hey there rocknerds!

so i found some new stone. it’s tough as nails raw, and pretty chalky but it definately has some potential for heat treatment. check it out!

the first piece i found.. i looked and i said…   “no way!”  it was a part of a stone circle around a fire pit, and a corner had chipped off revealing a smooth gray and red surface.

it appears to have been brought in from somewhere while they were making the road. there also are different varieties, ranging from rusty chalk like banded stone, to relatively homogenious grey, with brown spots, too… well you’ll see as soon as you scroll down!

around the fire pits you can see that the brown speckles or bands, turn red and pink from the accidental heat treatment

here’s the very first piece.

dont worry they get better

and finally…   look at it all!!!!

ill keep you updated on this stone when i know more about its source..  there s obviously a huge quarry somewhere around there…  and also when i know how workable the stone is after it’s been heat treated.

talk to you soon

and keep chippin!

theteenagecaveman

update**

i made a point out of the first piece…   oh man that’s hard on the wrists! just what i need another ridiculously tough rock to wear out my wrists on. hopefully i can figure out a temperature to heat treat it.

On Sunday I woke up at 8:00 and I started cleaning my coop. that was 2 hours well spent I vacuumed out the whole place because I found a couple mouse terds..    I have no idea how they got in there but the buggers did.  The next time I’m up there I’ll be setting up some traps.   I left my coop and had some breakfast, packed a sandwich and went on a walk out to the same place I had gone the day before, this time with Maully.

foggy morning

here's how much the river went up since yesterday

We made it to my little rock wall and I loaded up another backpack. Another thing I did was I filled a jam jar with clay accumulating at the foot of the hill. Hopefully it will make some good pottery clay.

at the rock/slime wall

I then headed up the steep snowy bank behind and to the side of the white rocks. Finally I took Maully off of her leash to go and run in the wild.

the view from up top

I was following a deer trail and then I caught a glimpse of this giant orange block of jasper. Oh man I was so excited!! I scrambled up to it and the thing probably weighed 400 pounds.

the huge chunk of jasper

closer

I was just getting a big rock to start whacking some spalls off when I heard a low growling coming from behind me. Uh-oh….        I slowly turned around and there I saw two dogs. They were mangy domestic dogs. I once encountered one of them while walking before.    They then started barking whenever I started moving. Slowly I the one on the left started creeping up the hill towards me, while the other one kept barking. When I would turn and look at the one that was stalking up the hill it would stop and pretend to look away. I called Maully to sit beside me so that she could scare off the other dogs if it came to it. After about 3 or 4 minutes I heard a person come out of their house. Then the voice said “HEY SHUT UP! COME ‘ERE!!” the dogs didn’t move.  They kept barking.    After a little while I said “HELLO THERE! IS THIS YOUR PROPERTY?”

” Well.  YEAH” he said back

“OH I’M JUST GOING FOR A WALK…”

“THROUGH THAT SHIT??”

“YEAH I’M FOLLOWING A DEER TRAIL.”

“OH OKAY DON’T WORRY THEY WON’T BITE”

He then called again and one of the dogs slowly walked back down to the house before he slammed his truck door and drove away.   The one that was stalking me unfortunately wasn’t the one that ran back down. I decided not to hit the boulder of knappable rock and save my skin.    Not that the dog would have killed me but I think the guy who was yelling at me could have been bad.

that mangy dog's footprint

As I was walking away the little stealthy dog followed my trail for a good 15 minutes until I finally went down and crossed a road. I’m just glad I had Maully on that little trip. Once I got home I warmed my toes and packed up all of my stuff into the truck.

just passing through hope on the way back

flooded farm

a chiliwack sunset

my last bit of light

That was the end of my prehistoric weekend. I didn’t get much done but I did get more than I thought I would, and a few pretty pictures.

Thanks for reading!

The teenage caveman

Well last night I downloaded an alarm clock for my computer to wake me up but it didn’t work so I woke up at 9:30. Guh…  I got up and lit a fire in the wood stove and ate some breakfast. After I brushed my teeth and walked around the yard for a while I decided to head out to take some photos of the river and Allison flats. Here’s what I came up with:

the tulameen is melting!

AHA! deer sign

ice on the river

gotta look for rocks!!

mini ice flow

whispers of birdies once past

the brown bridge

yes i found a rock!!

rocks!!

amazing white stone right out of the ground!!

rainbow water stream. it was awesome, from different angles it would go throught the hole spectrum.. really something

green slime!

red slime!!

peek-a-boo!

looking from the side of the old bridge towards the ice rink

ice jam

personal icebergs

princeton BC

another nice deer track in the middle of the city

and a temperature reading

Later on I went out driving with my dad and we got some fishing in down old Hedley road. I fell through the ice and then my dad really fell through. I cut down a nice maple stave and then it was time to head home.

Right now I’m sitting at the fire and warming my legs. What a fun day so far I got three of the things I wanted to do done! Now I’m heading out to the wild to build myself a snow shelter. If I don’t come back you’ll know that a cougar ate me.

 

 

Well I wasn’t eaten and I didn’t get trapped in the dark snowy wilderness. I made it out alive but I have to say I did a very poor job of “surviving”. I think I probably would have froze to death had I not been 15 minutes away from the road. While I was out I found a well-used deer trail and a few cat tracks. I don’t know if they were small cougar tracks or bobcat tracks. It was very peaceful out there with the soft rain patting on the trees. My footsteps were deafening while at the same time almost muffled.  I followed the narrow track until I ran into a trail that a couple of people had walked earlier on, at some point after the last snow fall. At one point underneath a huge spruce, there were pitch stalactites.

bobcat track

clay bank

either a sap sucker or a shotgun

sap-lactites

more spruce sap

 

I walked the track and then went to            1111111111111111111111

---

             v SSAQZS                        ha-ha Maully sat her head on my keyboard.   Anyways I walked the trail and then saw an opening in the creek ice so I thought I’d look for some knappables.  Here’s what I came up with:

Later I found this guy stuck in the ground underneath an over hanging tree in the riverbank. When I hit it with my rock hammer it threw a shower of sparks so I successfully found a sparking stone, which would be a potential life saver.

This is around the time where I fell into the creek the first time. My left foot was soaked up to my calf so I took my boot off, rang out my sock and put it all back on again. It wasn’t long before my foot was warm again but I knew that it was only temporary warmth.

As I was walking, I was keeping an eye out for potential bow trees and shrubs. Around half way through my walk I found this bad boy, a beautiful bundle of maple sticks and this one straight branch just begging to be turned into a bow. I chopped ‘er down and I had a walking stick for the rest of my trip. I walked along my little valley until it got a little dark, and then I headed up one side to find a place to make a snow shelter. The first thing I did was to build up the walls of my snow fort and to dig out a patch for a floor. I made the end bit all covered up but the light was dying. After getting about a quarter of the way done I had to stop and head home. If I am to survive in the snowy woods ill need to get an earlier start and find a more efficient way of making a shelter. So In short my foot was wet and I had half a shelter. I would have been rained on and I would have had a very cold night but I probably wouldn’t have frozen to death, purely do to the fact that now in the pitch black it is still 3 above.

On the walk back I was racing for daylight, the little valley that I had walked in from was now shrouded in darkness. It was still relatively light out on the ridge that I was walking on and I was trying to get home as fast as I could. I crossed through a thicket of underbrush with my bulky pack and into a clearing. I walked past a little shrub and made it about 7 or 8 steps past when I heard a whooping sound that was as loud as a helicopter from right behind my back. I spun around as fast as I could, thinking it was some fierce animal but found nothing. The shrub I had passed was rocking up and down as if something swooped in and pushed it down without leaving any tracks in the snow. I had no idea what it was so naturally assumed a witch or a ghost did it. It was most likely a ruffed grouse perching in the shrub that I scared up, but I think I would have seen it.  Needless to say I sped up considerably after that and was down on the final stretch of creek before I knew it. I just had to cross the creek one last time. “Not a problem!” I thought to my self. I took one step heard a faint pooping sound and then I was in the creek with both feet. Soaked up to my knees on both sides. Buuuurrr!! Pure snow melted frozen over creek water. Man that was a surprise. After I leaped up and across the creek I scrambled up the steep muddy slope and onto the safe road. “Ah made it out alive.”

On the walk home there were a couple deer out nibbling on the lilacs in someone’s front yard. The yearling was quite curious about me but the mother seemed weary.

I was greeted at home with a delicious feast of chicken, Brussels sprouts, bacon, carrots and brown rice.  Nothing like eating a massive amount of food after trudging through deep snow for hours

Right now I’m warming my toes by the fire with a full belly and a big smile on my face. I’m going to go get a brownie!

Friday January 14^th 2011

I woke up early today, around 8 o’clock. I wiped the sleep out of my eyes, brushed my teeth and started to pack with a banana in my hand. The first thing I needed to do was to empty out my knapsack of rocks, dirt and garbage. So I filled my garbage can half full of the bag debris and started to gather up all of my things for the upcoming weekend. I decided to take everything that I would need to live in the woods except for an axe because I don’t have one in the city. This includes: my boppers a couple pieces of obsidian, some jasper, a jar, my artificial sinew, my trusty blue tarp, a pocket knife and of course 3 pair of extra socks.

here it is all splayed out for you to see

extra socks, a jar, artificial sinew and my notebook with a pen and pencil

my leather handpad(bottom), my pocket knife, my copper bopper, a file/rasp, snare wire, jasper and some obsidian

some leather, my large copper bopper (not necessairy) another bopper, my multi purpose ishi-stick, abrader and my trusty blue tarp

and finally wrapped up in my blue tarp is "How to survive in the woods" a great litte pocket sized book that is a timeless classic.

Hopefully I can get two full days of exploring out in the woods this weekend. So with my pack all put together and having eaten breakfast I decided to walk around aimlessly looking for something to do. I found that the garbage was full so I took that out…   and then I walked Maully down to the park and ran around with her for a while. I then decided to give my dad a call to see what he was up to. He was down at the studio working on some art and said that he would head home soon.   At this point it was about 11:10 and we were probably not going to get to Princeton until well after dark. Oooh well when I have my license I can get up and go however early I want! Until then I guess I have to wait. When my dad came home it was 11:30 and if we were going to get to Princeton while it was light we would really need to leave soon.

I went into my room and thought about all of the things I wanted to do this weekend. This is what I came up with:

I want to collect some pine pitch to make glue

I want to harvest some good bow staves

I want to go fishing

And I wouldn’t mind walking the Tulameen and Similikameen for some more rocks

If it’s still all snowy then I wouldn’t be able to find anything anyways. I think the weather is supposed to be warm and rainy so who knows what it will be like.

Jane got out of bed as I was talking with my dad and told us that highway one was closed due to a landslide. Aarrrrgh! Stupid mass wasting! The time they thought they would finish at was 12 noon and it was 11:35-ish then. We thought we probably wouldn’t leave until 12 anyways.

here’s the article:

The Trans-Canada Highway has reopened in the eastern Fraser Valley after a landslide closed it earlier Friday. The thoroughfare had been closed at the junction with Highway 9 due to debris on the road that had tumbled down the mountainside.Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/01/14/bc-highway-one-closed.html#ixzz1BB7djqJb

 

So on that note I left for my room and tied three flies. Hopefully I’ll be able to hook a couple white fish this weekend. I haven’t really used my new fly rod and I’m itching to try it out on my familiar river. There are a couple good pools that I want to try and fish, one up by the old trestle on the Similikameen and another behind the A&W. those are also prime knapping stone hunting rounds but again I don’t know how the river is looking.

Here are a few pictures of the flies that I tied and how I make them. I think I’ll be putting up some tutorials on how to tie some of the patterns that I have written. Maybe that will be the next page that I put up on here.

how to tie a chironomid

a size 18 hopper hook with a metal bead head

next is to tie in some black chord

tie in a silver rib

next i wrap the black nylon to form the body

wrapping the silver rib up the body of the fly

whip finish to make the bead and the body the same width.

one last coat of head-cement over the whole fly

a nice little fly, should be able to catch some fishies

tie the thread onto the hook

tie in about 15 squirrel fibers

tie in and wrap two or three peacock fibers for a body

tie in and wrap your red hen hackle and make a head with a whip finish

white fish fly

this one i was pressed for time so i didnt take pictures of the making only the end product

this is the only fly patter i have ever tied (or fished for that matter) that brought me home a white fish

Here’s the flies i’ll be bringing to princeton:

and my disorderly fly box that i made

I tied flies until the last minute and got three done in about 20 minutes. We hit the road at 1:15 and the highway was still closed through hope.

a typical vancouver winter day

MAULLY!!

what a place for a caveman... :c

nothing primitive here..

and theyre bound to go higher...

First stop! The union hall! Seeing as nothing eventful happened there ill skip to the next stop TIM HORTONS! Mmmmm    I got a bowl of chilly, a trip chocolate chip cookie and a 7up what a nutritious lunch!

timmy ho's chilly lunch

We then stopped off at KMS tools and got some one-shot sign paint.  I looked around for some wood/bow working tools but they didn’t even have a planer much less the spokeshave that I needed.

After that it was time to wind our way through the flooded suburbs in order to avoid the traffic of an up-turned semi truck at the Vedder. At one stretch of the road the houses didn’t even have ditches they were so full. The side of the road looked like it was the same piece of land as their front lawn. A hazelnut orchard looked like the trees were all growing out of a huge mirror and if it froze you would be able to skate through the trees without any difficulty. These are the risks you take by living in a flood plane I suppose.

the grass around here takes any chance it can get to turn green again

We evaded the truck traffic and by the time we got back onto highway 1 the landslide had been cleared. Not bad timing it was about 3:30 when we heard the news.

suburban sunset

Not much happened in the time between getting back on the highway and getting to Princeton though. More flooded farms, gushing waterfalls. There were waterfalls where I have never seen them before. It’s quite the snow melt going on right now.

Manning park was under a cloud cover that hung half way down the mountains, hiding their peaks.

shroud of cloud

When we got to Princeton it was dark out and about a foot and a half of snow on the ground

here's the snow in the yard

icicles

At 8:30 we all went on a walk with maully in the snow. The stars were so bright and the moon was out in its full glory. The moon and the snow made it almost as bright as day time.the river was almost completely frozen over so I cant go out rock hounding..i thinki ill make a  snow shelter and search for bow materials this weekend. We ended off the night with a fresh batch of brownies.  MMM   deeelicious!!!  Thanks Jenne-fire pancake!

This story takes place on the weekend of december 11th and 12th.  I’m heading up to princeton tomorrow for some primitive adventures and i plan on taking photos of anything interesting. i want to possibly tap a white poplar to get some sap but it might still be too early. i’d also like to harvest a few more staves seeing as i’m running low. I’ve learned the hard way that black poplar is NOT a good bow wood, but I’m not going to give up. I plan on backing a couple bows with fiber glass to make them REALLY strong.   Not so primitive but ‘eh what can ya do?

It was the last weekend of the first term. I had two more finals to write, one on the following tuesday and the last one on thursday. One weekend to study my tail off to get a good mark. So on friday we packed up for an early start the next day. PRINCETON HERE WE COME!!

We got up the next day at 12 noon….     left it was about 1:30? We hit snow

at around the hope slide and all the trees looked like huge delicious marshmallows!

marshmallow trees

snowy blurry trees

At the summit we let maully out to play in the snow, and by play i mean we throw snowballs and she runs around trying to find them as they sink a foot into the snow.   She did pull one out once surprisingly but spat it out shortly after to chase another flying snowball.

Maully leaping throught the air for a flying snowball

she DIVES face first into the snow in a futile attempt to get the snowball

and the snow covered mutt emerges!

OOOOOOOOOOOOH a snow ball!!!

We got to princeton as the sun was setting.  OOOH well…  one day gone…    FAR better than not going at all!

My plans for this weekend was to make a pair of snowshoes out of branches and string and to cut some wood to practice making bows out of. At around 7 o’clock the snow started to really come down, and I was anxious to get some materials and build my snowshoes. We went for a walk with maully down to the river and I collected what I needed. We came back home after getting thoroughly cold and snowed on and I had a big bundle of sticks to work on. All I had as far as string went was was a little bit of white rope and some thick steel wire. I worked on that stupid pair of snowshoes until about 12:30 in the morning and they still weren’t finished one was done but the other was just barely started. I decided to call it a night and get up early the next morning to finish them.

day two

I finished my snow shoes in the morning and then used them to go and walk over to my neighbour’s house. we talked for a good huor and then i set off with my dad to go cut down a bow tree..   we scouted and scouted and the only straight tree that i could find was a nice big black poplar. If nothing else it would be excellent practice wood for tillering even if the wood is not the best bow wood in the world. So i cut down this big tree and cut it in half. I thanked the river and the tree for me taking it’s life and i appologized as well. I left a small amount of tobaco for compensatino for the loss of the tree and went on my way.

That was pretty much my whole day though I spent the rest of it studying for my upcomming tests and eating a delicious pancake dinner cooked by Jenefire-Pancake. Not having a blog at the time however  wasn’t taking many photos and this day I didn’t take a single one.

Day thee

I woke up at the crack of 10:30 the next day and didnt feel like moving. My heater in my coop quit in the middle of the night so i woke up freezing. When I did finally get out from under my moderately warmer covers and leave my coop i found the sun shining and it was nice and warm outside. It was probably around 3 or 4 degrees celcius above!

a nice winter morning

poor old summer car

I went into the house to light a fire but jennefire pancake told me not to…    So I had a bowl of cereal and then left to split my logs into staves. i didnt have enough time to go on a walk on monday morning but that’s probably my fault in that i didn’t get up earlier.

heres the ends of the staves sticking out of the truck

heres one of my best finds from princeton.

and the long awaited SNOWSHOES!

here's the bottom

there was however one last thing we needed to pick up on the way back..   our christmas tree!!

winter sun

first bule sky in a whole weekend!

snowy parking lot

excelent bow staves but not the best chrimas tree

we ended up getting one at a lot on the way home. pine trees just dont make for the best christmas trees

the drive home was fine and we had the sun at our back window well throughout manning. i fell asleep after it got dark and woke up as we were crossing the port-man bridge. It  wasn’t a particularly eventful weekend but i got some things done that i had wanted to do for quite a while, and I got to go be with one of my best friends ever: nature. im looking forward to tomorrow and this promising weekend.

until next time…

the teenagecaveman aka. jebbedia-pancake!