I just finished building a picnic table from plans available at Home Depot online.  I love the design, and it turned out better than I thought. Home Depot in my area sells a kit for more money than I paid for the materials to build this design (about $125 including finish and fasteners), and it is far inferior.  It saves time to have all the pieces pre-cut, but doing it this way I was able to pick and choose my lumber, and include some neat design features such as the radius at each end of the table and the benches.  If you have a miter saw, a jigsaw, and a drill or screw gun this is a very easy project to build.

Below are the results.  The first photo is after only one coat of stain.  I used three coats of Cabot Australian Timber Oil in the Jarrah Brown color. Applying thin coats and rubbing them out with a rag is key to the process.  Although it is meant for exotic woods, it worked well on the pine boards I purchased at Home Depot for the project.  You can see by the water beading in the second photo (after three coats) that the combination worked rather well.

One doesn’t normally associate a company like Frabill, famous for its nets and ice fishing shacks, with clothing, but I think after this year things may change.  The Frabill FXE Stormsuit looks like one heck of a piece of raingear and has been promoted heavily in commercials by the likes of Al Lindner, so I’m guessing it will take off.  The object of my discussion here, though, is the Frabill hooded sweatshirt.

Hooded sweatshirt? Isn’t that the garment all of us own, but much of the time find on the clearance rack at Walmart?  Not anymore for me.  Frabill has come up with the perfect hooded sweatshirt.

How do you improve on an old classic like the hoodie?  Well, you put a six inch zipper at the top so you can avoid bunching it up around your neck, and you include a nifty pocket inside the pocket with a velcro closure, so your cell phone or keys or whatever else you might be carrying doesn’t fall out.  Then you leave the rest of it alone.

I got mine for 35 bucks on sale at Fleet Farm. Heck of a deal.  I’m not sure I wouldn’t pay the full $49.99 price tag when I need to replace it, but I’m hoping they have a sale when the time comes.

Happy hoodies!

Last night, I was debating whether to buy a closeout fishfinder for my 14′ boat at my local Wal-mart store, when my wife took to the computer.  I was pretty convinced of what I was going to buy, but I thought, “Well, let her see what’s out there.” She has indeed found me some excellent deals in the past, including a $150 Milwaukee jigsaw for $50, among other things.  Well, she found me a fishfinder, all right, and the deal was too good to pass up.

The Lowrance Mark series sonars have rebates on them right now, and the Mark 5X DSI specifically has a $50 rebate.  Gander Mountain is on its last day today of a four-day sale online.  They are giving $50 off orders over $250.  And shipping is free on the Mark 5X DSI.  So, in total, the Mark 5X DSI that I just ordered cost $289 minus 50 for the Gander sale and 50 for the mail in rebate = $189 + tax.  Not bad for a little trip to the Internet by my excellent wife.

Now, if you get to the party late and you miss the Gander online sale, I would suggest you compare the Mark 5X DSI to anything else at around $250 (the Lowrance rebate lasts for a while yet).  It’s not color, but the images I have seen from real life tests of the downscan imaging will make people with much more expensive fishfinders cringe when they think about what they paid to get color and a slightly larger screen (now, granted, they are also getting side imaging, GPS, networkability, etc. for their money, too). 

To see some real experience with Down Scan Imaging on this unit, follow this link. Scroll down past their sales information and you will see comparison pictures of the Mark 5X screen and a much, much more expensive HDS-8 unit.  It will be fun to try out the DSI feature this summer on my favorite small-boat horsepower-restricted lake as I chase smallmouth bass and crappies around sunken boulders, timber, and brush piles. 

The down scan feature aside, if this 4,000 watt peak-to-peak unit functions like my other Lowrance units, I will be very happy.  Why buy a crappy resolution color fishfinder when you can get a monochrome one with good power and resolution for the same price?

This is my second Lowrance score in as many years–last year it was an excellent X-135 unit for $199 from Cabelas for my big walleye boat and this year it looks like another very good unit for my small boat.  I love it when I can buy good stuff cheap!  This deal is even a little bit sweeter, as DSI in this price range is relatively new to the market. Instead of a closeout, this is a current item.  I’m off to mount the transducer board on my little boat and wait by the door for the Santa in brown shorts!

Berkley has a bunch of new colors out for the re-introduced Flicker Shad.  One of the Fleet Farm exclusive colors is Circus Star, which is recognizable to most of us as “Wonderbread.”  It’s a great color pattern, so I had to pick up a few.  They’re pictured with one of my Wonderbread Reef Runners.  The Next Bite’s website has a chart of all the new Flicker Shad color patterns.

Just a while back, I was talking to my brother, who is a big Ruger fan, and we agreed that Ruger would probably get into the 1911 business since they were already doing ARs, etc.  Well, a check of their website last night revealed their newest gun: the SR1911.  It’s a pretty nicely set up 1911 with flat checkered mainspring housing, Novak sights, and a decent looking grip safety. I don’t think it will make me want to go trade in my Sig STX, but at a retail price of $799 (street should be somewhere in the 650 range) it looks like it should be a winner.  Check out the Ruger SR1911 page for more details.  Availability looks to be May 2011.

Now if Ruger would start competing with Springfield Armory and build an M14 clone…

Finally, some genius has come up with a bacon-scented perfume. Read all about it:

Time article on bacon-scented perfume

I wrap my appetizers in bacon; why not wrap my loving wife in that scintillating scent?

Unfortunately, because of the aforementioned story, I also discovered the bacon gun, the bacon bikini, and the bacon apple pie.  God bless America! I have now lost the better part of an evening to my obsession with bacon.  I may have to visit a facility to deal with my bacon addiction soon.  I hope they have a breakfast bar.

Muskie opener in Minnesota is still a couple of months away. Sigh.  At least in North Dakota I can be hunting pike after ice-out and shake off the cobwebs and make sure the gear all works.

The pictured setup is my newly put-together low-budget light muskie / northern pike setup.   $45 Ambassadeur 6600 BCX (on clearance at Walmart), Shimano Beastmaster rod that I picked up from a friend for a song, and $1.99 Cabelas muskie bucktail (I bought a half dozen of those that day for that price!).  If the reel lasts, it will be well worth it, but it is kind of sad that there is now a classic Ambassadeur round reel that’s made in China and not Sweden.  I guess that’s the way of the world.

Wholesale Sports is one of my favorite stores in Fargo because it’s not the over-inflated ego of our local sporting goods titan’s statues of U.S. Presidents or ferris wheels inside the building, and it’s not the cheap tackle of Walmart.

From this weekend’s pass through the aisles, my haul looks something like this:

2 Plano Pro Latch 3650 tackle boxes, $2.66 on sale and part of a buy one get one free special, reg. $4.59 apiece,
1 Bianchi Accumold holster for 1911, $19.99, on sale from $29.99,
and 2 20 ct. bags of root beer 4″ Yamamoto grubs, on sale for $4.00 each from $6.00.

Let’s see, do the math and I paid roughly 31 dollars for 51 dollars worth of stuff. Not bad for a 20 minute pass through the store.

Woody EX Pro flanked by my Irish Setter hunting boots (L) and LaCrosse Insul-Pac (R)

For sporting men and women everywhere, boots are arguably the most important piece of gear we rely on.  As a North Dakotan who may encounter wetlands, snow, mud, rocks, and generally unforgiving conditions in the outdoors as the temperatures might range from 100 degrees to 60 below, I willingly admit that I don’t spend enough on footwear.  On a recent trip to the Boundary Waters, I very unwisely did not pack hiking boots in an area that turned out to have very unforgiving rocky terrain.  I lived through the trip and didn’t turn an ankle, but it was summertime and the stakes were not as high as they are on some of my trips.

In the wintertime, my footwear has to keep my feet dry and warm. Period.  I have been known to wear Sorels rated to -60 for ice fishing, LaCrosse Insul-Pacs in wet snow and for hunting when covering scent is an issue, and my favorite pair of Irish Setter hunting boots for late fall and winter conditions when the snow isn’t too terrible.  For any pair of boots, the maximum amount of money I have spent has been probably 60 bucks.

Enter the Muck Boot Woody EX Pro.  When I got the opportunity to do this gear review from my association with the Outdoor Blogger Network, I told my wife, “Well, my Insul-Pacs are getting a little bit long in the tooth, so it can’t hurt to try them.”  I was a little bit skeptical about the street price at close to $200, thinking “How can a rubber boot cost that much?”  Keep in mind, I grew up in Montana wearing four buckle overshoes that retailed at probably $5.99.

Although it is spring in many places, it is still basically the end of winter in North Dakota.  Since obtaining the Woody EX Pros, I have used them for chore duty, blowing snow, extended plowing sessions on the four wheeler, and shoveling snow.  When the mud appears, I am sure I will post another account of how they work in the spring.  And if they work the way they have so far, I’m sure it will be a positive account.

Over the last few weeks, I have worn these boots in 20 below weather all the way up to about 35 above.  The first thing that struck me was how easy they go on and off.  I am used to practically prying off my boots, but the designers of the Muck Boot deserve a lot of credit for shaping the ankle area perfectly for easy-on, easy-off.  I have not had to enlist my wife once for a tug of war session, or had evil thoughts about removing the boots with my pocketknife.

The insulation in the boots is rather brilliant, combining a breathable mesh with arctic fleece for a comfort range of -40 to 60 degrees F, according to the manufacturer.  Not once have I felt my feet get cold, even when outside for extended periods of time.  My feet sweat less than with traditional rubber boots such as the Insul-Pac, which I have always regarded as a good boot, but does fall short at the lower temperature ranges I experienced with the Muck Boots.

In addition to the most important features of waterproofing and insulation, I like many of the other design features of the boot.  It is a nice length, a couple of inches taller than my old Insul-Pacs.  That certainly doesn’t hurt in the winter time, and a couple extra inches doesn’t hurt when one steps through ice into a slough or puddle.  The soles have an excellent lug pattern which seems to self-clean (this will be a feature I will have an eye on when the mud comes this spring).  In addition, there is reinforcement at the heel, toe, and even the shin area on this top-end model.

Finally, the comfort level in the boots is unmatched in any of my other boots, including my favorite pair of Irish Setters.  They have an insole that has me feeling springy even after shoveling snow for over an hour.

Insul-Pac sole (L) and Woody EX Pro sole (R)

I have found nothing to complain about with these boots, and can unreservedly recommend them for everything from turkey hunting to chore duty.  My biggest question for the Muck Boot company is if they are going to enter the wader market.  I’d like to see something that feels this good on the bottom of a pair of hip boots or chest waders, and I would gladly pay the price.

Disclaimer: I received the Muck Boot Woody EX Pro boots mentioned in this post free of charge for review. No other compensation was paid in exchange for the review.  The opinions expressed in this post are my honest, independent thoughts and experiences.

One of my tasks each winter is to tie up new walleye spinner rigs. This year, as I browsed through the fishing aisles of my local Fleet Farm, I found an interesting new blade being sold exclusively at Fleet Farm. JB Lures is the manufacturer. They make many of my favorite spinner blades and rigs. I’ll be tying up a few of these to use this summer.

These are interesting because they combine the ventilator-style cutout with a willow leaf, and the edges are serrated (serrated plus gyration=cyration?).

The size is 3.5 and the color is French toast. The back of the blades is gold.