Life Uncomplicated

Last Post Here

2008-04-27T12:35:00.000-07:00

For some time, I have been quite uninspired to do many blog posts. At least, that is my excuse for my blog sucking :) I didn't like the idea of posts (that I could put a considerable amount of time into) became time sensitive, and just disappeared. I know they are easily found by searching, but sometimes people don't know what they are looking for.

Quite a while ago, I posted an idea about discontinuing posting, in favor of a seperate website. Well, for a variety of reasons, it never went anywhere. Mainly, because I developed the site from scratch, and I wanted to have the same blogging functionality and it was going to be a lot more work for me.

I also selected the domain www.backyardbushcraft.net. However, I started the account with Yahoo, and had nothing but trouble. After about 6 calls with tech support, I finally gave up. I find this extremely odd to, because our business website is hosted with Yahoo. Go figure.....

Anyway, in a ticked off rage, I cancelled the account without making the proper arrangements for domain transfer. I am just tired of dealing with, and I decided to select a new domain and new host.

I started playing around with Wordpress, and decided that it gives me everything I need. Mainly:
- The ability to keep all blogging functionality.
- The ability to write and maintain independent articles (or pages), that are not time sensitive.
- Highly customizable menus.

So, the new site is at The Backyard Bushman (www.backyardbushman.com) .

I already have several articles written, and even some movies made from when I was planning this project from the beginning. So, even though there is not that much content there now, I should be able to add some real soon.

One of the main reasons for me wanting to start a website like this is knife sharpening. I typically sharpen my knives with a 1x42 belt sander. There are a lot of people that want to learn to do this, and I have spent literally hours sending e-mails to folks. After doing several, and realizing that I kept writing the same thing over and over again, I figured it would be best to write it one final time, and host it somewhere. Not to mention that I have videos showing in detail how to do. Since the videos are already done, hopefully they will be on the site shortly.

I hope you enjoy the new site.

Good Ol' Fashion Fun

2008-04-22T16:16:00.000-07:00

No Playstations, no Wii's, (I am going to try and keep things that way for as long as I can too) no sitting on your butt watching a movie. Just plain on smashing stuff!!! :)

First, the story behind the video. The weather is finally breaking here, and we were outside all weekend. I was leveling a spot in the back yard. Brendan wanted to help and needed a shovel. I only had one good shovel, so I gave him my military surplus folding shovel/tool.

After digging a hole nearly to China with it (it's just grass......who cares), I showed him some other fun stuff to do with it. Like the slightly sharpened edges, and saw like teeth on it. You would have thought I gave him the world, because he carried the thing around all day. Using it, folding it up, unfolding it, carrying it on his belt, just carrying it around, etc.

Here he is getting ready for our fire that night.

Tentipi Varrie 9

2008-04-02T17:46:00.001-07:00

Again, I apologize for the crappiness of my pictures. I was using the point and shoot again on these. Hopefully they get the point across though.

Here are a couple different views of the tentipi in use:

I have set the Tentipi up at home, but this was our first real use of it. Setting it up twice, and using it for 5 nights.

The Setup:

Setting this thing up is extremely easy, especially compared to setting up a traditional tent that is even close in size. Large traditional tents generally have a combination of steel poles and LONG fiberglass poles that takes a couple people to set up. Maybe even more if there is wind.

The tipi comes with a pre-measured rope. You put a stake in the ground where the middle of the tipi should be. You hook the pre-measured rope up and walk in a circle to drive 8 stakes in the ground. Not full in, because you need to hook the tipi up. Next, you unroll the tipi and start hooking up the attachment rings to the stakes. Then you can finish driving the stakes in the ground. The ground straps that are hooked to the pegs should be loosened up all the way from your previous use. Then, you go under the tipi and insert the center pole into the holder and push the tipi up. Next, you walk around the outside and tighten down the peg straps. That is enough to get you going and is very quick and easy. From there there are a couple “buttoning up” steps.

The bottom of the tipi is left long at the ground. It can be rolled to the inside of the tipi and staked down with a smaller set of stakes. That is the way I used it. The directions also indicated that the extra material can be turned to the outside and weighted down, or stakes. Once you do that, there is a second strap that on the outside that can be quickly tightened to make everything nice and taught. I have the optional floor which has toggles to attach to the interior of the tipi. It unzips in the center for having an open fire or stove.

The Design:

The tentipi has many features that are unique when compared to a traditional tent.

The material: This particular model is a cotton/polyester blend. Designed to function like a traditional canvas tent, but is not quite the same as canvas. The material is impregnated with waterproofing material, rather than being a complete vapor barrier such as most coated fabrics. The supposed advantage of this is to allow the fabric to breath, and release vapor (reducing condensation) while still remaining water resistant. This can be important while doing things such as cooking inside. During this trip, I did not do anything that would test the breathability of the fabric. I just know that I like the look and feel and apparent durability.

Ventilation: Besides being a breathable material, the tipi has provision for ventilation too. This particular model has 3 lower vents (besides the door) near the ground, and then the top ventilation cap.

The lower vents have screens in them. The upper vent cap has two parts. The larger portion has no screen and is used for regulating an open fire. There is no screen because the theory is that the escaping smoke will keep the bugs from entering. The smaller vent cap has a screen, and is used for general airflow regulation.

This photo shows the lower vent flap staked out so that air can flow in.

This first photo is of the ventilation cap. It is crappy because the angle I wanted had the sun right behind it. But, I wanted to show the flat portion of the cap.

This photo shows the vent cap, but it has a funny bulge in it. That is because there is extra material in the large portion of the cap, with a zipper to pass a stove pipe through.

One of the supposed big advantages of this ventilation is the height differential between air intake and exhaust. Much like a chimney works. On a hot day, with no breeze, the tipi is supposed to still vent fresh air because of this design. While I did not do any real testing, I do know that I last day of camping got above 80 degress, and the tipi was very comfortable inside. Most traditional tents are unbearable with a little heat and the sun hitting them. I would have no issue sleeping in this during the hottest part of that day. But, more to come on that as it gets more use.

One other neat feature of the ventilation is that it is all internally controlled by pulled cords that can be accessible while still lying down. Pull a cord, and a part of the vent opens. Pull another, and it continues to open more. The cords lock in place. Remove the lock, and the vents snap back closed. Pretty nifty.

Other Features: In general, I am just impressed with the craftsmanship. The buckles are all high quality, the zippers, etc. This photo shows one example of that. This is one of the main ground straps. Instead of just being attached to the tipi by single point attachment, it is attached to section of material which integrated into a seem of about 6 inches long. This minimizes stress to any one particular location, and spreads it out over an area.

This is the type of design that seems to have worked its way into every aspect of the tipi. Of course, for the price, I would expect no less.

As I get more and more use with this thing, I will continue to post more. Two things that I am really looking forward to testing are its use in bad weather, and having an open fire. Hopefully soon……..

Tatonka Pots

2008-03-31T16:31:00.000-07:00

I bought a 1.6L and 1L Tatonka when I bought my Tentipi out of the UK. I do not know where these are available in the US, and normally I would not justify the shipping cost from the UK. However, adding these two items to my Tentipi order did not change the shipping cost at all. So, I figured I would give them a shot.

First, I wanted to show off my pot stand. I have seen many homemade pot stands for backpacking. But, they are mostly a single piece and curved. I still might make one like that, but I had the idea to make on jointed, so that it would fold up flat. The small pot, lids, handles, trangia stove, and stand still all fit in the large pot.

All of these photos were taken at the "modern" campground. You would think that being a professional photographer and all, my pictures wouldn't be so crappy. But, when I go on vacation, I want to be on vacation : ) So, ALL my vacation were done on a point and shoot.

Here is a close up with the smaller (1L) pot, with lid. The handle happens to be attached to the lid/skillet in this photo.
Here it is farther away, with both pots in the picture.Overall, there isn't too much excitement here. They work as you would expect, are a good thickness of stainless steel and overall are great quality. One interesting thing to note is the locking mechanism for the handle.

The handle has two hooks on one side. When you lift up on the handle, it locks into place. Quite convenient for pouring, and it worked quite well. The handle also locks when you push down, which I didn't quite understand just yet. The only thing it seemed to do for me at this point was get in the way of removing the lid. When in the backcountry sites, I only used the small pot and used it both on open fire and with the stove. I had cut a pot hook for grabbing the hot handle and for pouring. No use for the downward locking feature. In fact, since there would be more clearance for removing the lid with it gone, I had considered cutting off the lock when I got home.

When I got "modern" campground, they did not even want you to scavenge down wood for firewood, so I suppose cutting a green stick for a pot lifter was out of the question :) That is where I figured out the use for the other lock. Not wanting the handle by the hot fire, or simply relying on it not pivoting to stay away from the fire, when you push down, you can lock it in the upright position. Even after staying on the fire for some time, I could grab the handle with my bare hand without it being too hot. Ah ha....there is a reason for the lock. So, I guess the jury is still out. It looks like the lock will stay for now, but I will still have to experiment more.

Here is a picture of the locking mechanism (sorry for the crappy photo):

GA Trip Summary

2008-03-31T16:25:00.000-07:00

I plan on doing more gear specific posts here real soon. But, I wanted to give a summary of the trip so that when I reference different areas you know what the heck I am talking about without having to repeat everything.

We just got back from a 9 day trip to Georgia. The first 3 days we spent with our in-laws in the Atlanta area. After that, we took off for the Savannah area.

The first two nights the wife and I put on the backpacks in order to hike into a backcountry site. The hike was only just under two miles, but still pretty good considering we had a 5 year old and a 2 year old that could not be carried in a backpack, since we were both wearing one :) Even though it was not that far, we still had to plan as though it were a long hike.....meals and all that stuff. We slept in the tentipi, but I still brought the Hennessy Hammock for trying out.

After the first two nights, we left for a more modern campground so that we could be more tourists, and see the area. So, some pictures will be in backcountry, and some in the campground. Here we also slept in the tentipi, and the Hennessy was up the whole time as well. It was used for a chair, for relaxing, and I also slept in it one night for testing.

Here are the two views of our backcountry camp site.

Here is the path into the camp site.

On to the gear related stories......

Something New Soon....

2008-03-31T03:47:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted much in quite a while. That was mostly due to the fact that I was not doing much except getting prepared for our 9 day vacation in Georgia. Well, we are back now.

We spent 5 nights camping in Georgia. Two nights were in backcountry sites in the middle of the salt water marshes. The other 3 were at a more typical campground. The good news is that I had a chance to try out a few items that I accumulated over the winter. So, as soon as I have a chance to sort out the photos, I will be posting a few comments on the following things:

- The Tentipi Varrie 9
- Hennessy Hammock
- Tatonka 1.6L and 1L Pots

Aurora Continued......

2008-02-24T12:05:00.000-08:00

I took this next picture for a reason. Even though Barkies come sharper than any other knife I have ever seen, I knew that I would blend this secondary bevel just a bit. You can see the light shining off it here:

Well, I got a chance to do it yesterday.

First, I want to note that it is hard to tell in pictures. But, I do all my sharpening and polishing with a belt sander to keep the convex nature. By using a high grit, and multiple angled passes, I can keep it as convex as you like it, along with the natural bending of the belt around the contours that already exist. I follow that up with two leather belts on the sander with fine and finer compounds. The result is a REAL high polish, which I like.

The high polish makes it look in photos that I did more than I really did because of the transition from the satin area of the blade to the highly polished area. I am just noting this because I didn't want anyone mistaking what I did for putting a v-grind on the convex blade shape, which would be a sin. On to the pics....

The real test is in the performance. Since doing this, I have tried to put as much wood in front of this as possible. Not soft stuff either. Hard, dried, maple and oak, knots, etc. I already being happy with the ergonomics of the knife, I am VERY, VERY pleased with steel performance too.

If you like the traditional bushcraft blade shape, like I do, I would not hesitate with this one. It is the best bushcrafter I have used to date.

And yes, before you ask, I will sharpening knives if you want to send them to me.

Aurora 2008

2008-02-23T06:18:00.000-08:00

My Aurora 2008 showed up yesterday. Most of you probably already know this knife. So, I will stick to what you might not now.

Mike Stewart (owner of Bark River Knives) just did a new run of these for 2008. The are just now hitting the distributors. There were some minor changes from the last run that include:

- Tip made a little bit pointier.
- The grind has been modified.
- Mike mentioned something about CNC and handles. I am assuming it is for more consistency.

I love the addition of the small sharpening notch. It will allow me sharpen the entire edge easily with the belt sander, but it not big enough to get in the way or eat up a lot of space.

Anyway, enough talk, here are the pictures.

Tatonka Pots

2008-02-15T16:45:00.000-08:00

I mentioned a while ago that when I ordered my Tentipi, I also ordered a couple of Tatonka pots. Since they are a relatively hard item to find here in the US, I figured I would show some photos of them.

There are some features about the Tatonka that I really liked. I could find similar features in other pots, but never one with all of them together. These include:

- Bail for hanging the pot.

- Nice fitting lid.

- Lid can be used as a skillet.

- Nest easy inside each other.

- Stainless steel.

- Nothing on the lid to prevent me from heaping hot coals on it.

- No non-stick coating.

- I liked the width and height dimensions of these much better than the Zebra billy cans.

So, on to the photos. Here is the kit all together. I bought the 1.6L pot, and the 1L pot. You will notice the lid for the larger pot in the photo. The lid for the smaller part is being used, and you will see why later. There is also the removable skillet handles in front. The Pepsi can is for scale.

This photo shows the skillet handle attached to the lid. Not only can this be used for using the lid as a skillet, but also for removing a hot lid from a boiling pot.

Here they are shown nesting inside each other.

Here is a photo of the Trangia alcohol stove inside the whole setup. I put the wash cloth in there purely from a noise perspective. I did not want things clanging around in my pack. I can put the lid on the small pot, put in the skillet handles, put the lid on the large pot, and then have the entire kit fit within the largest pot. Shown below:

Just a quick word about stoves; I hate them, and I don’t think they belong in the woods. I believe in keeping things as simple as possible and using resources that are easily at hand. This means that I don’t want a stove that is finicky, prone to breaking, costs near $100, requires me to carry spare parts, and causes me to worry about fuel quantities. There is nothing that will ruin a trip to the woods quicker than dragging all the trappings and headaches of daily life along with you. I go to get away from this sort of thing.

With all that being said, I have added the Trangia to kit because it is the simplest of them all, and is VERY inexpensive (about $5). The thing is a brick, with no moving parts, and pretty much nothing to go wrong with it. I will avoid using it if possible, and mainly have it in there because it fills dead space, and for emergency purposes. When I say “emergency” I don’t necessarily mean that a SAR team is looking for me. I mean it in the terms of it is nasty out, raining, and a cranky 2 year old is waiting for food : )

So, there is the kit. If it seems a bit on the large side, keep in mind that it is for a family of four. If it were just me, depending on the circumstances, I might leave it as is, or put the 1L pot out, and take just that.

The Swedish mess kit that can be purchased with the stove is also a very versatile setup. But, the things I prefer about this set are the following:

- 2 circular shaped frying pans.

- If using a lid, these are much easier to remove.

- The ability to bake.

How would I bake with these? I am glad you asked. Making something like damper bread would be a piece of cake with these. I would place 3 rocks in the bottom of the large pot. Grease (or flour) the lid from the small pot and put the damper bread in there and place that on the rocks in the larger pot. Put the large lid on. Rest the large pot on a bed of coals, and put additional coals on the lid.

Here is a photo of damper bread being cooked in the small lid. On this occasion I used the house stove because I was tweaking my bread recipe (I didn’t want too many variables in there). This damper was to accompany soup, so I added garlic and cheese to the mix. If it were for breakfast, I would have added brown sugar, raisins, dried fruit, or anything else you have with you.

Next is to try it with the coals. If it were my cast iron dutch oven, I would be able to do this with my eyes closed, as I have a lot of experience cooking with those. I am sure it will take me a couple trials getting used to the thinner, lighter and smaller stainless steel pot.

Eventually, I will post more pics of these pots in action.

Freezer Bag Cooking

2008-02-09T16:19:00.000-08:00

I actually wrote this article back in early January. I never posted it because I was planning on saving the content for the Backyard Bushcraft website. However, I have had many hosting issues, and decided to just start posting the articles I have been saving.

I did round two of this today, with a different recipe and it turned out really good.

A while ago I was researching dehydrators, mainly for drying out fruit. I really like dried fruit, especially apples. In doing so, I came across a really cool website called Freezer Bag Cooking.

It seems geared more towards backpackers, but many of the recipes can used for canoe trips, real deep backwoods, or even car camping where you don’t want to have to worry about refrigeration. I did not get the book, just printed off all of the recipes from the website. Looking through them, some of them actually look quite tasty!

As we have been cooking dinner and had leftover ground beef, or taco meat, or onions and bell peppers, I would just throw them in the dehydrator and dry them out for later. I finally got a good supply of my own dried foods in order to try one of the recipes out for the first time. You could of course buy the dried ingredients, but what the fun is that : )

So here are the ingredients laid out for the first recipe I tried. We have instant rice, cooked and dried red beans, dried onion, dried bell pepper, dried tomato and dried taco flavored meat. The recipe called for taco flavored TVP…..YUCK! I tell you something, if you ever catch me in the same room as TVP it is a cry for help. Slap me around and PLEASE drag me back out to the woods! There is also three different spices in the tablespoon: chili powder, minced garlic, and dried oregano.

All packed up in a gallon freezer back, ready to go in a pack:

I boiled one cup of water, and poured it in the bag. The Freezer Bag Cooking website sells fancy cozies for your cooking bag, but I went he knit hat route here.

Wait 10-15 minutes, and lunch is ready.

The best part about this whole thing is there are no additional cookware required, no extra plates and bowls to carry, and no cleaning dishes. Since you should be packing these extra freezer bags out too, once they are empty they have several other potential “survival” uses in case of emergency.

The important thing: how did it taste? I have to admit, it was only okay. There are some other recipes that look better, but I did not have all the right ingredients. The two things that could have improved this recipe is I don’t think the TVP to real meat conversion was quite correct. It could have used a bit more meat. Second, it could have used some more spices. It was kind of on the bland side. I think I will try both of those things next time, and I think it would greatly improve the taste.

I am looking forward to trying some more soon.

The Tentipi is Here!!!

2008-02-01T02:58:00.001-08:00

Well, the Tentipi showed up yesterday. Since it was coming from the UK, it got here quicker than I had expected.

By the time I got home from work, it was dinner time. We are supposed to be getting 6-10" of snow between the early morning and today, so Jen wanted to run out the store for some supplies in case she couldn't get out tomorrow.

I had to at least get it out, unroll it, read the directions and check everything over. At the first insepction, I was very impressed. By the time she got back it was well after dark, and below freezing. Do you think I am going to go out in the dark freezing weather and try setting up a new tent for the very first time? Of course I did!!!

The tent is a breeze to set up. There are basically ground straps that anchor the tent body to the ground. You go around in a circle and shove 8 stakes in the ground (not all the way, because you need to hook the ground straps to them). Then, you position the door where you want it, and go hook the ground straps all around. The ground straps are loosened all the way up to make setting up the tipi easier.

Next, you put in the center pole and pop the whole thing up. I have to admit, I went inside to put the pole in the center, and saw a bunch of cords inside and started to worry that this is going to get complicated quick. But, that was not the case. I put the pole it, popped the thing up, walked around the outside and tightened up the ground straps. That was it.

After it was all up, and in place, I figured out the cord system. It is actually a really cool setup. There are a couple sets of cords.
1) The storm cords on the outside are meant for staking the outside walls of the tipi in extremely bad weather. The instructions advise that they are only for "strong winds" and from people that I know have used these tipis claim that 99% of the time they do not use them. The cords are bundled up on the to the attachment point on the outside of the tipi, and there is a bungee with lock on it to hold it in place when not in use. A very slick setup.
2) Inside there is a set of cords running up to the ventilator caps. They are all bundled into one location, and run into a sleeve on the inside of the tipi. They each exit their own hole in the sleeve and have a lock on them for individual adjustment. These cords basically control one of the 2 ventilator caps up top. How many cords you pull control how open the cap becomes. Release the cord, and it is pulled back into position from the outside.

The two ventilator caps are pretty slick. The larger one will open directly to the sky with no netting. It is used for sticking a stove pipe through, or when you have an open fire on the ground. The smaller cap has a screen in place when opened up. This one is just used for ventilation in general. More on that later.

Besides having a door with a screen, this particular model has 3 fresh air vents around the bottom of the tipi. Besides allowing you to have an open fire, these vents are supposed to create air flow even on a hot windless day. The height differential between the inlet and outlet is supposed to create a chimney effect, and give air circulation even when there is no breeze. I have obviously not tried it yet, but from what I have heard, this is supposed one tent you can actually stand to get into during the middle of a hot day, while exposed to the sun. I am sure you all know how most typical tents are in that situation.

Back to the lower vents; in between the make support lines of the tent is where the vents are. Big and about 3 feet long. There is a smaller stake that holds the tent to the ground. Then there is a small storm cord that is staked about another foot out. This creates a little inlet. Then, on the inside of the tipi there is a zipper that allows you to control the size of the vent opening. Of course there is a screen in place to keep the bugs out.

I also got the optional floor with this, that unzips in the center to allow you to have an open fire. I checked out the floor, but did not try setting up that part in the dark and cold. More to come on that one.

I did not take any photos because it was so dark. The next time I get a chance to set this up during the day, I will take lots of photos.

All in all, I am extremely happy with the tipi. There is not a single thing I am disappointed with. The construction and the materials are unbelievable. But, while I am super impressed I also say that I damn well better be. This was not the price of your ordinary tent and therefore it should be everything that I expected it to be.

I also got the 2 Tatonka pans which are extremely nice. I won't bore you with a description. I will just take some photos of them in use when I get there.

That is all for now......hopefully some pictures next time.

Tentipi Enroute

2008-01-22T17:34:00.000-08:00

I have been drooling over a Tentipi for some time. They are definitely not the cheapest tent there is, but from all the features and performance they seem to provide, they seem worth it. Besides, this is our real family hobby. Some people golf, spend big on luxury vacations......we camp. The atmosphere having a fire inside your shelter creates will well be worth it, I think, especially in not so great weather, with a family.

So, I got the notice that it shipped today. There is no place that I know of to buy them in the US, so I ordered it from ProAdventure out of the UK. I got the Varrie model, with the floor that unzips for having a fire or using a stove. We will see how long it takes to get here:)

It carried quite a hefty shipping charge, but I don't feel so bad because the shipping was still cheaper than people in the UK have to pay in VAT :) 17.5% tax is just crazy.

Since shipping charges did not go up by adding more items, I couldn't resist getting a couple of Tatonka pans. This is obviously not where I ordered them from, it was just a better picture of them. I have not been able to find these in the US either. Normally I would not be able to justify the shipping charge for such an inexpensive item, but like I said, shipping did not get more expensive. I first saw the Tatonka in use in a Ray Mears video. I like the shape a bit better than the Zebra Billycans because they are bigger around, and shorter. I also figured the shape would be a bit better for cooking things other than water. Billycans seem to concentrate the heat in a smaller area, making it easier to burn stuff. That is the theory anyway, we will see when they get here and try them out. I ordered a 1L and a 1.6L pot, with lid that doubles as a skillet.

Purposely Not Posting.......

2008-01-16T12:13:00.001-08:00

I have purposely not been posting for a while. I have been writing stuff up, and saving articles and photos, but not publishing them. The reason is, I have had something in the works.

I was planning on making a series videos on how I sharpen knives with a belt sander. It seems I spend a lot of time on emails helping people out with that, so the videos seemed appropriate. I wanted to have short videos and text too. A blog post would work, but is not the best for long term storage. I came up with the idea to host it on a new website, and it just has snowballed from there to cover more topics too. So, I started a new website Backyard Bushcraft (www.backyardbushcraft.net).

It is currently only a skeleton, with very little content. I will be making functional changes, and adding content often. For now, I will probably duplicate posts here and there for awhile until I see how it things work out.

It should be fun……

Woods Bumming

2007-12-31T15:25:00.000-08:00

Today Brendan, Mojo and I went out to the woods. I don't bother calling it hunting anymore :) In fact today I only took my 22 pistol with blanks in it for training Mojo.

All in all, it was a great day. The weather was very nice. We just got a light dusting of new snow, so all the animal tracks that we saw today were very fresh. There were lots of them too. The temperature was very nice out too. Brendan walked a very long way today without really knowing it. I think because the pressure of hunting was gone, we were there just to have fun.

No camera today, just videos. So let's start with an easy one.

Here is Mojo with his nose down, hunting like he should.

These next two videos need a little explanation. If you ever wonder why we don't have too much success while hunting, these two videos will explain everything.

First, is Brendan crossing a tree that had come down across the trail. In the very first part of the video his is hitting it with his walking stick. He was doing that for about a minute before I got the camera out to film a "why we don't ever see any animals video :)" So, just use your imagination.

This one we were crossing more deadfall. I was quite far away (just zoomed in). Brendan didn't know where I was (hence the whistle) and was being silly.

Here is Brendan with his hot chocolate. He has no issue claiming that this is his favorite part about hunting.

We (I guess I should say Mojo) came across a small dead deer. I got it on video, but I didn't want to linger too long because I was afraid the dog would take too much interest in it.

That is all for this time out.

Free Bushcraft Knife Review

2007-12-30T04:20:00.000-08:00

I posted a few weeks back that I had one a Dan Koster Bushcraft knife. Bascially, Dan was making this knife new and for providing input, I won the prototype.

For a quick summary, I REALLY like this knife. Here are the full details.

Disclaimer1: This knife is the proto bushcrafter. Therefore it is possible that it is different than all the others being shipped. For sure, it is O1 steel. From there, only Dan really knows what is different. Since Dan was gracious enough to have a contest and give something away, I figured the least I could do was give a review with as much detail as possible. (added: The bushcrafter is now available as a standard model from Dan, and available in O1, along with other steels too).

Disclaimer2: There are no facts presented here :) Any time I state something, it is my opinion, and therefore subjective. So, if I state something that you don’t agree with, it is not fact anyway, and my opinion is not likely to change :)

First Impressions: The knife as received is exactly what I was expecting from the photos. Since this one was the proto (I think anyway) the edge was not as sharp as probably all the ones that were officially ordered. So, we spent some quality time on the belt sander. I merely followed the bevels that were currently in place (I am guessing 12-15 degrees per side??? I never measure anything :). I went down all the way to a leather belt with compound. This knife is now the sharpest thing that I own.

I touched it to my arm, and a whole lot of hair came off…..real easy. I meant to get a photo of that later, but forgot. My arm hair is grateful for not having to go through that again…….there is so little left from sharpening stuff these days :)

First, photos of the knife itself:

On to more review. First, the kitchen:

Kitchen Review: I used to quickly discard this type of testing. But, it has become really important to me. When I go into the woods for an extended period of time, I generally like to take 3 edged tools. A hand ax, a sheath knife, and a pocket knife. In general I don’t want to take any extra stuff, which can include kitchen knives, potato peeler, etc. Which means my sheath knife needs to get dinner ready as well as it can get a fire going.

The apple peel test. This knife performed excellent at this. In fact, it is the best non-kitchen knife I have ever used for this. It was very easy to do, and very little waste.

Now, try some carrots. The photos speak for themselves here. Not only was I able to cut pieces easily, the slice I am trying to show is darn thin!

On to some more fun stuff. I figured that the best way to test a bushcraft knife, is to do some bushcrafty type of stuff. So here we go:

Making a simple notch: I first started making a more traditional notch. Since this thing is so darn sharp, this is a piece of cake.

Finished notch:

Pointed notch: This one is not so typical. I make it by batoning the knife into the stick in two different places, 90 degrees to each other. Then, you carve out the notch.

End result:

Pot hanger: The pointed notch made earlier if very useful for and adjustable type of pot hanger. Here I carved off a section of stick, and put a dimple in the end to use with the pointed notch. All of this stuff was REALLY, REALLY fun and easy to do with this knife.

Making and eyelet: Cutting a small square eyelet is something that is typical in bushcraft. Here, I thinned down a branch to do just that. The point geometry of this knife makes this very easy to do. The first picture I am trying to show the tip popping out the eyelet hole, cross grain.

The final hole:

Featherstick: This knife does really well at this. A knife with more curvature to the blade (like the nessmuk) will actually make the feathers curl much, much more. But as far as being thin, I am able to make some of the thinnest feathers even with this knife. Just not much curl, which is just a nit picky thing.

Firesteel: Not so good on this one. The spine, while square seems to have a very small bevel on it. It makes it look very nice, and I can see how it would look “unfinished” without it. However, it does not make for easy striking of a firesteel. I think I might spend more time on the belt sander to make this square. But, I could actually get sparks, but it was not easy. Normally, I could light a featherstick like this, but not this way. (added: I just found out that after making this prototype, Dan made square spines on all his other bushcraft knives. So, this should not be an issue anymore. Additionally, a thumbramp can be added, which is a bunch of lines machined into the back for traction. I suspect they would produce a pretty good spark).

As an aside, I know that the firesteel strikers work well, and all that. But, for me, that is yet one more thing that have to have. I am much more aware of my knife, and where it is, and I am much less likely to loose it than I am a small striker. Therefore, I really like my knife to be able to do it to. I tried to get a photo of some sparks, but they were difficult to produce and time with the camera.

Suggestions: Besides a more square spine (for the firesteel) I only have one suggestion, and it might not even be a worthy one. I have seen (but not used) some bushcraft knives that try to have curvature all along the blade length. I will try to describe that with the following photo.

Overall, there is a long section of the blade that is basically straight. Attempted to be shown by the red line. It might be cool to have the blade more similar to very poorly drawn in blue line. Of course, this could effect the tip geometry which I like so much about this knife. So, once I had my own suggestion in my hand, I might not like it :)

Other things to note: The texture of the handle is great. Canvas micarta is one of my all time favorite handle materials. The texture on this is excellent (I believe it has been bead blasted in some way). It fits really well in my hand. I am sure the thicker slabs will be nice too. I am sure I would be happy with either. The blade length and proportions are all great.

Summary: This knife is a must have. It seems I change favorite knives as often as I change underwear :) But, I really like this one. As a general purpose type of knife, it works out great. As a camping type of knife, it is small and light, and you will not even be aware that you have it……which means that you will actually have it with you! The other great thing is that unlike some other knives that I own, it is very small and compact. So, if you are camping around other people, say a more typical campground, this one is not likely to scare people the way other knives might :)

As an added bonus, this knife is MUCH less expensive than you might think!

New EDC

2007-12-23T04:16:00.000-08:00

Well, sometime ago I abandoned my folding pocket knife in favor of a small fixed blade to carry everday. The main reasons being eliminating the folding mechanism and a better selection of steel.

The only problem is that the knife I was using was just too big. The blade was a little long, handle a bit bulking, and it was in a small leather sheath. Even though it was a small sheath, it was kind of a pain to dig out. Along comes the Swamp Warden......

These are great little knives from the Swamp. Made from SR101 steel, which is a modified 52100. If you ever do some searching about Swamp Rat knives, you will soon find that the steel is legendary. The Warden's come with a skeletonized handle. I didn't take my photos until I had already wrapped the handle if 550 cord.

The little kydex sheath works great for carrying it around your neck, or take the cord off and it goes nicely in the pocket. It is much better in my pocket than my previous knife....shorter, thinner, lighter.

I ordered two because I knew if I just got one, my wife would steal it. So, hers is the Sage colored, and mine is the black one.

A close up showing the cord warp.

Mojo in the Woods

2007-12-15T12:50:00.000-08:00

We have been working with Mojo a bit, with the rabbit scent and the sock and all that. But, today was the first day we got him out in the woods for a bit. Both Mojo and Brendan did really great today, and we even saw a rabbit!

At first, Brendan was trying to follow Mojo everywhere.

On our way out, it started snowing. You can only see a little bit of the flakes here.

Mojo.

I wanted to take a picture of me and Brendan together. Brendan always has to be silly for the camera lately.

Now all I have to do is spend about 2 hours picking all the "stick-ums" out of my Filson double mackinaw :)

Training the Dog Photo

2007-12-14T02:39:00.000-08:00

Jen dug up a photo that I didn't know she took while Brendan and I were playing with Mojo with our sock "rabbit."

Splitting Wood and Keeping your Fingers : )

2007-12-10T18:05:00.000-08:00

I visit and read a lot of knife forums. I was reading a post over on Blade Forums about a guy that was camping with some non-camping friends. He got up before the rest of them, and decided to start a fire and get things going. The only problem was they either had a little rain, or a little dew that cause him to have to split wood with an ax.

Splitting wood that is large enough to stand up on its own is easy enough. In this particular posting, the guy was splitting small pieces. There are several reasons to do that (more on that later). Once pieces can not stand up on their own, you need to revise your technique. This particular guy ended up chopping the tip of his finger off!!! YYYYEEEOOOWWW! When his friends woke up, he was passed out on the ground from blood loss.

The video below shows a very easy, but little used technique (at least I have never seen others use it) for splitting wood that is too small to stand up on its own.

There are several reasons for splitting wood this small:
- I carry emergency tinder with me, but it is saved for just that...emergency. So, without the aid of firestarter, newspaper, etc, small wood starts easy.
- For a small cooking fire, especially a lunch fire. Small pieces allow you to control heat better. It also gives you a fire that will die quickly after cooking so that you can get on to other activities.
- Wet wood! This is probably the most important one. When it has rained heavily, or even snowing, dry wood can be hard to find. Seasoned wood that gets wet will usually only be "wet" for the first 1/4 to 1/2 inch or so. Getting to the center of the wood will get you dry wood. With a properly made feather stick, and small split pieces of wood, this means you have all you need. Tinder and kindling all in one package.

If you have not been able to start a feather stick with a ferro rod, I encourage you to try. It is much easier than you think. I included a feather stick at the end of the video.

For all you gear junkies out there, the ax used here is a Gransfor Bruks Small Forest Ax.

Training the Puppy

2007-12-09T17:58:00.000-08:00

I don't have any pictures, but today Brendan had a blast training Mojo for rabbit hunting.

We are starting out the training easy. We have an old sock tied to a string that has rabbit scent on it. We tied Mojo up, and I ran around the backyard with the sock in tow behind me. I had Brendan pretend to chase the sock, but not catch it. This is let Mojo see what we were doing, and get him excited about doing it too. It worked too :)

The fun part was letting Mojo go, and letting Brendan run around with the sock and string. Between trying to run in all his snow gear, laughing so hard he could hardly run, and getting caught up in the string while running, I am surprised that Mojo never caught the "rabbit."

Brendan's laughing was the funniest part of the whole thing.

Batoning is not Abuse!!!

2007-12-08T11:38:00.000-08:00

The whole reason I made this video is that it seems on most knife forums that batoning is one of the most controversial subjects. Batoning is probably the source of more broken knives than any other use method.

Us owners of good knives love to do it, without fear or hesitation! But, you still see people saying stuff like:
- It is not necessary.
- You should never need to do it.
- Wrong tool for the job.
- They are not going to select a knife based on being able to baton.
- Etc, etc, etc.

I think people think of batoning as using a big knife to split wood. That is exactly what this video is about..... a different type of batoning.

Here, I am using a small knife (SR YK) and a baton to make something very common in bushcraft. A notch. This method is very quick, very effective, and has multiple uses. Making a cooking crane, tent peg, tarp guy line peg, pretty much anything you would need a notch for.

I really like how my dog IMMEDIATELY runs off with my baton the second I set it down :)

Scray Yard Yard Keeper Edge

2007-12-05T03:05:00.000-08:00

I was very fortunate to get a very nice gift from Blade 2007. A friend that lives in Georgia, and was very close to the Blade show was able to attend. He bought me one of the Scrap Yard Knives Yard Keepers, which was a blade show only exclusive.

I had been undecided on whether or not I was going to use it. In order to keep avoiding making that decision I have just been using other knives of similar size.

Then, a user on the Scrap Yard Forums (Horn Dog, also in GA) really re-profiled the edge of his, and put in through a set of tests where the knife performed extremely well. This got me itching to get mine out and do the same.

Just an FYI, this is a short, stout, thick little knife. The blade is approximately 1/4" thick.

First, my sharpening device. I use a variety of gritted belts, leather belts and compounds:

On to the knife edge. I tried to take several angles. It is hard to show in photos:

As a test of sharpness, I made a very QUICK fuzz stick. I know I can do better than this, but this was just done very quickly.

No Posts for Awhile

2007-12-05T03:03:00.000-08:00

It has been quite some time since I have made a post. The main reason is that we took a long Thanksgiving weekend to visit family in Georgia. Jen posts about all the family stuff over on the family blog, so I have had really nothing to post about.

Other than our trip, it has just been work, and taking care of the kids. Except for the next post I am about to write.

Today is a sad day......

2007-11-15T05:18:00.000-08:00

Today is the opening day of firearm deer season in Michigan. It used to be the most anticipated day of the year for me……and today I am at work.

I have decided the last couple years to not run off on my own, and leave the family and kids. Instead, I have taking Brendan out in the woods doing some of the more laid back hunting (squirrel hunting) that he is capable of at his age. I don’t want to rush is growing up (believe me, I don’t want that) but eventually, we will see if he will take to bowhunting, and later rifle hunting. Then, it doesn’t have to be non-family time. As far as Maddie, we will see how she takes to being in the woods.

So today, I sat outside to watch the sunrise and to imagine what it would be like to be in the woods. Lots of memories come back.

Luckily, I can still hear Fred Bear!

A New Batch of Sheaths

2007-11-08T10:15:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, none of these are for me, including the knife. The Swamp just released their new Weiler. So, I hurried and made of 5 sheaths to sell off. Here they are:

Rabbits Beware!!!

2007-11-05T18:41:00.000-08:00

This was not exactly planned, but I said that if I ever got another dog, I wanted another beagle. We always had beagles growing up, and rabbit hunting with them is a blast. Besides, beagles are notoriously loyal family dogs.

This one will be a pet first, but I would also like to work with him to hunt. I think Brendan would really like that when he gets older too.

If you never got to grow up with a dog, it is great, but hard to explain. Like trying to explain to someone that doesn't have kids how you can not imagine life without them. They just won't get it.

Here is the pup and Jen.

Chillin in the living room.

Playing in the leaf pile.

Maddie and the puppy sacked out. It is amazing how well they all get along so quickly.

Koster Nessmuk

2007-10-29T12:17:00.001-07:00

This is going to seem odd. But the day before I found out that I won the Koster Bushcraft knife, I made a straight up trade deal for a Koster Nessmuk. Well, it came……

All I have to say is this thing rocks! I really did not think that I would like it. But, I traded with the attitude that I wasn’t using the knife I traded it for anyway, so what do I have to lose?

I am not going to mention here how many knives I have, because it is borderline ridiculous. Let’s just say that it is a tough crowd, and this one has gone straight to the top of my list. Thickness, sharpness all that good stuff is on par with most things that I have. The fit in the hand is perfect, but there is something else I can’t put my finger on. I don’t know if it is the blade shape or what it is, but the thing just cuts are carves like mad.

Being that I have so many 4-5 inch knives, and the Koster contest winner coming, I think I have to have a full out bushcraft knife showdown. More to come on that.

Take a good look at this one. I won’t look like this for long at all……….

Lucky Me!

2007-10-26T12:42:00.000-07:00

I won a prototype knife!

Custom knife maker Dan Koster was having a contest at his section of Blade Forums. The contest was to submit ideas for him to design his next knife, a bushcraft knife.

I replied with my ideas. I did not think it was anything spectacular or anything. But the next thing you know, I got an email with a link to the thread saying that "I had won!"

So, not only is the knife being made with my ideas in mind, I am getting the first one free!

Thank you Dan. I am sure I will be posting here and elsewhere about the knife once I get it.

The Power of the Pocket Ax

2007-10-24T11:36:00.000-07:00

It should be of no surprise to anyone that I am a knife nut. If I am not playing with them, I am sharpening them. If I am not doing that, I am making sheaths for them.

If you ever happen across any knife or bushcraft forum, you are bound to come across a recent argument on the age old topic of what is better: “A large knife, or an ax?” For the uninitiated, when I say “ax” I do not necessary mean a full size felling ax. The smaller “pocket ax” is still an ax. I have a problem with calling it a hatchet.

Opinions are going to vary based on location. For example, I really do not think that you would want an ax in the jungle. But, I have to admit, for all the things that I can think of, and that I regularly do, I have always preferred the large knife. It has just seemed more versatile to me.

Over the past couple of years, I have learned more and more about what you can really do with an ax. Even a small ax. It became clear that my original assessment was not really accurate. I mean, how can I compare two things If I don’t know as much as possible about one of them?

Reading Old Jimbo’s website, I came across a good demonstration of what can be done, even with a pocket ax, by a knowledgeable person.

Photo courtesy of Old Jimbo’s website.

Backyard Treasure Hunting

2007-10-22T07:49:00.000-07:00

Brendan is always digging in the same spot in the back yard for treasure. We have gone Geocaching quite a bit, but it is hard to explain using the compass and GPS together when finding those treasures. So, I decided to make up our own backyard treasure hunting game for him this weekend. Hopefully, he will unknowingly learn how to use a compass in the process.

First, I took a 35mm film can, and hid a prize in it. Then, I buried it in the back yard. I drew out a map of the backyard and then did the following:

- Picked a starting point.

- Converted number of Brendan steps to the number of my steps.

- Picked a compass bearing and paced it out.

- Converted that to Brendan steps.

- I repeated the bearing thing two more times. I didn’t want to just point him straight to the treasure.

- I tried to pick even bearings that were on the compass dial. Trying to count out bearings on a small compass dial is a bit much for a 5 year old.

- I drew this all on the map.

That was it. We started, and I helped him read the numbers on the compass until we found treasure.

He wanted to do it again and again, except he started pulling out things from his tackle box (rubber worms) for treasures. He also wanted to hide the treasure himself and pick the starting point. I helped him create the map and of course he didn’t have any trouble finding his own stuff.

Overall, it was pretty fun. We will have to do it on a larger scale soon.

Fusion Steel Heart Sheath

2007-10-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

I have not had much time to do this sort of thing lately. The days are too nice, there are too many fun things to do outside this time of year, and we have been super busy with photos.

However, this one was for a friend in Georgia. I wanted to try and get it done for him before his camping season gets into full swing.

The sheath style is a dangler. It is supposed to pivot with your hip. There is a leg tie down spot on the back if necessary. Also, the top belt loop can be removed, and I plan on sending him a shoulder strap for it soon. The ring allows for a lot of versatile carry options.

That is also a "Light My Fire" Army sized firesteel sewn into the front.

Here it is....

Nessmuk Quote

2007-10-11T08:07:00.001-07:00

I recently read a work called Woodcraft and Camping by George Washington Sears, otherwise known by his given Indian name of Nessmuk. The work is over a century old, but I really liked the following quote from the book, and it just goes to show you that things were not so different over a century ago.

“With a large majority of prospective tourists and outers, “camping out” is a leading factor in the summer vacation. And during the long winter months they are prone to collect in little knots and talk much of camps, fishing, hunting, and “roughing it.” The last phrase is very popular and always cropping out in the talks on matters pertaining to a vacation in the woods. I dislike the phrase. We do not go to the green woods and crystal waters to rough it, we go to smooth it. We get it rough enough at home; in towns and cities; in shops, offices, stores, banks anywhere that we may be placed – with the necessity always present on being on time and up to our work; of providing for the dependent ones; of keeping up, catching up, or getting left. Alas for the life-long battle, whose bravest slogan is bread.”

- George Washington Sears (Nessmuk); Woodcraft and Camping

I am currently reading a similar book by Kephart, who was heavily influenced by Nessmuk. I am sure I will have some later posts on that book. But, it is a BIG book.

I Polished My Marbles

2007-10-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

Marbles is a knife company, by the way : )

This is a knife that I have had around for awhile. It has a lot of sentimental value. Marbles is a company that used to make knives in Michigan's UP. You could stop in right at the factory and buy one. Today, I think someone bought out the company. While they are still making similar knives, I can no longer be sure where they are made :(

Anyway, Jen and I bought this one at the factory on her first UP camping trip we went on way back when. That is one of the reasons I liked it so much.

A few years ago, I shot a deer up in the UP in the late morning. We hunt sun up to sundown there, and I was miles away from my friends and camp. I field dressed the deer, but forgot a little bone saw that I usually carry to cut the pelvic bone. So, I decided to just cut through it, which probably would have been fine. But, my wrist slipped, and I twisted the blade taking a chip out.

I was pretty bummed. At the time, and even recently, this type of repair was beyond my abilities. Being anal about a chip in the blade, I knew I probably would not use this knife again, and considered it ruined.

This knife also has a convex edge on it. Since I now considered this knife "ruined" I figured I would practice my convex sharpening on it, with a mousepad and sandpaper. I got it sharp, but managed to scratch the heck out of the blade. You can see the scratches and the chip in the first two pictures.

A closer view of the chip.

Today, I decide to fix the knife up, and put the original convex edge back on using a belt sander. I really polished the edge up, and wish I would have spent more time taking the pictures to really show that. Here are the after pictures.

I couldn't have been happier with the way this turned out. Not only is the chip gone, but the knife is much sharper than it has ever been before. I look forward to getting to use it again.

Dutch Oven Cooking

2007-10-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went camping with Jen’s girly group from the city. We stayed local so that other non-campers could join in the events. So, we were not roughing it or anything, but we were still camping. I got a chance to use my dutch ovens a bit, which is always fun.

I have two ovens, a 10 inch diameter and a 12 inch diameter one. I usually use them both while we are camping with the family. But, many of the available dutch oven recipes are meant to feed a large group of people. So I have been forced to adapt other recipes for the dutch oven while we camp. Usually I do the standard stuff….cinnamon rolls for breakfast, chicken and rice, etc.

This weekend I got to do some stuff I hadn’t done in a while, or at all. For the group pot luck, I made a chicken pot pie in one. Basically chicken, vegetables, potatoes, gravy, and a crust on top.

For desert, I made peach cobbler in the smaller oven. It is amazingly simple to do, but turns out just unbelievable. I think that was the most popular thing I made.

The next morning everyone pitched in to do breakfast for the group. Someone else browned up sausage patties, and I made biscuits in my large oven. When the biscuits were done we separated the top from the bottom while they were still in the oven. We put the sausage and cheese in them, and put the tops back on. I let the cook for another minute, until the cheese melted. I have never done those before and they turned our REALLY good.

Believe it or not, breads and biscuits are one of the toughest things to get right in a dutch oven. Unless you are cheating, and have a separate pan inside the oven. I couldn’t do that because the amount I was cooking. Otherwise, with no pan, you have to pull the oven from the bottom heat and let it continue to cook with top heat only, so that the bottom does not burn.

Jen didn’t even have her camera out for this trip. But, I definitely need to start taking a couple of pictures of this stuff.

Catching Things On Fire

2007-09-24T12:42:00.000-07:00

This whole post is about following the old boy scout motto of “be prepared.”

I am not sure how many non-outdoors people follow this type of thing. But, whenever I go into the woods I usually take a minimal amount of stuff with me. The more remote the area, the more stuff that usually goes with me. One of the things I always have is at least a couple of means to make fire. A lighter is the good old standby, and is more than likely the only thing you will ever need. It has been all I have ever needed for a long, long time. But, things can happen. You can have a leak of fluid which could render it completely useless, or simply take a dunk in the lake which may make it useless until it can dry out. That is where the ferro rod comes in. They are very compact, very tough, and still work when wet. Even if you manage to break one, you still have plenty use in terms of pieces. That is why it is good to have one to fall back on.

For years, I have always had one to fall back on. But, the extent of my testing with it was to scrape it quickly, and to see it spark. Sure enough, I would get a spark, and it would go back in my bag. It is a far cry from actually starting a fire with one. So, I figured I better experiment a little.

The old standby tinders are cotton balls (usually soaked in petroleum jelly) and dryer lint. Lighting both of those are EXTREMELY easy. In fact, I can probably light a cotton ball from 4 feet away if my aim is good. I carry a couple of PJ soaked cotton balls in an old 35mm film canister in my outdoors pack. Enough testing? No way!

It should go without saying that a means for firestarting should literally be strapped to you, and in your pocket. It is cool to have more in your pack, but this is the norm for all those that believe in Mr. Murphy. The classic example of this is flipping your canoe in cold water, and becoming separated from your pack. Cold and with no gear, you will need a fire. So, I wanted to try the ferro rod on natural materials found in the typical woods around. Brendan and I have tried a few things so far.

I should stop here to note that Brendan has the same pyro tendencies as me. He likes fire. So, I let him help me start the BBQ and the campfires. If he sees me using the ferro rod, he wants to also. He is actually pretty good, and has started a few fires with the ferro rod. More specifics below.

Birch Bark – I rate this one an easy. Take a knife and scrape the bark a little to get some fine shavings to catch sparks. Once you do this, the shavings catch the spark, and the rest of the bark burns like gasoline! Birch bark actually contains an oil and is famous for being able to be lit even after it is soaked in water. Brendan was able to do this one on his own too.

Dry field grass – Dry grass alone is not so easy. It just requires more precision with where the spark is landing, and you need to get a good hot spark. This one was hard enough that I didn’t let Brendan try. Although, you combine this with cattail fluff and you got a GREAT combo. More on that later.

Cattail Fluff – I tried this once with cattail fluff that just felt very “green.” It didn’t light well, and I couldn’t even start it with a match. So, I tried one that was beginning to shed naturally. I could instantly tell that was much drier. This stuff is rated extremely easy. Brendan did this one extremely easy as well. The only issue with this one is that it is almost like gasoline. The smallest bit of spark an it takes off like an explosive and it is very FAST. Since your flame do not last that long you are better off combining it with another tinder (see the next one). The flame on this one is so explosive that I had some dried pine needles setting about a foot to the side to experiment lighting those later. The cattail went up in such high flames it caught those on fire too! I guess I will have to get more pine needles to play with!

Cattail fluff and dry grass – Combining these two made things real easy. The cattail lights so easy, and the dry grass will carried the flame for a longer period of time. Brendan did this one with no issues.

Pine Firestick – This one was the most fun. As Ray Mears would say “firesticks are the most undervalued source of tinder.” I used about a 1 ½ diameter dried branch from a white pine. With a very sharp knife, you carve increasingly smaller curls into the wood (that stay on the stick) until you end with real FINE curls. They have to be fine, because they need to catch a spark. This lit pretty easy, but you have to be a lot more accurate with where you are shooting sparks. You are not just shooting sparks into a big pile of dry stuff. Because of this, I did not let Brendan try this one. I am anxious to try other types of wood, like maple. I picked pine for this one because it was my first go at a firestick with a ferro rod, and I figured it would be easy. So, we will see how the other ones do.

Maybe next time I will have a couple photos of Brendan in action.

Better for the Environment - Bushcraft or Gear?

2007-09-19T13:08:00.000-07:00

It seems over the past few years all the activities that I have done in the past have become much more gear intensive (and complicated). I remember hunting, fishing, and roasting a marshmallow to be pretty simple things. Today, it seems you can not open a hunting magazine without seeing ads for $300 rain gear, scent elimination clothing, all kinds of gadgets and gizmos to put on your bow, and let’s not forget about all the electronics that are supposed to keep you from getting lost or talking to your buddies.

When I was growing up, and we either went camping or had a bon fire we always cut our own marshmallow stick from green sticks growing around the yard. The stuff always grew back quickly, and never made that connection until recently.

As I got older, I started feeling guilty about cutting down a living thing to roast a marshmallow. Conveniently, every outdoors store sells a nice metal, chrome plated (probably made in china) device to roast stuff over the fire. So I bought one. No more feeling guilty about cutting green sticks.

I have not thought much on this topic until recently watching all of the first two seasons of Bushcraft by Ray Mears. As the name implies, the series is about how to do things in the woods with natural materials. Of course, his shows are really interesting because there is a lot of history provided, but that is getting off topic.

It begs the question…..what is better for the earth? Cutting a couple of green sticks, which are likely to re-grow quickly? Or to have petroleum based equipment extract metal from the earth, ship it to a manufacturing plant, form it in the shape of a fork, but a nice chrome plating and wooden handle on it, then ship it all over the world so that we have a nifty little gadget? I will leave that one to you.

I think the reason it was not so obvious before, like anything else, when you do it yourself you see the consequences first had. While they may be bad, they are far better than the alternative. Kind of like how killing a cow and butchering it is probably not high on anyone’s “want to do list.” But, when you buy the nicely packaged steak (or stop at McDonald’s) none of those thoughts about killing and butchering enter your mind because you didn’t do it (directly anyway).

The same concept can be extended to many examples in the woods. For example, if you have to purify water, would it be better to start a small fire by gathering some dead wood, and possibly cutting a green stick or two to suspend at pot to boil water? Or to have some pump made from plastic with rubber hose and a paper filter with carbon and who knows what else in it? Again, it goes back to seeing the small impact you made to the earth, and not seeing the bigger impact that someone else has made for you.

The Medicine in the Sky

2007-09-14T12:17:00.001-07:00

I am blatantly copying this from someone else's blog, but it is true. So, I wanted it here as well.

It is Tale 71 from Ernest Thompson Seton's "Woodland Tales."

This is one of the greatest and best secrets of Woodcraft--The Medicine in the Sky.

Let me tell you a story about it. There was once an Indian who left his own people, to live with the white man, in the East. But the Great Spirit was displeased, for he did not mean the Indian to live in houses or cities. After a year, the red man came back very thin and sick, coughing nearly all night, instead of sleeping. He believed himself dying.

The wise old Medicine Man of his tribe said, "You need the Medicine of the Sky." He took it and got quite well and strong.

Another Indian, who had gone to visit with a distant tribe of red men, came back with some sickness on his skin that made it very sore. It was far worse than Poison Ivy, for it began to eat into his flesh. The Medicine Man said, "Sky Medicine will cure you." And it did.

One day a white man, a trader, came with chest protectors to sell to the Indians. He was sure they needed them, because he did; and, although so well wrapped up, he was always cold. He suffered whenever the wind blew. The old Medicine Man said, " We don't need your chest pads, and you would not if you took the Sky Medicine." So the trader tried it, and by and by, to his surprise and joy, no matter whether it was hot or cold outdoors, he was comfortable.

This man had a friend who was a learned professor in a college, and he told him about the great thing he had learned from the old Indian. The professor was not old, but he was very sick and feeble in body. He could not sleep nights. His hair was falling out, and his mind filled with gloomy thoughts. The whole world seemed dark to him. He knew it was a kind of disease, and he went away out West to see his friend. Then he met the Medicine Man and said to him, "Can you help me?"

The wise old Indian said, "Oh, white man, where do you spend your days?"

"I spend them at my desk, in my study, or in the classroom."

"Yes, and your nights?"

"In my study among my books."

"And where do you sleep?"

"I don't sleep much, thought I have a comfortable bed."

"In the house?"

"Yes, of course."

"Listen, then, O foolish white man. The Great Spirit set Big Medicine in the sky to cure our ills. And you hide from it day and night. What do you expect but evil? Do this and be saved. Take the Sky Medicine in measure of your strength."

He did so and it saved him. His strength came back. His cheeks grew ruddy, his hands grew steady, his hair ceased falling out, he slept like a baby. He was happy.

Now what is the Sky Medicine? It is the glorious sunlight, that cures so many human ills. We ask every Woodcrafter to hold on to its blessings.

And in this wise, O Guide, you must give it to the little ones. Make it an honorable exploit to be sun burnt to the elbows without blistering; another to be sun burnt to the shoulders; another to the waist; and greatest of all, when sun burnt all over. How are they to get this? Let them go to some quiet place for the last, and let the glory fall on their naked bodies, for ten minutes each day. Some more, and some less, according to their strength, and this is the measure--so long as it is pleasant, it is good.

In this way they will inherit one of the good things of the woods and be strong and hardened, for there is no greater medicine than the Sun in the sky.

We Have Fire

2007-09-13T04:50:00.001-07:00

It is not all that cold up here yet. But, it has been getting down in the upper 40s at night. Anxious to try out the new woodstove and installation, we fired it up last night. Just a small kindling fire, for about a half hour or so. Everything worked great, it looks even nicer.

With the stove, you are supposed to have 3 small break-in fires anyway. The paint cures with heat, cements for the gaskets cure with heat, etc. So, you are supposed to break it in a bit. We will probably have a couple more small fires before it gets really cold. Hopefully some pictures too.

Hybrids - Good for you....bad for the environment

2007-08-31T07:37:00.001-07:00

Below is a link to an interesting article regarding an auto research firm that spent two years collecting data on the environmental impact of cars.

They do what they call a "dust to dust" analysis of everything that goes into a vehicle, from manufacturing until it hits the scrapyard. It is not surprising that fuel economy becomes a very small part of the equation for all the "energy" put into the vehicle.

If you are out for yourself, that is fine. If you think you are doing the world a favor by driving a hybrid, do some more research.

Read the full article here.

More Leather

2007-08-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

I think these two are my best one yet........................

BushCraft and Too Much Gear

2007-08-06T12:05:00.000-07:00

I have been watching a lot of Ray Mears shows lately. Mainly because I found a website where I could download all of his videos. They are not aired on any TV station that I am aware of in the States.

He has older series about survival skills and all that. But, his newest series is all about Bushcraft, not survival. It is very interesting because the way he shows things is like a history lesson. Showing how people of generations ago with do things only with what they could find in the wilderness. He also shows how some of this stuff is being forgotten, and how some communities/people are still carrying on the skills. All very interesting.

That is not my point though. Ray made a really interested point about gear. When he gets ready to make camp, he ends up making a lot of his stuff. Cooking sticks, cooking spits, wooden tripods, wooden racks, you name it. His comment that has stuck with me is this: He said that when people visit the wilderness they tend to get very caught up in gear. Having the right piece of equipment for everything, and they try to bring luxury into the wilderness. In doing so, they are actually isolating themselves from the wilderness, which almost puts them in a fight against it. Quite different than trying to understand it, work with it, and get the most from being there. Less gear is better.

BBQ'ing for LOTS of People

2007-07-23T05:52:00.001-07:00

This Saturday was our neighbors graduation open house, and I bbq’ed the meat for them. The plan was for 115 people! On the meat menu was pulled (bbq’ed) pork, bbq chicken, seasoned chicken and of course the ole standby of hamburgers and hot dogs.

I had 31 pounds of pork shoulder to smoke. So, I started with 13 pounds in my smoker on Thursday night. I pulled it off Friday morning, wrapped and stuck it in a pre-heated cooler. Around lunch time, Jen pulled it and she and Jim (the neighbor) had to taste test it for lunch. Jen put that first batch in the refrigerator to be reheated for the party.

I put another 18 pounds to smoke on Friday night. I put it on around 11pm and scheduled it to come off about 3 hours before eating time. Again, I wrapped that, stuck it in a pre-heated cooler, and covered it all in towels. That batch was ready to be pulled at eating time and Jen did that for me.

With that out of the way, I switched the smoker over to cook chickens with indirect heat, and put 4 chickens on it. I had two weber kettles going and set that up for indirect cooking as well, and put about a chicken and a half on each. All of it was cooked with hickory smoke, and the indirect cooking keeps it juicy and makes the skin a bit crisp and keeps you from having to move stuff around or have the chance of burning it. Meanwhile, the previous set of pork was in the oven at 250 degrees to be reheated slowly.

All that chicken was ready about 15 minutes before eating time, and was put in the chafing dishes to keep warm. At this time, one weber kettle was converted over for direct heat cooking and the hamburgers and hot dogs were thrown on there. I kept the smoker and other weber cooking chicken until we were done for the night.

Overall, it went extremely well. My mom and dad came down to watch the kiddies so that Jen and I could help get ready and/or cook. Brendan was well entertained chasing cute girls around, so my dad was able to help me out on the grills, and of course to man the keg. It’s a sucky job, but someone has to do it.

I got lots of compliments, mostly on the pork. Everyone seems to really love that stuff, and it is something that you don’t find up here very much. Sharon (the neighbor) and Jen had said that people had told them stuff like “It was the best food they have ever had at a party” and that people had asked if this is what I did for a living. So, I guess you could say that everyone was happy with the food :) I am just glad that everything went smooth.

Sierra Club and Stupid People

2007-07-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

I don’t think this post is going to be very much fun, because it is mostly a rant about how people fail to think for themselves.

The last couple of months, I have going to Sierra Club sponsored events called “Sierra Club and Beer.” It is free beer…….. of course I have to go see what it is all about. I try to keep an open mind, and really want to like the Sierra Club, and I am still trying to like them. But two things really bother me.

First, all their initiatives seem to revolve around global warming. I am the type of person that does not believe second and third hand information and I need facts to convince me of stuff. I believe that the earth naturally goes through global warming and global cooling cycles. I believe there may be enough information to convince me that we are currently in one of the warming cycles. However…..I do not think that anybody has enough concrete evidence to convince me that humans, with all their destructive actions against the earth (I will not argue that) have had a significant impact on the natural cycle. In the end though, I agree with the Club’s actions, meaning the actual actions that they suggest people should take. So I am willing to overlook the global warming thing.

The thing that really bothers me though is the club keeps sending e-mails to “Stop Arctic Drilling because it threatens caribou.” And they are asking you to “To please send a generous donation today to help us protect the Western Arctic.”

Now, let’s think about this for a minute. Anyone that knows me will know that I would be all for the protection of the wilderness, wild animals, and anything that is not the city or the suburbs. So in theory, I would be against arctic drilling, and I do not necessarily want it. But, do you think anybody wants to drill in the arctic? The oil companies sure don’t. They would much rather go drill in a dry field in Texas, or somewhere in the Middle East. The problem is, there is no more oil there!!!!

To me, this is quite scary. If companies and governments are willing to travel to the Western Arctic for oil supplies, that tells me that all other easily obtainable locations are gone. It should be no surprise to anyone that world oil production has been steady (not increasing) for quite some time now. Of course demand has been going up, and will likely continue thanks to American’s insatiable urge to spend themselves into debt with Chinese produced garbage. It is extremely scary to me to think that the oil companies are all but telling us “Hey we are running out of oil, so we have to journey off to the frozen, desolate arctic in order to get some more.” And now people want to stop them!!!

Seriously, am I the only one that is seeing this? These people that want to stop the drilling for new oil or probably the same people that have a much bigger house than they need, more toys than they need, all the electronic gizmo’s and “advances” that our modern society can not live without. In the end, they are missing the point. I think it is really sad.

If clubs like the Sierra Club really want to fix the problem, I do not think they should be concentrating on the oil obtaining aspect of the problem. Instead, they should be focusing on the decrease in the oil dependence of society. Unfortunately, I don’t think that will work either because people are lazy and greedy. They will only care about themselves, and think that there is no way that the current lifestyle of our society could ever change.

Instead of people changing out of good will, I am afraid that it will be a situation that is forced upon people. That is okay though, because as the saying goes “You don’t have to outrun the bear, just the guy next to you.”

If you think you want to stop drilling for oil in the arctic, think about the alternative. Much higher gas costs. Just imagine gas at $10 or $15 a gallon, which is not too unrealistic. How would your life change?

- Would you need to drive so far to work?

- Would you even have a job?

- Could you afford your car?

- Almost everything produced from computers, to gadgets, to food all use gasoline in their production process and in transport. Last I knew plastic did not grow out of the ground. How would that affect your purchasing habits?

- Is any of the “advancements” that our society is striving for as important anymore? Are they really improving your life?

In general, I think people have forgotten how to just live. There is too much obsession with things that are not really important.

Camping Fun

2007-07-19T12:12:00.000-07:00

As you know, Jen already posted pictures and stories of our UP camping trip. Although, there is one story that she thought it would be appropriate for me to tell. It involves out sleeping arrangements.

We just set up the tent and “camped” at my friends 50 acres. Since that was a quick trip, we left Jen and Maddie’s sleeping bags behind and they shared a BIG one that I used for cold weather camping. For our latest trip, we were planning on going back to the original sleeping bag arrangements. In packing all our gear for this trip I had to make sure that I grabbed all the right sleeping bags. As always, grabbing all this stuff and packing it in a timely manner is chaos, but I was sure I grabbed all the correct sleeping gear.

When we get to our camp site, we popped up the tent. In order to keep bugs out of the tent, I just start chucking all the stuff in the tent that belongs there, and then we can go in and set things up. Again, I was paying particular attention to anything, just looking at stuff and if it goes in the tent, throw it in. Well, while I was doing something else, Jen set up everything for inside. I hear her say from inside the tent that her bag is not in there. I check everywhere outside, and it is not there either. So, okay, I messed up, so I will go without a bag.

Normally, in mid-July this would not be an issue. But, for some reason a cold front came in that day. By dinner time we were all wearing sweatshirts all ready. I knew it was going to get a bit cold that night. Luckily, we did have a thin picnic blanket in the car, so I figured I would use that. It ended up getting pretty cold. I ended up waking up cold a couple times in the middle of the night, and kept throwing clothes (shirts, sweatshirts, etc) on top of my “blanket” to try and stay a bit warmer. I also had to curl up because the blanket was not long enough to cover me.

If you are wondering if I have a point to this story, it is coming.

That night was over, I only had one more to do like that before moving on to the cabin. The following night, rain was predicted. I told Jen to make sure everything is moved away from the tent walls, because even though it is water-resistant, water will leech through if anything was touching. While moving stuff away from the walls, what does Jen find in the corner, beneath her cot!!!! YES, it was her sleeping bag!!!!!

Needless to say, the second night did not get nearly as cold, and I pretty much did not need the sleeping bag :)

It is no big deal, I just thought it was a funny story.

Another one

2007-06-24T06:06:00.001-07:00

Different style for a different knife.....

Better at an Old Hobby

2007-06-19T05:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted anything new for quite awhile because I have either been busy working on the house, and stuff around the house, or doing stuff with the kids that Jen has been posting on the family blog.

But, lately, I have been stitching leather in my free time. I have "hacked" stuff together in the past. Mainly with an EZ-Awl, and using a lock stitch. The past few months, I have been making knife sheaths. But, using the EZ-Awl, I was pretty limited to how thick of leather I could stitch. So, the stuff I was making was just functional, but not that professional.

In the past few weeks, I have learned how to do the things that I want, and really make the nice too. Here are pics of a sheath I just completed. This one came out extremely well. But, I am in the middle of two more and they are even better. I learned a couple of small tweaks making this one.

The front of the sheath.

The back. Getting the stitches straight on the back was something I was never good at. Getting them straight on the front is easy, the back is the tricky part.

One side, showing the finished edges, and how thick the sheath is.

The other side, showing the knife fit.

This pic is a little fuzzy, but it shows a close up of the hand-stitch job.

First Aid Training

2007-05-17T10:01:00.000-07:00

I am already trained in Basic First Aid, CPR and AED through the Red Cross. It is part of a program here at work, and we renew the training every year. I have always been disappointed in the training though, because it has been very basic, and the answer to most questions is "the average EMT response time in this area is 7 minutes. Just do these simple things, and then wait."

That is all well and good if you are in the city. Since I frequenty go away from the city I have always wanting to know more. Especially since the family will be going with me, and more and more as they get older. My inital look at more training found that there was not much for the average person, and geared more towards EMTs or nurses.

I finally came across this program: The Wilderness Medical Center

It is a requirement for US Forest Service backwood guides, and any many other outfitters as well.

I have also spoken with people that have taken the course, and they have had nothing but good things to say about it. I have also been told that there have been a lot of doctors and EMTs to take this course and learn quite a bit about how to do stuff without fancy equipment at their disposal.

This is pretty much exactly what I was looking for, so I will have to sacrifice 5 of my vacation days to be able to do this next year.

Biking to Work

2007-05-06T17:47:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been planning it for a while and have been mainly waiting on the weather. But, last Friday was the first day I rode my bike to work and back.

I estimated from looking at maps that it was around 17 miles one way. I can't take my normal route to work, because there is too much highway type stuff that isn't good for a bike. I found a route with two major roads that seemed like it would work well. I drove it a couple times, making sure there was adequate sidewalk and all the whole way. Riding a bike 17 miles usually would not be a big deal. But, because of traffic, and the roads, this was not the typical ride where you could get on a road bike, and stay on the side of the road and keep a good consistent pace. Instead, I was using sidewalks, crossing streets, speeding up, slowing down. Because of all this, a mountain bike is much more suited to that type of riding. I wasn't ever worried about making it or not. I was worried about making it to work in a reasonable time to be able to do it without taking forever.

I wanted to train a bit, and work myself up for it. But, I didn't want to take off and leave the family alone, and ride for an hour in the evening, to go nowhere, and ride in circles. I am not one for doing stuff that doesn't actually accomplish something. So, I rode a hard 2 miles around the neighborhood, and called it good : ) I figured it was only going to happen if I just did it.

Here are some lessons I learned from the first trip:

- It was farther than I thought.
- It was farther than I thought.
- I used to ride 15 miles of actual mountain bike trail, without it seeming that difficult.
- Did I mention that "used to" has a whole new meaning now : )
- I learned what side of the road to be on in certain areas, because the sidewalk ends sometimes.
- I learned that the spot where the sidewalk ends is different in different directions.
- Even though people pulling out of roads and driveways have plenty of room before and after the sideway, they will always block the sidewalk, and never be aware of it.
- Even though you would catch the occassional breath of exhaust, and the air is probably not as clean as it should be, the mornings are a lot nicer on a bike, than riding in a cage.
- Watch the weather forecast for wind. I had to ride home right into the wind, and it was much tougher.
- It did feel rather nice coming home, when there was Friday traffic on 12 mile, and I was going much faster than all of them.
- Did I mention that it was farther than I thought?

Overall, it worked out rather well. Especially on the way in, the more fat, old women I saw driving hummers and drinking an extra-large coffee, made me feel that much better. The only change I think I will make is that I will start taking my bike to work in my truck. That way I can ride it home, then ride it in in the morning, and not have to do it twice in a day, until I get more used to it. Between that, getting my route more figured out, and getting more used to the ride, I should be able to get to work a lot faster here soon. It took me 1 hour and 34 mins to get there. I got up early, so it was no big deal, but I would like to cut it down to an hour. Sorry, no pics :(

Oil in April

2007-05-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

I heard a report on the radio this morning that the world’s oil consumption for the month of April has been the highest ever. Not the highest for the month of April, but the highest in terms of billions of barrels. We haven’t even hit summer yet!

I tend not to believe stuff when I first hear it, so I have tried finding the figures for myself, but have not come up with anything (I do have to work too).

Even so, I fear that current price at the pump hike is due mostly to record high demand outpacing supply. If this is truly the case, it could be one ugly summer.

Even if this is not the case, I really think that everyone needs to start thinking about what they can do daily with their lives that can reduce their dependency, and therefore the overall demand for oil.

I am one of those people that do not think that the small actions that I take will make a difference and save the world. I always know that whatever I do, there will still be gluttons out there abusing resources. There is nothing that can be done about that; because this is supposedly a free country (won’t get into that). If you are like that as well, then make changes in your lifestyle for selfish reasons. If we ever get to a point where oil is too expensive, rationed, etc you will already put yourself much further ahead of everyone else by being ready. If some of these fears never come to fruition, so what? More than likely you are already better off, healthier and happier anyway. So, what do you have to lose?

I am not going to tell you all the things that you can do to make a difference. There are plenty of private and government websites out there that can tell you all that good stuff. I just suggest you look at that stuff, and how it can benefit you rather than with the pessimistic attitude of “it won’t change anything.”

The one thing I will give warning about. People tend to not look at the big picture and the irony they create by doing so. For example, riding your bike to work to save fossil fuels, and then spending money on a new flat screen TV. The resources necessary to manufacture such an item probably far outweigh the ones you saved by riding your bike. Vote with your money too! It is what people will listen to the most.

I am stealing this quote from a friend’s website. But, I came across it, and it seems applicable here:

"We must be the change we wish to see." -Gandhi

Not Much

2007-04-26T06:02:00.000-07:00

I have not posted anything here lately. The reason is that I haven't had much time to sit down and think. All my time has been consumed with our home projects, which are already over on the family blog so I am not going to repeat that all here.

But, after we wrap things up, I am going to take a couple days break. We have a busy weekend, but I plan on trying to get Brendan out fishing because the weather is supposed to be nice. So look for posts then.

Good Quotes

2007-04-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

I ran across a couple of good quotes, both by Theodore Roosevelt. So, I will put them here.

"Just one more reason he is my favorite Pres. “Americanism means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity and hardihood – the things that made

America

. The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life." - Theodore Roosevelt

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy course; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."

THEODORE ROOSEVELT
(Paris Sorbonne,1910)

Projects

2007-04-17T11:57:00.000-07:00

Jen might be mad at me for letting the cat out of the bag here first, before she announces it on the family blog. But, she will be the one that gets to do all of the fun updating with photos and
such.

We have a major list of projects going on around our house. It all revolves around me really wanting to have a woodstove again. In case you didn't know, the first house that I owned, I heated it entirely with wood. Didn't even use the furnace. It is a lot of cutting, splitting and stacking, but well worth it IMO. Some tend to argue, but the type of heat from a woodstove is just different. Plus, there is the atmosphere of it as well. I also did all my splitting with a 6 pound mall through the winter.This will give me something much better to do than stay inside or lift weights at the gym. I would much rather have my work accomplishing something.

I originally wrote it off for our house. Saying that our next house HAS to have a woodstove. But, we decided to just do it. We are going to be here awhile. Besides, there is free wood everywhere, and it will be nice to not be at the mercy of natural gas prices.

Here is the woodstove that we are putting in.

I am sure there will be photos later, but another neat thing about our installation area, is that it is right next to the wall that contains the main heating duct carrying ALL the furnace air to the upstairs. So, I will more than likely tap into it with a manual or automatically controlled damper and fan to pump the hot woodstove air all through the ducting system upstairs.

Being in the city poses a couple of challenges, mainly with wood storage. So, project number one involves a wood storage spot behing our garage. The plan is to have 4 feet wide, by 18 feet long, by 6 feet high wood storage area. That should be enough wood to get us through the winter. We are working on that right now. Our neighbor works at a place where they have massive piles of split firewood. So, once this spot is done, we will start haulin wood.....

But, this is just the beginning. Since the woodstove requires a thru the wall installation, I do not want anything to change the stove height in the future that could screw up the hook-up. We have always wanted to have hardwood floor in the downstairs, so now it will be going down before the stove goes in. But, that meets up to the small entry pad, and kitchen which are currently linoleum. So, those are both going to be replaced with porcelain tile. New flooring throughout means that all the trim needs to be ripped up. The kids have done a good job of banging up the walls and such, so that means painting the walls. You see where I am going with this????

But, it still gets better. When we first moved in, I threw together the cheap entertainment center and shelves on a $50 budget. I never really liked it, so that whole thing is going to go, and we will regain floor space there. That means no TV downstairs. That area will be used for large print display.

So, here are the projects....semi in order:

- Wood Storage area
- Porcelain tile in kitchen and entry way
- Paint
- Wood Floor
- Trim
- Woodstove

Of course, Jen will be busy too with getting all the plants and stuff going outside. We want to have a lot more vegetables this year.

The other cool thing about the wood flooring that we are putting in, is that I am doing it the old fashioned way. No Pergo type stuff, and no pre-finished stuff. Bare wood boards. But, I am also buying it direct from the mill. Besides being much cheaper, the boards are usually between 8 and 12 foot long. That is not something that you typically see in wood flooring these days.

The final good thing about this project is the cost. I have recently unloaded a lot of stuff that I now consider pretty useless. Some of the stuff I got more than I originally paid for it brand new! So far, that money will be able to fund just about everything. You can't beat that.

So, keep checking out the family blog to see pictures and updates of the projects.

E85 Fraud

2007-04-17T09:42:00.000-07:00

I hope nobody is seriously buying into the idea of ethanol as a fuel alternative. The fact that big players in the auto industry are trying to pawn it off as a viable alternative is just a huge fraud.

If you don’t believe me, do some research of your own. You will find that corn is a poor choice for creating ethanol. In order to turn corn into ethanol, it requires about 70 percent of the energy derived from ethanol!! Sugar cane, cellulose, or soybeans could have been better choice. Are we just stupid? It is a net loser as far as energy is concerned. But don't trust my word, check into it yourself.

Not to mention that all this corn is planted and harvested using oil based machinery. So, it is really an oil based derivate rather than an alternative.

Finally, we do not have good food storage reserves in this country. If it comes down to it, would you rather drive your SUV, or eat?

March 10th - Hunting Again

2007-04-16T18:15:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Brendan and I went hunting again. The temperature got up to the mid-50's, so I figured we actually had a good chance at it today. We went out for about 2 hours. For the first half hour, we were actually serious about hunting. Brendan was quiet, and we were doing good. The rest of the time, we just played.

Brendan had me cut him a walking stick. So, the rest of the time it was his light saber, and he beat up every tree that he came across : ) We also spent some time throwing rocks and sticks in a creek. Of course, we had plenty of snacks and hot chocolate. Overall, it was just a good day to be out.

I only took a couple of pictures this time. Brendan brought his own Quigley rifle. He carried it like I was carrying mine, and also had to sit it next to mine as well.

Along our route in and out, there is an old deer blind, that still has a chair there. We usually use that for a break point. Here is Brendan with a cookie in each hand.

Being that there was snow, and we were making tracks, I made Brendan lead us out back to the truck. One time, he wasn't paying attention, and wandered away, looked around, then re-found our tracks. He did an excellent job.

I forgot to mention, that with it being so warm, the snow was pretty much all gone, everywhere. Except for in the woods. It was still hanging on there. So, it was much warmer than the photos make it look like. By the time we were done, Brendan's pants and boots were completely soaked. Luckily, we brought extra and changed at the truck before leaving.

That is all for now. Until we do something fun again.....

March 4th - First Dog Father Use

2007-04-16T18:13:00.001-07:00

When I first gradutated from college, and had more disposable money, I bought a pretty cool stag handled 10 inch bowie knife. At the time, I really didn't know what the real uses for a knife that size was, and bought it purely for the look of it. When your camping from your car, weight isn't an issue and you can always have a hatchet or small ax. Since then, I have learned how to use larger knives more effectively than even a hatchet.

That stag handled knife had too many design flaws to be used hard. It was too pretty, and now that it is no longer being made, was more of a collectors piece than a user. So, I decided to sell it. With the money from that, I was able to get 3 knives. Two of similar size, and one smaller that are real users, and not safe queens like the first one. Besides, I don't like to have stuff sitting around that is not used, or is not going to get used.

The large knife is called the Dog Father from Scrap Yard Knife Works. You can see the specs here. Hence the blog entry title.

Today, I had to do some work outside. The right front tire of my truck was squeaking. Just to make sure it was nothing serious, I wanted to pull of the tire and check it out. Being that it is hard to work like that with gloves on, and I could be a while, I built a fire to warm my hands with.

I keep a bunch of wood cut, and split in decent sizes because we have fires all summer long. But, it is not covered this time of year, and most of it either had snow or ice on it. So, I had to split some to get to the inner dry wood. Here is the pile I started with.

Normally in the woods, or while camping you would not be able to find wood already cut to this length. So, normally I would carry a small foldable bow saw in my back pack like the Gerber, or Sawvivor. In weather like this, you would have to make sure to get dead wood that is off the ground, like dead standing trees. With a folding saw, it is pretty quick and pretty much necessary to get a fire going in either wet weather or snow. Even dry and seasoned wood will be wet for the first 1/8 of the exterior making it nearly impossible to get a fire going in those conditions. The only solution is to get to the center.

You can see I had quite a few piece split into smaller pieces already.

Normally, at this point (If I really wanted to guarantee the fire would get going) I would take a smaller knife and create fuzz sticks. This is where you make curls in the edges of the smaller pieces. I just decided to go ahead and do it with this monster bowie. I was actually surprised how easy it was. The beast of a knife is so heavy that it basically made the curls all by itself. This is even maple, by the way.

That was about it with the wood. After all, I actually did have work to do. It was fairly nice outside, right around freezing. Brendan was outside with me the whole time, and even helped me with the truck. After we were done, we played hide and seek, and we even had a smore on the fire. I can't wait until camping weather comes!

February 18th - Hunting Buddy

2007-04-16T18:10:00.000-07:00

Today, Brendan and I went out Squirrel hunting. This is really a much better time of year to be rabbit hunting. But, the brush you have to go through is usually really thick, and shots without using a dog, are generally very fast. So, it is not something that is easy to do with a 4 year old. So, we were squirrel hunting. The only problem is that this late in the year, most squirrels are sitting tight, and today was no exception.

That is okay, because we do not take our hunting too seriously. Mainly because Brendan doesn't know how to be quiet : ) Plus, he has fun running, falling, and making new trails. It was just a good day to be out.

Here is a picture of the silly guy. At first, he was making snow angels in the trail, but I made him sit up for a photo.

Now, Bunky really knows how to hunt in style. We came across a bench on one of the trails. Here is with a handwarmer, a snack, and a cup full of hot chocolate : )

Here is the Mountain Man himself, with walking stick.

We found a cool little creek around. Brendan was convinced he was going to get to go it. But, I just took our picture by it instead.

Finally, just another picture of the area we were walking in. We actually did walk quite far today, and Brendan did all if it, except the last little bit on the raod back to the truck.

February 14th - UP Trip

2007-04-16T18:09:00.001-07:00

Well, I started this site quite some time ago and I have not done anything with it. Partially because Jen already has the blog going at www.bunky.blogspot.com that tells about all the family activities. I finally decided to try and keep this one updated with stuff that Jen wouldn't normally put there.

It is a very rare occassion that I go off and do something without at least one of the kiddies. However, my friend Mike bought 200 acres in the UP, and we were dying to check it out more thoroughly. So, I actually took off last weekend on my own.

Mike's property is 1/2 off the nearest logging road. So, there is no immediate access to it yet. The logging road is also gated about 2 miles prior to his property. So, it will be good for keeping people out. The below photo is about 6 miles away at the start of the logging road. It is also where we stayed the night. Since we had a 1700 pound camper in the back of his truck, and we were in BFE, and the snow was deep enough, we decided not to chance seeing if we could make it.

So, being manly men, we decided to try and walk it. Yup, that is 12 miles round trip, in lots of clothes, in the snow. Needless to say, we did not make it. We made it around 3 miles or so before deciding to head back. With all the clothes on, and in some spots the snow was pretty deep, it was just too tiring. We did however hike just over 6 miles that day, and I sure did sleep like a baby that night.

The land was really nice on the walk. I really wanted to take some photos, but I wanted the camera under my jacket, instead of in my backpack so that the batteries would not die. However, with the amount of layers I had on, then my day pack has a wasit strap, and a sternum strap, I just could not find a spot in my jacket that the little point and shoot camera would not bug me. So, no pictures along the route. The only other picture I took was of my Maxpedition day pack. If you look close, you can see the super trusty Camp Tramp strapped on the side. The entire main compartment of the bag is free, but using the front compartments, and the little bag attached to the right side (you can barely see it with the double zippers), I seriously have enough gear to be on my own for weeks.

That's it for now. I am not sure when my next adventure will be.

BA

Starting Over Here

2007-04-16T18:07:00.000-07:00

I have been infrequently posting over at Yahoo 360. Mainly stuff that Brendan and I have been up to. However, access to that site is not allowed at work. When I seem to have the most free time : ) So, I am going to move things over here.

I will put some of my old posts here, just so that everything is together.

Now that you know why you are here click this link to go to the main page and see what has been up lately.