WalterDavis
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2005
- Messages
- 1,837
What a year
My longest period of being unemployed in my life (or at least the 15 years I've been in the job pool), followed by a change in jobs (and a severe cut in pay), then breaking my leg at the new job (and the subsequent surgery), has made it rough to keep a positive attitude, though rum & whiskey do help
I also know that as rough as my year has been others have had it far worse, and to those folks go my thoughts and prayer. Aside from all the bad, I've also had a lot of good things happen (started my knifemaking business, made a few new friends, and scored some killer deals on some stuff), so I figured it was time to pay the good forward a bit!
This was the first time I've ever broken a bone, and it illustrated to me how quick bad stuff can happen to good guys
I was actually surprised at the lack of pain, as well as my inability to put any weight on it. So in that spirit, I figured a contest was in order. This one's pretty in depth, but I think everyone might learn something, so here's how it goes:
Walk into the woods, and fall down
Really, pretend you broke or severely sprained your ankle, and you can not walk on it. You have to go someplace that isn't necessarily going to have a enough traffic to wait for help, so you'll have to either figure a way out or set up camp to wait out the night. Using only your normal day-hike setup, either build a shelter and fire (while scooting on the ground), or build yourself some crutches and begin your trek out. In the interest of not hurting yourself, let's say if you can make it down the trail ~100 yards they're sturdy enough to make it the whole way, and you don't actually have to stay the night in your shelter with a fake bum leg, just stay long enough to be fairly certain you'd live through the night. Document your trip and your camp or crutch setup (and the path you took with the crutches) with your camera and post your pics here.
First place prizes will be a 14" Tramontina Machete that I've cleaned up (sharpened, squared the first part of the spine, slightly rounded the last part, and flushed up and rounded the handle), along with a lightly carried USA Uncle Henry Stockman I picked up at a convenience store in small town in Colorado earlier this year. Second place is going to be an older but very lightly used Buck 110.
The contest will be open for entries until December 7th (my next Dr's appointment). Each entry will get numbered based on the order of entry, and I'll use a random number generator to pick the winning entry. Just please remember to be carefull! Don't decide to 'fall down' and take shelter in a bear's den, or accidentally drag yourself through cactus while looking for sticks Have fun, and enjoy the scenery and the challenge:thumbup:
My longest period of being unemployed in my life (or at least the 15 years I've been in the job pool), followed by a change in jobs (and a severe cut in pay), then breaking my leg at the new job (and the subsequent surgery), has made it rough to keep a positive attitude, though rum & whiskey do help I also know that as rough as my year has been others have had it far worse, and to those folks go my thoughts and prayer. Aside from all the bad, I've also had a lot of good things happen (started my knifemaking business, made a few new friends, and scored some killer deals on some stuff), so I figured it was time to pay the good forward a bit!This was the first time I've ever broken a bone, and it illustrated to me how quick bad stuff can happen to good guys
I was actually surprised at the lack of pain, as well as my inability to put any weight on it. So in that spirit, I figured a contest was in order. This one's pretty in depth, but I think everyone might learn something, so here's how it goes: Walk into the woods, and fall down
Really, pretend you broke or severely sprained your ankle, and you can not walk on it. You have to go someplace that isn't necessarily going to have a enough traffic to wait for help, so you'll have to either figure a way out or set up camp to wait out the night. Using only your normal day-hike setup, either build a shelter and fire (while scooting on the ground), or build yourself some crutches and begin your trek out. In the interest of not hurting yourself, let's say if you can make it down the trail ~100 yards they're sturdy enough to make it the whole way, and you don't actually have to stay the night in your shelter with a fake bum leg, just stay long enough to be fairly certain you'd live through the night. Document your trip and your camp or crutch setup (and the path you took with the crutches) with your camera and post your pics here. First place prizes will be a 14" Tramontina Machete that I've cleaned up (sharpened, squared the first part of the spine, slightly rounded the last part, and flushed up and rounded the handle), along with a lightly carried USA Uncle Henry Stockman I picked up at a convenience store in small town in Colorado earlier this year. Second place is going to be an older but very lightly used Buck 110.
The contest will be open for entries until December 7th (my next Dr's appointment). Each entry will get numbered based on the order of entry, and I'll use a random number generator to pick the winning entry. Just please remember to be carefull! Don't decide to 'fall down' and take shelter in a bear's den, or accidentally drag yourself through cactus while looking for sticks
Have fun, and enjoy the scenery and the challenge:thumbup:
Since I'm actually not supposed to put any weight on my foot, I have to manage stairs on my butt for a while (sure wish I had a handrail up the front porch)
