Orange beast

Finished up another knife last week. Only bummer is that it's got quite a few imperfections in it. It's got a great edge, made of O-1 tool steel, and I hardened and tempered it finishing at a Rockwell C 59. Should be a good useful blade, but not nice enough to sell. So, I'll probably just beat it up in the field. I think it'll live in the tool box on my quad. Orange G10 scales with blue liners. I'm hopping I don't have to wreck too many more knives before I get building some that are worthy of giving to people.

First S24O - Paddle style

For father's day this year, my family bought be a really sweet vintage canoe. I say vintage but I think it's probably from the eighties, so really,  not that old. But it had only been used 4 times since new, and was in incredible condition.

This was awesome for me. I've always wanted a canoe, and with the boys getting more into fishing and are coming of age to handle longer stints outdoors, this opens up all new doors and options to squeeze the most out of our summer months.

Over the past few years we've been slowly accumulating gear for camping and hiking. The end goal is back country camping. Just find a parking lot in Kananaskis, and spend the next several days in the bush. It's incredible  country only a few hours from home and it seems a shame to just enjoy it once or twice a year on day trips.

After a year or two of looking for deals, slowly acquiring once piece of gear after another, I think we're pretty much set up to be self reliant in the woods. But, with the higher stakes of driving for a several hours and being further from home, I figured a nice little S24O would be the perfect way to test out our gear and see if we really are ready.

My father-in-laws farm is only 10 minutes from our house, and he has a lake, trees and some nice pasture areas that are a little more exciting than the bald prairies that make up my part of the world. A little pocket of vegetation that makes you feel like you've traveled much further than you actually have. A great spot for a little S24O canoe trip.

After our tradition of pizza friday as a family, the boys and I headed off on our little adventure. We learned a bit, and found a few things out. But for the most part, we are fairly well set up for ultra-light/stealth camping. The biggest thing I would like to better sort out is our tent. There are lots of options for ultra compact 1 or 2 man tents, but when you get up into 3 person tents, the ultra-light options seem to die off. With my pack, and the boys each having their own pack, we can carry everything we need for at least 3 days. Everything except a tent. We might have to give tarp-tenting a try, but I'm not sure the boys (or myself) will enjoy being completely exposed to all the bugs that rush to live their lives during the few summer months we have. We'll see about that one.

Another thing I'd wanted to do this trip was test a knife I made. I'm happy with the way it turned out and have spent the last most of a year simply enjoying the knife. But I've been a little hesitant to actually use it. I think part of that is due to the amount of work that I've put into this knife. Working without belt grinders or some of the other tools that are usually associated with handmade knives, I did all the work on this knife with a hand file. It saw me spending hours and hours filing in the evenings, one after another, to make a decent cutting bevel. But, I'm now over the starring at it and need to know if I've actually made a decent usable tool that will last long enough for my sons to use. Or have I made something that simply looks nice? Time to put it through it's bush-crafting paces. I'll make my mind up after a year or so of hard use, but so far the edge retention is doing really well.

We were home by 11 the next morning, and we had a blast. After reading so much for so many years of the S24O experience, I now understand the draw these things. Being able to squeeze a bit of awesome living into what would have been a typical start to the weekend is pretty awesome. Somehow you feel as though you've gotten away with something. I call that a win!

Day at the Lake

Surveyor's Lake, BC. The cold mountain water has warmed. Good times.

Camping

Went camping this past weekend and had a great time. A bunch of our friends headed up to one of our friends parents house/cabin just outside of Delbourne. An incredible quarter section of land with river front on the Red Deer River. Nothing on the agenda except take the kids for tractor and quad rides, play in the pool, throw a foot ball around, play some cards and drink some beer. The making of a fine weekend for sure.

This is the view from the house with morning fog in the valley

We saw 3 moose( 1 bull –massive!- 1 cow and her calf), numerous deer and some incredible birds. I had my camera along and so did my good friend (we’re photo nerds) and we spent some time wondering around with our telephotos see shooting birds at the bird feeders. Other than that, loaded up on pictures of the kids. I think there were 8 kids under the age of 5. Had tons of fun during the day just hanging with the kids, and getting them to wonder around in the woods, and some great campfires and games after the little ones were sleeping. Good friends are hard to come by, and worth all the effort it takes to find them.

Another view from the house

A few bird pics. Humming birds are hard to shoot (with a camera of course)

Here is my oldest climbing his first 'mountain'

What a great weekend it was.

Like Father, Like Son

My boy is getting into bikes and loves riding as much as I do it seems. He recently discovered the front rack on my snow bike, and I was blown away by how many times he kept wanting to go on the triails. I wondered if he would even be able to hold on, let alone want to stay on for periods upward of 45 minutes! We found a little loop by our camp ground, and I think we did it about 15 times, each time ending with him saying, "Can we go again Daddy?" What a great time, for him and for me.

Trail riding

Had a great long weekend. We headed up to Sylvan Lake for some camping with some friends of ours. It's been a while since I had done any trail riding, and they've got some great trails in and around the campground. Nothing hard-core, as I had my almost 3 year old son and my friends 4 year old daughter in the trailer behind the bike, but I was amazed at how well the Chariot does on narrow little trials. I sure notice how different of a line you're forced to take when negotiating tight trails, around trees and rocks when you've got a trailer behind you. Had a blast, and so did the kids.

Today, I'm hating consultants! I've got to be careful here, as I don' t want to be completely unprofessional, but man are they are a pain in the ass sometimes. Sure they're like everything, there's good ones and bad ones. Sometimes they're incredibly useful, other times, just a waste of time and money. These ones are the ladder. I finished a project over 7 months ago, and while I was enjoying a Friday away from the office, they thought it would be a good idea to email me what they think is their latest punch list!!! I flew to site 6 months ago to have a "come to Jesus" meeting, in that we bring up every single deficiency and absolutely everything that the airport wants changed, and after that point, they are no longer able to bring up a single item. Apparently they forgot. Not a big deal, but it means I've got to spend about 4 hours putting together a document in response to theirs. Like I said, a complete waste of time and money. Errr!