New Camera!

So, I've been looking at getting a DSLR again for some time now. I had a Canon Rebel XSi and loved it! It was a great, light-weight, starter DSLR. I sold it to my friend for a trade of fly fishing gear/cash back in April. I was lonely without it and have been shopping for one for the past 5 months. FINALLY, after a long wait and search, I finally found one. The Canon Rebel T3i. I won't bore you with specs but you can find the specs here. The biggest thing that I absolutely fell in love with about the T3i is that it has a flip out LCD screen. SWEET! : D I am able to take some sweet shots without me lying on my stomach. Seriously. Fantastic.

I also had to revert to mobile to post because Blogger is acting up again. It may just be in my part of Michigan. Who knows....Very irritating because the times I want to write, I can't! So, I don't know. I may, once again, have to revert to e-mailing posts which makes the pictures really wacky. Oh well. enjoy! More posts on my gear coming soon!

Fly Tying Virgin

So, I went to Cabela's in Dundee, Michigan on Friday September 7. My goal was simple: to find some great deals and to buy a fly tying kit. I bough a Cabela's Three Forks 8wt fly rod for $40, which was a steal, 2 fly rod tubes for $7 a piece, and a simple fly tying kit for $50, which was the Cabela's brand, and some materials to tie some black wooly buggers. I spent a total of $130. I came out of the store a VERY happy man! : )

So, I left Cabela's after my girlfriend and I went to Applebee's for an early lunch. I got home, ran inside, cleared everything off the kitchen table, didn't even bother to read the directions, set the vise up, grabbed my Fly Tying Bible, and went to work tying some buggers. The first bugger looked terrible. Seriously, I swear a third-grader at an art class did this thing. It was that terrible.

My first fly that I tied.

First fly when wet.

Ok, so I may not be giving myself that much credit. I still feel like it looks terrible. I showed my parents and girlfriend. They were quite pleased especially since it was my first time ever doing something like this. It was not too hard per se, you know just getting used to it. The second one I tied turned out very nice...For a beginner.  : )

Second fly tied.

Overall, I am very pleased with my fly tying skills so far. I have tied almost a dozen black wooly buggers. I need to buy more tying material so I can tie different flies. If I am good enough, I may even sell them. Fly tying is loads of fun. It may take me a while because I want the flies to be perfect, but I enjoy myself every step of the way. More pictures and updates will be coming when I get more material and learn more things about tying flies. Cheers!

 

Cut It With a Knife...

I posted this on the Cold Steel Facebook page back in February.

So, first part of the story is this: My best friend and "blood" brother Mark and I were out in the woods of some state park back in January of this year. He was hunting some squirrel with his Cold Steel blowgun and I was in charge of making a fire. Personally, I think it should have been the other way around since I FAIL apparently, according to Mark, at making fires. Anyways, so I am chopping wood and such and he comes back and there is no fire going. Well, we do get the fire going and we are each chopping up wood. When we are about to go, he goes off somewhere since he is determined to shoot a squirrel with his blowgun. I start to go with him but decide to stay behind and clean up. I start to chop a larger log, which was wet from the melted snow mind you, with my Ontario Kukri. I was wearing leather gloves which A. were give to me by Mark and B. were a God-sent because of what happened next. As I was chopping, the wetness of the log made the knife slip. My hand was clearly out of the way but at that point, I was trying to move out of the way so I wouldn't get hurt. The blade hit right behind the knuckle on my thumb. It went straight through the glove, naturally but not to the bone, thank the Lord. I quickly tore my glove off and looked at the wound and there was very little blood. I was thanking God at that point lol. Well, the end result was, I put New Skin on it and it was on there for a few weeks. Never got stitches for that one.

Second story is this: I was working in my yard with my oh so shiny new CS Gurkha Kukri SK-5 on February 7 of this year. I was so happy with it that I decided to chop some wood up with it. I was being extra careful since I knew what happened last time with the other kukri I have (or rather had since my friend Mark now decided to take the liberty of buying from me because of my accident. lol). I was chopping some logs up for a bonfire that we were having in the backyard to clear up some brush. My Dad was using his chainsaw and I was chopping wood in half for fun for our fireplace. Well, I was wearing my leather gloves as I did previously with my other knife incident since I knew that those were what saved my hand the last time and I didn't want it to be a murderous situation if it were to happen again. Well, here comes the stupidest of all stupid parts: I was HOLDING yes HOLDING the log with my left hand and striking lightly but just enough to get into the log with my knife with my right and that's when it happened. The knife bounced off the log and slid across the top to the left onto my gloved hand right below the index knuckle (see picture). I dropped my knife, ripped my glove off and by that time, I was bleeding everywhere since I struck a vein. I put pressure on it and was so extremely angry. I yelled to my Dad and he was a bit in shock and in frustration as well at the sight. We both went to the house where my Dad made me put my hand under freezing cold water to stop the bleeding. That was one of the worst moments of my life. My Mom at this point came home and talked to my Dad. After the bleeding stopped, my Dad took all 5, yes 5 of my CS knives off of my belt so we could go to the hospital. XD (I was laughing on the inside at the look of shock on his face.) Well, on the way there, I was praying to God saying thank you for keeping me safe. We got to the hospital where the doctor sewed me up. I asked him, "So, on a scale of 1-10, what do you think?" His reply? "A 2. You have to understand that I see men come in here with legs cut off by trains all the time (WHAT?! REALLY?!?! ALL THE TIME XD). Well, needless to say, I work at that hospital where I got my stitches and I got an order from the doctor for me to not go to to work that night (awesome! And I still get paid!). The lesson learned? Don't be stupid with sharp knives. Especially Cold Steel. The end. : )