Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Hillbilly Huntin' - Thinking of 2021

Winter and there's not much going on.  The traditional retreat for guys with too much time is the basement workshop, but once you've sized and sorted the sockets and drill bits you realize that things are dire regards staying busy.  Time for a few silly projects that won't be needed for a very long time.

Back during deer hunting season I had success not hunting from a tree stand or on a complex drive, but sitting in a cheap folding chair and waiting for the deer to saunter up.  It was after the fact pointed out to me that a brown and white chair looks enough like the butt of a white tail deer that perhaps something unfortunate might happen.  Of course I'm in blaze orange when sitting in it but the point was well made and I decided to remedy this issue.

Here's the starting point.  That's an orange seat cushion btw.


A sensible person would do this the easy way.  Get a can of orange spray paint.  But the smooth plastic parts might not hold paint well, and deer have very sensitive noses.  A person both courageous and sensible would ask their wife to sew a fabric cover.  But I decided to carry the Hillbilly theme into the next phase of the project and just do it with junk on hand.

Chair in the workshop.  It had a carrying handle added after the picture was taken.


Back in the day, before Axman Surplus got looted, they used to have a stack of Free Stuff near the entrance.  Hmmm, maybe some lawless types saw the sign and got confused?  In any event I got this big roll of fabric ribbon for free.  It bears the name of a Minnesota tech company.  I'd like to think this was ribbon for their grand opening.


It was actually quite easy to interweave the ribbon into the mesh of the chair.  Three courses for the back and two for the seat would seem to be sufficient.


Here I am relaxing and thinking of deer hunting.  I might or might not have a beer in hand.

The arms are covered with a layer of ribbon held on with spray adhesive.  It seems to hold very well.  The main sections of ribbon are held on by rivets.  It helps to have robot stuff around.


And here's the final result.  I put the carrying handle back on and it's ready for deployment.  Total Hillbilly, a lawn chair I was asked to throw away and everything else was free!

I doubt anyone will mistake this for a deer.  If they take a shot at it thinking it was a Siberian Tiger escaped from some zoo, well there's only so much you can do to stupid proof the world.

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Parsec Labs is still around.  I don't understand what they do.

Axman Surplus has reopened, but I've not had the heart to go back to the Twin Cities and visit my old haunts.  I fear much has changed and not for the better.

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