Make It Look Like You Know

My guy was helping me with some photo shoots the other day, I had this image in mind, a woman armed, dangerous, ready for action. Thankfully he knows plenty, and made sure I had the Mini 14 positioned correctly. Me? I'm worried if I look fat, or my hair isn't laying right.

At one point he said, you don't want to be smiling, right? That's not the image you're after. Agreed, totally agreed.

He reminded me, "Make it look like you know what you're doing." After that, I had a hard time not laughing, me know what I'm doing? In regards to what, exactly?

Spring is here, calendar be damned, I don't think we had but 3 days of winter.

On The Floor

I confess to watching this Dance Vid multiple times, love it!



Shakira is another favorite

Thanks Youtube!

Seasonal Work Available

This is the fourth summer I'll be cooking at a National Park.

I just got my employement package in the mail, Yellowstone National Park, seriously one of the most interesting places in America.

If you've got the time or inclination, run over to http://www.coolworks.com
and check out all the seasonal and full time oportunities for adventurers. There is a wealth of information, blogs, personal pages, tons of photos from first timers and addicts like myself.

There's something about the wild life hanging out round the dorms, the spotted fawns skipping along side mom, the bison en mass walking through the cabins for rent, the elk wandering down the trail that does something for me. Lake Yellowstone is my all time favorite location in the park. This year I'll be flying and that will make it a little different.
If you want cell service, you can hike up Elephant Mountain, to the very top, and climb a tree. I'm told it might fade in and out, but worth trying.
Another option is to walk to Fishing Bridge. Once the trail is open because the bears have quit eating carrion along the shore, its only a little more than a mile. Great ice cream cones, too.

There are regular phones, but who uses them anymore?

Will be posting photos all summer.

A Year Without Winter

Its February 16th. We've had only two cold days here in N. E. Georgia. This can't be good.

Last year by this time we were dealing with lots of ice and snow, using propane like crazy, wondering if the global warming thing had gone haywire.

Now, there are daffodils blooming, bugs moving and rain on a regular basis. A dusting of snow that melted immediately made me realize, some people are seeing snow, somewhere, it is after all winter.

Its tax time, and I've looked at the online versions of file for free. Humm, if like me, you're one of these minimalists cobbling together an income, tax time is intimidating. I could drop 100 bucks on the guy who helped me last year. We had issues, had to refile, amend, go through hell. For 100 bucks, I don't expect hell.

So, I called around and found the local housing authority hosts a free expert to help us out, they just aren't quite set up yet. So, I'm waiting to do my duty and pay my fair share of taxes.

Looking forward to spring, or maybe, its already here.

Could It Be This Simple?

I read today about the study showing aspirin could play a pivotal role in beating cancer.

Other than stomach issues, aspirin seems to be a fairly decent pain reliever, thinning blood to help prevent clots and heart attacks.
Take with food, drink a full glass of water afterwards and the stomach issue is reduced. I found that actually letting them dissolve in water, before swallowing helps it enter the system faster.

http://news.yahoo.com/aspirin-could-beat-cancer-spread-australian-study-061326467.html

The study does say its been shown to reduce the rate of occurrence in several known cancers. Now, if its proven to shut down the actual tumor itself, once begun, that would be a huge step for humanity.

This Arab Thing Is Disturbing

I know rebellions are messy. If you look at our own, back in 1776, Americans were gunned down in the square, British attempting to squash the quest for freedom. Other nations have been birthed in violence. The price, while great, is the price to be paid. No one's gonna hand it to you on a platter.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7398346n

What's most disturbing is news that children are dying at the hands of snipers. Kids shouldn't be the target. I guess bible readers know that in the old testament, everyone, men, women and children were wiped out as the chosen people made their way to the promise land. God told them to.

Still disturbing. Kids are our innocents. Or, we like to think that. The dad who blew up his house, killing two young sons in Tacoma, Washington is seriously disturbing. Why kill them, even if you as a dad are suicidal, those beautiful boys that were loved by many family members? 

The Syrian government doesn't care about its people, just cares about power. We've watched this play out in other countries like Libya, Egypt during what the journalists are calling the Arab Spring.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring

We've seen police coming down hard on Occupy people. I'm not a pacifist, self-defense is a human right. So, it's disturbing that while the surface looks normal, serious financial inequality is undercutting us as a nation. Its a rape of the middle class, and self-defense is a normal reaction.

Are we safe here in America? The republicans are talking about our core values. I sometimes wonder if they are "core" at all. When the SHTF, will we be just another Arab thing? 
Time will soon tell.

Occupy Chicago 2012- Holy Sssssss

I saw a youtube clip on my facebook page today. Its a heads up on the Occupy Chicago May 1, 2012. So, I went to youtube and did a search. There are several posted:



I was going to post today about learning survival common plants, but this is really way bigger for the survivalist. What sort of turn out can be expected?



They hope to draw 500,000, did I read that right? That is going to be one hoedown. These clips actually are presenting real ideas, and a growing movement of resistance and demand. Politicians, will they take notice?




Ok, so back to my edible plants.

Pen Names and Such

As the female survivalist, I'm often coming to terms with what some might call gender bias. I don't know, does it still exist? Some claim that females aren't taken seriously in the thriller-survialist novel genre. I found it harder to write "love" scenes, or raw visuals, so decided to change my signature and see what happens. I'm feeling more Dangerous already!


An End of Days by C.J. Wellman.

Book Two, All Hell Won't Wait will be changed to sequence this, later this week, under my Pen name (just initials, nothing dramatic). We'll see what happens.

I guess sinc I have decided to do a "pen name" for my novels, they're a little harder to find.

The Great Revision-Thoughts about Ham Radios

Many thanks to Flo for her encouragements!
Ok, so here's the scoop, and the reason I haven't posted in a week.
This whole fiction apocalyptic adventure began when I asked myself: If the power grid went down, or say, Washington D.C was taken out by terrorists, how long would it take us, back in the boonies, to find out?
I started writing a fiction novel about that idea, exploring it. We've been without power for days, and we'd just sorta figure it was the same thing, a tree down, equipment failure, whatever. It might be a week before we ever found out for sure.
As I wrote the book, I thought about all the skills we would need to help us survive the thing. I ended up buying a woodstove, figuring out a passive water system, bought a solar shower.

One thing led to another and a second book, and third, evolved. They call these little 22,000 word books novellas. I explored what would happen if say, my man was killed by bad bears, and I was out here alone to deal with enemy factions.

I am from the north, and not so comfortable with weapons, I'm admitting that right now. I'm working on my self defense skills.

Then, I thought about a very dark side, like a woman could go rouge, became indifferent or even fascinated by bloodshed, after going through hell defending herself and her family. People might turn into cannibals. It would be easy to prey on the weak human element instead of actually hunting, fishing, or making gardens.

When these smaller books were finished, it occurred to me that the government issues should be dealt with. What if the feds could recover, move the headquarters, enact martial law and try to take back their power?

Bottom line, I've been doing a revision, and all four books have been compiled into this one, hence no blog for nearly a week. Sort of regrouping, using my initials as a pen name for fiction.
Book two involves the feds getting ready to retake the control. I've been researching ham radios. How else would the citizens tell each other the feds were coming, going to come down hard on local governments trying to help their own people survive a shit hits the fan scenario? The Greeks and Romans sent runners. We had a pony express before telegraphs. Boat people could bring news, like the mountain men did in their great rondevous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio

The ham radio thing is in my mind, and I'm looking at this old time skill in a new way. Is it a dying skill? Our modern wifi and satelite communications are power dependent, we need the grid for them to work.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio_homebrew
According to this link, ham radios can use as little as one watt of power, totally do able with solar or ethanol survivalist skills.

How about carrier pigeons, would they be used as well to relay information, warning of the military action against non-compliants? How far would the military go to retake the country? Probably heads would roll.

I've uploaded this revision, and I think its way better, and flows. It should be available tomorrow, an e-book.

Links at at the right sidebar if you're interested. It's only $2.99.