Posts Tagged jasper texas
River trip part 4
This update was supposed to be in 2 parts. The first part was supposed to be doing some maintenance to the boat, such as fixing some broken rivets. The second part was supposed to be taking the boat out on the river to make sure is running ok, and to to use a GPS to see how fast the boat can travel down the river.
Well, the boat never made it to the river.
The front of the boat has a deck that is held in place with rivets. Over the years of walking on the deck the rivets have slowly pulled lose or broken.
Replacing the rivets
Use a drill bit the size of the rivet, drill through the middle of the rivet, the head should come loose.
Use a punch or drift pen to drive out the middle of the rivet.
If the rivet does not want to drive out, use the drill to drill it out.
Insert new rivet into the hole.
Use a rivet gun to secure the rivet.
River trip part 3
When planning a trip like a 100+ mile river / camping trip, its important to test your gear. Part of the testing phase is making sure your boat is in good running order. The purpose of todays trip was to test the boat to make sure it was in good running order.
A few weeks ago I put the boat in for repairs. During a recent camping trip a bolt fell out of the gear shifting lever, the water pump impeller has never been changed, and the spark plugs were looking a little old, the oil in the lower unit had never been changed and there was a short in the starter button.
Trip to the shop
I brought the boat to a local boat repair place. the service guy was told what I wanted, I even had him go out to the boat and take a look at something I wanted fixed.
Field trip with nature class
Contrary to popular belief, nature classes do not take their clothes off and run around naked in the woods. In fact its just the opposite. We keep our clothes on and drive to where we want to go.
Saturday morning the nature class that I am a member of did a field trip. The purpose of the field trip was to see some of the native and rare plants in the area, and to see some of the unique geological formations around the Jasper Texas area.
At 8:00am we met in the parking lot of the Stump restaurant on hwy 255, which is just north of Jasper Texas. The places where we were going to go were old logging roads. The people that drove cars parked their vehicles at a nearby hotel, then we carpooled in the 4 wheel drive trucks and SUVs.
The first place we stopped at was on top of a pipeline. We parked our trucks on top of the hill, then walked around the rim of the hill top looking at different types of trees and plants.
After we got finished looking at the plants, we went back to the trucks, over the hill and down to a creek bottom. The cool thing about the creek bottom, it was filled with petrified wood. There were small pieces, large pieces and medium sized pieces. One of the men in the group was an amateur geologist. He talked to the class about the different types of trees that grew in southeast Texas during the last ice age – white oak, pine (conifer trees) and palm trees.
Wildfire in Jasper Texas
On Saturday June 18, 2011 the residents of Jasper Texas got the dreaded news, a wildfire has broken out in the Northern part of the county. Over the past couple of months Jasper county has been under a burn ban. But for some reason, people still continue to burn outdoors.
A few weeks ago a fire broke out close to Sand creek park on the south side of Dam B. After a couple of days the fire was contained. But this new fire was different, it was in a part of the county that was difficult to access.
Fishing in slews and gators
Short version: This morning my daughter and I went to a local park to go fishing. After a few minutes a 6 foot gator showed up to see what was going on.
Over the course of about 15 – 20 minutes, the gator slowly worked its way to within about 8 – 10 feet of the bank. the day was getting hot, and the gator was getting a little too close, so my daughter and I decided to pack up and go home.
Long Version: The day started off around 10:30am when my daughter decided it was time to drag herself out of bed so we could finally go fishing. I had already been up for a couple of hours, had gotten my shower, brushed my teeth, and even made a trip to the store to pick up a couple of low carb blue rock star energy drinks.
While I was waiting for my daughter to get ready, I went through my tackle box, sorted through some of my fishing gear, rounded up the fishing poles, loaded a small ice chest with drinking water into my truck,,,,, finally we were ready to go.
As we were driving out to the park, the wind was hitting the side of my truck pretty good. With the wind like it was, I figured the water around Martin Dies State Park would be stirred up pretty good. So my daughter and I changed plans, and went to Magnolia Ridge Park.
Going out on the Angelina River
Last Saturday my wife and I went out on the Angelina River south of Lake Sam Rayburn for a day of fishing and relaxation. Long story short, it was hot, my wife got sunburned, and she caught the only fish of the day.
I don’t know what it is, but the fish just were not biting. The fish were not biting pumpkin seed worms in a Texas rig, nor were they biting a beetle spin. The only thing we even got a nibble on was a worm on a perch hook.
Awhile back I received some lures from Daves Great Outdoors, also known as The Fishin Shack. One of the lures I rigged up like a beetle spin. That was the only lure that I saw fish cashing, but nothing was hitting. The fish would follow the lure right up to the boat, then turn around. Which was more then they were doing for the pumpkin seed worm.
The boating trip really started on Friday. The boat was uncovered, the battery charged, rods pulled out of the closet, and some drop lines were made up. One thing that I wanted to try Saturday was some drop lines. So I went to wal-mart, bought a couple of noodles that most people keep in their swimming pools. The noodle measured something like 56 inches long. In the end, I had 8 noodles measuring 7 inches long.
Another weekend has passed away
Have you ever had a weekend that you never wanted to end? Well, that is the weekend that I had this weekend. Things kicked off Friday with getting ready for Relay for Life here in Jasper County. TJ went to Beaumont to pick up my kids from my ex-wife for the weekend, so that saved me a LOT of time. After lunch I washed my truck, hooked up the pit, loaded up some stuff, left home about 5pm, drove to the Jasper County court house square, and setup for the relay.
The thing that I spent a lot of time thinking about Friday was washing my truck. Because it was more then just washing off dirt, it was washing off memories. The majority of the dirt on my truck was from driving to the lease during hunting season. So the dirt had built up like memories, good memories. Like when my son got his deer for the 2010 – 2011 deer season. For the deer hunting story, visit this article – our first deer of the 2010- 2011 season. As I was washing the layers of dirt off, I was also thinking about the memories built around the truck over the past few months.
Around 4pm my wife and my step-daughter show up and start loading stuff into the truck. We loaded up the canopy, ice chest, tables,,,,, and other stuff. they left a little before 5pm to go get ice. I left for the court house around 5.
Got to the court house square, backed the pit into place, and started setting everything up. The event started at 7pm, and within minutes we had a line at our table. We were selling hotlinks – on a bun, stick, or flatbread.
In all, we raised a little over $600, which was donated that night.
I dont think there were as many people at this years relay as last year. The weather was great, so I dont know what the issue was.
Out on the Angelina River sunday
What happened to the clear skies we were supposed to have Saturday and Sunday? For the past 2 or 3 days the local weather people have been saying the clouds were going to push out by Friday, and we were going to have clear skies Saturday and Sunday,,, what happened?. Instead of being clear and…
Texas February 2011 Ice Storm
To the northern states this might not be a big deal, but here in Southeast Texas, we are not used to dealing with this kind of stuff.
The overpasses around the Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange areas are frozen over. Some of our bridges are closed – like the Veterans memorial bridge and the Rainbow Bridge.
The tarp that covers my boat has a thin lay of ice on it, and were rain water has collected, its frozen
The majority of the local court houses and schools are closed.
But for some reason Jasper ISD did not close their schools and are putting kids on the icy roads. Maybe its time to elect a new school board.
Ice cycles off the roof of the storage building are maybe 1 – 1.5 inches long and growing.
Its not expected to get above freezing until tomorrow.
Texas rolling blackouts
Around February 1st a major cold front pushed through much of the US. Estimates put about 1/3 of the total population has been affected in one way or another – including Texas. Parts of North Texas may receive cold weather from time to time. But for the most part, our winters might be in the…
You may also be interested in:
| Preparedness Articles >>> | Hiking and Camping >>> |
| Survival Gear >>> | Random Ramblings >>> |
| Popular Forum Sections: AR-15 Forum AK-47 Forum Bolt Action Rifle Forum Ruger Mini-14 and Mini-30 |
Loading ...