October - My favorite month!

In my effort to keep things light I am completely not posting about yet another police impersonator caught locally harassing women or the burglary ring brought down. Going to ignore the shootings and even the big doctor/pharmacy/drug dudes getting brought down for all sorts of crime. Going to pretend for a moment that the multiple undercover units patrolling our area at night are just neighbors. ........ See, it is depressing!

So I am going to talk about October. I love October. Mostly because I love Halloween and am one of those crazy people who decorate inside and out for it. We could go deeper into the beauty of All Hallows but that is part of my Wiccan youth and I am no longer the rebellious type having firmly settled into my Christian upbringing and all. (Though they sure do know their herb lore!) I love the fun of it all. When I was a teen I worked in a haunted mill. I was the casket girl. I would spend time getting my makeup just perfect to match the creepy maniquin in the coffin across the isle and then I would lay there and pop up and scream for each group that entered my room. I loved it. Now I pass that love to my kids. Bug has always loved the creepy and spooky. The kid loves picking something nice for her costume and then creeping it out. She was a corpse bride one year. This year is Zombie Cheerleader!  My Monkey is not sure about the creepy yet but she loves the decorations. She doesn't want to touch the spider but she giggles and calls him her spooky friend. I think we all need to enjoy the fun of it.

What are you/your (grand)kids going to be this year?

New accessories!

We got new accessories for the 10/22's. They are supposed to be an awesome improvement. Hubby likes that they can be cleaned. Will give a review once we use them!

Under attack? Maybe a little but that's okay!

I have realized recently that when I feel upset by things in life my mind instantly goes to the beauty of my marriage. It is as if my coping mechanism when I feel threatened in any way is for my brain to say "Lila yes this person is a total jerk but remember the most important truth in your life. The one person you need to love and accept you unconditionally already does that. Who cares what the jerk thinks." I find that to be pretty amazing. The life that we have is far from what many would define as perfect but for me it is exactly that. We aren't rich, we aren't going to be. (Though I am going to make a best sellers list darn it!) We don't have all the newest or best toys. I don't care. Bash my politics. Bash my religion. Bash even the very concept of faith. Bash my parenting. Bash my looks. Bash away jerks. My husband finds me sexy. My girls are happy, smart, and well rounded. My passion is fed through writing. I am in need of nothing else. I have a strength no one can take from me because I am loved beyond measure.

Do you have something that makes all the crap fade away? What is it?

My greatest wish for all of my blog friends is that they have that one thing. It can be any thing. I am lucky that mine comes in the arms of a good strong man but a mate isn't a requirement. I wish you all joy. So much joy. Passion and health and happiness. So often as we walk this path of preparation and safety through our beautiful weapons we are immersed in sludge and negativity. I am working to make a huge effort to avoid that sludge. It was depressing me. Extended family stress was pulling me down. Jerks were demeaning me. Not going to let it build like it had been. Time to find the good. Find your good and tell me about it!

Nifty app!

So my lovely smart phone ate it. The water bath contributed but it was being finicky anyway. So on to replacing it. Had to download all my apps again. While meandering in app land I discovered the U.S. Survival guide app. Same nifty guide now on my phone. Knots. Poisons. First Aid. Soooo cool.

So if you are a geek like me what apps do you adore? Find any that help in your survival prep/ gun love?

2.5 years! Cool.

We suck at actually keeping up on big deal blogging anniversaries. It is a flaw. We are all pretty busy and honestly lucky to remember what day it is let alone our own names half the time. So I got a hankering to look and see when the first post was on the blog and it was by Maggy on 3/24/09. Pretty nifty. We are now 2.5 years old. That is like a teenager in blog years I think! Even though Mags is super hard to get on a computer these days I know I speak for her and Gracie when I say thank you to all who read us and to those who have read us for a long while!! We totally adore the support!! Now if I could get past my funk and think again I would have some decent posts to do!

I have the blah's......

Yup. That's me. I think in my effort to absorb all this prepping and gunning and getting to it blogging I overwhelmed myself. I left for 2 days and came back to over 200 posts in my feed. This overwhelms me. This is normal when I am offline. i follow to many people I think. Of course only a few are bloggers I love to read, other's are bloggers who have interesting stuff sometimes but other times it is not for me. or they aren't really friendly. Or they are just info sharing and not actually interacting with anyone. Ugggg...... So if you wonder where my comments have gone it is because I have a huge stack to read so I post comments on the posts I really enjoy. I am reading all of my faves! You guys all rock. I just am feeling off. sick and little energy. Sorry! 

Shooting fun!

This has been a great weekend with my love home from work. Soon that will be a rare thing as once his machine is in the ground it requires 24/7 babysitting and that usually means 7 days a week for him. We took advantage! Saturday was spent in blessed relaxation with a dash of Bass Pro tossed in. I have a love/hate relationship with that store. I love all the things I find but I hate the dent in the wallet. Bought a ton of skeet so the boys could play.

Then today we got up early and went out to shoot again. The friend who joined us last time had made a couple purchases of his own and brought his wife along this time. She is a fibromite so it was nice to discuss shooting with someone who gets our specific drawbacks even though they are just now building their own collection. J.W. brought out one of our other rifles. I had never shot the .17. For some reason I had assumed it was like hubby's bad boy in the kick range and have just stayed away from it. Yeah I know I should know better after reading and stuff but hey, I am still a relative newbie. So i shot that today. Love the lack of kick. The rhythm of it was beautiful. The FMS difficulty was that I could not hold it up, shoot, chamber a new round, and shoot again. In a way it made my accuracy more surprising because I would have to lower my barrel, chamber, then raise again to shoot or my muscles threatened to give.  Left me with shoulders burning tonight but it was a lot of fun.

Nephew once again proved why I think he has major skills. Boys were shooting skeet. He had his 10/22 up and was just looking through the scope next to them. Both missed one of the skeet and with that rifle he shot the skeet out of the air. To prove it wasn't a fluke we had him lower and raise and shoot on the pull. Darn kid did it again. He has some skills.

So the day was good. I shot my rifle and the 9mm and got to play with the .17. Had the husband shoulder the shotgun so I could feel how it did with the short barrel on it. Still youch. Otherwise a very positive and fun day!! We needed it! There is some sick building in the house. 3 kids so far. I already have the aches so i know I am up next. Means I have a few miserable days ahead. I really need to find a good rheumatologist and stop putting it off. I need to get ahead of this fun that is my life. I keep saying I have accepted my new normal but just by not figuring out treatment beyond my meds shows I am not fully owning this and doing all I can to relieve the gunk. Uggg....... Fun stuff. Happy Sunday y'all.

Document Organization.

As I embark on this quest one thing I have realized is important is better organization. While I know basically where all the important documents are, (a box in my closet) they are in no way organized and can take forever to find the exact document I needed. So to fix that I bought large plastic totes that are created for file storage and handle both legal and letter sized files. I got 2 so I can have one for each sized file type and the hanging files as well as folders for each. I finally went through my office are and cleaned out the clutter. It was horrible. I bought 3 little space savers to separate bills, things to be shredded and things to be filed. This will help with my organization there. Tonight I plan to pull out my box and start to file things away the right way. Will make so many things easier. Honestly SHTF can be so many different situations and knowing where your birth certificate is or the mortgage documents and insurance papers can be needed quickly. I really recommend everyone grab this nasty bull by the horns!

Where's the gun? Let's use a screwdriver!

Uggg. The running theme seems to be young in all my posts huh? Early 20's this time.

Authorities identify woman, 22, who was stabbed to death

A 22-year-old woman stabbed to death last week in the northeast valley was identified Wednesday as Brittney Nicole Junsay.
The Las Vegas resident died from multiple stab wounds to her chest, the coroner's office said.
Las Vegas police arrested Elizabeth Denise Crocketts, 21, in connection with Junsay's death. Crocketts stabbed Junsay on Friday with a screwdriver during a fight in the 5000 block of Nellis Oasis Lane, near Nellis Boulevard and Gowan Road, police said.
Crocketts was being held without bail at the Clark County jail. Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 12.

The first commenter must be one of us. 

Desert flash floods.

Not much is going on with me right now. Editing, reading, taking care of my family. The usual. We are in monsoon conditions and were finally able to let the teens see why the drainage tunnels are so dangerous even though it is so dry. This pic is of a road not even 100 yards from the house. The rain had only been falling for about 20 minutes when I took this picture. I had ventured out to get Miss. Bug to school. I know the road and the depth and have a heavy 4x4 and crossed it but found immense traffic getting to the school and decided to keep her home. I saw a small mustang decide to skip the intersection pictured and go to turn around only to be hit broadside with another wave and be pushed into the rushing water. Driving in conditions like these require a knowledge of your road, a slow and steady hand, and a very heavy vehicle. Do not ever even consider crossing a road like this if you are not sure of the depth. It does not take a lot of force to lift a smaller car and float it off despite what you might think. In a SHTF situation you need to make sure the route of escape you have chosen is one you can traverse in any condition. Know the road. Drive the route even if it is out of the way so you are not forced to attack a road like this with no knowledge of it. It can and will save your life and your belongings.