Take the Gold or Open The Box! - WINNER!

[AShearer]

Never put a python around your neck -happily this one knows which side the rat is buttered. The nicest snake you'd ever meet.

Meako: Love your T-shirt and matching neckwear.

 

[leghog]

Now this is a cool give away! If I were in, I'd have to select "open the box" as mystery intrigues me.

Tempted, but no, I'm not in. To be in would be counter productive toward my present goal. LOL!

 

[Horsewright]

Great deal Jack!!!! I'll play too. Even better has been the chance to read about everyone. I'm a knife maker, leather craftsman, and cattle rancher and not sure which order that goes in. I'm happily married to Nichole who is in her own right a talented leather craftsman. If you've ever seen one of my flower carved sheaths she did the tooling. Of course she is also my partner in the ranch, all thing horsey and Horsewright. Horrsewright is our business. We make our living making and selling knives and leather goods, mostly to a working cowboy/rancher market but outside of that too. We're very blessed in our lives. Here's one of the cool parts and partly why we are so blessed. We don't have any hobbies. But everything we do is a hobby too if that makes sense. I love making knives and I get paid for it. We love the leather side and we get paid for it. We love the ranching and being horseback and sometimes we even get paid for that too. We both have children from previous marriages. Logan my son is 25 and a working cowboy, Josh my stepson is 25 also (he and Logan were friends before Nichole and i started dating years ago). He's in the Army and is training as an IT specialist. If you've ever been to our website Josh and Nichole built it. Alyssa is 20 and a university student working on her nursing degree.

Christmas mornin. Logan was spending Christmas with his fiancee's family so wasn't here.

Nichole and our good friend and ranching partner "Shotgun Stewie" working on Christmas dinner.

Logan after cutting a calf at one of our brandings, (notice the knife in his teeth), I'm handing him a can of disinfectant. If he's around he does our cutting for us. He's done so many thousands of head that he's absolutely surgical. They hardly even bleed.

Logan a couple of years back on our ranch. We were checking fence. Sometimes a guy just needs to ride off into the sunset.

Nichole sticking our iron on one. Logan horseback in the blue shirt. We use what we make. Three pair of leggings, three belts, two knives, four pair of spur straps, a pair of rein connectors, the carved martingale on Logan's horse and a wildrag in this pic, all Horsewright products.

The ranch is a big chunk of ground. Me in the green jacket leading the troops down out of the mountains looking for the cattle.

Here's how things intertwine. I ranch rope competitively for fun. This is the biggest one in the world $150 Gs on the table. I'm not going to win but I do have fun and I throw a heck of a hoolihan:

But we take our booth so its business too:

Or heck its California lets go to the beach:

 

[willythekid]

Simply awesome Dave... thanks fro taking the time to share with everyone!

 

[mike Berkovitch]

Mike Most impressive! I admire many aspects of Japanese culture, their knives&swords being amongst them.

Not an entry in this GAW though thanks, I feel others' needs may be greater and have more merit.

Regards, Will

Thanks Will, I am as well great admirer of modern and traditional Japanese arts

Mike

 

[huelsdonk]

I'm in!

Thanks, Jack, for this generous giveaway and for starting this fantastic thread. I have very much enjoyed getting to know a lot of the folks here better. The Porch is a really cool place. This is the first online community that I've ever actively participated in. Having read a good number of comment threads in various corners of the internet, I had pretty much come to the conclusion that it always just boiled down to insults and profanity. This place has completely changed my mind, and I'd like to thank all the denizens here for that. I'm proud to be sitting here in a rocking chair amongst you all.

So, I'm 38 years old. I've been married to my wonderful wife for 12 years, and we have a little girl who will be 2 years old in May. I love being a dad. It's awesome. I grew up in the Seattle area and lived there until about 8 years ago when we moved to our home in Connecticut. We live out in the country and board and train dogs for a living (a family business) on an old dairy farm here. We have a couple turned-out horses and a little Australian Shepherd named Watson who is passed out by my feet as I write this. It's a simple and quiet life but a good one. I used to drink a great deal but don't any more - something that I'm extremely grateful for.

I haven't been into knives for very long, but I thoroughly enjoy it as a hobby. I'm trying to get better (which is to say any good at all) at sharpening and am also hoping to get started whittling at some point this year. I also have a vegetable garden, enjoy puttering around in the yard, and can cook and bake reasonably well. It can be painful at times, but I also can't help rooting for my Seahawks, Mariners, and Huskies. I don't have any antipathy toward the teams out here, but my sports allegiances were decided long ago.

My username refers to John Huelsdonk "the iron man of the Hoh". My avatar is a photo of him. He was a semi-legendary pioneer on the Olympic Peninsula in Western Washington with a reputation for great feats of strength and manliness. I earned the nickname from some friends I used to landscape with years ago. One day I was digging furiously without moving a lot of dirt, so to speak, and they started calling me "Huelsdonk" for my efforts. It's just kind of stuck since then.

 

[btb01]

Dave, I always enjoy your photos, and I think it's wonderful that you make a living doing the things that you enjoy most. That's one of the best things you can ask for in life. :thumbup:

 

[meako]

Fantastic photos Dave-I notice the reef is working a bit- looks kinda gnarly tho. Might be OK for a shark biscuit -bonus!

 

[Jack Black]

Looks like a great way to start the day Mike! :thumbup:

If you've ever been to our website Josh and Nichole built it.

It's a great site Dave, and what a fantastic photo-set of a wonderful life, thank you for sharing it with us :thumbup:

My username refers to John Huelsdonk "the iron man of the Hoh". My avatar is a photo of him. He was a semi-legendary pioneer on the Olympic Peninsula in Western Washington with a reputation for great feats of strength and manliness. I earned the nickname from some friends I used to landscape with years ago. One day I was digging furiously without moving a lot of dirt, so to speak, and they started calling me "Huelsdonk" for my efforts. It's just kind of stuck since then.

Interesting story John :thumbup:

 

[Jolipapa]

Wonderful pictures Dave, thank you. :thumbup:

 

[Woodrow F Call]

Jake: Good to get to know more about you. I cropped a lot out so as to save bandwidth. This thread is really bringing folks out.

I used to play in bands too, but got too old to do those 3AM bar gigs. This is about 10 years ago.

Wow! Did you get hit in the floods? That doesn't look good.

You've kept an amazing, positive attitude:thumbup:


Many of us seem to have a lot in common!

Nice strat!

Yeah, only got 5-6 inches though. It's a mess, but you just gotta get through it. Last I heard, about 60,000 homes affected. I was lucky.

 

[AShearer]

Nice strat!

Yeah, only got 5-6 inches though. It's a mess, but you just gotta get through it. Last I heard, about 60,000 homes affected. I was lucky.

Thanks. It's a mid-80's Clapton model. I still have it. Nothing all that special but it plays like butter and has that tubular SRV type out of phase sound.

Glad to hear you weren't too badly affected. But all those people, man! It just seems like it never stops?

 

[Horsewright]

Thanks guys! Meako just a hair north the rocks give way to open beach. Look close for the surfer behind Nichole.

 

[FOG2]

I am in.. This is one of the very few give aways that interest me. Ty for the chance.

 

[redsparrow]

Jack, America does not currently have anywhere near the optimum amount of lambsfoot knives. Since they are almost unobtainable here I would like to do my part to alleviate this situation, so I'm in. I had a border collie that could have been the best sheep herder of all time. He was never given the opportunity to prove himself as a herding dog but boy was he smart. He was a whiz at backgammon, an excellent chef and could run faster and further than most mountain-bike riders are able to ride. Here's a pic of him discussing the benefits and advantages of sleeping in late.



Thanks for the opportunity Jack. Guess you know which prize I'll select.

 

[Jack Black]

Jack, America does not currently have anywhere near the optimum amount of lambsfoot knives. Since they are almost unobtainable here I would like to do my part to alleviate this situation, so I'm in. .

Thanks for playing your part my friend, the US definitely needs more Lambsfoot knives! :thumbup:

 

[Half/Stop]

Jack I have been looking at this thread and that beautiful Oxhorn Lambsfoot! I have been reluctant to enter because I have already been a winner in one of your GAW's, with the prize being a beautiful Ebony Lambsfoot. Having experienced your kindness and generosity first hand I want to say thank you. However, I also realize that someone here in the states being able to find and buy a knife with the character of that Oxhorn is extremely unlikely. With that being said, "I am in!" The odds are great, but if I were to be so lucky as to have the honor of winning this beautiful knife, I must insist that you pick someone else to whom I will also send a NIT GEC knife. Before I forget, I don't drink and I don't smoke.

 

[Jack Black]

Jack I have been looking at this thread and that beautiful Oxhorn Lambsfoot! I have been reluctant to enter because I have already been a winner in one of your GAW's, with the prize being a beautiful Ebony Lambsfoot. Having experienced your kindness and generosity first hand I want to say thank you. However, I also realize that someone here in the states being able to find and buy a knife with the character of that Oxhorn is extremely unlikely. With that being said, "I am in!" The odds are great, but if I were to be so lucky as to have the honor of winning this beautiful knife, I must insist that you pick someone else to whom I will also send a NIT GEC knife. Before I forget, I don't drink and I don't smoke.

That's very generous Ron I was lucky to find this one, and must try and take a photo later in the week. I only got it because I spent several hundred 'squids' (£ Sterling) with Wright's, and was able to go through their stock and pick out what I wanted. Most of what I bought has already been given away, a few more remain, which I will gift to friends. The odds are indeed great, but chance is entirely random my friend :thumbup:

The smoking/drinking wasn't supposed to be such a big part of this giveaway, I just wanted to know whether or not to include a bottle-opener/pipe-tool for the winner! :thumbup:

 

[Ernie1980]

I am in, what a great idea for a giveaway! I have one 11 year old daughter and love to garden and play softball when I am not tinkering with my knives

 

[Half/Stop]

Jack, I do drink Coke and they still make bottles with caps that require an opener!