Lost Mt Rainier Showshoer Burned Money for Warmth

Great story!  The will to survive is more important than anything you can take into the outdoors.  However, this is a good lesson to be prepared for unexpected circumstances when straying off the beaten path.

Published January 17, 2012 | Associated Press

A snowshoer who was lost in a blizzard for two days on Washington state's Mount Rainier said he stayed alive by digging out a snow tunnel and burning his paper money for warmth.

Yong Chun Kim, 66, of Tacoma, told KOMO-TV of Seattle that he had fire starters with him and first burned some leaves. Then he started burning personal items: his socks and then $1 and $5 bills from his wallet.

Kim also said he marched in place to keep warm and took cover in a tree well --the hole in the snow under a tree. He fought off sleep but dreamed of his wife and a nice hot sauna.

"I found a big tree and got inside" the well, he said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "I'm worried. It's cold, so I want to move around."

He initially made a shelter near a big rock and tried to stay warm. He tried to keep walking, but at times "the snow was so deep, I couldn't breathe."

He made a fire, drank hot water and ate rice.

The first night was bad, said Kim's stepson, Malcolm An. "He could have died. He was walking around, struggling to find a place, literally not knowing where to go.

"He burned everything he had," An said. "He burned his toothpaste, Band-Aids, extra socks. He burned whatever he could."

Kim was leading 16 members of a hiking and climbing club from Tacoma on Saturday when he slid down a slope and became separated. He thought he would meet up with the group farther down the trail but became disoriented and went the wrong way.

(read the rest of the article here: FoxNews Story)

Captain Jack

Captain Jack was found in the woods as a pup, hung up in some brush and probably would have become coyote food if I hadn't carried him a couple of miles out of the woods with me.  We nursed him back to health and planned to find a home for him, but we ended up keeping him.  Now he's a 90 pound baby who will climb up in your lap if you aren't paying attention.  He obviously has some German Shepherd in him and he has some smarts.

Captain Jack, like his owner, is not a tarheel fan.

Wildlife in the Woods

Recently, while working in the woods, I heard a strange noise coming from the direction of an old stump.  It sounded like scratching and digging and was coming from inside this six foot stump.

I am always curious and started to walk over and investigate, but I started wondering if there was a skunk digging around in there.  I had to clean up my dogs after one of their skunk encounters and I will never forget the odor.  It stayed on them for several weeks, even after the tomato juice and peroxide shampoo.  So I used the camera to light up the crack in the stump with the flash and see if I could tell more about what was inside.  This is what the camera revealed:

Hmmm... definitely not a skunk.  Having a pretty good idea about what might be in the stump, I decided to go for the video.  Of course, I was a little apprehensive about placing my hand over my head and into a stump where an animal with razor sharp claws and beak had easy access, but I took a chance anyway and captured this:

It took me two tries to capture a video of this barred owl trying to hide from me.  He never came out, even after I sat still and quiet behind his temporary refuge for 10 minutes.  Eventually, I had to move on.  The owl had endured the only creature likely to discover its hiding spot and won.

Surrounded by Idiots part 2

If you are employed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and tasked with keeping passengers safe on airplanes, which of the following should be stopped for enhanced screening (ie: strip searched):


Suspect A: the 9 year old

Suspect B: the 85 year old granny

 Suspect C: an actual muslim

 If you guessed A and B, then congratulations, not only are you an idiot, but you are well qualified to work for the TSA.  And yes, those are the individuals that the TSA will search, remove their clothes, and pat down.  Just ask the grandma, who was injured in the process.

At some point, Congress is going to have to step in and end the TSA, or at least instruct them to screen out actual terrorists instead of the elderly and children.  One of these days, a father will end the life of a TSA agent that tries to strip search his 6 year old child.  Put me on that jury and I will acquit him.

Wake up America; you voted in a communist and now we are beginning to creep towards dictatorship.

Loft Bed

Anything that I build myself is better in both design and materials than anything I can buy.  No particle board for me; and you can keep your bamboo, jatoba, ipe, sapele, and all that other tropical stuff.  Good old American hardwoods; oak, maple, cherry; are my materials of preference.  I prefer real joinery and construction techniques that you simply cannot find in furniture from Ashley, IKEA, or anything imported from China (which these days is just about everything).

The latest project I finished is a loft bed.  The retail prices for this bed were in the $1700 range.  I am in the $300 to 400 range for building it myself.  And that includes a lighting system for the desk.  I have looked at these beds in furniture stores and they are more flimsy than I am comfortable with. 

The legs are made out of plywood.  I glued up four pieces per leg and used a hand planer to shape it up.  I used a trick I have heard of but never tried; auto bondo to fill in gaps, cracks, and wood grain.  It made a perfectly smooth edge that is difficult to achieve with just sanding.

For the side rails, I tried using FAS dimension lumber, but it ended up twisting just enough that I was not satisfied with it.  Back to the plywood; I glued up my own framing stock by gluing two pieces together and using bondo to fill the edges.

The shelves are made with plywood and dado joinery and pine for the face and trim.  The desk is made from plywood and is bolted to the shelves so that it stands on its own.  For good measure, one of the shelves is attached to the 4 x 5 legs.  The desktop and large end-shelf were supposed to line up, but I forgot about that when I was building the shelf for the second time.  The first shelf was too tall, as were the legs.  Adjusting the height on the legs was easily accomplished with a circle saw.  For the shelf, it was a do-over.

The pieces separate so they can be put to other uses should the loft bed be no longer desired.  They will probably make good furniture for a college apartment some day.  The only thing I am not satisfied with is the white paint.  I cannot seem to apply paint without leaving brush marks.  I think it is a problem that can only be solved with a 20 gallon air compressor.  Most men’s problems can usually be solved with a power tool of some sort.

Unlike what you can buy in a store, most of the hardware is hidden or designed out of this bed.  That made it more difficult to design and build, but overall, I am happy with how it looks.  The only thing I would change with some of the parts is to cut more weight out wherever possible.

Overall, I am pleased with how it turned out.  Now I've got to finish that plywood skeleton before the trick or treaters get here.