On October 31, 2009 I tested for my 1st degree black belt in Hapkido. The test consisited of demonstrating a series of kicks, then 60 different techniques. The techniques were broken into 4 sets: Defense Against Fist, Defense Against Kicks, Defense Against Knife, and First Moving (offensive)Attack. My falling partner was Lawrence Wong. He did a great job, and deserves much of the credit for motivating me to get ready on time for the test. He also made me look good!!!
This video is my Defense against Fist attack.
Read full post >>Well it has been a while since I posted anything here. I have experienced many changes in the last 3 and a half months. I Spent July in Gustavus having a great time flying for Chuck at Fjord Flying Service. Then at the end of July I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer............. No more FAA medical certificate, and a strong desire to be with my family. Also I needed to start chemotherapy treatment.
As I began treatment, I also developed a strong desire to continue living my life to its fullest. In September, Jen, Reed and I went to Alaska on a family trip. Our origional plan was for them to come see me up there, now we traveled to gether. We had an outstanding trip. Reed got to drive the truck around Gustavus, I got to fly the airplane a couple times, and we caught some big fish!!
We were invited to spend one night at the Salmon Run Lodge located at Excursion Inlet. A great location and Jared is a great cook!!!
9 years later, Jen and I return to the location of our first kiss. The Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau.
Reed caught the big fish. It weighed just over 50 pounds, and was as big as him!!
Reed got to be my copilot in the Cessna 206 that I flew for Fjord Flying Service.
Excursion Inlet Cannery.
The approach to Excursion Inlet is a little unusual. They have installed lights and a siren that the pilot can activate from the air to warn the workers at the cannery to stay clear. It is also to notify the bears that a plane is coming. Then a low fly over at about 500 feet to ensure the runway is clear. The wind typically is blowing from the southeast, in this picture the view is to the north west, so the landing is makde coming toward the camera.
After flying over head and turning around out over the water, this is the view back to the southeast on "final".
This afternoon I will be giving a flightseeing tour of Glacier bay. More than likely I will be going up the west arm and will be showing the Margerie Glacier at the very north west end of Glacier Bay.
This is the view you get on take off headed to the south east. Yes it is narrow and the trees are tall. It gets pretty exciting when you are fully loaded!
Note the blue sky in these pictures. This past week it has been 80 degrees and sunshine here. Better weather than they have been having back home in So. Cal.!!!I made it to Alaska safely and am getting settled in. I have a small cabin in Gustavus, and have been spending my days flying back and forth to Juneau. The other day I had the opportunity to ride along on a park service sea otter survey. They fly around looking for sea otters and count them. This picture is a part of a large group of otters. The surveyer said the group contained about 450 animals total.
I was able to see 2 moose as we flew around, only got a picture of one.
As we flew around we also saw many seals and sea lions, a couple of bears, and some humpback whales.
It is has been fun so far. The weather is pretty good, a bit of rain the last couple of days but supposed to clear up and be in the 70's on Monday!!
These are 14 foot lengths, so I have a bit of room to slide things around .
I hope to put some glue to it later today!
Read full post >>Over the last few days I have gotten the frame completed. I used a saw to cut the rail line around the perimeter. Basically connecting the dots between the ribs. Then used a plane to smooth things out.
Here are the components of the frame. The skeleton is 1/4" plywood, and as previously mentioned the perimeter is 2 pieces of 1/8" bending ply laminated together.
Here I have set the skeleton in place (not glued yet). You can see how the perimeter structure is taller than it needs to be and will be cut down to match the rocker that is defined by the skeleton.
This is the plywood interior rail pulled off of the bending form. Next the internal frame will be fit into this and then the perimeter is cut to match the rocker.
As you can see there is old wall paper on 3 of the walls, and wood trim on everything. I did some looking and decided on a Surf Blue, with Ultra White trim. 
Now it looks like we will be repainting some of the other rooms in the house............
Well, when we got to the trail head we saw the sign in the picture below. 
In April 2008 there was a fire on the hills above Sierra Madre. I do not know how many acres burned, but it surrounded the mouth of the canyon. As the trail begins the hike takes you through the burn area.
About 1/2 mile up is the reason the trail is closed. The California Conservation Corps is doing some trail maintenance, and clearing out some of the mud slide area. They put dirt in the black shoot. It slides to th ebottom of the hill where another crew loads it into wheelbarrows and carts it to a dumptruck to be hauled away. We chatted with the supervisor (yellow hat) and continued on up the trail.
Santa Anita Racetrack.
We did hike up far enough to get out of the burn area. This is the creek at First Water.
And the trail as we continued further up.
Due to time issues and having to get back, we only made it as far as the US Forest Service heli-pad. Dave S., Me, and Jeff C. in the nor tripod picture from the ground.
The panorama shot looks from the East around to the Southwest. We were still pretty low. We had not reached the CCC doing the trail manitenance yet.
So last week I was able to go to the Gene Autry Western Museum with Reed's 2nd grade class. One of the tours the class participated in had to do with covered wagons and all the stuff the settlers brought across the country in them. For an activity, the guide gave each kid a piece of paper with a supply on it (flour, salt, corn meal, etc.). Then all of the kids gathered in a 4 foot by 10 foot area that represented the wagon. This was to demonstrate how crowded the wagons were for the settlers. I took a picture of one of Reed's friends, Mike holding his sign.
I e-mailed this picture to his father, Jason, who found it very funny considering how much Mike likes bacon. Jason replied, thanking me for the picture and included a link to a recipe called Bacon Explosion.
I used:
The first pound of bacon is weaved into a 6 strip by 6 strip mat. In the bowl is the sausage after removing it from the casings.
The sausage pressed out to an even thickness and about the same dimension as the bacon mat. The dry rub is sprinkled on the bacon.
The second pound of bacon is fried up just like for breakfast, then cut into pieces and sprinkled on top of the sausage.
Then add cheese.................... At this point I also put some of the bbq sauce on. Then roll the sausage up into a loaf.......
And wrap in bacon!!!!!! and sprinkle a bit more of the dry rub on the outside.
On the grill I have already heated up the smoker chips and gotten the temperature to 225 F. The recipe says to cook it to an internal temperature of 165 F and suggests it should take about 1 hour for each inch of diameter.
Smokin'
Up to the 165 F internal temperature in 3 hours.
Since I was taking this to a friends house, when I got there I put a little BBQ sauce on top and put it in the oven for a few minutes.
Then slice and eat!!
