Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

If I had a million dollars it would be almost a certainty that I’d be sitting in my comfortable, but tasteful, heavily fortified home on a piece of land big enough that I can be left alone and not have to deal with the rest of the world. Unfortunately, just because I want nothing to do with the rest of the world doesnt mean the rest of the world doesnt want something to do with me.

It isn’t really explicitly spelled out anywhere in the Constitution (although maybe you can read it into the Fourth Amendment) but I like to think that somewhere theres a right to be left the heck alone. Whether its the .gov, islamofascists, christofascists, lefties, greenies, telemarketers, or people selling magazine subscriptions door to door…I like to think theres a point at which all of them will just leave me alone if I leave them alone.

Sadly, it looks like that aint gonna happen. The .gov wants to destroy my healthcare, the islamofascists wanna destroy my .gov (which means they may not be all bad, in some ways), the christofascists wanna tell me who I can sleep with, and the telemarketers are rapidly becoming higher and higher on my list of ‘people first up against the wall when the revolution gets here’.

I do believe the heat is making me grumpy.
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Summer continues here western Montana. It’s blisteringly hot during the day but my tomatoes and pepper plants dont seem to mind too terribly. My basil is going like gangbusters and I need to thin it down a bit and make some pesto. I wish I had planted more pepper plants this year but for some reason I always seem to just never get as committed to gardening as I should. Its a shame, too, because I have a yard that is almost perfect for it. Still, I should get enough peppers and tomatoes to make a few decent meals and perhaps have enough left over for a little canning.
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The missus is doing a short overnighter up at Glacier this weekend. I need to dig a stove out of the bunker for her to take. I’m going to give her the Svea 123. It isnt the lightest stove out there but, by Crom, its utterly reliable and pretty darn simple to use. Although I have several multi-fuel stoves, I rather like the pre-WWI technology of the Svea. It has exactly one moving part – the on/off valve. Can’t get too much more simple than that. naturally, we keep several gallons of Colman fuel on hand for use in lanterns and stoves, but I rather prefer the ‘multi fuel’ stoves that can use Coleman fuel or regular gasoline. The Primus Omnifuel that I have will run on pretty much any liquid that will burn and also run on cannisters as well. But, its a bit more complicated and I dont want to overwhelm the girl. Still, for something to throw in the hunting bag for those ‘just in case’ situations that Svea 123 is pretty nice.