Good morning all, I'm curious how many of you have been heading outdoors with the current COVID crisis. Do you stick to areas around the house or are you able to get in trips elsewhere? Most of my adventuring has been hiking and biking on the local trails with my wife and kid but we're heading up to the UP in a few weeks if our governor doesn't shut the state down again. We found a nice looking campground that has its sites spread out and private, which we like anyway. We were looking forward to heading to the mountains of Montana where my wife was born and raised for a few years before the whole family moved to SE Michigan where most still reside, and we now live as well. Both my wife and I have been working since this crisis thing started and we're both ready to turn the phones, computers, and emails off to disconnect from the workplace for a bit and get some R&R. It will be our 2nd longer trip with our son who just turned 18 months. Last time he was only half that age so he was much easier to keep around the camp and keep an eye on. Now the little man seems like he's nearly as fast as I am and he's walked and hiked a few miles on his own on several occasions because we put him in the child carrier backpack or stroller. It should be a ton of fun as he loves the outdoors and drags us outside any opportunity he gets, rain or shine. We're looking forward to building some memories and hopefully some traditions soon as we grow our family, businesses, and ourselves. My wife and I are keen on making these outdoor adventures a big part of it, and you can be certain some Good Knives will be along for the ride.
Fortunately, our home backs up to 700 acres of green belt, with plenty of trails through it. We’ve been out there a couple of times since all this started. Now, it’s just too hot! We are planning on doing something in September, either Big Bend or Palo Duro. I’m pushing for Palo Duro, since we’ve been to Big Bend a couple of times already. Yellowstone is on our bucket list!
It was beautiful this morning so the boy and I went out for a bike ride again this morning with the fat bike and bicycle trailer. I didn't miss a mud puddle and the boy wasn't real pleased with me as I didn't have to water cover on it. He forgave me when we watched a bunch of construction trucks rolling buy some of the roads the bike paths go by. He's in love with trucks, seeing the fedex and UPS go by is one of his daily highlights when we're home with him and he's not at the sitter's.
I did a 1 on 1 knife forging class today with 3 spectators had a popup storm with some decent sized hail right about the time we moved from the forge to the grinder inside.
Well I had to cancel a Vacation to Mexico due to the scamdemic that I was waiting 20 years to take with my wife, just my wife and no kids this time. You see I have 4 boys ages 24,24, 21, and 15 and one of my twins was going to keep an eye on the house and the young one but Mexico was talking about closing its border and I didn't like the idea of getting stuck there. Then I had a fishing/camping trip to Lake George NY canceled because their Governor decide that it was too risky to let people camp. The campsites are situated in the middle of the 30 mile long lake on a chain of small islands and have anywhere from 1 to 4 campsites on them and they are so private and secluded that you can't see the other campers so that made no sense to me. So to burn off some frustration I have been doubling down on my mountain biking by trail riding during the day and building jumps with my youngest son. I usually ride exclusively at night for a number of reasons and hucking myself off jumps alone at night was never an option so day riding with my son and building jumps was a great bonding experience for me anyway but the only problem due to the Dampanic is trials full of newbies like you wouldn't believe so that gives me one more excuse to night ride. I have been doing a lot of fresh and saltwater fishing with my boys and workmates and have a Bass tournament planned for tomorrow with one of the twins and a bunch of guys from work so I hope that doesn't get canceled as well Lol. I do have a nice trip planned for the end of the month with my boy and the same group of guys and we hopefully will be heading up to Grand Lake Stream Maine for a week of Smallmouth Bass fishing and whisky drinking so fingers crossed for that. In between yard work and canceling reservations I also made a couple stock removal knives and in the process I discovered a beautiful wood for handles that an artist gifted me and it's called Purple Heart wood. If you have never seen it it is deep purple throughout and is much harder and tighter grained than oak and is a pleasure to work with but it eats up saw blades. That's pretty much been my life post Rona outbreak so Ya all have a great summer and don't forget to wear your your mouth diapers when venturing out in public places .
Very sorry to hear about the loss of the plans, kind of how we feel about the canceled Montana trip. My mother-in-law is aging and we think it might be the last year she's able to partake in hiking the mountain with the family. You're backup plans sound like a lot of fun. I've never been much for jumps but it does seem taking them at night could be even more crazy. The fishing seems like fun, it's been a long time since I did it a lot but I really need to pick it back up for another thing to do with the kiddo. I'm honestly not sure if he would sit still long enough to enjoy it but learning a bit of patience would be good for the both of us. I actually have some purple heartwood on the way to make some handles for myself, to practice up on some blanks I bought from another knife maker years ago that I forgot about. I've been playing around with a yakut knife I purchased recently and I really like the grind. I was exposed to that from a farmer back where I grew up who was a classmate of mine and they use the chisel/convex grind on their grafting knives which me and @David Mary are putting together for him. It's been really fun to use but I haven't used it quite enough to understand what maintenance challenges may arise, but it's supposed to be really easy to maintain with a strop since it's one-sided. I hope the fishing goes well and the whiskey goes down smooth. Thank you for sharing the story.
Finally rolled out the inflatable kayak today in preparation for the upcoming trip (as long as the governor doesn't shut the state down again). I think the little guy is going for his first paddle tomorrow when mom is at work. It's a time like this when I wish I had a stainless 24/7 knife available to bring with me but I'll probably be sporting my @JK Knives deluxe hurley creek instead. I will have some stainless knives coming out in the future but only O1 for now and that's not my 1st choice knife steel when heading to get wet.
View attachment 1381162 View attachment 1381163 View attachment 1381171 A group of friends get together every year in the Deshutes national forest in central Oregon this year it was a smaller group but fun was had by all.
The wife, me, and the toddler had a great time in the UP of Michigan a few weeks ago. We spent the better part of the week up there and I have to say that it was glorious to completely unplug from work and the COVID updates. It's almost dumbfounding how much the crisis has consumed the news media and it's just everywhere you look. We were hoping to hike a 10-mile section of Pictured Rocks along part of the NCT but alas my expecting wife didn't feel fit enough to pull it off, which is completely understandable. We elected to do a lot of kayaking on Lake Michigan are the Little Bay de Noc area instead. The campground was great and we selected a nice, secluded campsite that was very private with no other campsites around us. It worked out nicely as my toddler loves to run so there many adlib walkabouts through the forest, beaches, and campground trails. I'll try to get some video and pictures up over the next few days but I'm back at the day job and business in the evening routine so it will take a little time. Surprisingly, we never had a campfire between the toddler running around so much and the weather being on the warm side that we just didn't take the time to get one lit up. Still, we had a great time. I brought a few knives with me but the ones that got the most use was a custom clipped Canadian Belt Knife made by @JK Knives with a foldover sheath made by @Makael which was intended for exactly this type of use, camp cooking. I had my trusty cold steel goldeneye, one of my favorite beater folders. Lastly, I brought my Merican Puukko which has quickly become one of my favorite hiking/backpacking knives as it packs compact with the linear design and small sheath and the weight is quite nice considering the blade and handle length. I know the finger scallops weren't liked by all of the testers that were involved in the passaround but I love them and they allow me to mold a kydex sheath securely to the handle, something you don't see on many guardless, puukko/mora classic style handles. Here's a few knife pictures while some upload.
The portapotty guard I found tucked in behind the vent piping Video of me and Jack walking along the cliffs. https://imgur.com/d2g5Wh0 I'll try to resize when imgur isn't fighting me. I think one of my laptops hates imgur and won't let me into the photo section to get the smaller image links.
It's coming to be one of my favorite times of the year to be outdoors, when things aren't as hot, the leaves are changing color, and the bugs are starting to settle in for the season. Normally, this is when I spend a lot more time outdoors with only the limiting light at the end of the day slowing things up but we're expecting our 2nd child soon so the adventures on limited to shorter trips now. It's a great time to be out on the bike and hiking, except my wife doesn't like the hiking part in her current condition. Does anyone have fall plans? I used to hunt a lot, and I need to get back into it again, so that used to be one of my fall traditions with my stepdad. I'm hoping to get a recurve bow for Christmas or the birthday this year, or I'll have to sneak one onto the shopping list somewhere. Camping often ended up being part of the trip and maple bacon and eggs was the common breakfast on the Coleman stove. I've also been slowly working on a tarp shelter in the backyard, just because, that the kiddo and I play in a lot. We're also starting a little garden with some of the local wild fruits like raspberries so I've been ripping out some of the plants that overgrew the area after the previous owner of our house left and we let it grow too much. It was a good workout with the pick mattock for numerous days to get the soil and root system broken up, but little Jack didn't mind playing in the dirt with me. I'm working on getting a wind block on the left side which is open to numerous neighbors yards and the wind can come screaming through there. The other side has trees so it's not so bad. I may need to replace the top tarp soon as it's the super light duty $2 job I probably grabbed because I needed another buck for free shipping from the hardware store at some point. It keeps the acorns out at least.
Planning on some deer hunting once temps cool down. Also planning an overnight at the end of the month.
My wife and I are heading out to the woods this weekend to camp and hunt for whitetail. Should be fun!! It will be a little warmer than I care for — in the 60s at night, 80s during the day. Got to love Texas weather...
That is warm. We get 60's during the day right now in Michigan, which I really like for doing yard work or messing around in the woods. I don't sweat nearly as much.
