Weekend at the Canyon...and a little cut

silver_pilate

silver_pilate

Joined
Oct 30, 2002
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Well, the wife and I took the short hop up to Palo Duro Canyon to meet the folks for a weekend. My folks have a pop-up camper, and we try to get away some and just relax. Since the canyon is just up the road (about 130 miles...or just around the corner in West Texas ;) ), we usually get up there a couple of times each year. Palo Duro is a giant crack in the flat Texas prairie and leads into the Caprock Canyons system. The canyon itself is about 120 miles long, 20 miles wide in places, and about 800 feet deep. Great place to get a break from the flats of the South Plains.

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While we were setting up the screen to cover the picnic table, I had a little lapse in judgement while cutting a hole in a nylon strap. Turns out the knife I was using (a Benchmade Vex) was, imagine this, sharp! Who'd a thunk it?!? Well, it zipped through the nylon and through almost half of my index finger as well. When I felt the knife bottom out on the bone, I figured I might run into town and get this one stitched up instead of the typical pressure a glue I normally do. Nothing too bad, but it put a minor damper on the weekend.

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--nathan
 
WUSS, I would have thought you would carry a suture kit and would sew it yourself.
Stacy
 
I tried using horses hair and a mesquite thorn to sew it up, but the thorn kept breaking on my incredibly tough skin. So, I tried red ants, breaking their heads off and using the jaws to close the wound (they spasm shut and act like little staples), but they only held for a few minutes. Down to only a few options, I dug in the river bed until I found some dark colored sand. I built a large earthen furnace and stoked a giant mesquite fire, adding the sand as I went. After 2.5 straight days of tending the fire, I broke up the furnace and removed the formed ingot. After choosing the best of the formed steel, I built another fire and forged out a tiny needle. I didn't have a hammer, so I had to use a series of rocks held in my hand, and it took a really long time to get the needle smooth. But here's when it all went wrong, and I decided to go ahead and go to the hospital to have it done there. After forging the needle down and polishing it up with sand, I built a third fire and got down to heat treating. However, when I quenched in water, the needle broke! What do you think went wrong? Did I overheat? Was the carbon content too high? Was the running river water too cold? I don't know....

Anyway, the short of it is, I decided to go ahead and give up and have it done professionally. I'll have to see if I can get a suture kit from central stores at work for the future. :)

I'll tell you, the freaking lidocaine shot hurt way worse than the actual cut.

--nathan
 
That's more like it.

When I need a stitch that I can't give myself, I tell the doc to just sew me up. There seems little need for four of five sticks with Lidocaine just to get two or three sutures.

The canyon is really a great view, and I'm glad you weren't hurt bad.
Stacy
 
silver_pilate said:
I tried using horses hair and a mesquite thorn to sew it up, but the thorn kept breaking on my incredibly tough skin. So, I tried red ants, breaking their heads off and using the jaws to close the wound (they spasm shut and act like little staples), but they only held for a few minutes. Down to only a few options, I dug in the river bed until I found some dark colored sand. I built a large earthen furnace and stoked a giant mesquite fire, adding the sand as I went. After 2.5 straight days of tending the fire, I broke up the furnace and removed the formed ingot. After choosing the best of the formed steel, I built another fire and forged out a tiny needle. I didn't have a hammer, so I had to use a series of rocks held in my hand, and it took a really long time to get the needle smooth. But here's when it all went wrong, and I decided to go ahead and go to the hospital to have it done there. After forging the needle down and polishing it up with sand, I built a third fire and got down to heat treating. However, when I quenched in water, the needle broke! What do you think went wrong? Did I overheat? Was the carbon content too high? Was the running river water too cold? I don't know....

Anyway, the short of it is, I decided to go ahead and give up and have it done professionally. I'll have to see if I can get a suture kit from central stores at work for the future. :)

I'll tell you, the freaking lidocaine shot hurt way worse than the actual cut.

--nathan
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Now if that aint a tall Texan Tale then I don't know what is. The ant thing worked for Jaguar Paw's boy, you probably did't do it right.:D
 
Naw the ant thing would have worked, he just used the ants from New Mexico, if he would have used Texas ants they would have held that cut nice and closed. :)
 
I thought them ants looked puney. Damned "New Mexican" immigrant ants!! :grumpy: That's just another reason why we need the Texas-New Mexico border fence! Well, as long as it doesn't make it too hard to get to Ruidoso. Well, I guess we can maybe accept some of New Mexico as 2/3's of it used to be Texas anyway!

Yeah, Jaguar Paw's boy gave me the idea. Enjoyed that movie.

--nathan
 
silver_pilate said:
I thought them ants looked puney. Damned "New Mexican" immigrant ants!! :grumpy: That's just another reason why we need the Texas-New Mexico border fence! Well, as long as it doesn't make it too hard to get to Ruidoso. Well, I guess we can maybe accept some of New Mexico as 2/3's of it used to be Texas anyway!

Yeah, Jaguar Paw's boy gave me the idea. Enjoyed that movie.

--nathan
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The fence sounds good to me-we've been wanting all you Baja-Okies would stay home for decades now
 
Nope, ... them Texas ants would not have worked either. They would have just chopped through the remaining part of the finger. Should have just put your finger into the ice in the beer cooler for about 30 minutes to stop the blood flow. Then later you coulda stopped off at the nearest sportin' goods store and bought some monofilament fishin' line and sewed her right up.
 
Steve...man, why you gotta strike so low...? You know I was just johsin you. Comparing a Texas to an Okie!?!? That's like calling Mother Teresa a hooker! :confused::(

You can bash on me as a Texan, you can slap my wife (though I'd have to kick your hiney), stomp on my toe, scratch my car...heck, you can even break my heat treating oven (the home built one...not the Evenheat). But don't you EVER compare me to an Okie!! :mad::grumpy:;)

Oh, you know why West Texas is so windy??







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'Cause Oklahoma sucks and New Mexico blows. :eek::D:D:p;)



Just kidding, btw.

--nathan
 
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You make me proud Nathan. Just don't get your cowboy hat dirty, I hate it when that happens.
 
I love the canyon this time of year. Sis in law has been in Texas play the last several years and we always go down and watch.

And what were you doing cutting your finger with a PRODUCTION knife? I just don't even know what to say lol. Well hope it heals up soon.
 
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Yeah, Ryan. I really do need to expand into folding knives so it's easier to carry one of my own in the pocket. What can I say, old habits are hard to break, and it's so rare that I keep one of my own that I don't really have anything to carry that's mine :D.

An old roommate of mine (one of my best friend's cousins) does all the computer/networking/IT stuff for the Texas play. My family usually gets up to see the play every couple of years.

--nathan
 
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