It's a Girl

If you've been following my blog, then you're aware of the horrendous death of my favorite rod and the unexpected replacement of it with a new 2wt rod building kit from my wife. Well, it's been over a week and I finally found the time to finish her. Excitement is already building, I'm taking half the day off tomorrow to fish one of my favorite streams in the park.She's beautiful! A black 6'6" 2 piece 2 wt with silver accents on all the wrappings. I must say, even I am impressed with my first attempt at rod building. Although I was building it on an incredibly narrow budget, it was much easier to do than I thought it would be. Frankly, if I had known how easy it was going to be, I would have been building my own rods for years, and I didn't even have some items a lot of rod builders would consider crucial: a wrapping stand, a rod rotator, etc. The only money spent was on the rod kit ($55) and another $10 on misc. stuff like razorblades and denatured alcohol.

So, how did I do it? The first step was to find the spline of the blanks, I'm not really sure I found it right because of the rod being so small. There was a definitive spline, whether my guides were in the right side is another question. After that, I put on the grip along with the reel seat so I could mark them for mounting later. After these were marked, I then put the blanks together so I could begin marking for my guide placement. Now it was time to actually glue the cork to the blank. MUCH care was taken during this stage to make sure the end of the blank touches the reel seat cap when it's all put together. The base of the rod has to be glued to the reel seat to anchor it.

Since the cork was on, it was time to put the guides on. Initially, I taped them into place so that I could begin wrapping them. So, how did all this work without a rod wrapper? I used a cardboard box with notches cut into it to hold both blanks. To get tension on the wrapping thread, which is critical, I put the thread into a cup, ran it through 2-3 books, and then into the box through a hole in the bottom. Wrapping the guides was pretty easy despite using a box to hold everything. If time and patience is used, tight wraps can be had. I re-did at least 2 or 3 of the bindings because they looked crappy. 2 or 3 more popped loose during other stages of the build. After all the wraps were done, I began putting in the accent wraps.

The accent wraps almost made me crazy! When I would get one done, it would become unraveled while I would be working on another one. I truly thought I was going to loose my mind! After what seemed hours of putting on the accents, I finally finished them. At this point, I had to take a break from the project for a few days to do some other things and save my sanity. Once I had a night that not much was going on, I settled down to do the rod finish.

Without a rod wrapper, this required me to sit around for a couple of hours turning the rod a quarter turn every 5 or so minutes. I put on two moderately thin coats and I found that to be a sufficient buildup for such a small rod. I left the blanks with a matte finish, so I had to be very careful about were the finish went and to wipe it off immediately with denatured alcohol when it got somewhere it wasn't supposed to be. After all the wraps had dried and cured, the last thing that was left was to attach the reel seat. I used some epoxy I had lying around to glue it on with since I opted to put it on last to make the blanks easier to manipulate, and only one packet of rod glue came with the kit that was used days ago.

Once the seat was seated, I attached the seat base by gluing it to the end of the blank to anchor the whole rod. This part of it anchoring is REALLY important, I know this because mine was off just a bit. I eventually had to rig something together with a washer to lock the two pieces together. Lucky for me, it worked. I was actually looking at a small error that almost ruined the whole project, literally at the last stage. I could have died. As stated before, I was lucky enough to have a washer lying around that fit my need perfectly, so all is well.So what would I have done differently? For my next rod, I'll be building a rod wrapper. Now that I understand the concept and have seen them for sale, I think I can build one fairly easily. I would have put more time and effort into the area that I wrote on the rod, about the only thing I'm unhappy with at this point. Kinda looks crappy in my opinion. The final test will be tomorrow when I can get her on the water. I have high hopes for her, she feels very similar to the other 2wt that cost me $125 for the stick. I like that kind of math, I saved something like $60. SWEET!

On an uplifting side note, I think I was able to repair my broken 2 wt. I had said before, some of the rod still fit together reasonably well, so I sanded down the rough edges and wrapped a new joint. It's possible that she might snap while I'm casting her or playing a nice fish, but I think she might get by because it's such a small rod. Plus I figured out a SAFE way to strap my 3ft rod tube to the bike. Super SWEET! So hopefully tomorrows update will have photos of the new rod starring next to some fat trout!

West Fork

I fished from the motorcycle for the first time today. It took about 20 minutes to figure out how to get everything attached to the bike, but after that, off I went. Because of riding the bike today, my trusty sidekick Adicus would not be joining me this afternoon. I enjoyed a pleasant ride up above Canton for my destination for the day. After getting to my pull off, it took a bit longer than usual to get everything together and lock the bike up. After all that was done, down the road I went.After walking about a half mile, I found a fairly convenient place to drop to the water, I tied on a EHC and a PT dropper and got down to business. Fishing started out slow and pretty much continued that way all afternoon. I only made contact with 4-5 fish all day, not good. The good news was that the two fish I actually landed were rather chuncky, unfortunately, I lost another whale of a fish today. My first fish was caught out of the middle of a fast deep run. The brownie was sitting in the feeding lane right where he was supposed to be and slurped my caddis off of the surface as it passed over him. He put up a valiant fight, but was laid out for a photo in the end.

I continued to move upstream, slipping around large boulders and climbing up frothy cascades, casting to any likely spots with no luck. I climbed over a large rock and saw a beautiful run hidden in deep shade with moss covering the bottom of the chute. I made a gentle cast to the tongue of the pool, as it swept past a rock and around a bend, a very large brownie sipped the caddis of the surface as pretty as can be. I tentatively set the hook and all hell broke loose. The surface turned into a explosion of whitewater and the tethered beast shot straight up in the air, throwing my caddis back at me as a sign of his victory. It was over that quick. Two seconds, maybe. Man that was a big fish. I reckon he might have gone for 17-18" and was fat.

I moved on, a bit saddened at missing yet another large fish, I came to a run that was almost a duplicate of the one I had just lost Mr. Big to. Excited. I got into a position to make a good cast and did just that. A nice brownie slashed at the caddis in a violent way and the fight was on. This guy had a lot of fight in him. He kept tearing through the pool, trying to get under a rock to break me off or to pop loose. To my satisfaction, neither of these options came to be and I was taking photos of this beast within a minute.

After chllin for a few a bit after releasing another beautiful brown trout, I moved on upstream, acutely aware of not having my fishin buddy with me today. I probably fish with Adicus 75-80% of the time I spend on the water. I hadn't noticed until today how used to havin him with me I've gotten, and this was a stream I normally would have had him with me on. Unfortunately, I'm just not driving the truck much due to gas prices. The fishing pretty much died completely at this point. I don't think I even saw another fish for the next hour. Despite this, I continued to enjoy being out on the water.

It was a beautiful day to be on the water even if the fish didn't want to cooperate. I had a very nice ride home. I was nice and warm out, the sun was shining, and it was nice to just to be out and not doing yard work that should have been getting done.

Smallies on the Fly

Because of the rain this morning, I didn't get out to do any trout fishing. In light of limited time due to some other things going on today, I decided to take Adicus out to the river for some smallie action. To my dismay, there was someone already fishing my beat. Damn! Nobody but me fishes that section, I was sad to see someone there. I moved down the road a bit to hit my 2nd favorite section and was pleased to see no one was there.

After parking, I strung up my 5wt that I hadn't fished in ages. The setup for the day was a deerhair frog with a big olive bugger hanging underneath it. Adicus and I shuffled our way across shallow shoals and riffles to get to some of the larger pools and runs. The Pigeon is still running at less than half of its normal flows, so alot of my normal runs are too shallow to hold fish. The fishing started out slow missing some fish that took the bugger. Some time was also spent getting used to slinging something as big and heavy as a deer hair fly and bugger. On the plus side, I only hooked myself once today. A nice deep one in the elbow. Thankfully, the barb didn't get buried, but it still left a nice whole on my arm.

I finally started to catch a few smaller fish on the bugger, but nothing with any size yet. Moving upstream, I came across one of my favorite runs that usually holds a nice fish, if not 2 or 3. I cast near a large rock that swept the flies into a fairly deep run and the bugger was hammered by a respectable 14" smallie. Fight on! The dude put a nice bent into my noodley 5wt. After a few moments, he was brought to hand for a quick photo and release. I landed a few more fish, but nothing bigger than 11" inches.

We came up to another narrow deep run. After a cast that landed with a loud splat, the frog popper was destroyed by a very large bass. How big? I don't know, he popped off only seconds after taking the bug. GGrrrrr! Somewhat disappointed, we continued to fish on. After a few more small fish, another nice run was in front of me. I tossed the combo into the middle of the current and the bugger was immediately taken by a very nice 17" bass. This fish was NOT happy about being on the end of my line. He fought like a true champ. But alas, he ended up laying on the bank next to my rod getting his photo taken.

That was about the last fish that I tied into for the day. We weren't out that long, so I was pretty pleased with the 2 larger fish I caught. Quite a few fish were caught along with a few nice ones. The water is low, but the fish are active right now. Just a nice day to be on the water.

And Then There Was Light

So, as stated in earlier posts the headlamp on my Honda CM400T is like riding down the road with a flashlight, and not a good one at that. Something had to be done, so I finally went down to WallyWorld and bought a set of cheap halogen driving lights for a quick fix until I can come up with something better. Car lights are not the best option, they have a tendency to vibrate themselves to death on a motorcycle, but for $17, it was a doable option.

I had been trying to decide which way to wire them, either directly in the headlamp or directly to the charging system. Despite being more work, I decided to wire them to the charging system in hopes of avoiding overloading the fuse for the headlamp. The first order of the project was to drill holes onto the headlamp mount to mount the lamps to. Extreme caution had to be taken to avoid drilling into the brake lines or other electrical wires. With that done, I mounted the headlamps into the holes that had just been drilled. Holy Crap! I think this is going to work!

With the lights installed, it was time to start on the wiring. This was not that difficult either. I started with running the individual grounds to the to the screws used for mounting the lights on the bolt side. After that, I disconnected the battery and connected the power wire to the charging system and ran it to the handlebars. I ran the connectors from the lights to the toggle switch on the bars, and then ran a another ground from the toggle switch to the back of the other mount. Mounting the toggle switch was a little more interesting. I ended up getting creative with some zipties and came up with a solid solution.

At this time, everything was hooked up and it was time to give it a try. I turned the key and hesitantly flipped the toggle. VIOLA! LIGHT! 55 watts of clean halogen light spilled into the driveway, I leaned back in satisfaction. It was getting dark out so I decided I would finish it up in the morning since I was off. When I got around to finishing it the next morning, all that was left was splicing some wires to shorten them and then hide them, while locking the lights into position. This didn't take too long, so after a bit, it was time to take it for a test on the road.

I decided to run by and see Cat at work, a nice long trip on a beautiful day. It was a great ride and I felt more confident that I was much more visible to traffic. I'm excited about driving to work on Monday to see how well it does in the tunnels. Later that day, I decided to take her out for a night ride to see if the lights were vibrating or anything. Damn! These things are bright. My charging system is having a little difficulty keeping up with them. When I hit the brakes or a turn signal, they dim a little bit. Something to look into. Overall, I'm very happy with the outcome of this. Now I should be able to start fishing after work now that I feel moderately safe in the dark.

It only took about 3 hours to do this all together. The most difficult part was connecting everything between the forks and behind the headlight. I'm sure a hour could be shaved off if I had been a little more organized, lots of trips to the basement. So, if you got an old bike that doesn't give off much light and there are no real options to upgrade, try this out. How long will they work? Will it stress my battery? I have no idea the answers to these questions. I'm sure I will find the answers out though. All I do know is that I feel ALOT safer out on the road, and they even look pretty cool on hte bike. SWEET!

Oops!

Seems I screwed up pretty big recently. Cat has been making cookies for work (for like three days), struggling a bit. Last night she had school, so I made myself breakfast for dinner. Yumm, a favorite thing in our house. In my pursuit of French Toast and eggs, I used the last of the eggs in the house. Mistake #1. Then in total stupidity, I forgot to write it on the "grocery" board, something relatively new to our house. Mistake #2.

After dinner, Cat announced she was going to go at the cookies again. OK, go for it! I had a mistake Adicus left us while at work (once again lives up to the name "Mudbutt"!). While cleaning up poop that was not mine to clean (another story for another day), Cat opens the fridge, looks at me and asks "where are the eggs?". Stupid me says " I ate em all last night". A brief glance at the grocery board that doesn't have eggs on it, and she announces she's going to the store and leaves without another word to me. From experience, I can tell you that it's not a good thing when Cat doesn't even tell me I'm in it deep. Plus, since it's late, she'll have to drive all the way to Canton, so she'll have plenty of time to stew over it. Frankly, I'm scared of whats in store for me when she returns.

In other news, I decided to drive the truck to work today. Weird. Seemed like I was going 10mph when I was going 50. I plan on riding the bike tomorrow since it's supposed to be nice out. I was also the victim of a random act of kindness today. While fiddling with the Honda trying to figure out how I'm going to mount some driving lights to supplement the headlight, my neighbour Mike and his wife walked up with an arm full of leather. Seeing that I was riding a bike everyday, he gave me an old jacket and chaps that he didn't use anymore. I didn't know what to say, graciously I accepted them. Dumbfounded at his generosity. I'm excited about not freezing in the morning anymore, maybe even avoiding being stung by bees and such, although I do like to ride without a jacket on warm days. Thanks Mike!

Tomorrow I will embark upon mounting a set of driving lights to my headlight mount. My current headlight has about as much power as a candle, something has to change or I'm going to die in a tunnel on the Parkway. No aftermarket halogen bulbs for my ancient ride, so modification is in order. This will be a quick fix until I can come up with something more permanent. The hook up shouldn't take too long, hopefully I can just tie them into my highbeam wiring. Might end up blowing my fuse. I might just hook it up directly to the power source, but I was trying to avoid mounting a toggle switch to the bike. I plan on photo documenting the whole thing, so everyone will get to see their first piece of the bike.

I was able to finish up the accent wraps on the rod tonight. Holy Cripes! Those things almost made me crazy! They kept coming unraveled, sometimes immediately, sometimes 20 minutes later. Grrrrrrr! Alas, it is done. All that is left is putting some script on it, rod finish, and mounting the handle. I have a three day weekend this week, so I'm hopin to break her in by Sunday, need to get the finish on tomorrow so it has time to cure. I've already been thinking of where I want to take her, gotta be somewhere good.

Back to the leather. I tried it all on and it's a bit large on me, but not too bad, definitely wearable. Although, I feel kinda weird wearing leather chaps. Who knows, maybe it will look badass on the bike. In general, I feel like I'm going to a Village People concert or something. I'm sure the benefits will outway the way I think I look, but even Cat mentioned how odd it was to see me in that much leather. I think she likes the bad boy thing! Although she's told me to shut up about the bike, but she does that about all my new toys!

Life Goes On

And so it does. It's been a bit of a stressful, hectic, and tiring week. The motorcycle has been dominating most of my time and energy. I was able to start on the rod Cat bought me, but it will probably be this weekend before I'm able to put the finish on. I was able to get all the guides on and so far, only one wrap has come unraveled. Wasn't really that hard, definitely would have been easier than using something other than a box as a rod wrapper, hopefully that will come in the future sometime. All I have left to do is add the accent wraps, put finish on the wraps, glue in the seat, and she's set for a day on the water.

Some milestones have been bestowed upon me as far as the bike is concerned. My headlight burned out, so I've been in a maddening search for a part made for a motorcycle the same age as my wife. This was not the easiest thing to find, but alas, I was able to order one today. It's a shame that the light sucks so bad, now I'll be able to try and rig up a halogen light somehow. I had my first carb issue yesterday. Coming out of Wal-Mart, I saw a large pool of gas under the engine. A result of fuel pouring out of my overflow on my right carb. A condition caused by a float in the bowl of the carb getting stuck open somehow. Oh crap! I'm going to have to rebuild the carbs. I'm totally not prepared to do that yet. No manual, never worked on bike carbs, I was freakin!

I spent about 5 hours looking at alot of different things, trying to avoid the rebuild at all costs. I came across a few fixes that might unstick the float, so it would close again. The first was to start the engine and restrict the air flow to the carbs enough to almost stall it, and then let air return. This is supposed to increase the vacuum in the engine and pop free gunky valves and floats. Didn't work. Next solution was to start the engine with the petcock closed and run it until it almost stalls, and then turn on the fuel. The purpose of this was similar to the first fix and the results were similar ...... at first. Defeated, I went in to change for work and to run by Advanced Auto to get a can of Sea Foam. While riding, I decided to try fix #2 while the engine was under load. While riding, I shut off the petcock and ran her until she started to fade, then I switched the fuel back on. I did this two or three times, and wouldn't you know it, when I stopped at AA, the leaking had stopped, YEAH!!!! I still got a can of Sea Foam to run through the tank and the intake soon. This stuff is amazing, if you're having carb problems, try running this directly into the carbs while the engine is running. I used to do this all the time on my boats to keep the carbs from gumming up. I plan to do this as soon as I can. I planned on doing it tonight, but didn't get home til late tonight due to rain. These carbs will need to be rebuilt, but not today!

I had to ride home in the rain today. Not fun. On the plus side, I stopped at a hotel at Socco Gap, the first cover I could find, and ran into a nice guy from Kentucky that offered me a beer. We chatted for a while as it continued to rain, enjoying a refreshment and conversation. After a bit it quit raining, so I was on my way. I was moving at nice clip trying to avoid more rain I could see moving my way and had a friendly encounter with on of Maggie Valley's finest. Only a warning, thankfully. Along with all this, I almost got clipped by a turkey and I've been stung TWICE by something in the last 4 days that hurt like hell! Still, the bike rocks! So much fun, now that visions of death in every curve are easing.

Now if I can just get my ass back on the water! The garden hasn't been receiving the attention it deserves as of late either. Hopefully life will return to a normal rhythm sometime soon.

Blah,Blah,Blah

So life has been rolling along in our house like normal as of late. I've been too busy for a whole lot because the motorcycle has been sucking up alot of time. New toy, goes froom, froom, is fun! Fishing has definitely taken a back seat, that's OK, after the breaking of my 2wt, some luster was lost for a short period. Although, I do plan to get out and hit some smallies tomorrow if it doesn't rain. Gonna take the flyrod and commit to fishin it. I have a tendency to puss out and take a spin rod because it's easier in my opinion.

I've been having alot of fun on my new used motorcycle this week, and I've found that the stress of learning to ride it has taken alot out of me. It's alot of fun, but still requires ALOT of attention and concentration to make sure I don't die in some tourons home video of the Parkway. Some things I've learned this week: it's quite chilly here in the morning, I need chaps or something else windproof. Air temps have been around 50 in the morning and I hit 60 mph during one part of my drive, Brrrrrr! Full face helmets are the way to go. I probably wiped the carcasses of 40-50 bugs off of my helmet today, some of them large beetles. Uneven pavement SUCKS! I took hwy 19 home out of Cherokee yesterday and the road is covered with half ass patches that made the bike super unstable, scared the hell out of me. Get saddle bags, I have to figure out a way to strap crap to the bike. It sucks wearing a backpack all the time and I haven't even started fishin from it yet. Yet!

Most other things have been lost in the mix over the week. I got my rod on Monday, but haven't really even looked at it because of buying the bike on Tuesday. I have gotten most of the things I need and my hopes are to start on it tomorrow, if not finish it. Of course this will be mixed in with an afternoon nap, a little fishin, an maybe an afternoon ride, who knows? Whatever I do, it won't be alot of "productive" activity, but more of the leisure type. Sweet!!

So Cat and I are arguing about the use of the shower and bath in our household. Basically, I've been taking showers every morning for since she's known me. It's how I wake up and I look like someones been dragging me around by my hair in the morning. All of a sudden, she wants to start taking a bath every morning. The tub she uses drains the entire hot water heater, so I end up taking a warm to cool to cold shower on the days she takes baths in the morn. I'm a bit frustrated in the fact thast she won't COMPROMISE and take showers most mornings so it doesn't leave me in the cold. Her solution is for me to get up at 6 and take my shower so she can take a bath. I'm considering this, but.... I don't know. My problem is that I don't need to get up at 6, I usually get up at 6:45 or so. I go to bed around midnight, so that 45 minutes is pretty important to me. Who knows, I'm sure we'll argue about it and I'll end up getting up at six if I want a hot shower. That is of coarse if she gets up on time, which is another whole deminsion of the discussion.

Enough of that crap. More fishing and hiking posts to come soon. I'm gonna try to post some photos of the bike next week, if I can ever get off of it while it's light out. I'm gonna try to hike up to Chasteen Cascades off of Bradley Fork sometime this week and hopefully do some fishin after work this week too. Who knows what I'll actually end up doin.

Go from 22MPG to 60+MPG for under $1000

Buy a motorcycle. I did, and it's smackey!. Cat and I had been trying to decide what to do about our rising expenses and we had been bouncing around the bike idea for a couple of months. Thanks to Uncle Sam and his rebate check, we decided to go ahead and do it. Now, a little background. I haven't ridden a motorcycle in about, I dunno, 20 years. Been a long time. Being about 12 at that time, I didn't ride on the road, so that's new to me.

Yesterday, I went out and got a hold of an Iwanna as early as I could drag my ass out of bed. When I got home, I flipped through the adds and only found 2 bikes that met my criteria: running, cheap, not a total turd. First one was sold, got ahold of the guy selling the second one. After chatting for a bit about it's condition, I decided it was worth the drive out to Pisgah Forest to check it out. Decided to take 276 out there and couldn't help but notice how dry both the upper Pigeon and Davidson River were. Scary! Not even August yet. Anyhow, I met up with the guy to check out the bike. It was sweet! A 1980 Honda cm400t with about 7000 miles on it, for $1000. No major problems, tires in good shape,.... The only problem is that it cold starts a little rough, takes about 5 minutes to warm up, after that, good to go. I think she only needs to be ridden some, if not, I plan to rebuild the carbs in a month or two.

Needless to say, I bought the bike on site. This necessitated another trip over Mnt Pisgah to pick it up and drop the money. After loading it into the bed of the truck, I took her home in anticipation of getting her on the road. Getting home, I next faced the issue of getting the bike off the truck alone, not fun! After all that, it was finally time to ride! As stated before, I haven't ridden a motorcycle on about 20 years, so I was a bit nervous. I cinched up my helmet and started her up. Instantly, a gentle purr sounded from the engine. I put her in gear, shifted into first, rolled the throtle a bit, and off we went. I screwed around in the driveway for a few minutes to make sure everything was working and that I remembered what I was doing.

Tentatively, I eased out onto the rural roads around my house to put her through the paces, in hopes of retuning home in one piece. Getting used to how 400lbs rolling down the road is taking a little of time. Slowly I am beginning to get more confident that I'm not going to die in a hideous crash and began to enjoy myself. I should have bought one of these years ago! What a blast, when you're going 45, it feels like you're going something like 90. I'm sure it will be more fun once a little more confidence comes, being as how I take the Parkway to work. Not alot of traffic, but tons of curves. Which decidedly made today's ride to work a bit intense! That's fine though, each time I go for a ride, I get a little more comfortable.

So far, I've averaged about 60mpg which is super, I was getting 22mpg on my Colorado. I can get about 115 miles out of a tank, I know this because I ran out of gas today. SWEET!!! Not really. Luckily it happened next to a pretty nice fella who happened to have a gallon of gas. One of my forks is leaking oil out of the boot, so some attention will need to be paid to that soon. Happens that this bike is supposed to be pretty easy to work on and parts for it are readily available. Seems like a good buy to me so far. Hopefully this catagory won't end up with me selling this as a scrap heap from a wheelchair! I'm trying to be super careful, although it is a bit distressing that Cat just upped my life insurance today.?!.

Man, I Love My Wife

I'm happy to announce a new category because of my wonderful wife: Rodbuilding. Seeing how tore up I was about the loss of my favorite rod because of my stupidity and Adicus doing what he was taught to do, she surprised me with a 2wt rod kit. WOW!!! I couldn't believe it. I came in last night around 10 wanting to go to Wallyworld to get epoxy to attempt a repair on my rod. When she got all weird and kept asking me if I couldn't just wait a day or two to get it. I relented and pouted a bit. This was enough for her to breakdown and tell me that she had ordered a replacement rod that I would get to build. Needless to say, I was dumbfounded, speechless, caught completely off guard.

When my rod was broken, I was just going to try and repair it. Replacing it was not even an option in my mind, due to our current financial situation. Catherine knows how important my small stream fishing is and saw how devastated I was, and surprised me wonderfully. Now I'm excited about the adventure of building a my own rod. I've never done this before, so I'm sure it will be a challenge. I don't have a wrapper, rod support, or a motorized wheel, so I'm going to be doing some rigging and old school stuff. Basically rod building on a tight budget. If anyone has any tips or hints to keep me from screwing this up, please let me know. I'm sure this will be interesting, so I'll post photos while I'm tryin this whole thing out. Hopefully it will be the beginning of a new phase of my fly fishing addiction.

Mingo Falls

I was running early for work today, so I decided to head over to Mingo Falls since it has been raining over the past few days and flows would be good. I was right, they were. Mingo can be a little difficult to find. It is off of Big Cove Rd. on the Cherokee reservation. It's past the KOA campground on the right near the Mingo Campground. The trail head is in a small parking lot across the river with stairs leading out of the lot.

Ah, the stairs. This is a short trail, only 2/10ths of a mile to the falls. In that short distance, there are 158 stairs. The good thing is that the trail is short, so even if you had to stop every few minutes, you'd still make it in under 20 minutes. After coming to the top of the stairs, the trail ambles along a little longer until you come to a footbridge that crosses the creek at the base of the falls. Mingo Falls is about 180 ft cascade, not a high volume fall, but impressive from the height. Water flow was good, so the falls looked full, they would definitely be affected during low water.

I snapped some photos and headed back down the trail. I wish there was more I could lend to this post, but the trail was pretty short. I was able to do the whole thing, including time spent at the falls, in under 15 minutes. So, I'll leave you with the photos.

Harvest Time!

Well, the time has finally come that we are pulling a substantial amount of veggies out of the garden. Zucchini and squash are flooding the kitchen, along with cabbage and cucumbers. We literally have a pile of the stuff on the counter from tonights harvest.The onions are doing really well, I pulled a few of them tonite just because. Some of them are still growing, but most will be ready to harvest soon. I pulled a carrot out of unending curiosity and guess what, it looked like a carrot. Since it was orange, I decided to give it a taste and ii even tasted like a carrot. Hot Damn!!! Spinach went to crap, along with all the lettuce due to heat, most of it started to bolt, despite being bolt resistant. Marigolds and nostriums that we planted earlier are blooming in profusion throughout the garden. Mighty pretty if I might say so! Pulled out most of the broccoli, except the ones that were still putting off side shoots. And my two cucumber plants will probably take over most of the fallow lettuce rows.

Squash, ah squash. As seen from the photos, the squash and zucchini are growing just fine! One plant has started to collapse, so I need to keep an eye on it to make sure nothing weird going on. Bell peppers are starting to be harvested, the first green of the year came off the plant tonight, with more coming soon. The purple and yellow peppers are starting to bloom and set fruit. The tomatoes are seem to be going to total crap. I don't get it, they just start wilting, while the lower leaves turn yellow and then black. And it's rapidly spreading throughout the whole planting. Oh.... how I want a fresh BLT. Cat's herbs are doing well, along with a few sunflowers we planted. We're hoping to plant alot more next year.

My corn is doing well, much to my satisfaction. They could be doing better because light issues. I have 3 huge tulip poplars blocking my morning sun that will be disappearing this fall, before we put in the cover crop, hopefully. I say that because these trees are something like 5 ft in diameter, so I'm a little hesitant of dropping a tree that big, much less three. Luckily the house is nowhere near them, so there is at least that. I don't really know what I'm going to do with that much poplar, it's not that great of a wood for the wood stove.. So despite being in the throes of a tomato meltdown, the garden is still kickin right along. Pullin lots of weeds and makin lots of compost for next year. Hope fully the plans to put in a few raised beds will begin soon.

Wild trout, rain, and tears

I don't know how to even write this post, such a devastating thing happened at the end of my day fishin'. The day began with me getting up early and meeting up with TroutFreak at MickeyD's for a day of wild trout fishin before the rain began to move in. After meeting up, we were on our way to one of my newer that treate me right the first time I was there. With the recent rains and overcast skies, the anticipation was building for a good day on the water.

After driving up a rather wide dirt road, we came to the pull off and geared up. Adicus was yapping with excitement as I laced on my boots and got my pack on. The three of us started down an overgrown grown forest road that looked more like a jungle than a trail. The stream was up and a little off color from recent rains, I had hopes the fish would be feeding in the
increased flows. Getting to the entry point, I let TF have the first pool while I rigged up with a caddis and a pheasant tail and moved up to the next pool. To my surprise, neither he nor I caught a fish out of those holes, or the next, or the next, ........ I mean the fishin' was slow. Real slow. I would occasionally see a fish flash at my nymph, or glance at the dry, but they wouldn't take. Talk about frustrating.

This led to an epic run of fly changes, trying, thinking, guessing as to what they want! Occasionally, a fish would stumble onto the fly, so we ended up catching a few. I think TF caught 2, missing a few more. And I caught 5, missing a few also. Not a real stellar day, but still a nice day in the water, doing something new. Fishing with someone else. Anyone who reads the message board knows I go by Lone_Angler. A reference to the fact I generally like to fish alone, but it was a nice change of pace to hang out with somebody. Sorry the fishin' was so slow, TF.

The three of us continued along, aimlessly beating the water, so it seamed. Sensing the encroaching rain and frustration over not hooking fish, I tied on my "go-to" combo, a size 12 thunderhead with a size 16 hareymoose. (why I didn't go to this earlier, I have no idea) I immediately began to catch fish, three bows out of three consecutive pools. Wow. This is when things go horribly wrong.

A light drizzle began to fall, while TF was fishing a large pool, I decided to put my rain jacket on, so I laid my rod down. (STUPID) Adicus was hopping around, trying to get me to throw the stick I had been tossing for him earlier. To get him out of the way, I picked up the stick and tossed it into the woods. (Even more STUPID!) Adicus tore ass around me, (he is a bit of a fetch freak) to my right and not to my left, the direction I threw the stick. As he jumped, I heard a crack like a lightening bolt, a sound I know all too well. A sickening feeling came over me, without even looking, I knew what had happened.

After a few seconds, I gathered the courage to look, and my beloved 2wt lay in two pieces, snapped one inch above the joint. That easily, that quickly, my favorite rod was gone. Broken. Never to acompany me into the backcountry, never to to feel the fight of a wild fish. Such a tragedy. She was a great rod (if you look a my fish blog photos, she's in over 90% of them), my favorite so far this season. Landing everything from minuscule redhoarses, to a 18" wild brown that I caught last year, she was always there for me, never failing.

The second tragedy in this is that I took my frustrations out on Adicus in my deranged mental state. Nothing serious, mind you, but I yelled a bit, maybe smacked him on the ass, and withheld attention from him for a day. I feel incredibly bad about that, it wasn't his fault. He was just doing what he does. I throw stick, he gets stick and brings it back. I know better that to lay a rod down on the ground , especially around him. Adicus is a great dog, possibly the greatest dog I will ever know, much less own. He is loyal, devoted, the type of dog people other than me will write about one day. So Adicus, I'm sorry for taking out my own stupidity on you. You didn't deserve it.

On a brighter note, I took a better look at the rod, now that I can stomach the whole thing, and I think I might be able to save it. Seems that the upper section fits over the lower piece, so I might turn her into a one piece with a bit of thread, epoxy, and love. Updates will be coming.

Valley So Wild: A Folk History

An excellent history of the Little Tennessee River drainage starting from colonists first interaction with Cherokees to the present day. Believe it or not, the TVA actually backed the writing of this book by Alberta and Carson Brewer to give a history of the valley they were flooding with the construction of multiple dams through the Little Tennessee basin.

A very concise history, it gives an excellent overview that ranges over 200 years in this not so little valley that reaches through three states. Much of what is covered was not anything new, but presented in a very refreshing format that was entertaining to read as well. New things were brought to my attention also. Stories about a modern day hermit living in the valley on the most basic of means named Bert Garner. Living on a mountain on 24 acres that were left after the TVA condemned his land, he lived until recently with the most basic of means. No electricity, running water, or the modern conveniences that we require to live. This was not a decision based on ignorance, as Bert had traveled the world and was a bit of a scholar. All of which makes him all the more interesting.

Along with this was a good breakdown about the formation and continued relationship between ALCOA and the TVA. Something that has always held interest in me since the both of these entity's are responsible for massive ecological and economic changes to the region. Also, the TVA's relationship with the National Park Service and the long disputed Road to Nowhere is laid out in an understandable way. Many questions were answered, along with new ones being brought up. Great read, if your looking for a good look at cultural history of the Southern Appalachians, I'd check this out. I have no idea where you would find it, it was printed by the East Tennessee Historical Society, so I doubt it's that widely distributed.

Rainbows with a Bit of Lightening

I woke up early to the patter of rain on the metal roof of the house, a quite drumming that quickly put me back to sleep, despite my intentions to get up early today. I find rain to be an excellent excuse to sleep in. Getting up late, I was really in no hurry, thinking that would be the only rain we would get today. I began to get my things together while talking to Cat and enjoying a lazy morning together, Adicus was getting excited, knowing that we were headed out.

Bumping down a dirt road, light filtered through the canopy of hemlocks and steamy haze, lighting individual shafts into golden columns. Anticipating a good day of fishing, my hopes were momentarily dashed when I got to where we were going to fish and there were 4-5 horse trailers and a tent city set up. Even finding a parking spot was difficult. After chatting for a few minutes while getting my waders on, Adicus and I started up the road next to the stream, jumping in at the first nice hole that was easily accessed. Things were a little weird at first, I had decided to use the 3wt, which is significantly heavier and longer than my 2wt. And I haven't used any thing but the 2wt for most of the year so far.

Fishing started out a little slow and that may be a bit a of an exaggeration, it was Real slow! Managing a fish here or there on an Elk Hair Caddis, no one even touching the pheasant tail dropper. The water looked great, seein as we finally have been getting some rain. A few pools were even unfishable due to flow. Sweet! Small, feisty rainbows were hitting my fly, occasionally even hooking one. For the most part, I only caught dinks, but a few decent sized fish were brought to hand. The best fish of the day was a solid 10 1/2" rainbow that hammered my dry in one of the larger holes. Soon after, fishing was interrupted by a short lived shower that was just a warm up for what was coming.

Adicus and I chilled on the bank under a rhododendron with the umbrella. I started carrying one 2-3 years ago to get out of the common afternoon showers that occur in the mountains. One of my better ideas. This initial shower was fairly brief, so we continued to fish for a few more minutes, snagging a few more bows before the boom of thunder discouraged me from venturing further into back country. I'm glad to see that common sense seems to be taking a firmer hold these days, 3 years ago, I would have fished on. Two or three close calls with lightening has taught me not to tempt fate. Which is good, by the time I got in the truck and up the road a bit, the skies opened up, lightening was cracking all around. Nice time to be in a warm dry truck!

Had the fishin been better, I might have stayed out through the storm, but gladly, I followed my gut instinct. Sadly, not all days can be awesome days with fish literally jumping on my flies. The old adage holds true, what works one day won't always work the next. I think we're getting into terrestrial season, which is a problem. I haven't tied any terrestrials yet this year. Need to get around to tying some ants, beetles, hoppers, and some inchworms. Yeah, I'll get around to that soon, I'm sure. A somewhat disappointing day, but not really. Still a nice afternoon on a beautiful stream with my best friend. Rain blew out the day, but that's OK since we need it so bad.

The Fat Bastard

This in honor of the fattest piece of crap cat I have, Gizzy, aka: Fat Bastard. Gizzy was the first cat to come into our lives after moving in together. Cat (my wife) had another cat that she had retained from her childhood that hated me, so in my logical (retarded) thinking, I decided to bring home a little orange furball that I found at work when we lived in SC. Gizzy was sweet little kitten, loving, full of life and spunk; he would curl up in my lap after work each night. As Gizzy grew up he, turned into quite the mammas boy, to my disappointment. George (Cat's earlier cat) had been sent back to Ga. due to hating me with a depth that is not easily described. That's for a different story on another day!

Cat (my wife), threw all her attention towards Gizzy in the face of loosing George back to her parents (me or the cat). Gizzy thrived on the attention. During this time, we had moved back to Atlanta and Gizzy began to dislike me. Now I'm the first to admit that I was slow to come around on cats, but the worst thing I ever did to Gizzy was harass him. Maybe put some cling wrap on his paws for shits and giggles, but that's it. Gizzy, in his infinitely moody ways, began peeing on my stuff while we were living in a hotel, waiting for an apartment to become available. Worst thing, he was just coming of age and had not been snipped. Gortex jacket: $250, 40 degree sleeping bag $75, the smell of tom cat piss 10 years later camping on a rainy night, priceless.

This was really the beginning of my love-hate relationship with Gizzy Monster (mostly hate). This cat has the innate ability to drive me crazy, it's like he has some path into my psyche and knows how to push me. Cat (my wife) tolerates some of the strangest things from him. I think she mistakes his abuse as love! If he's hungry when she's sleeping, he'll lightly bite her cheeks and claw her hair. She thinks it's cute, he tried that crap with me one time....... Lately he has been in the habit of crawling onto the table between where Cat and I sit so he's in the middle of everything. When he's hungry and we're up, he'll waddle through the house screaming and alternately slapping any other cat or dog that happens to cross him.
Did I fail to mention that Gizzy weighs something like 22lbs. and tells Adiucus and the other three cats what's up in the house. He is king shit. We clash heads because I won't bow to him, he makes me CRAZY!!! At this moment, he is sitting on the table staring at me, probably debating on trying to come over here. That's the weird thing, lately, he's tryin to be mister nice guy. Everywhere I go, he follows me when I'm around the house and the workin in the yard. I know he knows it drives me mad when he walks through the garden, or beats on the shower door while I take a shower. Takin that mornin moment..... there's Gizzy.
I guess lately he's been really wearin on me. Between 4 cats (2 of which are obscenely large) and a GSD, we're at total biomass in our little house. Everyone else is pretty chill, except for Gizzy and occasionally Scooter, who is known to drag in the random wild animal from time to time. But really, it's like no matter what I do, there's Gizzy. Sometimes he nice, sometimes he's not so nice. Kinda like a hurricane, you never know what's going to happen when he walks into the room. When he's being foul, everyone takes notice, even the dog. Gizzy plays no favorites, except for Cat (my wife).

So this is my rant about Gizzy Monster, the fat bastard, shithead, and myriad of other names developed in angst ridden moments over the years. This is by far my wife's favorite cat, although she says she just loves them all differently, but I've seen her cater to him for over 10 years, I know what's up. I can still remember the look on his face the day we brought home Ivan, our obscenely fat Russian Blue. You could see his jaw hit the floor before he regained composure and started growling. When he met Adicus, he slapped him around a few times. Adicus learned that despite looking soft and fun, cats were sharp and pointy!

Despite my writings, I can remember being very concerned for him as we waited at the Emergency Vet ($$$$$$), because of crystals in his urinary tract that were causing him to pee blood. Poor turd. So as I said before, it's a love hate relationship. On most days he drives me nuts, but occasionally, he'll look up at me with those golden eyes and you can see something almost like love, but not really, because Gizzy feels no Love! Except for Cat (my wife), of course! Sorry about all the (my wife) stuff. Me calling her Cat, and her loving cats the way she does, things can get downright confusing. I've always said that if something happened to me, she would turn into the crazy cat lady on the corner that had something like 100 cats.

Well, I gotta go. Gizzy just waddled through crying for dinner. A final thought: Thank God cats don't have pockets or thumbs, they would probably rule the world!

A Tribute on Independence Day

At an early age, William enlisted in the Army as a way to escape the poverty of his childhood in the Ozark Mountains and to create a future for himself and his new wife Kay; and frankly, it was a way to pay for college. Not an option available to him in 1964. Can you imagine, enlisting in the infantry, during Vietnam, because of deep held personal beliefs and the desire to achieve more. Not protesting, not deferring (which was an option as an only son), but doing what was felt as right by joining.

After acquiring a bachelor's degree in 3 years in Business with the support of his wife, he was shipped out as a young officer, a second lieutenant. His first tour was on a patrol boat in the delta's of Vietnam, basically, a large target to draw fire so that it could be returned. A man that cared for his men as well as himself, making sure as many if them would return home to their families because of his decisions. Because of insight and a fair amount of luck, he was able to return home at the end of his thirteen month tour as a decorated Captain.

After trying to return to some sense of normality in their world, Bill and Kay were devastated when Kay was diagnosed with a terminal form of cancer. Through months of personal hell and torture, Bill continued to stand by the side of his near death wife, thinking nothing of himself, only her. Miraculously, Kay actually survived her cancer, to the shock of her doctors, and the joy of her family. During this time, Bill had been on temporary leave, but was due to return to active duty as soon as was possible.

Taking advantage of the boot strap fund, he was able to earn a MBA while on active duty and Kay was in the process of remission. Life continued on as normal for the next few years, except Kay couldn't have children due to the massive amounts experimental treatments given to her. By some sort of strange luck, Bill and Kay were able to adopt twin infant sons. Their life was complete, except that Bill was going back to Vietnam in the next 6 weeks for his second tour as an infantryman and this time as a Major. Unbelievably, he volunteered for this tour also, in the belief that his experience could save lives. The selflessness is overwhelming.

This time, he was sent to the interior, into full bush combat. Sometimes running patrols, sometimes crawling through midnight dark tunnels, nothing more than a flashlight and a 45 between him and his possible death. Earning one of the lowest combat statistics for his unit during his time in country shows his dedication to his men. Leaving again after 13 months on the one of the last military transport planes before Saigon fell. Again returning home a decorated officer. During his 2 tours, many awards were won, the highlights being a Silver Star, 2 Bronze Stars ( both with oak clusters), three combat badges (signifying 100 enemy encounters each) and a declined Purple Heart he declined because too many men lost limbs and other horrendous casualties. His was little more than a flesh wound. I include this because it is further testament to his iron character and selfless morals.

Bill and Kay spent the next 15 years of their lives moving according to the wishes of the U.S. Government. Sometimes living in Germany and other times in lovely places like Ft. Knox. During this time, despite many disappointing losses, Bill and Kay had a daughter while in Ft Benning, GA and a son 3 1/2 years later while in Germany. A running military joke is that you either come back with a cuckoo clock or a kid from Germany. There's no cuckoo clock in their house!

Bill continued in the military for a total of 23 years, retiring as a Major. Not desiring to play the military political games, he never promoted beyond the recognition earned during combat. But continuing to sacrifice for his country by taking a hardship tour in Korea for 16 months with out his family late in his career. But that was Bill, a man that believed in his duty, loved his job, his family, and God. All of these things tied together to make him the man he is.

I'm sure you may have figured out that Bill is my father, Ret. Major William Joe Wells, the most incredible person I know and have ever had the honor to be friends with, much less the privilege to be raised by. Although we disagreed a great deal while I was growing up, I feel lucky to be aware of his greatness while he is alive and to try and share that with him. He is awfully restrained about himself! Despite being retired, he continues to sacrifice for his country. As he says, "I've got one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel!", literally sometimes. Over the past ten years, he has become almost completely deaf, he's had 2 strokes (one of which cost him sight in one eye), he survived prostrate cancer, and replacement hip surgery. Almost all of this can be directly linked to his time spent in Vietnam.

My mom is also applauded today. She held our family together when my father was away. She is an incredibly strong woman that deserves to be decorated as much as any soldier. New twins while her husband is in Vietnam, 4 kids while he is in Korea, and this scenario was repeated numerous times over the years on smaller scales during maneuvers and short term assignments. Not enough can really be said about the soldiers wives that suffered an perseveared while their husbands were away.

This is the basis of my upbringing and my deeply help beliefs about our country. I strive to be half the man my father is and raised me to be. I have a deep respect for the sacrifices he and others have made so that we can complain about the status quo. For some, the fact that our freedom was earned by the blood of men like my father becomes abstract in the relative safety we live in today. Thankfully, that is not something I take for granted or try to gloss over. This post is in dedication of my dad, mom, and all the others who have sacrificed so that we can live in the safety and comfort of the United States of America.

What's Goin on in the Garden?

Overall, things seem to be going well in the garden. The nastriums have started to bloom along with the marigolds, and we are starting to harvest squash and zucchini in large amounts. For the squash, I imagine I'm going to bring in about 30 or so this week. Yikes! The second planting of lettuce is being thinned for baby greens, some of the muslin started to bolt, but we just let it go. The flowers are pretty. Two cabbages will be ready to pick soon, and most of the others should be ready in another 3 or so weeks.

Most of the broccoli is done for the season, I wish we had planted more of it this year. Both of us are huge broccoli fans, and are willing to eat it regularly. The onions are starting to form nice bulbs, again, I wish we had planted more of them, but there's always next year. Carrots all seem to be progressing well, I guess. It's hard to tell since what I want is underground! If the tops are any indication, they should be great. The cucumbers are setting fruit nicely, we already harvested two earlier in the week, with many more on the way.

All of the squash is doing really well, and I mean really well! As stated before, we have about 12 crookneck plants, three zucchini, 3 butternuts, and 6 or so acorn plants that Cat planted last month. What was she thinking? In tr

anslation, we gots lots of squash. Which is good, but we need to limit the number of squash plants next year. The peppers are doing their thing. The first one should be ready to pick in another week or so, and all the other plants are starting to bear fruit. Mmmmmm peppers!!!!! Some peppers that we had sown from seed and forgotten about are suddenly putting on some growth. I weeded around them today, and I was shocked to see they had grown/ survived. Hmmm, will they grow enough to put out before it gets chilly? We'll see.

The other day I was turning the compost pile and came across a potato that was putting off growth, we didn't plant any taters since we couldn't find any starters. I decided to cut up and plant the sucker. Not surprisingly, they are putting off lots of green growth, so I have hopes of harvesting a few new potatoes before fall. Some of the tomatoes are really struggling. I think two of them have blight, so measures will be taken to stop it very soon. Despite almost 2" of rain in the past 3-4 days, they began to wilt almost as soon as the sun came out this afternoon. For sure it's something bacterial going on, I haven't noticed any bug infestations, but I know the stresses of our variable temps and dry to wet conditions may have something to do with it. Luckily, four of the plants are doing just fine! Fruit has set on all of them, including the heirloom, and I'm anticipating my first mater in about 10 days. If the blight doesn't kill them all!

Cat's wildflowers are starting to bloom, and most of her herbs are growing rapidly. A few sunflowers are starting to get some height, so we're both looking forward to them blooming. The corn, ah, the corn. My babies are coming along very nicely. Some good height has been established and they are super green. Can I make it grow any faster, I wish. But for now, I'm just happy to have something in that bed! Particularly after the disaster of the first sowing. I had pretty much given up in corn until Cat came with a packet she ran across somewhere at about the latest that I could get a crop in. So, I'm just tickled to have what I have.

As we come into the week of the 4th, harvesting is really getting started. All the hard work and effort is starting to pay off. Plus it's nice to eat something other than lettuce and spinach. Next years plans are still in the works, but I am starting to narrow down options based on budget and time, and the fact that we are only 2 people. Although, this year is a warm up to do some hardcore canning next year. I'll post some harvest pics later, can't pick anything for a few days as we had to do some bug killin this week. (calm down organic peeps, I'll be damned if I'll let all that work get eaten by a beetle!) We try to stay organic, but sometimes that's just not possible.

Hillbillyland

Hillbillyland by JW Williamson is a very academic and heady book that analyzes the relationship between Hollywood's portrayal of mountain people and the acceptance of the general public of the image that was perpetuated. A lot of time is spent analyzing movies from the early 1900's to modern day films showing reoccurring themes of man's domination of nature and that civilization and society as the proper place for man.

Some very interesting theories are presented about society in general believing it is OK to laugh at the primitive life of mountain people, because it reassures our decision to live in a modern society. Movies will often portray an individual or group of outsiders ("civilized" people) entering into a type of forbidden wilderness (wilderness earmarks "dangerous" or interestingly, unnatural), encounter some sort of trouble with "natives", overcome it (or them), and return to the normality of civilized life. This is an continuous theme in movies like Deliverance, Up the River, A Face in the Crowd, etc.

Another interesting idea is that when a man becomes a "slave" to wages, he losses his virility. Say what you will about hillbillies, they had something none of us have, they called no man master! Their only use for money was to pay property taxes on the land they lived and worked on. The book delves into many ideas that are frankly, a little too academic for me. One that continually struck me was about these movies being a mirror. A reassurance that living in cities is preferable to a more primitive life. The ability to have a job to pay for "stuff", to make more money to buy more "stuff", is a preferred existence. We can laugh because we ALL have hillbillies somewhere in our family trees and be pleased that we have "evolved" beyond that type of existence. But to what gains?

I began reading this book as research for why society thinks people who live in the Southern Appalachians are a bunch of inbreeding idiots, instead, I got something that had a little more food for thought in it. Some of my initial questions were answered, but many more questions were left. Mainly about my place in society and why I seem to be retreating from it. If you like some deep reading, and don't mind keeping a dictionary handy (this guy uses some pretty big words), I'd give it a shot. Definitely an interesting read, but not a light read at all.