MacGyver

The Trees is one of my all-time favorite songs. I bet that was a great show!

I think in a lot of cases, the hipsters are the ones that have the desire to get cleaner food (per Caster's earlier comment), the luxury of both time and disposable income to go seek out sources for that food, and the lack of other schedule constraints that will let them at this point in their lives spend half a Saturday seeking out a few pounds of vegetables and some artisanal bacon.   Couple in the fact that when they get to the market they're likely to encounter other people like them, and you've got a self-sustaining hipster mecca.   We might all be better off to start really pestering our local grocery stores to start procuring foods produced closer to the store.  For example, I know that Wal-Mart has quietly undertaken an initiative over the last couple of years to get a certain quantity of their produce grown within 150 miles of the store.  While this has major transportation and logistical advantages, it also has the benefit of supporting local economies and getting better, fresher produce on the shelves.   http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/03/the-great-grocery-smackdown/307904/   Me, I'm a sucker for roadside stands and truck farmers.

Yeah, I think it's the switch to being producer only that's causing the lag right now.  Someone can't buy stuff wholesale and come and mark it up at the Farmer's Market anymore.  It's going to take some time for those producers - many of whom have left with bad tastes in their mouth over the years - to come back.  If they come back.

Yep, it's worth stopping in. Unlike their sister company Radio Shack - which just went out of business - I've never left Tandy Leather without learning something I didn't know when I walked in.

They've moved over to Donelson Rd. by the airport.  It's a much bigger, nicer store.  Same weird staff though :)

There's a good vendor on Amazon called Dangerous Threads that sells a lot of leather scraps that are of good quality.  While their physical shop is out on White Bridge Road, I often find it easier to just order it on Amazon Prime and have it in hand in two days.   http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_dp_s_web_2617941011?ie=UTF8&field-brandtextbin=Dangerous+Threads&node=2617941011

Any 17 year old who, of his own initiative decides to cut the grass should be applauded. Sounds like a good time to teach him about how to do it right.

Hey, that's pretty cool!   Congrats!

Yep. No reason you couldn't use some drawer slides and a counterweight for balance.   As to the planer/joiner - I'm going to offend some real craftsmen here, but with a little creative design, modern cabinet grade oak plywood and good dimensional red oak or similar, I'd bet you'd be surprised at how good you could make it look using off the shelf lumber.

  I should sketch it out, but imagine the same design as above, but with slides instead of a hinge - like a window on your house.  In this case, your mattress would come more than halfway up the frame.  So long as you keep the area underneath it clear, hit the lock and the front basically slides down and hits the floor.  You could use a shock or something to slow it down, but I'd probably just put a rubber bumper in place to alleviate some stress and not worry about it.   Biometric is cool, but you could do it on the cheap with some type of hidden locking pin, too.

I kind of envisioned a model where the seam wouldn't be visible.  It would probably slide downward, and the seam would be covered by the mattress.  Let gravity do the work.

A sliding door model with a biometric catch ought to be fairly doable.

Yeah, I'm sure you could use an Ontario made blade for the rest of your life without any issue.  They're good knives.   My choice of ESEE of Ontario is really because I know Jeff and Mike.  They've always been gracious about their split with Ontario, but the heart of matter is that if the maker decides to split - for whatever reason - I'm probably going to go with the maker.     I definitely recognize that there is a cost associated with that choice, and plenty of other folks may continue to choose the other product.  

If it's any solace, you can pick up an a couple ESEEs for less than what you've been spending on some knives lately ;)   The Ontario knives are a different quality from the ESEEs.  I've owned a variety of the Ontario made blades in the past, but Jeff and Mike separated from them several years ago over differences in quality and quantity of manufacturing.  There's nothing wrong with the Ontario made RAT series, and for hard use I'm sure they'd be fine.  But, as the makers split from Ontario, all real innovation is happening over at ESEE.

We had Denny's growing up in Georgia. I got really sick after eating there one time, so I pretty much wrote them off. When I was in grad school in Seattle, the Denny's up the street from my house had a bar. There were plenty of better options, but that place was always packed. I can't imagine chasing too much booze with a Grand Slam breakfast, but to each their own I guess...

If you were going to drop me somewhere unknown and tell me I could only pick one item to get me back home, I'd reach for my ESEE 5 every time.

They're 8 and 6, so I expect it'll change at some point, but they sure love it now.

Waffle House makes the best pork chop in the restaurant business. We have a tradition in our family that you may pick a restaurant where we'll eat as a family on your birthday. It's a treat, so within reason, about anything goes. Both of my girls consistently pick Waffle House.

My wife makes a chocolate mousse torte by layering those waffles with bittersweet chocolate mousse. You literally cannot eat more than about a half inch slice of it, but with some fresh whipped cream and a cup of coffee, its ridiculously good.

In the blowback gun, you didn't really even have to think about it. The 3MR, despite the scorn the internets has heaped upon it, really isn't a bad trigger. The 'assisted' mode is kind of gimmicky, but I'd say less so than the Slidefire. Regular semiautomatic operation is comparable with a good drop-in trigger. Now that they've dropped the price, the delta between it and other triggers is probably worth it for the fun quotient for a lot more people.

I shot a 3MR & Slidefire setup on a blowback 9mm setup. EIther one is plenty fast once you learn the system. Combined ROF was ridiculous, but it was a hoot.

If we're talking fish tacos, Blue Water Seafood Market is my favorite.

Great zoo. The USS Midway is there. A lot of good restaurants around the area. Have fun.

Yep, in the case of those old carbon steel knives, the oxidation is a feature not a detraction. It adds a little character and protects the steel underneath. I might hit it with a little steel wool. Apply a light oil to the handle and maybe the blade. Then sharpen the blade - I'd use a steeper 25 degree angle on a cleaver and put it to use chopping some pigs.

That old cleaver is cool as is. I'd sharpen it up, oil it up and put it back into service!