door panels con't

making good progress on this

digital cameras are great fucking tools

after tweaking the working template

we have the finish template

clamped to masonite piece

trace and cut

flip template over and repeat

make cuts and we have the panel foundation

fit and tweak as necessary

I used a rasp to fit the cutouts

cut weather barrier plastic piece

this will need to be sealed prior to installing the panel

as per jeepster's suggestion we'll use duct tape

undercut a piece of batting for each panel

I stuck it to the panel w/ spray adhesive

carefully fit fabric finish layer

somehow or another I picked up the wrong panel when I did this

everything else I did was done off of the passenger door

I picked up the driver door panel

not that it matters...

I screwed it to the door w/ the pull grasp 

the fit is nearly perfect

I could tweak things a bit yet 

again we'll see about that

I'd have shot a pic but it was dark and I don't like to use flash

it looks a far sight better than the ones I replaced

even when they were new

I'm totally winging this

having never tried to do such a thing before

I'm pretty pleased

fishing - a look back and forward

over the past hundred years or so

I've met and fished w/ an awful lotta people

in an awful lotta places

fallen into a few rivers (yes I have)

frozen my ass off sweated my ass off

I always claimed that the very nature of friendship is transitory

dependent on any number of factors

the fact is, very very few of us have life-long friends

w/ which we continue that relationship

I guess you can judge the strength of a friendship

by whether or not it can weather these differing phases of our lives

this morning I found out that my favorite fishing partner

is going on disability retirement

which is good (and potentially bad - I guess)

and for that I offer congrats

I met steve in the summer of 2003

in the middle of nowhere

the valle vidal wilderness area of new mexico

little did I know I was meeting I guy I'd fish with for the rest of the decade

and hopefully it continues through the next one

though we are both getting old

anyways, anita and I were camped  along the stream

steve's truck was a reasonable distance downstream

brooks showed up from albuquerque

there was some guy from georgia of all places fishing w/ his son

and, yes, it was a smallstreams streamside meet

steve shows up at his campsite

he is quiet nearly uncommunicative

very wary leery and canny

kinda like he's sizing us up

so brooks and I head off upstream to stick some tricksy little cutthroats

a half a mile I sit on the bank and say,

"I don't know about you brooks, but I'm gonna sit down and enjoy a cool smoke"

which I did

steve stumbled up and shared

steve and brooks were struggling setting hooks on these insanely quick hitting trout

(my struggles will come later)

at one point we decide to 4 wheel it up to latir lakes

state record trout  (species not remembered)  taken from up there

it was the longest steepest straight climb I've experienced

butt rough for sure

brooks had to hold onto the radio knobs to keep from being bounced from the truck

anyways, we've been fishing and camping together every year since

well nearly - we missed last year sadly on three different occasions

I'm gonna go through my iphoto library

and share some of my favorite pics  of steve

good luck and all the best amigo

let's go fishing!

year-end photo dump

just a few shots I cherry-picked

while looking through the iphoto library...

almost always my first selection for fishing...

brother in bamboo mike shay's adventure continues...
hopefully in a better place

you just know that there's a slob in there somewhere

I never did find him

guinness braised short ribs - my word!

a favorite shot of steve - back in the day

beloved wife anita on some of the best water in the west

stacked enchiladas and frijoles

this pic isn't so great, but I do like the texture indicated by the cheese on the beans

that red chile sauce is incendiary

"the skinny" - chapter eight - dipsticks at work

part one is winding up here

took the rod up to congress to be dipped

mike uses some fancy pants european varnish

epiphanies or something like that

I call it epiphanies anyways

crazy expensive stuff

I've come around to using it myowndamnself

just ordered over a gallon of the stuff

lotsa guys hook they retrieval device to a rotisserie motor

for a slow and consistent withdrawal of the rod from the varnish

mike had an old pflueger reel hooked up to do so

we dipped the rod

I cranked the reel s - l - o - w - l - y

eyes wide as this rod I'd crafted from crooked burnt sticks emerged

as a thing of absolute beauty

we hung it in the drying cabinet

I went home feeling pretty pleased w/ myself

another dip was in order

I wasn't in a hurry

speed kills remember?

except I had a trip coming up to the mighty san juan 

I wanted to fish my brand new bamboo

on the way up there anita and I stopped by congress and picked up the rod

encased in a rod sock and tube provided courtesy of senor shay

I'd have to come back later 

for the second dip

that was neither here nor there

we met steve on the san juan the next day

our buddy chris martinez drove over the mountain and met us with his drift boat

we had a nice float

shortly after we started I blooded that got am rod 

somewhere around the texas hole

I had done it

the journey was underway

living vicariously

because it's all we can do these daze...

sunday morning I had to back out of a fishing trip

potentially  apparently a great one

health issues and my wife's birthday forced my hand

and I stayed home maintaining the D. T.  I.

(domestic tranquility index)

for possible future trips

so anyways

we ganked a few pics from the website what doesn't exist...

 the backyard

I love this place

 beautiful brown

lovely rainbow and bamboo

fuck me - there goes the neighborhood

I usually pitch my tent where that table and fire ring now are

they call this "improvement?"

I cannot even tell ya how these pics make me feel...

homesick?

optimistic?

hopeful?

nostalgic?

stoked?

all of the above and more...

much thanks apologies and photo credits to my good great friend, jeepster

aka s. rath - sorry amigo

just another day like yesterday

yeah we golfed again

but I also got a little done in the rod shoppe

poore girl number one dipped and hung

steve's new 3wt
(w/ custom u of a wildcat rod bag)

sound attack and tone

chile verde

also test cast this morning - also SWEET!

chile verde

again specs posted earlier

closing in

these two are neck and neck approaching the finish line...

top - sound attack and tone

7ft 4wt fe thomas taper

alaskan birch reel seat spacer

my rod

bottom - chile verde

6'8" 3wt fe thomas taper

spanish cedar from the payne shoppe spacer

(this is some special trout stickin' juju wood)

steve's rod

the future's so bright...

a couple of summers back I lost my favorite polarized fishing glasses

I think they were plucked undetected right off the top of my head

while crossing vietnam en route to cambodia on the san juan river

while I have a couple other pair of polarized shades

I think it's high time I replaced the old favorites

all the way live

bitchin' brown and bamboo photo courtesy of s. rath

confluence

steve fishing matamoscas

teaser

stuck

I should clarify - the fish is stuck

jeepster the pole er...the tube cap

image by s. rath - jeepster hisowndamnself

let's blood that sumbitch!

going to church

have we seen this before?

perhaps

it remains one of my favorite places

though I'm more than a little bit concerned

about low flows and snowpack

looking closer at this fine shot 

(courtesy of s. rath)

I'm fighting that fish left handed - wtf?

countdown

T minus thirty daze or so...

done?

tiger maple insert

ready for a rubdown

mess

the dining room table

varnish

a pretty boring picture but it does show one of the finishing touches

this one is almost done