The snow had been coming down since I left the cabin that morning, the extreme cold was splitting the spruce trees by expanding the trapped sap in the trunks that didn’t make it to the root system before freeze up, it sounds like 30-06 rifles are being fired all around me, that means it is between 50 and 60 below. It usually doesn’t snow when it is that cold, but the far North is a land of extremes and the snow is coming down like crushed styrofoam. There was a fair wind and since the snow wasn’t compacting, it was just blowing and swirling continuously. There was almost zero visibility and the snowmobile is continuously sinking in the deep snow if I go slow and it flows over the windshield and packs all around me so that the machine gains more weight and I can hardly move for all the packed snow around my body. If I go fast enough to stay on top of the snow, I might run into a tree or off a cliff. Making a mistake at these temperatures is a death sentence.
Checking the traps and snares is a forlorn hope now, they are buried under six feet of new snow; the best that I can hope for is to make it to my next cabin and wait until the weather clears to dig out my traps and snares or until a Chinook melts the excess snow. Of course Chinooks are unpredictable, there might be one tomorrow or I might wait until spring. Right now my main concern is survival, my hands and feet are numb from the cold even though I have my beaver fur mitts with wool liners it isn’t enough at these temperatures.
The sun packs it in for the night and I turn on my headlight: it is over, I can’t see anything through the snow with my headlight. I turn off the machine and force my stiff body to stand and step off the snowmobile to sink up to my chest in the bizarre powder-like snow. I work my way back to the sleigh that carries my supplies and gasoline. While I am shivering and with my teeth chattering I try to force my mind to think clearly. Ax, matches, moose roast, whiskey flask, flash light, clean underwear and socks, I wrap everything but my rifle and ax in a tarp and lace it onto my back pack. The tarp will help me if I can’t find the next cabin and I need to burrow into the snow to survive the night. The whiskey is for a last ditch effort for surival, it will warm the body for a little while, but then your body will lose that heat and you will soon die from hypothermia.
I put my snowshoes on and started out in the general direction of my next cabin using dead reckoning. Dead reckoning is sometimes very accurate and sometimes you fail miserably: the thought of sleeping in a snowbank, maybe for the rest of my life doesn’t appeal to me, the cabin with a nice roaring fire and a bunk seems like a tropical vacation at this point.
It’s two or three miles to the cabin and that isn’t easy with snowshoes, but when your snowshoes are sinking in over a foot and you must lift your legs way high to make each step it will seem like twenty miles or more. After a quarter mile or so I am in the unusual position of working so hard my body is steaming with my jacket open, while my hands, feet, and ears are suffering from frostbite. My teeth begin to ache from breathing through my mouth and taking in so much super cooled air, that will be a major problem later on, but right now I must concentrate on finding the cabin.
Severe cold affects the mind like extended periods at high elevation or being submerged for extended periods with oxygen deprivation, you must struggle to retain a firm grasp on reality, death is all around you just waiting for that one error. I had never heard of someone building a snow cave while their body was sweating and their hands and feet were suffering so much from the cold. Finding the cabin seemed more important under these conditions, yet it would be so easy to pass it by and be wandering until I dropped, it was surely nearly completely buried under the snow. It’s possible a guy could walk right over the roof and not even know it was there.
Feeling like I was at the end of the trail, I could make out the tops of poplar and pine trees that indicate a clearing. Through the swirling snow, there is a faint black projection about 20 feet away; I walk over and tap it with the toe of the snowshoe and there is the top of the cabin’s stovepipe. A great sense of relief settles in and I undo my snowshoes so that I sink down to the roof of the cabin. The pitch of the roof and the stovepipe indicate where the front porch is and I quickly walk along the roof until I drop off the front porch roof of the cabin into the deep snow. Using one of the snowshoes as a snow shovel I work against the clock to gain entry in to the cabin. The clock has no friends, so I must work as fast as possible to get inside the cabin, I am fast losing my reserves of strength. Every ‘shovel full’ of snow I throw out of the hole has at least half of it fall back into the hole; needless to say, progress is painfully slow.
Eventually, I open the door enough to throw in my backpack and squeeze through. I stumble to the floor and waited a few minutes in the total darkness to regain some strength before continuing on in the methodical measures to survive.
The bunk looks so inviting, but to stretch out for a quick snooze would probably be a sleep that I would never awaken from. The frozen mittens feel like they are breaking my fingers as I pull them off. The ‘strike anywhere’ matches spill on the floor as the plastic container breaks when I try to open it. I strike a match and lite the oil lantern on the table and I am rewarded with a weak yellow light and the illusion of heat.
I unwrap a good sized birch bark roll and put it in the wood stove, there are kindling pieces, but I need to be sure this fire starts. I use my knife to shave off about twenty splinters of pine six and eight inches long, these are scattered over the birch bark and then I put about 20 pieces of kindling over the splinters. I put some larger split pieces around the perimeter in case I doze off once the fire is started. Again a match is struck with the utmost care using fingers that are nearly frozen.
The birch bark starts up like it had been soaked in gasoline and the rest of the firewood ignites according to plan. Within 20 minutes there is measurable heat in the cabin and I began shedding my frozen clothes. The ice on the cabin walls begins to melt and my clothes hanging neat the wood stove give off enough steam to make it seem like a steam bath. I wedge a piece of firewood in the door opening to allow for ventilation and help melt the snow around the door so that I’ll be able to get at the firewood on the porch later.
The moose roast goes in a dutch oven on the table to thaw, in the mean time there is a bucket of snow melting on the stove and it will make some coffee and oatmeal in a little while. I stripped down and put on clean cotton long johns and clean cotton socks with moose hide moccasins and feel so much more comfortable. Things are going well, except each of my teeth feels like it has been hit with a hammer. I assume they are partially frozen from breathing the super sold air through my mouth so long while traveling with the snowshoes
I rinse my mouth with the whiskey to dull the pain, but I know if I swallow the whiskey on an empty stomach I’ll get sick. I have a bottle of vodka in the cabin and some other ingredients so I decide to Make Frenchy’s Cognac. I don’t know if they actually make cognac like this in France or whether Frenchy was pulling my leg, but it is a pretty good drink in you are snowed in, up near the arctic circle. I mix two cups of vodka with two cans of condensed milk and six teaspoons of instant coffee and two teaspoons of vanilla extract and give it a good squirt from the Lemon extract bottle. (If the condensed milk isn’t sweet, add in a half cup of sugar. Heat and stir until it is ready to boil, let it cool until it is warm and drink until you are warm and relaxed or until you have had about three three shot glasses.
In this story, the main character, (me) is at the the moment of truth or death. We as Conservatives are nearing a moment of truth, no, we aren’t likely to die of hypothermia, our consequences of failure will be much more catastrophic. The lone trapper in the mountains makes a mistake or has some bad luck and he dies, his family and friends grieve and someone else takes over his trapline, in twenty years he is completely forgotten.
We realized we were in serious trouble a year ago, right now that bunk looks so inviting, we could stretch out and let others do the work of sending Washington a message through the voting booth. That is the method that has allowed us to elect incompetents who have no interest except for their own selfish interests and enriching their own bank accounts for now and in perpetuity.
To defeat this syndrome, that we are all partially responsible for, we must vote and let our represenatives know that the old ways will no longer be good enough. We can only do that by being active and letting our leaders know that we aware of what they are doing and that the penalty for not listening will be defeat and expulsion. We need to feed that fire and keep the fire going or watch freedom and our way of life disappear into a morass of Socialism and tyranny.
We have a duty to our children and grandchildren to preserve our freedoms and way of life and not let it be eroded and cheapened by charismatic leaders who promise the world if only you will give them your freedom. We can only maintain our freedoms by being involved, supporting our candidates, and by voting. We can all have a drink or two of Frenchy’s Cognac and stretch out on that nice bunk once we have done our best for our country and the welfare of future Americans.
A professional horseman for over 50 years, Skook continues to work with horses. Skook has finished an historical novel, Fifty Thousand Years, that traces a mitochondrial line of DNA from 50,000 years ago to the present. The story follows a line of courageous women, from the Ice Ages to the present, as they meet the challenges of survival with grit and creativity. These are not women who whimper of being victims, they meet the challenges of survival as women who use their abilities without excuses or remorse, these women are winners, they are our ancestors.
Fifty Thousand Years is available in paperback and e-book, it is getting great reviews. You can purchase a copy here; Visit me on Facebook.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dylantheauthor
* Operation Northern Edge…or Brim Frost…did them in the 80’s
Parachute drops in January at around 400″ GSL…
Spec Ops deal. Good Cold weather Training but damn frosty…
http://www.elmendorf.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet_print.asp?fsID=5380&page=1
No Marines included because they knew better and the Mother ship Navy would not fund
such nonsense.
Sorry that we could partake of breaking of bread, steaks, beverages and shake paws in Calgary.
I have breedstock that need fresh DNA stuff.
Your Clientele have concerns but mine buy the finest beef on the planet from me.
BTW, that little turd of a non-cutting horse that I named Mike was sold a couple of days because he could be kindly broken to saddle.
Take Care Pardner. Us Real American Ruffians must give FA folks something to wonder and marvel about…
Let them figure it out Pardner!
@ Skook,
Enjoyable read.
On “We have a duty to our children and grandchildren to preserve our freedoms and way of life and not let it be eroded and cheapened by charismatic leaders who promise the world if only you will give them your freedom.”
While each generation has such sentiments, it is evident that the term “crisis” has become very applicable to the current state of affairs. The massive debt this Administration is bent on incurring on behalf of millions not yet born is extreme stupidity.
Bernanke, Geithner and Obama evidently don’t care. Obama is an ideologue, while Bernanke and Geithner are less so. Geithner’s loose morals were proven by his tax-cheating, and Bernanke’s incompetence, . . . well, we’re written many articles on his lack of acumen. The big challenge over the next couple of years is that the main stream media is mired in ideology, and it is flowing against common sense, but the MSM also seems to be incapable of understanding the nature of “debt,” and the extent to which government has worked against business.
The MSM doesn’t seem to be embarrassed by its tingly legs, and in a Washington Examiner editorial titled “Obama, Democrats got 88 percent of 2008 contributions by TV network execs, writers, reporters,” Mark Tapscott writes:
“Senior executives, on-air personalities, producers, reporters, editors, writers and other self-identifying employees of ABC, CBS and NBC contributed more than $1 million to Democratic candidates and campaign committees in 2008, according to an analysis by The Examiner of data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
The Democratic total of $1,020,816 was given by 1,160 employees of the three major broadcast television networks, with an average contribution of $880.
By contrast, only 193 of the employees contributed to Republican candidates and campaign committees, for a total of $142,863. The average Republican contribution was $744.”
This makes any independent and untethered presentation of facts by most of the MSM impossible. This partially explains why support for this Administration remains well over 40% while it should be completely in the tank.
Dang, Skookum, your teeth are still chattering just thinking about that extreme cold experience!
I plan on doing my part in November. If all goes well, I just might try that cognac recipe!
Sorry to have missed you OT, I suppose you didn’t make it to Banf or Head Smashed In. They are great places to visit, but there are so many tourists you would think you were in Europe or somewhere. I drove up from Vancouver and I have never seen so many cars and campers on the Coquhala and the 1, lots of foreigners with funny accents; I am glad they are spending their money over here, but they sure have funny habits for driving in the mountains.
Alberta Ranchers are as proud of their beef cattle as you are and they are a good group of people.
The RCMP gave you good advice, it is best not to stab or shoot people except as a last resort, especially in foreign countries, it avoids complications at the very least.
The snow will fly soon enough and we should be able to sit around a fire and have a glass of Irish whiskey before long, especially after securing our objective.
Our main objective is Nov 2, 2010; hopefully, we will win by a landslide and then cull the herd in Washington over time. They need some fresh DNA in Washington, that’s for sure.
JR, taking on debt by the American taxpayer with no benefit is not only stupid it is an acceptance of slavery or working for nothing to enrich someone else. That is slavery at its most basic level. We have not only allowed ourselves to be sold down river, but we have allowed our children and grandchildren to be sold into slavery as well.
Tooth if we all do our duty on election day, we may all raise our glasses to each other!
Check out Frenchy:
Didn’t there used to be many more writers like you, Skookum, or at least many more tales in his vein for boys (and the girls fascinated by them as well)? The associations that come to my mind when I see your by-line are character, realism, stoic determination, and resistance to the current of fools and sleepwalkers.
Fishing or abalone hunting with my dad is the closest I’ll ever come to doing any of the things you do and write about so well. Nonetheless, the “if I ever find myself in that situation” exercise is one I enjoy doing when I read your essays, because I think there’s much to learn in the way of mental focus and emotional centeredness. You know, the things that distinguish grown-ups from the average voter.
Come election day, here in Barbara Lee’s district, just north of Pete Stark’s district, I will likely once again feel like Tom Hanks’ Captain Miller at the end of “Saving Private Ryan,” wounded (probably fatally) but still firing a pistol in the hopes of possibly hitting someone who should be taken out. The things I can do best, without tripping knee-jerk avoidance and “nah nah nah I can’t hear you,” are dropping seeds of doubt and reminding people there are a lot of social liberal/fiscal conservative people about (so you can be one of them too, hint, hint). Little acts of resistance and small demonstrations that no, the groupthink is NOT unanimous, even here.
Oh, and being prepared in the event of stuff ever really hitting the fan.
And, when I see a little flame of enlightenment, fanning it gently so that it grows but I don’t blow it out.
Your essays encourage me to stay strong and focused. That’s why I enjoy reading them, and that’s why I’m glad you’re now “official.”
God bless you, Skookum. Long may you wave. Meanwhile, come election day, I think I’ll watch the national results … and pop some popcorn!
There was an old song by the Who–the lyrics said, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”. Even if the Republicans taks control of the House and the Senate, the politicians are going to be the same–out for their interests and lining their own pockets.
Beth, your vote will be a statement, there is no doubt at this time it is a ‘forlorn hope’, but it will become a vote of reassurance for those who, like yourself, wish to make their feelings known. Much like this blog and many others did for us Conservatives who reached out in the blinding storm to see if there were like minded people who refused to succumb to the lunacy of Socialism. Your vote may only be a flickering light in a dark forest of repression and Socialism, but to someone who is all alone in the dark it is extremely comforting.
It is with the vote that we must hold these incumbent Republicans and new Republicans of the future responsible to us, the Conservatives; in the near future, even a single strong and consistent voter from a Socialist District is making a statement. It is only by voting consistently, by organizing, and becoming involved that we let these representatives know that we are a force to be reckoned with and to deny us is to bring about their own political demise.
There will be many of us watching the results from across the country and amid the victories we must make sure to remember those who chose to make a statement in an area awash in the Sea of Socialism.
Keep the faith Beth, even the Black Wall of Solidarity and Virtual Socialism will show fissures when Blacks realize they are individuals and not components in the mother board of dependency and victim-hood.
wow, another great story
You sir, tell a great tale and one can see that you are one tough nut, but the trapping part in your story makes me sad.
Yes dee, trapping is not pretty or glamorous. I was also a hunting guide, I have mixed feelings about both occupations. However, it is important to be aware of a few facts about the outdoor life.
Historically, trapping the beaver allowed for the western expansion of our country. Those intrepid trappers who searched out the beaver to supply the European hunger for hats opened up trails for those less bold to travel on in the future. They nearly trapped the beaver into extinction, but the trails were opened up for the ranchers and farmers. The beaver is doing extremely well now and without help from trappers, beaver will flood valleys ad run crop land and it is better to trap them than to let them be shot and left to rot. This is life in rural America.
In Canada, the fur market has been prospering for 300 hundred years from coast to coast. The fur species have a have a bizarre habit of eating each other and when an area isn’t trapped the bigger stronger animals often rule the roost and the fur population will show a marked decline. With careful fur harvest and maintenance of a trap line, fur populations tend to increase with a healthier young population. There are species fluctuations that seem to pivot around the rabbit population. When the rabbit population is up many of the other species like Fisher, Martin, and Lynx are also up.
Thus the population in the forests is always in flux. A trapper or professional hunter can function and survive in harsh conditions that would kill most people in a few days, since there are few methods to make a living in the mountains other than logging (extremely dangerous) or oil ad gas exploration (mixed feelings) the out door life will appeal to many individualists like myself.
Personally, I hate to see anything in a cage, animal or human, so farm raised fur from Europe seems cruel to me. I may trap during my retirement on a limited basis and I will always hunt the moose and elk for freezer meat. The Grizzly and I have a personal relationship and so far I have won almost every encounter, although several have outsmarted me and I hope they have provided the seed to produce many more smart grizzlies for the future.
May I suggest reading Castle On The Peace (in my bibliography) to read of a way of life that is disappearing. I would also like to add that the nature portrayals by Disney and most of the documentaries are outright falsehoods. I hope to give more accurate portrayals of wildlife in the future.
MM, thanks for the kind words. Hope to have another one up soon.
@Skook
Another great read, brother. I feel blessed every time I see a new posting by you, as it means another great story.
Today, as I sit here reading your tale, and taking in the reports of Beck’s Rally, I feel like the country has hope left. Hope for turning away from the socialist tendencies that are sinking the country into debt and into a general malaise so deep we might not ever be able to see our way out of. The liberals are still not satisfied, even with the unprecedented spending and ‘changing’ of our way of life. For decades now we have not fought them, as a conservative grouping, but given them an inch here, or an inch there, and now they are in the process of taking the mile.
We need to turn back to the roots of the country. Self-determination. Individuality. Self-preservation. Living life to it’s fullest, on our terms, in our way, and respecting, and/or expecting others to do the same. With no one asking the government when their next handout is coming. With no one asking the government when they can be rescued from their current crisis. Making their own way in life, independent of unasked for, and unneeded “help” from the benevolent government.
It’s well past time that people started voting for the candidates who don’t promise gifts, or threaten taxation. It is time that we elect people to represent our interests in DC. It is time that we elect people who know what it’s like to make their way in life on their own, who don’t see Washington as the be-all, end-all, that determines their life choices. It is time, and this is the most important statement, to elect people who wish to give Americans back not only the authority over their own lives, but the responsibility for them too.
@tadcf
If talking about the entrenched, weak, congressional GOP members who helped enable the progressives, like McCain, or the Maine girls, then you are correct. But just by stating that, you show a deep misunderstanding of the TEA Party, the reason for it’s formation, and what led to it. You believe that it is nothing more than a political arm of the GOP, and nothing I, nor anyone else, will convince you that it’s not.
Well stated JohnG, I used 2,000 words to try and say the same thing that you expressed in a few paragraphs.
The end result of this experiment in Socialism will probably be to make Conservatives awaken to their responsibilites as productive American citizens. Being ruled by the Nare do Wells who promise the dependent classes a share of the American Dream for their votes is a formula for disaster.
We need to arise from our political slumber and complacency and voice our opinions and hold our elected responsible rather than watching them glut themselves at the pig trough.
@ johngalt
Excellent words, Pardner. Key words to getting the Nation back on track, back to the vision of the Founding Fathers and ridding America of the yoke of Socialism, Progressive baloney and the cast of characters in the Parliament of Whores in DC. Accountability in Government is a novel concept these days but it will come in time.
Well said!
@Skook
@Old Trooper
Thanks for the praise. The very simple concept of living one’s life, for oneself, and asking nothing from anyone else in return for doing so, is what is so hard to understand for our liberal and progressive “friends”. When a man(or woman) can be so independent of others, life itself truly becomes gratifying, as Skookum is most assuredly aware of, judging by his adventures that he graces us with.
-Socialists believe government should provide the help. America was founded upon the principle of government protecting the rights of man to help himself.
-Socialists believe we are all in this life together, so we must all share in the pain and hardships of everyone else, and that government is there to ensure it. America was founded upon the principle that life is what you make of it, and government is there only to protect your freedom to pursue the happiness you desire.
-Socialists believe equality means that in life, the results are equal, and that government decides what is equal, and how to make it so. America was founded upon the principle of equality among men meaning the opportunities in life are equal, and government is only there to ensure those opportunities are free for all.
Liberals and progressives, who follow ideals that are plainly socialist in nature, wish to impose that kind of think on everyone, against their will, all in the name of ‘fairness’. I have written of the shackles socialism places on people, binding them to one another, taking away the freedom of opportunity to lead one’s life how they want. The statists(for that is what liberals and progressives truly are) limit those opportunities, to make our lives equal, and in the process they take away those opportunities we might wish to have. And the best part? They claim to do it for the ‘people’. What is more condescending than someone taking away your right at opportunity, and claiming to do it for your own best interest and those around you? I reject that thought process, which is why I reject the current president and his ‘council’ of czars and advisors, and all of his enablers in congress.
Jesus was a socialist…..when the rich man asked him what he should do to enter the kingdom of Heaven, Jesus told him to “give all he has to the poor and follow Me” the rich man walked away very sad. Jesus should have told the poor people to get a job and not offered bailouts from rich people to them don’t you think?
@Moosebuger
Are you back? You’re like a goddam virus.
You stupid bastard, notice that Jesus didn’t demand the government take from those rich to pay those poor, after they took their cut for overhead and pay-raises.
The one thing you’ll NEVER notice, is that conservatives give 5 times more to the poor than you idiot-pieces-of-shit Progressives ever do.
Please get the hell out of here until you have more than 4 braincells to rub together. You are simply the worse human I have ever had the misfortune of meeting, and 6 of those I gladly shot.
Patvann:
Jesus didn’t require government to do anything, but He did tell us what he would want us to do. If you are a Christian then Jesus would be a higher authority than the Government. If it’s because you don’t like me personally that your analogy of gladly shooting people like me is meant as a threat, then you are more like the Muslim terrorists in nature than you may realize……I will pray to Jesus on your behalf, and I hope you can find forgiveness and peace in your life.
@Moosehole:
No, Jesus was not a socialist.
If he had been then he would have taken everything that the rich man had and then redistributed those things to the poor himself.
Try not to speak of things of which you know nothing.
@Mooseboogerz
Oh cry me a river. You have no clue about Christianity, and your pathetic, cynical, “instavictim” status, (let alone the newly acquired Christian veneer), fools no one. Least of all me.
Calla cop, if you “feeeeeeeel” threatened, because I’m pretty sure Curt-the-cop can figure out syntax and sentence-structure. Now go look up the word “analogy” you freakin moron.
Tell me Mr. “Progressive-holyman” … would Mary abort Jesus? After all, she was poor, homeless, and a teenager with no immediate family to support her.
Please don’t answer. Your “thoughts” are like bad feedback at a Boy George concert.
@Mooseburger
As Patvann and AC have said, Jesus was not a socialist. And, the particular passage from the bible you are paraphrasing was not about giving to others to help them. It was about giving up the pride the man had in his material goods and wealth, and following the actions of Jesus as he walked amongst men. The moral was that earthly material goods and wealth are not what allow one into heaven, but how one treats his fellow man. It has nothing to do with the actual act of ‘giving’.
BTW, I’m sure that, even if what you stated was true, that Jesus himself would have wept at the murderous actions of every socialistic nation that has ever been in existence. Tell me again how Jesus was a socialist?
JESUS WAS THE GOOD KIND OF SOCIALIST!! Not in a give people money way but in the way He had love and interest in the welfare of all Humanity. He hung out with the Tax Collectors, outcasts and sinners. He saw that the widow who gave a Mite had given far more than those who had plenty and gave more actual money, (as Patvann mentioned above about Conservatives giving more than Progressives). He overturned the tables of the money changers at the Temple, who practiced their profit making enterprises at His Father’s House, it was an abomination to Him. He disappointed those who in his time expected Him to be a warrior and fight against and overthrow the Romans, as many believed at that time that the “real” Messiah would certainly do. He taught that those who are in authority over you were placed there in accordance with God’s plan, to render unto them that which is theirs and render unto God that which is Gods. Every enemy against Him he encountered He healed their Sons and Daughters, and He forgave them and interceded for them with the Father asking for forgiveness for them because “they know not what they are doing”
The sermon on the Mount outlined what He expected from those who love and obey Him.
He didn’t say much in that sermon about hating folks or equating those who you don’t like in terms such as: “You are simply the worse human I have ever had the misfortune of meeting, and 6 of those I gladly shot.” Like I said, Patvann, “I will pray to Jesus on your behalf, and I hope you can find forgiveness and peace in your life.”
Johngalt gave a thoughtful insight of the meaning of why Jesus wanted the rich man to give his goods to the poor, but I really don’t believe that He told the rich man to give his goods away to the poor, but had no interest in those things given being of any benefit to the poor people. I believe Jesus meant for the things he asked the Rich Man to give to the poor to be a help to the poor people had the Rich man followed the advice he had asked for.
If Jesus were here with us in this world in the flesh today, He would be mocked for loving His enemies, for turning the other cheek, for forgiving and loving those who hate Him. Many Conservatives would call him weak and a lover of those who hate America.
@Mooseburger
I can see no greater glory to God than living one’s life for the benefit of oneself, not living for the sake of others, nor having them live theirs for the sake of yours. By doing so, and being successful, you touch the people you come into contact with and enrich their lives, despite that not being your purpose. Some people would call that greed. I do not. I call that appreciation for the goodness that God has bestowed upon one’s life, and to use that goodness to further your own happiness, and in the process, you enrich others, by God’s will.
Jesus, again, was not a socialist, and there is no “Good kind of Socialist”, as you claim. All socialism is evil in nature as it takes away from the hard-working and gives to the poor, which includes not only the less fortunate, but the lazy and incompetent who choose not to work, or to do less work because they can rely on their brothers for their own sustenance. Jesus was charitable, and that is his message, which is why he only told the wealthy man to give his wealth away but not force him to. Socialism forces the thievery of the wealthy, or more fortunate. Socialism does not recognize that the wealthy or more fortunate got that way by hard-work and ingenuity. It assumes the wealth was gained at the expense of the poor or unfortunate.
Property, as wealth is, is a man’s to own, to use as he sees fit. We live in a country founded upon the principles that property is just as sacred as one’s life, and that the founding fathers limited, by the Constitution, the magnitude of actions that could be taken by the government on the behalf of men, and as such, limited the amount of property that could be taken from men. Progressives have twisted that document in such a way that we now have property taken from us to fund beyond the limits of the Constitution, and they spin their actions in the name of ‘charity’. However, as charity is done by private individuals only, and only by the willing, what the government does now, with programs like SS, welfare, and now Obamacare, is pure thievery.
Charity is done by the willing, evil is done by governments.
MOOSEBURGER:, hi, I see that you are a CHRISTIAN like most of us here,and you’r praying JESUS,
good habit, to pray for everyone, keep it up SR. bye
SKOOKUM: hi, What a story, so well done as usual, that I felt the chill on my spine,
YOUR way of putting the words together are unique,and the minus details are so visual too, and one can actualy feel,
along the story, that you where there; LIKE I said feel the freezes fingers and feets.
and know that you where there,feeling the fear and the strugle to stay alive,
as the ultimate goal at that particular time.
WE go through the mental phases, of that story with your skill.
thank you for that and the analogy is very well done,as you simply blend it with the story,
must be hard to do. bye
Mooseburger, I was raised a Mennonite and read the Book for years. I can’t see Jesus as a Socialist and I doubt if he would have been comfortable with most if not all of the Socialists of the 20th Century. I realize the current mantra is that ‘we are going to get it right this time’, especially concerning the idea of world Socialism: something tells me, the cowboy from the Plains of Jericho is not overly impressed with the latest lies, deceit, and corruption of our homegrown Socialists and their international brethern.
If you want to defend Socialism with the Words of Christ, hang on because I aim to crucify Socialism during the next two months and many of the readers here will beat you like a red haired step child if you can’t state your case with a degree of intellect and wit.
I appreciate your Christian beliefs, even if they are misguided, but swimming in the deep water when you should be in the wading pool is ludicrous. In other words, if you want to do battle in the arena of wits, don’t show up unarmed.
MsBees, thank you for the kind words. I feel I missed conveying how painful the simple striking of a match is when you have nearly succumbed to the cold and how the dreadful the pain of frozen teeth can be; trust me, it is something you never forget.
I am really concerned over the cognac recipe, I think that is the way Frenchy made it; of course, we weren’t used to the finer liquors and we often substituted ingredients and didn’t notice the difference.
I love to make pastries with berries, they are so simple and so delicious. Knarley made pies with the flakiest half inch crusts, (using bear lard), but I was the pastry maker and everyone loved the pastries.
Working with an electric stove and a food processor is almost sacrilege for me, the real test is working under a tarp during a rainstorm over an open fire That will separate the boys from the pastry chefs.
@ Skook & @ johngalt,
Reading some of your above comments reminded me of an “telling” incident with “socialist” thinking many years ago while at University, . . .
Like many others I worked to earn myself an education and made enough to purchase cars which I also raced and enjoyed. During one particular lecture, a debate ensued involving the Professor and the students in the large hall. Arguments against business, and the corporate world gained momentum, and I found myself in a minority, promoting hard work and independence of mind and self, and the advantages to the general society of providing and protecting free thinking, freedom of production, etc.. etc.
One individual in particular took me on more loudly than others, professing that socialist policies and government control over business and industry was required to in effect properly distribute the wealth created, etc. The usual platitudes and diatribes were repeated.
A few hours later, I pulled out of the parking lot on the university grounds with the top down on my convertible sports cars (bought used, but rebuilt with much sweat), and I accelerated along the wide boulevard leaving campus. Barely under way, I slowed the car to pull over for hitchhiker looking for ride. It was the very same vocal mouth that had given me idiotic commentaries on socialism a few hours earlier during the debate.
I opened the door for him, asked him how far he was going, and once he was seated I continued down the road. After nodding to his “nice car” compliment, I grabbed the gift of opportunity to use the event occurring in my car to drive home a point.
“You were quite prepared to dump on me about business, about work, about society’s materialism, and you attacked the automobile as an expensive and wasteful polluter. Now you hitchhike, begging me for a ride in the very automobile you criticized, but which I bought and rebuilt with money I earned through hard work. That’s the definition of hypocrisy. Now I’m going to drop you off at the next bus stop.”
I did, and he had no answer, possibly a little surprised with my very personal address and confrontation of his twisted thinking.
SKOKUM: THAT’s another idea which cross my mind, when I read your post: IT is this,”
YOU would sell a cook book more than any other, if you make one and include your
OWN experiences recipys plus some gab of where they where done, and mix drinks too. I am positive it would go. SKOOKUM RECIPYS and COKTAILS. OR something like it.
THAT’S a diffrent book now. bye
@James.
That was rich!
SKOOKUM
HI,
2012 HERE MARCH 21, WE DON’T HEAR FROM OLD TROOPER SINCE LAST MIDDLE OF MAY,
HOPE HE IS OKAY, if any one know anything of his whereabout, let us know, even anything you find small
could give us a clue, we care for him and we just want to know if he’s okay, not less not more,
in AFGHANISTAN, SOME SURELY KNOW SOMETHING, HE WAS SO EASY TO GUESS HIS REAL NAME WITH ALL THE CLUES HE GAVE , YOU IN THERE HAVE FIGURED IT, LET US KNOW IF HE IS ALIVE AND WELL OR DEAD, WE WILL NEVER ASK AGAIN.
SKOOKUM
YOUR STORY HAS NOT AGED A BIT, and I still enjoyed reading it, because you have the
unusual GIFT to make the reader feel it as he reading it, you captured the imagination of surely all the readers at some point or another for different reason from each reader, if you would ask each of us what we where most shock where in the story why we did react how deep was the shock,
you would be amaze of the multiple answers, and all united in one of the story here, not counting all the other fine and interesting story.
just thought you would like to know