All About Pocket Knives

Posted: **Sat Sep 01, 2018 3:22 am**

When I was a kid, my Dad used to send me to do anything high. I was *maybe* 11 years old and he sent me to the top of a homemade 30' tall pole to change a mercury vapor light bulb. The pole was just a big pieces of steel pipe with rungs welded on the side that could be used as a ladder. The pipe was set in a very deep hole filled with concrete. So, I'm climbing this "ladder" with a big MV bulb in one hand. The only safety equipment was my Dad standing at the bottom yelling at me to "be careful". If someone saw that today, they would probably throw him in jail!

Posted: **Sat Sep 01, 2018 4:21 am**

Sometimes it's good to get to higher ground...to get a different perspective or just to enjoy a broader view.

This is the view above my house (approx 700' elevation) looking south towards where until very recently molten lava from Kilauea had been flowing into the ocean creating an enormous cloud of vog and laze (volcanic smog & lava haze--the official words used by government officials and vulcanologists at Volcanoes National Park, not made up by me). A light amount of vog can still be seen (on the left side of the photo up against the base of Mauna Kea), but it's nothing like the near total white out conditions that previously existed.

It's really nice to have a clear sky again.

~Q~

Posted: **Sat Sep 01, 2018 10:16 am**

Terra Firma for me, part of the reason I live at sea level. I won't even step on a ladder or step stool, thankfully my wife has a healthy fear of heights and regularly cleans the gutters and changes lightbulbs. Give me a mop and a bucket and I'll gladly clean toilets and the floor.

Beautiful picture Q!

Posted: **Sat Sep 01, 2018 10:58 am**

RobesonsRme.com wrote:Phil, when I was younger, I had no fear of heights.

Not too many years ago, I was always asked to change the light bulbs and colored spots in the ceiling of our A-Framed church sanctuary. The security of the very tall ladder against the slopping roof was dubious, because a proper position could not be obtained because of the arrangement of the pews, I scooted up that thing without a second thought. The peak was quite high.

Lately, however, I have developed a less than fearless attitude towards heights. When I walked up to the edge of The Grand Canyon in 2001, it literally sucked the breath out of my lungs. I had no problem standing there or walking out to the many points we visited. It was just that first sight. I was not expecting that.

There are videos on YouTube of guys climbing thousand foot towers to change the aircraft warning beacons at the top. Those now make me very uncomfortable. My stomach turns over.

Same thing when I first saw the woman on that outcropping. Queezy, queezy, queezy.

I would not base jump off anything. That just seems anathema to parachute safety to me. I want a very definite opening technique, not a little drag chute thrown out to the air with the hopes it will deploy the main. And I want an unobstructed path to the ground, no towers, no buildings, no cliff sides.

However, the thought of rappelling from that height with a good harness (not a homemade Swiss Seat, which I have done with just a loop of self-braided rope, which I still have BTW), a good large carabiner, a good quality, unused, but pre-stretched rope of sufficient length and high quality gloves, I would do it. The thought of that doesn't bother me, for some reason. I loved rappelling.

Myself and half a dozen other guys once planned to rappel down the unwindowed side of the multi-story base hospital at Ft. Bragg. We had it all planned out and all equipment gathered. Had reconnoitered access to the roof.

Cooler, more intelligent heads and a fear of Federal imprisonment put a stop to it.

Charlie

Charlie and all - I dislike being up ladders if more than 10 ft off the ground

- I can be at the top of a sky scraper looking down with no problem IF there is some type of protective barrier so psychologically I know there is no way of going off the edge

... However given that I did a zip-lining adventure in Hawaii just 6 years ago when a much younger co-worker talked me into it - actually on the Big Island and our fellow member QTCut5 probably knows of it living there - I can't remember the name of it (Skyline Eco Zip-lining Adventures?) but 8-9 zip-lining runs with one especially long run where I was probably 500 ft over a waterfall and river

- it was an adrenaline pumping 2-3 hour time for me - glad I did it as you only live once but never again

Here are 3 iconic photos that I am sure many of you have seen but thought I would post them.. In the 1st photo - how these guys ate lunch sitting up on that beam I have no clue - I would be losing lunch if I was sitting there

... the 2nd photo are the same guys doing a hats off to the photographer... and the 3rd photo of the guy walking the beam blindfolded - well I am a believer in Darwinian theory

Posted: **Sat Sep 01, 2018 11:01 am**

Lee - I'm glad I saw those pictures BEFORE my breakfast - as Ron White says, you can't fix stupid.

Posted: **Sat Sep 01, 2018 11:34 am**

Did you know those pictures are probably of Native Americans, specifically Mohawks from the Kahnawake reservation near Montreal. The Mohawks got into the high steel business by happenstance. In 1886 a Canadian company was building a railroad bridge over the St. Lawrence river near the Kahnawake reservation. The company hired a number of Mohawks as day laborers, but found they loved to climb around on the ironwork without any apparent fear of heights. Since it was difficult to find men with the moxie for high work, the company decided to try an Indian crew. It's claimed that most of the high steel work in New York City is done by Mohawk Indians. https://www.straightdope.com/columns/re ... yscrapers/

Isn't it strange that if you lay a steel beam on the ground, just about anyone can walk down it dancing a jig but raise that same steel beam ten feet off the ground (or even five feet) and the arms snap out for balance like the blade of a switchblade knife. When I wore a younger man's clothes, I wasn't scared of heights. They made me cautious but I didn't feel fear. Fast forward to today and heights scare me shirtless.

Posted: **Sat Sep 01, 2018 1:01 pm**

Quick Steel wrote:Mr. Watch, do you know what the white flecks are throughout the rock?

The white flecks esp. showing on the second piece and the grayish back of the first is, Barite Matrix. If you meant the face side of the first piece that is light reflecting off of the Galena.

Posted: **Sat Sep 01, 2018 1:12 pm**

From the top of Michigan's Brockaway Mountain looking for a cell phone signal. Lake Superior. and inland lakes. finally got a signal telling that you are roaming. If you would like to buy time and a pin number! No I wouldn't. Iron ore freighter heading west towards Duluth, Minn. Last picture home to many closed copper mines down their.

Posted: **Sat Sep 01, 2018 1:16 pm**

The man on the right in the first two pictures has a glass bottle in his hand. Almost looks like a flask. That would leave a bruise if dropped.

Posted: **Sat Sep 01, 2018 1:30 pm**

Very nice photos Steve. I love a big view like those show.

Posted: **Sat Sep 01, 2018 3:23 pm**

Worked in a bucket truck my last 15 years before retirement. Never bothered me much up but up and out sometimes made me pucker. Changing street lights at 50' on a bridge always gave the allusion of being higher. And wind made it fun too.

Great pic's MRW.

Posted: **Sat Sep 01, 2018 11:49 pm**

jerryd6818 wrote:Ran into this big fella (literally) while mowing the neighbor's yard.

........jerry, if my memory hasn't failed me, that's a golden garden spider, it has a scientific name, but I can't remember what it is??...down here we call 'em "Mississippi spiders"!!................

.......................

Posted: **Sun Sep 02, 2018 1:37 pm**

My phone couldn't capture the beauty or the scope but here's a double rainbow.

Posted: **Sun Sep 02, 2018 3:06 pm**

I love double rainbows! They are an awesome example of the amazing science of light. Did you notice that the colors are reversed on the second rainbow? A double rainbow has it all - light refraction & reflection, separation into wavelengths, lens curvature, etc, etc.

Posted: **Mon Sep 03, 2018 3:02 pm**

This showed up today. My estimate is that it is a 1st year Red Tailed Hawk. However, I never got a frontal view and hawks can be tricky. If anyone thinks otherwise please let me know your opinion.

Posted: **Mon Sep 03, 2018 3:18 pm**

Predator birds are simply awesome. Hawks always have a look about them that says they are the baddest mofo in the neighborhood. Clint Eastwood of the bird kingdom...

Posted: **Mon Sep 03, 2018 4:07 pm**

Wow, that one is not afraid to make its' self at home!
Here's a picture of a hawk making an attempt to catch a squirrel. I wonder if he/she had squirrel for breakfast?

: click on the picture and it should enlarge

Treefarmer

Posted: **Mon Sep 03, 2018 4:57 pm**

I'd bet my money on the hawk. The squirrel's instinct will be to run up the tree but unless he is unusually bright he won't get around to the other side. The hawk can take him even as he is going up. Wish we knew the outcome.

Posted: **Mon Sep 03, 2018 5:21 pm**

Now that's pretty cool. Squirrel still hasn't got a clue. Hawk gliding down on its silent parachute.
Advantage; Hawk.

Posted: **Mon Sep 03, 2018 6:21 pm**

Hawks and owls fascinate me, and living in the country provides a lot of opportunities to watch them. When I'm mowing pastures or cutting hay several hawks show up, take positions in the tops of trees or telephone posts and watch for the disturbed field mice, rats, snakes and rabbits to flee. The hawks swoop down and either grab the prey on the wing or deliver a knock-out blow, then pick it up and fly off. In the spring and early summer when they have young to feed they usually return in a few minutes and wait for another meal. They have no fear of the moving tractor but if I stop and get out of the cab they quickly fly away.

Barn swallows and other smaller birds also fly in circles around the cutter, swooping down acrobatically to catch insects disturbed by the machinery. Sometimes the hawks will get one of the smaller birds.

Here's a picture I took recently from the cab of the tractor. Hawk sitting atop a cedar tree in a fence row, watching for a meal. That day there were two hawks, I suspect they were mates. (That streak you see across the picture is dirt on the window of the cab.

)

Ken

Posted: **Mon Sep 03, 2018 7:42 pm**

You tractor has a cab AND glass windows? Well la-dee-da Mr. Fancy Pants! I'll bet you have air conditioning and one those cushy seats too!

Posted: **Mon Sep 03, 2018 8:10 pm**

TwoFlowersLuggage wrote:You tractor has a cab AND glass windows? Well la-dee-da Mr. Fancy Pants! I'll bet you have air conditioning and one those cushy seats too!

If you have a tractor with a cab and windows in Texas, you'd better have air conditioning! Otherwise you might as well be in an oven.

All my tractors were open station models until about 5 years ago. I'm too old now to be sitting out in all that dust and chaff (my wife says so anyway). So I've been converting over to tractors with cabs. I only have one open station left now, a little Ford we use to pull a hay rake - but no one wants to use it.

Also have a 1949 Farmall Cub I've been slowly restoring, but it doesn't count!

Ken

Posted: **Mon Sep 03, 2018 9:14 pm**

Posted: **Tue Sep 04, 2018 4:09 pm**

Jim Burke Buick’s used car lot, Birmingham, Alabama, circa 1954 or so.

Don’t you wish you’d had the money and knew then what you know now about such cars that were on every used car lot in the country?

I know I do.

Charlie Noyes

Posted: **Tue Sep 04, 2018 9:35 pm**

Wow - look at those grills! You'll never see style like that on one of Elon Musk's mobile toasters...

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