Mind expansion material...

If YOU are the type of person who likes low-key, neat, money building ideas, you will absolutely LOVE this hand published Volume written by my favorite Treasure Hunter, Karl von Mueller, AKA Dean Miller, Deek Gladson, and others. Karl, as I came to know him, was my TH'ing Hero, ever since I first read his column in the old Western Eastern Treasures Magazines a number of years ago. Karl's very kool, The OwlHooter's Manual, was published back in 1984 for the layman, by the layman, in his own terms, so as to be easy to understand and follow!

This is a real little gem of a book folks. If you can find it, in even pretty used shape (like mine here) :-) it is a Real powerful idea generator and a mind opener, to boot! Especially, if YOU are into things that take little muss or fuss, in order to work.

I personally have learned much from this prolific writer and recommend his writings to Anyone...

Von Mueller Rocks!

Karl Von Mueller

O.k. That's my blurb fer the day...Ho-lay!

lb

A Gold hunter's finds...

Some Cool Gold...

Contrary to popular belief, Not all the gold is found in the wilds...

Yup, that's right. All the gold in this photo was found in the city, right here in Ottawa.

The kool little Gold key was picked up at a yard sale for a pittance, mixed among some knives, forks and spoons. I believe it is very rare! :-)

The arm band or bangle was eye-balled by my son Lee, when he was about 6 years old as we toured together through a few neighborhoods on a late winter, early spring day.

This darling little engagement ring was pulled out of the ground near a really big tree, in an old park, by the Ottawa River, two years ago. I had only been swinging my metal detector
Gone Detecting... for about a half hour,
when this lovely little golden treasure revealed itself to me through my ear buds, with a soft, smooth, sweet tone, that I just knew was Gold as soon as I heard it whispering there, under three inches of overburden. ;-)

So, you see my friends, Gold is out there, You just have to GO and hunt for it. Doesn't matter if you're in the bush or in the burbs, GOLD could be a lot closer than you think...

Happy Huntin'

:-)

Collectibles Corner...

You know, besides the mostly Outdoorsy stuff I like doing, I also have a bit of a passion for collecting little things that are cool, in one way or another. For instance, I have some die-cast cars in the 1/64 scale, a number of Kinder figurines, like the Crocos and Metal Men. I also have a fair bunch of fine China mixed pieces, a bunch of marbles, dozens of Pez, mint on cards, plenty of Cobalt glass, fishing lures amundo, heaps of old bottles and a fair share of old glass insulators too...

Just click the blue title link above, which will take you over to a couple of pages hosted at the ever popular Geocities dot com, where you can see a few samples of what you may have a desire for, perhaps, if you like little cool collectibles?

Hope you enjoy your tour over there and find something kool you want. :-) Oh ya, grab a free webpage, like I did while you're there. It's pretty easy to set-up and all. ;-)

Here's a pic or three of some---->

Assorted Collectibles...

Future Treasures

A few more...

OlBoysToys

And finally, these sweet little puppies...

Treasures...

later,

Best books department...

Good books I love...

I've always liked to read and most of what I read was non-fiction or reality based books and stuff. Here's a couple that You might find as good as I did. Two of my favorite authors too, by the way. Tom Brown Jr. and Richard Bach, have both filled my mind with wonderful thoughts and prompted me towards various actions in my life. They both have written a number of books, most of which I've also read. These great books are right up there in the meat and potatoes department, if you catch my drift. ;-)


This man has made his life study, Nature and all it's inter-twine-ing ways... I've learned MUCH from this real life, modern day Outdoorsman...

Survival Masters Handbook

If you haven't yet read any of Richard Bach's books, you are missing out on some of life's super lessons. This one is perhaps, his very Best, in my opinion, but he does have some other AWESOME books on the market still to-day...


Everything is an Illusion...

Only fiction, but SO realistic and easy to for-see happening around here fairly soon if things keep on going the way they are and all...

Last Canadian...

Check them out and see if these fine soft cover books don't make your favorite authors list in their category... :-)

lb

Tweaked Vamp...

Hail to Heddon...

This venerable ol' puppy has lured it's fair share of fish to net, and it could easily do it again. Well, that's if I ever decided to get it wet again. :-)

It's pretty well retired now, but, I'm takin' offers. ;-)

Custom Vamp

Yup, that's a genuine Customized Heddon Wood Vamp, fellow fishermen and women...

She's not too pretty perhaps, unless you mean deadly? Then this cool old "chopped" Heddon Vamp, is that! Pretty Deadly.

Do you have any custom stuff ya wanna show the folks in here? Well jeepers then, don't be shy. Just send it in the comments box on this page and we'll get 'er showcased for you... :-)

larryb

Surrounded by Nature...

Is Nature all around us, or what? Everywhere I go, beautiful Nature. Praise the Lord for this little Pocket Pentax I've been field testin'. It records whatever I've pointed it at, whenever I want. And, this Optio, does it very accurately, to boot. I just LOVE this high-tech marvel!

Go take a little tour over to Flickr and have a peek at some of the shots I've been recording lately. Hope you enjoy them. :-)

Oh ya, if You have lots of pictures on your hard drive or dvd's, You can make good use of Flickr too. It's all free and just amazing what it can do for YOU!

Here's a link to my Photostream, as they call it over @ Flickr...

Flickr'N'Bourgeois :-)

later,

lb

Trippin...

Got in a nice road trip earlier in the week and thought I'd share a few pics in here with you.

Old Ontario Farm

Out the window...

Nice rock cut

More later...

lb

Sup?

So here we are again, back @ the ranch and my boots are still off. Plannin' a day outdoors but still not decided where... Busy week again this past week. Got biking last week-end and remembered how GOOD it all felt again, after such a long winter lay-off. Took a picture or two of an old aquaintance (sp)of mine, along with his bike while out on a neighborhood ride. Biking, the attitude, along with the balance and co-ordination factors involved, keeps one young, in MHO anyway. ;-) I bike to keep healthier in mind and bod. This type of thinking will make anyone feel younger, if they want it to and let it do it's magic...

That reminds me that I'll have to put a link to my blog at LarryB's Blog on my Biking web-site, over on the Tripod server Biking with LarryB Yup, there sure is a lot to do these days. I'm SO fortunate to be able to keep this all up so far...

So anyway, here's two of the shots I Pentaxed the other day, while on my way to work, at my day job. These nice Mullein plants were growing in a waste area, in a nice little colony, not far down the slope from a sidewalk, when I spotted them thriving there.

MorningMullein

This slick little digi-cam certainly ranks right up there in my Photojournalist bag of essentials or EDC items, even. :-) These new leaves are only about a week or so old. Just prime for pickin' in my estimation. Somewhere else on one of these blogs of mine, I mentioned that these leaves make GREAT fire-starter material if left to dry for awhile. So these are the follow up pics to show what they look like when I pick them for my fire kit.

Does anyone else use Mullein? Some swear it makes the best spindles for friction stick fires, if you can find it in your area. Even Tom Brown Jr. stated that in his book, TB's Guide to Edible & Medicinal Plants... :-)

Handy Mullein

Don't be shy about leaving a comment in here, please. I thrive on feed-back and love to interact on the internet. :-)

later,

lb

Middle of April already...

Well it's already the middle of April and the nice weather is catching up and the snow is disappearing real quick, without too much flooding... I'm lovin' it! The beautiful sunny weather just really makes me feel Alive and my health is good as far as I know right now. Just added some more cool gear picks to my other blog last night so I'll try to link it up here to save from downloading all those megapixels in here again. Hopefully this code with work in here to make the link live.

Latest blog

If it doesn't come out, you could just Google me, we have a thing going on... :-)
Here's another shot I Pentaxed two week-ends ago up in Orleans, as mentioned in a previous entry in here.

Waterfalls

Now does that Look relaxing or what?

Here's one I took today, of the Rideau, @ Manotick.

Rideau River

Won't be long before I'll have to pull out my rod and stuff, and do some Spring Fishin' :-)

later,

lb

Wowza! The link DOES work! YaHoo! It's nice to see Blogger let's us do that, eh? Thumbs up to Blogger dot com! You ROCK!

Collectibles...

Some Cool Collectibles...

I've been into collecting neat stuff for quite awhile now and it's only my increased interest in working on the web, that has slowed me down in that department. If I never collected another thing again, I would still have plenty of cool stuff to play with for the next two or three decades. Here's a look at a little bit of some of those collectibles.








Here's my old killer Shadrap, in Crawdaddy flavor to boot...



More later,

lb

Back in the bush again...

Sunday's Adventure...

Mission: To Pentax Cardinal Creek.

Took a #176 to the transit way and then an eastbound #95 to the neat hide-away called Orleans Ontario. Then got into walk mode to give my recently injured right foot a work-out. It was an awesomely beautiful and sunny day and it felt SO Good to just be alive and walking almost normal again. The X-ray from last week showed a brutal sprain and bruising and stuff but the good part was that nothing was actually broken. So anyway, the four or so mile walk there and back gave it plenty of opps to let me know how it was doing. No complaints apparently from the foot now. Wow that feels good again! :-)

Well here's a pair of pics from my sleek little Pentax E30 Optio, after I made it to the falls and back.



Met a Korean Student studying English and we had a fairly interesting talk while we walked from where I had met him @ the creek, to Place D'Orleans. His favorite actor is Brad Pitt, he says ALL the girls over there go Ga Ga for him. ;-) So boys, there's a hot slick trick, fer ya, right there. Get your hair cut like Brad's and you'll be gettin' the looks from all the chicks, where ever you go. He says he eats ONLY fast-foods as in take-out stuff and scrawny ronnies and pizza this and sushi that etc. :-( That of course got him a fine (at his pace of course) lecture from the ol' boy about how he should be eating and what to feed his bod. Did he know he was NOT eating healthy? Nope. Just normal, he said. I even laid him out a little food plan that was healthy and inexpensive to boot. He liked the cheap part and we were soon talkin' up the good old Dollarama. That Store is just really awesome! I can prove it SO many ways now. I LOVE how they work and what they sell.

This spring I will be field-testing some VERY beautiful Chinese Cranks in the river here and Pentaxing any fish that gets caught on them. I have VERY high expectations for them too and some I've already customized with different hook sets. Mark my words ! These Dollarama Crank-baits will Catch fish this year! Can't wait to try 'em out...






Well there you have it friend, another page in this little blog for anyone interested, in reading it. What is it about Waterfalls that seems to attract us? Almost everyone I know or ever met, liked waterfalls. Hmmmm...

It's a very beautiful place right on the edge of Urbana and I Will be headin' back there for another Optio shoot in a few weeks for sure...


Later,

lb

Easy Fishing Rod Mount

I was going to wait another few days to blog so I could say that it had been a month since my last entry, but due to terrible weather, I left work early to-day and felt inspired to write when I got home.

Here's a poor man's tip for hanging some of your fishing rods. I'm known for simple and cheap ideas to get the job done, whatever that is.

This is about as "unfancy" as you can get, as for ways to hang your fishing rods. I LOVE simple stuff and hanging up my rods is no exception as you can see here. Yup, that's a single 1 1/2 inch finishing nail hammered about a 1/4 inch deep and at a slight angle, pointing upwards, towards the wall. Next, you simply balance the strung (ready to go) rod, above the reel, on the handle where ever the balance point is for that rod and reel combo. There, you're done. Fast, dirt cheap and totally efficient. Also you're displaying that puppy proper like, for your visitors to view...



Here's a link to the same picture, stored over at Boxstr, one of my FREE Photo Hosting places on the web. By clicking the link, you can take a look at some of my other photos if you want as well. Most of them will end up in here some time or other, so you get a kind of preview if you will, by sliding over to Boxstr. Plus, you might like them enough to get yourself hooked up with this fine FREE Photo Host for your own pictures to boot!

EasyMount.jpg - Uploader v6

Hey, it's March already and spring can't be too far off, although you would not have thought that about 6 this morning on my way to work. Freezing rain made every square inch of sidewalk a real hazard and a total test of balance skills and broken bone avoidance. Management decided that it was too dangerous for the boys to work to-day and so, sent us home after a little re-loading of about a ton or so of material. Makes for a shorter week and I LOVE it!

Later,

lb

Old times...

As pointed out a few times already, I'm basically an old school Outdoorsman. Sure I follow the new trends but my roots are old. The first good or shall I say, brand name fishing reel I ever owned served me well for over twenty years. Back then it was one of the top spinning reels in the world. It wasn't made in the states or Sweden or Japan either. No sir, this dependable, medium priced reel was built if France, a place not very well known as a fishing knowledge center. Well, they sure knew how to put together a solid and very efficient line winding device! :-) For the next twenty years, I put that Mitchell through it's paces. The two spools it came with was a BIG jump on "smart fishing" because one reel could suddenly handle many species and size of fish. One spool loaded with high test 4 pound mono and the other with eight or ten, I was ready to tackle anybody. I still have that reel to-day and it's still catching fish. Who says newer is better?

Later,

lb

Favorites link button...

Here's a new button to add links to your bookmarks on Tecnorati...

I LOVE Forums...

To-day I want to express the fact, that I just Love some of these Internet Forums that are all over the net these days! Pick a topic or subject to get Google to find you some forums to check out. You may be surprised to see just how many there are out there, to do with your topic. My topics always have an Outdoorsy slant and so I can only speak of those types of forums, with any kind of authority. The interaction within the membership of these forums is a real lesson in Communications. When you start a thread, you will get various responses, especially if you've posed a question in that thread. Many who frequent these types of forums are pretty Gung-Ho at what they love, so you get valid, sincere and personal comments from these guys and maybe get asked a question back, by them. Other members, are the more passive types and love to just read through the threads and follow along with the conversations without actually posting very often. These folks are mostly the learners and act as part of the big reason the Gung-Ho dudes are in there. People who know, like sharing with those who don't, on these forums. Getting, newbies up to speed, gives these lads a charge. There is so much encouragment from the vets usually, that newb's don't stay green very long and are soon startin' neat threads of their own! :-)

Anywho, to-day I want you to see a little sample of a post I made a while back, on one of my favorite Outdoorsy forums. I climbed the little learning ramp last evening and figured out how to put samples of some of my forum posts in here in my blog for you, my dear blog readers. :-) So here you go. Have a look at how a typical post may appear on a forum, if you were to get into this, forum thingy. I'll be posting a few more samples in here from a few different forums a little later but for now, I'd like you to view this one from the fine folks over at --->
Wilderness-Survival.net

Here's a snapshot of the actual post to do with slowin' down in the woods...click it to see it better.

SlowDown...

If you haven't visited forums yet, this may give you a gentle shove to do so to-day. There's nothing like communicating with folks of similar thinking within a cool little worldly niche like this!

Peace!

Winter fire stuff...

Well the weather lightened up a little, so yesterday I decided to take the opportunity to head into my local section of woods and see if I could get a little fire going out there in the snow. I hadn't been out in the bush for a while, so it felt real good to be there. The trick of the day of course, was to use only the fire-stick and steel to produce my fire with mostly any materials at hand in the middle of winter. Took about ten minutes for me to round up some strips of White Cedar bark from a towing ancient old forest monarch and a few hunks of dead White Birch bark off an old stump, filled with rotted wood. I also snapped off a nice handful of tiny twigs and branch tips from a dead Poplar and some more from a stunted Rock Maple, all nice and dry to the touch. After laying down a thin layer of green Cedar branch tips on the compacted section of snow I had prepared, I rubbed the Cedar bark between the palms of my hands until it was all a mass of fine dry fibers but yet not broken into little pieces or too powdery either. Next came the White Birch bark bits, split into little noodle-like strands with my trusty old folding knife. The skinnier these pieces are, the better. A few tiny branch tips from the maple and Poplar were added in a criss-cross pattern to the top of the pile about an inch deep and packed real loose and airy. Then, finally, I took out my new "secret" never-fail, tinder and started to spread it and pull at it and fluff it until it was about 3 inches across on all sides and about a good 1/8 inch thick. It's amazing just how much cotton is in a real cotton ball, eh? Yup, I said cotton ball, as in the kind you get at any drug store or Wally-world even. That's right friend, the plain and simple, old fashioned, genuine Cotton ball, is THE tinder of choice for this ol' bushguy these days! Once the cotton ball was properly prepared, I then carefully slipped it under the edge of the shredded Cedar bark and Birch bark layers, with about a square inch of it sticking out beneath the pile...

Using the tip of my broken piece of old hacksaw blade to hold the cotton steady, I slid the tip of my fire-stick under the edge of the blade, at a right angle to it and applied a firm pressure. Then, in one smooth semi-quick motion, I dragged the firestick up towards me while maintaining my firm grip on the piece of hacksaw blade so that it wouldn't move and disturb the tinder pile.

Poof! A dozen or more medium sized sparks jumped to life off the stick and five or six of them ignited that cotton like there was no tomorrow. Then Woosh, within about three seconds, the Cedar and Birch bark flew into flames and I reached over and fed a few larger twigs to the quickly warming spot in front of me on the winter ground. :-)

Man, I just LOVE this little Fire-Stick/Cotton combo, for totally dependable fire making power, wherever you REALLY need a fire.

Here's the results of that whole simple little process and also a shot of the gear used to create it. If you don't own a fire-stick of some sort yet and you spend any time in the woods at all, I would strongly suggest that you snare one of these cool units somewhere and stash it in your BOB or your bush jacket pocket even. Shucks, I now carry one of mine on my keyring, like you see in the picture there. Don't forget the cotton balls too though. They make everything about this fire starting stuff, totally easy and fool-proof! Wish I would have know about all this neat stuff about thirty years ago! :-)

Can you smell the woodsmoke there?



Stick & Steel...



Later,

Children, naturally...

Nature's Wonders are everywhere, everyday, all around us but we are usually too busy to see, hear or smell them. Not wanting my children to grow up blind and deaf to nature, I started their little lives off with an ongoing Nature class. They would be involved with it every day, in some manner or other. For instance this old picture catches my daughter Brooke marveling at her latest newly identified and long to be remembered, wild plant.



In this case it's a beautiful and delicate little Bloodroot plant. Look closely and you will see where she had just used the "blood" or juice from it's underground root/stem, to paint a picture of it's leaf, on her left hand. Kids are never too young to be awed by nature. Parents are what holds children back from the woods these days. Too many mosquitoes, too much sun, too hot, too cold, to wet, and a bunch of other lame excuses succeed in keeping tons of to-days children in the house too much in their early years. Both of my children could rhyme off a list of bird names to identify every flying thing in our neighborhood, before they even ever went to school!

To do is to learn so every aspect of nature was explored first hand by these youngsters, with dad always there for guidance and encouragement to continue their path. By the time they were 6 and 5 they could gather the proper materials to prepare and light their own small beach fires in the simple "Indian style" manner, I had shown them, the year before. All of this cool stuff was either shot with a camera or video taped and played back to them, as a further learning tool as well. Somehow all this started to mature them pretty fast and by the time they were 7 and 8 they were little walking, experienced, bush encyclopedias with proper manners and their own unique styles already.

In this close-up shot, my son Lee, gets treated to the old, "lame-wing" display, put on by a Killdeer, that few other children have ever witnessed.



Why deprive your children of all this kool Nature stuff, if you are lucky enough to even have children? Should you not be giving them EVERYTHING you possibly can? Learning about nature starts as you walk out the door of your house, no long distance traveling involved and no entry fees either. Man, get those kids of yours out there in the woods and down by the rivers. Stop denying them the wonderful gift of learning about all of nature's free gifts. Help them to get involved in something, anything, outdoorsy. You owe it to them. Or you could just be content to have kids that don't know a Spruce tree from a Juniper bush or a red breasted Robin from a freakin' Seagull but are in the know about all the names of all the players in a bunch of video games, and what they can do...Now that will really help them in the future, NOT!

Your children are your future, please do more about encouraging them to get into Nature related stuff. You, and they, will benefit from it, guaranteed! Well, at least if my own kids are any proof of it, that is...

later,

Fire talk...

Happy New Year!

Fixated on fire? Well now let's see, without it, we would pretty well all still be just animals, living perhaps in cold, wet and very dark caves. :-( Your best friend in the bush is FIRE. Without it, you could, should and would easily die. Non-smokers beware! If you don't smoke, then please make sure you bring a lighter with you if you EVER go into the bush. It would be a real drag having to die for lack of a dollar store lighter or a box of freakin' matches, for that matter.

Lately I've been depending on a fire-stick and either my good old fashioned carbon steel folding pocket knife or a short piece of old hacksaw blade on my key chain to produce the sparks with, to get my fires going. What you must know with this method is that the tinder that catches your sparks, is VERY important. You could and should even, bring some from home, in your pockets somewhere. Good dry wild woods tinder can sometimes be hard to find, especially after a rainy day or night. The best stuff from home is pure cotton balls that you can get anywhere. Works like magic! Dryer lint and char-cloth is awesome too. If you don't bring ANY of this kool tinder stuff, then you had better know what to look for in the bush. Many things will work but any and all of it will have to be totally beat up and made really soft and thin and or powdery even. You could beat it on a rock or tear it up and crumple it and rub it between your hands to get it real fine. My favorites are in no particular order, Red Cedar bark, Dry Mullin leaves, scraped and shredded White Birch bark, certain tree fungus, Cattail down, Bull Thistle and Milkweed fluff. There are lots more to be sure and the more of them you know, the better off you'll be. When things get wet, you really have to make sure that whatever it is you use for tinder, is absolutely dry or you are NOT going to have an easy time if it.

Always bring some fire stuff along if you ever intend to step off the pavement. You could even carry some in your car or truck. You never know when you will need it, either for yourself or to help someone else. Here's a pic or two of some of my fire stuff...

Stick&Keys

If you are just new to this whole, roughing it in the woods thing, then a candle and some waterproof matches as well as a Bic lighter should be in your kit, no matter how big or small your kit is. Always! :-)

FireStuffKit

After we cover the life sustaining power of our fire, then good ol' shelter is the other BIG thing, that I'm going to yak about in here. Now anyone and I mean anyone, can make it through a night or two in the bush, even in the winter, if they have the brains to carry a little life-saving, modern-day shelter, like this in their packs or pockets. Slick Survival Shelters...Watch for it.

Chow

A touch of humor...

Just a little humor to start yer day off right. Got this pic off a great Treasure website called, Lost Treasure USA They send me a FREE Treasure Newsletter twice every month, to keep me in the know! :-) Gonna have to get a little rednecked and try that on the BBQ next summer! ;-)



Man, life has been gettin' SO serious for me lately, that stuff like this picture above, just cracks me up and helps to even out the serious vs outrageous sides of me, when the seriousness takes over too long. Anywho, I also believe that we ALL need a little more laughing and fun in our lives! That and a whole lots more LOVE! I grew up in the Beatles era and felt the "peace over war" thing, ever since then and it's all true. Love will get you more places than hate will. The more we are loved in this life, the more we are reaching our potential. No love in your life means nobody knows you, get on the net. A RICH life is NOT measured in Gold or Real Estate but in how many knew and loved you. To share LOVE is a form of "richness" that seemingly few these days, have enough to share. Example: Your beloved dog. He/she just worships you. Unconditional LOVE, expressed every day, from beast to man. You'd probably almost beat someone with a cane, if they were to try and hurt your dog. How many people do you know and say you love, that you would do that for? How many of those loved ones would do that for you? There are MANY, many depths and heights to what this love stuff is, to be sure. It's up to each and every one of us to explore the full gamut of it, you only have so long, you know...

later,

Liquidational moves...

O.K. then, so for the last few days I've been heavily into "photog" mode and shootin' pics of a pile of my little collectibles. Thank God for this sweet little Pentax point and shoot which I bought for myself as a birthday gift, last October. I've used Pentax and Minolta 35 mm cameras for over 30 years and this little baby easily whoops them both. If you own a digital camera runnin' at least 6 mega-pixels, you KNOW what I'm talkin' about here, now don't cha, eh? :-) I can't say enough about these super slick pocket cameras that work miracles with light and perform so well with normally difficult, fairly close-up work assignments!

So then of course once you shoot the picture, it has to be resized and or cropped, then titled and saved to a folder. Once that's done, it's pretty easy to add pics from there to the ad posting board. Of course all of this takes time and demands quality of work, in the process, so only so many shots can hit the ad boards in one day.

My two fav's are, Kijiji and also my most recent winner ad board is,Used Ottawa.com. You might even want to slip over there yourself, if you have something you'd like to sell, it's all FREE. :-) Good luck on that if you do decide to go ahead and post over there. Take a peek at some of my little ads there too, if you get a chance. I could most certainly use any and all of the little amounts of money that I'm asking for my stuff.

Here's two pics I will be posting on kijiji this evening, hope it gets bought quick-like...

Royal Daulton Creamer

Africa Patterned Royal Doulton Creamer

That's it, that's all...

later,