or an evil spirit.
MB: I think it's connected to two deep aspects of human thought: death and blood. Death is our inevitable destiny. Blood is our life fluid. The vampire connects these two aspects in a paradoxical way—it is a corpse who escapes death by drinking blood.

Source:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/12/121217-vampire-serbia-supernatural-garlic-fangs-science-weird/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20121220news-vampireserbia&utm_campaign=Content

The Survival Doctor Medical Supply List

Great Information...Click For larger View

Sources:
http://homesteadsurvival.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-survival-doctor-medical-supply-list.html

http://prepforshtf.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/SurvivalDoctorInfoLG.jpg





Medique 40061 First Aid Kit, 61-PieceFirst Aid Only Outdoor First Aid Kit, Soft Case, 205-Piece KitFirst Aid Kit With Hard Case- 326 pcs- First Aid Complete Care Kit - Exceeds OSHA & ANSI Guidelines - Ideal for the Workplace - Disaster Preparedness (Color Red)

How To Make "Oxiclean", Laundry Detergent & Fabric Softener

How To Make "Oxiclean", Laundry Detergent & Fabric Softener

How To Make Glass Cleaner

Homemade Glass Cleaner

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of breathing in toxic fumes and wearing rubber gloves when I clean. After realizing how many toxic chemicals are in commercial cleaning products, I'm on a mission to make my own. I've been amazed at how simple it is.

Homemade glass cleaner is the first homemade cleaning product I've tackled and I couldn't be happier with it. I looked at A LOT of glass cleaner recipes online until I found this winner at crunchybetty.com. I'm glad I chose it because it works just as great as Crunchy Betty claims it does. I think her exact words were, "It makes your mirrors look like they were just born."

Homemade Glass Cleaner1/4 cup rubbing alcohol
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 Tbsp corn starch
2 cups distilled, filtered, or boiled water

I decided to use distilled water instead of tap water because our water is really hard. Hard water and cleaning just aren't a good combination. (I can't wait for the day I can get a water softener!) Combine everything in a spray bottle and shake well. Also shake before using because the cornstarch will settle to the bottom.
Now let's talk money. How much did it cost me to make up this whole bottle of glass cleaner?

$0.12 Rubbing Alcohol
$0.04 Vinegar
$0.12 Distilled Water
$0.17 Corn Starch
$0.45 Grand Total

Beat that, Windex!


Sources:
http://www.herbsandoilsworld.com/non-toxic-glass-cleaner/
http://www.ourhomemadehappiness.com/2012/02/homemade-glass-cleaner.html

Kaboom

EDITORIAL: An Attack on ‘Some Guns’ is an Attack on all Gun-owners

Before I begin this article I want to say that as a father of a young son only a couple of years away from starting school my deepest and heartfelt condolences go out to the families of those who have lost their lives in Newtown, Connecticut. As a father I know the unending love of a small child and the wonder in their eyes at all things great and small, and cannot imagine having that taken away from me. You have my sympathy and prayers.

Wag the doggun

On December 14th in Newtown, Connecticut so many lives were cut short in an act of unspeakable evil the likes of which we have not seen in this country before.  A shooter, whose name I will never mention, whose photo I will never post in my articles, and whose motive we may never understand decided to take the lives of twenty young children and seven adults before he cowardly ended his own. Yet as dangerous and horrendous as the act was, what has been allowed to transpire with blinding speed in the immediate aftermath of this tragedy continues to frighten me and, for the life of me, I don’t understand how you can call for new gun control measures or dump a Fortune 500 company before all the facts of the case are even known.

Beneath a hailstorm of speculation just as the barest of facts were beginning to solidify about this case, there were calls to action from politicians, promising moves against guns and seizing this sensitive moment away from people who need it the most, the real victims of this shooting. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was among the first who called for action stating:
“With all the carnage from gun violence in our country, it’s still almost impossible to believe that a mass shooting in a kindergarten class could happen. It has come to that. Not even kindergarteners learning their ABCs are safe. We heard after Columbine that it was too soon to talk about gun laws. We heard it after Virginia Tech. After Tucson and Aurora and Oak Creek. And now we are hearing it again. For every day we wait, 34 more people are murdered with guns. Today, many of them were five-year olds.
President Obama rightly sent his heartfelt condolences to the families in Newtown. But the country needs him to send a bill to Congress to fix this problem. Calling for ‘meaningful action’ is not enough. We need immediate action. We have heard all the rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership – not from the White House and not from Congress. That must end today. This is a national tragedy and it demands a national response. My deepest sympathies are with the families of all those affected, and my determination to stop this madness is stronger than ever.”.....Read More HERE

Obama to send Congress gun proposals in January

Obama to send Congress gun proposals in January

By By JULIE PACE, Associated Press – 22 hours ago 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Declaring the time for action overdue, President Barack Obama promised on Wednesday to send Congress broad proposals in January for tightening gun laws and curbing violence after last week's schoolhouse massacre in Connecticut.
Even before those proposals are drafted, Obama pressed lawmakers to reinstate a ban on military-style assault weapons, close loopholes that allow gun buyers to skirt background checks and restrict high-capacity ammunition clips.
"The fact that this problem is complex can no longer be an excuse for doing nothing," Obama said in his most detailed comments on guns since Friday's killing of 20 schoolchildren and six adults in Newtown, Conn. "The fact that we can't prevent every act of violence doesn't mean we can't steadily reduce the violence."
Gun control measures have faced fierce resistance in Congress for years but that may be changing now because of last week's violence. Since then, Obama has signaled for the first time in his presidency that he's willing to spend political capital on the issue and some prominent gun-rights advocates on Capitol Hill — Democrats and Republicans alike — have expressed willingness to consider new measures.
Still, given the long history of opposition to tighter gun laws, there is no certainty the legislation Obama backed Wednesday or the proposals he will send to Congress next month will become law.
Obama tasked Vice President Joe Biden, a longtime gun control advocate, with overseeing the administration-wide process to create those proposals. Beyond firearms' restrictions, officials will also look for ways to increase mental health resources and consider steps to keep society from glamorizing guns and violence.
Obama's January deadline underscores the desire among White House officials to respond swiftly to the Newtown shooting. Obama aides worry that as the shock of the shooting fades, so, too, will the prospects that pro-gun lawmakers will work with the White House to tighten restrictions.
"I would hope that our memories aren't so short that what we saw in Newtown isn't lingering with us, that we don't remain passionate about it only a month later," said Obama. He pledged to talk about gun violence in his State of the Union address.
Emphasizing the need to take action, Obama said eight people have been killed by guns across the U.S. since the Newtown shooting. Among them were a 4-year-old boy and three law enforcement officers.
The president has called for a national dialogue on gun violence before, after other mass shootings during his presidency. But his rhetoric has not been backed up with concrete action. And some of the gun measures Obama has signed lessened restrictions on guns, allowing people to carry concealed weapons in national parks and in checked bags on Amtrak trains
The president bristled at suggestions that he had been silent on gun issues during his four years in office. But he acknowledged that the Newtown shooting had been "a wake-up call for all of us."
The shooting appears to have had a similar impact on several longtime gun backers on Capitol Hill. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat and avid hunter, has said "everything should be on the table" as Washington looks to prevent another tragedy, as has 10-term House Republican Jack Kingston of Georgia
There was little response from Republicans Wednesday following Obama's statements. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent who has been sharply critical of the president's lack of action on gun issues, called the effort a step in the right direction.
Obama, seeking to ease the fears of gun owners, reiterated his support for the Second Amendment. And he said no effort to reduce gun violence would be successful without their participation.
"I am also betting that the majority, the vast majority, of responsible law-abiding gun owners would be some of the first to say that we should be able to keep an irresponsible, law-breaking few from buying a weapon of war," he said.
He also challenged the National Rifle Association to do "some self-reflection." The gun lobby is a powerful political force, particularly in Republican primaries, and previously has worked to unseat lawmakers who back gun control measures.
The NRA, in its first statements since the shooting, pledged Tuesday to offer "meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again."
The Biden-led task force will also explore ways to improve mental health resources and address ways to create a culture that doesn't promote violence. The departments of Justice, Education, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security, along with outside groups and lawmakers, will all be part of the process.
Biden will start his discussions Thursday when he meets with law enforcement officers from around the country. He'll be joined by Attorney General Eric Holder, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Biden's prominent role could be an asset for the White House in getting gun legislation through Congress. The vice president spent decades in the Senate and has been called on by Obama before to use his long-standing relationships with lawmakers to build support for White House measures.
The vice president also brings to the effort a long history of working on gun control issues, having chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee and leading the original effort to ban assault weapons. The ban expired in 2004, but Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., says she plans to bring it back for a vote early next year.
Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Source:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gkVW32eabNWnbxtgMR0HzaUHF7hw?docId=359eba56eb7545ffbc98846245478a07