Free food

Sitting on the couch late in the evening, drowsiness coming on when a nearby gunshot pierces the air.  The dogs go on alert and I am up on my feet.  Probably neighbor poachers, but I need to have a look around anyway.  My nearest neighbor is more than half mile away.  The road is several hundred yards from the house, so I don’t get a lot of extraneous noise.  Walking out onto the front porch I see the lights from three police cars lined up along the highway about 100 yards apart.  Spotlights and flashlights were scanning the area, both toward and away from me. Weird stuff happens and I seem to be a magnet for crazy so my first thought was some sort of manhunt.  Very awake now, I drive up the driveway toward the police.  It would normally be a walk but I didn’t think it wise to come out of the dark toward a bunch of cops in the grass.

Luckily, I was completely wrong.  It turned out that two cars traveling in the same direction simultaneously hit two bucks crossing the highway.  The gunshot I heard was an injured buck being put down.  The spotlights and police were looking for other possible injured deer.  When I got to the road, one of the officers recognized me and said the magic words, “would you like one of these deer?”  The only right answer is “hell yes, let me get a knife.”  I was tired, it was late, but even a damaged deer is a gift of food.

I don’t like to butcher beat up meat.  And this was the first road kill I did on my own.  A cleanly killed animal is much easier to disassemble as you don’t have to work around bruising and broken bones.  That stuff is edible but not very good.  Survival food only for me.

However, dogs aren’t picky.  They like it nasty.  Good dog food is expensive so I decided to harvest as much meat that I couldn’t butcher cleanly into stew meat for the dogs.  They love me.

Click the image to see more of the processing.

Now the bad part was that I had to work my day job and the light is still a bit short this time of year.  I worked as I could, letting the carcass hang about 15 hours before butchering.  In the end, we maybe got 30 good pounds of human food including two beautiful tenderloins, a few small roasts, and a lot of stew meat.  As a bonus, the hide was in excellent condition and I was able to pull it off with only a few small cuts at the neck, legs, and tail.  Although not large, the antlers are beautiful so I sawed off the top of the skull to deal with them later.

I am of the school of thought that it is everyone’s right to make his or her best effort to feed themselves and family.  Due to many reasons, including the stupid human factor, this needs to be regulated in the modern world.  This makes it difficult to hunt, especially in places like New Mexico with less than easy hunting regulations.  After living on either home-grown cow or wild game for quite some time, the last few years have been a let down, having to buy commercial meat.  I’ve seen the feed lots and I don’t want to contribute to those companies any more.  Luckily, some free food came our way last week.

Hickory Bow part 2

The winds slowed, the killer dust settled and I was able to get back to the bow.  A few minutes with the power planer took the rough shape down to a nearly finished product.  The calipers are useful and can save a lot of guesswork when making the same style bow over and over.

Above, the bow seen in its near-final form.

Despite the great labor savings that come from the power tools, wood is very organic and has character therefore need some finer, more controllable tools.  These are the two draw knives I use the most.

I took the limbs down til there was some little flexibility.  Probably in the 100 pound range but still too sketchy to put a string on.  As the day was drawing late I decided to rough out the grip and central riser area.  Surprisingly, this takes quite a bit of time as it needs to fit the hand well, and look pleasing.  It is difficult to get it “just right” in all dimensions as a tiny variance takes away from the symmetry of the piece.  This part is purely about looks.

Once the knife work is done, its time to move to the cabinet scraper.  Here are the two I use.  To keep a good sharp edge I switch between the two as one dulls.  The larger one is a standard Stanley cabinet scraper and the smaller is a Garlick of England.  The English one is much harder steel but more difficult to get a good edge when sharpening.  With them are the bastard file and file brush used to touch up the edge.

I hope to find time for the finish tillering sometime this week.

Exercise

The humor struck home.

Hickory Bow

The next hickory bow.  I have a barn full of aged staves languishing that need to be made into bows.  Today the weather was good and I had some free time so I jumped on the opportunity to get back into production.  Over the last three years I’ve only made about one bow per year as commissions.  That’s the result of abstract (albeit interesting) work cutting into an honest living.

Above are a couple hickory staves cut from the old tree farm in Missouri.  This tree was as near perfect as possible so I intend to get bows from both inner and outer portions of the trunk.  The few bows made from this tree already are fine shooters so my hopes are high.

Although I will be using power tools for much of the roughing out, old-fashioned methods are at least as fast at this stage.  The froe is a handy tool that any green wood worker should have.

This stage is a bit of a break from tradition for me.  This bow is sort of a test in speed and efficiency as I don’t have a lot of leisure time in my week currently.  This stave was split from a larger piece and, as consequently there is some tear-out between growth rings.  The rough back is the cross-over between rings that will need to be smoothed to a single, perfect growth ring before finishing.  As it was very close to perfect, I skipped this normal step and began to roughly mark out some landmarks of the final bow such as the center of the bow, handle, limb width, etc.

The lath I use to mark a clear center line.  I have markings and distances marked for various length bows.  I find a flexible lath and a good eyeball to work better than a chalk line on the curved and undulating surface of rough wood.  This stave is an excellent teaching example as it has almost perfectly straight grain.  The sketch on the bow back is an idealized version of the finished product.  During the shaping process, knots, wavy grain, and twists are taken into account.

It is apparent here that the bow has progressed.  To speed the process, I sawed away much of the excess down to an approximate shape for the finished bow.  Final shaping a tillering commence.  Most of this will be done with a draw knife, spoke shave, scraper, and rasps.

This hickory has been air dried on the high plains of New Mexico for much of the last seven years (damn I’m old) and is extremely hard and dense.  Sharp tools are essential at this point for precision and control.

Lots of shavings like the one above will be generated tomorrow as I ran out of light today.

A note on the the bow itself.  The design is a classic flat bow with consistently tapered limbs.  Although, like many bowyers before me, I experimented and tried many designs over the years, I am returning to basics for the present and a design that has worked for thousands of years. More to follow tomorrow.

In the mean time, here are a few other more recent bows I’ve made.  Most of these are are probably posted around the site already.

Knock Down Pizza Oven

Form the Breadhunter’s Blog:  An excellent idea for those of us on the move or not settled in a permanent place.  I can’t wait to build one!

There is a video available to watch the process in full.  More on bread available throughout his blog and links.  Now, off to find bricks and angle iron.

The Dog House, a.k.a. new truck topper

Okay, it’s not really a dog house but was made to hold my dogs in some sort of comfort on a long road trip without the wagon.  I have had the back of the truck open for a couple years now which is very handy for hauling things, but bad for storing or protecting things.  This also limits the ability to sleep in back comfortably on long road trips.

The entirety of the structure, other than four 2 x 4s for the frames and one 1 x 12 used on the door, was built from upcycled, recycled, or leftover lumber from the wood shed.  I was lucky to have a good, waterproof canvas tarp that I could sacrifice for the roof-covering which saved about $60.  The roof canvas is underlain with 30# roof felt.  I had some leftover bits of Lexan from previous projects to make a front and rear window and a passenger-side blind-spot window.

If I like the topper and decide to keep it for the long run I’ll probably get some gas shocks to hold the door open, but for now, a couple old lid holders will suffice.

As seen above, it’s not a real beauty but is more-or-less streamlined with the shape of the cab.  The hardware on the door is not recycled and is the most expensive part of the whole project.  It is standard Stanley gate hardware from the Big Box store.

The inside view shows the roof made from leftover tongue and groove yellow pine.  The lower three strakes of the sidewalls are oak.  This provides a lot of strength and stiffness.  The roof is strong enough to support a person’s weight but will need to be reenforced to hold heavy loads.  All the planks are caulked with black flashing caulk that stays flexible, works as a glue, and is removable should the whole thing be taken apart.  I added an LED light from Harbor Freight that I intended for another project.  Very handy when fishing around for groceries or tools.

The next step will be to add a vent or skylight to let moisture out and attach a roof rack for lumber, ladders, etc.  Updates to follow.

Black Rock City Architecture

First, I have never been to Burning Man.  But I am interested in the remarkable art installations, vehicles, and some of the other freaky-ness that comes from this one-of-a-kind event.  Why don’t I go?

I hate crowds!

almost as much as I hate porta-johns.

Yes, I am a wimp when it comes to too many people in one place.  So why the post?

I want one.

I often check out John Sarriugarte’s web page as I really love his vehicle art (images above).  From there I found a link to an excellent page devoted to the ephemeral architecture of Black Rock City.

The shelters range from purely functional to ridiculously whimsical and there are some interesting mobile shelters on the site.

From the "good enough" school of architecture... I really like this.

to the simplest "pop-up" designs...

and some very quaint rolling homes.

Not forgetting the famous "Neverwas Haul". Click for their home page.

Much more is available on the This is Black Rock City blog and I think it is entirely “safe for work” viewing (assuming you should be looking at fringe architecture while at work, that is).

Enjoy!

Homesteaders

I don’t typically just reblog other people’s stuff but I have recently come across a few outstanding homesteader-type people putting up great things on the web.  Reading these makes me miss having a plot of land to call my own and makes me long for the day when I’ll have a nice place to call home.

Soul Flower Farm

Earth Oven at Soul Flower Farm

I have helped construct a couple of earth ovens in the past but never for myself.  This is on the short list of things to do when I have my own place to settle.  Construction of the above oven is well detailed on the Soul Flower Farm blog.  I’ve just begun reading this one but it seems to have good recipes, tips on animal husbandry, beekeeping, and other urban farm info.  They appear to have a beautiful setup in the Bay Area of California.

As she warns in her blog, not all farming is for the faint of heart.  Unless you hunt for meat or raise animals for food, it’s easy to ignore that we kill what we eat.  Some people don’t like this but it is a reality.

Fias Co Farm

Fias Co Farm is a goat dairy site with lots of information about goats, dairy life, and cheese (I’m just in it for the cheese).  I would like to put up a photo link but they strictly forbid their photos to be used on other sites.  Anyway, there are good photos and recipes  there.

Fibershed

“Fibershed is a non-profit organization that supports the collaboration of small scale farmers with local artisans to generate a growing and thriving bioregional textile culture that functions hand-in-hand with principles of ecological balance, local economies, and regional organic agriculture.”

They have an excellent mission and a beautiful webpage concerning locally produced fibers and textiles; even some good stuff about felting.

Thinking

Recent politics make this more pertinent than ever.

Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter

I received an advance copy of Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter when I went to my post office box today.  I have been thumbing through it all all evening, looking at the photos and pondering the meaning of Shelter.

Maybe the tides of change are subtle in the beginning.  But I never thought I would be part of a movement when I began to sketch out plans for a tiny, mobile shelter for myself almost ten years ago.  I am honored to be included amongst these great constructions in Lloyd Khan’s newest book about Tiny Homes.  I am awed and inspired by so many great approaches to scaling back from the obnoxious sprawling but soulless houses of the last few decades.

The photos are beautiful and the layout is very well thought out.  Like all the Shelter Publications, it will become an important and classic work to those of us outside the mainstream.  Tiny Houses my be the flavor of the month to the media at the moment but will always be important to real people in need of real shelter.

And to keep up-to-date on interesting architecture, skateboarding, good music, and a host of other interesting topics, check in to Lloyd’s Blog from time-to-time.