ESLife

Friendship - a dog will never let you down

A Moment of Silence

A moment of silence please for all those who lost their lives and their families and friends that suffered, just 10 short years ago...................................................

.................................................................................................................................

Pictures and history of Guntersville, Alabama

Extremely-Sharp Knives and Swords is located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. We live in a beautiful, unique place that is steeped in Southern Culture. Guntersville is located in a valley off Sand Mountain, on the Tennessee River. In the 1930's the Guntersville Dam was built by the Army Corp of Engineers and the Tennessee Valley Authority making Guntersville Lake one of the larger man made lakes. The Guntersville Dam has three turbines that provides most of the electricity to Marshall county and the surrounding counties.

We at Extremely-Sharp want to share our hometown and our culture on our Extremely-Sharp Life page from time to time. This is the beginning, of what I hope will be many posts, describing life here in Guntersville.

Today I thought I would start by posting a few pictures from downtown Guntersville.

This is the old Post Office. The old Post Office was replaced by a brand spankin new Post Office that was opened a couple of years ago. The old Post Office was built in the 30's and is one of our classier landmarks.

Here is view of downtown Guntersville.

The Glover is our Oldest Hotel. Designed for the wealthy, The Glover has not been a Hotel for many years. It has had a series of over halls and has housed mostly restaurants but has been a crafts mall at one time.

Across from the Glover you can see our court house. This is where I go to pay my car registration. The Court House is the Hub of Guntersville Bureaucracy.

Last stop for today is the First United Methodist Church which is one of the oldest Church's in Guntersville.

This is where we live. A nice small town that has it's own unique personality wrapped in southern charm.

October Adopt A Shelter Month

My family loves our pets. We have two cats and two dogs at the Extremely-Sharp household.

Unfortunately, not all dogs and cats have the good life. We all know there are way to many dogs and cats and not enough people to take care of them. When I lived in the country I got drop offs almost every week. I know first hand how important it is to take responsibility for our animals. All our animals at ES Knives are spayed and neutered because we do not need any propagating animals.

This month is Adopt a Shelter month. My wife and I help out with several shelters in the area. Shelters provide a much needed service and help animals find the right homes for loving adoptions.

We have both no kill and kill shelters in our area. There is a lot of controversy with kill shelters. I know we don't like killing animals but the problem is that all the non kill shelters I know of in Alabama are full. There are just to many dogs and cats and not enough people to adopt. That is the sad fact.

I have no answer to the problem of to many cats and dogs. We can't let them run around. It is cruel to the animals. They starve, they get sick and carry disease. They cause property damage and sometimes will attack people. This is a huge problem.

The only answer I know that works is responsibility. If you don't want your pet find a good home for them. Don't just drop them off somewhere in the country. I understand that most people that drop off animals believe that they may find a good home. It just does not happen.

If you don't want the responsibility of puppies and kittens have your animals neutered and spayed. Spaying and neutering has an initial expense but those unwanted puppies and kitties are much more expensive in the long run.

So as October winds down, remember those shelters. Maybe a little donation or maybe a little volunteer work to help them out. Visit one and bring home a great addition to the family. There are always unwanted Dogs and Cats that need a good home.

All of our animals at ES Knives are rescued in one way or another.

We have Tucker who was found by a friend running wild with four other dogs on a busy four lane road in Huntsville, Alabama. Tucker came to us at around a year old. He has been apart of the family for around a year and a half. He has told me repeatedly that he is very happy with the new Gig.

Next we have louie. Louie came to us around 4 years ago. He was 5 weeks old and just wandered up to our back porch. We never found anyone to claim him. My daughter fell in love with him and the rest is history. Louie was named after the Character Robert Di Nero played in "Angel Heart" Louis Cypher, aka Lucifer.

Time for the cats. The first up is Bast. Bast is black and Bast comes with an attitude. Bast came from a local shelter located at our vets office. She has been with us around 5 years. Bast was named after the Egyptian Cat Goddess Bast.

Last but not least is our newest addition, Tom. Tom is a tomcat that just showed up one day. He has been around for about 6 months. My wife keeps telling me that he is not our cat, that he's just visiting. I see him every day and we feed him. I'm thinking he's our cat.

A Fall Picture from Lake Guntersville

I live in a beautiful place. Here is a fall picture from Lake Guntersville.

Thank you - Veterans Day 2011

Veterans Day 2011:

In memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice and those that risk their lives today so that we may live in freedom, we thank you for your service, bravery and hard work. Freedom isn’t free.

Hunting For Arrowheads

I had a great Thanksgiving. My son and daughter in law came into town to share Thanksgiving Dinner. The family got together at my Mom and Dad's. My brother came into town. This Thanksgiving was extra special because it was my Granddaughter's first Thanksgiving.

For Thanksgiving dinner, my Dad and I, deep fried a turkey and a ham. Cooking meat is man's works.

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, while the women folk were enjoying Black Friday, my son and I decided to go and look for arrowheads at an old spot we have not visited for several years. This spot in particular is an old Indian trail by the lake that few people know about.

Since our last visit to our spot we have had serious tornado damage in our local area. Last April we had a record 299 Tornadoes sited and touched down here in Alabama. You probably heard about it in the news. We were declared a disaster area. A tornado went through my back yard and jumped over the house. My home suffered some damage, the tornado took out a shed, but we were grateful that all our lives were spared. No human damage is the most important thing in surviving a weather crisis.

Back to the story….. My son and I drove to the trail and we got a huge shock. Our peaceful trail had been turned into a disaster area. Now we are both familiar with backpacking and survival so disaster area or not we set off on our mission. It was tough. We did a lot of climbing. I am a tough one arm son of a gun but it was hard for me. All in all we were out a couple hours hiked a mile or so and found no arrowheads.

We spent most of our time climbing over trees. The amount of downed trees were amazing. The best part was getting to spend some one on one time with my son. We have not been able to spend time with each other lately.

Merry Christmas 2011

To all who Celebrate the Season...... Merry Christmas and a blessed holiday from ES Knives. I know I plan to. The hard work is over and now it's time to enjoy the blessings of the season. Spending the Holiday with family and my Granddaughter's first Christmas.

Real Men Cook

Let's talk about food and cooking. I needed to get this off my chest: REAL MEN COOK!!!

I was taught, as a boy, that women did the cooking in the family. Men did the manly things like working on the car, hunting , fishing and sports. You get it, Men did those manly things and left the unmanly things to the women. How we decided what was manly and what was not manly was never reveled to me. But I knew growing up that I was expected to learn the manly arts. One thing for certain; Men did not cook. Cooking was not a manly art.

Over the years, I have blown that stereotype right out of the water. I love to cook and I am a manly man. In particular, I love to cook meat. I cook everything but meat is my specialty. In fact my nickname among my Native American friends is Meatman. I smoke it. I grill it. I cook it in the oven and in the pan. I love to cook meat. My Motto today is Real Men Cook.

Cooking is an art. It is more than just throwing things together. I have been practicing my art for over 20 years. For food to turn out exceptional you have to learn the ins and outs of cooking. You have to mess up from time to time to get where you want to go. That works in almost all of life's path. If you don't take risks it becomes hard to grow

As you can see in the picture I have my own little cooking emporium out back on my porch. I cook on charcoal, gas and pellet. I have a gas grill and a gas smoker. A few months ago I purchased a traeger pellet grill and I love it. You can see that I also have a weber kettle grill because sometime you just need that charcoal taste. If you can cook on charcoal you can cook on anything. My next cooking project is building a brick grill/smoker. Then I'll be able to smoke with wood coals in the backyard.

The table with the stones in the picture serves two purposes. It makes a great little work station. The stones are perfect for my cast iron dutch ovens.

I love cooking with the black iron. Most of what I cook is in the cast iron. Cast iron is amazing. It has a 500 year history and played a big part in the settlement of my Country. There is something about the taste of food cooked in cast iron that you can't get anywhere else. Not only that but cast iron is good for you unlike many of the other metal pots on the market.

Since I love to cook I thought I would start with this little introduction. From time to time I'll post a recipe or two and maybe share a few secrets.

Super Bowl Party in Afghanistan

Supporting Our Troops
Saturday, March 17, 2012
10:41 AM

Super Bowl Party in Afghanistan

We at Extremely-Sharp were happy to help a few of our troops celebrate the Super Bowl. No matter what our political beliefs may be I think it is important for all of us to join together and support our troops that put their lives on the line every day to defend our Constitution so we here can live with the Freedoms that we enjoy. I'd tip my hat but hey….. I only got the one arm. After all, my left hand is not my hat tipping hand.

When Platoon Sergeant from TASMG TF 12 DET 4 Harold Compton asked me for help with their Super Bowl Party over in Afghanistan I was more than happy to help out. We sent several Smith and Wesson knives out to Sergeant Compton to help out with the cause.

There are some things that are more important than business and the bottom line. Supporting our troops through it all is one of those things. My Son-In-Law is over there. His wife and daughter are here. We all worry about his well being every day. We all sacrifice through these tough times. I thank all the men and women serving our great country. I am grateful we were able to help play a small part in making an intolerable situation a little better.