Randy | February 16, 2026
The brace of knives laid out in the photo at the top of this piece are representative of those familiar to fishermen who crewed salt bank schooners sailing out of Nova Scotia and other East Coast ports at a time when wind and muscle propelled human endeavour beyond the thin veneer. Much of value can […]
Category: A Call to Arms, About Beginnings, Bush, Blade, Birch, Bludgeon, and Boomstick, Fathercraft, Natural Selection, Previews of Work in Progress, Public Service Announcements, Reality Stranger than Fiction, The Dark Side, The Way of the Wild, True Arte, True Grit, Weihnachtsjäger, Wisdom That's Stuck to my Soul |
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Randy | February 11, 2026
In maintaining life on the other side of the Thin Veneer, only True Tools, both the hard (technology) and the soft (skills), are carried. Which ones will depend on the environment, the job, the doer of it, alone or in company, and what interval of time and space will inform readiness for “self-rescue”, a now […]
Category: A Call to Arms, About Beginnings, Abuse of Authority, Alpha and Omega, Bush, Blade, Birch, Bludgeon, and Boomstick, Business As Usual, Entertainment, Family Matters, Fathercraft, Public Service Announcements, Reality Stranger than Fiction, The Dark Side, The Way of the Wild, True Arte, True Grit, Weihnachtsjäger, Winter is Coming |
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Randy | February 1, 2026
Today we will look exclusively at the birth of my own khukuri, beginning with why I commissioned it to be made in the form that it is, and following it through the process as it was dutifully reported to me at every stage. My overall reasons that drove choosing it for integration into my garniture […]
Category: A Call to Arms, About Beginnings, Bush, Blade, Birch, Bludgeon, and Boomstick, Business As Usual, Fathercraft, Previews of Work in Progress, Public Service Announcements, The Way of the Wild, True Arte, True Grit, Weihnachtsjäger, Winter is Coming, Wisdom That's Stuck to my Soul |
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Randy | January 24, 2026
The blade is but the tooth and claw That Nature never gave, So Man no longer hides in trees, Nor cowers in a cave. Why scrabble for what lives beneath The rocks and rotting logs? Take blade, go forth with Comrades bold, And Trusty Hunting Dogs! ~ Tooth and Claw ~ (Excerpt) If you’ve ever […]
Category: A Call to Arms, About Beginnings, Bush, Blade, Birch, Bludgeon, and Boomstick, Business As Usual, Family Matters, Fathercraft, Food and Drink, Natural Selection, Public Service Announcements, The Dark Side, The Way of the Wild, True Arte, True Grit, Weihnachtsjäger |
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Randy | January 2, 2026
“Normally I would have asked a policeman or a minister of the Church, but finding no one available, I thought it better to consult a man with some professional qualifications, rather than rely on the possibly confused testimony of a passer-by.” ~ In the wake of a bicycle accident due his tire pump having got […]
Category: A Call to Arms, About Beginnings, Abuse of Authority, Alpha and Omega, Bush, Blade, Birch, Bludgeon, and Boomstick, Business As Usual, Dereliction of Duty, Fathercraft, Gonads and Strife, Lest We Forget, Natural Selection, Previews of Work in Progress, Public Service Announcements, Reality Stranger than Fiction, Shit and Shinola, The Dark Side, The Way of the Wild, True Arte, True Grit, Weihnachtsjäger, Winter is Coming, Wisdom That's Stuck to my Soul |
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Randy | December 24, 2025
My Esteemed Friend Jim Keating recently made a profound utterance in the matter of prevailing flaccid, and annually recurring, expressions of what’s branded to be in the “Spirit” of the “Season”, saying in part … “… How about songs, words, images which convey strength, power, confidence and faith in this time of Yule? Why not […]
Category: A Call to Arms, Alpha and Omega, Bush, Blade, Birch, Bludgeon, and Boomstick, Dogs, Family Matters, Fathercraft, Food and Drink, Lest We Forget, Moments of Magick, Mrs. LFM, Natural Selection, Public Service Announcements, Reality Stranger than Fiction, Romance, The Dark Side, The Way of the Wild, True Arte, True Grit, Weihnachtsjäger, Winter is Coming, Wisdom That's Stuck to my Soul |
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Randy | December 21, 2025
The Wild Hunt rode early this year, as its constituents bear full title to do, shredding the tops of the Hemlocks in my range throughout Friday night into Saturday afternoon, and joyously reintroducing a significant part of the local population to what “rural” living really means. The Solstice occurred at 11:03 Atlantic time today, from […]
Category: A Call to Arms, About Beginnings, Alpha and Omega, Bush, Blade, Birch, Bludgeon, and Boomstick, Business As Usual, Family Matters, Fathercraft, Food and Drink, Gonads and Strife, Moments of Magick, Natural Selection, Public Service Announcements, The Dark Side, The Way of the Wild, True Arte, True Grit, Weihnachtsjäger, Winter is Coming, Wisdom That's Stuck to my Soul |
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Randy | November 17, 2025
“Everything in Nature is about efficiency and balance, which is why life is, first and foremost, an exercise in energy management. For example, the Way of the Wild demands of each parent that their offspring be made self-sufficient as quickly and efficiently as possible. A tool need not be a physical artifact – rest assured […]
Category: A Call to Arms, About Beginnings, Abuse of Authority, Alpha and Omega, Bush, Blade, Birch, Bludgeon, and Boomstick, Family Matters, Fathercraft, Natural Selection, Previews of Work in Progress, Public Service Announcements, Reality Stranger than Fiction, The Dark Side, The Way of the Wild, True Arte, True Grit, Weihnachtsjäger, Winter is Coming, Wisdom That's Stuck to my Soul |
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Randy | April 13, 2025
This poem was inspired by two utterances of Wisdom from wellsprings I drink from routinely. The first is this segment from Maestro Adam Crown‘s exquisite Swordmastery YouTube channel, being a four minute video titled The Law of Conservation of Combat — Bogart’s Fencing Lesson. The other is a story from the website of the Ronin […]
Category: A Call to Arms, Alpha and Omega, Bush, Blade, Birch, Bludgeon, and Boomstick, Fathercraft, Moments of Magick, Natural Selection, Poetry, Reality Stranger than Fiction, The Dark Side, The Way of the Wild, True Arte, True Grit, Weihnachtsjäger, Wisdom That's Stuck to my Soul |
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Randy | January 8, 2025
2025 blew in over the shore with its own version of the vapours, alleging worldwide envelopment in mystery obscurants portending doom, and offering me an invitation, if not an outright demand, to give the situation a sniff of my own. At first, I was inspired to recall the intro to this episode of Get Smart […]
Category: A Call to Arms, About Beginnings, Abuse of Authority, Alpha and Omega, Entertainment, Previews of Work in Progress, Public Service Announcements, Shit and Shinola, The Dark Side, Tom Foolery, True Arte, WTF? |
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