Saturday, September 27, 2008

Darling Companion's Bunny Buddy

After mowing one day, I proceeded to sweep the sidewalk of the grass and other accumulated detritus when I heard this very rapid scraping sound. Then it stopped. So I continued sweeping, and it started again. Now, there ain’t much of anything out in this part of the country, and even less that makes a noise like that, so I investigated a bit further fearing that it was something serpentine and vocal that could potentially cause my demise.

Well, I finally found it. It was a baby jack rabbit hiding in the downspout of our gutters. Every time I made a noise, he would scramble madly up his new high-tech rabbit hole only to discover that he had made no progress on the slippery, and somewhat radically inclined, surface.

Darling Companion took the enclosed photograph of his little rabbit butt sticking out of the drain. She also worried incessantly about his safety. I made him a little shelter out of a toad house, originally purchased for our two-timing toads, and he took refuge in it after getting washed out of the downspout during that evening’s downpour. You just never know what you are going to see in the country.

Chinks






















Since my aspiration to do leatherwork now has an outlet, and I now have the time and energy to do it, I decided to make myself a set of chinks.

Now, before any of you blue-nosed, left-wing, bleeding-heart Liberals call the Politically Correct Police to kick down my door and whip me with a chain for using an improper racial epithet, these have nothing to do with Asians, and it is probable that no Asian has ever worn a pair. For the uninitiated, chaps are for use when mounted, and chinks are for use in ground work, such as working livestock and making fence.
And, you had better have to wear them, because they are hot!

Knife Sheath

As some of you know, I am an amateur leather-worker, and one day, at church of all places, a friend asked me to make a knife sheath. He is a bear hunter and wanted to carry this knife on his leg as a “back-up.” Now, I don’t know much about hunting, and even less about bear hunting, but I figure if I am going to defend myself against a bear that I have just pissed off with a couple of shots from a high-powered bear rifle, I would want something a bit more substantial than a knife, and a .50 Smith and Wesson Magnum jumps to mind immediately.

But, what do I know, so I told him to bring me the knife and I would make a scabbard for it. Well, he did, and my jaw dropped when I saw it. The blade was 13½ inches long and had a bone and brass handle. As near as I could figure, it weighed about 2 pounds. I can’t imagine dragging myself, a large-bore rifle and ammunition and that heavy knife strapped to my lower leg. I did build the scabbard for him and it turned out rather nicely.


The strap is to secure it to the lower leg, but I made it so it could be carried on a belt in case that need arose, and I suspect that after the first time he walks several miles through the dense forest with that thing strapped to his leg, it will make the return trip attached to his belt.

Incidentally, I didn’t make the money. The Government does that. I just included it to indicate scale.