My new bow rack

In wood shop I finished my cabinet, and went on to my final project.  For my final project I made a rack to hold my bows and quivers. 

The light wood is pine.  The dark wood is cherry.  The panel that the pegs are in is made of particle board with a cherry veneer.  The pegs are made from broken 11/32'' cedar arrow shafts with 125gr field points, which have been dulled to protect the bow finishes.  I did all the routing and cutting with minimal help from my teacher. 

My Dad says that I need to put more bows on it!

Beer Bottle Arrowhead

I was watching some primitive archery videos and got inspired.  I decided to break out my flintknapping stuff and try to make some arrowheads.

I started by playing with some clear glass.  I made a biface, and took a few flakes off.  Once I was convinced I was somewhat competent again I got to work on a beer bottle bottom.  I was almost done a small "bird point" when I got greedy while thinning it and snapped it in half.

The next bottle bottom was less concave, and turned out nicely.  I didn't thin it as much as I could have, as I was worried about breaking it again.  I tried a new style of notching, and I am pretty happy with it.  It eliminates the grooves cut into the cutting edges of the head.  I always felt that those must impede penetration.

The head is only slightly longer than it is wide, so it has a lower mechanical advantage than a longer head.  I am confident that it would bring down a deer, but I would prefer a longer head for that.  I think this head would excel on raccoon sized animals.  If anyone's curious the head weighs 70 grains.  Glue and hafting material would add to the overall weight at the business end of the arrow.  Anyway, here are some pictures of the finished product.

It's 3/16'' thick at the thickest part

Winter Mountain Biking Cleanup

Riding in the snow is a lot of fun.  It is also slow, and takes a lot of effort.  The worst part of it is the bike clean up.  During the winter the roads are slushy and salty, which leads to salty spray coating the bikes on the way too and from the trails.  This means you have to wash them every time you ride to avoid rusting. 

Our preferred method involves two people, a bike stand, a watering can, a bucket, some rags, and a toothbrush.  We start by dripping hot soapy water over the bike to melt/loosen up the dirt and ice.  Then we use the rags to clean the bike off.  After this the toothbrush is put to work cleaning all the small hard to reach places. (front derailleur) Then a watering can is used to rinse the bike.  The watering can is amazing, almost as good as a garden hose.  The second person is in charge of filling the buckets and watering cans.  This makes the system much more efficient.

I am in tights in the pictures is because I just got back from fanshawe.

This is my brothers bike

The watering can rocks!

A normal toothbrush and a special bike toothbrush.  The claw end is great for grime in between chain rings.

Its a stick and string, how complex could it be?

Many archers choose to shoot a traditional bow for its trouble free simplicity.  Many archers are apparently full of crap.


I love traditional bows, specifically flatbows/longbows.  I have not found them to be simple though.  Despite that I am shooting one of the simplest archery setups, I seem to always be wrestling with a new problem, be it equipment related or form related. 

My current struggle is with tuning arrows.  The recent cold temperatures have wreaked havoc with my arrows dynamic spine.  I plan to remedy this by adjusting strike plate thickness. 

I might not though as I need to break in the new string I just put on, and when I set the brace height that may make up for the spine difference. 

The other option is too simply take half of my 12 new arrows and tune them in cold weather, and shoot them only in cold weather. 

I should probably just set up the brace height and mess with the strike plate though, as it will likely be spring by the time I get things tuned. 

If anyone reading this shoots a compound or recurve, or anything more than a bent stick and string you have my awe and sympathy.  If you would like to help ease my archery woes, then donating arrows seems to help solve the problem.

Finished Wood Shop Project

I haven't done much cool stuff, as I have been at school again.  I did however bring home the cabinet I made in wood shop.  I got a 92% on it, so not bad.  It is made of particle board with pine veneers, and solid pine.

I am currently working on my final shop project, which is coming along quite well.  I started shooting my bow again too, when I get some new arrows I will try and shoot some nice groups to take pictures of.

Anyway here is my cabinet:

Hiking at Medway Creek

My friend Stephanie and I went for a hike at Medway Creek.  We found fox tracks, which led us to a fox den.  We also checked on a shelter I built several days ago.  By far the most exciting part was when we came upon three deer.  We had seen two does from afar earlier, but this time we got within 20 yards easily.  There were two bucks and a doe.  The smaller buck had one small antler with two points on it.  The larger buck had a full rack, but he kept it hidden behind brush for the most part.  Last year he had 6 points, this year it looked like he had more.  My camera unfortunately ran out of battery power after two pictures, so the vast majority of the credit for photography should go to Steph.

These are my photos:

Note the deer tracks leading around the shelter.

Side view.

The enterance.

She fits inside much better than I do.

These are Stephanies photos:

This is the one antlered deer.  He stood funny for a bit, then proceeded to drink his pee or something...

Drinking pee I guess? 

Him realizing that we saw the whole thing.

This is the bigger buck.

If anyone knows what the little buck was doing, please leave a comment.

Cross Country Skiing at Circle R Ranch

My Dad, brother and I went cross country skiing at Circle R Ranch.  The trails were packed nicely, with a few icy spots.  They were lightly travelled, especially farther out from the main lodge. 

I saw lots of wildlife and wildlife sign on this trip.  On the drive in I spotted 3 whitetail deer bedded down on a hill.  When I was skiing I saw several more, sadly they were all too fast to get a picture of. 

The tracking was far more interesting.  I found coyote tracks, and for the first time ever possum tracks!  I also found the trail of a chipmunk or other small rodent.  Here are the pictures:


The trails were nicely groomed.

  Dad skiing along.

 Me skiing.

 This is the pond out back in Green Acres.

  An eroded bank I saw in Cornfield.

 This is a coyote track, it looks huge because of the double register.

  This is a better picture of a different coyote track.

 I assume these are chipmunk from the size of the tail drag mark, but they could easily be some other small critter.

 The tracks led into the black hole, which was at the base of a tree.

 The mystery critter has been running around a lot.

 Its hard to get a sense of how steep this little hill was.

Possum tracks!  These tracks are from front left and back left foot. 

  The frozen pond, as seen from the northern end.