Lifestyle Blogs (2,470)

Yes, you! I'm serious. Tired of looking?Tired of making others think you live a perfect life? Why create such a bubble in the first place? Do me a favor, delete your account. Accept your fate and get back to what you are used to. Quitters have no place among those who are looking. Browsing profiles inactive for two or more years is enough of distraction.

What do you know, a single guy having a great day on Valentines day

I don't know if it was the sunshine, I don't know if it was the pets, I don't know if it was the espresso's, I don't know if it was the pot, I just know I had a great day

Again there is Valentine, passing in my life without love and has been same since 10 yrs.. tired of falling in love alone, tired of getting hurt, tired of waiting for love, tired of living alone,...just for once I want someone to be afraid of losing me!....anyway I'm happy for the people who are realy lucky with love...Wish you all a very very happy Valentine's Day!

I guess tomorrow is the big bad Valentines we all been hearing so much about. Maybe I'm just bitter but if you need a holiday to show someone you love them, your a a**hole and don't deserve to be with anyone. Just my opinion.

It has been awhile since I blogged. No big changes in my social life. No earh shattering news pertaining to me.

I am pleased that the new, privately funded, heavy lift rocket went up successfully the other day. I am amused the CEO of the company donated his personal car (a Tesla Roadster) to the experiment. Right now the rocket is orbiting Earth. Some time in April before May the rocket will fire an engine and begin a trajectory that will place it in a very wide orbit around Mars. The CEO speculates the rocket and his car will, if not someday retrieved or in a collision with something, orbit for the next billion years. .

I am unsure of the appropriate law on this. Space law is supposedly based on admiralty law, but every day new wrinkles, such as an unattended car in space ,emerge. My question is, by launching his car into space, has the man effectively abandoned it? Or does the fact it sits garaged in a space ship give it the legal protection of sitting in a garage? Is the rocket itself effectively abandoned, or do ownership rights still apply off the Earth? What about a decade from now. a century? If 400 years from now your grand kids encounter the rocket while joy riding in their own space ship, board the uninhabited ship and take the car, is that stealing, or is that just salvage? How long does a rocket (or a new car) have to be up there before 'salvage rights' law applies?

About a month ago I bought a Forney 140 MP 3-in-one welding machine. It does Mig, Tig and stick. It is small and runs on house current, so 1/4" thickness is pushing the performance envelope, but I have done that with it. I haven't had the chance to try the Tig function yet but as soon as a new nozzle arrives I will. I got a few small tanks of C25 gas (a CO2 and Argon mixture) but am thinking of also getting some pure Argon to expand the capabilities of the machine.

My big news this week is that I finally gave in and purchased a power feed for my Sieg X2 mini mill (video below). I have been using the mill to whittle out a new fore stock for an old (ancient - 1875 manufacture) Martini Henry carbine and an enormous amount of turning the mill's hand wheel to move the slide back and forth as the stock took shape was required. After a few hours of that I was online looking for a better way. It turns out a company called Little Machine Shop has just recently introduced a power feed for the X axis slide of the X2. I got it installed and it works perfectly. Best of all it can move the slide a lot faster than my manually turning the wheel can, which translates into increased productivity.



<For those who know about mills and DROs, yes, they now make a DRO add on kit for the X2 too and I am looking at that, but it isn't cheap ($$$), so I may have to wait.>

Beyond that, nothing much new with me.

Their is one thing for sure ,in life we all die ,,if we are lucky we go though being old ,,what we like to call wise,,but no one wants to hear your wisdom, ,because it is not relavent in todays world ,,how many things did your grandmother do ,that you still do ,,for me not a thing ,,oh i might bake now and again ,,times change , ,and so do we ,,so your wisdom becomes history of i remember when ,,,

Watch live as a super moon, blue moon, and lunar eclipse happen together for the first time in 152 years. There are a lot of information regarding this. Please check this out into various sources why it is important and how it effects and affects somebody status of their lives.

The society of today's world seems to be a mess, mother's cry while the father's living a stressful life. It is disgraceful as children mock you to your face every day, the news and the newspapers show that crime and rape is sky high while unlawful laboratories manufacture all types of drugs and it's not to find it including sex and prostituting and it looks and seems that the world has gone blind for what the people fail to see, is messing up societies, as Dad's is no longer head of their homes , and kids sits and chat by phones what once to all has been a home, is looking like a war zone, no longer do you find that kids are playing in the parks, for it's become a hideout place for drug selling and gangsterism during day and night times. What once was right now seems so wrong, no more joy and happiness as what this all was meant to be lies buried in the cemetery and by telling these things, my aim is not to make anyone angry or mad it's just to tell the real honest truth, which soon will let parents realize to have a better mindset of this awful chaos of this world of hurt, despair, and lots of pain with hate along with treachery all done for selfish gain....There is one thing I know of and sincerely believe with all my heart when I do pray to "Almighty God" that "GOD" will make a definite way to our world and societies to become a better place for all humanity......

With the current drought in the Western Cape we only have water until April 12, 2018. Water restrictions are in force and we may not water our gardens. We use bath water to flush our toilets and dishwater to water the plants.

I have a tiny enclosed backyard (±24 squared meters) as part of my one-bedroom dwelling and the lawn has given notice and departed for greener pastures a long time ago. Only the sand remained. I wish I had the savvy to take a pic of how it looked before.

I decided to make a plan about this arid semi desert landscape that I called a back yard. The best quote for artificial lawn came to R 9,000. After checking the prices I found that this artificial lawn will cost me much cheaper if I do it myself. There is no ways that I’m going to pay a half-witted idiot R 3,000 for a few hours work. More than half the people in this country does not earn that in a month.

I showed the quotes to my sister and asked her, seen that it is her property, if she would carry half the expense but she said that she cannot bothered with lawn in my backyard and if I wanted lawn there, it was my baby. I said ok, in which case I’ll roll it up and take it with me when I decide to move away.

I tackled the job on Saturday. Four and a half hours and R 6,000 later, I had the most beautiful lawn in Cape Town. And I'd never have to water it again.


I spent a few Rand extra on a few other things. Even the flowers are artificial.


From the other side it looks like this. My sister liked it so much that she reimbursed me with half the amount on the quote on the spot and she wants me to do a piece of her yard as well. Well, at least I’ll know how to quote for the job. She and her husband went out on Sunday and I had to make my own Sunday lunch. I invited BeaPatient to come over for the day and she did the salads. See! My fire is going.


Look at her trying to hide in the only piece of shade around.


And I had to suffer in the sun in front of a sizzling-hot fire to get the meat done. I think next time I’ll make the salads and let her stand in the sun.


Now, have a whale of a week, will ya!

Machining a new wood forend for an 1877 Martini Henry Mk II artillery carbine to replace a rotted forend on an MH carbine from the Royal Arsenal of Nepal is how I spend my time today.



The Martini Henry was the British military rifle for much of the 19th century until replaced by the Lee rifle. MH Mks, I through IV used a black powder cartridge called the .577-450. These guns saw service anyplace there were British soldiers. The Kingdom of Nepal had a brief skirmish with the British East Indies Company. In the truce and peace talks that followed England agreed to arm the Army of Nepal with British weapons. This they did, with every old weapon they had laying around. Brown Bess flintlocks, halbreds, swords, Snider rifles, even matchlocks. Then as new versions of the Martini Henry were developed the older ones were pulled from service and sent to Nepal. Gardner and Gatling guns followed as did older bronze artillery pieces. Anything old weapon, regardless of condition, went to Nepal. This continued until the early 1900s when King George visited his ally and counterpart and was horrified to learn they had not yet received any new Lee rifles or machine guns. He ordered they be sent to them and that Nepal should get all of the new weapons of the English army. So Nepal's army was soon modernized in time for WWI. Gurkha troops were supplied to England and their performance on the battlefield became legendary. Nepal was then armed again with more modern weapons for WWII. The US supplied weapons too. After WWII and the English pullback from India Nepal found other additional sources of modern weapons.

The Kingdom of Nepal was a very frugal nation and they felt just because they had a newer gun, cannon or sword, that was no reason to melt down the old ones. So they had this old 17th century palace no one used anymore after a newer palace was built. In the 1880s a decision was made that all of the old weapons should be stored in the old palace and old stables and the property re designated as the Royal Arsenal. As new weapons and ammunition came in from the British the older weapons were rotated out, dipped in melted Yak grease to preserve them, then lain on the floor somewhere in the old palace. The facility was guarded, but not really maintained by Western standards. The roof began to leak, but no one repaired the leaks. The windows were without glass. In some cases boards were placed to keep out rain, but not at every window and as shutters damaged over the century, they weren't replaced. There was no effort made to segregate or even index what was stored. A pile of Brown Bess rifles may be found to have a Napoleon 12 pounder cannon at it's core while another pile of rifles was found be stacked over some Vickers Machine guns mixed with swords covering 200 years of issue. Matchlock rifles under chain mail shirts and 15th century helmets next to Gatling guns. Sometime after WW2 the palace and stable grounds were full, and although guarded the facility became forgotten and mostly ignored.

The entire Royal family of Nepal was assassinated in 2002 and their Prime Minister then seized the throne. This then plunged the country into a nasty multi sided civil war of several years duration (mostly utterly ignored by American media) before India and China jointly invaded from opposite sides and together forced a cease fire and peace. During a break in the fighting an American antique company owner happened to be visiting Nepal and heard of an old palace full of military antiques. He made a sight unseen monetary offer to purchase all the old weapons to whoever was ruling the capital that month and the offer was accepted.

Then began the problem of getting the things out of Nepal and back to the United States.