M bo batan

Bow Valley and Balance Stools

How time flies in the mountains. Its a rough life, the shot to the right was taken on a little lump of rock on the shoulder of Sulphur Mountain, just a short walk from town. You can see the river where I spent my summer on the right side of the frame, the pond on the other side of the trees is the Sundance Canyon Marsh.

I have started work on my next kayak, its going to be another Aleutian Baidarka. Same basic design as my last one, but this version is going to have some improvements. I am lengthening it by about three feet, bringing it more in line with the originals. I am going to be adding hatches, full deck lines, and a lot more safety features than my last boat. Pictures of the progress to come soon.

I have also been working on a blog for my friend Don Gardner, got a bunch of pictures scanned and uploaded of his previous work; canoes, kayaks, bows, atlatls, even a birchbark mini skirt. Its still under construction, but have a look.


I also made up a quick and simple Greenland Balance stool, so I can keep my core in quasi okay shape until the rivers thaw. Basic idea is to take a couple 12" long 2x6s cut a rocker in the bottom with about 1.5" of rise, slap a 2x4 on top to join the two, and rig up a seat and a foot rest. I felt fancy so I cut a slot for the 2x4 so it sat flush with the top. Only downside to that was that it dropped the seat by an inch and a half, so its a little on the easy side right now. I plan to plane the rockers down some to increase the degree of difficulty.