1- “To me, a winner is someone who recognizes their God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills and uses those skills to accomplish his goals. Even when I lost, I learned what my weaknesses were and I went out the next day to turn those weaknesses into strengths.” – Larry Bird.
I saw this quote from Larry Bird and thought about Scouts.
Larry holds these accolades: NBA Rookie of the Year, NBA All-Star 12 times, NBA Most Valuable Player 3 times in a row, 3 NBA Championships, US Olympics Basketball Team, NBA Finals MVP, All-Star MVP, Coach of the Year, and Executive of the Year. And a lot more records to his credit than listed here.
But what I remember about Larry was his work ethic. He was never late for practice or a game. He was usually the first one on the court and the last one to leave. He had a habit of walking and bouncing the basketball off of every square foot of the court floor to find the extremely minor variations that he could use to his advantage. I never saw him “hot dog” the ball. He was a true team player who recognized either the team won or the team lost. His individual stats are impressive (to say the least)… But his team winning stats were what mattered to him.
C: I wonder how many apples grow on trees?
D: All of them.
2- Three trees, in particular, are really good at providing bark that is easy to light for fire building.
A- White Birch bark has a rich, flammable oil inside the bark that catches on fire really easily.
B- Cedar bark is full of fibers. To help these catch fire; roll a bundle between your hands to help break down the bark into string-like fibers.
C- Cottonwood inner bark fibers are like cedar above. Cottonwood is in the poplar tree family. It has a silvery-white colored bark with deltoid (triangular) shaped leaves.
Please, Please do not strip bark from around a tree. Go up and down the tree for additional bark. Going around the tree is called “collaring” or “girding” and will kill the tree. Try to find a dead limb, that is the best place to retrieve from. Use only what you need – ie: as little as possible from a live tree.
3- Let me add 4 more knots to your collection: Slippery Clove Hitch, Slippery Constrictor Knot, Siberian or Evenk Hitch.
All three are very good at doing (mostly) the same thing by securing an animal to a hitching post or rail. And being easily to untie.
The Ashley Book of Knots uses the term “slippery” or “to make slippery” to denote an additional feature to a given knot. Some knots are slippery by design and do not use the additional feature word. An example is the Clove Hitch vs the Slippery Clove Hitch. Here the Evenk Hitch and the Mooring Hitch are both slippery as a base knot and do not need the additional adjective.
Personally, I use the Slippery Clove Hitch because I already know the Clove Hitch & it is easy to modify into “slippery” mode.
E: What happened to the cat that ate a spool of yarn?
F: It had mittens.
Semper Paratus,
Gaither
“Validation comes to us in two ways: through trials, (which) we overcome, or through the words of older (and wiser) men.” John Eldredge