Well, you clicked here - so you have to read .... ;?)

I just got a cup of coffee and a couple of cookies. I hesitated cause I wasn't sure what Kelly was gonna do. I asked, "Would you like to tal... " "NO" came her reply before I could finish, tal-k". Well, gee .... seems nobody wants to talk to me.

Could it be that I'm no fun? Surely not! Already talked thru every known subject? If you get sick or if you get buried in some all encompassing responsibility ... stock up on reading materials first. Gee - nobody wants to talk. Well - there's always the Slingshot Channel on uTube.

So ... I decided to tell you a story.

Did you know that you can make great darts out of corn cobs and chicken/duck feathers? The inside of the cob is "pithy". You can stick a feather quill into that material, and it will hold pretty well. You know that feathers are right handed or left handed - depending upon the side of the bird they are from - the curve is different. If you get two alike - and push them into the back of a cob ... the curve will cause the cob to rotate when you toss it. Either Clockwise or CCW depending upon the feather's curve. So - use two alike or they will fight one another.

My cousin and I, use to make these. I'd hound the kids in elementary school who lived on a farm. To get feathers. I'd be more excited about going to school then Christmas, if one my the kids had promised me feathers. Of course, they'd forget. I'd be horribly disappointed several times before I'd get a feather - but they would dribble in. Once - I got a turkey feather!!! OMG!!! It was like the bestest gift I'd ever gotten!!! I made up a quill pen - decorated it with beads and painted the tip white like an Eagle feather. I was a regular founding Father!

Anyway ... I digress. Well - the period of time between when my cousin and I would develop a new technology ... and when we'd "Weaponize" it, could be measured in mere minutes. "Yeah - that flies ... bet a nail as a point would be NEAT!!!" And so, we'd head for the sheds to find a nail we could pull out (if there wasn't one visible on a bench somewhere) .... and we'd gring around under the head (on the old bench grinder), until the head would pop off. Then, I'd sharpen it like a surgical needle, and insert it in the business end of the corn cob. Out the door at a sprint .... to fling it just slightly sub-sonic at the end of the tractor shed. THaWLoooPpp!!! "It Stuck, It Stuck" Yeah ... about half way thru the plank! We'd pull it and the nail would remain. We'd have to get tools to get the nail out. And then make more of them.

We found that we could split a Pheasant's Tail Feather from end to end, and then tape them on a long shaft - to make fletching for a throwing spear! You had to have two feathers - cause the tail feather is cupped - which produces two opposite halves. They don't curve a lot ... and the feather hairs are not real long - so it CAN work ... but better results is achieved with splitting two feathers - and then mixing the sets for two resulting matching sets.

My grandfather HAD had a sawmill in his working years. Thus, "rippings" in the form of long hardwood sticks about 7/8" square cross-section and about 6 foot long were found up in the rafters of sheds. These were too much for the factory. They ALL became spears over the years.

I was the designer and mechanic - my cousin was on the proofing side of the equation. Therefore; I made two of everything.

One game which might go on for days, was initiated when an unused bicycle tire would be released to us. Maybe a replacement had been made - I don't know. But - we'd end up with a raw tire - no rim. And, we'd roll the thing. Now - rolling was nothing if not boring. Now - rolling WHILE attempting to throw a spear thru the center, and thus halt it's roll by pinning it to the ground .... now THAT could occupy you for days.

Two eleven year olds, running full tilt ... each armed with steel tipped spears ... and between them a rolling/whobbling bicycle tire. The laurels went to the kid who stopped the tire first. Often we'd X the spears thru the tire and pin it to the ground. You should have heard the gallery!!! We sought the approval of the fair maidens .... but ... alas .... they were never in attendance. Bummer. Oh well - let's roll again!!!



OK ... that's the story for today.

I know ... I know. Everybody is just, and ONLY, waiting to hear that we have sold the house and I'm now up to my armpits in metal shavings. Until such time, I am a man in exile. Do not look upon me ... for I am .... hideousssssss.

OK ... happy Monday.

Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2013 03:42AM by barnespneumatic.

Happy Monday Gary, though it's Tuesday here and Guy Fawkes night, so I guess there will be sky rockets and crackers going off a fair bit of the night!
I like your childhood story and can think of many crazy dangerous things we did as kids and somehow survived. Actually, I can think of many crazy dangerous things I did as a teenager and adult and somehow survived! Occasionally still doing them. I guess we never learn.....
I hope you are getting closer to the summit of your mountain
Cheers
Neil

Gary,

A couple of mine.

Playing in "the big lot" my bud and I found a razor broadhead stuck in a tree. Pure gold! We dug it out, crafted a tree branch bow which then became a crossbow and shot everything within range.

I forget who tipped me off to a piece of 3' electrical conduit, cork and a sharpened length of coat hanger wire but it made an amazing blow gun. We literally had to pull the dart out of wood with pliers.

Love the YouTube slingshot channel! Why don't I ever see you comment on the videos?

Lon



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2013 06:36AM by Bigbore.

Building a fort and shooting the bb gun was our game. building a ramp to see who could jump their bike the longest.

"Building a fort and shooting the bb gun was our game. building a ramp to see who could jump their bike the longest. "

You must have lived in my neighborhood when I was growing up, these were some of our pastimes as well.

Lon

Me too. Tree forts and riding bikes. Once we got speedometers on our bikes, we rode like our lives depended on it, just to rack up miles on the odometer. I remember silly numbers we logged - but they seem too absurd to mention. And we did most of it riding around and around the elementary school across the street. A combination of blacktop, cement sidewalk, gravel, playground, and a section of grass - and you made the circuit. Probably five times to the mile. And we racked up hundreds of miles.



Gary

When I was a kid I WAS Evil Knievel ! My dad dumped a truck load of sand in the field next door and I was good for a couple years . Had a fort dug out of the center and covered with wood and dirt . We even had a wood stove in it a tried to pop field corn for snacks . ( it don't work ) we would ride our bikes over top of the hill jumping the roof of the fort . I didn't get any gun as a youngster but made plenty of slingshots ! The left and right hand wings on birds does come into play on trout flies quite often to simulate bugs and terrestrials and of course fetching cedar arrows. I wonder how much 10 yards of sand cost in 1968 ??hmmmm

Hi Kurt,
Wow, sounds like "The Great Escape". Did you have a rail system and tunnels? Haha.
We did that with enormous snow piles. My father had a large parking area for school busses he operated. Back then, snow just met you got up earlier and put chained on all the bus tires before the drivers arrived. The snow pile from clearing the lot got huge - and packed. So- it was not like a fluffy drift. It was pretty structural. A deep hole in the top - pc of old board or plywood. A bit of snow atop. But, we didn't make much of a roof. We were mindful of cavein. The pile was high enough to slide down. Man, those were cold days of wet gloves and red, red skin! Burrrrrr.
Gary

Ya in those snowy days the cold didn't matter as much . I do remember my mother not letting me out till she put the rainbow bread bags on my feet before my hand me down boots went on ! It was a bummer having an older sister ! Girl boots , girl bike that my dad painted blue converting it to a boys bike ! The kids now have it way to easy !

Yeah Kurt - the kids have it way too easy ....

WAIT! .... Rainbow Bread bags! You had Rainbow Bread? You lucky Dog! I had CRUSTS of three day old bread - in a paper bag. And I had to walk ten miles to the bakery to get it! Haha

Yeah - I did the bread bag trick too. Your Mom know my Mom?

Gary

Would you believe that the "bread bag trick" is helping save peoples lives today?

If you've ever seen them train to use those bright red survival suits (gumby suits) on shows like "Deadliest Catch", you might notice that they always stuff a bread bag or a slippery plastic shopping bag into each leg when they roll them up for storage. That way when you go to put it on in an emergency, you can just slip your foot into the leg of the suit without removing your rubber boots. If you try it without the plastic sack, it's a wrestling match trying to jam your Xtra Tuff boots down into the survival suit booty, and it takes forever.

Whoda thunk?

BTW, those suits really work, they dramatically improve your survival time in cold water. When you train to don them in a regular swimming pool (typically 85-86 degree water) you actually overheat pretty quickly. You can put one on over your soaking wet street clothes, and about a minute after you get it sealed up you'll be wanting to pull it off again. They're also claustrophobic and clumsy as heck, since they seal up right over your mouth and nose, and all they've got is a Gumby-style mitten on the hands. Certainly better than freezing to death, but not very handy if you've got anything you need to do.

It's interesting. I have no desire to freeze. But they'd have to induce coma to get me into one of those things. If I might need one - I'll just stay home and work - thanks.

No kidding. The waves you see on some of those shows...no thanks. Could make a person sea-sick just watching it on TV.

And then there's the whole "dying of hypothermia adrift in the middle of nowhere" issue if any one of dozens of critical parts fail on your boat. That one leaves a lot to be desired.

Yeah, I've watched a few of them. Where the whole ship goes dark cause one component fails. Then ... "What to you mean ... you left the key to the EMERGENCY SURVIVAL cabinet in your truck ... back on the dock ... ". Cue ominous music .....

No, I get the whole "frozen in the ice all winter, listening to the ice crush the hull, while you burn the forecastle for fuel" ... . Tell me again, why man desires to explore the final frontier. Ah ... to leave an archeological relic .. Often in the form of a hasty graveyard with one figure found near the last unfinished grave ....

Gee ... I must need more sunlight ..... . Sorry. Haha.

Gary

me too