A Little Backpacking Trip

So, sometime between when Ian and Elefteria visited us and when we went to the beach, I took a hike with a buddy of mine and my dog.  We'd planned to go for four days, but as often happens, time got compressed and we went for three.  Unfortunately (or not) we missed a turn that led to a lean-to that we'd planned to use for our second night and we hiked ourselves right out to the car; which resulted in a 13 mile hike on the hottest day of the summer (98 deg)!  Sweaty and tired, we decided to stop at the homestead, clean up, grab a six pack and head to another campsite to hang out for the last evening.

This is the first campsite we stayed at.  It's near a lean-to and overlooks a deep gorge with a beautiful cascading river.  There was enough dead and down wood that we could keep a nice fire going all evening and again in the morning to cook on.

Jonas enjoys a rest at the end of hot up hill hike.

This is the line I hung up to dry our clothes after we washed them in the river.

Rustic clothespins

Vinnie spent an hour (easily) hunting fish in the river with various sizes of rocks.  As I made the fire and started cooking dinner and set up the camp, every few minutes I'd hear a huge splash and crash as he threw huge rocks into the water in attempt to crush us some protein.  He was so proud when he came up with these two fish.  (Think anchovy for size, here) 

Yet another picture of my favorite hiking partner and camp helper extraordinaire. 

The second day I got up, built a fire and made some coffee and oatmeal.  Here you see my favorite tool and the wooden spoon that I carved while sitting at the fire the night before.

Jonas carried his own food and water.

Vinnie, at least, carried his own water.  Note Jonas finding the nearest available shade.  Luckiest Australian Cattle Dog ever.  What would he have done if he'd been born on a ranch in the Australian Outback?!

Toad at the camp on the second night.

The first night's fire pit had apparently been too small to really attract Vinnie's attention.

This fire pit was more to his liking.

He spent A LOT of time tending the fire.

A LOT

He also spent a lot of time trying to crush dinner again.

Fortunately I brought some stuff with us.  Dried rice and beans with local, fresh salami, green pepper and onion from our garden..

And a couple cool Phin and Matts pulled from the river.

For dessert we had backpacker's s'mores: roasted marshmallow on cool mint cliffbar!

This is the awesome campsite in Shindagin at which I've always wanted to stay. It was also the last trip for the megamid.  I unceremoniously traded it in to The Old Goat when we got back to town.  I'm too old to deal with a floorless tent, I guess.  Plus, the number of people willing to go camping with me has been seriously reduced by this thing.  Ask Ian about it if you want to hear a real horror story.  (Still feel bad about that blood letting, buddy)

The Osprey rides again

Vinnie took this picture of Jonas and I on the trail... it was a great little trip!

Livin' the eclectic life!

I haven't updated lately because I've been so busy, so it's time to get caught up.

I've been collecting pallets for some projects. 

Pulled 'em apart with the gerber and some other tools.

Wood pallet, deconstructed.

Here's the pallet at Pat's, re-imagined as a storage station.

I'm really proud of the little cabinet I made for it.

Found another double bit axe to work on.  Have done a little, but have to finish it this week.

I helped Sarah make some pickles and dilly beans!  It's always fun to can and jar together.

Not sure how this will show up, but it's supposed to be a movie of the tree chipper in action.  That might be the scariest, most abusive, loudest, most unpredictable machine I've ever worked with.

I had an exciting day at Greg's that started with having to tie branches of a spruce back, climbing into the tree, and cutting the aspen out of it.

Dropped a pine on the other side of the property.  Of course I didn't take my wedges with me, so made some quick wooden ones that worked just fine!

The big dead aspen that had some crazy lean and no room to move.

And then it was gone.  It's what I do.  I was really proud of this one.  The tree was in the middle of the woods, had some crazy kinks and lean and a canopy of widow makers, but I dropped it just where I wanted, with minimal damage to other trees, and most importantly, not hung up.

I did a little flooring.  Pretty fun, but like all chores, more fun when I have the right tools.

This is my swollen hand (stung by a bald face hornet) which instigated an emergency trip to the ocean for the salt water, sun and sand cure.

The swollen hand didn't keep me out of the woods, though!  The thought of the beach kept me going, too.  That post will be up shortly!

All future Gerber use goes here, James.

This post is really for James.  This is my way of saying thanks for a tool that changed my life.  I've been trying to take pictures of some of the things I use it for.  I'd say, on the whole, I remember or am able to take photos of use about 25% of the time, so go ahead and extrapolate.  In addition to what you see below, some common uses that I never remember to shoot are: personal grooming (using the knife to trim fingernails, pick summer corn out of happy teeth, cut off longer whiskers (it drives me nuts when I find a long beard hair), removing splinters with the pliers, file down broken nails, etc.  I also brush my teeth with the file because they're just that strong.  They destroy normal toothbrushes... ask Sarah.

 Knife as a pencil.

 Pliers as a nail remover

 Screwing down connections for an electric fence.

 Bending wire.

These are from the last couple weeks.  More to come.