Bows, knives, amd fire

I have found out that archery is not like riding a bicycle. Twenty years ago I owned a recurve and a compound bow. Both have long since been sold. Now I have made a longbow and was thinking (stupidly) that I could just pick it up and hit at what I shot. If I instinctually aim and shoot, releasing my draw as soon as I get the bow up I can hit my target about 80% of the time. If I aim, it drops down to about 50%. I have a lot of practice ahead of me. No biggie. I have nothing but time for the most part and if I didn't want to shoot it I would not have made it.

I am still holding out for a sling shot. I don't think they make innertubes the way they used to. These bands seem a lot less weak and store less kinetic energy. I have made three (as mentioned in the last post) and none of the three would be good for small critter hunting unless you could get within 10 feet of your game. I am planning on getting one of the store bought wrist rockets. After all, I don't hunt for sport so if I use it, I am going to be hunting with it in a situation where I want food.

Speaking of purchasing, what is up with Wal*Mart not selling REAL mess kits and canteens? All they have is family sized cookware and water bottles.

As for bushcrafting, since my last post I made some shavings and a firestick for the BCUSA classes* and have been working on a woodspirit carved into willow. Today I am going to work on making five man made tinders (also for the classes), hopefully finish my carving, and of course practice my archery.

(* http://bushcraftusa.com/forum/forum.php)

This is what I did today.
Carry on,
Scotty

Survival

Haven't written in this in quite a while. No worries though because no one was reading it but me. I write, like I do everything else, for me and not the masses. This blog will now turn from fiber crafts, painting, and drawing. It will now focus on survival.

I am a person who knows survival techniques. I am NOT a survivalist. There is a big difference. Please learn the difference before you start bashing me for this. What makes me qualified to post this stuff? Well, I was in the scouts for most of my childhood. Went from Cub Scout to just a little shy of Eagle Scout. Why didn't I go the distance? because I enlisted in the Army on my 18th birthday. I spent eight years in the possession of Uncle Sammy with six of them as a Ranger. In trade for my service "he" trained me to survive and gave me a set of skills I still use today. I have been out for 17 years but I still enjoy camping and not only using what I learned all those years ago but teaching it also. Since my heart condition set in I can't get out as much as I like but I still like getting ready for when I can. I do not know everything there is to know about bushcraft but I do know enough to survive and am willing to learn, study, and practice what I don't know.

The new direction of this blog will be to record what I did to further my skills, my bush-bag (commonly known as a bug out bag), and other generally related stuff.

Over the past three weeks I have:

• made a self bow out of red oak. It pulls 47# at 28" and is 70" n2n
• repacked and discarded items from my bush-bag. I now have it down to 19 pounds and can live comfortably out of it for a week or more. All I really need is a knife and my firestick but comforts are nice)
• made three slingshots. One each for my son, mother-in-law, and father-in-law
• made two wooden spoons
• made some firestarters with dryer lint and vaseline
• made a new fire-bow set
• made a new walking stick/cane (the two I am now forced to use are too nice to go into the woods to get banged up and I have my first camping trip in a long time coming up in a month or so.)
• practiced with the blowgun
• practiced with the air rife
• practiced primitive fire making using both the fire-bow and my flint and steel.
• learned to make cordage
• learned to make a flemish bowstring
• learned two different knots; the timber hitch and the canadian jam knot
• made a spy capsule to carry my meds in. I made it by hacksawing off the tops of two soda bottles and glueing them together.

You can find instructions on all of these with google. I did. A lot I have known how to do for years such as the slingshots, carving (spoons, cane), fire starters and fire making. Others like the bow, bowstring, knots, and cord making I have learned in just the last few weeks. Currently I have just learned of a creature called a spoon knife (also called a hook knife). I am to broke to pay for one so am now in the process of searching my shop for something I can use to make one. I am debating between trying a hacksaw blade or a butter knife.

This is what I did today. (And over the last few weeks)

Row Counters, Stich Markers, and Pace Counters

I am really getting into this knitting. I am a little disappointed I put it off for literally decades thinking that crochet was way harder because of the sheer number of stitches to remember. I am thinking now that knitting may be harder because you can make the same patterns but you have to do it in a way that ONLY incorporates two stitches.

I have had my son since last night. He stayed home from school today due to upper GI problems. Beings I am new at knitting and don't think I can yet stop in the middle of a complicated row and be able to pick up where I left off, I spent today making stuff for knitting.

I wanted some stitch markers. I've seen my Mom's and Sister's and, well... they are girly. I wanted something MANLY! My solution was chain mail. (Making chain mail is another one of my hobbies. I used to tease my mom saying she could only knit fibers where I knit steel lol) I have some chrome links from one of my projects, so they are now stitch markers. how much more manly can you get than chromed steel?

I also wanted an easier way of keeping track of my rows. I am terrible with remembering numbers. I remembered the pace counters we used in the army and made me one of those. I added a hundreds grouping onto mine so I can now keep count up to 599 rows. There are instructions all over the web to make it. The first one that pops up on Google is: http://www.instructables.com/id/Army-Ranger-Beads/. I made mine from memory, but glancing at the above listed site, they know what it is, how it is used, and how to make one.

This is what I did today.

Wash's Sweater

One of the groups I belong to at http://www.ravelry.com/ is the Over 40 group. They are a GREAT bunch of people. As I stated in yesterday's blog they have convinced me to give up my beloved crochet (for a time being) and try knitting. Not just any knitting mind you but Aran knitting. That's the stuff with cables all over it. The pattern I have decided on is Wash's Sweater by Don Yarnman. (The pattern can be found here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/washs-sweater) Not only did they have me trade in my small hook for two long sticks but also a thing called a cable holder that looks suspiciously like something I saw once in a lock picking course I had in the army. Here I am trying to juggle all three of the #$% things and trying to remember which piece of yarn goes where. That is when I learned something and decided to keep a chronicle of things learned here.

• I just learned my first "Life Lesson Learned" from knitting. Count your cast on stitches twice, because the first time you count them you could be wrong and not realize it until four PAINFUL rows later, then your dog laughs at you as you cry.
  
  
  
  

Knit Ramble 1

Okay, okay, okay. I give up all ready! lol. My hat is off to all of you who knit. I always thought crochet was harder because there are so many different stitches to remember where you knitters (he says in his snob voice) just have two. Knit and purl. Really? Is that all you guys are bringing to the party? I grabbed some needles, and decided to make a five inch square. HOLY CRAP?!?! How in the !#$% do you people actually make stuff with these things?!?! I know the stitches. Mom watched me the day before yesterday and agreed that I know them. Got news for you Singingfran, I don’t know jack LOL! I’m not sure what I was doing, but after I was .0009% satisfied with my 10 rows of knit I tried to purl. No clue as to what I was doing wrong, but after three rows it looked the same as my knit. As far as I am concerned all of you stick people are geniuses lol. Okay. rant is done. Going to get me another cup of my forbidden coffee and tackle round two.

Yarn it to heck

I have given over my drawing based art for sculpture. Yarn sculpting that is. I have known how to knit and crochet since I was very little. Now that I have crocheted my watch-cap, scarf, and mittens, my online friends at http://www.ravelry.com/ have challenged me to knit something with my Mother (ravelry name: Singingfran) leading the charge with a battle-cry of SWEATER! I can crochet a LOT better than knit, but I like puzzles/challenges so I accepted their challenge.

Here are my finished crocheted items:

Life got away

Life has gotten away from me again. I swore I was going to update this daily. I have been busy working on my hat and scarf. I do have a contribution from my nephew. He made this high contrast self portrait with acrylics. Excellent job, E.C.. Proud of ya.