Knives’.

Click on photos to enlarge.

A well crafted knife is a thing of beauty, a piece of art. The knife above was made by Leroy Gericke of Estcourt. Leroy engraved the blade for me with "Piscatorial dementia," fishing madness.

Several days ago Gorges of Gorges Grouse Blog, posted a piece about knives,(A Country tradition), http://gorges-smythe.blogspot.com/2011/08/country-tradition.html,  the usefulness of knives and the memories they kindled in him. As with all Gorges post, well written and a pleasure to read.

After reading his post I commented that as I boy I also took a pocket knife to school, so did all the other boys. At school we compared knives, discussed the merits of different knives, as only expert school boys can. We all had theories as to which was the best knife, but most of us agreed that a Joseph Rodgers, knife was the best. We thought of our knives as tools, you were lost without your knife. Any way what would your mates think if you didn’t have a knife.

Today if a boy dared bring a knife to school he would be in big trouble. As in call the police trouble! Our school, indeed the Dept. Of Education, has strict rules regarding knifes at school. Today knives are seen as weapons not tools.

Things have changed, violence, and the use of knives in this violence has become an everyday occurrence in our schools. Two or three years ago, a high school pupil in a school near Johannesburg, brought his father’s Samurai sword to school, and decapitated a fellow pupil. How come things have changed so drastically? Fifty years ago you could trust boys with knives at school and today you can’t. Why?

I have my own theory as to why, some might agree, some might not. The whole foundation, Christian Morality, on which Western Civilization was built has been removed, or at least severely undermined. How many children in the West are still taught the Ten Commandments, with “Thou shalt not kill," being one of them. Not only taught them but taught that they were given by the ultimate lawgiver!  Instead of the Ten Commandments at school we teach them so called, Life Skills, be nice to one another.

Life is not sacred any more, children are taught at school that humans are no more than highly evolved animals, life happened on earth by chance, it is not a gift we have received from God.(I'm a teacher and that's what we have to teach them, "The Theory of Evolution," only a theory but taught as unimpeachable fact!) I tell the learners straight, "it's a load of BS."

We have replaced the Commandments with the NIKE slogan “Just do it.” One of the popular soft drinks in South Africa has the slogan, “Break the rules.”  When the rules are broken everyone is amazed.

So now we spend our time treating the symptoms. We think that passing laws against the carrying of knives and guns will prevent people killing each other. When Cain killed Abel he most likely used a rock to bash his brother’s head in. Maybe governments will pass laws against rocks next.

I own several knives, how can you go fishing without a knife, how do you get through a day without a knife? Below is  photos of two of them.  The top one is a pocket knife I use almost every day, especially when I go fishing. I don't take it to school, against the rules even for teachers. The bottom one is a sheath knife made by a friend of mine, here in town, to my specifications. Perfect for cutting biltong (jerky).

I have had the brass loop added to the handles of all my knives so that I can attached with a lanyard to my belt or my fishing vest. That way I don't leave them lying on the bank of some stream or lake after using them.

handle of this knife made from one of the antelope species, bone.

Fly tying.

The pleasures and challenges of fly tying.

When I started fly fishing about seven years ago, I bought all my flies, large, clunky things.  Back then I really thought bigger was better, bigger flies, bigger fish. As I was mainly fly fishing for large mouth black bass, it seemed to work. (If a bass ever went to a MacDonald’s, fast food restaurant, he would order a double Big Mac with everything).

Then I started reading about fly tying, to me it seemed that only the most gifted and artistically talented people could tie flies. Mere mortals like me could not even dream of tying anything like you saw illustrated in magazines and books on fly tying.

The “experts” were tying tiny flies, size 16, 18 and just imagine even size 20’s. Size 16 seemed unimaginably small never mind size 20.  Today on the web I come across tier’s tying size 32.

Then I found, in a second hand book shop, John Veniard’s “Fly Dressers Guide.”  4^th edition printed 1977.  This book cost me a small fortune, but it was worth every penny. This book slowly started to reveal the secrets of fly tying to me, mastery of technique, and mastery of materials and very important, proportion.My first flies were big, size 8, 10 and 12 being the smallest, they looked like nothing on earth unravelled, sank like a stone when they were supposed to float, floated when they were supposed to sink. I never realized that there were hooks for dry flies, a different hook for nymphs, merger’s, you name it there was a special hook for it. To me a hook was a hook. I have a very large plastic container full of my first attempts at fly tying, no self respecting fish would give them a second glance.  One day I need to unravel them all as there is a small fortune in hooks involved.

Slowly I’m starting to get the hang of it, right hook for the right fly; I have even become reasonably proficient at dubbing, a skill I thought I would never master.

Above is a small selection of flies I tied recently, all size 14. One or two of them look as if they might just fool a fish.

Big Hole

South Africa is a world leader when it comes to mining. You name the mineral and we've got it. Largest reserves of gold and platinum group metals, chrome ore and manganese. Second largest reserves of zirconium, vanadium & titanium. The worlds 3rd largest exporter of coal. The list goes on and on.


The Worlds deepest gold mine at 3.6km, (11,762 feet), the Western Deep gold mine, soon to be exceeded by the Tau Tona gold mine at 3.9km, (12,800feet). Rock face temperatures at this depth are 300 degrees Fahrenheit. (What man won't do for gold). Hard dangerous work, and the gold recovered per ton of rock mined is measured in grams.


The only mineral we don't have is oil, and who knows it might be lurking somewhere like an evil Genie, waiting to pounce on us.


It all started in 1868, when the children of a farmer,(*Trek Boer) Daniel Jacobs, picked up some stones on the banks of the Vaal river near the small town of Hopetown.  A neighbouring farmer, Schalk van Niekerk, saw the children playing with a particularly shiny white stone. He offered to buy the stone, but was told he could have it for nothing. 


Later he showed it to an itinerant  trader called John O'Reilly who said it might be a diamond. He in turn showed it to the acting civil commissioner Lorenzo Boyze in Colesburg, a small town near the Orange river. Boyze also thought it was a diamond and sent it for analyzes to Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. Here a gemologist confirmed that it was a diamond of 21 1/4 carats and valued it at £500. The Governor of the Cape Sir Phillip Woodhouse bought the diamond for that price.


Soon every one along the Vaal and Orange rivers were looking for shiny stones, but it wasn't until March 1869 that the next one was found, thirty miles from the original find. A young Griqua shepherd picked up a white diamond of 83.5 carats while herding goats and sheep. The diamond was bought from him by Schalk van Niekerk for the princely price of 500 sheep, 10 oxen and a horse, this was basically all van Niekerk  possessed. van Niekerk sold the diamond for £11,000, a huge fortune in those days. This diamond was later purchased by Earl Dudley for £25,000, who had it cut. Today it's known as the Star of South Africa.

The Star of South Africa as it looks today. What's it's price today?


The rush was on and every one and his dog wanted a slice of the pie. My late father in law said that nothing changes a lazy man into a hard worker, like the thought of digging up a diamond. My father in law grew up in the this part of the world, so he knew first hand what men would do for diamonds. (he became a teacher).


The Big Hole? More about the Big Hole in the next post.


*Trek Boer; nomad farmer. Trekked with his livestock from place to place looking for grazing.


Photo, Internet.

Pastor Youcef

Click on the link below to read more about Pastor Youcef, under death sentence in Iran.


http://go-makedisciples.blogspot.com/2011/08/pastor-sentenced-to-death.html

Cold front 3.

Another cold predicted for this week end.

Infra red satellite photo taken 24 hours ago. Infra red photos only show clouds that have a possibility of bringing rain. The darker the cloud the greater the possibility of rain, or snow. Cold front moving in from the Southern Ocean.

Today's photo at 11am. Amazing how quickly the front covers the 1500km from the Western Cape to KwaZuluNatal. Hopefully this one won't be as bad as last weeks, but it doesn't look good.


According to the KZN Chamber of Commerce, last weeks 24 hour closure of the N3 highway cost the province R400 million, about US $60 million.  I always wonder out of which thumb they suck these figures!


Photos: Kobus Botha Weather, satellite photos.co.za

Video

Here's a video worth watching, will bring a smile to your face.


http://victhevicar.blogspot.com/2011/08/mrs-beamish.html

Virus

Got home Monday afternoon not feeling too great. Maria, my housekeeper, did not make me feel any better by say that the flu that one gets in August is far, far worse than the flu you might get earlier in the winter. Any way I dosed myself with anything and everything that looked like it might help and got into bed. Maria brought me some nice hot tea which did help.


Woke up Tuesday morning with my throat feeling like I'd swallowed a whole roll of razor wire. I phoned in sick, scarcely being able to talk. As soon as the doctors rooms opened I phoned for an appointment. Receptionist said that if I came straight away, Dr would see me before the rush. After peering down my throat and muttering something about raw liver gone very bad, said it was not the flu, but some virus that's doing the rounds. Gave me a sick note and prescription to cope with the pain and fever, and told me to get into bed and stay warm.


The dogs are fed up with the bed, can't make out why we can't go for a walk. Only Tombi is faithful, lying curled up behind my knees all day. Sissie jumps on the bed now and again, shoves her snout under my cheek and gives me a shove, as if to say get up now. Lady pops in now and again to have a look and then wonders off again. Cat? Well Cat doesn't seem to care much for sick people.


It seems that the average persons immune system functions very well up to about 70 years of age then starts to weaken. As someone on another blog said, "three score years and ten," then the manufactures warranty expires. Fortunately my warranty has a few more years to run.