My Game Camera is Still on the Job

I recently put out a game camera just to see what animals might show up. I placed some fruit that was getting a little to ripe for us to eat in a pile and placed the camera where anything that might come to the fruit would have its picture taken. I also placed some bobcat call lure on the stick you see in the picture to draw any predator that might come downwind of the camera. Here are a few of the shots the camera took. All the animals came at night, dusk or dawn which I attribute to the heat. I plan on keeping a camera out even in the off season so that we can see what animals are on our place. The pictures are dated June but it should be a 5 for May, the camera somehow got set ahead a month. Someday I will figure out how to set it back. :)

I am also including a couple of pictures of two Great Horned Owl Eyasses we found in a wooded area. They are still covered in down but can fly quite well.
Hope you enjoy the pictures, Wild Ed

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Home Grown Texas Humorist

If you ever picked up a copy of Texas Fish and Game magazine you have most likely read a Political Commentary Column by Kendal Hemphill. Kendal covers important and often controversial issues affecting the Texas outdoors and the people that enjoy it. He is well informed and objective. Kendal is one of the last people I would expect to have the wonderful Texas influenced sense of humor that he does indeed possess. He has allowed this sense of humor to permeate the book he has just released.


The Buck Never Got Here is one of those books that you want to enjoy and then go tell someone else the stories. I am not going to repeat the stories here or tell you about that which is between the covers. I am currently in the process of enjoying the book at this time and will tell you that from what I have read so far every hunter and fisherman in Texas should read this book. No subject, organization or person is untouchable and Kendal feels free to shoot at anyone or anything. It makes me smile that Kendal does not know more about me or my hunting and fishing buddies.

In one chapter Kendal writes about boat building and a steel canoe that he built. He talks about building the six hour canoe… those that follow my blog will recognize that the six hour canoe is what I built in boat building class. I only had 40 plus hours of labor in mine so I am sure I must have done something wrong or the title is a lie. The epoxy takes more than six hours to set up hard so the title must be wrong. Anyway I did not waste time and did not find it humorous that Kendal points out that school children could build it according to the designer of the plans. However I am sure that the rest of you will get a kick out of my misery. The story in the book made me take a good look at myself and laugh. I am now starting boat number two.

You can get your own copy of Kendal’s new book
“The Buck Never Got Here”
by sending $14.99 plus $3 shipping to:

Kendal Hemphill
PO Box 1600
Mason, TX 76856

While you are at it pick up a copy of Texas Fish and Game and read Kendal’s Column along with all the other good articles published in the magazine. If you enjoy the Texas Outdoors you might want to just go ahead and subscribe.


Enjoy the read, Wild Ed

I Finished the Boat And It Floats

Today my wife and I took my finished boat to the Texas Kayak Fisherman’s boat builder round-up at the Inks Lake State Park.

http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/forum/portal.php

We had the pleasure of meeting a great group of people and making new friends with a common interest. We even found out one of the families in attendance today lives just a few blocks away. That is all I need, someone close to encourage me to build more boats.

Back to the boat I have been building and how it turned out. I made a few minor mistakes in finish-out but learned a lot so my next one will be even better. Best of all the boat floats, doesn’t leak at all and paddles very well. It turns on a dime so I am considering a keel or skeg for straighter tracking. I borrowed a canoe chair to try out and it works well. I do need to adjust where I can place the chair in the boat to level it out in the water. My wife took the boat out and went to the far side of the lake and back. The boat rode very well for her and paddled easily. I mentioned that I would be building her a boat in the future and she corrected me by letting me know this boat was hers and I would need to build me a boat in the near future.

We had a beautiful day even though it was storming early as we prepared for the trip. I ran into several people that are interested in building their own boats. For those that want to learn more about boat building I recommend the following sites. First is Bulwarks which is the boat building class given by Mike Bull in Austin. http://www.bulwarks.us/ I built my boat in the class taught by Mike so if I can do it anybody can build their own boat.

You can also reach Mike by phone 512-769-2553

The second is the Brazos Boat Works and The Texas Paddler owned by Gerald Kennedy. www.texaspaddler.com Gerald has boats, designs, plans, Kayak equipment and other supplies. Both of these guys are top notch and will steer you straight on watercraft.

Here are a few pictures of the day and some of the beautiful boats that were in attendance. Hope you enjoy these and maybe we will see you at the next round-up.
Wild Ed

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Gun Control Means Hitting Your Target

I get so tired of hearing all the rhetoric about guns. If you disarm the country you will have only subjects left. What makes the lawmakers think that gun control will control criminals. I always thought that criminals don't obey laws. I got the following letter in an email this week and thought it should be published here. Think about it, Wild Ed


"The Gun Is Civilization"
Interesting take and one you don't hear much. . . . . .
As the Supreme Court hears arguments for and against the Chicago, IL Gun Ban, I offer you another stellar example of a letter that places the proper perspective on what a gun means to a civilized society.
Read this eloquent and profound letter and pay close attention to the last paragraph of the letter...

The Gun is Civilization

by Marko Kloos of the Munchkin Wrangler (munchkinwrangler.wordpress.com)

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.

The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for an [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed.

People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser.

People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level.

The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation... and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

So the greatest civilization is one where all citizens are equally armed and can only be persuaded, never forced.

The Boat Building Class is Over

After the second hard Saturday of boat building the Austin boat building class was over. My uncle and I brought home our completely assembled boats. They are put together, but we still have to do a lot of sanding and will need to put on the final finish. We are both very proud of our boats and the fact that we built them with our own hands. It is a great feeling of accomplishment to have built something as graceful as this boat with my own work. It has also been a great learning experience for someone that did not know how to use the old time hand tools and has mastered skills that can be used for the rest of my life. I will be taking on more projects in the future but have to finish the final sanding, seal with epoxy and varnish the boat. I can give the highest recommendation for Mike Bull and the Bulwarks boat building class. I am hoping to go to Inks Lake State Park on May 15th and along with other small craft wooden boat builders show off my craft and look at the boats built by others here in Texas. I also hope to put my boat in the water for the first time and see how it paddles. Here are some pictures of my boat in the stage I brought it home. See you on the water. Wild Ed

Here is a link to the Bulwarks wooden boat school for those of you that want to learn to build your own boat. http://www.bulwarks.us/

Bulwarks is a wooden boat shop located in Austin, Texas that offers classes in wooden boat building.

Canoe Building Class
Over 2 Saturdays, each student will construct a 16’ wooden canoe using basic hand tools and traditional/modern construction techniques.

Centrally located, class is limited to 3 students insuring plenty of individual supervision.

$495 includes tuition and materials.
Each Student Takes Home their OWN Canoe.
At Completion of Course, Boat is ready for painting & launching
Classes Ongoing - Join Any time.
Classes forming Now. Email buildawoodenboat@gmail.com or call 512.769.2553 to Sign Up!