So thank you cycling for making me look at myself.
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| From Misc |
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Thank you cycling
Thank you cycling. I just felt this was worth mention. Awhile back I committed to a weekend mtn. Bike trip. Little Did I know then how it would change things. I started looking back at the fun I had on a bike. All the friends I made and trips I took. Then I started thinking that this trip would be a lot more fun if I were in some sort of shape. I dropped by www.mtbr.com and browsed thru a few posts. I was so inspired by some of the photography there. I've mounted new brakes on my bike, I've put on new wheels also. I'm excited again. I've quit drinking pop, started looking hard at how much sugar is going in my body. I've nixed caffeine altogether. That's a hard one. The wake up call was how hard it was on the second day thou. Man did that hurt.
So thank you cycling for making me look at myself.
So thank you cycling for making me look at myself.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Redneck Paintball
Well were too far out in the sticks to call it ghetto. So it's gotta be redneck. Here's my efforts in creating a field for my kids and friends. The closest "actual" field is 2 hours away. We have played at my parents farm for years. The corrals have been empty for about 20 years. In the past we just used natural cover, two dead cars, a few spools and some misc pallets for cover. Nothing much more then that. Well this year another of my boys started playing. We made the yearly trip to SPE and he's hooked. So once we got home he got the bug to play again. We started looking at where to put up a structured field, what we had for supplies and what money we had to work with. Well very little money, however all the free pallets we could get our hands on. So we hauled out three trailer loads of pallets, left over plywood and started building. We cleaned up first by pulling out all of the old barb wire, hog panels and wood gates out. Nothing like finding a old roll of barbwire on that long slide into the snake. Once that was done we hauled in old feed bunks to make up the snakes. Set some fence posts to keep them there, then started on making all the pallet V's. The pallet v's got a outside coating of galvanized tin. All from panels that had blown down from the original wind break. Add a few old spools, a trunk lid from a 68 olds and were in good to go.
There is still a lot of space between bunkers but it's a start. I have enough pallets for seven more V's, tires for more tall stacks and a few other things I can add in cheap.
There is still a lot of space between bunkers but it's a start. I have enough pallets for seven more V's, tires for more tall stacks and a few other things I can add in cheap.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
SPE - an Odyssey in Paintball
This SPE started off like all SPE's in the past. With a 12 hour drive to Illinois. I really didn't want to do the trip there in one shot. I have done that before and it leaves you pretty drained. I had decided a hotel room mid way would do as a good stopping point and only give us a little over six hours left to drive the next day. After a constant nagging towards my eldest son to pack his stuff. It actually happened. Thursday came around and He and Jake were ready to go at 4:PM Mountain time. I picked up the kids from school, grabbed Jake and Josh's stuff, dropped off a reluctant Joab at soccer practice(next year bud) and topped off the fuel tank. With all that done, the 2002 Gold Caravan loaded to the brim with paintball equipment, food and drinks was on it's way.
On the road to Omaha we saw hundreds and hundreds of turkey and deer. This didn't help Jake at all since we all went empty handed last turkey season. A few places you could have filled your deer tag and turkey tag in a matter of seconds with a quite enough bow. The normal gradient from the yellow grass of the plains to the dark green of leaves on trees and thick grass back east was very evident. They had been getting a lot of water in the past few weeks. We got thru Omaha and into Council Bluffs where we stayed the night at a 39.99 dollar motel. My two boys were a little freaked out and after getting the room, told me they were pretty sure they just witnessed a drug deal. I told them they were over reacting. If this was the worst hotel room they ever stay in, then they will be lucky. Yea the bed was hard but it was a clean room. We woke up early and headed over to Panera Bread for breakfast. Damn do they have some awesome breakfast sandwiches. Six point five hours later and we're at Spaceman's house for a gathering of the usual suspects. We ran around a bit waiting for other friends to arrive. Gathered some misc beers and other bits. A few beers, six pounds of bacon and a couple taco's later I was a happy man. Sitting on the Spaceman's deck, trading stories, passing around markers and drinking home brewed beer with a bunch of friends I hadn't seen in a couple years( I missed SPE 09). This is why a 12 hour drive is totally worth it.
Up early and headed to the field. Set up camp behind the raffle table with Spaceman, DoghouseDan and a hand full of Canadians. Played with my new Ule pump mag most of the morning. Then after getting my sniper back from Ken I started playing with that for a bit. Huge thanks to Ken for standing behind his work and fixing the little leak my sniper had. You da man Ken! After three years I finally got a elimination with this rig! My two son's had a blast all day. I had wondered about Jake getting tired and not wanting to play in the afternoon. He was back a couple times, just long enough to refill paint and headed back out. While visiting a booth, one of the vendors gave Jake a old Brute paintball marker. 
He said he hadn't used it in four or five years and wasn't even sure it shot. Jake found a way to put a hopper on it, then sprinted over to the chrono. It clocked in at 275 and shot like a champ. He proceeded to play with it the rest of the afternoon. Josh played with his phantom all morning and then ripped things up with my ule mag in the afternoon, after I started playing with my sniper. He ripp things up really well. Including re-injuring his ankle that he had sprained pretty good the week before at a soccer game. Even with a little limp he still played awesome. Which was pretty evident on Sunday during the tourney. I couldn't be prouder of these two. I just can't wait till next year and the youngest can come with too. Team Olsen will be in full effect. Pump play was std issue SPE. Everyone played awesome, everyone played with respect and honesty. Other then the tourney I don't think we had a ref at our games. I can't say enough good things about the type of play one experiences at SPE. You really have to be there and play to get the full meaning.
Saturday wrapped up and we headed out to get some Mexican food. After a little trouble finding the spot, I ordered a margarita. I wanted a big one and that's what I got. We stayed the night in a much nicer hotel then on Thursday. Soft beds, a pool and most of all a hot tube. Nothing like soaking off the paint in a bubbly hot tub. So we checked in, swam for a bit then relaxed in the hot tube. The boys decided to stay up and watch a movie. Me the minute my head hit the pillow I was out. Sunday we were up early, ate our fill downstairs and then out to the field. The Tourney is on Sunday so we once again got everything sat up and waited on Gumby to show to start taking names for the Tourney. Jake, Josh and I all got on separate teams. Each team played seven games. Points were given for eliminations, flag pull and winning. It should be said no matter what your team you always have fun. Thru the first three games the mag was shooting like crap. Spiraling balls all over the place. I went thru three barrels and cleaned it good and finally got it up and running in a decent manner. In one of our last games I got "dead man" walked. By the time I caught on to what he was doing it was too late. I hadn't tucked a foot in like I should have and that was my down fall. While I don't totally agree with it, it's SPE and that's just how things are. I'm sure I would have been fine with it if I would have been the one doing it. Jake ended up second to last, I got third and Josh's team won first place. Jake and Josh proceeded to play until all our paint was gone. We were debating on if we should drive back in one shot or stay the night somewhere. While debating we got invited to Famous Dave's for BBQ with a small but elite group of guyz. You know who you are. We ate a bunch of BBQ and decided to hit the road and just keep driving. My eldest took the first shift at the wheel. I tried to sleep but was still wide awake with the weekend in my head. I took over at a little after midnight and we pulled it home. We all slept for a bit, except Jake he had been sleeping for 12 hours, so he was ok. Unpacked, cleaned and tucked neatly away for the next paintball outing. Which hopefully is soon.
On the road to Omaha we saw hundreds and hundreds of turkey and deer. This didn't help Jake at all since we all went empty handed last turkey season. A few places you could have filled your deer tag and turkey tag in a matter of seconds with a quite enough bow. The normal gradient from the yellow grass of the plains to the dark green of leaves on trees and thick grass back east was very evident. They had been getting a lot of water in the past few weeks. We got thru Omaha and into Council Bluffs where we stayed the night at a 39.99 dollar motel. My two boys were a little freaked out and after getting the room, told me they were pretty sure they just witnessed a drug deal. I told them they were over reacting. If this was the worst hotel room they ever stay in, then they will be lucky. Yea the bed was hard but it was a clean room. We woke up early and headed over to Panera Bread for breakfast. Damn do they have some awesome breakfast sandwiches. Six point five hours later and we're at Spaceman's house for a gathering of the usual suspects. We ran around a bit waiting for other friends to arrive. Gathered some misc beers and other bits. A few beers, six pounds of bacon and a couple taco's later I was a happy man. Sitting on the Spaceman's deck, trading stories, passing around markers and drinking home brewed beer with a bunch of friends I hadn't seen in a couple years( I missed SPE 09). This is why a 12 hour drive is totally worth it.
Up early and headed to the field. Set up camp behind the raffle table with Spaceman, DoghouseDan and a hand full of Canadians. Played with my new Ule pump mag most of the morning. Then after getting my sniper back from Ken I started playing with that for a bit. Huge thanks to Ken for standing behind his work and fixing the little leak my sniper had. You da man Ken! After three years I finally got a elimination with this rig! My two son's had a blast all day. I had wondered about Jake getting tired and not wanting to play in the afternoon. He was back a couple times, just long enough to refill paint and headed back out. While visiting a booth, one of the vendors gave Jake a old Brute paintball marker. 
He said he hadn't used it in four or five years and wasn't even sure it shot. Jake found a way to put a hopper on it, then sprinted over to the chrono. It clocked in at 275 and shot like a champ. He proceeded to play with it the rest of the afternoon. Josh played with his phantom all morning and then ripped things up with my ule mag in the afternoon, after I started playing with my sniper. He ripp things up really well. Including re-injuring his ankle that he had sprained pretty good the week before at a soccer game. Even with a little limp he still played awesome. Which was pretty evident on Sunday during the tourney. I couldn't be prouder of these two. I just can't wait till next year and the youngest can come with too. Team Olsen will be in full effect. Pump play was std issue SPE. Everyone played awesome, everyone played with respect and honesty. Other then the tourney I don't think we had a ref at our games. I can't say enough good things about the type of play one experiences at SPE. You really have to be there and play to get the full meaning. Saturday wrapped up and we headed out to get some Mexican food. After a little trouble finding the spot, I ordered a margarita. I wanted a big one and that's what I got. We stayed the night in a much nicer hotel then on Thursday. Soft beds, a pool and most of all a hot tube. Nothing like soaking off the paint in a bubbly hot tub. So we checked in, swam for a bit then relaxed in the hot tube. The boys decided to stay up and watch a movie. Me the minute my head hit the pillow I was out. Sunday we were up early, ate our fill downstairs and then out to the field. The Tourney is on Sunday so we once again got everything sat up and waited on Gumby to show to start taking names for the Tourney. Jake, Josh and I all got on separate teams. Each team played seven games. Points were given for eliminations, flag pull and winning. It should be said no matter what your team you always have fun. Thru the first three games the mag was shooting like crap. Spiraling balls all over the place. I went thru three barrels and cleaned it good and finally got it up and running in a decent manner. In one of our last games I got "dead man" walked. By the time I caught on to what he was doing it was too late. I hadn't tucked a foot in like I should have and that was my down fall. While I don't totally agree with it, it's SPE and that's just how things are. I'm sure I would have been fine with it if I would have been the one doing it. Jake ended up second to last, I got third and Josh's team won first place. Jake and Josh proceeded to play until all our paint was gone. We were debating on if we should drive back in one shot or stay the night somewhere. While debating we got invited to Famous Dave's for BBQ with a small but elite group of guyz. You know who you are. We ate a bunch of BBQ and decided to hit the road and just keep driving. My eldest took the first shift at the wheel. I tried to sleep but was still wide awake with the weekend in my head. I took over at a little after midnight and we pulled it home. We all slept for a bit, except Jake he had been sleeping for 12 hours, so he was ok. Unpacked, cleaned and tucked neatly away for the next paintball outing. Which hopefully is soon.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Extream Hobbiest
I'm sure this has been thought up before. I'm sure it's been stated many times in reviews and gear lists. I just want to write this in my Blog as a reminder. It's hard for me to stay the course even thou I know the end result will be better. The idea as I see it, is for what ever hobby it is, what ever recreational activity, to make a durable, dependable, quality, set of tools for what ever the purpose.
An example for this is my paintball collection. When I say collection I mean collection. At one time I had three times as many markers as I did family members. I have markers that I would drag to the field and not even use. Worse I would try to use multiple markers. Spending time setting them up, trouble shooting, getting them ready, to what...play one game and then put them back in there box. So this year instead of concentrating on the marker I want to concentrate on the playing. I'll bring two markers. One main, one back up. One hpa tank and one co2 tank. No more "One main marker, a back up and a marker or two I'd like to try. I'll bring two hpa tanks and three co2's so I can set up all the markers and change between them easily.". Cause that's bull. I never get to use them all, but I spend all this time trying to get to use them. So this year I'm trying to force myself to thin down the paintball gluttony. I've sold and traded several markers that were very dear to me. Markers I'd imagined, drawn, faxed and had custom made. However I've never or rarely used them. The good memories don't reside in that marker. They reside in me. And that is the concept that is so hard to grasp sometimes. I've thinned out the herd, given things away and made deals that I never would have if I hadn't been thinking this way. Yes I have bought some things. However MOST of what I've bought has been to make something better, more durable, or easier to use. Yes there are times I get wrapped up in something I shouldn't. Those time are getting less and less now.
So this mentality extends to other hobbies such as archery. Why do I need three bows, when one will do? Cycling : Why have four bikes when you really only need one? Backpacking : Why have four backpacking stoves when you really only need two?(butane and liquid fuel..gotta have choices) It's not easy. Especially for me. I'm a gear guy. I love new gear. The feel of a new mtn.bike saddle, the soft touch of a titanium cooking set, the beauty of nickle plated pgp. However it doesn't make them better then the ones I all ready have.
To sum up. Look at what you have. Then truly see what you REALLY need. Get rid of the rest. Improve on what you kept if you need to. In the end things will be more fun and the experience better by far.
An example for this is my paintball collection. When I say collection I mean collection. At one time I had three times as many markers as I did family members. I have markers that I would drag to the field and not even use. Worse I would try to use multiple markers. Spending time setting them up, trouble shooting, getting them ready, to what...play one game and then put them back in there box. So this year instead of concentrating on the marker I want to concentrate on the playing. I'll bring two markers. One main, one back up. One hpa tank and one co2 tank. No more "One main marker, a back up and a marker or two I'd like to try. I'll bring two hpa tanks and three co2's so I can set up all the markers and change between them easily.". Cause that's bull. I never get to use them all, but I spend all this time trying to get to use them. So this year I'm trying to force myself to thin down the paintball gluttony. I've sold and traded several markers that were very dear to me. Markers I'd imagined, drawn, faxed and had custom made. However I've never or rarely used them. The good memories don't reside in that marker. They reside in me. And that is the concept that is so hard to grasp sometimes. I've thinned out the herd, given things away and made deals that I never would have if I hadn't been thinking this way. Yes I have bought some things. However MOST of what I've bought has been to make something better, more durable, or easier to use. Yes there are times I get wrapped up in something I shouldn't. Those time are getting less and less now.
So this mentality extends to other hobbies such as archery. Why do I need three bows, when one will do? Cycling : Why have four bikes when you really only need one? Backpacking : Why have four backpacking stoves when you really only need two?(butane and liquid fuel..gotta have choices) It's not easy. Especially for me. I'm a gear guy. I love new gear. The feel of a new mtn.bike saddle, the soft touch of a titanium cooking set, the beauty of nickle plated pgp. However it doesn't make them better then the ones I all ready have.
To sum up. Look at what you have. Then truly see what you REALLY need. Get rid of the rest. Improve on what you kept if you need to. In the end things will be more fun and the experience better by far.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
I've been tying a lot of knots as of late and when I started thinking about SPE coming up I thought I'd prep a few of my 10rnd tubes with make shift speed caps. I've done it in the past, ziptie, electrical tape and 550cord or thicker plastic string. However this year I thought...maybe I should dress it up a little bit. Use a turk's head knot and then finishing it out in a variety of ways. I found some smaller diameter black nylon cord. I went thru a few tries with the turk's head but then got it looking pretty decent. Here was my first effort :
I didn't like the knot inside the cap, so on my second one I made a pair of holes and routed the cable in and then out with some room to slide a little so it can adjust a little. Here's the second one :
I then tried a lighter weight nylon cord/string that I had, so I could use some other bits I had. It turned out ok, but I like the heavier black cord or 550. The light weight cord :
Then for giggles, because I didn't think it would work out at all I did one using gutted 550 cord. This one ended up being my favorite of them all. The weave on the tube shows up awesome and I just like std issue 550 cord best. Yea the holes in the cap are a little bigger, but I don't think that's a issue.
So my big question is. Do you guyz and galz think there's a market out there for these?
I didn't like the knot inside the cap, so on my second one I made a pair of holes and routed the cable in and then out with some room to slide a little so it can adjust a little. Here's the second one :
I then tried a lighter weight nylon cord/string that I had, so I could use some other bits I had. It turned out ok, but I like the heavier black cord or 550. The light weight cord :
Then for giggles, because I didn't think it would work out at all I did one using gutted 550 cord. This one ended up being my favorite of them all. The weave on the tube shows up awesome and I just like std issue 550 cord best. Yea the holes in the cap are a little bigger, but I don't think that's a issue.
So my big question is. Do you guyz and galz think there's a market out there for these?
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Blogaway?
Trying out Blogaway on my Droid. See if its better then the rest of the Droid blogging apps.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Trips and Fun for 2010
A short list of trips for 2010:
SPE - Paintball in Illinois
Backpacking trip in the Pasture
2nd Annual Guyz and Kids Weekend out.
Mtn.Biking trip to Wyoming
I have a carbiner that has 12 550cord zipper pulls on it. A goal for camping trips for 2010. I mean to empty it, and if I can. Twist a few more trips in.
SPE - Paintball in Illinois
Backpacking trip in the Pasture
2nd Annual Guyz and Kids Weekend out.
Mtn.Biking trip to Wyoming
I have a carbiner that has 12 550cord zipper pulls on it. A goal for camping trips for 2010. I mean to empty it, and if I can. Twist a few more trips in.
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