Ted’s essays

do-it-yourself root canal

If you think my experience with natural healing a flu I was likely to survive anyway was impressive, I waited quite a while to even post this next one. I’m still struggling to believe it myself. Don’t let the heading fool you, that’s just my copy editor being his perverse self. I have a little expertise with root canals, having had 4 done in my mouth; one a re-do of another that wasn’t quite right. Those were all tooth infections gone big, bad and ugly. I had another almost kill me. The incompetent monopolist MD in Grangeville kept ramping up the dosages of prescription antibiotics without ever diagnosing my sinus pain complaint as a massive tooth infection. In desperation, I […]

flu – rolling with the punches

Saturday night I felt a bit off. Sunday I was definitely not well, but helped Jeff install the new Conner VHF repeater on the knoll above our house anyway. Monday removed all doubt. . I . was . sick. Missy recalls a candid MD telling her she could do nothing and get well in about fourteen days. Or he could prescribe some stuff for her to take and she would recover in about two weeks. I have heard and experienced similar. It’s a virus. They don’t have reputable tools for viruses. I added Lung, Bronchial & Sinus Health and Defense Plus to my supplement diet. They have served me well for a lot of years. I definitely needed all the […]

ammo load testing

I meticulously assembled 7 groups of loads with 165-grain Hornady SST bullets. The hand-weighed charges ran from 5 with 43.4 grains of Varget powder to 5 with 44.0 grains, every group of five separated by tenth-of-a-grain increments. I also loaded up and tested 7 groups of 168-grain Sierra HPBT match bullets. These were pushed out by 42.7 to 43.3 grains of Varget, also groups of five in tenth-of-a-grain increments. My shooting was all done at 200 yards from a bench rest through the Leopold scope my .308-caliber AR-10 always wears. The wind was kind to me, not disturbing us at all. The targets were some 50-foot rapid-fire pistol targets I had a lot of. While not ideal for load testing, […]

ode to Opie

I was looking here for a photo of The Greatest Dog I ever had, being quite surprised that I had not posted one here. Newfoundlands are designed to be sweethearts… the AKC breed standard uniquely includes loving and devoted to people or it is not a Newfoundland. Opie was at the small end of the standard, being rather indifferent to food, but he surely must have been at the big end of loyal and affectionate. Of course large dogs have the advantage of little to fear, but these guys were designed to lay about in a North Atlantic fishing boat for hours-on-end, then provide prodigious strength, instinct and intelligence in whatever quantity was needed. Absolutely easy to get along with […]

post card from Conner

ENTRANCE

On my list of Wanna Do Before Winter Sets In was a bit of trim painting. “Where’s the front door?” has been a rather consistent puzzle for first-time visitors. Almost universally, we find them walking by our “front window” view of the river looking for the entrance to our house. I understand their dilemma and have figured a little dress-up of the entrance would help resolve it. Hard telling how many days warm enough for painting were left in this year, my painting project finally got its turn in the last week. With a $9 quart of white metal paint, masking tape and a brush I went to work. I was also bothered by the bare wood of our replacement […]

chimney stabalizer

Our new woodstove was not drawing well enough. It was hard to start and the flow inadequate to keep the chimney clean. I had to extend it. That created its own problem as the chimney was now just a stiff wind from being blown down. The ideal stabilizer setup was not available, so I had to improvise. Setting the two struts at 90-degrees from each other would be perfect. But punching holes in roofs always adds risk and maintenance issues. So I really wanted side-mounting to the dormer to work, but the spread between the widest mounting points is woefully narrow. Triangles are a builder’s friend I picked up a couple of two-by-twos, my handsaw, screws, washers and set my […]

roast dog

I have shared nearly all of my life with dogs, but I have never had one like this. In every prior case, constantly wearing their indoor-outdoor winter attire had them seeking the coolest part of our heated house. Not Beagle Brain. Scooter sidles up to the HOT fireplace, rotating, shifting position, laying right next to it and generally just BAKING HER BODY. She will be hot to the touch and still not leave her fireplace position without strong encouragement from us. I don’t get it. She seems indifferent to the cooling autumn weather outside, cheerfully going for walks in freezing, rain, wind or whatever nature has sent us. That is more like what I am accustomed to in dogs. But […]

the real threat Ebola presents

I am more troubled by Ebola than anything else mainstream media is shoving in faces of the masses. I fear THEY are really onto something this time. It takes very little imagination to see a rather short, sharp timeline between now and nation-wide martial law. The rather obvious progression marshals all of those recently overly-armed government agents into checkpoints surrounding every populated area in the USofA. Movement of non-governmental people and commerce STOPS. How long before the hungry, the fearful and the sick line up at government “Aid Centers”? Not only will resistors be few, the terrified booboisie will eagerly turn them in, stone them to death, rabidly crushing anything or anybody that oaf-fish-shills label as “A Threat”… before lining […]