Brotherly Love

I know that this blog has been (mostly) about doing outdoors stuff, but in the spirit of guy-hood, what better way to celebrate growing up from a boy to a man than to watch the epitome of brotherly love: Fun and Fighting.

Urban Spelunking and TMNT

Our house looks like it currently is situated near the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.  For several days the construction crews were putting in new drainage pipes and digging a 'buttload' (1 buttload is equivalent to about 5 tons) of dirt up and piling it in the middle of our street.  The dirt was piled so high, we couldn't see our neighbors across the way, which really is no different from usual because ever since we forgot to close the blinds on 'dance in your pajamas night--to Michael Jackson songs' ..the relationship has been strained.
Anyway, curiosity got the best of me so I grabbed my trustworthy headlamp and iPad to do some first hand documentation of the dirty bowels of our city. Turns out there's not much going on.

As you can tell, I'm extremely gifted at night time videography and self Narration.

A little better than the first: it's shorter.

Outdoors #3: Hunting Blind

Recently, I had some time to myself and decided to go camping and hunting.  My plan was to hunt and fish for my food while away from "civilization" for a few days without our usual camping necessities. What follows is a documented conglomeration of fire starting, gigging for frogs, cleaning and cooking frogs, and building a hunting blind.

 Here are the tools and the spot for building this blind. Shovel, Chainsaw, Electric Screwdriver, Wood screws, a few 2X4s of various length and a hammer and nails in case I run out of juice.

The frame is going up against the trunk of the tree.  A little trimming and digging is all that's happened beyond that.

Here's the frame up close.  I plan on using as little "man-made" material as possible and cutting most of the camo from the dead wood laying near there.   The ice storm from 4 years ago is still evident in all of the dead branches covering the ground.

 

Here's the unfinished view from inside.  The jeep has no idea I'm in there...

 Here's the (game) view about halfway through.  Not too bad for our eyes, but a turkey would spot movement in there in no time.  Need some more cover.

 

So here is where it stands as of now:  A quaint house for 1 in the Shire.  Lots of charm, and could use some love.  These shots show my attempt to use the natural foliage and downed timber to create some camouflage.  It still needs some work, but I'll help things along by pinning up camouflage burlap sheets on the inside.  That should break up our outlines and help muffle sound in there.  More pictures when it's finished.

 No, that's not a tan-line.

Those of you who work outside a lot already know how dirty you can get, but I thought it'd be fun to finish this post with a before and after shot of my sock-dirt-line.  See if you can figure out which one was after the shower....and yes, my feet could blind an albino bat.

Outdoors #2: Gigging and Frog Feeds.

Recently, I had some time to myself and decided to go camping and hunting.  My plan was to hunt and fish for my food while away from "civilization" for a few days without our usual camping necessities. What follows is a documented conglomeration of fire starting, gigging for frogs, cleaning and cooking frogs, and building a hunting blind.

This was my original gigging stick.  It was beast; however not real effective.

This is gigging stick #2: Modified after a few slippery frogs found their way back into the pond after being stuck.

Cleaning a Frog.  I don't think it was completely dead (partially dead?) when I started cutting it up so watch at your own discretion!

Ever seen frog legs get fried?  Neither had I.  You won't be that impressed.

This is me after eating most (or some) of the frog legs.  I'll let the video leave an impression.

Outdoors #1: Fire starting with a survival knife

Recently, I had some time to myself and decided to go camping and hunting.  My plan was to hunt and fish for my food while away from "civilization" for a few days without our usual camping necessities. What follows is a documented conglomeration of fire starting, gigging for frogs, cleaning and cooking frogs, and building a hunting blind. 

 

The first challenge of the night was to get a fire going.  I had recently received this knife as a gift and wanted to test out the fire starter on it.  Check out the link if you want to know more about the Bear Grylls Ultimate Survivor Knife I was curious if I could actually get a fire going and how many strikes it would take.  

FIRE!!!!