Helping Hand

My wife is in love with paddle boarding.  She does this about twice a month, either with a class or rents them from the local boat shop.  The cost of doing this for her is something in the neighborhood of a hundred bucks each time.  So her natural progression is to purchase a paddle board.  The only problem with buying a paddle board is that they cost at a minimum of 800 dollars and easily get to 1,200 and beyond.  I mentioned to her that there is probably someone out there that has purchased one and has a deep discount on it to get it out of their garage.  Think of people with road bicycles, lots of people buy one and ride the first year then it sits in the garage and eventually winds up on craigslist for pennies on the dollar.  I love craigslist!

Being the good husband I am (this is where everyone chuckles).  I see last weekend this car loaded down with these giant flat foam board things and keep my eye on the vehicle so when the owner comes by I can ask him about them.  He also had two kayaks sticking out the back so this guy new about water sports.  When I catch up to him he lets me know the board as seen above are called "Paddlebuoy" boards.  They run in the 200 dollar range and have a steel frame system in them to keep from being torn up.  There were about a million light bulbs going off in my head.  How cool is this, a cheap practical alternative to paddle boards but it still does the same thing.

I get home from the weekends festivities and was so excited to tell my wife about this alternative form of paddle boarding.  She looked them up on the web and lets just say she was less enthusiastic than I was.  Not sure if this is the kiddie model to paddle boarding or just that she wants the real deal.  I have never been or seen paddleboarding so I am not sure if this was an insult to the paddle boarding community.  Well it is still on for that elusive paddle board for the wife.  Let me know if you have one and lets make a deal! 

Friendship knots

I received the above "Eagle Camp Mug" while working at summer camp in 1992.  This is the awesome glow in the dark model.  I have a glow in the dark mug and also a glow in the dark frisbee (plate/bowl).  I saw a lady this weekend that had glow in the dark rope and she said they use it on their tents to keep the kids from tripping over the guy lines.  Now that is smart thinking.

Now I love my mug and people decorate their eagle mugs in many interesting ways.  I have always liked mine with a clean slate and nothing on it.

When it comes to camping, everyone knows me first as a diabetic.  Then everyone knows me as the guy that teaches knots and lashings.  I have a real passion for knots and lashings and well I am good at them.  When I worked at a scout camp in my youth I tought the pioneering merit badge and all sorts of leaders would come by my class and the old timers and sailers would get a rope with the boys and help teach knots.  The sailers  would always show and teach me what is known as fancy knots that don't really have a purpose but they look pretty.  Think of old sail ships with all the lines on them.  They had to keep the deck free and clear so they had to store all the lines.  Also on the ships the one thing the had plenty of was rope, so if they needed to keep a hand rail from being slippery they would fancy the railing up with rope.  Growing up my focus was more in the 10 to 15 main knots used in camping but I enjoyed seeing and learning these sailing or decorative knots.

When it comes to survival gear there has of course been an explosion in companies offering products in various ways and uses.  With the world in the state it is they say invest in lead, gold, and well other stuff.  When camping you should always keep some sort of rope on you.  This rope can be used as a bandage, make a shelter, fishing, bridge building, gear repair, and knitting.  The popular choice of rope to carry is 550 paracord.  This stuff is amazing.  It weighs nothing, holds 550 pounds (hence the name) and has an extremely small diameter.  You can take any of the 7 strands from the inside to use in lighter loads and still have a 500 pound rope.  Also the "para" part of the name comes from parachutes which is where this stuff originated.

So put survival gear with rope and the the history of sailors storing their rope on ships with fancy lashings and knots then you evolve into a new form of survival dress wear and survival bling!  I had some free time saturday night and a day pack full of 550 paracord and a scout that owed me some learning on the monkey's fist and by dinner I had a couple of fancy knot basics.  Another scout taught me the "Turks head" knot so I sat down with my mug and some 550 paracord and made the survival bling you see above.

Once I had the basics I off to work and when a fellow knot fanatic saw me and gave me a few pointers and books to look up for some other fancy sailor knots.  Ken gave me his number and told me all sorts of tricks and tips.  It is always fun to find someone who has a passion for their hobby and are willing to get a green horn like myself up and running on my advanced knot tying.

Ken showed me how to expand the traditional turks head into an expandable turks head to put on walking sticks.  So this now takes my basic turks head and monkey fist mug to the next level.  I can take some of my bamboo, make a walking stick and decorate it with rescue 550 paracord.

when the opportunity knocks, knock down some bamboo

This past weekend was "Fall Fellowship" weekend for the Order of the Arrow in scouts.  Now that sounds like alot of mumbo jumbo stuff (and it is).  Basically the Order of the Arrow in scouts is an honor camper program that has a native american theme to it.  Now, fall fellowship is where the chapters of a lodge get tother, play some games, elect new lodge leaders, and have a couple of ceremonies.  This is one of the best scouting weekends out there.  I tell the boys you can do as much as you want or as little as you want.  It is up to you.

My buddy Paul and I were hanging out most of the day saturday because our boys were off doing who knows what and our other friend Russ hung out with his son and they did a little rappelling and climbing.  While we were watching Russ' and his son climb the tower a scout we know comes up to us and strikes up a conversation about he spent the morning over at the other side of the camp gathering a couple 25 foot bamboo poles.  This grabbed my attention right away and I was playing 20 questions with him about this bamboo and what he is going to do with it.  Paul tells me to stop the talk and lets take him over and get some for ourselves.

Here is where when I talk about having simple items around that can help you out.  Connor mentions that he spent 30 minutes to cut down each pole with his 10" sheath knife.  He also was trying to figure out how he was going to cut the poles to a length he could get home.  The lightbulb went off in my head because I keep my loppers , hatchet, full size axe, and a hack saw in my truck for situations just like this..

Connor shows us these bamboo poles and I am amazed by how big the diamater is and the length.  We pick up a fourth person who was napping the day away and headed over to the bamboo forest.  The picture above is of myself and Connor and his third bamboo pole which he feels was his best so far.  Who knows what will become of this amazing specimin.

Here is Paul and Caleb cuting the poles into truck size pieces.  Notice the pole is thinner in diameter.  I wanted a variety for different projects.

Caleb and the amazing lopers as they referred to them as.  They cut down the bamboo with ease.  The issue we did find with the lopers is that they spintered the larger poles when cutting them to length.

Here I am next to the bamboo forest.  If you had something like this in your backyard every kid from miles around would be playing in it all the time.  It was so neat to get into the thick, dense, parts and just walk around.

The bamboo is cleaned, cut to length and loaded.  I have been searching the web for things to do with all this bamboo but it seems that the ewok village or killer spears websites are not on the web or something.  Maybe I can stain one and make a fancy lamp or something?  Connor let me know I needed to dry them first in the garage and not outdoors.  He said the sun makes them crack or something while they dry.

Above is my handy dandy hack saw.  So small and yet they do so much.  This is what we used to cut the bamboo into the six foot long sections.  If you do not have a five dollar hack saw like this in your car you are not prepared.  These saws cut metal, stuff, and of course bamboo.  What other saw do you need in your trunk? 

Now once I get home from the weekend and run into the house to tell my wife all this cool stuff (bamboo) to do some art projects with.  She looks at me like "what in the world kind of art can I do with bamboo."  I was a little deflated but more for me and my son!  Ewoks look out.  There is a diabetic with bamboo coming to build a better tree village!  Or just make some walking sticks and flutes or something.  Either way it will be fun!