Soulriding into the frosty realms;-)

 Yesterday the woods called out loud, and I answered by bike;-). Had to change my brake pads beforehand, but then it was venturing out into the forest. I love going by bike not only because it takes me places, but for the riding in itself, too, obviously. I had to take the road some kilometres, but then it was a long single- and doubletrack up the hill. Peace. Silence. Solitude. Into the dark spruce woods I ventured, and the higher I got, the more the frost had bitten into the trees´crowns. The ground was frozen solid, and what was formerly mud was rock-hard and dry, making for fun riding where the ground was smooth and hard work where there were swampholes.

 And the woods were dark, and a gentle breeze moved the crowns of old spruce and fir trees. I have loved this song, the song of the wind in the treetops, ever since I was a little boy. It was the first sound I heard consciously, and it will always be a part of my soul. If I could utter one wish, I would like to die my death hearing this song, when it is time. Of course, I hope, it will be some time coming, still, for life is still great!

 I found the scarf underneath those blades in the woods. I have made a sheath for Lugra-Moros, and its poem is also ready. Also, my Nessmuk has a garage, too, now;-). Bit crude, as always, but then I did not draw anything beforehand, DOH!*ggg* And it gets the job done, keeping the blades out of harm´s way. The Nessmuk sheath has an inlay of felted wool, by the way.

 Who was it that said there can be an entire forest in a cup of tea?*ggg* I rode to my favourite place, and had a cuppa tea, and sat on the root of a birch tree, put on extra clothes and a blanket, closed my eyes, and gave in to reverie and meditation.

 I sat there for one good hour. Then I lowered my saddle, put away my stuff, strapped my rucksack on tight, donned gloves and helmet and bested my personal best down that singletrail by 3 seconds. Time stands at 29 seconds now, down the Steinbruch trail.;-). Time to beat, Jandark, Kai and the others!*ggg*

 This is the place, a peaceful, silent place above the lake.

 The trees are slowly awakening!

 And the winter solstice hints that the light is always growing stronger. I want to give to you the hope that night is waning and spring is on the way. These ice crystals I found by the trailside hint of that, too, at least in my book;-). They bear the light in their cold heart as well as the darkness. They will melt, and they dissolve the light into thousand colours.

 No life without death, I thought, no spring without winter, no fire without earth, no earth without fire, no water without air, no air without water. Or fire, or stone.

 This light shines in the darkness. It is the star that is hidden beneath the roots of the mountains.

It is the star that is hidden in the crystal, which in turn is hidden inside my soul. And that crystal will not melt.

Dream mode over and out*ggg*, all in all, a great ride of sic et non, of contrasts and of harmony. 

Perfect for me....;-)

Jagd und Hund Expo Dortmund 2012

On Tuesday, the 31st of January my highlight of the year will start in the "Westfalenhallen" neighbouring city of Dortmund. It will take place from 31.01.2012 until Sunday, the 5th of February. There will be roundabout 686 corporations on display, the entire area is about 48.000 m² big. There will be about 79.000 visitors (That number is from 2011). There will be corporations from 34 countries.

Many interesting and important topics will be dealt with. For instance, there will be a theme booth on Geocaching. This sport is currently booming worldwide and quite naturally there are conflicts with other groups as well as some ecological challenges still to be discussed. For the first time, groundspeak, one of the biggest geocaching platforms on the internet and partner of the national hunting association in Germany, will be present and inform about this topic as well as be ready to adress any conflicts face-to-face.

A load of activities will take place, too many to mention them all, but there will be an offroad parcours in expo area 3B, where there will be quite a bit of action (a 5 m teeter - totter on a truck anyone;-)?), a show of hunting with birds of prey (my favourite last year), a show of many different races of hunting dogs, fashion shows, fishing demonstrations and many such like. There will be products from bargain-priced up to high-end geardo equipment;-), guns, ammunition, knives (many very well renowned knifemakers have announced their venue, and I especially look forward to the Swedish, Czechian and Hungarian knifemakers. Loads of delicious food, discussions and meeting people. You can have a good insight on all the actions in this brochure here. If you want to display your products, you can get info here and here.

I look forward to meeting with Per, Martin and Ulf from Karesuando kniven, Mr. Hochstein, Mr. Morsbach from Otter knives, who will be there hopefully, the friendly folks from the Wildfarm Best and all those others, and I have saved the entire year to get me some gear and simply have a ball. I will keep you informed;-), no really, I will!;-)

First steps towards a crane / ditty bag

I am working on a new ditty or crane bag (corr bolg), which will contain a set of knives, lashes for a flashlight, some utilities and miscellaneous "on-body-gear". I am currently doing some concept work, for I have to decide which knives / utility gear I want to fit in. The knives will get a proper sheath inside the bag, with the flap going over them. Big and small Nessies will go inside,




...and the would-be big utility, too... The leather is untanned cowhide, 6 mm, and it will make the backside of the ditty. Maybe I will make a sheath or lash  for  a small hatchet at the backside to go outside. The rings are tempered steel from a bull rig. You can see what material I will make the shoulder strap from lying at the bottom of the pic.

Will take some time, and I will keep you informed. First, the big utility will be completed, in a similar way to the Nessie. Then it will be a whittler, maybe big and small, all antlered, a spooncarver, a poker, a firesteel, a tin can opener and bottleopener / screwdriver, maybe a drill and a multitool (drill incorporated in the multitool?). Then a Orgonite Orgon palm stick which can also serve as a pocket / hand warmer, for meditational purposes and the like;-). On the latter (and an Orgonite Orgon staff) a feature will come soon, for I have made some pretty strange experiences with that, and apart from all the nonsense you can find on the web, I figured out there is a grain of truth in all that hype... and hey, it´s also a corrbolg after all, so I can stick as many esoteric rubbish into it as much as I like*ggg*. Just kidding, as usual.

So the bag might take some time to be ready, but I really look forward to this project.

Wonderful handknitted skull cap by the magic troll;-)

I have a new favourite cap! Drui made it for me, and it left me quite amazed. For her skill, for the fact that she made it for me, for the complexity of the fabric... and I am very grateful I met her, it turns out an economic success business partnership...;-) I am kidding, of course...

Anyway, it´s made from wool, and while it´s keeping my noggin nice and warm in this foul weather we have over here these days, it´s not hot. Great one, and it was a right surprise and a big delight for me.

Danke, lieber Mensch!!!

The Dothopper´s live in concert at Molly Malone´s Irish Pub in Marburg on Saturday, the 21st of January2012

Enjoy... sorry for the lousy quality, but it´s a bootleg after all;-)... more might come, who knows*ggg*?

The "Dothoppers" live in concert at Molly Malone´s Irish Pub in Marburg

On Saturday the magic troll was being on air with her folk band in her living room, "Molly Malone´s Irish Pub" in Marburg, and, what can I say, duty called, so what could I do? It is a hard job, but someone´s got to do it: Drink all that beer and have all that fun... Now Molly Malone´s is a very great and special place indeed, and not only for the lovely Guiness and whiskeees, but for the music and the people. Alfred, who´s the lord of that place, certainly is a very impressive personality. We did not talk much, but he simply has that air about him not many people have. Hard to explain, but I felt he took my full measure with one look - at least he tried to;-).

 And this person certainly is one of the very few people in my life really knowing me, and being a true friend for me I will not want to miss anymore. You might know her, for she´s the one with that blog here. I guess we keep learning from each other, and that´s a great thing for sure, and we already walked through some very beautiful adventures.

 ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!! Time´s closing in;-). We were there rather in time, and there was some time left for a beer and some weird jokes.

 

That´s Alfred, the innkeeper. Wasn´t too fond of me shooting all those pics at first, but I guess he warmed up to it;-). If you ever are in Marburg, visit that place, it´s well worth it, and NO, noone paid me to say so;-). There are many great musicians playing there. Just take a look at their homepage!

Then it was some setting up the stage, some tiny practice and  the soundcheck.

And then it commenced... I had a great time with all the music, really played with heart and soul.

They are certainly having a head start. Their music´s simply got that little charming piece of personality, and they simply have a great way of playing. They do it for fun, and it shows in their music and how they act with the audience. Good music, good humour, and it seems I am getting involved into that arse over tit;-) as the saying goes.

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,,,soundcheck...

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 Mind you, we even had a beer!

 ...or two..

 ...or three...











Andy and Daisy Reilly...erm the magic troll havin´a beer...*ggg*

 Havin´fun!

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 ...ummm...I lost cound, it was five, was it?*ggg*

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It was a very great evening, and we went to the magic troll´s place with quite a feeling of satisfaction and a good fill. Great people again, and oh, if you read this, Erika, Andy, Roland, Hans-Jürgen and Peter, Alfred, Beate and all those others, guests and fans and passers-by on board that evening: Feel free to copy the photos for your own use, provided you give a bit of credit to the Dothoppers, Molly Malone´s and this weirdo here, if you use them in public. 

A vid will come soon...

DeNOOBing myself: Riding staircases-sort of a tutorial;-)

Always wear proper safetyx gear!;-)

Fimbulmuk is almost there:-)

 My Nessie is coming along quite nicely... seems my strand of bad luck has run out.I like it so far. It´s not perfect, as usual, but I have given up on the perfectionist´s stance. Blade and handle have yet to see some finishing work. It´s also realitively close to the original. The illustrations in the printout are from Nessmuk´s book, in case you ask:-), but most of you know it well. For those who don´t, here´s an excellent post on Nessmuk and most of the other important and bushcraft- related authors on Karl´s Ranging and pathfinding blog. Thanks, Karl, for inspiring me!

 I set this decorative rune-engraved disc into the antler crown. Still some glue that has to be removed, but almost there.


For some reason, this knife feels right. It feels right to make, and to use. I like it a lot, and it gives me this "utility" feeling. Can´t tell it in another way. It just feels solid and reliable. I don´t know at all if it is. Did some testing on the blade (whacked the flat side on the anvil´s horn, carved mild steel rods with it, let it drop tip first on a concrete floor from a height of 1,80 m, let it drop flat from the same height, clamped the first third of the blade in a vise and whacked it with a 1,8 kg hammer, and did a magnifying glass visual check after that) for the steel is outright problematic to properly heat-treat, and it came out unscathed, so I guess it will do;-), but that feeling´s not a rational one. It´s just like "pack this knife and some utilities that fit in a ditty and  go out for an overnighter". Now I don´t know if it has got something to do with the blade shape. I have never been a big fan of the Nessmuk style of blades - up to this day. I was brought up with clip point hunting knives with a leather handle or the "Jagdnicker" variety. Those were my first knives. Later I stuck to Scandi blades, and I like them still. They all are simply great. But this knife gives another feel to it, and it´s hard to pin that. Might as well be the heft of the beast, for it´s quite heavy. Or the rustic finish. Or the steel. Or all of it. But it´s a good thing, and there might as well be a thing as too much of a reflective mind.:-)

I look forward to it.

Filthy, moth-eaten, spare felt hat*ggg*

Another hat that sat at *ggg* the back of my wardrobe, and turns out I have to make myself a new one, for the moths apparently had an excellent meal. I wore it with my storyteller´s costume once. All natural raw  sheepswool, apparently delicious, felted with warm soap... and POINTYYYYYYYYY...*ggg*

Traditional Hungarian hunting knives

This is my collection of traditional Hungarian hunting knives. I am quite interested into the ethnographical and morphogenetic influences of the Oriental, German, French and Hungarian folding hunting knives. Hungarian culture was strongly influenced by Turk-nomadic and other Oriental ethnies. It shows in the form of the blade, which supposedly shows an influence of the "Yatagan" fixed blade knife. The top three are hunting knives, the last was sold to me as a shepherd´s knife. The sickle-like short blade was used to ream the hooves of sheep, the large one. I especially like the one with the curved handle. All of them are slip-joint folders, with a high spring rate, but the one with the curved handle is kept open also by an intelligent geometry of spring and handle. It is virtually impossible to accidentally close the blade when doing sensible work. The steel of all three is stainless, but who knows from what quality;-). Except the second one from top, they hold an edge quite well, and that´s all one could ask for. Top is an Szalóntai István blade, the others are made by Mr. Belenczak. All handmade in Hungary, they come dead cheap nonetheless. Kinda rustic appearance, but that only adds to the charme of those little cutters... I love them and use them a lot as a clasp knife for backing up the backup knife that backs up my backup knife, which backs my backup knife up.*ggg*.