This is a story of hunting in winter, of cold, of living off the land. This is called The Knife.
Up north in the arctic circle, there is a group of people who have been living there many years. We know them as Eskimos. Now these Eskimos have been there so long, and have adapted to their environment so well, that 20 degrees Fahrenheit feels hot enough to wear a T-Shirt. Their eyes can see 32 different shades of white. When I look at fresh snow, I see pure snow. They, on the other hand, can look at a snow bank and say "That snow over there has fresh water below it, that over there has salt water flowing beneath it. Over there is snow hard enough to be ice, whereas over there is a death trap of soft snow and long drops." In other words, they are masters of the environment.
Our story takes place in a small village, the days are becoming longer, the air is getting warmer, and many of the young boys are getting restless with anticipation for what is to come. One day the elder, the oldest and wisest of the people, gets up, and takes out The Knife. "shnnnk,, shnnnnk, shnnnk." the sound emanates as the elder sharpens the knife. The young boys are really excited now, for now they know the hunt is soon to begin. The elder does this for hours, at a time, not eating or drinking, only sharpening the knife across the stone, until, at long last, the knife is sharp enough to break skin if you touched it to firmly.
Finally after several hours, the knife is ready, and sharp. The Elder calls 5 of the best youth from the tribe to himself. These are young men, around 20 or 25 who know and honor the traditions, who know when to speak and when to hold back, and who he trusts to follow his orders without question. It is now around 3 in the afternoon, and he sends them on a hunt, but neither he, nor the knife, go with them.
They hike miles out to the section of ice where water flows beneath. 4 of them wear very visible black, the fifth wears a very bland white. Two of the ones in black stand very close and visible to a hole in the ice where the seals must come to breath. Further along, another two take up position at a second hole, again very visible. At the the third hole, the one in white waits alone, with a single spear. A seal swims just below the ice, and notices the two men by his air hole, this is no mater, because he can still swim on to the next. At the next one, he again sees two men, so he swims on. By this next hole, he is almost out of oxygen, and must come up for air.
The man in white waits patiently as the seal comes up and looks around. He does not immediately strike, for he knows he must wait. The seal looks about, and then submerges before launching himself almost totally out of the hole. At this point, the man strikes. His thrust is deliberate and well aimed, and with it, he unleashes his full strength and skill. He is careful though, to kill the animal, and yet not let it bleed. The blood must stay inside for now.
The other men gather around, and without a word being said, they head back to the village, carrying the seal and 2 buckets of water back with them. This was not the hunt. This was the preparation.
Once at the village, they set to work. The seal is allowed to bleed into a bucket, and The Knife is dipped into the blood. The knife is dipped, and withdrawn. When it is withdrawn, the blood freezes, and The Knife is dipped again. This goes on for about 2 hours, with each new dipping, a new layer of blood freezes onto the knife. The buckets of water are kept just above freezing, with just a thin layer of ice at the top.
Finally at about midnight, the elder gathers his men together and they set out, with The Knife and the two buckets of water. They hike through the snow, walking softly so as not to alert their prey. They are totally attuned to their environment. A hightened sense of things grips them. They feel the wind, blowing towards them, they see the fresh snow, solid and without tracks in it. Now there is a snow bank about 100yd's from a thicket of trees. The elder leaves the men and walks to the snow bank alone, being careful not make a sound, nor leave a footprint. He walks to the top of the bank, more of a mound, and places the knife in the snow, being careful to leave the blade pointing vertical.
Without a word, the men carrying the buckets walk to the knife and begin poring the water around the knife in a steadily growing circle. As they poor, the circle of ice grows bigger, and bigger, and the edges grow farther and farther from The Knife. After the the buckets are emptied, the elder silently gathers his men together and says, "The hunt is complete." The men walk back to their village, not a word is uttered, but you can sense it in the air. Each one is excited. It is now about 4 in the morning and the men must get the few hours of sleep they can before the next day.
Back in those trees, a wolf slowly raises his head. He sniffs the air. There is a sent, a scent that he has been waiting for for sometime. It is the scent of blood. The pack has been hungry the past few months, and now, the scent of a wounded seal brings hope. Each member of the back sniffs, and waits. They wait for the alpha male to sense it, and when he does, they rise and go out. As they approach, each of the wolves are getting hungrier, and hungrier. But as they draw near, a new scent comes to the nostrils of the alpha male. It is the scent of man.
The alpha male holds back, fearing a trap, yet the younger ones continue on. They normally do not get as big a portion as the alpha male, and therefore, rush ahead to get what they can. The first one get's there and begins liking, and then a second and a third, then a forth. The location of the knife is set up so only four may lick the blood at a time. Have you ever licked a popsicle that was so cold, that afterwards your tongue went numb? That is what happens here. The wolf licks and licks until finally the blood is gone, and all that is left is the razor sharp edge, and when he licks this, he cuts his tongue. His tongue is numb, so he doesn't notice this, and continues to drink his own blood until, from lack of blood, he collapses. Ah, but then, a new wolf takes his place, and now there is fresh warm blood on the knife. And he continues licking until, likewise, he collapses, and another- well, you get the idea.
At 7 that morning, the village wakes up. Everyone is moving hurriedly, the dogs are barking and wagging their tails in anticipation. Everyone is excited to see what the hunt has brought in the last night. The men of the village hook up their dog teams, and away they go. They recover the kills and bring them back to the village. Nothing goes to waste. The meat feeds the people, the bones are ground down to a powder that is mixed with milk, the fur is used to make cloths for the elderly and young children that need them. What they cannot eat, they give to the dogs. Not one piece goes to waste.
Showing posts with label cool. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cool. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Lessons from my father
A friend of mine posted this to facebook:
The series is called Lessons From My Father, and from what I have seen, it is very good.
I'd like to talk specifically about the scenario in the video where a town lost electricity. The majority of society collapsed. From just losing electricity! You see, this sort of shocked me, I'm ashamed to say. I grew up thinking what most people consider "tough," was normal. My friends and I always had the same mindset growing up. If we wanted something we got it, by building, earning, whatever. We never thought it would be given to us, and most of the time we'd get it after a great deal of working for it. Unfortunately, the rest of society is not that way.
During the aftermath of Katrina, something that's always stuck with me in my mind was a video clip of a single mom getting interviewed. She had lost her home, and belongings, and was sitting on a curb. The interviewer asked what she was going to do next, and what she said shocked me. "I'm just going to sit here till someone comes to take care of me." All I could think was what a horrible mindset.
Thinking about myself, I have a very "If it's to be, it's up to me." mindset. That's one of my sins sometimes, because I find it hard to trust that God will take care of me, and instead turn inward. However, it is most certainly a gift from God as well, because it instills a Get-R-Done, and I will survive attitude in me. That attitude has most certainly helped get me through some difficult times in life, and as long as I realize, that it comes from God, and not from me, I am blessed with success.
My dad always told me, "Don't sweat the small stuff." Funny how dad's have those words of wisdom that stick with ya for years after. I believe I've learned a lot from my dad. As a kid he did a lot of hiking, growing up as a missionary kid in the Philippines and Napal. By the time he had me and my siblings as kids, he had developed a dislike for camping. Sleeping on the ground, hiking through the woods, just wasn't his thing. He did, however, let us go camping with our friends, and my sister and I readily did that. Most wouldn't call my dad "tough." He's a computer programmer, wears glasses, etc. However, he was the one that instilled the mindset of a sheepdog within me, we trained side by side in martial arts, he taught me from a young age about God, he taught me to shoot, all that good stuff. His mindset is one of a survivor and a sheepdog.
I hope my readers will check out the other videos in the series, and teach others how to be sheepdogs.
Till next time, God bless!
The series is called Lessons From My Father, and from what I have seen, it is very good.
I'd like to talk specifically about the scenario in the video where a town lost electricity. The majority of society collapsed. From just losing electricity! You see, this sort of shocked me, I'm ashamed to say. I grew up thinking what most people consider "tough," was normal. My friends and I always had the same mindset growing up. If we wanted something we got it, by building, earning, whatever. We never thought it would be given to us, and most of the time we'd get it after a great deal of working for it. Unfortunately, the rest of society is not that way.
During the aftermath of Katrina, something that's always stuck with me in my mind was a video clip of a single mom getting interviewed. She had lost her home, and belongings, and was sitting on a curb. The interviewer asked what she was going to do next, and what she said shocked me. "I'm just going to sit here till someone comes to take care of me." All I could think was what a horrible mindset.
Thinking about myself, I have a very "If it's to be, it's up to me." mindset. That's one of my sins sometimes, because I find it hard to trust that God will take care of me, and instead turn inward. However, it is most certainly a gift from God as well, because it instills a Get-R-Done, and I will survive attitude in me. That attitude has most certainly helped get me through some difficult times in life, and as long as I realize, that it comes from God, and not from me, I am blessed with success.
My dad always told me, "Don't sweat the small stuff." Funny how dad's have those words of wisdom that stick with ya for years after. I believe I've learned a lot from my dad. As a kid he did a lot of hiking, growing up as a missionary kid in the Philippines and Napal. By the time he had me and my siblings as kids, he had developed a dislike for camping. Sleeping on the ground, hiking through the woods, just wasn't his thing. He did, however, let us go camping with our friends, and my sister and I readily did that. Most wouldn't call my dad "tough." He's a computer programmer, wears glasses, etc. However, he was the one that instilled the mindset of a sheepdog within me, we trained side by side in martial arts, he taught me from a young age about God, he taught me to shoot, all that good stuff. His mindset is one of a survivor and a sheepdog.
I hope my readers will check out the other videos in the series, and teach others how to be sheepdogs.
Till next time, God bless!
Monday, March 22, 2010
A government big enough to give you everything you want...
...Is big enough to take away everything you have.
The history of the world and its nations seems to repeat itself. Each great nation seemed to follow this cycle:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence
From dependence back into bondage.
This cycle takes, on average, 200 years to complete. You can see most of it has been completed in America. The founding fathers had great spiritual faith, and that was why they came to America, to avoid persecution. They gained great courage in the belief that they should be free from england. That courage then lead to fighting a war, and ultimately, liberty. That liberty lead to an abundance, by God's good grace. But with abundance, came a lack of remembrance of where the country had come out of. That lead to complacency with certain freedoms being taken away to please a certain group of people. The allowance of this, lead to apathy towards encroachment on more rights. Finally we get to where we are.
I believe we are between apathy and dependence stages. This health care bill will make us totally dependent on the government, and it is just a short skip and a hop back into bondage. Currently, I see it taking no longer than 10 years.
It doesnt have to be that way though. We can have a spiritual awakening in this country. We can create great courage. We can make a move for liberty. Our for fathers fought with arms. I believe this situation calls for a fight with votes. All those who voted for the bill must go, that is certain, no grey area there. The tricky part will be voting people in that will completely repeal the bill. There is no half way here, it must be totally removed. We do not have much time, every year brings us closer to a dictatorship.
Every year, government grows bigger. At the end, there will be no options to vote for, and then the only thing left to do would be to fight with arms. On that day, however, I believe we will find no arms to fight with, and no where to stand. The 2nd Amendment was put into the constitution to keep the government in check. Therefore, if the government wants to totally put us into bondage, they will have to remove the arms. This will not come all at once, that, I hope, would be impossible. No, they will take it away, little by little, bill by bill, "common sense" law by "common sense" law; until there is nothing left.
Remember, ignore your rights, and they will go away. Fight every bill that will remove yours or someone else's right in even the smallest way possible. Even if you don't agree with the 2nd Amendment, it is there to protect the others. Remove it, and the others will disappear, guaranteed.
We live in dark times, my friends. Keep your ears up, and your eyes alert.
~Sheepdog
The history of the world and its nations seems to repeat itself. Each great nation seemed to follow this cycle:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence
From dependence back into bondage.
This cycle takes, on average, 200 years to complete. You can see most of it has been completed in America. The founding fathers had great spiritual faith, and that was why they came to America, to avoid persecution. They gained great courage in the belief that they should be free from england. That courage then lead to fighting a war, and ultimately, liberty. That liberty lead to an abundance, by God's good grace. But with abundance, came a lack of remembrance of where the country had come out of. That lead to complacency with certain freedoms being taken away to please a certain group of people. The allowance of this, lead to apathy towards encroachment on more rights. Finally we get to where we are.
I believe we are between apathy and dependence stages. This health care bill will make us totally dependent on the government, and it is just a short skip and a hop back into bondage. Currently, I see it taking no longer than 10 years.
It doesnt have to be that way though. We can have a spiritual awakening in this country. We can create great courage. We can make a move for liberty. Our for fathers fought with arms. I believe this situation calls for a fight with votes. All those who voted for the bill must go, that is certain, no grey area there. The tricky part will be voting people in that will completely repeal the bill. There is no half way here, it must be totally removed. We do not have much time, every year brings us closer to a dictatorship.
Every year, government grows bigger. At the end, there will be no options to vote for, and then the only thing left to do would be to fight with arms. On that day, however, I believe we will find no arms to fight with, and no where to stand. The 2nd Amendment was put into the constitution to keep the government in check. Therefore, if the government wants to totally put us into bondage, they will have to remove the arms. This will not come all at once, that, I hope, would be impossible. No, they will take it away, little by little, bill by bill, "common sense" law by "common sense" law; until there is nothing left.
Remember, ignore your rights, and they will go away. Fight every bill that will remove yours or someone else's right in even the smallest way possible. Even if you don't agree with the 2nd Amendment, it is there to protect the others. Remove it, and the others will disappear, guaranteed.
We live in dark times, my friends. Keep your ears up, and your eyes alert.
~Sheepdog
Friday, March 19, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
Reflexes
Amazing little things aren't they?
From Scientific America comes this:
From Scientific America comes this:
I know this to be true from martial arts. Your defensive reflexes are far faster. It is much easier to defend than to score a hit, the only problem is that at some point you must go offensive because eventually the opponent will get past your guard. That is why it will never work to only train with blocks as some have told me. Some say that we should just block and not try and hurt the aggressor because we then become the same if not worse. Well, you can't block forever and you have to get away some how. Normally you must disable the aggressor first. Train like its the real thing, and make sure you can Get-R-Done quickly.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
To save a life
So me and my family went and saw To Save a Life today. It was very good, and very earth shattering. It opened my eyes and I'm sure many others to how great our God is; and this barely scratched the surface. It was very humbling, and I am extremely happy to have seen it. I recommend it to everyone. Everyone needs to see this.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Mistakes
Mistakes, everyones made them. Anyone who's tried has failed at one point or the other. Anyone with experience has made mistakes. When you make a mistake you learn. When you learn, you gain experience. When you gain experience, you don't make the same mistakes. Even the most experienced, hardened, time worn person will make mistakes. Humans fail. It's our nature. Part of the fall.
The trick is not to stop making mistakes, but to gain experience from those mistakes. A young child might touch a hot oven once or twice, but they will learn to not do it anymore. That's experience. They realized somewhere they made a mistake, realized what the mistake was, and determined how to do better.
Anyone who succeeded failed to get there. The ones that don't make it are the ones that didn't try, or gave up when they failed. I'm not saying that if you just try you'll succeed. That's an unrealistic view, but I am saying this: If you give up or don't try, you will not succeed.
Learn from yours and other peoples mistakes, trust me, life will be a lot easier.
~Sheepdog
The trick is not to stop making mistakes, but to gain experience from those mistakes. A young child might touch a hot oven once or twice, but they will learn to not do it anymore. That's experience. They realized somewhere they made a mistake, realized what the mistake was, and determined how to do better.
Anyone who succeeded failed to get there. The ones that don't make it are the ones that didn't try, or gave up when they failed. I'm not saying that if you just try you'll succeed. That's an unrealistic view, but I am saying this: If you give up or don't try, you will not succeed.
Learn from yours and other peoples mistakes, trust me, life will be a lot easier.
~Sheepdog
Friday, January 8, 2010
Self Defense Training
Brigid has an excellent post on it.
I suggest everyone reads this, but highly recommend it for females. The threat is real, your choice is to acknowledge it and train or ignore it and become a victim. I suggest when you train to take a mixture of martial arts. Train for medium range (kicks, punches), close range (throws, holds), and ground fighting (submissions, locks, grappling).
Some martial arts for these are Krav Maga (Israeli combat arts), and Systema (Russian combat arts). The karate school I train at teaches Karate, Judo, and Grappling all for the same enrollment price. This gives you all 3 ranges of fighting listed above. Karate (medium range with weapons and open hand), Judo (close range holds and throws), and Grappling (submissions, locks, etc.)
Look around your town and see whats available, however, be wary of karate and ancient martial arts like it. Nowadays, they focus more on looking good and disciplined and not enough on actual fighting. Gather intel, talk to the students and the sensei. If it seems to good to be true, it probably is. Make sure you are being trained with the skills you will need to defend yourself.
Read Brigid's post, stay safe, God bless.
~Sheepdog
I suggest everyone reads this, but highly recommend it for females. The threat is real, your choice is to acknowledge it and train or ignore it and become a victim. I suggest when you train to take a mixture of martial arts. Train for medium range (kicks, punches), close range (throws, holds), and ground fighting (submissions, locks, grappling).
Some martial arts for these are Krav Maga (Israeli combat arts), and Systema (Russian combat arts). The karate school I train at teaches Karate, Judo, and Grappling all for the same enrollment price. This gives you all 3 ranges of fighting listed above. Karate (medium range with weapons and open hand), Judo (close range holds and throws), and Grappling (submissions, locks, etc.)
Look around your town and see whats available, however, be wary of karate and ancient martial arts like it. Nowadays, they focus more on looking good and disciplined and not enough on actual fighting. Gather intel, talk to the students and the sensei. If it seems to good to be true, it probably is. Make sure you are being trained with the skills you will need to defend yourself.
Read Brigid's post, stay safe, God bless.
~Sheepdog
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
RSS feed
To my devoted readers:
Thanks for reading my blog. I never thought that this many people would be that interested in it. To make it simpler to see posts, I have added an RSS feed over on the left side bar. Its just above the blog archive. Subscribe if you like, ignore if you don't. This is just an easier way to view posts.
~Sheepdog
Monday, December 28, 2009
Side bar update
If you'll look to your left, you'll see I have added the terror threat level, and NRA ILA news. Not getting paid for it, just thought ya'll would find that interesting. It's important to know whats going on around us.
Friday, November 27, 2009
sigh
http://www.amazon.com/Smith-Wesson-CK32C-Extreme-Karambit/dp/B000UUR6HU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1259347434&sr=8-1
So pretty.
The hawk bill blades are very good for self defense. it allows a natural cutting motion, and uses the same shape God gave animals for clawing. The hole at the back provides better grip, and extended striking distance if use correctly. Takes some getting used to, but is over all an excellent design.
So pretty.
The hawk bill blades are very good for self defense. it allows a natural cutting motion, and uses the same shape God gave animals for clawing. The hole at the back provides better grip, and extended striking distance if use correctly. Takes some getting used to, but is over all an excellent design.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Happy thanksgiving
Happy thanksgiving everyone. Hope you all have fun and stay safe.
If thanksgiving offends you, oh well. I aint changing it.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Your funny of the day
Found this on Cold Steel:
Are You a Republican, Democrat, or Southerner?
The answer can be found by answering the following question:
The answer can be found by answering the following question:
You're walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children.
Suddenly, an Islamic Terrorist with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, praises Allah, raises the knife, and charges at you. You are carrying a Glock .40 caliber, and you are an expert shot. You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family.
What do you do?
Democrat's Answer:
Well, that's not enough information to answer the question!
Does the man look poor or oppressed?
Have I ever done anything to him that would inspire him to attack?
Could we run away?
What does my wife think?
What about the kids?
Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand?
What does the law say about this situation?
Does the Glock have appropriate safety built into it?
Why am I carrying a loaded gun anyway, and what kind of message does this send to society and to my children?
Is it possible he'd be happy with just killing me?
Does he definitely want to kill me, or would he be content just to wound me?
If I were to grab his knees and hold on, could my family get away while he was stabbing me?
Should I call 9-1-1?
Why is this street so deserted?
We need to raise taxes, have paint and weed day and make this happier, healthier street that would discourage such behavior.
This is all so confusing! I need to debate this with some friends for a few days and try to come to a consensus.
Republican's Answer:
BANG!
Southerner's Answer:
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Click..... (Sounds of reloading)
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
BANG! Click "Damn! I'm out!"
Daughter: "Nice pattern Daddy! Were those the Silver Tips, black talons, or them new Hollow Points?"
Son: "Can I shoot the next one Daddy?"
Wife: "You ain't takin' THAT to no Taxidermist!"
'Oorah.
The Marine corps was formed on 10NOV1775. Since then they have faithfully served there country, and lived up to their modo of smeper fi. Now as tomorrow is their birthday, show your support by taking one out to lunch. Here are some pointers:
1. Do not make any sudden moves.
2. Do not make any loud noises.
3. Do not stare intently into the distance beyond the marine.
4. Remove all sharp objects from the table, this includes forks, steak knives, butter knives, butter, spoons, plates, cups, table.
5. Do not bare your teeth or bug your eyes out at him or her.
6. Do not have containers of broken glass and 10 penny nails. These are considered pre dinner snacks.
7. Make sure the meat is well done. Raw meat makes them aggressive.
8. Do not get meat juice on your arms for obvious reasons.
9. Make sure the Marine has had his or her tetanus shots or rabies shots if you did get meat juice on your arms.
10. Vegetables are what his food eats. Remember that.
11. Do not allow them around any pet birds. They treat birds like people treat chocolate bunnies during Easter.
12. Ladies, dump the Channel #5. If you really want his attention, apply some Outers gun cleaner behind the ears and a little gun oil on the wrists. If he is a redneck type, new tennis shoes (right out of the box) or gasoline (lead free) can do the trick. If a city boy, the smell of the inside of ping pong balls will work too.
13. Dogs are safe around Marines.
14. Children and loaded weapons are safe around Marines.
15. Do not let a Marine see an unattended loaded weapon around a child. You will get into trouble.
16. In all seriousness though, thank your Marine and all other soldiers and sailors for their sacrifice that allows you the freedom to do what you are doing right now.
17. Now get off of the computer and do something useful.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!
I've been reading up on Google Wave for some time, and am very impressed so far. I have sent in an application to use google wave since it is by invite only. Reading the wiki article on it, it appears wave is named after the 2002 series, Firefly. Being a Firefly nut, this only added to my liking of google. Check out the wiki article, and maybe sign up if your interested. While your at it, check out Firefly on hulu. And if you like it, watch the motion picture that wraps up Firefly. Its called Serenity.
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