I build a bench

I am such an amazing craftsman.
I built a bench for my wife to sell at her school auction. Well, I made the misshapen metal part, she finished the walnut slab.

It is patterned after an expensive bench found in some high brow catalogue.
I used 1/4 by 2" flat bar and bent it with the old Hossfeld bender or was it 3/8". Seems pretty heavy.
Because I screw everything up slightly I started in the middle and made my wife help me. I can never remember which side of the line stretched and which side didn't and so I can never make the same bend twice.
We attempted to make two legs exactly the same. I bent them into a an oblong shape, slightly bigger at the bottom then at the top.

The two ends came together under the slab. I just cut the extra off with a cut-off wheel and welded them together where the weld wouldn't show.

I didn't get the second leg the same as the first and had to pound out my bend and start over. Gives it kind of a hand forged look.

I added a couple pieces of 1/4 scrap I found by the band saw in order to provide further bracing. They are not the same width.

Here is the semi-finished project.

I did this over the course to the last few weekends.
Today i planted wheat.
Actually, I made feed, went after wheat seed, waited for the fellow to come after feed. Went to plant, spilled fertilizer everywhere, loaded the feed, talked about the danger of an EMP strike with my wife, had some garlic bread, then went and planted wheat. It was only ten acres replanted in a field that drowned out over winter. Seemed like a bigger field than that.
But, I suppose the short version, "Today I planted wheat," would have sufficed.

I stay up all night and read, "Helmet For My Pillow."

My wife was cleaning house in preparation for a visit from her sister and she discovered a Christmas Present she forgot to give me.
It was the book, "Helmet For My Pillow."
This is the story of Robert Leckie, who joined the Marines in 1942 and spent WWII with the First Marine Division and came home again.
Click Here for an excellent article about him.
I will not attempt to write a review but rather make a few observations.
I admire the man because he was smart, well read, and an independent thinker. He did what he wanted and was quick witted and decisive. These are characteristics I aspire to but do not have.
I understand his bravery, he did what he had to do, but yet he took care of himself. In the book I think he downplays his bravery and his war experiences. I know from reading other stories that he was in the worst of the Pacific Campaign. He was a survivor and I really admire him for it.
What I find depressing are what I can read between the lines.
The USA in 21st century is run by junior grade Lieutenants and "Ivy-Leagers." (using the terminology of WWII) This includes our dear leader and congress. They don't know right from wrong and have never seen hard times.

Free Ebraimi Jamshid!

I have a daughter and I understand...
CLICK for story

It is not left vs right or Republican vs Democrat, it is only absurdity.

If you want to be depressed.
Click here and look around for a while...
So let put the USA preparedness scheme into perspective.
We get the first successful terrorist attack on American soil. Ho does the gubment prepare for the future?
1. Instruct people what to do in case of a hi-jacking?
2. Start a civil defense program based what to do in case of an emergency, as in places to go in case of crisis, (on your own-not at the point of a gun) Or perhaps volunteer programs in local communities to practice and prepare of evacuations or food distribution or what to do with no electricity, you know basic stuff?
3. Actually control borders.
4. Stockpile emergency supplies in case of flood, fire, hurricane, terrorist attack?
5. Anything sensible?

What they did...
1. Homeland security? A police force that goes around annoying people, turning the USA into a police state, NOT actually stop a single terrorist.
2. Strange FEMA camps and they bought a lot of plastic coffins.
3. Sold guns to Mexican gangs
4. Stockpiled a billion rounds of ammo and bought APC's.
5. Gave huge grants to local fire departments to buy new fire trucks...
6. Fusion centers to collect information on people who are not really a threat to anyone but free coffee at Denny's but not to distribute supplies or information in case of an emergency.

What happened when there was a crisis?
Remember the last hurricane?
And now we find out everyone in authority lied about the radiation from the nuclear meltdown. A meltdown that is still going on.
Insanity...
And you all thought the guy who talked to aliens was insane!

American is now officially a weenie nation.

Let's just get this straight to begin with. I'm not a big sports fan. Too much money and too many egos.
I never post about sports because I just flat don't care.
But, I've been listening to the radio.
Now that North Korea is threatening to blow us up with a poorly aimed nuke which will fry our electrical grid and it is finally reported in the news that those of us on the west coast got our thyroids irradiated from Japan, the unimportant events in life are what I plan to focus on.
However, I suppose it is all tied together.
A coach from Rutgers got fired for using "gay slurs," and abusing players, and now the AD has been fired.
What a bunch of pansies.
It is college basketball.
They can't handle a compound fracture and all start crying like little children at the sight of a bone sticking out of a broken leg. (Which was of course gruesome as all get-out true but they started crying?)
Then the coach resigns in tears after calling the players fags and pushing them a bit?
This is college not elementary school basket ball.
When a crazy gunman opened fire in an elementary school one of the little kids actually led friends to safety.
But in college basketball they call someone a poopie-butt and then cry?
When my brother cut the end of his finger off in a large v-belt I did not cry. I took him to the hospital. When I ripped the top layer of skin off my foot, broke my toe bone, and filled the stacker cab with blood trying to catch someone to take me to the emergency room, my brother did not cry, he took me to the hospital.
The official word is that sports teams teach toughness and teamwork and turn boys into men. If you can't handle being called names and pushed around by a coach you shouldn't be on a sports team.
I'm not sure if I agree with the theory that you have to belittle your players to make them perform but it is not like the coach broke anyone's arm. Get over it!
I suppose it is all due to our heightened sensitivity to using "gay" slurs.
I doubt that anyone who makes policy will ever figure out that the reason we all hate the gay kid on Glee is not because he wants to marry another man, but because he is a smarmy little prick. I like to see him cry because he is a whiner. No one likes whiners, except the Nannies who run everything in this country. They love whiners and victims.
It is the glorious modern age.
Perhaps we need Sandusky back to whip them into shape...
I listened to the coach's apology on the radio and I just had to laugh. He was getting all emotional and apologizing. What a wimp. Now if he would have said, "did I put anyone in the hospital? Stop be a bunch homo's whiners and play ball, heck you guys got a full ride scholarship, you don't like it-get a job at Home Depot!"
I would have started watching college basketball!

This post will self destruct in 48 hours

I was trying to buy an engine for my tractor. I found an interesting fellow on ebay with three Hercules engines out of military trucks.

All went well, I got lots of important information and good advice. The fellow is actually coming  to Oregon and will deliver the engine.

But he made an off hand comment about his computer being “taken apart by the gubment.”

And I bit…

I was thinking, there is no what in heck this guy is going to admit to an obscession for Traci Lords, the early years.

Turns out if is even more amazing.

He said in 1958 he was an airman working with nuclear weapons. There were problems. Things were done incorrectly .

He caught the mistake and prevented the detonation of a nuclear bomb in the USA. I missed part of what he said but he was also involved in what I think was a security exercise where he, along with a fellow airman, stole several nuclear devices from under the very nose of the guards.

This lead to several reviews where certain officers hated him but his commanding officer rated him very highly and kept recommending him for promotions.

Turns out he was just the guy they were looking for. The USAF was embarking on a project to make contact with, extra-terrestrials.

There are many inhabited planets out there. Most of them have much more advance civilizations that we have.

It got to a point where there were negotiations between the extra-terrestrials and we were going to have to either give them something or go to war.

He implied that he went on an exchange program with the extra-terrestrials and found them quite interesting.

About that time in the conversation I could hear his wife in the background telling him to be quiet and eat his lunch.

So he cut out quite a bit of the interesting stuff and got back to the gobment and his computer.

Turns out the gubment  needed some info or advice and they contacted him again. He started researching the program again and discovered that the war in Iraq was to recover a cache of information left by the ancients and the extra-terrestrials. He was able to use his contacts to view this information online.

It was all quite interesting. Some documents were just things like shopping lists but others were much more interesting. He would stay up till the wee hours of the morning and read this stuff, much to the annoyance of his longsuffering wife.

The gubment discovered his intrusion and sent a virus which wiped out his computer, along with much of his ebay records and Windows 98 which was his favorite version of Window. His computer repairman had never seen anything like it.

He also related other interesting events to me, which I will not publish at this time.

However, we will have faster than light travel by 2060 and good will prevail.

Woe to those who live in the cities.

Anyway, I had a very enjoyable time talking with him. Spent a couple hours on the phone. I am going to call him back. Somewhat unsure about buying the engine from him. I really want to go visit him.

I have never met anyone who has a first hand encounter with aliens. It is always, a guy I knew, or my friend's friend. 

I am thinking of inviting him to read this blog.

I am trying to come up with a plan to get him to tell me more but not have him think I am making fun of him. I'm not. I think this is all absolutely fascinating. 

I don't really believe it, but that doesn't mean I am putting him down or laughing at him. I think he believes it and I respect that. It is just that I live for these kinds of stories.

When I was a kid the old bachelor plumber that lived down the road used to tell stories about being in the OSS. It was so cool. I never really believed him as I thought it all came from cheap spy novels but I enjoyed the stories. Of course I never really believe anything unless you are from Missouri and are selling me a tractor.

So this post is a little tidbit for my regular readers and I'm taking it down tomorrow.

I'm thinking of some questions to ask him.

Speaking of mistakes

It got this song stuck in my head. It is a pretty obscure song by an incredibly obscure band and hopefully it will now be stuck in your head.
Now I am going to go and attempt to plant perfectly straight fescue rows in the dark, and not get stuck.
Both CV joints are very loose.
I used the 4wd again. The field looked a lot dryer than it was. It is no longer perfectly smooth. I did not get stuck.
Today I will go back to the previous 2-155.
Here are the Kingbees, "My Mistake," It has nothing to do with bad CV joints and a blown head gasket on a White 2-155.