Boat Building Class Adventure

All my life I have wanted to build a boat but never really gave it much effort. My uncle and I started a boat building class yesterday in Austin, Texas. We each started our first real boat. We worked from 8 am to 6:30 pm with a 45 minute break for lunch. We got two boats to the stage with rib, gussets, sides and bottoms ready to glass the outside seam with tape. The finished boat in the pictures belongs to a student that had just finished the two Saturdays of class and is what ours should look like when finished. I am not in any of the pictures as I snuck these in just as we were breaking for lunch. The teacher was a nice knowledgeable slave driver and kept us two old guys working our you know what off all day. We hand sawed the bow and stern stems. We also hand planed the chines and drove every nail into the sides and bottom. I am very proud of what we got done and what the partially completed boats looked like when we left yesterday. I will keep you informed on how the class finishes next Saturday and provide a link and information to the boat building class. Hopefully I can show you a picture of my boat ready to put the final finish on and go fishing. Go do something you always wanted to do; you might be able to do it. Wild Ed

Anyone interested in going to Mike Bull's boatbuilding class in Austin can learn more about the class at the following link: http://www.bulwarks.us/

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What Has Happened to the People of Texas?

I was raised to respect other people and have respect for private property and property owner’s rights. I would not even consider trespassing on someone else’s property nor would I abuse it. Apparently lots of people were not raised that way or they do not think that other people should own property and keep them out. I have really struggled with whether to write this article or not but something needs to be said by somebody so I guess its me.

Last Tuesday was my 37th wedding anniversary and I took my wife on a day long trip through the Hill Country of Texas. We planned on visiting some of our favorite towns and restaurants while taking in all the spring flowers. After a pleasant time in Fredericksburg we headed up Highway 16 to Llano and decided to drive the Willow City Loop which is a County Road that winds through private ranches and is famous for the wild flowers there. At both ends of the road are big signs with orange streamers telling visitors that the land on either side of the road is private property and not to trespass. It also said do not pull over and stop or block traffic on the road. The signs also warn that trespassers may be prosecuted. Pretty simple but apparently not for hundreds of folks that must be too stupid to read or understand simple statements. We saw literally hundreds of people pulled over on the side of the road taking pictures and many of the women were picking flowers. At one creek crossing people had pulled their vehicles over in the creek bed to park and were wading the creek while another member of the party was setting up a tripod to take pictures while standing under a private property keep off sign with orange tape streaming in the wind. So many vehicles had pulled over in some areas that the vegetation was completely gone and will not grow back for years. People were driving the narrow county road at five miles per hour stacking traffic up behind them for hundreds of yards, many not even trying to stay on the right side of the road but driving down the center until they had to move over when meeting traffic. Some of the traffic was from the ranches that were trying to go about life and go to town or coming back with supplies and were forced to drive behind these people that thought the whole place was just for them. Several times traffic came to a complete stop as some idiot would stop in the middle of the road to take a picture or let passengers in the vehicle jump out and run onto private property to take pictures.

My first thoughts were these people must be from somewhere else and could not be Texans for surely they would not act like this, but then I noticed that nine out of ten license plates were Texas plates so at least they live here. Have we become such a selfish group of people that we really believe that the laws are for everyone else, just not us? Or is it we no longer respect anyone else or their property? This all took place on a weekday, I would hate to imagine what it is like on a weekend. Can you imagine trying to cope with all this on your only road to and from town?

The drive was beautiful but I did not enjoy it. I was ashamed of my fellow Texans.
I did not take any pictures so none are included. If you would like to see the flowers and many of the trespassing people standing out on private land with smiles on their faces while trespassing just go to Google images and type in Willow City Loop.

How would you like for people to drive by your house all day, stop in the road or pull over in your yard, jump out and take pictures or pick flowers in your yard.

Think about it, Wild Ed

Back to happier things, I would like to give a plug to some really great places where the people were super nice and customer service is still alive and well in the Texas Tradition. We stopped in at a place called Texas Jacks http://www.texasjacks.com/ in Fredricksburg. It is just like you walked into an Old West General Store in the 1870-1915 era of Texas. You can come out looking like Wyatt, Doc, Kittie, Annie or any of your cowboy or cowgirl heroes. You can even buy the guns, leather and other accessories right there. My wife came home with a new straw hat with a Southwestern flare that looks pretty good on her. There is a fringed leather coat that I may have to go back for some day when I have the bucks to pay for it. Then I could look just like Buffalo Bill without the hair!

The Brewery http://www.yourbrewery.com/ over a street and down the block is a great place to eat lunch or sip on a home brewed ale while talking with a nice group of people. If you don't know what to order ask the help they are happy to tell you about what they make and provide assistance on your order.

If your in Marble Falls you have to stop and have a piece of pie at the Blue Bonnet Cafe http://www.bluebonnetcafe.net/ they have some of the best meringue pies in the world in this pie eaters opinion.

The last place was a mexican food restaurant in Burnet called "The Maxican" http://www.themaxican.com/ the food was great and the prices were very reasonable. It is in an old house on Highway 281 as you head north from the main intersection in Burnet.

There are still a lot of jewels in the Texas Hill Country, get out and find a few of your own. Wild Ed

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Cabela's Quick-Shot Predator Sticks

I don't normally advertise an item for anyone much less one that I paid for with my own hard earned money, but this is something that I think all hunters should have in their bag of tricks. It is a pair of shooting sticks. Cabela's has their Quik-Shot Predator Sticks on sale for $9.99 and I don't know that you could build your own with similar quality materials for that price. One of the things that has helped me hit more of what I shot at through the years is that I always take a rest if possible. These sticks allow me to have a shooting rest when calling for predators, turkeys or even sitting in a pop up blind. Get a pair and I think you will find they are indispensable to you just as mine have become to me. Good shooting, Wild Ed



Here is a link to the sale

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0079329230200a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Products&QueryText=predator+sticks&sort=all&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23

A Bicycle for Viewing and Hunting Wildlife

Many years ago when I was young and in pretty good physical condition I hunted a 4000 acre Corp of Army Engineers refuge near where we lived. It was free hunting, which in Texas was a rare commodity. There were no deer or hogs at that time but quite a few quail, rabbits and squirrels. During the winter the duck hunting was decent, but it was a couple of miles to get to the lake edge and you had to carry all your decoys, shells, shotgun and whatever else on your back. Since no motorized vehicles were allowed on the property it was a long hard hike to get back to good hunting country. I came up with the idea of using a bike to get far away from the refuge gates to do my hunting. The farther I rode into the refuge, the fewer hunters I saw and the better my hunting was as a general rule. I spent many a day riding that old Huffy bike back onto the refuge and hunting all by myself. On opening day of dove season there were literally hundreds of hunters parked at the refuge gate. By this time one of my hunting buddies had bought a bike to hunt the refuge as well. We unloaded our bikes at the gate, put on our vests loaded with shells, water and a sandwich; slung our shotguns over our backs and rode off to a far sunflower field several miles into the refuge. We hunted for two hours all by ourselves and were just leaving on our bikes with a limit of birds in our vests when some other hunters came walking into the field. It had taken hunters on foot that long to hike back to the remote sunflower field.

Later, I finally figured out that I could ride the bike around the deer lease and see much more game than if I went in a truck because of the noise level. I soon started riding my bike to and from the deer stand and would have deer come in much sooner than if I drove the truck and parked it somewhere close to my stand. As I got older and heavier I got away from using the bike and eventually gave it away to someone that would use it.

I just recently went through a heart procedure and I am getting ready to go in for a follow up doctor’s appointment as I type this. I have decided to start an exercise program and try to stick with it on a regular basis. I hate walking but have been working at the ranch on weekends and hoping that would be enough physical activity but realize it will not cut the mustard so to speak. I went out and bought a bike and have started riding again. I am determined to ride as much as possible but I also bought the bike thinking in the back of my mind I would use it to hunt and view wildlife like I did when I was younger. I was amazed at how far bikes have come since I bought the Huffy trail bike that I hunted on all those years. I settled on a hybrid cross country mountain bike built by Trek. It is the model 4300 and looks like it is built for ranch roads and back country trails, yet it will handle my daily rides down to the park and back in style. I hope to work up to longer rides as my endurance builds. I picked up a bike carrier for my truck hitch so I can haul up to four bikes easily to places I would like to ride or back and forth to the ranch.

If you need to get more exercise, hunt a place where motorized vehicles are not allowed or just want to reduce the noise or even cut your fuel use when traveling around a ranch or lease you might consider a trail bike for the job.



Enjoy the ride, Wild Ed

Here is a link to the Trek 4300 if you want more information.

http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/mountain_hardtail/4_series/4300/

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The Ruger P345 Double Action .45ACP

Let me start out by saying I am a 1911 single action fan. I have shot these pistols since I was 16 and taken Deer, hogs, javelina and exotics with the standard model 1911. I am a fan of the .45 ACP but do prefer the 185-200 grain hollow points over ball ammo for hunting and self defense. That being said there are often situations that I do not wish to carry one of my 1911 pistols. I ran across a Ruger P345 and thought this just might be the gun to carry when I do not want to carry one of the expensive 1911 guns.

The gun I bought was used but had less than a box shot through the gun. I went to my ammo drawer in the safe and cleaned out all the loose .45 ACP ammo I could find and managed to come up with a bag full of lead hardball, semi wadcutters, and different weights of hollow points along with about 5 brands of 230 grain hardball. I loaded the magazines with this ammo at random to test reliability and function of the P345. If it was going to jam or fail to fire this ragtag assembly of ammo would give it the chance. I was not expecting great accuracy because of the compactness of the pistol, the double action trigger and the just barely over four inch barrel. After the first eight rounds I was amazed to see the group in the bull at 20 yards, it was roughly a three inch group. I found the Ruger P345 very easy to control and the single action pull quite good. The double-action trigger reach on the P345 is just 2.835 inches, which is almost identical to the trigger reach on my 1911 autos. It is even less in the single action mode.

I fired over 60 rounds without a single malfunction. The pistol accuracy was on par with my best model 1911 and the three dot sights were pleasing on my old eyes. I have always liked the looks of the Ruger P series pistols but found them too bulky for my short fat fingers and hands. The P345 on the other hand is slim and fits my hand well. I am having problems adjusting to a de-cocker instead of a safety but that is just something I have never experienced so it will take some getting used to. The Ruger has a loaded chamber indicator on top of the slide that can be seen or felt and I liked that feature. Two things I do not like but can live with are the fact that the gun will not fire without the magazine in place. The gun also has a key that can lock it in a non firing position. I am a safety fanatic but teach my household about guns and keep them in the ready to go stage. A gun that can not be put into immediate action is of no use to anyone. I unlocked that feature and put the key in the safe to never be used again.

At the end of the day I found the Ruger P345 to be a reliable firearm in a fight stopper caliber. It is not my favorite .45 ACP but then it did not cost and arm and leg either. It will find a place in my holster often. Practice a lot and stay safe, Wild Ed

Ruger 45ACP P345 pistols offer the following features:
Dovetailed, three-dot sight system for faster, more precise target acquisition.
Slimmer contoured slide and frame.
Custom compounded polymer frame and exclusive Ruger cam block design help reduce felt recoil.
P345 pistols feature a frame with checkered grip areas, front-strap and back-strap, loaded chamber indicator, magazine disconnect, and an internal lock.
P-Series pistols are designed to be easily maintained and can be field-stripped into five major subassemblies for cleaning, without the need for special tools.
.45 Auto holds eight rounds in the magazine plus one in the barrel.
Ambidextrous manual decocker style safety
A frame-integral Picatinny-style accessory rail.

Link to Ruger website with more information along with videos on assembly and disassembly of the P345

http://www.ruger.com/products/p345/extras.html

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