Yes this kind of hoe, not the other one… It’s not that kind of site.

Made in Missouri from recycled agricultural disk blades.

Prices ranging from $20 to $30, A great price, in my book, for a sturdy looking hoe.

Rogue Hoes

My backyard is… a wilderness. I have to knock down some pretty serious bushes to try an eco-friendly weed removal technique. Basically it consists of cutting everything down and putting plastic over it. This will get to 160+ degrees in the summer heat and bake all of the plants/seeds under it. Hopefully sterilizing the ground so I can plant grass or prairie seed bundles at the end of the year. Just down the hill is where I’ll have a small veggie garden… that’s another reason for not using chemicals.

Any way… I was looking around for a machete. With my love for gadgets/tools/sharp things I found a “few” sites with some American made knives and such.

• Ontario Knives can be found at Discount Cutlery Where I found a nice selection of Machetes.
• Leatherman (I feel naked when I don’t have my c33 in my pocket)
• Case Knives
• Buck Knives
• Ka-Bar Knives
• Kershaw Knives had some stuff made in the USA (Under the ZT brand also.)
• Tops Knives
• Bear and Son Cutlery
• Bark River Knife and Tool
• Silver Stag Knives
• Great Eastern Cutlery
• Schatt & Morgan
• Remington Cutlery
• Spyderco
• Colonel Coon
• Queen cutlery
• Cripple Creek cutlery
• Schrade Knives
• Heckler & Koch -  I couldn’t find knives on their site
• Masters of Defense
• Kissing Crane – I couldn’t find a website
• Randall King Knives
• RAT Cutlery (Now EESE knives)
• Wilson Tactical
• Fehrman Knives
• Entrek USA
• Marbles – Their website was broken.
• Bradley Knives
• Outdoor Edge
• Gerber

That is about all I could find. Comment if you know of more.

Update:

Found another while reading “Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life” By Neil Strauss

• Mad Dog Knives

Update again:

• Boye Boat Knives – Made with a cobalt alloy to be completely rust free, hold an edge, and sharpen quick.

I bought some hiking socks from wigwam after doing some reading about the benefits of hiking with a sock designed for hiking.

What a difference it has made. I’ve been on a couple long hikes while wearing the “Cool-Lite Hiker Pro” and they keep my feet dry and blister free. The socks seem to be lightly padded and very well made.

Check out the Wigwam Amazon Store for more Wigwam products that are Made in the USA.

As always, Shop local.

Long time no see, huh? Ha! I’m back.

I was looking for a kayak for about a year. I’ve been researching and I found a couple companies, thanks to Americans Working, Jammer Canoe and Kayak and Old Town Canoe and Kayak.

On further research, I ran across Emotion kayaks, I must say, they make a beautiful kayak. They were, unfortunately, out of my price range.

I was looking around for a 12′ kayak that could hold some gear for overnight river adventures. I ran across the Loon 120, from Old Town,  at a Cabela’s… Though I don’t like buying from big chains, they had an unbeatable price on the kayak. Unfortunately… I did purchase a paddle and life jacket of unknown origin I feel kinda crappy about this.. I’ll try to make it up in the future.

Took the loon out last night for it’s maiden voyage. Kayaking is wonderful. It reminds me of fly fishing, it keeps the mind focused on one thing and the rest of the world is put on hold. So relaxing… I may have to try them together! Fly fishing from a kayak sure sounds fun.

I went kayaking with my dad a few weekends ago in his kayak, It seemed a lot of people were sporting old town kayaks.

Also, as a side note, I had been looking around for used kayaks for about 6 months. Nothing turned up on the craigslist that was what I wanted, in my price range. I prefer to buy used if possible. Saves me money and gives money to someone local.

I was looking around for something to store my magazines (Mainly GrassRootsMotosports). I ran across these magazine racks Made in the USA of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certified wood.

FSC wood comes from responsibly managed forests.

InModern makes a few other styles  of their magazine rack

I had an “incident” this year that could have resulted in my house burning down. It was a windy day, a dumpster near my home had caught on fire and it spread into my yard and was licking at my home. I only had to replace siding. I was very lucky.

It was time to protect some of my necessary items with a fire proof safe.

In looking around for a safe I really only had one criteria. Save my stuff inside if it’s in a fire. I had looked at Honeywell safes. They were less expensive, but they didn’t have the right wording on the box(Made in xxxxx, and no “FireProof” wording until you get to $80-100). I’m sure they are fine safes, Just not a Fire-Safe in my price range.  I needed to make sure I was getting something that would survive a house fire. Anything else would be pretty much useless.

I ran across this on Sentry Safe’s Blog. It’s an independent test of a Sentry safe and Honeywell safe.

If you are still skeptical, Here is a CNN video.

SentrySafe is Family owned and Operated by the Brush Family out of new york.

I ended up going with the KS2100. It had the right price(under $50), right size, Waterproof seal, and Fire protection for up to an hour for documents and Media.

After opening it, I filled it up with as much gold as would fit (I wish) and started messing around with the lock and lid. I wanted to make sure I could get my documents out once in.  There was a minor problem with the latch on the lid, it was catching on something and not allowing the lid to latch properly. It must have been stuck from the factory or in shipping.  Once I tried it a few more times the latch began functioning properly, so it was only a minor glitch. I have opened and closed it multiple times now without issue.

Best part is, aside from it being made in the US, if you do have a fire they replace your safe for free.

My PSA: If you get anything bigger than the kr2100, Have someone help you lift it. These things are not lite.
SentrySafe on Amazon
SentrySafe website

I recently began geocaching. It’s a lot of fun, keeps me out of the house, and I’ve been places I’d never have seen without it.

To do geocaching, you just need a GPS device and a coordinate. The GPS device I started with was my cell phone but I wanted something durable that I didn’t need to worry about dropping. My phone wouldn’t survive a drop from 4 feet, The Apisphere Geomate.jr sure will.

Over 250,000 caches, 2 aaa batteries last 12-hours. The accuracy is as good (if not better than), my phone. The build quality of the Geomate Jr is impressive. Simple, shock resistant, and very smooth. Best of all, Made in the USA.

Happy Geocaching.

Finally!! I’ve been searching all summer, maybe longer, for a Maul Made in the USA.

Council tool, a 123 year old company manufacturing out of Lake Waccamaw North Carolina, makes a huge selection of axes.

Take a look at this beauty. General purpose, RC 45-55, Natural steel finish. I need one of these for my truck.

Not to mention the rest of the stuff they make:

• Brush Clearing Tools
• Clamping Products
• Forcible Entry Tools
• Forged Bars
• Municipal Firefighting Tools
• Picks/Mattocks/Gardening Tools
• Sledge Hammers
• Tradesmen Hammers
• Wildland Firefighting Tools

Get ready for splitting wood for your fireplace or stove. It’s going to be a cold one this year.

My take on the Cash for Clunkers program is that anything assembled in the US should get the rebate.  Anything else should get minimal funding, maybe 50%.  Though, I must say, I think it’s doing a pretty good job at that already. 7 of the top 10 are assembled here. I have no clue on where the parts are coming from. I’d assume most everything is globally supplied at this point.

Autos made in the USA Has a list of where most of the cars are manufactured.

The Top 5 selling cars backed by CforC:

1. Ford Focus – Wayne, MI
2. Toyota Corolla – Fremont, Calif.
3. Honda Civic – Greensburg, Ind.
4. Toyota Prius -  Currently built in Japan and China, Soon to be Fremont, California due to it’s popularity.
5. Toyota Camry  – Georgetown, Ky.; Lafayette, Ind.
6. Ford Escape – Clayco, MO
7. Hyundai Elantra – ???
8. Dodge Caliber – Belvidere, IL
9. Honda Fit -  ???
10. Chevy Cobalt – Lordstown, Ohio

Now I guess we need to find out where that 1bil is coming from.