Stir Fry

This may seem as if it would be a better post for Greenman Cooking. But despite the title, it's not really about cooking, as you'll see...

We all go through changes in our lives for what we do for recreation.

Activities that we are passionate about today may get put back into the closet as our lives progress and change.

For example, I used to do a lot of fishing. When I was in high school I worked in a fishing tackle and bait store on the Huntington Beach, CA pier. I spent a lot of hours out on that pier fishing with friends and also fished at other local spots as opportunities presented themselves. I even began wrapping my own fishing rods, an activity that I kept up on for many years.

Pictured are a stand-up rod for ocean fishing and a fly rod for lakes and streams. I made both of these.

Back when I was married my wife and I used to head down to a quiet spot in Newport Harbor to fish on some evenings. Along the Balboa Peninsula there are some little beaches that are quiet and offer an opportunity for a relaxing evening along with the chance to catch some really nice fish.
I’ve caught some beautiful spotfin croaker in the particular spot we went to and have just generally enjoyed the time spent there.

We decided one day that we’d go down to the spot for an evening’s worth of fishing so I called a local tackle shop to see if they had a particular live bait that I liked to use. They did so we drove down to pick up a container of live ghost shrimp.

Arriving at the tackle shop we walked in just after two women and a man. They were probably in their early twenties and were gathering firewood and snacks for an evening at the beach. I told the fellow behind the counter that I’d called about the ghost shrimp and he got a carton of them out of the refrigerator for me.
I opened up the container to see the size of the shrimp and make sure that they were all alive and in good condition. One of the young women happened to be standing nearby and she curiously peered into the carton to see what was in it. Upon seeing them she asked, “What are those?”
“These are ghost shrimp,” I said.
“What do you use them for?”
Now that was a dangerous question to ask me but I still don’t know what made me give her the reply I did:
“Stir fry.”

Upon her exclamation of surprise I proceeded to explain that you can’t find these shrimp in the regular grocery store, you needed to get them from a reputable tackle shop like this one. That was the only way you’d be assured that they were fresh and tasty.

At this point I glanced up at the fellow behind the counter and saw that he was trying to eat his fist to keep from laughing uncontrollably.

The young woman had now taken the carton of shrimp from my hand and was poking them with her finger while the other woman looked on. I told her to be careful as the shrimp do have pincers that are large enough to give a little surprise.

The guy eating his fist had finally recovered enough to ask her to give me back the shrimp so I could buy them and get back to making dinner. She did so and he rang up my sale.

Walking across the parking lot to my truck my wife said, “You know, you can go to hell for things like that."

Possibly, but it’ll sure be a fun ride along the way.

Happy stories!

Brave - Youth Archery Tournament

If you follow archery news you probably know by now that the movies Hunger Games and Brave have increased interest in archery a hundredfold. Many clubs have seen a huge increase in attendance at their introductory classes. Some clubs have even had to turn people away due to their classes being filled to capacity.

The Pasadena Roving Archers has teamed up with Disney/Pixar to hold a Brave themed archery tournament for youths. This event will be held on June 10 at Central Park in Pasadena, CA. The flyer below gives more details.

The PaleoPlanet gang has been invited by the club to attend and give demonstrations on making things archery. We'll be working on bows, arrows, bowstrings, and anything else we can think of that will be appropriate and fun to watch.

If you're in the area by all means stop by to see the fun and say, "Hi."

Chamberlin Ranch Review

The long awaited Chamberlin Ranch shoot has come and gone.
With a couple of weeks passed I can finally take a few minutes to sit back and talk about it.

This shoot is held on a large private ranch just a couple miles outside Los Olivos, CA.
There are no facilities on the ranch other than a couple water spigots and the road into the area used for the shoot is graded dirt.
Everything works fine... until something unplanned for happens.

We pulled up to the gate into the ranch on Wednesday afternoon. I'd hoped to get there Tuesday but getting everything together took a day longer than I expected.
The little section of dirt between the paved road and the iron gate was extremely muddy. That's when I first began thinking that this could be interesting.
As I opened up the gate a fellow wandered over from a tractor parked inside the gate and asked me if I had 4wd on my truck or 2wd. When I allowed that I had two wheel drive he said, "well, you're not going to make it. Go as far as you can and when you get stuck I'll hook up the tractor and pull you the rest of the way."

I got all of ten feet inside the gate before I was spinning the wheels.
He backed up and we hooked up for the ride.

Once at the top of the hill he unhooked us and went back to the gate to await the next arrival, leaving us to slip and slide down the road into the little valley where the shoot is held. We scooted right past the small practice course alongside the road and two groups of archers stopped to watch and wave encourgement. I hollered out the window to one group and asked if anyone remembers an "E" ticket?

The rest of the day went about as normal, we found the spot we wanted to set up in and got the truck unloaded. Gary and Diane came over to greet us. They'd gotten in on Tuesday before the rain and hadn't had any issue with their motorhome on the road in.

Thursday and Friday had some rather poor weather with plenty of rain, some wind, and more than a little thunder and lightening. I saw a couple canopies get loose and at least one motorhome awning was flipped over the top of the rig. I was pretty glad that we'd lined out our canopies well and staked the tent tightly.

As had been predicted, Saturday and Sunday had great weather. The road quickly began to dry out and was completely useable by the time we left Sunday afternoon.

The road condition was very unfortunate. The tractor wasn't available the whole time and a number of people ended up camping at the front gate so they could walk into the shoot area. A few lucky folks were able to have their gear ferried in by 4wd pickup and just parked their cars at the gate.

Most unfortunate were the people who decided the conditions weren't right for them and turned around to go home. I could hardly blame them, camping at the road and then walking in wasn't what most folks were prepared to do... and the rain Friday really was pretty heavy at times, not everyone is prepared to spend time in weather like that.

The folks who run the shoot have said that they will not be caught unprepared like that again and the road will be well graveled to ward off any mud issues next year.

It was a good shoot for me. I sold some arrows, sold out (again!) on beef jerky, and got some great compliments on my work. We got wet, we dried out, we slept poorly, and then slept some more.

I didn't get to shoot any of the courses but I got to meet and speak with a number of great folks so that made up for the personal lack of archery.

I can hardly wait for next year!

The next shoot we have coming up is the Conejo Valley Archers 21st Annual Pacific Coast Traditional Challenge.

This is a very fun shoot and is much closer to home for most of us. I'll be getting there Friday afternoon to set up the booth and establish camp at the adjacent county park.

I'll be a great weekend!

Happy Archery!

Chamberlin Ranch Traditional Rendezvous, April 14-15, 2012

Lots of archery clubs hold 3D shoots throughout the year. Most of the shoots are mixed, with traditional archers participating amongst compound archers. In itself, there is certainly nothing wrong with that. I'm not one of those guys who says cables and pulleys make it an arrow launching device rather than an actual bow. But still, sometimes it's fun to do a shoot with just our own folks wandering around.

The shot set ups on a traditional-only shoot are sometimes a little different with most of them being hunting scenarios appropriate for traditional equipment. You don't see a whole lot of 60yd shots. There also seems to be more shots with something in the way like a tree that you have to shoot around or a bush that you need to kneel to shoot under. Sometimes there is even a shot where you have to lie down on a scrap of carpet to shoot under a low slung rope. Conmpound archers don't seem to get into shots like these. They generally like their shots straight, clear, and long.

Many archery clubs hold a yearly traditional only shoot sometime during the year. In my mind, the best one of the year for the southern and central California area is the Chamberlin Ranch Traditional Rendezvous. And guess what? It's coming up soon!

This year the Chamberlin shoot will be held April 14, 15. Although, many of us get up there a few days earlier to squeeze as much fun as possible out of the event. I'll probably be getting there about Tuesday or Wednesday.

The shoot is held on a private ranch just north of the small town of Los Olivos, which is somewhat north of the beautiful little town of Solvang. The area is full of wineries, antique shops, and lots of wonderful little shops carrying who-knows-what. Some of the shoot participants have wives who look forward to the shoot just as much as their husbands so they can shop and wine taste while their hubby shoots arrows. Of course, some of those wives shoot arrows too and they look forward to the shoot for the same reasons as their husbands do.

Click the flyer for the larger version...

For more information about the shoot go to the Traditional Bowhunters of California website.

Happy archery!

Arrow Raffle Results

First of all, my most profound thanks to everyone who participated in this arrow raffle.
We had local SCA folks who knew Njall from back when he and Allesaundra lived here, there were SCA folk from out of state, and non-SCA participants both local and not so local.
In all, thirty three people entered into this raffle. Some people got one entry and some got more. A couple people made very generous contributions and then told me that they just wanted to help, they did not want to be part of the actual drawing.
Seeing as how a large portion of the event was for the Queen, I asked Her Majesty Cassandra if she would draw the ticket.
The winner of the arrow raffle was Lady Cecelia Medici, who was present to hear her name called out.

Again, thank you to everyone who participated in the raffle. My expectations were far outstripped.

Happy archery!

Time is Running Out!

Last chance to enter the arrow raffle!

The arrow raffle I am running will be ending soon. I will make the drawing on February 26^th at the SCA event, Queen’sChampion Archery & Thrown Weapons & Barony of The Angels’ Robin HoodTourney (Phew! That’s a mouthful!).

Take a look at this blog entry from a short while ago for full details:
Arrow Raffle for a Worthy Cause

At this date, if you want to enter the raffle but haven’t yet, the best way to enter is to see me at the aforementioned event. If that is not possible, I think PayPal would be the way to go so there are no unfortunate surprises with slow mail keeping checks or money orders from arriving in time.
Contact me at guy.taylor@sbcglobal.net for details.

Wouldn't you like a chance to have some arrows like these for yourself?

Happy archery!

Festival of the Rose Surprise

I got a surprise at last Saturday’s SCA event.
The event was called Festival of the Rose and Olde-Tymer’s Tourney.
The Festival of the Rose part is where artists in various mediums put forth their best works to celebrate the glory of the Queen and vie for the honor of representing Her as Queen’s Champion for Arts and Science.
I have never entered for Queen’s Champion for Arts and Science. You know from seeing my past work that I love to make beautiful things but I’ve rarely sought specific recognition for my work… other than to have people pay me for it!

I got to the event last Saturday with no intention of doing anything other than work on a bow and make a couple bowstrings for folks. I also had some arrows to deliver for Cristof and was pretty sure he’d be there.
Sitting there in the morning trying to figure out if I should start work on the bow or eat some peanuts I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t yet gotten pictures of Cristof’s new arrows.
I rolled out a straw mat we’d brought along and captured a few pictures before Cristof showed up to take his new arrows. He loved the way they looked and I thought that was the end of it.

Later, towards the end of the day, Fayme came to drag me into the room where all the entries for the Queen’s Champion Arts and Science were being displayed. I was just getting ready to break down our gear in an effort to stay ahead of some dark clouds threatening rain and didn’t want to go. She told me I had to go.
Imagine my surprise when I saw Cristof’s arrows on one of the tables! That rascal had entered them under my name into the Queen’s Champion contest. Next to the arrows was a small pile of various tokens placed there by people who liked what they saw. There was even a big chocolate rose from the Queen Herself.

I didn’t win but it was very gratifying to see the appreciation for my work, especially considering all the other beautiful work being shown.

Happy archery, and Long Live the Queen!