Author Topic: Kid Stuff? Nah... (Read 3122 times)

Jeff · « **on:** March 31, 2002, 11:46:48 AM »

Today Tammy Stacy and I went out for Breakfast. We met up with my Sister Lynda and Brother-in-law Pete for a buffet at the Golden Corral. After that Tammy and Stace left with my sister to go to her house and Pete and I went to Home Depot to look for sanding belts for the slab bench I am making. We fooled around in there for a while looking at lathes, and lumber and tractors the way guys do, then finally headed for my sisters place.

When we arrived, as we figured, no women, but surprisingly before we got to the door they pulled in behind us. They hollered HEY! WAIT! Follow us! They didnt say why, just jumped in the truck and backed out. So, we got back in Petes truck and followed them. We didnt go far. THey headed for the big open area park there in Weidman. We wondered what the heck they were up to.

Well, we pulled in, and each one of them got out, holding a new.... KITE! Yup, we spent the late morning and early afternoon flying kites. The one I flew, was a two string trick kite. What a blast. I had not flown a kite myself in years. I don't know why them gals decided to get them, but I am glad they did. What a great day. Lots of memories talking about homemade kites, and box kites and electric wires and big trees, and how high and how far and how long ago.

Yep, what a fine day. We got all our kites back safe too.

Corley5 · « **Reply #1 on:** March 31, 2002, 11:57:42 AM »

That's great way to spend Easter Sunday. The S.O. and I went for a late breakfast in Petoskey and now I've got a date with a 240B Timberjack. No rest for the wicked

DanG · « **Reply #2 on:** March 31, 2002, 07:31:13 PM »

Those impromptu fun-fests are the best kind. A bunch of our kids and G-kids showed up this afternoon, so we decided to cook up some burgers and dogs. I went to the store to get buns and beer. The store in the country, which sells beer on Sunday was out of buns, so I went into greater, downtown Greensboro, Fl. to one of the two convenience stores there. They had the buns, and as I was paying up, the gal says, "Hey, you want some chicken? We cooked too much, and gotta throw it out." I says, "Well, sure! I got 4 carloads of folks at the house that I gotta feed." She loaded all of it into a couple of boxes and gave it to me. There must have been 40 pieces of fried chicken that went to waist instead of going to waste.

BRP!
Yesterday, I and my Sweetie went on a little field trip with the metal detector. We went out to the little lake in the Nat. Forest where everybody goes skinnydippin' in the moonlight. It's a beautiful place in the daylight, and even nicer by the light of the moon. Anyway, we found $.02 in cash, 2 nails, a coil of copper wire, and 4011 poptops. If anybody needs any poptops, email me and I'll get'em right out to you.
We took the long way home, via Bristol, Fl.(check yer maps), and stopped at a little local Saturday nite auction. We didn't need any Taiwan nicknacks, or ugly lamps, so we went on home. It all made for a nice, relaxing day.

woodman · « **Reply #3 on:** March 31, 2002, 08:04:41 PM »

Yea iknow the felling the GK just about an hour ago an grand dad (me) is still flying

Gordon · « **Reply #4 on:** April 02, 2002, 07:16:27 PM »

Shoot kites are a blast. I think thats half the reason that I had kids, so I could play with the toys all over again.

This happened a few years back. It was a very windy day and had a couple of kites up. Well I let mine out to the end of the roll and then tied another roll of kite string on it. Let that one out to the end and put the last extra roll on it let it all the way out.

We were at the edge of the Chesapeake bay and the kites were over the water. My string was bowing down almost touching the water. I was fiddling around and the cardboard end got away from me. The kids were all yelling get it dad get it dad. I was running toward the water trying to run full tilt and also bend down to get that dang cardboard roll. I was SO close but the water was coming quick. I had no choice but to stop or get soaked. It was late fall and my decision was to of course stop.

Well all of the kids were sort of bummed until we realized that the kite was still aloft. Barely but it was up there. The kite string and the cardboard end were giving it enough drag in the water to keep it airborne. As it got further out it appeared to get higher in the air. We all stood there dumbfounded that the kite hadn't crashed but was still flying.

We watched the kite until it was out of sight, still flying. On the way home we were talking about the surprise a person across the bay was going to get later in the afternoon, a kite flying up on their beach or house. Or any ships passing by for that matter. We still joke about that one.

That was the most amazing thing that ever happened while kite flying. I know if I would have tried a stunt like that it would never have worked out that way. Usually I'm pretty good at crashing them.

Kite flying is a blast at any age
Gordon

Don P · « **Reply #5 on:** April 02, 2002, 07:30:43 PM »

I was doing the same thing as a kid at the beach. Had a roll of tobacco twine, you know the tall cones, must have a mile of string. I let it all out and then some

. We ran down the beach till we figured it had a good start on going to France. We used to take a tobacco stick and a triangle kite and string it up to be acrobatic. You could usually loop it 2 or 3 times and still have control, more twists than that and it was crashing for sure

DanG · « **Reply #6 on:** April 02, 2002, 09:19:18 PM »

When I was a kid, my Dad had a hobby shop, before he took over my Grandad's canvas business. The two enterprises came together when we discovered that the big sewing machines couldn't use the last few hundred feet of Dacron thread on the big spools, but the kites left from the hobby shop used it quite nicely. Dad and I made a big reel from some scrap wood, and marked off miles of thread with a little red string tied every 100 feet. When I was about 14, some buddies and I launched one of the old kites and got out over a mile and a half of string before the wind started to fade. We reeled like mad for quite a while, and got it back within 200 feet when the DanG thing tangled in the DanG power lines.

Frank_Pender · « **Reply #7 on:** April 03, 2002, 06:11:24 AM »

It is fun to fly a kite and not be a Charlie Brown.

Dran trees like to eat them. One of the best places I have found out and away from all my 120 to 150 foot First is the Pacific Coast Beach. Not a tree in site there.

Excdpt the had beens that drifted on shore.

There is hardly a day that goes by without someone on the coast putting up a kite. I just like setting with bmy backe against an old drifted log and watch the youngins flying the kites these days,

but there was a time!

We would sometimes run for what seemed miles on the beach, flying a kite and putting out hundres of years of string. One of the strongest strings we could get in the old days was contractors string. Since my father owned a good sized lumber company I always seemed to have a good supply of yellow string.

Witha good wind we could get a real high flying kite.

thanks for bring up the memories, Jeff and Family.

Corley5 · « **Reply #8 on:** April 03, 2002, 07:12:00 PM »

The neighbor kid up the road had a pretty ingenious kite string mechanism. He had an old and very stout deep sea fishing rod and reel. He cut the rod off so it was only a couple feet long. He spooled the reel with some heavy mono filament and he was kite flying

. Worked great as I remember. That was the last time I was involved in kite flying and it must have 20 years ago. Time sure flies

L. Wakefield · « **Reply #9 on:** April 04, 2002, 06:54:20 AM »

Now THAT'S the best idea I've seen for kite and line control I have ever seen. It's a keeper, man! I'm gone fishin, the next time I go to fly a kite!

lw

Tom · « **Reply #10 on:** April 04, 2002, 08:04:30 AM »

Make sure you use as light a monofiliment as you can LW. I've used reels and fishing line and the stuff is a lot heavier than you would think. If you want height then you need to get down in the 2# to 6# line.

Tom · « **Reply #11 on:** April 04, 2002, 01:21:40 PM »

The last few days, I have been conversing with a sawmill owner by the name of Bentley who is a long way off. In the process of trying to get him to come visit us at the Forestry Forum I found that he is a member. He joined last January.

I sure hope he starts posting because he is a circle mill owner, dyed in the wool, and you guys could use as much support as you can muster to keep from being covered up by the bandsaws.

He sent me this picture and I couldn't resist putting it on this thread.

Jeff · « **Reply #12 on:** April 04, 2002, 03:29:07 PM »

Whats his member name Tom? Mr. Bentley! were talking about ya, time to join in! Tom is right Us circle guys (Thats different then Tom, (he's a round guy with a bandsaw) need some help here!

Even if he don't post, I'm glad he's a member.

Don P · « **Reply #13 on:** April 04, 2002, 05:21:18 PM »

They have a big kite fly-in (?)

on frozen Lake Monona in Madison every year that makes the local news up that way. They fly the team sized kites, some real beauties.

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