Charlie

Also on the trip to Onaway we stayed at my friend Laura's aunt and uncle's house. They lived on a farm and had a bunch of cows. While there i saw this cat that came out of the barn and was really friendly. There was something like 20 or more cats living in the barn but this was the tiniest. He was pretty skinny, we saw him eating old Triskets out of the box. So i kind of took him. His hobbies include eating, sleeping and drinking out of the toilets.

3 days later i got called and had to leave for West Virginia for work so i left him with my parents. When i got home 3 weeks later he was a lot fatter and energetic. And i decided to name him Charlie and teach him to kill the squirrels and rabbits in my back yard. I told him that for every squirrel he kills he can have his choice of canned food: Mariner's Catch, Sea Captain's Choice, or Turkey and Giblets. He likes those giblets.

Here he is sleeping on the ride home.

Ice Fishing

Also back in December i went up to Onaway to go ice fishing. After getting really excited i started working on my own tip-ups and poles. I had made a few before so i tried getting a little creative this time.

Here's the basic shape, cut out of a piece of 4" PVC

The spool i made by splitting one of the ball pit balls in half and taped to a piece of 1" PVC. Don't worry i still have a few left.

Here's the technical bits. The cantilever spring is attached to the pole (an old wire hanger) which is held in place by the magnet, which is set into foam in the spool.

Final product. The flag is old survey ribbon. And the round flaps on the side are to help prevent the hole from freezing up.

The poles are just aluminum tube connected to a PVC handle. The fishing line runs inside the tube so no need for eyelits. But there's no flex in the pole. Also i did end up painting these black as well.

The reels were made out of the bottom of beer cans and some PVC. They didn't work very well either. I spent most of my time on the tip-ups and these were sort of an after thought.

Now i'd like to tell you that i took these up north and caught some monster 36" pike or something. Unfortunately the gas powered auger we used had something wrong with the motor. There was no torque and it only cut one hole before running out of gas. The view was great though.