Category → Family
Happy Father’s Day
Dont know what you dads got, but my family bought me a silly tee shirt and a gardening wand for my garden hose. We are about to cook out. All is perfect. Hope you other dads feel the same.
Got Gas?
Gas royalties paid to land owners from the development of the Marcellus Shale have amounted to $731 million in Pennsylvania in the last year alone. The Allegheny Institute for Public Policy says that the $731 million is a 6,600% increase from five years ago.
Got gas? Hope so!
Visiting DC? Try this landmark
With original carved woodwork, tiles, and other intact original surfaces the Christian Heurich House is worth the five bucks admission fee. The basement was built as a traditional German inn or pub, and includes the nicest torchier I have seen. Antlers linking three old halberds together, this torchier undoubtedly was part of a larger set used to illuminate the day’s take, arranged just-so on the ground after a traditional hunt. Photos are not allowed, so I did not take one. Hopefully the association will publish a book on the place where you can see it all in detail.
http://www.heurichhouse.org/
Garden as metaphor
Gardens are the summertime happy hunting grounds of Americans everywhere. My own is coming along nicely. Maybe it’s time to plant a 1940-s style Victory Garden?
BSA Policy Should be Zero Tolerance for Sex
It hurt to send this to my son’s Boy Scouts troop leader today. Ben is a wonderful man and an important part of our son’s life:
“Hi Ben.
I don’t care who is gay.
And no one has a right to talk about sex with my son Isaac.
Sex has no place in the BSA.
The moment that a teenager or adult talks about sex with my son at a BSA event is the moment I file a lawsuit against BSA for sexual harassment and then withdraw from the troop.
The correct policy should have been a zero tolerance for sex, period. Talking about sexual behavior is innately sexual. It’s an innately private subject without any legitimate purpose around kids.
You are and have been a fantastic troop leader. I’m very sorry to send this to you. But I must protect my son. Isaac has a right to be free from sexualization by older kids and adults. The new BSA policy says that someone has a right to sexualize my son. That’s wrong, and the BSA is now looking like an unsafe place, the wrong place for my son.
Josh”
Take a kid fishing
Trout season is upon us, and if you want future generations to appreciate natural resources, then teach them early on how natural resources function. For example, take a kid fishing and teach him or her about how trout and the bugs they eat need clean water.
Conservation isn’t always serious stuff. It can be fun!
The local kids-only trout fishing hot spot is on Clark’s Creek, run by DCAC: http://dauphincountyanglers.com/
20 years of the best
Viv and I recently celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary.
Twenty years of the best kind of relationship possible. I get everything, and she works like a slave and gives everything.
Anyone who knows Viv knows she is a powerhouse. An accomplished attorney, a loving and doting mother, a cheerful wife, an incredible volunteer on many boards and charities…really, she deserves a Purple Heart or some other military medal for being married to me for so long, let alone the amazing work she does for communities and individuals.
Thank you, honey, for being with me and my better half.
I am looking forward to another sixty years together…
Josh
Just About to Find that Skunk in the Wood Pile
A skunk is living in our wood pile, and it has gone from four and a half cords down to a few days of supply remaining. Somewhere in that last bit of wood stacked in a back corner is a cold and unhappy skunk. I am not looking forward to meeting it in the coming few days.
New Sportsmen’s Show – Carlisle, PA – March 21-24
The recent demise of the 58-year annual Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show left both a hole in the fabric of the outdoors community, and also an opportunity for some enterprising people to pull it all back together. Nature abhors a vacuum, and into this one poured the good and capitalistic intentions of many veteran outdoorsmen.
Dozens of small groups of people have quickly seen the opportunity, and worked to create a show that will give them momentum for next year, and then the years after.
One such show is being billed as the “American Outdoorsman Sport Show,” organized by a radio station, WQLV 98.9 FM (www.aosshow.com), and it is being held from March 21-24 at the Carlisle Expo Center, 100 K Street, Carlisle, PA.
I know about this because JRJ Knives will be there (www.jrjknives.com). John Johnson of JRJ makes knives every bit as rugged and beautiful as the top-billed makers, but at a third to half the price. I try to purchase at least one every year; many I give away as gifts. John’s self-defense fixed blades are worn by an Israeli general and an Israeli colonel who sees combat every week, as well as sportsmen around the nation. Because he uses ATS34 steel combined with his exceptional skill, John’s knives are often far stronger than the “best” knives being marketed for survival, hand-to-hand combat, etc. In fact, I cook with one of the custom, unique large hunting knives he recently made for me. It is scary sharp, holds an edge forever, and is easy to resharpen.
So get on down to the Carlisle Expo Center this March 21-24, and buy yourself a JRJ knife and peruse some of the other vendors, including Cody Calls and Ducky’s Boats.
Kelty — An A+ American company
Kelty makes all kinds of outdoor equipment. Tents, sleeping bags, you name it, they make it. And they back up their gear with a lifetime warranty.
Example in point, my Pacific Crest backpack is a huge old dinosaur of a pack. It holds all kinds of stuff, has a sleeve for either a bow or rifle, and can easily carry 80 pounds without showing a sign of stress. Two weeks ago I sent this pack in for some rehab work.
Two weeks later, it arrived completely refurbished, at no charge. “Pride in our construction” says the zeroed invoice.
Kelty — a fantastic American company cut from the old mold.
Make sure to give them your business, folks. They’ve earned it.