outdoorhacks.com

Thanks to Two-Heel Drive, I just found out about Jason Klass’s Homemade Backpacking Gear site. His Gear Laboratory features articles and experiments on making your own hiking gear at home. He’s got some nice links for building alcohol stoves, but I really enjoyed the Kitchenware section. This part of the site has some great ideas, such as the Heinekin Pot Grip.

I highly recommend you check out the site. Jason provides some useful tips and is obviously dedicated to making his own gear.

I always try to pass on a good deal when I see once and I see on GetOutdoors that REI Outlet is offering 20% off one item. Use code: Gear826.

REI Outlet already has some decent prices on some items so this sounds like a good deal to me.

GorillaPod is a really cool product that allows you to stabilize your camera nearly anywhere. Its flexible, but still as tough as nails. Its a little expensive at just over 20 bucks, but its a high quality item so you can justify the cost. There is now an SLR version too, which is nice since the original GorillaPod would be overwhelmed by heavier cameras.

GorillaPod link at Amazon

For those times when sleeping on the ground just isn’t good enough, Staffan Weigel has prototyped this rooftop tent. I guess at the very least it would make bears have to work really hard to climb into your tent.
Link courtesy of GoBlog

Its hunting season. Unfortunately this sport can be an expensive hobby, but there are some tricks out there for saving a few bucks. Here’s a great tip for making your own effective and cheap shooting sticks.

“Shooting sticks can be a hunter’s best friend when that monster deer walks into your shooting lane and your blood gets pumping and the gun gets shaking. I couldn’t see paying $30+ dollars for a pair of sticks so I decided to make my own.

Materials:

• 2 3/4 inch dowel rods
• 1 roll black electrical tape
• Bike inner tube

1. Cut the 2 3/4 inch doll rods to 39 inches
2. Cover them in the black electrical tape.
3. Cut a section of inner tube about 12 inches long.
4. Cross the sticks at one end so that above where they cross you have about 4-6 inches. Wrap the inner tube piece around and around the sticks and tie it off real tight.

You now have a shooting stick that will steady your shot. Best of all they are light weight and will only cost you $5-$8.”

Tip from mongoandtard.com.

What could possibly be better on the trail then trail mix? Here is a contender for the best trail mix recipe ever. This tasty little treat can be found on All Recipes, which is a damn good recipe site.

The Trail Mix recipe was apparently submitted by USA WEEKEND columnist Jean Carper.

Do you have any good outdoor snacks to share?

Bass Pro Shops is selling 5 Bass lures for $5. There is no shipping or handling charge. Not a bad deal for those who dabble in angling.

One of our dogs ran away last night. What a painful, heart wrenching experience it was. Thankfully, he is safe at home now, but it was an emotional rollercoaster until we were reunited. He simply ran off from the backyard and the cops picked him up. Things could have been much worse, so I consider us to be very fortunate.

In the search process, I found some good websites for dog owners to check out. The two sites I found for aiding in the search process are Dog Detective and FidoFinder.com. Both of these sites allow you to fill out details about your dog and where and when the dog was lost. Dog Detective even lets you upload a photo for free, which can be helpful. FidoFinder.com allows you to buy nametags for your dog for $5 with the dog’s ID# on it. If your dog is found, the person can log into FidoFinder.com and identify the dog by its number and get your current contact information. I thought the interface on both sites was satisfactory, although nothing special. Both provide such a useful service that I would highly recommend dog owner’s check them out.

One thing I learned from this experience is to be proactive and have a plan for when your dog goes missing. A current photo of your pet helps for making flyers. Also, make sure the dog is always wearing a nametag and proof of rabies vaccination. If your community experiences a rabies problem, all animals without a rabies tag may immediately be killed.

I think my dog may have run off after he read the DIY Dog Repellent post. Oops, hopefully he is over it now.

Here are some quick instructions for whipping up a bottle of dog repellent. Use a 3% or less solution of ammonia and dilute with water if its too strong. Add the ammonia to a squirt bottle and you’ve now created your own homebrew dog repellent.

The solution works, when sprayed at the attacking dog’s nose, by overwhelming the dog’s olfactory nerves.

Courtesy of Cool Tools

Who says you need an ocean to surf? Just when you thought you’d seen it all, now I bring to you a video of river surfing.

Link to video

Link courtesy of Get Outdoors