The finished stained deck.

I took one more indulgent picture of the deck and stitched it together to show the whole thing now that it has been stained and completed. This was actually a fun project and I feel very good about the result.

Jason

Red Ninja's ATTACK!

The Kids decided to be Red Ninja's for Halloween this year. They grabbed swords and busted out some Ninja moves in the house for practice.

Be AFRAID!

Jason

My Bow Drill Fire Presentation.

I gave a presentation at Lonestar College - Cy-Fair (where I am a professor) on how to start a bow drill fire (actually I showed them 5 others ways to start fire without matches or a lighter as well).

About 30 people attended and said a lot of nice things afterwards. I made an extra bow drill set to be raffled off (last pic) and had a TON of fun. The pics are grainy and a little out of order - but you get the point.

I was in the mechanical lab (it had sprinklers and a huge bay door to open. As you can see I am answering questions as I go. I am using a Hickory hearth and spindle with a river stone top rock and 550 cord in my bow. I used a tree from a branch on campus. In fact, this branch was JUST outside the lab you see here.

I held the tinder bundle until it about burned me - and then set it down. I had to give it one more breath to make it REALLY go. It burned for almost 5 minutes. The tinder bundle was simply dried grass and pine needles. Way too much - but showed the advantages of prepared material. You can see the coal in the above pic - as I reached for my Kosters bushcraft to help transfer the coal to the tinder bundle.


Jason

The New Deck is Done.

You can see the new portion of the deck below. It is about 170 square feet and made of 2 X 6's. I took the existing frame of the sandbox and the disassembled portions of the old raised garden (that Amy no longer used) and built the frame of the new deck. I then got 2 X 6's to deck the top and finished it off. It took about three days (working a little at a time) and all that needs to be done now is to let is dry and then stain it to match the other portion of the deck (freshly stained Cappuccino color - semi transparent).

As you can see in the pictures - Lambert was quite a help and wanted to get in the picture to make sure everyone knew that was 'very strong'!

Jason