[yawn]
Turns out Johnny's get-together isn't until Saturday afternoon/evening. Of course, I didn't find this out until I'd already made the "can't be canceled" reservation for a room in Duluth.
*shrug*
Means we get a Friday night and most of Saturday in town all on our own, to take in the sights, sounds and food at our leisure, right?
Right.
So we'll head down tomorrow after work, then maybe hit the Aquarium for part of the day on Saturday (in addition to the usual boat watching, etc.).
Took me two tries to check a plot out of the block I pulled from Brad's desk. Couldn't get down the road to within less than about 2.5 miles yesterday - ruts were 1.5' deep... wasn't too big a deal *yet* but as the day warmed up, that stuff was gonna get pretty gross, and I'd have gotten stuck. Had the ATV with me, so tried to get it started so I could continue picking my way down the road. No luck there either - too cold? Dead battery? Not sure. Never even sputtered though. *sigh* Went to one that was on a more traveled road today - nice day to be in the woods, but didn't take me nearly long enough.
Susan's got some nasty sludge in her cooling system, so sounds like Ryan will be calling the shop and seeing if he can get her in for a full blown flush & refill. May just be due to the water that the coolant got half/half'd with (tap from Tarno's well) last time it was emptied (when we changed out the thermostat)... may be a little on the greasy side though... which would be bad. We'll have to see. Took a sample of the oil when I changed it on Sunday though, and got it sent to the lab - will see if there's any coolant in the oil. Hope not...
Just got done making chocolate chip cookies to take with us to Johnny's... they're tasty. Have to get them bagged up before going to bed though.
Oh yeah!
Finally called then visited the guy that is the local 'primitive' bow expert. Took Grandpa's bow with me (of course). He said it's most likely Lemonwood, not Osage orange (which I had originally thought). The lack of annual rings should have tipped me off (since hedge grows pretty slow) - he was pretty surprised when I said "... and since lemonwood is a more tropical species, it wouldn't have annual rings because they grow year round at a pretty constant rate." ... "You know a lot more about trees than most people," he responded. Yeah... I'm a forester. :)
But anyway - he strung the bow and took a look at it - said that he probably wouldn't use it to shoot unless it got refurbished. The handle and bow (the wrapped part in the middle) start to separate a bit when under even just the tension of being strung. It'd have to get taken apart and re-laminated if I really wanted to use it. (Which is possible, so long as I didn't mind losing the string wrapping and the whole 'vintage-ness' of the bow as a whole.) So I'll keep it hung on the wall for a while longer, while I give the loaner he sent me home with a try for a while. See if I remember how it all goes, if I'm still interested in giving it a shot (haha), etc. What I came home with is a 'student' longbow, 34 lb. draw and a few arrows. I'll have to see if I can find someplace to set up and shoot at something for a little bit.
Nice guy. I'm invited to come back over any time (particularly once the snow is gone) to use his yard targets. I'll also have to look up the archery club down the street from the shooting sports center (which is now officially closed... unfortunate!).
Ooh... and he has a pair of spotty kitties. :) I think they're bengals, but I didn't ask. The male is shy except when it comes to playing with bow strings, the female is an attention hog. Mau! Mau! MAU!
hehe
*shrug*
Means we get a Friday night and most of Saturday in town all on our own, to take in the sights, sounds and food at our leisure, right?
Right.
So we'll head down tomorrow after work, then maybe hit the Aquarium for part of the day on Saturday (in addition to the usual boat watching, etc.).
Took me two tries to check a plot out of the block I pulled from Brad's desk. Couldn't get down the road to within less than about 2.5 miles yesterday - ruts were 1.5' deep... wasn't too big a deal *yet* but as the day warmed up, that stuff was gonna get pretty gross, and I'd have gotten stuck. Had the ATV with me, so tried to get it started so I could continue picking my way down the road. No luck there either - too cold? Dead battery? Not sure. Never even sputtered though. *sigh* Went to one that was on a more traveled road today - nice day to be in the woods, but didn't take me nearly long enough.
Susan's got some nasty sludge in her cooling system, so sounds like Ryan will be calling the shop and seeing if he can get her in for a full blown flush & refill. May just be due to the water that the coolant got half/half'd with (tap from Tarno's well) last time it was emptied (when we changed out the thermostat)... may be a little on the greasy side though... which would be bad. We'll have to see. Took a sample of the oil when I changed it on Sunday though, and got it sent to the lab - will see if there's any coolant in the oil. Hope not...
Just got done making chocolate chip cookies to take with us to Johnny's... they're tasty. Have to get them bagged up before going to bed though.
Oh yeah!
Finally called then visited the guy that is the local 'primitive' bow expert. Took Grandpa's bow with me (of course). He said it's most likely Lemonwood, not Osage orange (which I had originally thought). The lack of annual rings should have tipped me off (since hedge grows pretty slow) - he was pretty surprised when I said "... and since lemonwood is a more tropical species, it wouldn't have annual rings because they grow year round at a pretty constant rate." ... "You know a lot more about trees than most people," he responded. Yeah... I'm a forester. :)
But anyway - he strung the bow and took a look at it - said that he probably wouldn't use it to shoot unless it got refurbished. The handle and bow (the wrapped part in the middle) start to separate a bit when under even just the tension of being strung. It'd have to get taken apart and re-laminated if I really wanted to use it. (Which is possible, so long as I didn't mind losing the string wrapping and the whole 'vintage-ness' of the bow as a whole.) So I'll keep it hung on the wall for a while longer, while I give the loaner he sent me home with a try for a while. See if I remember how it all goes, if I'm still interested in giving it a shot (haha), etc. What I came home with is a 'student' longbow, 34 lb. draw and a few arrows. I'll have to see if I can find someplace to set up and shoot at something for a little bit.
Nice guy. I'm invited to come back over any time (particularly once the snow is gone) to use his yard targets. I'll also have to look up the archery club down the street from the shooting sports center (which is now officially closed... unfortunate!).
Ooh... and he has a pair of spotty kitties. :) I think they're bengals, but I didn't ask. The male is shy except when it comes to playing with bow strings, the female is an attention hog. Mau! Mau! MAU!
hehe