Sickle Vs. Rabid Bobcat - - Sickle Wins

Grandma calls on druid heritage to drive off a rabid bobcat.

Elsie Dabrowski went out to her chicken coop Sunday night as she does every night around dusk, closed up the coop and bent down to cut weeds with a sickle, said her son, Gene Dabrowski.

The animal lunged at Elsie, bit her left cheek, scratched her throat and bit her back.

“I kept thinking why? Why is it attacking me? It attacked me for no reason. I thought, ‘Why, why,’” said Elsie, a former Marine, on Monday evening.

Elsie beat the cat off her with the sickle, and Gene’s five dogs chased it under a nearby porch. He lives only 300 feet away in a separate house, heard the commotion, rushed to the scene and killed the animal with two blasts of a shotgun.

Music Recommendation: Outlaw Ritual

Found via this article from The Truth About Knives. Bass player Olivia Garriga makes apprentice-quality hand-forged knives. Guitarist/one-man-band Mat Hagar has a street preacher's voice similar to that of William Elliott Whitmore. Together they form Outlaw Ritual, currently based out of Knoxville, TN.

Here's a few videos:







Here's a pic of one of Olivia Garriga's handforged knives, available for sale at the Outlaw Ritual website:

I'd be strongly inclined to buy that knife myself if I had the available funds.

The Carolina Fish Camp

The story of Carolina Fish Camps and their link to Piedmont textile mills. Via Southern Foodways Alliance.

A Case of ANTIsocial Media

Police were called to the scene of an assault after a Facebook argument led to violence on Thursday.

According to reports, the victim and the two suspects had exchanged unpleasant words with one another on Facebook causing the two suspects to become enraged.

According to the victim, the two assailants arrived at her house following the online disagreement, and decided to settle the argument with violence. They knocked on the door of her home, and then began to attack her. One of the victims punched her in the face, dragged her into the apartment, and grabbed her hair while the other helped to hold the woman down.

The victim was eventually able to grab her pepper spray, after which time the suspects fled. The victim sustained injuries to her knee, elbow, lip, and shoulder.

From Rock Hill, SC.

Survival When the River Takes Your Backpack

Story.

To summarize for those who don't wish to click the link, he tried to cross a river, lost his backpack doing so, and had no backup survival plan and was forced to improvise, and would have died had he not come across some road maintenance workers in the nick of time.

He found out - - and, to his credit, acknowledged - - that he should have been carrying survival items on his body, outside of the items in his lost backpack. If he'd had a Mylar Space Blanket in his pocket most of his cold/hypothermia issues would have been minimized.

Here's my own current belt survival kit. It includes a Wenger Swiss Army Knife, a whistle, a button compass, a butane lighter, tweezers, and several firestarters made from Vaseline-impregnated cotton inserted into drinking straws and sealed at the ends with heat. They fit into a traveler's plastic soap box, which itself goes into a leather belt pouch. Stick a Space Blanket into a pocket and you'll be ready for much of what Nature can throw at you.

Opening Line of the Next Great American Novel, Take 2

"One might, if one was a homely North Carolina girl, boast proudly of being from Boogertown."

The Neighborhood At War: Hawks Vs. Crows

Had a bit of avian warfare going on when I stepped outside to take my walk - - on one side, a family of red-shouldered hawks that nest across the street in a tall tree in a neighbor's yard - - on the other side, the neighborhood murder of crows. Hawks sailed over my head into the woods behind my house, pursued by crows. All around me came the sound of outraged hawks and jeering crows. I tried to record some of it with my phone, but was unable to upload the results.

Home Invader

He got in through the back door:

That's a Ringneck Snake, by the way. Poor weatherstripping on the back door of our rental home allowed him to enter.

Revealing the Interior of CSS Hunley

Via Stars and Stripes.

A two-person team outfitted in safety uniforms have been inside the sub since early last year, using stainless steel orthopedic tools and a pneumatic chisel to gently remove the sea’s encrustation that slowly enveloped the sub after it went down on Feb. 17, 1864, said project conservator Johanna Rivera-Diaz of Clemson University.

Their work has turned up many small bones – fingers, wrists and teeth, Rivera-Diaz said.

Most of the bones have been traced to first crewman Arnold Becker, who sat closest to the Hunley’s captain, George Dixon, near the sub’s bow, turning the propeller crank, she said.

“When I find something, I step back and say, ‘Wow,’” Rivera-Diaz said.

The Story of Texas Pete Hot Sauce

Via Our State Magazine.

Two things: It was originally called "Mexican Joe" informally when it was first made, but the name was changed to "Texas Pete" to avoid offending Mexicans. And it's still less a hot sauce than it is an Eastern-style NC BBQ sauce, with just a little more heat than the usual run of Eastern sauces (Eastern NC BBQ sauce is mostly vinegar, with added salt, red pepper, and black pepper). You'll still find it in most NC BBQ restaurants, at least the traditional ones.

Unsung D-Day Hero: Andrew Higgins and His Boats

The man who invented the landing craft that allowed the D-Day invasions, as well as many others.

Even Gun Rights Allies Get Gun Details Wrong

Prager University, which is a website sponsored by conservative commentator/radio host Dennis Prager, features 5-minute videos on a variety of current events topics as well as basics of US history and theory of government that were formerly taught to children in civics classes. They are a great resource for becoming informed beyond the level of total ignorance, which the typical American educated in public schools all too often is. Having said that, Prager University is as likely to mess up important details on certain areas of knowledge as any mainstream media outlet is.

Here is an example from Prager University's latest video, "Build the Wall," hosted by Charles Krauthammer. At one point in the discussion, reference is made to a "silver bullet" that will solve all of the immigration problems in the US, and a graphic of a "bullet" flies accross the screen:

See the error? That's not a bullet, but an entire cartridge - - casing, bullet, and all, displaying for all the world that the artist who made the graphic hasn't a clue about how guns work.

Here's the video so you can watch it yourself:

I Guess It Wasn't An Unemployed Bell-Ringer Looking For Work

"Notre Dame: Man shot by French police after attacking them with hammer."

The Return of Count Spirochete*

"Syphilis cases in England reach highest level since 1949."

*bonus points for getting the reference in the blog post title.

Sounds Like How A Horror Movie Starts

US company to start trials 'reawakening the dead' in Latin America 'in a few months' - and this is how they'll do it."

Zombie Mexicans to pick our lettuce? What can go wrong?

Hemp In North Carolina

Take the place of tobacco some day, maybe?

Video story here.