All About Pocket Knives

CheckSix wrote:Great Pictures Randy & Mike!

I'm off at O'Dark Thirty in the mornin' to go Salmon fishing in Lake Michigan. They should be out there... reports are good.

Good luck Dave. Be sure to take some pics.

Awesome stuff fellas!!! Love it!!

Caught this Heron in our retention pond this week,,,,

Expanding the picture reveals a very handsome shot: variations in the play of light, varied colors and textures, all providing a very serene view.
Like this one a lot.

Get the big ones Dave! Nice pic Scott, very pretty ans serene!

Nice photos of your adventures, Mike, Randy, and Scott. That Rubicon Trail looks like an interesting place! Scott, that is a fine photo of the pond and heron. Unfortunately, after all the rain last week a depressing amount of my area looks like that.

I try to go camping every year on my Birthday week and tent camping is a lot of work! Especially at my old age. That and the fact that my wife likes to set up a kitchen to cook for all the kids and Grand kids. My tent I used this year, my daughter gave me last Christmas and it's one of those Coleman set up in 5 minute jobs and it really does pop up fast. It took me longer to stake everything down then the actual set up. We will see how durable it is and how many years i will get out of it. It's a 10x15 so it's got room for my army cots and then some. Here are photo's of the tent, my kitchen screen house and the view I had from my Camp site.

Not a great day but a good day.... we had 6 strikes and 5 boated. Four Salmon and 1 Lake Trout. Of the Salmon, 1 Chinook and 3 Coho.

Pictures follow.... My buddy Mark got the big Chinook and big Lake Trout.... I got the 3 Coho's, one of them was big.

Mitch that looks like a great place to camp and it would appear you, not unlike myself, believe in being well prepared.

Dave that's an impressive start. Here's wishing you even more success to follow.

Looks like a mighty fine set up Mitch. A big determining factor for me on tents is how well it stays dry in a heavy rain! Hopefully you don't have to put your rain fly to the test....if so, I hope it works well for ya. Do you have any problems with night time visitors raiding your cooking area? The coons around here get into anything that's left out, so we have to put all the food, coolers, even the trash bag in the car trunk before we doze off.

Dave, that is a nice looking catch indeed, are those fish destined for the frying pan?

Mike, doesn't rain much here in California, so that's never an issue. As far as the Raccoons go, they are everywhere at night. I leave everything in my screen house but I duct tape the living bajeezers out of my action packers and my ice chests. Speaking of wild life while camping, I got up one night around 3 a.m. to answer natures call and while I was watering the bushes, I heard a noise to my left and out popped a family of 4 skunks. I got to tell you I haven't moved that fast in a long time. Went flying into the tent so fast I even woke up the old lady.

313 Mike wrote: Dave, that is a nice looking catch indeed, are those fish destined for the frying pan?

The big Coho fillets are in the refrigerator. The balance of the catch is going to be smoked.

Mitch: Now that is my idea of camping. Back in the day, in the land of elephants, I was very happy with just a hammock which provided me with some of the best sleep of my life. In a years worth of "camping" only one bad night when ants decided my hammock was an on ramp to cross between the two trees.

MITCH RAPP wrote:I got up one night around 3 a.m. to answer natures call and while I was watering the bushes, I heard a noise to my left and out popped a family of 4 skunks. I got to tell you I haven't moved that fast in a long time. Went flying into the tent so fast I even woke up the old lady.

I busted out laughing on that story Mitch!

Knice set up pal....love it.

Knice goin' Dave

So, yesterday I attended my first forging for wild edibles class. My brain was overloaded with info after 30 minutes
in to the 4 hour class! WOW. I have to sort thru my notes and pics but here's some quick items I ate and learned about.

1). Creeping Cucumber
2). Saw Palmetto Root
3). Poor Mans Pepper
4). Can't remember but was impressed by the closeness of the deer!!

Thanks Guys! When I tell people I work with, I'm going tent camping, almost everyone of them says Tent? Why don't you use a trailer or a motor home? They don't understand I'm trying to get my Grand kids unhooked from all the tv, dvd's,video games etc. and to just learn how to Rough it a little bit. I even tried to ban cell phones in camp but even the adults rebelled at that one

Follow-up from yesterday...

Fresh caught Coho Salmon, the one I'm holding up for the photo in the boat yesterday... turned into some dinner tonight.

Cedar plank, Dijon mustard, brown sugar, thyme and a lime slice. Big Green Egg set at 350*F, 20 mins on the thinner pieces and 25 mins on the thicker ones.

Turned out great!

Man O Man, that do look like some mighty Good Eating!

Yeah buddy, what Mitch said....

GREAT outdoor pics everyone for me it's a sad day end of vaca last fire then packed for the ride to the wannabe big city

MITCH RAPP wrote: When I tell people I work with, I'm going tent camping, almost everyone of them says Tent? Why don't you use a trailer or a motor home?

My answer to that question is I am going camping in the woods. I trying to get away from home, not bring it with me! I prefer tent camping anyway. A couple of times I went with friends who have a large motor home. They always said I could sleep inside if I would like to. No thanks I says! They looked at me like was crazy.

Nice planked salmon Check Six

I've had a lot of wild life visits this morning, besides the usual rabbits, crows, turkeys, tree rats and multitudes of birds, I had a woodchuck and a redtail hawk visit. First woodchuck in many a year.

I thought I would share these old pics that recently came into my possession. My grandpa was a champion coon hunter and raised coon dogs here in south east Wisconsin. These pics are of him and his cronies on our family farm in New Berlin WI in the late 40's and early 50's. The knife pictured was his Swedish Barrel Knife which he carried in the pocket of his hunting coat, and was used to dress hundreds of coons....and squirrels...and rabbits....etc. I am lucky to be the current custodian of that knife. My dad said Grandpa likely purchased it out of a Sears & Roebuck catalog.
My grandpa is in the top pic, and the one with the beaming smile on the far left in the second pic.

Great Photo's

Mike.. Those are some AWESOME pics.. Being a hound hunter I do appreciate them!! John

Great pictures, Mike!! I love to look at the details of each one. In the 1st picture, it looks like Grandpa also has a big smile. I noticed the mud grip tire on the rear of the light colored car.
Can't tell much about the hound breeds from the pictures, were the white with the dark marks Walkers?
In picture #4 are those hogs on the other side of the dog pens?
Last but not least, the knife, it could tell some tales I'm sure!
Treefarmer