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| It's been raining lately, and I got the urge to stomp around in the wet and
muddy hills. I had no specific place to go, so followed a stream bed up
into the hills. I wanted to find a location for a shelter, and see if I
could make fire in such conditions.
It was overcast at the start of the day...
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| Say! Do you know what this is? Looks like Kachina Masks? I'll tell you
later...
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| I had a new knife to play with... A Rob Simonich SRT with Parasite.
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| Here's the Parasite... It fits into the handle of the SRT.
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| There is a little bit of filework on the tang... Pretty cool...
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| I found a downed pine tree that would make a fine shelter, utilizing a tarp.
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| After cleaning a couple of the branches, it is ready for the tarp.
I'll go back this summer, and spread a Space Blanket over, and see how it
protects from the sun.
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| Now here's something that will make you sick... A new knife,
defiled... Note the Parasite in the handle.
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| I set about to gather some fixin's for fire... Although it was not
raining at the time, everything was wet from yesterday's rains. Some of
the small branches on dead limbs, and some of the dead pine needles, had dried
somewhat in the radiant heat of the sun. Not enough to burn from a
match, but if heated enough, they would dry then burn.
The bark on the underside of trees was all damp...
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| Here are some dead oak leaves I found. They had been on the
branches so long that they were merely lacework... And almost dry...
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| Some of those leaves, and some almost dry pine needles, almost caught fire
with char cloth. It took the ever popular cotton ball to get the pile
started. It was self sustaining after that...
I set the pile of stuff on a big slab of bark, to keep it out of the wet
grass.
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| I found this hollow tree afterwards. It was twisted in such a way that some of
the inside wood had not received direct rain. Even the dirt was dry
underneath. Still, the wood was damp, although some good pieces could
have been cut off from inside.
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| After all that, I took a break for lunch...
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| I did some whittling with the Parasite. While I would hate to have to
make an entire figure 4 with one, it will work in a pinch. Skeleton
handled knives are not the best handling blades to work with. I think it
would skin a rat with no problem, tho...
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| My apologies for the blurry pics. The software that resized them down
from the original seems to make them darken, and blur somewhat.
I also played with a Mora knife again. This one is the Mora 2000,
considered their "Survival Knife". It has a rubber handle,
Swedish stainless steel, and a plastic sheath. It whipped out this notch
about 6 times faster than the Parasite. It's also big enough to use with
gloves.
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| A nice combination...
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| I saw some really nice flowers, and tried to get some pics...
Here is a purple flower...
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| With a white version... Does anyone know what it is?
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| They are called Padre's Shooting Stars.
Some really tiny pink flowers...
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| And a close-up...
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| Love that digital camera!
OK... I promised to tell you what those holes were in that earlier
pic. The Pileated Woodpecker lives around here. It is a
communal bird, with several breeding pairs feeding and caring for all of the
young in the nests. They drill holes in old trees and store acorns for a
future food source.
Here's the rest of the tree...
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| Here's a close up of some acorns stored in a post...
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| Well, just a quick day hike to scout out some new country, lay the
groundwork for a possible campsite/practice area, and try to get a fire under
damp conditions. I think I would find it not very likely to get a fire
going under full rain conditions. There is not much protected from the
wet... I loaded up with some pine needles in a big Ziploc bag and will dry them at home for
the next trip out there.
Hope Y'All get a kick out of the pics.
Bill
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Copyright © 2002 by William Hay.
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