[charleskieffner]

well after going shopping w/g/friend, we came up with some ideas............


as in all familys you have "active" people and well to put it bluntly ......"slothful" individuals. for the more slower metabolizms we decided to get some homemade tamales(done this before) and to up the ante, a half gallon pail of "MACHACHA" beef. their outdoor activities pretty much include getting the mail and taking the trash out and making sure the TV remote is in a strategic position in the house. what the hell "lard " is a food group isnt it? along with this a coupla dozen homemade tortillas. damn good food, but guarranteed to put you asleep in a flash after eating. major "oink" food! yummmmmmy.

for the more scientific members we purchased a coupla of indoor outdoor, atomic time weather stations. wayyyyyy cool and will give you probably a better indication of upcoming weather than yer goofy a$$ weatherman on TV. extended forecast mode goes out 5 days. a whopping $35 bucks each.

for the more active members we got some "nalgene" bottles. cant screw these up and in the dez, who doesnt need water. these would also be a wonderful gift idea for any illegal aliens you may know planning on treking across the border this summer here. beat the hell out of crappy 1 gallon milk jugs that the top always comes off.

granite gear makes some really really cool lightweight tough "stuff sacks". these really come in handy and they have various styles/sizes and even compression sacks for bulky items like synthetic sleeper bags or jackets. cheap stocking stuffers and a good way to organize your backpack. material is thin so you can see what you have in them instead of opening up every single one of them looking for your secret decoder ring!

i bought the 28oz gerber shovel for myself and promptly proceeded as soon as i got it home, to take a nice chunk of skin off of my thumb while collapsing handle. bled like hell! but a nice lightweight stashable shovel none the less. $18 bucks and a bandaid.

for our family members in mongollon, new messiko, we bought completely enclosed "no-see-um" mosquito hammocks. during parts of summer skeeters and other annoying pesky airborne creatures inhabit the area by their creek bed. this will assure them a restful nap outside during those long dog days of summer. also got both of them mosquito head nets. wayyyy goofy looking but very effective. i own one and have used it extensively fishing on the colorado river at lees ferry and also on the upper san juan river in new messiko. both places mentioned are "blue water fisheries" and have MONSTER TROUTS! and a hell of a "no-seeum" population. work very well towards maintaining your sanity while popping the big juans out of the river.

while walking by gun dept. the smith and wesson model 329 4" barrel SCANDIUM frame lightweight .44 mag beckoned me over. didnt buy it, but sure is tempting for nice backpacker hand cannon. when dem pesky bears see that strapped in a shoulder rig on me...............they will be running fer dem dar hills! got a super duper smith 629 from smiths custom shop and nelson ford has done some work on it also. its stainless and dual magna ported and has a 6" barrel, but is wayyy tooo heavy to carry all day humping the dez or forest. so the scandium is a nice way to shave some weight, and still have some serious firepower. dont know if you can magna port scandium yet. something to look into.

and finally.........back to the "slothful members" stocking stuffers..........at the checkout we got some real honest to god "elk/deer/antelope/ jerky". they dont own guns, never will hunt, let alone go hump thru the forest or dez, so we decided to bring the game to them. simple and inexpensive.

thats it for now. its raining like hell here and my road is impassable and the major cross street is closed down due to flooding. HSR racing at PIR is obviously shutdown til track drys hopefully by sunday. lots of people come from out of state for this, bummer of a let down for them. if it drys out enough by sunday we will be there.

stay tuned for more goofy ass fabulous gift ideas!