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A simple grass rope is easy to make. The first thing you need is some grass with some length to it. I should probably be at least 5 inches long, but much longer would be better. Put several strands together, more or less even with each other. The more strands you use, the thicker your rope will be. Fold the graph in half, but make sure you still keep the two ends separate. Now take one end and fold it over the other end. As you do this, twist the rope away from its direction of motion. For example, if you fold the left side over the right side, twist the left side clockwise as you do this. Now the original right side has become the left side. Grab this new left side and fold it over, twisting as you go. This design is basically two strands twisting around one another. As the end of your grass gets shorter, take more grass and twist it into the rope. This will allow you to extend your rope as long as you want to, regardless of the length of the grass. The sooner you start the process of adding in more grass (with respect to the remaining length of the strands you are twisting), the stronger your rope will be. The type of grass, its condition, and the thickness of the strands also have quite a bit to do with the strength of the rope. When you have finished twisting your rope, you may tie off the end with some grass or string to keep it from unraveling.

Another method of making a grass rope, and often a bigger and stronger rope, is to braid it. With this method, there is no need to fold the grass. You may either twist the strands or leave them straight. Let’s say you are braiding with three strands. Tie one end together and spread the three strands out flat. Take the strand on the left and move it to the middle. Then take the strand on the right and move it to the middle. Repeat the process over and over again, working in more grass strands as you see fit. You may then tie it off at the other end when you are finished.

If any old spider will do, the best time to find them is at night. This is not because they are more prevalent at night, but because they are easier to spot. This may sound counter-intuitive, but it’s true. The secret is to go outside, turn on a flashlight, and hold it up next to your face, like a mini headlight. The beam should be shining straight in front of you. If you scan the grass enough, you should be able to find several spiders in any location (assuming the climate permits). They will look like little dew drops because their eyes will reflect back at you. It will surprise you how many spiders you will find. Most of my success has come in the short grass of someone’s yard. Wolf spiders are the species I have found the most, but they are all over in Texas.

This is your article, so please comment. I want to know where the best place in the world is to bag a white-tailed deer. I don’t want some overstocked ranch or some cheesy video game. I want real deer in real life. I want a natural source of whitetail. I’ll let you know the best place I’ve seen. For white-tailed deer, I’ve never seen a better place than my hometown. That may sound small-time, but I’ve been around, and I’ve never found a better whitetail hunting location than the Texas Hill Country. This area includes from San Antonio up to Austin, and west to Kerrville. That’s a large area, but it’s all loaded with deer. In the Texas Hill Country, if you haven’t hit a deer with your vehicle, you haven’t been driving long enough. In a land where steel bumpers and deer whistles reign, this is a hunter’s paradise. Where do you think the best place to hunt whitetail is?

For the busy traveler, Andorra may not be your destination. Sure there’s plenty to see and do in this remote country, but nature is perhaps its biggest asset. For those who don’t know, Andorra is a tiny country in the Pyrenees Mountains. It is bordered by Spain on one side and France on the other. If you go to the post office, you will also see Spain on one side and France on the other. This is in part due to the small size and small national budget of Andorra. If you want to fly into Andorra, you better think again. There is no major airport. It is most accessible by either bus or car. Andorra has no military and few taxes. Most imported goods are not taxed, resulting in relatively cheap prices. So what keeps this country running? Tourism.

The key tourist attraction in this country is the ski slopes, particularly in the northern part of the country. This country is particularly mountainous, and the local people use the granite from the mountains to construct beautiful buildings with granite shingles. Even the sidewalks are paved with granite, but can get very slippery when covered in ice. One major downside to the popularity of the slopes in this tiny country is that the roads have a difficult time handling the tourism during the winter. The roads get backed up, and the only major hospital that I am aware of is in Andorra la Vella, the capital. If you have a major accident, it could take you several hours to reach the hospital. Despite this peril, Andorra is distinguished by having the longest life expectancy of any nation at 83.52 years, according to the CIA. You may be able to get by on your English, but Spanish, French, and Catalan are what the locals speak. Catalan is the national language.

What I love most about Andorra is its peaceful serenity. The mountains are just a few steps away, and it is easy to leave the city behind. I love the granite shingles and the cobblestone bridges. I love the strong Catalan accent and the delicious cream-filled xuxos. (The chocolate filled ones are better, but good luck finding those.) If you want to get away from the world, take a look at Andorra.

The accuracy of a compass can be affected by ferrous materials as well as other magnetic materials. This is called magnetic deviation. This problem may be present around trucks, ships, or other such machinery where a large amount of metal is used. It can also occur when smaller objects are in close proximity to the compass. Magnets particularly have a strong affect on compasses, and aren’t always as obvious as one might think, especially since some objects may become magnetized and inadvertently act as a magnet. The most common magnetic materials include iron, nickel, and cobalt. Certain deviations of these materials, such as steel, may be magnetic as well.

Although compasses rely on the magnetic fields of the earth, they can also be thrown off by other magnetic fields present in the earth. One example is mountains that contain iron ore deposits. This can cause such a magnetic deviation that it can send you in a completely wrong direction, or have you walking circles around the mountain. This is a threat because it is largely unexpected, especially to the inexperienced traveler. It is important to confirm your direction of travel by other means, such as the position of the sun, the location of moss, the use of stars, or the use of maps. Some of these are more accurate than others, but they may at least give you an idea of your orientation.

This Easter weekend I went on a canoeing/camping trip with a large group of friends. The total trek covered 19 miles of winding river. To commemorate the event, I thought I would discuss a small aspect of canoeing technique. This is something that works for me.

On my trip, my wife was in the front of the canoe, and I was in the rear. This created an ideal situation for oversteer. My powerful stroking in the rear would have been enough to turn the canoe in the opposite direction. The inexperienced canoeist may stop stroking until the canoe is back on course. This is unfair to the canoeist in the front, who is then stuck with the majority of the paddling. If you are alone, then you’ll never get anywhere. One proper technique is to perform a J stroke. This involves moving your paddle in a J motion to counterbalance your tendency to rotate. When I paddle, I prefer to perform what is called an L stroke. An actual J stroke has the ability to slow you down much more than an L stroke due to any stroking in the reverse direction.

An L stroke is a two part stroke that begins with an initial stroke parallel to the length of the canoe. When your lower hand reaches the side of your body, rotate the paddle 90° and push it outward with the lower hand. This can keep you straight while keeping drag forces to a minimum. This method also makes it easer to actually turn you canoe to the side your paddle is on. It is thus important to determine how hard and how far to extend the second part of the stroke.

Have you ever been camping and either forgotten the matches or run out? You could use your outdoorsman skills to produce fire-making tools or search around for flint. Or, being the resourceful person you are, you could walk back to your truck and grab the cigarette lighter. It seems simple when you think about it, but those items that are easily accessible are often forgotten. Your vehicle’s cigarette lighter won’t produce an actual flame, but it should be hot enough to start a fire given the proper tender.

There are many situations where your glasses or goggles might fog. You might be leaving a cool building, headed out into the hot July sun. You might be leaving a warm building, headed out into the Rocky Mountain snow. You might be working around cooling towers or other industrial processes that generate steam. Or you might be descending into the ocean for a nice scuba dive. The list goes on. Regardless of where you are, one thing is common among these situations: if your glasses fog up, you can’t see. While some of these circumstances are only temporary as your glasses adjust to the new temperature, others will create an ongoing problem. So what can you do to reduce or even eliminate this problem?

The costlier method is to buy an anti-fogging agent. These can be helpful and provide protection for extended periods. However, you may not always be prepared for the fog, or you may just decide you want to do things differently. If this is the case, you can use nature’s natural anti-fogging agent; spit. Although you may not be able to salivate enough to cover your car’s windshield, a pair of goggles or glasses should be no problem. This method is often used by scuba divers, but has one major deterrent for those who aren’t covered in water. Saliva doesn’t produce the most attractive smell. If this doesn’t deter you, then you may have found the perfect solution. Go ahead, give it a try.

My intent in this post is not to name any particular location, but to give a few suggestions about what to look for in a scuba diving location. There are many different places to go diving, and there are many different ideas of what is an ideal diving location. Some love the safety of the open water, while others enjoy the challenge of a deep, dark cave. This post is geared towards beginners.

One thing to think about when you go scuba diving is to consider what you want out of the dive. Most divers want to see certain things. For example, one diver may want to see underwater vegetation, while another may want to see fish. Perhaps you want to dive where you might catch a glimpse of dolphins. These are the obvious aspects to consider, but what good are these beautiful sights if you can’t see them. I remember my first dive. It was a training dive of course, so I didn’t have a lot of say about where we dove. We ended up diving in a very large lake that was used for all kinds of recreation. I soon learned, however, that the water was filthy. At times I could barely see my hand in front of my face. I caught a glimpse of a perch every now and then, and even saw a sunken boat, but it was hardly what I expected from scuba diving. That was in stark contrast to my next dive, where I dove in pure aquifer water. I could see forever, and got to see a wide variety of fish. I actually enjoyed myself quite a bit more.

Another aspect of scuba diving locations that can sometimes be overlooked is the temperature of the water. This has a lot to do with both location and the time of year. Part of your comfort in the water will depend on the type of scuba suit you wear. However, a freezing dive can be quite miserable and even dangerous. Diving shops that are local to the location where you will be diving may be able to make recommendations on what to wear to prepare for the conditions.

One final condition to consider is the movement of the water. Still water is generally easier to see in. I’m not talking about diving in stagnant water. Moving water can carry particles that obscure vision. It can also prove more difficult to dive in and to control your buoyancy. This does not account for swift river currents, which can be very dangerous to dive in, but is in reference to safe pools with slower currents. As always, don’t dive beyond what you were trained to do.

From Boy Scouts to hard core Off-Roading, “Tread Lightly” is the creed. It cannot be emphasized enough. It is at the very core of the survival of recreation as we know it. For those who are new to the term, treading lightly is the act of traversing a location while leaving little or no evidence that you were ever there. Another way of putting it is to “leave behind only footprints”.

Although there are countless ways to put this theory into practice, perhaps the biggest way is to keep from littering. This means that if you bring it in, you pack it out. Many locations even consider banana peels and apple cores to be litter, despite their ability to biodegrade in a matter of weeks. Regardless of what you consider litter, it is a good practice to take everything with you, even if it is someone else’s litter.

Sometimes even footprints are too much, particularly in areas that are less traveled. When traveling in remote areas, stick to set paths unless absolutely necessary. This is particularly important for large groups. Even a few people walking in single file upon untrodden ground can damage the vegetation and begin a new path. One trick to avoid this is to spread out instead of walking one behind the other.

Treading lightly is important because it is what keeps our trails open for everyone to enjoy. In recent years, trails are becoming sparser. People are increasingly worried about the impact on our environment and the costs associated with keeping trails clean. Whether or not you agree with these worries, it is also increasingly costly to fight to keep the trails open to the public. Do your part and make sure that the next time you go out into nature that others will be permitted to do the same.