Finished Sticks and UNfinished Sticks
Sticks for Walking, Hiking, etc.
The URL of this website is now:
http://www.sticksite.com/
....... or ..............
http://www.DiamondWillowSticks.com/
You can tap the F11 key on your keyboard to see more of this page, click it again to return.
(this, my main, home page, was getting so long I had to divide it into two "chapters")
Dear faithful readers, friends and family,
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Philippians 1:21
We know many have been following Ken’s blog over the last months and we thank you for your care and concern.
It has been a source of great comfort for him and the family.
Sadly, Ken passed away April 4 in the evening.
His wishes were to have no burial, no service, but to handle his affairs with as minimal fuss
and expense as possible. For all of us who knew and loved him that is
such a testament to his practical nature and his faith that after death
the life he left behind will be just that: behind him.
He believed strongly that there will be no need to mourn as he is freed from this realm of suffering.
Nevertheless we will miss him greatly, and while we have so many wonderful memories
with which to hold him dear, we regret that we cannot have more time with him.
We thank God for Ken’s life and the many, many lessons he has taught us.
We thank God that his last months were painless until the very end which was challenging, but thankfully brief.
We are enormously grateful to the staff of Grande Prairie HomeCare.
The nurses without exception (and Ken met quite a few of them) were more caring and helpful than we could have ever hoped for.
Click here to read Ken's BLOG about the cancer and his journey:
http://www.sticksite.com/the-end/index.html.
The family are grateful to have been able to sell every one of the beautiful diamond willow sticks that Ken harvested. With inventory now depleted, there will be no more stick sales...
To contact Ken's sister, use the email below:
INTRODUCTION: ALL the information you might
ask for about Diamond Willow.
Rails are thick pieces with great diamonds. These look fantastic around a stairwell etc. Pictures on that page show what others have done with Rails.
VERY detailed notes and pictures of how I like to make picture frames out of Diamond Willow.
Frequently I get a request from somebody for a large number of VERY LOW PRICED sticks for a club of boys or girls who want to finish sticks but cannot afford to buy C$20 sticks. On this page, ALSO SEE the OTHER great ideas for projects: "animal tracks" and "put-put boats." OH; don't miss the next item: Tracks.
.jpg "animal tracks")
This is cool stuff for Scouts AND others; how to preserve (animal) Tracks.
'Scuse me, I have to interrupt here and shamelessly show off 3 VERY UNIQUE pieces I found in 2007. Here I am holding them. The BIG one on the left is like a huge ribbon; up to 5 inches wide. NEVER in all my years of Stick-ing have I ever seen one flat like that. The grey one is a pine tree killed by fire about 75 years ago. It would look VERY nice, varnished (no sanding on that one!). The other one is fantastically "carved" by Mom Nature; too big for a hiking stick but great for whatever project comes to mind.
MAKING sticks: My own discoveries about making sticks; as I learn from others, I pass their suggestions along here. THANKS to all those who have helped make this page so useful. This page keeps getting better all the time thanks to YOUR input.
My late friend Jerry Tanner showed me how to make a cane so I took lots of pictures of him making one. Here they are; a complete tutorial.
HERE is a VERY detailed tutorial on making a strong cane, with LOTS of photos.
Actual comments from my friends (read "customers") who have bought my sticks. I could add many more.
.jpg "hand-carved sticks")
A few pictures of carvings and other amazing projects made from my sticks.
Note how Gary used
the branch stub for the beard.
LOTS of other things you can do with Diamond Willow; check out
this page for LOTS of ideas.
NOW HEAR THIS: * * * * * * *
Remember Victor Kyam who liked that electric razor so much that he
bought the company? Well, I like the FLEX DRUM SANDER so much that I want EVERY stickmaker to have one.
My friend Terry Weber now has a dealership on them. Whether you make ONE stick or loads of them, this
tool is a "MUST HAVE!" Mr. Weber is in the USA so there is no problem with all those stupid Canadian
taxes like GST (Gouge and Screw Tax). PLEASE NOTE: he has TWO PRICES: the super-low price is for my
stick customers and the "regular" price is for everyone else. YES, the sander needs for you to provide
the electric motor but the website will explain how you can get a motor entirely FREE.
People often ask me where to find their own sticks. To help them, I am inviting YOU to come with me on a photographic, virtual stick-ing trip. Come on!
.jpg "diamond willow fungus")
Once in awhile I get lucky and find these unique items in the woods. They are rare; used for various medicinal purposes and Native Americans use them in ceremonial activities; details on that page. A few comments there re "Labrador Tea" also and info coming on Chaga Mushrooms.
My son-in-law has taken over this part of the business. For sales, contact Keith at:
.jpg "blog of cabin trips")
BLOG: Some of you already know that sometimes, out in the bush at my cabin, "Stick-ing" it can get quite exciting. I've been told I should keep a Blog to amuse my many readers. So, here goes......... I've been having some fun trying to make some primitive movie clips, mostly at the cabin, so they have been mentioned in past blogs.
There is a website with all my movies at http://superstickmaker.vidcaster.com/.
As you have probably gathered by now, my computer is filled with "Stick Stuff" as you can see here:
This is my Toshiba Satellite laptop. It was nice, I thought..... but a month after I bought it at Staples, the monitor went south. Then, 3 years after I got it, it started turning itself OFF at the most inconvenient times. The "guy" at Toshiba was no help. But "Brenda" was. She suggested putting bottle caps; the plastic ones from 2-litre soft-drink bottles, under the laptop to provide more ventilation. I did and that worked. THANK YOU, Brenda. Later I got a can of compressed air and cleaned it out. If Toshiba had been a little more "on the ball" then maybe I would have bought another one. Instead, I got an Acer. ;-( Unfortunately, it has major hardware problems and I won't buy another Acer.
FIRST, a neat tip; thanks to Terry D and Marie T:
if you want to change the size of the text on in (almost) any window, hold down your Ctrl Key and
roll the scrolling wheel on your mouse!! (Why did nobody tell me this before!?)
If you are like me, you probably have a lot of tape cassettes around the place and would much prefer to have all that music on CDs that you can play, e.g. in your car. I converted mine and here are my very detailed notes so you can do it too.
will enjoy this one; FUN stuff etc. etc. If you are an "elderly" person, you won't want to miss this one!
ALZHEIMERS:
My late mother suffered from
Alzheimers. This webpage has been made to share with all the others who are facing this situation.
Thanks to those who submitted suggestions!
My favorite free software made by some very talented individuals across the world. There are 80+ items in the list now.
.jpg "hunting cabin")
My favorite place to go........ far from civilization...........! Silence;
some days all you can hear is a wolf howling. Deer walk across my lawn all the time. Moose sometimes.
And bears. Don't miss my BLOG please.
A set of 2 DVDs is now ready for
you; details HERE.
If YOU are an outdoor enthusiast, as I am, and are looking to buy, or lease or sell a "Recreational Property" then this page will interest you: http://www.sticksite.com/RecreationalProperties/.
I have a lot of fun at the cabin and some of the things we do, you might enjoy too. So here is a long list of ideas (80+) to make your Cottage experience, hopefully, more enjoyable.
If you have a smart-phone; you can read this into it:
We all have movies to convert to DVD, don't we? I sure do. This page details my experiences in that process. More to come.
A great weekend project; make a picnic table. Great for all kinds of things, from use as a saw-horse to actually having a backyard picnic. This article was featured in the Cottage Magazine of May/June 2001. This is a really good table; I've made many dozens of them. This is one of my most popular pages! Lots of photos.
Yes, at my cabin I'm farming too. This page details the results of my 2003 crop of Canola. Canola is an oil-seed; used to be called "Rapeseed." If this interests you, this page may be of interest.
To put a smile on your face! What would a website be without some jokes? Besides, laughing is good for your health. FINALLY updated again, July 21, 2011.
.jpg "panning for gold")
There's GOLD in them thar hills!! We find it all the time! You can too. FREE GOLD! My complete HANDOUT (33 pages) with my Lecture Notes and "Portasluice" plans are now available for YOU. Click the miner.
Would this be a good time to add this page to your BOOKMARKS or FAVORITES? Hit Ctrl - D to do so.
Just happens I got to thinking about crossbows now that they are legal for hunting; here are my experiences with mine. I'll show you how I am making my own tools to go with it, for stringing it and cocking it.
This is a truly amazing piece of high technology. You can read all about my own experiences with my Kindle here and find loads of resources such as links for finding free books for YOUR e-book reader.
THIS won't happen to you, I'll bet: this page was originally intended only for family but I hate to keep something so unique to ourselves so here it is: GRIZZLY!
My feeble effort to be of some help to those less fortunate; the disabled.
My attempt to get into Linux Ubuntu.
All my FAVORITE webcams worldwide so far.
.jpg "the spam problem")
My fight against what we all HATE: Spam in our e-mail.
You know those Powerpoint files that we all get in our e-mail so often, with, for example, beautiful Slide Shows? Do you ever feel you would like to make one but cannot afford the costly Microsoft Powerpoint program? Well, wish no longer; you can do it FREE. All the details here. Easy.
Sometimes the very tiny wildlife is just as interesting as the bigger wildlife such as the deer, moose, elk and bears which I like to photograph. Here is my newest interest: BUGS.
Protect Your Credit Cards:No doubt you have seen, as I have, on the TV news, reports about the risks we run every day with, in our wallets, cards which have embedded RFID chips. More and more cards nowadays have those chips in them whether you can see them or not. RFID, of course, stands for Radio Frequency Identification. These are my notes on how I made a wallet to protect myself.
