Woodz Watcher

Back again!

2009-06-28T16:00:00.001-07:00

Whew, what a vacation! Over 3000 miles, we went to the Badlands, Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, and Devils Tower. That was an amazing, beautiful, relaxing trip! Definately worth riding in the car for what seemed for forever!

I'm still trying to decide whether or not to keep this blog going, there is only 3 people that I know of that have looked at this, not really worth it... If you read this and want me to continue, email me. If I get enough support I'll keep it going. If not, never mind then, waste of time...

May 22nd Gravel Road Ride

2009-05-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

Friday I decided to hop on the old Magna and hit the road after a long winter of no riding. I went about 8 miles in a little less than an hour and a half and damn, it felt good! I checked out a local quarry, and a couple small creeks running through the fields. The corn is starting to pop up and its sure a good site after plain old bland winter!

Please Click on the pictures to get full size, I don't know how to shrink them down, next time I'll make them smaller.

I'm Back

2009-05-20T18:08:00.000-07:00

Whew, it sure has been a busy school year! With everything going on in school and outside of it I completely forgot about my blog here. Things have changed a lot this year, I've gained quite a bit of experiance in my survival skills, I've joined a wonderful orgainization called the FFA (Through which I have had many opertunities, and have learned a lot about agriculture, nature, and life), I also have really changed my view on friends and people whom I hold close to me. Well, thats enough of that for now, I'll ramble more later. For now though I hope you enjoy my site, make sure to leave comments!
~SK

Interesting Afternoon

2009-01-01T09:44:00.000-08:00

This all happened about a week or so ago.

For Christmas I receive a couple gift cards and I convinced my mom to take me to a big town 30 miles away to get a couple things with the gift cards. So we went to a couple stores, and got all gift card buying out of the way, and then it was time to stop at Goodwill and Consignment stores and check to see if we could find anything. I got a pelican case for 2.38, a new outer shell (Bright orange, very nice) I also got a couple little candle lanters, and a new backpack.So we left the store and I looked in a car by the enterance and saw a 1-1 1/2 year old girl in the back seat of the car alone.

I mentioned it to my mom and she went inside to mention it to the cashieres because she was worried about the girl, but they were very busy so she came out and waited by that car as I waited in our car, with the door open and my feet out, ready should somthing happen. Well somthing did happen!

This man comes out and goes to get in the drivers side of the car, and my mom is on the passengers side. She then says "Sir, I almost reported you, you shouldn't have left your child in the car" (Out of worry for the kid, one window was down and someone could have taken the kid in an instant)

He then replies "Get the F*** out of here, mind your own F****** buisness, I just went in for a second, can't I just leave her in the car alone for a second?"

"No sir, you shouldn't, someone could have taken her or somthing like that"

"Get the F*** out of her, go ahead, report me, I don't care" Then he gets in his car and I come and pull mom back to our car. Then he proceeds to role down his window and yell out at her, swearing random things. I yell back at him by that time because he's starting to get out of the car."

Leave her the F*** alone, or shut the F*** up" somthing along those lines, trying to get his attention off her and onto me. By this time he is right in my face, telling me to get in my car. I tell him that we are on our way to our car, and that he needs to get in his, I was surprised at how calmly I said it.Then he comes up real close to me and I stare him in the eye. Mom then puts her hand on his chest and tells him "Sir, please back away"

So then I pull mom back behind me, and tell her to go get in, and he starts to get back in his car yelling at us, cussin and such. I get his plates and write them down then, and then get in.So we get in and I tell mom to lock the door and we wait for a second to see if he goes so he doesn't ram us on the way out. About that time someone who had watched from the side backs up in their truck so he can't drive off behind us. We drive off, and I tell her to pull into a Target that we wern't planning to stop at, just to see if he was following us or not. Well she didn't and we kept going to the next store on our list, so I get inside the doors and then sit and look outside, making sure we wern't followed.

The rest of the day I was on the edge, ultra aware, ready for anything it seemed.This whole argument took place in under 3 minutes, and while it was happening, instinct took over, I didn't think about any of the skills I had learned, or anything like that, I wasn't even preparing for an attack besides clenching my fists and readying myself to knee or kick him in the groin. It was all kind of dream like, even just 5 hours later parts are hard to remember, it happened so fast. It was really a wake up call to me of how I need to be aware, and ready for anything, and ready to fight.

Fire Bow -How To

2008-11-16T15:12:00.000-08:00

Fire Bow Tutorial
By Survivor Kid 909

I have made a few fires with bowdrill, so I thought I would show you how to make your own dow drill set.

WARNING WARNING WARNING!!!! BE CAREFUL!!! FIRE CAN BE DANGEROUS, AND SO ARE KNIVES IF USED IMPROPERLY, BE CAREFUL WHILE USING THIS TECHNEQUE!!!! WE DO NOT ACCEPT ANY LIABILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS!!!!

In this tutorial I am going to go step by step through how to make and use a fire bow. If I have forgotten anything, please feel free to ask, and I will then try to get you an answer.

Here is a picture of my completed Firebow set

First go out and buy a 2 X 2 ½ or any similar seized piece of cedar from the lumber yard/Menards/Lowes, ect ect. You only need 3 feet or so. There are other woods that work just as well, I just have personally had the most success with cedar.

Now after this you will need to get a few tools. They are
-Hacksaw
-Knife
-Rope
-Powerdrill (Optional) along with drill bit shown later.

Now we get to making the set for your firebow. The first thing to do is to go get a slightly curved piece of wood. You want a slight curve, not much. My bow is about 30 inches long, try to find a suitable bow that’s 28-34 inches long. Next step is to remove all of the bark from the wood, and then carve in your notches.
Here is your notch on the one end.

On this end of your bow you tie one end of your rope, make sure its tied tight, or will stay on well
On the other end you need to loop the rope around the end, this way you can easily adjust tension. I will go over how to get your string tension right later.
This is how you wrap it around the 2nd end.

Next we will make your spindle. Take a 12 inch piece of your cedar, and then start to whittle it into a round shape. The spindle needs to be from 8-12 inches long. After it gets shorter than that, it is much harder to use properly.

Cedar for spindle.
Some progress whittling Here it is all rounded out
Next step is to sharpen one end to a point And then make the other end rounded
Next item we will get is your tinder catcher, this can be a leaf, a piece of paper, or bark. Here I am using Birch Bark
Next item on our list is the bearing block. You can make a simple bearing block by taking a piece of wood, and then digging a small hole into the middle. The other method is to make a more permanent bearing block. Find a piece of rock that fits well in the palm of your hand. Next get out the drill, and the drill bit.
Then press down in the middle until you get your hole, you may have to work at it a bit.
You will then end up with this

Next we’ll make the baseboard. Get another of your foot long pieces of cedar, then start a hole in the middle of one edge like so.
Further along
Now it’s time to put it all together and burn your hole.

First thing to do is to get your spindle tensioned right.

Start by pointing your sharp end up, and laying the spindle on top of the string. Make sure to hold the string while doing this with your same hand.
Then hold the bottom half of the spindle and hold the rope with your hand, and pull the top end under the rope like so. Then bring the spindle around so the rope is looped around the spindle.

You then need to wrap the remaining amount of your rope around the one end of your bow in the manner shown earlier. Make sure you keep the string TIGHT while doing so.

While using the fire bow make sure to hold the spindle down onto your notch with the hand that has the bearing block in it. With the other hand hold the end of the bow, and tension the string with your thumb like so.

Keep your foot on the baseboard, the foot that you are doing this with will be the same (Right or left) as you are holding the bearing block in. Make sure to press your hand up against your shin to keep it steady.
To burn it in, you want to take your one hand that’s holding the bow, and make long smooth, slow strokes.
You will then get smoke, keep going for a bit then let up.

Here is the hole burned in
Also here is the sharp end of your spindle, the one that was pressed into hole.
After burning in the hole, you have to cut a side notch with either your knife, or a hacksaw. Be careful!
After this make your tinder bundle, I used jute. Make it the size of a small birds nest, mine is too small here.
Now, put the leaf under your hole in the bearing block, and use the same method used to burn in the hole to get your coal. The only difference is after you see smoke for a few seconds, push harder on the bearing block, and go faster.

Form
http://img531.imageshack.us/flvplayer.swf?f=Tfirebowdemo037xj3
Smoke
http://img531.imageshack.us/flvplayer.swf?f=Tfirebowdemo042ey4