What have I been up to

I moved last year, as previously mentioned. It has been a crazy period of time. I went back to welding school full time while working full time, finishing my BC B level. It is the last school level I need for my journeyman. I also worked a lot as a welder, including shutdowns and and various projects in the region. Good experience,  some hard work.

We couldn't find anywhere to live,  very overpriced but that's pretty normal these days. We eventually found an apartment to rent that allowed our dog and then bought and renovated and apartment condo. I am certainly tired of renos and tired of moving. Some family has moved to town which is great and we are still getting settled into the community.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you are having a safe and wonderful holiday.  Be kind, reach out to your neighbours and take care of yourselves.  Expect more from me in 2014.

Moving Again

To make this blog name even more inaccurate, I am moving even further south in BC  :)

Kootenays, here I come!

Hopefully I will have time to post more updates and videos soon, it's been pretty hectic lately

Knife Comparison and Review - Spyderco Yojimbo 2, CS Mini Recon 1, Kershaw Needs Work

I finally made a new video, a comparison of three knives, the Spyderco Yojimbo 2, Cold Steel Mini Recon 1 tanto, and Kershaw Needs Work.

I'll add some more write up...eventually :)

Merry Christmas

I hope you are all having a great holiday and are surrounded by family and friends.  Take care, be warm, stay safe.  Not much to add from last year's post.  Take care, I'm about to have some awesome Christmas dinner.

My first earthquake

FYI, I am not dead.

Had my first earthquake Saturday, slept right through it!  My son felt the earthquake than got an alert on his phone.  He woke us up to tell us there was a tsunami warning and we were supposed to evacuate.  The lack of information was disconcerting, tons of websites were down (traffic overload, I assume) and the Canadian sites were way behind the US.

I spoke to some friends and decided we were fine where we were.  Our house is very high up and there really wasn't time to go inland, plus, that would involve going lower than where we live.  We considered driving up a mountain but I decided that would be more dangerous than the unlikely tsunami, trying to drive up a narrow road in the dark with some very severe cliffs.  We did offer to shelter quite a few people but only my son's girlfriend took us up on it.  Most of the locals were a bit dismissive of the situation, even though sections of the city were being evacuated by emergency services.

Turned out to be a minimal wave (less than 2 feet) and we had no damage to our house.  We were lucky, this time.

Stay safe everyone and be prepared.  Certainly be prepared with plans and supplies, all your preps, but be prepared for what may come by loving your family, forming close friendships, and trying to enjoy each day.

My best wishes to everyone, especially those who are suffering on the east coast right now.

Take care and I hope you are safe, warm, and surrounded by those you care about.

What's with the lack of posts?

Sorry, I have just been swamped.  I actually have a bunch of partially finished stuff that I haven't posted and didn't get some video reviews done before I sold the items....so busy right now it's not even funny.

I took on a second job as a bouncer, mostly weekends, still have my main full time job and am also signed up for full time school.  It was a great opportunity and a last minute thing, I didn't think I'd be able to come up with the money in time.  I'm in a full time welding program, a huge area of interest for me and a potential back up career.  If I can swing it, I want to take some blacksmithing courses next year too....

Yard Sale

We are having a big yard sale today, trying to get rid of a bunch of stuff we don't need and raise some money for my wife's plane tickets, she's going home to visit family and we are hurting for $$ right now.

I'm also trying to clear out a lot of my survival junk, it just makes me cringe to see a lot of the completely stupid shit I have bought over the years.

*sigh*

That's actually a topic for a future post, survival junk and excess buying.  There's a real industry out there, encouraging you to buy a bunch of stuff you don't need and will never use for your preparedness needs.  Consumerism is the name of the game in "modern" society and survivalists are very vulnerable to overspending.

So, keep it simple, light, and affordable.

Enjoying myself

Sorry I haven't posted for a while, I've been more involved in enjoying the great outdoors than writing about it.

Honest, a bunch of stuff is eventually coming, I've been testing out a few things and hopefully have some good info for everyone.

Splitting Wood with a Hatchet

Tried out a new technique that I saw Ray Mears do on a video, a safe and simple way to make small kindling sticks Works well, I did a very short video of it on youtube.

Sorry, not the best angle, it was raining a lot and my wife didn't want to get her camera wet, she was hiding under some trees  :)