There was never a doubt that The Mountain would get wet today. Tonight, too, I expect. What once looked like three or four inches of rain was tempered to something between a half-inch and an inch.
But what’s left of Helene, as it spreads out over this part of the country, is in charge of our weather ’til tomorrow morning.
I haven’t made much progress in the cabin this week. Truth is, I worked in those 100-degree temps far too long last Saturday, and my system took a much harder hit than I thought — and I mean heatstroke, probably as serious as it can be without requiring treatment.
Hydrating is the only thing that kept me out of the hospital. And I probably came close anyway.
My stamina is returning, but it annoys the hell outta me that it hasn’t yet come all the way back. Being stuck in recovery mode, however, is penance for pushing past my limits.
Still, every morning I plow through my chores. When I’m done, I duck into the cabin and catch up on small stuff — necessary but low-effort things like setting up propane heat, fetching and cleaning a set of used fireplace tools, and a hundred other things I haven’t talked about here.
Tomorrow, Deb and I intend to head east for a gathering of off-gridders and homesteaders. I’m looking forward to that. Kind of my coming-back-out party.
I ‘ve gotten into the habit of reserving time every day to do something totally (or arguably) unnecessary. Taking a walk in the woods. Building a morning fire at White Rock. Running the buggy up-top. A long-overdue visit with a neighbor.
Sometimes, it’s spending extra time on this blog.
This morning, I opened a tote holding some of the fixed-blade knives I brought back from Ohio. Right on top was a knife I bought at Smoky Mountain Knife Works in Sevierville, Tennessee, when we visited in March of ’21.
It’s an Alala by Spartan Blades. I was attracted to it because (to me) it looks cool, and because it was the first relatively affordable Spartan I’d ever handled. (Street price these days appears to be around $120.)
The Alala is a tacticool design that wants to be a handy woodcraft knife, a little under eight inches long overall. Its powder-coated drop-point blade measures 3-3/4 inches long and 3/16 inch thick. The steel is 1095 Cro-Van from Germany, and the handle slabs are rough green Micarta.
When I brought it back to the motorhome that day and took it out of the box, one of the first things I noticed was that the edge was just awful. It wouldn’t even cut paper. That’s a fixable problem, of course, but nonetheless disappointing.
Back it went into the box. A year later, the box went into storage. It was another two years before the Alala was in my hands again.
I’ve never carried the thing and I’ve never used it, because I never dealt with that shitty edge — until this morning.
What it really needs is an honest-to-goodness reprofiling. I wasn’t about to get into that today, so I used my go-to maintenance tools — crock stick, leather belt, pants leg — and did the best I could.
It damn well cuts paper now. It’ll shave hair off the back of my arm. Fifteen minutes well spent.
The made-in-USA Alala is one of the knives I mean to keep and use. Now I can. I believe it’ll enter my carry rotation this fall.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB