From Feb. 19th through the 22nd my good friend Dave Holm came up from Vegas to visit. Dave, who by the way is a Grandpa now is the guy responsible for getting me into falconry almost fifteen years ago. He came up to see the Utah Sky trials. The Sky trials are a friendly competition between falconers that are flying falcons (not hawks) after very fast racing pigeons. They are judged on how high the falcon gets, how quickly it gets up, how steep the dive is, if it catches or hits the pigeon and if it continues pursuit after the initial dive. There are other factors as well but those are the basics.
We had a great weekend, the weather was perfect the birds flew great and it is always a blast to catch up with Dave. I just thought I would share a few pics from the weekend.
This blog doesn't always have to be about Keaton, does it??
This is just a small portion of the vehicles that show up. It's pretty wild, we are just lined up out in the middle of the desert with nothing around for miles. There are even quite a few guys that are selling equipment from their tailgates.
Big flock of Snow Geese. I thought they looked pretty cool against the cloudless sky.
One of the "contestants" heading out for their first flight.
Dave getting in for the close up shot.
The winning team. This falcon actually caught the pigeon, that hasn't happened in years.
Something that probably has never happened or will again. A Red-Tailed Hawk that was tied to a perch inside the back of a truck that caught one of the pigeons. The pigeon was trying to get away from one of the falcons and a wild Prairie falcon that was pursuing it and chose the wrong truck to hide in.
During a break in the action they flew a model plane that was made to look like a falcon. They released a tennis ball with money attached to it from the plane for the children to chase down. First one to the ball gets the money. They did a few drops.
The plane didn't last long. One of the falcons chased the pigeon a long way off and decided to come back and attack the plane. Here is the falconer with his falcon and it's catch.
The following are just a few other birds that were there but not competing.
Gyrfalcon
Peregrine falcon and English Pointer
Aplomado Falcon
Aplomado close up
Golden Eagle
Saker Falcon
This is a little bird called a Merlin that belonged to a falconer that Dave and I tagged along with to watch this bird hunt. No action though.
I have begun a new hobby, Knife making. This is my first attempt. I took a cheap chefs knife that was taking up space in the drawer then traced out a design that I liked in the blade. I cut out the shape with a dremel tool and shaped it with a bench grinder and belt sander.
The handle is made from an exotic wood called Cocobolo that I ordered from ebay. I cut them out with a jigsaw, rough shaped them with the belt sander and contoured them with a drum sander attachment on the dremel. The handle is epoxied in place and held with 3/16" brass pins and a brass tube at the hilt.
This is quickly becoming an obsession for me, I really enjoy it. I will definitely be making more. I just need to get some good steel to make some proper knives. In the meantime I have been sketching out a few new designs and also researching how to build a large belt grinder that master bladesmiths use for knife making. To buy one new is about $2000.00. If I build one myself I can keep the cost down to about $300.00 depending on materials and how much I can do myself.
I hope you enjoyed the Keatonless post. Catch ya next time.
Darren
