Cabinet Photos

I promised photos so here we go.

Detail of locking miter joint in corner.

Hinges are not installed yet. 

There will be three doors on the back with ventilation.

Have a few clamps!

I'm happy, the box came out perfectly square.

It is fun when a plan comes out.

Too busy for Hobbies?

I just looked at my last post and shame on me for not updating sooner.  I have been busy working out in the shop building Christmas presents, Ryder's bunkbeds and a AV Credenza.  I decided to lean towards high end furniture and my first project is just speculative at this point.  With  everybody and his brother buying big screen TVs and none of them fitting the old style entertainment centers I thought it might be profitable to build a Credenza to stash all the AV equipment.  Check out my drawing.

I finished assembing the carcass today and will be working on the partitions and fitting the doors tomorrow.  I'll update with some actual photos tomorrow(maybe).   It looks like a regular cabinet but it has all the old school building techniques that take twice if not three times as long to build.  The cabinet sits on caster so you can wheel it away from the wall and get behind the cabinet to setup all the wires and gizmos.  The back of the cabinet is finished with a faceframe and panel doors.  No nails or screws in this cabinet except for the hinges an the screws that attach the solid wood top.  Most all of the joinery is mortise and tenon and the front and back is attached to the sides with a locking miter joint.  The frame is dadoed together and glued.  After final sanding I will do a hand rubbed finish that you should be able to see yourself smile in.  Simular units will sell from $4k to $6k in the right market. (not red bluff)  This is my first attempt to do high end work and beleive me, it is a lot of fun.  

OH, by the way, I did go fishing on the Trinity a while back with Steve and Dan Coffman.   We had a good time even though we should have been there yesterday.  Just a few photos to remember what steelhead fishing is all about.

Fish and Pheasants

Check out my new Pop's Hobby Blog photo.  I caught this steelhead on the Trinity River in October, right after Steve Coffman and I got back from our Colorado hunting trip.  The funny thing about this photo is: now I know where I lost my forcepts.  You can see them laying on the rocks in this photo.  There is not much of a chance that they will still be there when we go back on Friday.  

Rob and I went Pheasant hunting last Wednesday on his hunting club on Seven Mile Lane.  Rob had eight birds planted in a rice check and we killed six, lost one and one got away clean.  Not bad for a bunch of old farts.   Tom's dog did a great job but Sam needs to get in shape and loose some weight.  Like father, like dog, I guess.  

Hope to have more photos of steelhead next week.  Stay tuned.

The Big One

Everyone probably has heard that the DFG has closed our section of the Sacramento River to Salmon fishing this year.  So with that said, check out this story that ran in the Red Bluff Daily News today:

Big one didn t get away

By JULIE ZEEB -DN Staff Writer

Article Last Updated: 11/06/2008 07:20:29 AM PST

BATTLE CREEK Last Thursday was anything but a normal work day for Doug Killam, an associate fisheries biologist for the Department of Fish and Games Red Bluff office.

I was doing a walking survey in Battle Creek to estimate the fall run, Killam said.

What Killam and the rest of his crew didn’t know was that an extremely large and very dead fish awaited them in the creek, located along the border of Shasta and Tehama counties leading to Coleman National Fish Hatchery.

This one was just big, Killam said. It caught everyone s attention.

Largest Chinook I’ve seen.

Killam and his crew used the length and girth of the fish, about 51 inches or a little more than 4 feet long, to estimate the size at 85 pounds, he said.

It s a shame we didn’t see it while it was alive, Killam said.

If it was caught in the ocean, it would have been a state record, maybe even a world record.

The state record was set by O.H. Lindberg on Nov. 21, 1979, when he landed an 88-pound Chinook in the Shasta area, according to the California Department of Fish and Game.

The world record 97 pounds, but Killam isn’t certain about the exact size of the fish prior to its death.

When we find them as carcasses, typically, they’ve stopped eating months ago, Killam said.

Killam estimated the fish had stopped eating about June or July, made the trip from the ocean to the creek, spawned sometime in October and died about a week before it was found, he said.

The fish was not put on a scale due to its size and the formula for measuring by girth and length is not exact because sometimes those formulas aren’t designed for extreme fish like this one, Killam said.

The average Chinook salmon returning to spawn is about 25 pounds, said Scott Hamelberg, project leader for Coleman National Fish Hatchery.

It was a big fish, Hamelberg said. I’ve never seen an 80-pound Chinook come through Coleman Fish Hatchery in my years here, but we get the whole range.

The biggest to swim through Coleman this year at fall run was a 53- pounder, he said.

There s any variety of size, Hamelberg said.

It s largely due to the genetics of the fish. It s just like any other animal, part driven by genetics, part driven by age and part driven by ability to find food to eat.

Fall run has been exceptionally low this year, Hamelberg said.

The bottom line is the ocean sport and fisheries all were closed this year because numbers were expected to decline, he said.

This year s fall run was expected to be around 60,000 salmon, about a third lower than 2007 s 90,000 salmon, he said.

Coleman had 22,000 salmon in Battle Creek in 2007 and was expected to have between 14,000- 15,000 this year, he said.

To date, they’ve had more than 13,000 return.

Knot of the day

While getting ready for a steelhead fishing trip on the Trinity River I did a little research on knots to join fluorocarbon leader material to P-lines new Hydrofloat braided line and I came up with this neat website that allows anyone to download a widget called "fishing knots of the day".  I just added it to my blog and I suggest that you click on this link and check out the animated instructions to tying that forgotten fishing knot.  Cool website.  

Steve Coffman and I spent two days chasing steelhead on the Trinity River and just like our trip to Colorado hunting, the most common statement was:  " Man, you should have been here last year".  Steve landed a nice 6 lber and I hooked five and landed only two, the largest being about four lbs.

I left early to take Herb and Bert deer hunting on the river so I forgot to ask Steve to send me photos of the catch.  I will post them if Steve sends me copies in the near future.

On Friday Herb, Bert and I spent the day chasing deer and trout on the river where Tadd and I got our bucks in the first rifle season.  Herb did see one buck but couldn't put forks on it while it ran for cover.  The fishing was a little slow and the only trout to mention was the one Herb caught while pealing his boiled egg during lunch break.  Sorry to say, Bert had a tough day on the water. One Sacramento River pike (squawfish) was all he could harass.  

The last three months has been very busy in the hobby department.  It's time to spend more time at home and regroup for the winter and catch up on my domestic duties.  It is raining cats and dogs outside right now so it is a little easier to concentrate on my to do list.  Sam has been complaining about all the quail he wants to chase so I may sneak out next week to help council Sam and his quail problem.  

Check out the knot of the day widget on the sidebar.  

Back from Meeker

The hunting was so bad in Meeker I couldn't even hunt down a shrink to deal with my depression so we had to rely on Jack to ease the pain of scouting and hunting a total of five days before we even spotted the first doe.  We did have a nice bull elk trot by us on opening morning which was the only emotional high we had for the first three days of hunting.  I guess the problem started last winter when the deep snows caused a 40% die off of the deer herd.  With deep snow and a lack of food source the other 60% migrated to private ranches and survived by sharing the rancher's feed with the local cattle population.   It appeared that the deer stayed on private ranches and why wouldn't they, the food and water was abundant.  We covered every inch of the two zones we were licensed to hunt and only found a hand full of deer spread out over hundreds of miles of public land.  We did find a few deer in the Crosss Mountain area which was over a 100 mile round trip from our bunkhouse in Meeker.  One day while traveling back to Meeker from Cross Mountain we passed by a private ranch about 3:00 in the afternoon  and we counted over 80 deer feeding in one field.  A truck with two hunters entered the field and drove directly towards the herd and they parted just like the Red Sea and Moses and then gathered back together after the truck left the  field.  

There were a few deer killed in our zones, but all were on private ranches.  After 7 days of hunting we threw in the towel and headed home to go steelhead fishing on the Trinity River.  The buck below was Kyle's first buck and boy what a dandy.  Larry, the super guy that rented us the bunkhouse guided Kyle on his first hunt on a private ranch.  The other photo is a cool 4x3 that was killed by a lady from Wisconsin on the Louisiana Purchase Outfitters ranch.  This buck only cost her $3900.  At that price you can feed the herd a lot of hay through the winter.  The bailing twine tangled in his horns is proof that this buck prefers bales of hay instead of sage brush.  

Sorry I didn't post to the blog from Meeker, but when you have nothing to write about and Mr. Daniels is treating your depression keying up the computer is pretty low on my list of fun things.  Maybe I'll have more to write about when we get back from the Trinity River.  

Another years goes by

Come on Pops, get down and crawl a little faster.

 I had a great time Saturday playing Croquet, Secret Agent and making flower and grass pies with my grand kids.  That's right, old Pops crawling around the yard on his hands and knees and I still feel it today.  Everyone brought a little something to the table and we had a great Barbeque and memories of another passing year. 

Time for a little Flower and Grass Pie for Pop's Birthday

The venison stew is good Pops.

Well, today is the big day.  It is my Birthday  (that isn't so exciting anymore), but the real news is that today we leave for Colorado.  Deer season doesn't start until Saturday, but I can't get out of town soon enough.  The first stop will be the cabin to winterize and log oil the railings, that's right, work before pleasure.  Steve and I will leave early Wednesday morning and the first stop will be in Midway Utah for pizza and beer with Olivia, Jeff and Nikki  while we watch the Presidential Debate.  We should make it to Meeker by midday Thursday, with plenty of time to scout, sight in the guns and get use to the altitude.  I'm taking my laptop so I will keep everyone posted on the progress. 

 

The next post will be from Deer Camp.