Happy Saturday!

I hope y'all had a great Saturday!

I woke up early today on account of going to bed so early friday night. I think I went to bed around 6 or 7, and got up today about 330. Eight or nine excellent hours of sleep.

Yesterday we went to the store to get a few last minute things for our big winter storm that's coming this week. We're supposed to get record snow and the coldest temperatures in my lifetime here soon. My phone says it's currently 17°F outside, which is -8°C. That's an abomination, but hey, we will almost certainly have enough chill hours this year to ensure an apple harvest! That's exciting.

Waking up early today gave me the opportunity to clean up one of my prints that wrapped up an hour or so before I got up. I finished a 17 hour print of a carbon fiber reinforced nylon Glock 19 frame. With our tax return this year, I've been told I can build a new pistol, allowing Melissa to have one available at the house should the need arise.

That's not a crack, it's a line where strings got stretched between parts on the print bed.

I'm working on a post about my specific printer setup, but it won't be done today. I really like the ability that a 3D printer opens up for decentralization of the means of production. If you don't have a printer or two in your community, get one. They're not expensive. It decreases your dependence on a lot of things. Of course, there's still the need for filament, but that can be worked out as well.

After I cleaned up my new Glock, I made myself breakfast and worked up a new file to print. Another gun, but one that'll be mainly a range toy. I'll show pics of it later, but it'll be done Monday morning.

Tomorrow I need to get some things set up in the truck. Sleeping bag, food, etc. in case I get stuck driving to work. There's plenty of bridges, hills, and ditches for things to go wrong on, and it's not inconvenient to toss a sleeping bag and a couple cans of soup in the truck just in case. Here in Texas, we don't handle snow and ice very gracefully. Emergency responders will be super busy through the storm, as witnessed the other day when I saw six wrecks on my rural drive home and by my friend's employer getting their police officers a hotel in town and not letting them go home. If something ends up happening that's not an emergency, I'd really rather not call emergency services.

Most of the rest of today was spent being lazy and cozy. I imagine there'll be a lot of that coming up. With the extra cold weather, we've been giving the rabbits extra feed and hay to munch and snuggle. They're all doing fine so far, but Melissa is worried we may lose some to the cold. I don't think that'll be much of a problem. Speaking of rabbits, it's about time now to harvest the pile buns. Maybe we'll start that after the snowstorm. They're getting pretty big, and they're the right age now for harvest. I'm somewhat concerned about the fact that we haven't had any other litters survive. I think they all got too cold. I may have to start raising them by hand, but we'll see. That sounds like a bunch of work, but it's work that'll pay off in food, so...

I bought my first ARRR today! It was a lot easier than I'd expected, and exchange rates with XMR were awesome. Monero had a bit of a pump today, so I was able to snag more Pirate Coin than if I'd exchanged yesterday. A lucky happenstance though, not an intentional day trading win. That felt good to get done, though I am a bit bummed that I didn't use a decentralized exchange. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to buy more :)

Well, it's getting to be sleepy time now. Guess I'll call this journal/blog entry a wrap.

Love from Texas

Nate 💚