bow from french broom

I made a bow from french broom, it's about 68" long and 1" wide and pulls about 26 lbs. The wood doesn't take a lot of set before it breaks and it's not super-elastic but it's pretty strong and would make a good longbow. It's hard to find pieces that are straight though, I got lucky with this one. That stuff is everywhere though, I'm going to keep looking.

I pulled a splinter out of my hand! It had been stuck in there for about a month and really hurt but I couldn't get to it. Finally. Very bright light is useful for locating hidden splinters.

Make every sneeze count

Don't hold back, SNEEZE FOR REAL.

Bow from green wattle

I have never heard of a bow being made of acacia, specifically green wattle. This tree grows like a weed in various places around the bay area and beyond and is often tall, thin, and straight. You have probably seen it. So I cut one down in Ukiah, CA, my hometown, and made several bows from it, all of them selfbows with an unworked back. From breaking up small pieces of it for firewood, it seems like the outer layer may be more elastic than the rest of the wood. The original log diameter was about 4-5 inches. I think that the fact that the area is very dry may contribute to the strength of the wood as it grew slower than normal, with fairly tight rings. This tree was about 10.

bow #1: 41" long, 12 lbs. at 20". 1 1/4" width, 1/4 " thickness, 3/4 " string follow.
bow #2: 61" long, 23 lbs at 30". 1 1/2" width, 1/2 " thickness, 1 1/2 " string follow.
bow #3: 66" long, 30 lbs at 30". 1 3/4" width, 1/2 " thichness, 1 " string follow.

I don't have a chronometer so I don't know how it compares to other bow woods. These staves may also still be a little wet ( no moisture meter either) so I'm going to test their strength again in a few weeks to see if it has changed at all.

2 months later-- weight has not changed. It's pretty humid here though, 80%, and that has to keep the moisture in the wood up there.

tried to meet up with phil in utah

I lost my cell phone on the bus on the way from Salt Lake City to Cedar City. I don't know where it went. I got to a town called parowan and put my bike together. It felt great, like being born. I called phil with a calling card and made arrangements to meet him on top of a high mountain peak, and we could ride back down it together. I rode up the mountain for about 5 hours, until about 920 PM, and finally reached the peak. The country was beautiful but it got very dark and very cold after the sun went down. The peak (which turned out to be the wrong one, phil was waiting at a slightly higher peak down the road a ways) was at 9,910 feet and the stars were quite bright. I could see the light and dark parts of the milky way. I put on all the clothes I had and I was still cold, so I tuned my radio to a country station and made up country dances on the side of the road to keep myself warm. It worked pretty well, but after an hour I got tired of dancing and hanging out in the dark. I had a feeling animals were stalking and closing in nearby also. So I turned around and went back down the mountain, but before I did I turned up the radio all the way and pointed it in front of me. I was hoping any animals on the road would hear me and get out of the way before I ran into them. My front headlight was very dim. I tied a t-shirt around the lower half of my face like a cowboy villian to keep my face from freezing. On the way down my fingers got really cold and I had to keep stopping to warm them up. Then I got the bright idea to warm them up on my front wheel. I had been riding the brakes all the way down the mountain and so the front wheel got pretty warm. I met up with phil the next day and he said I could have put socks over my hands. That's a pretty good idea too. I got to a motel about 1130 PM and took a hot bath. The next morning phil and I met up. He had come down the hill about 45 minutes after me and got a room just down the street. Today we are cruising -- easy miles. Incidentally, the carl's junior I went to yesterday had phones in each booth and at each table. Not pay phones, regular phones. I should have tried to make a call on one.

Heuristic

Heuristic: A method based on empirical information that has no explicit rationalization.

bikes

some local bicycle action... We're trying to think of a name for our bike crew. Maybe the downtown bike posse, or local intense bike crew, something along those lines. We came up with some good formations such as the diamond switcheroo, and the orbit.