Knife Project, Part 3-Finished Knife

I got impatient and it shows in a few places you will see. Above in the beginnings of the knife project I stated last March. The knife is a Robeson ShurEdge No. 20, which is a WWII era fighting knife issued to Marine and Navy personnel. I inherited it from my father. As a youth my brother and I, mostly the "I," abused the knife as boys will mostly throwing it against objects trying to stick it like they did in the movies.



I glued some olive and walnut onto the tang for the handle. I marked where the rivet hole was and eventually drilled it out after roughing out the shape with a bandsaw.



I then started in with the rasps, files and sandpaper. I shaped the handle to be fairly generic, but one that also fit my hand. I was left with a handle that was shaped, but still no rivet. I looked into brazing rod, rivets, and various other fillers. I grew impatient and found a "brass" screw in the shop. Yesterday I screwed it into the handle.



I drilled one side of the handle a bit larger to accommodate the unthreaded part of the screw. I figured I would screw in the screw far enough to go through the handle to fill the hole on the opposite side of the handle.



If you look closely you will see that I didn't get the screw in deep enough. There is a slice of moon shaped gap in one side. Also the brass screw turned out to be brass plated, not solid. The steel does match the blade though.



Overall I am pleased with the knife. It will be used, not placed in a case, so the handle will work and I will be able to reapply the tung oil as needed.

Now the final piece is a sheath. Ideas?

This Caught Me By Surprise

I consider myself reasonably aware of what is happening in the world but today I was caught off-guard. I was reading an editorial in the Visalia Times Delta and a Jerry Jensen, the author, made this statement, "Unfortunately, America has reached a tipping point--the 50 percent of households who pay no federal income tax now represent a voting bloc large enough to elect leaders who will maintain their benefits by increasing taxes on the other half."

I was shocked at the percentage and didn't believe it. A Google search found this article from last year about the 2009 tax season. 47% didn't pay income tax or received money back in excess of what they paid the government.

I believe in helping others, but I also know from years in education and watching people that those that have no buy-in to something give it little or no value. As a trivial example, last year during testing the school provided trail mix and drinks for the students. The idea was to keep their metabolism up so they test better. I had a class of good natured but somewhat less disciplined students. You know, young people used to getting their way. The trail mix was used to throw at each other on breaks. The mix was given to them and they had no attachment to it. But take away the chips they buy and you will see groveling of the basest nature to get those chips back at the end of the class.

Let's try some Math. (I did teach basic Math for a few years believe it or not, before No Child Left Behind.) This is going to be simplistic, but again it's a start. The basis is that everyone will pay at least 3% in taxes. Let's start with the know facts. I used the US Census Bureau and the New York Times for these statistics. The poverty level in the US for a family of four in 2010 was $22,314. The current US population is 312,420,867. Subtract the 25% that are under 18 and you get 234,315,650 adults.

234,315,650--Adults

x .47--Percentage that don't pay taxes
110,128,356--Number of non-tax paying

$22,314 2010--Poverty level income
x .03--3% tax (Set minimum tax for all, let's start at 3% for argument.)
$669--3% of poverty level income. Some of the 47% will be lower, some higher.

110,128,356--Number of non-tax paying citizens
x $669--3% of poverty level
$73,675,870,164--Money generated by a 3% minimum tax on people currently untaxed

That's $73 Billion. That would be a start towards the $1,300 Billion ($1.3 Trillion) debt the US is going to have to borrow this year to operate. There will be a bigger benefit though, I believe.

Now everyone will be paying a share. Everyone can feel a part of the group. No one will be left out. No one will be throwing trail mix at others because they paid for the mix. Even those saying they are occupying Wall Street.

Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth

Our schools are off this week for intersession. I think I've written about it in the past, but I am still galled more than a bit that we have this week off from educating. There are many things wrong and good about the present education system. Here in our town the intersession idea was good in the beginning. A chance to take and give short classes on enriching topics. Time off in the beauty of fall to take students to places that some would never see.

It's turned into a time off for students and teachers and families love it for "off season" vacations. If you coach though these vacations come at the expense of teams and league contests. Monday we played water polo games in Bakersfield. Of the four teams representing our school three competed with no substitutes for the game. Players and families had vacations to attend to instead of the games and teams they committed to earlier in the year. Que sera, sera.

For me the time off will give me time to construct another platform bed in the outside room. In the past I have constructed raised platform beds, built-in bunk beds, for our children. This allowed a place to sleep and a place to play underneath. This new bed will give room to store things under the bed like drums that are no longer being used and food stuffs. Here is a not very good nor full shot of what I will be doing.



I hope to finish this quickly as we are heading north to the Napa Derrs for a birthday and just a bit of rest and recreation. Always fun to get out of the smog and into the fresh air.

Week of Transitions

This has been a dynamic week with more changes than a cheap novel. Tuesday one of our nephews came to live with us. We don't know how long, but we are changing his school from a nearby town to the middle school in our town. He has had a ever changing life in multiple ways and we hope to bring some stability. If you call living at a zoo stable.

It rained for the first time this fall. As usual it caught me off guard a bit. I never seems to have everything protected like I could or should. I was dragging out a cover and installing it in the rain for the second chicken yard. They seemed to appreciate some cover, though the turkeys didn't seem to mind the rain.

Calvin our beloved German Shepard died today. He has been with us for 11 years. We picked Calvin up at the pound just after Brad came home from Valley Childrens. In the midst of dozens of dogs barking and yelping, there sat Calvin calm, cool and collected. As the dogs in the next pen banged against the fence, Maureen and I looked at each other and said, "That's the one for us," and Calvin came home with us. He has been the dog in charge, quietly though. He never was fully healthy, but in the last year he has started to collect problems and illnesses. The doctor today said it looked like he has the canine version of ALS, Lou Gehring's disease. He will be missed.

A Big What If, And Be Prepared

Over the last few years my family, or at least the adults, has been preparing for the future. In the last 10 years we have been moving in a direction of preparing our own food as much as possible, always trying to produce more each year. This has led us to the preppers movement. We have met in person and online many wonderful people and gathered much information. We have tried to share what we know. As with any group of people there will be choices some make that others won't. Sometimes the discussions can be quite strong. All of this has moved me to think often about what my core values, thoughts and beliefs are about the future, both personally and as a nation. Ultimately it leads to actions in relation to these thoughts.

We as a family have some things going on that will come to a head probably in the next year or so. Currently one child is married, two are in school and one is in the Army. So for the most part our children are raised and mostly on their own. They are always welcome to come home, but for them that may not always be an option. We are approaching retirement of a career, but that doesn't mean that I'll stop working. With the garden and prepping ideas, these thoughts have been turned into finding more space and adding more crops. With another set of hands working full time, this would be possible. This cauldron of thoughts is constantly being stirred and who knows how the soup will turn out.

Recently there was a cable cut in a town near us on a construction site. It resulted in our internet and cell phone service being down. I don't use a cell phone much and I was at school at the time. I didn't find out about the stoppage until some students asked if the school was blocking cell service on campus. After digging around a bit, the reason was discovered for the problem. Our phone was out of service for a few hours and the internet about 24 hours. In reality it was a minor inconvenience to me personally, but to many the loss of cell service hurt, at least emotionally. Couple this with the recent fires in San Diego and the issues there. Law and Order had a show about a hedge fund company that owned two energy companies. The hedge fund leader would cause a brownout at one company and force the city to purchase energy from the second company at 4 times the cost. Possible? This has had me thinking more about man-made disasters.

What are our plans in the event of a catastrophe? Are we prepared for such an event? We live in an area with little flood danger to the town we currently live in, though around us the waters have historically flowed. Known earthquake faults are 50+ miles away. Forests are just as far, though range land fire potential is closer, but still not much of a real threat. I think we are probably ready in the event of a natural disaster for our area. We have more things to do and get, but mentally we have been thinking about the “what ifs.” Again it's the man made events I worry about.

So one of the bigger questions I have been pondering is the "Where do we want to be?" question. Do we need a place to go to in the event of a problem? If you read much on the subject of a catastrophe you will see the Bug Out place, Bug Out vehicles and Bug Out bags being discussed. I want stuff as much as the next person, but there is a finite amount of stuff you can carry if your car won't work, especially over a long distance. Which brings me to another question, “Does one stay or go?”

I work four blocks from our house. I ride a bike to work or walk. We don't travel much except to see family, and that not too often. During seasons I am coaching, I really don't go many places except when I'm traveling with the team. I guess I should carry a bag of supplies with me on the bus. Just another step in being prepared.

The reality is our house is where our stuff is stored and most of the time it's easy to get home. So for us the best place to hunker down is at home.

But is this enough? It has seemed to me that the best prepping a person can do is mental. What are you willing to give up? What can you not give up? Collect the things you can't do without and don't worry about the rest.

Tournament Update

The tournament went well, sort of. We won 2 and lost 2. Truly our goal was to bond as a team and start playing as a team. I personally don't coach a summer program because of other commitments and I know our team could be better if I did. This tournament is at a good time for our team. It is after the county fair and from this point on most of the girls can focus on the team and school and hopefully not much else.

Last year this tournament was a turning point and this year was the same. The Friday games weren't spectacular, but Saturday the girls learned to play the entire game, not just one half. We lost a heart breaking game in a painful way for our last game 4-3. I made a mistake and sent a girl in too early from an exclusion and she couldn't play the rest of the game. In 30 years of coaching this hasn't happened much, but each time it is excruciating to me. I intend to coach our teams to put them in a position to win and this didn't help.

We did have multiple chances to tie and win this game, but didn't. Many tears were shed, but the goal of bringing the team together was accomplished. Painful as it was in the end, the girls played for four complete quarters in each of two games and and the end they were crying together, not by themselves.

You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.