200th Post!

Still got two more hurdles to pass through, but it seems like my rate of blogging is positively correlated to my academic stress level.

The file is misnamed but 1/8th of a cubic meter is still a lot of plant material to work with! Found this on my cell phone while cleaning it out. I think the team from the ecosystem ecology methods class would've appreciated it if I found this picture sooner!

I accomplished this feat at 30 yards. I barely feel the draw weight on this little one. This is one sweet little comfort bow I could shoot all day. I seem to get much better confidence intervals on my horizonal axis, but Sparrowhawk gives me a better vertical confidence interval. I think I need to watch my form a bit more with Sorondil-Telcontar because I sometimes get major porpoising. I know the arrows are well-spined for this bow because I've had someone draw it to 24" (my traditional draw length) and there were no problems, so I suspect it's something with the way I'm torquing the bow. I guess it's time to get someone to watch my movements again!

One Down and Far Too Many To Go

I survived my methods of ecosystem ecology poster presentation. One class is finally done and still have the ecological modelling and principles of ecosystem ecology classes to go. I can't wait to be able to spend more time exercising and less time on the computer! I feel an exponential function coming on in my gut and butt diameter from sitting at the computer or in class. Click on the link for the pictures from the presentation, by the way.

Just one more week and I'll be free to follow the wind with my feet and/or my bike again!

The Ranger

The Ranger is growing stronger and stronger in me, which is exactly what I don't need for my academic situation, but I guess there's worse things that could come up than the Ranger. On one hand, the Ranger certainly gives me a sense of determination and toughness to get things done, but on the other hand, it also makes me restless, only wanting to be out in the wilds with my trusty bow or following the wind on my bike.

Worst places for the Ranger to emerge:
-- while trying to get term projects done
-- at a professional conference
-- social situation that requires being an (over)refined sissy
-- any situation involving enforced inactivity

Best places for the Ranger to emerge:
-- hunting
-- exploring new areas
-- archery tournaments
-- any situation involving strenuous, sustained activity

Now if I can only get selected features of the Ranger to emerge and/or (de)activate it at will instead of having it emerge in full at inappropriate times! It's much easier to fall into the Ranger than to come out of it and it's pretty much the most natural entity in me. Will the Ranger protect me from upcoming hazards?

Target or Hunting Bow?

Someone dared me to attempt shots at 50 yards with Sparrowhawk. Suffice to say, I was impressed with the results :)



Here's a group at the 30 yards while really tired:

A Day Late...

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the first atmospheric CO2 measurements from Mauna Loa by C.D. Keeling and the beginning of the construction of the Keeling curves. Heck, if politician and other non-exciting types get celebrated, why not scientists who actually do something exciting?

Pictures From the Cell Phone

I saw a really beautiful red-tailed hawk earlier today on campus. It was a shame I only had the cell phone, which doesn't do him or her justice, but maybe I'll see some more up-close and personal.

I also had an unusually good group at 30 yards with my freshly built 27.75" 1916s with 125 grain points and 5" parabolic-cut fletching. This was while I was blind-baling to help combat some of the target panic issues I still seem to have.

I can't wait for the collard greens to finish cooking so I can enjoy them with some home-made deer meatloaf!

Arrows A-Plenty

I've now got me a set of both relatively thin arrows that my compound will be happy with until about 47.5 lbs and a set of thicker, heavy arrows that will let me crank up the draw weight to 50 lbs (and a bit more). I'm actually impressed that my bow, even with my painfully short draw length (25") and light draw (45 lbs), likes the CXL 150s when a good friend of mine with a "real" draw length (28") and stronger draw (close to 60 lbs) on a high-performance bow uses them at full (28.5") length! Cutting off 5 inches really stiffens up the shaft, but I guess the 75 grain point does soften it a bit.

Interesting Object

Any guesses what this is?

Grab-Bag

I was digging through my hard disk and found some recent pictures that I felt like posting just for the heck of it.

This was a 35 foot walk-up (35, 30, 25, 20 yards) on the "bunny" targets during practice.

This was from about 30 yards at Gator Bowmen with Sparrowhawk. There's obviously some grouping by the types of arrows: Easton Legacy 1916s, Easton Super Slam XX78 2016, and Gold Tip Hunter 3555.

Biking Along SR 24

I almost reached the city of Archer, just west of Gainesville on my bike. The only thing that stopped me from attempting it was the lack of anything resembling a bike lane. Duration of trip from start to finish: 2 hrs. Except for a few traffic-light ridden spots, I was in racing mode. Thank goodness for that new seat on my bike or my butt would be cursing at me! Sometimes, it's just way too nice of a day to be working on term projects and I just need that outdoor exercise time more than anything else!

Rolling a 1 on a d20 on a Saving Throw or Attack Roll

I shot my first official American 900 at The Villages this morning with the Equalizer. I scored a pretty decent 806/900 -- not bad for being first timer at this, even if I did practice a bit. Oddly, I felt unusually relaxed and I was able to settle into my form really well and just focus on the target. Maybe it was practically being uncontested in my division or maybe because I knew that unless something really went wrong, there was no risk of me losing any arrows. Whatever it was, I just shot really well. It also helped being able to see the target!


Then I had the critical fumble of the millenium. My string loop took a bit of a munching at the 900 and I went to the pro-shop to chat with some friends and get things checked out. Two of my friends had been shooting a Vegas-style round and I decided to join in, thinking things were going to be ok until we were done. And then... it all happened at once. As I drew back one of many shots as I always did, I suddenly felt the back-tension release go off before I hit full anchor and the bow kicked back as it was supposed to and it fell at my feet, bouncing like a robotic Tigger. When I picked the bow up, my friend (a master bow-mechanic and wonderful mentor) evaluated the damage. My upper cam was severely bent and my string loop was no longer a loop. So now my poor Equalizer is sitting in line at the shop for some serious repair work. With the number of bow accidents I've been having, I'm starting to think that maybe there's a curse, perhaps from trusty little Sorondil-Telcontar in his (yes, I see the bow as male) envy at the other bows that have come into my life. Or maybe I just got a badly weighted 20-sided die and I've been rolling a lot of 1's.

Speaking of rolling 1's, I think I may've just missed a saving throw somewhere, either one versus spells (for you AD&D types) or a Will Save (for you 3rd/3.5th edition types) or maybe a Reflex Save (also 3/3.5)... I need to re-roll and hope I can get a better roll after improving my odds of making the save...

Compound Adventures

That's one neat looking spider there! I nearly shot the poor thing from 60 yards.


That one shot in the center of the "X" is noteworthy at 45 yards. It's a lot easier to aim when I can see the dot on my scope!


How does one get a 20X0? This is how! This one was at 50 yards. Apparently I'm either dropping my bow-arm as I release or my sight-tape is off. I think it's me dropping the bow-arm a bit because that new stabilizer is pretty darned heavy!

Staring Down the Barrel of a Gun... Kinda

It was only the second time in the tree-stand at my friend's hunting club and a crisp, cold morning where I welcomed some of the sunlight. I think we had been sitting in our stands since a bit after 0600hrs -- my friend is on a climbing stand on a big palm tree while I'm sitting on a 15 foot ladder stand that he designated as a gun stand. I could see why he put that rifle in my hands, why he wanted me to use that instead of a bow. We hadn't really seen anything unless you count the neat-looking bugs and birds that flew around us. My friend was getting somewhat fidgety and was thinking about heading out in about 20-30 minutes if we didn't see anything.

Then from the 15 foot high ladder stand, I saw some objects moving about 25 yards away and my first thought was coyotes. Then they came closer and they didn't have the coyote-like look and then I realized that the three objects were deer. There were two yearlings and a large, mature doe -- one of the yearlings I recognized was a "button buck". Silently, I flipped the safety into the "off" position and raised the rifle while the deer began to feed. The doe looked up at me and I could feel everything freezing in me, thinking that she was going to blow and bolt off. She just resumed feeding when I froze my own movements and I continued to move slowly, cautiously in hopes of getting in a good shot on her. Once again, she looked up, nervous and I held off on my actions until she relaxed. She bent back down to start feeding about 20 yards from me and I slowly aimed with the sight on the rifle until I lined up with the "pocket", the indentation right behind the shoulder. As soon as I was satisfied with my alignment and realized that my trembling wasn't going to decrease, my right index finger moved to the trigger and gradually squeezed back until I heard the thunder.

Stunned, all I could do was tremble as I watched the doe bolt off into the saw palmettoes. I turned to my friend, a seasoned hunter, and I saw him give me the thumbs-up, which reassured me that I made the right move and took a good shot. A few minutes later, he was back down on the ground with that climbing stand and I was back down, relieved to be back on solid ground where I didn't have to worry about falling. After regaining enough strength to walk in a straight line, my friend and I searched for the blood trail. He saw where she fell, but he's the type who'd rather follow the path of least resistance or failing that, the blood trail.

Then my friend noticed that there were partially digested acorns in the blood trail. Not a good sign because that indicates a gut-shot, although he swore that he saw me shoot right behind the shoulder. The pieces came together after I realized what happened -- I did aim for that "pocket" but she was also facing towards me. The entrance wound suggested that the shot went through her lungs, but the exit wound showed that it also went through parts of her digestive tract. Nonetheless, she left a good trail and we found her fairly close to where I had shot her.

My friend used the tree-stand harnesses to drag the 100ish lb deer out and then we went to get some ice and began to skin her in his yard. All I can say of the process are the following: 1) guts stink especially if they've been poked open 2) it's cool to see what my shot destroyed and 3) it's far more pleasant than the biology class dissection stuff. Granted, most of my duties revolved around holding up a water hose and spraying water where I was directed to or holding things stable. After quartering the deer and removing the bullet wound and trauma areas, we took the skinned deer to the butcher for further work.

I can't wait for my steaks, roasts, and other venison products!

Return of Sparrowhawk

I finally got Sparrowhawk back after taking her in for repairs to the glass on the top limb and re-finishing. I think I spend too much time on my butt and not enough shooting things or running around.



Not too shabby for being severely chewed on by mosquitoes and not having practiced for a long time...

Escape From Gainesville

Click on the title to see what I did this weekend. Suffice to say, I definitely need to be shooting and exercising more!

I'll Let You Ponder These

Let's see if you can figure out what's going on here.




On a different note, I did a bit of an experiment today with none other than Sorondil-Telcontar. So I had a dozen Easton Legacy shafts size 1916 that were 29.5" long. I decided to build them up knowing that the 28" shafts with 125 grain points were a bit stiff for Sorondil-Telcontar even though they were a bit soft for Sparrowhawk and that a 27" size 1816 shaft with a 125 grain point was ever so slightly soft for Sorondil-Telcontar. Suffice to say, I think I can just keep a nice, big stash of 1916s and they'll satisfy both Sparrowhawk and Sorondil-Telcontar even if I may have to cut them to different lengths if I want to keep the same weight points to make life a bit easier. I still prefer wooden arrows, but with the amount of time involved in making them and the frequency at which I hit them or hard objects, it does get prohibitively labor-intensive!

Need a Venison and 3D Fix

For some reason, I've been really wanting some good, tender venison. I'm also getting a serious hankering for doing some 3D shooting, which I've hardly done ever since school kicked in. I guess I'll get my 3D fix this weekend, barring the homework set from hell or any annoyance that may come up from a four-headed troll. I really want to shoot the living daylights out of something -- for some reason, drills aren't quite satisfying that urge to kill something, even if they are very time-efficient and about the only thing I can do given that most of my daylight hours are either stuck behind a computer, in a classroom, or too fragmented to get to my favorite haunts.

I definitely need to evacuate from town too -- I'm not at all enthused about homecoming, although the one plus is that it gives me a day for myself to actually get things done (3D fix, too bad bow-hunting season's already over here in FL... it's way too short). I thought homecoming was only for high schoolers with the wits of partially digested detritus and nothing better to do, but apparently it's also for university critters (students, professors, staff) with nothing better to do!

That predatory urge is getting really intense, I'm starting to really understand why a buddy of mine was spazzing out not long ago and kept going off on how he needed to kill something with his bow. I can't wait to finally shoot my own deer or hog, preferably with Sparrowhawk, but I can use the Equalizer or the River's Edge recurve or even little Sorondil-Telcontar in a serious pinch. Click on the above link for a really nice-looking buck -- one of these days I'll be the one out in the woods and doing real shooting instead of sitting in front of the computer with my body weight in readings and code!

I think I just accidentally let off a blinding -VOIP!- with my ever-so-pale visage...

A Few Sights...

Let's see if you can guess what this plant is used for...


A deer passed through here! Darn, where's my weapon when I need it? I really want to take the wind out of some edible critter (ie, deer or hog) by putting a hole through its lungs/heart with either Sparrowhawk or Sorondil-Telcontar!



A most beautiful sunset, taken while going down the interstate with my friend in his truck. It was a bit of a shame that the clouds took over though, would've been a great night for star-gazing.



An old-style tractor (c. 1940s or 1950s) with my friend providing a sense of scale.

Not Too Bad

I took these at 21-22 yards. One of the carbons didn't survive a mosquito and cell phone induced critical fumble earlier but the aluminum matched up pretty well. Not exactly something I'd do normally but I do like having at least 4 arrows in the target, preferably matched as closely as possible. I definitely need more time at the range and in the wilderness -- I'm getting pale enough to rival one of those spectral reflectance panels we used to use to calibrate the spectrometers in my chaparral days and if I keep getting paler from too much time indoors, I'm going to have to cover myself up to prevent a blinding -VOIP!- from firing off my skin! I also need to practice a lot more to keep myself nice and deadly for that buck, doe, or hog!

Sparrowhawk

What can I say? When I'm not overly tired or worn out, I can actually shoot halfway well! I didn't keep close track of my score this time, but out of 20 targets, I had four misses, three of which were forgetting that Sparrowhawk's trajectory is much flatter than Sorondil-Telcontar's and one was a genuine didn't reach full draw and went way left. Of my non-misses, I was generally hitting 10s and 12s except for an accidental 14 where I didn't reach full draw and the arrow shot stiff and a really hilarious 5 on a bear I usually neuter because I forgot I was standing a bit closer than usual :) I think Sparrowhawk will be my primary 3D bow, although pulling arrows is a lot more difficult and I had to put a couple of targets back together after knocking the wind out of it!

Adventures in Alachua

To see pictures from two days in the field, go to these two links:
Sunday: http://good-times.webshots.com/album/560967944mEbLlr
Monday: http://good-times.webshots.com/album/560983568lCdZRX

Measuring soil carbon fluxes are fun!

Sucky Reason to Not Sleep...

I had yet another nightmare... Something involving enforced sedentary-ness, drowning in bureaucratic paperwork, swarms of politician-shaped ticks, and my First and Second Amendment Rights being seriously violated.

Now I need to figure out how I'm going to actually get some sleep...

IKAC Fun

Once in a great while, even I can get more than 1-2 points from 40 yards during a speed round. It's even cooler seeing that I actually hit the "X".



Someone managed to get her arrow stuck on the target frame, and no, it wasn't me. This just looked too cool to not photograph. Usually the arrow looks a lot more pathetic, but this arrow just looked proud to be stuck up there =)

Mission: Estimating Phosphorous Content in Soil Samples Without Getting Killed

Remember the trip to Austin Cary Memorial Forest last week, the one resulting in multiple bug-bites, bruises, scratches, a few cases of poison ivy (not me for once!), and a general decision that maybe fire is our friend? We did a follow-up today to look at phosphorous content in our soil samples with two methods -- a double-acid (H2SO4 and HCl) and water extractions. I like filtering and pipetting! Maybe there's hope for me in doing something away from the computer =)

Highlights from today:
-- Someone had never, ever used a pipette before.
Me and the TA: "There's the tips right here."
Colleague: [sticks the tip-less pipette into the water and tries to draw it up]
Me and the TA: "Noooooo!!!!!!!"
-- Someone still has his marks from walking into a patch of Rhus toxicodendron and wondering why while scratching himself
-- Washing dishes. Lots of them. But hey, beats swearing like a pirate and sitting on my butt in a seminar!

Again, to see the pictures, click on the title!

Lucky Bare Shaft

29.5" 2016 Easton XX78 Super-Slam shaft, 125 grain point. It flew insanely well that time too. Now if I could only do this consistently, even if it was only from 16-17 yards!

Practice at Bear Archery

So there's another spot I have at my disposal for archery practice. It's the little range by the Bear Archery factory just west of I-75. This place is within jogging distance for me, although biking or jogging with archery equipment is miserable to say the very least. I prefer Gator Bowmen though because it's a lot quieter and I don't hear so much traffic noise, plus there's something a lot more appealing about practicing in a hardwood forest than by a bunch of warehouses!

Again, click on the link for some pictures from my camera. I think I'm a bit of a rebel for being the one person in the group who's likely to hunt and shoots something other than a pure-bred longbow!

Return of the Equalizer

I finally made enough time to shoot a half-field round. My score was pretty embarrassing (245/280... including a target where I only got 10/20 points and another target where I had a 15/20) but heck, I did pretty well for not having shot any field since the end of July! I seem to be asymptoting around 255/280 on half-fields and around 510/560 on a full field. I know what I need to do to get past this but I've also committed myself to getting the Piled High and Deeper degree and unlike a BS degree, won't get themselves done without me making a huge sacrifice to appease the gods of academia. Of course, this is so I can open up more time for myself in the long run to spend more time outdoors ;)

After shooting purely traditional for a long time, the Equalizer does feel incredibly heavy and the combination of the back-tension release, let-off, and looking through a peep sight and a field scope is extremely trippy!

Caught in the Act

I like lizards despite the fact that I'll probably end up in lizard hell for shooting so many of them. I also like to test my hand-eye coordination and try to catch them so I can get a closer look at them. It so happened that I was falling asleep in my office from lack of circulation to my brain from spending too much time in R. I was out by the Reitz Union and saw a number of cute little brown anoles. My natural instinct is to try to catch them so I tried to catch one and just as I missed it (would've caught it but apparently someone caught it at least once before judging by its stumpy little tail), one of my fellow foresters sees me and asks what I'm doing. I think my lizard-catching skills are much better in the winter than in the fall, but then again, maybe it has something to do with the fact that they're ectothermic and I'm endothermic :)

And now back to the regularly scheduled program of staring at R. Or maybe just pacing up and down the stairs another 4-5 times until the botany seminar. What I really want to do now though are a subset the following:

1) Jog a few miles on the treadmill
2) Shoot a full-blown (28 target) field or 900 round with the Equalizer
3) Shoot a 300 or 3D with Sparrowhawk but with broadheads
4) Shoot an IKAC or 3D with Sorondil-Telcontar
5) Experiment with the Equalizer using more of a huntin' setup than me spot-shootin' setup
6) Go raptor or lizard watching

Adventures in Methods of Ecosystem Ecology

How many grad students does it take to get through 100 meters of dense understory in a longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) forest that hasn't been burned in 25 years? I'll let you ponder over the answer for a bit. In case you haven't figured it out, click on the title of the post to see the pictures.

In other news, I've been tinkering around with my longbow and a recurve that a friend of mine loaned me. The longbow, the take-down from Four Winds that I have now dubbed "Sparrowhawk" (in honor of Ged, whose use-name was Sparrowhawk, from the Earthsea series and in reference to a few of my quirks), behaved a whole lot better today after I did something I usually don't like to do. I raised the brace-height from 6.75 inches (which is a bit higher than I usually like on a longbow) to 7.25 inches (which is about where I set my recurve to... that's a really good recurve brace-height for me!) and even though I lost some speed, I certainly was able to get some more consistent arrow flight. I usually don't like to give up too much speed because my draw length is so painfully short, but if it makes my bow a lot easier to control and place a better shot, losing a few feet per second may not suck so much.

I like Sparrowhawk better than the River's Edge recurve, although there is a lot more of a battle of wills between me and Sparrowhawk. The River's Edge bow is certainly very well-engineered with its static limb-tips and is one of the few deflexed riser bows that I can actually shoot reasonably well with. For only getting about 40 lbs at my draw length, it puts a pretty nice zip and isn't as picky about what goes through it, although it certainly has its preferences in arrows... It's a much gentler bow and a lot easier to transport, but I still have my biases towards the much more aggressive Sparrowhawk (Phoenix 3-piece T/D longbow built by Lester Pynne, who lives about an hour's drive from me) and the zippy but mellow little Sorondil-Telcontar :)

Making Some Progress...

I did a bit more test-shooting with different arrows. The black and white fletchings are my 28" 1916 shafts with 100 grain points, which flew a lot better than they did with the 125 points. The yellow fletchings are my friend's 29.5" 2016 shafts with 100 grain points. Those flew perfectly and the only reason I even saw them in flight was because of the fletching. I also got a bit of broadhead training so I feel a lot better about shooting them now too. All I need to do now is to either cut my 1916s by about half an inch or get 29" 2016 shafts to use 125 grain broadheads or 29.5" 2016 shafts with the 100 grain broadheads.

I can't wait to actually hunt!

Random Data

The chronograph kindly provided the following speeds for me on the take-down:
4-fletched 28" cedar arrows: 145 fps (some insist that I'm getting more like 155-160 fps)
3-fletched 28" 1916 arrows: 167 fps (again, there's dispute that this figure should be closer to 175-180)

All I know that this one shoots with a much flatter trajectory than Sorondil-Telcontar. I still haven't named this one. I think a name will form once I bond with it some more.,

Seminar Brain Fart

So I was drifting between reality and fantasy during the weekly SNRE seminar, which was surprisingly good for a non-biophysical or simulation modelling talk. I realized why they call the coffee concoction I took as a precaution "Eye Opener". It's not so much of true mental alertness as the agony of a full bladder about 15 minutes into the darned 50 minute torture session and not being able to leave in case something I have to write down comes up (ie, attendance sheet and speaker evaluation forms). Just imagine, a 600 mL capacity bladder is at 595 mL and they're still in the middle of the talk... then in a need to remove more water from the bloodstream, the bladder grows to inhuman sizes and the sensation of my internal organs floating in a solution of urea, followed gradually by my eyeballs being submerged in that yellow solution. And then just as explosion seems to be inevitable, I either bolt out the door to the nearest water closet during the lengthy Q&A session or the session finally finishes completely and I can finally escape without doing the sprint of embarrassment.

I think I'm going to stick with something a bit less powerful than "Eye Opener" unless it's a known snoozer topic for me that I actually have to be awake for. Only one more semester of these weekly torture sessions!

Cool Shot of the Day and Forestry Orientation Group

Whew, I have a serious gut in this picture! I think I need to spend more time jogging and working out than staring at the computer... either that or learn to live on more fiber and less meat.

If this had been a hunting situation, a pass-through there would be ideal to hasten the bleeding. Of course though, this spot has been rendered squishy and vulnerable to pass-through from repeated abuse from fellow archers, especially the compound shooters. Doing a bit of 3D is a great way to bond with a new bow as long as I remember to bring enough arrows and allocate enough time to search for the inevitable misses. I probably had about a 50% hit rate, typically from stochastic arrow error from incorrect spine. The trajectory is also a tiny bit flatter than my recurve, although at 25 yards and under, the aim is about the same between the longbow and the recurve, which is really good so I don't have to spend as much time re-calibrating if I decide to shoot both bows in the same day.




I'm still calibrating and tuning my T/D longbow (yet to be named but operating under the use-name "Sparrowhawk") but it looks like the 1916s with a 125 grain point are working pretty darned well. The 1913s aren't quite spined right -- looks like I'm going to get the 145 or 160 grain points for them, but in the meanwhile, they've been serving me reasonably well. With a bit of clever calculation, I could probably get both bows to use the same arrows -- a slightly longer 1916 arrow could easily spine correctly for both bows and with a bit of proper tuning and luck, I could probably even use the same points!