An Afternoon Knap

One of the things that fascinated me when Guitar and I helped the Forest Service with an archaeological survey this past fall was how the Indians made stone tools. Intricate tools like arrowheads and knives were made by banging on rocks with stones or antlers. When you look at some of the tools up close you begin to realize how difficult it must have been to create them....Or was it? I decided to find out by investigating the art of flintknapping.

There are any number of books devoted to this subject and I bought a couple. There are also DVD and online videos that illustrate how the process works. There is, however, no substitute for having a real live person explain and show you how to do this. I had tried a little bit by myself, after watching the videos and reading some books but it's a difficult thing to do without a "teacher"....so I started looking for a teacher. Much to my surprise I found a very highly regarded instructor right here in the Denver area so I emailed him to see if he might be able to teach me.

Bob Patten is nationally if not internationally known in the field of lithics. He is the author of at least two books on the subject and is an expert craftsman in making stone tools. He also was willing to teach me so yesterday afternoon I had my first "knap".

It was fun and there is a lot to learn but it's not so difficult that a clutzy old guy like me can't do it. The picture above shows some of the native tools and some of the modern tools that I am using. The two items on the top of the picture are modern tools. The solid heavy brass rod is called a billet and it's used to do the heavy work of breaking down large pieces of stone. The tool with the black handle is called a pressure flaker and is used to flake off medium size pieces of rock.

The Native Americans did not have access to some of the tools we use today. They were limited to stones and antlers. The large stones are used as hammers to pound off larger pieces of rocks. Smaller stones caused smaller flakes and the antlers were used as pressure flakers to make the finest of flakes.

The black rock in the middle of the picture is a piece of chert that I found while on a hike last week. Chert is an excellent rock to use in flintknapping so I have something I can work with for now.

During the lesson we used some chert that Bob had gotten in Texas and we started by taking a big flake off of an even larger rock. The picture to the right is what I accomplished in about 45 minutes of knapping. It's just a rough form, about four inches tall and three inches wide. It's still too thick to be really useful and needs a lot more refinement. Like most things the roughing out is way easier than the finish work but I was thrilled that I was able to do this much.

So, it seems as if I have yet another hobby. This one also lends itself to RV trips to the mountains. Pretty soon I'm going to have to use a calendar to apportion time to my hobbies to every one gets equal time.....Life is good.

Thanks for visiting.

Oh What A Night and Flute Lessons?

That post title ought to confuse a little, but there is a simple explanation.

First, on Saturday night Guitar, Pic-E, The Bride and myself went to see "Jersey Boys" at the Buell Theater in downtown Denver. That's the Oh What A Night part of the title and it was. This was a high powered musical with lots of great music that took me back to my high school days.

The show is the story of Franki Valli and The Four Seasons. I have enjoyed their music since they "made it big" but never really knew the story of the group. The stage show only hit the highlights and included plenty of great music so there was not brain overload in trying to follow the plot. One particularly interesting tidbit was that actor Joe Pesci was a boyhood friend of Franki Valli, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi, three of the four Four Seasons. It was Joe Pesci who introduced them to Bob Gaudi who became the fourth Four Seasons and was the creative song writer for the group.

The show won a Tony Award in 2006 and has been touring the country ever since. All I can say is Oh What A Night! We had great fun, tapped our feet all evening and left the theater with a smile on our faces.

Before the show we stopped at the restaurant 1515 for dinner. The Bride and I had been to this restaurant several times before and always enjoyed it. Guitar and Pic-E had never been there before and from their reaction I think it will go on their "recommend" list.

A great meal and great entertainment....life is good. If Jersey Boys comes to your city don't miss it.

OK, so what's the deal with flute lessons?

Some time ago I reported that on my way back from New Mexico I stopped in Taos and bought a Native American Flute. I had been thinking about learning to play one for a while and finally pulled the trigger.

This is a very simple instrument that even a clutz like me is supposed to be able to play with just a little practice. It's the perfect instrument to take on my RV trips as it's small, requires no electricity and sounds great outdoors.

After a series of events that I won't detail, I ended up with a flute made by High Spirits Flutes in Arizona. The picture above is the model flute that I bought. I have been playing it for about a month on my own and decided that maybe I should take a lesson or two just to get me started.

It just so happens that there is a pretty well known Native American Flute artist by the name of Eric Herrera that lives in the Denver area and he teaches lessons. I contacted him and had my first lesson yesterday. It was just an introductory lesson but I learned enough to know that I want to continue the lessons for a while. I don't think I will threaten any professional musician's career but it is a fun thing to do and it keeps me off the streets.

As a final note, the weather here has been wonderful for the last few days. Clear, dry and temps in the upper 50's. It was so nice today that I rolled out the Ruckus scooter and took it for a drive. This is the kind of weather that makes me get out the maps and start planning trips.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year........

Thanks for visiting.

Three Days, Two Nights

In the fickle Rocky Mountain spring, that's all I could squeeze out of my trip but it was enough. It was great. It was the mountain fix I needed to tide me over for a week or so.

Per my last post, I left on Wednesday morning and was at my destination by before noon. The destination was a campground on the Arkansas River just north of Buena Vista, CO. I had never been to this campsite before so I didn't know what to expect. What I didn't have to worry about was people. This time of year the area is deserted.

The main attraction of the river these days is white water rafting. At this time of year the water is really low...because it's still very cold higher up and the snow hasn't melted to provide the water that the rafters pay to ride. At this time of year the weather is also "iffy" and people do not want to gamble on "iffy". "Iffy" is the reason I only squeezed out three days and two nights. Iffy was 28 degrees this morning with winds of 35 mph. Being as how I'm not tied down to a regular schedule, and being as how I didn't want to spend a cold windy day inside the RV, and being as how I planned only a few days out anyhow, I decided to get back home before the work a day people invaded the windy mountains.

Wednesday and Thursday however were beautiful. Highs in the 70's with a moderate wind. I had a lot of things on my list to do and I kept pretty busy during the daylight hours.

I fished a lot. Unsuccessfully unfortunately. I have not done much river trout fishing in the last 30 years so this was an exercise in reacquainting myself with the techniques. The biggest thing I learned was that at my age not only is my physical stamina reduced but my sense of balance and my "fishing eyes" are not as good as they used to be. It was a challenge not to fall into the very cold water while wading in fast moving water over slippery rocks. This is a challenge for the young and athletic too but it's just a mite more challenging for a guy like me and it made me uncomfortable not to have the ability I once had.

I also found that my eyesight is more of an impediment that it used to be. I have mentioned that I have been wearing reading glasses for a number of years now. Not only is it more difficult to follow the movement of the fishing line and lure in the water, when I needed to retie my line it became much more of a big deal.....seeing and doing while trying to balance in the fast moving water.

Before you break out the hankies to dab the tears from your eyes, I still had a blast. Just being there and soaking (not that kind of soaking) in the beauty was worth it all.

There is an old saying, "When one door closes another opens.", and so it is for me too, I think. I mentioned in the last post that I would also do a little gold panning while I was there. The Arkansas River is still an area where you can find gold and there are still people who "prospect" along the river. This is just a fishing of a different sort. This sort allows you to be more stationary and even sit.
My problem is that while I had a gold pan and had read some articles about panning for gold, I really didn't know gold panning from shinola.

That problem was partially solved while fishing on Wednesday. As I was making my way along the river I spotted a man who was panning in the river. I made my way to him and asked him if I could watch. He not only said yes but he proceeded to give me quite a little lesson on the basics. This was a hobby he had for some years and it even supplemented his income a bit. With gold selling now for $1000 an ounce this is a hobby that actually can pay....unlike the other type of fishing which normally costs me a bunch in equipment and lures.

Thursday I took a hike, rode my bike, did some birdwatching and sat in a chair at the edge of the river reading. I could just feel the city evil oozing out of my pores and being replaced by the mountain beauty.

Friday morning broke very cold and very windy and as I mentioned earlier I just decided to quit while I was ahead and return home. When I was still part of the work a day world I always envied people I saw heading down from the mountains, as I was going up on Friday or Saturday. I always thought that it would be neat to have the time to be able to avoid the hordes on the weekends and you know what....It's neat! In spite of the less than beautiful weather there were still swarms of people headed up to cram in a night or two of camping before returning to their labors. I just had this warm smile spread over my face as I headed down into the Denver area.

Thanks for visiting.

Treasure Hunting

I have done metal detecting as a hobby for four or five years. I really enjoy it not only for the solitude it provides, but it's very interesting as well. I especially like finding historical type artifacts.

Metal detecting, like any other hobby takes time. Not only is there time involved in the actual detecting itself, but it takes time to find suitable places to detect. Before I retired I always felt that even though I really enjoyed metal detecting, I should use the time required for other things. Time-wise the problem has been solved with my retirement. Now it's a matter of weather and finding suitable places.

Yesterday the weather was right so I decided to get in a little practice at a local park. This park is only about 25 years old so my odds of finding anything "historical" were pretty small. I didn't care. All I wanted to do was to get out in the fresh air and get some practice in.

The metal detecting machine I use is a Garrett Ace 250. It's an entry level machine that cost a couple hundred bucks when I got it. Even though it didn't cost all that much it is an amazing piece of electronics. You can set the machine to search for all metal, for jewelry, for only coins and numerous other things. You can also "discriminate" out certain signals to further zero in on what it is you are looking for.

Since I was going to a relatively "young" park, I decided to hunt only for coins and between the sensitivity setting and the discrimination setting, I made sure that I wouldn't be finding a lot of metal bottle caps, pull tabs and foil. The picture at the top of this post is my haul for about an hour's work yesterday afternoon. A quarter, a dime, a nickle and 5 pennies...all pretty new and all were found about 2-3 inches down in the dirt.

The detector will tell you pretty close, where the coin is, but then you have to find it in the dirt. To do this I use two other pieces of equipment. A pinpointer and a digging tool. I went through several regular garden trowels before I got smart and bought something designed especially for metal detecting.....That's the ugly, dangerous looking thing in the picture above. It will slice and dice. It won't bend or break under the worst conditions and it was absolutely worth the price.

The pinpointer is the black object above the digging tool. It's like a mini, short range metal detector. Sometimes it's not very easy to spot a coin buried in 3-4 inches of dirt. I started wearing reading glasses a long time ago and I can tell you that it's not easy to spot a copper penny in brown dirt. The pinpointer makes it easy. You can set the sensitivity level of this tool so that when you get within a half an inch of a metal object it will vibrate and make a noise. So, you locate the coin with the big metal detector, dig a hole with the digging tool and then move the pinpointer around in the soil in the hole.

I've found some interesting things including an old early 1900's cigarette lighter, ox shoes at an old mine, an old Henry rifle cartridge that is at least 100 years old.

The Bride used to give me this condescending look whenever I talked about metal detecting. Just another "guy thing" waste of time, was what I read in her eyes. That all changed one day about two years ago when I came home with the ring pictured below. I found it in an older park in an older part of town. I was not even all the way underground. I took it to a jeweler and asked about it and was offered $100 on the spot. I suspect it's worth a bit more...I decided that I would keep it and use it to "un-condescend" The Bride.

Now that the weather is starting to turn nice, I intend to put a lot more time into this hobby.

Thanks for visiting.