DIY

Guest Post From Scary Dad On DIY

Up Today I have a guest post from my new friend Scary Dad from the ScaryDad Blog. Where he brings  all the best Halloween, horror, and DIY projects from his own brains and from all around the web.

DIY
DIY

 

Why DIY?

When I was a little kid my bike started making a weird noise. I took it apart and set everything out so I would remember how to put it back together. But something happened- I missed a step or lost a piece and I just couldn’t get it back together again. My dad didn’t know what I had done or what I might have done wrong, so he couldn’t help me. I had to take it to the bike shop and spend money on getting it fixed. And I felt so helpless for it. I hated the feeling that I had actively messed up something I depended on and couldn’t fix it.

My mom offered that I was “not mechanically inclined,” suggesting a lack of innate talent rather than failure. I think it was so that I wouldn’t feel bad for having failed, but that made it worse. I wanted to be mechanically inclined. I wanted to be able to fix my bike if it broke. I didn’t want to be at the mercy of the shop mechanic who, even at nine years old I was sure was telling me and charging me whatever he wanted because he knew I didn’t know enough to argue.

So, time passed and I’m a grownup now and I know how to fix my own bike. I also know how to fix a lot of other stuff. Whether from lack of funds, boredom, or just stupid circumstances I have repaired, rebuilt, restored, repurposed, or remodeled all kinds of things over the years. And I still do it even if financially I don’t have to.

There is a sense of both accomplishment and independence associated with DIY. When you can create, improve, or repair something it makes you just that little bit less dependent on “the grid.” Not that the grid is a bad thing in and of itself, but being 100% dependent on anything is not a good way to be. In today’s world a little self-reliance goes a long way.

If you learn to do things for yourself you no longer rely on contractors or repairmen, especially for small jobs (that they charge more for because they have to make it worth their time).You truly do become more self-reliant and self-sufficient. And after a while you want to apply the DIY ethic to other aspects of your life. Survival Punk and Scarydad exist for this very reason.

More than a few times, as I’ve pondered a pile of reclaimed wood or some yellow-pad blueprint for something or other, I’ve thought to myself, “Dude, why don’t you just buy/have someone make/install/deliver one of those? Wouldn’t it be easier?”

And in a lot of cases the answer is Yes.

And yet I spend my weekends in my garage; barking knuckles, drilling holes, staring at pieces that just don’t quite fit and figuring out how to make them fit…

So why do I do it? Why do I insist on taking the extra time (and sometimes extra money) to make something instead of just running over to China-Mart and buying some low, low-priced piece of plastic crap?

 

Brody the Shark
Brody the Shark

His name is Brody, and he is my 2-year-old daughter’s favorite toy.

 

 

Because it’s worth it.

Ingredients

Medicinal Moonshine to cure coughs

For this article on medicinal moonshine I wish I had a gypsy wagon for selling snake oil from. Crazy James’ Snake Oil Wagon of Wonder. Maybe a new business venture for me if this Survivalpunk thing doesn’t pan out.

    So I got over the stomach virus thing and a few days after I started having a sore throat and a horrible cough. I felt really bad for a few days, achy, tired, runny nose, the works. I thought I might have caught the flu going around. Actually I might have or maybe bronchitis, I’m not sure I don’t go to the doctor and I’m not a doctor, I don’t even play one on the internet. All I know is now five days later I’m still coughing and it sucks.

    One of my good friends who knows a lot more about both herbal remedies and a lot more about moonshine told me to take some to get rid of my lingering cough. Well, I’m never one to turn down a chance for medicinal moonshine so this is what I did for my cough.

 

 

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Shaving

Learning to Shave with a Straight Razor

Straight razors are cool. I use a straight razor now. Well sometimes, and it’s kind of a straight razor. Years ago when I got into prepping I was thinking about shaving during the apocalypse. The general survivalist plan seems to be to just not shave and grow mountain man beards. Not me, I grow a beard once or twice a year and that’s about all I can tolerate. I thought about stocking up on Mach III blades and using the trick to make them last longer, by honing them on an old pair of jeans. Then the idea of switching to using a straight razor hit me. I was at a horror convention and picked up on for around $15. I got home and prepared to shave. Then realized I bought a piece of crap and it would not shave hot butter. Before spending lots of money on a real one I found a cheaper, long lasting solution.

Steps to shaving with a straight razor
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Perfect Cup Of Joe

How To Make The Best Off Grid Coffee Maker For Cheap

Coffee, the glue that keeps modern society functional. Without our morning life blood dragging yourself into work becomes nearly impossible. What happens to the magical elixir when the power is out and the coffee pots won’t turn on? How do you make coffee without electricity? I’ve been thinking about how to make an off grid coffee maker for a few weeks now. Most the time I walk around in a semi-daze with projects going through my head. For this project, I had a list of things I needed my off grid coffee maker to accomplish. I wanted it to be simple to make, easy to operate, not be made of plastic, take any heating method available and not just produce any cup of coffee but the BEST cup. While I still have a few kinks to work out my trial run produced an amazing cup. Now let’s get to brewing!

Perfect Cup Of Joe
Perfect Cup Of Joe

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Bit’s and Bobs from around the Web

For today’s post I’m going to do something a little different and share some articles I’ve read recently. I’ll link to them and share my thoughts on them here. Hopefully you guys will find some interesting articles you would not have seen otherwise.  I stumble across some interesting things in my internet travels so here are some of the best articles  I’ve come across this week. If you have a story or question send it to me at James@survivalpunk and I’ll take a look and answer it on the blog. Now let’s get down to what I’ve been reading.

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