Haiku Challenge

Next Monday I will not being doing Haiku Monday. I will be leaving it up to my readers for the post. In the next week write as many Haiku poems as you want. I will pick the best one and post it on Monday. All poems should be submitted to me via email at haikuchallenge@gmail.com

The winner will receive a dozen hand tied flies of your choice! I know the ladies are thinking "What am I going to do with a bunch of flies?" Well you can give them as a stocking stuffer to a fisherman, or you can defer to the runner up if you really don't want them. I thought this would be a fun challenge and if you don't think so then you are a party killer. Have fun with your poetry and good luck. They do not have to be fishing related to win. You can write about anything. Remember 5 syllables in the 1st line, 7 in the second and 5 again in the third.

Haiku Monday 11/30/2009

Went on a short hike
Decided to take Abby
Glad she is not dead!

More Flies

I decided tonight that I am going to tie flies for a friend of mine for Christmas. It gets me tying more and it is a "Free" gift. I tied up three different patterns tonight. I started with the leech pattern. Yup, they are just as ugly as an artificial fly as they are in real life. I liked this particular version though because I found some cool curved hooks in my fly tying stuff from when I took fly tying in college. The next pattern was the dreaded Elk Hair Caddis. I hate this fly because if you don't have the right diameter elk hair your wing is either WAY too big or you don't put enough hair in so it looks skimpy. Anyway here is the fly. The last pattern was what some people call "The hardest dry fly to tie". I don't really think that they are that hard they just take a long time (about 10 minutes each). This is a Humpy pattern. It is supposed to mimic ants, beetles, stone flies, and other insects. Tonight I added a variation that I saw while perusing in Fly Fisherman magazine at the grocery store. I added rubber legs. This variation will mimic spiders and other larger beetles. Here is a picture of a fish I caught on one last summer. Like I said, it takes a while to tie but they are worth it!

Fly Tying

The past few nights have been colder and rather than sit in front of the TV for as long as I normally do I decided to tie some flies. The first night I tied a pattern that I saw in a magazine called the "Sorta Stimulated". It is a variation on the famous Stimulator pattern and simulates an adult stone fly. They came out preety good and if you want to see some pictures scroll down and look at the picture attached to the Double Haiku Monday post. Tonight I tied some of my favorite dry flies in two different patterns. The one on the lfet is an original Adams tied on a hook that I dont normally use but I got on sale. It has a limerick bend and I really like the shape. The Fly on the right is also an Adams but it is tied as a parachute pattern. I tied up three of each and am excited to use them in the mountains next summer.

Apple Pies and Pinewood Derbies

This last week we had an Elders Quorum activity. It was a pie baking contest and pinewood derby. I had a School bus that I built last summer for our work pinewood derby and I raced it. I didnt place but had a great time and saw some cool cars. One guy had a block of pine with an electric airplane turbine engine on it. He didn't have a problem winning. The other half of the night was the pies. I love pie more than cake so I was there and ready to sample some good pie! I decided to make an apple pie. I didn't want an ordinary apple pie... I wanted to make it harder. I made my pie in a regular pie pan but baked it in my dutch oven. I did a practice run last Sunday and got great reviews from family. On the day of the activity I didn't have time to do it in the dutch oven so I just made the same recipe in the regular oven and took it. It was still good but I didnt win any prizes. I had a lot of fun and it was neat to use My Nana's crust recipe and my sisters wonderfully scrumptious filling and topping recipe. If you want them you will have to ask Maegan because I think it is a secret that shouldn't get out too much in case of another activity when I have enough time to carry out my master plan and bake it in the dutch oven again.I dont have a picture of the Bus but here are some before and after pictures of my Pies. On a side note I wont be making any apple pies soon. We have had 2 in less than a week so we are apple pied out.

Before

AfterMe and My Pie

Double Haiku Monday

I missed last week because work was so crazy. So I am here to make up for last week.

#1
Four in the morning
Logan must be sick today
Snuggles always help.

#2
Tied some flies last night
I hope I get to use them
Have to wait for spring.

Trading Phones

I have had my new Palm Pre for a while now but my phone started to reset when I closed the keyboard. That means I get a New Phone. I got the same model but I had all of my fun pictures on my old phone. No problem I will just email them to myself. Here are the pictures. They catch some very memorable moments in my life. Enjoy!

Who can resist this man in the sunglasses? He is one cool dude!

For those of you who know the story this is pretty funny. For those of you who don't, don't ask us, you don't want to know. We found this in a thrift store in Denver. We were going to get it for Daniel. He asked me if there was a similar one there with Jay as the name and 1 as the number!

Silly times in Gramma Kaye's garden.

This summer we went to Washington to visit Kris' parents and my grandparents. I wanted to go on a bike ride and so I went past a lot of the old places that I used to go to when we would visit as kids. This is my grandpas old warehouse where he made wooden boxes for all sorts of things. I learned a lot about hard work and doing my best job there working there for him.

Some of you might recognize this from the TV show Northern Exposure. My ride ended in the quaint little town of Roslyn Washington.

This is the Pizza place we ALWAYS go to when we visit Washington. It is the best pizza in the world!

The Yakima River. This picture does not do it justice. It is a magnificent sight.

The Thorp Grist Mill. My Grandpa was on the committee that helped to restore this old mill and make it a museum for people to come and visit to learn about the area. To learn more about the mill click here.

Logan found a nice relaxing place to play at Nana's house. I am surprised his head was not hanging off of the back.

Logan giving Mommy a push on the swings.

Logan wanted to wear Uncle Jeremy's "hat". He almost fell over a number of times because it was so heavy.

I hope you enjoyed some of the fun pictures that I have collected over the past year. Take a look on your phone and see what fun memories might be there. Sometimes the pictures you get with your phone are the best because it is what happens in life!

Nate Haiku

Friends have gone away
And some may live in Texas
Southwest bring Nate back

Late Fall and Helmets

Last Friday was a beautiful late fall day. It was so nice I couldn't pass up the opportunity to ride in short sleeves one last time. I went home and picked up my bike from the house and headed up the canyon for an afternoon of sweat and relaxation. As you can see the ride was nice and I really enjoyed being out alone and hearing the wind, water and quiet. All was good until I got to the top of the meadow. I slid around a corner and slipped on some loose rock. I went head first into a rock and scraped up my arm and knee a bit. I am so glad I was wearing a helmet and anyone who doesn't should be shot; especially on the road. I am here to say that if you ride a bike and do not have a helmet... GET ONE TODAY! It may save your life.

Self Portrait

Open Meadow (Not where I fell)

Bike and the stream

My Saturday Night

I have been feeling like I cant go out and work in the shop because it is not organized. I went out on Saturday night with the intent to re-organize the shop and get it to a place where I can feel comfortable working. I already had a large work bench that I built and a stack of old drawers that we removed from the kitchen. After about an hour of planning and drawing and another hour of sawing and building I came up with this. I like it and it is much more functional. It got me to get rid of a lot of junk that I was never going to use and I got another idea for another work bench from the materials that I have. The best thing is it didn't cost me a dime!

"Late" Haiku

After riding trails during the day sometimes I wish I had more time to ride. Well the opportunity has presented itself... NIGHTRIDING! After Kris and Logan go to bed I have found it is an excellent time to be on the trails. There are no people hiking, less people riding and it is just as fun as the daytime even if it is a little more dangerous. I have included some pictures of my favorite local trail. These are not at night but you can see how beautiful it is even in the late fall. Ride On!


Riding in the night
Swooshing down the single track
I must be crazy.