Just memo...

I recently dug up this picture of my old bike and the memories really started to flow about places I'd ridden to and people I'd met and things I had seen, because of this cool Mechanical Pony. I found that riding a motorcycle is about as close as you can get to being back in time a hundred years to the days when everybody rode horses. The wind in your face, the splendid all around view, the feeling of freedom and the sense of awareness of your surroundings, all felt before, in those bygone years when men rode animals. Motorcycles, to me, are a kind of mechanical horse that you get to ride and be a big part of without having to pick up droppings or trying to find oats. :-)



This boy was a 650 Yamaha Special and for a guy as light as me (140 lbs) it practically flew. Even though it was only running 40 horsepower, that's about 39 more than our great grand fathers and their fathers rode. It's about power to weight ratio and that cool machine hardly knew I was on him. Man I LOVED this machine. Perhaps it's in my cards yet to own one again...

On a parting note, here's another neat place I've hooked up to lately, to help grow my web presence. I'm liking it so far. Give it a peek to see if it interests you too.


JustMemo - Free Web Directory Listing

Bed calls...g'nite.

A brand new Lens...

I started up a new page, called a lens, over at Squidoo, to do with Metal Detecting and Treasure Hunting. I love how easy it is to set these lenses up and how Google LOVES them too. Go take a peek at this one and maybe you'll even want to join up and build yourself a little lens too? :-)

My Amigo

later,

Favorite button...

Well, here's a new Favorites button for you to click this blog into your favorites at Tecnorati.



Go ahead, click it... :-)

Snow walker...

Well to-day I got inspired by the sunny skies, despite the cold temps, and headed out for a little bush walk. There is a nice little creek not far from my place that will be getting a lot more of my attention this year. That's where I ended up this afternoon and even in the winter, it's real pretty there...CoolCreek

Last spring I found a patch of Wild Leeks growing in a section of this creek, where the hardwoods live. Maples, Oak and a few Ironwood trees guided me to the spot and I dug a nice handful of the heavily scented little tasties to bring home in my bar bag on my bike. I'll be back there in a few months to do the same. Today I located three old dried up Ostrich Ferns, which now mark a new Fiddlehead spot for me too. :-)

Got pretty close to a few ducks just before I left the water and they didn't seem to be very camera shy, so I shot them. Digitally of course. ;-)Quackers

How about this ham? It's No Fear Ducky! :-}

Quak,Quak!

Lots of very fresh air, plenty of sunshine, a passel of live critters and a nice clean little stream to explore. All enjoyed with a simple little walk on a January winters day... Still can't wait for Spring though...

later,

Verification...

O.K. here's a verification code for mybloglog.
Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

Now, there, that is done, and now we're Rockin' over here!

O.K. a little update...

Upside down, topsy turvy world this past week. I've been out of my element a lot and doing stuff I don't normally do, just to keep things going. To-day I worked on a truck, doing pick-ups and got a darn good work out from it all. Poor ol' bod's doing a bit of whining this evening to be sure because of it. On the way home, I stopped off at the Ministry of Transport and picked up my Drivers Abstract, good for 3 years. It cost me all of $12 and that made me wonder why I hadn't got one of these before this? Probably could have been driving a truck somewhere by now if I had gone ahead and obtained one, months (years) ago! Sometimes, I confess, I'm not that swift and it usually causes me much grief when I do stupid stuff. So anywho, this little slip of processed tree, could start opening some doors for me, real quick. :-) I'll keep you updated...

Over the years I have amassed quite an extensive collection of Outdoorsy flavored books and magazines. For instance I have all the years from 1980 to the present of BassMaster Magazine, THE Magazine of Bass Fishing. I am a LIFE Member of this fine organization and have been for over 25 years now. I could not begin to tell you how much I've learned from all those awesome issues...

Way back in 1977 I attended the New York State Invitational, out of Alexandria Bay and had the opportunity to meet a good number of the touring pros. I thought I had touched heaven, rubbing shoulders with those guys and I was really impressed with how sociable they all were. I was even more surprised when they said I had an accent and that they knew I was a Canadian before I had introduced myself. :-) Talk about your "Proud to be a Canadian" feelings oozing through me after hearin' that stuff. Many of the guys you see in the tours these days are guys that grew up watching and learning from those cool boys that I so fortunately met, those many years ago, in Alex bay. One of the men that really stood out for me was Jimmy Houston. He had just come in off the Mighty St. Lawrence River with a good string of bass and was talkin' about how he had spinner-baited most of his bag that day, to a few folks gathered around him. It was drizzling out steadily as he talked, it had been for the last three hours. Even though the weather had put a damper on most of the contestants, Jimmy was just beaming. He had like a permanent grin on his face, a man in love with life and just a glowing. Now Jimmy's not real big on ball caps as you may know, or even fishin' caps as far as that goes, but here he was out in the rain all day long and now, STILL No freakin' cap on his slighyly balding melon, as he happily enlightened the handful of folks (me included) hanging on his every word! I knew right then and there, that there was something way more to this cool, gentle, smiling man than just spinner baits and catching bass. For this man, it was about attitude and not letting stuff get to you and keeping focused and positive...

Now, after many years, it all really came into focus when I received his wonderful hardcover book on Fishing, as a gift from my best friend. What a BEAUTIFUL book! What an INSPIRATIONAL book! What a MAN!




So, if you want a fantastic Fishing book for your library, I recommend this one, above all others out there right now. As a matter of fact, I'll go out on a limb here and say that this book may even change your life...

-30-

In the bush again...

Pretty busy last week and I'm just starting to get caught up in here now. What a slacker, I hear someone say in the background. :-) Oh how Time doth fly! So anywho, yesterday afternoon I finally made it back out into the bush again. The original mission was supposed to be to set-up a little temporary shelter/survival campsite out in the snow. However, the thick brushy area that I was in, as you can see in the photo, didn't quite allow enough sunlight penetration for good photo work. With time working against me and with the quickly fading light, I skipped a few parts of the mission.



For the above reasons, I kept it fairly simple and stuck to just gathering a few of the local fire starting materials nearby and went to work to see if I could get a little fire going, at least. I peeled a few little strips of well dried Birch bark from a dead stump and gathered a small hand-full of White Cedar bark that was hanging loose off the side of a towering ancient forest brother. Snapped off another small hand-full of toothpick sized dry branch tips from a stunted Maple and a long dead Poplar tree.

Wanting to repeat a test I did a few months back, I had brought along a 35mm film canister with my new "secret weapon" aka three real cotton balls in it, to be used as my only "society" tinder. Well, again, without a doubt, real Cotton balls are the best thing that I have ever used to catch a spark from any kind of flint type fire-stick. I have three different sparking rods and a Magnesium bar too, so I know they all work real swell with this most EXCELLENT, "society" fire-starter material! DO NOT leave home without a ball or two of this life-saving stuff in your pockets or bag with your other fire gear!

I laid a few little pieces of green Cedar branches on the compacted snow and then a little layer of skinny, bone dry branch tips, criss-crossed to make a little dry platform for the fire. I then ruffed up the Cedar bark in between my palms until it was all bushy and hairy and wispy-like and laid it on the platform, flattened out to about three inches across and a quarter inch deep. Next, the BBark was slit into fine strips with my razor sharp key-chain knife, seen here in this picture. Everything has to be kept fine and airy so I then rubbed the thin strips lightly between my fingers and it all got just right and fine the way I like it. Don't try to powder it though, fine fluffy strands is what you want here. The tiny branch tips from the Maple and dead Poplar were then placed, willy-nilly over the whole thing, yet leaving as much space as wood, over the tinder.

Finally, I slipped a carefully stretched, ruffled, and fluffed up, HALF of a genuine, as in real, Cotton ball, under the shredded Cedar layer, so that only a one inch square or so of cotton was sticking out. I touched the tip of my little chunk of worn hack-saw blade to the edge of the cotton sticking out of the bottom of the pile. Then, I carefully placed the end of the fire-stick under the edge of the hack-saw blade and pressed firmly against the stick, while drawing it up and towards me, in one smooth motion. Fifteen or twenty medium sized sparks flew from the rod into the tinder pile but 7 or 8 of them were enough to ignite the cotton right away. Within seconds, the Cedar and BBark flew into flame and the beautiful smell of home-made woodsmoke drifted past my nose. Man, I'm not sure what that is but I'll never tire of that wild smell as long as I live. :-)

So all in all, I didn't have time for the shelter part but at least, now you know what you need to ensure that you will be able to have fire out there using these simple little objects and methods. If you don't own a Fire-stick as I love to call them, Google them and track one down for your bush jacket pocket or your trekking pack or whatever! They can and will save your life and will last a LONG time after lighters have run out of fuel. Pop quiz... Your new bush fuel again is what? That's right, the one you learned about in here to-day. Cotton Balls Rule! :-)

So here's the results of yesterday's woodsy adventure mission and the gear used to create the fire...






Hope y'all Enjoy your Sunday out there to-day folks!

later,

Jeepers creepers, what kind of winter is this turning out to be? Just before Christmas Ottawa got blasted with more snow in a few days than we got all told, all winter, the year before. Now, a couple of weeks later, it's 10 degrees outside and the white crap is rapidly disappearing. Three days ago there was two plus feet of snow right outside my window. This morning, there are patches of green grass showing on the lawn, right out in front of me. What a change! Part of the global warming effect? Could be. I know the last five or six winters have been NOWHERE near as wintery as I remember as a kid. Less snow, milder temps and just plain, shorter winters. Not that I mind, now that I'm a little older and have mellowed out a little about being out in the freezing cold all day. :-)

I used to ice fish a lot in the winter and I've spent many New Years days in the past, out on some frozen lake or river somewhere. In the last four years, I've cut holes through the ice a total of two times. Looks like I'm slipin' a little, eh? Truth be told, one day of open water fishing, is worth to me at least, three or four out on a frozen lake. In terms of efficiency alone, one good cast in the summer, covers more water than you can fish in one day, from a hole in the ice, easily. What are the odds of you cutting a hole through the ice, right over the top of a spot that has fish right there?

Nowadays, I use this frozen water period, spent indoors, to work on some of my fishing tackle and to build my deadly little killer jigs that will plain spank the Crappies, Perch and Bluegills in my home lake, come April and May. Winters have also become my time to write in my blogs more and to dig out pictures from my archives to be readied for inclusion on my websites and blogs for the benefit of all my friends and readers. Because I am also a bit of a collector of many kool tiny little thingys, I also use my new Digital camera to photograph some of my goodies, to be sold on my two favorite FREE ad boards. If you'd like to view some of these neat little items which I have been releasing to the general public at crazy low prices, then just take a tour over to Kijiji and/or UsedOttawa.

This sweet little Pentax camera which I've been using since late last summer, is the totally coolest and smallest recorder of still life, that I have ever had the pleasure of using and owning. Over the past thirty years I've shot an awful pile of 35mm film through Pentax, Cannon and Minolta bodies and lenses. This tiny but very powerful new little Digital camera is again, a Pentax and did NOT put me in the poor house. A MAJOR consideration for this ol' puppy! :-) For about the price of a good accessory lens for one of my past 35mm's, this light-weight and VERY awesome unit, surpasses whatever I've used up to this point so far in my long Photography education. Because of it's weight/size or instance, it's so small that I always have it with me. That alone translates to MORE pictures being taken. It travels in it's own slick belt pouch and is barely noticeable there. Don't need any gadget bags loaded to the brim with heavy junk, in order to shoot Super pics with this sweet little kooly boy. Another plus? It's easily as "smart" as any camera I've owned, when in any of it's auto modes. It's light calculation system is totally bang on as is it's color rendition capabilities of real life and low-light situations that I put it through!

So, after all that, if YOU want a really hot yet totally cool new-tech camera, highly recommended by this ol' outdoorsy photog, then check this little bad boy out when you get a chance. It's official name/model is a Pentax Optia E30 and remember, it will not put a very big dent in your cash-flow. Oh ya, it also easily plugs into my USB port on the computer, for fast and easy downloads of any or all of the pics, so as to free up the 2 gig card I've got her stoked with! :-) Man, that's a sh__tload of pictures in such a tiny camera. I LOVE this new-technology, as long as the power doesn't go down...

Here is another sample picture of a little group of neat old soda pop bottles from yesteryear, shot with this amazing E30, that are now looking for a new home on the ad boards mentioned above. :-) So, from outdoorsy shootin' of flowers and bugs and fish and scenes etc all the way to doing indoor studio work, this sweet little digi-cam ROCKS! Anyone remember any of these neat old bottles? The Coca Cola bottle is an old, short, embossed model, date stamped on the bottom with '57, meaning 1957.

Some Old Pops

Hey, that's older than a lot of you out there, reading this. Kool! :-)

Well Happy New Year! 2008 already. Awesome! To cap off '07 I've just gotta mention my wonderful Christmas gift in here. Santa, dressed as my best bud in the world, left me a beautiful pair of great outdoor boots. I haven't worn anything that felt this good on my feet in over twenty five years. They are are called Predator, and are made with Mossy Oak waterproof uppers, and lined with Thinsulate Ultra. These Herman Survivors are fitted like a ski boot. Total support, with firm, all around cushioning and yet really flexible as well as super-light. Man, I couldn't have scored a better Christmas gift. Thank You so much Big Bruce and pretty wife Elaine, for these simply fantastic boots! I've already tested them a few times and they ate up whatever I threw at them so far, including a five mile hike in slushy slop. No Problem with wet feet and no cold feet either. Love it!

Sold a few more items off my two free ad boards last week but need to lose a whole lot more yet. Sure are some nice people out there. Well, there are also a few donuts too, but it all balances out in the long haul.

Applied for a full time day job yesterday and sure hope I get it. Lord knows, I need the steady cash flow, if I'm to remain housed. The interview went well, I thought anyway, so I'm optimistic about it. :-)

I waited behind a big tree for a good shot of this little fella while he was touring around in the rocks along the Rideau River last summer when I spotted him. Closest I've ever been to a live wild Mink! Very Kool! :-)

It's the eve before Christmas eve, and I'm starting to dry out and warm up after putting in a 9 hour day of shoveling snow. I'll bet you I probably shoveled and or lifted over two tons of the white heavy shit to-day. I guess it isn't any wonder then, that my poor old freakin' body is aching everywhere! Man, I've got to get into some serious mind work and a whole lot less physical work...To-day went a lot better than yesterday. Yesterday was tough because of the attitude of the guy I was working with. Attitude is EVERYTHING when you have to do shitty work. Wrong attitude, miserable day. Buddy's a pro at throwing around all the typical dork signs that dicks display if given half a chance. You know the ones. Cutting any of your sentences short. Not answering or anyway acknowledging a question. Switching radio channels, as soon as you give him any sign you like the song currently playing. Tell ya not to get in his face if you try to take a casual peek at HIS dumb map or beat sheet. Takes many pee breaks like a girl. Plays only the boss card, NEVER the fellow worker one. Totally overly inflated ego which really needs to be taken down a peg or two or three even. Says he's a smart guy,and he' says he's organized, an apparent clean freak, thinks too highly of himself for what really is there. I could go on but no need. This guy would/could/should work by himself. His people skills are VERY limited. Oh, he always has to be right no matter the situation. He really hates it if I'm right. O.K. Rant OFF.

I would SO love to just be able to work from the net! There are many, many different opportunities out there. If we could only locate the right one for us, life would start getting easier, faster. I've been digging around for awhile and still have not found the so called magic lure or program or plan or whatever, yet. At least I've enjoyed all the digging and I've most certainly learned a lot in the process. For instance I know for a fact the I've hand-built from scratch, over 30 websites on the Internet. What you are reading here is my third blog. I participate in about a dozen different forums. Google LOVES me! How do I know that, you might be wondering? Well, it's pretty simple really. All anybody who knows me or ever heard of me or is looking for me, has to do, is type my name into Google. You even get to pick from my real name or my nom du plume. Now ask yourself this, how many people do YOU know that you can find by typing their names into THE Worlds Best Search Engine? I practically have Google housebroken and paper trained. Instead of looking me up name-wise, you might try taking some of my descriptive and quite powerful keywords for a spin. For instance, I'm a Canadian, secondly I'm very Outdoorsy and thirdly I am indeed, a webmaster. So, put them together and type "Canadian outdoorsy webmaster" into Google and that too will pull up a pile of my web-pages, all near the top, by the way. :-)

Anyway, I hear more stuff calling me, so I'll shut down for now and like always, leave ya with another picture. This one is a real Oldie Goldie, of a nice Big Mouth Bass taken a number of years ago from a little lake up Lanark way. White Spinner-baits and Moss Boss's in the thick weeds, just did a number on them Bassies that day for sure. Any guesses on which lake it was? Leave a comment. If you are right, I will say so. If you are not, I will give you a hint. ;-)

Chow.

Chuckle time...

Saturday's Laugh start-up... A cup of coffee, computer on, and a mood enhancing pic to kick yer day off right! So without further delay, another trailer park boys type innovation for you...



Humor, at nobody's expense, turns my crank! Looking at a funny picture really sets my day off in the right direction. Normally, I spend most of my waking life in a pretty serious type of, mode. SO, I find it helps me to start MY day off, with a laugh to set-up the balance with a more, yin and yang flavor to it. I'm also a Libra and that sort of somehow really helps me to stay level and not go shooting too far off into left field somewhere, too often. ;-) Life seems to be pretty darned serious everywhere these days. We need more laughing and more LOVE, going on out there. The Beatles, if anyone reading this remembers them, were SO right. LOVE Is ALL you need. Peace over war any day, has been one of my standard mini-motto's for over 4 decades now and it even feels more usable to-day!

So I hope this pic gets at least a wee smile out of you to-day and helps you to keep YOUR yin & yang in harmony, like it did for me! :-)

You know fair reader, I got this funny picture from my favorite on-line Treasure Newsletter and thought I'd share it with you in here. The website is really awesome if you have any kind of a little flair or love for Treasure Hunting, or as folks in the biz call it, TH'ing! Check them out if you dig adventure and could handle a totally free and very Cool, Treasure Newsletter about it too. Here's the URL folks. Enjoy! Lost Treasure USA

Have a super day y'all!

:-)

I was goin' through one of my various little fishing lure boxes the other evening. Well,lo and behold, doesn't this little killer rig from the good ol' days, slip out of obscurity and fall under my gaze? Well sir, who would have known that "Weber" had come out with such a kool little lure, so long ago? I figure it was somewhere around the mid-fifties or so this sleek little design idea slipped out into the fishing world out there in the day, was hardly noticed and then just as quickly, disappeared again, due to lack of proper advertising, perhaps. :-( Also, Fishing writers had their hands full back then writing about other new stuff like say, Williams Wablers, Daredevle Imps and Daredevlets, Flatfish and Lazy Ike's and the then new Creme Rubber worms, complete with the cute little beads and a spinner in front of them and 3 hooks stickin' outta them and all. :-)

So anyway, this particular little spinning lure, although very simple looking at first glance,is extremely well designed in my estimation! It is one that REALLY needs to be looked at further by this writer, to re-invent it sort of, for at least going into my own current "killer" tackle box. :-) As a matter of fact,it's such a cool fishing design all around, that I was a little hesitant about even depicting it here in my little web log to-day. Then I thought about that for a minute or three and then I remembered, that the BIGGEST reason I'm here bloggin' at all in the first place, is to share as best as I can, all kinds of kool shit (for lack of a better or more current word) that I know, with others who like to follow any of my little internet trails, into and out of the bush and back! So, lucky you to-day, here's a picture just shot by my trusty little Pentax dig-it-all camera, of THE neatest little lure I've looked at in awhile. I WILL be workin' on putting something similar to this together to be tested out come spring. You can bet yer boots on it! ;-)

Secret Lure Exposed!



Enjoy! :-)

lb

P.S. I haven't mentioned this in here before, which I should have of course, but if you double click any of the pictures in my blogs, they should jump up to full size for your closer viewing. Well, except for the one below from my visit to Kingston, I'm still looking for the original sized pic to replace it. Anyway, then just click your back button when you're done to come right back here to the blog where you found the neat shot in the first place. :-) Go ahead, give it a try, click something, but not the crouching bushguy shot... :-)

Gloomy out there this a.m. with a kind of a foggy tone to it. The last few days I've been hobbling around at home nursing a hip joint that has been totally acting up. I think it's all part of an old Sciatica problem, which originally started twenty or so years ago, when I slipped on some ice and landed on my tail-bone. That little trick, crippled me up instantly and I then painfully crawled a two hour crawl into the house and onto the couch, where I collapsed and passed out. I woke up, a day and a half later and couldn't move anything. I was in the same position that I was in when I rolled onto the couch in the first place. Long, painful story later, I stayed right there again for two more days, frozen in my new, face up position. It took over three hours to get from on my stomach to over onto my back. Three hours of total intense pain, quarter inch by quarter inch movements to finally get myself over onto my back. Just after doing that, I passed out again for another 10 hour stint. Keep in mind that right since it happened, all the way until my second pass-out, I did not and could not go to the bathroom, get any pain killers, a glass of water or anything. I could NOT move. Before passing out the second time I started to feel like the rest of my life would be spent in a wheel chair. I started to believe that I had permanently hurt myself, big-time...

Anyway, this latest aching hip, pins and needles thing, is probably the ripple effect of that whole miserable ordeal I suffered through those 20 years ago. Hopefully it will be getting better to-day as I start to apply more of my manipulations and rolling twists and massage techniques, as well as some Tylenol's and an ice pack on and off all day.

Friday and Saturday I spent some time putting a few of my Collectibles up for sale on Kijiji Ottawa, a neat place to sell stuff locally. One of the items I put up there was this book that I've had since 1971. This guy has been my MA hero since I first laid eyes on him, back in 1969 in a theater on Rideau Street, here in Ottawa. Everyone in the theater was jumping up and down and yelling and just goin' wild. I had never seen people do this before and it's because up until that time, no other actor ever made us do that. This incredible Martial Artist had so much stage presence that everyone in the place was pumped up like balloons. Who am I talkin' about here? Well folks, none other than the amazing and hard to believe, Bruce Lee, THE Martial Artist of the 20th century. This is really a great book and has become a classic but it's time to make room for more pressing things in my life. So, perhaps some Bruce Lee fan out there in Kijiji land will get themselves a great Christmas present soon...



Try Google for Kijiji and then you can click on many different cities. Perhaps yours is there and you can use Kijiji too like I do. There, that's my hot tip for the day. ;-)

later,

Woa Man, it's like, Snow-City right out side my studio window, what with the wind howlin'like it is and all and brutal gusts outta nowhere, and over six or seven inches of the cursed white stuff blowing everywhere and covering everything. We just broke a 5 year long record for the most snowfall in one day :-( Oh well, enough whinin' in here, winter is now here to stay so get used to it... Just seems that it keeps gettin' harder to adjust to as you get older. ;-) Maybe that's a sign that I should be planning my future to include headin' anywhere south of where this white crap lives, for my elderly/retired last decade? :-) Hmmm.

Say, did you know that among all of the neat little things I've been collecting for a while, HotWheels have endeared my heart for the last two decades? Yup, it's true. I dig HotWheels vehicles. Well, I've slowed down buying them a lot in the last three or four years but still manage to snag a killer car or two, here and there in my society travels for various supplies. :-) I plan on posting a few Hot Wheels pictures from my personal collection in here off and on in the future and maybe that will encourage more folks to check out these slick little die-cast vehicles. So folks, for starters, at the tree and ready to go is, this beautiful little puppy built after a VERY well known car among the race car crowd. That's right friends, it's a 1/64 scale mint condition,"The Snake". This awesome rig was made famous by none other than the legendary Don Prudhomme and is adorned with micro detailed decal work. My 10x loupe reveals VERY legible stuff like Coca-Cola,Penzoil,Wyn's,Cragar,Good Year and MORE even! Just beautiful detail.




This car only appeared for the one series a few years back and WILL be in demand in years to come because the sport of racing won't die for a while yet, even though it sure guzzles a lot of non-renewable resources...;-(

Later y'all,

Hey there, Happy Sunday! I hope your day gets off to as good a start as mine did. Here is a piece of script that should go in the Head section of this blog...Hope this works here in lu of putting it in the head tags which I don't know if I can even access?! ;-) * It should be invisible here though...NOPE, that didn't do it...

O.K. next on to-day's agenda, it's Picture time again...


This folks, is a view looking at the Gatineau Hills across the Ottawa River from my vantage point up on the top of Carlington Hill. I am standing on the highest point of land within miles of where I can see...Anyone else from Ottawa ever get up on that hill? It used to be a Ski hill, back in the day and was a pretty busy place then. I learned to ski on that same hill, as a matter of fact, over 30 years ago. :-0

To-day is cold and windy and everything is covered in over 6 inches of white poop so I've opted to stay in and work on some of my web stuff as it's been gettin' tricky to stay on top of it all. ;-) Besides this and two other blogs I've built recently, I participate in about a dozen Forums and also I have over 25 of my own websites up on the net now. So as you may see, I'm a pretty busy dude. :-)

One of the koolest forums I belong to is devoted to all the things folks carry with them on a day to day basis. They call all that stuff, EDC's or every day carry's if you wanna use that slick lingo they use over there. Mostly this group is composed of outdoorsy types, like myself, but a lot of non-outdoorsy type noobies are showin' up lately, learning a lot of neat stuff and then hookin' up themselves, just so they can show the other forum folks what kinds of cool gear they EDC and exchange info and pics with a real good gang! Go over and have a gander if you get a few spare moments to-day to see what all the fuss is about. :-) Tell 'em "Bushguy" sent ya when ya get there and they'll make room for y'all cozy like, around the campfire ring there. ;-) Enjoy!

EDC Forums

Cheers friends,

Holy smokes life zips by quick these days. Here it is already the first day of December 2007, there's over five inches of snow all over everything and it's hoverin' around -12 degrees below freezing, temperature wise outside. Winter's here to stay and I'll be diggin' out my winter gear to-day, hey hey. :-) Very busy week ending out November that was. Didn't even get back in here once to post a pic even. This morning I'm going to fire up one of my older computers and see if I can copy some of my pictures from the hard drive onto a new RW Cd I bought last Thursday. Then, I can upload them to my main computer and get'em on the net. I have SO many nice shots to share, I hope it works out. If not, I'm gonna be a busy boy next spring tryin' to shoot live replacement shots for all the ones I can't access. :-( So anywho, here's a Saturday mornin' pic for to-day's viewing...



This picture was taken with my trusty Sony while on a trip to Kingston, visiting with my best friend Bruce and his wife Elaine. I don't normally do a lot of self portrait shots but now due to being on the Internet so much, I find that people like to see and in that way, sort of know, who is talking to them. Studio shots have never been my thing. Get out there and shoot, is one of my motto's. Setting up the camera to do the job properly is a bit of a science in itself. I always use minimal gear because I've been a "go-light" outdoorsy dude since my early teens, a number of decades ago. :-) I've found out and proved over the years, that plain ol' "ingenuity" can easily take the place of money when lacking gear. Anyway, this is the first shot out of this WAY Cool (older-tech)camera, that is of your's truly author, photog, and now blogger/webmaster to boot. O.K. that's enough self-promo poop 4 now, Chow! :0)

later,

larryb

Well, I guess winter is here to stay. Between yesterday and today I'd say there is about 5 to 6 inches of it on the ground now. If that's the case then I've got about a hundred winter projects to get started on. So many indoor things here that I have been putting off for months, while I tried to capture as much daylight and warm temps as possible, during the non-white months. I probably have over 200 pictures that need to be categorized, titled, and in many cases, shrunk so as to fit properly on forums etc. Then there's fishing tackle strewn about everywhere that needs to be put back in it's proper places and over a dozen brand spanking new, Chinese Killer lures in their newly designated boxes. Also there are dozens and dozens of neat little collectible items that need to be photographed and then put up on the web. I like Kijiji for that locally.

There's a lot more to do too but that will keep me going pretty steady for the next couple of days at least. Ya gotta remember I'm pulling a nine to fiver too , eh? ;-)

Speaking of workin', I worked with both Jeff & Mark to-day at Solutions. Mark on a bunch of shelving and Jeff near the end of the day with the garbage run. This new store is starting to take shape and looks like it just might take off. Unfortunately they're advertising with the stupid turn yer knob to slob bob station and probably wasting good money where it could have been better spent on the Bear and/or Chez. Oh well, you know how corporate works, eh, they never listen to us little guys! Also, I took a quick peek at their website and can say so far that it also needs work! Mark may be jumping ship, he's not sure but seems pretty excited. I'll be talking (working) with him again tomorrow so I'll try and remember to get his # before the end of the day so we can keep in touch. Also gotta grab Jeff's too...

Now, on to the FUN stuff! WooHoo! Here's a few new bright little additions to my key-ring. A little more color enters the outdoor world of yours truly. Everything doesn't always have to be camo you know. :-) The slick purple guy in the middle is a kind of multi thingy with wedges and a bottle cap lifter and a nut slot in the middle of it. The plain aluminum dude at the top of the pic is a spy capsule, in a bullet flavor, with a mini, screw caped capsule, stashed inside the O ringed screw in it's end cap. VERY kool. :-) Any of you carry gear like this on your key-ring?

later...

Ho Ho Ho, another 71/2 hours of back breaking labor and finally just getting home now around 9ish. Met Cheryl from Solutions-stores.ca and asked her about maybe working there, seeing as they need a few people for their opener the first week in December. Gonna follow up on that too...

Met up with Jeff, Mark and Ian, my work-buds from the People B down at the Henry's Camera Show in the east end and we packed stuff and lifted stuff and loaded trucks until about a quarter to eight. MAN, is my back whining! Oh well, now I'm that much closer to being able to pay the rent next week. Plus, Bill one of the head honchos there,(Kool guy and a bright lad to boot)
treated us to a whack of fancy sandwiches just before he signed our time sheets. Ya gotta like employers like that,eh? :-)

O.K. Here's another picture for you. I just LOVE this sweet little Pentax point & shoot, digital camera. This pic captures a little fall scenery which I grabbed last week while out on tour. It'll all be covered in the white stuff soon enough so feast your eyes on it now while it's still lookin' cool. In case you're wondering, the longspan in the background, is the World Famous Champlain Bridge, between the provinces of Ontario and Quebec...



Later y'all!

Well hey there,

Sunday is starting off sunny and NOT as windy as it's been lately. Glad to see that as I have to walk over a mile in windblown, wide open country that nearly froze this ol' boys' butt off yesterday, heading to the new job site. I'll be leaving home within the hour to head out to the new shopping center to meet up with Jeff Bourgeois, (no, not my brother, however) to work till 4 then head over to the Henry Show to help them pack their tractor trailers etc till when-ever.

I'll drop back in here for a bit, either later to-night or hopefully tomorrow.

Later,

Lar

P.S. Here's another recent picture taken with my new little digital wonder-worker. It's a shot of some of my specialized Outdoorsy stuff...Hope ya dig it! :-)

Where R we now? Does this shot remind you of a place that you've been to? Somewhere out East maybe? Lake Ontario perhaps? I took it last week in a pretty well known spot if you live in Ottawa. It's taken off the long rocky point that justs out into Britannia bay, facing into the western sunset. Maybe you have been there too, at one time or another? Well, it's still a pretty kool spot to spend a little time at, in my estimation anyway.

Once you are down there, right on the shore of the mighty Ottawa River, you start seeing a whole bunch of neat places to explore and get yourself involved with. Give it a tour if you are not too far away, you won't be disappointed, I think!

Have a grand one...

your blogging bourgeois,

lb

Howdy, O.K. so it's been a while since I've tapped the keyboard in here but that is sort of another indication of just how FAST time flies! :-( Three years IS a long time but let's pick up where we left off, just like nothing happened, alright? O.K. then, here we go...