Sep 242017
 

Over the last few weeks stress has been high and I’ve gone looking for some of my old outlets for all that excess mental energy. Woodworking is probably my favorite, but sadly right now there is simply no space for that. Next would be sewing.

 

Brown bags project is now “mostly” complete!

(may add Pencott Badlands and some more Realtree options)
The bags are my standard Adaptable Messenger Bag design. In this case with the “office” internal design. And a removable carry lid (lid adds a grab-n-go handle, something the original design is missing).

The bag itself is pretty large, designed to carry my 17″ laptop. The front zippered pocket holds a file folder, pens, paper, flashlight, multi-tool, razor knife, spare mag and misc hygiene kit. The main pocket has a laptop \ file folder pocket. And two large divider pockets on the rear (holds a portable drive, battery backup, and a pair of gloves). The opposite side has three large pleated pockets with drawstring closures (holds glasses, body-spray, 2 pairs of flex-cuffs, first aid / boo-boo-kit, misc chargers, tools, and thumb drives). The lid has three zippered pockets and mainly holds small items (spare batteries, etc).

These bags are built like tanks! They are overbuilt in everyway possible. Yet, they are quite clean design-wise.

Color \ Pattern options in this build.

The brown part of this project includes 6 coyote brown, 2 Multicam (one with coyote accents, one with Multicam accents), 1 in Realtree Advantage Timber, 1 in Realtree Advantage Classic, 1 in Atacs (classic). The green part of the project is still on hold.

The Multicam bags are amazing looking, but honestly a little useless in the forest around here. Since they are intended to carry work home and back that shouldn’t be to much of a problem.

Why so many bags?

Originally the project started as a set of car kits. A grab and go bag I could keep in the car\Tahoe containing seasonally appropriate supplies. I like having a change of clothing, emergency supplies, gloves, etc. Coyote bag for fall\winter, camo green for spring/summer. 3 cars x 2 seasons, then I decided to expand the project to include a few EDC bags, then it continued to grow and suddenly it got out of control.

Out of control or not, I’m really happy with how it is coming along. A new pattern for every day of the week, hah.

Well onto the pictures, here ya go!

Sep 172017
 

When I moved into this house there were some wonderful trees growing around the property. Trees may be an overstatement, more like large bushes. They are a type of Euonymus, though I’m not sure of the exact species. Very similar to Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus), but without winged bark. They are a great privacy bush and mature plant’s leaves turn bright red in the fall.

They produce copious berries in the fall and seed well. We have hundreds of them popping up all over the woods around the existing bushes. Sadly they never get more than a few inches tall and are easily choked out by other plants or become feed for the assorted animals that forage in our yard.

Last year we dug up about 130 seedlings from around the yard and potted them up in small pots.

As its getting to fall again they were replanted in bigger pots this year (not really necessary yet, but they will have a better chance of overwintering in bigger pots). While they are extremely slow growers they have done a lot better in pots then they would have in the woodland. Our goal is to plant a privacy hedge in the front. I suspect they will be plantable sized in perhaps another 2-3 years.

Re-potted Plants

Adult Euonymus Trees