North to Alaska IV – Taking Possession
Mrs. Animal and I have been planning this for twenty years. We’re now at the light at the end of the tunnel stage. Here is the next installment of the story of our planned move from Colorado to Alaska.
Day 1
Having flown in from Denver the evening prior and stayed in Anchorage (our last night in a hotel in Alaska, unless it’s by choice and not necessity!) We got up early Saturday morning to drive up to Willow, meet our realtor, get the keys, and enter our new Alaska home for the first time as owners.
And this was it. The moment we had been planning for, working for, saving for, for over twenty years. For a while, we just stood in the living room and looked at this big empty house.
But there was plenty to do. Having flown up, we only had a few bags, but some of the stuff stored in Wasilla had to come up to the house, and we had to get some elementary fixings to be able to sleep and work here, so we took the bags out of the rental truck, put them in the living room and headed back to Wasilla. First order of business: We needed groceries. And table and chairs, so we have a place to eat and, until some furniture was in place in the office outbuilding, a place to work. At the moment our bed is a m
attress on a plain frame with no head or footboards, but we can live with that for a while. We did find a table and chairs and, unexpectedly, a sectional reclining sofa set, so we at least have a place to set and a place to eat.
We also dropped by the Home Depot to order a gun safe, which turned out to be out of stock. Fortunately we found a bigger, shinier, better safe at the Sportsman’s Warehouse in Wasilla. A phone call to the folks who delivered our living-room set revealed that they move gun safes, too, so we bought the massive 1,000 pound Browning Hell’s Canyon 65-gun safe.
Getting stuff that has to be shipped to Alaska from the 48 can be a problem. But it’s a problem we’re willing to deal with.
Day 2
Sunday was spent buying some more supplies, putting together our dining table and chairs, and making some plans. We’ll need some equipment:
- Another pickup to replace the inestimable Rojito, now in the capable hands of loyal sidekick Rat. Unlike Rojito, this will almost certainly be a Super-Duty Diesel, to carry a slide-in camper and tow a boat, as well as handling other chores.
- A snowplow blade and mount for the pickup, to deal with the considerable winter accumulation.
- An ATV and a snow machine (these are called snowmobiles in the 48; don’t ask me to explain the reason for the difference, because I can’t) as well as a trailer for same.
- Possibly a small tractor, which would take over the snow-moving chores (obviating the need for a blade for the pickup) and some other things that need done. Partly dependent on whether or not we are successful in buying any adjacent lots.
We decided to name her Jenny.
The high point of the day came just at sunset (so, about 4:45PM) when a young cow moose wandered through the yard, browsing on our bushes. She was likely a yearling and on the skinny side, so we were hoping she makes it through the winter; lots of young animals don’t.
Day 3
Internet day! Also, my first workday at the new house. The early morning was marked by the reappearance of last night’s visitor, who spent some time browsing around our little office building.
Prior to this point we had internet access only through our phones. The local internet provider has only DSL at the moment, but we signed up for a business package that should handle our streaming services and the VPN requirements for my work. Interesting note: This company is the only internet service provider for a stretch of Alaska approximately the size of the state of Maryland. Alaska is an interesting place in lots of ways.
Now we have the DSL turned on and have good wireless connection in house and the office building. We still have no television/Roku box to watch, but that will come in time.
Then, in the afternoon, we went over to Palmer, to the Alaska DoT. We now have Alaska driver’s licenses! It’s even more official! To celebrate this, we went to the outstanding Palmer Ale House for an early supper, then went back out to the house as (almost) full-fledged Alaska residents. Some of the benefits of Alaska residency, like resident hunting/fishing, Permanent Fund eligibility (in case that becomes a thing again) and a few other things, require a year of residency before you are eligible, but that will happen soon enough.
Big empty rooms.
An interesting side note: Because of where we will live in rural Alaska, licensing of vehicles is somewhat different. Our “company car,” a 2013 Ford Edge, gets permanent plates for a one-time fee, as it’s over seven years old. Ditto for our trailer, as it’s not a “motor” vehicle. Mrs. Animal’s 2017 Expedition doesn’t qualify, but since she’s a 100% disabled veteran, she gets her plates for free. No more annual vehicle registration fees for us, unless we buy another vehicle that’s less than seven years old.
I’m enjoying Alaska more and more all the time.
The Rest of the Week
With these things done, the rest of the week settled into the kind of routine you fall into when you’re in a big empty house with almost no furniture. Working during the day, enjoying the peace and quiet during the late afternoons and evenings.
Something you forget when you’ve been living in town or in suburbs for a long time is just how peaceful a rural home can be. It’s even more so this time of year, in the great northern taiga that we live on the edge of. In summer you have birds singing, more activity in general from the wildlife around. Some of that wildlife will hopefully include grandchildren playing in the yard in the summer.
But, right now, in these first few nights, what we are enjoying is that the winter evenings up here are just so quiet.
We love that already.
Tuesday, we got the living room section sofa-thingie delivered. It’s big, but we have a big front room. Lots of room for folks to sit and shoot the breeze with the two big windows right in front, or to watch movies, once the TV is in and set up.
Mrs. Animal is already planning how to fill it up.
And, finally, on Thursday, our enormous Browning 65-gun safe was installed.
Friday evening, we went over to the Willow Trading Post for dinner. It’s a fun little local place, with decent bar food, a good drinks selection and a leavening of colorful Willowbilllies. It’s a fun hangout; we’ll be back.
One of the things we’re mulling over is a name for the place. I’m inclined to think up something that includes “taiga” in recognition of these great northern forests that circle the pole, from eastern Canada to Scandinavia. I wouldn’t mind working “Animal” in there somewhere, but not sure how. A name will come to us eventually, I’m sure. An unrelated name we thought of was “Odin Wald,” but not sure if we like it.
What’s Next
On Saturday, we will drive back down to the airport for the red eye back to Denver.
I’ll be flying back up on the Friday after our return to haul another load of firearms up and spend the weekend; then, two weeks later, Mrs. Animal and I will fly up again to haul more stuff courtesy of free checked baggage, including the last of the firearms that would have required advance permits to take through Canada. The plan then is to drive the AlCan at the end of March with our big Expedition and the trailer, with the rest of the (Canada-Unrestricted) firearms and a big load of household goods and office equipment.
This is still only the beginning of our Alaska adventure – but we’re approaching the end of the beginning. I remain convinced that the timing of this move could scarcely have been any better.
So, where are the shellfish?
And the flooring in that house looks purdy… but not real wood.
What is it?
It’s actual wood. Just very… processed.
I see.
Under 24 inches of ice?
Sorry, it was a callback to a random joke in the morning links, without the context, it probably makes no sense.
Congrats on your move. That is a big safe.
Not enough room for a proper collection.
*Note, I never claimed to have a proper collection
Yeah.
A 65 gun safe is really only about a 30-40 gun safe if you have anything more than slim hunting rifles with iron sights.
I have 2 safes. One in the bedroom, and one elsewhere. Unfortunately all of the guns were lost in a freak boating accident, but when we used to have stuff in there, it could only hold less than 1/2 the stated capacity.
If you have anything with optics, or anything in an AR or other sporting rifle form, you need to slash the rated capacity by 1/3, at the least.
That jives with my observations on the new safe, which is one of the reasons I bought the 65-gun version. I wouldn’t rule out needing another one.
A smaller one in the bedroom with your preferred self defense guns isn’t a bad idea.
I do exactly that. Smaller quick-access safe bolted to the floor under my bed, containing my carry pistol, home defense pistol, thermonuclear flashlight, and body armor. The rest of the guns are in the big safe in the spare bedroom.
How do you store your shower gun?
Shotgun in the bedroom closet, high-capacity .45 in the nightstand. No safes for quick-access guns. Of course, I also don’t have kids around. On the rare occasions when there will be kids in the house, the guns get gathered up and put in the safe until they leave.
I live by myself. I like to have everything locked up, if it’s not under my immediate control.
No shower gun. If they come for me in the shower, it’s gonna be hand-to-hand combat…
Soap-on-a-rope-to-hand combat..
Most of the guns are in the basement safe. In the bedroom closet is a locker with one shotgun (CZ1012), spare earpo and the EDC. Bedside safe has the Shadow 2. I really should get another pair of electronic earpro to go with that.
I mean, I guess it’s kinda big…
… that’s what she said! [How the hell did this sit out there over the plate, for that long?]
No one wanted to hurt my feelings?
Odin Wald? Ok, white supremacist.
Wotan Woods?
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I bet that’s actually a lawn jockey by the corner of the garage/shop.
I think you’re right. There hasn’t been a good cancellation mob for at least 5 minutes. It’s time we start one.
Thank you for writing this. I’m finding it very inspiring. This is not something I’d ever think to do for a number of reasons, but I’m learning a lot.
Alaska? Fuck that. Not even in the summer. Not me.
Good luck and much happiness in your new home.
Alaska in the summer is awesome. The winter would probably drive me nuts like Jack Nicholson in The Shining.
All work and no play makes Jaime a dull boy.
A good day in shoulder season when the other tourists are minimal is paradise.
Second on the summer assessment. Go if you ever get a chance. Winter isn’t that bad if you aren’t in the interior. Animal is in the Susitna Valley so he will be protected from the worst.
Time to go ‘Chinin’! (Vermonter for “time to go snow machining”)
It will never end.
Professor Tim Spector of King’s College London said that he cannot foresee Britons being free to attend music festivals or large weddings in the coming years.
“I think we need to get used to that and that will allow us to do the things we really want to do more easily and more readily,” Prof Spector told Times Radio, adding that he “can’t see us suddenly having another Cheltenham Festival with no regulations again”.
“I can’t see us having massive weddings with people coming from all over the world, I think for the next few years those days are gone,” he warned.
Two weeks to bend the curve.
Hamster balls for everyone!
I remember seeing a black and white photo of a man walking down a street somewhere in communist East Germany. The sky was cold and grey. The streets were damp and grey. The brutalist buildings were grey. He was a lone figure, no other person in sight. His hands were jammed in his ragged pockets against the cold, his face was forlorn.
Welcome to the bleak, soul crushing, hopeless world of totalitarianism. Congratulations motherfuckers.
Although I would take the savings, registration is only about $30/year here. It’s the taxes that are expensive.
Don’t forget to join Club 49 and regardless if there’s a check in your mailbox, you can still shop the PFD sale on Alaska Air now.
http://www.alaskaair.com/Club49
I’ve been watching a Youtube channel from a youngster that lives just outside Longyearbyen. I am fascinated. I would love to spend a year or so there and experience all the polar seasons (which have more to do with daylight than weather). And you don’t need a visa and can carry firearms of all kinds.
Food. Make sure you have plenty of food.
I know a guy that moved up around Yellowstone and when the snow started all of the people disappeared. That got snowed in badly and in his words “We almost starved to death”. Lots of food.
That is quite an adventure Animal. It pleases me greatly that you are doing this. I am guessing you have that feeling of hope and adventure that reminds you of when you were a teenager. Godspeed to you and Mrs. Animal, sir. Godspeed.
Can confirm.
That’s one of things that’s in the mix for our Plan B expat thing. We’ve got an adventure or two left in us.
Alaska does a good job of keeping Parks Highway (the road between Anchorage and Fairbanks) clear. You just need a snowmobile to get you there. BTW, be careful if you are right next to the highway after it snows. Sometimes they plow the highway at speed. It throws a nice blast to the side.
Unity/healing/etc.
“The Senate [impeachment] trial is a snapshot. There is a massive criminal investigation underway. There will be a massive criminal investigation of everything that happened on January 6th and in the days before,” Cheney continued, “People will want to know exactly what the president was doing. They will want to know, for example, whether the tweet that he sent out calling Vice President Pence a coward while the attack was underway—whether that tweet, for example, was a premeditated effort to provoke violence… There will be many, many criminal investigations looking at every aspect of this that everyone who was involved, as there should be.”
Cheney’s called Trump’s actions “an assault” and wrapped things up by saying if the Republicans want to win again they “should not be embracing the former president.”
“We have never seen that kind of an assault by a president of the United States on another branch of government, and that can never happen again,” Cheney said.
Abraham Lincoln says “hello”.
Cheney is truly an odious swamp creature.
Fuck, she’s going to be the R’s candidate in 2024, isn’t she.
Since I cant think of anyone worse, probably yes. That’s what the R’s do, isn’t it?
The Penguin speaks.
Is he under the impression that the left will stop thinking of him as the anti-christ?
liz not Dick
I thought they were both dicks.
Fair enough.
wHoOooOaaaaA!!111!11!1
Stretches her labia around an oosik.
*hurk*
“People will want to know exactly what the president was doing.”
No, actually, they won’t. Most people have already made up their mind on one side or the other.
What the President was doing isn’t a mystery. He was giving a speech. You can watch the whole thing.
Cheney seems determined to provoke the creation of a third party as an alternative to the spineless Republicans. I wonder how she thinks she will keep her seat with a third party taking a big chunk of “her” votes.
Cheney intends to be part of the nomenklatura. Getting elected is so passe.
Cheney’s called Trump’s actions “an assault” and wrapped things up by saying if the Republicans want to win again they “should not be embracing the former president.”
The WSJ Editorial Board ran an op-ed today saying something similar. Instead of looking at Trump as the consequence of widespread disaffection of voters with the GOP establishment, they are doubling down all blame on Trump.
This all makes sense when you consider Cheney, the WSJ, Dems, and Establishment GOP just to be different pieces of the same party. I wonder if GOP voters are going to fall for the controlled opposition schtick again or if their dissatisfaction will instead culminate in a new party or shakeup…
Of course that only matters if you also believe that there will ever again be a free federal election.
It is like you don’t remember when voters gave the GOP the majority in the House, the Senate and put Trump in the Oval Office and the first thing they did was to repeal Obamacare (which they all ran on).
How can you say the GOP doesn’t live up to their stated principles?
Just thinking about that makes me see red. What a worthless bunch of sacks of shit.
Oh STFU you warmongering bitch. Your own state hates your guts.
And the hypocrisy of Rolling Stone giving space to Cheney is just beyond my ability to comprehend.
Remember when the Left used to scream about Dick Cheney being “literally Hitler”? And how they also disliked Liz because she was his daughter?
I’m sure the Trump kids are all happy to know that they can grovel their way back into the good graces of Polite Society.
Abraham Lincoln says “hello”
What am I, chopped liver?
Woody Wilson
Probably more apropos today because of Dr Jill/Edith are abusing a mentally incapacitated person.
FDR threatening to pack the Supreme Court also says “hello”.
How exciting!
Congratulations on fulfilling a lifelong dream!
Sad to see that the progtards got to Mt McKinley Refuse.
*golf clap*
Man, this is a tough crowd.
“I can’t see us having massive weddings with people coming from all over the world, I think for the next few years those days are gone,” he warned.
First thing we do, we kill all the public health experts.
*racks slide*
Is there a list, or should I just pick one?
I’m happy for you, Animal (and just a little jealous).
I would be also except for my wife. She has me build a fire if the temp gets below about 50AD. (that’s American Degrees)
Then she bundles up in a blanket on the couch and complains of being cold.
Alaska is completely out of the question for Suthenboy’s house.
Ditto the trashcan. Wife doesn’t much care for snow. It’s dipping into the 20s later this week and it’s an “arctic blast” to my wife.
I’ll never live south of Dallas. She’ll never live north of DC.
The “temperate zone”. I’m too hot. The wife is too cold.
“It’s dipping into the 20s later this week and it’s an “arctic blast” to my wife.”
Yep. Mrs. Suthenboy was reading the weather forecast yesterday, with great alarm and drama, that we are going to have possible snow and temps in the 20’s. She kept repeating it with more emphasis to trying to get a rise out of me.
“Don’t worry. We will be fine. I have stocked up. We have 5 ricks of wood and plenty of food. We are gonna be fine.”
Even if we get an ice storm we are set. She just gets cold looking out the window. Get on the couch, cover up with a blanket and get a dog to curl up in your lap. I will make some hot tomato soup.
It just got up to 20 degrees here.
I don’t know what her problem is.
She is 5 feet tall, weighs 98 lbs if you throw a bucket of water on her and she grew up in a tropical environment?
Look, just because I’m huge, have natural insulation, and grew up in a snowy wasteland doesn’t mean I have some special cold resistance or anything.
Austin and the Hill Country > Dallas. In pretty much every conceivable way.
Well, except for Austin be run by lunatic leftists.
Just show your wife this message, Suthen, and she’ll feel better:
It’s now -25° Celsius (-13° Fahrenheit) on my back deck at 11:20 in the morning, and the pup’s refusing to go outside to do her business.
Speedo weather! ;-)
Same here. My wife still grumbles in the mild Virginia winter that she regrets letting me talk her into moving away from Florida.
*remembers those conversations*
It was the cloudiness and the snow that got to my wife the most. Cloudiness because it was dreary. Snow because she wasn’t comfortable driving on it.
I can’t see either of us re-acclimating to a cold climate. I did it when I was in my 20s, and didn’t much like it that time. I don’t see trying to do it again.
About the only cold place I would be interested in living in would be Alaska. But I’m pretty sure that’s not gonna happen.
The first winter we lived in Minnesoda after moving back from Memphis was horrible. My wife probably would have left me except that she wasn’t sure she could drive to the airport without dying from the cold.
She still hates winter with a passion. A week or so before Christmas and the jigsaw puzzles come out. All winter the puzzles are worked on. They get put away just as the snow if melting.
I’ve tried to convince her that she just needs to find an outdoor hobby (just not ice fishing) and she will discover the cold isn’t so bad. She has steadfastly refused.
My wife probably would have left me except that she wasn’t sure she could drive
to the airport without dying from the cold.She’s an asian lady, right? Then I think this edit works, if not she’s still a woman, so this edit works…
Yup. Everytime the kids got in trouble for some stunt they pulled driving the family car, they’d say “what do you expect? I’m half Asian, I’m genetically incapable of driving any better”.
It usually made me laugh. It made my wife madder.
If you ask her she is the best driver because she has never gotten a ticket or been in a crash. Of course, she never counts the dozens of times she has gotten warnings because she cries (in Korean) after being pulled over and the cop just decides it is easier to give her a warning than to try to explain everything to her.
You don’t happen to have a half asian daughter to bring into Glib’s Breeding Project TM? Then I can antagonize you instead of Tundra…
You missed the boat. The Altar Girl showed up for the first (or maybe second) Honey Harvest.
Sounds like an effective strategy.
Congrats Animal. Enjoy your new adventure.
We have a goodly amount of snow, but I prefer it in pretty, wintry scenes on Christmas cards, etc, than actually being anywhere near it, although I have to say there is a certain magical quality to a quiet evening in a flurry; everything steeped in fluffy white.
I’m very happy for you, Animal. Living the dream.
Witnesses? Where we are going we don’t need witnesses.
Democrats say they are not planning to call witnesses at former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial this week, creating a stark contrast to Trump’s first impeachment trial, where Republicans and Democrats jostled over issuing witness subpoenas for days ahead of proceedings.
Instead, Politico reports, Democrats say they’re going to rely on the “lived experience” of individuals in Congress who were at the United States Capitol building the day rioters breached the doorways and threatened lawmakers voting on whether to certify the results of the Electoral College.
“Senate Democrats are making it clear they’re taking a different approach than they did for Trump’s infamous Ukraine call. Now, they say their experience as witnesses to the Jan. 6 insurrection is enough,” the outlet reported Monday.
“This is based on a public crime,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told Politico. “His intent was unhidden and so I think there’s a danger as there always is for a trial lawyer and prosecutor to over-try, to add more witnesses that prove the obvious.”
I might need to take off work so I can watch this clown show.
Hard pass for me.
Instead, Politico reports, Democrats say they’re going to rely on the “lived experience” of individuals in Congress
Wouldn’t those be witnesses?
His intent was unhidden
Yup. He was crystal clear – be loud, but be peaceful.
Goddamn, every time I read the name Dick Blumenthal in a news story, I fervently wish there were just one reporter willing to call him out on his Vietnam bullshit.
In other words, this is going to be a parade of Democratic swamp creatures sobbing and crying in front of the camera in the hopes of scoring victimhood points.
I can’t think of anything else quite so repulsive.
Yep. “This is how I felt!” over “This is what I saw happen.”
Well, there are no bodies for them to stand on, so they going to have to step on each other. Pity the first person, they’re going to be the bottom of the stack.
Just wait until AOC makes her appearance.
She might be eligible for an Oscar.
Good grief. These Congressmen are a bunch of pussies if they were scared of Buffalo Guy. How do they think the people who lived in the riot zones felt all summer? Their drama queen act makes me sick. I’m far more bothered that Target got looted as opposed to a few guys wandering the halls of Congress. At least Target sells stuff I’m willing to pay for.
Just when you think it cant get more farcical….
As I recall at the last impeachment they had half of a dozen witnesses yammer on for days until one of the R-Kangaroos asked the witnesses one by one
“Did you witness any crimes?”, Did you see any evidence of crimes?” “Are you aware of any crimes?” and each one answered with an unequivocal “No”.
This is even worse. They are trying to impeach a guy that isn’t even president.
Piled higher and deeper
“I’m extremely concerned,” Dr. Melissa Clarke, a member of the District of Columbia’s advisory committee on vaccine distribution, told CNN Sunday. “Now, we’re facing the issues not just of Super Bowl parties, but the fact that it’s going to be spring soon and spring fever is going to set in and people that have been caged up in their homes all winter are going to want to get out.”
“I would caution everybody: please remember to continue to practice those behaviors and not get Covid fatigue,” Clarke added. “Continue to mask, continue to distance, continue to avoid crowds.”
Placebos today, placebos tomorrow, placebos forever!
people that have been caged up in their homes all winterand spring and summer and fall and winter again are going to want to get out
This
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/02/08/964633908/my-mother-got-vaccinated-is-it-now-safe-to-go-visit
take a load of this sick shit-
It’s hard to know whose sicker the public health people who are selling this horseshit or the people listening to them.
Better not leave the house until everything is perfect, which will be never.
I called several infectious disease specialists
Oh, get a grip already.
the protection is not perfect
One of the stolen bases of the last year is the new requirement that absolute safety be guaranteed, that there is no such thing as acceptable risk, no matter how remote. Because it cannot be proven that it is impossible for asymptomatic people to infect someone, or that it is impossible for somebody who has vaccinated to ever catch the ‘Vid, etc., the lockdowns continue. Couple that with the complete abandonment of any kind of risk/benefit analysis, and you get madness like someone calling several physicians for advice on whether to visit their own mother after she has been vaccinated.
Remember the precautionary principle? The one all the smaht people were pushing? It would rule out all the masking and lockdowns, but it, too has been memoryholed.
Even flip-flopping Fauci said that asymptomatic spread is astronomically rare.
Or, the “precautionary principle” says that we should lock down and do mandatory masking because they don’t understand that the economy is not a fucking game of SimCity where you can just pause it for as long as you want and go back to normal with the click of a button.
It fails the precautionary principle without even getting to the economic effects. The negative psychological impact on children alone is more than enough to fail the precautionary principle. Which they are quite strict about when using it to block things they don’t like.
Definitely the eXpErTz, but it’s going to be grand when “fuck off” becomes the most oft spoken phrase out of my mouth.
The very instant I receive my vaccine, all masks are being burned, and loved ones visited and hugged. I haven’t seen my recently-diagnosed-with-cancer mom for over a year. Haven’t seen my brother in over 2 years.
These sick fucks can eat a massive bag of dicks.
I got my second shot on Friday. Absent a specific request from a property owner or their representative, I am done with masking except at work. If anyone asks, I’ll tell them I’ve been vaccinated so its unnecessary.
Ive been saying that to people since human trials started.
Might I add, continue to suck my dick
How dare you go out on a nice spring day.
Democrats say they are not planning to call witnesses at former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial this week
Everybody already knows he’s guilty, guilty, guilty.
Everybody who matters.
The one undeniable thing about this “trial” is that the outcome was already decided when 45 of the GOP voted to declare it unconstitutional.
Now it’s just fucking kabuki theater like the RUSHUN COLUSHUN hearings.
You have greater faith in the Turtle and his dingleberries not to craft some grand bargain, like they vote for conviction but vote against punishment (which only requires a simple majority not 2/3 for that phase).
They’d be fools to pull some shit like that.
Yes?
My mother texted to say that she and dad are getting their first covid immunizations on Wed.
In case anyone’s feeling bad about the “slow” pace of vaccinations in the U.S., enjoy this link to Small Dead Animals wherein three other articles are summarized/linked outlining the veritable shitshow that is Canada’s attempts to vaccinate its own citizens.
(The SDA article headline is a reference to The Hair That Walks Like A Man™‘s statement, prior to his first electoral victory in late 2015, that when they grow Canada’s economy “from the heart out,” “the Federal budget will balance itself.” Truly, we don’t deserve this hero.)
Instead of looking at Trump as the consequence of widespread disaffection of voters with the GOP establishment, they are doubling down all blame on Trump.
Cause? Effect?
What difference, at this point, does it make?
Masks? We don’t need no steenkin’ masks (of the old kind)!
So says a sitting Democrat Congressman from Mass.
“You called down the thunder…”
MUH VOTER SUPPRESHUN!
Electing Republicans is an assault on Democracy.
I love the idea of moving to Alaska, even though I’ve not traveled there yet.
Unfortunately, I like snow primarily when it is on ski slopes and when it’s pretty in my backyard, not all over everything. I also really like sunny warm weather and wearing shorts. The GF likes “to have seasons,” which seems to mean at least four months of weather that can only be tolerated by skiing or working on an indoor hobby.
I think my ideal place (for normal living, but it would suck being that far from ski areas) would be something like the coastal Carolinas, or alternatively in Utah or Wyoming, based on my travels there. I know there’s tons of snow in Wyoming but I think I could handle that in exchange for the views, activities, and potential for solitude.
Coastal Corolina won’t give you 4 seasons. Closer to 2 or maybe 2.5.
I’ve been on the Outer Banks in winter. Can sort-of confirm. If a storm comes in, the area can get quite chilly when the clouds block the Sun and the wind picks up. No snow at least.
I don’t mind cool, and as I said, I love Alpine skiing, but I would really like a place that isn’t slush and freezing rain for most of the spring time.
Coastal Corolina won’t give you 4 seasons. Closer to 2 or maybe 2.5.
I made this joke to my wife: two – raining and hot.
Congratulations!
That safe is impressive. I’ve been shopping for one and I kinda like that one. The problem is, finding a place that will set it up in my basement for me. I don’t mind paying extra for setup in my basement, but the places I’ve found so far will only bring a safe that big into my garage.
I have this in my bedroom:
https://www.safeandvaultstore.com/products/secureit-fb-52kd-06-agile-model-52-ultralight-gun-safe?variant=35439741325&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&adpos=&scid=scplpshopify_US_9557074957_35439741325&sc_intid=shopify_US_9557074957_35439741325&matchtype=&network=g&device=c&adposition=&keyword=&gclid=Cj0KCQiA34OBBhCcARIsAG32uvORA4YjMgmIp57JJ1P4hYR0TLICdnTS2FTUzKuvo4GaCg6bERuxYxoaAiUQEALw_wcB
The 52 inch tall model on the floor and the 40 inch model on top. The bottom is screwed in to the floor and the wall studs. The top and bottom are screwed together, and the top is also screwed into wall studs.
It isn’t going any where.
Looks uncomfortable to sleep in.
I’d need several:
Stores any 6 firearms up to 50″ in length
It’s modular. Put them together one and a time. Tall ones go side by side. Short ones on top.
It can be done by a single person.
Our gun safe is adequate for our modest gun collection, but I really need something to secure ammo. Right now I have boxes of ammo sitting on the floor next to the gun safe.
I bet it’s worth almost as much as Mo’s bitcoin at this point.
Nowhere near that much ammo. Maybe 3,500 rounds, all in. Too much to fit in the safe.
Same here. I’m also getting concerned about the load bearing weight of the floor since it hasn’t been reinforced.
On the flip side, I’m finding ammo throughout the house that I had stored in times of abundance and forgotten about. Biggest find so far was 175 shells of 00 buck and a couple .22 bricks.
And on that note… PSA has pmags in stock if anyone needs to stock up. Might be your last chance.
https://palmettostatearmory.com/magpul-pmag-30-5-56×45-magazine-mag571-blk.html
I have rifles and shotguns in the 52 inch unit. I have shelves in the 40 inch unit on top. It is full of ammo. I was in good shape until the world started to panic, so I did too. Now I have several cases of ammo sitting on the floor next to the cabinets I bought to hold the ammo that used to be sitting on the floor.
I’m not fitting my ammo in the safe.
Maybe Animal’s.
One of our outbuildings was built around the core of an old steel cargo container. Still has the original door as well as an interior door. Most of our ammo will probably go in some kind of locker in that building. We’ll keep enough in the safe to shoot our way to the outbuilding if we have to.
+1 “I have to get to the gun shed!”
I was kinda expecting some Burt Gummer there.
I don’t even know how I’d start to secure ammo. Right now it’s either in boxes or ammo cans, stacked in the spare bedroom closet, but that space is getting pretty tight. I’m also running out of ammo cans.
Putting a solid-core door and frame and a good lock on the bedroom door, is probably a good as it’s going to get.
I’m not sure what to do about storage. Not my house, so there are certain things (giant safes) that are off limits. Currently it’s all shoved into a closet, but that’s not the safest now that trashdaughter #1 is approaching age 4. She can’t reach any of it, but I’m still not super comfortable with having it unlocked.
Perhaps a claymore rigged to the closet door, with the disconnect out of reach for a toddler?
Here is an option for a couple of long guns:
https://www.safeandvaultstore.com/collections/under-bed-gun-safes
We have these mounted to our bedroom furniture. Loaded handgun and spare mag:
https://www.amazon.com/GunVault-SV-500-SpeedVault-Handgun/dp/B006OGNLKA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1456871080&sr=8-1&keywords=gunvault&linkCode=sl1&tag=pewpewtac-20&linkId=740d35bea1a006cb839d6888cfa5f21a
I have a 44 gun safe, and a 14 gun safe in the bedroom.
Although there’s a total of fewer than 20 guns (or there were before the boating accident), they’re both effectively full. The 14 gun safe has all of 3 long guns in it, and although I could probably Tetris in a couple more, it basically full. It could never hold 14 rifles unless they were all slender hunting rifles with iron sights., and even then id question if it could actually hold all 14.
When you have scopes and AR platform rifles with any sort of rail accessories like the thingie that goes up or rail mounted chainsaws, slots are taken quickly.
Browning has a reputation for excellent interiors. Their swing-out racks are quite nice.
As they were invented here, I am qualified to say that they are snomobiles. Period.
Great article, Animal. And congratulations.
That said, this series really, really makes me want to move.
Animal, your neighbors have a 24/7 live cam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cPsZb8nvyc (and check out that user name)
I’ve been trying to catch auroras on it, but it must be facing the wrong direction, or I haven’t been able to stay up late enough to catch them, because I haven’t seen any on it.
Might be too far south? If I remember correctly, the Northern Lights are more regular Fairbanks and north.
We get them once or twice a month in winter, around Willow.
Nah. We get ’em in Edmonton all the time, and we’re around Latitude 53.5. Willow’s around 61.7 or so.
I’ve decided my older brother’s older daughter, who has a birthday coming up or passed, I’m not quite sure, but she is turning/has turned 3…anyway, they got lots of money, so I’ve decided I’ll create her very own cartoon instead of buying a toy…now I just need to figure out how to write a cartoon without swearing and shit.
While it can be difficult to move outside your comfort zone, constraints can lead to creative breakthroughs. This could be very good both in the output and for your own storytelling abilities.
The real problem is writing with a goal, I’ve never done that, just told the story the characters want to tell.
I feel your pain. I’ve been there.
You can do it.
The Adventures of Paddington – Bears and Pillow-Biters, Oh My
I can’t afford George Takai man!
You don’t need him, just a good voice impersonation.
Like I know anyone who does voice work…
I just need to figure out how to write a cartoon without swearing and shit
Fuck that.
Seriously, that sounds like an awesome present.
No one in my family outside my little brother and my second oldest niece even know I’ve been making cartoons for the last 3 years, so it will be a surprise very much so.
“What the fuck are you talking about, man?”
Seriously, +1 on it being a great idea for a present, it will be special to her.
My gifts to her and her little sister for Christmas were sloth based…so I think that’s my starting point…a sloth character, mentioning her, her older brother and little sister, sent by Uncle CPRM…one goofy exchange I just came up with would be with a ‘king’ character, because I fucking despise monarchy…
No shit… A bunch of obsolete figurehead welfare bums. Why people follow them like celebrities is beyond me (hell, why anyone follows actual celebrities is also a puzzler).
The idea that a person is granted rule over others only by blood is fucking disgusting….I mean even where you think it might matter, in a field like athletics, blood lines don’t even seem to matter much. Walter Peyton’s son couldn’t even make an NFL squad. Sure you have some like Clay Matthews III, but he was raised to be a force, but once he got to the NFL he was good for like 2 years and then was just an entitled bitch.
The Claymaker would have been a force for many more years if those meddling
teensNFL officials hadn’t started testing for HGH and a few other performance enhancing drugs.A Packer Backer buddy of mine said “Welp, so much for Clay’s career” the day they announced the ban on HGH in the NFL. According to him it was a pretty open secret in Wisconsin that Clay was on the juice big time.
Yeah, the same was said about Rogers, since he was best buds with Ryan Braun when he got caught with HGH. So it seems more like an excuse for Mathews, I think it was more that he got fame and wasn’t hungry anymore.
Even more disgusting is when the hereditary aristocracy makes no attempt at noblesse oblige or at least making a stab at not acting like low rent gutter trash.
I remain convinced that the timing of this move could scarcely have been any better.
I think you are right about that. I’ll be done working at the end of next year, and the way will be clear for us to move as well, if we decide to. For an expat move, I think the timing should be good for that decision as well. The next couple of years should tell the tale about whether the left’s grip on this country is too strong for us to want to stick around. If the blowback doesn’t materialize in the next election, I think the odds are good we will be packing our bags in 2023.
For gun safes, these are really nice to help fit more into a small safe. The “rifle rods” stick via velcro to a shelf above and hold long guns straight up and down so you can take advantage of space without having to lean stuff against other things. The pistol hangers make it very easy to use space that would otherwise go to waste, and what’s hanging on them is very easily accessed.
https://youtu.be/BLONWy46gIE
+1 mail order bride!
The summer after 8th grade we took a family trip out West. We all piled into our old van and drove all the way out to California and back. One of the staples that got played on the 8 track all the time was Johnny Horton.
The best moment was when we were stopped at some agricultural checkpoint in California and they asked us if we had any fruits or vegetables. We lied and said no (we had lots and lots of oranges). As soon as we cleared the checkpoint, we all broke out into this song
Agricultural Checkpoint?
How long has commiefornia been a fascist hellhole if they were doing that shit when you were in 8th grade?
1921.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Border_Protection_Stations
Still not as bad as these
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Border_Patrol_interior_checkpoints
Fuck the robed idiots.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Martinez-Fuerte
It’s for your own good!
The agricultural checkpoints I understand. Those are to stop (slow) the spread of pests. The internal checkpoints looking at everyone’s papers not so much.
Yeah, I seem to remember some sort of.. fly? Back in the ’70s I think that was causing an agricultural panic.
It was a fruit fly and it caused a lot of damage to the orange crops in California.
For those in a metro area in Ohio, Wolf’s Ridge Brewing (based out of Columbus), has partnered with Rudy’s Strudel (based out of Cleveland) to deliver Pączki for free (with a $40 order). The days of delivery are based on what metro you’re in (Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, Akron / Canton, Findlay / Toledo).
I’ll never get the obsession with pastry. If you’re going to have empty carbs, let it all be alcohol based.
The pączki are a special once a year treat, and the place they partnered with does do savory ones as well (last year I went with the bacon, egg, and cheese one).
And the other important thing is they’re delivering beer to people’s houses! Most of the breweries up around me have phased that out as they were able to open up and have people come back in.
This time of year, one of the grocery store starts labelling the jelly donuts as pączki. They may make a strawberry filling that’s not otherwise available. It’s kind of sad really.
I know all about pączki, I live near Pulaski for fucksake! unrelated video that has nothing to do with me…
There oughta be a law!
Anyone who makes content for television and includes the sound of a doorbell in that content should get ten years hard labor per infraction. How in hell do dogs instinctively know the sound of a doorbell? Is it programmed in their genes?
I am trying to pay bills here and it is impossible to concentrate with dogs losing their freakin’ minds because the wife is watching TV in the bedroom and the TV keeps making the sound of a door bell.
I’d blame the dogs before TV, but I’m just a specist asshole…
The Little Fat One loses it whenever she hears a dog bark on TV/in her house. Because he’s the only available dog, she assaults her brother. When she’s not around, whenever a dog barks on TV, he goes and hides in his crate now. We have learned to be very fast with the mute button when the TV is on.
Last year we rescued a little whippet. He was only a small puppy and had been sleeping out in the woods for I don’t know how long.
It took him weeks to recover from nearly starving to death. He curled up in a little ball and snuggled up to my wife who was bed-bound from breaking her foot. She watches TV and he watched with her. Given the genre she likes he saw movies with lions, tigers and bears…every critter imaginable.
One day she was watching something that had wild turkeys in it. They gobbled and squawked. The whippet came unglued. He was terrified. He jumped off of the bed, ran to the corner of the room and burrowed under a dog blanket to hide.
Then I remembered…there is a flock of wild turkeys that lives around here. I see them now and then. They must have terrorized him. I guess to a small puppy a wild turkey is a fearsome beast. Poor little guy…horrified by turkeys. It sounds funny and we all snickered about it but the truth is they have spurs and can be quite aggressive. If you are a 3.5 lb puppy a full grown turkey is like a dragon.
My old mutt was a sweet lab/goldie mix. He was the friendliest dog you ever met.
The only time he would get riled up is when I brought him to work. The lobby of our building had a mirror directly across from the elevator. For some reason my dog would get so pissed at the dog he saw across the lobby from him when he got off the elevator. Sometimes he’d actually growl which was unheard of from him.
I’m sure it is one of those vicious cycles. He saw a dog and his hackles went up and then that other damn dog put his hackles up too! Then he had the temerity to walk stiff legged? You got to be shitting me!
But every single time. I started taking the back elevator if it was busy in the building because anyone in the lobby would get very nervous when the elevator opens and a 90lb dog is there and pissed off.
There is that one Rush song that has a sound effect in it that sounds like the sqeal of a belt coming off the tensoner. Drove me nuts back when I listened to pop radio.
I also hate radio broadcasts or podcasts that use a low volume background track that has some sort of ticking noise. Always makes me look nervously at my car dashboard for a Check Engine light. Then as I turn down the radio to get a better listen to the incipient mechanical failure, I realize it was something added by some sadistic sound engineer.
I hate “news” stories that use background music to try to manipulate viewers’ emotions.
Ugh. I can hear ‘Law and Order’ playing in the other room. I cant hear the dialogue but I can hear the background music. I can tell exactly what part of the show is playing by the sound of the music. I am going to have to go shut the door. I think I would rather hear nails on a chalkboard.
Wasn’t that fun! Just shoveled a foot (or more) of snow off the upstairs deck. Then, just for the hell of it, I made a few passes out to the truck with the snowblower. I’m not going anywhere. The ceiling is dropping fast, and it’s snowing again. i can’t see a damn thing in these conditions.
And-
Barking dogs audio: My cats used to freak out every time “Got Caught Stealin'” came on, with the barking attack dogs at the beginning. They’d jump up and start looking around in a panic. That made me feel bad.
Clearing the parking area is a fool’s errand, because the wind puts a massive drift between the door and where i park the truck but it’s not *supposed to* blow. Much. Probably. Maybe.
Sorry to be a latecomer.
Thanks for the story. A different move to a different section of the country, but I can definitely relate.
Something you forget when you’ve been living in town or in suburbs for a long time is just how peaceful a rural home can be.
This is so true. And it’s such an amazing relief. I’ll grant that I get a lot of bird noise. But, compared to the city? There’s no comparison.
I’m also thinking of something reflecting the line of Myrtles (at least that what I think they are this week) lining the lane up to our house.
When I was a yoot, I’d spend six to eight weeks sleeping in a tent as I worked at a summer camp outside of Talequah. There is no fucking way you can sleep in once the dawn chorus starts.
Well, this looks promising — amongst other things, they’ve produced an app that automagically blocks over 800 New York Times-related accounts on Twitter etc. with one click:
https://www.blocknyt.com/
It’s a good start. Now we just need an app called “BlockLegacyMedia” or somesuch.
Or you could just….you know….not go to the tweeter.
As with Facebook, some people use it for purposes that aren’t actually nefarious.
I simply deleted my account about ten years ago (only had it for around a week and a bit).
It’s a good start. Now we just need an app called “BlockLegacyMedia” or somesuch.
#CANCELDUMBFUCKS