Emergency Funds

Soot Happens, and when it does, you need to be able to clean up; often, the bigger the mess, the more expensive it is to fix.

Yesterday, Soot Happened to me. I was driving to work and a red HOT COOLANT message displayed on my dashboard. I had been getting periodic LOW COOLANT messages and figured it had just gotten too low and bad on me for letting it. So I purchased some coolant and popped the hood (note: never do this in that order). The reservoir was over full with murky coolant, so I took it to the mechanic across the street so they could take a look at it, and probably flush the system for me.Several hours later, a leak was discovered in the seam of my radiator, and the whole thing needed to be replaced.

I had just been paid, and I had already spent most of my check on paying bills and debts, but there was enough technically available in the account to cover the expenses, but more bills to pay before the next check arrived, some already scheduled.

Enter: Emergency Funds.

A Paleo Lemonade

In an attempt to find a good "relaxing drink" to have other than water, I decided to make a lemonade sweetened with raw, local honey. It turned out quite well, so I thought I would share the recipe I used, as well as the adjustments I plan on making in the future.

Sharing Your Path

Each of us follows a path, several paths, really. We all follow our own path when it comes to our beliefs: spiritual, moral, economical, kink, what products we buy – every aspect of our life. Typically, we wish to share our path with others, some religious communities require it. There are several ways you can share your path/beliefs/brand-loyalty/way-of-doing-things, in this post I will share with you how I choose to share. You don't have to follow it, but I hope you'll at least listen to my methods, and hopefully see some wisdom in them.

People Like Me.

I prefer to spend my time with people like me. The more like me a person is, the more I like to spend with him, or her. I like to spend time with people who think like I do, who have similar goals, and see the world in similar ways. With Luck I found someone very similar to and she agreed to spend the rest of her life with me. There are still differences, but they are differences we live with.

A New Pledge

Something I came up with this morning:

I pledge allegiance to the Constitution
Of these united States of America,
And to the republic, which it defines
For the several States, joined in union,
To protect Liberty and Justice for all.

Feel free to share, as long as my name (J. Kenzal Hunter, Sr.) and/or a link to this page is provided.

Frugal Living 1: Personal Hygiene

This begins the first in a Frugal Living series I would like to do. Very little in this series will be things I am not doing myself, with occasional comments about things I plan to do, but am unable to at the moment for some reason.

I would like to make a small clarification before I begin. I note a difference between cheap, inexpensive and frugal.

• Cheap items are something of shoddy craftsmanship (ofttimes manufactured) that are often inexpensive.
• Inexpensive items are ones that do not much money to purchase. However, a number of cheap inexpensive items need to be replaced, some, such as disposable razors, or razor cartridges, are designed for limited use and need to be replaced quite often and the small expense adds up over time.
• Frugal items may or may not be inexpensive and are rarely cheap. Some can have a hefty up-front cost, but due to better design and craftsmanship, these items (even the manufactured ones) are made to last, and can often be purchased second hand, mitigating a bit of that initial cost.

So Much and So Little

It has been a while since my last post, almost five years. In that time so much and so little has happened. So I'll hit the highlights. I would also like to apologise that this will not be as lengthy a post as I would like, as I must go to work soon, where blogging sites are blocked by the company firewall. I'm going to be arriving later than I would like, but with my flexible schedule, this is not a problem.

Sluggish Freelance

Well, I'm finally a official freelancer.

I picked up a job this past Sunday, I've been working on it all week, and wow, I had forgotten how much fun coding can be. I also learned how exhausting coding can be. This is the first time I've ever had a coding deadline that I really had to put in effort to meet. I was actually kind of surprised of how long it took me to complete the job.

Well... complete the job as much as I could. I'm having to work through another guy who actually has access to the server. Unfortunately, he is often busy and so I can not always get what I need right away. In fact, a whole section of this phase of the project is on hold until some updates can be made to the server. Such is Life, I suppose.

Even with all the stress, I'm having fun and it pays well. I love the fact that with this job, I get to exercise some of my creativity in my coding.

As a side note, I've also added in a chatterbox to this blog. Have fun.

Soot Happens, Cleaning Must Follow

It has been a while since my last update. Mostly because I haven't been getting any hours at the forge. Though it is time to pack up and move on, that's no reason to stop this blog. In fact, I find it a wonderful oppurtunity to transform it into something else. Rather than letting Soot Happens be a blog of my life as a blacksmith, I will use it as a window to show you how I am doing in life in general.

Life Happens

Sorry about the long time since my previous post, but life happens.

I have now made my first real knife. It started out as a piece of a spring. I flattened it out, formed a full spring-hilt from the remainder, after grinding, I hardened the blade, tempered it, then, after sharpening, I have a finished knife. (Pictures to come soon)

I've also made my first blacksmith puzzle. It's one of the standard two horseshoes connected by two small chains with a large ring in the middle that at first does not appear to come off.

I plan making more puzzles, and I'm currently on the lookout for for a book on making this kind of puzzle (known as "Blacksmith Puzzles", "Tavern Puzzles", and "Pub Puzzles").