Tactical Thigh Rig

You know, I am usually very frugal about buying stuff, but not when it comes to firearms and their accoutrements.

No, if I see it, I have to have it now. Granted I wanted a Glock 17 for years, and so when I finally pulled the trigger (pun intended) the floodgates opened and the credit card company has never been happier.

Just kidding. Well, sort of. In all seriousness, my firearms interest is not really an interest. It's a need. Yes, I need to have guns. I need to have boxes upon boxes of ammo, "just in case." My house is not just a cottage, it's an armory.

But for those occasions when I can't be sitting inside the cofines of my armory, cleaning my guns while listening to Rush Limbaugh, I purchased a new Fobus Roto Holster for open carry from CopsPlus.com. I wanted something cheap that would form fit my Glock. I also wanted a proven system that would allow for both rentention and quick, smooth drawing. Fobus, a company out of Israel, seemed to be the perfect fit, and for the price I couldn't really go wrong.

But there is a deeper reason I picked this particular holster. It's the option to attach and carry it on a "tactical thigh rig." Now, it's not that I just want to be Hans Solo or something, which is, in all actuality, actually true. Carrying a gun on your belt can be uncomfortable, cumbersome or inconvenient, depending on your situation.

You know, say you get into an X-Wing. Those cockpits are tight. A fast draw to take down a snow yeti climbing onto your hood before take off might be a little more complicated than you think. But if the gun is on your thigh, you should be good to go, no problem.

As it is, I keep everything on my belt--my cell phone, multi-tool, and occasionally a flashlight--and I have this bad habit of placing my hand on my hips to push on this stuff for the hell of it. When I wore my Fobus holster (empty) around town just to get the feel of the thing, I kept having to resist the temptation of fiddling or messing with it.

And finally, it seems far easier to draw from your thigh than your hip, and much harder IMHO for a stranger to attempt to draw it as well.

That said, I very simply chose, without fear of retribution (except from Clare), to purchase the tactical thigh rig attachment. It has not yet arrived. I look forward to testing it out and seeing how comfortable it is. The Roto Holster is very light and comfortable, so I am expecting nice things from the thigh rig, *ahem* excuse me, tactical thigh rig.

Sorry for the delay on the Update. I have been spending a lot of free time checking out the gun forums to expand my knowledge and for personal entertainment.

Over and Out,

--Nick-Dog

Of axes, oaks and woodstoves

So...

Because of Isabel's birth, I have been able to take some serious R&R as well as get things done around the house that need being done. The thing about the latter is that I can, during this time off, not feel rushed in the process, do it my own pace, and so enjoy the work moreso than I would normally.

Today, I bought a new axe from Lowe's for splitting wood. Unlike a traditional maul, it has a winged axe head, so you have the wedge qualities of a maul, and the cutting qualities of an axe. Moreoever, the winged axe is 4 pounds lighter, which makes cutting large amounts of wood far easier.

I just got back inside from splitting 15-20 inch sections of white oak (about 14-15 inches in diameter) with relative ease. I am most impressed with the winged axe's performance and have been trying out the different woods I have gathered in my woodstove.

We have been running the stove for the past few days now to take the chill out of the air and get a feel for the heat output. So far it has been remarkable.

This is what I mean. Last year, I ran the woodstove at Clare's parents all winter. It got to the point that I could get the catalytic converter to kick on in two minutes, which, if you knew this thing, is saying something. It means that the fan turns on to help spread the heat from the stove to the rest of the room, but it has to be hot enough to do that.

Anyway, this thing ate wood like no tomorrow. It's an old stove, and they tend not to be too efficient from what I know. I am sure there are exceptions, but, that being said, it burned what it burned, and that was it.

Now enter the Jotul 3, supposedly, according to the company, the best-selling wood stove in the world. I have no idea, so I'll just take their word for it. The thing I like about it, though, is that it creates a very slow, slow burn. Once you get a white hot bed of coals, you can add a small log like once every 4 or 5 hours, and you get lots of heat.

I mean, I am so impressed by this baby, the way it helps your wood to burn slower than it would normally. So for the wood-splitting individual, that means your word splitting time is reduced significantly, time that you could spend enjoying your woodstove. Now, here are some observations of the wood I've been burning, none of which has been "seasoned," other than being dead for a long time:

American Elm: Easy to start, this hardwood burns fast and hot. It's a good wood to start a fire, but because of how fast it goes, not the best for a sustaining fuel.

Black Locust: According to some chart I found, Black Locust is actually the hottest burning wood out there, burning at .057 BTUs (British Thermal Units). As my friend and woodsman extraordinaire Jason Banaszak noted, however, Black Locust may burn [just a little bit] hotter than white oak, but it does not burn longer or cleaner. Point noted, and after putting the two to the test in my stove, I definitely agree.

White Oak: The ideal wood, the powerhouse. It burns slow, white hot, and clean. It yields that classic smell you think of in fall and winter when driving by a house heating with wood. As previously stated, it burns slow and long. It's the ideal wood to heat your house, though it is quite pricy to have it seasoned, split and delivered by the cord. Only Shagbark Hickory burns as hot, but Shagbark Hickories, as my olde friend and farmer Gerald Austin asserts, Hickories are too nice a tree to burn.

Silver Maple: I just chopped a dead one down in my yard, and I have to say, I am rather surprised and impressed by the amount of heat the wood puts out, and for how long it burns. Kudos to the silver maple. I have got a bunch of these at work to chop down, so that means more wood for me.

Boxwood Elder: This is a shit wood. On the list, it is down a good ways in terms of the amount of heat it puts out, and it's a pain to start. I don't recommend this stuff unless you are in the same straits as Poe once was, reduced to burning his furniture in order to survive the winter while at the University of VA. Anyway, Boxwood Elder is for the bonfire pile, not the cord pile.

Over and out,

--Nick-Dog

Pride

Welcome back. Today's post is not about track #2 from U2's Unforgettable Fire album, awesome though it is. It's about other stuff.

Isabel Therese Marmalejo was born October 3 at 16:38. Clare has pics at her blog, and, I'm sure, will continue to post them. Another arrow in the quiver, as they say, and that is a very, very great thing.

In keeping with the theme of today's title, I want to recall an incident that happened yesterday at mass. Because Anastasia was full of energy, I was playing toddler-control in the vestibule. When I arrived back from Holy Communion, I noticed an elderly man, kneeling in front of a pew in the vestibule, struggling to get up. But he couldn't. I came by, asked him if he needed some help, and not waiting for a reply, gave him my free hand.

Unable to lift this surprisingly heavy old man, I helped set himself back down, and went to grab an usher, even though, out of pride, he tried to shoo me off with "I'm ok." Not buying it for a minute I looked around hastily, and thinking that the ushers were probably too old to help anyway, I grabbed a big dude in front of me. Both of us couldn't lift him up, and so a third dude joined us and we were able to finally set him on a pew.

I just wanted to state that I felt priveleged to help this devout old man, who took seriously kneeling after Holy Communion on a stone floor, even though he couldn't get up and probably wasn't sure about it to begin with.

I am glad and fortunate that I took the initiative. My first thoughts were "someday this may be me." No one else seemed to notice, and that bothered me a little bit, because people need people to help them sometimes, and apparently no one in a crowd of 50 saw that this guy wasn't going to make it or hurt himself trying.

So this brings me to my moral: If we are not aware, we miss opportunities to practice charity, not to mention protect ourselves and other people from accidents or worse. Practicing awareness daily allows us to be better people and better citizens, giving us the capacity to step into the moment of truth and make a positive difference.

Over and Out,

--Nick-Dog