Story time....

[michael parris heuberger]

A friend of my brother worked for the Ministry of Natural Resources and often came across critters....one time he came across a baby racoon and as there are no rehab people around here, he raised it with the intent of releasing it to the wild.........it became a pet and a really smart pet....

He said each evening he would put it in a kennel then he and the wife would go to bed......sure enough the critter would come in, climb on the bed and go to sleep....but it was getting big and heavy and hogging the bed so his wife said it had to stay in the kennel...

So in it went, they went to bed, and shortly after it came in....so he put it back in and then hid to watch it.....it stuck it's paw through the cage, found the latch, unlocked it and cautiously opened the door and came out right towards the bedroom where he was standing in the door, when the racoon saw him it ran back into the kennel and closed the door behind it and pretended to curl up to sleep..

When I visited my brother I'd see him and his wife taking the racoon out for a walk in a harness and leash and it walked along as good as any dog....and as it was around 50 lbs or so, it could defend itself pretty good too.

I think it lived until it was 14 or 15......

Then he found a baby skunk.......and the cycle began again....he said that skunk was as good as any cat and would catch mice and curl up with them on the couch when they watched TV.....they never removed the stink bag and it never sprayed......he figured it would be an excellent deterrent to any burglar's so he had a sign made up that said "guard skunk on duty." Any new delivery people looked around quite a bit when they delivered anything....the regular delivery people always carried a treat for it....

Hi. Bee that is some wonderfull stories. One day a girl I went out with lived in New Bedford MA. On the way to dinner it was mid March it was about 39°. On the way out she found a tiny pink thing in a puddly of water. She picks it up brings it back in side. There goes dinner. It turned out to be a rat. She kepted it for years. It's name was of corse baby. It grow to be about 18 inchers. If was very frendly and she let it run around the house. She also had fish in a 70 gal tank she would snap her fingers and the fish would all come to the end of the tank and she would feed them. It looks like this has turned into am animal thread.

 

[Bumblebee]

Hi. Bee that is some wonderfull stories. One day a girl I went out with lived in New Bedford MA. On the way to dinner it was mid March it was about 39°. On the way out she found a tiny pink thing in a puddly of water. She picks it up brings it back in side. There goes dinner. It turned out to be a rat. She kepted it for years. It's name was of corse baby. It grow to be about 18 inchers. If was very frendly and she let it run around the house. She also had fish in a 70 gal tank she would snap her fingers and the fish would all come to the end of the tank and she would feed them. It looks like this has turned into am animal thread.

Animals are some of the best people.....

We sometimes dog-sit a neighbor's Weimaraner and he's a great dog....we've been spending so much time with him that sometimes he'll listen to me over his owners and there are a couple tricks he'll only do for me....His owners and us refer to him as our "grand-dog"

 

[michael parris heuberger]

Animals are some of the best people.....

We sometimes dog-sit a neighbor's Weimaraner and he's a great dog....we've been spending so much time with him that sometimes he'll listen to me over his owners and there are a couple tricks he'll only do for me....His owners and us refer to him as our "grand-dog"

Hi. Just think of this. There are about 200 spiders in every squre meter.

 

[Bumblebee]

Hi. Just think of this. There are about 200 spiders in every squre meter.

With respect but what the heck does the spider count have to do with our dog-sitting?

 

[WuzzaCBXRider]

Where’s that meter located so I won’t go there?

 

[Red05]

Animals are some of the best people.....

Hi. Just think of this. There are about 200 spiders in every squre meter.

With respect but what the heck does the spider count have to do with our dog-sitting?

My guess is in MPH's head animals = spiders and MPH doesn't like spiders. 200 spiders for every square meter didn't sound right but...

Disturbing

 

[michael parris heuberger]

My guess is in MPH's head animals = spiders and MPH doesn't like spiders. 200 spiders for every square meter didn't sound right but...

Disturbing

Hi. No spiders are not anamels to me. I did not go out and count them as I gave up after only 2 square meters as I could get to only 180 and 125 so and average of only 152.5 spiders and thoes .5 spiders are very very small. It was from a documentary on spiders. You should watch it. It was an about 1 hr long.

 

[michael parris heuberger]

Hi. No spiders are not anamels to me. I did not go out and count them as I gave up after only 2 square meters as I could get to only 180 and 125 so and average of only 152.5 spiders and thoes .5 spiders are very very small. It was from a documentary on spiders. You should watch it. It was an about 1 hr long.

Hi. OH I really did not go out and count spiders either. I thought you would get a kick out of that part!

 

[Red05]

Hi. OH I really did not go out and count spiders either. I thought you would get a kick out of that part!

 

[Bumblebee]

I'm not a real fan of snakes.....we were in a Florida swamp conducting training when I was up to my chin in the water crossing to another position when I saw what appeared to be the muzzle of a large snake coming towards me, the light was low so it was hard to tell which kind it was and if I should be worried....as it drew closer I saw it to be a stick......

I didn't know a person could sweat while in the water......

I saw lots of them in the various locations I spent my time....everything from King Cobras to Anacondas and everything in between....

The safety brief given to us by the ASAS in Australia was almost as long as the exercise...the list of what to avoid was as long as my leg......it sure made us sit up and take notice....

When that same unit came to Canada, it was summer so the biggest thing they had to worry about was black flies and mosquitoes....they sure enjoyed not having to worry about being attacked by the myriad of critters they have there....

 

[michael parris heuberger]

I'm not a real fan of snakes.....we were in a Florida swamp conducting training when I was up to my chin in the water crossing to another position when I saw what appeared to be the muzzle of a large snake coming towards me, the light was low so it was hard to tell which kind it was and if I should be worried....as it drew closer I saw it to be a stick......

I didn't know a person could sweat while in the water......

I saw lots of them in the various locations I spent my time....everything from King Cobras to Anacondas and everything in between....

The safety brief given to us by the ASAS in Australia was almost as long as the exercise...the list of what to avoid was as long as my leg......it sure made us sit up and take notice....

When that same unit came to Canada, it was summer so the biggest thing they had to worry about was black flies and mosquitoes....they sure enjoyed not having to worry about being attacked by the myriad of critters they have there....

Hi. Yes it is like every thing in Australia is tring to kill you.

 

[Bumblebee]

Hi. Yes it is like every thing in Australia is tring to kill you.

It's like this in many countries...I'm sure there were more than a few nasties in Vietnam that were trying to bite you (and not just the Viet Cong or NVA)........

The safety briefing going into the swamps in the southern 'states were quite long and scary as well......lots of critters there to hurt you....

 

[Bumblebee]

I was talking to a friend last night on the phone and he came across a '20 GSXR 1K that has never been licensed or ridden on the street as it was used for testing for emissions by the Canadian government....it has less than 2000kms on it all in a lab on a dyno...

He was asking me if I thought it would be a good bike to pick up-he found it while he was working in one of their buildings, it was sitting under a cover in the corner and one of the people that worked there said they sent it to a bike shop to put it in long term storage in case they wanted to use it again but the dept stopped the program so it's just sitting there....he could purchase it through Crown Assets.

I told him that if he got it cheap enough he should be ok....and I'd drop and change out all the fluids right away as well as the spark plugs.

He is thinking about it but doesn't know if he would like the seating position for long.

 

[sixpack577]

I was talking to a friend last night on the phone and he came across a '20 GSXR 1K that has never been licensed or ridden on the street as it was used for testing for emissions by the Canadian government....it has less than 2000kms on it all in a lab on a dyno...

He was asking me if I thought it would be a good bike to pick up-he found it while he was working in one of their buildings, it was sitting under a cover in the corner and one of the people that worked there said they sent it to a bike shop to put it in long term storage in case they wanted to use it again but the dept stopped the program so it's just sitting there....he could purchase it through Crown Assets.

I told him that if he got it cheap enough he should be ok....and I'd drop and change out all the fluids right away as well as the spark plugs.

He is thinking about it but doesn't know if he would like the seating position for long.

Cheap enough means mod money.
An ABM top clamp and a set of dirt bike bars with your choice of seat, gives the Gsxr1k a completely different feel, but still with excellent handling.
Unless it's a base model, it will also have a factory quickshifter, and you know how fun those are.
I like my '03 with the dirtbike bars, and a friend of mine still has his '09 with them, but I would love to put them on my friend's '18 that I keep...but he's not having it, I've tried, lol.
If I ever did another one, it would be a '17-'24 for the power and factory quickshifter.
That bike is also a great flip if he can get it for a good price.

 

[Bumblebee]

Cheap enough means mod money.
An ABM top clamp and a set of dirt bike bars with your choice of seat, gives the Gsxr1k a completely different feel, but still with excellent handling.
Unless it's a base model, it will also have a factory quickshifter, and you know how fun those are.
I like my '03 with the dirtbike bars, and a friend of mine still has his '09 with them, but I would love to put them on my friend's '18 that I keep...but he's not having it, I've tried, lol.
If I ever did another one, it would be a '17-'24 for the power and factory quickshifter.
That bike is also a great flip if he can get it for a good price.

I personally doubt he will pick it up.......I think he was more shocked that he found a bike like that in the building he was in.......he must have thought he was "Indiana Jones" discovering some sort of lost artifact....

Apparently the guy he talked to said the bike was pretty much forgotten for 2 years when the project stopped....he even forgot about it himself until my friend mentioned it. Normally that bike would have gone to auction a while ago.

I recall years and years ago, when I was still in uniform we could go into the Crown Assets auction site and there were all kinds of things in there for sale......once in a while it was open to the public but mostly only open to registered clients.

 

[Bumblebee]

For @BlueBacon

As a carry over from the other thread so I don't hijack it too much....

The Australian SAS came to do high arctic training in Nunavut one year in Jan....it is 24 hr darkness there that time of year...we staged at our base before we deployed and these guys showed up with their version of arctic gear which was not anywhere near the capability they needed so we kitted them out....

We got on board C-130 for the 10 hr flight.....once we got to our location at the remote airstrip, the ramp was lowered and the real cold came to be a reality....we had indigenous northern rangers as guides and support staff (and it was a good thing).

The rangers put the Aussies through their paces , teaching them to make igloos and shelters as well as fighting positions.....along with how to watch for polar bears which would often patrol around our camps in total darkness.....

Their commander was in awe at how short of a lifespan any batteries had if exposed to the cold...we carried our batteries under out parkas to keep them warm, put them in our device, use it and then take them out to put under our parkas.

He said he often heard about the Chinese or Russians invading Canada through the Arctic and after being there scoffed at this thought......the vastness and outright nothingness would negate such an invasion. We told him they would be after resources and not military targets so this would be more of a civilian based invasion more than a military one...they would most likely send a force protection though....

I never saw any group of people so happy to get out of the cold ever before.......the sad part of it was, it was cold at our home base in the middle of winter too....I think they were more happy about not having to carry around a bag of frozen human feces more than anything.....

I didn't go to Australia for the next joint exercise but I heard they pulled out all the stops in an attempt to make our guys as miserable as possible....

 

[sixpack577]

For @BlueBacon

As a carry over from the other thread so I don't hijack it too much....

The Australian SAS came to do high arctic training in Nunavut one year in Jan....it is 24 hr darkness there that time of year...we staged at our base before we deployed and these guys showed up with their version of arctic gear which was not anywhere near the capability they needed so we kitted them out....

We got on board C-130 for the 10 hr flight.....once we got to our location at the remote airstrip, the ramp was lowered and the real cold came to be a reality....we had indigenous northern rangers as guides and support staff (and it was a good thing).

The rangers put the Aussies through their paces , teaching them to make igloos and shelters as well as fighting positions.....along with how to watch for polar bears which would often patrol around our camps in total darkness.....

Their commander was in awe at how short of a lifespan any batteries had if exposed to the cold...we carried our batteries under out parkas to keep them warm, put them in our device, use it and then take them out to put under our parkas.

He said he often heard about the Chinese or Russians invading Canada through the Arctic and after being there scoffed at this thought......the vastness and outright nothingness would negate such an invasion. We told him they would be after resources and not military targets so this would be more of a civilian based invasion more than a military one...they would most likely send a force protection though....

I never saw any group of people so happy to get out of the cold ever before.......the sad part of it was, it was cold at our home base in the middle of winter too....I think they were more happy about not having to carry around a bag of frozen human feces more than anything.....

I didn't go to Australia for the next joint exercise but I heard they pulled out all the stops in an attempt to make our guys as miserable as possible....

"Hey, since you guys helped us not freeze to death or get eaten by polar bears, now that you are here at home with us, with the most poisonus and deadly everything...we're going to make your life misreable as thanks"...what a class act...

 

[Bumblebee]

"Hey, since you guys helped us not freeze to death or get eaten by polar bears, now that you are here at home with us, with the most poisonus and deadly everything...we're going to make your life misreable as thanks"...what a class act...

That's life in the special forces....

 

[Bumblebee]

A motorcycle story....

Back in the day before I joined the military I was riding a Kawi 250 triple....one day I was out on a back road in my home town when I spotted a bike sitting in a field near the road-it was a '79 RD400 Daytona Special....so I pulled in and checked it out, it was all stock with about 1000kms on it.....the grass was higher than the engine.

The owner walked out to greet me and was eyeballing my Kawi......he said it belonged to his son who went to college and bought another bike and told him he could sell it for him, he didn't want it for himself because....he collected.......Kawasaki triples......and didn't have a 250 in his collection...

So he asked me if I wanted a straight up trade......my 250 was a bit tired and rough around the edges so I agreed.....we signed everything over, I took the plate off my 250 and plugged it on the 400......and rode the 400 right to the local licensing bureau to change the plate over.

The 400 was all stock with the big ugly chrome pipes and fairly high rise handlebars...it would wheelie just by thinking about it. I rode it home and my dad said that my bike changed brands and colors on one ride but he liked the Ring Ding as he was a Yamaha guy with his XS1100 Midnight Special....

I was soon leaving for the military so I put the Yamahopper into storage. Around 6 months later once I was done basic and a couple courses and posted to my first base, I came home and took it with me (a friend of mine had a van). As we were unloading it on the base, a guy I've seen around stopped and stood there with a big smile on his face.....I remember him saying he raced RDs in the day. So he and I embarked on a journey to play with this Daytona.....one of his former sponsors was a place near Toronto called "Rocket" and they built race engines, he still had a contact and said we could get my engine set up-blue-printed, ported/polished, honed with Wisecos, etc......

If I joined the base auto club, I could use the work bays and have free motorcycle storage so off we went.....I got the engine back from Rocket, he had a few more contacts and I bought a set of Micron expansion chambers, Clubman bars, rear sets, Spec 2 rear shocks and front springs, Boydeson reeds.......this thing was an absolute beast.......we spent a of time getting the jetting just right so the plugs were a very nice shade of light brown....

There were a few bikes on base, mostly Harleys and one guy who had a Honda Nighthawk S with a pipe on it....he figured that was the "big dog" on the base.....he said we should take the bikes for a run....so we did and once we got back he said "what the hell IS that thing?" I would walk away from his Honda at the blink of an eye.

I had that bike up to the mid '90s but as I had so many other bikes, it often sat at the back of the shop......

My brother and I had a mutual friend and he was over at my brother's house when I was visiting one time, we got around to talking bikes and when he heard I still had the Daytona, he ears perked up....longs story short I sold it to him and he drove the 7hr one way drive to the base and picked it up with a huge grin on his face......he said he knows the original owner and couldn't wait to wheelie it past his house....

I still miss that little bike, the sound it made was intoxicating....even the RZ350 I had at the same time didn't sound the same as I left it stock....I just didn't have the time to invest in doing that bike up as I was busy with my GSXRs and racing...

Incidentally, the guy that helped me with the Daytona eventually bought the RZ....he raced it for a while in the vintage class and did really well with it....

 

[LC4CARL]

I'm not a real fan of snakes.....we were in a Florida swamp conducting training when I was up to my chin in the water crossing to another position when I saw what appeared to be the muzzle of a large snake coming towards me, the light was low so it was hard to tell which kind it was and if I should be worried....as it drew closer I saw it to be a stick......

I didn't know a person could sweat while in the water......

I saw lots of them in the various locations I spent my time....everything from King Cobras to Anacondas and everything in between....

The safety brief given to us by the ASAS in Australia was almost as long as the exercise...the list of what to avoid was as long as my leg......it sure made us sit up and take notice....

When that same unit came to Canada, it was summer so the biggest thing they had to worry about was black flies and mosquitoes....they sure enjoyed not having to worry about being attacked by the myriad of critters they have there....

Really hoping to do this ride next year. I've heard that the flies and mosquitoes can be brutal. Any suggestions?