Thursday, February 11, 2010

I am sorry!

Didn't mean to take so long, became caught up in the holidays and work and everything else in life and neglected this blog. Writing is a discipline and it's hard to be disciplined about something that doesn't pay the bills and you have to be disciplined about that!

I'm recovering now after two back-to-back blizzards.

Become a "follower" of the blog - even though I am not the biggest fan of the term "follower." E-mail, leave comments, this will inevitably motivate me to write more. The best motivator is exchanges and input, at times.

- Don

5 comments:

Sam said...

Whoa, Don, didn't realise you wrote this blog! I really enjoy your postings on Bladeforums.

cpmorgan said...

WRITE! WRITE!

Here is an idea. I have long enjoyed your website. You wrote about your camping as a kid, and your use of tin can alarms. You could write a short article about easily constructed perimeter alarms, and possibly some of the more commonly available one that can be purchased.

Carl

Don said...

Samuel,

What is your user name on Bladeforums? Unfortuntely, THE POWERS THAT BE don't share your opinion! I apparently offend morons who might buy a knife and we can't have that!

Carl,

Those little tin can alarms work! I actually have a couple Radio Shack personal alarms that I was going to modify for just that purpose! The only thing a personal alarm is good for is modified for hotel/motel room security and out in the sticks as a small perimeter alarm.

I appreciate both of you guys being here. 8-)

- Don

cpmorgan said...

Could you elaborate on how you used the tin can alarms. Any tricks outside the norm?



What modifications will you make to the Radio Shack alarms and what model are you using?



This would be an excellent blog post. Be careful assuming that folks know what these things are and how to use them. I have ideas, but would love to see what you are thinking.

I really enjoy your stream of consciousness writing. My mind words, and deals with things in a similar fashion.

One of the things that stands out in your web page writing to me is that parents either were nuts or we were a lot more trustworthy than the kids today. My father bought me a "Ninja" sword when I was ten. I was armed to the teeth and prepared for Red Dawn even then. I must admit I miss those days sometimes.

Don said...

You want to use a very heavy but clear monofilament line, poke two holes through the sides of the can to string the line of them. You use suitably sized pebbles, just a few in each can and you poke a couple holes in the bottom for rainwater to drain out so a rainstorm doesn't rended your Little Rascals Alarm System ineffective. 8-)

Keep the cans where you can hear them and you can extend the trip out a good ways away from your camp.

Radio Shack personal alarms, the older, the better. All of it is disonctinued products, anyway. You want to create a break in the circuit with the battery on one side, neg or pos, doesn't matter. You turn the alarm on and do whatever it was to activate it so it is in the alarmed and sounding position. With that break in the power system you created, that is the break where you attach two wires to it that go to your switch - whatever that might be, clothespin, mousetrap, two bare wires that pull together, etc. The personal alarms I am playing with right now also have a strobe, if you can get them with light, you can have a silent alarm or you can muffle the audible part of the alarm and have it right in your tent, etc.