How to catch a mess of crawfish

When I was a kid we’d take a chicken neck, tied a piece of kite string to it, and go on down to the crawdad hole over at the creek. Lower the chicken neck to the bottom and wait a few minutes til we felt a slight vibration and tugging of a wiley crayfish gnawing away. Patiently and very slowly we’d pull up the chicken neck and dip a small net made of chicken wire underneath and scoop up the crawdaddy. We’d repeat this over the course of a warm Saturday afternoon until we’d filled up a couple gallon bucket.

We’d head home where Mama would throw them in a pot of rice, beans and sausage seasoned perfectly with the trinity of onion, celery and green bell pepper. My lord the aroma coming out of that kitchen would have everyone to drooling.

Now-a-days, we don’t have time to sit there and dangle a chicken neck from a piece of string. Instead we build some or buy some crawfish traps, bait them with fresh chicken, or catfood, and put them down in very same crawdad holes we used to fish when we were kids. Leave the traps overnight, and first thing in the morning we collect the traps, and empty them into the same plastic buckets we used to use. Difference is the amount of time we spend actually doing the catching is pretty much equal to zip, zero, nada.

And Mama is still in the kitchen cooking us up a mess of crawfish.

Life is good.

Air Rifle Tuning

I am getting ready to purchase a new air rifle. And I’ve made the decision that it’s going to be an Industry Brand QB78 hand picked and tuned by Mike Melick of Flying Dragon Air Rifles. He’s the man to go to with tuning of these rifles, to get the absolute maximum in power, accuracy and smoothness. There are other dealers who sell these rifles but NONE offer the level of tuning that Mike Melick offers. Other dealers will take the rifle out of the box, offer a once over, and perhaps shoot a few pellets through it and give you the target, and call it tuned.

Mike Melick of Flying Dragon Air Rifles goes further in his QB78, QB79, and AR2078 family of Air Guns.

A Basic Tune of the QB78, QB79 and AR2078, if needed includes:

1. Remove airgun from box, and check for any damage
2. Dissemble each air rifle and clean the barrel using an Otis Pull Through Bore Cleaner.
3. Align the QB78, QB79, AR2078 barrel port and the port in the receiver.
4. Polish the AirGun Bolt, Bolt Probe Extension, Inside of Receiver, and check all for smooth operation.
5. Smooth and Polish the QB Receiver Slots
6. Polish Air Rifle Hammer and Cocking Block for smoothness.
7. Deburr Gas Tube Slots in the rifle.
8. Inlet is opened on the Valve Assembly.
9. Piercing Pin is re-pointed.
10. Reduce diameter of piercing head to the outer diameter of the spring.
11. If needed barrel is re-crowned.
12. Check for accuracy.
13. Trigger taken apart, and polished, lubed, and checked for trigger pull, and smoothness.
14 Install new Trigger spring.

After all these checks, polishing, and adjusting and tuning, the air rifle is packed up and shipped to you.

Build Your Own Boat

Build your own boat. Building your own boat isn’t so difficult. It can be a lot of work, but it is so satisfying to to take your own home built boat out on the water.

Step One: Buy Renn Tolman’s Book:
Tolman Alaskan Skiffs
Building Plans for Three Ply/epoxy Skiffs

Step Two: Read it over and over.

Step Three: Buy materials, and gather tools.

Step Four: Build sawhorses.

Step Five: Get started by building the transom. This will give you a good idea of the scale of the boat.

Step Six: Keep going until you have it on the water.

Having issues? Having Questions? Go to Tolman Skiff Building Forum and ask away.

Boat Building Forum
Build your own boat
Build your own skiff
How to build a wooden boat
Bass Barn thread
BassBarn

San Francisco Bay Area, Berkeley and Oakland Biodiesel

Truck is happy running B100 ASTM biodiesel from Sirona Fuels in the East Bay. I’ve been running Biodiesel fuel in my Cummins powered truck for over two years now, and none of the few horror stories I’ve heard have come true. True my first few fuel filters clogged up as the biofuel worked its powerful solvent through the fuel tank, fuel lines, mechanical lift pump, injection pump, and injectors. B99 BioDiesel is going to clean everything, and since your filter is the last thing inline before your fuel injection pump, all the crud the B99 dislodges is going to end up in the filter. Run Biodiesel for a few months and your engine is sure to run better and cleaner.

A few months ago, being the curious fellow that I am, I dropped the Dodges fuel tank to take a look see. It was clean as a whistle. Rubbing my hands inside the tank transferred no nasty gunk to my skin. I recall Fossil Fuel Diesel being dirty, smelt and leaving a nasty layer of tar or asphaltum on my hands when the truck had only seen Dino diesel.

Algae PhotoBioReactor

I’m interested in all things alternative fuel, and energy. So I’m looking at solutions for creating Biofuel or biodiesel from things like used restaurant cooking oil, to using virgin oils from plants like the jatropha, or Algae Oil and I came across a solution for processing algae into lubrication oil.

Urban Algae has invented an Algae PhotoBioReactor using commonly available surplus parts.

Urban Algae’s low-cost, high-yield photobioreactors, or Algae Pods (a-pod) are recycled industrial totes re-engineered into high-efficiency, high-yield algae photobioreactors.

Algae can be farmed and converted to fuel or lubricants, and even food. Urban Algae is leading the way to actualizing cost effective farming of algae using their low-cost, high-yield photobioreactors.

Best Drawing Program

I am mourning the death of my favorite and what I consider to be the easiest to use, and best drawing program ever.

Adobe bought out Macromedia, and killed off Freehand. It is still the best drawing program.

Adobe bought Macromedia to get the crown jewels of Flash, and to finally shut down Freehand, and keep the market for drawing programs limited to only Illustrator. That sucks. I have mountains of old Freehand files which do not translate correctly in Illustrator. And using Illustrator is obtuse, and feels like I have suddenly switched from being right handed to left handed. Where the hell do they keep everything?

So, hurry on over to free freehand.org, and join up to fight the evil as hell Adobe and get them to free the best drawing program ever.

Bay Area Biodiesel

I live in a part of the country that embraces a different approach to a lot of things. One of those things is we like alternative fuels for our vehicles. Many folks in this are love old Mercedes Diesels, Dodge Diesel Trucks, Ford Diesel Trucks, GM Diesel Trucks, VW Jettas and old Rabbits, BMW Diesels, etc. We burn used filtered veggie oil or grease, and we burn BioDiesel which typically is used cooking oil, fats and grease converted or processed into Biodiesel.

I have purchased Biodiesel in the bay area including BioFuels Oasis in Berkeley, and Sirona Fuels in Oakland. Sirona BioFuels usually has the best price on biodiesel in the bay area, and they are nice folks, and they have beyond ASTM quality and 3rd party certified Biodiesel for sale. Current Biodiesel price can be found at their website.

So if you are looking for Bay Area Biodiesel I highly recommend Sirona Fuels in Oakland.

Contact Sirona Fuels

Bay Biodiesel

Martial Arts Schools – Vallejo, California

There is a plethora of Vallejo Martial Arts Schools, no doubt due to the reputation of this ex-navy blue collar town. Because of budget cuts and the city declaring bankruptcy, police and fire protection is at a new low. Should you need a police intervention to protect you or your family, you might wait hours, or days to get any law enforcement attention. As a result citizens are enrolling themselves and their children in Martial Arts for self protection and defense.

Some Martial arts stress offense, and use devastating and dangerous tactics and techniques to protect the person. It is relatively easy to teach brutality but more difficult to teach someone to confidence, skill and empowerment, while also teaching responsibility, awareness, assessment, and appropriate action. Seibukan Jujutsu, aka Vallejo ju jitsu, Vallejo jiu jitsu and Vallejo jujitsu is an ancient Japanese Martial art practiced by Warriors on the battle field. Jujutsu was an art perfected for defending oneself, minus weapons in battle where your opponent still had his weapons and also wore body armor. Modern Seibukan Jujutsu has been designed for modern times and warriors, and as a result has obvious roots in the ancient, but modified for modern people and situations.

US
California
CA
Solano County
Vallejo
Benicia
Napa
American Canyon

Martial Arts School Vallejo
Martial Arts Lessons Vallejo
Martial Arts Academy Vallejo
Martial Arts Lessons Vallejo
Martial Arts for Children Vallejo
Martial Arts for Kids Vallejo
Martial Arts for Teens Vallejo
Martial Arts for Adults Vallejo
Martial Arts Lessons for Children Vallejo
Martial Arts Lessons for Kids Vallejo
Martial Arts Lessons for Teens Vallejo
Martial Arts Lessons for Adults Vallejo
Martial Arts for Self Protection Vallejo
Martial Arts for Protection Vallejo
Martial Arts Vallejo
Jujutsu Martial Arts Vallejo
Jujitsu Martial Arts Vallejo
Jiu Jitsu Martial Arts Vallejo
Self Defense Martial Arts Vallejo
Self Defense Vallejo
Practical Martial Arts for Modern Warriors
Vallejo Martial Arts
Contact Vallejo Martial Arts

Vallejo Martial Arts

Martial Arts Schools in Vallejo, CA

Seibukan Jujutsu