Yay, I drew first choices for both cow elk and antelope for the 2009 hunting season! I've not yet hunted antelope yet but am looking forward to giving it a whirl.

Hobby crossover alert! I found this National Geographic News article about robot deer, grizzlies, turkeys, moose (meese?), being used to catch poachers. (Picture is from the original article, given to NGN courtesy Custom Robotic Wildlife)

One of my other hobbies is robotics, so it is kind of neat and inspirational to find these hobby crossovers where someone is making the world a little bit better place.

Conservationists estimate that, for every animal killed legally in a hunting season, one animal is lost to poaching.

What sucks about that is that, as hunters know, those are the public's game animals and the various departments of wildlife work hard to maintain good population numbers through careful issuance of hunting tags and many other means. Poachers steal game and screw up that careful population management.

But year-round sting operations—like the one conducted near Young, Arizona, and in nearly every other U.S. state—are helping to level the playing field by saving wildlife from being illegally killed or captured for the pet trade.

Regarding the "robots" as the article calls them (technically they are remote control animatrons, but who cares, right?)

Inside the bodies are radio-controlled motors—the same type found in toy cars or planes—allowing wildlife officers to remotely move a decoy's head, ears, and tail. Special reflective eyes glow at night when light is shined on them.

I was in the bookstore the other day and noticed that Charles Wells has put out the 2nd editions to his Colorado and Utah trails books. I guess he's added more trails and re-driven everything. Looks like Amazon has 'em for sale (see links below). I'm probably due for an update. I've had my copies for years now (Guide to Utah Trails , Colorado Trails, and Nortern Colorado Trails ) and they've kept me from getting lost on more than a few trails. The books incorporate great directions, simple maps, and good descriptions of trails. It's easy to find a trail by name, location, difficulty. GPS coordinates are included too.

On January 31, the Colorado Full Size Jeep Association met at Club Workshop, a local business that rents out time on really cool machinery. They have CNC machines, welders, an auto lift, exhaust gas analyzer, a laser engraver, embroidery machine, and lots more I'm forgetting.

Club Workshop was kind enough to host the CFSJA for the afternoon as we explored the shop, got a quick welding demo, and all around had a heck of a good time with a fantastic turnout. Here are some pics. More pics: click here.


In case you were wondering, TC has been holding together ok. Something is wrong with the heater and I'm slowly digging into that problem. The choke is a bit too rich with this atypically warm CO winter. The battery has run down a couple times.