Eatin' Man Food

Since I couldn't ride on the weekends, a few friends and I decided to go camping a couple weeks back. It was a true man's weekend. We cut down trees, made fire, ate dove, cooked over an open fire, killed and ate a frog and a snake, shot slingshots, slept under the stars, and never washed our hands.

Killing the snake on the edge of the pond with a kukri knife at midnight was a pretty awesome experience. It was followed with skinning and cleaning the snake only to watch it continue to writhe in our hands. No head, no skin, no guts and the snake was still swirling around against gravity. I was excited to eat it as I watched it cook over the fire. I had never eaten snake and always wanted to. It ended up tasting a lot better than the frog legs we ate earlier in the day too, not nearly as chewy.

Watch the video of the snake still moving: click here

Cleaned and ready for the fire.

The skin turned inside out. Of course we kept it.

Target practice with the slingshot was for fun, but also in preparation for hunting. Even though we didn't find any mammals to shoot, we still had fun with it. We were pretty good once we got the hang of it.

A few good shots left the balls stuck in the clay

We also found some really cool funnel web spiders. Pretty neat to see them sitting, waiting at the edge of their deep tunnel for some unfortunate insect to land in their web.

I told him we should stick our finger in there. 

 Relaxing in the hammock was nice too. Never knew exactly how my feet got so black in the night. I decided  to sleep here the second night which got a lot colder than the first. The first time I woke up shivering, I went back to the tent and got my sleeping bag. The next time I woke up in the night shivering, I went to my bag, dug out these corduroy pants and my fleece pullover. It was pretty nice for the rest of the night.

After packing up the site on Sunday, we spotted what we initially thought was a squirrel about 14 feet up a tree. Turned out to by a flying squirrel. After we scared it further up the tree, it jumped and glided 35 feet to another tree before latching onto the trunk. One of the coolest things I've ever seen. 

But, my friends, I have all the parts for my new bike now and it is coming along quickly. There will  be no more time for leisure camping. Time to get back on the road and back in shape. March will be here before we know it. Pictures of the new girl and report from the ride to come after the weekend.