Make a walking stick......

Need or want a walking stick?
The next time you go out to your woodlot; don't cut one out of your favorite park or off private property. Look around for a small sapling that has been damaged from snow press, you will notice that at the base of the sapling snow has caused the trunk of the sapling to bend. This creates a natural handle for a walking stick. If you look at the photo to the left you can see the natural handle, each stick is unique, no two sticks the same. The preferred time to harvest your potential stick is in March or early spring when the sap is flowing in the trees. This makes peeling simple and if you find a Black Cherry sapling it can be done with your fingers. Otherwise a draw knife available from Home Hardware or a jackknife will also get the job done. Once you have it peeled, let it dry for a couple of weeks;but not in direct sunlight as this can cause it to crack. Then sand either by hand or with an orbitable sander, first with 80 grit, then 120. Some people prefer the natural color of the wood or you can use a stain to get the color you prefer. Let the stain dry and then apply 3 or 4 coats of clear (outside) varethane; letting each coat dry for at least 24 hours. After each coat drys, sand lightly prior to applying the next coat. Be sure to wipe the walking stick with a cloth to remove dust prior to applying the varethane. You can then either put a brass end on the cane available from Lee Valley or dip it in a rubber compound available from Canadian Tire. This puts a kind of none slip end on the stick and protects it from water/snow/gravel. As you can see from the photo, the shapes and character from each stick is unique. So on your next walk get your son or daughter involved and make it a project you complete with them from beginning to end. Its something they will remember, and will probably use for years to come.

Welcome Samantha Kim Morris, our new Director of Asian Culture

We are excited to welcome Samantha Kim Morris as our new Director of Asian Culture.

Samantha is currently married, with a two year old son named, Josiah, and is expecting her second child. Samantha was born in South Korea and immigrated to the United States when she was 3 1/2 years old. She grew up in Chicago and Palatine, IL. She attended Judson University in Elgin, where she met her husband, Curtis. She graduated with a Bachelors degree in Mathematics and Science.

Samantha was very involved in Judson's multicultural club, United Cultures of Judson, UCJ. She still keeps in touch with many of her international friends and hangs out with them now at their children's birthday parties. She coordinated a trip to Chicago's Koreatown with her socialology class her senior year. She was the president of the Circle K Club, the college version of Kiwanis and volunteered in many projects like Make a Difference Day and building a school playground in Elgin, to name a few.

Samantha started her non-for-profit career as an AmeriCorp member for the American Red Cross of Chicago and worked her way up to being the Director of Youth Services for the Red Cross of Silicon Valley in San Jose, California. She worked with the American Red Cross for 5 years and switched gears. She has been working with Junior Achievement for the past 5 1/2 years, starting as an Education Manager at JA of Silicon Valley and transferred back to Chicago to work as the Senior Operations Manager for JA of Chicago.

Samantha enjoys sharing her Korean culture to others, as well as getting to know many other cultures. She had several friends, growing up, who were Korean adoptees and has a special place in her heart to help adoptees and their families. Samantha is very active in her church, Prayer Garden Ministries in Evanston, as the Children's Ministry Teacher. Some of her hobbies are dancing, listening to music, playing the piano and hanging out with family and friends.

Please check out the web site in the next few months as Samantha builds the "Cultural Information" section. If you have questions about Asian culture or ideas about what would be helpful information on the web site, please contact her at samanthakimmorris@gmail.com.

Army Jackets

Want a good army jacket check out these. These are all from the same person, just listed on different sites. I've seen these jackets and they are in excellent shape, some are like new.

http://toronto.craigslist.ca/tor/clo/582406145.html

http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-clothing-Canadian-Army-Combat-Jacket-3-Season-W0QQAdIdZ38995110

Maps for your GPS

These maps are excellent for your GPS. Especially for a Garmin 60CSX. Check them out at http://www.toporider.com/topogpsONT.html They also carry maps for other regions and specified uses.

A Suggestion for Provincial Government

I just had a thought.....lol; thinking outside the box again, forgive me. Let's look at the recent over inflated price of fuel in Ontario. Ok, the price of 1 litre of gas was $1.03 a day ago, today $1.09. We all know that when a holiday weekend approaches gas takes a jump up to $0.12 cents a litre, and most of the time is not a reflection of world prices, supply & demand or any other factual excuse. Who pays it every day; we do. Where does it go?......I'm not sure; waiting lines still at hospitals, crumbling infrastructure, cuts to transfer payments to municipalities, Ok to my point; ok let's take $.01 cent from every over inflated litre of gas sold in Ontario.........now let's take that $.01 cent from the Provincial windfall collected daily. Now let's just collect 1 years worth and put it into an account. What is your estimate of how much money would be sitting in that account? I'm fairly confident it would scare the crap out of all of us. Now imagine if that money was utilized to manage our Natural Resources............It's all about priorities.........I'm just not sure what those pritorities are......are you?

Compass or GPS???

To be honest no outdoors person should be without..."Both!" Why? Well the first time you drop your GPS in the water, or on a rock, batteries go dead, or it has an electronic melt down.........need I say more? A compass could be your lifeline; not only that but both can be utilized for different purposes. Your compass can serve as a quick reference for direction, used to start a fire........if equiped with a magnifying glass, and used for general navigation. If you're going on an extended trip over long distances for a week or two, it will also cut down on how many batteries you'll need to take along. Don't get me wrong; GPS units with topo's and some of the other features they offer are absolutely awesome. However I would strongly suggest that you not only purchase a good compass, but also become very good at navigating with it. Most importantly remember this..."Always trust what your compass is telling you" A very good lesson that may not seem like good advice is just once get "Lost" under conditions where you have someone more experienced to get you through sorting out your solution. You'll always remember how to sort things out. Good luck and happy navigating! I have provided the models I utilize in the photos; my compass I've owned for 30 years, the GPS for one, and I utilize them both.

Calling Moose

My first experience at actually even attempting calling moose happened while I was living in Northwestern British Columbia. One of my fellow Forestry officers had observed a large bull moose up on a cut block in mid to late July. Our hunting trip took place September 20th; and was just one of those last minute ideas....hey lets go wack a moose tomorrow.ok, be at your place at 6:00 a.m. Well he arrived at 8:00, we got up to the cut block at about 9:00 a.m. parked the truck walked approximately 1 mile on an old skid trail and looked around observing large tracks lots of sign but old. I decided to stand up on a log and call, I had read and listened to calls so I attempted to mimic that sound. Much to my amazement he answered. This bull was over 2 kilometres away but I could clearly here his low gutteral grunt. I said to my partner do you think he'll cross that lake? No, we'll have to go around the other side. Well I kept calling the bull kept answering and you could tell he was getting closer to the far side of the lake. So I said well lets just walk back to the truck and I'll call him right to the truck. 45 minutes later he was standing broadside to me at 30 feet, 54 inch rack.....two shots with a 338 and he was down. So we turned the truck around, slid the plywood out to make a ramp, hooked a winch to his horns and winched him up into the box. Hunt complete, hunt successful and my partner shaking his head in absolute disbelief. So don't worry about sounding stupid it works, and its not hard to do. Remember though that moose lock into your position from your first call and can locate you like they have an onboard GPS unit in their head. Give it time as sometimes smaller bulls will come in silent worried they are going to get their butts kicked by the big boy. Good luck give it a try, but also be careful, I have had numerous bulls charge me. The moose in the photo is not the one I shot, but I thought I should include a photo.