Hunting

This change in the weather from summer to fall brings to mind so many great memories. Hunting trips I’ve taken with friends and family, the birth of my first grandchild and my favorite daughter’s birthday.

 When I was younger I did a lot of coon hunting with my friend, Kyle.

 

Coons are nocturnal so hunting is done at night. We would load our dogs in the back of the truck in their box and take off to the woods. On this particular trip, we got stuck. We let the dogs out while we tried to get the truck out of the mud. While we were working to get the truck out, the dogs took off to the woods. We hollered for the dogs to come back but they had a coon treed and weren’t leaving. We ran after ‘em but by the time we got there, the coon had jumped to another tree and the dogs took off after it. We chased ‘em but they crossed the bayou and we couldn’t follow ‘em. We stood there hollering for ‘em to come back but they ignored us and stayed after the coon. We were cold, tired and frustrated so we went back to the truck. We tried again to get the truck out but it was buried too deep. This was before cell phones so we couldn’t call anybody and the nearest farm was a couple of miles away. The only thing to do was wait ‘til morning and walk to the farm. It was really cold so we crawled into the dog box to get out of wind. I guess we fell asleep because the dogs woke us up trying to get back into the box. They were wet, we’re trying to push them out so we can get out and they’re pushing us trying to get in! By the time we got out of their box and got them in, we were soaking wet and freezing. The only thing left to do was start walking.

We made it to the farm about daylight. As luck would have it, the farmer didn’t have a tractor we could use to pull the truck out. Also, he and his wife were Polish and spoke very little English. The communication between us resorted to charades which, as it turns out, I’m not good at. She finally grabs four five gallon buckets, gives them to us and motions for us to follow her. She took us to the train tracks and in broken English, with lots of hand gestures, told us to fill the buckets with rocks then pour the rocks in the tire ruts to get the truck out. Do you have any idea how hard it is to carry two five gallon buckets full of rocks a mile through rough terrain? By the time we got to the truck, the buckets were half empty. We had to make five trips to the railroad tracks to get enough rocks to get that truck out. I swear my arms had been stretched two feet and were dragging the ground. 

We’ve retold this story through the years to our kids and the only thing anyone remembers is the night Kyle and I slept together in the dog box.

Wagon Wheels

Hunter’s wife, Leah, is a cowgirl.  She owns a couple of horses and enjoys barrel racing with her best friend. 

 

For years, she and her family have attended the Chuck Wagon Races http://www.chuckwagonraces.com/. This is an annual event that features a national chuck wagon race along with a weekend of food, fun and music. It’s a family tradition that she looks forward to every year.

Hunter wasn’t able to attend this year. He’s a full time fire fighter and works most week-ends. However he was inspired to craft a wagon wheel chandelier.  He started by selecting a couple boards about 12” wide and laying them side by side. He chose rough cut oak planks and made sure the wood was completely dried out to prevent cracks and splitting. Using a pencil, he drew a circle on the boards and cut it out using a band saw. Next he fabricated metal shims to connect each section of the circle. When the circle was complete the connections were clamped and glued together until set.

 

Now for the hub. The first one we made was wood and metal but it didn’t give him the look he wanted so he fabricated a metal one using the plasma torch. Once that was completed we were able to determine the spoke length. He used smaller blocks of wood and turned them down with the wood lathe.

 

One of the more delicate parts is getting the size of the ends to match the holes drilled into the wagon wheel. This is time consuming and requires a lot of patience. But it’s so rewarding to be able to create something you’ve only seen in your mind.

 

The spokes are clamped and glued in place until set. At this point, Hunter fabricated a metal band and attached it to the outside of the wooden wheel.  

 

 

His wagon wheel is complete but the chandelier is not. He still has to decide the lighting design. And while he’s deciding, I think I need to make my own wagon wheel but as an end table.