Memorial Day

Everyone have a great day. Go out back and grill a steak or two.  But try to remember what the day is for and be thankful today and everyday for those who gave it all for our country.

Animal Rights

I am not an animal rights do-gooder and I find it, at the least, objectionable when I see over done sympathy for animals and no concern for humans. HOWEVER intentional animal cruelty really pisses me off. check this link out and watch the video with it.  http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.causes.com%2Fcauses%2F10938&h=c9750

This kind of cruelty is is performed on all types of animals,  but I have found the last few years it is especially frequent with Pit Bulls. Done by people who hate Pit Bulls for no rational reason,  by dog fight morons who don't think their dog is up to it,  and sicko's that just like to hurt things.  This absolutely amazes me as Pit Bulls when treated like friends  respond like the best friends any one could ever hope for.  They are incredibly loving, loyal animals that will cheerfully lay down their life for you if need be.

The people who perpetrate this kind of cruelty seriously need to be chained to a tree, starved, beaten and burned like they do to the animals. I seriously have no patience with these bastards.

Website information

Just a friendly announcement to those who watch this page or are interested in my knives.
My website will go away as well as the webmail sometime this month. Not sure exactly when. I will be building a new site that will take me a little while but am going to put up a small storefront page temporarily that has a few pics and my contact info. The address wil be
For the time being my email will bradburnknives@aol.comwww.Bradburncustomknives.com

Bamboo

That bit about the bamboo.  Obviously spoken by someone truly unfamiliar with the plant. Bamboo has the absolute root system from hell. The roots are as big around as my finger,  spread forever and are as tough as kevlar or carbon fiber.
In the course of digging up six plants I managed to break my shovel and garden trowel and render every muscle in my body as sore as if I had just gone 10 rounds with George Foreman.

Free isn't such a great price for bamboo.  I think now that $45.00 per gallon pot is not so bad after all.

Easter dinner at my house.

I was treated  this morning to our traditional Easter breakfast of hard boiled Easter eggs and a cinnamon roll  after having enjoyed my private sunrise meditation and then coffee and conversation with my wonderful wife. A great way to start the day.

We then took a ride in the country and found a rural house with a stand of bamboo still tan from the winter cold but showing a hint of green at the bases of the canes.  There were also many new green shoots making themselves known.
It was a good day for bamboo I guess.  On the way home we spotted a house 8 or 10 blocks from ours with a small stand of bamboo also.  We parked and I got out to inspect the bamboo and try to determine the variety. (Arrow bamboo I believe)  and met the new owner of the house.  He had just bought the house from a Vietnamese couple and said he didn't care for bamboo and I could have all I cared to dig up and take away.  I will attend to that in a few days.  Free is a very good price for bamboo plants.

My wife then spent most of the afternoon and early evening getting flowers for the table and preparing an outstanding dinner.  We had herb roasted chicken with red skin new potatoes, asparagus, & celery,  followed by a new desert recipe for semi guilt free Rhubarb Crisp.  Think of apple crisp but with the tart sweet flavor of Rhubarb.  It was all fantastic.

I think I will clean up the kitchen while she watches Desperate Housewives.

Announcement

I received this from a friend on Facebook and thought you all might appreciate th4 information.

From:  Les Voorheis

PLEASE READ - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO EVERYONE WHO USES FACEBOOK FOR BUSINESS OR PERSONAL REASONS!! Forgive the invite. This is not really an "invitation", so no real need to press "attend" - Facebook likes to make changes and not really tell everyone. This is an easy way to get the word out - and currently the only way to assure that everyone can see it. Have you noticed that you are only seeing updates in your newsfeed from t............he same people lately? Have you also noticed that when you post things like status messages, photos and links, the same circle of people are commenting and everyone else seems to be ignoring you? Don't worry, everyone still loves you and nobody has intentionally blocked you. The problem is that a large chunk of your friend/fan list can't see anything you post and here's why: The "New Facebook" has a newsfeed setting that by default is automatically set to show ONLY posts from people who you've recently interacted with or interacted the most with (which would be limited to the couple of weeks just before people started switching to the new profile). So in other words, for both business and personal pages, unless your friends/fans commented on one of your posts within those few weeks or vice versa - you are now invisible to them and they are invisible to you!! HERE'S THE FIX: On the homepage click the "Most Recent" title on the right of the Newsfeed, then click on the drop down arrow beside it and select "Edit Options", click on "Show Posts From" and change the setting to "All Of Your Friends and Pages" (you can also access the "Edit Options" link at the very bottom of the facebook homepage on the right) Note: Business pages do not have a newsfeed however page owners should adjust the settings on their personal accounts. The good news is: now you can now view all of your friends and fans again. The bad news is: YOU ARE STILL INVISIBLE to a large portion of your list. You must get the word out to ALL of your friends and fans by inviting them to this event or creating one of your own so they can read the post and adjust their settings. To invite your friends: Click on "Attending" at the top and then you will see an option to invite your friends at the top left. It’s public so everyone who logs onto facebook can view it and even the friends who can’t see your posts WILL see the event invitation. You can also tweet about it, create a blog post or send out an email to your subscribers in hopes of reaching them all.See MoreSee More

Why I started making knives

I fell in love with knives at the ripe old age of 7 years old. It was 1952 and the folks took me with them to see Alan Ladd in the "Iron Mistress" Where Ladd played Jim Bowie. I really wanted that knife. I owned a lot of knives between then and 1991 when I decided to buy the equipment and learn to make my own knives. I eventually built a series of "Bowies" not terribly unlike the Ladd knife. Mine had a flat bare blade skinner riding piggy back on the sheath with the Bowie.

That satisfied that particular lust, but while in the Marine Corps (1963-69) I really got into the knives as weapons concept. Especially after a friend passed on his K-Bar to me that another Marine had passed to him when he retired. I have since passed it on to Les George, a young man I started working with in my shop when he was 15. After High school graduation He enlisted in the Marine Corps. I like to think I influenced that decision somewhat. After he graduated boot camp in San Diego I presented him with my K-Bar. He has since served 10 years in the Corps, with six of those years, I believe, in EOD clearing land mines, IED's and such. He got out with all his pieces still intact and has gone on to become a very successful maker of higher end folding knives. I hope he finds a young man worthy to pass the K-Bar on to and keep a fairly young tradition alive.

I am tired and going to bed. More tomorrow. Maybe...

New at blogging

Well....I never thought the day would come when I had a blog.  Now what?